Are you read for some fun-ology?
I’ll say this upfront, there is no better way to create a funnel anywhere on the web than right inside your own website! Here’s more on that…
You might have a website by now, you’re sending your people(traffic) to your offers and BAM!…you have a sale. Right?
I wish it were as easy as setting up a page with a link and shoving it right down your audiences throat, but hold on there, wait a minute.
This will neither get you a sale nor will that person and many others he/she tells her friends and loved ones about will. So what should you do?
In this article, I’m going to show you exactly what you should do if you are having trouble with:
– Getting a lead
-Closing a sale
-You don’t have the time and money to invest in sales funnel software.
Let’s jump right on in!
What is A Sales Funnel?
If you have been blogging for so long, or you are new to the internet marketing game, then the word Sales Funnel might sound like someone trying to sale you an actual “eating funnel”…You know, like those hot cakes you get at a carnival?
Believe it or not, that’s not what it is, it’s actually the process your targeted audience will go through once they land on your site or even your landing page software. Check this sweet diagram I have for you:
I’ll break these steps down in greater detail just below in a minute but first…
In the traditional sense, a website is a great place to bring back your visitors and let them see all your bells and whistles…Kind of like an open house where you bring in someone you really don’t know or have an established relationship with and you expect him/her to give you a bid. But even better…
You’re in the game to build a brand. Of the hundreds upon thousands of sales funnels or in other conversion optimized ways you can create,, the one inside your website is the GREATEST. Why?
Most people play the short game which is to make a sale which is great and all if you’re just going for a “Home run” for the 9th inning, but if you’re sitting on top of the plate on the first…
Then your goal should be to establish your rhythm first, and get on base. I’m not much of a baseball player or do I even like to watch baseball but this is the best example I could have drawn up for you.
Let’s cut to the chase, it sounds beautiful but in reality these people will get lost, that’s the flat out truth(Don’t hate me if you already have a website, let me explain)…
To many people try to justify that if they put up a couple of post, they setup their home page with like 30 tabs, 20 sidebar widgets, 30 blog post, more content above the fold, and Yaddy LADDY Daddy. But that can actually hurt your chances of landing your client and furthermore, get a lead to convert…and as we all affiliate marketers know:
NO SALE = NO TRUST = NO BUSINESS
So what is it that you need to do?
Why create a Funnel Inside of your website! You see, you don’t have to throw away your website and go spend hundreds of dollars a month on a Landing page software(at least not yet), and what you need to do instead is create one right on your site. How awesome does that sound?
A sales funnel has 4 steps as you’ve already seen, and to walk you through each one specifically, here it is:
STEP 1: Awareness. Let’s say you have your “Dream Customer” and you brought them back to your website and this could have been by social media or paid traffic(or funnel which I will talk about later), , the first thing they need to see is going to be your home page site most likely right? But what if you brought them in elsewhere instead?
Check Out how I make an awareness from my home page, and what you can do too…
In my home page I placed a “CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED” Call to Action(CTA). Take note, this is what you’re going to do with your very own website when “funneling” your dream customer through your home page.
Next, you’ll want to send them to what is called a pre-frame page “where you will get to introduce yourself and tell them what they will expect moving forward.
And below the fold I have a Call to Action Button Again. This meets the criteria of:
- A call to action above the fold
- Immediate awareness
- A sense of what the site is about
Right here we’re still on the “awareness” stage, and in a minute, we’ll move down to the interest phase, but keep in mind that I’m not just shoving someone to my lead capture page so they can give me their information. At first, it’s best to build that relationship with the end consumer.
With these three concepts in mind, your prospect will be more likely to understand you, might scroll up, and down, but they will eventually be interested in pushing that button.
At this stage, you will want to let your audience see what they are going to be learning and getting. What I Do is give them a brief “about me” and I walk them through.
So pretty much by this point I’ve not only made them aware of what they should expect but I’ve caight their interest by slowly walking them through to the process of shifting their mindset, to getting to believe in the new and better way of doing affiliate marketing, and for those that haven’t started yet can get the results they desire.
STEP 2: Interest. Great, you caught the attention of your audience, and now you need to get to a place where they will WANT to give you their information. After building the relationship you can ask for the email…
I placed a link so that people click on to add themselves to my email list. There is another way I could have and you could very well do too…
Instead of sending them to a link, why not use an Opt-in form? Here’s a very simple example:
This way it’ll make it easier on your audience to get the full details without clicking away to a new tab or page. I was able to create a nice yet simple for like this through my email auoresponder tool called Aweber. You can build out your email list on automation, meaning that you once you setup your emails, they can be sent out automatically. I made a review for you to check out this amazing tool that I use here.
STEP 3: Decision. At this stage, you can continue taking your customer through more pages and or you can just add your recommendation at the bottom, and link your product/service to your review post.
Step 4: Action. Assuming that my reader hasn’t gone over to check out my beginners guide(which I can show them through email too), then they can take action on the next page…
And I had added another “Action” button on this page too:
I didn’t show the whole page, but you can take a look at that here if you wanted to see.
All in one take, I was able to create an Awareness, Interest, decision, and action. Now, if most people don’t decide to join your team, platform or whatever it is you are promoting, you can still follow up with your people through email.
NOTE: If you haven’t figured out your niche and you want to get started with your very own unique niche business website, check out my #1 recommendation.
When you follow up with your leads via email, you can shuffle them through:
- Your Interest
- Consideration
- Intent
- Evaluation
- Purchase
…Just like you saw on the first diagram above. This will give you a greater advantage because now you have what are called “Hot Leads and Buyers” that have taken the chance to know you better, build a relationship and trust with you.
Other Types of Marketing Funnels
You Think I forgot about the hundreds upon thousands of other marketing funnels out there?
I remember I once had a hard time with the concept of funnels let alone come to realize how many there actually were! What I don’t want you to do is this…
Focus on more than one at a time! Like creating content and having an SEO strategy in place, you need to focus on one funnel at a time. If you’re building out a website for people to eventually buy from you than do that first and then you can have other “sales funnels” in order.
Sales Funnels:
One of the most known funnels is simple called a “Sales Funnel”. The point of these are to capture your leads information, and almost immediately ask for the sale on either the thank you page or a step or two after.
When should you use this? There’s a time an place for these type of funnels, and I know they work well when you want to qualify your subscribers to see who are the ones that will buy from you and stay with you vs just those that might never.
Also, many sales funnels carry Upsells and downsells, trying to get the consumer to purchase more from you. If you want to learn how to make these types of funnels, you can always check out the best landing page software tool to do this with and how you can get my 100% full help on here.
Internal Article Funnels
My favorite and the most common practice among many people when building out a funnel on their website is through their blog posts. If you don’t have a blog post and want to learn how to make real legitimate money with it, you can check out what’s called affiliate marketing in this post of mine.
Anyways, the way this works is that you write a post, and you do what’s called internal linking like what you are seeing with mine in this post. Each link will re-direct your reader to another page on your website, and get them to show more interest, consideration, decision, and to take action.
Internal linking is a great strategy for bloggers and those who as well have a static website without a blog roll. The way I’m able to do this is through Wordpress. In a matter of minutes I can have a website up and write out my blog.
Re-cap and My Final Thoughts
Do you have the gist of why you’d need a funnel on your website?
It’s not to get someone to buy from you straight out the gate, but for someone to get to know you, trust you, build a relationship with that will last far than just a sale, and so you can communicate with them on your back end…
Your Email. Thereafter, you are more than likely to get a paying customer and a happy one that is. ALWAYS nurture your subscribers, and keep looking out for the next ones coming to your site…
Make it easy for them to navigate and get started with a call to action button. If you haven’t learned how to get traffic to your website, than I HIGHLY suggest you check out my #1 recommendation on getting free and organic traffic here.
