You’ve built an impressive website and you’re getting a steady stream of visitors. You’ve set up a pop up to funnel people into your email list and convert them into customers. You also have lots of call to action buttons throughout your site, and on your money pages in particular.
So, you may be wondering to yourself… why aren’t I converting?! *cries of exasperation*
Don’t worry guys, you’ve done the heavy lifting, you just need to know how to adjust and properly optimize the funnel for the most conversions. We’ll now take a closer look at this.
Optin/Squeeze Pages
Do you actually have an optin page that people want to opt into? Or did you just create a pop up with the typical “Sign up to our newsletter for exclusive content”?
If you don’t actually have a free offer to entice people to sign up for your email list, then your conversion rates will be dismal. Of course, not any old generic offer will do. You need to actually create something of value that is relevant and speaks to your audience – something that they’d really want access to.
For example, if you’re in the survival niche, then a good idea would be to create a free ebook or download sheet such as “Download Our FREE Checklist Of 100 Items You Need When SHTF”
This works for two reasons:
- It speaks the language of your audience – If you’re not in the survival niche or interested in that type of content, then you probably don’t know what SHTF means – It means when “Sh*t Hits The Fan.”
You need to create content that appeals to your target audience – that will improve your sign up rates.
- It works because its a piece of extremely useful and valuable content that you’re giving away for free. People want access to that checklist – so, they’ll sign up to your list to get it.
What Can You Do To Further Optimize Your Optin/Squeeze Pages?
The answer to this very simple – split test every element on your optin page to see what converts the best.
The idea of split testing is extremely simple, however, most people avoid doing the one thing that will actually increase their conversions. Why? It’s a bit of work, that’s my guess.
However, you’re different – you’re smart.
But you may be thinking… how do you know what works? You need to do some research.
One of the best ways to do so is to go on Facebook and check out the other people or websites in your niche. Once you do, you will start seeing their ads in your newsfeed and you’ll actually get to see their optin/squeeze pages.
You should start taking screenshots of their ads and squeeze pages and saving them in a folder. The entire point of doing this is NOT to plagiarise, but to get an idea of what works and to give you a starting point to create your own ads and squeeze pages.
Then, you can start experimenting with different headers, copywriting, call to action buttons, colors, background images etc. To create a new surge in your bottom line, be sure to discover how to write a call to action that has been tried and tested.
Thank You Pages
After someone signs up to your email list, they get added to your autoresponder and are automatically directed to your “thank you” page. Typically, most people’s thank you page says something like: “Thank you for subscribing! Check your email for your free checklist/eBook/offer”
There’s nothing particularly wrong with that thank you page, except for the fact that you’re not taking full advantage of that page to build trust and a closer relationship with your subscriber. You’re also missing out on the opportunity to turn them into a paying customer!
The truth is, once they subscribe to your email list, the thank you page is where you actually have your new subscriber’s complete and unadulterated attention for the next couple of seconds. So, why wouldn’t you take advantage of that?
What can you do?
- Offer your product – at a one-off discount. Make sure they know they won’t get that deal again and you should use a countdown timer to create a feeling of scarcity. This small tactic will increase your conversions.
- Pre-selling to your audience – the importance of pre-selling is often understated, but if done well, will improve your conversion rate. You can use your thank you page to educate your subscribers about your product and this can be done through a short video. It is important that you stress on the benefits to them and how your product will improve their life.
- Offer a free physical product – Now, your ability to offer this would be dependent on your niche. However, if you think you’ll be paying out of pocket for this – not true! The entire point is to find a free affiliate product that charges for shipping only. The cost of the actual product is covered in the shipping and you will make a small profit, every time someone purchases.
If you can’t source a “free” affiliate product in your niche, then you can find one on Aliexpress and ship yourself. For example, if it the actual product costs $1.50 and shipping it would cost $2, then you can offer the product for free and shipping for $5.99. This will result in a profit of $2.49. Even though the profit is small, it can add to your overall profits and add another revenue stream, where one did not exist before.
You can even add another layer to your funnel, once they have successfully purchased the “free product”, you can upsell them on your actual product. A percentage will convert.
The Importance Of Follow-Up Emails
Once someone is in your funnel after they’ve subscribed to your email list, you need to have a sequence of emails ready to send to them. Of course, you need to properly segment your list so that persons who have already purchased your product don’t receive the same emails are persons who haven’t.
In your follow-up emails, it is critical that these emails contain lots of free and valuable content that your subscribers can genuinely benefit from. The last thing you should do is immediately offer your product again since you will lose their trust and interest.
However, what should you email?
It depends on your niche. For example, if you’re in the health and fitness niche, then you should send them emails containing exercise videos (that aren’t available on your site or elsewhere), nutritional information and content that would help them to get fitter and healthier – at no cost to them.
Then, only after you’ve sent many value emails over the course of weeks, then you can start pre-selling for your product and eventually offer the product. By following the pattern of value emails followed by your offers, followed by more value emails, you can sell much more than just your original product, but other products, affiliate products etc. You can mix selling your own products along with affiliate products, to make full use of your list and increase revenue.
Experiment With Different Types Of Funnels
In addition to the typical email funnel and described above, there are different types of funnels that you can create. These include:
- Video Funnels
- Automated Webinar Funnels
What exactly is a video funnel?
It’s basically where you create three different videos, the first video should provide an introduction into who you are and what you’ve achieved. The second video should offer actual training and valuable information that your target audience wants. The third video should have even more training inclusive of case studies, examples and testimonials. Lastly, the fourth video should be a video sales letter, which is the product or service being offered and why they should purchase it.
This type of funnel is great if you’re launching a product to an audience you’ve built up over a long time.
What about the Automated Webinar Funnel?
This funnel is exactly what its name indicates – the squeeze or optin page directs visitors to sign up for a webinar and then they’re sent reminders to view the webinar. The webinar is typically pre-recorded. During this webinar, they’re given a great deal of training and valuable information. However, in the end, they’re pitched a product or service. The follow-up emails contain links to replays of the webinar.
This type of funnel is actually quite effective and you should pre-record at least two different webinars and split test them against each other to see which one converts better.
Increase Conversions By Diversifying Traffic Sources
In addition to increasing your conversions by making thorough use of each element in your funnel as well as split testing, you can also add different traffic sources. This is especially true if you are currently only getting traffic organically through SEO.
Unfortunately, it takes a long time for SEO to work and you can’t exactly scale when you want to. Therefore, you should add paid traffic to the mix, if you want to significantly increase your income.
Some of the best sources of paid traffic are Facebook and YouTube.
You need to set up your Facebook pixel so that the people that visit your site and view your ads are retargeted. This is one of the cheapest ways to increase conversions with paid traffic.
You will also need to test the ads you create that point to your optin/squeeze page. You will especially need to experiment with your headline, picture and copywriting.
It is best to create a campaign that has the objective of “conversions.”
YouTube
YouTube is the second largest traffic source, after Google. As a result, you can get tons of traffic and you should seek to get both organic and paid traffic. To get organic traffic, the videos you create should be interesting and engaging while being properly optimized for rankings.
There are many other sources of paid traffic such as Bing, Instagram, Solo Ads, Twitter etc. Therefore, you need to experiment and choose the best ones for your niche.
Final Thoughts
Creating a sales funnel is easy, however, optimizing it and then scaling it, is a lot of work. However, if you truly want your business to succeed, then you’ll put the above suggestions into action and continually split test to get the highest conversion rates possible.
Author Bio:
Cindy Sha is an entrepreneur, writer and internet marketer with a passion for SEO and affiliate marketing. When she’s not building authority sites, she can be found writing for NoHatDigital and enjoying the digital nomad lifestyle.
