[October 10, 2022]
Business owners and marketers alike want to believe their marketing funnel is airtight. But how do we know our funnels are without cracks and leaks?
While you may not be able to test for leaks like you would with a pipe, there are a few THINGS you can test to optimize your marketing, keep your funnel sealed and ensure more people are moving toward a sale.
THING #1: Email subject lines
In email marketing, the subject line is the first bit of marketing your prospective clients encounter. If you don’t get them in the doorway, you won’t have an opportunity to show everything you have to offer. A better subject line often results in increased open rates.
Now, what constitutes a “good” email open depends on many factors (like your industry and audience), so trying to reach an arbitrary open rate percentage shouldn’t be the goal. The goal is to constantly improve *your* email open rate.
Constantly testing, and subsequently improving subject lines is bound to get you more email opens and your foot in the door.
THING #2: Headlines
Headlines for your blog posts and other online content are similar to email subject lines in that they have to make an impression to get someone to keep reading. Just how important are headlines?
Copyblogger says 80% of your visitors will read your headline while only 20% will go on to read the rest of your copy.
To capture a greater percentage of visitors so that you can turn them into customers, you have to create better headlines. How?
Test your headlines and force your creative juices to flow by getting into the habit of brainstorming at least 10 variations each time. You may write a couple and think, I’ve got nothing more to give!! But don’t stop!
Your audience will be the ultimate headline analyzer, telling you whether your headline has resonated with them. However, you can also try the Headline Analyzer from CoSchedule for a score and helpful tips that could improve your writing.
Once you’ve done this work, you can take it a step further and split test your headlines. Tools that can help with that include Optimizely and WordPress plugin, HeadlineEnvy.
Going through this process every time you write a piece of content can help to improve your headlines (as well as conversions and even sales) over time.
THING #3: Content
If you aren’t getting the number of new leads you’re looking for, and the leads you do get in the funnel aren’t converting, it could be because of your content. Take a good, hard look at what you’re putting out there and ask a few questions:
Is it relevant to your audience? Relevance is one of the most important aspects of marketing. If your readers have no desire or need to read what you’re writing about, your content has failed to do its job, no matter how interesting you think it is.
Is it the right length? The length of a piece of content should be in direct proportion to how long it takes to make your point. The proper length also can vary based on the type of content. Is this for a lead magnet? If so, it might be better to go with a checklist as opposed to a 20-page eBook, for example. But if you need more time and space on the page to make your point and cover the topic in-depth, then the length might be what’s required. Being too short or too long can both turn visitors away.
Is it the right type of content? Some businesses will get the most conversions from a whitepaper, while others might see the most benefit from a webinar. Trial and error can be the most effective method to find the sweet spot for your audience’s attention.
THING #4: Calls-to-action
Businesses that look at calls-to-action, or CTAs, as an afterthought are missing out on a huge opportunity. This is the culmination of all your hard content work. This is the point of conversion.
One thing to consider with your button copy is whether you’re using a true “call-to-action” or whether it’s actually a “call-to-value.”
Here’s what we mean:
With a call-to-action, think: Add to Cart, Buy Now, Reserve Your Spot. These should be used when the prospect is closer to the point of conversion. Be very intentional in the button copy you write here.
With a call-to-value, think: Gain Valuable Insights, Win More Sales, Show Me More. These should be used when a prospect is at the top of the funnel. A good way to get to the heart of why someone should click is to look at your existing “call-to-value” and keep asking Why?
THING #5: Pricing strategy
If you’ve been striking out when it comes to finalizing a purchase, you might consider tweaking your pricing strategy and putting what you offer in packages using pricing tiers – value (good) tier, standard (better) tier and premium (best) tier.
This gives customers options so they can determine what works best for them. Typically, you’ll get the most sales for the mid-range offer, and that’s by design. However, you’ll likely still get a few for the low-end and a few for the high-end.
Using this type of tiered pricing can be good for B2B companies who are competing with others who may have drastically reduced their prices, selling on price alone and turning themselves into a commodity. If you give prospective customers an alternative to accepting this lowest price option, they just might take you up on it.
THING #6: Offer
One of the most important parts of your marketing efforts is your offer. Even if you worked on THINGS one through five, it’s all going to be for naught if prospects don’t want what you are selling.
There are different aspects of your offer that can be modified, such as including a stronger promise or adding a guarantee. You can also more clearly state the consequence of not taking action today, both in the long and short terms.
If those tests don’t produce any results, you may have to survey or interview your audience. You can reach out to existing customers to determine what motivated them to purchase your product. This will provide insight into how you should portray your offer.
THING #7: Copy
You could make the argument that all the things leading up to this are dependent on the quality of your copy, and you’d be right. Copy is designed to get someone to take a desired action (enter their email address, read your blog or buy your product).
So, when we say test your copy, here’s what we’re asking you to do: Read through everything you’ve written and see what you could optimize.
Ensuring you’ve covered all the bases with your copy, even if it means simply making small changes, can make a huge difference in its effectiveness.
Putting the THINGs in action
Remember to test one aspect of marketing at a time. If you change up multiple parts of the marketing campaign at once, identifying the THING that improved performance can be tricky, and therefore harder to reproduce.
Instead, take a methodical approach to testing your marketing. Choose one aspect to test, review the results, make changes as needed and move on to the next part.
Over time, you can patch the holes in your marketing funnel to collect more and higher-quality leads, as well as new customers.
Want our help fixing a leaky funnel? We’re on it! Contact us to get started.