Being in sales for longer than I care to share, when I stepped into the online space, I kind of just assumed marketers knew what sales funnels are and how to create them. I quickly learned that is not the case.
Simply put, a sales funnel is the journey and process you create to flow traffic into leads and ultimately customers. Sales funnels are built based on your ideal client and what it takes to captivate, cultivate, and convert them.
I’m going to walk you through the core fundamentals of a sales funnel, but first, I want to make sure you have these essential key elements first.
Before you build your sales funnel, here’s a checklist:
1. A clear understanding of your target audience and their desired transformation – You have to know exactly who you are trying to attract and also know exactly how to craft your offer with her desired transformation in mind and you have to know EXACTLY what that is to move forward
2. The OFFER – What is the offer and how will you deliver this? This is very important for the elements of the sales funnel. Believe it or not, there’s someone out there RIGHT now building a funnel to lead their traffic into a deep, dark black hole of nothingness. Without the offer, there ain’t no funnel! *emphasis on “ain’t”*
3. Where will you promote this funnel? – You have to have a game plan in place for how you will get as much target traffic to land on your funnel. Blog posts? Live streams? Ads? They ALL work. You just need to have a strategy and the confidence to execute it!
So now that you’re clear on your audience, your offer, and your source of traffic, next is to build the dang thing!
At the very least, your funnel needs to have these vital components:
1. Landing Page
2. Thank You Page
3. Freebie (or as we like to call it: Value Appraisal)
4. Email Sequence
5. Backend offer
Let’s talk about tools. I am a woman of simplicity. There are several ways to skin this sales funnels cat, but I’ve created basically a foolproof way to build out sales funnels with ease and that is with Clickfunnels and Convertkit.
Clickfunnels, which you’re probably very familiar with, is the easiest landing page software I’ve used. On top of that, it has a built-in cart, and loads of automation.
Convertkit is known for being THE email marketing platform for online creators. My emails have never had higher conversions and click-throughs, not to mention open rates until I switched over to Convertkit.
So here are the elements of a winning sales funnel:
TOP OF THE SALES FUNNEL:
OBJECTIVE: Captivate your target audience and get them to say their first YES!
At this point, you have to decide what you’re going to use to get people to know like and trust you! Additionally, you want them to learn a thing or two… Otherwise, you can forget about converting on the back end.
It can be an e-book, 3-5 day challenge, a webinar, video training, cheat-sheet, quiz, you name it!
Whatever it is, it HAS to connect to the back end offer. For example, if you’re a health coach wanting to sell spots into your group program, maybe it wouldn’t make sense to have the free offer at the top of the funnel about how to find the best travel deals.
Sounds almost ridiculous that I mention this, but it is a common mistake. The freemium, freebie, lead offer, whatever you want to call it, needs to attract the EXACT person who would be a fit for the backend offer.
MIDDLE OF THE SALES FUNNEL:
OBJECTIVE: Cultivate & nurture leads to further build KLT, showcase your expertise, and entice them to invest.
Nope. It’s not sleazy. You’re in business to sell. And what you have will dramatically improve the quality of your customer’s life. By not enticing them to buy, it’s a complete disservice.
This is typically where you’re email marketing software comes to play. The biggest mistake you’ll make is convincing someone to opt-in to your list with your free offer and then disappear until your randomly publish a broadcast.
In this part of the funnel you want to be sure to share your story, share proof that your offer works and is exactly what they need, and how to get started.
BOTTOM OF THE SALES FUNNEL:
OBJECTIVE: CLOSE, CLOSE, AND CLOSE SOME MORE!
When selling an offer, you need to make sure you can hit these points:
- Why THIS offer?
- Why you?
- Why her?
- Why now?
- Why not? (This is when you share with her what happens if she chooses NOT to buy the thing you’re selling)
You also want to add a sense of urgency to increase the likelihood of her transacting within a certain time period.
This part of the funnel requires a strong call to action. You need to make it EASY for her to say yes. Whether it’s on your webinar, on a sales page, a checkout page, or whatever works for the design of your funnel, but you can’t send her on a wild goose chase, and she needs to know for SURE by this point that you’re offer is going to solve her most burning problem!
Now if you’re still reading, here’s some extra sauce for you. When you’re ready to start sharing your funnel with the world, you may decide that you’re not quite ready to throw ad spend towards it JUST YET!
I have a solution for that: Social Preframes.
These can be short or long social posts, blog posts, podcasts, live streams, any particular piece of content that is so juicy, she has no choice but to sign up for the free offer and opt into your funnel.
Here’s a little more sauce… Your social preframes need to be BRANDed. Actually, all of your social media and all content need to be, BUT especially these. Here’s what I mean:
B – Be PROOF that your services work. Share boldly confident wins, your behind the scenes, etc. Let her watch you grow. Shock and awe her with your accomplishments.
R – Results Driven. Share the results that your clients are receiving. Aim to solve her problems and share what works.
A – Actionable steps for her to work with you &/or actionable steps to take today. What does she need to do, prepare, and how to get started. Anything from audience conditioning “you need to invest to grow your brand, etc” to direct call to actions “click the link”
N – Nurture with lessons and teachable moments allowing her to learn and grow through your experiences and to build KLT and credibility.
D – Keep her DESIRED TRANSFORMATION in mind. Use this to allow her to understand how and why it is important that she connect with you as a free/paid consumer because you are able to help her get to where she needs to be.
Make sure your content has at least one element listed here for your best results!
If you found this helpful, comment below and pin this to your Pinterest board for future reference! Also, I’m trying to spend more time on IG, so tag me in your stories so I can follow you!
To learn more, Take this Free Web Class Today! ⤵️
