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Not every person finds a business  online and instantly becomes a customer,   so how do you turn curious searchers  into raving fans of your business? It really comes down to how you optimize your  website for the different sales funnel stages.  What is the sales funnel? The sales funnel outlines the   steps customers take from when they first interact  with your business to when they make a purchase. People assume customer journeys  are a strict progression from   awareness (when they discover your  business) to purchase. But actually,   to paraphrase from Doctor Who, it’s more like  a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff. The traditional sales funnel organizes the  customer journey into an inverted pyramid   with the most prospective customers  at the top, and fewer at the bottom. The sales funnel stages in this model go from  awareness to interest to desire to action. At the top of the funnel, in the awareness  stage, people become familiar with your business. If they move down to the interest stage,   they may be thinking about investing  in your product or service. Closer to the bottom we have desire,  in which someone wants- what you offer. And most importantly, at the very  bottom, we have the action stage,   meaning someone contacts you or makes a purchase. Don’t get me wrong. While buying habits may  have changed, people still go through these   “traditional” phases. But with so many options  online and so many ways to engage with a business,   customer journeys can’t be boiled  down to one linear path anymore. You can even break these marketing funnel  stages into smaller phases like engagement,   education, justification, etc. The complex customer journey   means that optimizing your funnel isn’t  as straightforward as it used to be. Nonetheless, I have some tips to help you  capture more leads and sales for your business.  3 sales funnel optimization strategies  Identify holes in your funnel Figuring out where people are   dropping off in their customer journeys  is NOT the easiest thing to do. Look into whatever analytics tools you use to  not only look at your top performing pages,   but your worst performing pages, too. If you’re using a tool like Google  Analytics, you can track specific events   and conversions on your website. You can  look at metrics like bounce rate and exit   rate to see what pages are keeping  users from moving to the next step. This information is super  important for understanding   where people are stopping through your funnel. To understand the “why” from there,  you can pair that quantitative data   with qualitative data like video recordings  or heatmaps in Crazy Egg or Hotjar - to   get a deeper understanding of  what pages turn people away. Take a look at your competitors, too. What are  they offering to get users to the next step?   A big factor in getting people to convert is  content marketing. What types of content are   your competitors making that you’re not? Run A/B tests on your website  Once you have all of that data from identifying  your marketing funnel gaps, test, test, test. If you saw that people were reading your content  but not subscribing to your newsletter, you might   need to change your call to action, rearrange  the page elements, or adjust some designs. Did your top performing pages  have any elements in common?   Maybe you can bring whatever elements work on  those top pages to your lower performing pages. Just be sure you only test one element  at a time. Updating too many things at   once can make it harder to understand  which change actually made a difference. And don’t get discouraged if your test  doesn’t get you the results you wanted.   In fact, ing to Appsumo, only one out  of every eight A/B tests is successful. We   test to see what works, so even a disappointing  result can tell you a lot about your strategy.  Create content that addresses customer needs  Content marketing is a big deal. Through  blog posts, guides, infographics, videos,   and more, you can 1. meet your customers’ needs  no matter where they are in your marketing funnel,   2. save your sales people some time answering  questions, and 3. build trust with your audience. I know I said people don’t exactly follow  the traditional sales funnel stages anymore,   but they still need content to guide them  along in each part of their journeys. It’s easiest if you break the  sales funnel into top of funnel,   middle of funnel, and bottom of funnel. People at the top of the funnel aren’t  exactly ready to make a purchase. In fact,   some of them may not ever make a purchase from  your business. At this funnel stage, people are   looking for some general information. They’re  not really in the mood for a sales pitch. Yet. Focusing on educational content is a great  way to engage top of funnel users. Things like   tutorial videos, blog posts, and infographics  are great for this stage of the sales funnel. So let’s say you run a catering business.  Some top of funnel content ideas might be:   a blog post covering the most common meals  at weddings... or a video of you making one   of your signature dishes. Get creative  and make it educational and engaging. In the middle of the funnel, people know what  they need, but are considering their options.   You can still use educational content, but the  topics may shift a bit to helping people make   decisions. A blog post about how to choose a  catering company or a calculator for the cost   of catering would be good at this stage. Here,  focus on creating value for your prospects. The bottom of the funnel is where you  make the final push to turn people into   customers. They’re ready to purchase, so what can  you do to get them over that line? Testimonials   from satisfied customers are great for showing  off how your business positively impacts people.   Even emails with discounts or special  offers can help seal the deal.   Here, focus on your unique selling points  as a company, and push them forward. Don’t forget about customer retention. If  you sell products... tutorials and product   demos can help people get more comfortable  and familiar with whatever they bought. If   you’re that catering company, write about  what people can do with their extra food.   Don’t stop communicating with people  just because they’ve made one purchase. When you’re looking for content ideas,  think about your current and past customers.   You can probably make a list of common questions  you’ve heard over the years. That’s a great   place to start. You can even ask customers what  questions they have if you’re looking for ideas. You can use forums like Reddit or Quora   to see what people are talking about,  too. Even Google Trends can help. The content you create will  be a valuable resource,   and if you optimize it for search  engines — which we cover in several   other videos on this channel — you  can reach more people over time. To keep learning about  converting leads to customers,   subscribe to our channel. For even more digital  marketing advice, sign up for Revenue Weekly,   our email newsletter, using the  link in the video description. Happy optimizing!