Bottom of the Funnel Conversions: 7 Tactics for eCommerce Owners

Whether you’re a small start-up, in the early stages of launching your ecommerce business, or you’re a well-established online Shopify Plus business, the conversion funnel plays a significant role in your brand’s success.

If you’re not familiar with the conversion funnel, it’s a useful metaphor to represent the different stages of the buyer’s journey leading to a conversion. It consists of Top of the Funnel (TOFU), Middle of the Funnel (MOFU), and Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU). Each one has a specific set of marketing tactics:

At the TOFU level, customers are just starting to research products or services, and they’re unsure about their precise needs. Their focus at this stage is researching a variety of brands.

At the MOFU level, the customer is aware of the more popular brands for particular products, and they may have subscribed to some email newsletters to learn more about ones they’re interested in. They have a better idea of what they want and are defining their expectations, which is to say that they’ll disregard brands that appear unable to deliver quality and value.

At the BOFU level, which is the focus of this 8-minute article, customers have shortlisted brands and are now looking for specific, usually logistical, information. We’ll break this down further in the next section. 

Each part of the conversion funnel relates to a particular level of the funnel: awareness, interest, desire, and action.  Learn more about those stages here.

What Happens in BOFU?

Bottom of the Funnel is the narrowest part of the buyer’s journey. It's the decision stage, the final step before conversion. 

As a brand owner, this is where you really have to step up your game and give your customer precise information and the right kind of attention. Whomever remains in this part of the funnel is a highly-qualified lead and very close to making a buying decision.

Your goal is to nurture those leads, which requires specific tactics and detailed content that properly address any remaining concerns they have about your brand, product, or service. 

At this stage, you must be aware of possible problems, focused on a solution, and available to quell any remaining objections they have to sealing the deal.

Why You Should Invest in BOFU

This stage of the conversion funnel is your final chance to convert shoppers and turn them into loyal customers. 

Offer specific details about your brand or product, offer limited-time discounts, and apply any other hard pushes necessary to result in a conversion.

If you were strategic in your TOFU and MOFU marketing approach, well-executed BOFU tactics should lead naturally to a conversion. If they don’t, it’s not necessarily owed to something you’re doing wrong, but nonetheless, it’s prudent to reflect critically on your approach to see where you can make improvements.

Calculate your conversion rate using this formula: 

Conversion rate % = (Total number of conversions / Total number of visitors) x 100

The more customer data you have collected and analysed during the previous stages, the more effectively you can craft personalised and targeted experiences in the BOFU stage to keep customers interested and engaged with your brand.

Tactics for increasing BOFU conversions

Your goals at this stage of the funnel can be summed up in these three points:

1. Position your brand as superior to competitors.
2. Inspire full confidence that your brand is going to deliver on its promise (remove all buying objections, offer social proof, etc.).
3. Convert the customer.

In short, you need to prove to your customer that your brand is the solution to their problem by addressing all concerns and inquiries clearly, logistically, and honestly. Challenge their assumptions with pre-emptive data-driven responses.

1. Provide detailed product comparisons. We don’t recommend applying this tactic in the previous stages as it can come off as too aggressive and overwhelming in the amount of information the customer would have to digest.

2. In any of the content you provide at this stage, especially brand or product comparisons, focus on the positive attributes of your brand and deliver explicit, practical, and measurable features and benefits. Avoid painting a negative picture of your competition.

3. Take every opportunity to personalise your approach. A client once shared a story with me that highlights this point perfectly. His health insurance was up for renewal, so he decided to shop around other brokers to find the best deal. His current insurance company took several measures to retain his business. The first step was having a customer service rep call and encourage renewal. The second step was offering a discounted rate. The third step was topping up his current policy with attractive incentives. The fourth step was having the head of customer relations make a personal call and offer an additional, exclusive discount. That final call sealed the deal and he stayed on with his current broker.

4. Offer special discounts, similar to what I outlined in the previous insurance policy example. Frame such incentives as “help” can be all the encouragement your customer needs to finalise their decision. It makes a high-ticket item more accessible, giving them the opportunity to experience your product and see that it lives up to its promise. The bonus is a loyal customer who pays full price. Such money-saving incentives usually work, but the customer may take extra convincing so be flexible and extend those discounts as long as necessary, without breaking your budget.

5. Provides loads of case studies, testimonials, and/or reviews, as well as social proof from your social media channels. Interested customers want validation from organic sources (read: no fake reviews!) that your product or service really does pass the test.

6. Provide a detailed pricing page that clearly lists every feature-backed benefit they’re getting for their money. Include a clear and benefits-focused call to action.

7. Offer a free trial, if possible, to enable a hands-on experience with your product or service. If this isn’t possible, offer high-quality live demos of your product so they can see it in action.

What’s Next…

What should you do if they’ve gotten this far in the journey only to abandon their cart?

Keep in mind that there are several reasons why shoppers abandon their cart at the eleventh hour. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a missed sale. Use email marketing, retargeting ads, or even push notifications to re-engage their attention and interest.

We’re Shopify experts and ecommerce website specialists here to help you get the most conversions possible. You don’t have to do all the work yourself. Our team is experienced in a variety of industries, so give us a call today to book a free strategy session.