How To Effectively Create And Track Your Conversion Paths?

Are you ready to learn how and why you should create conversion paths? If so, you're in the right place! Business leaders and marketers know it's important to get more customers, but unfortunately, this is easier said than done.

If you want to improve conversions and connect with more prospects, you need clear, functional conversion paths on your website. Once you can understand where and why customers enter and exit your funnel, you can better identify opportunities to boost sales and engagement while building rapport with potential customers.

Beyond creating conversion paths, you also need to know how to track your results so you can figure out what's working for your company and where things can improve. My goal is to help you start this process and get the most value from your efforts. Below is a table of contents so you can see what's in store. 

1. What are conversion paths?

Before we get into specific tips, let's define the term conversion path and show you how planning for one can help you succeed. 

A conversion path is the journey a customer takes through your marketing and sales funnel. It encompasses all stages, from awareness to becoming a loyal, paying customer. Understanding the paths people take to discover your brand and eventually buy your product or service is vital for boosting revenue and growing your business.

Marketers are tasked with mapping out the path they want customers to take and building opportunities to convert them into leads or customers along the way. Steps could include:

• Adding call-to-action (CTA) buttons on your website and in email campaigns.
• Building engaging landing pages where customers can do things like sign up for a free trial or download a lead magnet.
• Thanking a new subscriber and helping guide them toward the next goal, in most cases, will include buying a product.

Here’s a good example of a thank you email from Lego so you can see what I mean:

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Understanding conversion paths takes work, but with the right tools and testing in place, you'll gain valuable insights into your customers' journeys and how to turn more of your traffic into conversions. Keep optimizing, and your business growth will follow!

2. What are the benefits of building conversion paths?

You may be asking, what exactly are the benefits of having well-planned and maintained conversion paths? I’m glad you asked. Building conversion paths allows you to strategically guide your audience to take desired actions.

Understanding conversion paths helps you optimize your marketing efforts and ultimately drives more sales, which is vital regardless of your industry. Here are a few specific benefits that come with building well-thought-out conversion paths:

Better understanding of your customer's journey

Conversion paths show you the exact route customers take from their first interaction with your brand to their decision to become a customer. Mapping this journey helps you identify key points where customers may drop off so you can make improvements for future visitors.

You'll gain insight into what's working and not working on your website or in your marketing campaigns, which you should know if you want to improve over time.

Reach your intended audience

With clearly defined conversion paths, there's a better chance your content and offers reach the right people at the right time. Since 80% of people prefer personalized, relevant experiences, it's easy to see how this can work to your advantage.

When your messages are targeted and relatable, subscribers and existing customers are more likely to take action. 

Continuous optimization

The data gathered from tracking your conversion paths allows for ongoing testing and optimization. It's easy to experiment with different content, offers, and ideas to determine what works best for customers. But if you're not tracking your progress, this could make things difficult.

Once you know what to look for, you can make changes and analyze the impact on your eCommerce metrics, like click-through rates, time on site, and purchases, which allows you to improve over time. The rest is a business that runs more efficiently.

Building and monitoring your conversion paths takes time, patience, and resources. However, the payoff of increased sales and a better customer experience is well worth the effort.

3. 5 Examples of conversion paths

Now, let's take a look at 5 practical examples of conversion paths so you can see how they work for yourself. Most of these examples involve turning a subscriber into a customer since that is often the end point of many conversion paths.

Email Newsletter to Website Visit

If a customer signs up for your email newsletter, you can use this opportunity to drive them back to your site by sending helpful content and resources. If you encourage them to check out a post that resonates with their needs or interests, there's a good chance they will visit your new blog post or landing page and could take action. 

Thank You Message to Customer

"Thank you" is a powerful phrase that can have a noticeable impact on customer engagement. Sending your new email subscribers a thank you message, especially if you throw in a special discount, can prompt them to visit your site and make a purchase. This is a great conversion path for people who are already on the verge of buying. 

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Content Download to Online Course

Let's say you ask visitors to download an eBook or infographic when they visit your site. Once you send their content, you could include a special offer to continue learning through an online course provided by you or a partner. Interested readers click the link and register for the course, which counts as a conversion.

Abandoned Shopping Cart to Purchase

There will be times when shoppers add items to their cart only to leave without checking out. In this case, you could create a conversion funnel designed to recover these users. In most cases, this will involve email marketing. Sending three emails within a week of a customer leaving a cart behind can help you recover 69% of these sales, which is a big deal!

Here's a great cart abandonment email so you can see what they look like:

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Webinar Registration to Customer

If you plan on hosting a webinar or product demonstration, you can easily develop a funnel that helps you turn attendees into customers. For example, you could start by going over the benefits of investing in your product while you're showing off different features. 

After the event, send a follow-up email that asks attendees if they're interested in buying from your site. You can even include an exclusive discount to improve the odds that you'll win them over.

4. Best practices for creating conversion paths

Now that you know what conversion paths are and have seen some practical examples, let's talk about a few best practices marketers and business leaders like you should keep in mind during this process.

Keep paths simple

Don't overwhelm visitors with too many options or complicated funnels. I assure you that doing this will cause them to leave without taking action. I've found that simple paths with a clear sequence of steps are most effective. It's also important to focus on one conversion goal at a time.

Provide value and build trust

Each step in the path should provide value to visitors and build trust with your business. At the end of the day, people want to know what interacting with your business will do for them. It's up to you to show them how your brand is worth their time and money. Useful content, helpful tools or resources, and a professional design will help you show users that you're interested in delivering the best experience possible.

Meanwhile, you can build credibility by highlighting customer reviews, trust seals, and other forms of social proof. 

Include compelling Calls-To-Action (CTAs)

If you want to create effective conversion paths, well-placed CTAs are a must. These small but powerful buttons move visitors to the next step in the path. It's a good idea to make CTAs highly visible and action-oriented. Using energetic and benefit-focused language will motivate readers. 

For example, if you want people to sign up for your webinar, your CTA should read "Save my seat now!" instead of "Click here."

Landing pages are key

Dedicated landing pages are one of the best tools you have for building powerful paths. Think of it this way: each page is another opportunity to get visitors to complete a specific step or action. 

When you're designing a landing page, it's crucial to explain to readers how they will benefit from taking action. So, instead of telling users the different features included in your lead generation software, explain how they can use these features to grow their lead list. 

Put yourself in your customer's shoes and use the landing page to quell any concerns and make them feel confident in their decision to engage with your business. 

Thank you pages reinforce and encourage

Thank you pages and emails show people that you appreciate them and give you an opportunity to reinforce the benefits of their actions. So, if someone decides to subscribe to your email list, send them a quick message thanking them for joining, along with links to popular products and content so they can take the next step.

5. Tips for tracking and analyzing conversion path data

Once you've set up your conversion paths, it's time to start tracking how people move through them. Analyzing this data will show you what's working, what needs improvement, and how you're converting most of your customers. 

Here are a few specific tips that I believe will help you get the most value from tracking your conversion paths:

Use analytics tools

Set up analytics software like Google Analytics on your website to monitor how visitors navigate your website and conversion paths. This is the most important step in the process because it allows you to see which pages and CTAs get the most traffic, where people drop off, and which paths are most effective at converting readers into customers or subscribers. 

If you don't have an analytics tool, you are going to have a tough time adjusting your strategy and maximizing conversions, so don't skip this step! The right tools will let you look for trends and see how your conversion path designs are impacting key metrics like conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, and lifetime value.

Run A/B tests

A/B testing, often called split testing, is a great way to get more value from your data. Essentially, split testing involves creating slightly different versions of pages, CTAs, images, copy, etc., to see which ones resonate most with your audience. 

For example, you can test two different call-to-action buttons on your landing pages. Half of your audience will see one button, while the other half will see the test button. The version that receives more clicks and conversions is the winner! This strategy is important because even the smallest changes can lead to big improvements.

Review conversion path reports

Most modern analytics tools and automation software offer reports for users that provide an overview of how contacts are moving through your conversion paths. You should set this up and look for the paths that are generating the most conversions. Try to find opportunities to improve based on what you learn. 

One specific thing to look for is drop-off points. If you see a majority of users leaving the funnel on your checkout page, for example, it's time to start thinking about how you can optimize it to improve retention and sales. 

Don't forget about mobile

It's estimated that over 68% of the world's population owns a mobile device. If your funnels are not properly optimized for smartphones, you're going to miss out on countless engagement and sales opportunities. 

Your best bet is to review how contacts interact with your pages and CTAs on mobile compared to desktop. Look for any issues with layout, load time, or readability that could be turning mobile visitors away and make necessary changes.

\If you see a significant difference in engagement between mobile and desktop users, you may need to redesign your site to make it more responsive to mobile visitors.

Tracking your conversion paths and continuously optimizing based on the data is key to boosting conversions and achieving your business goals. Put in the effort to truly understand your audience and how they prefer to interact with your business. 

Conclusion

There you have it! At this point, you know what conversion paths are and how you can start building them for your business. You also know a few best practices for building and tracking your paths once you get started. 

By planning and optimizing your conversion paths over time, you can walk with customers so they get the best experience possible every time they engage with your brand. 

There's no question that this process takes hard work and persistence, but the benefits are well worth it. Take the next step today and start turning more website visitors into subscribers and subscribers into loyal customers.