The Online web funnel is not an easy process, to begin with. Yes, people ‘enter the web funnel’ but that does not mean they ‘convert.’ Sounds Greek? Let us elaborate the concept further.

In simple words, we can state that “the web marking funnel’ is the process through which any potential customer/browser ends up taking the desired action(s) that will lead to making him/her a ‘convert’ or an actual buyer. Once the casual visitor engages in the activity for which you have created the online e-commerce site, then the outcome as known as a ‘conversion.’

In a nutshell, the core purpose of the whole ‘funneling’ effort is to make sure that any member of the target audience ‘converts from just casually browsing your e-commerce portal to taking a particular series of actions that had always been the desired result, for the e-commerce site to be considered a success by its creators. In other words, the site’s visitors should end up performing the specific series of actions, product purchase, for example. Once they do what is required of them, they have fulfilled the core purpose of the site and you can sit back and just let your sales grow.

Let us see how:

Using local citations

A local ‘citation’ can be defined as a “mention of your business name and address on other websites and pages” Other examples include various referrals on the pages of (for instance) the local chamber of commerce website, or just about any well-known and widely respected business directory in the specific geographical area that the e-commerce portal services.

For Example White Duck Outdoors, an outdoor tent shop is featured on Yelp.

Here, it is pertinent to note that citations also play an important role in the ranking algorithms of some of the most popular and powerful search engines. These include Bing, Yahoo, and Google. Many, if not most such citations also help in ensuring that your web-based e-commerce portal also steadily climbs up the rankings lists by well-known search engines. This is why it is deemed to be useful to have local citations that can and will drive quality traffic to your site.

Using a popular blog to generate traffic

Blogs need not be linked to the store itself. But, they can provide highly useful and practical data on the products available at the portal. As the target audience will have time to gain much-needed information of the products, the odds are that they will also use the hyperlinks and anchor texts that have been provided in the blog, to jump directly to the e-commerce portal itself.

For example, Sophie and Trey, a popular online boutique for young women got featured in a blog by The Wedding Wire.

Google’s “My Business”

Google also offers a great service for many online e-commerce sites and portals and helps them to effectively ‘connect’ with the communities where they exist. This way anyone searching for, let us say “Baseball supplies on Park Avenue New York (for example)” will be instantly linked to the site’s own location pin, on the main Google search engine webpage.

Using local news sources for PR activities

Free publicity is a great way to attract people to a specific website. Getting trusted online local newspapers to carry links of the web portal will not only increase the authenticity of the site but will be a tremendous public relations boost. This is because it will direct the news source’s readership to the site and increase its online footprint substantially.

Using a highly effective call to or ‘CTA’

Finally, this is arguably one of the single most effective means of ensuring a conversion, once an interested visitor is on your site and provided that the CTA is strong enough and has also been conducted in a highly professional manner. Then yes, the odds are that it can almost always lead to positive results.

The main purpose of a highly successful Call to Action (CTA) is to help potential customers take a positive action. It also motivates an otherwise casual visitor to purchase something from the online web portal.

ETQ’s online footwear store tells customers what to do exactly.

Conclusion

Today, a substantial number of online stores are providing high-quality products and services to a diverse clientele. These aforementioned tips will help you stand out from the crowd and increase your return on investment.