This post is the fourth in a series of posts entitled, “Digital Marketing Strategy For Startups, Small Businesses, and Entrepreneurs“.

Have you ever looked at a product on Amazon and then seen ads for that same product on Facebook, CNN, and other unrelated sites as you browsed the web?

If so, you've experienced retargeting! (sometimes referred to as remarketing)

Retargeting is a powerful tool that, when combined with marketing automation (see part 3), creates an unstoppable marketing force!

How Retargeting Works

Retargeting gives you the ability to show ads to people on your audience lists. (side note: if you haven't read the previous parts yet, I highly recommend doing so now.)

As a reminder, these audience lists are lists of people that are built within the advertising platform you've chosen to master, ie. Facebook or Adwords.

You're able to add people to your audience lists in a variety of ways such as:

• Website activity: pages viewed or pages not viewed
• Customer files: upload a list of email addresses and/or other contact information and the ad platform will sync that information with users in their database, allowing you to retarget people already on your email list, customer list, phone list, etc.
• Engagement (applies to Facebook): how much of your video(s) they've consumed, if they've interacted with your Facebook Page, or if they've clicked on a Lead Ad or opened a Canvas

You're also able to define how long an individual will stay on your audience list before they “fall off”. Ie. if you only want to target people who have visited your site in the last 7 days and didn't buy anything, you can do that. That way you're only advertising to people who recently ran across your business.

Lookalike/Similar Audiences

One of the best parts about creating an audience list is that both Facebook and Adwords allow you to create Lookalike or Similar Audiences.

What does this mean?

Say, for example, you have a list of 3,000 customers' email addresses. You can upload that list to Facebook or Adwords and they'll sync those email addresses with individuals on their platform.

Then, if you create a Lookalike/Similar Audience, the ad platform will “blend” all 3,000 of those individuals' likes, dislikes, habits, demographics, behaviors, etc. and create what is essentially a customer avatar. They'll figure out the characteristics of your average customer.

Then, they'll take that customer avatar and find a percentage of people that most closely resembles that avatar. For example, if you're on Facebook and you create a Lookalike Audience targeting 1% of the US population, you'll end up with a Lookalike Audience of roughly 2 million people that look most like your customer avatar.

Doing this helps you find people most likely to connect with your business!

Super powerful and something you need to study and understand!

Combine Marketing Automation (Email) With Retargeting

As you're aware, the effectiveness of email has declined in the last few years because it's easy to do and everyone is doing it. Since everyone is doing it, people are bombarded with emails, and they've learned to ignore the “noise” in their inbox.

This is all OK.

You still need to focus on building your email list because it's an asset (see part 2).

When you have something you really want your audience to see, simply combine email marketing with retargeting.

How? I'll show you because I'm doing this exact thing right now….

Step 1: Export your list of email subscribers that you want to see your message

Step 2: Create a custom audience in your ad platform by uploading the list of email subscribers you just exported

Step 3: Launch your ad targeting that audience list

Step 4: Send your email

BOOM!

Now, I have my message greeting people in two separate places: their inbox and as they browse Facebook.

There's no escaping my important message.

Do you see how I'm combining the two? I hope so and I hope you see how powerful that is!

Retargeting Strategies

Thanks to the flexibility and power of audience lists and retargeting, there are a million and one different strategies you can employ.

I already let you in on one strategy, retarget your list of email subscribers with the same message you sent via email to ensure they see it, whether in their inbox or while browsing Facebook.

While I can't cover all of the many strategies here, I'll share a few popular concepts to help you “think” in the right direction.

Visited Site, But Didn't Opt-in

One of the most popular retargeting strategies is to retarget individuals that have visited your website, but didn't join your email list.

Maybe they didn't see your opt-in form or maybe they weren't interested in the Lead Magnet you offered (see part 2).

Whatever the reason, they left your site without opting-in. However, they did visit your site which means they were interested in what you have to offer and they now know who you are … so, if you show them any ads, they'll be more familiar with your business.

The strategy is to retarget these people with other Lead Magnets. Maybe they didn't like the first one you showed them. No problem, show them one on a completely different topic or one that's in a different format (ie. a coupon vs. a checklist vs. a video course).

You keep trying to bring them back until they're on your email list!

Pro-tip! Clicks & Video Views

To “boost” the number of visitors that land on your site, one strategy is to launch an ad with the goal of getting people to visit your site. For example, you write an amazing blog article that you want people in your niche to see. So, you create an ad that “boosts” that blog post in front of your ideal customers, they see the ad, read the article (visit your site), then you retarget them with ads that offer different Lead Magnets.

This works well is because getting “clicks” to a website is typically cheaper than other advertising goals like conversions.

Another way you can do this is by running a video ad with the goal of “video views”. Like “clicks”, “video views” tend to be cheaper than the other advertising goals available which allow your ad spend to go further.

So, the strategy is to push your video ad in front of as many ideal customers as possible and retarget those that watch 50%+ of your video. Kind of like reading a blog article, if they watch more than half of your video, they've become familiar with your business and your offer; now, it's time to retarget them with Lead Magnets until they're on your email list!

Looked At Product, But Didn't Buy

This one is self-explanatory … if someone looks at your product/service, but doesn't purchase it, retarget them with ads to bring them back to your offer.

You could also include a coupon with your retargeting ad to really incentivize them to take action!

Bought This, But Not That

Also, self-explanatory. If someone buys one product from you, but doesn't take the upsell or any of the complementary products, you retarget them with ads promoting the products they're likely interested in.

For example, if someone buys a set of kitchen knives, a complementary product would be a knife sharpener. So, a good retargeting ad would offer that person a discount on knife sharpeners.

Pull'em Through The Funnel

You're able to pull people through your sales funnel with audience lists and retargeting ads.

I'll illustrate this with an example.

Let's say you want to sell a $97 course on Facebook Ads (Core Offer), so you setup a Micro Sales Funnel (part 6) to attract people, educate them, and ultimately sell your course.

You decided to write a “Super Awesome Blog Post On Facebook Advertising” and you're sending as much traffic to that post as possible via Facebook Ads.

Every person that lands on your article is then “pixeled” and added to an audience list you've created.

You then promote ads to that audience list with offers for 3 different Lead Magnets. They all have to do with Facebook advertising; however, one is a checklist, one is video training, and one is a framework for people to follow.

Individuals will then opt-in to your email list when they request a Lead Magnet, so you can follow up with them via email in addition to retargeting.

The first product you offer after they opt-in is a $7 product, sometimes called a Trip Wire because it's priced so low, people can't help but grab it and “trip” into your Core Offer.

If they don't buy your Trip Wire right away, retarget them with ads that bring them back to your sales page.

If they do buy your Trip Wire, offer them your Core Offer (the $97 Facebook Course). If they buy it, great! They did what you wanted; however, if they don't, you can retarget them with ads bringing them straight back to your Core Offer sales page.

Obviously, as they progress through the funnel, you stop showing them the previous ads. For example, as soon as they've seen your “Super Awesome Blog Post”, stop showing the ads that promote your blog post and instead show ads that promote your Lead Magnets. Once they grab one of your Lead Magnets, stop showing them those ads and only show ads that promote your Trip Wire. And so on.

As you can see, there's a lot you can do here and many things to try … retargeting can make or break your campaigns!

What About Other Retargeting Platforms?

There are several 3rd party retargeting platforms out there like AdRoll, Perfect Audience, and Criteo …

BUT! You're not going to pay them any attention!

You're going to stay focused on the 1 paid advertising source you selected way back during part 1!

There are so many features and options in both Facebook Ads Manager or Google Adwords that you have absolutely ZERO reason to dabble with a 3rd party tool.

Master your ONE platform first. Once you've really, truly, nailed it down … ie. it's generating profit … THEN, you can work on the other platform. Once you've mastered BOTH Facebook and Adwords (will take you years), then … sure, dabble with some 3rd party tools.

Ok?

Summary

Retargeting is a very powerful advertising method where you show ads to individuals that are on various audience lists … lists that are created based on website activity, customer files, and engagement.

With these audience lists, you're able to create Lookalike or Similar Audiences to help expand your reach.

Combining retargeting with marketing automation (ie. emails) is a very powerful force.

There are a bunch of strategies you can employ with retargeting. Just use your head, look for “holes” in your marketing campaigns and “plug” them with retargeting ads.

Finally, don't mess with 3rd party retargeting tools until you've mastered BOTH Facebook and Google Adwords.

Click here to go to Part 5: How To Optimize Your Point-Of-Sale To Instantly Increase Revenue

This post is the third in a series of posts entitled, “Digital Marketing Strategy For Startups, Small Businesses, and Entrepreneurs“.

I love the era we live in.

The technology that's available can save us so much time by helping us automate portions of our business.

For example, you can automate emails, text messages, direct mail, and ringless voicemails.

Not to mention the fact you can automate your entire social media presence or outsource tasks to virtual assistants, freeing you to focus on “bigger” things.

There's so much opportunity to automate portions of your business, that if you're not … you're not only wasting time and money, but you're missing out on growth.

This article is all about using marketing automation to help generate sales.

Transactional Communication

Transactional communications (email/text/direct mail/ringless voicemail) are the easiest and most logical communications to implement and automate.

If someone requests a Lead Magnet (see part 2), you send them what they requested.

If someone purchases a product or service, you send them a receipt and/or more information.

If someone abandons their cart, you remind them about it.

This makes sense, right? Nothing revolutionary here.

But, you still gotta do it. The money is made by following the basics.

#1 Goal Of Transactional Communication

The #1 goal of transactional communication is to present your next offer. (now is a great time to ensure you have a Value Ladder!)

Examples:

• An individual requests a Lead Magnet, you present the product/service that complements the Lead Magnet
• An individual purchases a product or service, you present complementary products/services
• An individual abandons their cart, you remind them about the products in their cart and possibly include a discount or bonus to drive them back to complete the checkout process

Again, this is no-brainer stuff right here, but it's overlooked so often I have to bring it up.

Relationship Building

In part 2 we discussed capturing people's contact information so you can follow up with them later.

Beyond sending transactional communications, you can send more “generalized” communications that build and maintain relationships, promote your products and services, and gauge interest (more on that later).

What does it mean to send “relationship building” communications?

It means that you're sending valuable content. For example, blog posts, videos, audios, infographics, stories, Q&A, support, etc.

Now, just because you're sending valuable content, it doesn't mean that it can't link to your products/services sales pages or that you can't use it to “mold” your leads and customers to conform to your way of thinking!

It's kind of like propaganda without the whole “misleading” part. You will never, ever mislead people on purpose. Right? But, you can teach them your ways if you believe them to be better than what's out there.

Before you know it, you'll become the authority and they'll follow you anywhere. (that's the goal at least!)

How To Build A Relationship

Too many small business owners and entrepreneurs overthink the sending of communications.

They worry about sending too many emails and annoying their leads and customers.

Or, they're not sure what to send.

I'm telling you right here, right now … it's not rocket science.

Talk to your audience like you normally would. Share what you would normally share.

You don't have to use fancy pants tactics and copywriting hacks to send an email.

Be a human being talking to other human beings. Really. That's it. That's the secret.

Now, there are some general rules of thumb if you're completely lost…

General Rules Of Thumb

1. Email 3-4 times a week. Any less and they'll forget about you. Any more and you may become a nuisance.
2. 1 promotional “sales” email every 2 weeks. ie. share more valuable content than promotional content.
   1. Remember, that's not to say your valuable content can't have links to your promotional/sales material!

A Pattern

I know some folks are like, “I really, really, really, really need a formula or pattern to follow! Just give me the freakin' formula!!!”

Ok, here's an email pattern to follow.

You Gotta Gauge Interest!

We've just talked about transactional communications, where if someone performs an action, you send them something.

And, we also talked about relationship building communications, where you're sharing valuable content in order to get people to know, like, and trust you and your business.

Now, it's time to merge the two!

Introducing the Interest Driven Sales Funnel concept!

On the left hand side we have our “Straight Line Sales Funnel” or “Main Series”.

The “Main Series” contains all of our relationship building communications or engagements, ie. emails, ads, etc.

When an individual engages with a piece of valuable content we send, they're automatically placed in a “Micro Sales Funnel” or “Product/Service Sales Funnel”.

The “Micro Sales Funnel's” purpose is to drive the individual to take action, ie. buy something, register for something, etc. This is accomplished by sending more, relevant content to the individual in an effort to persuade them to buy a particular product/service.

A quick example: Let's pretend I run an ecommerce store that sells kitchenware. I offer three categories of products: flatware, pots & pans, and cutlery. I send out a piece of communications with a link to an article called, “The Best Way To Clean A Kitchen Knife”. If an individual clicks that link, I know they're interested in kitchen knives and they're automatically entered into my Micro Sales Funnel with the sole purpose to get them to purchase my self-cleaning, state of the art, kitchen knife!

It's much easier to sell someone something when they've already shown interest in it.

Micro Sales Funnels can range in complexity from very simple, like sending a few emails on a topic the person showed interest in, to full blown funnels featuring 1-click upsells, downsells, and everything in between.

We'll be going into greater detail on Micro Sales Funnels in part 6 of this series.

That's the Interest Driven Sales Funnel concept in a nutshell … figure out what someone is interested in and then try to sell them a product/service based on that interest.

For the full Interest Driven Sales Funnel concept, please check out The Sales Funnel Book. (It's free, just pay for shipping!)

The Tools

In our opinion, the best marketing automation tool on the market today is ActiveCampaign.

It lets you send emails and text messages PLUS it connects to Zapier which connects to over 750 other apps that do anything and everything from sending direct mail, to ringless voicemails, and beyond!

ActiveCampaign allows you to create automations for transactional and relationship building communications, while helping you gauge interest(s) via tagging that can trigger Micro Sales Funnel automations.

ActiveCampaign is a very solid marketing automation tool and one we highly recommend.

Summary

You need to take advantage of marketing automation. It will save you time and money while simultaneously helping you grow your business by converting more leads into paying customers.

Marketing automation really shines when it comes to sending transactional and relationship building communications. Plus, you can merge the two concepts into an Interest Driven Sales Funnel!

Finally, there are a lot of tools on the market to help you with marketing automation; however, the best tool we've found is ActiveCampaign.

Click here to go to Part 4: How To Use Retargeting To Generate Sales

This post is the second in a series of posts entitled, “Digital Marketing Strategy For Startups, Small Businesses, and Entrepreneurs“.

In part 1 we discussed mastering two sources for traffic: 1 organic “free” source and 1 paid source.

In part 2 here, we're going to discuss what to actually do with the traffic once you have it … you're going to start building your listS!

There's MORE Than 1 List!

You've likely heard the saying, “The money is in the list.”

99% of the time, the “list” people are referring to is an email list. And, this post is primarily about email lists, however…

I'm going to let you in on a little secret … there are more list types than just email.

Of course, there's physical address lists for things like direct mail and phone lists so you can call your leads and customers.

But, there are also audience lists. (sometimes called retargeting or remarketing lists)

Audience lists are built within advertising platforms, ie. Facebook's Ad Manager and Google Adwords. (if you haven't read part 1, do that now … in particular, the section on paid traffic, pixels, and audiences)

Individuals are added to your audience lists when they perform a particular action, such as, visit your site, view specific pages, purchase a product or service, watch a video, among other reasons.

You're then able to place ads in front of individuals on your audience lists, which keeps them in your funnel and aware of your business.

My point is, before you read the rest of this post, which mainly concerns email lists, I want you to realize and understand there are other list types out there because it's going to open a whole world of opportunity for you.

Also, in part 4 we're going to go into more detail on advertising to (or retargeting) these audience lists.

Let's Talk About Your Email List

Having a list of email addresses is important.

It's an asset.

It grants you the power to reach out and communicate with your audience.

It's permission based marketing.

This means people have given you permission to contact them.

They've asked you to send them emails.

You're not “annoying” people with ads as they browse Facebook or the web, trying to get them to buy your stuff.

They want to hear from you.

At least, this is the goal. Of course, you can treat a list poorly, burn bridges, harass people, etc., but, you're not going to do that because you're a good person and a responsible business owner!

You can change its medium.

You can do more with a list of email addresses than just send emails to it…

You can upload it into advertising platforms like Facebook and Google Adwords to create audience lists.

Yes! Let's say you have a list of 10,000 email addresses, you can upload that list straight into Facebook and they'll automatically pair those email addresses with the associated profiles, giving you the power to target people on your email list! (insanely powerful!)

You control it.

Unlike the “audience lists” I mentioned above that technically belong to whatever advertising platform you built them on – ie. Facebook Ads Manager or Google Adwords … an email list is yours.

You can move it from one marketing automation tool to the next.

You can manually send emails.

You can upload it into the audience list tools to build custom audiences.

You can do a lot with an email list.

Having a QUALITY email list is one of the keys to success in digital marketing.

Quality? Yes, although it should go without saying … the size of the list isn't as important as who's actually on it.

If you have a list of 100,000 people, but they all live in India or Pakistan and you're trying to get them to visit your ecommerce store that only ships products in the US … those 100,000 people aren't worth a dime.

Whereas, if you have 10,000 raving fans on your list and every time you send an email with an offer, a good percent jumps on it (~5%) … you're golden. Unstoppable!

Ok, So How Do You Grow An Email List?

Side note: There are businesses and individuals that will sell you lists of email addresses. Depending on where you live, this is illegal and at the very least, unethical. Remember the permission based marketing remarks above? Yeah, you're definitely violating that relationship if you buy a random list from someone.

There are many different strategies, tactics, tricks, hacks, etc. for growing your email list … but, they all follow one core principle: Give an individual something of value in exchange for their contact information.

In the digital marketing world, the “something” you give to an individual is called a “Lead Magnet”.

A few example Lead Magnets are:

• Coupons/Discounts
• Checklists
• eBooks
• Contest/Raffle Entry
• Free Trial
• Course Access
• Webinars
• Flowcharts/Frameworks
• Mind Maps

You've likely seen most of these offered in one form or another as you've browsed the Internet.

It's a pretty simple concept, but it works across all niches and markets.

If you want more information on Lead Magnets, please click here to read a complementary article.

Growing Your Email List With Traffic You DON'T Control

As long as you have a website with something of value on it and you do a little bit of promotion through your organic “free” traffic source … people will eventually visit it.

Sometimes, you can control what page they're going to land on. If you've grown your Facebook page audience and you post a link to a blog post … you're pre-framing that traffic and controlling where they land.

In other instances, you won't have any control over what page someone visits. Like, if someone finds your site through a Google search … you can't control what page they're going to land on. They're going to land wherever they're going to land!

My point is, people are going to find your stuff in some of the most random of ways and you need to be prepared to capture their contact information.

The best way to grow your email list with traffic you don't control is with opt-in forms.

Grow Your Email List With Opt-in Forms

There are many types and triggers for opt-in forms; however, for the sake of an example – an opt-in form is a form that pops-up when an individual lands on a website that asks for their contact information in exchange for a Lead Magnet.

Opt-in forms provide the benefit of being able to placed anywhere on your site; ie. if a visitor lands on a random blog post, you can present an opt-in form.

For example:

Most people have a love/hate relationship with opt-in forms.

As a visitor to a website, they can be incredibly annoying … especially when they keep popping over what you're trying to read.

But, as the site owner, we know those pop-up opt-in forms tend to work. So, we keep showing them.

This creates an interesting dichotomy, but that's beyond the scope of this particular article.

The point is, they work and you should use them to capture traffic you don't control.

For more information on opt-in forms and tools to use, click here.

Growing Your Email List With Traffic You DO Control

There are many instances when you control where your audience lands, ie. you're paying for it, you send a link in an email, you post a link on your social media profile, etc.

In this section, I'm mainly referring to the traffic you're paying for.

If you're paying for people to visit your site, you better have a plan!

I've seen far too many small business owners sending paid traffic to their homepage to “raise awareness” … which, if you read the Intro post, you know isn't specific or measurable and therefore, wasted effort.

When you're spending money on traffic, think of it like fishing.

You're fishing in Facebook's/Google's lake for your ideal prospects. What bait (Lead Magnet) are you going to use to draw them in? How are you going to catch them so you can place them in your lake (ie. your email list)?

#1 Goal, Grow Your Email List

Make the #1 goal of your paid advertising campaigns growing your email list!

* Side note: There are other reasons why you will pay for traffic. For example, when we discuss retargeting in part 4 you will pay to attract those that are already on your list; however, for all intents and purposes, your #1 goal for paid traffic is to grow that email list!

One of the best ways to grow your email list with paid traffic is to send people directly to a landing page, sometimes called a squeeze page because it “squeezes” the contact information out of the individual.

Simply put, it's one page with one objective/goal, offer a Lead Magnet in exchange for contact info. That's it.

Here's an example:

And another:

Simple enough, right?

It's not complicated.

Create an ad that says, “Want this super awesome [Lead Magnet]? Click here!”, which takes them to a squeeze page asking for name, email, etc. so you can send [Lead Magnet] right over.

The individual opts-in (joins your email list) and now they're on your email list!

Don't forget, make sure you're tracking conversions and using pixels PROPERLY when sending paid traffic to your squeeze pages! (read part 1 if you haven't already!)

Note: These squeeze pages are typically the first step in a Micro Sales Funnel (part 6)

In Closing…

You need to grow your listS!

You need to grow your audience lists within the advertising platforms (ie. Facebook and Google Adwords) by using conversion tracking and pixels.

And, more importantly, you need to grow your email list because you own it.

The best way to grow your email list is by offering a Lead Magnet in exchange for contact information. The best way to offer your Lead Magnets depends upon where the traffic is coming from:

• For organic “free” traffic, use different types of opt-in forms
• For paid traffic, use squeeze pages

Remember, this is not meant to be overly complicated. It's a simple process that you can see examples of everywhere.

It's just a matter of doing it and growing your various listS!

Click here to continue to Part 3: How To Use Marketing Automation To Generate Sales

This post is the first in a series of posts entitled, “Digital Marketing Strategy For Startups, Small Businesses, and Entrepreneurs“.

Traffic. The lifeblood of your digital marketing efforts. Without it – you have nothing.

There are a million ways to generate traffic and every minute someone is coming out with a new, “best” way to do it.

Here's the deal, you only need to focus on two sources of traffic:

1. One organic “free” source
2. One paid source

Before we get into which sources you should use and why, we need to talk about the #1 rule of traffic.

The #1 Rule Of Traffic

As I said earlier, there are a million ways to generate traffic … so, there are a lot of shiny objects, a lot of people pushing which traffic generation method is “best”.

It can be very tempting to get sucked into whatever they're offering … and, you know what, usually, what they're offering isn't half bad EXCEPT

1. It takes you away from what you need to focus on
2. It likely breaks the #1 rule of traffic

So, what is the #1 rule?

You need to be where your customers are.

Duh.

But, this rule gets broken all the time because someone creates this juicy concept/tool and you grab it because it promises easy traffic.

Next thing you know, you're posting 50 times a day on Pinterest trying to attract 30 year old males. (there are very few 30 year old males on Pinterest … and yes, that's from a past experience …)

Or, you launched a Snapchat profile and story aimed at attracting 60 year old women. (there are few 60 year olds on Snapchat)

So, do yourself a favor … the next time you're getting persuaded to buy some fancy new tool to drive traffic, I urge you not to buy it until you read this full post. At the very least, make sure it will actually reach your audience.

Organic “Free” Traffic

Moving forward, you will have ONE source for organic traffic and ONE source for paid traffic. (More on paid traffic in the next section)

So, what is organic traffic? Organic traffic is the traffic that naturally finds your content and your business.

Some people call organic traffic, “free” traffic, because it doesn't cost money; however, it certainly costs time.

Here are a few organic traffic sources so you understand what I mean:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – blogging
• Social Media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, Musical.ly
• Video – YouTube
• Podcasts – iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud

Here's The 411…

If you read the intro, you may recall that I gave “awareness” and “branding” a hard time because it's neither specific nor measurable.

Ok, for the most part, the results from your organic traffic efforts will be hard to quantify accurately.

You can track as much as possible by using site tracking tools like Google Analytics and link tracking tools like bit.ly and Pretty Link, but – at the end of the day, you're at the mercy of the environment you choose to operate in.

My point is, since it's hard to accurately measure your efforts already, organic traffic is the place to grow “awareness” and “branding”!

This is your chance to be your weird, funky self and show people who you and your business are!

* Note: just because organic traffic can be hard to track and you get to be your weird, funky self – it doesn’t mean you should create content willy-nilly. Everything you create still needs to serve a purpose and be as specific and measurable as possible.

The Organic Traffic Strategy

This is important.

Only pick ONE organic traffic source to focus 100% of your efforts.

That's right, if you choose Instagram … that's ALL you're going to focus on. Yes, I know, it seems “logical” to do Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr too since you can post to all those networks at the same time you post to Instagram … and by having more content in more places you “should” reach more eyes … right? WRONG!

Each platform has its own set of “rules” whether by design or via social norms.

By “bulk” posting, you will spread yourself too thin and possibly alienate different platforms … which, you don't want to do.

Instead, you focus only on ONE source. 100% of your focus is on growing that channel until you have a significant following.

The size of a “significant following” will vary tremendously based on a number of variables like market size. For example, if you're a brick & mortar business and there are 2,000 ideal customers in a 25 mile radius from your store and 1,500 of them follow you on Instagram … you're doing pretty freakin' good!

You also need to take into account engagement. Who cares if you have 10k followers on Instagram if you only get 100 likes/comments when you post? The “real” size of your following is much closer to 100 than that inflated 10k number.

Once you have a significant following on one source THEN you open the next source and “feed” it with the following you built on your original source.

A good percentage of people will make the jump because most people are on multiple platforms and they can follow you elsewhere with a click or tap.

So, that's how you do it. Focus 100% of your efforts on ONE source. Take courses on how to become “good” at that source. Get yourself some fancy tools if you want. Do whatever it takes to really grow that ONE source. Once the first one is rockin' & rollin', add another source and jump start it by sending your audience over to it.

How Do You Pick Your ONE Source?

How you pick your ONE source is pretty simple…

• It must follow the #1 rule – you need to be where your customers are
• It must be something you like doing

That's it!

If you like writing and your audience likes reading … start a blog.

If you like taking photos and sharing inspirational quotes and your audience likes looking at photos and quotes … start an Instagram profile.

If you like talking and your audience likes to listen … start a podcast.

My one piece of advice is this, NEVER do something you don't like doing because you won't stick with it.

For example, I've tried a dozen times to focus on growing my Facebook following because I know my audience is there and it's a good place to generate traffic. However, after 3 days I quit because … you know what … I'm an introvert and being “social” is something I'm just not comfortable with or naturally good at doing.

However, I enjoy writing and blogging. As such, I have a blog and attract visitors through Google and other search engines.

Paid Traffic

It's been said, “You don't have a business until you can convert paid traffic.”

Here's the deal – you don't control organic traffic.

Let me say it again – YOU DON'T CONTROL ORGANIC TRAFFIC!

Platforms change. Algorithms change. Markets change.

With organic traffic, you're at the mercy of the platform you've chosen to pursue.

For example, 90% of our business on Crazy Eye Marketing comes from Google and YouTube.

If Google decides to drop Crazy Eye Marketing in the search results … our business could vanish … except, we know how to send paid traffic 😉

Once you're able to take $1, put it into an advertising campaign and get that $1 and more back … you're unstoppable.

Paid traffic also makes it very easy to define specific goals and measure the results.

So, why do I keep it at 90% organic and 10% paid? Because it's working and organic traffic is “free” … my customer acquisition costs are essentially zero beyond the time I spend developing content, which is, at this point, a sunk cost.

But, if Google decides to drop the hammer, we'll flip on our paid campaigns and keep trucking right along!

My point is, you need to know how to pay for traffic.

Before You Start Spending Money!

If you've ever “tried” paid advertising before and been astonished by how much it can cost to get someone to click your ad and wondered how it could possibly be viable … it's because you didn't have a Micro Sales Funnel in place.

Before you spend a dime on paid advertising, you need to have a Micro Sales Funnel setup and ready to go.

While I'm going to cover Micro Sales Funnels in detail in part 6 of this blog series, the simple definition of a Micro Sales Funnel is a system specifically designed to acquire leads and rapidly convert them into customers.

For example, Nathan is surfing Facebook when he sees an ad for the Top 10 Facebook Ads of 2016. Nathan clicks the ad and lands on a page that requests his name and email (a squeeze page) in exchange for the top 10 ads. Immediately after entering his contact info, he's greeted with an offer to get the top 15 WORST Facebook Ads of 2016 for only $7. Nathan thinks, “Shoot, I don't want to make the same mistakes as them, let me grab that!” and he spends $7. Immediately after purchasing the 15 worst ads, he's made an offer to join a course on Facebook Ad Optimization so he can create great ads for only $97. Nathan grabs it. Immediately afterwards, he's presented yet another offer for a training course on creating high converting sales pages for $297. He turns it down because he's a marketing genius and doesn't need help building landing pages.

All told, Nathan spends $104. Some people spend $0. And others spend $401.

All of a sudden, the average order size per click is $3. So, if the business can spend less than $3 per click, they're essentially printing money!

That's how paid advertising works.

You absolutely, positively, need a way to make your money back ASAP!

Of course there's the whole long game where your customers' lifetime value should increase over time … but, the goal is an immediate return on your investment.

If you can lock that down, you'll be unstoppable!

Paid Traffic Fundamentals

As with organic traffic, you're only going to focus on ONE source of paid traffic.

For the sake of moving forward and making progress, there are only two paid traffic sources you should consider:

1. Facebook Ads Manager
2. Google Adwords

That's it. At least a fraction of your customers are on Facebook and/or using Google.

If your audience is not on either of those platforms … they're not online and you shouldn't be focusing on digital marketing.

So, pick one or the other and let's move on!

After making your decision, you need to immerse yourself in the platform. Take courses, listen to podcasts, read blog posts and articles … become a beast on that particular platform.

What You Need To Pay Attention To

While you're immersing yourself in the ad platform of your choosing, there are a few key elements you really need to pay attention to.

These elements are often overlooked by small business owners and entrepreneurs when they launch paid advertising campaigns.

I really want to emphasize their importance here because they're the difference between success and failure.

Also note, the two aforementioned advertising platforms want you to be successful. Because, if you're successful, you'll keep spending money … so, they give you a lot of tools to help you out.

The key elements you need to know about and implement are:

• Micro Sales Funnels – Already mentioned a bunch of times, so DO IT or you're going to fail or, at the very least, have meager results. [see part 6]
• Conversion Tracking – There are pieces of code called “pixels” that you will need to place on your website that communicate with the advertising platform and can signal when conversions (ie. leads and sales) take place. You need this so you know what is/isn't working and it helps the advertising platform auto-optimize your campaigns for better results.
• Audiences – Both platforms allow you to create audiences in a variety of ways. Everything from being able to upload customer email addresses, your email lists' email addresses, website visitors, lookalike audiences, custom audiences, smart audiences, and beyond. You need to understand the various audience types and how you can take advantage of them because they can make or break your campaigns.

Summary

That's traffic generation in a nutshell.

The key things to remember are …

• Focus on ONE source of organic traffic and
• ONE source of paid traffic

Once you nail the one source of each down, you can branch out by using the audience and systems you've built with your first sources.

Click here to continue to Part 2: How To Capture More Leads The Right Way

Digital marketing can be a trip, yo!

There are a bajillion tools and a gazillion gurus spouting their wisdom on how to do it best.

There's so much information coming at you, it's hard to know where to focus.

Here's the deal, I'm not a guru and I don't believe in using a bajillion tools …

But, I've been using digital marketing to sell my products (both physical and digital), services, and coaching for the last 4+ years …

This post serves as the intro & table of contents for a series of posts that will show you how I think about digital marketing while teaching you the strategy and tactics so you can be successful as well!

MINDSET: “I Am A Direct Response Marketer”

Before getting into all the strategic and tactical stuff, we need to get on the same page with regard to mindset.

If you don't have the same mindset as me, you might as well stop reading … because, you're not going to “get it”.

Mindset is important because it pre-frames how you're going to use digital marketing to grow your business.

You need to have the mindset that you are a direct response marketer.

Every action you perform needs to focus on eliciting a specific, measured response from your visitor/customer/client/etc.

Everything you do needs to have a clear Call To Action (CTA).

For example, when you launch an ad, it needs to have a specific, measurable purpose, ie. to get email subscribers or to sell product X.

You do NOT launch an ad to “build awareness”. WTF is “awareness”? You made people “aware” of what? Your business? What does that mean? Did they buy something? Did they become a lead? Pointless.

Another example, when you produce a piece of content, whether it's a blog post, video, podcast, etc, it needs to have a specific and measurable purpose. Who are you trying to attract? What action are you trying to get them to take? When you present your call to action (CTA), make sure you use a tracking link so you can measure your results.

Until you have money flowing out of every orifice or loads of time, every bit of marketing/advertising you do needs to have a specific and measurable goal – ie. leads & sales.

All that “awareness” and “branding” stuff will come over time as you grow your business … but, when you're a startup or a small business, these are very vague goals and will lead to meager results. You need to make everything you do count.

Does that make sense?

I hope so, and I hope we are in agreement because, if not … save yourself some time and stop reading now.

Lay Your Groundwork

Before moving on to marketing, you need to have your business fundamentals down first.

Customers

You need to know who your customers are, their pain points, where they congregate online, etc.

If you don't know who you're trying to reach, it's going to be mighty hard to market to them.

If you don't know who your customers are, click here.

Business

Obviously, you need a business with products and/or services before you can market it. But there's a good chance you haven't put much thought into the “structure” of what you have to offer.

You need to think about how your offerings provide value to your customers.

What are your up-sells, down-sells, and cross-sells?

How do you “ascend”  your customers to give them more value while your business generates more money?

If you just kinda “sell some stuff” and there's no real rhyme, reason, or flow between what you sell …

I highly recommend you focus on establishing your value ladder before moving on.

Even if your offerings are structured in a way to “ascend” people, I still recommend checking out the value ladder article … as it will serve as a good refresher.

Delivery

The final piece of groundwork you need in place before moving on is a way to deliver your offerings.

Maybe you have a brick & mortar business, or an ecommerce store, or maybe you have a membership portal … whatever the way, it doesn't matter.

The point is, you need to have a way to collect money and deliver the goods.

And, 9 times out of 10 … the way you currently collect money and deliver your offerings is sub par, but it's OK. We're going to optimize the heck out of it when we get to the Point Of Sale Optimization segment!

The Sales Funnel Concept

Moving forward, you need to think of your digital marketing efforts like a funnel …

There's a big world out there with over 7 billion people on it.

Some of them need what you have, but most people don't.

We call the people that need what you offer your ideal customer, marketing persona, or avatar.

You attract this individual through advertising.

There are many ways to advertise and we'll get into them in another part, but all advertising needs to have the specific and measurable goal of acquiring leads.

When you have leads, you're able to use marketing automation to develop a relationship with them and build rapport.

These relationships help you convert leads into paying customers.

And, when you have a paying customer, you want to make sure you're offering them as much value as possible for days/weeks/months/years to come.

Fortunately, much of this can also be accomplished with the help of marketing automation.

And that, my friend, is the sales funnel concept.

Of course, there are a lot of moving parts inside of it (we'll be getting to them), but that's the big picture.

Moving On!

If you've made it this far, it's because you have taken on the mindset of a direct response marketer, have your business fundamentals in place, and have a general understanding of the sales funnel concept.

Now, it's time to get into the nitty-gritty digital marketing strategy and tactics!

Moving on, this post will be updated with links to complementary articles that show you how to effectively grow your business with digital marketing.

Continue Your Digital Marketing Journey…

Below, you'll find the continuation articles that deep dive into the specific areas of the digital marketing strategy and tactics that will help propel your business!

Top

1) How To Drive High Quality Traffic To Your Business

2) How To Capture More Leads The Right Way

Middle

3) How To Use Marketing Automation To Generate Sales

4) How To Use Retargeting To Generate Sales

Bottom

5) How To Optimize Your Point Of Sale To Instantly Increase Revenue

6) How To Use Micro Sales Funnels To Convert More Leads Into Customers While Increasing CLV

I'm going to cut to the chase because this post is long enough without a fancy pants intro …

A few weeks ago we launched The Sales Funnel Book as a Free + Shipping funnel.

This post is a breakdown of the funnel, how it worked, what we want to test, and where we're going from here.

Note: This funnel was aimed towards individuals on our list, ie. “warm” traffic. But, with a few tweaks, we will be launching a similar funnel to “cold” traffic via Facebook.

“The Sales Funnel Book” Sales Funnel

Here's the structure of the sales funnel:

Interest Gauging Series

The Interest Gauging Series was a series of 3 emails I sent to my list to … you guessed it … gauge interest in the book offer.

We determined if someone was interested by if they clicked the link in one of the emails.

If a link was clicked, they landed on the Confirmation & Sales Page (will cover in a sec), the Interest Gauging Series was immediately stopped because interest was shown, and the individual was automatically added to the Action Series (will cover in 2 secs).

If no links were clicked, they returned to the Main Series (general autoresponder follow up sequence).

Email 1

In Email 1, I offered the opportunity to download 19 Sales Funnel Blueprints – all of the blueprints covered in The Sales Funnel Book.

The thought was, if they were interested in sales funnel blueprints, they'd be interested in the book that explained them all.

Stats:

• Open Rate: 31.01%
• CTR: 13.04%
• Unsubscribes: 0.14%

Email 2

Email 2 made the same offer as Email 1 – to download 19 sales funnel blueprints.

Remember, if they clicked the link in Email 1, they would not receive Email 2. Essentially, this was sent to everyone that didn't click the link in Email 1.

Stats:

• Open Rate: 16.72%
• CTR: 4.55%
• Unsubscribes: 0.00%

Email 3

Email 3 was a direct offer to order The Sales Funnel Book and brought people directly to the sales page (the 19 sales funnel blueprints were not delivered if they clicked the link in this email and they were not added to the Action Series).

This was a last-ditch effort to sell the book.

Stats:

• Open Rate: 21.17%
• CTR: 2.58%
• Unsubscribes: 0.34%

Confirmation & Sales Page

The Confirmation & Sales Page was presented to individuals that clicked the link to receive the 19 sales funnel blueprints in either Email 1 or Email 2 within the Interest Gauging Series.

This is what it looked like:

As you can see, the top portion confirms their request for the 19 sales funnel blueprints, then it rolls straight into the sales page for the book.

Also note, the individual was simultaneously placed into the Action Series … which we're getting into now…

The Action Series

The Action Series was a series of 4 emails with the objective to sell The Sales Funnel Book.

As you'll notice, the engagement with these emails was over 4.3X that of the Interest Gauging Series.

Why?

Because this group of people expressed interest in sales funnel blueprints. So when we sent more emails about sales funnels, they were excited to open the emails and learn more.

Common sense, right? Show people what they want and they'll be more engaged.

Note: If an individual purchased the book at any time, the Action Series automation was stopped; they did not receive any more emails pitching the book.

Email 1

Email 1 was sent out immediately after the individual clicked the link in Interest Gauging Series Email 1 or Email 2 requesting the 19 sales funnel blueprints.

As you see, all Action Series Email 1 did was directly link to download the 19 Sales Funnel Blueprints PDF, which started and ended with this page:

Of course, beyond giving our subscribers something of value, the intent of this document was to bring people back to The Sales Funnel Book sales page and sell the freakin' book.

By sandwiching the 19 funnel blueprints between pages like the one above, people knew where they could get more information.

Stats:

• Open Rate: 78.26%
• CTR: 62.61%
• Unsubscribes: 0.00%

Email 2

Email 2 was a link to download a PDF of The Sales Funnel Book‘s introduction section.

I copied and pasted this particular section into a Word Document, added a header and footer that read “TheSalesFunnelBook.com” and linked it to the sales page. I closed out the document with the following statement: Want more? Get The Sales Funnel Book from TheSalesFunnelBook.com!

I felt that sharing content from the book was a great way for individuals to get a feel for how it was written, its quality, and to draw them in to wanting to read more.

Stats:

• Open Rate: 52.34%
• CTR: 23.36%
• Unsubscribes: 1.87%

Email 3

Email 3 included the next section of The Sales Funnel Book.

Like Email 2 above, it was a simple PDF that included links back to the sales page.

Stats:

• Open Rate: 48.08%
• CTR: 13.46%
• Unsubscribes: 0.00%

Email 4

Yup, Action Series Email 4 is the same exact email as Interest Gauging Series Email 3 – a last-ditch effort to sell the book.

Stats:

• Open Rate: 38.83%
• CTR: 10.68%
• Unsubscribes: 0.00%

The Sales Page

Here's the sales page I used to sell The Sales Funnel Book:

It may look different now than it did during this initial launch, but if you want to check it out, click here … if it's different, you can watch the old video here.

As you can see, the page consists of video, text, and images. Also, it's not super long, nor really short – it's of moderate length, I'd say! (side note: the video was 4 minutes and 46 seconds long)

I'd also like to point out that we also included instant access to the digital version of the book, so they could begin reading it while they waited for the physical version to arrive.

Stats:

With regard to stats … they're a little screwed up because I botched Google Analytics… more on that in a minute.

With as much accuracy as possible, the CTR from Sales Page to Order Form was exactly 50.0%.

Order Form w/ Order Bump

We processed orders for The Sales Funnel Book through a new shopping cart platform called ThriveCart.

This was the order form page:

It's pretty self-explanatory; however, I'd like to point out the Order Bump which is the portion in the red-dashed box above the “Ship My Book Now!” button.

That little offer saved us because we lost money on the book.

Yes, we should have broken even on the sale of the book; however, due to some bad estimation with international shipping costs, we lost money. It wasn't much, but the campaign was in the red.

Fortunately, the order bump, which were digital assets to accompany the book, converted very well and brought the campaign into the black.

Stats:

• Order Form Conversion Rate: 18.52%
• Bump Conversion Rate: 50.0% (yes, half the people that purchased the book also grabbed the bump!)

One-Time-Offer

After purchasing the book, the individual was presented with a one-time-offer (OTO) to join The Sales Funnel Training Vault.

The offer was presented as a Video Sales Letter (VSL) that was 6 minutes and 31 seconds long. [watch the video here]

The page itself is self-explanatory – watch the video and click the green button if you want to join.

Stats:

• Conversion Rate: 10.0%

Order Confirmation Page

Whether the individual accepted the OTO or not, they were greeted with the Order Confirmation Page:

And that completes the content within our sales funnel!

Some Numbers & Thoughts…

Ok, so – I screwed up the tracking a little bit.

I switched shopping cart platforms 2 days before going live and apparently didn't test the Google Analytics setup as well as I should have.

The data transfer between CrazyEyeMarketing.com and ThriveCart.com didn't work properly. The user's data wasn't transmitted, making it appear as though everyone that landed on the checkout page landed directly on it. Obviously this was not the case because they came through the sales page.

This “gap” messed up the ability to properly track user flow across the funnel.

Lesson learned – test your tracking.

Anyway, all is not lost because at the end of the day, if you put $X in and get $X+ back out, you're on the right track; however, it is nice to be able to break down the entire funnel, bit by bit, to see what works and what doesn't.

Here are the numbers I have:

The percentages above represent the conversion rate or CTR. (It's the percentage of people that moved on to the next step.)

The green and orange percentages have been discussed previously and they're accurate.

The red 🙁 represents the point where user tracking was lost. The silver lining here is I know how many people were on the Confirmation & Sales Page, how many people were on the Sales Page, and how many people were on the Order Form page, so I was able to compare all those numbers to come up with the 50%. Essentially, 50% of the people that saw the offer, clicked through to the order form.

The black 🙁 is data I did not track. Why not? The first 3 Action Series emails contained direct links to PDF files and then those files linked to the sales page. I should have used Google's UTM parameters to track the click-throughs, but, for some reason or another, I did not. Moving forward the links inside of the PDFs will have tracking.

Let's Run Some Scenarios

Even though some of the tracking was messed up, at the end of the day, the funnel “works” if I get back more than I put into it.

So, let's run a few scenarios!

This first one is the 1,000 person test without making any changes to the funnel:

For every 1,000 people I send through the funnel from my email list, I should expect to receive $539.96. Of course, I have to subtract the price of the book from that, so we're looking at around $410 net.

But, here's the deal – the OTO is 6 payments of $67 which is $402. Let's plug that in:

Doing that doubles the total … pretty cool!

But, when it comes to planning, I'm a hopeful realist. I hope people that purchase the OTO pay the 6 payments, but I plan for them to only pay the first one.

So, let's bump that $402 back down to $67 and play with some of the rates:

In the above scenario, let's say I was able to increase the Interest Gauging Series CTR from 17.59% to 20%. Let's pretend I did that by adding a 4th email to that series … simple and reasonable enough, right?

Then, let's say I was able to increase the Purchase Conversion Rate from 18.52% to 20%. Let's pretend I did that by adding a few testimonials to the checkout page.

Those small, simple, realistic tweaks bumped the total from $539.96 to $663.00! (an extra $123.04 per 1,000 people)

Of course, I could sit here and play with this calculator all day running different scenarios, but in the interest of keeping you interested in this post … I'll stop.

The point is, once you have a funnel and some numbers you can run various scenarios to find your weakest links to determine where you should run split tests, what optimizations you should make, etc.

Where It's Going From Here

I'm making a few changes to the funnel:

• Fixing the tracking issues
• Adding a 4th email to the Interest Gauging Series
• Adding testimonials to the Checkout Page
• Increasing the Bump price from $37 to $47

And, we'll see what happens!

Paid Facebook Traffic

The funnel is currently setup to approach my subscribers; however, with a few simple tweaks I'll be able to run cold traffic through it as well.

I will do this with Facebook ads for a chance to download 19 sales funnel blueprints. This will essentially place them right into the current setup and I'll see what happens with that and adjust accordingly.

One thing I'm looking forward to is that all individuals that request the 19 sales funnel blueprints will be interested … I'll essentially bypass the whole Interest Gauging Series because the ad itself will gauge the interest.

I'll also implement retargeting campaigns to continuously stay fresh in their mind!

Conclusion

The Sales Funnel Book‘s Free + Shipping sales funnel worked very well on the first go! Since it was “free” list traffic, and after covering the cost of producing and shipping the book, it was pure profit!

I did learn a few things along the way:

• Test, test, test your tracking code setup
• Be sure to take into account international shipping costs because you never know when a bunch of people from the Netherlands are going to buy your book and it costs $12 to ship to them!
• Have an order bump. Without this, we likely would have lost money.

All that's left to do now is make the changes, re-launch, and go live with paid Facebook traffic!

For You

I put together a plug & play book funnel using ClickFunnels: Click here to learn more about it!

If you've ever wanted to construct a sales funnel to launch a book, there's no better time than now!

Books are the new business card.

Having a book helps you establish your expertise, makes you appear credible, sets you apart from your competition, and can bring you new business (if used properly).

Thanks to self publishing services, anyone can write a book and have it professionally printed within weeks.

For this reason many coaches, consultants, service providers, and educators have started using books in their efforts to bring in new business.

If you have, or are planning to have, your own book … I've got a free sales funnel for you to bring in new business!

• Click here for the free funnel!

Why Is A Book A Great Front-End Offer?

Beyond the whole “business card” concept, a book makes a great front-end offer because it's usually a low barrier to entry (less than $10), qualifies leads, educates them on what you do, and it's physical.

Physical products carry more weight (both literally and figuratively) than digital products.

People can actually hold it, feel it, touch it, smell it … and, it takes up space on their desk, coffee table, toilet, etc.

A piece of you will be with them, in their house/office, serving as a constant reminder that you're the guy/gal they want to do business with!

Plus, since it's a physical product, you have to ship it to them. This is a great excuse to get them to give you all of their “real” contact information which allows you to add them to various lists (retargeting, email, text, direct mail, etc.) for continued marketing.

If you're a coach, consultant, service provider, or educator and you're wondering what you should offer to get people in the door, a book is a great place to start.

The Coaching/Consulting “Book” Sales Funnel

Here is an overview of the sales funnel:

>> CLICK HERE TO GET THIS SALES FUNNEL <<

Squeeze Page [see page]

The first page in this sales funnel is what's called a Squeeze Page.

It's name is derived from the fact it “squeezes” the contact information out of the visitor.

This is typically accomplished by offering an incentive called a Lead Magnet. [read more about Lead Magnets]

Once you have the individual's contact information, you're able to engage with them to help move them through the funnel.

The Squeeze Page included with this funnel is my top converting squeeze page of all time.

Yes, it's plain, but I constantly test it against prettier pages and it always wins.

Give Away A Part Of The Book …

For your Lead Magnet, you will likely want to give away part of the book because this can help setup the sale of the book itself.

Which part?

A Chapter

If it makes sense to give away a chapter – you can do that, but make sure it's a great one and draws them into the rest of the book!

Unfortunately, giving out a chapter can hinder conversions because people will figure they'll read the free chapter first, then go buy the book. The problem here is they'll never read the free chapter and never buy your book. So, that's something to be mindful of and you may want to test your free chapter against another Lead Magnet.

A Chart/Graph/Table/Story

If applicable, yank out the sexiest chart/graph/table/story you have in your book, shoot a short 3-5 minute explainer video about it, and give that away.

This way, your lead will get a piece of content that's easily consumable and can decide then and there to go and buy your book.

Book Offer [see page]

This is the sales page for your book.

It's setup as a Free + Shipping offer. This means, the individual gets a free book – all they have to do is cover the shipping costs.

Tip: Include the cost of the book in the price of shipping, this way you're breaking even on the book.

The page itself is pretty self-explanatory:

• Include a picture/video of the book
• Add some reviews and testimonials, whether video or text
• Tell them what they'll learn in the book
• Include a note/bio from the author and/or a little pitch on why you're giving it away for free

Whether you decide to present it as a Free + Shipping offer or not, do your best to keep the total cost under $10.

The Order Bump

On step two of the order form, there's the option for an order bump.

An order bump gives the visitor a chance to add something to their order before they submit their payment information. (and a chance for you to sell something!)

Some great order bumps for books are:

• An audio version
• Complementary training/course
• Coaching call
• Video exclusive

These bumps typically convert best between $27 and $37.

OTO #1 (One-Time-Offer) [see page]

Yay! Someone purchased your book! Their wallet is now open and they're in buying mode!

OTO stands for One-Time-Offer and it’s essentially a special offer presented to an individual, only one time, which is right now! If they don’t act now, they miss out on this exclusive offer forever. This added element of scarcity increases conversions.

Typically, OTO #1 is your core offer.

This can be the digital course you really want to sell, or one that at least complements the book they just purchased.

OTO #1 could also be a coaching plan or service you offer.

Whatever it is, it's typically the reason you wrote the book in the first place – to sell this particular product/service.

The Video

The video included in the funnel example is just a placeholder. You need to shoot your own video or you can make a text based offer if you’d rather; however, video typically converts better.

The video should only be 3-5 minutes in length and hit on a few key points:

• Tell them the book they just grabbed is awesome and you'll ship it to them within 24 hours. Reiterate a key benefit or two.
• Introduce the OTO as a special offer that’s going to make what they just purchased even better.
  • Also, hit on the fact that this offer is not for everyone. It’s only for individuals that have grabbed the Initial Offer.
• Tell them what the OTO is and how it will benefit them.
• Tell them to click the “orange” button below to accept the offer.
• If you offer a guarantee, mention it.
• Share a review/testimonial or two. Or at least snippets with the key points.
• Tell them to again click the “orange” button below to accept the offer.

If you hit on all of those points, you’ll easily fill the 3-5 minutes!

Downsell [see page]

Unfortunately, not everyone is going to accept your OTO #1, no matter how awesome it is.

For the people that say “no” to OTO #1, offer them a downsell.

A few downsell ideas include:

• A payment plan: Offer them the chance to join your course or acquire your services for a few, monthly, installment payments.
• A bonus: Offer an additional resource, training, coaching call, or service to motivate them to take you up on your offer
• A discount: Offer a straight up discount on OTO #1.
• A modified OTO #1: Offer a “stripped down” or modified version of OTO #1. For example, instead of getting all the video tutorials, they'll only get the PDF documents.
• An entirely different offer: Offer something else, but along the same topic. For example, OTO #1 is about advertising on Facebook, and the downsell is about advertising on Google Adwords. Both offers deal with traffic, but they're different.

OTO #2 [see page]

Whether or not your new customer purchases OTO #1 or the Downsell, they are presented with OTO #2.

OTO #2 is usually one of three things:

1. A Profit Maximizer – A really expensive course, membership, service, or coaching package. We're looking at the $1,000 range.
2. Another complementary course or resource – If you don't have a Profit Maximizer to offer, maybe you can offer another product/resource that also complements your book. Even if it's cheaper than OTO #1, that's OK. You can still increase cart order size!
3. A Continuity Offer – Some form of recurring membership.

Like OTO #1, you probably want to use a 3-5 minute video to sell it. You can follow a similar script as the one outlined above.

Order Confirmation [see page]

The Order Confirmation page is simply that, a page that confirms the individual’s order.

It simply thanks them for their order, breaks it down for them, and tells them how to get in touch, what to expect, and what to do next.

Offer Wall

An Offer Wall is what it sounds like, a wall of offers. Essentially, you’ll display 3-6 more products and/or services with links to them and possibly some exclusive discounts. If your new customer wants to buy more from you, they know where to look!

I didn’t include one of these with the sales funnel I’m giving away. However, it’s relatively simple to add and something you may want to consider doing!

Take Action!

Now is the time for you to make a decision.

Are you going to use a book to explode your business or are you going to keep passing out lame business cards?!

I've given you a sales funnel for free and outlined the entire strategy for it.

All you need to do is execute.

For more training on execution, check out The Sales Funnel Training Vault!

Imagine owning a machine that prints money.

Every time you put in $1, you get that $1 plus back.

Whether it's spitting out $1.01 or $6, you'd run that machine all day.

And, that's the dream, right?

To have a reliable system that generates a consistent ROI?

The problem is, it's not easy to do.

Plus, you're constantly pushed in a million different directions.

Should you …

• Start a blog?
• Focus on social media?
• Build backlinks?
• Setup email automation?
• Guest blog?
• Start a podcast?
• Run Facebook Ads?
• Run Adwords?
• Make YouTube videos?
• And the list continues …

Unfortunately, these activities aren't the machine; however, they're what most small businesses and entrepreneurs focus on.

Instead, these activities are the machine's fuel.

The point?

You need a machine before you need the fuel.

And, I want to give you a machine for FREE!

• Click here for the free funnel!

The Digital Product(s) Sales Funnel (The Machine)

The sales funnel I'm about to describe is perfect for businesses that sell digital goods like courses, ebooks, resources, memberships, etc.

• Related Video: How To Build A Membership Area In ClickFunnels

Here's an overview of the sales funnel:

>> CLICK HERE TO GET THIS SALES FUNNEL <<

Squeeze Page [see page]

The first page in this sales funnel is what's called a Squeeze Page.

It's name is derived from the fact it “squeezes” the contact information out of the visitor.

This is typically accomplished by offering an incentive called a Lead Magnet. [read more about Lead Magnets]

Once you have the individual's contact information, you're able to engage with them to help move them through the funnel.

The Squeeze Page included with this funnel is my top converting squeeze page of all time.

Yes, it's plain, but I constantly test it against prettier pages and it always wins.

Video Sales Letter (VSL) [see page]

The Video Sales Letter (VSL) is exactly like it sounds … a video that acts as a sales letter.

Instead of writing a long form sales page that takes hours and possibly days, you can shoot a 3-6 minute video in less than an hour.

Customers typically prefer video over the long sales pages. Or, you can always kill two birds with one stone and include a video plus a little write-up that outlines what you talk about in the video.

Win-win, you do less time consuming work and customers like it more!

What should you say in your VSL? I recommend starting with Jim Edwards' “How To Write Great Video Sales Letter Script” Formula.

What Should You Sell?

There are several schools of thought here and I'll explain a couple, but it's by no means all inclusive.

Tripwire / Self-Liquidating Offer (SLO)

A Tripwire or Self-Liquidating Offer is a cheap product (usually under $10) that's so amazing people can't NOT buy it.

The idea behind it is to get the individual to open their wallet, qualify themselves as a buyer, and once you make this initial sale – the next should be easier.

Tripwires and SLOs can help you recoup ad spend.

However, they may attract low quality leads that are “bargain hunters” who will never buy any OTOs or upsells.

Your Core Product (Reversed Value Ladder)

Instead of going the whole Tripwire/SLO route, why not try and sell what you actually want to sell?

If they don't take your offer, you can then recommend lower priced versions of it.

Maybe they don't want your full blown Facebook Ads course for $197, but they'll take your ads cheat sheet & walkthrough for $27, or just the cheat sheet for $7.

There are many ways to structure this portion and the bulk of your time will likely be placed on testing which structure works best for your business, product, and audience.

Timed Price/Button Reveal

If you look at the example page, you wont see a button or order form until 15 seconds have passed. (you can adjust this to any amount of time)

The idea behind this tactic is that you draw the person in, make them crave your product, and have them thinking it's going to be super expensive. Then, when you mention the price, you also display the “Order Now” button and the corresponding order form.

By the time you show them the price, they're already sold and they buy it right away!

That's the idea at least, but does this tactic work?

Run a split test inside ClickFunnels – one variation with the delay, one without, and see which wins! Different audiences behave differently so the only way to be sure what's best for yours is to test.

OTO #1 (One-Time-Offer) [see page]

Hurray! Someone purchased your initial offer from the VSL page, and whether it was a Tripwire or your Core Offer … their wallet is open and they're in buying mode!

OTO stands for One-Time-Offer and it’s essentially a special offer presented to an individual, only one time, which is right now! If they don’t act now, they miss out on this exclusive offer forever. This added element of scarcity increases conversions.

Typically, OTO #1 is one of two things:

1. Your Core Offer, if you offered a Tripwire or SLO. This is the course or resource that you “really” want to sell.
2. A Continuity Offer, if you offered your core offer as the initial offer. For example, some type of membership site, community, or additional support that's recurring.

Either way, it should complement what they just purchased.

The Video

The video included in the funnel example is just a placeholder. You need to shoot your own video or you can make a text based offer if you’d rather; however, video typically converts better.

The video should only be 3-5 minutes in length and hit on a few key points:

• Tell them the Tripwire/SLO or Core Offer they just grabbed is awesome and they'll have instant access to it in just a minute. Reiterate a key benefit or two.
• Introduce the OTO as a special offer that’s going to make what they just purchased even better.
  • Also, hit on the fact that this offer is not for everyone. It’s only for individuals that have grabbed the Initial Offer.
• Tell them what the OTO is and how it will benefit them.
• Tell them to click the “orange” button below to accept the offer.
• If you offer a guarantee, mention it.
• Share a review/testimonial or two. Or at least snippets with the key points.
• Tell them to again click the “orange” button below to accept the offer.

If you hit on all of those points, you’ll easily fill the 3-5 minutes!

Downsell [see page]

Sadly, not everyone is going to accept your OTO #1, no matter how awesome it is.

For the people that say “no” to OTO #1, offer them a downsell.

If OTO #1 was …

… your Core Offer, you can:

• Offer a payment plan. Instead of $197 today, they can join for 3 monthly payments of $67.
• Add a bonus. ie. Additional training, a complementary course, coaching, etc.
• Offer a straight-up discount.

… a Continuity Offer, you can:

• Offer them to join the first month for only $1. (or as low as is practical)

OTO #2 [see page]

Whether or not your new customer purchases OTO #1 or the Downsell, they are presented with OTO #2.

OTO #2 is usually one of three things:

1. A Profit Maximizer – A really expensive course, membership, or coaching package. We're looking at the $1,000 dollar range.
2. Another complementary course or resource – If you don't have a Profit Maximizer to offer, maybe you can offer another product/resource that complements the initial offer. Even if it's cheaper than OTO #1, that's OK. You can still increase cart order size!
3. A Continuity Offer (if not already offered) – If you didn't make a continuity offer in OTO #1, OTO #2 may be a great place to present one.

Like OTO #1, you probably want to use a 3-5 minute video to sell it. You can follow a similar script as the one outlined above.

Order Confirmation [see page]

The Order Confirmation page is simply that, a page that confirms the individual’s order.

It simply thanks them for their order, breaks it down for them, and tells them how to get in touch, what to expect, and what to do next.

Offer Wall

An Offer Wall is what it sounds like, a wall of offers. Essentially, you’ll display 3-6 more products and/or services with links to them and possibly some exclusive discounts. If your new customer wants to buy more from you, they know where to look!

I didn’t include one of these with the sales funnel I’m giving away. However, it’s relatively simple to add and something you may want to consider doing!

Take Action!

Now is the time for you to make a decision.

Are you going to continue to focus on “the fuel” or are you going to build the machine?!

In this post, I've given you a sales funnel for free and outlined the entire strategy for it.

All you need to do is execute.

For more training on execution, check out The Sales Funnel Training Vault!

Selling on Amazon has some MASSIVE benefits …

• They give you traffic
• High conversion rates
• They handle the logistics

But, it has some MASSIVE downsides as well …

• You don't “own” your customers
• Insane competition
• And, what if they ban you? You're screwed.

Of course, you already know this – these are the reasons you're here, reading this article.

What you've probably done thus far is setup a half-hearted ecommerce store on Shopify “in case” Amazon changes something that disrupts your business.

While your intentions are good, really … ask yourself … “How screwed would I be if Amazon shut me down today?”

If your answer is anything other than, “I wouldn't even notice it” – you're in the right place!

I'm about to give you a FREE Sales Funnel with the full blown strategy, specifically designed for people like you!

• [thrive_2step id='7377′]Click here for the free funnel![/thrive_2step]

An Ecommerce Store vs A Sales Funnel

An ecommerce store probably sounds like the right solution to you.

You sell on Amazon which is an ecommerce store, so it seems to make sense that if you make something similar, it should work.

I'm here to tell you, you're wrong.

Try it, you'll see.

Running an ecommerce store is hard.

Beyond the technical aspects of building it, automating it, and maintaining it (that's actually the easy part) …

The BIGGEST challenge you're going to have is to CONVINCE someone to buy off your store when there's Amazon.

You will have to build trust.

Building trust takes time and/or money.

You'll probably have to …

• write great, compelling, trust building copy
• develop a social media presence
• start a blog
• post videos on YouTube
• run paid ads
• handle customer inquiries
• and manage it all

Building trust is hard when you're competing against Amazon.

They already have the trust and you inherit it when you sell on their platform.

But, if you're off their platform … you're on your own.

You Need To Do Something Different

While an ecommerce store may sound like the logical solution, it's not.

It's too hard to compete with Amazon.

You need to do something different.

But, what?

Imagine having a system …

Imagine having a system where you could put a dollar in and receive at least a dollar in return.

How many dollars would you put into it?

That's the sole purpose of a sales funnel – you put money in, it spits more money back out.

Yeah, you're kind of doing it on Amazon already … it's generating more money than you're putting into it.

But, try running a Facebook ad to your ecommerce store … let me know how that works out for ya.

Unless you really know what you're doing and have your ducks in a row, I'd be willing to bet big money you will not even break even on paid traffic to your ecommerce store.

It's the nature of the beast.

You need a sales funnel

A Sales Funnel is your answer to the ecommerce store “problem”.

With a few working funnels you won't have to worry about Amazon anymore.

The good news is, you already have the products. You already know who your customers are. You already know what sells. You can even use Amazon's Fulfillment Centers.

You already have everything you need. Now, you just need to “funnel-ize” it!

The Amazon Seller's Sales Funnel

>> [thrive_2step id='7377′]CLICK HERE TO GET THIS SALES FUNNEL[/thrive_2step] <<

Free + Shipping [see page]

Grow Your List With Buyers

The first page in this sales funnel is a Free + Shipping offer.

What does that mean? It means you give something away for free, all they have to do is pay shipping & handling!

This is a great way to get BUYERS on your list – people that have proven they'll spend money with you.

There's no reason you can't create a Free + Shipping offer for your business. There must be a product you can acquire for under $2 that your audience will love (if you don't have one already).

Tip: incorporate the cost of the product in the shipping & handling price.

Cart Abandonment

Another cool feature of the Free + Shipping page is the 2-step form.

If someone inputs their contact info and goes to Step #2 (billing info), but doesn't pay, you will still capture their contact information. You can then re-engage them via email, phone, and/or snail mail. Think of it like a cart abandonment feature. (Really powerful!)

Order Bumps

Finally, on Step #2, right before the individual clicks the “Complete Order” button, there's an option to add a bonus to their order.

This bonus option is called an “Order Bump; it's a fantastic way to increase order size.

What you want to offer here is a product that complements the free one they're ordering and is usually incentivized with a discount.

For example, with my Crazy Mug, I could include some Crazy Coffee Beans for 30% off.

Another option that works really well is to ask if the individual would like to double or even triple their order!

I'm about to run some numbers; if you hate numbers – skip to the next section.

Let's say my Crazy Mug costs me $1.50 to get in the Amazon warehouse. Amazon charges me $5.95 to ship it. However, to ship a second one, they only charge $1.20. So, to give away 2 mugs, it costs me $10.15 ($3 for 2 mugs + shipping & handling). If I charge $5.99 shipping & handling per mug, that brings in $11.98 and I'm able to net $1.83. Yes, not much in this particular example; however, what if my product cost was closer to $0.50? What if people were tripling their orders? There are lots of things to try!

OTO #1 (One-Time-Offer) [see page]

Obviously, you'll go out of business if you only give away free stuff.

You're going to have to make money somewhere in this funnel, and the first place to really make it is with OTO #1!

OTO stands for One-Time-Offer and it's essentially a special offer presented to an individual, only one time, which is right now! If they don't act now, they miss out on this exclusive offer forever. This added element of scarcity increases conversions.

Typically, OTO #1 should be around $50; however, depending on your market, it could be more. It's typically less than OTO #2. (This is just what's “typical” – heck, try selling some really expensive stuff in OTO #1 and see what happens!)

While there are several strategies and tactics for OTOs – the main objective of your OTO in this sales funnel is to sell something that has an incredibly high margin. This will allow you to recoup ad spend and turn a profit.

Hopefully you already have some incredibly high margin products in your inventory that even when paired with an irresistible discount, you're still able to reap a nice profit.

However, what if you don't have an incredibly high margin product to offer? Here are some ideas that work well:

• Create a bundle – combine a few products so the OTO, as a whole, has a higher value
• Add digital assets – courses, training, documents, membership
  • Video Training: How to build a membership portal in ClickFunnels
• Introduce continuity (recurring) – membership, community
• Add a subscription (recurring) – consumable products typically need to be replaced, can you offer a subscription service?

The Video

The video included in the funnel is just a placeholder. You need to shoot your own video or you can make a text based offer if you'd rather; however, video typically converts better.

The video should only be 3-5 minutes in length and hit on a few key points:

• Tell them the free product they just grabbed is freakin' awesome and will be on its way to them shortly. Reiterate a key benefit or two.
• Introduce the OTO as a special offer that's going to make that free product even better.
  • Also, hit on the fact that this offer is not for everyone. It's only for individuals that have grabbed the free product.
• Tell them what the OTO is and how it will benefit them.
• Tell them to click the “orange” button below to accept the offer.
• If you offer a guarantee, mention it.
• Share a review or two. Or at least snippets with the key points.
• Tell them to again click the “orange” button below to accept the offer.

If you hit on all of those points, you'll easily fill the 3-5 minutes!

What An OTO Is Not

An OTO should not be an upgrade of the free product they just grabbed.

For example, if I'm giving away coffee mugs, my OTO should not be a really expensive coffee mug because they already requested a mug … why would they need another one?

Instead, what you offer needs to complement what they just purchased, not replace it.

Downsell [see page]

Unfortunately, not everyone is going to accept your OTO #1, no matter how awesome it is.

For the people that say “no” to OTO #1, offer them a downsell.

There are a few ways to handle this:

1. Offer a discount on the OTO #1 – Like in the funnel I'm giving away, the downsell is a discount on OTO #1. This option can work incredibly well; however, bear in mind your margins as well as how you want to be perceived. Are you sure you want to “reward” people for saying “no”? However, if it's more of a “churn and burn” play as opposed to brand building – this option may work well for you.
2. Add a bonus – Add another product to OTO #1, physical or digital to sweeten the deal. Note: similar to providing a discount, this option may inadvertently “train” people to say “no” so they can see what bonuses they'll receive.
3. Break up OTO #1 – If your OTO #1 is a bundle, break it up and allow people to purchase pieces of it individually. This works well because your customer may not want all of the items included in the bundle; however, if offered a discount on one of the products, they'll take it.
4. Offer a payment plan – Instead of one payment of $47, can you make it 2 payments of $23.50? This may entice your customer to make the purchase, but make sure you're not going to lose money if they only pay one payment. (Tip: include a “just charge me the onetime payment of $47” option in addition to the payment plan option.).
5. “Are you sure?” – Offer the exact same OTO #1 again. Reiterate the fact that it really is a one-time offer and they won't see it again.

OTO #2 [see page]

Whether or not your new customer purchases OTO #1 or the Downsell, they are presented with OTO #2.

OTO #2 is usually one of three things:

1. A higher-end, more expensive product – While OTO #1 is typically cheaper at around $50, and more “reasonable” to purchase, OTO #2 is typically one of your more expensive products. One where you're celebrating if it sells (as long as it's in line with everything else you're selling in your funnel).
2. Another product that complements the Free + Shipping product – If you don't have any expensive products to offer, that's OK. You can still recommend another complementary product that helps your customer while simultaneously increasing order size.
3. A continuity offer (if not included with OTO #1) – A membership or subscription that provides recurring revenue is the holy grail. It provides consistency and predictability to your business. If you can fit one in somewhere, do it.

Like OTO #1, you want to use a 3-5 minute video to sell it. You can follow a similar script as the one outlined above.

Order Confirmation [see page]

The Order Confirmation page is simply that, a page that confirms the individual's order.

It simply thanks them for their order, breaks it down for them, and tells them how to get in touch, what to expect, and what to do next.

Offer Wall

An Offer Wall is what it sounds like, a wall of offers. Essentially, you'll display 3-6 products with links to them and possibly some exclusive discounts. If your new customer wants to buy more from you, they know where to look!

I didn't include one of these with the sales funnel I'm giving away. However, it's relatively simple to add and something you may want to consider doing!

ClickFunnels to Amazon FBA

Since you're already selling on Amazon, I'm sure you're taking advantage of their fulfillment centers.

This is the best way I know how to do it:

Take Action!

Now is the time for you to make a decision.

Are you going to stay dependent on Amazon while running a half-hearted ecommerce store or are you going to take control, build a few funnels, and dominate?!

In this post, [thrive_2step id='7377′]I've given you a sales funnel for free[/thrive_2step] and outlined the entire strategy for it.

All you need to do is execute.

For more training on execution, check out The Sales Funnel Training Vault!