When an online business isn’t getting the response you hoped for, it’s tempting to change everything or look for more traffic.
But the problem might be further along the journey. People may be visiting your page without signing up, joining your email list without clicking, or clicking through without finding an offer that suits them.
A simple way to investigate is to look at each step separately.
Start with the reader’s journey
A basic online business journey might look like this:
Helpful content → clear sign-up → useful emails → relevant offer
A person first finds something you’ve shared. They visit a page, decide whether the resource is worth requesting, and may then receive follow-up emails. Later, they might consider an offer that fits their needs.
Each step asks the person to make a choice. If the next step is unclear, inconvenient or unrelated to what brought them there, they may stop.
This doesn’t automatically mean the whole system is wrong. It gives you a place to start checking.
Look at each step separately
Content to page visit
First, look at whether your content gives the right person a clear reason to take the next step.
Does it speak to a problem your audience recognises? Is it clear what they’ll find if they visit your page? If your content and page seem to be about different things, people may not continue.
Page visit to sign-up
If people are visiting but few are signing up, review the page and the resource you’re offering.
Check that the page explains:
- Who the resource is for.
- What the person will receive.
- How it relates to the problem they want to solve.
- What they need to do to request it.
Make sure the sign-up process is easy to understand and works as expected. Don’t change the wording, design and offer all at once; you’ll have a harder time working out what made a difference.
Sign-up to email action
If someone joins your list, deliver what you promised and make the next email useful.
If subscribers aren’t clicking, consider whether the emails connect with the reason they signed up. Is the next step clear? Does the email give them a useful reason to take it?
A person joining your list is an opportunity to continue helping them. It doesn’t guarantee that they’ll read every email or take the next action.
Click to offer decision
If someone clicks but doesn’t buy, check whether the offer matches what they were looking for and whether it is clearly explained.
Also look at whether the page they land on follows naturally from the email. If the email suggests one thing and the offer page focuses on something different, the reader may hesitate.
A click tells you that someone took a step. It doesn’t tell you exactly why they decided not to continue, so treat it as a clue to investigate rather than a complete explanation.
Improve one step at a time
Before changing anything, write down what you can currently see: visits, sign-ups, email clicks and any available offer activity.
Then choose one step to review. For example, if visitors are reaching the sign-up page but not completing the form, focus on the clarity of the page and the sign-up process first.
Make one reasonable change, then review the results after you have enough activity to learn something. If you change several parts at once, it becomes difficult to tell which change mattered.
Keep expectations realistic
No one can guarantee that a visitor will sign up, click or buy. People make their own decisions, and results can be affected by many things.
Your part is to make the journey clear, make sure each step is relevant, and use the information available to decide what to review next.
If you’re still putting the basics of your business in place, my free Business Essentials Guide explains what every business needs and why, in plain English.
A simple funnel review checklist
- Does the content match the page it leads to?
- Is the resource explained clearly?
- Does the sign-up process work?
- Does the email deliver what was promised?
- Is the next action in each email clear?
- Does the offer fit the reader’s original interest?
- Have I chosen one step to improve before changing anything else?