New businesses often start with a simple dream. You have a product (or service) that solves a problem or meets the needs of a certain audience. Business owners then build an e-commerce website to sell the product. This is where the dream becomes a real business. This is where the work begins.

You take steps to drive awareness of your product, kindle interest, help customers decide to buy it, and inform them about additional purchase opportunities. The whole process is called a sales funnel. When applied effectively to your WordPress site, it can deliver increased revenue.

This blog post provides practical tips for building a successful WordPress sales funnel that increases conversions and sales.

Understanding the Stages of a Sales Funnel in WordPress

While definitions vary, the WordPress sales funnel maps out four stages of the customer journey:

1. Awareness (top funnel)
   Make customers aware of your offering. Content ideas include blog posts, social media, SEO content like “how-to” guides or information articles. On your WordPress site, awareness can be driven through engaging blogs, social sharing buttons, and clear navigation.
2. Interest/Consideration (middle funnel)
   Increase customer interest in your offering. Content ideas include lead magnets like e-books and checklists, webinars, and product comparisons. On your WordPress site, interest can be stoked through opt-in forms, landing pages for your lead magnets, and product pages with detailed descriptions.
3. Decision/Conversion (bottom funnel)
   Help your customers with their purchase decision. Content ideas that help with decision-making include organized product pages, customer testimonials, case studies, and special offers. With your WordPress site, customers can be nudged to convert thanks to a user-friendly WooCommerce setup, clear calls-to-action (CTAs), and secure, simple checkout processes.
4. Retention/Advocacy (post funnel)
   After your customers purchase your offering, steer them toward additional or ongoing purchases. Content ideas for post-conversion include follow-up emails, loyalty programs, and customer support. On your WordPress site, you can support your retention efforts with customer resource management (CRM) integration and personalized post-purchase communications.

Helpful Tips for Building Your WordPress Sales Funnel

With a clear understanding of the WordPress sales funnel, you are ready to start taking steps to optimize your site and improve your conversions.

Optimize Your Website’s User Experience (UX)

Make your website an awesome experience for visitors. It should be mobile-responsive and provide a good UX on both desktops and mobile devices. 

Set up navigation on the site so it is easy and intuitive for visitors. And make adjustments to improve page loading speeds by using lightweight themes, optimizing images, and applying caching plugins.

Craft Compelling Landing Pages

Your landing pages should have clear headlines, benefits-focused copy, strong and clear CTAs, and minimal distractions. To assist with your landing page builds, use page builders such as Elementor or Beaver Builder. These plugins make it easy to quickly design and publish visitor-friendly WordPress pages.

Leverage Lead Magnets and Opt-In Forms

In order to get visitor email addresses you need to dangle some valuable freebies in front of them. Integrate your opt-in forms with an email marketing service like MailChimp or ConvertKit.

This can be done through WordPress plugins like OptinMonster or WPForms. They make it easy to gather visitor contact information and funnel it to your email marketing tool.

Implement Effective Calls-to-Action

Calls-to-action need to be clear, concise, and actionable. CTA placement on the page should be strategic, where a visitor won’t miss it. The best approach on your WordPress site is to use buttons, pop-ups, and in-content CTAs to help drive your visitors to the next step in your sales funnel.

Streamline Your Checkout Process

Make it as easy as possible for visitors to pay you by optimizing your WooCommerce settings. Simplify your checkout with multiple payment options. Also build visitor trust by highlighting security badges on your checkout page.

WordPress plugins including WooCommerce Direct Checkout and One Page Checkout and Layouts allow you to create one-page checkouts.

Utilize Email Marketing for Nurturing and Follow-up

Email marketing tools provide a great way to contact customers and grow a relationship with them. You can set up automated sequences that will shoot out an email to a customer following certain customer actions.

This includes abandoned cart recovery, sending a follow-up email to customers that complete their purchases. Email marketing kits also allow you to segment customers and deliver different email messaging that caters to different groups. They are easily integrated into your WordPress site and processes.

Track and Analyze Your Funnel Performance

Take advantage of helpful tools like Google Analytics to gain insights into customer behavior. Also conduct A/B testing using plugins like Nelio A/B Testing and Personalizely to continue optimizing your WordPress site wherever you can.

WordPress heatmap plugins like Aurora Heatmap can be used to see how visitors are interacting with your website.

Trust is a key ingredient to converting sales. You need your visitors’ trust. This can be gained through posting customer testimonials and reviews in prominent locations on your WordPress site. A plugin like WP Testimonials can assist with this.

Or you can persuade customers to post them on social platforms like Yelp or Angi. Additionally, you can add trust badges like an SSL certification, which highlights your use of security tools to protect customers and their transactions.

Harness Your WordPress Sales Funnel

Continue to harness your WordPress site to build your dream business. The sales funnel is the strategy to make this happen.

By delivering a smooth UX, serving up compelling content pages with clear CTAs, connecting visitors to opt-in forms to continue nurturing your leads, and analyzing your funnel performance, you will put the wheels in motion for increasing your conversions and driving more revenue.

Pressable Support for Your Sales Funnel

Pressable makes it easy for you to adopt a sales funnel approach to your WordPress site. We provide a hosting foundation that delivers unmatched speed, security, and reliability. Your site’s page loads are optimized to deliver an efficient and reliable experience to your visitors. We give you the technical confidence you need to focus your attention on integrating useful plugins to optimize your UX and connect email marketing kits.

Pressable—part of the Automattic family that also includes WordPress.com, WordPress VIP, and WooCommerce—offers experts with the skills and knowledge to effectively manage your WordPress site. If you’re thinking about switching to managed WordPress hosting, schedule a demo to see how Pressable can support your continued optimization and growth.