8 Habits Highly Effective Funnel Hackers Do Everyday

To get the most out of your sales funnels, you need to be at your “A-game” on a day-to-day basis.

Understand how to revamp your regular routine into that of a true funnel-hacker.

Let’s talk about habits.

You’re probably already familiar with the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, a classic bestseller (with over 25 million copies sold) which details the traits of those looking to succeed in business and life itself.

Although the book is over two decades old, its core principles still ring true today.

Author, Stephen Convey noted seven common threads to effectiveness as follows:

1. Be Proactive
2. Begin with the End in Mind
3. Put First Things First
4. Think Win-Win
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the Saw

These exact same principles can be applied to funnel-hacking as well. How so?

• Funnel-hackers should be proactive in their pursuit of new projects, constantly searching for new ways to grow their business and optimize their funnels for conversions.
• The “big picture” should always present in the mind of an effective funnel-builder: that is, we strive to build the best user experience from A to Z without missing a beat
• When marketing any product or service, it’s crucial to put “first” things “first;” in other words, focus on the most important aspects of your funnel first (such as copy, design, and deals) versus getting caught up in the more minute details

Here’s the thing, though: funnel-hackers play by a slightly different set of rules versus the traditional entrepreneur.

Building effective funnels and converting like crazy requires attention to detail on a daily basis, not just some or half of the time.

They say practice makes perfect, right?

If you’re looking to take the training wheels off of your sales funnel or are struggling to drive the conversions you’re looking for, perhaps it’s time to beef up your daily routine.

By understanding the eight habits of highly effective funnel hackers, you can step up your sales game, boost productivity and set up your next funnel for success.

Plan on Paper

Ideas come and go; however, truly great ideas are worth putting on paper, right?

While planning out your funnels on paper or a whiteboard may feel old-school, the benefits of physically writing (versus typing) your sales ideas and language are well documented, including:

• Forcing you to really put mental effort into your ideas versus scribbling the first thing that comes to your mind
• Eliminating distractions: let’s be honest, you can’t successfully sketch the next great funnel if your Facebook feed is blowing up in front of you
• Allowing you visually map the journey of your funnel versus simply relying on text notes (for example you could draw a mock-up of your landing page and CTA to discuss with a designer versus just telling them about it)

For decades, designers and copywriters alike have likened the blank page to a canvas where good ideas are born. Whether you keep a notebook at hand or a whiteboard in the office, make sure you have somewhere to jot down inspiration at a moment’s notice.

Keep Track of Your Traffic

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: not all traffic is created equal.

There’s nothing quite like the rush of getting out of bed to check out your analytics; however, don’t get too excited. Not only do effective funnel-hackers regularly check their traffic, but also take the time to understand what it represents.

Generally speaking, high-quality traffic represents the following:

• Visitors via organic search who spend plenty of time on the page instead of bouncing
• Affiliate traffic that you know for a fact are interested in what you’re saying and selling
• Social traffic from ad campaigns; likewise, traffic from opt-in users who are already familiar with your brand

Steady traffic is always a good sign; however, you need to constantly keep track of your quality traffic that converts versus vanity traffic that does nothing to help your bottom line.

Master Your Metrics

On a similar note, your funnel metrics are crucial to understanding what’s working and what isn’t regarding your funnel’s design, copy and calls-to-action.

Although it may feel like there are millions of metrics to juggle for any given funnel, consider first the most important funnel metrics and how they may impact your bottom line, such as:

Click Through Rate (CTR) – The percentage of users who click on your advertisements.

Cost Per Click (CPC) – Perhaps the most important metric of all, representing the monetary cost per individual click on your advertisements.

People Reached –  The number of users reached through your advertisements.

Cost Per Lead (CPL) – The average revenue generated per lead throughout the entirety of your funnel, helping you determine whether or not your lead generation strategy is profitable.

Earnings Per Click (EPC) – The percentage of clicks versus conversions, often used to measure the effectiveness of an affiliate campaign.

More often than not, metrics aren’t black and white: that is, a high click-through rate coupled with a poor conversion rate is a clear signal that something needs to change within your funnel.

Remember that your decisions should always be driven by data, not your gut.

By keeping track of your metrics, you can have peace of mind as you tinker with your funnel.

Build Relationships with JVs

The benefits of building relationships and investing in the joint venture are clear: from expanding your reach to having more resources on deck to dominate your niche, sometimes we can get more done with some partners in crime.

While pursuing JVs may be intimidating for a novice, definitely keep track of potential influencers and affiliates you may want to connect with down the road.

Finding partners can be a cinch if you have the success and numbers to back up your success, making it easier to attract JVs instead of chasing after them.

Networking is far from dead; therefore, maintain a social presence to keep the channels open for a potential partnership down the road.

Check In With Your Fulfillment Center

Keeping track of your inventory may seem like a no-brainer; however, it’s easy to overlook your stock if you don’t stay on top of your orders.

To ensure happy customers, you’re going to need to rely on a reliable fulfillment center to make sure that your shipments run smoothly.

If you’re selling a digital product, especially from an affiliate, make sure that everything is on the up-and-up regarding how well the product is doing (think: check ClickBank’s marketplace) and avoid being blindsided by a product potentially changing overnight.

Split Tests on Critical Pages

We all know that split testing is important; likewise, we need to make sure we focus on the most important pages of our sites and sales funnel first.

Landing Page – Just about anybody can drive traffic; however, are you taking the necessary steps to make that your traffic converts (think: killer copy, a straightforward call-to-action and a design that keeps readers wanting more)?

Squeeze Page – Representing a surewire way to improve opt-ins based on your audience, a strong squeeze page can mean the difference between a qualified lead and bounced traffic.

Purchase Page – Just because someone ends up on your purchase page means that you’ve sealed the deal: also consider how you can test elements in ClickFunnels such as order bumps to upsell your fickle traffic.

You should consistently test the elements of design, copy, and deals to determine what works best and refine your marketing strategy over time based on your results.

Think about it: would you rather let your funnel sit and gather dust, or turn it into a money-making machine?

Pay Out Affiliates

Chances are, you’re on top of paying out your affiliates.

Thankfully, doing so is simple given that are so many ways to automate affiliate payouts without breaking a sweat.

By keeping your affiliates paid on time, you can maintain positive relationships while also building your customer base.

Test New Traffic Sources

Remember what we said earlier about not all traffic sources being equal?

For this reason, you need to follow the mantra of “ABT.”

That is, always be testing.

There are many ways you can apply the principles of split testing to your traffic sources, for example:

• Let’s say you begin building your email list or obtain a list from an affiliate: you can segment your list to test subject lines and CTAs to figure out what’s grabbing the attention of your readers
• If you’re running a paid ad campaign on Facebook or LinkedIn, you can test imagery and headlines to see which ads have the best conversion rates to rule out underperforming ads in the future
• Try out different landing pages on affiliate traffic; for example, you may find that your new traffic responds well to a simple, straightforward CTA versus a VSL or long-form sales letter

In short, never assume your traffic sources’ behavior and make data-driven decisions instead.

Any Other Daily Funnel Hacking Habits?

Establishing regular funnel-hacking habits that cover the bases of your business may seem daunting at first; however, the more funnels you build, you more that these habits become automatic.

So, is there anything we missed?

What other habits are critical to your funnel-building routine?