Optimize Your Website Sales Funnel

Identify with your core target audience

Rather than trying to appeal to anyone who could buy any of your products or services. Identify who is your core target market. The kinds of clients that you want heaps more of, that you can help most and you get the most benefit from serving.

Appeal directly to these people with the words and imagery of the website. This avoids being too general and not appealing to anyone, and you won’t necessarily turn away those less ideal clients.

Segment the audience

If you have products or services for customers at different levels or stages of need, create a ‘chooser’ section to help them self-identify with the solution right for them. This also allows you to tailor the wording and imagery on those pages to be suitable to those buyers.

If you have a product or service that is for the kind of person who would never buy one of the other products or services you offer, consider a separate website in that case. But if there is a chance they may move between solutions at different stages, then keep them on the same site.

Optimise for the first-time visitor

Put yourself in the shoes of a first-time visitor to your website, someone who doesn’t know much about you, because this represents the majority of your website visitors, and are ones that you need to make the best impression on.

Returning visitors are more inclined to look around for what they need. You need to make the important info easy and obvious to first-time visitors.

Streamlined Navigation Structure

Try to simplify your main navigation menu to just the main pages that most users, especially new visitors, need to see. Move less important pages to the footer navigation, if people need these pages they will look there.

If you have many pages, structure them logically and aim to reduce the number of clicks people need to take to get to the page they are looking for.

Use direct headlines that are descriptive

The main Heading (H1) of each page, including the homepage should be descriptive of what the page or your offer is about, rather than a welcome message or clever slogan. This helps users immediately know they are in the right place and makes it clear to search engines who the page is relevant to.

It should be about the customer and their needs, but you can also try to grab attention and include the uniqueness of your offer.

Talk About them, not you

Focus on your audience and their problems, rather than boasting about your business or the features of what you offer. Try to flip any We/I/Our language into You/Your language.

Even on your About page, you should make it About what they get and how you help them, not purely about you or your company's history.

Talk about the Problems your audience face

Address the challenges your target market faces, demonstrating that you understand their pain points and the problem they are looking to solve. Then you can talk about how you solve those problems with the solution you offer.

Emphasise benefits over features

Include a section on your homepage and each main service or sales page which is all about the benefits that buyers get from your offering, rather than the features of what is included.

You can create benefit bullets by matching each feature of your offer with what it does to improve your customer's life

Overcoming objections and addressing pain points

To improve your website conversions, anticipate each of the main objections or obstacles that may be holding people back from buying or taking action now. Try to address these throughout the copy of your page, but including an FAQs section towards the bottom of the page can allow you to specifically cover each one.

It is also helpful to think about all the problems and pains your customer has, try to address all of these, even ones not directly covered by your offer to show that you understand their needs.

Demonstrate what is unique about your offer

Highlight your USP or Unique Selling Proposition in the copy of your page. This should be what makes your offer different or better than your competition or the other options available to the buyer. If you can make a true statement about how your offer is the ‘Best, Only or Most’ something, this can be powerful.

Including trust elements and social proof can be a powerful way to differentiate yourself, as these are not easily replicated.

Implementing a clear and concise value proposition

Using pricing comparison tables can quickly and simply sum up the value of what you are offering. It can also be helpful to compare your offer to the costs of not taking action or other common expensive solutions to the problem (private lessons vs your video course)

Don’t give too many pricing options, discounts or calculations for the customer to make. You may confuse them into doing nothing. Keep it simple and clear. 3 or less options is a good rule to stick to.

Design visually appealing and contrasting CTAs

Craft CTA buttons and sections that stand out visually, making it easy for users to be drawn to them and take action. Use images to grab attention and make the call to action appealing and easier to understand as well.

Don’t saturate your website design with too many different colours, keep it to a simple few so that your CTAs stand out.

Use action-oriented button wording

All of your button's text should include action verbs, such as “Buy Now”, “Get Access” & “Learn More”. And for your main CTAs mention the result of taking the action "Get ServiceX" or "Book A Consultation" or “Yes, I want ResultX”. Doing this sets clear expectations around what will happen after they click the button and psychologically prepares people for taking the next action.

Identify a Primary and Secondary CTA

For your core target market, what is the ideal product or service that you ultimately what them to take up? Make this the Primary CTA throughout the site and highlight this on your homepage. This is especially helpful if people are referred to you or have been consuming your content for a long time, when they are ready to buy, you want to make it as easy as possible to get straight to your best offer. And for new people to understand what your main thing is.

Your secondary CTA should usually be the action people can take if they are not yet ready to start with your main offer, but they are interested in what you have, perhaps they want a taste, or something to chew on while they are waiting for the time to be right. This can be a free or low-friction lead offer.

Strategically placing CTAs throughout the website

Your primary CTA button, the one you want your target market to go for, should be placed in the header, on the right-hand side of the desktop and on mobile it should sit next to the mobile ‘hamburger’ menu. It should be sticky so that it is always on the screen as users browse through your content. You should also put this button through the main content of your home and service pages.

Your secondary CTA which is probably more of a lead magnet can be placed at the top of the footer section which appears at the bottom of each page. If people haven’t taken action by the time they get to the bottom of your page, that is a great time to give them this kind of offer. You can also place this CTA as a little section inside the content of blog/podcast posts.

Limit options and keep consistent

Avoid overwhelming users with too many choices. This can lead to decision paralysis, they are not sure what they should do, so they do nothing and will ‘come back to it later’ presumably when they have time to make a decision or investigate further. **This part rarely ever happens**.

Stick to a few clear and consistent CTAs to guide users toward the desired action. Have a Primary and Secondary CTA that are offered site-wide. Remove other options, or only present them in times or places where they are most relevant.

Your lead magnet should be valuable

Rather than offering for people to simply ‘Subscribe to our Newsletter’ or a generic and simple PDF, think of how can you give people a win for free. How can you give them something of value, that will help them and move them closer to the solution to their problems? Offer them something that they would pay for as a lead magnet and people are more than happy to subscribe to see what else you’ve got for them.

Ensure your lead magnet is relevant to your main offer

Beyond being valuable and solving problems, your lead magnet should be RELEVANT to your main offer and either be something complimentary or a logical first step or lead-in to what you really want them to buy.
Choose a lead magnet that complements your main offer, demonstrates your expertise and builds trust by demonstrating that you are able to help them.

Great examples of this are things like a free chapter for the book you are selling, a mini-course or 7-day challenge for a training program or a wedding photographer offering planning tools to help their clients organise their big day.

Make your lead magnet a low-friction offer

Your lead magnet offer should have little friction, but that doesn’t mean that it needs to be free! You might want to make sure that only seriously interested people are going for it. People who are willing to pay for the solution to the problem you solve. But you can give them an offer they can’t refuse, for a small payment and commitment.

Following Cialdini’s persuasion principle, by getting people to take that first step, they are much more likely to follow through and purchase your main offering when they are ready. This is especially important if you are offering a high-ticket item that has a longer lead time on the buying cycle or if people research a lot before deciding who to buy from.

Design attractive and easily accessible opt-in forms

Your opt-in form will get better results if it is appealing & visually attractive. Help it stand out on the page with contrasting colours and images, create an image or visualisation of the product you are offering, or perhaps of the solution/result they will get from your lead magnet. Beyond a well-crafted title, include some benefit bullets for your lead magnet to drive home the value on offer.

Create an engaging initial email sequence

Once people have taken you up on your lead magnet offer, create an awesome and engaging email sequence that reinforces that it was a great decision to get your lead magnet. Putting a lot of effort into the first few weeks after a person opts into your lead magnet can keep them opening your emails and help them become a long-term client.

Make sure they are better off for having opened every email, add more value and provide solutions in the emails you send to them. Add a bit of personality to build a relationship, help them get to know you and encourage them to respond and make sure they are getting results. Then they are much more likely to take up your main offer.

Use pop-ups sparingly

While pop-ups can be effective for lead generation, use them judiciously to avoid annoying your visitors. Never have more than one. Try a pop-over that sits over part of the screen rather than a whole-screen take-over and time pop-ups to only load after the visitor has been on the site for a while and had a chance to see what you have to offer. Exit pops are a good solution, because they only appear when the user is leaving the page, so they are not interrupting them trying to get information or value out of your website.

Track Audience Behavior with Google Analytics 4

Understanding your audience is essential to delivering a personalised user experience. Google Analytics 4 offers advanced metrics and real-time analytics to track visitor interactions. You can observe how users navigate through your site, the content they engage with, and where they drop off. This data enables you to improve site performance and create content that resonates with your ideal clients, much like you'd tailor your website's words and imagery to appeal directly to your core audience.

Use Tag Manager to Load Tracking Scripts

When you're juggling different tracking tools, things can get messy. Google Tag Manager allows you to manage all your tracking scripts in one place without modifying the website code. This ensures that tracking is both accurate and efficient, helping you segment your audience based on their behaviour or needs, just like you'd segment your services for different types of clients.

Create Remarketing & Retargeting Audiences

It is pretty common for an interested prospect to visit your site but leave without taking any action, they may have been distracted, run out of time or simply not ready for what you have to offer yet, even if they do want it.

Remarketing campaigns allow you to re-engage these lost prospects by showing targeted ads when they visit other sites. By reminding them of what you offer, you encourage them to return and convert, turning those 'nearly-clients' into definite ones. Think of it as using the same tailoring strategies you'd use on your site but in an external space.

Publish Content on Your Website When You Share on Social Media

Every time you share a new blog post, podcast episode, or offer on social media, make sure it's published on your website first. This drives traffic back to your site and helps with search engine optimization. This strategy aligns with the idea of streamlining navigation and making important information easily accessible to first-time visitors and returning ones.

Implement Unique Tracking Codes

Tracking codes are the backbone of understanding who your audience is and what they're interested in. Unique tracking codes for different campaigns allow you to measure performance individually, just like you'd optimize for first-time visitors separately from returning ones. The granular insights these codes provide can help you refine your strategies and better serve your audience's specific needs.

Stay Engaged with Your Audience

Engagement isn't just a one-time thing; it's about creating a long-term relationship. Use newsletters, updates, or special offers to keep your audience engaged. The same principles that apply to your initial email sequences apply here; add value, solve problems, and include clear CTAs. This helps turn casual visitors into lifelong customers. Just as you'd anticipate objections or obstacles in your web copy, regular engagement anticipates and solves problems before they turn into roadblocks.