Before you open the funnel to real customers, you play the customer yourself and go through every step. Many steps in a funnel are easy to get wrong, and only by going through them for real can you see where. When you finish, you know for sure that a customer gets the gift, can pay and gets the product.
What to prepare
- A gift funnel with a gift page and a link to give the gift (see Gift funnel).
- A sales funnel with a product, a payment gateway and 3 pages (see Build a sales funnel).
The two most important checks
| Funnel | What to check |
|---|---|
| Gift funnel | Do you get the gift? |
| Sales funnel | Does payment work? |
Every other check depends on these 2. If the gift does not arrive, the gift funnel cannot earn trust. If payment does not work, the sales funnel has no sales.
Walk through it as a customer
Get the gift through the gift funnel
Open the gift link and sign up like a stranger. This is the path every new customer will take. You will see the gift arrive, along with the first email that shows how to use it.
Buy for real through the sales funnel
Go from the product page to the checkout page and pay with real money, like a real customer. Only a real order tells you if the payment gateway works. You will see the thank-you page appear and get a notice that the money arrived.
Check the product after payment
See whether you get the product after you pay, and how you get it. This is what customers wait for right after they buy. You will see the digital product arrive, with an email that shows how to use it.
Write down the experience
Write down which step confused you and how the whole path felt from start to end. Where you get confused as a customer is where real customers will get confused. Fix each spot, then go through it again until no step confuses you.
When a step does not work
Each place that breaks during the test points to one part to fix.
| What you see | What to fix |
|---|---|
| You sign up but do not get the gift | The gift delivery and emails of the gift funnel |
| You cannot reach the checkout page | The buy button and how the 3 pages are linked (Build a sales funnel) |
| Payment fails | The payment gateway |
| You pay but do not get the product | How the digital product is delivered |
After you fix one spot, go through the whole path again from the start, not just the step you fixed. A change in one step can affect the steps after it.
Signs the funnel is ready
- You get the gift and the email that shows how to use it through the gift link.
- A real paid order goes through, the money reaches your account and you get a notice.
- The product reaches you after you pay, with an email that shows how to use it.
- Going through it again from the start, no step confuses you.
After you open the funnel
Once the funnel is open, you track customers through it as described in the section “Measure conversion in stage 3” on the Google Analytics page, to see which page customers leave on and how many people go from an article to the sales funnel.
Related pages
- Rebuild the part that broke: see Build a sales funnel.
- Why the gift must reach the person: see Gift funnel.