Where Do I Start?

One of the main challenges of learning anything via the internet is understanding what needs to be done, and in what order. I’ve thrown a lot of information at you, and although it is only the tip of the iceberg, the work to be done can feel overwhelming.

“Where do I start?” is a common, and perfectly reasonable question.

It is also nearly impossible to answer for you without context. Your situation is unique, and that needs to be respected. There are no cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all solutions here. Because of this, we think it is better to share another guiding principle that can help you discover this answer for yourself.

Begin with the end in mind.

When we work backwards from the point of conversion (meaning, from the moment a sale happens), we can quickly uncover where we need to begin.

For example, if we have a website (or other online presence) which is already receiving a fair amount of traffic, we might discover retargeting as a perfect place to begin. After all, even with the ongoing changes to tracking cookies, retargeting is still an effective way to recapture potential value from our existing traffic.

Let’s look at a couple of examples. First, a simple one — then we will add some complexity.

Example 1: Imagine a robust and well-written blog post whose high-quality content leads to an opt-in for a lead magnet. Maybe it says something like:

“Click here for a life-changing guide on blah blah blah.”

Assume this post gets an even 100 visits a day from real people (not bots), and boasts an opt-in rate of 5% for that amazing lead magnet.

If you’re already aware of retargeting, you might see the 95% who didn’t opt-in as the primary opportunity for a retargeting effort complete with an even cooler lead magnet to hook them.

By now, you probably expect me to offer a counterpoint to this common view, and you’d be right.

Rather than focus on the entire 95%, my suggestion would be to add some qualifying filters.

Perhaps one of those filters is how long the visitor spent on the page. Let’s say our filter to qualify for retargeting specifies they must have stayed on the page for more than ten seconds. And then, we can specify even more by adding that they did not complete the opt-in.

This set of qualifying filters will likely reduce our retargeting list significantly (more than half wouldn’t surprise me), which also reduces the cost of our retargeting campaign — all while increasing the overall quality of the audience we are retargeting.

Next, I would suggest that we ask ourselves what problem the person who read the post was trying to solve, and then craft a lead magnet for that specific purpose (but not the same one they already said no to).

There are two important points to note in this example:

1. People vote with their behavior. The people who didn’t opt-in already voted no on the first lead magnet, so we don’t want to offer them the same thing again.
2. By filtering in this way we are focusing on a high-quality pool of prospects who have already shown with their behavior that they are more likely to engage than some random person from a new audience pool.

Ok, let’s move on to another, more complex example. It will give you a better sense of what I mean by beginning with the end in mind.

Example 2: Imagine you own a dozen bed-and-breakfast properties, and you have a website where people can book their stay at any of them. You also have a reservation line where people can call and book their stay by talking with a live person.

The typical customer journey for this business looks something like:

1. They see (and click) an ad that takes them to a special offer page on the site
2. They click an offer on that page, taking them to an exclusive booking portal
3. They choose the property they want to stay at, date, room type, and any other preferences
4. They pay online
5. After payment, they are taken to a confirmation page, and a confirmation email is sent to the email address they provided

Using user reported statistics from AirBnB as a reference point, we can assume that our dozen Bed and Breakfast properties will see an average conversion rate of somewhere between 1% and 5%. This means that for every 100 leads who click our ad, somewhere between 1-5 of them will book a stay with us. For the sake of simplicity, we will assume this is regardless of if they pay online or book and pay by phone.

The common tactic for boosting sales is to pour more traffic into the top of the funnel — which, on the surface, makes sense and even seems perfectly reasonable. If we send more visitors and maintain our conversion rate (as long as our CPA, AOV, and LTV all support it) we will make money.

But is this the best way?

You know by now… we disagree with it.

What if we work backwards instead?

We know there is some percentage of people who see the option to pay online, but they choose not to. They’ve made it all the way to the checkout page, but they abandon at the last moment. Why? After all, I think we can agree that a person who makes it all the way to the checkout page is substantially more engaged than a person who clicked on the ad, but never started the booking process, right?

I’m glad you agree.

So, that’s where we start. We begin by trying to get inside the mind of those prospects and asking specific questions about what exactly is preventing them from moving forward with their booking. Questions like:

• Is there something wrong with the checkout page?
• Is our copywriting clear, or is it muddy and confusing?
• Is it that they simply aren’t comfortable entering payment information online, and would rather speak to a real person to book their stay?

After asking these questions, maybe we decide to test that last question with a retargeting campaign. The campaign would retarget prospects who have seen the checkout page (and not purchased) and, it would show them a new ad with a friendly-looking booking agent, as well as a toll-free number, displayed prominently. Better still, we could use a unique 800 number for this specific ad so that any time a prospect calls it, we know they came from this specific retargeting campaign.

We continue this approach, methodically moving through the customer’s journey (in reverse), until we find the areas of improvement with the biggest impact.

Working in reverse like this has a number of benefits but, the biggest (in our opinion) is that this method embraces a simple truth: the deeper someone is the customer journey, the more valuable that person is to your business

If we are spending money to gain traffic, we want to make sure we are spending it to reach the highest quality prospects first.

Your assignment for this section is to plot out your buyer’s journey. Map it out from start to finish, and then, identify the very last step taken before someone becomes a customer. That last step is where you’ll want to start your efforts.

(If you are working toward leads rather than sales at this point, you’ll still do the exact same work.)

Ask yourself:

• What is this person thinking at this point in the process?
• What are their concerns?
• What are their potential objections?
• In what ways could you demonstrate empathy and reinforce your credibility?
• How could you make their decision to buy easier?

If you really want to go the extra mile, repeat this exercise for a few more steps in your buyer’s journey. Keep working — in reverse — while, respecting that the closer they are to the point of conversion, the more valuable the prospect is to your business. We want to keep this point in mind, and spend our advertising budget accordingly.

As always, take your time. 

The insights gained from working in this way can completely change your strategy for the better.

Proceed to the next section when you’re ready.