The goal of any business-driven site is to create conversions, to drive business. At least that’s the hope if you’re looking to remain in business for an extended period of time. It doesn’t matter what the product or brand is, there are still consistent and very significant components of your marketing strategy that are important to keep in mind. One such example is the marketing funnel.
Sounds like an interesting term, doesn’t it? Oddly enough, its definition really aligns with the visual that may spring to mind – that of a funnel that you’d use in the kitchen. While in the kitchen, you may use the funnel to ensure the right ingredients make it into your prized cake, on your Website, the funnel drives customers to conversions.
Today, we’re partnering with the team at Yarra Web to determine exactly how it works and how you can bring it to life for your business.
Definition of a Marketing Funnel
At the most basic level, Kissmetrics says it best, “A funnel is the set of steps a visitor needs to go through before they can reach the conversion.” It’s a bunch of gates or touchpoints before you reach the ultimate journey. Now, a conversion is the end result, but it is business-specific what the touchpoints are that take you to get there.
Here are some examples:
- Viewing a product
- Adding a product to a cart
- Filling out a form
- Signing up for a newsletter
- Completing product preferences
- Answering a survey
- Purchasing a product (the golden ticket)
The reason that the term is called a funnel is that there is significant drop off along the way. It’s much easier, say, to have someone click on a product, or look at a well-produced video, than it is for to engage a visitor long enough for them to fill out a survey on personal communication preferences. (Although, if you’re having success in this area – good for you!)
Why Your Website Needs a Marketing Funnel?
Funnels are paramount to the success of a site and company because they determine exactly where your traffic is peaking and where it’s dropping off. You can then bring in the marketing and sales experts to as experts say, “widen the funnel.” Is your drop off taking place in the process of viewing or testing a product? If so, you need to rethink this step of the customer experience. Maybe you don’t even need it altogether. Play around with the customer experience over a significant amount of time, including and excluding particular steps to see where you have the most conversions. Over time, this could be the sole reason that your company is successful.
There are many different services that offer funnel analytics, including an easy-to-use area of Google Analytics. Many companies are already taking advantage of other services in the vast Google suite, so this may be a no brainer for your company.
Questions? Comments? Let the team here know. And be sure to check out the Yarra Web site for entertaining and informative tips and articles, to help take your Website to the next level.
Author details:
Patrick O’Doherty is the founder and Managing Director at Yarra Web, a digital agency who has proudly been supporting digital and bricks and mortar businesses since 2008.
