The success of a business stands on its sales funnel strategies. Without proper planning, long-term prosperity is hard to maintain. This is where your sales funnel success comes to the front of the line.

But the hard truth is that 68% of B2B organizations have failed to identify their sales funnel. This is the reason most new businesses fall apart after a short time.

Certainly, Understanding how to maximize your sales funnel and developing strategies around user experience is at the heart of an effective inbound marketing strategy.

How do a sales funnel work?

The sales funnel provides the canvas for describing and optimizing your sales process so that you get more business.

The model presents the customer journey as a series of stages from awareness to the moment of purchase. You can drive more sales by planning your marketing communication along the stages.

This article focuses on 7 tips to adapt and improve your sales for a maximum return on investment.

These tips are easy to incorporate and should be used throughout your daily marketing activities.

Tip #1: Sterling Landing Page – The First Impression

Landing pages are the first direct connection between your leads and your business. And, when the competition is stiff, the first impression is the last impression get optimization and your promotional specifications must reflect the promise presented in the targeted ad your website viewers clicked on. Here is an example of message-matching for conversion-oriented design:

“An example of of a bad message match
Ad: Get 50% off a Dell Inspiron 9000
Landing page message: Welcome to Dave’s Computer Store
An example of a good message match
Ad: Get 50% off a Dell Inspiron 9000
Landing page message: Get 50% off a Dell Inspiron 9000 at Dave’s Computer Store.”

When Creating A Sales Funnel on your website:

• The headline message must match with the ad linked to the landing page.
• Create compelling CTAs that mirror the business challenges of your prospects.
• Write targeted messaging on every page to stay clear and focused.
• Use video on your landing pages to increase rates by 80%.
• Show your product or service usage data.
• Test new ideas with A/B testing.
• Don’t connect inbound traffic directly to lead generation or transactional pages.
• Use click-through or reference landing pages to capture your leads.
• Provide concise descriptions of your product offerings.
• Use persuasive copy so customers find exactly what they’re looking for.
• Ask for customers’ contact info.
• Then redirect your CTA there to lead gen pages.
• Opt for free trial services.
• Show samples of your product.
• After all these, transactional options can come forth.

Tip #2: Live Chat Software Stack on websites- The Best Communication Tools

When your focus is on converting as many website visitors into customers as possible, why not select the most personalized way of communication? Yes, I’m talking about the live chat software plugged into your website. No one can resist its impact that is so similar to face-to-face interactions.

Your clients want to consult with you about every doubt they have. They want in. Let them in, into your team, like a big family. This effect of emotional attachment builds a bond of trust. Now your clients are likely to pay you more instead of going elsewhere. And this is the standpoint of the 80/20 rule in modern business, which says that 80% of business revenue comes from only 20% of your loyal clients.

Some data here to support our claim:

• 92% of customers are happy to use live chat services over other channels.
• Live chat tops in the ranking of customer satisfaction rates, with 73%.
• 77% of visitors don’t want to purchase from a company having no live chat support.
• 2.4 times the annual increment in cross-sell and up-sell revenue.

But where does the difference lie if everyone uses this service? It’s in the integration process. Don’t just talk with your clients; demonstrate your solutions, when needed. Differentiate your services by adding features, like screen sharing and co-browsing, because most of your clients are unaware of the new technologies you use.

Tip #3: CRM – Always Stays in Touch

Here are some breathtaking stats regarding the global usage of CRM tools.

• More than 87% of online businesses now use cloud-based CRM solutions.
• 60% of the small & medium scale businesses now employ CRM tools as the support for e-mail marketing.
• CRM usage rises from 56% (in 2013) to 74% (in 2015) within just two years.
• Sales productivity increases by at least 15% when sales reps get access to the CRM tools through their mobile phones.
• ROI is more than 4 times higher with CRM tools (businesses gets approximately $5.5 back when spending $1)
• Around 74% of businesses think that CRM provides them with easy access to their customer data

So, you may be thinking that employing a versatile CRM solution will help your business remain on the cutting-edge of modern business standards. You are dead right. But, there’s more to it.

What does CRM integrate? Admittedly, your sales and support departments. They both need the support of CRM tools to stay connected with your customers in real-time. Real-time?

Yes. When CRM software gets integrated with the live chat tools, it becomes the best weapon in handling customer queries in real-time.

Need anything else to jet, set, and go?

Tip #4: Write Awesome Blogs – Help Your Customers

Modern customers don’t always like to ask you for everything. Self-service is their priority before shaking hands with you for the first time. And the most efficient way to quench their thirst for information is with business blogging. Tell your story before being asked, and share industry news, informative writing, and analytical data.

Share your professional insights with your customers and serve them, even when you are not serving them personally.

B2B marketers who blog glean 67% more leads than those who don’t.

But before starting, strain out your clients, who they are, and what solution they are seeking from you. Then write your information on the edge of solving their problems. Tell them what you can offer to them. Tell stories about how you solved issues for your existing clients. Let them feel that you know them and build trust from the start.

Tip #5: Activate Retargeting Ads

Retargeting or remarketing ads help your brand not to lose sight of bounced traffic once it leaves the web page. Since only 2% of the audience can be converted in their first visit, activation of retargeting advertising is the only hope you have for the other 98 percent.

It’s a cookie-based technology with JavaScript coding to track down your viewers all over the internet. There are two types. Pixel-based ads re-display your elements to an anonymous viewer. These will encourage awareness of your offerings to your audience in no time. The list-based retargeting works after getting the contact info for your visitors.

Before starting it, be sure to sort your list and set your purpose. Look upon the performance of your destination URL to plan a specific retargeting campaign.

Tip #6: Go Social – Invite Communities

When most of the internet’s users actively use social media, you certainly don’t want to miss any of your clients by ignoring this channel. This is the wide platform where you capture the attention of your leads.

Know your clients and narrow down the media channels most of them use.

Create an attractive profile with professional media channels. Express your ideas there. Invite potential prospects. Show your expertise in problem-solving and seek others who are similar. Create a community. It’s the field for discussing every possible opportunity. Ask opinions from others. Link your landing pages with your media accounts.

Tell short stories about your offerings. And don’t forget to ask your existing clients to leave feedback on media channels. Your happy customers will not fail you since consumers likely share brand names with their circle 90 times/week on average.

Tip #7: Specialize Your Strengths

Until now, we were discussing the ways of creating your sales funnel. But to strategize any sales process, first, we need to know the strengths and weaknesses of the company. You can use SWOT analysis in this process. Get your ideas from completed SWOT reports.

Organize short meetings with every department and employee to get their perspectives. Ask for feedback from both employees and clients. Question your strengths in financial resources, key players, employee management, physical elements, human resources, market position, company reputation, growth conditions, intellectual prospects (like patents, copyrights, or trademarks), and every other crucial aspect you can list.

Creating and optimizing a sales funnel takes time. It’s hard work. But it’s the only way to survive in a competitive marketplace.

Believe it or not, a detail as small as font choice can impact conversions. And if you ask people to buy from you too quickly, you’ll chase them away.

Take time to build out a sales funnel that represents what you want and what your audience wants. Cultivate it over time, adjust your approach to various sales funnel stages, and find out why your efforts aren’t working.