Why and How to Build a Sales Funnel
More than ever, customers have more businesses, just like yours, competing for their purchase dollars. They are often overwhelmed with communication of offers, information, and purchasing options. So, how can you reach your ideal customer and have them tune in to you over all the other noise fired at them?
Funnels! Funnels allow you to spend your marketing dollars in a far more measured and thoughtful manner with direct-targeted outreach to carefully selected potential customers. They are a systematic, efficient, and affordable method to target your ideal, high-value customers who are ready to give you money over and over again.
As a business owner, you want to acquire new prospects, i.e., leads. You must convert those leads to buyers, and then you want those buyers to purchase more and purchase more often, and finally, you want them to refer new customers to do it all over again. For this, you need sales funnels. Sales funnels have many benefits for your business. They can increase your sales revenue, increase your conversion rates, help predict your sales volume, and identify products and services that are not selling 24/7 on autopilot. See Figure 14.1 on page 159.
Simply put, a sales funnel is a well-guided path for potential buyers to follow. The funnel starts when someone’s hand goes up in acknowledgment of interest in your product, service, or business. The sales funnel takes people from their first interaction with your brand through a number of steps that are intended to result in one or more conversions. These conversions can be as simple as downloading a document or opting in to your mailing list to watching a webinar or making a purchase. The best funnels recognize that customers are very diverse—one size does not fit all—and they offer several different conversions (or purchase options) for the wide variety of customers along the path to purchase. These options should include upsells, downsells, limited-time offers, etc., to reach the most customers, clients, or patients and maximize the profit from each customer.
Think of the sales funnel as a tree with many branches and different apples (products or services) on those branches. You want to make the buying options available for a wide variety of customers and easily available. If they only want to climb the tree a little and buy a small green apple, OK. If they want to climb to the highest branch and buy a whole bushel of golden apples, you’ve got that available for those customers as well.
FIGURE 14.1
So, how do you get people to look at, let alone climb, your tree when they have a forest of trees in front of them? First, offer them something for free or at little cost. They will be very likely to respond and will hold you in high regard after that because you have given them something. You have indicated your value to them, started establishing the relationship, and began the trust process.
It is important to note here that the path you set up needs to be full of shortcuts—a springboard jump to the top of the tree, shall we say. For those customers who don’t want to follow the path, the ones who have no interest in the small green apple at the bottom, but instead, want the fast track to the bushel of golden apples at the very top, there must be shortcuts available at every turn.
Along the guided path to get the customers to purchase your product(s), you need to present multiple problems they might face to get them to move toward the solution you provide. Let’s say you are selling a tooth-whitening product at $19.95 for a one-month quantity. A typical funnel will use one or more opt-in pages, an email auto-responder (that will send a sequence of emails that guide them up your value ladder), in addition to one or more sales pages, order forms, additional content, etc. To get them to consider your product, offer a free one-day sample in exchange for name, email, and address. Or offer a three-day sample (just pay to ship and provide name, email, address, and credit card number).
Some customers might opt in to the free offer and stop at your first “tree branch.” Send them a thank you and their sample, and continue to reach out to them (via email and direct mail) so they can buy your product once they have tried (and are thrilled with) the original sample.
Each customer is unique and buys on their own timeline. You want to stay in front of people until they are ready to buy, so follow-up emails are essential. It is difficult to tell when their need is going to shift from “I’m curious” to “I’m interested” to “I want to buy” to “I must have immediately!” But if you are at the forefront of their thoughts, guess who gets the business when they do turn that corner from pondering to purchasing.
Another customer on your funnel path might not want the free one-day or the discounted three-day whitening sample but may be curious about the one-month supply. They might need additional information to convince them that this is the right purchase for them. Testimonials, before-and-after pictures, sales letters, money-back guarantees, or video links need to be interspersed on your funnel path so that if the customer is interested, they can further their engagement with your product or business. The key here is that each “up branch” of your tree is optional for the customer, not forced. Each branch must appeal to the diverse breadth of your customer base. They all won’t want to receive their information the same way. See Figure 14.2 on page 161.
FIGURE 14.2 Sample Funnel for an Info Business
Look around you. People are on their cell phones watching videos, reading the news or listening to audio, reading books on their Kindle, reading paper documents (yes, it still happens that way for some). Once they have engaged with the available resources (video, audio, sales letter, etc.) on your product, in the format that they like best, the customer is going to be much more likely to buy your product. It is an easy cost of doing business to let the customer discard the format that doesn’t work for them, choose the one that does, and make the purchase. Each branch of your information tree must have an easy link to quickly purchase your product(s) or service(s). When the customer is ready to buy, you must be available. The smart marketer has lengthened their sales funnel and given themselves the ability to really talk to their prospect in the modality to which their prospect wants to be spoken—and will best respond.
So, you are clear on why you need a sales funnel: to increase conversions and profits. Let’s now discuss how to build a sales funnel.
You want a long funnel with rotating and interspersing multiple forms of media. If you only reach out to your customers one way, you are leaving sales on the table. Interested or semi-interested customers need to receive text, email, AND direct mail promoting your product or service, and encouraging them to cross over from “maybe interested in” to “bought it.” You want to be front and center so when they are ready to buy, they immediately think of and see your business. Each funnel step naturally leads to the next without any disruption to the flow.
Product-based funnels are often thought of in two actions: “add-to-cart” and “checkout.” They are more sophisticated than that, and I will walk you step-by-step through how to build one. An effective funnel actually allows you to build a relationship with your customers as they move through your funnel so that they can become loyal, repeat customers later on.
There are many different types of funnels, of various sizes, with different outcomes. There are many options for creating a funnel, with some sites offering fill-in-the-blanks options. To find which one would suit your needs best, call (800) 871-0147 to talk with a GKIC Business Consultant to learn about the GKIC Top Secret Ninja Funnels and other marketing solution products.
Funnels can be short and sweet or more complex and intricate. You may want to start with a very straightforward one initially and either add to it or build new, more elaborate funnels as your skills and confidence grow. Creating a simple landing page with an email opt-in, thank-you page, and a link to an auto-responder takes less than half an hour. Much less if you choose to use pre-established templates and just plug in your business information, logo, image, etc.
For our purposes, let’s take an average-sized funnel and walk you through its composition. First, think of what you can offer for free. Everyone likes something for free, and it is a great way to warm up customers, clients, or patients to your business, product, or service. A buyer’s guide, book, sample, webinar, checklist, recording, or resource list are just a few possible introductory offers for you to consider.
As you consider what to use for your intro offer, remember that it is the most important part of your funnel. Here is why: Since the ultimate goal of the funnel is to turn someone who opts in into a lifelong customer, it is critical to give a pertinent offer that ties into your lead magnet when the customer is most interested in you. You’ve got to make the offer so raging awesome that it is nearly impossible for the customer to say no. As example, at GKIC, we offer the “Lifestyle Liberation Kit,” which includes all kinds of amazing resources for our members to begin their journey with us and to help them recognize the value of their membership at GKIC.
Let’s start at the beginning of the funnel, moving through the system as if the customer buys everything we offer them, and then we’ll go through the same funnel from a less exuberant customer’s perspective.
1. The first page is the Headline Page. It has your fantastic free introductory offer, maybe a short video link (two to three minutes), and requests only the customer’s name and email in exchange for access to the offer.
2. The incredible free gift in your introductory offer should be relevant to your core offer(s) and should be recognized (by you) not as a moneymaker but as a relationship-builder, paving the path from curious shopper to a long-term customer. The Intro Offer is a trust-builder between your brand and the customers. If they raise their hand and opt in for the free gift, they are quickly informed that their freebie is on the way and are invited to read another free piece of related content. They are immediately redirected to the second page of the funnel.
3. This Full Page might have a longer video with link, graphic, audio link, etc., and have the core offer—again, at a high value, like 50% off. In exchange for this offer, the customer must provide their full contact information, including address, phone number, and credit card (as they already entered their name and email to move forward from the Headline Page). Immediately following the opt-in for the core offer, the customer is once again invited to access another piece of related content linked to another fantastic offer on an immediate upsell offer (Upsell #1) page. Upsell #1 should be a highly discounted product or service. On the Upsell #1 Page, there can also be a video, or a sales letter, or whatever you think will promote your product or service the best.
If you do a video, the first 30 seconds of any of these videos (from Headline Page to Full Page to any Upsell Pages) must be captivating. If you don’t grab your customer’s attention and create interest in your product or service in the first 30 seconds, you lose a valuable prospect that is more expensive to replace later.
Upsell #1 should be a one-time offer with time limitations. If you say “one-time offer” on the Upsell #1 Page, it really must be one-time only. It can’t show up later unless it is offered at full price. This is critical on several levels. Your customer will see that you mean what you say, and they will take future one-time offers more seriously, recognizing the importance of acting quickly.
As customers move through the funnel, you are literally training them in how you do business. As you are creating each page of your funnel, you need the buttons (video link, add to cart, etc.) to be “above the fold.” This refers back to newspaper days when the ads and stories above the fold were easier to see and thus received more attention. You want your most valuable information to be easy to see on a computer or smartphone screen without the customer needing to search and scroll down to find the “add to cart button.” Below the fold, have more information on your product or service, but the most compelling information and access to the purchase button must be above. This will be a one-click upsell, as the customer had already provided their credit card information when they were at the Headline Page or the Full Page.
By moving them through the funnel in this manner, it makes the purchasing of your products or services very quick and easy, and the easier it is for the customer, the more likely they will buy (and buy more) from you. On average, effective upsell offers have about a 10%-20% conversion rate. You can have additional upsells beyond the first one, but for the sake of brevity, our explanation will stick with just one. As you become more comfortable and skilled at creating funnels, experiment with more complex ones that offer a wide variety of goods and services all designed to expand your customer base.
4. In just a bit, we will look at the same funnel and the path a more reserved customer might take at this juncture; before we do that, it is critical to address the Thank-You Page. As you look at the diagram of this funnel, notice that all actions lead to the Thank-You Page. This is a most important aspect of the funnel. Whether the customer opts in for the free gift, the core offer, or the upsell, they must be immediately directed to the Thank-You Page. Your goal is to build positive relationships with all who visit your funnel and leave favorable impressions with them. With this done, they will remember you fondly, refer others, and buy from you again and again. Remember, ALL paths lead to the Thank-You Page.
Now, let’s look at the same funnel but follow a more hesitant buyer as in Figure 14.3 on page 167.
FIGURE 14.3
1. They go to the Headline Page, see the introductory offer, and accept the free gift, giving you their name and email in the process. However, they do not accept the core offer offered at 50% off on the Full Page. When this happens, they immediately drop into an email sequence, which further promotes the product or service and encourages purchase. Remember, they provided you their name and email in order to receive the free gift. The four or five emails should go out over a one-week time frame and are designed to guide people back to the Full Page and the core offer, motivating them to buy by offering additional information.
2. Say the customer accepts the free gift and the core offer but declines the upsell. At that point, they would then drop into an email and direct-mail sequence designed to promote and encourage the purchase of the upsell. The four to five emails would be sent out over the next week, and three to four direct-mail pieces go out approximately every ten days. For your direct-mail pieces, lumpy mail, a CD/audio flash drive with additional information, and a postcard with a video link are all great options. This one-two punch sequence creates an additional 3% to 5% conversion on your upsell—as prospects are receiving the direct mail, they are also receiving emails inviting them into a webinar, to read a sales letter, etc., all promoting your product or service.
3. One challenge that people face when creating funnels is an assumption about price. Often, when the customer moves from the free gift to the core offer but doesn’t buy the upsell, people make the assumption that the price (which is higher priced than the two previous offers) was the reason. This is usually not the case. More often it is the product or service itself, and if you aren’t getting the response you desire from your funnel upsell, consider changing the item, product, or service rather than lowering the price.
4. Another challenge that people trip on when creating a funnel is thinking, “I don’t want to bombard my customers with offers and burn up my list.” Keep in mind that the people moving through your funnel are already in line with your product or service. They will quit when they are ready, so the more you offer validity to your product or service, the more offers you give, the more choices they have and the more likely they will buy.
Your funnel can have two, three, four upsells, or more. This is not overkill when you consider the customer’s point of view. When you are looking for a solution to a problem you have, just how far will you go to resolve it? Your customers, clients, and patients are the same way.
5. On each page of your funnel, the most important boxes (add to cart, video/audio links, etc.) must be easy for the customer to find, and ALL responses lead to the Thank-You Page, even if they don’t buy. The box for declining an offer should be more elaborate than just a “No” box. It should say something like “No, I have all the customers I need,” or, “No, I don’t have any weight to lose,” or, “No, I have all the money I need.” Whatever can touch on the pain point that your product or service alleviates.
And repeat after me: All responses lead to the Thank-You Page.
6. As you plan your funnel, consider how long the offer will be in place. Let’s use 15 days for our example. This time frame can be extended to 45 to 60 days when you supplement it with offline. Create and test, test and create. Your second funnel might end up quite similar to the first with just some minor changes to the offer, the free gift, shipping, etc. But everything else remains the same. You get a new influx of buyers, a new influx of leads who didn’t respond to the previous offer. Again, by adding the direct-mail component, you can extend the length of time your campaign runs. Just by adding two extra postcards to the end of any campaign, you’ve added 30 days of campaign life.
As you did with the free offer and the way you promoted it on your above-the-fold marketing, the choices are endless as to how you use direct mail to supplement your funnel. Perhaps you send a little package that has the audio or a video DVD of you interviewing a client who has succeeded with your product or service. Or how about a postcard with before/after, testimonials, or a sales letter? Anything you can send via direct mail to drive the customer back to your funnel will boost sales over a longer duration.
7. You may be thinking “This all sounds great for business, but I am not tech savvy.” You don’t have to be. There are many companies out there that specialize in funnel creation and have ready-made, step-by-step, fill-in-the-blank pages to help you set up your funnel. Some of these are even free.
Resource Alert!
For a more in-depth look at funnel building, GKIC has a product called Ninja Funnels, where six different funnel designs are broken down into basic steps, typical conversion rates are identified, and funnel-building options are offered. This is available at https://gkic.com/services/products.
There is also a plethora of companies whose sole purpose is to build funnels. As a business owner, you need to think strategically about what you want your funnel to do (beyond “I want this funnel to sell a product or service”). What do you want the goal of it to be? Since no one knows your product, business, or service better than you, you must have these questions answered before you or someone else begins to build the funnel.