Conversion Archives - Funnel Optimization

How to Improve Conversion Rate in the Era of Cross-Platform Experience and Multi-Channel Funnel?

What is cross-platform experience and how do you use it to reach your business goals?

2007 brought us the iPhone and later the App Store, which introduced an entirely different experience for consumers. The multitude of devices, browsers, and connectivity have become increasingly fractured leading to a wide range of challenges to deliver a consistent and engaging experience to business users and consumers on platforms.

The so-called “year of the mobile” has been happening since 2010 and today, mobile is already ubiquitous in our lives. User expectation depends on the context, but across all profiles and devices, users are demanding better performance.

“Mobile is not eating desktop, but it is eating our free time”.

What is cross-platform?

The term platform is a combination of the type of hardware and the type of operating system running on the computer or device. If a user is on one platform (mobile), they can still communicate with another user on another platform (mobile). So if you send a message using Facebook Messenger from your mobile device, your friend can read it on their computer, tablet or smartphone. That is the essence of cross-platform.

This broad sense of thinking about cross-platform misses what is unique about each medium or platform. Users do not use devices in isolation of each other, rather they move from one device to the other and expect their entertainment or work to be synced. Due to this expectation, there is a need for a connected cross-platform experience. Many apps and services are moving towards just such an experience and offering availability across platforms, but it has not quite caught up yet.

“We do not decide whether to use the web or mobile devices; we use the web and mobile devices.”

But how do you create a connected experience across devices? For a start, think of the web as simply another user interface, just like tablets, smartphones, smart TVs, and smart watches. The challenge is to create a smooth and incredible cross-platform user experience across all of these.

Here are some ideas of current apps utilizing cross-platform well to help you improve your cross-platform user experience to increase conversion rates for your business:

Pocket app: This is the app I love the most. Pocket is a plugin that is used to save articles you want to read later. It is available as a Chrome add-on and iOS app, and it works cross-platform.
Apple Game Center: When you play a game on your iPhone, iPad or Apple TV, Game Center saves your points and whole game profile to create a connected cross-platform experience.
Slack: When you transition between desktop and the mobile app, the app remembers the last thing that you read, and it will not show you content you’ve already read.

The digital landscape is shifting towards creating a connected user experience, but the challenge is to create a cohesive user experience between devices (laptop + mobile experience).

For e-commerce store owners, cross-platform can look different from the app experience. Here is an example to help you improve cross-platform experience if you own an e-commerce store:

A visitor comes to your website or e-commerce store and checks out a pair of sunglasses. This visitor might be out for a dinner and viewing on their mobile device, but they are more comfortable making the purchase at home from their desktop. A connected experience would allow the visitor to find and bookmark or save the pair of sunglasses to buy them, later on, their desktop at home.
Why is this the best experience? People browse websites on both smartphones and tablets. They start on one device but want to continue or switch to another and are using more devices at the same time. Consumers are interacting with products and services through a growing diversity of platforms, ranging from installed software to mobile apps and smart TVs. It is important to think about a multi-screen, dynamic experience for your customers as each platform has its strengths, weaknesses, constraints, uses, and modes of interaction.

What is multi-channel funnel?

Cross-platform is not to be confused with a multi-channel funnel strategy. Funnel thinking bases itself on a model of human behavior and follows the AIDA model. The AIDA model is based on human psychology, but does not specify tools, channels, or media and just describes the path to purchase that most humans follow:

Attention (Awareness): attract the attention of the customer.
Interest (Intent): promote advantages and benefits.
Desire: convince customers that the product will satisfy their needs.
Action: lead customers toward taking action or making a purchase.

Because the AIDA funnel is a model of human behavior and not media consumption, it has not changed and is not dead. Funnels are not tools, channels, or media people are using for a purchase, funnels are the way humans process buying decisions.

The AIDA model works like this: I walk around a mall and am ATTRACTED to lots of products in the stores, but I do not buy them. I have INTEREST in them and think they are cool, but don’t have a DESIRE for them at the moment. I did come to the mall for a few items that I DESIRE but have not ACTED upon. Finally, I will walk into a store to choose an item or two to take ACTION upon and purchase. At each section of the AIDA model, the list of products in my head worth purchasing gets smaller simulating a funnel.

A multichannel funnel is adapting to a digital reality as customers move across multiple touch points, devices, channels, and screens during their path to purchase. Customers no longer follow a predictable or linear model towards their purchase. The AIDA model is a linear model which cannot incorporate the full expanse of the customer’s buying process today, but it is a better place to start and model from than zero. In today’s society, more things act as triggers. Marketing communications have expanded, and the purchase is not the final step of the funnel. It is more important than ever to put the right message in front of the right audience at the right time.

Online marketing channels such as direct traffic, email, organic search, referral, social, paid, and display ads are combined with offline channels like TV, radio, outdoor ads and telephone. Using voucher codes, specifics calls-to-action, landing page URLs, QR codes, NFC (near field communication), or offers combined with the Facebook app are simply a few ways to integrate your offline and online marketing channels for a multichannel customer experience. You can also combine search and telephone by adding click-to-call extensions to your website and landing pages, or Facebook and email can be used together by cross-referencing followers to create custom audiences.

When taking a multichannel approach, you should optimize online channels first, but find silent periods with inactivity. Be sure to test, create a hypothesis and use part of your budget to test it.

TIP: Using multichannel funnels in Google Analytics

In Google Analytics, the conversion or e-commerce transaction is credited to the last referring campaign or search ad: the one that referred the user to the conversion. How did other sources (prior website referrals, searches, and ads) contribute to that conversion, however? How long did it take the customer to purchase after his or her initial interest? To answer questions like these, you’ll want to look into the Google Analytics Multichannel Funnel reports. These reports show how your marketing channels (sources of traffic to your website) coordinate to create sales and conversions.

Data representing the conversion path includes interactions with virtually all digital channels. These channels include, but are not limited to:

Search (paid and organic) – this shows all search engines as well as the specific keywords searched
Affiliates
Referral Sites
Email Newsletters
Social Networks
Custom Campaigns – this can include any offline campaigns that send traffic to vanity URLs

Google Analytics Attribution Modeling

From multichannel analytics, you can get into attribution modeling which is both complicated and challenging. It requires a deep understanding of a business model and how different marketing channels collaborate to create sales and conversions – industry and the target market. Attribution modeling goes beyond Google Analytics and is a very broad topic that requires it is own post, so stay tuned for more information on attribution modeling.

Meta Description: With more screens and platforms, a cross-platform user experience and a corresponding multi-channel funnel is in demand and needed in today’s society.

How to Use the AIDA Model in New Customer Paths to Purchase

The AIDA model has been used for centuries to describe and guide customer paths. With the changes in marketing, advertising, and now technology, the AIDA model and its use have changed and evolved as well.

New Paths to Conversions and Purchase

When the AIDA model was first created, the purchase funnel was linear: you attracted the attention of the customer, gained their interest, then their desire for the product, before they finally took action and bought the product.

For more information on the AIDA model and purchase funnels, check out our brief history of marketing funnels.

Today, there are multiple levels of engagement and interaction with brands is more direct and faster than ever before. Customers have access to more information and resources with new technology: instant access to brands via social media and their websites.

According to Forrester, 53% of U.S. online consumers research products online that they’ll later purchase in the store. Rather than taking a straight path towards the purchase, customers take a non-linear path filled with research, reflection and interaction beforehand.

So what does this mean? During the research phase of a customer’s journey, new or unknown brands become known and new information is taken into consideration while making decisions. It is at this point (the research phase) in the traditional AIDA funnel model that the funnel would narrow, but the opposite happens in the current AIDA model – the funnel gets wider or turns non-linear (like a curly cue straw).

Because of this deviation, you must think outside of the traditional marketing funnel. A traditional funnel neglects a customer’s lifetime value and profit. The model is purely volume-based, representing a sale as a sale and a customer as a customer and nothing more.

To take into account the non-linear funnel of the present, ask yourself: What can you do to improve your marketing activities and results with this in mind?

With this new customer path in mind, tailor your content based on the funnel. Guide them through each step with your copywriting, content creation and social media presence. Cover the customer’s awareness, interest, desire and action regarding your brand.

To do this, put yourself in the visitor’s shoes – each is on your website, blog or social media with a particular goal in mind. Use the tools available to get information about visitors (surveys, interviews, and social media) and provide the shortest path to their need.

Keep in mind the growing use of mobile, especially with Millennials, and how this might impact your customer’s path and marketing funnel.

Thinking of the customer path, use social media conversions such as newsletter sign-ups, social media likes, follows, and shares as opportunities to give your leads useful, quality content. Cover the funnel stages and nurture your leads.

By doing this, you’ll get SEO benefits and more visitors at a particular place in their journey through the funnel. You’ll also receive benefits to your social media presence, build a community around your brand, and make lead nurturing more effective.

How-to: Put the Customer into the Center of the AIDA Model

It is clear that new customer paths towards purchase center around the customer versus the product or marketing itself. This means you have to put the customer at the center of your AIDA model. Does this mean we bury the marketing funnel and introduce a new model?

A new model that focuses on the customer, not on the marketing itself and covers the customer life-cycle to provide a better fit with modern marketing? We think you can have it both ways.

While changes to the traditional AIDA marketing funnel model are necessary, it does not need to be thrown out entirely. A new model can be built upon the AIDA foundations. A model that is non-linear would cover:

Discovery: awareness, interest, desire
Exploration: interest, desire, action
Purchase: interest, desire, action
Engagement: desire, action and beyond (think retention)

Notice that the “stages” are similar, at least from your customer’s point of view, but much more interconnected.

It might help to look at the customer life cycle in a different way. Think of it as the customer’s relationship with a brand as the customer engages in the product experience by discovering new options, exploring needs, and making purchases. Taking this approach puts the customer at the center of your marketing to create an entire brand experience and relationship with the brand.

The Customer Life Cycle Will Give Your Customers the Total Brand Experience

With the customer life cycle model, marketing is continuous and surrounds the customer with a total brand experience across four mentioned relationship phases: discovery, exploration, purchase, and engagement.

This incorporates the solid foundation of the AIDA model while creating a non-linear marketing funnel centrally focused on the customer’s journey towards purchase given current customer paths. Optimizing your funnel with this model will increase conversion while also providing a more solid experience for first-time and repeat customers alike.

Everything You Need to Know to Implement Lead Nurturing and Funnel Optimization

Now that your online presence and traffic channels are set up, you’ve finished the first steps towards creating a successful marketing and sales funnel for your business.

Most of the people who come to your website for the first time will not make a purchase immediately, though, so you must go further than the setup.

Rather than looking for the immediate purchase, convert them into leads by letting them give their contact information. Then use their contact information in a lead nurturing campaign.

For lead management or customer acquisition management, ask yourself these three questions:

Who is my ideal customer?
How will I acquire new customers?
How can I reduce the cost of customer acquisition?

A qualified lead is the starting point for your sales funnel or sales pipeline. The idea of your sales funnel is to direct a person who is interested in your product or service (the qualified lead) naturally towards the closing of the sale.

By qualifying your leads, you optimize the entire sales process and help with the lead nurturing. Keep in mind that not every lead is ready to buy your product.

Two factors qualify a lead: lead fit and lead interest or behavior.

Lead fit: Does the lead fit your ideal customer profile, target audience or buyer personas?
Lead interest or behavior: What is the lead doing on your website/app?

A good lead qualifies in both by fitting your ideal client profile and demonstrating interest. That qualified lead is your starting point for your sales funnel. Moreover, when a lead is qualified, you can start nurturing that lead with your lead nurturing campaigns.

Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing is a most crucial step in any marketing strategy; this is where you build relationships and trust with your customers while educating them about the product and its possibilities.

In today’s world, the buyer controls the buying cycle much more than the seller controls the selling cycle and that makes building relationships crucial for sellers. In fact, around 50% of qualified leads are not immediately ready to buy which is why lead nurturing is part of the lead and revenue cycle.

The goal of lead nurturing is to funnel qualified prospects toward the closing of sales by building relationships with them, regardless of their readiness or timing to buy. Lead nurturing uses email marketing but goes beyond email with content mapping and multichannel nurturing.

Funnel Optimization for Your Business

Website

When looking at optimizing your funnel, start with your website. You’ll want your website to be mobile responsive and load quickly. These two things will improve your user experience and even your SEO ratings.

Next, you’ll want to make sure your business goals are transformed into website goals. And have the right goals, that is one of the most important things in marketing optimization. Conversion optimization goals should be determined by your website goals and optimization should be focused as tightly as possible on revenue generation activities.

To go further, add some tools to your repertoire. Get your Google Analytics set up and make sure you create goals, events, and tailor your dashboard to your business and website goals.

Hotjar is another excellent tool that offers heatmaps and recordings to help you better understand your visitors and their behavior. If you want more tools beyond these, check out our article about conversion tracking and optimization tools .

Landing pages

Once you’ve optimized your website as a whole and put into place tools to track user behavior, you’ll want to look at specific landing pages. These pages are the first impression for any visitor to your website. Their job is to capture the visitor’s information to turn them into a lead; you want them to be efficient and effective. Make sure you pay attention to the content on these pages and test your value proposition for each. For more tips, check out our article with tips for landing page optimization.

Campaigns

Campaigns with PPC, social media, and email are your way of reaching out and grabbing people from the sidewalk – those visitors not on your website at the moment. Campaigns are extremely useful in lead nurturing because they remind and guide leads toward the next step on their journey with you.

As we discussed in article on how to set up a marketing and sales funnel for your business, you’ll want to use the AIDA model with your campaigns to create ad groups, ads, and audiences.

Also, don’t forget that AdWords is a great way to test keywords, value proposition and call-to-actions, information that you can use in the future for your marketing strategy.

These basics will get you set up, but you will need to revisit these steps continuously in your journey with your customers. Take these fundamentals and use them to build a successful marketing and sales funnel, one that adapts to you and your customers’ needs.

How to Create SEO and Content Strategy and Boost Your Social Media Presence Using AIDA Model

The AIDA model is one of the most basic ways to describe consumer engagement with your marketing campaigns.

AIDA stands for:

Attention
Interest
Desire
Action

You can use this model with any marketing campaign, but if you apply it to your online strategy, it can help you create an SEO and Content Strategy to boost your social media presence.

What is SEO and Content Strategy?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and content are both focused around keywords. It’s important your keywords are relevant to your product, service or business. For your basic keywords, you should start in your company’s mission and vision statements.

While developing your list of keywords, try to focus on developing long-tail keywords: try for keywords like “indoor trampoline park” instead of just “park”.

While the focus is keywords, SEO and Content Strategy using the AIDA model should cover all four stages: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. You already know your audience, business goals and how to connect them with quality, useful and informative content.

Now you need to take it to the next level. SEO strategy is about optimizing your content and proactively answering questions real people will have – during all stages of the AIDA model.

Your content should be easy to discover, and it should easily convert your potential customers at any stage of their AIDA journey – it should fulfill their needs.

On-site and Off-site SEO

Internal / on-site SEO

Internal or on-site SEO is about following SEO guidelines, publishing great content, and making that content conversion-friendly using growth hacks.

For this type of SEO, you’ll want to brainstorm core topics related to your business and brand. Extend your research beyond the basics, dig into your niche, and make sure to form long-tailed keywords from your basic keywords.

When developing your keyword list, help yourself out by organizing them in at least two groups: product keywords and business/niche keywords. This will help organize your content strategy better.

TIP: Google Keyword Planner is a great tool for research. Pinpoint relevant keywords with low competition for your content strategy – people are searching for those terms, but there isn’t much content found for them.

External / off-site SEO

External or off-site SEO focuses on optimizing content for referral sources, republishing, and distributing. You want your content to be easily found and also attractive so others will want to share, publish and distribute your content.

Writing relevant and quality content towards topics people are searching for is one of the most important aspects of this type of SEO.

SEO and Content Strategy Execution

To execute an effective SEO and Content Strategy using AIDA, you’ll want to use marketing project management. Ask yourself:

What are your goals?

For example, do you want to: grow traffic, get more subscriptions, get more customers? Choose your goals and use those to choose your keywords. Some keywords are more important for your goals than others. Prioritize those keywords in a list and choose the easiest ones to start with and get rankings.

What are your content types?

Will you be creating blog posts, landing pages, ebooks, white papers, templates, e-commerce pages? Decide which content types appeal to your audience the most and what would be best for your visitors – not necessarily what you can do in-house.

How will you launch it?

What channels will you choose to promote it? Know where your audience is and what they are reading, sharing, consuming. Find the channels that your audience uses.

Share on Social Media

With the AIDA model in mind, think about:

Who do you want to attract?
What is your target audience’s want or need? Alternatively, what gets them excited?
How can you fulfill those needs and get them excited?

Answer those questions and direct your content towards those answers, then make it easy to share. Be sure to share your content more than once on your social media channels and use email distribution for your content.

Keep in mind that in social media, AIDA is a little different and translates more to ADIA: Acknowledgment, Dialogue, Incentivize – encouragement or motivation, Action.

With this model, you need to create quality content; then you need to listen to your target audience and make them talk/engage with you.

SEO in Advertising

Although we’ve focused on AIDA’s use for social media feeds and SEO efforts, it does not need to be isolated to those. Use AIDA for copywriting, landing pages, and ad designs to ensure you are covering all four stages to experience better conversion and strategy with your advertising.

AIDA is a model or guideline to use with your marketing campaigns in any medium, but it can be extremely useful to outline and create a strategy for your SEO and online content efforts.

Using AIDA to create your SEO and Content Strategy will provide value to your customers (recurring and new) while boosting your social media presence and showing a return on your efforts.

From AIDA to Startup Model: How to Setup Your Funnel

In today’s world, where customers are inundated with text sales, emails, tweets or Facebook ads, figuring out how to grab the attention of your customer can be overwhelming.

Where do you even start? This is where a purchase model or funnel comes into play.

You need a model to be more efficient

Continue →