How to improve business results
Wednesday, May 4, 2011 at 6:30PM 
Photo by Carlos Lemes Flickr CC
The purpose of a business is to convert raw materials in such a way that clients are willing to pay for the transformation. But, that is not enough - you have to find the potential clients, guide them to your business, help them chose, pay and receive what you offer. This guidance of your clients is sometimes called the marketing funnel.
Find the weakest link in the marketing funnel
The marketing funnel can be seen as a chain of events, and every chain has its weakest link. Every business has its own funnel, this is how "Conversion Rate Experts" describe a generic example:
* Your advertising
* Your sales force
* Your homepage
* Your product pages
* Your checkout pages
* Your order confirmation page
* Your call center staff
* How the package is sent out
Herd as many along as possible
Between every step in the marketing funnel you will lose a number of people, or money if you want. It's just as in the supermarket, you look at much more products than you put into the basket. Sometimes you will even take things out of the basket on your way to the check-out line. When you do put things back, it is a loss in the grocer's marketing funnel.
Double your business
Its a dramatic improvement if you can manage to have only 8 out of 10 leave empty-handed if your normal rate is 9 - actually your business will double.
The secret
The secret is to find the step where you have the highest losses. That step is the weakest link and the only one you are interested in improving. To strengthen a link, other than the weakest, will not make the chain stronger.
So, summing up, by knowing your marketing funnel's weakest link you can get the best return on the investment of money and effort. Over to you, does this sound reasonable?
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Reader Comments (3)
nice post full of great info thanks KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK
Great work, thank you. That makes perfect sense.
I'm very happy if it makes sense to you and if it feels like common sense - then I know that I've been able to communicate! Thanks