Ecommerce is growing at a rapid rate, but do you know just how much business happens over the web? And how much of that business is specifically made through mobile devices?

It’s enough business that you should definitely be making sure your website is easy to use on every type of device, or be okay with losing out on extra revenue if you don’t.

The proof?

Not only is ecommerce on the rise overall, but mobile purchases specifically are predicted to dominate online sales by 2021, driving 54% of all web sales.

Even setting sales aside, the number of users is also worth noting: 80% of Americans are online shoppers — and half of them use a mobile device to do their shopping.

If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, visitors are also 5 times more likely to leave. Even further, over 50% of websites are already incorporating responsive web design technologies that work for all types of devices.

That’s a big chunk of the online market to be missing out on simply because your website isn’t user friendly, especially when one of your goals is likely to provide the same level of service — if not better — than your competitors.

The good news: it’s an easier fix than you might think!

The Limelight Theme offers quick and easy options for tailoring your website to mobile phones, tablets, and desktops.

Read on to learn more about the different types of mobile websites and how the Limelight Theme can help you get your website where you want it to be.

Websites on Mobile Devices: Friendly, Responsive, or Optimized?

There are a few terms people throw around in regards to websites and mobile devices: mobile friendly, mobile responsive, and mobile optimized. While they sometimes get confused, each term means something completely different.

First off, “mobile friendly” is often used as a blanket term for a website that works for mobile users on their devices. While this is technically true, there’s a little more to it than that.

Generally speaking, the consensus is this:

Having a mobile friendly website means someone can view your website on their mobile device. The problem is that it will look the exact same on a mobile device as it does on a regular computer, which means it will be shrunken down to fit the size of the screen. Basically, your website will be supported on mobile devices but won’t change any formatting or design to make it easier for the visitor to use.

That’s a very tiny screen showing some very tiny words that a site visitor won’t be able to read without some frustrated zooming and scrolling. Guaranteed, visitors will have a hard time interacting with it.

A website that is just mobile friendly will end up being too much work and effort for the visitor, which means they are likely to leave in favor of other websites with actual mobile versions (AKA your competition). Being mobile friendly is definitely the first step, but you won’t want to call it good there.

A mobile responsive website will automatically reformat your website to fit mobile screen sizes. This means that your website will detect what kind of platform the viewer is on and subsequently show them the correct sized version of your website. Since the changes are automatic, you’ll typically have to check and fix any inconsistencies or problems that the auto-formatting missed or didn’t fix the way you wanted it to.

Mobile optimization is the best way to engage users across all devices, and it’s definitely what you want if you’re looking to make more online sales. Optimization will allow you to set the specific design and formatting for your website on each type of device. You’ll be able to change specific settings like font size, picture size and order, padding and margins, and even take away multi-column ordering in favor of a bigger, easier-to-read single column format.

Not to mention, making your site mobile optimized will also mean that it’s mobile responsive.

You’ll be able to create a unique, tailored, and user-friendly version of your website specifically for mobile users without messing up how your website looks in its full desktop version.

Ultimately, you should want your website to be mobile optimized because it includes the other two!

Optimize with the Limelight Theme

The Limelight Theme is mobile optimized, mobile responsive, and mobile friendly, so you’ll truly be able to tailor your website to all of your site visitors. The theme bundle offers pre-loaded plugins, including a Pro version of the front-end page builder Elementor. Not only will the page builder help you create pages more quickly, but you’ll also be able to tweak a page to add, hide, or change specific content depending on the viewing platform.

Specifically, you’ll have the option to set mobile responsive content for phones, tablets, and desktops. All of the responsive features are on the right hand side of the elementor settings bar under the “Advanced” tab and then under “Responsive.” That is specifically where you can hide whole blocks of content!

In addition to those settings, you can also view what your website will look like on different platforms and make corresponding changes with the “Responsive Mode” icon at the very bottom left corner of the page. This will change the actual appearance of your screen so you can see what your content will look like.

Have a handy list of icons on the desktop version of your website but it doesn’t come out right on mobile? Just hide the entire block of content on mobile while keeping it visible on desktop. It’s that easy.

If you’re wondering how to fix common mobile design problems, here are some best practice tips to use with the Limelight/Elementor bundle:

  • Don’t use small fonts on mobile devices. We don’t want any users to have to pinch and zoom.
  • Make sure your content is all one column. Any more than that will be too small for mobile devices.
  • If a specific part of your design just doesn’t translate well onto mobile, consider hiding that section altogether. If it’s really important information that you can’t hide, it’s probably best to change the layout.
  • Check your headlines and the padding/margins around them. Sometimes the formatting is funky initially on mobile devices.
  • Always test and check the results on a mobile device yourself! Systems glitch. It happens!

The Results

More and more people are using mobile devices to make online purchases. Even if they don’t purchase immediately, site visitors are still window shopping, comparing options, and looking for accessible information. If your website doesn’t look appealing and have great functionality on their phone or tablet, odds are they won’t stay long enough to find out about your killer products or services.

Mobile optimization is the best way to address all aspects of your website and make sure that it is visually appealing and easy to use on all devices — and your sales will end up reflecting it.

The Limelight Theme has the tools you’ll need to ensure your website is mobile optimized, giving you full editing control of each device layout and design — and the benefits don’t just stop with the Elementor Pro plugin that’s included.

The theme bundle also includes our Forms, Checkout, and various other plugins to keep your website conversion and sales-oriented, allowing you to truly focus on engaging your visitors and increasing your online profits. If you want to capitalize on your untapped online sales potential, the Limelight Theme bundle will help you create a website with your profits in mind.

You could be making even more in sales with an appealing, easy-to-read website that grabs site visitors’ attention.

Optimize your website for mobile devices now and give your profits a boost!

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If you don’t currently use the Limelight Theme for WordPress, click here for more information on what we have to offer! The Limelight Theme was built for marketers, by marketers, and will help keep your website sales-funnel oriented and optimize your marketing goals.

 

Nowadays, there’s a general understanding and belief that all businesses need a quality website. Whether you’re an entrepreneur just starting out, a solo act calling your own shots, or a business that’s been around the block — a good website will help answer questions, support your brand, and make money.

Simply put, if you have a website that looks attractive and performs well you’ll reap the rewards.

But what if you need to make a website specifically for members with different tiers, levels of content, and more? What’s the best way in the sea of options?

We’ve got you covered.

The Limelight Theme makes creating a quality website as quick, easy, and customizable as possible.

If you’re a business owner or entrepreneur who offers some sort of membership service, you know how crucial your website is. You could be offering classes, training, gym memberships, subscription boxes, or beyond — the fact is, more and more users are buying online. And when it comes to memberships, users are both purchasing memberships and maintaining them via the web.

So what exactly does the Limelight Theme include that will help you create a killer membership website?

Read on to learn more about what the Limelight Theme offers for membership sites and a step-by-step basics walkthrough of how to use it!

Theme Features for Membership Sites

The Limelight Theme bundle offers various options and pre-loaded plugins to support all of your website needs. Included are the Limelight Forms and the Limelight Checkout plugins, which are especially useful for building a membership site. The theme also incorporates user roles and restriction settings, so you can make sure that only certain levels of members have access to specific content.

Our goal was to create a theme packed with so much value and such a variety of tools and options that a person wouldn’t need to look anywhere else (or spend any more money) for additional bells and whistles. And you won’t.

Using the Limelight theme means no extra plugins are necessary, and you’ll have your membership site up and running in no time.

To see the theme features in detail, including descriptions and examples, follow the step-by-step basics walkthrough below! We’ve created a dummy account and website to show you exactly how the theme and plugins work.

Please note: You need to upload the Limelight Theme into WordPress and make sure that all of the plugins that come with it are fully downloaded before being able to use the following functions.

User Signups with Limelight Forms

First up are all of the options with Limelight Forms.

The Limelight Forms plugin is very handy for getting site visitors’ information. If you’re building a membership website, odds are you’ll need to collect information for one reason or another!

Limelight Forms provides a way to create a signup list for an email, register a user, and more. Keep in mind — the forms are not a way to incorporate paid membership options.

No matter how you want to use them, the forms will definitely help get your membership site up and running. Let’s jump in!

This is the first step in creating a Register User form. You’ll go to the Limelight Forms tab in your WordPress dashboard, and then click “add new.” From there, you’ll see the Templates tab on the right side, with three templates to choose from. Drag the Register User template to the left and onto the Builder section. Don’t forget to add a title too, and feel free to customize the button text.

Like we said above, these forms can be used for a variety of different options, but the core value remains the same: it gathers data or content. The “Register User” example we’re showing would be beneficial if people need to log in to your website in order to view certain information, or if you have a free product or free portion of the website that they would need to access with a username and password. For a site visitor who isn’t already registered, they would fill out this form.

Note: Another template you will probably use this same form and process for is the Login template. That way you can give your current users a Login page and a way to access their account! You’ll want to repeat this process and make a separate Login form too.

After you’ve started your Register User form, go to the Events tab on the top left. This will allow you to add different events to happen after a visitor signs up. The screenshot above specifically shows what you can change with the “WP Register User” event: in addition to getting their information, you can also automatically add new users to a specific role (such as Free Membership Level 1, etc) or even use the Meta Mapper to make sure additional information that you might add to the form (if you add additional questions/text boxes) is tracked and associated with that user, like a business name.

Note: We’ll show you how to add/change user roles later on!

You are also able to set up a Redirect event after a user registers or logs in. To do that, you’ll go to your registration form that you created in Limelight forms, click the Events tab, and then drag and drop the “Redirect” action underneath the “WP Login” or “WP Register User” action. On the right side, you’ll be able to set which web page you want your users to be redirected to after they sign up and fill out the form. In this case, we used the example of a “Membership Dashboard” page we created for members to be redirected to after they successfully log in.

After you’ve set up the events you want to take place, you can change the style and settings of how you want your form to appear. Play around with the options and see what you think!

Once you’re done making your register user form, don’t forget to name it and save it. The form is done! We don’t have to worry about payment options or portals since this is just a regular form. (We’ll cover how to make products and payment gateways in Limelight Checkout.)

Next, we need to copy the form and paste it into the page we want to use, probably named our Register User page or our Sign In/Login page. To do that, locate the notification above the form that has the green bar on the left side that says “Shortcode.” Copy the code in brackets, and then we’ll go paste it into the page itself.

You’ll copy that code and then open up the page you want it to be on in WordPress, then click “Edit with Elementor.” Once there, choose the “shortcode” widget from the elementor list on the left side (there’s a search bar at the top). Paste your code into the box on the left, save and update, and it will show up on your page! Again, you’re more than welcome to stylize your form to make it more appealing.

That’s it! Those are the basics to create any form for a membership site, including a Register User or a Login form. There are a lot of smaller options you can play with that will change the style, structure, or what you want to include in your forms — and you’re always more than welcome to make your own form from scratch if you want, too. However, these pre-made templates should serve you very well for your membership site and save you some time in the process.

Membership Purchases with Limelight Checkout

Now, the Limelight Forms might be handy for giving members access to services or products without a payment, but what about when you want to charge them for a specific level of membership, like a basic or pro level, or even have a free trial period before they’re billed?

That’s where Limelight Checkout comes in.

The Checkout plugin is also included in the theme bundle, and can help you set up multiple products, tiers of memberships, payment types, and more. It’s also very handy in setting up events after a visitor purchase, such as sending a welcome email or even changing a user’s status from a free user to a paid member.

If your membership has to have a payment option, or even has different levels of payment options, then Limelight Checkout is where you’ll go. The first thing to do is create products to match your membership tiers or offers. If there are three paid membership options, make sure to create three different products. Under Limelight Checkout on the left side of the WordPress dashboard, you’ll go to the Products tab. Here you’ll be able to add a new product, name your product, set the price, and add a description. If your product is offered as downloadable content, you can click the “Add Download” button to add it.

The second tab under Products is for Subscriptions, and it’s where you’ll be able to set any and all subscription requirements and time frames. This includes trial periods, maximum billing periods, month to month memberships, and more.

The third tab is simply to add License Keys. This would be if you want someone to have to input a code to ensure the product is only used once. You’re able to add limitations and even state what type of license it is, like if they only have the license for a single year or if purchasing once gives them lifetime access.

Once you’re done setting up your products, don’t forget to name them! For different levels of memberships, it could look similar to a Basic level, a Pro level, and a Max level. After you’ve named them just remember to save.

After you’ve created your membership products, you’ll have to create a separate Purchase/Checkout form for each membership. This will be different from the Register User form, since there is a payment attached; the purchasing form will be much more detailed and also take credit card information.

To create your sign up form, you’ll go to the Limelight Checkout tab on your WordPress dashboard, then underneath it click the Forms tab. Make sure you’re looking at the Forms tab under Limelight Checkout, and not under Limelight Forms! Then click the “Add New” button at the top of the page.

To start your purchase form, click the Templates tab on the right hand side, and then drag and drop the premade “Checkout Form” template to the left side of the form builder. The form that pops up is all ready to go, with card payment options and everything.

Now it’s time to add our product. On the second tab of the Form Builder, you’ll see Products. Once you’ve made your different products you should be able to choose the one you want from the product list.

Most memberships probably aren’t ordered in bulk (meaning only one is purchased at a time), so don’t worry about the Quantity Type field or anything else on the page.

Remember: Each membership type will have to have its own separate form! So if you have three memberships, make three different forms with different products. They’ll go in different places on your website to correspond to your membership options! 

The next tab on the Purchase form is the Events tab. This is pretty similar to the Events tab with the Limelight Forms that we talked about before — it’s where you’ll make sure that you have events set up to happen after the customer officially signs up and purchases your membership.

Feel free to add whatever you’d like to this page, which includes coupons, thank you emails, and more. Just like on the Limelight Forms too, one super handy option that you shouldn’t forget to change is the “WP Update User” action. It isn’t automatically added after a checkout process like it is when someone registers, so you’ll have to add it manually if you want to use it.

If you drag and drop this action to the left, it will allow you to change a User’s role/status on your website. But what does that do, and why is it even more beneficial after a customer actually purchases a membership?

As an example, if you have someone who was originally a registered user (or even just a non-user, regular site visitor) who chooses to sign up for the 2nd level membership, you can make sure that after they sign up, they will be switched from a “free user/no user/level 1 member” to a “2nd level member,” which will give them access to all of the content for 2nd level members. (We’ll cover accessing and restricting content for different levels in the next section — almost there!).

The last thing you have to make sure to set up before your forms will be live and ready to use are the payments. To activate your membership forms, you’ll go to the “Integrations” tab under the Limelight Checkout option in the WordPress Dashboard.

From there, you can set up a variety of different options depending on your preference. The main one to remember is to go to “Payment Gateways” and choose which payment options you would like to use.

The Limelight Theme offers integrations with both Authorize.net and Stripe; you can use both or one or the other, just make sure to make a free account on the service’s website so you can track the number of memberships you sell and actually get paid!

All that’s left: make sure to save your changes. Your checkout forms are done! From here it’s just as simple as copying and pasting the shortcode into an elementor page block like we talked about before in the Limelight Forms section. Don’t forget to customize and style your checkout form too!

Restricting Access to Certain Pages or Content

Another very important part of your membership website might likely be to have some content available for certain levels of members but not others. Luckily, the Limelight Theme includes custom-made settings and integrations that will allow you to control user access and restrictions.


As mentioned a few times previously, part of that is through creating corresponding user roles that match up with the different tiers of your membership. Once you’ve created the different roles, you can change the access to your website, pages, and content in several different ways.

If you want to restrict website access to regular site visitors on a broader scale rather than just a page here or there — which is useful if you have lots of members-only content spread across multiple sections or pages — you can use the global settings in the Limelight Theme to restrict all pages that include certain words in the URL. For example, if all of your memberships offer different types of classes, videos, downloadable content, or even information like articles or links, you can make sure that each URL has the word “membership” in it. Then, you’d make sure that non-members are restricted from all web pages with the word “membership” in it.

 

It would look something like this:

Site name: mysite.com

 

Restricted access:

/membership

 

So, if you have multiple pages that offer content you don’t want a non-paying user to see, then you would make sure to have each specific page contain the word “membership.”

 

Your members-only videos could look like this:

mysite.com/membership/videos

 

Or your members-only downloadable content could look like this:

mysite.com/membership/downloads

 

This will ensure that someone has to log in to view that particular content. You’ll also notice you can set redirect links if someone is not a member, or not the correct type of member (like if they need level 3 access instead of just level 2). You could paste the “register now” page URL into the field for non-members to be redirected to, and you could paste the “sign up” page URL into the field for members who aren’t high up enough yet.

You’re also able to create multiple access gates, which is handy for having tiered content for different levels of members — the content can just become more and more restricted depending on the user role. After you’ve set up your restrictions the way you want, just make sure you enable the gate.

The second tab under the Limelight Theme options is “User Roles.” This is where you can view the different types of roles that are available for users, and also where you can add new ones. If you have multiple memberships, like a Basic, Pro, and Max level, this is where you could add those three roles.

Then, you can play around with the restrictions so only Max level users can access everything on the website, Pro members can only access some content, and so on.


Once you’ve already set up the different user roles, you also have the ability to make a page have a “parent page.” This will allow you make sure that the only people who have access to this new page are people who also have access to the parent page.

Here’s an example of how it would work:

If a member taking online courses has access to a “Membership Dashboard” page with overall content about their courses, they might also have access to a separate page called “Supplemental Videos.” On the top navigation, they might see a link to the “Membership Dashboard page” with a drop down menu underneath it with a section labeled “Supplemental Videos,” triggered when the member hovers their mouse over the dashboard link.

If a site visitor who is NOT a member goes to the site and the “Membership Dashboard” page is hidden, then the “Supplemental Videos” page will also be hidden.

How to access it:

On the pages tab of the WordPress dashboard, you can click the “Quick Edit” button underneath the page that you want to change. From there you’ll notice that on the right side there’s a settings box labeled “Parent,” with different pages to choose from. From there, choose the page you want, and choose the user role the viewer must have to see the page. Ta da! That’s how you create a hierarchy of parent and child pages to restrict content from users who aren’t supposed to have access.

This is another way to change the user access for a single page. On the actual page level, you’ll note that on the right side settings bar, there’s a section labeled: “User Level Access.” Basically, this is another way to make sure that the correct roles have access to this page. A great part about this section too is that you can choose redirect URLs for this specific page. Not logged in? Redirect to the login page. Not a role that has access? Redirect to a sign up or upgrade page.

Another super cool part of the Limelight Theme is a custom-made, specialty integration that is available for the Limelight Theme only: content protection on the page level through Elementor.

This is an awesome feature that can restrict pages or even single blocks of content from specific users. You can also write what users will see instead of the regular page or content. On top of all of the other ways that you can restrict access for certain members or non-members, this is the icing on the cake for customizing your website.

Here’s an example of how it works:

If a “basic” level user doesn’t have access to certain content but maybe has access to a page, or if somehow they find their way to a page that they shouldn’t have access to, they will be restricted from seeing the content if the “Protection Type” is set to “user role.” Then, you can select the different roles to restrict.

In our example, the restricted content box even shows the message, “You do not have permission to see this content.” You can personalize it to say whatever you want — want to say they can’t see it because they’re not at the pro level, and to view it all they have to do is upgrade? Done. More personalized for the viewer, and less confusing for them too.

The Result

The Limelight Theme comes with all the bells and whistles you’ll need to set up your membership website — that means you won’t have to go out and buy more plugins, “pro” versions, or a different theme. It’s an all-in-one, easy, and ready to use theme that helps keep the process of making online sales easier. Just upload it onto your WordPress site and get started!

For membership websites particularly, the Limelight Theme offers a form builder, a checkout builder, integrations with payment systems and immediate events after purchase, various ways to restrict access, and more.

And while this article may only cover the basics of setting up your website in order to support different tiered memberships, you have a lot of wiggle room to style, customize, and change your content to look exactly how you want it.

We believe that you should have the power to make your website the easiest way possible without sacrificing quality or sales potential. Let the Limelight Theme help you get there!

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If you don’t currently use the Limelight Theme for WordPress, click here for more information on what we have to offer! The Limelight Theme was built for marketers, by marketers, and will help keep your website sales-funnel oriented and optimize your marketing goals.

Calling all web design/web development agencies — this article is for you! Keep reading if you want to keep clients satisfied, eager, and coming back for more. 

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Businesses face a wide variety of daunting, important hurdles to overcome throughout their lifecycle, no matter what industry they’re in. Sometimes, those decisions hold a lot of weight — depending on how the issue is addressed, a business could either prosper and expand or it could struggle and potentially fail.

On the other hand, there are also a plethora of hurdles that won’t make or break a business, but are responsible for huge missed opportunities and a loss of potential income each year…and sometimes such problems can be easily addressed, if the company simply takes the time and effort to address them.

One smaller hurdle businesses face and often fail to address, or miss the opportunity to improve upon, is client retention.

This is a giant missed opportunity, as generally 80% of a business’s profits come from just 20% of its customers.

While there are many ways to improve your retention rate, most business professionals can agree that the level of customer service a company provides to its clients has something to do with it. So how should you improve your retention rate?

One of the best ways to improve your customer retention rate is simple: empower your clients.

Empowering clients is an especially important and effective practice for web design and web development agencies.

Limelight understands how important client empowerment is, and the higher retention rate that comes with it. We’re both web developers and marketers, so we had to find an approach that worked for us as well as our clients — and we mean what we say. Every website we make uses the Limelight Theme because we truly believe that it’s the best web building platform for marketers that you can find. It also is quick and easy to learn, understand, and use — meaning web agencies will feel confident using the theme, and clients will feel empowered by it. If you’re looking for a way to effectively build websites for your clients, build immeasurable value in your service, and boost your retention rate, then look no further.

Ultimately though we also believe that, as website designers, developers, and marketers, focusing on client empowerment will not only increase the trust between you and your clients, but also put more money in your pockets.

Read on to learn more about why you should make client empowerment your main sales strategy and how the Limelight Theme can help you get there.

Why Focus on Client Empowerment? 

Anyone in the industry will agree: good web design takes time. A lot of thought and personalization goes into it, and that personalization equals time.

And time is money, as the old saying goes.

If web design is so time consuming, web design agencies have to have a fail-safe sales strategy to ensure they’ll continue to see a steady flow of income. And like any business, of course, more income is always welcome, even if you’re doing well as it is.

Acquiring new clients and new work is great, but it might not be your best bet for more sales and better work — especially if you’re a web design/development agency.

First of all, more clients typically means one of three things: working longer days, spreading your time thin between clients (meaning they won’t get as much quality work) or hiring more staff, which gets expensive.

But you shouldn’t want to just gain more clients and/or charge more for your work without changing the experience you give. That mindset is failing to see the missed opportunity and revenue in your current clients. Not to mention if you lose your new customers after their initial purchase — or fail to acquire them in the first place — you will consistently have to fight to find customers. Which ultimately means you’ll pay more to find customers, too.

In fact, investing in finding new customers is a minimum of 5 times more expensive than retaining existing ones.

So really, if you want to focus on truly making the most money possible (and not working 60-hour weeks, plus being able to breathe a stress-free sigh of relief) focusing on boosting sales with your current clients is the way to go. Increasing retention rates by just 5% can boost your profits anywhere from 25% to 95%. That’s a big jump.

And we’ve already brought up how to boost sales with current clients — empower them.

As a web agency, empowering your clients looks like several different parts:

It’s giving your client all the facts about your work — what they will gain from you, a time frame, etc. Give your client all the information and knowledge they need to understand the ins and outs of why your work matters to them and how it solves their problems.

Client empowerment is also telling your clients nothing but the truth, even if it’s bad. Clients will appreciate the fact that you aren’t hiding anything, and will also have a better idea of what to expect from you and your work. Accurate expectations means that they’re more likely to be happy with the actual outcome.

Most importantly, empowering your clients means giving them the knowledge to use the same tools that you use on their website. Give them the ability to update posts and make new content to share. This isn’t saying, “teach your clients how to do exactly what you do, including all the ins and outs of development and placement and WordPress.” This is enabling your client to feel confident, content, and comfortable using their website and posting their own news about their business.

Odds are that your client hired you because they either have a need that they cannot address themselves, or they don’t have the time to address it. It’s very likely that your client won’t work in the same web design industry you do, so it’s a safe bet to say that you’re the expert in the field. Giving them certain tools to allow them some independence and opportunity will not render you obsolete — rather, it will support you and establish you as the expert, with proven knowledge, reliability, and a customer-first mindset. Nothing could be better than that, from a customer experience scenario.

Either way, empowering your client with the information and tools to support themselves will not only show that you want what’s best for them, but it will also make sure that they come to you for larger issues and work while posting updates themselves. This will save your web agency time to focus on larger projects, while retaining your client for future work and service.

Again, your clients will still come to you for help, advice, and more work. And the fact that you took the time to explain how their website works, and are there for them when they have questions? They won’t want to look anywhere else for their website needs. Interesting too, is that consumers are willing to spend 17% more money on a company if they receive outstanding customer service. Meaning you can be a little pricier if you want, and your clients will happily accept it. Your work and your service have a tremendous value to them that they just aren’t willing to give up.

And that means you’ve just secured a recurring customer who will spend more money on more work from your company because of their experience — especially how you empowered them to know how to use their website.

Your client retention rate just went up.

The Limelight Theme and Client Empowerment 

Empowering clients and giving them the knowledge they need to navigate and update their own website is important to improve trust and profitability for web agencies. It’s also safe to say that having an easy way to build websites will benefit both the company and the client.

Plain and simple: easy software is…well, easier to use and understand. And quicker.

The Limelight Theme makes all parts of web design and development as simple as possible. It enables you (and your newly empowered clients) to navigate, build, and update a website with ease, and implement any changes quickly — all without touching a line of code.

The theme comes packed with an enhanced version of Elementor for quick and easy page building. Not only do you not have to touch any code, but it’s as simple as dragging and dropping the elements you want on the page. You’ll see how the web page looks and changes in real time. This is especially useful for clients who might not have as much experience, but want to make sure their updated post looks good on the website.

The Limelight Theme is also mobile optimized and offers quick and easy tracking code implementation — that means that it’s not only easy to use, but it is still able to offer the capabilities and technicalities that a web agency would need while doing client work. Plus, the Theme bundle also comes with pre-downloaded fonts and pre-installed plugins for forms and cart checkouts.

Simply put, the Limelight Theme has the technical capacity to benefit web agencies in their design and development process, while also helping web agencies empower their clients. Your clients will be able to put their own content on their websites. As an expert, you will be able to teach them the simple how-to’s of the software while also being able to complete large-scale projects that are beyond their capabilities.

The Results

The more loyal customers you have, the more money you will end up making. And when it comes to retaining your most loyal customers, client empowerment is the biggest key web design agencies can use to keep their clients confident, satisfied, and coming back.

If your agency successfully incorporates client empowerment into its sales strategy, you’ll see the focus shift from “how many clients” to “how much can we give our clients.” The ease-of-use and front end changes that the Limelight Theme presents will give web agencies (and their clients) the power to understand and update websites in a flash.

Giving your clients the ability to update their own content will not only take some of the stress off of your own shoulders, but it will also strengthen the trust your client has for you and your services. They will see immeasurable value in being included in their ideas and projects. This approach has a high probability of increasing their satisfaction as a customer, which in turn will boost your retention rate and revenue — all because you decided to give your client the best customer service in the form of empowerment.

Client Empowerment is the ultimate website sales strategy for web design and web development agencies — and the Limelight Theme will help empower your clients and increase your profits.

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If you don’t currently use the Limelight Theme for WordPress, click here for more information on what we have to offer! The Limelight Theme was built for marketers, by marketers, and will help keep your website sales-funnel oriented and optimize your marketing goals. 

If you’re familiar with conversion tracking and inputting codes on your site in WordPress, you might know that it can actually be an absolute pain trying to figure out where they go.

And if you’re not familiar, we can give you a little heads up — it can be an absolute pain trying to figure out where they go.

As marketers, we wanted to solve that problem and make it easier for people to track their conversions without having to sift through a bunch of code. So that’s exactly what we did.

Because, honestly, if conversion tracking is so essential to a profitable marketing strategy, shouldn’t it be easy to find and implement?

The Limelight Theme addresses the confusion and guesswork surrounding conversion tracking and turns it into an easy process, saving you time and giving you the peace of mind that your tracking is where it needs to be.

That means you’re saving money too.

Read on to learn more about how the Limelight Theme will help you with your conversion tracking!

Why Should You Track Your Conversions?

If you’re in a dark room and unable to see anything, you wouldn’t fumble around in the hopes of finding the door. That’s slow going, and it’s nerve wracking. Plus you’d probably bump into walls, furniture, or other unknown objects that will leave you with a nasty bruise.

You’d probably just use a flashlight on your phone, instead. Common sense, right? It’ll show you a clear path to the door, and you’ll know where to step to avoid crashing into anything. Whew, crisis averted. No bruises, no scary monsters in the dark.

Enter: conversion tracking.

No conversion tracking, and you’ll be fumbling around with your website trying to convert visitors but not knowing what’s working or how. But start tracking, and — bam — there’s your flashlight. You’ll know exactly what direction to go, and you’ll see exactly what you should avoid.

Conversion tracking is absolutely essential for making sure your business performs well online. The ultimate reason — it’ll make sure you’re not wasting your time or money on something that isn’t working. And we all know it’s really important to make sure you have a great ROI.

Conversion tracking is how you make sure you get it.

It can give you concrete data on a variety of aspects, depending on what action you want to track. With that data, you’ll have actual evidence to point to in order to figure out what part of your marketing strategy is working and what isn’t.

Examples of trackable conversions are:

  • How many site visitors are coming from a specific ad (like one you placed on Facebook),
  • How many site users are visiting your website for the first time vs. returning visitors who are visiting a second time, or
  • Exactly where or when a visitor left your site

If you’re inputting a tracking code from something like Google or Facebook, it’s probably coming from an ad. And ads cost money. Your money.

By using tracking codes on your landing pages specifically, you’ll make sure that the landing pages not convincing leads to convert either get fixed up, or tossed out.

So how exactly do you add conversion tracking in the Limelight Theme, and which codes go where?

Limelight Global Tracking

The Limelight Theme addresses the confusion and guesswork surrounding conversion tracking by incorporating tracking code input fields into the settings, making integrating conversion tracking codes as easy as possible.

No more searching through code, and no more hoping you put the codes in the right place.

To input tracking codes for conversion tracking on your website overall (meaning every page on your website), you’ll go to the “Tracking Codes” tab of the Limelight Theme settings. Note that the fields are labeled as “Global” settings, since they refer to the website as a whole.

There are two different sections available to add codes, the “Tracking Head Global” field and the “Tracking Body Global” field. One isn’t better to use over the other, and there isn’t a huge difference between them to remember. The specific platform you get the code from will tell you which field it needs to be added to.

Types of codes that can be added include:

  • Google Ad pixel
  • Google Analytics,
  • Google Tag Manager,
  • Facebook Ad pixel,
  • ActiveCampaign code, and more

It’s as simple as copying the code and pasting it into the text box above. No specific order or placement is necessary. Any software that provides a tracking script can be added to the global tracking field!

Limelight Single Page Tracking

Sometimes you want your tracking code to only track user movement and conversions on a specific page, without catching anything from other parts of your website. To do that, you’ll have to add your tracking pixel or code to the individual page instead of the whole site.

If you’re inputting a tracking code onto one specific landing page, the setup through the Limelight Theme is a little different.

For tracking codes designed for single landing pages (and not global tracking codes), you’ll have an option to add the code on that individual page in WordPress.

Go to the page itself, then look on the scrolling settings bar on the right side to find the “Header Tracking” and “Body Tracking” toward the bottom. Most tracking scripts will go in the header unless otherwise specified, but both options are there just in case. Again, the platform giving you the tracking code will have specific directions on where it should go.

Adding tracking codes to single pages is particularly beneficial for confirmation pages after a conversion event, like if someone follows through with a purchase or sign up. The tracking code on the confirmation page will track how many visitors converted into customers for that specific offer, which is how you’ll know if that page is performing well instead of just guessing and hoping that it does.

The Result

Using the Limelight Theme’s conversion tracking features will help you integrate your tracking easier than ever before. You won’t have to worry about where to put your traffic code or pixel, and you can focus on what’s more important: the content itself that’s converting your visitors.

Successful practice of conversion tracking will drastically help you boost your conversion rate and keep you sales funnel oriented. Watching your conversion tracking will help you find what’s working — maybe more importantly, what’s not working — and save you money. 

It’s very important to include tracking codes, especially on landing pages, to see what pages are performing and making actual sales.

With the easy-to-implement tracking code fields from the Limelight Theme, you simply find your pixel, figure out which tag it’s supposed to go into (global header tag, global body tag, page header tag, page body tag) and then paste it into the corresponding field box.

Now go forth and use the theme to make your landing pages and websites stand out and convert! If you’re conversion oriented, you’re sales funnel oriented — and that equals a more profitable marketing strategy.

Happy tracking. 

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If you don’t currently use the Limelight Theme for WordPress, click here for more information on what we have to offer! The Limelight Theme was built for marketers, by marketers, and will help keep your website sales-funnel oriented and optimize your marketing goals.

Tired of stressing about your website? New to sales funnels and landing pages? 

Maybe you just want to know some simple tips and tricks for making a site visitor convert to a customer.

Whatever the reason, the Limelight Theme can help you with your marketing goals. The Limelight Theme for WordPress is a theme made for marketers, by marketers — and we practice what we preach. Each website we make uses this theme. If you follow some simple tips to set up your website with this theme, you’ll increase your user experience and, therefore, your earning potential.

For example: headers and footers may be more important than you may think, especially when it comes to user experience and earning potential. 

Understanding the Limelight Theme header and footer controls will not only make using WordPress and navigating your website easier, but it will also help maximize your sales funnel and focus on your true goal: more conversions, and more sales.

Read on to learn more about using the Limelight Theme headers and footers to convert leads and make sales! 

What’s so important About Headers/Footers?

The first step to understanding how the Limelight Theme’s header and footer controls can help your sales funnel is to understand landing pages. 

Landing pages are the bread and butter of web sales — they help focus a site visitor/lead on a single offer, guiding them toward converting into an actual user or customer (side note: landing pages are NEVER your home page —  they’re a separate page focused on one single offer). An important part of a landing page is to minimize distractions and entice the user to follow through with the call to action (CTA).

Headers and footers can be very useful for getting your site users where they want to be overall, but they can be very distracting on a landing page, even pulling leads away from a landing page’s CTA.

On average, you only have 8 seconds to make an impression on any landing page — if even one of those seconds is taken up by a distracting navigation bar in the header or footer, you’ve got a problem. And a landing page that doesn’t get conversions is not helping your sales funnel–or putting money in your pocket. Making sure that the navigation on your landing page is at a minimum will help keep the site visitor focused on your actual offer.

But headers and footers don’t just play a role in navigation, or distracting a user on a landing page.

With the Limelight Theme, they can also be used for template settings and changing individual page displays, which is very beneficial to your landing page, website, and sales funnel overall.

So with that being said, let’s dive in and see what the headers and footers in the Limelight Theme can actually do.

Header Controls

The header of a website might sound simple enough; just put your logo up, make some navigation tabs that correspond to different site pages, and — voilà! — you’re done. 

That might be good for a regular home page, but it’s sorely discrediting the power that a header has in driving one of two site visitor responses, specifically for landing pages and sales funnels:

1) keeping them focused, guiding them toward a call to action, and ultimately making a purchase, or

2) giving them more information than they need or making the navigation too flashy, which confuses the user and sometimes even (gasp!) entices the user to click a navigation option and leave the page. No sale, and let’s just hope our web visitor simply wants to come back…

Don’t forget: the header is one of the most important parts to get right on a landing page.

The Limelight Theme header is generally where you’ll put your logo, where you’ll have your main page navigation, and where you can control header template options. 

Setup and Overall Options:

The first thing you’ll notice at the top of the Limelight Theme Header settings is the “Layout” option for your logo. You have the option to keep the logo in the default position, which is the top left, or center it in the middle of your page. Below that, the “Position” option will control if the header stays at the top of the page, or if it’s “sticky” and follows the user as they scroll down the page. The “Hover” option will do exactly what it says — hover the header over the page content. 

General rule of thumb: You typically don’t want a landing page to have a sticky or hovering header because it will distract the user.

Below that, you’ll have “Logo” and “Color Palate” options for your header. Keep in mind that the color palate settings are just general, so you’ll always have the option to change them at the page level.

The bottom of the Header Settings page has options for including a background image, header padding sizes, and header height. It also has menu color and slide out options for you to play with! 

Page Display:

On the individual page level, you’ll have the option to change the visibility of the header/footer and its contents on that single page — not effecting the entire website. You’ll see the available options on the right side of the screen underneath the “Page Display” settings box.

The options include hiding the navigation while still keeping the header/footer visible, hiding the header/footer completely, and also adding hover, transparency, or sticky features to the header. After you change your settings, just remember to update the page.

On a landing page, it’s best if the site user has as few distractions as possible, as stated above. Disabling your navigation on the header, even if you keep the header visible, is important to making sure your landing page has as few ways out as possible. 

We want our user to do one of two things: leave, or go through the conversion event and sign up/purchase/etc. And hopefully the latter.

Another tidbit to note: When you check how your website looks from the front end, or how it looks to a user, make sure to check the display on mobile devices too. Incorporating the header/footer layout changes on mobile devices is just as important. In fact, it’s estimated that only 50% of landing pages are optimized for mobile devices.

Overall, the header is pretty darn important to your website and your landing pages. The Limelight Theme makes it easy to set overall navigation settings like adding a logo or sticky header, and changing the page display will allow you to hide navigation on a single page — even if your overall settings have it on every page.

Footer Controls

The footer is very similar to the header and has almost identical controls, with a few notable exceptions. Sometimes the navigation in the footer is still present even if the header navigation is hidden. Please note the Page Display section above for hiding navigation in the footer. Set up your footer however you’d like; we’d just recommend one thing — don’t leave your footer completely blank, even if you hide navigation.

The footer also includes technical disclaimers such as important partnerships, copyright statements, and more. They typically also have social media icons for easy access to company pages across the web.

Setup and Overall Options:

At the top of the Limelight Theme Footer settings, you’ll have the option to choose the layout of your logo — if you want it in your footer at all — and an option to upload the logo. You’ll also notice a box where you can add the HTML of your logo instead. 

Next, you’ll notice the quick and easy access to your footer template colors. As always,  you can change the colors later on when you’re setting up the actual page.

At the bottom, you’ll see a box where you can put any copyright information you’d like, including your company name or if you have a terms and conditions statement or privacy policy statement. Don’t forget to put your company’s copyright info in the footer, even on a landing page.

Social Media:

The footer is also typically where you’ll find clickable social media icons, linking site users to your other pages. To reach the social media in the footer, you’ll actually change from the “Footer” tab to the “Social Media” tab. From here it’s as simple as inputting the URL links in the text box and saving your changes. Once the changes are saved, your icons will appear. It isn’t uncommon for landing pages to keep social media icons in their footers, but you don’t have to keep them there. 

You’ll also note you have color options and set options to control how the icons appear. Again, these are overall theme settings, so they will act as a template on each page that you create. 

The Result

If you use your Limelight Theme headers and footers correctly, you’ll not only keep your site looking clean and easy to navigate, but you’ll also keep your landing pages working in tip-top shape. You’ll keep leads’ attention and increase your earning potential with a higher conversion rate and a better sales funnel. 

All of the features of the Limelight Theme header and footer navigation controls — global theme changes, individual page changes, and quick styling for templates — work together to create a website that has a functional user experience with a sales-oriented approach. 

Long story short — don’t forget about your headers and footers! They are just as important to your sales funnel and landing page as the content on the page itself. Enhance your landing pages and sales funnel by effectively using your navigation options.

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If you don’t currently use the Limelight Theme for WordPress, click here for more information on what we have to offer! The Limelight Theme was built for marketers, by marketers, and will help keep your website sales-funnel oriented and optimize your marketing goals. 

If you’re new to the marketing game or just starting out as an entrepreneur, having a good sales funnel cannot be stressed enough. They’ll save you time, help you plan and optimize your website for more conversions, and ultimately — they’ll help you make more money.

Making more money and wasting less time?

You’d be hard pressed to find an entrepreneur who doesn’t want that.

Sales funnels will prove valuable from the get-go, so you should start planning and implementing one before you even start building your website. They’re a dependable framework to follow and incorporate into your marketing strategy, and it’ll make understanding where your sales are coming from — as well as what content to show prospective buyers and when — much easier.

Like anyone, you’ll probably tweak things as you go to make your funnel better and better. And that’s completely normal. As long as you stick to a successful funnel you’ll be able to create, maintain, and grow a more profitable business.

Now, really quick — if you’ve already started a website and a business but don’t have a sales funnel, don’t worry. Starting a sales funnel will only help you even more. Right now is the best time to start, no matter where you are in the process.

The good news is that if you use a sales funnel as part of your marketing and sales strategy, both you and your business will benefit.

And the even better news?

You don’t have to be a marketing or sales prodigy to start and use a sales funnel… but you can definitely benefit all the same.

What Are Sales Funnels?

A sales funnel is the process a potential customer (also called a prospect) goes through to become a qualified lead or customer who makes a purchase.

It’s a marketing and sales concept that helps visualize the different parts of the buying process, including the actions the prospect takes during that process and the actions we must take as a marketer/sales person/entrepreneur to help move that person through it.

Sales funnels are for getting you in the right headspace to think about what the lead is interested in, what they’re struggling with, and what they want to learn or find out. If you can figure out how to best meet your potential buyer at their different levels of readiness, you’re more likely to create a positive connection and ultimately convince them to buy your product or service today or down the road.

Oftentimes, a sales funnel is also a visual representation of the customer journey — and it looks exactly like it sounds: a funnel.

The funnel is wider at the top to represent a larger pool of people who start as potential customers, and slowly gets smaller as you narrow down the best prospects and customers. In this way you can increase your customer and lead quality as well as get a better understanding of who your best customers are.

Ultimately, not all of them will convert and make a sale. But using a sales funnel will help you guide them in that direction, allowing you to consistently bring up relevant information, evidence, and a relatability that will hopefully be hard for a lead to ignore.

Effectively using a sales funnel will not only boost your sales — it will also help you get more (and better) leads. Which in turn will then boost your sales. It’s a little win-win circle.

The point is, each and every step of a sales funnel will focus on moving a lead closer toward buying your product or service. Since everything is planned out, you won’t have to worry about accidentally leading them backwards or in the wrong direction.

The 4 Stages of a Sales Funnel

As a quick disclaimer: there are lots of different ways to break down a funnel, and even different names to call a funnel. Sometimes they’re referred to as marketing funnels, and other times they’re referred to as sales funnels, purchasing funnels, conversion funnels, and more. There isn’t one end-all-be-all, singular version that is the “right” one. At the end of the day, the stages — and the concept of a funnel in general — are all to help you plan, strategize, and implement your marketing strategy. We really like the one we’re about to show you, so let’s jump in!

A sales funnel is typically broken down into sections that correspond to where the customer is in the purchasing process and what we (as marketers) must do to continue to move them through the funnel. Different models can show you a different number of steps, but here we’ll talk about the AIDA model, which has been around for years and is a staple funnel model in marketing.

There are 4 stages to this funnel, and they indicate both where the prospect is and what we need to do for them. The 4 stages are:

  • Attention/Awareness
  • Interest
  • Desire/Decision, and
  • Action

Each step of the funnel will mean targeting a prospect in a different way, with different ads, different web pages, and different content. In order to do that, you need to get into the mindset of the prospect and think about what they need to continue through the funnel.

Let’s dig a little deeper into what these parts actually represent.

 

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Attention: This is also sometimes called the “Awareness” stage, and is at the very top of the funnel. Potential customers in this top level may or may not know who you are, what you do, what you offer, or if they even have a problem or need. In this part of the funnel, your job is to grab the attention of the prospect and introduce them to your company and what you have to offer.

When putting a sales funnel into play, grabbing attention can look like an introductory ad run on Google or even making a blog post to answer questions to a problem the lead may have. Prospects that are new to the funnel are considered to be Top of Funnel (TOF) prospects, meaning they typically have the least exposure or knowledge about a company or product.

 

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Interest: The Interest stage is typically when a lead starts to become interested in your company and product. They might know they have a need or a problem, and they might know that you’re an option to solve it. They’re trying to find out more information about what you have to offer, and are looking for knowledge. Here, your job is to increase their interest and give them the knowledge they need to view you as a worthwhile option — give them reasons why your product or service is the right choice.

Prospects that are somewhere in the middle of the purchasing process (not necessarily tied explicitly to the Interest level, but somewhere close) are typically considered to be Middle of Funnel (MOF) prospects. They have a little more understanding, are aware of either your business, your product, or even you as a potential solution. They are also likely comparing their options, including different companies, brands, and even different ways to solve their problem. In action, increasing their interest can look like running more specific ads with your product as a direct solution to their issue, sending them emails about the same topic, or having a landing page on your website specifically dedicated to that product.

 

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Desire: This is also referred to as the “Decision” stage. Further down the funnel, the prospect starts to desire a solution to their problem, and they know they want to make a decision. They will decide on a solution soon, but might currently be making final comparisons between options in order to make or break their decision. This is when you’ll build desire by talking about all of the benefits they will get — like how much easier their life will be with this product — and stick them with your ultimate sales pitch. Give them reasons to buy your product now! That could look like offering more information about the product, talking about the benefits, and possibly mentioning the price at this stage (you don’t have to wait until this stage to mention price though — it’s all up to you).

Prospects that are close to making a purchase decision are considered to be Bottom of Funnel (BOF) prospects. Similarly to the first two steps, actual ways you can build desire include ads or landing pages that specifically mention your product as the ultimate solution, or even an email stating that they get a special offer of some sort.

 

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Action: The final stage in the funnel is when the prospect is ready to take action — they are ready to purchase and just need that last bit of help to get there. Here is when you’ll drive them to take that final step and convert into a customer. Options you could take to give a prospect that final push include offering incentives like a money-back guarantee, a coupon, a free trial, or even a limited-time supply or discount to build urgency. This final stage is all about driving them to make the purchase.

 

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Understanding these 4 stages of the funnel will help you create the content your leads need at specific times in the buying process to continue on instead of dropping out. Naturally, different content will help people in different parts of the funnel, so understanding what each section or group of the funnel is interested in will help make sure you’re delivering the right message. There’s always wiggle room and nothing is ever absolute, which is exactly why you can tweak, tailor, and improve your approach as you go.

Something to keep in mind: TOF, MOF, and BOF don’t correspond to any single particular level of the funnel (as in TOF doesn’t only correspond with Awareness, and BOF doesn’t only correspond with Desire) — it’s more so just another way of keeping track of where your prospects are in your funnel. Some people might be at the top of the funnel and just starting their search for a product, but might already know they have a need, or might already know your company exists. Similarly, some people might be desiring to make a decision but still be in the middle of the funnel, reluctant enough to need more time and effort before they make a decision. It’s sort of a fluid concept!

What Funnels Look Like in Action

You might be wondering what a sales funnel looks like when it’s actually built out — because surely it’s not a literal funnel, right?

You’re spot on.

In reality, your actual sales funnel will take the sales funnel concept and turn it into a map or web of how your ads, emails, and more connect to make your prospective customers’ unique journey.

So…where do websites come into play in all this?

Your website won’t be your entire sales funnel, but it will make up a big and important part of it. A lot of your ads will probably redirect leads to individual landing pages, and the leads will most likely purchase your product on your website.

Because your website will be such an integral part of your sales funnel, it’s important to build your website with one in mind. A sales funnel oriented website will have easy-to-implement web and page tracking, easy page builders, a way for you to easily create content and get more qualified leads, a way for you to make an actual sale and track your converting customers, and more.

By the way — that’s exactly what the Limelight Theme does. It’s a WordPress theme that is specifically tailored to help you get more conversions, make better landing pages, and earn more money. If you’re wanting an easy way to build a website with a sales funnel and more profits in mind, check out our bundle option.

Overall, understanding the different parts of the funnel will help you map exactly what content you want to show your leads and exactly when you want them to see it. You can map or track your sales funnels so you can see the actual steps a person takes through a funnel (like starting on a Facebook ad, then going to a landing page on your website, then being added to an email list, etc).

Basically, a sales funnel in the real world is a map showing where leads started, how they got in, where you will push them to go next, and the different options you’ll follow through with depending on what action they decide to take.

The picture below is a great example of how a mapped out sales funnel could look. If you’re interested in a quick and easy way to map your funnels, check out this cool product!

5 Benefits of Using a Sales Funnel

So far we’ve covered what a sales funnel is, how they work, and why they can be useful. They’re a great tool for any entrepreneur to use, and definitely should not be overlooked.

Need some final reasons to be convinced?

Here’s a quick list of some of the benefits of using a sales funnel and why you should start using them ASAP!

 

1. A Great Sales Funnel Makes it Easier to Find Broken Pieces and Holes

The management and tracking that comes with a sales funnel makes it worth using in and of itself. Sales funnels will allow you to prepare and plan the exact steps a customer will take from the beginning to the end of their customer journey. If you notice your conversions and sales are low for one part of your mapped out funnel, you’ll be able to address it and fix it up.

For example, let’s say you have a Facebook ad that redirects a lead to a landing page on your website with a specific offer for your product. Your ad on Facebook is getting a decent amount of views and people are clicking on the link and going to your landing page. But for some reason, people aren’t converting and making the sale. Obviously, you could change something on your landing page to try to fix the issue.

By using a sales funnel, it will be easier to notice problems and trace them back to the actual source instead of guessing or accidentally trying to fix the wrong thing. This is also true for finding holes in your funnel, or ways you can expand on it to work a little better than before. Visualization and consistent management can be a lifesaver!

 

 

2. You’ll Address More of Your Audience’s Problems and Pain Points — and Stay Relevant

Staying relevant is a hard task for any business, but it’s absolutely essential for getting a lead to want to buy your product. You have to solve a need. And solving a need will help you stay relevant.

A whopping 79% of marketing leads never convert into actual sales. So when we emphasize that you need to solve a need and stay relevant, we really mean it. It can be the deciding factor.

If you’re not taking the steps you need to take to stay relevant and understand the customer’s needs, values, and experience, you won’t make a lot of sales. And that’s why sales funnels are such a great tool to use.

Getting in the mindset of a prospect will help you understand their problems and pain points. It will help you position your product or service as the solution to that problem — and the best solution, at that.

 

 

3. Retargeting Leads and Upselling Customers Will Become a Breeze

The sales funnel is shaped like a funnel for a reason — leads drop out of it and decide not to buy for one reason or another, and only the smallest pool of interested, qualified leads remain and ultimately go on to convert.

For those customers who don’t immediately purchase, sales funnels will help you retarget and send them information that may entice them to come back into the funnel. This can take the form of sending automated emails after they abandon their cart, or sign up for a newsletter but never purchase your product. If you have a mapped out sales funnel in place, you can set things up to happen automatically — not only making more leads convert than if you hadn’t tried anything at all, but also setting it up to happen so you don’t even have to think about it.

For those customers who do make a purchase, sales funnels will help you upsell and build on your sale, offering that customer add-ons or other products that you offer to compliment or go on top of their original purchase. With that same ability to automatically send a customer an email once they’ve purchased, you’ll open the doors to enticing them to upgrade or add on to their order. Again — all while setting them up to happen in advance.

It’ll be a breeze.

 

 

4. Never-Ending Strategic Potential

Sales funnels are meant to help you turn leads into paying customers or clients. You set up, track and manage every ad and landing page that you have out there and every possible route your customer can take. You can promote products in a step-by-step fashion and ultimately lead them from a free newsletter to your highest quality product.

One of the best parts about a sales funnel is that with a plan in place, you can change it and then directly track what those changes did to your strategy.

Want your sales funnel to focus on lead generation? Done. Want to focus more on your current customers and less on getting leads in order to upsell more products? Done. Want to easily track and compare the exact same landing page but with different headlines? Done. With a sales funnel in place it will be easy to add, change, or swap out content and promotions and visualize it in the process.

Keeping tabs on your marketing strategy and how everything connects will enable you to continue to build it out, adding more content, targeting more segments, or creating more specific and compelling ads and promotions. The possibilities are endless, and sales funnels will only help you keep better track of them all!

 

 

5. You’ll Start Making Money in Your Sleep

This one we mean quite literally. We mentioned this a little above, but an awesome trend in the marketing world that is insanely beneficial for sales funnels is automation. If you automate your sales funnels, you’ll definitely be rewarded. And boy, is it worth it.

In fact, 80% of marketers who used automation saw their number of leads increase, and 77% of users saw their number of conversions increase.

To build on that even more — Using marketing automation specifically generates about 451% (!!!) more qualified leads.

On top of having a killer sales funnel, automating it will keep you from having to manually do certain tasks — and not having to do tasks manually means you’re saving money. That also means that you’ll likely have a boost in sales too, since everything will be addressed automatically. After all, give an automatic system specific parameters and they typically won’t fall into common human errors like miscalculations or forgetfulness.

Here’s an example of how it works. Let’s say that you have a free product — maybe a How-To guide for your favorite recipes on your website — and in order to get it, a lead has to sign up for it with their email. Even though the sign up is on your website, you can use third party companies (which the Limelight Theme integrates with and supports, by the way) to immediately take that sign up and start an automated response system on a separate platform, like via email.

This exchange could start a sequence of automated emails trying to entice the user to consider purchasing your actual product instead of just using your free guide. Companies like ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, and more specialize in integrating with website themes and sending automated emails, all in line and supporting your sales funnel.

The caveat here is that it’s hard to automate something if you don’t have the steps mapped out in advance…so you have to have a sales funnel set up first.

If you use a sales funnel and choose to automate it, you won’t have to walk through each process step-by-step and work manually to move your prospects through the funnel. The ability to plan out your marketing strategy and sales funnel enough that you can actually automate it means you will *literally* start to make money in your sleep.

The Results

Sales funnels have immense potential to not only help you manage your marketing strategy, but also ensure that you build on it in constructive, profitable ways. Broken down into steps, a sales funnel can help you understand a prospective customer’s journey to purchasing a product or service, including the types of content they need to see at specific times in order to convince them to continue on in the process. Using sales funnels in the real world typically means mapping out all of your contact points for customers and how they connect in order to visualize and manage the different parts of your funnel more easily.

Ultimately, sales funnels will help you build specific content for your audiences, generate leads, and convert prospects into customers. Using them will give you real, tangible, and profitable results.

The Limelight Theme will keep you sales funnel oriented as you build your website, or even help you convert your current website to have a funnel-oriented approach. With easy third party integrations, fleshing out your funnel to include your website, email drip campaigns, retargeting ads/offers/landing pages and more, the Limelight Theme can help you build your funnels, and build them quickly.

Sales funnels are a necessity for anyone just starting out, new to the marketing game, or simply just looking to boost their revenue and customer experience!

If you want to improve your marketing and sales, start using sales funnels ASAP.

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If you don’t currently use the Limelight Theme for WordPress, click here for more information on what we have to offer! The Limelight Theme was built for marketers, by marketers, and will help keep your website sales funnel oriented and optimize your marketing goals.