The sales funnel is the process a user goes through when they go from being a visitor to becoming a paying customer. Every website has a sales funnel even if that process varies; it is crucial in understanding how a user is going through the sales cycle and using your website. For example, someone might make it to the shopping cart but then abandon the cart while another person maybe makes it as far as the final purchase page before leaving the site. Each stage in the cycle provides a little more information about how customers are interacting with your website. By studying each phase in the cycle you can understand what works and where customers might be dropping off. Studying the traffic and sales funnel, you can isolate various elements on your site and determine which features are helping you increase conversions and which features are hurting you and must be changed.
To the end that you are trying to guide customers through a sales funnel, every page on your website should have a goal it is trying to achieve. This may seem overly simplistic or obvious, but the truth is that most websites suffer from having a lack of organization and failing to give its visitors proper guidance and direction. It’s important to ask yourself, “Why does this page exist? What kind of action do I want my customer to take on this page?” Are you trying to get someone to, “click here” or “call now?” Or are you trying to convey a specific message or value proposition, such as you can provide them the best quality service at a reasonable price? Whatever your goal may be for that page, it should be defined early in the design process and articulate to the visitor as soon as they land on your page. Establishing goals early in the design process enables you to test how well that page is performing and to figure out which pages need some tweaking.