About Raj C

This author has not yet filled in any details.
So far Raj C has created 38 blog entries.

3 Examples of Helpful A/B Tests and Why They Work

A/B testing is a powerful tool for B2B marketers and considered a staple of the toolbox for improving a campaign. Marketing teams in every industry with every type of product and service can use A/B testing to figure out which option in a campaign works. 

The fact that you must conduct A/B testing in a specific method to attain success doesn’t get discussed as regularly. A/B testing done the wrong way can cause a lot of wasted time and effort for your team. Even if you generate sufficient data from the tests, it won’t be as effective as with proper methodology.

To help you better handle your A/B testing, we provide three examples of some of the most crucial A/B tests you can perform in many different contexts. Remember: the advice here is general, so you’ll need to think about how to apply it to your specific funnel.

Landing Pages With a High Bounce Rate

Every experienced marketer knows the dreadful, pit-of-your-stomach feeling you get when you spend lots of time and resources building up what you think is a great landing page for your funnel, only to find that it flops with very little engagement and conversions. 

You likely have a few landing pages already in mind that need to be tweaked and improved. If not, an excellent way to get started with this type of A/B test is to explore your analytics platform to identify which pages need the most improvement.

Here are a few other tips for landing page testing:

  • Have a predetermined length in mind. You don’t want to have one A/B test running for a week, another for a month, and another for just a few days – this distorts your data and dilutes the quality of the tests’ results.
  • Don’t make traffic splits equal. You should start by giving the existing landing page a larger share of site traffic, then slowly increase it. Do this to account for the potential negatives of incorporating any new idea onto a page.
      
  • Consider predictive traffic. In this blog, we’ve previously explored some of the relative benefits and drawbacks of using A/B tests compared to predictive bandits, which use machine learning models to determine the optimal version of your site to deliver to users. The most significant benefit of this approach is that it avoids the “one-size-fits-all” problem with A/B testing.

Important Form Page for your Funnel

You can apply form pages in several different ways within your funnel, for everything from a critical conversion step to a basic logistics element like booking a video call. With this in mind, it’s important to think carefully about which form you decide to A/B test.

A seemingly-minor form page setup improperly can have just as much of a negative impact as a final form directly tied to conversions. Click To Tweet

That doesn’t mean, however, that you should only test critical funnels directly linked to the main conversions you’re tracking. A seemingly-minor form page setup improperly can have just as much of a negative impact as a final form directly tied to conversions.

For example, imagine a well-designed form with dynamic fields, progress indicators, and other staples that should convert properly. However, when a user reaches the last step or segment – or even the confirmation page – there’s an element that causes users to lose confidence and fail to complete the subsequent steps to get them down the funnel.

That’s why we recommend considering A/B tests for even the smallest elements when it comes to forms. Form field length, field titles, progress bars, button text – even the form’s primary and secondary colors can impact how people view your forms. 

It may not seem significant, but as is the case with many other types of A/B testing, a tiny change can significantly impact conversion rates.

Email Subject Lines

Almost every successful modern funnel will use some kind of email, especially for B2B marketers who need to provide their prospects with a significant amount of information along each step of their funnel.

Unlike some of the other elements discussed in this post, most people know the importance of email subject lines. They are frequently cited as determining whether people even open an email. According to Zippia, just under half of all email recipients will open an email based on the subject line alone. Similarly, about 7 in 10 email recipients will mark an email as spam based solely on the subject line.

Here are a few ways to A/B test email subject lines:

  • Experiment with length. Shorter is usually better here. Generally, it’s recommended that your email subjects be somewhere between 20 and 60 characters, but you should run some tests to find your own sweet spot.
  • Incorporate one or more emojis. Of course, it’s important to understand your audience and the email’s subject matter – with certain somber topics, it may not be smart to use emojis. On the other hand, an unexpected emoji can be a great way to stand out in someone’s inbox.
  • Sentence structure. Sometimes, a question is the most effective way to get a recipient’s attention. In other cases, using a short statement or fact is best. Remember that many marketers get in trouble by trying to make their subject lines too mysterious or clever. This mystery is often a direct route to the spam folder.

Regarding length and timing, the guidelines we mentioned apply here: start with a small percentage of your list receiving alternate subject lines. A 70/30 split is a great starting point; from there, you can slowly increase the number of subscribers who receive the alternate version.

Also, remember that you’ll need to get sufficient data to ensure that your test results have value. The specific amount of time it takes for your data to be significant varies depending on the size of your list, but you’ll generally want to give the test at least a week.

Final Thoughts on A/B testing  

Anyone who says A/B testing isn’t valuable to their marketing funnel or overall business probably hasn’t been able to find an approach that works for them. Indeed, there are some situations where A/B testing isn’t the best option for tweaking your funnel.

But in many cases, all that’s standing between you and a successful A/B test is the right approach. If you’ve been struggling to find meaningful results from A/B testing, or you simply want to get an outside perspective on improving the process, our team at FunnelEnvy can help. We have many years of combined experience helping companies of all sizes in all industries ensure they get the most out of the resources they put into testing.

Just click here to fill out a quick quiz to learn more about us and our pricing and determine how best we can assist you with your funnel optimization requirements.

By |2023-03-13T11:34:09-07:00March 20th, 2023|Analytics, A/B Testing|0 Comments
Read More

Optimizing Your Funnel With Video Content

If you aren’t already taking advantage of the power of video content, you’re missing out on one of the most important channels for any type of marketing – especially B2B. Research shows that video makes for some of the most engaging content. Over 9 in 10 marketers already use video in their funnels to help capture the right audience and serve them relevant, helpful content that allows them to accomplish their business goals. Moreover, nearly the same number of consumers report that watching a brand video has convinced them to buy a product.

At this point, it’s far from groundbreaking to say that video should be a key element of any organization’s marketing funnel. Clients often experience difficulty with the specifics of video content and understanding the optimization process. How exactly should you use video in your funnel? What kinds of videos should you make? And how will you know if your videos are effective?

Clients often experience difficulty with the specifics of video content and understanding the optimization process. Click To Tweet

Though it’s tough to definitively answer these questions for any company without specific knowledge of their campaigns, we can offer some advice based on the trends we’ve seen working with clients to help them wisely incorporate video into their existing strategies. Let’s jump in.

Select the Right Kind of Videos

There are dozens of different kinds of video types and endless variations or tweaks you can put on those types to make them even more unique. Just spend a few minutes on YouTube, and you’ll see exactly how diverse video content can be! 

In a business marketing context, we can generally group videos into one of three buckets:

  • Quick snippets are meant to explain one specific concept or express a single idea. Software companies often create these using a screenshare that shows off a particular feature.
  • Medium-length videos are longer and go more in-depth on a broader area. These videos are anywhere from five to 20 minutes in length. For example, one type of feature video could be a medical research company showing off different parts of its facility.
  • Feature videos are anything longer than about 20 minutes. These are often pre-recorded speeches or conference sessions shared with the audience.

Again, these categories aren’t perfect, and you can probably come up with endless video types. Don’t get caught up in the specific traits of one type or another – instead, use them as a springboard to think about which type of video may be best for your business. As you go through the process of creating, promoting, and analyzing your video content, be sure to sort them by type so you can get more data on the effectiveness of each kind.

Let Your Prospects See Themselves

Think about some of the best movies, books, or television shows you’ve consumed over the last few years. For many people, the stories in these mediums are much more effective when they feel a connection to the characters in them. That could mean their job, geographic location, family status, etc.

The best marketers have figured out that this concept doesn’t just apply at the box office or the bookstore – it also works in a B2B marketing funnel. Whether you’re planning to create half-hour explainer videos with multiple scenes and people speaking, or you simply want to run a 45-second screenshare showing a single feature, do what you can to ensure your prospects connect with something. You could use language they recognize, name a process they frequently use in their business, or something completely different.

A case study or testimonial-style video is the best video to achieve this connection. Just be aware that many viewers are naturally skeptical of testimonial videos, so you should strive to include an authentic, balanced evaluation of your company and its offering. 

Connect Performance, Budget, and Analytics

Even after you’ve decided on a particular type of video to use, planned its production, and included it in the right channels, your job is still unfinished. The time after you’ve placed your videos into your funnel and published them on social media, your newsletter, etc., is one of the most critical periods for determining the overall success of your video efforts.

That’s because this is when you can get honest feedback from prospects about how effective your videos are at helping you achieve business goals. This feedback comes in the form of data – views, conversions, form abandonments, meetings booked, and so on. Ideally, you can compare this data with a preexisting, deep data set. 

Once you’ve analyzed the numbers and determined which kinds of videos are performing best for you, double down on them by redirecting more of your budget toward making them. Unless you have a specific reason, there’s no point continuing to spend money on content that doesn’t maximize the return.

An easy way to think of video is a virtuous cycle with three parts: budget, analytics, and performance. The cycle starts when you invest marketing dollars into creating a video (budget), continues when you dive into the numbers and metrics behind the video (analytics), and finishes with an ultimate evaluation of the video’s effectiveness in helping you achieve business goals (performance).

From there, the cycle starts over with the budgetary phase. As each part of the cycle becomes more and more optimized, it carries over to the other parts of the video cycle, helping them improve. 

Final Thoughts on How to Optimize a Funnel With Video

In 2023, it’s essential to get beyond just “doing video” and into optimizing your video for maximum funnel success. Barriers for video have dropped so much that you should already be incorporating them into your funnels.

To reach the next level of success with video, you need to know which types of videos your prospects respond to, how to include a hook that connects them to the content of the video, and what steps are necessary to iterate on videos to attain continued success. After all – you probably already spend time analyzing other elements of your conversion rate, so why not devote some of the same attention to the specific performance of your video?

While it’s possible to handle all of these steps within your organization, many companies find it easier to get them taken care of with the help of an outside specialist. A well-qualified B2B marketing expert will be able to give you a broader, more strategic perspective on the way you incorporate video into your funnel. They’ll assist you in identifying which kinds of videos to produce and how to track their metrics so that you end up getting the most out of the investment you make into a video for your funnel.

FunnelEnvy has helped many clients in various industries attain greater efficiency with video production and a better grasp of whether or not their content is moving the needle. To learn more about our pricing and determine if we are a good match for your needs, click here to complete a short questionnaire.

By |2023-02-27T12:23:28-08:00March 6th, 2023|General B2B Funnel Advice|0 Comments
Read More

3 Symptoms of Siloed Data and How to Fix It

Data siloing is like a poisonous, invisible gas: it’s hard to identify, you may not even know it’s affecting you, and it can cause significant health problems for your business.

Before we go any further, let’s back up and establish the term’s meaning. “Data siloing” is when you store important information in your business in a single, isolated place that is not easily accessible for people in the company outside of those who originally put it there. The term comes from the traditional silo used in agriculture to store grain or other supplies in bulk.

But unlike traditional silos, which are easily visible to most people, data siloing is challenging to identify. In fact, in our experience, companies suffering the most from data siloing don’t even know it’s an issue.

In this article, we’re going to correct that problem. Below are three of the most significant symptoms of data siloing. After we outline each problem, we’ll include a general fix for the problem that you can apply to these and other symptoms.   

Redundancy and Repetition Across Departments

Most companies organize their teams into groups ranging from a handful of people to dozens of employees, depending on the size of the company and the nature of its work. Given this inherent separation between teams, it’s normal for there to be some repeated information across groups.

Suppose you see a huge percentage of information repeated in meetings, presentations, or other kinds of department-level communication, though. In that case, it’s a good sign that each group may have its data siloed. One classic example is a separation between an organization’s sales and marketing teams, which happens to companies of almost every size. Marketing teams often collect data related to a prospect’s initial demographic info: the size of the company they work at, their job title, etc. Once the sales team gets involved, they typically learn new information related to more specific details about the prospect. If the two teams don’t share data sufficiently, it can lead to repetition of the same tasks and frustration on the part of the prospect, ultimately causing them to drop out of the sales funnel.

Teammates Ask Several Questions About Other Departments

One of the most obvious signs that your company has a siloing problem is when individuals in separate departments have very few details about how different parts of the organization work. This disconnect often leads to questions about how the other part of the company completes tasks, inquiries they wouldn’t ask if data wasn’t so siloed.

Remember that there will always be some degree of separation between departments – that’s their nature. You wouldn’t expect someone in marketing to understand how to put together a quarterly accounting statement, just as you wouldn’t expect someone on the support desk to work on developing your company website. But when different departments in a company don’t have a basic understanding of how other groups work – where their files are stored, how they communicate internally, etc. – it’s a sign that you may store their data too far apart.
 

Changing Access Levels Takes Longer Than Expected

From small shops with just a few people to the largest global enterprises, companies of all sizes have some sort of permission structure. These systems typically govern things like access to software platforms, the ability to read and write data in a certain folder, or access to a certain email inbox.

During a normal month or quarter, it’s common to change these permission levels for several reasons. Old employees leave, new employees start, and some may even change positions in the team, bringing up a need for different permissions. It’s okay if permissions don’t change instantly, but if it’s regularly taking your team several days or weeks to change permission levels, it’s a sign that your data and processes may have a problem with siloing.

Solving the Siloed Data Problem

As we mentioned, these indicators are just symptoms of an issue with siloed data in your organization. You may come across other signs in your organization, but it’s arguably most important to note that you may not come across any signs at all. Data siloing can happen even within a growing organization that seems successful otherwise. It might not be a mission-critical issue, but if you don’t nip it in the bud right away, it can grow into something much more serious. Even if it never becomes the issue that threatens your business’s existence, there’s still a chance it can prevent you from operating at maximum efficiency.

Data siloing can happen even within a growing organization that seems successful otherwise. Click To Tweet

In our experience, the best way to prevent siloed data from becoming a problem that threatens your business to any degree is to implement a shared data platform that all the different teams in your business can access to share relevant information. Regarding sales and marketing alignment, we suggest our clients implement a tool known as a customer data platform or CDP.  

The benefit of using a CDP is that, unlike traditional data-storing methods, this platform allows information to be put in and taken out by all the appropriate parties and applications. We refer to this as bidirectional integration. In other words, a CDP can integrate with all the tools you’re already using in your stack: a CRM, website analytics tool, email automation platform, etc.

In ideal cases, not only will implementing a CDP help you better manage the data your business uses on a day-to-day basis, it will help you get more out of that information to serve organizational goals better. For example, suppose you can input information about visitors to your website and the specific pages they visit. In that case, you might then be able to integrate it with data from your sales department about which particular parts of your solution prospects were most interested. The conclusions you can gain from these two types of data combined will be much more effective than the information you gain from analyzing the data alone, which often happens when siloed.

Final Word on Siloed Data

Although it’s not the most obvious problem or glamorous challenge to solve in your business, siloed data is still a profound issue worth trying to prevent. If you let it fester and expand within your business, it can eventually become such a severe problem that it impacts conversion rates and customer satisfaction.

Are you concerned that your organization may be suffering from siloing, or simply want to take preventive measures to prevent this situation from happening in the future? Our team is available to help. We have years of experience ensuring our clients can leverage the data they gather across the entire organization instead of watching their productivity suffer from inefficient communication and unnecessary re-work.

To get started, just click here and fill out a short questionnaire that will help you learn more about FunnelEnvy pricing and give us the info we need to determine how best we can assist.

By |2023-02-08T18:35:48-08:00February 20th, 2023|A/B Testing, Analytics|0 Comments
Read More

How to Incorporate UX Principles into B2B Funnels

There’s something of a paradox happening in many business marketing circles today: everyone wants to ensure their funnels are well-optimized for the user experience, but relatively few marketers can tell you what user experience (UX) actually means!

The truth is, there’s a good reason for this paradox: UX is a huge umbrella term that can encompass several different things to many other groups and individuals. This article will focus on some of the UX concepts most relevant to B2B marketing funnels. The key to successfully incorporating these ideas is thinking about how they may apply to your funnels and marketing campaigns.

Let’s dive in.

Incorporate as Much Feedback as Possible

According to their definition, The Norman Nielsen Group says user experience “encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products.” The key term there is “user.” Some misguided or inexperienced marketers might believe they can optimize their user experience without input from their prospects. This approach simply isn’t possible if you want to maximize the improvement of your funnel UX.

For the best results, remember the idea of a specific audience and diverse methodology. In other words, you should have a highly detailed target persona already mapped out before you seek feedback from anyone – otherwise, you’re just wasting everyone’s time. Be as specific as possible about the kind of people you want to take UX information from because this data will ultimately shape your product or service’s development.

Once you’ve settled on a specific type of audience, do your best to offer them several methods of providing input on your funnel and other marketing elements. In an ideal situation, you can build intimate relationships with prospects by creating a community centered around their characteristics and business objectives. Think about what HubSpot did to grow its Inbound.org community, a forum for marketers to share experiences and tactics for the inbound methodology. At its peak, the site was bringing in over 300,000 visitors per month.

Consider building a community within your customer group, even if it’s on a smaller scale. In the era of remote work, plenty of tools are available to bring people together, including Slack and Discord. You can use a more traditional forum-based system for your community – whatever fits best into your operating methods and your customers’ preferred ways of learning about potential business solutions.

Consider building a community within your customer group, even if it’s on a smaller scale. Click To Tweet

Think About Your Microcopy

Adobe defines “microcopy” as “tiny tidbits of copy found on websites, applications, and products.” You probably run into dozens of examples of microcopy every day – think about form fields, button text, disclaimers at the bottom of a page, headlines on popular articles, etc. Even the captions on your images can technically be considered microcopy.

These items may seem pretty small individually, but taken together, they can have a severe impact on the perception of your funnel by users. We already know headlines are important, given statistics indicating that an average user only reads about 20% of the content on any given website. You can find similar studies on the importance of key microcopy within your funnel, such as the call to action found on a button at the end of a form.

While your specific approach may vary depending on the type of microcopy you’re looking to optimize, generally speaking, it’s wise to eliminate as much as possible: the shorter, the better. Most of your prospects don’t have time for unclear or lengthy instructions. Be concise and direct with your microcopy.

Review Your Funnel for Unnecessary Elements

As marketers, there tends to be an obsession with adding the next “thing” that will make your stack even better. In describing his 1980 Los Angeles Lakers team that failed to defend its championship, the legendary coach and executive Pat Riley coined the term “disease of more.” Each player wanted more accolades, money, and playing time, to the point where it started harming the collective team.

Thinking about this in a marketing context, we see parallels to software, email scripts, video courses, new form options, etc. There are lots of shiny “widgets” we can add or tweak with the idea that it will improve our funnel. In reality, several of these add-ons may not be necessary to make prospects convert. Some of them may even negatively impact your funnel’s conversion rate.  

One of the best things you can do to optimize your funnel’s UX is to go through the entire thing (start to finish) and see if you can identify unnecessary things. Do your best to put yourself in the shoes of a prospect, trying not to think of it as a marketer. Think about forms, text, images, menu items, footers, headers – anything and everything should be considered. The fewer elements you have on the page, the more likely it will push visitors to the result you desire.

Even with this mental exercise, fully adopting your prospect’s mindset may be challenging. It may be better to ask a trusted customer or outside consultant to give you accurate insights. 

Test Constantly and Seek Outside Perspective

Whether you incorporate these or other tactics to improve user experience, it’s important to remember the fundamental tenet of conversion rate optimization (CRO): always test your changes. Collecting data that shows the performance of a new strategy or idea in your funnel builds a concrete foundation from which you can understand what’s working and what isn’t. UX ideas can change quickly, but data will ground your funnel in the specific concepts that get results.

We also suggest that you seek perspective beyond yourself and, if possible, beyond your entire organization. As much as you can try to embody the mindset of your ideal prospect, you’ll never fully be able to get there simply because you aren’t that person. Even if you are a doctor-turned-marketer offering a product or service to the same kind of doctors, you still have the mental experience of developing and selling that offering, which colors your judgment and beliefs.

The best way to overcome this challenge is to get outside help with your UX optimization. Even if you don’t have the means (or desire) to hire an outside contractor to help you, there are options to get an external opinion. You might consider reaching out to a loyal customer, as well as some newer customers, for help evaluating the current elements in your funnel and any ideas you are thinking about implementing.

Of course, working with a group of experts with years of collective experience working on UX improvements for clients can also be helpful. We’ve helped startups and software companies in several industries increase their conversion rates by making their funnels more user-friendly and accessible so that prospects only see what they need.

If you’re interested in getting some UX assistance from the FunnelEnvy team, click here to fill out a short questionnaire, learn more about our pricing and determine if we’d be a good fit to work together.

By |2023-01-25T21:39:06-08:00February 6th, 2023|Conversion Rate Optimization|0 Comments
Read More

The 3 Most Important UX Considerations in Your Funnel

Now that the digital marketing space is maturing, the focus is increasingly on the finer details of digital experiences. Most marketers already recognize the importance of major pillars like email, social media, and web design. Plenty of different software and service options are available to help organizations in need.

Success on a broad level in channels like email marketing and social media is still vital, but they’ve become the minimum barrier to entry for top-quality B2B marketing. In 2023 and beyond, the best marketers will not only be nailing the larger elements of their funnels but also understand how to give prospects a desirable experience through the less obvious aspects of their campaigns.

We call them less obvious because, individually, it may not seem like the details that comprise user experience (UX) considerations will have that big of an impact on the success of a funnel. But when combined, these factors can determine whether a prospect has a positive or negative overall experience with your funnel, which in turn impacts their decision to do business with you.

Below, we’ll talk about three crucial UX elements of your funnel that you might have overlooked and give tips on addressing them in your campaigns.

Progress Bars and Indicators

In today’s world of increasingly crunched deadlines, dwindling attention spans, and bite-sized content, your prospects’ time is likely stretched thinner than ever before. That’s why it’s important to show appreciation for every second they give your marketing by explaining how much time it’s going to take for them to get through each part of your form.

Research shows that using progress bars can make people more willing to devote time to a form or wait for a page to load. Of course, you shouldn’t make users wait long for elements on your page (we’ll get to that in the next section), but there’s always going to be some level of load time. Similarly, it will always take some time for a prospect to give you the information needed to advance the sales cycle. The best you can do is make that time as painless as possible.  

Of course, the B2B world can be a little different. When it comes to complex sales cycles or those in industries with many regulations, most prospects understand that it’ll take some time to get through their buying journey. On a macro level, B2B transactions generally take longer than B2C. While you can use that to your advantage by requesting more information at an earlier stage in the buying process, never take for granted the time prospects’ are willing to invest in your funnel. Progress bars, page numbers, and completion time estimates are all helpful tools for this area.

It will always take some time for a prospect to give you the information needed to advance the sales cycle. The best you can do is make that time as painless as possible. Click To Tweet

Page Speed and Responsiveness

We’ve paired these ideas together because they are both ultimately technical requirements for your website and its funnel elements. Your site needs to load quickly enough to stop people from getting impatient and leaving. It also needs to load properly on each device a prospect could use to visit your funnel. Both concepts have been critical in B2B marketing for quite some time, yet we still come across plenty of organizations leaving a lot to be desired with how their page appears to users.

Page speed is vital for the UX of your funnel, in part because of the short attention spans of modern web users. According to Google, the chance a user will bounce increases by 32% after a page’s load time reaches 3 seconds. You don’t want your funnel to stick out like a sore thumb when a user has been browsing other fast-loading pages, a situation we, unfortunately, encounter with clients in industries like healthcare and manufacturing.

As for responsiveness, there’s a straightforward standard your funnel elements should live up to; they must be viewable and equally usable on any device. Page visitors shouldn’t have any issue navigating your funnel site, whether using a keyboard, stylus, or their fingers on a touchscreen. Remember to frequently test different versions and sizes of your funnel as part of your efforts to optimize conversions.

Content Quality and Tone

This final area is more abstract, but it might be the most important. “Content” doesn’t simply mean the writing on your forms, landing pages, or other funnel elements. It’s an all-encompassing term that combines those elements with their design, multimedia, and the trade-off you’re looking for users to make (typically filling out a form for some kind of asset).

Take a step back and simplify your campaign to its essentials: what are you offering? Is it compelling enough for prospects to give you what you’re seeking from them? A law firm’s office manager may be willing to provide their name and email address for an eBook but may not want to provide their physical address, phone number, or other personal details. On the other hand, if you’re working on some kind of funnel further along the pipeline, like an appointment or consultation request, prospects may be more willing to give you that type of information.

The tone of your funnel content is also important for the user’s experience. Part of this is human nature – people inherently want to like and trust others they meet who are similar to themselves. However, when it comes to B2B transactions, buyers are responsible for ensuring they’re working with vendors with a sufficient understanding of their field. Writing is, of course, a big element of your tone. Other factors can include:

  • The clothes worn by people in video content
  • The colors in your funnel’s design
  • Fonts and typefaces used in parts of your funnel
  • The use of industry-specific jargon

In many cases, prospects don’t expect vendors to have the same depth of knowledge about a field – an accounting firm purchasing business software probably won’t expect the developer to be able to audit their books, for example – but they do expect them to be familiar with critical elements of the industry and how they work. Even if it’s communicated subtly, showing prospects your understanding of their needs can go a long way in improving your funnel. 

Where to Start With UX Considerations in Your Funnel

Each of these three areas of UX is relatively involved and could require its own campaigns to address. There are many other UX factors, some of which might even be more important to address in your funnel than the ones listed here. Knowing this, how do you decide where to begin with optimizing your funnel? 

There’s only one answer: experiment, analyze the data, iterate, and repeat the cycle. It’s easy to guess what will be the most effective way to improve the UX of your marketing elements. But with actual data – conversion rates, heat maps, bounce rates, and ROI – you can see which parts of your funnel need fixing.

Looking for assistance running these tests, or simply want to get a few more sets of (expert) eyes on your funnel UX optimization? Our team at FunnelEnvy is ready to jump in and help. Just click this link and fill out a short questionnaire to learn more about our pricing and how we can ensure your prospects have a better experience with your marketing elements in 2023 and beyond.

By |2023-01-11T21:26:15-08:00January 23rd, 2023|A/B Testing, Analytics|0 Comments
Read More

3 Trends in Multi-Step Forms for B2B Funnels in 2023

Forms used in digital marketing have come a long way since the earliest days of simple radio buttons, one-line form fields, and dropdown options. Today’s users expect the forms they engage with to be as frictionless as possible, but they also want to know exactly how much of an investment of time they’ll need to make – and what kind of return that investment can bring.

In this modern environment, multi-step forms have emerged as a way for marketers to make forms more easily digestible for users. In turn, this increases the conversion rates typically seen on multi-step forms. According to some stats, multi-step forms can convert 300% more than forms with a single step.

Knowing the value of multi-step forms in today’s B2B marketing, it’s essential to construct them well and keep them updated as trends and best practices change. As the new year progresses, we’ll track multi-step form trends. 

Artificial Intelligence and Forms

There’s a lot of discussion in the media about artificial intelligence and what it will mean for the future of business. ChatGPT, a sophisticated text-based AI platform created by the prominent research firm OpenAI, has dominated headlines and social media posts thanks to its accuracy and authentic-sounding tone.

AI tools are exciting to discuss but are still far from being a core element of any B2B marketing campaign or funnel. One of the most common deployments of AI in multi-step forms comes with chatbots, which can be helpful tools for certain prospects but aren’t a panacea for all sales needs.    

Specifically, AI tools like chatbots can help when a visitor has a straightforward question about an element of a form but aren’t as valuable for complex inquiries. Throw in the technical complexity and high-dollar amount often associated with B2B purchases, and you can see why many prospects may not want AI heavily involved in their transactions. Despite this, we anticipate AI tools becoming more and more helpful for their predictive capabilities in the early parts of forms when users may need a straightforward clarification or additional detail.

Increase in Social Proof

Since the earliest days of business, social proof – or validation of a product or service from other buyers – has always been a valuable marketing source, especially for companies selling complex and high-dollar solutions. In the economic conditions of 2023, where budgets are likely tight due to pressure on supply chains and other global factors, B2B buyers may want even more social proof before committing to a specific vendor.

In 2023, we expect the changes to multi-step forms in this category to be more related to the specific nature of the social proof provided. For example, we’re already seeing more videos used as social proof throughout marketing funnels. Some studies show that two out of three people would be more willing to purchase after watching a testimonial video showing how a product or service helped someone else like them.      

Another important social proof indicator for 2023 will be the participation in industry groups and organizations. These associations and trade organizations are increasingly effective in certain industries – like healthcare and medical technology – and should continue to grow in importance throughout the year. If your form can remind visitors of your participation in well-respected associations or industry forums, it may increase your conversion rate and improve your overall marketing results.

Progress Indicators & Dynamic Forms

For many years, studies by major research organizations have shown the value of using progress bars, indicators, or icons somewhere on your form. These elements show people where they are in a multi-step form and how much they have left before completion. Research indicates that these elements extend the attention span of users and may make them more likely to finish the form.

Throughout the rest of the year, we expect these elements to become even more prominent throughout B2B forms. Look for leading marketers to deploy these elements in slick, user-friendly ways that don’t detract from the experience. For example, you might incorporate additional information about a form behind a hover icon near the progress bar.

Along the same lines, we’re also projecting an increase in the importance of dynamic forms. Everyone has had the experience of filling out a long form with multiple unnecessary questions that may or may not even apply to their situation. Dynamic forms that adjust based on user-provided information are a valuable solution to this problem. If your forms aren’t adaptable based on specific details that people provide, you may be adding friction to the process and making it less likely that people will complete the form.

Going forward this year, we expect dynamic forms to become even more popular and wide-reaching in their applications. One of the more popular dynamic form use cases involves providing extra content to give prospects even more details about a specific solution. Combining these ideas with technology like automated follow-up tools can create a powerful push to get prospects through your funnel.  

One last note on this point – remember that there’s a fine line between helpful form add-ons and excess clutter that distracts a user from completing the form. With multi-step forms that already require a larger investment of time and energy, it’s crucial to be mindful of clutter or wasted elements. Finding the correct balance requires testing and input from real prospects and customers.

Remember that there’s a fine line between helpful form add-ons and excess clutter that distracts a user from completing the form. Click To Tweet

Incorporating Multi-Step Form Trends Into Your Funnel

As is always the case when we discuss trends, developments, or best practices in a particular area, we aren’t suggesting that you rush to incorporate these three ideas into your campaigns as quickly as possible. Not all of these ideas may be right for your multi-step forms, or you may already have some in current funnels.

Instead, it’s critical to identify which concepts make the most sense for your forms and then thoughtfully plan a strategy for adding them to your campaigns. Multi-step forms may not be the sleekest or most exciting elements of your marketing funnels, but they can be vital to the success of your campaigns. A minor tweak to a multi-step form can cause a significant improvement in its conversion rate, leading to massive results in your business.

If you’re looking to apply one or more of these ideas to your multi-step forms but aren’t exactly sure how getting help from an experienced advisor can be valuable. Our team at FunnelEnvy has many years of experience helping clients plan, develop, and optimize multi-step forms that move prospects along their funnel. Whether you want to improve a mid-campaign form that helps existing prospects or you want to optimize your lead capture form, we can help you incorporate all the elements your form needs to be user-friendly, concise, and persuasive to all prospects who use it.

Fill out this brief form to get more details about our pricing structure and learn more about how we can help your organization.

By |2022-12-29T00:26:25-08:00January 9th, 2023|Landing Pages|0 Comments
Read More

How to Optimize Your Funnel for Today’s Generation of B2B Decision Makers

Technology, especially digital tools like email, electronic signatures, and marketing automation, has significantly impacted our business operations. But one of the more underrated elements of business change is the evolution of the people involved. Every generation is different from the previous one, and while you shouldn’t hold preconceived notions about individuals solely because of their age, it is possible to draw broad conclusions about age groups as a whole.

In today’s B2B tech and software world, many buyers are from the millennial age range – born between the mid-1980s and early 1990s. Studies have shown that this group has a distinct preference for a few specific styles of sales and marketing. Generally, incorporating these concepts into your funnels can help even if you aren’t specifically targeting a millennial prospect.

Self-service

One of the nice things about the digital era is that it has removed several time constraints that may have previously restricted business transactions. If a prospect desires, they can load a company’s website at midnight and learn about their offering’s important features and benefits. In previous eras of business where buyers relied on suppliers to learn about a potential product or service, this model wasn’t possible.

According to research, many buyers want to do business precisely this way. Forrester’s 2021 B2B Buying Survey reported that the number of self-directed sales interactions in a typical transaction has now surpassed the number of human interactions. Other data shows meetings with potential suppliers now represent a relatively small portion of the B2B purchasing process: Gartner research says B2B buyers spend only 17% of the purchasing process on meetings with potential vendors. 

It may not always be possible to show off everything your service or product can do in a way that facilitates self-service, but it’s an important ideal to endeavor to meet. In fact, buyers may get frustrated or abandon your site entirely if you don’t have the right information accessible to them whenever they want it.

Personalization

Not only do buyers want to be able to access sales information at any time, but they also have a strong desire for a customized buying process. Accenture reports that over 7 out of 10 B2B buyers want a more personalized, “consumer-like” purchasing process. This customization can manifest itself in several ways, but the foundation is always the same: a deeper understanding of your prospect’s buying journey. You must be more aware of each prospect’s specific challenges, needs, and biggest concerns throughout the purchasing process.

Buyers may get frustrated or abandon your site entirely if you don’t have the right information accessible to them whenever they want it. Click To Tweet

Another reason personalization is essential is the increasing quantity of decision-makers involved with B2B purchases today. As budgets tighten and hiring slows in uncertain economic conditions, companies are more frequently assembling buying groups to ensure they spend their dollars wisely. More people involved in buying creates a greater demand for personalized content throughout your funnel.   

Finally, remember to include a personal touch in each funnel stage. From top-funnel content like blog posts and white papers to your final product demonstrations or purchase negotiations, it’s critical to stay mindful of your prospects’ needs. Understanding their desires requires a skillful blend of early-stage communication and consistent research about your audience.

Responsive Design

Making sure every element of your funnel can be viewed and consumed properly on all devices is vital because of prospect tendencies. Certain studies show that over 4 in 10 B2B buyers use mobile devices during the purchase process. Consuming content is typically one of the primary uses for mobile devices, though, in certain industries or segments, consumers might also use them for communication with suppliers.

Another reason you should ensure your website and all other parts of your funnel load correctly on mobile devices: it’s essential for technical elements of your marketing. A website that loads on mobile devices is critical for search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is also a significant element of most B2B marketing campaigns today. In other words, if your page doesn’t load on an array of mobile devices – especially tablets and smartphones – you risk alienating your prospects and negatively impacting your visibility on search engines.

Form a Human Connection

This tip is especially applicable for persuading B2B buyers of all generations – though some evidence suggests creating personal relationships is even more important with millennial and Gen Z purchasers. Of course, a buyer needs to obtain a service that fulfills their company’s objective, but beyond that, today’s buyers want to feel a more human connection with their suppliers. It’s part of why many purchasers today – both in consumer and business – emphasize spending money with companies that align with their worldview and contribute to solving significant global problems.

You don’t have to offer a cutting-edge software solution to solve a grand problem like climate change to be more human. There are plenty of ways to incorporate personal relationships into more conventional types of business. One easy tip is to try and schedule in-person or video meetings whenever possible, as opposed to communicating via phone or email. These relationships make creating a rapport with prospects much easier, which is especially important for most B2B sectors. 

Implementation Tips for Funnel Optimization

Now that you have a better understanding of the specific elements to incorporate into your funnel, it’s vital to take some time to consider how you can use this information in your own funnel. The first thing to know is that it’s impossible to do everything at once – you shouldn’t rush to make sure you meet all of the requirements for the current generation of B2B buyers. Whatever steps you take to make your funnel more appealing, put your company’s authentic spin on it. Don’t try to be something you aren’t just because you think it might broaden your audience. That approach often backfires, alienating your core customer group who appreciates your service for what you do and don’t provide.

Finally, we suggest incorporating technical benchmarks to help determine whether or not these changes were successful. It’s easy to throw out broad suggestions like, “we need to personalize our content to attract the right audience.” But when you can quantify the improvements made with a statement like, “after personalizing our content, the conversion rate on our funnel’s main landing page increased by 6%,” it offers much more value when it comes to informing the rest of your marketing strategy.

Are you looking to get some assistance shaping your funnel to be more in line with the current generation of buyers? The team at FunnelEnvy can assist. We have lots of experience helping clients tighten up their funnels to increase conversion optimization rate (CRO) and bring more success to their marketing efforts. We’ve helped businesses in every sector modernize their funnels to get attention from their target audience.

To find out more about FunnelEnvy pricing and what we might be able to offer, click here to fill out a short quiz that will help us learn more about your needs.

By |2022-12-15T15:54:03-08:00December 26th, 2022|Conversion Rate Optimization|0 Comments
Read More

4 Best Practices for Creating Engaging B2B Content

There’s a massive amount of content on the web today. Even before the global pandemic that forced everyone to stay home, reports indicated that over two-thirds of all data on the web was created sometime in the last few years.

Unfortunately, a lot of that data isn’t practical. The same is true in the world of B2B content. Many companies are embracing the practice – more than 4 in 5 B2B marketers use content marketing as a strategy, according to HubSpot surveys from 2021.

The problem? Not enough companies are doing content well. The prevalence of content marketing strategy means that many organizations are rushing to put out content simply “to have something there,” or even worse, just as a way to game SEO algorithms to increase their page rankings.

If this sounds like your company’s strategy, it needs to make a change. Whether creating content for a specific part of your funnel or more generalized marketing content, here are four tips to give you a better chance of engaging your audience.

Remove Fluff and Filler Ruthlessly

If you’ve done any kind of search recently related to any type of marketing or digital business phrase, you’ve probably noticed a common issue. There’s a lot of useless content out there. Sure, you can still find valuable stuff on any subject, and Google has been trying its hardest to update its algorithm quickly enough to weed out low-quality search results. But the proliferation of content and search engine marketing means there are still plenty of pages designed just to help the publisher move up search engine results – not to help someone in their target audience.

There are two simple (but not always easy) methods for making your content more valuable. First, you have to cut all fluff and filler from your content. Be ruthless – if there’s a question about whether or not something is worth including, you should probably scrap it. This ruthlessness even extends to things writers love, like using outside anecdotes or drawn-out metaphors.

It’s particularly important to make your content easy to interpret and valuable when it’s being used further down your B2B funnel. Decision-makers at companies making significant purchases usually want to maximize their time considering different vendors and solutions. Sifting through unnecessarily long content doesn’t give them a positive perspective of your company or its offering.

It’s particularly important to make your content easy to interpret and valuable when it’s being used further down your B2B funnel. Click To Tweet

The second important step in removing fluff and filler is making your content more digestible so prospects can scan and read it more quickly. This method is called “scannable content.” According to Microsoft, a few essential strategies for scannable content include:

  • Put your most important content above the fold or the part of the page the user doesn’t need to scroll down to see.
  • Be brief, clear, and concise. Don’t use more words than you need.
  • Include navigation options for a long document.

You might also think about using progress bars or page numbers so users know how much more they have left in the content. Some more modern publications will even estimate how long it will take to read a piece of written content.

Use the Right Hook

By its nature, B2B content has to be highly customized. Buyers in this sector have specific and dynamic needs regarding what they’re looking for out of a business solution. These discerning needs are part of the reason tactics like content and account-based marketing are so popular with B2B marketers in the first place.

And while the personalized requirements of B2B content marketing might make the process more difficult in some ways, in another sense, it makes creating engaging content easier. Knowing a lot about your prospect’s specific needs and challenges means you can present more relevant information.

In content marketing parlance, a “hook” immediately grabs users’ attention and makes them want to continue consuming the content. Whether it’s a headline, the first sentence of a blog article or social media post, or the initial words of a video, a good hook can be the difference between someone consuming an entire piece of content or bouncing out of it quickly. In any B2B content setting, you want to make your hook as personalized as possible. In the best-case scenario, a prospect should feel like you’re speaking directly to them.

Be Interactive

This tip isn’t always fully applicable, depending on the channel you use for your content. But if you’re using a platform where interaction is a big component – such as social media – it’s important to include an avenue for users to engage with the content. In the B2B setting, it’s common to see posts on social media that ask users to share their own experiences, for example.

If you can’t make your content directly interactive for users, try to help them imagine themselves in the same situation. Visualization is one of the most powerful psychological tools available to us as humans. Putting your content’s audience in a position to visualize themselves using your product or service is one of the best ways to help nurture them closer to converting into customers. Whether you achieve this by including a few poignant questions at the end of an article, or some interesting visuals in an infographic or video, it’s critical to draw the user into becoming more than just a passive consumer of your content.

Measure and Analyze the Right Metrics


These steps are fantastic, but some may work better for you than others. Some may not work at all! How will you know if this is the case and which tactics may or may not apply? There’s only one way: measuring and analyzing how well it performs.

The big challenge many companies face is not necessarily analyzing metrics – it’s choosing the right metrics to follow. We see numerous prospects encountering the same problem: their high-level metrics like views, click-through rates, and session time numbers are good, but they aren’t leading to conversions or sales. 

That’s why it’s so important to track the correct numbers. In the hugely broad, dynamic world of business data, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by fancy metrics or numbers that seem important but don’t tell you much about your content. To overcome this challenge, think intentionally about a few of the most critical numbers that matter to your business and its content efforts, then make sure you stick to tracking just those numbers. It’s okay to revisit your core metrics from time to time to ensure they are still working the way you need, but don’t be swayed from measuring the KPIs you initially decided were most important.

And if you need any help figuring out which metrics to track or how to keep your content engaging, our expert team at FunnelEnvy is ready to help. We have several years of experience working with B2B companies to optimize their funnel content and ensure they can stand out in today’s noisy content marketing sector. Click here to fill out a short questionnaire and learn more about our pricing structure.

By |2022-11-17T03:29:55-08:00November 28th, 2022|General B2B Funnel Advice|0 Comments
Read More

Creating Effective Paid Ads for Modern Buyers

B2B marketers who have been around a while might recognize the early and mid-2010s as a golden era of paid advertising. Costs per click were less expensive, and budgets could go much further. As we move into 2023, paid ads are still an excellent way to attract a targeted audience. However, the channel has grown more complex and dynamic regarding drawing in the right people.

It’s still possible to successfully incorporate paid ads into your funnel and make them a positive investment in your marketing. You’ll just need to calibrate your approach a bit more carefully. The strategies and tips below will help.

Ensure All Ads Are Responsive

Responsive design ensures that content is accessible, viewable, and properly usable on all kinds of devices and has been around as a web design principle for a while. Still, considering the recent changes in the B2B audience, it’s critical to ensure all elements of your ad funnel operate well on all kinds of devices. According to data from Google, 70% or more of B2B searches originate on mobile devices. Many people from Generation Z who grew up using mobile devices their entire lives are now moving into professional roles related to B2B purchasing.

It’s not enough for an ad or landing page to load on a smartphone or tablet – it also has to be clickable, with accessibility for forms if your ad requires collecting information. Think about the usable elements of your ad funnel when someone squeezes and taps with their fingers instead of using a mouse.

Incorporate Multimedia Content

For a long time, standard ad formats have involved a main image, headline, and some text underneath the picture. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with this format, today, several other forms of media are gaining popularity in advertising. Social networks like TikTok and Instagram, which emphasize video, are becoming much more popular than traditional options.

Think about the usable elements of your ad funnel when someone squeezes and taps with their fingers instead of using a mouse. Click To Tweet

If you don’t think TikTok is the right place for your brand, you might be surprised. Over 40% of TikTok users are between 30 and 49 years old. TikTok also boasts higher retention rates than most other networks. There are lots of devoted TikTokers of all ages – you probably know a few yourself – and while they may not specifically use it for B2B purposes, that doesn’t mean TikTok can’t work as an effective platform for that kind of marketing.

If you aren’t sure how to get started with videos in your ads, try starting with simple smartphone videos that you can record with basic equipment like a tripod or stabilizer device. Thanks to technology, you don’t need to invest five figures in a studio or production company to make quality B2B ad videos.

Include a Hard-Hitting Fact, Stat, or Statement

Attention-grabbing sentences are common in loads of marketing, from blog posts to emails to ads. It’s sometimes called a “hook” because you intend to lead the message and pull people’s attention to you. On most paid advertising platforms, users look at multiple different kinds of media, often scrolling through a home page or feed. 

The statement or statistic aims to get someone to stop scrolling and think about your ad. Not everyone who stops to look at your ad will be a good fit for your funnel, and that’s okay – the fact that your hook was able to stop and get their attention is a good sign on its own. 

What examples of hooks can you use to get someone’s attention in a paid ad campaign? Here are a few:

  • A quote from a customer testimonial
  • A statistic presented in a visual format, such as an infographic
  • Actual results from a customer case study or trial run
  • An abstract image or visual (as long as it’s at least loosely relevant to your offering)

With some creativity it’s possible to come up with a unique hook that draws in the specific audience you’re targeting. Your hook’s effectiveness is in your ad’s clickthrough rate, but you can also look into more advanced metrics for engagement, like time spent on the ad’s landing page or the number of repeat sessions with an ad campaign.

Speak Your Prospects’ Language

Whether using videos, text, or different communication tools, your content must resonate with the people you want to see your ads. You’re more likely to succeed when you use the type of words and descriptions they commonly use in their day-to-day roles. You don’t need to pack your ads and landing pages full of jargon or overly technical terms. Still, anyone who reads or hears a unique term or phrase they use often will immediately feel a connection with your ad and its associated landing page.

For the right balance, it can be helpful to include an actual quote from a client or someone in the industry, for example, a case study or expert interview. If you aren’t sure whether or not your video or ad copy has too much jargon, talk to an unbiased expert in that field. They’ll be able to tell you if your content sounds natural and normal or if it sounds like you are trying too hard to match the way a prospect might talk.

Final Thoughts on Making effective B2B ads today

On almost any social network you spend even a little bit of time on today, you’re bound to come across several different ads for advertisers in virtually any field – including B2B. You probably already know how effective these ads can be if you create them properly. You may even have purchased something or subscribed to a business because of one!

The biggest challenge with paid advertising these days is competition. Even in a relatively niche field, you likely have to deal with multiple competitors vying for the same attention on the platform. The best way to overcome this challenge is to constantly optimize your ads and create them to appeal to a particular subset of people. 

There are three key aspects to this approach you should bear in mind: 1) Make sure your ads (and all related funnel components) work well on any device. 2) Ensure you speak your prospects’ language. 3) Incorporate a hook that grabs their attention and makes them want to engage further with your ad.

Of course, this process is typically easier said than done. It usually takes time, practice, and trial and error with a specific social network to succeed at the right voice, find the right people and get them to convert once they take the next step and click on your ad.

If you’re looking for expert assistance with this entire process or want a few more sets of eyes looking at your current B2B ad campaign, FunnelEnvy can help. Our team works with B2B companies of all varieties, from tech to healthcare to finance and everything in between. If you want to learn more about our services and schedule a consultation to see if we can help your team grow, click here to complete a short quiz that will help you learn more about our pricing.

By |2022-11-03T05:31:31-07:00November 14th, 2022|Paid Media|0 Comments
Read More

Home

Why FunnelEnvy

About Us

Services

Customers

Resources

Resources

Resources

Revenue Blueprint

Blog

follow us on

Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Security & Compliance | DMCA Policy | Contact Us | Conversational Lead Forms

© 2024 Celerius Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Go to Top