The ClickFunnels User Spotlight series keeps setting new records for inspiration and excitement. We have the privilege to welcome Luis Diaz as our amazing guest today. Luis is an inspiration for change in addition to being a podcaster, author, and entrepreneur. Through his company, he gives ambitious business owners the tools they need to start and grow their podcasts through a well-planned coaching program.

Luis’s journey is proof of the effectiveness of adaptation and reinvention. Having previously excelled as an online fitness trainer, he now dedicates himself to guiding individuals in creating captivating content, attracting a steady stream of listeners, and monetizing their podcasts.

Why podcasting?

“I realized very early on that I sucked at video and sucked at writing. So, it was a funny realization because I hated the other two mediums. Podcasting was my main medium for getting my first couple of clients online and building my then online fitness business. So I took a 12 dollars course and learned everything with it, and then I started to learn and grow from a lot of failures and mistakes”.

The power of self-awareness and the guidance of a remarkable mentor have awakened his understanding of the necessity to shift from the realm of online fitness entrepreneurship and dedicate himself entirely to podcasting. It’s crucial for us to truly heed our instincts and gracefully release things once their purpose has been fulfilled. With that in mind, it becomes evident that we all require a mentor on our journey toward success, don’t we?

Giveaway funnels and the book-a-call funnels have both delivered excellent results for Luis Diaz and his company. It’s interesting to note that the simplest funnels frequently have the highest conversion rates. This demonstrates the strength and efficiency of these strategies, leaving us inspired by the possibilities that they offer for companies in different industries. 

You must watch this episode, and keep an eye out for others to come!

Interested in getting started with ClickFunnels? Get a 2-week free trial, click here.

Thanks for reading User Spotlight: Interview with Luis Diaz which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Have you ever seen a picture of a teen entrepreneur on an issue of GQ magazine? While growing up, did you read about the millionaire teens who became the CEOs of their own company before the age of 18? It is highly probable that you may not have had any teen role model while growing up, or the only teen idol that you knew about was a child actor in a sitcom.

Besides being the much-loved child stars, teenagers can also try their luck in business. Sound unbelievable? Even though we have a few examples of teens conquering the business world. Today, more and more teens are venturing into the world of entrepreneurship.

Young entrepreneurs are here to conquer the business world with their amazing business ideas. If you are a teenager or you know a competent teenager, have a look at the following business ideas for teens.

Business Ideas for Teens

Anyone can start a business of their liking. Every person has unique skills and talents and what bears fruit for one person may not guarantee success for the other. However, we have compiled a list of business ideas which we believe will have the attention of young entrepreneurs.

Social Media Consultant

Even though millennials struggle to keep up with the changes in the world of the Internet. They take their time to embrace the importance of social media. Teens these days have grown up browsing through different social media accounts. Whether its Instagram or Twitter, teens know which trend is common on which platform and what a company should do to attract followers.

If you also have this talent, why don’t you consider setting up a small online startup and offer your services of creating, managing, and promoting blogs for different companies? You don’t need to spend a large chunk of money in initial investment. You only need to have a laptop and a good internet connection to get your company up and running.

Babysitter

The demand for a babysitter is not going to die down anytime soon. Parents need a reliable person to look after their children when they want to go out. This is a line of work that almost everyone has done in their teenage years. How can you turn this part-time job into a thriving business? The good thing for you is that you are born in the age of the Internet, and this is how you will edge out your competitors.

When you are starting, you can create a Facebook page or an Instagram business account to advertise your services. Ask local parents to write a review of your services from their accounts to use as social proof. You can also turn your business page into a platform for other babysitters to register. You can penetrate the market by offering lower prices – something that Airbnb and Uber did – and targeting a large audience through social media.

Moving Assistant

The process of moving is stressful, and professional moving companies charge a high fee for their services. Teens are young and have the energy to move small boxes from one place to the other. You can offer your services to people who are finding it extremely difficult to deal with moving. Elderly people would love to hire you as their moving assistant.

You can set up a business by creating a sales funnel for your service. At the start, you can offer the services for free to get an idea of the level of hard work that the service requires.

In the same manner, you can also set up another sales funnel for running errands for people. Against a nominal fee, you can offer to bring groceries home for the couple who lives down the lane or for picking up the children from school. This will create a buzz that you are looking for work. In this line of work, you have a big market and can gain a large number of clients from senior citizens to busy parents.

Create a YouTube Channel

Are you good at public speaking? Do you have cool comedy sketches in your head all the time? You should start your own YouTube channel and reach out to a large number of people and impress them with your talent. In the beginning, you may struggle with gaining subscribers. However, after a short while, you can start making a lot of money through your YouTube channel. You can then start your own small business of content creation for YouTube or other such platforms.

How ClickFunnels Can Help Small Businesses

ClickFunnels is a great marketing tool that helps you build a sales funnel in just minutes. With this tool, everything you need to build and launch your sales funnel is pre-developed and automatically pieced together for your company, so you have a seamlessly fast set up.

As a young entrepreneur, your objective is to get as many leads as possible and convert them into buyers. The best way to do this is to generate leads and convince them to visit your sales funnel and make a purchase.

A well-maintained website falls flat when compared to a sales funnel. A potential buyer may visit your website, click on the products, browse through all the items that you are offering, and still not make a purchase. You want to bring traffic to your site and convert them into buyers by providing them with a valuable product or service through your funnel.

With funnels, you can easily eliminate the confusion that you may have regarding why your visitors are not turning into paying customers. Funnels allow you to move prospects through different stages of the funnel to lead to a sale. With ClickFunnels, you can easily build and monitor your funnels to align them with your online marketing campaign. You also have access to the relevant data and stats to improve your sales funnel.

Another reason why ClickFunnels should be the top choice for young entrepreneurs with business ideas is the ease of use. Since teens also have to manage their studies along with their business, they need something that can create landing pages, sales pages, and a variety of other webinar pages with ease. ClickFunnels offers pre-built templates that make this process easier for everyone.

ClickFunnels is a great tool for anyone at any stage of their business that wants to make money online. If you want to give it a try, you can sign up for a free 14-day trial.

Taxes for Teens

People often ask, how to start a business as a teen when a minor – people under the age of 18 – is not eligible for signing a contract. While this is a valid concern, a minor can legally own a business entity. And, yes, a minor can also sign a contract.

Also, if a teen earns more than $400 a year, they are eligible to file a tax return. The IRIS has introduced specific regulations and tax guidance for young entrepreneurs to determine if they need to file a return.

Wrapping It Up

Starting a business isn’t limited to adults or those who have obtained a business degree. In today’s age, and with the help of ClickFunnels, it’s easier than ever before for the younger generation to launch a profitable business.

Thanks for reading Business Ideas for Teens: How ClickFunnels Can Help which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Increasingly, brands are turning to the broad reach of the Internet to sell their physical products, marrying the digital and material into one experience for customers.

In our tech-fueled world, entire online marketplaces now exist for buying and selling products of almost every kind.

As a matter of fact, you may have noticed… Amazon and Etsy have become household names, and these sites are empowering small startups and titans of industry in taking their product from creation to delivery.

Today, no matter what size business you run, you can have your brand on the doorsteps of customers anywhere in the world.

And with all the many online tools, you have the chance to hook into this powerful reach yourself to get your physical product into your customer’s hands quickly.

So what’s most important to harnessing these options, building a sales funnel for your physical product, and creating an experience your customers are sure to love?

Great question! Let these 6 points become your mantra as you launch your funnel, and you’ll be on the path to an award-winning sales process in no time.

Reviewing the Entire Fulfilment Process

Physical products need to get from Point A to Point B, but on the way, there’re several steps to consider.

Take refunds for example.

Did you know, on average, up to one in three online sales is returned, and this trend is increasing? (Don’t let that number scare you, though; they can be lower depending on your industry).

Shipping and handling, updating customer billing, costs related to returns… you get the idea.

As you build your funnel, keep the fulfilment process (and its necessary components in mind).

This will give you the chance to keep track of associated expenses, but there’s another amazing benefit.

You’ll also be able to catch any part of the process that might need tweaking to make sure that your physical product isn’t tied up on its way to the customer or worse, never even gets out the front door of your business.

This part of the customer experience is just as much a part of your sales funnel as anything else.

Protip: for a real nitty-gritty look at your fulfillment process and how it factors into your sales funnel, map out each piece as the steps in a flow chart. You’ll have a visual perspective that will let you know where you can trim steps and costs or consider alternatives.

Borrowing the Competition’s Playbook

Depending on your industry, your competitors might inspire a range of emotions in you. And the competition today seems like it’s never been greater.

Data presented by Edward Lowe even shows that, in many industries, 80% of revenues go to 20% of the brands.

Why not take a play from the competition, especially if they’re part of that 20%?

By putting together an analysis on your competitors, you’ll be getting insight on where and how to modify your funnel.

(Check out sneaky tools like these to start getting an idea of their online strategies).

You can also use this snapshot of the competition to simplify your sales funnel and focus on what works.

Less complex funnels, especially for physical products, have less moving pieces, and so, are less prone to hiccups and holdups.

That’s good for your sales and your customers.

Protip: Stay on top of your market. A yearly update of your competitor analysis will allow you to get a look at the evolving landscape of your industry and get ahead of trends.

Providing More to Your Customers… and Increasing Sales

Let’s circle back around and take a look at one of the largest and most successful brands delivering physical products to customers… Amazon.

Even though Amazon is a marketplace that you can use for your physical products, it also provides good lessons in increasing sales potential.

One way that Amazon does this is through cross-selling, presenting related products to capture more average cart value.

When you present your customers with items related to their current purchase, you’re taking advantage of the valuable information you’ve learned about their preferences.

In fact, 35% of Amazon’s entire revenue comes from using cross-selling.

Think of all that sales potential for your funnel!

You’ve probably also heard of upselling, but it’s not some out-dated sales technique.

Research also has shown that it remains a good tactic for increasing average cart sizes.

And like with cross-selling, you have the chance to take advantage of your fulfillment process to deliver more and enhance your customer’s experience.

Protip: Drill down on the reasoning for your upsells and cross-sales. Presenting a lamp to a customer who just bought a book doesn’t make as much sense as giving them the option also to purchase a magazine related to their interests.

Entrusting Your Staff with Your Brand

Factoring in support service for your sales funnel is a certain way to strengthen the funnel for your physical product.

Customers often have questions about warranties or product materials.

They also might have to deal with a lost or stolen package, and they’ll want to turn to someone they can trust.

In that sense, you’ll be entrusting your brand, and your sales funnel to your staff.

And when you choose the right staff, you’ll be boosting customer retention by 5% and profits beyond 25%.

Hire support staff who are knowledgeable about your industry and can learn everything about your product there is to learn.

By having a strong hiring process, you’ll have staff that can best serve your customers by knowing what they’re talking about.

And because it costs, on average, $3,500 to replace even minimum wage employees, your funnel will benefit in more ways than one by having a loyal, well-chosen team.

Protip: Skip micromanaging your support team. When interacting with customers, they’re sure to face many unique situations requiring them to make independent decisions. Be confident in your hiring process and follow up with them on any issues you see.

Engineering the Logistical Side of Delivery

Another factor to remember when building your funnel is how much of the fulfilment process you’ll do yourself.

Major fulfillment houses are popping up left and right, and this industry is expected to have big growth in the coming years.

These companies specialize in warehousing items and packing them for delivery.

There’re a few factors to consider here. It might be easier and more cost-effective for you to go to a fulfillment house, but it also might mean better service for your customers.

For example, with 50% of retailers now offering free return shipping to customers, a fulfilment house that can help you make this a reality for your business can greatly improve your customer’s experience.

(Amazon’s same-day delivery through company-owned fulfillment centres have improved their funnel conversions up to 25%).

These logistical benefits are worth thinking about if you have the option to outsource your fulfilment.

Protip: Working with a fulfilment house shouldn’t just be a grab and go affair. Take time to learn as much as you can about the company, including its ability to handle issues and meet targets.

Finding Opportunities for Future Products

Once you’ve built your funnel, there’s still work to be done.

For physical products, you’ll also want to use your email sequence to expose your customers further to your brand.

Once you’ve captured their information like their name and email, you can combine this with their existing purchase preferences to provide interesting followup emails.

Picture it for a second: if you’re in the fashion industry, three weeks after purchasing a brand new, hip t-shirt, your customer gets a follow-up email.

And in that email, you share some fun clothing trends you’ve seen taking hold across the country.

Before you close out your email, you remind your customer that you’re about to release a new pair of jeans to your site that will surely sell out fast.

By connecting with your customers on this more personal level, you’re also creating space to showcase future products and keep them in your funnel.

Protip: Check out our step-by-step guide to creating an autoresponder that your customers will love to incorporate well-written emails into your sales funnel.

Taking Your Funnel to the Next Level

Selling a physical product comes with its set of unique challenges and hurdles.

But in reality, designing your funnel can be as creative a process as designing the funnel for any product or service.

There’s so many avenues and resources available today, and within the limit, be willing to take a chance with an innovative idea for your sales funnel.

And Josh Felber gave some great examples of doing exactly that for his physical product over at our podcast on re-targeting secrets.

A free, but limited ebook can lead to a webinar session, which can then lead to a chance to purchase your physical product.

Or a flash sale on Instagram can have your customers emailing you for an exclusive coupon before heading to your site.

The possibilities are endless, but the core idea remains the same: your sales funnel is yours to unleash for the benefit of your brand. Remember our points here, and get creative with it!

What would you say are the biggest challenges when creating a sales funnel for a physical product?

Thanks for reading Building A Sales Funnel For Physical Products which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Many of us crowd around the television during the Olympics, in awe as we think “Man, I wish I could be that good at, well, just about anything!”

Why not take the motivation and drive of elite athletes and apply that passion to your marketing strategy?

With enough focus and intensity, you can make your next sales funnel worthy of a gold medal.

The Olympics represent the pinnacle of spectacle and athletic performance, with millions around the world tuning in to see the best of the best compete for the glory and the gold.

The blood, sweat, and tears that go into the training regimen of the most Olympic athletes is difficult for the average person to wrap their head around.

From training for six hours a day, six days a week year-round to insanely strict diets that we could never stomach ourselves, the dedication and intensity of those competing in the Olympics are absolutely staggering.

Okay, so what the heck does this have to do with building a sales funnel?

More than you might think.

While comparing your sales funnel to pole-vaulting or the 200-meter dash may seem like apples and oranges, consider the struggles that marketers face:

• Some days it just feels like we’re going nowhere, essentially spinning our wheels trying to support an underperforming sales funnel.
• Throwing in the towel can be incredibly tempting when we’re not seeing an ROI for our hard work and research.
• Overcoming that final financial hurdle into profitability can be like staring up at a giant, seemingly impossible to overcome.

Likewise, athletes face similar challenges in the midst physical and mental roadblocks as they spend four years preparing for events that could last mere seconds.

But do they give up?

No.

And neither should you.

It’s time to take your funnel out of the kiddie pool and get on Michael Phelps’ level.

How?

Practice Makes Perfect

Olympic athletes aren’t simply born: they’re made as a result of their years of fierce training and focus.

Likewise, killer sales funnels don’t fall from the sky: they’re created as a result of intense research and a fool-proof sales strategy.

If your first funnel falls flat, does that mean you should give up altogether?

Of course not. Instead, learn from the mistakes of your first funnel and understand what not to do the next time around.

Some common pitfalls that even seasoned funnel-builders make include:

• Ignoring the elements of conversion focused design, ultimately resulting in a funnel that fails to convert.
• Relying on a cheap or inexperienced team as a means of cutting corners which therefore cuts sales.
• Focusing too much on the front-end instead of implementing a back-end that grows the profit.

Think of fine-tuning your funnel as simply part of the process, much like athletes have to train for hours on end to recreate their best performances.

The more time you spend building and launching new funnels, the more opportunities you have to grow as a successful funnel-hacker.

Split Test Strategies

Dozens of world records have already been broken at the Rio Olympics.

In fact, it seems like records are constantly being broken the Olympics, year after year.

Why?

Athletes evolve. As researchers and trainers uncover new ways to train, athletes adapt accordingly to raise their own standards to match their competition.

On a similar note, you should constantly work to evolve your marketing and funnel-building to meet the expectations and best practices of your niche.

Funnel-builders should always be split testing to optimize the potential of their marketing strategy.

From the color scheme to copywriting, there are always tweaks that can be made to make your funnel smarter and stronger.

Sure, you can let your funnel sit in autopilot mode; however, that’s no way to grow your network for future funnels and stand toe-to-toe with your competition.

If you hope for your funnel to stay competitive, you can’t afford to test.

Play the Long-Game

It can take some athletes years of rigorous training before they make it to the Olympics: earning a medal requires extreme patience and perseverance.

You can’t always expect your funnels to kill it from the word “go.”

Remember: funnel-hacking represents a marathon and not a sprint.

Think about how long-distance runners kick it into high gear at the end of the race: they fact that were ever “behind” becomes irrelevant as long as they cross the finish line first.

For example, it’s okay to sacrifice some conversions on the front-end to create life-long customers on the back-end.

Many funnel-hackers get laser-focused on their launches that they ignore essential elements of their back-end such as retargeting and segmenting their lists.

In reality, ensuring that you build a base of customers and employ a strategy to turn them into life-long advocates of your business represents the difference between a killer and average funnel.

By focusing on the back-end of your funnel, you play the long-game to ensure more revenue for your business with less legwork.

There are No Shortcuts

Building.

Writing.

Testing.

Funnels represent a lot of hard work, and there are no shortcuts.

Similarly, Olympians train their entire lives to relish a few moments of glory; however, such glory can easily be stripped away from those caught cheating or attempting to undermine the integrity of the games.

On a similar note, funnel-builders attempting to rely on black-hat techniques can lose their funnels and organic search presence at little more than a moment’s notice.

Google is more than happy to punish any business looking to game their system, whether through duplicate content or black-hat link building.

Sure, it may take a while to get caught; however, punishment is usually always swift, sudden and severe.

When it comes to funnel-building, you’re on a relatively even playing field. In other words, there’s no need to “cheat.”

Therefore, use the best tools in your toolbox to outdo your competition rather than looking for the easy way out.

The risk simply isn’t worth it: plus, the energy spent digging for a shortcut could be spent optimizing your next funnel.

Knowing the in’s and out’s of your competition can take you much further than trying to undermine them.

Remain Consistent

Many Olympians live by the mantra of “never give up.”

You should treat your funnels the same way.

If you’re persistent, your funnel has nowhere to go but “up” over time.

Perhaps the biggest mistake a funnel-builder could make is dropping what they’re doing and simply giving up when the going gets tough.

Yes, it can be frustrating to see our traffic drop.

Yes, it sucks when we don’t see the conversion we want.

But that doesn’t mean you should let your funnel fail out of frustration.

Don’t expect your sales funnel to start turning a profit overnight.

Sure, we’re always hoping to become the next big success story; however, realistic expectations will keep you grounded and focused.

Keep going and keep testing. If something’s broken, figure out why and do what you can to fix it.

There’s No Single “Key” to Success

From optimal training and immaculate diet, there are many variables to an Olympian’s success one the day of an event.

There are so many pieces to what makes a successful sales funnel. For starters, let’s think about:

1. The design of your sales funnels, professional in appearance and pleasing to the eye.
2. The copywriting and marketing message of your funnel, designed to encourage visitors to click through rather than bounce.
3. The management of your various traffic streams, from paid ads to organic search and beyond, and how you continue to bring new visitors into your funnel.
4. The performance of your affiliates and referrals optimized to help you build new leads.
5. The strength of your back-end, including your email autoresponders that will help bring back any users who may have fallen out of your funnel.

Here’s a not-so-secret secret:

The success of your funnel doesn’t lie within one single element.

It’s the elements combined that determine the potential of your funnel.

Unfortunately, one weakness can hinder your funnel’s potential.

Similarly, many Olympic athletes train their entire lives for an event just to slip in a split-second of weakness and essentially lose their shot at glory.

Fortunately, you always have the opportunity to bounce back.

Stay organized. Stay diligent. Stay hungry.

Your efforts will pay off.

What Separates a Golden Funnel from the Rest of the Pack?

While funnel-hacking isn’t exactly an Olympic sport (yet), there are some parallels between the struggles of star athletes and the challenges faced by modern marketers.

The marketing world moves fast and is difficult to maneuver in the wake of evolving technologies, new faces and the promise of “the next big thing.”

Much like Olympians, funnel-builders should consider patience, focus and consistency as key virtues to help ensure their success.

So, what do you think separates a star funnel from the rest of the pack?

Thanks for reading Launching A High Converting Sales Funnel Out Of The Box which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Hey everyone, Mark here again with the weekly recap from the most recent ClickFunnels webinar on April 26, 2016.

This webinar was co-hosted by Sean Olson, one of our amazing Support Leads here at ClickFunnels.

During the first 10 minutes of the webinar, Sean went over how to set up surveys inside of ClickFunnels.

The survey element in ClickFunnels is pretty awesome, but I also recommend checking out the Instant Survey Generator over at Funnel U.

Russell just launched this program. And it is awesome.

Check out this video below:

Instant Survey Generator Demo

Isn’t that amazing?

Head on over to FunnelU to sign up for free to test out Instant Survey Generator.

Anyway, make sure you check that out. The possibilities of what you can do with that are endless.

If you want to watch the replay of the webinar, check it out below.

Or scroll below the video to see check out specific segments.

ClickFunnels Webinar Video

TL;DW

Here’s what was covered in this week’s ClickFunnels Webinar

Here are the questions that were asked during the webinar. Check them out. There are some juicy tidbits to be learned.

2:47 – Survey customization walkthrough with Sean Olson

14:25 – I want to create an image to post at the top of my funnel for my logo. What are the pixels I need to size it to?

19:03 – How do you keep people on the video page and not got to Youtube or Vimeo? Someone said video modal? Thx

20:20 – How to use surveys to generate leads for physical products?

23:17 – Last week towards the end something was said about there only being one of something that you could have in click funnels. What is that one thing, please explain further. Please see this article also.

24:34 – I host my video’s on YouTube.  Where are some places where I can host my images for free that I use with my funnels?  Right now, I just keep images on my computer but that does not give me a 24/7 URL to use for using my image in my funnel.

28:13 – Can you explain how to sign an affiliate up as a VIP-JV vs just signing up as an affiliate?  Also, how do think links work then for the JV to add other affiliates?

32:48 – Why are affiliate links/options restricted to people who have an active account?

33:53 – Text Optins

35:08 – Is every response in the survey collected/recorded for data sort later?

38:24 – I want to start a business that sells a subscription fulfilled by weekly emails sent to the customer. Envisioning a blog or interactive FB community for support and information. Would like to use CF templates for website. Can you advise all the steps necessary? I am a total novice and have no experience. Thank you.

40:20 – Any updates on the possible integration with Braintree?

41:07 – I purchased Domain Name from GoDaddy then switched to Wix. Can I still use a subdomain using CloudFlare? Or if I switch will it close my account with Wix?

43:11 – I may have missed this. I’ve an Etison account (via EOfire webinar last Sept.) and am yet to start really leveraging ClickFunnels. But I LOVE the product. QUESTION: is it possible to run funnels for my (brand new) consulting business AND at the same time try out funnels for my Wife’s Pilates business – as we can’t afford 2 accounts right now and want to best leverage the product. Appreciate your answer guys.

Thanks for reading ClickFunnels Q&A Webinar Recap – April 26, 2016 which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

If there’s no demand for your product or service, you can have the best sales funnel in the world and you will still struggle to make money.

Unfortunately, we often see entrepreneurs spend months or even years working on business ideas that were doomed from the start.

That’s why today we want to share our step-by-step guide to determining whether your business idea has potential:

Step #1: Sell a Product or Service That has a Proven Demand

Entrepreneurship has come to be associated with innovation in our culture.

Perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising considering that the most iconic entrepreneurs of our times are the tech billionaires of Silicon Valley.

However, if you want to start a business, you don’t need to have an innovative idea. In fact, pursuing one would decrease your likelihood of success. How so?

Well, if you go with a product or service that has proven demand, you’ll know for sure that people want it, you won’t have to waste time explaining to everyone what it is and you will be able to learn from the mistakes of your competitors.

Meanwhile, if you attempt to do something that has never been done before, you will be starting from absolute zero, without even knowing if anyone is interested in your product or service to begin with.

And sure, if you already have an innovative idea that you believe has incredible potential, then it might make sense to pursue it. Who are we to say that you shouldn’t?

However, if all you want is to create a better life for yourself and your loved ones by building a sustainable business, then going with something tried-and-true is a much better bet!

Step #2: Do Competitive Research

Competition is a good sign. Why?

Because if there already are a bunch of companies selling the same products or services that you intend to sell, it means that there’s money to be made doing that.

However, if you want to carve out a market share for yourself as a newcomer, you need to first learn everything you can about the main players in your niche:

• Purchase their products and services yourself to see what their entire buyer’s journey looks like from the customer’s perspective. Screenshot and save everything so that you can use it for reference later. We call this “funnel hacking”.
• Make sure to actually try the products and services that you bought. Do your competitors deliver what they promised or is the experience disappointing? Think about how you could do what they do but do it cheaper, faster, and better.
• Read customer reviews on your competitors’ websites, various third-party platforms, and online forums like Reddit.
• Watch YouTube reviews and read the comments. Just keep in mind that if it’s a sponsored review then it’s unlikely to be objective.
• Use text analytics software to uncover more insights. For example, you could use it to analyze all tweets that mention one of your competitors, which may not be possible to do manually.

Your aim here should be to get a good understanding of the general landscape of your niche and then look for a market gap that you can capitalize on.

Generally speaking, as businesses grow, they tend to expand the scope of their products, which typically leads to them gaining a broader appeal but becoming less suited for any particular use case.

This is something that you can exploit as a newcomer: instead of competing against the big players in your niche directly, you can steal a slice of their market share by creating a product that only has one use case but is perfect for it.

Keep in mind that there are plenty of people out there who have made their first million with a single eBook, online course, WordPress plugin, Shopify theme, e-commerce product, etc. so it is possible to become a millionaire by solving one problem exceptionally well!

Step #3: Create a Minimum Viable Version of Your Offer

The concept of the “Minimum Viable Product” (MVP) was popularized by Eric Ries, the author of the classic book “The Lean Startup”.

An MVP is an early, bare-bones version of the product that only has the core functionality required to solve the main problem that it aims to address.

We recommend creating a lead magnet – a freebie that you will offer to potential customers in exchange for their email addresses – that you can use as your MVP.

As our friend Alex Hormozi puts it, a lead magnet should provide a complete solution to a narrowly defined problem:

So think about what you can give away for free that would solve a narrowly defined problem related to the problem that your core product or service addresses.

Here are some ideas:

• Thinking about writing a non-fiction book? Write the introduction and the first chapter and use them as your lead magnet.
• Thinking about writing a novel? Write a short story or a novella in the same genre, ideally one that is a prequel for the novel, and use it as your lead magnet.
• Have an idea for a computer game? Create a 30-60 minute demo and use it as your lead magnet.
• Want to sell services? Offer the setup service for free as your lead magnet.
• Want to sell an online course? Create one lesson and use it as your lead magnet.
• Want to sell software? Create a free app that only has one feature and use it as your lead magnet.

Of course, this approach only works if the product or service already has proven demand.

If you have an innovative business idea, you should only consider it validated once you get enough people to pay you.

In that case, we recommend reading “The Lean Startup” and going with that strategy instead!

Step #4: Build a Simple Squeeze Page Funnel for Your Offer

The squeeze page funnel has two pages:

1. A squeeze page where you explain what your free offer is all about and encourage the potential customer to take advantage of it.
2.  A thank you page where you thank the potential customer and tell them what they need to do to redeem the free offer.

Our software, ClickFunnels, includes a proven squeeze page funnel template that has been optimized for conversions!

Step #5: Start Driving Traffic to Your Squeeze Page Funnel With Paid Ads

It doesn’t really matter which platform you advertise on, what’s important is that you put your free offer in front of your dream customers.

If you don’t have any previous experience with paid advertising, we recommend picking up a Facebook Ads course on Udemy and going through it to learn the basics.

Then, set up an ad campaign, start running it with a small daily budget, and see what happens. Are people giving you their email addresses?

If your free offer is related to something that has a proven demand, you should be able to get leads provided that your targeting, your ads, and your squeeze page copy are all on point.

If you aren’t able to get leads no matter what you do, it’s possible that your free offer isn’t appealing enough, in which case you need to either find a way to make it more valuable or come up with something new.

Ideally, you want to optimize everything to the point where your cost-per-lead is $2 or less.

We would say that if you can build an email list of 1,000 subscribers at that cost-per-lead, your business idea is probably worth pursuing!

Okay, But What if You Can’t Afford to Spend Money on Ads?

There are other ways to drive traffic to your squeeze page funnel such as building a following on social media and promoting your free offer there.

However, getting to that 1,000 subscriber milestone will probably take you at least a year with this approach.

If you want to reach it faster, it might make sense to simply pick up a part-time job so that you would have money to spend on ads.

That would also help you learn paid advertising, which is a skill that will likely prove to be extremely valuable in your entrepreneurial career.

Finally, if you want to sell a service that has a proven demand, you can always start with cold outreach and get some money coming in that way, then build a proper sales funnel later.

Want to Learn How to Build Sales Funnels That CONVERT?

Our co-founder Russell Brunson used sales funnels to take ClickFunnels from zero to $100M+ in annual revenue in less than a decade.

He is now widely considered to be one of the top sales funnel experts in the world. Want to learn from him?

His best-selling book “DotCom Secrets” is the best place to start because it covers everything you need to know in order to build sales funnels that convert.

This book is available on Amazon where it has over 2,500 global ratings and a 4.7-star overall rating.

But you can also get it directly from us for free…

All we ask is that you pay for shipping!

So what are you waiting for? 🧐

Get “DotCom Secrets” for FREE!

Thanks for reading How To Validate A Market For Your Next Sales Funnel which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

It’s always a thrill when we make our first dollar from a fresh funnel; however, how do we turn that dollar into more serious cash flow?

By following this six-step scheme, you can finally take the training wheels off and supercharge your new and existing sales funnels.

Making money online is pretty easy, right?

I mean, anyone with a blog and some time on their hands can pick up a niche, slap some affiliate content on a WordPress site and play the waiting game.

But that’s dollars and cents.

Making serious money online is another story.

Serious money requires a sales funnel and a serious one at that.

Again, building a sales funnel is relatively easy (especially with the functionalities provided by ClickFunnels).

However, the legwork that goes into a truly effective funnel is nothing to scoff at. Consider, for example…

• Crafting the perfect copy, language and pitch to pique the interest of your audience (and keeping that message uniform throughout your funnel)
• The time and resources involved in competitive analysis and understanding what the neighbors are up to (including what sort of deals they’re pushing to users)
• Designing a sleek site that attracts the attention of users and drives traffic through proper SEO

And that’s just for starters.

If you’ve gotten your funnel off the ground but want to build a serious revenue stream, you’re going to need to put in the hours to make it work.

However, building a powerful funnel is about working smarter and not necessarily harder.

Take a good, long look at your funnel. Then, ask yourself the following:

• Who’s helping you push users through your funnel? Is the answer “nobody?”
• What’s incentivizing users to go through your funnel? Be honest: are you offering a sweeter deal than your competitor?
• Where are your visitors coming from? Are you reaching your targets or simply bouncing random traffic through your funnel?

Don’t shrug your shoulders and let potential business pass you by. Instead, consider it time to get down to business.

Rome wasn’t built in a day; likewise, killer funnels aren’t built overnight or by accident.

If you’re looking to build a funnel that goes beyond the ordinary and builds a truly impressive revenue stream, consider the following six steps as part of your sales strategy.

This mixture of marketing and networking represents the recipe for conversions rather than just clicks.

Network, Network and Network Some More

It’s natural for entrepreneurs to want to go the “lone-wolf” route.

However, when you consider the benefits of a joint venture, it’s hard to deny that a little bit of outreach can go a long way.

Networking is the name of the game when it comes to your funnel.

In short, the more traffic you drive, the more potential you have to drive revenue and further optimize your funnel.

That being said, what sorts of outreach can ultimately benefit your business?

Schmooze with Influencers – Today’s users want to build relationships with the brands they buy from; therefore trust and authenticity are key when it comes to sealing the deal. By associating yourself with influencers within your space (think: must-read bloggers, social media big-wigs and so on), you can get your product in front of eager buyers who are more likely to convert. Offering incentivization such as a free trial or guest post to such influencers may help deal the deal.

Partner Up with JV’s – Simply put, two heads are often better than one when it comes to your sales funnel. By having a partner in crime, you poise yourself to get more eyes on your funnel and additional resources to market it in the future. Likewise, building up a network of JV’s can open up opportunities for your business and get your product in front of some fresh faces.

Bring on Affiliates – There’s plenty of power (and billions of dollars) in affiliate marketing; likewise, there’s perhaps no better way of working smarter than by having someone else market your product for you. If you’ve tested your funnel and feel that it has potential to scale, consider affiliates as a means of doing so.

Give Them a Push

Let’s be frank: some sales funnels just plain stink.

If you aren’t incentivizing your visitors with some sort of push, you’re letting your traffic go to waste.

The question remains: what sort of incentives and bonuses are proven to drive users to convert?

What do users want?

Whether it be a software, e-book or video series, providing users with something of value for nothing is one of the oldest tricks in the marketing playbook; however, it works.

By offering free tools or education to your users, you’re perceived as a helping hand rather than a salesman.

Likewise, users in your funnel should feel as if you’re the go-to resource for whatever they’re looking for.

By building up your offers with exclusivity (first-hand, cutting-edge information or a product marketed at truly unlike any other), users go through your funnel with a sense of accomplishment.

Score with Scarcity

On a similar note, scarcity is an incredibly powerful sales tool.

However, building a sense of scarcity and the need for users to act now versus later is completely based on the set-up of your funnel. For example, scarcity can be achieved by…

• A countdown clock at the beginning of your sales funnels (implying that time is running out)
• Advertising a limited stock of your product due to demand (implying that supply is running low)
• Marketing your product as a one-time deal, establishing a sense of exclusivity (implying that it’s now or never for the product)

Regardless of your product or service, scarcity should most definitely be center stage at some point in your funnel.

Note: ClickFunnels offers multiple means of establishing a sense of scarcity within your funnel.

Congruency Matters

Often overlooked, the elements of design can make or break your sales funnel.

It’s incredibly important to maintain consistency across your funnel from beginning to end (this includes email marketing efforts and affiliate programs).

Consistent design includes…

• Marketing language, copy, headlines and deals (ex: you wouldn’t advertise a 25% discount which clicks through to a 10% off deal)
• Color scheme, design, and logo (switching between colors and branding can potentially confuse visitors and cause them to bounce)

While the design may be a rather subtle component of the sales process, it’s something that’s completely under your control and should be consistent.

Forget the Junk Traffic

Don’t kid yourself: not all traffic is created equal.

It may feel great to get tens of thousands of visitors per day; however, what does it mean if only a dozen of those users convert?

Either your funnel’s conversion potential is abysmal, or your traffic is trash.

In order to make the most of your marketing efforts, you should target quality traffic.

What qualifies as quality traffic? For starters…

• Organic traffic is driven by targeted keywords, perhaps readers of your blog who tend to spend the most time on your site
• Social traffic from highly-targeted Facebook ads, which you’ve hopefully optimized through A/B testing
• Affiliate traffic from users who are truly interested in what you have to say (and sell)

Traffic means very little for your funnel if it isn’t actually converting.

Instead of focusing on the numbers game, work to build traffic streams that will actually buy your product when push comes to shove.

The 80/20 Principle

The 80/20 principle states that for many events (including marketing), 80% of your outcomes result in 20% of your total effort.

While there are tons of moving pieces to your sales funnel, from marketing to design, consider how one or two missteps within your funnel can diminish your efforts.

So, where does the 20% come from within your funnel?

From most marketers, it comes at the beginning in the end (think: the first 10% of your funnel and the last 10%).

In other words, if there’s anywhere you need to strengthen, make sure you have a strong pitch as it represents the visitor’s first impression and arguably the most critical aspect of the funnel itself.

Likewise, you need a strong closer if you’re looking to seal the deal, especially with funnels selling higher ticket products.

Naturally, all parts of your funnel matter; however, starting and ending strongly is crucial if you’re in search of more conversions.

Putting it All Together

At the end of the day, the successful funnel is built.

Not bought. Not stolen. Not copied.

Built.

The building isn’t always easy; however, your decision to set your funnel apart from the crowd and fix its weaknesses will ultimately decide whether or not you cash in on your efforts.

Making money online isn’t rocket science.

Building a successful sales funnel doesn’t have to be, either.

If you had to name the most common mistake you see funnel builders making today, what would it be?

Thanks for reading How To Take The Training Wheels Off Your Sales Funnel which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

ClickFunnels has deservedly gained a reputation for providing people with a platform allowing them to build effective sales funnels with ease. The success that users have seen and the boost to their businesses is evidence enough.

But ClickFunnels can be so much more than that. The platform allows you to make your sales funnel even better through special 3rd party integrations. Basically, you can combine other marketing tools you use with ClickFunnels, leading to a true dream team of marketing prowess.

These ClickFunnels integrations change the online marketing game completely. No longer do you have to juggle a wide variety of tools across multiple platforms. Instead, you can access everything you need easily with the help of ClickFunnels.

So let’s hop right into it. From some of the best email autoresponders to helpful marketing and messaging tools, the following are some of the integrations you can use with ClickFunnels.

ClickFunnels Integrations

Actionetics – Actionetics isn’t actually a 3rd party tool since it’s made by ClickFunnels. Actionetics lets you do a variety of things like automate email marketing, manage email lists, and more. Click here for an overview of Actionetics.

MailChimp – MailChimp is a type of email marketing software which helps you design and create emails. For help with integrating MailChimp, click here.

Twilio – This is a cloud-based communications platform which allows you to create and receive calls and texts from clients and customers. To integrate your Twilio account, read this.

Shopify – This is an ecommerce platform which specializes in helping people create and customize their very own online store. Information on how to integrate ClickFunnels with Shopify can be found here.

Those are some of the main tools ClickFunnels integrates with, but there are many others. Each can benefit you in different ways. Here’s a quick rundown of other 3rd party integrations in alphabetical order.

ActiveCampaign – A marketing platform that includes tools to help with email marketing, sales automation, and CRM.

AWeber – Another marketing tool with special features for email marketing and autoresponders.

Constant Contact – Here’s another tool that specializes in email marketing, helping you create email campaigns and event registrations.

ConvertKit – This email marketing tool focuses on bloggers and any company that wants to grow their business through their blogs.

Drip – If you want email marketing automation, Drip provides it in addition to helping you identify leads and sending emails to targeted customers.

EverWebinar – A platform for automating webinars, including webinar promotion and helpful templates.

Facebook – Here’s one of the largest social networking sites in the world, and you can integrate it with ClickFunnels to take advantage of its benefits.

GetResponse – This tool provides a lot of features for webinar solutions, email marketing, and further marketing automation.

GoToWebinar – Manage and share your webinars with this helpful tool.

HubSpot – A great tool for generating leads through inbound marketing. You can also use its CRM.

Infusionsoft – You can use the CRM provided by Infusionsoft while also taking advantage of its email marketing and lead capture solutions.

Kajabi – If you want to build your own online courses and training portals, Kajabi gets the job done.

Mad Mimi – Another email marketing tool for creating, sending, and tracking your email campaigns.

Market Hero – This is a tool used to track sales and conversions while also acting as an autoresponder.

Maropost – This marketing cloud offers platforms designed around ecommerce, marketing, and sales.

PushCrew – A notification platform for marketers and online store owners that can help expand email marketing lists.

SalesForce – A cloud-based CRM software solution for use in sales, marketing, and commerce.

Sendlane – A marketing tool for building landing pages and email campaigns.

ShipStation – A platform used for online shipment and order fulfillment which can be used for automating an ecommerce business.

SlyBroadcast – This voice message mailing system gives you the ability to send a voice message to your clients’ phones.

WebinarJam Studio – Software used for hosting webinars that also allows you to cast surveys, put up polls, and hold Q&A’s.

Zapier – You can use Zapier integrations with other apps. Some of those apps can include Gmail, Slack, Google Sheets, and more.

ZenDirect – A tool used for printing and mailing greeting cards, postcards, and other items.

Zoom – A video conferencing solution also used for hosting webinars.

Those are just some of the examples of ClickFunnels plugins and integrations. The ClickFunnels platform also works with many payment tools.

ClickFunnels Payment Integrations

Here’s a quick list of payment tools and software that you can connect with ClickFunnels.

• Apple/Android Pay
• Authorize.net
• Bluesnap
• ClickBank
• EasyPayDirect
• JV Zoo
• Keap
• NMI (Gateway Funnel Pros)
• PayPal
• Recurly
• Stripe
• Warrior Plus

For more on how to integrate payment gateways with ClickFunnels, click here.

ClickFunnels Leads the Way in the Online Marketing World

Online marketing is changing in a revolutionary way, and ClickFunnels is at the front of the revolution. By helping you integrate other useful tools, ClickFunnels gives you everything you need to not only sell your product but find more customers and grow your business.

To give ClickFunnels a try, sign up for a free 14 day trial.

What tools have you found most helpful when integrating with ClickFunnels? How have they made your work easier? Sound off in the comments below.

Recommended Reading

• Everything About ClickFunnels Integration Partners
• Fulfillment Center Provider: What to Consider with 3rd Party Fulfillment Services
• 15 Benefits of Implementing Landing Page Software

Thanks for reading ClickFunnels Integrations: How ClickFunnels is Changing the Traditional Approach to Online Marketing which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Have you ever read stories or watched kids’ movies where a caravan is all set to search for treasures of gold? People dig and dig into the earth only to find dilapidated skulls and unnamed insects.

The gold, or the treasure so to speak, remains hidden from the world and the caravan’s dreams of getting rich instantly burst into million pieces.

What if we tell you that there is a way you can earn a substantial amount of money without setting out on an excursion? In this fast-paced world, you need to get your hands on as many money-making techniques as you can to get some moolah in your bank.

The problem is that there are only 24 hours in a day and you can’t possibly have more than one eight-hour job to get your bank account rolling.

So, how are we going to grant your wish? Passive income. Here, you earn money by working indirectly for a brand. For a majority of people, there is no better way than affiliate marketing to have a substantial side income.

What is Affiliate Marketing

The term can be formally defined as follows: “the process through which a promoter can earn money by promoting other people’s products is affiliate marketing.”

Built on the revenue sharing model, affiliate marketing is simple to master. You have to market other people’s products through an affiliate network. You are entitled to a commission if your marketing actually gets people to buy the product you have been promoting.

Affiliate marketing goes both ways. This means that you can be on either side of the table. For example, if you have a product or if you offer services that you want to promote, you can offer some financial incentives to promoters and get them to promote your product or service.

In the same manner, if you have no product, but you are the master of marketing, you can enter into an affiliate program with a brand and market their products or services.

How to Become an Online Affiliate Marketer

Here are some easy-to-follow tips that will help you understand how you can up your game of being an affiliate marketer.

Review Products in Your Niche

If you have a blog, an Instagram page, a YouTube channel, or a Twitter account and you have a huge following, the chances are that many people are reading the stuff you post because they can relate to them. So, if you’re a writer who loves writing small Insta-poems, there are high chances that your social media followers are also voracious readers.

If one morning you decide on becoming an affiliate marketer and start promoting sportswear, for example, your followers will not immediately follow the link and buy the product you’ve been intending to sell. This is because you don’t have the right audience.

Just like marketing your own products, promoting other people’s products also requires you to understand your audience and have an idea about what kind of products they are interested in buying. Once you have the information, collaborate with the company (or the merchant) which sells products that are liked by your followers.

To help you understand this concept, let’s go back to our original example. If you are a writer and you love sharing small poems with your audience, make a partnership with bookstores or publishing houses. Write short reviews of books or summarize a few poems and get your followers to buy the book you have just reviewed.  

Promote Products of Different Merchants

You don’t have to work with one merchant as an affiliate marketer. You can work with different merchants in the same niche. This will give you a large number of people and subsequently a greater amount of commission.

Keep Sharing Content

Never forget that the main reason why your followers come to your page is the original content that you upload regularly. If you compromise on the quality or the frequency of the content, you will end up losing your followers. Obviously, you don’t want to sound like an advertising company for different brands (we already have hundreds of that).

Things to Avoid with Affiliate Marketing

As easy as it may sound, affiliate marketing does require a considerable amount of care and caution. Here are some of the things that you should be mindful of if you want to keep your affiliate marketing steady.

Picking the Wrong Product to Promote

This is basically an extension of what we explained above. If your original content is not at all remotely connected to the product you are endorsing, you will raise red flags. So be careful what you’re promoting.

Picking Too Many Products

Your channel, page, or account was not originally set up to promote products. Don’t enter into the affiliate program with too many brands.

Not Uploading the Content

If you stop uploading the content that led you to have a huge following, you will slowly start losing your loyal followers. No one wants to see marketing posts round the clock. It’s true that through affiliate marketing, you will earn a lot of money, but you have to try to retain the followers and upload original content. Only the followers who trust you will show interest in buying the product that you have reviewed.

Not Trying New Things

The digital age is standing on the foundations of the latest trends. If you are unaware of the trend, you are most likely to lose your followers. You need to be ‘relevant’ and come up with content that is relatable. Keep trying new things and try to go with the flow.

How to Become an Affiliate Marketer for ClickFunnels

There are so many affiliate programs that you can sign up for, but the ClickFunnels affiliate program is among the best. ClickFunnels provides a commission rate that has helped promoters make a six-figure commission in one week.

Signing up with ClickFunnels is not an uphill task. The minute you create an account on the site, you become a ClickFunnels affiliate. Your dashboard will have all the relevant links that lead you to ClickFunnels products that you can promote. You can also be a ClickFunnels affiliate without an account.

ClickFunnels also has a sticky cookie which provides better chances for a promoter to make more money.

Making money as an affiliate marketer is stress-free. You don’t have deadlines to follow and you can take time off whenever you feel like. Affiliate marketing, however, is a good way to have a steady supplemental income.

Why Promote ClickFunnels

Why are we mentioning the ClickFunnels affiliate program? The reason is that it has one of the most lucrative commission rates. ClickFunnels offers promoters 40% recurring commissions on ClickFunnels’ monthly accounts.

If this wasn’t enough to be classified as the best affiliate marketing program for advertisers, ClickFunnels also provides a 5% commission for every monthly account sold by a promoter who signed up under you.

In addition to this, ClickFunnels has to-die-for bonus prizes including leasing your dream car through its Dream Car program.

How Do Share Funnels Work?

Share Funnels is another cool feature in ClickFunnels that lets you share your funnel with other people. Every funnel that you have created via your account has a unique share funnel URL. You can easily share this URL with others.

When a user clicks on the share funnel link and they don’t have an account, they can start their free 14-day trial of ClickFunnels. What’s cool about this is that the client actually gets tracked back to you, and you will receive an affiliate commission for bringing in a new ClickFunnels member. When they sign up, the entire sales funnel will show up in their account, and they will be able to edit it in any way that they wish.  You can make a lot of money while using the Share Funnels feature.

How to Become a Merchant (And Have Affiliates Sell Your Product)

If you want to be on the other side of the table, meaning that you want to be part of the affiliate marketing program where you are the merchant, you can do so as easily as you were carrying out your business of promoting other people’s products.

Here is what you can do:

1. For becoming a merchant, the first thing that you need to do is to come up with a product idea. You have to decide on a product that is already popular among people so that you can reach a good sales figure.
2. The next step relates to the validation of your idea. There is literally no point in creating a product that has zero likeability among people. You have to survey and find out whether your product is what people want.
3. Once you have completed the first two steps, it’s time for you to actually create the product.
4. The last step is to find an affiliate who would promote and market your product. For this, you can create an affiliate marketing program.

About ClickFunnels

ClickFunnels is a great sales funnel tool to use for your business. We make it simple for any entrepreneur to build their own sales funnels in just minutes, all without needing to rely on a team of techies.

With Clickfunnels, you’ll build high converting and clean sales funnels. 
Everything you need to build and launch your funnel is pre-developed and automatically pieced together for your company, so you have a seamless and fast set up.

Thanks for reading Your Guide to Affiliate Marketing which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

When it comes to online shopping, who doesn’t love seeing “free plus shipping” when looking to buy a product? In fact, it’s a great way to not only get people interested in your product, but your company as well.

For new visitors to a website, a free plus shipping funnel might be the solution you need in growing your consumer base.

At ClickFunnels, we provide our affiliates with various funnel templates and tools needed to help them build and launch successful sales funnels, including free plus shipping funnels. Best of all, these funnel templates are easy to edit in order to portray your product in the best light to the consumer.

What is a Free Plus Shipping Funnel From ClickFunnels?

Sales Funnels are powerful mediums that not only turn your visitors into customers, but they also have the potential to CREATE customers out of visitors especially those who just clicked your ads out of curiosity. There are many approaches to create winning sales funnel and many strategies to optimize it as much as there are many types of funnels.

All these sales funnels, if built around data and executed properly, are valuable tools that maximizes ROI and bring in the profit. One such type of funnel is a free plus shipping funnel.

A free plus shipping funnel is basically founded on the premise that since a customer got something for free with complimentary shipping to boot, they are justified to purchase something else to maximize the since they got something for free!

Examples of Successful Free Plus Shipping Funnels

What does a successful free plus shipping funnel look like in real life? From e-books and web tutorials to small products in demand such as hair vitamins and camping equipment, the key to successful free plus shipping funnels is to know your economics. Understand important factors in addition to ROI, including lifetime value vs. gross profit and average order value. As you keep an eye on these types of funnels, you’ll see what works in building long-term customers.

Why They Work So Well — Potential for Upsells

The key word here is FREE. And who doesn’t want a free cool product, right?

Add to that the lure of free shipping and your ship is ready to sail! And while they are at it, the lure of a free shipping cost offer has the potential to convince them into availing upsells. Not only did you get your ROI, but you profited from it as well!

Just because you offered a product for FREE.

Speaking of FREE, why not give our EXPERT SECRETS BOOK a try?

CLICK HERE NOW!

Where The Customers Are

Of course, your sales funnel won’t see the light of day without proper promotion or advertising. And most free plus shipping funnels thrive through advertising on social media networks like Facebook. Paid Advertising on social media channels like Facebook lets you acquire a lot of customers quickly and into your email list for marketing purposes. Why? Because most customers use social media channels as their virtual hangouts. It’s where they talk to friends, catch up on news, post their status updates, etc.

If you’re already a pro at creating and building free plus shipping funnels, there still may be something to learn here. Reviewing and touching bases with what you know is always useful. If you’re still a beginner, then this guide will teach you the basics and everything you should know about building and running a successful free plus shipping funnel.

Find A Product To Give Away

The first step is to find a product cheap enough to make a breakeven on cost of goods + ad spend + shipping. But hold your horses! This part needs some careful thinking and considering.

Consider the following key points in picking out a product:

• Fits right in to your niche. This category should be a no-brainer. Of course it has to be something related to your funnel’s niche.
• It’s something small. This is important because you’ll also be shouldering the shipping cost for the item.
• It’s something that people buy in bulk.
• It’s cheap to acquire. This is something you should consider since you’ll be giving it away and you’ll have to acquire it in bulk.
• It’s something that potentially costs more when bought in retail stores.
• It’s something that you can get from the manufacturers themselves. The reason for this is so you can add your own brand to it, as compared to buying it from distributors.
• It is something easily identifiable and is widely known in the market.
• It has mass appeal to your market.

Let’s say your target market consists of women in their 20’s to 40’s, who are always out for work, for social events, to hang out with friends, etc. What’s the one thing they might need? It can be something they will want to use everyday, like makeup.

And for most ladies on the go, they’ll want something that has everything they need and that will not potentially bulk up their bags. A good product to consider in your free plus shipping funnel is a makeup kit if you take all those points into consideration.

Create A 2-Step Order From

The next thing you have to do is to start creating your funnel and optimising your Order Page into a setup that has a high conversion rate. In this case, a 2 -step order form. Now, you may think that an order form with more than one step is a deterrent to converting your traffic, but it really is powerful.

Consider seeing a form with fields your shipping information, your credit card and billing information. Not only will your visitors be put off, they’ll find the form too long and may exit your funnel straight away. But with a 2-step order form, you only halve the form and still get to convert your traffic because you change your visitors’ perception. Not too mention, a 2-step order looks clean and organized as opposed to a form with too many fields.

ClickFunnels lets you easily add a 2-step order form element to your order page! It’s as simple as logging in to your ClickFunnels account > your sales funnel > order page > add 2-step Order element. Just a few clicks and you’re done!

After adding the 2-step order form to your order page, all you have to do is to edit accordingly.

1st One-Click Upsell

Your 1st One-Click Upsell is an offer similar to the one you will be giving out for free or it could be that plus something that will give it more value.

Let’s go back to your free plus shipping makeup kit. Your first upsell is another makeup kit, but it will be for a cost of course. It could be the exact same makeup kit you’re giving away free plus shipping or it could be a variation of that makeup kit for a party look, natural look, etc for a cost of $10. Package it into something your customer will potentially want to buy and price it competitively to promote how more affordable it is when compared to its retail price and you have a product worthy of an upsell.

2nd One-Click Upsell

Now this part is where the real profit will come in. Your 2nd one-click upsell should be something of real value, say a complete makeup kit complimentary to your initial offer plus a monthly membership packed with benefits that will surely interest your customer!

Now this part is where the real profit will come in. Your 2nd one-click upsell should be something of real value, say a complete makeup brush set to complement your makeup kits plus a 7-day free into a  $49/month program. This program could be anywhere from a curated box of cosmetics and skincare to a members only club where beauty tips, tricks and guides plus discounts await members.

If you’re looking to add upsells to your sales funnel, ClickFunnels upsell is a great tool that lets you easily add upsell pages to your sales funnel with just a few clicks. All you have to do is to login to your ClickFunnels account > Sales Funnel > Click Add New Step > Enter the information asked > Click Create Funnel Step.

Choose your funnel template. In our case it’s Sales > One-Click Upsell.

You can choose from the various funnel templates available and edit to align to your whole sales funnel.

What’s Next?

As you can see, free plus shipping funnels do work. But, like every funnel, you’ll need to put in the hours to see overall success.

It is important to provide offers that is of great value to the customers and something they will want to avail of for fear of missing out.

While the examples above make good products to offer in your funnel, always consider your niche and your target market. Always consider their needs and wants and what problems they want to solve and what YOU can offer to solve those problems or satisfy their wants.

In addition to researching your audience’s wants and needs, don’t be afraid to test different products with different audiences. This way you can use what you learn in future free plus shipping funnels. And reach out on ClickFunnels’ Facebook page if you have more questions, need advice or want to share your experience with free plus shipping ClickFunnel templates with other affiliates.

Remember that the goal of the funnel is to build up recurring revenue products.

Have you hear of free plus shipping funnels before?

Have you built funnels like this?

Want to know more secrets? Check out The Marketing Secrets Blackbook “99 Marketing Secrets That Will Change Your Business… And Change Your Life!”

Share your experiences and tips in the comments below!

Continued Reading

• Everything You Need to Know about Dropshipping
• Pricing Tactics and the Art of Clickfunnels Upsell
• ClickFunnels Order Form
  

Thanks for reading The Mechanics Behind A Free Plus Shipping Funnel which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

If there’s one marketing factor that’s become dominant in the age of the Internet, it could quite possibly be social proof.

And almost everywhere you turn, you’re being exposed to it through the efforts of many different companies.

In fact, customers the world over now expect to see some level of social proof for your brand.

Now, you might be asking what social proof really is.

And that’s a very good question with a pretty straightforward answer.

Social proof is the way your audience discovers your brand’s trustability.

In essence, it’s the clues that customers use to assess just how socially connected your company is to other people like them (and trust me, they are assessing your brand!).

Today, this marketing strategy can take the form of share buttons, follower counters, and a whole host of other methods.

Every time you click that Facebook Share Button… that’s social proof.

Or when you write an online review about a product… that’s social proof too.

And the numbers truly show how powerful this avenue of your marketing is.

88% of all consumers report that they trust online reviews as much as family and friends.

Also, more than 1 million websites have added some level of Facebook integration directly to their site.

See what we’re talking about here?

Proving your brand’s social worth isn’t just another chore; it’s a major component of your marketing strategy.

At the same time, we want to go beyond a simple share button or two.

In fact, we want to own this marketing strategy, creating a magnetic experience for our audience.

Just like with any of your other marketing tools, there’s fair, good, and even better.

And we want the best for our brands.

With these more sophisticated tactics, you’ll have exactly that level of influence.

Stick with Using Positive Social Proof

Have you ever noticed that positive people tend to attract other people to them?

For content creation, social proof sort of works under the same theory.

The way you frame your marketing matters, significantly.

To see negative social proof in action, look no further than the donation marketing for nonprofit, and Internet superstar Wikipedia.

Here is just part of the content for that campaign:

Dear readers,

We’ll get right to it: This week we ask you to help Wikipedia. To protect our independence, we’ll never run ads. We’re sustained by donations averaging about £10. Only a tiny portion of our readers give.

Notice anything troubling?

By adding the line about only a small number of people giving, the brand is inadvertently broadcasting negative social proof.

It might seem odd to think about, but the most popular encyclopedia in the world is basically saying no one is interested in sustaining their brand.

Seeing that fact, who would want to donate now?

Instead, with positive proof comes the desire for more people to participate and join in.

Showing that your brand is socially desired has a compounding effect, much like a snowball rolling down a hill.

And when people feel positively connected to other people, they’re more likely to stick around.

With this in mind, stay positive and highlight the ways your audience is becoming part of a community or lifestyle by opting for your brand.

Also, position your marketing to show off the positive experience involved for them.

Protip: Even juggernauts like Facebook have used the theory behind positive social proof to create sticky experiences and huge communities. For maximum effect, keep in mind the psychological factors that bind together your targeted audience.

Add Pictures to All Your Content

Whether it’s a Facebook Message, a post to our ClickFunnels Group, or your own status update, including images is a must.

Browsing the statistics shows that if you aren’t including them at least some of the time, you’re missing out on vital engagement.

Recent research has shown that images can boost engagement by 94%.

Clearly, taking the time to find an image for your posts can be a complete game changer.

If you’ve thought about adding images, but struggle to find new ones to include, here’s some awesome ideas to get you rolling:

Infographics – well-made graphics that easily explain data, processes, or other information.

These are very popular across the Internet.

If you’re feeling ambitious, you can also create your own or virtually hire someone to make one.

• Memes – This category probably doesn’t need much explanation, but it’s an often overlooked one for quick, easy
• Stock Photos – While stock photos aren’t the very best choice when it comes to boosting your social proof, it can at least add something interesting.
• Presentation Slides – A slide that pertains to your niche can be a great way to highlight your authority (and therefore, your social proof) to your audience.
• Screenshots – You can even include screenshots of your content! Doing so might help clarify something or demonstrate an idea.
• Photos You’ve Taken – This is probably one of the best forms of social proof. Branded photos that are you take are unique and that you own are an excellent form of visual social proof.

Protip: Make sure that your image is also relevant to your content. Otherwise, you may be confusing your audience.

Use Familiar Faces for a Serious Boost

Okay, this one is the real deal when it comes to seeing higher conversions.

Because social proof relies on our own innate psychology, it also means that personality is important.

There’s research that shows that customer action is reduced by nearly a quarter when an image doesn’t include a face.

And big brands are starting to take note of this fact and use it on a regular basis.

So when you’re looking to prompt an action, especially if it’s related to moving a customer to the next phase of your sales funnel, consider how this step might fit.

But don’t just post a face once and call it a day.

Continue using that face throughout your efforts and make it a familiar face to your audience.

This is a little-known trick in the marketing world that has yet to catch on, but there’re a few reasons it works so well when it comes to social proof.

• You’re Creating a Personality – when you continue to see someone over the course of time, you assume that personal has an individual personality. This implies that they have values, goals, and beliefs. And in a way, you’re then associating those with your brand.
• There’s an Ongoing Relationship – It’s equally true that through that personality, you’re showing a person that your audience can have a relationship with. This continues to build trust and rapport, even if they never talk to that particular person.
• Humans are Hardwired to Recognize Familiar People – It’s totally incredible how much we simply love familiar people. We’re so predisposed to it that within mere hours of birth, we’re making it a hallmark of our lives.

Protip: Consider how the familiar faces you post are expressing themselves to best convey the emotions and ideas you’re going for.

Tell a Really Good Story

Almost everybody loves a good story, and after all, isn’t there a great story behind almost every brand?

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why brands have relied on characters throughout the ages to tell their story.

On that note, stories are engaging, interesting, and most importantly, we truly enjoy applying them to our lives.

And you know what else?

Authentic people tell stories.

For brands, we can commandeer this fact to our social proof benefit.

Whenever we use our brand to tell a story, we’re highlighting that our company isn’t just a company.

In a way, we’re saying that our brand is a real living, breathing person with something to say.

Here’re a few tips to get you off the ground:

• Borrow from Other Storytellers – Our first stop is to look to other amazing storytellers. They can be your favorite novelist, vlogger, or even a family friend. Look for the thread that unites their stories to make the tale more intriguing. And see how you can apply them to your own storytelling.
• Think About How Your Story Evolves – Storytelling isn’t about static marketing. In reality, it’s about taking your audience on a journey from point A to point B. Use that trip to evoke a range of emotions that solidify the relationship to your brand.
• Consider Brand Characters – We saw how brand characters have played an important part in marketing history. But they aren’t played out yet. Even insurance companies are still using them successfully.

Protip: for some master storytelling insider tips, check out our Secrets to “Story Selling” podcast episode.

Retargeting with Video Testimonials

Fact: testimonials from other customers have the highest rating for effectiveness in all of the content marketing.

What if we combined them with two other award-winning strategies that we have?

Let’s say that, since we saw above how much people trust testimonials, we add in the influence that retargeting has with the engagement of testimonials.

Then we’ll have created an unquestionably strong conversion strategy that can truly make waves.

Social proof is about relating to people like ourselves. And testimonials present exactly that.

Between more companies using them, however, and some recent scandals associated with online reviews, basic written testimonials might not be enough anymore.

That’s why turning to video is a perfect idea.

This way, we’ll be able to show real-life customers with a real love for our brand.

Now that will put us a step ahead of our competitor for sure!

And through retargeting, we can guarantee that we’ve already established a friendly connection with our audience.

Win-win-win.

Protip: We’ve all seen those infomercials where people seem to have been paid to perform in them. To produce a better video, simply ask your best customers if they’d like to help. You’ll find that many of them are happy to get their 15 minutes of fame.

Why do you think social proof has become such an effective form of marketing in recent years?

Thanks for reading Marketer’s Guide to Including Social Proof in Sales Funnel which appeared first on ClickFunnels.