Sales Funnel Not Converting? A Virtual Assistant to the Rescue!

Do you have a sales funnel? How successful is it? Are people even getting into the funnel? If so, are they converting? These are a couple of things I want to talk about today, how to successfully get people into your funnel. And once they are in the funnel, getting the to convert!  

I’m going to cut right to the chase here: Sales funnels aren’t easy to build. They are the culmination of dozens of digital marketing strategies working together to guide customers to your “door.” There are many moving pieces involved, and if one of them fails to work, it could stop your sales funnel in its place.

But don’t get discouraged! If your sales funnel isn’t working, there are steps you can take to get things moving in the right direction. One of the best is hiring our digital marketing team who is super experienced to take a look under the hood and see why your sales funnel isn’t landing new customers! 

Sales Funnel Audits

Just like how we can audit a website or social media presence, we can also audit sales funnels!

Here is the thing: I’ve lost count of the number of people who have come to me, saying that they’ve put massive amounts of time, money, and energy into their sales funnel, only to find that it doesn’t convert. They don’t know why, but there has got to be a reason, right?

Absolutely, but sometimes a small business owner might be too close to see it. Or even worse, they had someone else build it for them so they have no idea exactly how the funnel works. That’s where we come in with our digital marketing experts. Our first step when working together is to sit down and go through every step of your sales funnel, auditing it to determine where the disconnect is. I like to see the entire customer journey before I make a determination on where the disconnect is. Sometimes, it’s something small that doesn’t take much time. Sometimes, every piece of the funnel doesn’t work, and it needs to be torn apart and rebuilt from the ground up. Either way, the only way you can figure out the problem is to have an expert examine it!  

Is there a Disconnect? 

With our digital marketing experience, we can immediately see the disconnect and figure out strategies to turn it around. Is it a matter of messaging? The targeting? Maybe there are pieces of the funnel missing, or there isn’t enough nurturing content. By doing an audit, we will highlight every issue we find and give you a detailed breakdown of what isn’t working and how we can fix it!

What kind of problems can we help with? Well…

Lack of Traffic

So, you built your funnel, but you get absolutely no traffic. Like, none. You aren’t getting a single click on even the very first step of the funnel. Well, maybe the problem is that no one knows about it!

Frankly, getting the word out about your products and services can be a super time-consuming part of being a small business owner. The hours and hours it can take on Facebook or Instagram to connect with people and make them aware of what you have to offer is mind-blowing. Boosting social media engagement can be a full-time job! 

We can help!

Thankfully, we’re well-positioned to help in this area! There are many ways to get traffic to your funnel by creating content that will draw attention to it and get people clicking. For example, we can implement effective SEO techniques to get your landing pages ranked higher on Google and other search engines. By creating blog content, we can use it to entice people to your website, allowing them to see what you have to offer. This strategy is what I do with my own blog posts, and I’m telling you, it’s one of the fastest ways to grow an email list. Mine doubles every single year! 

By the way, those blog posts can make for fabulous social media content, which you can then use to build your following on social media and of course you can use to grow your email marketing lists. By doing both, you will be positioning your followers to see and click on your funnel, getting you the traffic you’ve been looking for! 

Poor Conversions

Let’s say that we have fixed the first part of your sales funnel, and you finally have clicks! That’s great, but it’s only the beginning. 

The point of all of this is to get people to your landing page. If they don’t do anything when they get to that point, it’s all been for nothing. But trying to nail down exactly why a sales page isn’t converting can be a bit tricky, especially if you don’t have digital marketing expertise.

The first thing we look at when it comes to a landing page that doesn’t convert is length. If a landing page is too short, it isn’t giving visitors the information they need to make an informed decision. If you aren’t taking the time and space to inform them of the benefits of your products and services, then you aren’t giving them a reason to take action.

Is your Landing Page the Right Length? 

On the other hand, a landing page can also get out of control, quickly becoming something that looks more like a novel than a website. I’ve seen landing pages that are thousands upon thousands of words. Who wants to read all of that?! If your landing page takes a half-hour to get through, then only the most dedicated of your followers will read it. And even then, will they feel like following your call-to-action at that point? Now, I’m not saying that long sales pages don’t work, but there are a lot of industries where long copy just isn’t going to convert. 

A landing page needs to hit that sweet spot of not too long and not too short. It must be just right! If you have an experienced direct sales copywriter working on it for you, filling it with compelling headlines, personality infused and easy-to-absorb copy, all the while telling a story to hook them and reel them in then your landing page might just hit the spot! 

The Funnel Doesn’t Convert

Ok, so, you now have a funnel that is getting clicks and lots of people opting in on your landing page, but it still doesn’t convert. What now?

This stage is when I pull out a little trick called A/B testing! 

A/B testing is something you can do with just about any kind of marketing strategy. If you have a Facebook Ad in place that isn’t getting clicks, doing A/B testing can give you some clues about what you’re missing. Same when it comes to your landing page.

In this situation, we write two landing pages, both very similar to each other. One might have different headlines designed to catch someone’s attention. They might use different calls-to-action to see what your audience responds to on a landing page. You could even change up some of the graphics, or maybe even the offer! We then funnel different customers to each of the pages. 

The important thing is that you then gather data on which landing page is getting more people clicking. With that information, we can then figure out the things your audience is responding to on the landing pages. From there, we take the page that is performing the best and then make another variation on it. We then repeat the entire process, constantly narrowing down how best to get people to sign up or buy your products! 

Mismatched Messaging

What if you have a super-compelling, interesting pitch that leads your audience to a polished, professional landing page, but it still doesn’t work?

Well, maybe the problem is that your messaging doesn’t quite add up.

I see this sort of thing all the time on Facebook. There are many great Facebook Ads on there with eye-catching graphics and videos and great CTAs designed for a specific audience. But once you click on it, you end up on a landing page that doesn’t have quite the same tone and content. 

A sales funnel needs to be smooth, all the way through. The tone, writing style, graphic style, every step of the process needs to match; otherwise, it can cause a hiccup that stops the sale.

The trick here is that EVERY part of the funnel needs to be part of a cohesive whole. If a part of your funnel includes email marketing, its branding needs to match the branding on your landing page exactly. If it looks like two different people designed it, it can set off alarm bells and scuttle the sale. 

Did You Forget to Nurture? 

This is a huge one that I think a lot of small business owners forget! Even if your messaging and targeting is on point and your funnel is growing your email list, are you taking the time to nurture those leads? 

If your audience stops hearing from you after they sign up for your email list or you only hit them with buy this, buy this, buy this, chances are you are going to lose them.

The process of nurturing your leads is so important as you’re purposefully engaging with your ideal customer by offering them valuable information and supporting them throughout every stage of the buyer’s journey. Nurturing is critical because it directly impacts a customer’s decision about whether or not they want to convert into paying customers. 

Touchpoints are Key

The key is to focus on multiple touchpoints. I remember when I became a manager at Nordstrom (at 17 YEARS OLD!), the first thing they do is put you through a very extensive training all about the importance of making your customer feel like a guest in your home. This training was way more than customer service training, it really focused on having several different touch points with customers and making sure that your sales and marketing align, because when they do your customer retention rates improve. 

This meant that if someone wanted to order something that we didn’t have in store, you made it happen and you followed up with them in a timely manner to keep them engaged and interested. Back then, I sent personalized letters, today, you can send personalized emails. But most important was to make sure that I was offering what delighted them and got them coming back for more and more! 

The point is once you get people into your funnel, it doesn’t stop there, you need to nurture, nurture, nurture. Provide value at every corner and you’ll start to see your audience convert into paying customers in no time. 

Technical Problems

Another hiccup that can instantly stop a sale is a technical issue.

With modern internet speeds, people are… let’s be polite and call them impatient! They want everything, and they want it right now. If they search for something on Google and click on the first link that comes up, they expect that page to load in a flash. If it doesn’t, well, onto the second link. Making sure that your landing page, and website in general, is as quick as possible should be a #1 priority! 

It’s the same when it comes to a sales funnel. If there are any technical problems, that can instantly cause someone to bail, or if your landing page’s overall loading time is slow, the person will get bored and move onto something else. If they are on their phone, they expect to get a mobile-optimized version of your landing page, or if the desktop version pops up, that’s an instant game over for your sales funnel.

We can go through every stage of your funnel to make sure it’s free of any technical snafus. If your website is slow loading, we can help with that. We can If your website isn’t mobile-optimized, we can step in and make sure the right version of the website comes up on the right device.  

So, What Did We Learn? 

Let’s review what we learned:

1. A sales funnel audit can be a great way to narrow down why your sales funnel isn’t converting.
2. There are dozens of moving pieces in a sales funnel, and if one doesn’t work, none of it will.
3. Social media is a great “first stop” in your sales funnel. I highly recommend a super targeted Facebook ad. 
4. SEO and well-written blogs are great ways to get people into your funnel. 
5. Length matters. If a landing page is too long or too short, it won’t convert.
6. Nurture, nurture, nurture. You should be giving WAY more than you are asking. You want your audience to think, wow, if she gives me this much value for free, it must be amazing to work with her! 
7. A/B testing on your landing page is a useful strategy to determine the best way to connect with your clients.
8. If your messaging is mismatched, it can turn off potential customers. 
9. Technical issues can instantly break a sales funnel, make sure you test it yourself to ensure that it is glitch free. 
10. If your landing page isn’t mobile-optimized, you could be missing out on a ton of potential traffic. 

Does your Website Convert? 

All of this usually begins with a comprehensive sales funnel audit. We do these regularly with our clients to make sure that their funnels and landing pages are converting like crazy! This strategy not only works for funnels but also for websites and social media. If you’d like to get a glimpse at how we audit a website, I invite you to download my free guide, The Ultimate Step-by-Step Website Audit Workbook. It will show you exactly how I go through a website to figure out what works, what doesn’t, and how to fix it!

Or if you’re ready to revamp your sales funnels and landing pages today, I invite you to contact me here for a free consultation. Just give me the word, and I can start going through your sales funnel to make sure your customers will get from one end to the other before they even know it! 

Links For This Episode:

• The Ultimate Step-by-Step Website Audit Workbook

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