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Sales Funnel Optimisation Phase 4: Total Integration

May 18, 2009 on 9:00 am | In Conversion Optimisation, Google Analytics, Lead Generation, Web Analytics | 50 Comments

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This is the final instalment of a five-part series on Sales Funnel Optimisation. [See the introduction here].

Phase 4: Total Integration

After you’ve evolved from internal orientation to objective measurement through to user involvement, you’re ready to enter the phase that can potentially unlock the most rewards: total integration.

This is where the first three phases feed into each other in a never-ending improvement process:

developing and prioritising strategies internally
measuring your results objectively
capuring insights from users to acceleratete the process

A diagram of phase 1, 2 and 3 of the evolution of sales funnel optimisation

These aren’t “steps” so much as never-ending improvement loop.

So the ideal website development and optimisation process goes something like this:

Conduct research of your market, competitors and opportunities.
Develop your site based on your “best guess” (plus smarts and experience) as to what is most likely to work
Measure everything so you can track what’s working and what’s not
Try different approaches and if they work, keep them. If they don’t, revert back to the control.
Glean insights from users to add new ideas to the mix. Selectively test, measure and optimise.
Rinse and repeat!

With most optimisation processes, it is normal to reach a stage of diminishing returns, once the most obvious improvements have been made.

But in the case of online sales funnel optimisation, the field is developing so quickly that there are always new opportunities to test new tools and strategies.

Even if your online sales process is relatively “mature”, it’s still possible to generate ongoing improvements of 10 or 20 percent per month using this process.

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Nice piece of explanation. Good work. Measuring our every action will always help us gauge where we go right and wrong.

Comment by Brendon — May 20, 2009 #
Hi Will,

Thank you for this interesting information. We’ve started to apply your tips and advise on the sales process of some of our websites, it would be really nice to see if we can reach just a 5 or 10 percent increase using this process.

Comment by vlccar — May 23, 2009 #
Thank you for this interesting information. We’ve started to apply your tips and advise on the sales process of some of our websites, it would be really nice to see if we can reach just a 5 or 10 percent increase using this process.

Comment by flash design — May 25, 2009 #
itll be nice to know if this has worked for anyone?

Comment by canvaspicture — June 1, 2009 #
on the sales process of some of our websites, it would be really nice to see if we can reach just a 5 or 10 percent increase using this process!

Comment by Add URL Directory — June 2, 2009 #
This is great info, I’m subscribing! If you had advertisements I would even click them for you haha!

Comment by gnarly — June 5, 2009 #
Good work, nice post. The way you have presented your post in diagrams and all is simply great.

Comment by acai berry side effects — June 10, 2009 #
Researching your competition is one of the most effective practices for defining a search marketing campaign. Competitive analysis is the crucial first step in making sure you understand how to target demographics within your niche effectively.

Comment by Miami SEO — June 12, 2009 #
@will

i have been trying ur tips lately. will let you know the result.

Comment by Webmaster tips — June 12, 2009 #
Excellent advice. I can tell by experience that these methods make more than just 5-10% impact on lead flow. I have personally helped my clients achieve more than 40% increase in lead flow using these methods. Keep it up Will!

Comment by SEO Melbourne — June 17, 2009 #
Hey nice way of explanation i liked them they are so useful for any kind of online business to increase the sales speed!& those steps are also fantastic!

Comment by Spray Tan Solution — June 17, 2009 #
Thank you for writing this! It’s a very comprehensive article and I feel like I’ve actually learned something from reading it. It’s good, valuable content like this that makes you stand apart from, oh, about 99% of the sites I’ve seen on this subject (at least in my opinion! ). I’ll definitely be reading more of your work.

Comment by AskTheCoders — June 17, 2009 #
Excellent point, constant testing is probably the most important aspect of any sales funnel optimization, especially online. Google Analytics is free and includes functionality to review your online goal funnel. The best results I have had stem from simply using this tool and making subtle changes, then reviewing the effect on the funnel.

Comment by Bulk Email Marketing — June 18, 2009 #
I liked your sales funnel optimization program steps !all the phases are so much descriptive that it is very easy for us to understand!thanks for it & we hope that this will help to others also!

Comment by cell phone reviews — June 18, 2009 #
Great article, I especially like your idea of trying different strategies to see what works best. I think this is a great idea bc you don’t know what will work until you try it and if it doesn’t just go back to what works best.

Comment by Consumer Mailing Lists — June 20, 2009 #
Hey, I have been wondering about this issue for some times.
Love this: “never-ending improvement loops”

Thanks for sharing. It’s very kind of you.

Comment by 22 lcd — June 21, 2009 #
@AskTheCoders — thanks for your kind words. I hope to live up to your expectations!!

Comment by Will — June 23, 2009 #
Great post. I’m only just now starting to dive into the world of online marketing and sales. Trying to absorb as much information as possible to start off on the right foot. All of what you said here makes perfect sense. Switching from design to marketing is a big step but articles like this are making the transition easier!

Thank you, Ryan v

Comment by Ryan v. — June 26, 2009 #
User involvement is needed more these days. We need to have feedback forms,voting,comments section in our website to really comprehend what our users want from website, especially the online business websites.

Comment by Pip — June 28, 2009 #
Research and development is very much important.. if you know what the market is going through and how important is to change things and make new things happen.

Comment by Appesat — July 3, 2009 #
The best way to learn is by learning from mistakes and i am sure this the best way from which anyone can learn.Market research for me is the most important thing of all, as it helps in minimizing risks.

Comment by Harry S — July 6, 2009 #
I have read all the related post as well and i must say its an eye opener, it gives you so much detail about your sales strategy, specially for small enterprise like us. Am pretty impressed by your sales funnel optimization technique. I think m gonna apple some of these in my own business as well.

Comment by Amy Rich — July 8, 2009 #
This post summarizes almost the essential things needed for sales success, also don’t forget to have a trial and error phase as this might give you further details of improvement. Kudos to this post.

Comment by Boracay Hotels — July 9, 2009 #
Accurate measurement for website’s or a campaign’s success is very important for further improvement. I appreciate how you have been frank about using your ‘best guess’ for first round of development, most experts hesitate to use this and just use some jargon to confuse others.

As Pip said, feedback forms, comment forums etc. are really important, the worst thing that can happen to a website or business is that clients or prospective clients don’t like something and never tell you about it, they just walk away to a different business.

Comment by Sachin Gupta — July 11, 2009 #
Heyaaaa this is somewhat like System analysis and design, lol, in our engineering field we do same thing, suppose we want to proceed for any new software to developed we make analysis of all those three phases that u’ve mentioned there, this part is called Three Tier application (Model,View,Controller – MVC Structure).lol, but i wasen’t aware that same you apply here in business, thankyou buddy for sharing it, i will surely apply this to my web business

Thanks once again

Comment by Alex Nash — July 12, 2009 #
Marketing involves great commitment and it needs to be done with a cool frame of mind. If you do it slowly and in accordance to the market, then i am sure that it will of great help to you.

Comment by Jim — July 12, 2009 #
It is good that you have explained total integration in an much better manner. Your posts are technically quite strong and i hope many get to learn more from it.

Comment by Hakan Selvi — July 14, 2009 #
I just stumbled onto your blog… great post. It is so vital to continue the process and improve your site. In online marketing you quickly learn that the website is ever evolving, and as soon as you stop molding your site, you lose.

Thanks again.

Comment by Business Advice — July 15, 2009 #
You post is quite awesome and it gives a good knowledge on how it works and helps for SEO purpose. Thanks for the post and i am sure many will learn from it.

Comment by Gadget Mike — July 16, 2009 #
read the entire series, learned a lot already… it truly is important that you continually make efforts to better your business… the three phases you mentioned does look promising.. the integration, the interplay between them and how it should help you and your business better is simply a great piece of advice… thanks! will check back for more..

Comment by Kirk — July 17, 2009 #
the business taste i.e. the total integration with the full details ,it is just like a necessary chapter to which everybody should understand before the opening of any online business!

Comment by markus — July 18, 2009 #
Great post. I’m only just now starting to dive into the world of online marketing and sales. Trying to absorb as much information as possible to start off on the right foot. All of what you said here makes perfect sense. Switching from design to marketing is a big step but articles like this are making the transition easier!

Comment by Multi-socket mains adaptor — July 21, 2009 #
The best way to learn is by learning from mistakes and i am sure this the best way from which anyone can learn.Market research for me is the most important thing of all, as it helps in minimizing risks.

Thanks and Regards

Comment by New electric socket — July 22, 2009 #
I love the visual display of the never-ending improvement loop concept. It is a great plan to work towards total integration.

Comment by Meredith — July 22, 2009 #
I do not know how many times I experiment and make changes on how to earn more money. I do not have lots of money to invest on “marketing tools”, good thing there’s always the free ones

Comment by max international — July 25, 2009 #
Nice visual presentation .Diagram and simple and anyone can understand easily.

Comment by UML EBooks — July 27, 2009 #
Very good information, I find myself in this perpetual loops of improvement, test and modification.

Comment by free iphone 3gs — July 28, 2009 #
No post by my favourite blogger will swayne for a long time

Comment by Anup Batra — July 31, 2009 #
Great post. Much to learn from people such as yourself. Seems harder than I thought to keep up and learn all the things. I find myself learning through mistakes.

Comment by Richard Mowry — August 8, 2009 #
Much appreciated having diagrams. Thanks for the article!

Comment by Electronics Forum — August 8, 2009 #
Research is one of the most important keys to be successful in any marketing campaign. Actually, it is also the most difficult step in determining your target market based on your niche.

Comment by Gilbert — August 8, 2009 #
Valuable and informative posts Will, I look forward to further blog posts.

Comment by Tejas Oza — August 9, 2009 #
This article has a ton of great content and the diagrams make it very understandable. keep up the good work!

Comment by Zartwork — August 12, 2009 #
Hi Will,

Thank you for this interesting information. We’ve started to apply your tips and advise on the sales process of some of our websites.

Thanks, Aditya

Comment by Aditya — August 13, 2009 #
Finally found what i was looking for! Love how you cover the subject and make the information accesible. Love the diagram too. thanks

Comment by corporate video — August 18, 2009 #
Excellent diagram, it helps explain the article so well. but will this methodology always work?

Comment by J Surrey — August 20, 2009 #
You have depicted a useful diagram for Total Integration. Phases are in cycled one after the other. every phase completes its requirements and then the other phase starts. I think it would be a useful diagram to make strategy of any website. Thanks for sharing this informative article.

Comment by X4 Labs Extender — August 26, 2009 #
Great article on market research. It’s really the make or break of a successful campaign.

Comment by Daniel — August 27, 2009 #
Great post. Nice visual presentation so that everybody can understand easily and clearly…I look forward like this type of blog posts.

Comment by Auctions — September 3, 2009 #
Finally managed to read all the parts to this series, and I must say it’s very informative and well worth the read… thank you muchly!

Comment by Adam — September 17, 2009 #