Inbound Marketing Conversion Path: Definition, Types, Importance, and Working

For a digital marketer, the big part of the job is to convert visitors into sales leads. But as an inbound marketer, your job is not just limited to bringing in leads through conversions. Offering excellent content for which the site visitors will trade their personal information is another important part of the job. It is the content that attracts and turns potential leads into customers.   

However simple it may seem; conversions are difficult and are a big deal. You do not get leads overnight or in a day or two. It takes time and a proper strategy is needed.    

Elements of Conversion Path  

The conversion path is the process through which the leads are generated. To be able to carry out the conversion process, businesses require few major elements, like the landing page, thank-you page, call-to-action, and a remarkable offer. However, having all of these is not enough. Each of the elements must be designed, written, and executed professionally. Until and unless the landing page is designed perfectly, your business may have a hard time getting leads. To generate a pipeline of leads, you must learn what it takes to create a perfect landing page. 

Definition of Conversion Path     

It is the process by which an anonymous visitor on the website turns into a lead. As said above, the conversion path comprises the major elements. If any of the elements goes missing, the chances of generating leads reduce drastically. The process of conversion path goes like this – A visitor searches for a topic, say, the best lead generation company in Narre Warren. He/she lands up to your website. The visitor sees an offer, clicks on it, and reaches the landing page. Now, the visitor needs the information and fills the form. In exchange for personal information, the visitor gets to download the report on the topic he/she searched. The visitor gets the offer on the thank-you page. Voila! The conversion path is completed and lead is generated.   

Well-planned and perfectly designed conversion paths can effectively move visitors through the buyer’s journey and help them become customers and promoters.  

A Conversion Path   

Facebook Ad > Landing Page > Confirmation Email>Thank you  

Website CTA > Landing Page > Confirmation Email/Thank you  

Types of Conversion Path  

The above conversion paths are not just the only paths through which leads can be generated. Some people may get swayed by the ads, whereas some may come along through an email or a newsletter. Some may even search for the brand organically.   

You can identify the buyer’s behavior online through Google Analytics, and decide on taking different conversion paths for different customers. Here are some of the ways through which inbound digital marketers can get conversions – Paid search, organic search, Direct, Emails, Referrals, and social network.  

Importance of Conversion Paths   

Conversion paths play an important role in marketing. To say it simply, brands and businesses cannot exist without customers. So, no brand would ever leave an opportunity to bring in leads. They will try every possible method to convert the website visitors into their customers. How is it done? The only way is through conversion paths.   

Conversion paths generate leads and the process, on the whole, is called lead generation. This is carried out through the lead generation funnel. To understand how to create your first funnel, you may want to read the blog. How to build your first lead generation funnel?

Conversion paths help businesses in several ways;   

• Increase brand awareness.   
• Brings in traffic  
• Generates pipeline of leads  
• You get to know your current and potential customers  

Steps to Build Result-Oriented Conversion Path    

Having a good conversion path is important. Up until now, you might be clear about one thing that to make the conversion path a smooth process, you need a strong, clear CTA, a well-designed landing page, and a thank you page.  

The truth is there are a lot of conversion paths out there. There are multiple landing pages but are all able to bring in results? The answer is no. This happens when businesses are unaware of the right strategy.   

Here I will take you through the four items you may need for your inbound toolkit to create an effective conversion path.   

Focus On the Context of the Content 

Content is the king! It acts as fuel and empowers the conversion process through inbound strategies. Without content, it will get difficult for you to convert the website visitors into leads.   

Irrespective of the lead generation strategy, content is used in every step. You see the website pages; those are filled with content. What goes into your emails is content. The blogs, emails, ads, webinars, are all the vehicles through which the message is sent across. The message is the content! So, to make it simple and clear, the content is pivotal around which the whole concept of digital marketing revolves.   

But again, I would focus on the fact that the content should be right. By right content, I mean:  

• It should be optimized to the level that it appeals to buyer personas.   
• The content should focus on the buyer’s pain points, the challenges they are trying to overcome and the goals they are looking to achieve.   
• The overall content should be interesting and relevant.   

Another important thing to keep in mind is the buyer’s persona. Creating content that is persona-specific will bring in better results. To do so, you will have to understand the buyer’s journey. Let me give you a brief on how the customer journey goes by.  

There are three main stages to the buyer’s journey. 

• The Awareness Stage  
• The Consideration Stage, and   
• The Decision-Making Stage  

When the potential customer passes all these stages, the lead is generated successfully. This forms part of the lead generation funnel. To understand the benefits of the sales funnel, please read the blog, lead generation funnel benefits to the businesses. 

The content you use must act as an effective tool in your conversion path toolkit. You should make sure that you are using remarkable content that is tailored to the needs and requirements of the buyer’s persona.   

Let the Landing Pages Do the Talking  

After you have understood the importance of content and developed a remarkable content offer, the next step is to use that content to generate leads. Where to place that offer now? The answer is on the landing pages. Yes, here the landing pages jump in.   

The landing pages are the special pages designed with the sole purpose of collecting the information of visitors in exchange for something of value to them. For instance, a report, a guide, newsletter, whitepaper, e-book, and so on. The landing pages contain the forms that are to be submitted by the visitor to avail of the benefits of the offer. To understand the process in detail, you can jump onto the blog post, how do landing pages generate leads. 

The great landing pages are those which focus both on the buyer’s persona as well as the buying stage they are on. Here’s the blog which will guide you on designing high-converting landing pages How to design high-converting landing pages  

Strong, Quick, Call-To-Action  

At this point, you will have a landing page ready. The content is done, the page is well-designed. Now what? How will your visitors act upon if they like the offer? Now, here CTA comes into the action. If your CTA is not able to grab the attention, you are likely to lose your potential customer. The CTA must be so effective that the visitor is compelled to act upon it immediately.    

The best part of the Call-to-action button is that you can embed them throughout your website. When the visitor clicks on the Call-To-Action, they will automatically be taken to the landing page. So, we can say every CTA is the beginning of the conversion path. Considering the importance of the Call-To-Action, it is vital to ensure its alignment and effectiveness. Here are some of the things you must keep in mind while giving a CTA.   

•  The message on the CTA should be clear  

•  The content should be short and crisp  
•  The CTA should bring out the emotions of the visitor  
•  It should align with the message on your landing page  

The thumb rule is that the call-to-action should be action-oriented. After all, the objective is to get clicks, leads, and generate revenue.   

Thank Your Visitor   

Create a thank-you page. If CTA is the beginning of the conversion path, the thank-you page is the end. So, if it marks the end, it should be sweet and memorable for the visitor. Thank-you pages are the specialized website pages from which your present leads are able to download the offer you promised. These pages are an opportunity to move people further ahead in the buyer’s journey. To do so, you can include things like additional calls-to-action buttons and offers that complement the offer you have provided your lead.   

Don’ts of Conversion Path  

Many businesses are not able to reach their goal because their conversion path is often ambiguous. Here are some of the things I will discuss to bring in more clarity. Have a look at the don’ts of the conversion path.   

Too Many Options is A Bad Idea  

The first impression is everything. If your business website landing page is complicated and stuffed with graphics, navigation bar, images, a lot of content, for instance, you will likely lose the visitors. Keeping everything simple is the only formula. The landing page should be designed in a manner that is self-explanatory.   

Don’t Give A Lot of Information  

Your visitors come to your website to find solutions to their problems. If your website is further adding to their confusion, they will leave. You have to give information but that should be specific and well crafted. Even if there is a lot of information to give, it is suggested to present it in a manner that does not look clumsy. For example, use bullet points, short sentences, less use of jargon, and so on. Your information should be in sync with the visitor so that he/she feels connected. Provide them the information that is paramount to the decision they are about to make. Give only what they want – nothing more, or less.  

Conclusion  

A conversion path is a process by which unknown website visitors become leads. If done right, the conversion path becomes a continuous process as after generating leads, you move to the next step of nurturing them, and the process goes on. To know more about the landing pages, their optimization, setting up great thank you pages, check out the blog on best practices to optimizing landing pages.

Also, you can contact the team of the Big Unit and get premium lead generation services in Narre Warren.   

So, do not think and wait, just act and call!