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The Evolution of Website Sales Funnel Optimisation – Introduction

May 14, 2009 on 9:00 am | In Conversion Optimisation, Lead Generation, Web Analytics | 10 Comments

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The central question of online sales funnel optimisation is, “how do we get better results than we’re currently getting, as quickly as possible?”

While sitting in a banana-chair in Punta del Este, I got to thinking about this question and the distinct but interlocking approaches and toolsets you need to maximise your online lead generation results including traffic, conversions and sales. Here’s what I came up with:

Evolution of sales funnel optimisation

There is an “evolution” with four phases that can take you from getting poor/average results to excellent/outstanding results from your website.

Over the next 4 days, we’ll look at each phase in detail. Here’s a quick summary of what’s to come:

Phase 1: Internal orientation:
Many companies and organisations design their websites in line with their own opinions and preferences. While this can be a great starting point for gathering content and ideas, in many cases this can be detrimental to your sales goals. What’s more, it doesn’t tell you anything about your customers and how they use your website.
Phase 2: Objective measurement:
Objective measurement tools allow you to reduce subjectivity and manage by fact rather than by hunch. Measurement tools tell you who is visiting your website and what they do when they get there.
Phase 3: User involvement:
Measurement tools are very good at telling you WHAT users are doing. But getting website users to tell you WHY they’re doing it is one of the best ways to gather useful optimisation ideas. Until recently, professional user testing was beyond the reach of most SMEs at $250+ per user. Now, thanks to a new web-based service, you can buy user tests from only $29 per person! We’ll look at this in more detail in Phase 3.
Phase 4: Total integration:
While each of the previous three phases have a part to play, they become exponentially more effective when used in concert. Give this process the time it deserves and it will reward you with increased sales and reduced marketing costs.

Tomorrow we’ll take a closer look at Phase 1 – Internal orientation.

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10 Comments »

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Actually this was something I was really looking for. Waiting for your new posts

Comment by Samuel Lukes — May 14, 2009 #
Great introduction to website sales funnel. This will come in very handy with my online shop.

Comment by Business Gas Prices — May 19, 2009 #
Been a few weeks since I’ve visited this blog and all of the sudden you got like 5 posts of what seems to be really great content. I’ll be reading these over the next few days, seems like a great topic.

Comment by Minneapolis SEO — May 22, 2009 #
Clicktale is another great tool.. its form analytics is awsome..

Comment by Sandeep Bali — June 9, 2009 #
I O U T your four phases have proved very useful to me. I am eagerly waiting for you to update this information.

Comment by smith — June 29, 2009 #
Objective measurement is what all companies don’t do. In fact the whole process starts from the user, niche, UI, accessibility tests, etc. Thanks for nice ideas!

Comment by custom software development company — July 27, 2009 #
It’s true. As a website owner, you must consider the opinions, ideas and preferences of your potential clients or prospective customers. It’s very unpleasing for visitors if they don’t know where to find what they need.

Comment by Gary — July 30, 2009 #
Just stumbled across these blog posts now, and look forward to reading them. Like I tell clients of mine: Test and Measure, and continuously improve your site.

Comment by Stephen Hamilton — September 14, 2009 #
Logaholic Web Analytics has excellent funnel and A/B split testing tools at the fraction of the cost of other web analytics vendors. The software is available for just $67 one-time fee, no monthly charges.

Comment by Silvia — October 6, 2009 #
Aaaaah… Google Analytics and GWO are *free*

Comment by Will Swayne — October 7, 2009 #