Conversion Funnel, or Conversion Sieve?

By now, you have heard of the term "conversion funnel" and are very familiar with its purpose. Converting leads into buyers is your ultimate goal with the help of your conversion funnel. What isn’t addressed enough are the visitors who do not convert to the funnel's next stage. It would be best if you asked yourself the hard questions. Why do they choose to leave? What can I do to bring them back? 

Why do they choose to leave?

A funnel has no holes. Everything that goes into the top of a funnel makes it to the bottom. A sieve has holes in it; you lose some of what gets poured in. The technical way to refer to this is attrition. An attrition rate is the proportion of people who leave without making it to the bottom the funnel. Just about every conversion funnel loses people. In some cases, it's because your company really isn't the right fit. But in other cases, attrition is due to factors that we can fix: 

• Not offering the next step

  It's essential in every stage of the buyer’s journey to continuously offer more information to push them further down the funnel. Never expect your visitors to be proactive. For example, if a visitor follows a social media link to some of your content, they may not want to browse other sections of your website. While you have them on your site, come up with offers to related products. Always give them a place to visit next. 

• Not communicating the benefits

  You can go into detail for days about what your product or service offers, but you must talk about the benefits it can provide. How does your business solve a buyer’s problem? Put simply, how can it better a customer’s life? This is very important during the interest and desire stage, where many of your leads will vanish if you do not provide them with the correct information. 

• Not Using Strong CTAs

  Call-to-actions are beneficial when converting leads into buyers. There are multiple different CTAs for each stage of the conversion funnel. It’s a good idea to be very clear and concise with the desired actions the user should take. Be sure to use brightly colored buttons, along with robust, succinct language. 

• Having a complicated final action process

  Keep in mind your sign-up, check-out, and subscription process. Is your process several pages long? Do you ask for too much information? It would help if you made the final purchasing process as painless as possible for a customer. The worst is when you have gotten so far with a lead, and they decide to leave your company because you had a very complicated final purchase process. Keep your action page clear, concise, and easy to use. 

What Can You Do to Bring Them Back?

It's easy to focus on bringing new visitors to their website. But don't forget that returning visitors already had exposure to your brand, making this audience easier to convert into buyers. It’s up to you to use the best tools and practices to bring back visitors. Returning visitors are essential for your website because it shows who your loyal customers are, how strong your brand awareness is, and how successful your marketing campaigns are. Usually, returning visitors have a higher chance of purchasing than new visitors do. This is important because you can expect a higher ROI on your campaigns. 

There are many ways to get back visitors to your site, from re-engaging with your audience, to PPC ad retargeting, to popup forms. It’s always wise to include these valuable tips to bring back your visitors and convert them to buyers. 

Ad Retargeting 

Retargeting involves displaying ads to a user who has already visited your website, engaged with your social media posts, watched a video, or interacted with your brand before. It's a bright idea to build strategic retargeting ads through Google, LinkedIn, or Facebook. These sites work by tracking cookies to display ads. For example, when a user enters your site, a cookie is now placed in their web browser. The tracking code for these cookies shows retargeting ads based on visitor behavior. Remember, the main point of retargeting ads is to send reminders to your visitors to return to your website to offer them a solution to their problems. 

Showcase products your audience is interested in

Many websites use dynamic re-marketing to lure visitors right back to their site. Dynamic re-marketing is a feature that automatically creates ads that feature the top products a visitor searched for during their last visit to your site. This form of retargeting is highly effective by reminding users how much they loved a product and pushing them to return and hopefully convert into a sale.

Nudge visitors by building a sense of urgency

Creative marketers use the fear of missing out (FOMO) to get a visitor back to their website. They may use tactics like “last-minute deals” or “hurry before supplies last.” This tactic provides wonders to click-through rates and conversion rates. The best way to instill FOMO into your retargeting audience is to use ad customizers. Some of these will be short snippets of code that will insert countdowns in your ads, hence urgently pushing a visitor to purchase. 

Offer discount codes and coupons

A customer who already visited your site, researched your product, and compared it to other sites, is an example of a customer who “shopped around.” This prospective customer who came across your website liked what you offered but decided not to follow through with the purchase, existing your site altogether. Once they leave your site, it can be tough to get them back because they may find a better offer. Sometimes all it takes is a discount or special offer to spark interest in your brand again. You can place these offers on Facebook to entice a visitor to come back and reconsider a purchase. 

Pop-up Forms

Pop-up forms are a vital tool to retarget your audience and keep them on your website. They entice a viewer to continue learning, download something, purchase a product, etc. Pop-ups are used on websites; they suddenly appear and force you to take action. You either click cancel, or you continue with the clickbait. 

Examples of Pop-ups

Sure pop-ups can be annoying, but they always demand attention and action:

• Page entrance: Appear when a visitor first arrives on your page
• Page Scroll: Appear when the visitor scrolls through the page
• Element interaction: Appear when the visitor clicks on or hovers over specific content
• Time on Page: Appear when the visitor takes a particular amount of time on a page
• Exit Intent: Appears when the visitor scrolls to the top of the page to leave 
• Inactivity: Appears when the visitor has not taken action on the website in a long time

Offer Something Relevant and Valuable

The main issue with pop-ups is hindering the visitor’s experience on your website. This is because what’s being offered in the pop-up is not valuable to the visitor, or it's irrelevant to the page. Try to choose pop-ups that will enhance engagement, rather than interrupt it. This creates a better experience for a visitor on your site. Be sure to make a pop-up that is both valuable and relevant to your visitor. For example, you can create a pop-up that offers a promo code or discount before the visitor tries to leave your site.

Pay Attention to How People Engage With Your Pages 

Think strategically about the timing of your pop-ups. The best way to figure out when to place a pop-up is to examine how visitors interact with each of your pages on your website. Pay attention to bounce rate and average time spent on a page to understand precisely how visitors engage with pages. Make it a habit to view exactly where your visitors click and scroll. These tips will help you gain a better understanding of how people engage with your content. 

Use Language That is Specific, Actionable, and Human

Here is the nitty-gritty of pop-ups, and arguably the most essential aspect. It's very important to specify exactly what visitors will receive if they click on a pop-up. Be very specific in your wording--don't dance around what they are going to get. Make it very clear for the visitor. Allow your visitors to take action. Let visitors know exactly what you want them to do, compelling them to take action. Most importantly, sound human. Your pop-ups should be a warm welcoming to a website visitor. If you can, use conversational language to connect with your visitors.

Your conversion funnel will never be perfect. Your most important task should be how to convert leads into buyers throughout your conversion funnel. However, it's important to address why particular leads do not convert to the next stage in your conversion funnel. With that being said, utilize ad-retargeting and pop-up forms. It's important to reengage with a past visitor of your website. Remember, it's a lot easier to convert a former visitor into a buyer rather than a brand new viewer who never has seen your service or product.

Blog articles are often what brings people to your website, making them a critical part of your conversion funnel. Get your guide to better blogging for details.