A sales funnel is a series of stages where prospects progress from awareness to interest to action to conversion. It’s how businesses get customers to buy products or services.
If you are curious about what is a sales funnel, click here for an article explaining just that.
There are many common mistakes that cause sales funnels to fail. In this post, we’ll look at 4 of these mistakes and explain why they hurt conversions. We’ll also share our top tips to help you avoid making these mistakes yourself.
Table of Contents
1. Bugs in the Sales Funnel
The first sales funnel mistake to avoid is having bugs in your sales funnel. This could be anything from broken links on your website to missing pages or even an error message that appears when someone tries to purchase something. These can all lead to lost sales because people don’t know how to navigate around them.
Here are some examples:
Website Bug Example 1 – Broken Links
Your website has a link to a product page but it doesn’t work. You might think that this isn’t important as long as people find their way there eventually. However, if you have a lot of traffic coming through your site then this will affect your bounce rate which means fewer people will come back to your site.
Website Bug Example 2 – Missing Pages
Your website has a page called “About Us” but no one knows about it. If visitors land on your site and see nothing about who you are or what you do, they will leave without buying anything.
2. Unclear CTA Buttons
CTA buttons are the call-to-action (or button) that prompt users to take a specific action. They’re usually found at the end of a web form or email campaign. The most common ones include ‘Buy Now’, ‘Sign Up’ and ‘Learn More’.
Buttons need to be clear so that visitors understand exactly what they should do next. Here are some examples:
Unclear Button Example 1 – Buy Now
You’ve got a button saying “Buy Now”. What does it mean? Do you want people to pay right now or not? Visitors may assume that clicking it means they have to pay immediately.
Unclear Button Example 2 – Sign Up
This button says “Sign up”. Does it mean signing up for a newsletter or registering for a service? Visitors may assume that signing up means registering for a service.
3. Boring headlines that don’t engage readers
Headlines are the first thing visitors read before deciding whether to continue reading your content. They’re often written by marketers trying to persuade potential buyers to make a decision. But sometimes they’re too dull and unengaging.
Here are some example headings that won’t grab attention:
Boring Headline Example 1 – How To Make Money Online
How to make money online sounds like a job description rather than a headline. People are more likely to click away after reading this.
Boring Headline Example 2 – Get Paid For Your Opinion
This headline makes no sense. Who would pay for opinions? It’s not like anyone needs advice on getting paid for their opinion.
4. Slow loading speeds that lose customers—Do this instead: Invest in infrastructure for faster load times.
If your website loads slowly, visitors will abandon it. That’s why investing in good hosting and fast servers is vital.
Here are some things you can do to improve your website speed:
Slow Website Speed Example 1 – Poorly Optimised Images
Images are a big part of any website. They add visual interest and help with SEO. Unfortunately, images aren’t always optimised well. This means that they take longer to download and use up bandwidth.
Slow Website Speed Example 2 – Poorly Optimised Code
Code is another big part of any website, especially when it comes to eCommerce websites. It helps keep everything running smoothly and ensures that your products display correctly.
5. Overlooking client reviews—Do this instead: Leverage testimonials as a sales tool.
People trust other people’s experiences over marketing claims. So if you want to convince someone to buy from you, show them how happy previous clients were.
Share your customer testimonials that are relevant to the product or service related to the sales funnel.
If you don’t have any testimonials, I guess no better time than now to start collecting the testimonials.
Relate those testimonials to a specific pain point and how you can provide a solution to that pain point.
6. No follow-up protocol or strategy—Do this instead: Follow up fast with a clear action step.
Follow-up emails are one of the best ways to get new leads. If you send an email asking for feedback, you’ll receive a response rate of around 30%. And if you ask for a sale, you’ll receive a conversion rate of around 5%!
What do you have to lose by sending a follow-up email?
7. Form content is not legible—Do this instead: Use readable fonts and colours.
Forms are important because they allow visitors to submit information about themselves. However, form fields that look messy and hard to read can discourage users from submitting the content.
Check if the font size, font type, and colours are legible and easy to read and distinguish
Use placeholders and helpful text to reduce friction and smoothen the submission process
8. Page is not mobile friendly—Do this instead: Create a responsive design.
Mobile devices are becoming increasingly popular. In fact, according to Google, 50% of all searches are done on smartphones. As such, it’s essential that your site looks great on these devices.
A responsive design allows you to create pages that adapt to different screen sizes. This way, your site appears equally attractive on desktop computers, tablets and phones.
9. Fields in the Forms Are Not Required—Do this instead: Add required fields.
The more fields that you have in your form the lesser the percentage of conversion going to be
Keep the form simple
Only show essential fields when you are asking for a potential lead’s information.
You can collect other relevant information once you have their basic information.
10. You Have A Cluttered Design That Gives People Too Many Choices. Do this Instead: Keep it simple.
Clutter is distracting. When there are too many options, users have to think harder about what they want.
Make sure that the choices you offer are relevant to the user.
Go through the information and design elements that you have in the funnel.
Are they vital?
Can we have a working funnel without them?
Based on these answers try to declutter and simplify the design
11. You Don’t Have A Clear Value Proposition.
A value proposition is the main reason people should choose you. Without one, you’re just another business trying to sell something.
It’s also the most powerful tool you have to convert traffic into customers.
So make sure you know exactly why someone would buy from you.
12. You Aren’t Following Your Prospects’ Thought Patterns.Do This Instead: Understand their needs.
You may know what your prospects want, but they might not realise it yet. To make sure you’re meeting their needs, try using behavioural psychology.
For example, if you notice that your audience tends to click away after reading a certain amount of words, then you could use headlines with shorter sentences.
13. You Don’t Track Your Conversions Or Optimize Your Website Continuously. Do This Instead: Measure your results.
Measuring your results will give you insight into which parts of your website work and which ones don’t. This way, you can improve your site accordingly.
It is always best to test the sales funnel with data from customers to avoid building up assumptions. Instead, we should be quick to optimize our sales funnel from the data to improve our conversion rate.
Here are some metrics that you can measure for your sales funnels.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, the sales funnel model is a tool used to analyze and improve marketing strategies. It helps us understand where our leads come from, which channels work best, and how to convert prospects into customers. By understanding the different stages of the funnel, marketers can create better content, optimize their websites, and even track conversions.
In today’s world, where conversion matters a lot, it seems like a lot of businesses struggle to find affordable sales funnel developers. But don’t worry;
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