In your quest to attract customers and drive sales, you might try different tactics—creating videos, designing landing pages, and building email lists. But when these efforts are rolled out as separate marketing strategies, you may miss opportunities to guide potential buyers through your sales process.
The key to transforming leads into customers is to combine these tactics into a cohesive conversion path. For example, a captivating video might direct visitors to a targeted landing page, where they sign up for an email list in exchange for a discount code; this triggers a series of personalized emails that nurture the lead toward a sale.
Here’s how to build a successful conversion path that guides prospects through a well-defined customer journey.
What is a conversion path?
A conversion path is a series of steps a visitor takes on your website to achieve a desired action, like making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. This journey includes every touchpoint a user encounters—like landing pages, calls to action (CTAs), forms, and thank you pages—before completing the final conversion goal.
You can measure and optimize your conversion path’s effectiveness to improve your overall conversion rate.
There are three key conversion path stages:
1. Attract
This first stage focuses on increasing website traffic through search engine optimization (SEO), paid advertising, social media, and content marketing. The goal is to attract qualified leads likely to convert.
2. Convert
Once visitors arrive, the goal shifts to capturing their information and initiating engagement. This involves optimizing landing pages, forms, and CTAs to encourage a desired action like a newsletter sign-up, resource download, or registering for a free trial. The aim here is to take anonymous visitors and convert into identifiable leads.
3. Close
The final stage is where leads are nurtured into customers. This typically involves targeted follow-ups, more personalized content, and compelling offers to help leads make a decision to buy.
Elements of a conversion path
Not all conversion paths are the same. Downloading an ebook may involve a simple landing page and a form, whereas an online purchase may entail a more complex journey with product pages, a shopping cart, and ecommerce checkout.
While there are many different conversion paths, they typically share these key elements:
Landing page
A landing page is a web page designed to convert an anonymous website visitor into a lead or customer. It’s often the first page a visitor encounters after clicking on an ad, email link, or search result. A landing page typically includes a clear and compelling headline, relevant visuals, and a focused message that matches the visitor’s intent and encourages them to take action.
CTA
A CTA is a button or link prompting visitors to take a specific action, like making a purchase. A CTA is prominent, visually appealing, and uses action-oriented language, like “Sign Up,” “Download Now,” or “Add To Cart.” The goal is to guide visitors to the next step in the conversion path—actually taking the desired action.
End point
The end point marks the completion of the primary conversion goal—whether that’s completing a purchase or subscribing to an email list.
The end point may be signified by a confirmation page after a purchase, a welcome email after signing up for a service, or a consultation booking after filling out a form. It’s where your visitor transforms into a customer or qualified lead.
The end point should clearly confirm the action taken and provide any information about what happens next in the customer journey.
Thank you page
Following the end point, a thank you page can be a warm gesture of appreciation. It can also be a strategic opportunity. It expresses gratitude for the lead’s action, reinforces the value of their decision, and can even offer additional resources or next steps.
This page is also great for presenting related offers or encouraging more interaction with your brand, like following your social media accounts or other products. A thoughtful thank you page helps nurture your new customer relationship and can set the stage for long-term loyalty.
How to create a successful conversion path
- Set clear conversion goals
- Attract visitors with relevant content
- Design compelling landing pages
- Create engaging CTAs
- Craft an effective thank you page
- Analyze and refine your conversion path
A successful conversion path turns website visitors into customers. Here’s step-by-step process, including how to create landing pages that drive conversions and analyze conversion paths to improve performance:
1. Set clear conversion goals
To create effective conversion paths, start by establishing clear objectives that align with your broader business goals to guide your efforts. These might include goals like:
- Generate 50 leads per month through form submissions
- Increase product sales by 20% quarter over quarter
- Gain 1,000 new newsletter subscribers in the next 30 days
- Achieve 100 app downloads or free trial sign-ups per week
- Schedule 15 consultation calls or product demos each month
2. Attract visitors with relevant content
To attract qualified website visitors at the beginning of your conversion path, create content that resonates with your target audience. Implement inbound marketing strategies like SEO-optimized blog posts, informative videos, or compelling social media content that addresses your audience’s pain points and interests. You can also pay for Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or brand influencer partnerships.
To drive traffic to its website, a skin care company might create blog posts about common skin concerns and product guides, while a cookware company could share recipes and cooking tips on YouTube.
3. Design compelling landing pages
To create landing pages that convert visitors into leads, include clear and concise headlines, engaging visuals, and persuasive copy that highlights your unique value proposition. Provide a seamless user experience on all devices, by ensuring your landing pages are optimized for mobile users.
An outdoor gear ecommerce company’s landing page could include high-quality images of its products in nature, short customer reviews from fellow hikers and mountaineers, and a limited-time discount code for first-time buyers.
4. Create engaging CTAs
Generate more leads and conversions by strategically placing relevant CTAs throughout your website and content. A strong CTA encourages visitors to take the desired action.
Use action-oriented language, make your CTAs visually prominent, and ensure that they present a compelling offer that resonates with your target audience, wherever they are in the buyer’s journey.
Here are CTAs to you might try:
- “Download our free ebook” in a blog post related to the resource’s topic
- “Start your free trial” on your product landing page
- “Sign up for our weekly newsletter” in a pop-up or sidebar on your website
- “Schedule a demo with our experts” on your services page targeting B2B customers
- “Add to cart” on a product page on your ecommerce store
📚Learn more: 15 Ecommerce CTA Examples and How To Write One
5. Craft an effective thank you page
After a visitor completes the desired action, direct them to a thank you page. This is an opportunity to welcome new customers, reiterate the benefits of their decision, recommend related products, services, or content, or provide any necessary information or resources.
If a visitor purchases a beginner’s yoga course from your online fitness studio, your thank you page might include a list of recommended accessories, a discount code for their next purchase, or an invitation to your exclusive Facebook or Discord community.
🌟Resource: 44 Best Thank You for Your Purchase Messages
6. Analyze and refine your conversion path
To keep improving your conversion paths, regularly analyze their performance using marketing analytics platforms like Google Analytics. Conducting a funnel analysis—to track the steps users take to complete specific actions—can identify areas where visitors drop off.
When analyzing your conversion paths, look for:
- High bounce rates on key pages
- Low click-through rates on CTAs
- Lengthy or complex forms that may discourage completion
- Confusing navigation or unclear next steps
- Slow page load times that may cause visitors to abandon the path
- Inconsistencies in messaging or design across the conversion path
- Underperforming traffic sources or marketing campaigns
- Opportunities for personalization based on visitor behavior or demographics
Implement improvements to your conversion path based on your findings, remove barriers to conversion, and create a seamless user experience that drives better results.
An example of a successful conversion path
Allbirds, a sustainable footwear brand, makes shoes from natural materials like merino wool, eucalyptus tree fiber, sugarcane, and castor oil. Its digital marketing strategy starts with paid Google ads, leading to an email signup offering a discount code, and ends in a follow-up email with the code and additional product information.
Here are the key steps in Allbirds’ conversion path:
1. Sponsored ad
Allbirds runs search engine marketing ads on platforms like Google, highlighting their comfortable, sustainable shoes and directing traffic to their website.
2. Website landing page with pop-up
The ads lead to a landing page on the Allbirds’ website showcasing its shoes. An email signup pop-up appears, prompting visitors to enter their email to join the Allbirds “flock” and receive a 15% discount code.
3. Signup confirmation
After signing up, a confirmation message appears, telling visitors to check their inbox for the exclusive discount code.
4. Promotional email
Allbirds sends a follow-up email containing the unique 15% discount code, an expiration date, and links back to the website to encourage a purchase. During the process, website visitors are also signed up to the company’s mailing list.
This funnel aims to capture interested leads, incentivize email signups, and convert subscribers into customers through a 15% discount email promotion.
Conversion path FAQ
What is a conversion path?
A conversion path is the journey a visitor takes on your website from their initial interaction to completing a desired action, like making a purchase or filling out a form.
What are the steps for creating an effective conversion path?
The steps for creating an effective conversion path include
- Attracting visitors with relevant content
- Setting clear conversion goals
- Designing compelling landing pages
- Creating engaging calls-to-action
- Crafting effective thank you pages
- Analyzing and refining your path based on data
What makes a good conversion path?
A good conversion path is clear, concise, and tailored to your target audience, guiding them through a journey from awareness to conversion while providing value and addressing their needs at each stage.
