Sales funnel improvement is essential to anyone who has a sales funnel, to begin with.

However, trying to improve your sales funnel can be a tricky process to get right. Because sometimes when you try to improve your sales funnel your conversions can actually drop as a result of a wrong move or a bad decision.

This can be detrimental if you or your business/employer rely on the sales funnel for income. That’s why most prefer not to touch their sales funnel if it is already working.

Simply put, they are worried they will screw up and hurt or halt the overall conversions they are currently getting. However, only 23% of businesses are satisfied with their conversion rates.

There are many things you can do to improve your sales funnel without seeing your overall conversions drop, here are five examples:

1 – Remove Distractions

Often times you will see a web page loaded up with widgets. These things usually include a link to every social media profile you have, your phone number, your address, & possibly a widget or several showing other content on your site.

By removing these elements from your sales funnel, you focus the visitor’s attention on what you’re trying to show them, likely a call to action. You do not want to draw attention to any other area except your offer or CTA. This strategy is often extended to the website menu, removing it entirely to keep the user from getting distracted.

The idea is that you only want the user to have two options, to continue through the funnel or to leave altogether. And you certainly don’t want multiple calls to actions for different offers or products on the same page. The more options a user is presented with, the more confused they can become. And when a user is confused inside a funnel, they often will drop out of the funnel completely.

2 – Split Test Colors

Different colours can have different psychological effects on users. That’s why a great way to improve your sales funnel without losing conversions is by split testing different colours on the page. This can be the colours of the headings, a lead form, or any call to action buttons you may have on the page.

Depending on what colour is used, users receive different feelings from the page and thus are going to be more or less likely to convert. This can also depend on the type of offer and copy being presented. Are you warning the visitor to a problem you might help them avoid? Then maybe a red CTA might work better. Alternatively, if the copy or offer is designed to provide the user with a sense of security then possibly a cooler colour like blue or green might be more appropriate.

3 – A/B Test Copy Text

Often times the best way to improve your sales funnel is by A/B testing different text elements. The process of A/B testing is also known as split testing. This means that some users who visit your funnel will see the standard text that existed before the change, while others might see a new or updated version of the page.

The idea behind this strategy is to improve the conversion rate of your funnel gradually. This will also give you a better idea about what your users are looking for in your funnel. For example, instead of “Contact Us” maybe try “Get Help Now.” This changes the intent of the call to action from a contact request which often has negative emotional intent.

Why? Its because usually when you submit a “Contact Us” form you get bombarded with sales requests, emails, phone calls, etc.

However the “Get Help Now” button changes the intent, letting users know that your objective is to help them instead of bothering them with sales requests for something they may not want. This recontextualised the offer in a way that won’t only increase conversions at the current stage of the funnel the user is at, but also throughout the rest of the funnel.

4 – Increase Mobile Website Optimization

Most users visit websites and applications on mobile devices. This means that by optimising your funnel for mobile, you will increase usability and conversion rates for mobile users. This strategy has the advantage of not changing the desktop version too much.

You should see a minimal impact on the conversions for the desktop version, while simultaneously increasing the mobile conversion rate. Some things to think about during mobile optimisation are page speed, image size, and text formatting. Often you will see a font size that looks great on desktop, but when viewed on mobile appears too big. The same thing happens with text and images.

Another example are images right or left aligned, with text next to it. However, when a user is on a mobile device, this layout may not appear correctly and thus give the user an unprofessional feeling.

5 – Provide Clear & Concise Call To Action

Consider whether your call to action stands out enough. The CTA can be easily overlooked due to sizing, placement, and a wide range of other factors.

A great way to improve your sales funnel without decreasing conversions is to put some thought into the placement of your CTAs. For example, on mobile is the CTA in the sidebar but could be displayed more clearly? Is it possible for the user to see the CTA at every part of the page?

Something to keep in mind when adjusting your CTAs is to make them as easy as possible for the user to act on.

For example, if you have a lead form that requires ten qualification fields such as income, relationship status, business size, etc., then you might want to reduce the number to two or three lines of this data at the beginning, and then present the user with a second form after the first. This means at the very least you will get some information, as opposed to the alternative where the user does not submit the CTA form because it requires too much info.

Bonus Tip – Take Advantage Of Your Sales Metrics

If there’s one last tip to improve your sales funnel, and without seeing your conversion rates dropping, it’s that you need to take advantages of your sales metrics. Understand that your sales metrics are absolutely crucial to your success since ultimately it’s your CRM and your sales database are what tells you precisely about your prospects and what is and what isn’t working in regards to your efforts.

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This is a guest blog written for Webgains by Samuel Bocetta.

Sam is a freelance journalist specializing in U.S. national cyber-defence, with emphases on emerging technology trends in information security, cryptography, and cyber-warfare. He currently consults part-time for Apoxea, Inc. to develop underwater ballistics testing systems.