EP 61: The Real Reason Your Funnels Aren't Converting
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Hey there, it's Jenny. And before we dive into today's episode, I have something really exciting to share with you. If you're a course creator, coach, or expert in sales, marketing, or business growth, this is your chance to be part of something incredibly unique. And I'm talking about many bundles. This is the first ever ultra bundle giveaway, and I'm one of the co-founders.

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Hey everybody, welcome back to the Acquire podcast. I'm your host Jenny Wright. This podcast is all about list building and lead generation, sales, online events, and a whole bunch more. And this podcast is something that I love doing because I get to talk about the things that matter with growth and scaling of your business. And that's exactly what we're going to talk about today. Because

We're tackling a question that so many of you sent my way, and that is, why isn't my funnel converting? You've got the landing page, you've got the emails, but something just isn't working. Well, buckle up, because in today's episode, I'm going to reveal the reasons why your funnels might be falling flat and how you can fix them.

Now, if you don't know this, I have been doing funnels for about 12 years. My funnels convert. And so my funnels convert above average. My landing pages for summits convert anywhere between 50 to 80%. Industry standard is about 20 to 33%. Sales pages that I create or funnels that I build for sales pages convert a lot higher than the norm. The norm is between 5 and 10%. And mine usually convert anywhere between 15 to 25%, sometimes even higher.

And then for webinars, I've had as high as 90% conversion on my webinar landing pages. So when it comes to funnels, I am not just saying that I stayed at a holiday in last night and I know what I'm doing. I've been doing this for over a decade and I really do bring receipts. Okay. And I'm really going to share what really converts. And so I think a lot of people are getting some really crappy advice when it comes to funnels. I truly do. I've seen it happening.

And I hate it. All right. So there are, you know, and I will say this, that not all page builders are built the same. So think about it this way. We have things like your actual software, the thing that you're hosting your funnel on.

and the emails that you're sending. So I'll give you an example. If you're hosting the actual landing pages, sales pages, confirmation pages, and you're doing that in Divi and WordPress, that's going to look one way. And if you're doing it on Kajabi, it's going to look completely different. If you're doing it on ClickFunnels or GoHighLevel or LeadPages, everything's going to look different and it's all going to convert differently.

I will tell you right now that I have done and worked in every platform you can think of, from HeySummit to LeadPages to some of the older page builders to Kit, even built pages in Entreport and also in Infusionsoft, which is now called Keep. So every page builder you can think of, ClickFunnels, all of them, I have built something in them, and I've brought the same experience

effort to conversion in all of them. And when we're looking at just pages to convert, there's a lot of things to take into consideration. I remember 12 years ago when I started off, ugly pages converted, right? You could put really crappy looking subpar banners with a really crappy looking opt-in form and nothing else on a page.

with like a headline and a tag and it would convert. It was insane, but we've gotten more savvy, right? We have had higher expectations. We expect more. And also we want people and landing pages, particularly to, to cater to how we want to learn information. We want, you know, we want detail. Uh, we want to be convinced we want to be sold. Um,

And so one of the biggest things that I see is a huge disparity between your funnel messaging and your actual offer. So somebody needs to, if somebody goes through your funnel, I should say, and it feels like your offer is not a natural extension of you or what you do or the natural next step for them.

They're out. They are gone. Okay. It is land on the page and they are gone. And today what I want to do is break down how you can revisit your funnel from the view of a potential customer and look at your messaging and your positioning in such a way as to make sure that every part of it flows logically and naturally to the final offer, the final destination. And spoiler, it's going to be all about making sure that your value prop is crystal clear.

Okay. Everything comes from your value proposition or your value prop. And so what we need to do is making, we need to look at those really like with a ton of analytics and also just a fresh mind. Uh, at the time that we're at, that I'm recording this, I am, uh, going through a boatload of applications to be on my new bundle called many bundles, which is coming out in, in November. And

And so I'm reviewing applications which include a link to a landing page for a bundle product. And so I'm looking at all of these landing pages built in all different platforms and seeing what they're doing. And I will tell you right now that it runs the gamut and that's okay, right? So I don't have the expectation that your funnel is going to be perfect out of the gate.

And you're not a funnel builder necessarily. And maybe you are, but maybe you aren't. And maybe you have a team and maybe you don't. And maybe you're just using the basic version of a kit landing page, which is totally okay. Okay. But what you have to look at, first of all, is that value prop and making sure that you

It feels in alignment that your, that your audience actually understands what it is that you're offering and it solves a problem. Okay. So a lot of these landing pages and a lot of the information on them does not accurately convey what the product should do and how it's going to help. That's the first thing to look at. And that's the first thing that I'm going to tell you to do revisit that. And a lot of people are too close to their own stuff and they think that they're, you

or other issues or other ways of explaining it. But I want you to look at it through the eyes of somebody who's never looked at it before, if at all possible. So you can look at it objectively. Okay. Let's take a look at the fact that, um,

There's no real connection between your what your audience needs and the fact that they don't feel heard or seen when they look at your funnel. OK, funnels these days, I've been seeing a ton of bland ones. Again, I've been going through this process of looking at applications for the many bundles.

And I've seen some really great stuff and I've seen some stuff that needs a lot of work, which is actually why, and this is going to be news I'm going to share publicly very soon. I'm creating a product that is going to help. Okay. That's, that's really going to show people how to up level. And so with all these bland summits that I see, they're full of the same language, unlock, you know, learn to discover how it's such like, it's so full of cliche, right?

And what I want you to look at is the metric for conversions is making your audience feel understood, seen, and valued from the very first touch point on your funnel. People will look at your page, read a headline, and bounce if they don't feel like that page speaks to them. And I will tell you it's a lot more than just the words, okay? It has to feel visually in alignment. There was a woman who applied to be on the bundle, I think on Saturday, and I reviewed it yesterday, which was Sunday.

And the funnel, the product, I should say, is all about human design and gene types. Okay. Which is a very popular way of looking at life right now. Whether or not your human design has an influence and what that does and so on and so forth. And the landing page...

fit the product. Okay. So the way the landing page was built, the information on it spoke to the ideal audience of somebody who would be interested in

in human design, right? And also this point about gene types. And the page covered all of that top to bottom. Now, there were areas that could be improved, like the form needed some improvement, a couple of the visuals might need some improvement and so on. But there was nothing cookie cutter about that page. And anybody who was into human design who landed on that page would feel like they were in the right spot.

Right. And so the communication and the copy and the way it was built was very intuitive to the fact that this is what this person is sharing. And that was helpful. Another landing page that I saw on Friday was another person who was applying to be on the bundle and her landing page looked like it came right out of the eighties, right before we had the internet. So, um, and if you lived in the eighties, you know, and I know I'm dating myself, but

It was, I mean, I have no problem. I love neon. It was neon, but it was clashy, right? It was clashing. Everything on the page was flat, meaning there was no drop shadow. There was no, I think, interest put into the design of it. We had a font on there that was almost illegible. It was almost a script font, but it was a bubbly script font.

That's not conveying what that person wanted to convey because the product they were trying to peddle as their bundle product was all about solving the problem of basically, what was it? I think tracking spending and creating budgets. And I don't think anybody really aligns themselves with creating budgets and tracking spending with neon colors and a bubble font.

And that's not to say that you can't do it and have fun and be whimsical because I love fun and whimsy. But the people who were landing on that page who have a problem with budgeting and tracking numbers are going to see that as being a potentially way too lighthearted and maybe not a fit. Now, you could counter argument me on that one and say, well, they're trying to make it fun and, you know, not so heavy. And I completely agree with that.

that there were other elements on the page where it was just not going to convert. It did not actually, the page was like, there was no scroll on the page. It was just a one, you know, like hero image and a box. And that did not convey enough information for the different types of learners that we have on a funnel. And also for the problems that these potential people have. And so I knew that page wasn't going to convert. Like, I just know it's not going to convert. And so I

When you're building out your funnel and you're building out your emails and you're building out everything else that goes into a funnel, your audience wants to feel seen and heard and understood and you really need to build it into there. And then the last thing that really plagues funnels is a call to action confusion.

And you might be like, well, all calls to action kind of lead to the thing. No, they don't. If your call to action is not clear or worse, it's incredibly passive. Your audience is not going to take any action. Right. And instead of saying, you know, click here to download, you definitely need to elevate people to an action, right? You need to get people to take an action and the copy in your buttons and your CTAs really have to push that. Like

Yes, exclamation point. I need this, right? And some people might disagree with me, but I'm telling you it actually still works. Or absolutely give me access now. Or give me the download. These types of different things, okay? And not saying all of them work universally, but if you're passive, then your page is passive. If your copy is passive, oh my gosh, okay. I just went through this. It was actually earlier this year.

I was helping a friend of mine with her funnel. This person is an incredibly polite, very sweet person. And his natural approach to social media, to copy, is a passive voice. If you think this would help you, could you or would you click the button to get this? Like it was literally that passive, like pretty please if you'd like to, could you possibly pretty please, whatever.

I mean, that level of passivity, like being passive is ridiculous and it's not going to get anybody to do anything. Also, people are going to think, wow, that person really doesn't have a lot of confidence in what they're doing. Again, it conveys a lack of confidence when you're like that. And so I want you to really look at your language. There is a passive voice and an active voice. And if your language is passively done and written, you're going to experience a problem.

All right. And then the last thing I'm going to cover, and we've talked about, you know, not all page builders are built the same. And we've talked about a call to action confusion. We've talked about lacking connection and alignment. The last thing that I really want to say is that funny funnels are just not a tool. They are a journey and you're guiding people on them. And so, um,

People leak out of funnels. I want you to think of a funnel as an actual funnel. You know, it's like a plastic funnel that you pour liquid in or you pour spices in to get into your spice bottle, whatever visual thing you want to have. And if you allow people to leak out through little minuscule holes in your funnel, then the hundred people who come in, by the time they get to the bottom, it'll be 20 and you don't want that, right? And so you really got to look at

seeing your funnel as a tool and seeing as your, like your funnel as an ecosystem that you're building around a specific, um,

offer, program, product, or message. And you have to build out from that. So if you think about it, maybe in the, I don't know, in the visual spokes of a wheel, okay? The center point of that wheel is your offer. And the different spokes are the different things that keep people in your ecosystem. So your podcast, your social media, your funnels, your website, your podcast guesting, your different appearances on summits, your lead magnets, and so on and so forth.

And so all of those things lead towards that center spoke. I call it an ecosystem. And if people are leaking out of your ecosystem because they don't feel seen or heard, or there's CTA confusion or someone like all the different points, they're leaving your system and less people are going to get anywhere near that center spoke or the center offer.

So we really got to look at the tweaks that we can make. So landing page tweaks or funnel tweaks, copy tweaks and so on so that everything works together seamlessly. There should be zero whiplash at any point within your funnel and you got to plug all the holes and fill all the gaps so that nobody leaks out. All right. And you get, if you do that, funnels will start working for you. And then it's minute tweaks. And I will tell you this.

If you have really big problems, like you've been listening to this podcast and you're like, oh crap, Jenny, I've got so many huge problems with my funnels. Don't worry. A lot of people do.

Start filling the holes, you know, and like closing all the holes and filling all the gaps. And then everything after that becomes a minute little tweak, right? So then you're just changing one word in your headline and seeing how that plays. So don't forget to do A-B testing. Most platforms will allow you to do A-B testing. Definitely do A-B testing and see how that works for you.

And then see what you can change minutely, right? I'll give you an example before we wrap this one up. One of my clients is doing a summit and we have a call for speakers and we're inviting people to be sponsors. We're getting very little traction on the sponsor page.

So one of the edits that I wanted to make is I told the client this weekend, I want you to record a video two and a half minutes long, getting up on your high horse about how amazing this event is going to be and the exposure you can give it and how amazing it would be to be a sponsor and how you can help people.

And so two minutes and 33 seconds, this video came through putting it on the page. And I'm going to tell you that I already know in advance, it's going to help boost the traffic and the numbers that are actually going to start looking at the sponsor prospectus to close people for sponsorships on this summit, right? Cause I have a goal.

I have a goal of 30K on this summit to close in sponsorships, and I'm going to get there. And these little tweaks are going to make things like that happen. So I want you to go back and look at your funnels with a really objective eye. And if you're still feeling like your funnels are struggling and you need some love and you need somebody to take a look at them, then go ahead and book a 30-minute call with me. I'm happy to take a look and give you some advice.

and also see what I can do in ways of supporting you. Somebody, if not me, somebody on my team can help you rebuild a funnel and make it beautiful and make it stunning and have it convert for you. So go to the show notes or go to the website, JennyWright.com and check out how we can support you in that way. And if you're enjoying the podcast, please do leave me a note. Let me know. Go leave a review. I'd love to hear from you.

And honestly, we love these things. Me and my whole team, we just get all excited when we see a new review come in and we read them all. So I would love to hear what you have to say. And as always, the Acquire podcast is brought to you by the Oddphonic Podcast Network. So go and make sure you're checking out all the future episodes by hitting subscribe and

because there's so much coming your way. And I can't wait for you to see what we're doing with Many Bundles. And if you go to manybundles.com, you'll be able to start seeing some stuff being created there. That's coming out on November 18th and going forward. So you're going to see tons of stuff at manybundles.com, which is a new venture that I'm starting and I'm excited. So go and check that out. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. And we'll see you all soon. Take care.