Automating sales funnels to drive better conversion

When it comes to sales, technology is always evolving to help make us more effective. If you want to accelerate your marketing and get more bang for your buck, then automated funnels can take on that job for you. 

What is a funnel?

As always, let’s start with the basics. A funnel is a method by which you bring in new potential customers and take them all the way to the point of conversion. At the top of the funnel, you’ll have the most amount of users and then as you walk them through the conversion process they’ll naturally drop off. 

Funnels come in all shapes and sizes, depending on the process by which you obtain your users. Some will be wider and others will be more targeted, it’s all dependant on your target audience and conversion rate. 

It is important to understand not only the customer journey (on the site) but the funnel you are using to get them there in the first place as well.

How can it be automated?

There are many ways to automate your sales funnel, to do so you first have to think about how you bring traffic into your site. In the past, it was enough for affiliates to funnel this traffic on to operator sites but as time has gone on, this doesn’t really cut it any more. 

The cornerstone to effective funnels is the data that you have and collect on your users. The more you know about them, the more you can automate their progress through the site to convert and start earning revenue. You won’t have this data right off the bat, so you have to test and market to find out what is really working.

Using cookies and analytics, you can understand your users much better. For example, if they come in on the homepage and then go immediately to the reviews section, then you know this is a better target for these users. This then eliminates some of the drop off that you get with each interaction or diversion on the site. 

Don’t let it be an endless time waster though…

We spoke about re-targeting earlier this week and once you have this in place, you’ll start to understand your user much more effectively. Cookies can do your work for you, so get this process automated early. 

Most affiliates that we speak to here at Affiverse say that time constraints are a major sticking point in building and making funnels really work. This can prevent them from trying something new or push important conversion tasks back in the queue, so they’re never really taken care of. Freeing up this valuable time with automation can allow a focus for new opportunities. 

In practice, you want to be tracking as much data as possible on each of your funnels. Use this to compare and contrast what works, then allow the advertising platform to do the rest of the work. AdWords and Facebook’s Ad Platform are starting to bring in more elements of AI to do just that, so try experimenting with these.

Not every sales funnel that’s automated will be an instant success, but with proper monitoring and improvement, they can become a success. Collect the right data and implement a strategy that works for your brand if you want these to thrive. 

If you want to learn more tactics that will allow you to become more effective and make the most of your time, then book your FREE ticket to AffiliateFEST. Get more from your affiliate business with our targeted event. 

Photo credit: www.campaigncreators.com

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