Photo by Emily Bernal on Unsplash
The other two moved on courageously. Suddenly, a strange smell blew over them. One of them ran back; he couldn’t bear the stench. Only one guy remained. He forged on, determined to get to Wonderland, even if it meant going alone. After a few steps, he heard a scary shrill. He took to his heels and ran back too.
No, this isn’t a folk tale. It’s a depiction of how you lose prospects in the sales funnel. Many potential customers see your company on search engines and they’re excited. It looks promising. But what happens when they get to your website? One glance and they’re out.
Others manage to go through your website for a few seconds before bouncing. What happened? They didn’t like what they saw. Your website didn’t convince them that you could fulfill the promise you made on the search engine. So, they leave.
Your website is more than what you think it is. It’s the picture of promise and must look the part. To make that happen, you need a solid website design strategy. And you’re about to learn how to develop that right here.
What is a Sales Funnel?
Samuel Johnson, the essayist, and poet, said we need reminders more than we need information. So, here’s a reminder of what a sales funnel is. It’s basically the term used to describe the journey prospects go through to become customers. A prospect can end the journey at any point or decide to complete it by becoming a client.
4 stages of a sales funnel
As the illustration of the three not-so-jolly friends depicts, the sales funnel is in stages. Find the 4 stages below.
Awareness: this is the level at which people become aware of your brand and what you offer
Interest: here, the prospects have a growing interest in what you offer
Decision: this is the stage potential clients evaluate your offer, weigh their options, and decide to go with you
Action: finally, this is the stage you’ve been waiting for – where the prospect makes a purchase (or not)
The 4 biggest challenges of a sales funnel
The stages highlighted above sound simple but they’re not. The sales funnel is more complicated than it looks. Getting a prospect to complete the journey can be a pain in the neck; all marketers know this. The following are the four main challenges of a sales funnel.
Getting leads
To get the funnel started at all, you need to generate traffic and leads. This is a great concern to marketers. As this is where the funnel starts, it is very critical to its success. Creating awareness for your product is tough.
Beating the competition
Getting your voice heard among millions of others is huge work and can take forever. It’s one thing to be visible; it’s another to be chosen among really good options.
Effective content development
To groom your prospects through the stages of the funnel, you need valuable content. Knowing the right things to say to persuade them to go to the next step is not an easy task. The marketing team is constantly on its toe to ensure this is possible.
Shrinking the sales cycle
While some prospects are easy to convert, others are not. They need more time and money. For example, a prospect can stay at the interest level for a long time. During this period, more effort is needed to push them to the next level, and the process can be quite frustrating.
How to improve your sales funnel through a solid website design strategy
No matter how much you bang on a door, it’s not going to open until you use the key. Likewise, resources spent on marketing strategies and campaigns will go to waste if you have a crappy website. To create an effective and sustainable web design, however, you need a solid strategy. Here goes.
Get an expert in web graphic design
Cool graphics are essential for your website. That’s why you need a good graphic designer. Graphic designers are responsible for curating the aesthetics of a website, from images to fonts, colors, and logos. Therefore, you can’t hire just anyone for the role; you need solid graphic design interview questions to choose the right person for the job.
Prioritize the user
You want a favor from me and I just honored an invitation to your house. You know I love my steak and don’t care much for bread. What will you offer me? Good. The whole point of designing a website in the first place is to attract prospects. So, you must prioritize your users when designing your website.
Imagine me stepping into your house and being welcomed with the aroma of roasted steak. You already have me in your corner. Now, imagine me seeing bread. I may be appreciative, but I’m not impressed. You don’t want that. Aim to impress your users.
You must know who your users are and what they really want. Know what information they’ll like to see and make it available. Understanding the buyer persona will equip you to prepare their favorite meal – a website they’ll love to explore.
Make your site adaptable
Change is constant and so should your website. The digital sphere is dynamic and new trends keep popping up. To stay relevant, you must be adaptive. Design your website so that it will be easy to improve interactivity. Make it easy to add or remove a feature as and when necessary.
Have an efficient keyword strategy
What is a web design strategy without SEO? To get your website noticed among the millions out there, you need search engine optimization mastery. The more your website becomes visible, the better your traffic will be.
Personalize your website
Have you ever been on a website and it’s so cold and impersonal? I have, and it’s not a pleasant feeling. In all you do, don’t forget your prospects are humans. They need to feel like you understand them. They need to see the human angle in all you do.
Add personal stories, pictures of your team, how you have fun, and so on. The human touch makes your visitors more comfortable. And when your visitors are comfortable, they’ll start developing an interest in what you do. Now, what stage of the funnel is that?
Benefits of a vibrant sales funnel
Why do you need a web design strategy? To improve your sales funnel? Why do you need a sales funnel? To enjoy the following benefits.
Enhanced customer engagement
A vibrant sales funnel keeps the prospect engaged throughout the customer journey, and that’s what you need to convert the prospect into a customer.
Improved productivity
When your funnel is effective, your team becomes productive. Your work rate increases and you won’t waste time and resources on endless sales cycles.
Better results predictability
With a more responsive funnel comes better result predictability. By studying prospects’ behaviors, you’re able to know if a prospect will complete the cycle or drop out. This information will enable you to be more proactive.
Reduced customer churn
Customer churn is the number of customers that stops patronizing you; it is also called customer attrition. A variety of reasons can cause this occurrence, but a solid sales funnel will reduce it. The more effective your funnel is, the less customer churn you have.
Increased conversion
This is the ultimate benefit of an efficient funnel. You get rewarded for all your hard work when more prospects get to the action level.
More revenue
The whole point of conversions is to increase revenue for your company. A good sales funnel brings more revenue, and this, in turn, grows your business.
Focus on web design strategy for an efficient sales funnel
While discussing sales funnels, web design can’t be put on the back burner. It deserves a rightful place in the front row. The reason is simple. It starts the funnel. An appealing and user-friendly website is what your prospect sees first.
What you do with this information is the difference between a vibrant funnel and a lackluster one. When you get it right, you improve customer engagement, increase productivity, predict results more accurately, reduce customer churn, improve conversion and earn more revenue.