The beauty of Internet marketing comes in the fact that you’re never tied down to a single source of revenue.

With so many potential options when it comes to putting your product out there, there’s no need to restrict yourself.

By exploring these eight traffic sources, you can expand your bottom line and make sure you’re making the most of your marketing dollars.

Businesses have options galore when it comes to building their sales funnels online.

This begs the question: why do some marketers get caught up on establishing a sole stream of revenue?

It’s definitely a thought worth pondering, especially since establishing multiple revenue streams is all the rage for modern online businesses.

But before we get into the different web traffic sources, let’s talk about traffic itself and its role in a company’s online success and how it influences how you build your funnel.

Why is Traffic So Important?

Traffic is essentially the number of visitors to your website. Simply put, the more visitors that come to your site, the more possible customers you have. It’s true that not all of them will convert, but having more visitors means having a bigger pool to draw from.

But bringing traffic to your site isn’t just about the numbers, it’s about the quality. You want valuable traffic, not just any old traffic. We’re talking the type of traffic more likely to convert.

Paid traffic is that traffic that you paid for to come to your site. This usually comes from display ads, sponsored content, social media ads, or paid search like Google AdWords. Organic traffic, on the other hand, is usually a result of unpaid search results, like someone looking for a product or solution in a search engine like Google.

Both types can be valuable forms of traffic. Funnels can benefit greatly from them. Organic traffic is often more cost-effective while the results of paid traffic are usually more immediate.

Driving Traffic to Your Sales Funnel

Once traffic is on your site, you need to know how to get them into your sales funnel. That comes down to how your landing page is designed.

Much of the success in this effort comes from managing expectations. If the ad that brings a visitor to your page promises a discount, the landing page should feature that discount.

Failing to meet the expectations you set often creates confusion and will drive visitors away from your website. If visitors know exactly what they’re getting from you before reaching your page, they’ll more likely enter you sales funnel and continue their journey.

Now that you know a bit more about traffic, it’s time to look at the many traffic sources for websites. Perhaps companies are hesitant to diversify because it just sounds too good to be true; however, the following means of building your sales funnel are tried and tested, with real potential to jive with just about any product or service online.

1. Email Lists

The mumblings of the Internet marketing rumor mill might lead you to believe email marketing is dead. False.

Internet marketing is very much alive and kicking, especially in a mobile marketplace where users are glued to smartphones.

We live in a world of notifications and alerts, in which sitting quite literally in the pockets of our users has never been easier.

Building an email list is a proven means of establishing a dedicated base of buyers.

Let’s take some modern email marketing statistics into consideration, including the fact that…

• 33% of emails are opened on iPhones; Meanwhile, 75% of Gmail accounts (totally over 900 million users) regularly access their email via mobile. The myth that “nobody uses email anymore” is absolutely absurd, especially when mobile users are so hungry for new messages.
• Over one-quarter of all Black Friday transactions in 2015 were kindled through email marketing. In other words, email appeals to a variety of buyers and users and no single, solitary demographic.
• Approximately 90% of marketers claim that email was their main means of generating leads. Who said email marketing was dead, again?

In short, the concept of email marketing representing spam is bogus, especially if you’re the one getting users into your own funnel.

Don’t stress about “spamming” your base; instead, focus on providing them with legitimate products and content that meet their particular needs.

The sales will come naturally.

2. Facebook Ads

Image Source: Aerotech Digital Marketing 

The unlikely success of Facebook has proven inspirational for Internet marketers and users alike. Mark Zuckerberg’s wildly successful social network boasts over one billion daily active users and has become a cornerstone of the modern web.

Given the site’s reputation and reach, it should come as no surprise that Facebook sports a robust advertising system for businesses.

Due to the massive nature of Facebook, their ad system has to be laser-focused and targeted for small businesses looking to convert sales from the platform’s massive user base.

Considering that Facebook ad convert approximately 25% of social media referrals versus platforms such as Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube, such ads have become to the go-to for marketers looking to break through the often tumultuous social media ad-space.

Much like brands such as Amazon or Apple, Facebook has become a trustworthy, household name.

By hosting ads on their platform, you establish yourself as a likewise trusted brand. With their flexible budget and numerous, high-performing call-to-action options, there’s no reason not to get your feet wet with Facebook’s platform.

3. Google Ads

With over $50 billion (yes, billion) in global net ad revenue last year, it’s clear to see why Google ads have been the bread and butter of marketers for quite some time.

Many businesses are wary of entering the world of paid search due to the risk-reward balancing act involved.

Considering the astronomically high click-through rates of ads in the top Google position, however, we can understand why perhaps it’s a more than worthy investment.

True, there is some risk involved due to the potentially high cost of keywords (depending on your industry).

However, consider some of the benefits of delving into Google’s ad platform, including:

Gaining a Better Understanding of Your Competitors – Targeting keywords can be a difficult, laborious process; however, it’s absolutely crucial for a successful SEO strategy. Getting your feet wet with Google Ads can help you better understand what your competitors are targeting and lead you into finding your niche, or better yet…

Understanding the Keywords You Can Dominate – “Niche” is, after all, the name of the game for many of today’s marketers and business. Which niche do you have the potential to dominate? What keywords belong to your business? Through AdWords, you can better understand not only where you stand versus your competitors, but which keywords convert and ultimately…

Test the Merits of Your Site and its Product – Are you getting clicks? Are those clicks converting into sales? The traffic obtained from Google ads is perhaps one of the best means of testing your site regarding user behavior and how your site’s content plays a role in the buying process. Google ads are a great way to find out what’s influencing your users and to A/B test means of improving sales through your site in the future.

4. Instagram Ads

Image Source: Instagram for Business

Instagram is one of the younger guns regarding social media ad space; however, it’s 400 million active users and 40 billion photos shared to date perhaps speak for themselves.

When we think of Instagram, we perhaps think of celebrity images and viral photos, ignoring the ad potential projected to grow to approximately $2.81 billion by next year.

As more and more businesses hop onto Instagram, noted to be one of the fastest growing platforms for SMBs, you might ask whether it’s not worth taking the leap as well.

With a similar CTR and CPM as Facebook (who own Instagram, by the way), coupled with the revenue above of the platform, Instagram may offer a snapshot into the future of photo marketers looking to engage users on a more visual level.

5. Solo Ads

Image Source: Precise Strategy 

Although perhaps not as “sexy” as your Facebook or Instagram ads, solo ads represent a numbers game which can provide big returns if executed properly.

In the same wheelhouse as email lists, solo ads allow you to blast a single offer to an opted-in email list.

Since the list is opt-in only, there’s less concern for being perceived as spam (assuming that the company providing the list is reputable).

When it comes to solo ads, we’re primarily playing with click-through rates and conversions.

For this reason, before considering a solo ad one should ensure that…

• The company selling the ad has a track record regarding their list and click-through rates (check ratings, reviews, and testimonials)
• The product of service being offered through the solo ad stresses urgency (one-time deal, strong call to action, time-sensitive offers)
• Strong marketing copy, both regarding subject line and the email copy itself (keep it short and sweet, include a compelling call to action alongside a trackable email link)

Perhaps the road less traveled these days, solo ads can be powerful tools for generating new leads.

Much of your success, however, depends on your own research, effort, and execution.

6. Podcasts

While radio advertising is dead in the water for most modern industries, podcasts remain a viable advertising option for those looking to build their sales funnel.

With 20% of Americans listening to at least one podcast per month and 63% of those users purchasing something a host promoted on the show, podcast advertising provides a truly unique opportunity for brands looking to break through to more buyers.

The key for successful podcast advertising is, yet again, understanding your product, its niche and the buyers within that niche.

For example, it wouldn’t make much sense for a website selling organic cloth diapers to advertise on a podcast for motorcycle enthusiasts (nor would it make sure to sell Harley Davidsons on a parenting podcast).

If you can find the right fit within your industry, advertising on a podcast can not only drive sales but also build your brand in the eyes (or ears, rather) of curious new buyers.

7. Blogs

Advertising on a blog may seem like a no-brainer; however, some marketers may cling to one method rather than explore what blogging has to offer.

For many marketers, seeing the ROI of blogging and subsequent content creation is often the hang-up.

How do I know this is going to work? How do I know it’s going to result in sales?

Guest blogging (along with other means advertising of blogs, including paid ads) is not just a way to get your product in front of more eyes.

It’s a means of building your brand, appearing like an authority and, this is perhaps the hidden gem, building backlinks to drive future traffic to your site.

Seeking out blogs which operate within your niche might very well be the secret weapon of the modern marketer.

Is a blog creating content surrounding your niche or product? Are their users hungry for more?

Blogger outreach is more than likely worth your time and attention.

8. Banner Ads

Image Source: Pinterest

Last but not least, let’s talk about banner ads.

We could discuss ad-nauseum the phenomenon of ad blindness and question whether or not such advertising is worth it; however, let’s consider instead the reasons why people don’t click on banner ads.

Such reasons include the ad representing a distraction (annoying pop-ups), providing irrelevant content or appearing just plain spammy.

The solution, then, is to provide creative ads which provide legitimate value to users.

Perhaps what’s more important than the ads themselves is the format.

That is, where they are placed, how they appear and whether or not they are targeting the right users.

Are your ads professionally designed?

Are you offering a legitimate product or deal that can help your users? Are your ads in the right place?

Banner ads do have a place in the modern marketing world, granted they are utilized correctly. Build banners that spark interest and drive users to buy rather than spam that scares buyers away. If you follow such principles, clicks will come your way.

The Bottom Line

The possibilities are seemingly endless when it comes to bringing streams into your sales funnel.

By breaking the dam and establishing new streams for users, you increase your chances of sales while also establishing your brand online.

Which of the above website traffic sources do you think has the most potential for the modern business?

Continued Reading

• Sales Funnels: The Ultimate Guide
• Using Sales Funnels
• Mapping Out Your Sales Funnel Online
  

Thanks for reading 8 Proven Traffic Sources for Your Sales Funnel which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

You’ve prepared your brand, designed your sales funnel, and now, you’re ready to launch.

Whether you’re on your first business, or you’re an established player bringing a new idea to market, this step can be full of anticipation.

What more could there possibly be to do, but sit back and enjoy the ride, watching the leads (and the sales) roll in?

Not so fast!

What you do before your launch can be just as important as how your funnel is designed or what your logo looks like.

In fact, according to a recent analysis, people are pretty skeptical of brands and the tactics they use to engage customers through the sales pipeline.

But don’t lose hope!

By driving traffic to your funnel before you even launch it, you have a chance to define the direction.

With these strategies, you’ll be able to develop higher-quality leads that have more trust in your brand and your funnel.

Each step we’ve included for you serves its own purpose, but in complementing each other, they’ll also solidify the overall experience your customers enjoy.

And in part, that’s the key to this guide: creating an experience for your audience before they even arrive.

Recent analysis by the Washington Post shows that Millennials, more than any other generation before them, want experiences more than products.

And today, we’re going to look at how to create that experience.

With more, higher-quality traffic, you’ll be more confident in the results and get a better return on investment.

Make Appearances on Lots of Podcasts

Image Source: Blogging.Org

This year is turning out to be the rise of the podcast.

Every year, the data shows an increase in podcast listeners, with 33% of Americans saying they listened to at least 1 podcast episode in 2015.

And with services like Pandora introducing podcasts such as Serial, more and more people are being exposed to this medium.

As a marketing tool, it makes perfect sense: podcasts are a low-cost way to have your own radio show.

So when you make appearances on them, you get to grab some of this limelight for your funnel.

But most importantly, you’re able to show your potential audience that you’re a real person with real ideas, not just a brand with a product.

1. Create a list of podcasts that might be relevant to your customers

To find podcasts, turn to sites like iTunes, but apps like Stitcher also remain a popular choice. The simplest method is to use Google or Bing to search for shows in your niche. You can also reach out to friends in your industry who have started podcasts. The longer the list, the better.

2. Listen to at least 1 episode of each podcast

By getting a feel for each podcast, you’ll have a better idea of whether it matches your brand voice and your goals. Also, you’ll also be able to connect what you hear to your pitch when you get in touch with the host.

3. Reach out to the host and pitch an appearance

We recommend contacting via email. Go beyond simply telling them that you love their show, and you’d like to be on it. Instead, compose a short email that distinctly shows what you can offer. If you’re able to connect yourself (not just your brand) to a specific show idea, you’re much more likely to be offered a slot.

4. Prepare your space and your ideas

You’ll want to be prepared. Check the space you intend to conduct the interview at ahead of time. Ensuring that, for example, your mic works guarantees a smooth appearance. But also prepare a list of ideas that you plan to bring to the table, so you’re ready to be relevant to the host’s audience.

5. Act natural and enjoy the spotlight

Remember how we’re creating an experience instead of simply pitching a product? Your funnel will benefit when listeners hear a genuine person getting in touch with what matters most to them. While it’s perfectly okay to do a short pitch, stay relevant and give back value to the community you’re interacting with.

6. Thank everyone involved

Before you close your appearance, thank the host, but also thank the audience. Invite them to visit your website or get in touch with you for questions on social media. You’ll also want to send a thank you email to the host afterward, letting them know you enjoyed it, and you’d love to be back at anytime.

7. Share, share, share

Once you’ve made your podcast appearance, share that episode! Sharing a link on your personal social media is totally allowed and gives your brand that authentic feel we’re looking for.

Protip: You might be tempted only to target podcasts with the biggest audiences.

But remember, while spreading your brand as far and wide as possible is important, sometimes those smaller audiences can be a better match for your brand, especially if they’re strong enthusiasts in your niche.

Guest Post on People’s Websites

There’s plenty of research out there that shows that blogging increases traffic to your brand’s website and your funnel.

But guest blogging goes a few steps further than simply writing a blog article and calling it a day.

Instead, you’re tapping into a whole new community of people.

Think about sites that feature multiple authors like the popular Lifehacker.

In fact, take a few minutes to browse articles on their site.

Notice anything interesting? Sites like these are really entire communities commenting and sharing content in a niche.

By guest posting, you’re presenting your brand as an authority in the industry to these real people.

1. Visit some of the popular sites in your niche

Just like with appearing on podcasts, you’ll want to create a list of popular sites. If you’re already a frequent commenter on another site, it’s even better, since you’ve already established yourself in the community.

2. Browse past articles to find a topic that fits, but might be missing

Keep a list of ideas as you browse the site’s past articles. Once you’ve made a shortlist, search the site to see if they’ve written on these topics before. This way, you’ll be bringing the community something new.

3. Reach out to the blog or website owners.

Let them know what your idea is, how it can benefit them, and why you and your brand are the right fit for a guest article.

4. Motivate, inspire, challenge, connect

Captivate your audience and look to move them really. Whether it’s giving them tips or presenting a novel perspective, skip directly pitching your brand and seek to get them engaged. But don’t be afraid to link back to your own site when appropriate.

5. Answer comments and questions on your article

Once you have their attention, don’t just skip town! After your guest post is published, be sure to return and regularly answer questions or thank people for their input. Continue to be part of the community.

6. Get the data

Can you imagine knowing how many people were already aware of your sales funnel before you even contacted them? Data from your guest post gives you a great perspective.

Protip: Include a photo of yourself that’s relevant to the topic of your article. This adds a human touch to your post and further connects the audience to you and the experience you’re writing about.

Use Content Marketing on Your Blog

Image Source: Ben Wheeler

Chances are, you’ve probably heard of search engine optimization, and the phrase, “content is king.” But in reality, content marketing on your own blog serves several functions for your sale funnel. First, it allows your brand to be found more easily on sites like Google and Bing. It also draws potential customers to your website and increases the chance they’ll be exposed to your sales funnel, increasing the possibility of a positive ROI by as much as 13 times.

1. Select your keywords

Choosing the keywords for your blog can be a challenge (and one we’ll address on another day). But selecting the right keywords makes it easier for people to find your site when searching.

2. But write with natural-language in mind

While many people have their own best recipe for how to write blogs, your readers will appreciate it more when you develop your own voice, free of stringent SEO gimmicks. This creates a better overall experience.

3. Choose a posting schedule you can keep

It’s true that blogging more increases traffic. But keep your efforts in perspective and commit to a schedule that makes the most sense of your sales funnel.

4. Keep an eye on your stats

Just like with any marketing effort, you’ll want to watch your data so that you can change what isn’t working and keep what is.

5. Be patient

At the same time, building a blog audience doesn’t happen overnight. Patience and regular posting are the keys to drawing in those readers.

Protip: Instead of closing with a traditional call-to-action, ask your readers to share with you by getting in touch directly. It’s friendly and offers a more one-to-one custom experience for them.

Engage Your Email List to Build Up Your Click-Through Rate

Image Source: Merrie Marketing

It seems that every year, someone declares that email marketing is dead. While it may be true that “content is still king” in the case of blogging, email remains at the top of the list for driving traffic to your funnel. It may surprise you to find out that, according to Entrepreneur and Direct Marketing Association, email increases return on investment by thousands of percentage points.

And yet, it is consistently one of the most misunderstood ways to drive traffic to a sales funnel. You’ve probably gotten your own fair share of bulk-sent emails you’ve ignored over the years. Isn’t there a better way? Yes!

1. Forget the newsletter templates

Most people’s inboxes are flooded with newsletters that they don’t have time to read. Instead, opt for a more organic feel by using a standard email.

2. Send your email from a singular person instead of a brand

You may have noticed recently that big brands aren’t sending emails from info@bigbrand.com. Instead, they use individual people with real names to send communications, even to bulk lists. This helps give a more one-to-one connection to the message, increasing open rates.

3. Start a conversation

In today’s day and age, we’ve learned that people want to share their stories and conversations. Why not use email as a vehicle to create a conversation about your product or service… and ask them to share their own thoughts?

4. Include a link

Don’t forget those links! By sharing relevant links, you drive that high-quality traffic back to your funnel.

Protip: Personalizing content with the day of the week or a regional reference point helps link your audience to the message by making it immediately relevant to their own lives.

Find Affiliates for Your Upcoming Launch who can Drive Organic and Paid Traffic

Image Source: USANFRAONLINE

If you’re new to marketing, you might be wondering how affiliate marketing works. Think of it as a way to get your brand out there through 3rd parties that take a small commission. Google Adwords and Amazon’s affiliate network are two popular choices, but there are many other networks out there. Bottomline: you take advantage of lower costs and broader penetration of your market. The real selling point here, however, is that you often only pay when you see results.

But how do you use it to create a genuine experience for your customers and drive traffic? Really affiliate marketing shines most when you’re able to get honest, real reviews of your brand across the web. Sites like Yelp have programs that can truly benefit your funnel with genuine reviews. And with as many as 90% of consumers trusting reviews to help make up their mind, you can see how important this strategy is.

1. Clear message that taps into their need

When you’re able to craft or approve the message that will be used for your affiliate marketing, make sure that the message is simple and straightforward and appeals to your customers’ needs.

2. Provide excellent customer service

Whenever you have an affiliate review, take the opportunity to address any concerns or issues the reviewer had. By publically doing so, you’re showing off just how awesome your customer service really is.

3. Update content regularly

In today’s world, it seems that ads get stale in a heartbeat. Regularly changing out your ad means that new traffic is constantly seeing fresh content to entice them your way.

4. Follow your data closely

Always be on top of your affiliate data so you can make any changes. You’ll also know when an affiliate network is working toward your advantage and when it’s not.

Protip: When using affiliate marketing reviews, consider “doubling up” your marketing by putting positive reviews on your website as testimonials, another strong marketing tactic.

You’re the expert in your industry: what strategies have given you the best return on investment?

Thanks for reading 5 Strategies To Build Traffic Before You Launch Your Funnel which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

If you want to grow your online business, you’re going to need to know how to build a sales funnel. There’s simply no other way around it. Your company’s success may very well hinge upon it. If you’ve grown frustrated with a lack of success and stagnant growth, the key to overcoming these challenges may very well lie in developing an effective sales funnel.

But far too many people have very little experience with the sales funnel process. Even if they know they need to become familiar with it, diving into the topic can feel intimidating. If you’re in that camp, you’ve come to the right place.

This is a helpful guide for people who want to learn about sales funnels in just a few minutes. Perhaps you’ve only heard the term before but wanted to know more. Maybe you want to know how to create a sales funnel. Or you’ve just wondered why you should care about them in the first place. This guide will answer your questions and get you started on the path to mastering the art of sales funnel.

What is a Sales Funnel?

Okay, let’s get started off with the basics of an online sales funnel. Here’s a simple sales funnel definition: a sales funnel is a type of marketing strategy designed to turn people into interested customers who buy from you. The whole process starts off with a wide audience and gradually helps the most promising customers move along until they’re regularly purchasing the product or service your company offers.

The sales funnel isn’t necessarily a new thing. In fact, it’s been around for over a hundred years. The concept of a sales funnel was first introduced back in 1898 when an ad agency executive named Elias St. Elmo Lewis came up with the idea. He sought a way to explain the buying process and develop a more effective manner of converting customers. The result was the classic funnel structure with the funnel broken up into four stages. We’ll discuss the stages later, but it’s a model that many organizations still use today. Even as marketing continues to evolve, knowing the basic sales funnel can still be helpful.

Sales funnels aren’t always about selling a specific product. They can be used for that, of course, but there are many different types of sales funnels out there. Some may be used for generating leads, others may be used to bring people to your business’s physical location, while others may be used for generating applications. Whether it’s a lead generation funnel, product funnel, or otherwise, all operate under the same principle of turning people into loyal followers of your brand.

A Look At Sales Funnel Stages

Now that you know what sales funnels are, let’s take a look at the sales funnel stages as originally outlined by Elias St. Elmo Lewis.

1. Awareness

This stage involves informing people that you exist. Most companies don’t have the luxury of being a universally recognized brand, so your first step needs to make them aware of who you are and what you can do for them. Think of it as an introduction, but one intended to get them to pay more attention to you. This is your opportunity to demonstrate how you stand out from the crowd. When building a sales funnel, this is one step you have to nail since you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.

2. Interest

The interest stage is all about establishing a relationship with the potential customer. It’s where they look deeply into the problem they’re having and see if you can solve it. The brand doesn’t take a passive role in this either. You need to be constantly working with them, providing them with valuable information as to the solutions you provide.

3. Desire

This is where the person has the desire to make a decision on how best to tackle the problem they’re facing. That solution comes from you, and they want to know more. In other words, they start looking very carefully at what your company does and what you offer. They haven’t decided to give you money yet, but they desire to come to a conclusion. If they like what they see, they can move on to the next step.

4. Action

Everything’s been leading up to this moment. This is where you close the deal and the customer purchases from you. You’ve made the sale and hopefully gotten a lifelong customer in the process.

These steps are usually abbreviated as AIDA, and they were the standard for decades. The AIDA funnel isn’t the only sales funnel out there, however. Some add steps to the process, while others simplify things even further. With so many sales funnel examples out there, let’s look at one in particular.

Russell Brunson’s Sales Funnel

We’re talking about the one ClickFunnels CEO Russell Brunson describes in his book DotCom Secrets. There are some notable changes with this sales funnel.

Above the whole funnel is a cloud labeled as “Traffic,” which represents all the potential customers you could have. Starting out the funnel is a stage called “Bait.” That’s basically where you have something that attracts your dream customers to you, usually in the form of something offered for free. The next stage is “Front End,” which is a product or service that is a little more valuable and costs a little more. The next stages — “Middle” and “Back End” — are similar in that they feature progressively more valuable items that also cost more, all the way until you get to the most valuable and expensive option at the very end of the funnel.

You may notice that the important difference in this funnel is that the prospect is making purchases throughout. The funnel doesn’t end with a single purchase; rather there are always items and services to purchase during the process, and it finishes with a recurring payment option. The best sales funnels will usually include a step that revolves around retention, ensuring customers keep coming back.

Sales Funnels are the Future

As Russell Brunson explains in this video, sales funnels are the natural evolution of the website. When the internet first burst onto the scene, every company felt like they needed to build a website. Now, they need to create a sales funnel that emphasizes their strengths and reaches new prospects. Without it, they’ll be at a disadvantage from their competition.

Are you ready to build your first sales funnel? Nervous that you’ll mess it up? Don’t be. ClickFunnels offers you the tools you need to easily create an effective sales funnel thanks to pre-built templates that have already proven to convert leads.

If you want to give ClickFunnels a try, you can with a free 14 day trial. Then you can experience how successful working with ClickFunnels can be.

Recommended Reading

Sales Funnels 101: The Mechanics Behind Selling Online

Sales Funnels: The Ultimate Guide

Give Your Sales Funnel a Jaw Dropping Makeover

Thanks for reading A Beginner’s Guide to Sales Funnels: Getting Started with Sales Funnel Stages which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

As the old saying goes, a great magician never reveals his tricks.

However, we’ve uncovered some of the top-secret tools to couple with ClickFunnels to create funnels that absolutely slay.

If you’re looking for some new tricks to transform your next sales funnel, look no further.

When it comes to crafting a killer sales funnel, ClickFunnels comes pretty close to being your one stop shop.

Just ask the thousands of active users who are already generating millions of leads and millions of dollars in revenue.

However, sometimes it pays to have more tools in your toolbox to seal the deal.

True funnel hackers, who understand the in’s and out’s of their audience and have their marketing pitch in their back pocket, strive to have only the best tools at their disposal to convert customers.

That being said, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of tools, extensions, and plug-ins out there.

Since Swift businesses are smart businesses, you need only the best of the best when picking out funnel hacking tools.

By being selective in your search, you avoid wasting time and bloating your business with needless “solutions” that don’t serve what your company really needs.

So what makes a tool worth your time? In short, the best tools for transforming your sales funnels are…

• Simple to access, understand and utilize, not requiring a large investment of your time or resources
• Able to provide functionality and flexibility to customize your funnel the way that you envision it rather than forcing you to restrict yourself
• Capable of giving your marketing strategy a much-needed push rather than distract you from your goals

Whether you’re just now getting your feet wet with funnel hacking or want to understand the tools of the trade better, consider how the following tools could influence your next funnel and increase conversions.

Ninja Chrome Extensions

Chrome reigns king of browsers by a landslide, with over 70% of modern users relying on Google to surf the web in the wake of the competition.

It’s no surprise that Chrome boasts tens of thousands of extensions that help marketers and businesses make decisions without having to leave the page.

Regardless of whether you’re trying to build a new funnel or see what’s under the hood of a competitor’s side, the following extensions can work to increase your productivity and cut down on time spent researching:

ColorZilla – Design and color scheme are two of the most important yet often overlooked aspects of Internet marketing.

Color picking tools such as ColorZilla remove some of a headache from funnel design by allowing you to extract colors from existing websites.

For example, if you come across a color that catches your eye, and you want to use it on your funnel, it’s only a click away.

Through influencing buyer behavior or creating a stronger association with your brand, the color scheme is arguably one of the most crucial yet subtle elements of a solid funnel.

Instead of settling on a dull or boring color scheme, dare to be different and customize your funnel to make sure that it pops.

Ghostery – Security is always a concern when it comes to our sites and sales funnels, especially in an era of growing cyber attacks and phishing scams (such attacks are up 55% since 2015).

Likewise, there are hundreds of sites working to collect our data at any given time.

For funnel hackers concerned about privacy, it’s paramount to protect yourself and understand who’s effectively watching you.

Extensions such as Ghostery allow you to see who’s tracking you and collecting your data, meanwhile allowing you to control permissions regarding who you provide your data to.

The benefits of Ghostery are threefold:

• You can enjoy a faster browsing experience but shutting off bulky trackers that weigh down the sites that you’re visiting
• Get rid of page clutter so you can enjoy the content that you actually want to see
• Take control of your data and have peace of mind regarding your browsing habits

Not only do extensions such as Ghostery protect you from potentially dangerous trackers, but also allow you to do competitive research to see how other sites in your space are tracking your customers.

BUT.

The main reason I like ghostery?

I like the ability to see what scripts are trying to track me so I can reverse engineer them and see if they’d also be a good fit for my funnels.

Mozbar –  If you’re looking for link-building opportunities for your funnel or simply want to figure out whether or not a site seems legitimate, tools such as Moz’s SEO toolbar allow you to check out how authoritative a site is at a glance.

By analyzing a site’s link profile and keyword competitiveness, you can better understand what your site needs regarding SEO and understand how competing funnels have built up their own search presence.

As there is no one-size-fits-all approach to funnel-hacking, some tools may be more important to you than others; regardless, the three extensions above can help streamline your browsing experience and get down to business faster.

Custom HTML & CSS

As noted earlier, solid design is crucial to crafting a funnel that actually converts.

For further customization, you may want to learn the ropes of custom HTML and CSS to give your funnel a facelift.

Thankfully, learning HTML and CSS doesn’t have to be rocket science thanks to the wealth of information online; likewise, the benefits of custom design include:

• Creating a sense of congruency throughout your funnel and site
• Reducing file transfer size and bandwidth, allowing for a smoother browsing experience for your visitors
• Making your site easier for search engines to crawl
• Improving your compatibility for browsers, especially for mobile users

Focus first on learning how to make small tweaks through HTML and CSS versus giving your funnel a complete overhaul.

If you consider yourself a newbie when it comes to style, check out sites such as Codecademy and Code School to get started.

Heat Mapping & Visitor Recording

Image Credit: The MX Group

Conversion optimization can be a tedious grind.

After all, we can know the information retrieved from Google Analytics inside and out and still not understand why users truly fail to convert.

Enter the world of heatmapping tools, which allow you to see exactly where users are clicking and where they’re dropping off.

By understanding such elements of your page, you can optimize copy and imagery accordingly.

Best of all, your decisions are based on data so you aren’t just taking a shot in the dark.

Tools such as HotJar and Crazy Egg both have built in heatmaps, while the former also has visitor recording tools.

Again, the best way to optimize conversions is to rely on your own data rather than have someone else advise you based on intuition.

In fact, Crazy Egg conducted a survey in 2015 which noted that 63% of site-builders make decisions based on best practices or their instincts rather than hard data.

By separating yourself from that 63%, you’re already ahead of the game when it comes to understanding user behavior and converting customers.

Copywriting Scripts That Convert

Killer Copywriting can make or break a sales funnel; however, what are we to do if we’re strapped for cash or don’t have a copywriter on deck?

Fear not. There’s a lot that we can learn from existing sales letters for awesome products, and as they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

If you feel that your marketing language is lacking, or you simply want to draw inspiration from existing sales letters that work, consider the following solutions:

• Take a look at some of the VSLs from ClickBank or OfferVault, transcribing them yourself to find the sort of copy that converts
• See what competitors are doing regarding marketing message (for example, are they using urgency or scarcity, long-form sales letters and so on)
• Use FunnelScripts as an alternative to hiring an expensive copywriter

Whatever you decide to do, remember that VSLs are far from dead and are ideal for funnel-hackers looking for creative ways to seal the deal.

High Converting Elements

Don’t forget the high-converting elements that are already built into ClickFunnels that can drive fickle users to buy.

The following tools are proven to give visitors that final “push,” and may be the cornerstone of your next sales funnel:

Order Bumps – Order bumps provide opportunities for you to build even more revenue for your funnel beyond the original transaction.

By selling at the tail-end of your funnel and providing, even more, value to visitors, you can make more money without interrupting your visitors whatsoever.

In other words, order bumps represent a win-win for skillful funnel hackers.

Verification Seals – Trust is a huge factor for skeptical buyers; therefore, verification seals can provide such users with peace of mind as they see your business as a resource rather than a scam.

Progress Bars – Buying is a process: the use of progress bars can help visitors understand that they’re almost there and are less likely to drop off. Likewise, progress bars build a sense of urgency as users strive to get through your funnel so they can interact with your product.

What Else is in Your Toolbox?

Few funnel hackers are satisfied with “decent” results: they want the best of the best for their products, funnels and customers alike.

By relying on the best tools possible, you set yourself up to create a lean, mean funnel that converts quickly and easily.

Now, are there any other crucial funnel-hacking tools that we missed? What else is in your toolbox?

Thanks for reading 5 Secret Tools Skilled Funnel Hackers Use which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

If you’re a Coach, Consultant or Marketer – pay attention.

I want to show you how to leverage Facebook Marketing & ClickFunnels to get more leads & clients, grow your coaching business & generate a crazy ROI.

In this Case Study, I’ve outlined the entire process from strategizing & building the right sales funnel for your business, writing converting copy that resonates with your target audience, running Facebook Ads, making sales for your coaching business and everything in between.

Literally.

After spending the last few years running different campaigns and building a bunch of funnels in multiple niches, I wanted to share the best things I’ve discovered to help you maximize your own sales funnel and grow your business.

And there’s no better way to do that then break down a proven, converting funnel.

[Case Study] – The High Ticket Coaching Funnel That Generated a 4,0034% ROI

The Business – Winning International

Firstly, let me give you the background on the business.

Winning International is a business founded by Ryan Magdziarz (left) in 2014. Winning trains coaches on how to grow their business & change lives on their way to reaching 7 figures.

This includes many different kinds of coaches such as business, life, health, fitness, financial, dating and more.

Winning International achieves this by offering coaches 2 core, results-based programs – 6 Figure Coach & 7 Figure Coach – for coaches looking to grow their business and impact the world.

Our goal was to generate more leads and increase sales for both programs.

As Winning has an in-house sales team, we decided we would treat leads for both programs the same initially, and have the sales people qualify on each call, to decide which program was right for each person.

The goal for the funnel was to generate Strategy Sessions with as many qualified leads as possible.

The key here was to ensure they were qualified, so we weren’t wasting the time of the sales staff.

With that in mind, here’s what we did:

1. STRATEGY

The Coaching niche Ryan specifically wanted to focus on was Fitness Coaches & Personal Trainers.

This is a competitive niche with a lot of coaching programs targeting PT’s, so we knew we would need great execution from the start.

As far as the funnel goes, there are a few different funnel we had when it comes to generating strategy sessions with qualified leads, including:

1) Webinar Funnel

Run a paid traffic campaign to a Webinar Funnel and offer a Strategy Session to Webinar interested participants.

2) High Ticket Funnel

Create a video series of valuable content that solves the biggest problems PT’s were having in their business.

Offer a Strategy Session as a Call-To-Action for the interested prospects.

3) Tripwire Funnel

Offer a lead magnet solving a problem for PT’s, and then Low Ticket Item with a Bonus Strategy Session to prospects in the funnel.

The Low Ticket Item would be an extension of the Lead Magnet, to ensure congruence, and then the two coaching programs 6 & 7 figure coach again built on that.

Ultimately all 3 of these options have their own merit, and I believe all 3 of them would work equally as well. Without trying to give a generic marketing answer as to which one we chose – the only thing left to do was, yep – you guessed it – TEST them.

We started with the Tripwire Funnel.

The reason for this is I had actually created a tripwire funnel about 6 months before I started working with Ryan that targeted this same audience.

I had created a Lead Magnet, and a $7 Case Study Tripwire, both for Personal Trainers, that were converting well – so we decided to get straight to testing it for this new project.

When I went to build out this funnel initially, I started with developing a Marketing Hook for a Lead Magnet.

From my research, which included surveying PT’s to find the biggest pain points and problems they had in their business, the most common answer was gaining clients.

I knew being able to solve this problem with some simple advice would make a great Lead Magnet.At the time, I recalled a 9-word email by Dean Jackson that works amazingly well for generating clients from dead leads on an email list, so I created a free report that included this email and showed exactly how to use it. I called the report “Get 10 PT Client’s in 5 Days.”

I called the report “Get 10 PT Client’s in 5 Days.”

I tested this as a Facebook Ad, and it resulted in leads for just $1 each in a competitive niche.

Once I knew this marketing hook converted well, I turned the ads off and set about creating a Tripwire I could use to escalate prospects through the funnel.

From my research, I knew another limitation Personal Trainers had been using Facebook to generate leads. Also, the 9 Word Email wouldn’t really work if you didn’t have a list to begin with.

So I created an opt-in funnel a Personal Trainer could use, that gave away a free workout program. I generated 11 leads for under $30 on Facebook using this process, and I turned these results into a Case Study, which I sold for $7, showing PT’s how to use Facebook and Generate Leads.

When I tested it, it also converted well, and I was acquiring customers at break-even.

There was only one remaining issue at this point – I had no back end, and no intention of creating a coaching program or going any further with the experiment at this point, so I stopped running ads and put the project on the side.

Once I met Ryan and started working with him – we discussed how we could generate more leads and sales for 6 & 7 figure coach.

We brought the same funnel out and made one distinct change to it – we added a bonus strategy session to the funnel for anyone who bought the case study.

This gave both an added incentive to purchase and the strategy sessions we wanted.

Funnel Structure

2. BUILD

I want to break down in detail regarding the specific design, layout, copy & features of the funnel so you can understand how to replicate best it in your own business.

Firstly, when building this out in ClickFunnels, I rolled with the Sell Your Product > Sales Funnel Selection choices.

For the page templates – I chose ‘Simple Two Column Opt In’ for the lead magnet page and Ology Sales for the thank you / sales page to follow.

I love the Ology Sales Template if you have a sales page with long form copy on it. I’ve used it across a bunch of different niches and funnels with great results.

I’ve used it across a bunch of different niches and funnels with great results.

Landing Page

1. Design & Layout

With the design of the pages, we chose bright colors consistent with the Winning International branding.

The main ‘conversion’ feature of the opt-in page is the fact its split into two columns. The reason this is advantageous is on mobile; it shows one stacked on top of the other.

This gives the Headline, bullet point copies with benefits to the prospect, immediately followed by the image – which is the Facebook Ad (I discuss the specifics of this further below) – with the input form for the opt-in.

One key measure to consider here is that I left the name & email input on the landing page itself, rather than using a light box or a pop-up. The reason for this is some mobiles don’t work well with popups, so I didn’t want this to effect the conversion. The page converted at around 52% which I was more than happy with.

2. Copy

I’m a copywriter, so I wrote all of the copy for the funnel. I didn’t follow any particular formula as such, rather than just:

• Sub Headline – this tells the prospect more about what to expect, or what specifically they are getting from opting into your funnel. In this case, it’s an email marketing strategy.
• Call out your market – it’s more important to have this in your ads specifically, so you should just be stating this here for congruency.
• Marketing Hook / Benefit Laced Headline – Ideally, your target client should know what benefit they are getting just from reading your headline. If they don’t, you will have an immediate negative impact on your conversion rate. After stating this benefit / promise, you need to back it up with how or why it’s possible.
• Bullets – Elaborate on your offer in a clear and succinct manner with some irresistible bullet points to entice your prospect into wanting your offer.

One final point to keep in mind – the best lead magnets, and for that matter marketing offers, are always incredibly specific.

In that case, your copy should be brief, and not over the top.

If you have to write a lot to convince someone they should give you their name and email for a free offer, it’s obviously not specific enough.

This will have an impact on conversions.

Sales Page

1. Design & Layout

The design on the sales page is typical of any long form sales letter you would have seen.

It is a long letter of the text, with a specific structure here to set out all the information cleanly.

I will briefly touch on some of the key aspects of this page.

The sales page converted at 5% from just the opt-in, without any email follow up. We also continued to ensure funnel congruency by keeping the same colors from the landing page, throughout the rest of the funnel.

2. Copy

We had the following structure with the sales letter in terms of sales copy:

• Acknowledgment – firstly, acknowledge the prospect for having downloaded your first offer. Far too many people ignore this critical part and move straight into the sale for the next step on their value ladder. This can get prospects off on the wrong foot.
• Bridge – to extend on point (a), make sure you bridge the prospects from the report to what they need next. Acknowledge them for taking the first step, and then gently explain why they are missing a piece in the puzzle and how they can get to the next level.
• Headline – this goes without saying. Explain what they are going to get with benefit / promise based headline.
• Body of the Sales Letter – I won’t go into every little detail with the letter, but my advice is to follow a formula like PASPA when writing sales copy:

• • – Problem
  • – Aggravation
  • – Solution
  • – Proof
  • – Action

If you can remember a formula like that, it will help you to write copy that converts even cold traffic.

• Testimonials – I’ve jumped from the body into the ‘Proof’ aspect of the above formula. Make sure you include testimonials from previous clients to build trust.
• Bullets – Add bullet copy into your sales letter. You can add the most important benefits in as a bullet, which brings attention from the reader and gives extra punch to your sales message.
• Call to Action – Make sure you have solid CTA’s telling the prospect to take action and buy your offer. This goes without saying.
• Guarantee – Always add a guarantee, whether it be 30 or 60 days, to stand behind your product. It adds trust & credibility, and will help to increase your conversion rate.
• Bonus – I add a bonus to all offers to increase desire. Don’t overdo this with tripwire offers. I see people add a lot of bonuses in and this can make it harder to sell other offers in your funnel, as you train prospects to expect a lot for not much money. In this funnel, we gave a free strategy session with the case study.
• Post Script – Make sure you add P.S. & P.P.S to your offers, as some people will skim your entire sales letter and only read what’s below your final sign off. Include a summary of the offer and the bonus here.

From here, we only had the Order Form & Thank You Page remaining. The order form was standard and maintained the same design aspects as above.

The Thank You Page had a video of Ryan, thanking them for purchasing the case study and explaining that a sales person would be in touch to organize their strategy session.

With the funnel built out and ready to run, all we had to do was set up some Facebook Ads, and we could get started.

3. FACEBOOK CAMPAIGN

Creatives

For the Facebook Campaign, we already had the offer & the marketing hook. Given this, the copy was very straight forward to put together. The text at the top of the ad was simply:

“If you’re a Personal Trainer and want 10 New Clients in the next 5 Days – download this Email Template NOW!”

With the Headline being: “Free Email Template”. Both of these pieces of copy are incredibly clear and concise, which, when paired with the right targeting lead to a high Click-Through-Rate (CTR).

For the image, I had been experimenting with cartoons in a few other campaigns and decided to try a cartoon holding weights with the Marketing Hook in the image, as you can see below.

It turns out these ads performed very well, with a high relevance score, low negative feedback, and good opt-in rates.

Targeting

For the targeting, I created a conversion campaign and initially created two ad sets. These were for each audience I was targeting, which happened to be two Facebook pages that already had an audience of Personal Trainers.

When I run ads, I create each ad set with just one interest, so I can see which interest leads to the highest conversions for when the campaign gets scaled.

After this was set up, we started the campaign and ran it for the first few weeks in December 2015.

4. RESULTS

After 2 weeks of running the campaign, we were able to analyze the results and figure out whether anything needed to be changed or tweaked. The results we achieved and ROI generated proved the campaign a great success.

Facebook Ad Manager

We generated nearly 500 leads from $935 in ad spend. With a lead cost of less than $2, and high CTR’s & Relevance Scores on the ads, the cartoon image and copy on the ads were right on point.

The landing page converted cold traffic at 51% that was a great result without any optimization. This screenshot was taken a few days earlier, but tells the story quite accurately:

Of the 51% of people who landed on the thank you page, 5% of them bought the $7 case study, which provided us with phone numbers, to pass on to the sales staff who then rang the customers and booked them in for a strategy session.

The breakdown of numbers, from December 1st to 17th shows:

– 492 Conversions: 469 Leads & 23 Sales

– $935 spent on Ads

– 23 Sales @ $7 = $161 Revenue

Total Ad Cost = 935 – 161 = $774

Not everyone from the 23 sales was booked in for a call. Naturally some people weren’t interested, which is to be expected.

Of those the Winning Team spoke with, 4 Sales were made across the two programs, coming to a total of $32,000.

This produced an ROI of 4,034% – which of course is a great result.

This case study only covers the first two weeks in December.We will conduct more testing, optimization and strategy call in the weeks and months to come, to improve the ROI.

We will conduct more testing, optimization and strategy call in the weeks and months to come, to improve the ROI.

5. ANALYSIS

After breaking down this funnel and spending hours chewing over the data, I came to the conclusion there were 5 main reasons why this strategy worked so well.

1. Clearly Defined Starving Market

Firstly, and most importantly, this market is hungry for the solution. Personal Training is an incredibly competitive niche, so it is an evergreen market that will always need to learn how to generate leads and acquire clients.

This is the differentiating factor in most successful marketing campaigns.

While there are tons of other aspects of success, as you can see above, selling something that a market segment is desperate for will always be the most important part of a campaign.

2. Relevant Offers

Both the Lead Magnet and Case Study Tripwire’s solved the biggest problems Personal Trainers have and are incredibly relevant offers.

The first shows how to get more clients by Email, and the second by Facebook.

The first thing you need to consider when a campaign flops, is, are the offers relevant? Do they solve the biggest problem my market has?

Once you can do this, you are well on your way to success.

3. Sharp, Specific Ad Targeting

With the Targeting on the Ads, I selected a hyper-responsive audience that I knew from my research was full of Personal Trainers.

This meant that regardless all of the offers and copy and marketing pieces, I was getting in front of the right people. I can’t understate how important this is.

4. High Converting Copy

There will never be a substitute for great sales copy.

Having great copy in your sales funnel is worth every cent it costs to have a great copywriter produce it.Never underestimate it.

Never underestimate it.

5. Highly Skilled Sales Team

I have to recognize Ryan and his incredibly skilled Sales Team.

These results wouldn’t have been possible without it. Having a sales team that produces great results is essential to any high ticket sales funnel.

Split Testing

You may look at the above and wonder why I didn’t run one split test (at this point in time). The reason is very simple. I believe split testing is one of the BIGGEST wastes of time when you first build a funnel.

This may be controversial, but far too often I see people split testing either elements that don’t make a statistically significant difference, or they aren’t running enough traffic to pages to determine if the split test has an impact.

If you complete your research properly and know your market well, you shouldn’t have to run a split test until you’ve spent more than $1,000 in traffic and are looking to optimize your funnel.

Which I will be doing moving forward.

6. CONCLUSION

So there you have it.

Inside a High Ticket Coaching Funnel with a 4,034% ROI.

I’d love to hear your thoughts & questions in the comments below!

Thanks for reading High Ticket Coaching Funnel That Generated A 4,034% ROI which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Building a sales funnel is a tremendously exciting prospect when it comes to establishing a base of new, hungry customers.

However, it’s easy to become distracted or caught up building your funnel in the midst of the buzz.

Avoid the following five mistakes to make the most of your sales funnel.

There’s no “easy way out” when it comes to Internet marketing; however, establishing a sales funnel is a prime example of how a floundering business can transform themselves.

Rather than taking shots at the dark with a flat website, an effective funnel can simplify the process of taking warm leads and transforming them into clicks and conversions.

Keep in mind, however, that a sales funnel alone isn’t the silver bullet to transforming your business.

In fact, many businesses shoot themselves in the foot when building their funnels, often for the following reasons:

• They become distracted by the buzz and allure of new acquisitions
• They sit on their funnels instead of getting started with testing
• They cut corners, mistaking a proper funnel for a “get-rich-quick” scheme

Sometimes the best way to succeed in marketing is to understand what not to do.

By familiarizing yourself with the following marketing mistakes, which even the most experienced funnel builders make, you’ll ensure that you’re on the right track.

Looks Aren’t Everything

In a world of sleek, sexy marketing characterized by cutting-edge design trends, it’s easy to get caught up in the elements of style.

If 75% of users judge a business’ credibility based on the design of its website, wouldn’t the same logic ring true for a sales funnel?

I mean, that’s the natural assumption, right?

First of all, making assumptions is a deadly game when it comes to Internet marketing; ask yourself, can you really afford to play with your bottom line?

Now, let’s concede the fact that most business owners and customers alike would agree that a pleasant website or landing page regarding design and color scheme is probably preferable to a spammy, keyword-stuffed mess.

However, this doesn’t necessarily mean a “good looking” funnel will convert better than one that’s perhaps not-so-sexy.

Why not?

Content and usability will always trump design.

This holds especially true in the world of Internet marketing.

For example, the sleekest site in the world won’t convert a single customer without the proper back-end SEO efforts or effective marketing copy, which leads to the fact that…

Marketing language is absolutely crucial, especially when it comes to building a sales funnel centered around email marketing.

For example, a strong call to action will speak volumes to your customers over something like color-scheme or the perfectly placed photo.

Offer something of value and the sales will come.

As long as your company has a sound reputation and a product that solves the problems of the customer, don’t worry so much about committing web design fashion crimes.

Barring some sort of incredulous UI error, users will happily enter a sales funnel which appeals to their needs (whether that be raising awareness of a problem, educating them or providing a solution to an existing problem).

Worry less about how your offer looks versus what impact your offer has to the customer.

Waiting, Waiting, and Waiting Some More…

In a world where business are living (and some are dying, sadly) by their marketing dollars, one of the biggest mistakes you could possibly make with your sales funnel is simply sitting on it for too long.

As the modern marketing landscape is so competitive and cutthroat, it’s understandable that we want to make the most of our offers and pages before sending them live.

Yes, we want out pages to be perfect, our marketing copy pristine and our funnel to be flawless.

However, it’s impossible to gauge the effectiveness of our funnels without the proper testing, and it’s impossible to begin testing without sending your pages to live.

Perhaps it’s more prudent to determine the cause of your hesitation.

Is your offer not up to snuff? Consider this: if you’re so hesitant to send your pages to live, imagine how hesitant your customers will be when they land on your page.

If you aren’t confident in your product or message, why should your prospective customers be?

The solution here is first to understand the many hesitations of online buyers and squash them through your funnel.

Offer up a legitimate offer with killer copy and see what happens.

You’ve come this far to build your business online, why let a moment of hesitation hold you back?

The sooner you launch your funnel, the sooner you can begin optimizing it.

Funnel Failure (or How to Avoid Poor Testing)

Speaking of optimization, let’s talk about how poor testing can be the death of even the most masterful funnels.

Testing is more than a buzzword in the marketing sphere; proper testing can lead to new insights to transform your marketing message and ultimately the way you run your business.

For example, an A/B test of an email marketing blast can help you understand whether or not your users respond to personalization, specific calls-to-action (such as urgency, fear, exclusivity), image placement and so on.

This information can lead to changes in your marketing campaign to increase conversions and lead to further testing in the future.

There are plenty of variables involved when it comes to testing your sales funnel; therefore, understanding the pitfalls of poor testing is invaluable.

Why do we mean when we say “poor testing?”

Failing to test your sales funnel on a warm list before a cold list could potentially kill your sales funnel altogether.

When it comes to email marketing, taking shots in the dark is rarely worth it. By blasting email offers and hoping for the best, you not only decrease the value of your offer or brand but also waste precious time, money and resources.

Instead, marketers should focus on A/B testing with a warm list to understand strengths and weaknesses before even touching a cold list.

Such tests could eventually make or break your funnel for the long-term, so ensure that such tests are done with extreme care.

Cutting Corners with a Cheap Team

If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Likewise, if someone is offering you to transform a $1 investment to $100 overnight, they’re selling you snake oil.

Sales funnels have the potential to transform your marketing efforts if you’re willing to put in the time and effort, meanwhile having a proven, hard-working team on your side will only expedite the process. So, how do you know whether a not a team is worth their salt?

• Take a look at their website. Do they seem legit? What are they claiming to do for you? If something seems fishy, trust your intuition. Make sure that the team has statistics, case studies and testimonials to back up their claims.
• Look for ratings, reviews, and blogs about the company. Third-party review sites exist for this very reason. In the modern marketing world, companies have little choice to be transparent. It’s relatively easy to spot scams and spam these days thanks to the vigilance of businesses and marketers putting ineffective products and services on blast.
• Compare the team against the efforts of others. Do they seem cost effective? What do they offering that the competition lacks? Does their price point jive with your business’ budget?

Don’t try to cut corners while boost your business’ marketing efforts. Instead, rely on a trustworthy team with a proven track record to help build a successful sales funnel.

Focusing Too Much on the Front-end

There’s no doubt that sales funnels are something to get excited about.

The potential seems just about unlimited, and the customization options are endless when it comes to warming leads and driving new sales.

However, one should take into consideration exactly how a sales funnel works and understand the true importance of the back end of the funnel versus the frontend.

Yes, the frontend is the sexier part of the process.

That is the marketing copy, the color scheme, the imagery and getting customers into the funnel. However, neglecting the backend deserves the bulk of your attention.

Why?

• The backend determines whether or not your one-time customers will become returning customers in the future
• The backend allows you to offer products at a higher price point (in other words, more revenue)
• The backend is where all of your hard work pays off regarding testing and building real relationships and value with your customers

Both the frontend and backend deserve your undivided attention.

While the frontend is probably more “fun” to the average marketer, neglecting the backend process is not an option for a successful sales funnel.

Are You Making These Mistakes?

There are plenty of moving pieces when it comes to building your sales funnel; therefore, it’s crucial to know what not to do so you can keep your marketing efforts in check.

Which of these mistakes do you think plagues marketers the most?

Thanks for reading 5 Mistakes Even Professional Funnel Builders Make which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

When you’re building a sales funnel, pioneers get arrows in their backs. That’s one of the core principles behind “funnel hacking” …

Find a market that has successful products in it. Then, find your own position in that market.

How about the male grooming market? Manscaped went on a journey to figure that out.

Dollar Shave Club, Gillette, and Schick sound like big enough names to mimic? What if you found a perfect carve out in that market to coexist and disrupt the marketplace? What if you found out that there is even a “trending” term in that market? Manscaped did just that. This article will walk you through how they “cut” their teeth in this market and how you can do the same thing in yours.

Welcome to Manscaped

Men’s below-the-belt grooming is a vast and virtually untapped industry worth a near $50 billion globally. We say virtually because how many ads do we get on grooming products that help men improve the aesthetics below-the-belt, besides Viagra of course? Our guess is, not that many, which brings us to one company that has managed to carve up a marketing campaign that’s so brilliant, even Facebook couldn’t resist covering it as a success story in a blog (Facebook Manscaped Video Ad Case Study).

Below-the-belt grooming products for men are a range of products that have been specially designed for men who have to deal with an unflattering undercarriage because let’s just face it, males really are poorly designed downstairs. There’s always something getting in the way whether you’re at the gym, jogging, cycling, or just taking a stroll down the street. Below-the-belt grooming products make the life for men easier and…more comfortable.

Yet, often, men can be the most reluctant of consumers when it comes to purchasing below-the-belt grooming products. So, what’s the deal, and how did a company like Manscape manage to achieve all that success, in a relatively short period of time. That’s what we’re here to find out. They were competing with giants of the industries. Titans of commerce and advertising. Yet they have managed to double revenue every few months.

The success and failure of a brand often rest in the not-so-subtle art of marketing. Keeping that in mind, here’s a more in-depth dive on how small business owners can create an entirely kick-butt marketing campaign that will help launch their brand into the stratosphere.

1. Start with an Idea: Find A Market Research Perspective

Every successful brand is born with the idea to plug a gap in the existing market. Breakfast cereal, floor wax, the iPhone are just a few examples. So, where are all the male below-the-belt grooming products? The answer is quite painful so look away now. Oh, okay, still there. Good. That means your serious about finding the market gap, even when it involves a few “bloody cuts.” According to a JAMA Dermatology study that was carried out recently, around 26% of men and women who groom downstairs have been injured aka nicked, cut, infected and worse. The study also spoke of the need for brands to adopt safer designs that will lead to injury prevention.

There is a need for safer designs and injury prevention in the “below the belt grooming” niche. ~ JAMA Dermatology Study

The unexpected hero in all of this is surprising, another male grooming brand, known as Manscaped. The company offers men with not just fancy electric trimmers and razors, but ones that feature nick prevention, safety guards that prevent you from getting into a hairy situation! And BOOM. That’s your plug. A men’s below-the-belt grooming brand that offers safety first!

For other similar brands, this may not be at the top of their priority list. Manscaped was genius enough to realize that the comfort and self-assurance of having a men’s grooming brand that has their customers back take away the dread of taking a sharp object to a private area that can be very uncomfortable if not well kept.

2. Create a Product: Not Just Any Product!

Before Manscaped, using men’s below-the-belt grooming products often led to a bad (and painful) grooming experience. That’s because minor injuries were the norm. As a men’s grooming brand, your job is to identify the cracks in your company in terms of the products and figure out how to fill it up with your products. But, more of that later. Creating an awesome product is more than just coming up with a sleek design that’s good to look at. After all, it’s not like you’re going to frame it or something.

The Products

First, you need to gauge the pain-points of your target audience, in this case, its men ranging from tweens to 50-year-olds who are looking to improve their image and be more comfortable below the belt, and don’t want to make the trip to the emergency room if they do. Long story short, the men’s grooming products that were available before just didn’t cut it (or rather, they did). Now that you have found the problem, it’s time to design your product around that problem.

The Actual Products

Manscaped designed the kind of men’s below-the-belt grooming products that men were proud to use because they looked good, but more importantly, they got the job done without incident. Now, was that too much to ask? We thought so.

How Can We Build Out A Subscription Model?

If you want to create a market, you will first need to create a robust subscription model that makes your customers keep coming back for more of your product. The best way of doing that is by simply providing an above-par product that’s affordable, safe and easily accessible. The good news for new men’s grooming businesses looking to make their mark in the industry is that building up subscriptions is usually an area where B2C companies frequently outperform B2B companies.

Offering a seamless sign-up process for the customer goes hand in hand with having a kick-ass product. And when you’re offering additional products that are related to your service, signing up for a subscription sweetens the deal.For instance, Manscaped offers a refill of blades for The Plow (the cool name for their safety razor) that a subscriber can get delivered to their home every month, along with their other products, and a Replenish Pack for just $29.95. For new businesses, building up a subscriptions list means delivering on your promise to provide superior products that are actually worth investing in for the customer, and of course, free shipping.

Supporting Products (Consumables) 

Once you’ve got down the men’s grooming products you need to get your target demographic – men to take notice, it’s time to focus on the accessories, add-ons, the side entrees if you will, that will go with the products you’ve designed. In the case of Manscaped, you had a brand that didn’t just provide you with the fancy single-blade razor or electric trimmer and hinted to splash bottled water on your pubic and groin area after you’ve finished. The brand offers a number of additional products that all tie into the main course, and makes grooming downstairs easier.

Some of the products worth noting here are the Crop Cleanser, which reinvigorates the skin with vitamins and minerals, along with the Crop Preserver, which is basically an anti-chafing moisturizer but is again, totally worth investing for the task ahead.

Other premium products by Manscaped include The Crop Reviver, a toner and refresher, and even blade refills for the brand’s flagship product, the Plow. They worked with a chemist to get the formulas and really dial in their perfect product mix.

This lead to a formula that sets them apart in their marketplace.

With this many additional products that make manscaping so much more comfortable, Manscaped proved to their clientele that they’ve got them covered, which is sometimes, all the customer really wants to hear. Manscaped partnered with Cratejoy and launched a subscription for their one-of-a-kind box of goodies specifically for below-the-belt grooming for men. They didn’t just do well on cratejoy, they became the front page. It leads to a huge success!

3. Creating an Infrastructure: Fulfillment Chain To Customer Satisfaction

Even the military needs roads to transport fuel and ammunition to its troops on the field. You need to create the infrastructure which will help you do the same. You can let your product reach the masses by using the following actionable strategies;

Shopify – Ecommerce Needs A Home

Shopify is one of the largest e-commerce companies that’s headquartered in Ontario. The platform allows anyone to easily sell online, or anywhere for that matter. What makes Shopify a great option for small businesses is that brands get to create enticing and engaging emails straight from their Shopify Admin once they’ve subscribed to the service.

Shopify integrates seamlessly with social media marketing such as Facebook, which is the largest social media platform in the world and can completely transform your business by increasing the traffic that reaches your Shopify Store. Shopify also offers loads of other cool features that brands can use to their advantage to attract and influence customers.

Fulfillment Process – You Have To Deliver On Your Marketing

Fulfillment basically encompasses the entire process of receiving an order and delivering the product to the customer. While this might sound easy, in reality, the process is a lot more complicated, with many moving parts that need your attention, such as warehouse organization, order management, packaging, shipping, customer communication. All of these factors come together to ensure that the fulfillment process is able to remain smooth, with no or minimal hiccups.

Using ClickFunnels to Your Advantage

If you’ve ever felt stuck as an entrepreneur, ClickFunnels is the tool for you. The company was created specifically for those entrepreneurs who aren’t programmers or designers and have been held hostage (figuratively of course) by the same computer geeks they were probably making fun of in high school.

The service allows you to build pages for each of your products and create a high converting sales funnel. To get started, all entrepreneurs have to do is pick a sales funnel type, choose the design that matches their brand most, customize their page to make it more appealing, and viola. For young businesses looking for a place, ClickFunnels offers a service that’s quick, easy to use and affordable, and more importantly, gets results. There is nothing easier to build a funnel with.

4. Create a Brand: Bigger Than A Product

Now, it’s time to make your brand. Creating a brand has more to do than just coming up with a cool logo and a tagline that goes with it. Creating a brand means using every inch of your digital space from the content of your website, to the marketing, and the colors you use to identify your brand to create a unique “voice” of your company.

In fact, having a brand that’s bigger than your product is one of the leading e-commerce trends shaping the future of online shopping.

Making your audience laugh is key to winning them over (at least, for Manscaped it is). The manscaping or below-the-belt men’s grooming product has never shied away from using some below-the-belt humor to get their message across. Once you’ve found the name, logo, tagline, and color that will represent your brand and become its voice, you will need to apply that voice consistently while using all areas for marketing your brand.

Create Great Images with Good Copy

If you have a website, and you probably do, using great images will break up the text into tiny bits that will make it more digestible for the readers. When using images, try to stay away from the free stock photos available online and go with original pictures of your product. Pair that with smart copy that’s informative and amusing at the same time. You can pique the interest of the reader by using humor. If you go down that route, better hire the right copywriters who can bring the funny without looking like they’re trying too hard.

Add Unique Humorous Videos – This Is Where Manscaped Thrives!

Manscaped has come up with some hilarious videos for their marketing campaigns. Using humor in your videos is another great way of getting your audience interested and excited about your brand. While making videos, keep it simple and be careful not to cross any lines. You don’t want to be funny at the expense of hurting someone’s feelings. YouTube and Vimeo are two of the best platforms to upload your marketing videos. Once you’ve got the video content you need, use social media to promote your new visual content.

https://youtu.be/of2yge_KZBU

5. Get Targeted Traffic

Creating a social media page for your brand is essential if you want to attract new customers. This doesn’t mean using your personal Facebook profile but creating a Facebook Business page that’s dedicated solely to your business. The neat thing about using Facebook for business is that you get to use and measure many metrics that allow you to tweak your marketing campaign. You can even create a social media outlet right on Facebook that’s similar to Manscaped where you can set up your products for display. Those who are interested then have the choice to either purchase a product straight from your Facebook page or visit your company’s website.

As a business, you’d want to give your target audience as many options as possible when it comes to purchasing your products. Don’t just use Facebook, other social media platforms can also be integrated into your website, turning your efforts into a robust marketing campaign that makes your product available to a larger audience. Some of the social platforms you can use are Twitter, Instagram etc.

Paid Traffic

Paying for traffic is powerful, yet oftentimes, an ignored tool that’s great for marketing your brand. Using paid search such as Google AdWords or Bing Ads can significantly boost your online traffic and get you more sales. Besides that, Google also allows businesses to display ads on the Google Display Network which also helps drive traffic towards your brand’s website. Retargeting can be the most important tool your sales funnel and e-commerce brand has. Retarget customers to specific sales funnel segments and watch your brand take off.

6. Set Up a Distribution Channel

And finally, having the right distribution channels in place will ensure your products are able to reach your customers.

Direct-to-Customer

Direct-to-customer is fast becoming a crucial retail channel for small businesses. That’s because customers demand a better experience, which is exactly what the Direct-to-Consumer model of distribution provides. Although there will be some complications while setting up DTC channels, creating a proper strategy will ensure that your e-commerce business is able to operate smoothly.

Affiliates

Affiliate marketing is a marketing strategy that’s mainly performance based. This means your business is going to reward your affiliates for each of the visitors or customers that are sent to your website via affiliate marketing. While using affiliate marketing you will need to track, test, and compare the results of various affiliates. Refersion and Clickfunnels are neat software that can help you get started with your affiliate marketing needs by helping you build up your affiliate network.

Collaboration

This can be called Influencer Marketing. You find a brand that has a similar demographic to yours. You partner and offer your products to one another’s customers. You can also collaborate and offer a single product including both brands. This has done great for manscaping brand Manscaped and Slyde boards.

https://youtu.be/n_gLqP8vvnM

Amazon

It’s no secret that Amazon is the go-to destination for buying products in the US. If you’re a men’s grooming brand that’s just starting out, you’d want to create an online presence on Amazon that will enhance your credibility as a brand. The best way of doing that is by building a permanent presence on Amazon. Besides, Amazon has a growing stronghold on the consumer market making it one of the best choices for small brands. For a brand to have a presence on Amazon is not just fashionable, it’s a necessity.

Retail & Subscriptions

Building a retail affiliation can be as simple as co-branding with popular local retailers that will help you elevate your mission, which is to reach out to the most customers as you possibly can. For true success, startup brands need to think a level deeper than ever before to not just stay above water but keep up with the big fish in their niche. A great example can be given of Manscaped, who figured that out early on and implemented some crucial changes that ended up in larger, unexpected rewards for the brand.

Trendy Words

Manscaped started because of a gap in the market. Then some market research to see how to differentiate their product set. The big success got poured on because of a trend. Manscaping is a trending topic and has a large following. It has picked up as a cultural norm for millennials. This article in the L.A. Times even talks about how manscaping has become normal. That article came out in 2014 but manscaped the brand didn’t start until 2017. There are gaps and even trendy words being thrown around all the time. It could be worth millions for you to recognize it.

How Do You Get Started Today?

Entrepreneurs are a rare breed. With the right amount of passion and skillset, it can be possible to break into an industry that’s as challenging as below-the-belt men’s grooming, and similar to Manscaped, reach the height of success. If you are looking for your perfect breakthrough moment then start by finding a gap in the market like manscaping that is safe. It could grow into something larger than you realize!

Footnotes: Pictures are screenshots from Will’s computer (April 2018); Manscaped is a client of Content How, Will’s organic marketing company

Thanks for reading Huge Funnel Hack Exposed! Manscaped 6 Step Recipe To Success {Steal This Formula!} which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

We already know that Actionetics is a fantastic marketing automation platform when working in tandem with your sales funnel. Be that as it may, if you’re not making the most of Actionetics, then you’re missing out on a lot. If you are completely new to this, here is a comprehensive post about Getting Started with Actionetics.

To help you understand just how powerful an automation platform Actionetics is, you need to discover all the interesting features it offers and not just the obvious ones. While Actionetics is a powerful tool, in and of its own,  it wouldn’t hurt to know and leverage some of the most useful (but rarely used) features of Actionetics.

Here are 4 Actionetics features you probably don’t bother to discover or even use.

1. ACTION SCORE

If you’re already using Actionetics, then you must have already seen the Action Score displayed on every contact profile. A contact’s Action Score for recency, frequency, monetary value, and social scores. To be able to view each element of a contact’s Action Score, all you need to do is to hover your cursor on the display and move it around the rings of the Action Score display.

Some may think that this is negligible, but what makes this feature so important is that enables marketers to determine a contact’s lifetime value and, of course, a contact’s current value to your business. With this feature, you will be given insights on how your contacts behave, where you engage them the most and how to market to them better.

2. CUSTOM GROUPS

Most users new to Actionetics may tend to find custom groups in Action Funnels, a bit tricky. This is especially so when figuring out what custom group to use if you want a particular action, whether it’s external or internal, to trigger your action funnel. Custom group has seven rule groups.

1. SOCIAL

This lets you filter an action funnel step according to the number of social media followers or fans of any social network.

The social networks covered under this category are:

• Picasa
• Pinterest
• Placast
• SlideShare
• SoundCloud
• Tumblr
• Tungle Me
• Twitter
• Vimeo
• WordPress
• yahoo
• YouTube
• About.me
• Angellist
• Blogger
• Delicious
• Digg
• Facebook
• Flickr
• Foursquare
• Friendfeed
• Github
• Google Plus
• Gravatar
• Instagram
• Klout
• LinkedIn
• Myspace

2. CONTACT

This lets you trigger your action funnel step according to contact information

3. FUNNEL

This lets you trigger your action funnel step according to page visited or not visited by your contact.

4. PRODUCT

This trigger is quite similar to Funnel except that it lets you trigger your action funnel step according to whether a particular product is bought or not by a contact.

5. BROADCASTS

This lets you trigger your action funnel step according to particular actions on your email broadcasts (i.e. opened broadcast, never opened broadcast, clicked broadcast, did not click broadcast)

6. LISTS

This lets you trigger your action funnel step according to a particular email list.

7. EMAIL STEP

This lets you trigger your action funnel step according to email step action. (i.e. opened email step, never opened email step, clicked email step, never clicked email step)

Now, I’m pretty sure most of you have tried out Action Funnels, but what some do not realise is that you are not limited to just one custom group or that you’re not utilising the other categories! You can set multiple custom group to fully customise each step in your Action Funnels. Try it out and create and send targeted marketing messages!

3. TAGS

Tags are a quite new to Actionetics, which may explain why you haven’t utilised them yet if you haven’t. While email lists are used to segment your contacts (making it easier for you to send various different marketing messages), tags let you further segment these contacts according to specified actions in each step of your funnel.

You can use tags to segment your contacts, use them as triggers for particular steps in your Action Funnel, and they also let you analyse each contact according to tags added to their profiles. If you want to enable tags to be added to your contacts, all you have to do is to go to your page editor >  go to Settings > Integrations> Select Actionetics as an Integration > Add Tag and add the your tag.

TIP: You can also opt to add “Remove Tag” as an option in your email integration settings.

4. CONTACT PROFILE

It’s not exactly a secret, but I’m pretty sure you haven’t taken the time to see each individual contact in your list’s profile. You’d be surprised to discover a treasure trove of valuable data you can use in planning your next marketing campaign.

Among the information you discover is, of course, your contact’s Action score which has already been discussed earlier. Aside from that, you’ll be able to see their purchase history, their recent activities, memberships you offered that they have subscribed to, etc. If you want to learn more about the Actionetics Contact Profile Dashboard, be sure to check out this post I wrote previously.

What’s next with Actionetics Features?

While you may have read (or heard) of most of the features mentioned above, chances are you haven’t used these features and leveraged them to improve your marketing. You’ll notice that the common denominator about these features is their ability to let you in on valuable data about your contacts.

What’s so important about them, you ask? These data lets you in on your contacts behaviour and how they engage with your marketing. Insights from these data allows you to create personalised and targeted marketing messages to your contacts which is a better approach than some cookie-cutter marketing communications strategy. Always remember that the customers engage better when they relate to your marketing messages. You’ll find that they are more compelled to convert.

If you haven’t tried out Actionetics, then these not-so-obvious features might convince you into subscribing. But if you’re already using Actionetics, but haven’t tried out all these awesome features, then you’re missing out. It’s high time you take your marketing communications to the next level by leveraging these features.

Try them out today. If you enjoyed this post, I am sure you would love these 5 Automation Tricks for Actionetics!

How do you make the most of Actionetics?

Share with us by commenting below!

Thanks for reading 4 Hidden Actionetics Features You Didn’t Know About which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Ah, popups. You can love them or hate them, but one this is for sure…they still have the potency to compel action. And that reality is not lost to marketers.

Afterall, popups can come off strongly to your visitors especially when you’re going for a hard sell. They may also come off as spammy, in some cases. But don’t take popups too lightly! They do have their benefits if you stop and analyse them clearly.

There are various kinds of popups, all with different uses. Here are some of the most used popup types:

1. Exit-intent popup – This kind of popup shows when a visitor is leaving a particular page or a website.
2. Content-based popup – This kind of popup only shows on specific pages of the website or on specific steps of a funnel.
3. Time-based popup – This kind of popup only shows during a specified amount of time.
4. Scroll-based popup – This kind of popup is intended to appear when a user scrolls through a specific percentage of a page.

While it’s true that almost nobody likes popups, I’m pretty sure that is effectiveness is something we can’t miss. Sure, most users may find them annoying, but when executed properly, you’ll find that even annoying popups can turn into powerful mediums to deliver your message and close that lead and convert it into a sale.

Benefits of Popups

1. It Commands Attention

This makes popups especially useful if you want to make your point across your visitor, in case they missed it. Having a popup literally forces your visitor to pay attention to the popup before they can carry on and read through your page, exit your page or do any other action on your page.

2. They are Great for Lead Generation

As stated above, they are great for getting attention. This is probably why lead generation activities are particularly effective when done through popups.

3. They are Great for Saving a Sale

Another great thing about popups is their ability to save a sale. By offering discounts and other promotions or by laying out the features of your products, you give your visitors a chance to review everything again before they decide to finally exit your sales funnel.

While popups are incredibly effective, do take note that it comes in large parts to how you execute your popups and the message you want to relay to your visitors. To help create a winning popup setup in your sales funnel, we’ve laid down 5 key elements to effective sales funnel popups you have to remember.

5 Secrets to Effective Sales Funnel Popups

1. A Compelling Copy

A good popup is nothing without a compelling copy. After all, a popup doesn’t do anything if you don’t actually tell your visitors what you want them to take action for. This means that conversion-driven copies are wonderful for popups and it would do you good to remember leveraging them.

Not sure about your writing prowess? Hiring copywriters isn’t included in your budget? No worries! Funnel Scripts is a great tool for generating powerful marketing and sales copies you can use to create your compelling copies. It’s also a great tool to help you develop your copywriting skills along the way. Click here if you haven’t register for a copy yet!

TIP: Add a sense of urgency and scarcity to your popup copy! By doing so, you’re giving the customer the impression that there isn’t much time before the stocks run out or the time runs out before the offer ends! Numbers can be pretty persuasive, always remember that!

ClickFunnels lets you add countdown timers that give popups that sense of urgency. All you need to do is to Login to your ClickFunnels account > Go to your funnel > Choose the page where your particular popup is > Add New Row > Add New Element > Select from the choices of countdown timers available > Click and drag in place > Save.

2. Clarity and Relevancy

A good popup is not cluttered with too much information. Cluttering your popup with too much information will only confuse your visitor and may end deterring them from converting instead which is far from the popup’s goal. With that said, clarity and relevancy of information is important. Be clear with your offer and make sure that the information stated is relevant to the popup’s headline.

3. Test Your Popups

This should go without saying, especially if you want to test out how different layouts, CTA button formats, etc. affect your popups effectivity. If you have more than 1 popup specification in mind, testing them out and using the one with the ideal performance is key.

Did you know that you can test up to 3 variants of your page? If you have more than 1 variant of popup in your particular funnel step, you can test them with ClickFunnels.

Here are some of the most important elements of your popups to test:

1. Headline

2. Imagery

3. Call-to-action button design

4. Body Copy

5. CTA Copy

4. Social Proof

It’s probably one of the most overused element, but it’s still effective. Social proof is still an effective element to engage your visitors and compel them into taking whatever action your popup is telling them to do. Social proof such as testimonials, social shares, and feedbacks ensure your visitors that you are serious about your offer and you have proof.

TIP: While this element is something that makes a good popup, remember to keep it short.

5. Design

Design is one of the elements that can make or break your popup. Elements such as branding graphics, logo, fonts, button design, image of your product or your service, image that depicts your popup headline are some of the things you should consider.

Now that you know the secret elements that make a good popup, it’s now time to plan and map out your winning popup that converts!

Do you have working strategies to ensure the success of popups in your funnel?

Do you have any tips you want to share?

Comment below and share with us!

Try ClickFunnels FREE Today!

Thanks for reading 5 Secrets To Effective Sales Funnel Popups which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

So you’ve finally gotten around to completing your marketing plan, business plan and your processes. But calm your pits! You’re not done yet. There’s still some more crucial steps you need to consider before breaking out in the market and showcasing your sales funnel services.

In your case, it’s how to package your sales funnel service and successfully pitch to your customers. After all, the final goal is to close that sale.

In this article,sales funnel service

STEP 1: Listen To Your Market

Aside from researching your competitors’ pricing strategy, a great strategy is to personally discover what your market wants. After all, it’s them you want to make sales with. Find out what services they want, how much they are prepared to pay for it, and what premium they are prepared to add to a value-added service.

The first step is to learn the current goals, challenges, recurring problems and what kind of service your sales funnel can provide to your market to alleviate, if not completely eradicate their challenges. The goal is to learn as much as you can about your ideal customers. Get your prospective customers to talk about their businesses or their responsibilities in their organisations. Listen to them and apply the information to your packing.

STEP 2: Prepare Your Packaging Strategy And 

Adding Prices To Your Packages

The key here is to create service packages according to a base rate. When preparing your pricing strategy, ask yourself the following questions.

• What package tiers can I offer?
• From the lowest to the highest tier, what value-added services can I offer?

Answer those questions and align them with the information you gathered from Step 1. The goal in this step is to create tailor-made pricing packages according to your ideal market’s needs. Most package plans start from Basic, Intermediate and Advance to more complex and strategic like Silver, Gold ,Platinum.

The key here is to appropriately name your packages according to the value each package tier offers.

TIP: Having trouble setting up your service packages? Here’s an incredibly easy tip. Start from the highest tier and remove value as you go down the tiers.

Now, here’s the fun part after you decide on the packages. You get to start creating prices to your packages.

There are actually several ways to go about deciding the pricing for each package.

Let’s talk about pricing based on the unique added features to each package tier. The first thing to do here is to decide on a base rate and a ceiling rate. A good thing to take note of is it is always easier to start with your ceiling rate. From there, you decide the value of each feature unique to each package and subtract the value from the next package down the tier.

Another way to, and the easiest way to set prices for your packages is set the base rate to the lowest tier and the ceiling rate to the highest tier and you determine the best mid-range price possible for the package(s) in between. Most of the time, this pricing strategies leverages on the “best deal” package which is in between to reiterate the fact that the highest tier package is for large businesses and such.

STEP 3: Create Your Sales Pitch Proposal and Pitch To Your Customers

Now that you’ve laid down your package options and their prices, it’s now time to create your sales proposal and pitch them to your customers!

First is creating your proposal. The key to making a striking proposal is to present your packages well and present each package in such a way that the customers get a clear view of what they will be paying for. Remember to clearly define every feature included in each package, but avoid being too technical.

The next is pitching your proposal to your customer. The most effective approach to pitching your proposal is to walk your customers through each package, carefully explaining the dynamics, features and value of each package. You can pitch to your customers via personal meeting or video meeting which allows your customers to ask you questions, but most marketers tend to pitch their products through sales video. If you’re keen on the sales video approach, make sure that you get to answer all possible questions that may be asked about your service empashizing that each package is tailored to your customers’ needs.

TIP: Did you know that you can strategically present your package and their price ranges in your sales funnel using ClickFunnels? All you need to do is to Login to your ClickFunnels account > Go to your funnel > Go to your sales page or any page you want to display your price list > Add a section and decide on your row > Click and drag the Pricing Table element. Easy, yeah?

STEP 4: Close The Deal

Now that you’ve pitched your proposal to your customers, it’s now time to schedule your follow-ups to at least once a week to remind them of your proposal and to gauge their interest. This is a great time to discuss and negotiate the terms of the service and remind them the value of your offer. Remember to send your follow-ups within the 2 weeks after your initial communication and lay down your offers again.

STEP 5: Post-Sale Service

The key to this step is to giving your customers the assurance that your connection with them goes beyond the sale and that you aim to exceed customer expectation. That you will be with them even after the transaction hits the end. You can do this by checking up on your customer’s progress and see if there’s anything you can help them with or you can just ask them for a feedback on their progress (a company which does this really well is Volley Lob Smash)

This step can be particularly beneficial for you as well, especially if the customer asks for services beyond the package they purchased. From here you can draft a customised proposal you can add on top of the package they purchased earlier or a one-off charge. Either way, it’s a win for you right?

What’s Next?

Always remember that while ROI and profits are the primary goal in laying down the perfect packaging, pricing and pitching strategy for your services, these are only secondary to finding out and analysing the wants and needs of your customers in terms of the services you offer. Remember to create a thorough study of your market and you’ll never go wrong.

Do you have a package and pitching strategy set for your own services?

Share us your success stories by commenting below!

Thanks for reading 5 Steps To Package & Pitch Your Sales Funnel Service which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Your engagement with the customer should not stop at the Thank You page. It’s always best to think outside the box, at this point and ask yourself what other things you can do to connect with the customer past the checkout page.

To do this, let’s focus on the least leveraged page in your sales funnel. The confirmation page.

What is the confirmation page?

Some have different uses for the confirmation page.

For some, it could also be the page where all the details of the transaction are displayed for review before the customer decides to finalises the transaction. For most, and this one is the most common use, the confirmation page is where you will find the details or summary of a prior transaction.

Most will agree that the confirmation page is the least leveraged out of all the pages in a sales funnel.

Getting the most out of your confirmation page

Here are some tips on getting more out of your confirmation page:

1. Add Up-sells/Down-sells

Most customers find seeing cross-sell, up-sell or down-sell offers before they even begin to checkout their shop carts off-putting. This can turn out a dilemma for some merchants especially if they want their other offers to be seen by potential buyers.

A great way to counter this is to move these offers into the confirmation page, instead. By doing so, you can still serve additional offers to your customers without scaring them away or disturbing their buying decisions. This is a fantastic way to offer them cross-sells, up-sells or down-sells with the added perk of not having to send another order form or enter their payment details again.

If you’re already familiar with ClickFunnels, you already know that there are separate groups of templates for a confirmation page, a downsell page and an upsell page. As of present, you can’t add order confirmation elements into your page outside of the Order Confirmation Templates.

You can add upsell or downsell features into your pages with ClickFunnels. All you have to do is Login to your ClickFunnels account > Go to your funnel > Click Add New Step > Sales > From the dropdown menu, choose either One Click Upsell (OTO) or One Click Downsell > Choose from the selection of templates

One Click Upsell (OTO) Templates

One Click Downsell Templates

BUT! Since we’re talking about confirmation pages here, a great way to add upsell or downsell offers into your confirmation page is through pop-ups! All you need to do is to Set your pop-up > Add the appropriate text and button > Click Edit Action on your button settings > Click Go To Next Step in Funnel to direct your buyers into the upsell or downsell page. Easy, right?

2. Newsletter subscription

If upsells or downsells aren’t your thing, a great way to increase your email list is to invite your customers to subscribe right in your confirmation page! Not only will you increase your subscriber base, but you can also for a connection with your customers even after the sale! Send them limited time offers, deals, discounts and update them on upcoming sales.

ClickFunnels lets you add the a form element to your confirmation page. Simply Login to your ClickFunnels account > Your funnel > Confirmation Page. Drag and drop the appropriate element (in this case, a button element) > edit it accordingly and add the appropriate settings > edit button settings and link it to an email optin page. You’re confirmation page is ready to go after this!

Note: Make sure that the next step in the funnel is an email optin page for the settings to work.

3. Ask for feedback

Make the most out of your confirmation page by creating opportunity to get reviews and feedbacks from your customers. This is actually one of the great ways to assure your customers that you are interested in connecting with them post-transaction.

A good strategy for this is to ask permission from your customers if you could get their phone number, mobile number or email address which you can use to contact them and ask how they are doing so far with the product or service they bought from you.

You can do this with ClickFunnels by adding some form elements to your confirmation page. Simply Login to your ClickFunnels account > Your funnel > Confirmation Page. All you need to do is drag and drop the appropriate element into your confirmation page, tweak it a little and you’re all set!

Note: If you’re going to ask for your customer’s mobile number, be sure to explicitly ask for their permission.

4. Get social

Amp up your confirmation pages by adding social media elements! Not only will you be able to feature your active social community, but you can also invite them to follow you to be up-to-date with what’s new with your brand, products, events, offers, discounts, sales and more!

With ClickFunnels, you can enable Social Shares for your customer to share their customers to their followers or enable FB comments which enable your customers to write their feedbacks with their Facebook accounts. Reviews and feedbacks look more credible with a genuine person behind the feedback, afterall.

All you have to do is to drag and drop the appropriate element to your confirmation page, and you’re ready to go!

Key Takeaway: Making It work

Now that we’ve given you a few ideas on how to make the most of your confirmation page, it’s time to tweak it a little and spice it up in your own way which reflects your branding and your goals. Remember that doing this isn’t just about making more sales.

It is to ensure that your relationship with them does not end the moment they click the check-out button. It’s building a connection and a lasting relationship with your customers and adding more value to them.

How do you make the most out of your confirmation page?

What strategies do you have in place?

Comment down and share with us!

Thanks for reading How To Get More Out Of Your Order Confirmation Page which appeared first on ClickFunnels.