We hear about sales funnels all the time. If your business is online then you’re supposed to build a sales funnel and have a list and all the pieces that go with it, however, a lot of business owners feel overwhelmed at the idea of building a funnel. My guest on the podcast this week is Mia Farrington. Mia is a sales funnel strategist and creator. She helps people craft strategies to bring cold leads in, nurture them, and turn them into customers.
If you’re building a business of any kind then you need a sales funnel. Sales funnels can range anywhere from something super simple to something incredibly complex, such as a multi-journey sales funnel. The complexity depends on what your niche is and where you are in your business.
Un-complicating Sales Funnels
If you're just starting out and you don't even really know what a sales funnel is or the components of a sales funnel, then it can seem incredibly complicated. Mia works with her clients to un-complicate the sales funnel process and make it super simple so people understand what's actually happening inside of the funnel itself and then how to understand the data they're seeing from it.
The idea with a funnel is to capture somebody's information and then build a relationship with that person. With a sales funnel, there is only one way forward. A sales funnel is different from your website because most people will not contact you or enter in their information or anything of that nature because there's nothing they get from it.
The Basic Sales Funnel
A sales funnel has one way forward and the most basic sales funnel is an opt-in funnel, which is when somebody gives you their information, such as their email address at the bare minimum, preferably a name and an email address, in exchange for something that is going to make their lives easier or better, help them save money, help them do something faster or something of that nature. It can be an email script or whatever problem it is that you're trying to solve. It's something quick and easy. They give you their information and you give them a free download of some kind.
The basic funnel, which is what a lot of people have, is an opt-in funnel, which is opt-in, thank you page, and a delivery email. And then they fall into the black hole of your email list. This is where Mia helps people understand that there needs to be some sort of customer journey.
The Customer Journey
When you're building out your most basic opt-in funnel, you want to think about your end goal. Is your end goal to sell a program, a product or to get people on the phone with you to sell a mini-course? What do you want to do with them after they're on your list? And if you're not sending out regular communication, for example, a weekly newsletter, then you should have a three to six email sequence that indoctrinates them into your world.
This sequence is an introduction to who you are and where they can find more resources from you. The emails should make them feel like they're in the right place, so you're giving them permission to be or do or feel a certain way. This way you’re not just having them sign up for a freebie and then they never hear from you again.
Why should people join your mailing list?
“So, would you like to join my email list?” is one of the worst pickup lines you can ever have in the online world. Nobody wants to join your email list. They don't want to receive regular communication from you or at least they don't think they do. So, when you're asking them to join your list with a pop-up on your website, why would they join? Why do people want to join your newsletter list? Are they going to get discounts? Are they going to get coupons? Are they going to get weekly meditations? What is it that they get in exchange for joining your email list?
Know your end goal
If you know what your end goal is that will help you shape what your opt-ins should be. If you are a service provider your opt-in should be geared towards people who might need your services. If you are selling a product of some kind, such as essential oils, your opt-in should be geared towards people who want to buy your essential oils. Sometimes we create opt-ins and we think they're amazing but they're drawing in the wrong people. And so those people never end up buying from you because you've brought in the wrong person.
Once you build an opt-in around your end goal, then within your email nurture sequence, you can have midway steps, such as inviting them into your Facebook Group. For example, if you are trying to sell essential oils, your opt-in might be around using eco-friendly home cleaning products. So, some kind of eBook on eco-friendly home cleaning products using essential oils. You would be bringing in the type of person who would use essential oils. A midway step would be inviting them into your Facebook Group for eco-friendly moms or something like that. Within this Group, you then share tips and tricks about being holistic and eco-friendly and using essential oils
An email nurture sequence
Continuing with the example of essential oils, an email nurture sequence gives subscribers tips and tricks about essential oils and recipes as well as your favourite essential oil of the month or something of that nature as well as an invitation to join the Facebook Group. And then somewhere in there you would have something along the lines of, “Oh, we're having a sale on peppermint oil! It prevents bad breath.”
A sales funnel has steps. Where do you want to take them? What journey do you want to take them on and what do you ultimately want to do? Do you want to sell them something?
When you’re just starting out you need to figure out how to bring people onto your list and to make sure they belong there and are not just joining for the free thing and then plan to unsubscribe. You want to teach people and bring them forward.
The Importance of the Delivery Email
Do not waste the delivery email. A lot of times the delivery email is a simple, “thank you so much for requesting this free thing. You can access your free thing here, you'll receive more communication from me shortly about X, Y, and Z.” That is a throwaway email. The delivery email is the most opened email of the sequence because they're getting the thing they asked for so they have to open it to get it.
Use the delivery email to introduce yourself, the community, and where they can find other resources. Subscribers are more likely to read the very first email that delivers their thing than they are to read any other email. So don't waste it. Use it to introduce yourself and tell them where they can find more resources. Welcome them into the community. Try and get them into your Facebook Group.
The Tripwire
Beyond that, you can start sending subscribers more resources or you can direct them to your tripwire. A tripwire is a very low dollar amount thing that enhances a person's experience. For instance, using the essential oils example again, if you had an eBook on essential oils, your tripwire could be an essential oil sample kit for $17. They could get three essential oil samples for however much so that you're not losing money, but note: you also don't typically make a ton of money off of a tripwire. The tripwire is something that introduces subscribers into your world and feels like a really good deal so you can bring them forward.
People who spend that first amount in your sales funnel are more likely to keep spending with you. If you're running paid traffic, a tripwire does a couple of things. It helps to cover at least 50% of your ad spend and it also tells you what part of your audience is buyers versus freebie seekers. And if somebody purchases your tripwire, they are more likely to continue purchasing.
If a subscriber buys your tripwire, what else do we want them to do? And so inside of your email marketing system, this is where it can start to get complex because you have will have tags for people who just opt in and tags for people who buy your chip or flyer. And now you can tailor your message directly to those buyers. And because they bought something before they're more likely to buy something in the future. What else can we send them their way? Do we want to send them a 50% off coupon for something in your store? Do we want to invite them to a free webinar about how to make soap with essential oils?
Beyond The Trip Wire
To move beyond the tripwire, many businesses invest in hiring Mia. She creates their full-funnel strategy and the different journeys that people are going to go on. So, if they just opt into your thing, what journey do we take them on? If they purchase your tripwire, what else can we send them? What journey do we take them on there?
Every sales funnel is different. While there is a framework that you can follow, every funnel is different depending on what you sell, your message and who you're selling to. Some people need a longer nurture sequence, some audiences will buy right out of the gate. And so that means you will create a funnel and it will either work right off the bat or it won't.
And if it doesn’t work that’s when you have to start tweaking things, tweaking the copy on your page or tweaking the emails and be really being curious about your funnel and figuring out what pieces are working and what's not working.
For more information on building a sales funnel with Mia, visit Miaalysse.com and book a discovery call. It’s 15 minutes to chat about all the things and figure out if this is a good fit for you.
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Podcast editing done by Eric Wellman