A sales funnel is by far the most effective way to get any product – digital or otherwise – to sell. This way, you are attracting the right kinds of visitors, building their trust and engagement with their brand and then selling to them right at the point when they’re most likely to buy. With a sales funnel, you are selling something of incrementally increasing value and you are making sure to ‘warm up’ your leads before you try and shift your big items. As a result, your audience is much more receptive and far more accepting of your marketing messages – which makes all the difference to your conversion rates.
Imagine that someone came up to you in the street and offered you a $5,000 watch. Would you buy it? Heck no! You have no idea who this person is, if the watch they’re offering you is any good and you’re probably not even in the market for a $5000 watch.
Now try to understand that if you have a sales page that is trying to sell an ebook, a coaching program or another product, your visitors are just as likely to say ‘thanks but no thanks’. Think about it: these people know nothing about you. They probably stumbled upon your website by accident and they have no reason to trust you or your product yet. So what do you do instead? Well, this is where the sales funnel comes in…
A sales funnel is a series of items of increasing value, that builds momentum and takes your visitor closer and closer to the final ‘big’ item. The “top” of the funnel often begins with a lead magnet. One way you might do this is by providing a free item – like a short ebook to start. This helps to demonstrate the value you can provide as well as building a relationship. You’ll also be collecting the details of that customer, such that you can market to them further in future.
The objective is to encourage people to become interested in the content you’re sharing, to the point that they will regularly keep checking back. Then maybe they decide they like what you’re offering so much, that they want to subscribe and start hearing more. Once they’re on your mailing list, you might offer them a free seminar. At each stage of the way, they’re becoming more engaged and more interested in your brand – more willing to be marketed to more in the future…and ultimately, invest in what you have to offer them.
Want to start working on your own sales funnel? Check out this free ebook/workbook, Sales Funnels in a Nutshell.
In the next post, we’ll review how to optimize your sales funnel for maximum results!
