How To Build A Sales Funnel (Part Two)
This is part two of “How To Build A Sales Funnel”, to read part one click here.
3. Putting It All Together
Actually creating the funnel, physically and technically is the difficult part. Creating the products is simple. If you have chosen the right niche; you will have no trouble creating products. You merely need to look at the exact problems your audience are having, and deliver a product that solves them. No brainer right? So, putting it all together…
1) Create Free Offer
Sending traffic directly to sales pages no longer works. You generally have to gain trust before you can sell things now. In order to build trust, you need to be able to communicate with people; via a list.
Once you have people on your list, you can send them as many emails as you like. So the idea is to get them on your list, build some rapport, sell them some stuff.
The best way to get people on a list is to offer them something for free, your free offer. This can be a PDF, video or webinar. Creating a short 7-15 page PDF has always worked well for me.
The free offer should be relevant to your first low-end product. The free offer should pre-sell your low-end offer. It should give an insane amount of value to subscribers, and make them think they need your first product when you present it to them.
If you were selling a ‘dog training guide’, your free offer could be “7 reasons why you need to train your dog”. By the time subscribers finish the report, they would be convinced they need to train their dogs (that’s where your product comes in).
2) Create Email List
Using your favorite autoresponder (like Aweber), setup a new list, call it “Subscribers” or “Main Subscribers”. This list is where people will go when they opt-in for your free report/offer.
3) Create Capture Page
Next create your free offer capture page. You can use Optimize Press or any of the other sales/squeeze page softwares, themes or plugins available. Read “How To Create A High Converting Capture Page” if you don’t really know what you’re doing.
Your capture page should do two things: get targeted subscribers on your list, and filter out people who aren’t likely to buy your products.
4. Create Follow-up Emails To Sell Low-end Offer
After people are on your list, you shouldn’t instantly hit them with your first low-end offer. If you’re in the Internet Marketing niche, that sort of thing is acceptable and effective. However, in most other niches; you need to build more rapport before selling.
In your Aweber account, create a short series of 4-6 emails designed to pre-sell and sell your first low-end product. The first 1-3 emails should only pre-sell. In other words, they should deliver valuable content, build rapport and make subscribers want to purchase your upcoming product, prior to knowing what it is.
If you keep talking about the importance of dog training in your ‘content only’ emails, when subscribers get hit with your ‘promo email’ they’ll be more likely to purchase it. Pre-selling is everything when you’re trying to convince generic subscribers to purchase a product they didn’t search or ask for.
After 1-3 pre-sell or ‘content only’ emails, you need to hit subscribers hard with a promotion. A promotion should last between 2-4 emails – all of them directly selling the product. The subscribers who purchase your low-end offer should be moved to your mid-range product list.
5. Create Mid Range Product Email List + Follow-ups Designed To Sell High-End Product
If your subscribers are specifically interested in training their dogs, it’s going to be easy to sell them your first dog training offer. It’s just a matter of giving them what they want, so pre-selling becomes almost non-important.
However, after they’ve bought your dog training offer, you might want to sell them a $97 mid-range product on “training your dog to do backflips”. The problem is, your subscribers weren’t searching for ‘backflip dog training’. They only wanted to know how to train their dogs at a basic level.
At first, your subscribers need or want what you are selling them. When it comes to selling them more stuff, it’s a case of convincing them that they need or want the second product. Therefore pre-selling becomes a lot more important.
Your subscribers who buy your low-end offer should automatically be moved to your mid-range product email list. This email list should have another series of emails designed to sell product 2 to customers of product 1.
It’s exactly the same process, it just involves more pre-selling. To pre-sell your next product, you have to deliver content that persuades subscribers to want/need your next product before actually knowing what it is.
In the online marketing niche, product 1 might be a link building software. Lots of marketers use SEO to drive traffic, it’s a fantastic traffic source. The problem is you need to build a lot of backlinks to gain top rankings. So product 1 sells them a quality link building tool.
Now product 2 might be a tool that indexes backlinks. If you know anything about SEO; you’ll know that un-indexed backlinks are useless. Knowing this, you could create a video that really emphasizes the importance of indexing backlinks. You could go on to show a few manual link indexing strategies.
Things you can do by hand that take a really long time to index backlinks, as long as they work. Your next email could then present your product 2 (mid-range offer), which is a software that automates the manual link indexing strategies you taught in the previous email.
After reading the first email, subscribers should be convinced that link indexing is the key to top rankings. If you waited a few days before sending out the promo email for product 2, your subscribers would probably be manually using the strategies you taught in the previous email. I bet they’d be pretty damn sick of doing it manually and ready to give up.
So when they get your next email about this awesome tool that automatically does everything you taught in the previous email; they’re going to want to buy it, period. That’s pre-selling in a nutshell. Hopefully the Internet Marketing example made a lot more sense than the dog training example did. Who really buys dog training anyway?
In Prosperity,
David Wood
Comments
Sarah Thompson, July 30 2024, 17:20
Thank you for sharing this comprehensive guide, David. The strategies are practical and easy to follow. I’ve been struggling to build my sales funnel, and your detailed breakdown provides a clear roadmap. I especially appreciate the sections on creating free offers and follow-up emails. They seem like effective ways to engage potential customers without a huge investment. Keep up the great work!
Michael Lee, July 30 2024, 17:25
Great tips, David! I appreciate the detailed breakdown of each strategy. It’s refreshing to see actionable steps that can be implemented immediately. The part about creating capture pages is particularly interesting; I hadn’t considered that method before. I’m looking forward to trying these strategies out and seeing how they impact my funnel’s performance. Thanks for the valuable insights!
Emily Richards, July 30 2024, 17:30
Could you provide more examples of successful sales funnels you’ve built? Your insights are always so practical, and seeing specific examples would be incredibly helpful. I’ve tried a few of these strategies before with mixed results, so I’m curious about what has worked best for you. Thanks for another great post!
John Peterson, July 30 2024, 17:35
This post is very informative, David. However, I’d like to hear more about the potential challenges and how to overcome them. For example, what are some common pitfalls with creating free offers, and how can they be avoided? Also, how do you ensure the quality of the leads you get from these methods? Your advice would be greatly appreciated.
Daniel Kim, July 30 2024, 17:40
Hey David, great insights as always. Let’s catch up soon and discuss these strategies over coffee. I find the idea of using free offers to attract leads particularly intriguing. It seems like a smart way to build an engaged audience. Looking forward to hearing more about your experiences with this approach. Cheers!
Laura Martinez, July 30 2024, 17:45
I’ve had success with some of these strategies in the past, especially creating follow-up emails. Your tips are spot on and very helpful. One thing I’ve found effective is tailoring the emails to address specific pain points. They often have highly engaged audiences. Thanks for sharing these insights; I’m excited to implement more of them!
Mark Johnson, July 30 2024, 17:50
I recently started implementing some of these strategies, and I’ve already seen positive results. The method of using capture pages to attract subscribers has been particularly effective for me, bringing in a steady stream of new leads. Your advice on ensuring the quality of the list and avoiding over-saturation was very helpful. Thank you for the valuable insights, David!
Rebecca Lee, July 30 2024, 17:55
I’m still skeptical about the effectiveness of some of these strategies, especially the use of follow-up emails. Do you have any case studies or concrete evidence to back up these claims? It would be helpful to see some real-world examples of these methods in action. Your posts are always thought-provoking, and I appreciate the effort you put into them.
