What is a Sales Funnel and How Does it Work?
If you are a startup, getting sales going in an upward direction is priority one. If you are in the service business ie lifestyle coach, business coach, social media expert, or book author, understanding how an effective sales funnel works is key.
The fundamental elements of building a sales funnel are:
1) Attract customers with free or almost free items.
2) Persuade these potential customers to sign up for your mailing list.
3) Develop a series of products at the medium price range.
4) Offer higher end products.
Attracting customers with free or almost free items.
Attracting customers with free or almost free items.
You can find these potential customers by advertising your free products through many different channels. This process helps your potential clients like and trust you and the content you are giving away free. If they like your free content, then they are more than likely to sign up for the medium priced packages.
a) Facebook groups
b) Paid facebook ads
c) Blogging on your website
d) Connecting through Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest depending on your service
Even established experts such as Amy Porterfield, Neil Patel, James Wedmore or Jon Morrow still use this technique to build their mailing lists.
What Kinds of Free Products Can You Offer?
- How to pdf’s
- White Papers
- Mini e-books
- Resource lists
- Webinars
- Videos or podcasts
Create a Call to Action to help build the list for your next level of products:
At the end of the “freebie” give a hint of the next offering and then follow up within three days with your next paid offering. Why so soon? Because the “freebie” is still fresh in their minds.
It takes at least 3 touches via email to sign up clients to the next level.
This isn’t being “pushy”, it’s just a fact! The second and third emails create the urgency of signing up and the extra “bonus” value.
- Limited time offer
- Offer ending in 12 hours
- Don’t miss this exceptional offer with xxxxx bonuses
How to calculate your conversion rate from free to paid
Here is the formula
Conversion Rate = Total No. of Sales/Number of Leads*100
So for this purpose sign ups for the paid course/no. of sign ups for the free course*100.
Example: If 20 people signed up for the paid course out of 100 people who took the free course then the percentage of conversions from free to paid would equal 20%.
From medium priced products to your high end products.
This is an easier part of establishing the funnel because already your potential clients for this area of your expertise already trust you, like you and are finding your content valuable.
What does this higher end product look like? That’s up to you, whether you are selling higher end online products or high end individual coaching packages or a combo of the two.
And the last word.
Even if only 20% conversions work on the first try, you can repeat the whole process again. Just tweak the “freebie” to another awesome “freebie” (different from the first one) and work the whole process again. This is called A/B testing. Using this method you can test out which “freebie” converts the best and use this type of free offering for future sales funnel efforts.
If you are looking for the on-line marketing tools to help you build your sales funnel, here is a great list from Neil Patel of Quick Sprout.
XL Consulting Group develops winning strategies to move companies from the startup stage to robust business entities by designing business plans, marketing plans, branding and websites. We also craft your marketing messages and build sales funnels. Contact us for a free half hour consultation to see how we can market your business.