EPISODE 118

Let’s get (and Keep) Your Funnel Converting [Funnel Series]

get-your-funnel-converting

Get Your Funnel Converting

The time has come for our last episode in the Funnel Series! So far in the series, we’ve discussed what a funnel is, choosing the right product for your funnel, simple steps for conversion, writing sales emails, and launching your funnel. Now it’s time to deep dive into keeping your funnel converting over time!

Even with an evergreen funnel, launching is only the beginning. What happens when sales aren’t flowing as expected? Or what if sales suddenly drop off? These are all common challenges that all entrepreneurs face. So, let’s talk about how to fine-tune your funnel for long term success.

I’m sharing my best advice from how to track key metrics like conversion rates and email open rates to making strategic adjustments and knowing when to refresh your funnel. By maintaining a proactive approach, you can prevent small issues from escalating and keep your funnel converting!

02:25 Key metrics to keep an eye on once your sales funnel is live (and how to track them!)

04:08 How to use your data to keep your sales funnel converting

05:44  What to do if your sales pages isn’t converting and/or your emails aren’t being opened

08:14 – Tips for noticing when it’s time to refresh parts of your funnel

09:39 – My recommendation for how often to check in and update your funnel

Kristen Doyle 0:00
So you’ve launched your evergreen funnel, and the sales should be rolling in by now, right? But as we all know, launching is not the end. What happens when things aren’t quite clicking the way that you expected? Maybe your emails aren’t getting open, or people are dropping off of your funnel before they even hit your sales page. Or maybe you had your funnel dialed in and rolling along perfectly, but all of a sudden sales dropped off.

Kristen Doyle 0:32
Don’t panic. It is all completely normal, and it is something that happens to every funnel. See, funnels are not a set it and forget it kind of deal, even when they’re running on evergreen. The secret to keeping your funnel successful is in fine tuning and tweaking it over time, and that is what we are talking about today.

Kristen Doyle 0:53
I’m going to show you how to keep an eye on what’s working and what’s not, and how to make smart adjustments to keep your funnel converting for the long haul.

Kristen Doyle 1:04
Are you a digital product or course, creator, selling on platforms like teachers, pay teachers, Etsy or your own website?Ready to grow your business, but not into the kind of constant hustle that leads straight to burnout? Then you’re in the right place. Welcome to The Savvy Seller.

Kristen Doyle 1:22
I’m Kristen Doyle, and I’m here to give you no fluff, tools and strategies that move the needle for your business without burning you out in the process. Things like SEO, no stress marketing, email list building, automations and so much more. Let’s get started ya’ll.

Kristen Doyle 1:45
Once your funnel is live, you do need to keep an eye on how it’s performing, but the good news is that, because it’s evergreen, you don’t need to constantly watch your data like a hawk. I would recommend checking the data weekly for a while when you first launch, and then shifting to monthly once you feel like you have things kind of dialed in.

Kristen Doyle 2:04
And then when you notice an issue and you start tweaking things, you’ll want to go back to more frequent checks for a little while, and then drift back into those monthly checks once things have settled. This way, you can track your performance without a whole lot of manual effort on your part without it taking up too much of your time.

Kristen Doyle 2:25
Let’s talk about those key metrics that you want to keep an eye on. First up is your conversion rate. And you’re going to want to look at two different conversion rates. Conversion Rate tells you the percentage of people who see your sales page or your landing page for the freebie, who are actually taking the action that you want, like signing up for the freebie or purchasing your product.

Kristen Doyle 2:49
So you want to take a look at the conversion rate on your freebie opt in form, but also on your sales page. You’ll also want to look at open rates on your emails to see if people are engaging with your content. And of course, the click rate on those emails where you are encouraging them to click a link to make sure they’re taking that action.

Kristen Doyle 3:10
And then finally, pay attention to where people are dropping off in your funnel. Are they making it all the way through, or are you losing them somewhere along the way? Maybe that’s through unsubscribing partway through your sales sequence, or they stay subscribed, but they just stop opening emails.

Kristen Doyle 3:28
You want to take a look at that data to see where in your funnel you might need to make some adjustments. You can track this data with tools like Google Analytics for the page views and then also right inside your email service provider, like ConvertKit for those opt in rates. And, of course, your email open and click rates.

Kristen Doyle 3:49
And I like to keep track of things just on a simple Google Sheet with formulas that are set up to do those calculations for you, so that you can plug in how many page views and how many purchases. And it will go ahead and calculate conversion rates and things like that, so you’re not having to grab a calculator or open up your app on your phone to do those calculations yourself.

Kristen Doyle 4:08
Now, once you have that data rolling in and you’re tracking it and looking at it over time, then let’s talk about how to actually use that data to make your funnel work better. One of the best things about having an evergreen funnel is that you can make little tweaks over time without having to change it all right before a big launch, and then kind of gamble honestly on the fact that those changes worked, because your launch window is so short.

Kristen Doyle 4:33
When you have this evergreen funnel, you can make a change, watch it for a few weeks. Make another change, watch it again for a few weeks. And then once you get it all dialed in, you can kind of set it and forget it for a while and just keep checking up on that data over time.

Kristen Doyle 4:47
Start by focusing on those data points that aren’t performing as well as you would like. And if there are multiple numbers that aren’t quite where you want them, don’t feel like you need to fix it all. Pick one thing to focus on at a time. For example, if your sales page conversion rate is lower than you would like it to be, start there, because the entire point of the emails you’re sending out or the social media post that you’re using, or even your freebie opt in, is to get people eventually over to that sales page.

Kristen Doyle 5:21
And it doesn’t matter how many people you send to the sales page if it doesn’t convert them into purchasing. So I always recommend you start with optimizing your sales page and your checkout process first, and then once that is working really well, then you move on to those marketing materials and other things that you’re using to get people onto the sales page, but make sure that sales page is converting first.

Kristen Doyle 5:44
If your sales page is not converting, you might try things like adjusting your headlines or making your calls to action more clear in the language that you’re using, or maybe just more obvious and bold on the page. If you have a really muted, kind of calm color for those call to action buttons, maybe you need to change it to the brightest, boldest color in your color palette.

Kristen Doyle 6:07
Maybe you need to add better photos of your product in action, or adjust how long or short the copy on your sales page is. All of those things really are an experiment in finding out what’s going to work for this offer for this audience. If you really want to dig deeper into what’s happening on your sales page, you can use the tool like hot jar, and I’ll put a link in the show notes to record how people are interacting with the page.

Kristen Doyle 6:34
It takes screen recordings, obviously, with any personal information blurred out, but it will take screen recording, so you can actually see people as they are navigating through your page, and see even where their mouse is moving. So you can watch those recordings to see where they stopped to read more, which sections they scrolled past really fast they were skipping or skimming, or even where they decided they were done and they were going to click away from your page.

Kristen Doyle 6:59
You can also see any links that they click, and all of those things as well. Once you get your sales page dialed in, you’ll want to work on refining your messaging and all of those marketing materials to get people to the sales page. Now, if your emails are not getting opened, then you want to experiment with some more compelling subject lines. If you have really long subject lines, now try really short ones. If you always have an emoji in your subject line, try taking it out. Or if the opposite is true, try putting one in.

Kristen Doyle 7:31
If you notice people are dropping off at a particular point in your funnel, it could mean the messaging there is not resonating. So go back and look at your emails or your sales copy. Are you addressing your audience’s main concerns and problems? Are you showing off the value of your product clearly enough?

Kristen Doyle 7:50
Sometimes, just tweaking a few lines of copy can make all the difference in getting people to really move forward in their funnel. And of course, even though your funnel is on evergreen, like we’ve been saying, it is not something you can just set and forget forever. Over time, even things like the offer itself or your audience, maybe the market might shift.

Kristen Doyle 8:14
So let’s talk about how to give your funnel a refresh when bigger things have happened outside of just those data points. You will notice it’s time to refresh bigger parts of the funnel when you start seeing a noticeable drop in conversions, or if your funnel starts feeling a little outdated. A good gut check moment for me is always when I’m feeling a little hesitation, a little resistance to sharing the links to my funnel, because I know there are things I need to fix.

Kristen Doyle 8:42
Maybe you’ve changed the actual offer based on feedback that you’ve gotten from some of your early customers, or maybe your branding has evolved since the funnel was first created. The good news is you don’t have to tear it all down and start from scratch. Sometimes all it takes is a little refreshing of what you currently have.

Kristen Doyle 9:00
Add new testimonials to your sales page, update your product images with better quality ones or ones that reflect the current product or adjust the tone of your messaging. Little updates like that can keep your funnel feeling fresh without needing to totally overhaul it.

Kristen Doyle 9:17
And if your branding has changed. I know a lot of times we get sucked down a rabbit hole of changing everything everywhere, but most of the time, you can just change the fonts and colors on your sales page and not have to redo the entire thing to match your new branding. The last thing you want to do is burn down something that was already working well just because you changed your branding.

Kristen Doyle 9:39
Now to make sure your funnel stays on track. In addition to checking your data on a monthly basis, I recommend scheduling some of these deeper check ins maybe once a quarter or so to review your funnel and make any updates that you need.

Kristen Doyle 9:52
During these deeper check ins, you’ll take some time to look at the data that we’ve talked about earlier, but also ask yourself questions like, are there new objections or new pain points I’m hearing from my audience that need to be addressed? Has my offer evolved since I first launched this funnel? What kind of questions am I getting from people who think they might want to buy but they’re not sure, and can I address those right on the sales page or in some emails?

Kristen Doyle 10:21
By staying on top of things, you really can make those small adjustments before they turn into a bigger problem. Just make sure you’re being proactive to keep your funnel working well and to make sure it stays aligned with your audience and your business over time as you evolve and change too.

Kristen Doyle 10:38
Alright, so once your evergreen funnel is live, remember that monitoring it on a regular basis and making little adjustments are the keys to keeping it performing well over time. You don’t need to rebuild the whole thing. Just keep an eye on the data and make small improvements as you go.

Kristen Doyle 10:55
If you’re feeling like your funnel is getting a little stale, give it a quick refresh. Add a new testimonial, update your messaging, change up your sales page design, and remember to schedule those quarterly check ins to look at those deeper factors and see what else you might need to adjust on your funnel.

Kristen Doyle 11:14
If you found this series helpful, share it with a friend who’s working on their funnel too, and make sure that you tune in for the next episode. I’ll talk to you then!

Ready to see growth in your business? You’re in the right place.

I’m here to give you no-fluff tools and strategies that will really make an impact on your sales. We’re talking SEO, improving product listings, leveraging your website, and more. 

About Your Host

Your host, Kristen Doyle, has a decade of experience selling on TpT and has made all the mistakes so that you don’t have to! As a web designer and the go-to SEO expert in the TpT world, she loves helping TpT sellers stand out in the crowd & grow their businesses with passive income strategies.

Tune in to hear Kristen cover all aspects of running a TpT business – from leveraging SEO, to improving product listings, to effective TpT seller strategies for your store and website.

Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale ends in
00
Days
00
Hours
00
Minutes
00
Seconds