MARKETING
7 Effective Ways to Optimize Your E-Commerce Conversion Funnel
Building a good conversion funnel on your e-commerce site means optimizing it in many different ways that can enhance your conversions and profits. This includes many practices that contain the whole design of your site, not just one aspect of it. You will have to provide a complete package for your users.
The conversion funnel consists of many smaller stages, and each of them can increase your chance of getting more sales on your site. Here, we will take a look at what a conversion funnel is, the parts that it consists of, and the 7 best ways to optimize the conversion funnel to make more sales.
The Conversion Funnel
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It’s easier said than done; all you have to do is optimize your funnel, and offer a worthy service or products, and you will be on a good way to more sales, right? Well often, it is more complicated than that. Customers can be unpredictable, but improving and building a good conversion funnel brings a lot of new sales.
But what is a conversion funnel exactly? It is a path that your customer or user must walk or take on your site before they get to your cart and complete the purchase. There are 4 different stages of a conversion funnel, and in each stage, the numbers drop off, which is expected. The way we can optimize this funnel is by lowering those drop-off numbers in each stage of the funnel.
The 4 stages of the funnel are:
- The Landing Page (Interest-Visit)
- The Product Page (Consideration-Discovery)
- The Shopping Cart (Decision-Check out)
- Purchase (Loyalty-Orders)
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To make the most out of this funnel, each of those stages needs to be optimized in some ways. In this article, we will take a look at conversion rate optimization best practices.
What do those stages mean? To begin with, all the customers that visit your site in one shape or another will start with the landing page. This is the most important step in the funnel, and where the drop-off number is the largest. In this stage your customers will get the awareness of your products and services, and where you must hook them to these. You will have to provide interesting content like free blog posts, articles, guides, and even some video guides and demonstrations to get their interest.
The next process of the funnel, where usually only 40-50% of the people from the landing page come, is the product pages. In this step, users will be curious about your products as you’ve hooked them with an interesting landing page. It is a crucial step, and it is where you should provide wholesome and interesting product pages. Talk about your products and give them some value, but don’t forget to include the specific details that some customers will be interested in.
After the customers decide that your product page was engaging enough to buy the product, they will enter the shopping cart phase of the funnel. This is a crucial step on the way to the purchase, and poor shopping carts are often the reason why people abandon purchases. They might add products to the cart, but they never complete the purchase. There are some good practices that can lower the number of abandonments of your carts.
The last step is the purchase, where users decide to buy something. These are the people that go through the whole funnel, and it is this number that you will want to increase. Having a good checkout system is important, but it is all about providing satisfactory products and transparent transactions that you should be looking for in this stage.
Now, let’s take a look at some of the best ways to improve your funnel in general, which involves actions.
Optimize your E-Commerce Funnel
1. Attract Customers Through Social Media (Interest Stage)
Marketing is part of the first stage of the funnel, the one which leads users to your landing page. Social media marketing that is, being active on different social media platforms has several advantages. About 90% of marketers claimed that social media created large exposure for their business. Among others, you can grow your brand awareness, generate more inbound traffic, improve brand loyalty, increase your search engine rankings and the most important boost your conversion rate.
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Facebook is a social media platform that almost everyone in the world knows, it also has the most users. That is why it is important to set up an effective tactic that will bring Facebook users to your site. Facebook use among U.S. marketers slightly grew from 86.3% in 2018 to 86.8% in 2019. This number will possibly extend to 87.1% in 2020.
Facebook Ads are great, but that itself is not enough. It is about making attractive ads that promote your products well and then creating an attractive landing page that will inspire your visitors to continue down the conversion funnel.
2. Offer Free and Engaging Content on Your Landing Page (Interest Stage)
The purpose of your landing page is to attract users and make them want to buy your products, or at least to make them interested. People seem to choose pages and products that offer them value, and during this step, you need to do that.
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This can include mini blog posts about your products or services, various promotional articles – these shouldn’t be about your products only, it can also be:
- bullet points
- numbered lists
- ‘How it works’ section
- sales letter
- first-person video
- quick quiz
- ‘Our story’ section
- comparison chart
- accolades
- testimonials
- user-generated content (UGC)
- staff profiles
- interactive content
- photo spread
- icon set
- illustrations and diagrams
- schedules and syllabi
- FAQs
3. Use Social Proof on Your Product Pages (Consideration Stage)
When you are presenting your products on your products page, it is important to display some sort of proof, confirmation that your products are worth the customers’ time, money and maybe efforts. The best way to do it is by displaying social proof (customer reviews, posts, or helpful comments) on the product page. That way, your products will look more worthwhile.
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A report from Minter found 70% of Americans are looking for opinions from review sites before making purchases. Good news BrightLocal found that 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
4. Optimize Your Product Pages (Consideration Stage)
The next step is a crucial one and is one that you should do if you haven’t already – optimize the product pages.
That includes giving customers all the information they need. The product descriptions shouldn’t be boring, for example, describe how it would make them feel, but make sure it includes some technical information as well.
Also, add practical call-to-action buttons on your site that would allow customers to buy quickly, and provide all the necessary info – shipping, costs and fees, and everything else. You can find great inspirations for your CTAs, but make sure that it’s fun, unique, and irresistible.
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One factor that can not be neglected when talking about optimizing a product page is web analytics, especially qualitative web analytics tools like heatmaps, and session replays. They help you answer all the questions that start with “Why” during the process of optimization.
5. Introduce Exit-Intent Triggers (Shopping Cart Stage)
Too many shopping carts get abandoned. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to decrease that number.
One of the best actions you can take is creating a pop-up message when the customer is about to leave the cart. You can do that with exit-intent triggers, which can be very effective for this.
You can combine triggers for a better result. For example, Pixojet uses a popup with an exit-intent and a timed trigger.
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6. Optimize Your Checkouts System (Shopping Cart Stage)
One of the most important parts of your conversion funnel is your checkout system. 7 out of every 10 visitors leave the checkout page without buying anything. And that’s a big number, there are several evergreen ideas to reduce that:
- Offer prices in local currencies
- Don’t make shoppers register
In a study, they found that around 30% of shoppers abandoned the checkout process when they were asked to sign up. Instead offer a guest checkout or create a user account automatically.
- Free shipping and free returns
Consider adjusting your product prices to include shipping. For NuFace, an online shop selling skincare products, adding a simple “free shipping on orders above $75” banner on their homepage increased orders by 90%.
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- Mobile-friendly design
Be responsive to all different kinds of mobile devices, that means use tappable buttons, make sure that it loads quickly (reduce the number of pictures), make navigation easier (align forms vertically).
7. Offer a Loyalty Program and Promote it (Loyalty)
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The last step is one that never stops – keeping your customers loyal to you. It is an ongoing process that helps you create long-lasting relationships. Here, you can offer a special loyalty program with discounts and special offers for those who purchase more than once from you. You need to promote your loyalty program so that customers are aware of what they earn if they are loyal to you.
In a report, 84% of consumers said that they’re more likely to stick with a brand that offers a loyalty program. And 66% of customers confirmed that the fact that they are able to earn rewards changes their spending behavior.
Conclusion
Improving your conversion funnel is one of the most important tasks for businesses. It is an ongoing process, but one that is certainly worth your time. If you do it the right way and strive to improve something constantly, then results await.
MARKETING
18 Events and Conferences for Black Entrepreneurs in 2024
Welcome to Breaking the Blueprint — a blog series that dives into the unique business challenges and opportunities of underrepresented business owners and entrepreneurs. Learn how they’ve grown or scaled their businesses, explored entrepreneurial ventures within their companies, or created side hustles, and how their stories can inspire and inform your own success.
It can feel isolating if you’re the only one in the room who looks like you.
MARKETING
IAB Podcast Upfront highlights rebounding audiences and increased innovation
Podcasts are bouncing back from last year’s slowdown with digital audio publishers, tech partners and brands innovating to build deep relationships with listeners.
At the IAB Podcast Upfront in New York this week, hit shows and successful brand placements were lauded. In addition to the excitement generated by stars like Jon Stewart and Charlamagne tha God, the numbers gauging the industry also showed promise.
U.S. podcast revenue is expected to grow 12% to reach $2 billion — up from 5% growth last year — according to a new IAB/PwC study. Podcasts are projected to reach $2.6 billion by 2026.
The growth is fueled by engaging content and the ability to measure its impact. Adtech is stepping in to measure, prove return on spend and manage brand safety in gripping, sometimes contentious, environments.
“As audio continues to evolve and gain traction, you can expect to hear new innovations around data, measurement, attribution and, crucially, about the ability to assess podcasting’s contribution to KPIs in comparison to other channels in the media mix,” said IAB CEO David Cohen, in his opening remarks.
Comedy and sports leading the way
Podcasting’s slowed growth in 2023 was indicative of lower ad budgets overall as advertisers braced for economic headwinds, according to Matt Shapo, director, Media Center for IAB, in his keynote. The drought is largely over. Data from media analytics firm Guideline found podcast gross media spend up 21.7% in Q1 2024 over Q1 2023. Monthly U.S. podcast listeners now number 135 million, averaging 8.3 podcast episodes per week, according to Edison Research.
Comedy overtook sports and news to become the top podcast category, according to the new IAB report, “U.S. Podcast Advertising Revenue Study: 2023 Revenue & 2024-2026 Growth Projects.” Comedy podcasts gained nearly 300 new advertisers in Q4 2023.
Sports defended second place among popular genres in the report. Announcements from the stage largely followed these preferences.
Jon Stewart, who recently returned to “The Daily Show” to host Mondays, announced a new podcast, “The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart,” via video message at the Upfront. The podcast will start next month and is part of Paramount Audio’s roster, which has a strong sports lineup thanks to its association with CBS Sports.
Reaching underserved groups and tastes
IHeartMedia toasted its partnership with radio and TV host Charlamagne tha God. Charlamagne’s The Black Effect is the largest podcast network in the U.S. for and by black creators. Comedian Jess Hilarious spoke about becoming the newest co-host of the long-running “The Breakfast Club” earlier this year, and doing it while pregnant.
The company also announced a new partnership with Hello Sunshine, a media company founded by Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon. One resulting podcast, “The Bright Side,” is hosted by journalists Danielle Robay and Simone Boyce. The inspiration for the show was to tell positive stories as a counterweight to negativity in the culture.
With such a large population listening to podcasts, advertisers can now benefit from reaching specific groups catered to by fine-tuned creators and topics. As the top U.S. audio network, iHeartMedia touted its reach of 276 million broadcast listeners.
Connecting advertisers with the right audience
Through its acquisition of technology, including audio adtech company Triton Digital in 2021, as well as data partnerships, iHeartMedia claims a targetable audience of 34 million podcast listeners through its podcast network, and a broader audio audience of 226 million for advertisers, using first- and third-party data.
“A more diverse audience is tuning in, creating more opportunities for more genres to reach consumers — from true crime to business to history to science and culture, there is content for everyone,” Cohen said.
The IAB study found that the top individual advertiser categories in 2023 were Arts, Entertainment and Media (14%), Financial Services (13%), CPG (12%) and Retail (11%). The largest segment of advertisers was Other (27%), which means many podcast advertisers have distinct products and services and are looking to connect with similarly personalized content.
Acast, the top global podcast network, founded in Stockholm a decade ago, boasts 125,000 shows and 400 million monthly listeners. The company acquired podcast database Podchaser in 2022 to gain insights on 4.5 million podcasts (at the time) with over 1.7 billion data points.
Measurement and brand safety
Technology is catching up to the sheer volume of content in the digital audio space. Measurement company Adelaide developed its standard unit of attention, the AU, to predict how effective ad placements will be in an “apples to apples” way across channels. This method is used by The Coca-Cola Company, NBA and AB InBev, among other big advertisers.
In a study with National Public Media, which includes NPR radio and popular podcasts like the “Tiny Desk” concert series, Adelaide found that NPR, on average, scored 10% higher than Adelaide’s Podcast AU Benchmarks, correlating to full-funnel outcomes. NPR listeners weren’t just clicking through to advertisers’ sites, they were considering making a purchase.
Advertisers can also get deep insights on ad effectiveness through Wondery’s premium podcasts — the company was acquired by Amazon in 2020. Ads on its podcasts can now be managed through the Amazon DSP, and measurement of purchases resulting from ads will soon be available.
The podcast landscape is growing rapidly, and advertisers are understandably concerned about involving their brands with potentially controversial content. AI company Seekr develops large language models (LLMs) to analyze online content, including the context around what’s being said on a podcast. It offers a civility rating that determines if a podcast mentioning “shootings,” for instance, is speaking responsibly and civilly about the topic. In doing so, Seekr adds a layer of confidence for advertisers who would otherwise pass over an opportunity to reach an engaged audience on a topic that means a lot to them. Seekr recently partnered with ad agency Oxford Road to bring more confidence to clients.
“When we move beyond the top 100 podcasts, it becomes infinitely more challenging for these long tails of podcasts to be discovered and monetized,” said Pat LaCroix, EVP, strategic partnerships at Seekr. “Media has a trust problem. We’re living in a time of content fragmentation, political polarization and misinformation. This is all leading to a complex and challenging environment for brands to navigate, especially in a channel where brand safety tools have been in the infancy stage.”
Dig deeper: 10 top marketing podcasts for 2024
MARKETING
Foundations of Agency Success: Simplifying Operations for Growth
Why do we read books like Traction, Scaling Up, and the E-Myth and still struggle with implementing systems, defining processes, and training people in our agency?
Those are incredibly comprehensive methodologies. And yet digital agencies still suffer from feast or famine months, inconsistent results and timelines on projects, quality control, revisions, and much more. It’s not because they aren’t excellent at what they do. I
t’s not because there isn’t value in their service. It’s often because they haven’t defined the three most important elements of delivery: the how, the when, and the why.
Complicating our operations early on can lead to a ton of failure in implementing them. Business owners overcomplicate their own processes, hesitate to write things down, and then there’s a ton of operational drag in the company.
Couple that with split attention and paper-thin resources and you have yourself an agency that spends most of its time putting out fires, reacting to problems with clients, and generally building a culture of “the Founder/Creative Director/Leader will fix it” mentality.
Before we chat through how truly simple this can all be, let’s first go back to the beginning.
When we start our companies, we’re told to hustle. And hustle hard. We’re coached that it takes a ton of effort to create momentum, close deals, hire people, and manage projects. And that is all true. There is a ton of work that goes into getting a business up and running.
The challenge is that we all adopt this habit of burning the candle at both ends and the middle all for the sake of growing the business. And we bring that habit into the next stage of growth when our business needs… you guessed it… exactly the opposite.
In Mike Michalowitz’s book, Profit First he opens by insisting the reader understand and accept a fundamental truth: our business is a cash-eating monster. The truth is, our business is also a time-eating monster. And it’s only when we realize that as long as we keep feeding it our time and our resources, it’ll gobble everything up leaving you with nothing in your pocket and a ton of confusion around why you can’t grow.
Truth is, financial problems are easy compared to operational problems. Money is everywhere. You can go get a loan or go create more revenue by providing value easily. What’s harder is taking that money and creating systems that produce profitably. Next level is taking that money, creating profit and time freedom.
In my bestselling book, The Sabbatical Method, I teach owners how to fundamentally peel back the time they spend in their company, doing everything, and how it can save owners a lot of money, time, and headaches by professionalizing their operations.
The tough part about being a digital agency owner is that you likely started your business because you were great at something. Building websites, creating Search Engine Optimization strategies, or running paid media campaigns. And then you ended up running a company. Those are two very different things.
How to Get Out of Your Own Way and Create Some Simple Structure for Your Agency…
- Start Working Less
I know this sounds really brash and counterintuitive, but I’ve seen it work wonders for clients and colleagues alike. I often say you can’t see the label from inside the bottle and I’ve found no truer statement when it comes to things like planning, vision, direction, and operations creation.
Owners who stay in the weeds of their business while trying to build the structure are like hunters in the jungle hacking through the brush with a machete, getting nowhere with really sore arms. Instead, define your work day, create those boundaries of involvement, stop working weekends, nights and jumping over people’s heads to solve problems.
It’ll help you get another vantage point on your company and your team can build some autonomy in the meantime.
- Master the Art of Knowledge Transfer
There are two ways to impart knowledge on others: apprenticeship and writing something down. Apprenticeship began as a lifelong relationship and often knowledge was only retained by ONE person who would carry on your method.
Writing things down used to be limited (before the printing press) to whoever held the pages.
We’re fortunate that today, we have many ways of imparting knowledge to our team. And creating this habit early on can save a business from being dependent on any one person who has a bunch of “how” and “when” up in their noggin.
While you’re taking some time to get out of the day-to-day, start writing things down and recording your screen (use a tool like loom.com) while you’re answering questions.
Deposit those teachings into a company knowledge base, a central location for company resources. Some of the most scaleable and sellable companies I’ve ever worked with had this habit down pat.
- Define Your Processes
Lean in. No fancy tool or software is going to save your company. Every team I’ve ever worked with who came to me with a half-built project management tool suffered immensely from not first defining their process. This isn’t easy to do, but it can be simple.
The thing that hangs up most teams to dry is simply making decisions. If you can decide how you do something, when you do it and why it’s happening that way, you’ve already won. I know exactly what you’re thinking: our process changes all the time, per client, per engagement, etc. That’s fine.
Small businesses should be finding better, more efficient ways to do things all the time. Developing your processes and creating a maintenance effort to keep them accurate and updated is going to be a liferaft in choppy seas. You’ll be able to cling to it when the agency gets busy.
“I’m so busy, how can I possibly work less and make time for this?”
You can’t afford not to do this work. Burning the candle at both ends and the middle will catch up eventually and in some form or another. Whether it’s burnout, clients churning out of the company, a team member leaving, some huge, unexpected tax bill.
I’ve heard all the stories and they all suck. It’s easier than ever to start a business and it’s harder than ever to keep one. This work might not be sexy, but it gives us the freedom we craved when we began our companies.
Start small and simple and watch your company become more predictable and your team more efficient.
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