As I mentioned in the last post, the goal of any digital marketing funnel is to convert traffic visitors into paying clients. In it, I described ways to increase funnel success through a ‘squeeze’ page that dangles the proverbial carrot in the form of a downloadable freebie. I also mentioned setting up two separate email lists for converted and non-converted email subscribers off the squeeze page, after which you would create automated email campaigns to continue building a relationship with those select groups. Far from being an exclusive strategy to optimizing your digital marketing funnel, here are two other ways to succeed in seeing the light at the end of your funnel.

I. Setting the Benchmark

The very first step is setting a benchmark, because success to one company might mean failure to another. So before you decide whether your conversion goals are failing, take a moment to define your conversion goals. Ask yourself what your desired conversion rate is. This is a pivotal question that any business owner should be asking (particularly small business owners and start-ups). Case in point, I had one business owner that marveled at the sky-rocketing rate of his Instagram followers, only to hear a cricket-silence when I followed up by asking how many of those followers are converted into paying customers.

Once you’ve decided to take this step, you can follow through a three point plan to determining realistic conversion stats. First, do your homework by testing the market. See if you can find out conversion rates or like businesses in your industry, in your region, and (of course) for start-ups. A start-up business for a niche demographic will have much more humble expectations that a like business that’s based its model on years of successful blogging (that, as we discussed is incredibly important, can already attract thousands of unique visitors daily). If you find that you levels are staggeringly low compared to even the norm, you might need to scale your ambitions down and set up your business as a micro-business – which is one that builds slowly and steadily into a full-scale business with competitive earnings.

Step two is to determine your current conversion rate. To do this, you’ll have to follow the second point below labeled “Finding Your Flock.” Your goal here is to conduct a full analysis (going back to even 6 months ago) to determine where you’re realistically at in terms of the numbers. After that (step three) is all about setting goals and benchmarks. Here you ask yourself where you would like to be in three months, 6 months, and year – and what you’re going to do to achieve that.

Following this I recommend drawing out a marketing funnel to create a concrete visual of your game plan. Never underestimate the enforcing potential of a flowchart that guides you through where you are and what you need to do to get to where you need to be.

II. Finding Your Flock

Analytics is and will always be the name of the game, especially when it comes to digital media. The fact remains that the digital sphere is such an illusive realm in which we might as well be feeling our way through the dark. You don’t see your audience and you don’t know where your voice reaches. You need a digital version of echolocation to help navigate your path – which is where analytics come in. Analytics will help you determine which traffic sourcing channels are proving most successful, and even if certain channels are more favorable at certain times or within certain demographics. You can also utilize heat maps and a/b testing to determine what routes your traffic tends to course through. I also recommend testing specific pages within your site to see how quick the bounce rate and click-through rate might vary within certain areas of the site (which are easily remedied through tweaks).