At Sales Funnel Professor, we get a lot of requests for our CRO expertise, and we also get inquires for other services from companies who think they have CRO nailed but fail the touch-1 test.
What does all that mean? That’s what I’ll explore in this article.
Should you focus elsewhere if your conversion rate optimization isn’t really where it needs to be? Our sales funnel audits often put repairing CRO issues high on the list of priorities.
So before we talk about the touch-1 test, let’s talk about conversion rate optimization, which is part of what a funnel consultant fixes for clients.
If you’re working with a fractional CMO, they should be able to help you achieve frequent touch-1 conversions as well. Relying on a ‘one and done‘ approach in sales and marketing can be a costly mistake, as it often overlooks the importance of nurturing long-term customer relationships.
What Is Conversion Rate Optimization?
Think of conversion rate optimization as a measure of throughput in the middle of your funnel. Usually, the work centers around a website where collateral, chat, email sign-ups and other tools can also play a part.
Many new entrepreneurs think a “conversion” means a purchase. A purchase is a type of conversion but other types of primary or happy-path conversions include booking a demo or an introductory call, coming to the physical location, etc. It’s a move down the funnel.
For an e-commerce company with a low-price, low-risk offering, a direct purchase would be the primary conversion.
For a B2B company that offers a complex suite of services that requires a contract being signed, the primary call to action is to set a meeting. Why? Because no one is going to sign a contract without asking questions.
So if those are primary or happy-path conversions, what is a secondary or unhappy-path conversion?
There’s a lot of noise by certain software and self-help gurus about secondary calls to action. So much so that many new entrepreneurs get the impression that they can’t get a primary conversion without the those tools.
Clickfunnels has built a business around helping entrepreneurs that struggle with messaging and branding get incremental gains by offering a freeby and then tying tons of automated follow-up emails to it.
These are often white paper downloads or access to a movie or other education materials. Secondary conversions are helpful overall but if you’re only getting primary conversions after secondary conversions, you still have a severe conversion rate optimization problem.
Professor’s Note
Your primary call to action or CTA should be what you really want your visitor to do. It’s the direct path to purchase.
Your secondary call to action is for on-the-fence people and should be focused on building trust and understanding for those that don’t immediately “get it” about your service or product.
What Is a Touch?
A touch is a discrete interaction with your business. It’s a single session in digital terms.
In the physical world, seeing a billboard, seeing a print ad, etc. would each count as a single touch.
So with sales and marketing, many deals don’t close until enough touches happen.
If you want to shorten your sales cycle, you need to reduce the average overall number of touches required and get your touches out faster.
What Is a Touch-1 Conversion?
If you read our blog, we cover various go-to-market strategies using various top-of-funnels sources.
Keeping in mind that we’re talking about consultants, not people seeking jobs, you’re going to hire a firm/someone to work with you and your team, not for you or your team.
A touch-1 conversion in an ABM funnel would mean you reached out exactly once and set the demo or meeting. They had never heard of the brand, seen an ad, or had any other touches before your cold call or email elicited exactly the response you wanted. While possible, touch-1 conversions in ABM are quite difficult simply because so many first touches are not perceived (phone call not answered, email not opened, etc.).
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Feel free to download our sales funnel images and icons for your own educational use.
So while ABM touch-1 conversions are very uncommon, if you’re running digital marketing as top of funnel, especially SEO and PPC, and not getting touch-1 conversions, you need to optimize further.
WARNING: you should be aiming to have frequent touch-1 conversions. Companies that don’t understand the one and done meaning abandon working strategies because many sales require lots of touches.
What Is a Touch-1 Conversion in an SEO Funnel?
Remember that with SEO, you have a lot of choice in terms of what phrases you work to get ranked in Google’s top 10 results (and preferably top 3). If you need a refresher, please read up on SEO as top of funnel.
An SEO touch-1 conversion would be a prospect does the following:
1) Initiates a search in Google
2) Sees your organic result
3) Clicks your link
4) Reads some content on your site
5) Buys something (simple sale) or books a demo or sets a call on your website (complex sale).
One continuous internet session that could be less than two minutes in total.
Give yourself bonus points if your prospect converted on the only page they looked at.
So your CRO has to excellent in this scenario. You’re also much more likely to be able to achieve touch-1 SEO conversions if your target search phrases have implied intent.
What Is a Touch-1 Conversion in a PPC Funnel?
With PPC, you can purchase your space at the top of search results rather quickly. The main hinderance to going live is how long Google’s algorithms take to “learn.” Lately, they’ve been taking as long 6 days, whereas in the past, you could general have a live Google Ads campaign on day 2.
If you need assistance, here’s a handy article on PPC intelligence.
A PPC touch-1 conversion would be a prospect does the following:
1) Initiates a search in Google
2) Sees your paid ad in the results
3) Clicks your ad
4) Reads some content on your site
5) Buys something (simple sale) or books a demo or sets a call on your website (complex sale).
One continuous internet session that could be less than two minutes in total.
Again, give yourself bonus points if your prospect converted on the only page they looked at. It’s rather hard to get a landing page with no navigation to rank in SEO, but if you’re using PPC, you can make it harder to navigate around by pointing the ad at a page that has no navigation elements.
Again, your CRO has to be excellent in this scenario. You’re also much more likely to be able to achieve touch-1 PPC conversions if you bid on search phrases that have implied intent. Using “broad match” targeting or a “Performance Max” campaign is likely to bring in traffic that is much less likely to convert.
So What Is the Touch-1 Conversion Rate Optimization Test?
Ask yourself a simple question: Do you frequently get touch-1 conversions? If the answer is no, you’ve still got a lot of work to do on conversion rate optimization.
Professor’s Note
The touch-1 test for conversion rate optimization is simple.
If you frequently get touch-1 conversions, you pass.
If you have gotten them but they’re not frequent, you’re close.
If you never get them, you fail and lead magnets and pop-ups will only give you tiny gains.
Focus on your core messaging, story, credibility, etc. instead to multiply your throughput.
Long email campaigns, retargeting ads, etc. are all additional touches.
So if you don’t have touch-1 conversions, work at it until you do and you’ll significantly lower your acquisition costs, free up labor within your team, and create a more delightful experience for your customers.
Do You Need a Sales Funnel Consultant?
If you have marketing resources on hand, ask them if they can they can get you there. If you have already tasked them with achieving touch-1 success and they just can’t do it, it’s probably time for a CRO expert.
Sales funnel consultants help with touch-1 and other longer sales cycles and can upskill your team while they work. With a funnel builder, you can create customized marketing funnels that streamline the process of turning prospects into loyal customers, optimizing each step along the way.
Boost your sales and streamline your marketing strategy with expert funnel consulting from our team of seasoned professionals.
Would you like to see if working together make sense? We host free consultations throughout the work week.
Book an Introductory CallFor Further Reading: Top of Funnel: Organic Social Strategies, What is hotjar?
