Once your sales funnel is set up and live, all that’s left to do is to watch as the sales come in and then tweak it to try and generate more revenue and profit.
The best way to do this is to increase your conversion rates at each stage of the funnel. How do you make sure that more people go from visiting your site to signing up for your email list? And how do you encourage them to go from buying your cheapest item, to buying your most expensive item?
Investment
One simple answer is to invest. As money starts to come in from your sales, invest back into your funnel by improving each step of the process. That means making your products better by adding more sheen and more freebies, it means making your videos better, it means investing in more marketing and it means building a better brand with the right logo and the right web design.
Hire writers, hire web designers and generally keep growing and improving your business. Your job is not ‘done’ once your funnel goes live!
PPC
One of the easiest ways to increase your conversion rates is to improve your targeting. And one of the best ways to get more targeted visitors to your sites, other than using your established ‘routes to market’, is to use PPC to create targeted adverts.
PPC is ‘Pay Per Click’ advertising and is most commonly associated with either Google AdWords or Facebook Ads. Both types of advertising allow very precise targeting for your campaigns so you can ensure your ads are being seen by the right people. For example, on Facebook, you can choose ads that are only seen by people with certain hobbies listed, people in certain locations or people with certain jobs.
Likewise, on Google AdWords, you can target people based on the searches they perform. Adverts on Google AdWords appear on the SERPs – Search Engine Results Pages. This means that you can place your ads for watches on the search ‘Buy Watches Online’. It’s safe to assume that people searching that term will have an interest in buying watches!
The other great thing about PPC is that you can set your CPC – Cost Per Click. This means you choose a maximum amount that you’re willing to pay for each visitor who clicks your ad and visits your site. The more you pay, the more your ad will be seen – but if you choose the right keywords, you can get visitors for a surprisingly small amount of money.
Now, if you can work out how many of your visitors eventually become paying customers and you can work out how much each of those sales means for you in profits, then you can calculate the amount that you can pay for each visitor and still be guaranteed a profit!
Watching Metrics
Also very important is to look at your reports and metrics. Track which ads are bringing customers to you site, look at which products are selling best and even look at what times of day are the most active for you.
Most importantly – look at where your best customers are coming from. This is important because you can then invest more time and more money into what is working and start to move away from what isn’t. This is where Google Analytics comes in particularly useful.
Another way you can do this is by split testing, which means creating two versions of a web page (such as your squeeze page) and then introducing subtle differences to each version. You then see which of your two versions performs best and therefore decide whether or not to keep or abandon those changes. There are several tools that can help you do this, such as Optimizely.
Building True Fans
Finally, try to think of your objectives in terms of building true fans. One of the most important things you can do is to really get people behind your business and to feel like they’re a close friend. When you have a true fan, not only will they buy from you; they’ll also be likely to share your content, spread the word and help you grow your business.
This is why it’s worthwhile spending time in one-on-one chats with prospects, answering emails and comments and just generally engaging with your audience. Meanwhile, don’t think about them in terms of how you can sell to them – just think about how you can provide value. Some of these people will never buy from you but that’s not the point. Those that do will make all that hard work worthwhile.
If you offer a great product or service, then you’ll be rewarded.
