Do You Have a Leaky Funnel? 

We don’t want leaks in any part of our online business but a leaky funnel can really slow you down.

Your marketing funnel is the journey that your ideal customer goes on when they seek to solve one of their pain points or problems. The of the marketing funnel is to promote:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Conversion
• Loyalty and Advocacy

If you have a leaky funnel, you’re missing out on conversions due to missed opportunities. These missed opportunities can live anywhere within your marketing funnel.

Let’s go through some leaks that can happen and what you can do about it.

Visually Set Up Your Process from Lead to Close

The first thing you might want to do to help you see it visually is to set up what your own funnel looks like and how that journey proceeds for your ideal customer. For example, what content do you have set up for each stage and why, starting with awareness and moving all the way through to loyalty and advocacy. Visualizing the process, can help you fill in any leaks.

Determine the Number of TouchPoints Needed to Conversion

You can start with statistical averages and then use your metrics to change based on the data you collect. Right now, the average number of touchpoints needed to convert assuming all leaks are plugged is between 7 and 9 touchpoints. Within your funnel, you need to develop touchpoints that allow you to convert, such as landing pages, blog posts, social media updates, and so forth.

Qualify Your Leads and Prospects

At the widest part of your funnel is the time you’re trying to make your audience aware of your existence, but it’s also an excellent time to weed through and qualify leads and prospects. Create content only for your ideal audience, and don’t try to include everyone, and you’ll have more luck. Don’t worry about turning off prospects because they aren’t ideal. Focus only on your ideal audience, and you’ll do better.

Segment Your Audience with Buyer Personas

One way to ensure you are creating the right content for the right people is to create buyer personas throughout your customer’s buying journey. That way, you can look at that persona before you start building the content or even the product so that you get it right.

Learn Your Ideal Customer’s Buying Journey

Take the time to go on the journey with your customers. That way, you can understand where they are at any level of the funnel and create the right content and information for them. Tailoring content to their interest will ensure you get more conversions and close more leaks.

Create Relevant Targeted Messaging

Once you know exactly who you are creating the content for, you want to make sure it’s targeted and to the point for that person. When it’s not, it will cause them to click away, and you’ll lose them. Only concern yourself with the audience who the content and message is for so that you create relevant messaging for them.

Reduce the Options Offered

The other way to close leaks is just like narrowing down the topics, and who you’re creating the content for, it involves reducing their options. This is the reason sales pages and landing pages convert so well, they are single-focused, and you can only make two choices, buy or not buy.

Improve Your Onboarding

Leaks can happen after purchase as well as before purchase. If your onboarding is confusing if they don’t receive their email link after purchase and other issues occur, you may end up with a refund request or a customer who is not happy. Plugging these holes can improve customer retention exponentially.

Go through each part of your funnel, identify the touchpoints, and then evaluate each for leaks that you can plug. If you are missing content and information for any part of the buying journey, that is also a leak that you can fill.

If you would like a step by step guide to plugging your profit leaks, you can pick one up here at no cost:

Plug Your Profit Leaks Planner