If you’ve been in business long enough, you will hear the term “funnels.” You’ve probably heard a lot about sales funnels by now! Stuff like…
- “You need to have a funnel.”
- “The gold is in the list.”
- “Your funnels need to be clear and focused.”
Fun Facts About Sales Funnels: Everything You Need to Know
What the Heck is a Funnel?
Simply put, a funnel is a series of pages and steps linked together so that one step triggers the next.
A funnel allows you to gather hundreds of qualified leads and weed out those who are not your ideal client until you are left those who are ready to buy.
How? because there is something driving your leads to move from one step to the next.
Think of it as an automated sales script.
You can spend hours trying to close each sale manually — emailing, calling, etc.
Or, you can spend a few hours setting up one funnel and reach potentially hundreds of targeted people ready to buy from you.
Funnels are important to know your conversion rate and to see where your traffic/clients are coming from. It can also tell you where customers are leaving and not buying.
Why is that important? Because if you know where the funnel is broken, you can focus on it. If you know where the weakest link is in your funnel, you can make it stronger.
Your funnel is important because your sales are only as strong as the weakest layer in the funnel.
If you clearly define and track the data though your funnel you can increase your sales because you know exactly where to look.
You do this by reviewing and tweaking each step. Testing to see what works best. What doesn’t work.
Headlines, color, even button placement all dictate how well your funnel is going to convert. It MUST speak to your target audience and hit their pain point.
Think about the last “free gift” you signed up for. Something on the optin page caught your attention and made you want to learn more.
Your funnel must do the same thing.
Each step of your funnel must focus on the action for the next step. What action do you want your prospect to take?
- Click here to…
- Read this…
- Go check your email…
- Watch this video…
- Buy now…
Each action item must be clear. Steer clear of adding to many types of calls to action (CTA) in each step. The user will get confused and not know which action they should take.
You need to take them by the hand and lead them down the path YOU want them to follow.
You can create a funnel for just about anything.
- List Building
- Webinars
- Sales
- Social Media
- Each smaller funnel ties into the next to create one big, sexy, elaborate funnel.
Funnel Pieces and Parts
The main components of a funnel are the same, regardless of what it’s used for.
- Optin or Sales Page
- Confirmation Page
- Autoresponder Sequence
- Delivery Page
Your Opt-in
A funnel is consistently being filled through lead generation. Leads enter your funnel by signing up for a lead magnet (otherwise known as a freebie, free gift, opt-in, etc.)
The lead magnet is very important. You want qualified leads who want to get more information from you.
Types of lead magnets that work well:
- Ebooks
- Video courses
- Audios
- Reports
- Webinars
- Email courses
- Meditations
- Free chapters of a book
A lead magnet is NOT your newsletter. It must be enticing and juicy. You’re asking for their email address…your lead magnet better be worth it!
Thank You Page/Offer
This is a very valuable piece of real estate that is often wasted.
Don’t put the freebie download on the thank you page for two reasons.
- You want to train your followers to open your emails. At the top of the page, it should say something like, “Thank you for registering/signing up/requesting your XX. Check your inbox in 10-15 for details.”
- You can use this page to upsell to a low-priced product. After your thank you, create a small sales page to sell them a $7 product. When they purchase that, you can then offer a $27 product, or a webinar, etc.
The key is to keep them engaged. They are hot leads right now…keep them on your site and taking action as long as possible.
Optin >> Confirmation/Upsell Page >> $7 product >> $27 product or webinar registration >> Webinar upsells to course
Make sure you are efficiently utilizing the autoresponder sequence.
- Email #1 should be a thank you and instructions on the freebie.
- Emails 2 and 3 should focus on your upsell call to action.
You can even create an indoctrination sequence that nurtures newcomers to your list, lets them know what to expect and gives valuable free information with no strings (blog posts, videos, etc.)
The key to creating any successful sales funnels is testing. You have to learn what works best for your audience. What do they resonate with the most?
- Languaging
- Key phrases
- Colors
- Image placement
- Button color and placement
All of these are crucial to how your funnel converts. There are platforms such as ClickFunnels that has done a lot of this work for you, and will have templates that are built based on hours of testing.
The gold is in your list. The key to building that list is funnels.
Go make it happen.
Ready to build your first funnel? Get your free funnels step checklist. Click here.
