5 Ways to Reduce Touchpoints On the Social Media Conversion Funnel

Touchpoints can induce conversions, but they can also slow buyers down. In the vast space between discovery and retention, there are touchpoints that get in the way more than they guide. Trim the fat on leaky social conversion funnels by cutting out surplus touchpoints.

1. Target Influencers to Render Affinity Groups Unnecessary

Affinity groups create friction near the top of the funnel. This is the portion of a consumer's buying journey where they've decided to buy a product - say, a tent for a summer camping trip - so they join a group or like a page populated with people who share an interest in camping tents for guidance and information.

Eliminate this social touchpoint - which can pull a buyer in several different directions away from your brand of tents - by directly targeting influencers with your content.

Influencers are people with major social media presences. In this case, it may be a television personality who hosts an outdoors show or someone with a popular camping blog. Instead of targeting the masses with your content, find out who your industry's influencers are (here is a great tutorial), scour their social channels to find out the kind of content they are most likely to amplify and target them directly.

One share from an industry influencer can steer countless buyers away from murky affinity groups and directly toward your landing pages - but your landing pages had better be ready.

2. Optimize Landing Pages for Social

There is a common misconception among even well-established, successful brands that PPC landing pages can double as social landing pages. They can not. Visitors who arrive from social are landing on your site from near the top of the funnel. When PPC ads steer visitors toward your page, on the other hand, those customers are arriving from near the bottom of the funnel.

Services like Unbounce and Spaces can all be optimized for both social and PPC. PPC landing pages are designed to convert customers who have already decided to buy but are just waiting for the right time and price. Social landing pages, on the other hand, are designed to convey a value proposition to visitors who may not be at all familiar with your brand or product.

3. Social Requests: Because a Sale Isn't the Last Leg of the Conversion Funnel

Conversions are the big goal but not the end goal. Getting buyers to become brand ambassadors after the purchase is the final stage of the social consumer's decision journey. Remove touchpoints for future social buyers by getting converted buyers to recommend you.

Research shows that every age demographic is influenced to buy through social sharing from previous customers - especially millennials. Two-thirds of millennials are either very likely, fairly likely or somewhat likely to purchase after a peer recommendation. The takeaway is that optimizing landing pages for social is a great start, but those LPs must be backed up by confirmation pages designed to turn conversions into brand ambassadors. Here are some examples of stellar share requests on confirmation pages.

4. Use Case Studies to Get Customers to Bypass Reviews

When buyers creep down toward the bottom of the funnel, it is natural for them to seek reviews. But reviews can become a touchpoint filled with friction. Review sites or comment threads can be trolled and they can be sabotaged by competitors or people with unreasonable expectations. Testimonials can be effective, but they can also be easily fabricated - and savvy customers know it.