The Main Series is the backbone of your Interest Driven Sales Funnel.

(please read WTF #1 if you haven't already)

It’s responsible for building and maintaining the relationship with your audience while simultaneously gauging interest.

Again, the engagements in the Main Series don’t necessarily mean emails. Engagements are any form of communication with your audience. (retargeting ads, text messages, direct mail, phone calls, Facebook messages, etc.)

Please read that again. Engagements in the Main Series don't necessarily mean emails.

You’re simply sending content to see if anyone requests more information.

If someone requests more information (shows interest), they’ll enter into a designated Micro Sales Funnel that sells a related product or service, plus the corresponding up-sells, down-sells, and cross-sells.

Pauses, Skips, and Stops

While the Main Series diagram above follows a linear path, it may not be exactly one engagement after the other.

For example, if an individual is going through the Main Series and shows interest in a particular product, we may decide to pause the Main Series while they’re actively engaged in a Micro Sales Funnel.

In another example, if the individual enters a Micro Sales Funnel and purchases the product or service you’re trying to sell, it may make sense to skip down a few engagements to where you’re talking about a different product, service, or topic.

Remember, the ultimate goal of the Main Series is to gauge interest. If interest is shown in a particular product, service, or topic – we don’t need to get them to show interest in it again and again … they’ve already requested more information.

As such, we can pause, skip, and even stop the Main Series, if the audience member has done what we’ve wanted them to do.

How Many Main Series?

You may be wondering how many Main Series you need for your business.

99% of the time, for a small business, you only need one Main Series.

The only reason you’d ever want more than one Main Series is if you offer products and services to wildly different audiences and you have enough offerings to support multiple Main Series.

For example, let’s say you own a sports nutrition company that sells supplements and other related goods.

You have two wildly different audiences: bodybuilders and people trying to lose weight.

In this instance, you may want two Main Series because a bodybuilder won’t be interested in some crazy diet pill or need motivation to go to the gym. The overweight person won’t be interested in the newest bodybuilding supplements or routines.

In this case, by having two Main Series, you won’t waste time trying to gauge interest for something they’ll never be interested in.

Which Main Series?

Now, if you have more than one Main Series, you may be wondering when, and how, you should assign the individual to a particular one.

You should assign them at the very beginning by asking them.

For example, you can offer a 10% off coupon, have a question that asks, “What’s your goal: Build Muscle or Lose Weight?”, collect their contact information, and add them to the appropriate Main Series.

Another example, I’ve seen people buy lists of individuals who have previously purchased a diet pill. In this case, it would be fairly safe to assume they’re interested in weight loss and can be added to the weight loss Main Series.

Or, You Can Do This …

Creating, developing, and maintaining multiple Main Series is a lot of work.

Unless you have a large enough audience with enough different offerings, it’s unlikely viable to have more than one.

Instead, address both audiences in the same email.

For example, you can send an email with the first half talking about bodybuilder stuff and the second half talking about weight loss stuff.

Be sure to make the sections obvious so the subscriber can easily tell what pertains to them.

Now, you’re killing two birds with one stone!

What About Other Segmentation?

As you probably know, there are a million ways you can dissect your audience based on demographic information, occupation, interests, location, etc.

Continuing with the sports nutrition company example, males and females will likely have very different requirements, as will young vs old.

As such, it can be very beneficial to know this type of information; however, it’s not needed for the Main Series.

The Main Series is intended to be general enough to simply gauge interest in a product, service, or topic.

You don’t really need to connect on a deeper level at this point.

However, during a Micro Sales Funnel, knowing gender and age may be very beneficial. You can give examples of someone similar to your audience member finding success with a specific product or service.

Main Series Patterns

While you can theoretically “wing” the content and structure of your Main Series because each email (engagement) can stand on its own, it’s probably not the best strategy.

It’s generally best to follow a pattern or plan for a few reasons:

• It’s more logical for your subscribers and they’ll know what to expect
• It gives your subscribers more chances to show interest in a particular product, service, or topic. Not everyone will act on the first email (engagement) you send and by presenting your message several times, in several different ways, you give your subscribers more opportunities to act
• It’s easier for you to create content because you know what the content of your next email (engagement) should be

In this section I’ll give you several patterns to help you structure your Main Series.

Just remember, the main goal of the Main Series is to gauge interest! This way you are able to send more relevant information to your subscribers and sell more via your Micro Sales Funnels.

The 3 Es

Don’t be mad, I know I just made a few points on why you should follow a pattern, but this first “pattern” isn’t really a pattern at all.

Instead, it’s more a way to think about the emails you send.

Each email you send should have one of these Es as its primary goal:

• Entertain: These emails (engagements) are meant to entertain. Videos, pictures, stories, etc. provide great entertainment.
• Educate: Helpful emails that solve problems, answer questions, and provide guidance. How-to tutorials, white papers, case studies, etc. provide great educational material.
• Earn: These emails drive sales by bringing customers back to your business. Coupons, discounts, bonuses, etc. provide extra incentive to shop.

While each of these emails should have one clear goal or objective (Entertain, Educate, Earn), they don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

For example, if you send a how-to video, it should definitely be educational, but why not make it entertaining and offer a CTA to buy something at the end?

When To Use

You may want to use the 3 E emails if you offer TONS of products and services in an incredibly wide variety of categories.

Basically, you should follow this “pattern” when you offer so much “stuff” for a wide variety of interests and you have no idea what the subscriber may be interested in.

For example, if you run a massive ecommerce store (250+ products with 10+ unique product categories) and you have 10 top selling products you really want a new subscriber to see, you may not want to spend a full week promoting each one. It would take 10 weeks for them to see everything you offer.

Instead, you send a daily, 3 E email for 10 consecutive days. This way, the new subscriber will see what you offer much sooner and hopefully show interest in a product or two which will launch them into a Micro Sales Funnel.

How To Use

These emails are very versatile and can stand on their own (the subscriber doesn’t need to read the previous email or blog post to understand the email). Each email is its own entity.

If you’re sending this type of email, you want to send an email 3-7 times a week.

The frequency depends on a few factors. The first one being the longevity of the subscriber. For example, a newer subscriber may need more emails initially, especially if you’re trying to introduce them to your top 10 selling products.

You also want to take into account how long a typical subscriber stays on your list.

Is the average subscriber on your list for years? Months? Weeks?

How long do you want the average subscriber to be on your list?

Are you trying to “churn and burn” them where you’re sending an “Earn” email every day for weeks until they unsubscribe? In this case, you can send an email every day for those few weeks.

Or, are you trying to build and maintain a relationship for years to come? In this case, start the first week off with daily emails, but then ease back to maybe 3-4 emails a week. You also want a healthy mix of the 3 Es so you’re not just hitting them up for money every day.

The frequency of emails also depends on how you’ve set expectations. If, when they registered, you said you’d be sending daily emails, then they should receive daily emails. If you said you’d send emails a few times a week, do that.

Closing

Again, these 3 E emails aren’t so much a pattern as they are a way to think about what you’re sending.

Remember, while each email should have a main objective (entertain, educate, earn), it doesn’t mean one email can’t do all three!

Weekly “Pushes”

I call this pattern “Weekly Pushes” because every week you’re trying to sell (push) a different product or service to your list.

Instead of making random offers and sending random emails depending on your mood, you spend an entire week on the same topic.

This gives people more opportunity to see what you’re offering and act, while not being overbearing and “burning” them out.

The Weekly “Pushes” Framework

The goal of this framework is to get the person on the sales page. If the individual views the sales page, we know they’re interested in what we have to offer.

Step 1: Pick a widget to sell.

Step 2: Follow the pattern below for that single widget.

• Pattern: 3 and 2 (M, T, W, F, S)

Send 4 to 5 emails on the same topic, for the same widget, during each “push”. In general, it’s good to break up these emails to give people a little time to react, rather than bombarding them every day. For this reason, I recommend sending 3 daily emails, take a day off, send 2 more daily emails, take a day off, and then repeat with a new “push”.

• Email 1: Fun/personal story
  • Relate to widget
  • PS goes to sales page

People connect with stories. People enjoy stories. We want people to both connect with us and enjoy hearing from us, which is why we must share a story! Now, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a personal story; you can share a success story from a client or customer or even a well known individual, like a celebrity, just shared in a different light.

At the end of the story, close out (soft sell) with a simple PS line that takes them to the sales page where they can learn more, if they wish.

• Email 2: Promotion of widget
  • Use a marketing formula: Problem-Agitate-Solve, Feature-Benefits-Advantages, Before-After-Bridge
  • CTA goes directly to the sales page – “Click Here To Buy”

While stories are great and help us connect, sometimes a good old fashioned sales letter converts best … especially when they have the story from the previous email rolling around in their head! In this 2nd email, pitch your widget. You can use a marketing formula to help structure your message or do whatever you think is best.

The call-to-action should be straight forward and to the point with no mystery behind it, “If you’re interested in this widget, click here”. (How much more “interest gauging” can you get?! If the person clicks that link, we know they’re interested in our offer and they’ll enter one of our Micro Sales Funnels.)

• Emails 3-4: Content on topic of widget
  • Link to a blog post that’s entertaining and/or educational
  • Include CTAs in both the PS line of the email and within the article itself which link to your widget’s sales page

After sharing a story and a “hard” pitch, it’s time to ease back a little bit and just share some more information with them. Send links to articles, videos, and other resources they’ll find helpful, interesting, and entertaining on the same topic as the widget you’re trying to sell.

Include links to your widget’s sales page in your email PS line and throughout the particular article so they can easily navigate to the sales page, if they’re interested in learning more.

• Email 5: Content OR Promotion (discount)

Email 5 is optional. If the individual hasn’t visited your sales page after 4 emails on the same topic for the same widget … they may simply not be interested in that offer. So, use some discretion here. If you feel like this 5th email is “too much”, don’t use it.

If you do use Email 5, you can send another piece of content like emails 3 & 4 OR you can make a last-ditch effort to sell your widget by sending another “hard” sales email and/or by offering a bonus or discount.

That completes the Weekly “Pushes” framework! Rinse and repeat with a new product the following week!

Story-Based Series

Story-Based Series are similar to the Weekly “Pushes” in that you’re sending more than one email on the same product/service/topic. However, they’re different in that all of the emails you send are “connected”.

What do I mean by “connected”?

Think about a TV series like Game of Thrones, Orange is the New Black, The Walking Dead, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad … hopefully you’ve watched a TV series before.

The point is, what do all of these series have in common?

You need to watch all the episodes, in order, to truly enjoy it … but, once you’re “in”, you’re in and likely end up binge watching the whole series!

How do they suck you in and keep you watching?

Cliffhangers.

Or, as us marketers call them, opening and closing loops.

As you’re watching a TV series, they introduce five different story lines in one episode, but they don’t finish any of them in that episode. Instead, they make you wait until the next episode to see what happens; then, they close two of the previously established story lines … and start four more!

It’s never ending. As soon as one story line ends, two more start – keeping you hooked.

The idea of opening and closing loops is the core concept behind a Story-Based Series.

How To Use It

As I previously stated, send several emails on the same product/service/topic – anywhere from 2 to 10, depending on what you have to share.

As people get sucked into your story and start clicking on links and visiting pages, their actions trigger different Micro Sales Funnels.

Here are a few simple phrases that can be used to open loops:

• More on that later
• You’ll find out tomorrow
• In the next email you’ll receive X, so be on the lookout for it!

Finally, my last remaining tip is to write all these emails at once. Pick your story, map it out, where are you going to take people, what do you want them to click, how are you going to carry the story across several days. Then, write all 2-10 emails in one go.

These emails can be a rough draft at first, you simply want to make sure you’re opening and closing loops in a way that sucks people in.

If you break up when you write your emails, you’ll forget which loops you opened and closed and it won’t work.

Autoresponder Madness

A fellow by the name of Andre Chaperon is the grandfather of Story-Based Series (he calls them Soap Opera Sequences).

He put together a course called Autoresponder Madness that teaches how to write these Story-Based Series.

It’s a solid course and I highly recommend it, if this concept sounds interesting to you!

The course sales page: http://autorespondermadness.com

“Long” Course

The “Long” Course is the pattern I’ve been using with Crazy Eye Marketing for about a year.

Think of it as if you’re teaching your subscriber something long and complex. Consider every email (engagement) you send a lesson.

In my case, I teach the sales funnel concept by taking people through the sections they need to focus on, based on their order of importance and significance.

Of course, along the way, I dribble in different products and services I offer that make sales funnel development easier for my subscribers.

When To Use It

The “Long” Course model won’t fit every type of business; however, it works very well for businesses that offer courses/training/coaching and other services. You teach through this series and it makes a natural transition into selling a course, training, or coaching.

You also want to be able to provide a “linear” path for success – there’s a Point A and a Point B with clear steps to successfully get from Point A to Point B.

Back to my sales funnel “Long” Course example, the path for all sales funnels is the same: customers, business, delivery, the “meat”, emails, traffic, etc.

It’s a logical path to get from Point A to Point B.

Another example, weight loss: mindset ==> diets (simple to complex) ==> exercising (walk, run, first 5k) ==> supplements, etc.

This is another linear path from Point A to Point B. Of course, many people who are trying to lose weight jump straight to supplements and diet pills; however, the right way is to follow the “Long” course described above.

Example

I think the best way to describe the “Long” Course pattern is by providing an example. Picture it like this:

• “Long” Course Name: You should give it a name!
• Steps: How to get from Point A to Point B
• Lessons (emails/engagements): The particular blog posts, videos, podcasts, etc. you will send to your subscribers to teach them something about the particular step they’re on
• Products/Services: The corresponding products/service you offer as they relate to each step and/or lesson

As you can see, the “Long” Course is simply your content (blog posts, videos, white papers, reports, etc.) presented in an order that takes an individual from Point A to Point B.

Again, if you offer courses, training, coaching, or services – this pattern can be very effective!

Combining Patterns

I briefly want to address the fact the aforementioned Main Series patterns can certainly be combined.

For example, the majority of my Main Series for Crazy Eye Marketing is a long course. It works very well for what I offer and the market I serve. However, there are segments of it that are more 3 E styled and other segments that are Weekly “Pushes”.

Remember, the point of the Main Series is to gauge interest while building and maintaining a relationship.

You know your audience better than anyone else, if you think one pattern will work for one product and another pattern for another – mix it up! Or, better yet, split test to see which pattern performs better!

Continue Onward!

Click here to continue to WTF #3: Micro Sales Funnels That Make You Rich!

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

This series of posts started with you understanding the fact you're to act as a direct response marketer. (read the Intro here)

Since you're a small business, you need to make sure every bit of marketing you do has a specific & measurable goal.

You have neither the time nor the money to waste on stuff that doesn't work.

Ya gotta make it count!

One of the best ways to make your marketing count is by having a strategy and system to sell your stuff.

We call these systems Micro Sales Funnels.

Use Micro Sales Funnels To Sell EVERYTHING!

Micro Sales Funnels are sometimes called Product/Service Sales Funnels because they're strategically designed to help you sell specific product(s) and/or service(s).

Micro Sales Funnels are used to sell both physical and digital products, services, coaching, consulting, SaaS, and even to drive foot traffic to brick & mortar businesses.

Micro Sales Funnels can, and should, be used to sell everything.

So, what do these magical, all powerful, systems look like?

It depends on what you're trying to sell, but here are a few different Micros Sales Funnel blueprints!

The Opt-in Funnel

The Opt-in Funnel is the simplest Micro Sales Funnel; however, it's perfect for growing your email list and is typically the start of most other Micro Sales Funnel models.

You've seen a few examples of this funnel model in part 2 where we discussed using Squeeze Pages to convert paid traffic into email subscribers.

The Classic Sales Funnel (POS Funnel)

The Classic Sales Funnel is a Point Of Sale (POS) funnel because its purpose is to increase Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) at the POS by offering additional products/services as the customer goes through the checkout process.

This is accomplished through the implementation of various tactics like Order Bumps and 1-Click Up-sells or One-Time-Offers (OTO) & Down-sells. (yup, we talked about these in part 5)

The structure of the Classic Sales Funnel can vary based upon what you're offering via up-sells (OTOs) and down-sells … there's no “defined” structure; however, below are a few common Classic Sales Funnels.

The Physical Products Sales Funnel

This Classic Sales Funnel model is ideal for small businesses and entrepreneurs that sell physical products.

For a full breakdown of this funnel and the strategy behind it, please click here.

The Digital Products Sales Funnel

This Classic Sales Funnel model is ideal for small businesses and entrepreneurs that sell offer digital/info products.

For a full breakdown of this funnel and the strategy behind it, please click here.

The “Book” Sales Funnel

This Classic Sales Funnel model is ideal for service based businesses, coaches, and consultants that have a book to offer as their front-end and services, coaching, and/or consulting to offer on the back-end.

For a full breakdown of this funnel and the strategy behind it, please click here.

The High-End “Call/Application” Sales Funnel

This simple, yet effective sales funnel is ideal for getting people on the phone and/or to fill out an application for high-end services, coaching, consulting, and mastermind groups.

The power of this funnel comes from offering visitors two ways to get in touch with you – they can call now or schedule a call for later.

If they choose to schedule a call for later, but don't go through with it, reminder emails are triggered to bring them back. (You'll be amazed by how well this simple series works!)

The Product Launch Sales Funnel

The Product Launch Sales Funnel is designed to sell high value courses and training packages.

It combines emails with video content “dripped” out over a few days that pre-sell the course you're going to offer and culminates with the “launching” of your product.

The Autowebinar Sales Funnel

Webinars are virtual seminars where you're able to sell high priced products and services.

They're great because you're able to have people's attention for about 90 minutes which gives you ample time to gain their trust and present your offer.

An autowebinar, frequently called an “evergreen webinar”, is a webinar that runs automatically 24 hours a day, constantly selling for you.

Other Micro Sales Funnels

The Micro Sales Funnel blueprints shared above are a small sample of the various Micro Sales Funnels you can create … you're by no means limited by what's above. They're presented here to give you ideas and inspiration about directions you can head.

Also, if you don't quite understand what the heck you're looking at, it's perfectly OK right now.

The key thing I want you to remember is that the sole purpose of a Micro Sales Funnel is to help you sell specific product(s) and/or service(s).

Ways To Enter A Micro Sales Funnel

Hopefully you've read the previous parts of this series and you already know how to get people into your Micro Sales Funnels; however, if not – here's a recap!

Organic Traffic

Individuals can enter your Micro Sales Funnels by opt-ing in through an opt-in form on your site. (part 2)

This is accomplished by offering a Lead Magnet on topic X, which leads them into a Micro Sales Funnel that tries to sell a product/service people interested in topic X would want to buy.

Paid Traffic

If you're paying for traffic, you better have a Micro Sales Funnel in place! (part 2)

If you don't have a way to quickly recoup your ad spend, you're going to hurt your business.

After all, you're a direct response marketer … right?

Everything you do needs to have specific and measurable purpose.

The point of your marketing is to make you more money.

Marketing Automation

In part 3 we discussed using marketing automation to gauge our subscribers' interests.

I showed you this diagram:

To recap, the left hand side is a Straight Line Sales Funnel or “Main Series”.

Its purpose is to build and maintain a relationship with your subscribers by sending great content while simultaneously segmenting them based on their interests.

When a subscriber shows interest in a particular topic (ie. they click a link), they're automatically entered into a Micro Sales Funnel that attempts to sell a product or service they will likely buy.

Retargeting

Retargeting is another great way to get individuals into your Micro Sales Funnels. (part 4)

You can also use retargeting to “guide” individuals through your Micro Sales Funnels because not everyone is going to read every email you send them. However, if you send an email AND retarget them with relevant ads … they won't be able to avoid your message!

Summary

You NEED to use Micro Sales Funnels.

There is no better way to convert leads into paying customers while simultaneously increasing their Customer Lifetime Value.

There are many Micro Sales Funnel blueprints to choose from; however, the design you choose will depend on what you're trying to sell … not all Micro Sales Funnels are designed to sell the same stuff.

Some are better at selling more expensive training, courses, and services while others are excellent at selling low priced (<$100) products.

Finally, getting people to enter your Micro Sales Funnels is as simple as sending traffic to it!

Where To Go From Here

If the marketing strategy described in this series of blog posts sounds logical and interesting to you …

It's the same exact strategy taught in The Sales Funnel Training Vault … it's just, in there, we go into a lot more detail and cover all the technical steps as well.

Click here to learn more about The Sales Funnel Training Vault!

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

You're at the grocery store, about to checkout, when a Snickers bar catches your eye …

You throw it on the belt without giving it a second thought.

Then you think, “Hmm, I need something to wash it down!”, so you place a Red Bull on the belt as well.

The grocery store just increased your Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

Most physical stores are very, very good at positioning tantalizing products at the Point Of Sale (POS).

Products that get us to spend just a few more dollars with the business and increase our CLV.

So, physical stores are very good at this, but what happens when you're selling products and services online and you don't have your typical checkout with a register, clerk, and tantalizing products surrounding it?

You need to use some basic strategy and thoughtfulness + the right tools and you can increase CLV at the POS with ease!

This isn't just for Ecommerce!

Before moving on, I want to point out that this isn't just for Ecommerce!

All businesses, to include physical & digital products, services, coaches, consultants, and SaaS, should focus on optimizing their POS.

Consider things like warranties, additional support, bundling packages and offerings, or even partnering with other businesses for referrals and commissions.

There's no better time to increase CLV than when a customer already has his credit card out and is actively buying! 

POS Optimization Strategies

Before getting into the strategies, I recommend reading the article on Value Ladders because it will help you structure your offerings in ways to make POS optimization a breeze!

1) Pricing Tiers, Packages, & Bundles

Pricing tiers, packages, and bundles are great ways to increase a customers' order size.

By using a bit of pricing psychology, you're able to present offers in a way that appear “too good to be true” while simultaneously increasing the amount of money a customer is about to hand you.

Take a look at this example from a2Hosting:

The “Swift” package is a no-brainer … for less than a $1/mo more you get unlimited everything.

Why would anyone turn that down? No one would.

How about the “Turbo” package? It's nearly twice as much as the “Swift” package; however, it offers 20X faster speeds and the A2 Site Accelerator!

We all know speed is important and it's still less than $10/mo … so, I might as well swing it, right?

Here's an example of a bundle of physical products:

If you're doing laundry, you typically need detergent, dryer sheets, and maybe a little fabric softener every now and then!

Plus, if you purchased these items individually, it would cost roughly 30% more which makes the bundle a no-brainer!

2) 1-Click Up-Sells

A 1-click up-sell is an offer presented immediately AFTER the customer has purchased something.

This makes the 1-click up-sell incredibly powerful because the individual has already inserted their payment information and all it takes is “1 click” to add another product/service to their order.

1-click up-sells are a key ingredient in the Classic Sales Funnel models discussed in part 6!

Here's an example:

This is the page and offer an individual is presented with immediately after purchasing a survival folding knife.

The individual is already in the mindset of “I need survival gear” and has already purchased one item, so when they're presented with another item that's discounted no-less, it's a no-brainer!

3) Order Bump

The infamous “order bump” has risen in popularity over the last year or so due to the fact it works!

It's so simple too, which makes it another no-brainer to implement.

Here's an example of an order bump:

It's simply an additional, complementary offer made at checkout.

That's it!

The customer only has to tick a little box to add the product or service to their order.

It's actually quite similar to the 1-click up-sell; however, it's made right before the purchase as opposed to immediately after … but, they're both 1-click!

The Order Bump is typically easier to implement than the 1-click up-sell. If you're having a hard time figuring out a way to do the 1-click up-sell, try searching for a way to add an order bump to your checkout process!

4) Subscriptions

If you offer a product or service that needs to be replenished – offering a subscription can be a great way to increase order size because it will automatically keep the customer coming back for more!

Here's an example of a subscription from the Youpreneur membership site:

In order to stay a member of the community, you're charged $59/mo or $599/yr (a bundle!).

Also note the yearly subscription is incentivized by offering the equivalent of 3 months free, a free t-shirt, and discounted rates to live events!

Here's another subscription example:

Each container of the supplement contains 30 servings, which makes the “Repeat Delivery Every 30 Days” option incredibly tempting because I won't have to remember to go order more and by offering an extra 5% off, it becomes a no-brainer.

5) Order Bonuses & Rewards

Have you ever seen a message like this while shopping online:

“Spend just $5.91 more and get free shipping!”

Or …

These are order bonuses/rewards used to entice customers to increase their order size in order to receive the incentive!

These are typically super simple to implement and freakin' work!

How To Implement

Implementing these various tweaks is not as hard as you might think.

For example, offering a package/bundle is as simple as bundling products/services you already offer.

Other options, like the 1-click up-sell, will depend on your platform. A quick Google search will likely yield some answers.

Conduct searches like …

• [platform name] + 1-click up-sell or [platform name] + order bonuses. For example, shopify 1-click up-sell.

9 times out of 10, there is a plugin or add-on that will make whatever you're trying to accomplish possible.

Finally, there are various shopping carts like SamCart, ThriveCart, and ClickFunnels that integrate with many other platforms to make these tweaks possible.

Summary

Optimizing your Point Of Sale (POS) process is one of the most impactful areas to focus on because when a buyer is “in heat” they will keep buying until their needs are met or they run out of stuff to buy.

You never want the reason they stop buying to be that they've run out of stuff to buy. You need a plan and process in place to capitalize on the situation.

There are several strategies for optimizing your POS to include creating bundles, 1-click up-sells, order bumps, subscriptions, and bonuses/rewards.

Finding the right tool to make this happen can be as simple as installing a plugin or add-on or integrating with another shopping cart platform.

Click here to go to Part 6: How To Use Micro Sales Funnels To Convert More Leads Into Customers While Increasing CLV

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

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

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!

Being that I spend all day, every day, building sales funnels … I'm always checking out new tools to make my life easier.

I first heard about SamCart over a year ago; however, within the last few months they've done some massive promotions and I decided to give it a shot.

After playing around with it for a few weeks, I've come to the following conclusion:

I wouldn't recommend SamCart in its current form and price point of $99/mo for most people. (I would pay $20/mo in its current form)

If you offer free consultations, or want to, this post is for you.

It'll give you an airtight strategy for scheduling more consultations and closing more sales.

Let's get into it – I present to you The Free Consultation / High End Sales Funnel ~

Scenarios

I'll use a few scenarios throughout this post to help better illustrate the funnel:

• Dental Surgeon (DS) – Dental implants
• Financial Advisor (FA) – Full wealth management
• Marketing Services (MS) – Sales funnel service

Traffic

While there are a million and one ways to drive traffic to your sales funnel, I'm only going to focus on three categories for this particular funnel:

“House” Traffic

People that are currently on your email/contact list. They already have a general idea of who you are and what you do.

Search PPC / Organic

People searching for the service/solution you provide and arriving on your site in the process. This includes both paid traffic and organic (“free”/SEO).

• DS – Dental implants near Richmond VA
• FA – Financial advisor near Richmond VA
• MS – Sales funnel service

Facebook Ads / Other

People that don't know you, but likely have a problem you can solve.

• DS – People with dentures
• FA – Physicians in the “fellow” stage
• MS – Ecommerce businesses

Collecting Contact Info

The particular traffic source will set the stage for “how” you'll collect an individual's contact information and/or get them to schedule a consultation.

“House” & Search Traffic

Since these people know you and/or know they have a problem, you're able to ask them to schedule a consultation right away. There's little point in waiting.

For this reason, you will direct them to a dedicated landing page where they can schedule a consultation with you; however, I recommend giving the option to request to only receive more info as they may not be ready for a consultation.

For example:

Upon entering their email, checking the “To schedule my FREE consultation” box, and clicking the submit button … two things happen:

1. They'll be greeted with a form to fill out in order to schedule their consultation (I personally use and recommend https://youcanbook.me; however, there are a ton of similar services and I'm sure you'll find one that works for you).
   1. Note: Instead of going straight into the scheduling of a consultation you could instead implement an application process where you'll ask for more pertinent information to make sure they're the right candidate before scheduling a call.
2. They'll be added to the autoresponder tool where they'll be tagged as “Wants a consultation”; however, this tag will trigger the “Don't Forget” Email Series in 24 hours, if they do not schedule their consultation. If they schedule their consultation within 24 hours, the “Wants a consultation” tag will be replaced with a “Scheduled consultation” tag, which will trigger the the “Consultation Prep” Email Series.

If the individual checks the “More information” box, they're added to the autoresponder tool with the tag ” Wants more information”. This will trigger the “Education” Email Series.

Facebook Ads / Other Traffic

You need to treat people that arrive on your site via Facebook and other traffic sources (other than your contact list and search traffic) differently for two main reasons:

1. They probably don't know you, unless you're targeting your fans and/or are “recognized”
2. They're not actively trying to solve their problem unlike when they are conducting searches on Google

Instead of hitting them with a “free consultation” offer, give them something else that re-iterates the fact they have a problem, to qualify them, and to establish yourself as an authority.

I'm talking about a Lead Magnet. Here are a few examples:

• DS – Dentures vs Dental Implants – The definitive comparison.
• FA – About to make the big bucks? Here are 5 investments you'll want in place before the cash starts rolling in!
• MS – 7 sales funnel leaks 98% of Ecommerce stores have … and how to fix them!

Lead Magnet Tactics

There are two main ways you can handle the delivery of these Lead Magnets:

1. Traditional – Make the Lead Magnet into a PDF or video, setup a squeeze page, and give it out in exchange for their email address
2. Retargeting – Make the Lead Magnet a regular blog post or page on your site and run ads to your post. Then, retarget individuals that have seen your post with an offer to register for a free consultation and/or to receive more information (like the landing page example above). This method works because now they have a better idea of who you are, what you do, and the problem(s) they have.

Schedule On The Spot

As you see in the example Landing Page above, we only ask for their email and for them to check a box.

We don't ask them to schedule their consultation until after they've taken that first step.

Why?

Asking someone to schedule a call is a bigger “ask” than simply asking for their email. The individual will need to check their calendar to see when they're available, compare it to your calendar, then fill out a more in-depth form in order to schedule the consultation.

Because of all the extra “stuff” involved with scheduling a call, a lot of people won't set up the consultation right away.

They'll think to themselves, “I'll just do it later” … but, they wont … unless you remind them!

So, if someone says they want to schedule a consultation, but doesn't – follow up with a few reminder emails (“Don't Forget” Series) that direct them straight to the scheduling form.

Remember to re-iterate the benefits of the consultation, what they'll receive from the consultation, and how they have a problem that needs to be fixed.

While many people won't schedule the consultation right away – some will. Prep them with the “Consultation Prep” Series.

“Consultation Prep” Series

The “Consultation Prep” Series is a series of emails sent to an individual after they register for their consultation that “preps” them for the call.

You can give them something to read, ask them to fill out a survey that requests more information than what they gave when they scheduled the call, a read-ahead of questions you'll ask so they can have answers prepared, etc. Basically, whatever you need to send in order to make the consultation run smoothly.

“Consultation” List

The “Consultation” List is the list of individuals that have had a consultation with you. Ideally, the majority of these individuals will also be “buyers” and you'll have an established relationship with them. In this case, you'll have a normal client relationship that you'll need to maintain.

For the individuals that don't become “buyers” – treat them a little differently than the general public. They certainly know they want help in an area, but maybe they just weren't ready or maybe they didn't feel like YOU were the right person for them. Whatever the reason – they didn't commit.

And, while not everyone will be a perfect fit for YOU, they're serious enough to schedule a consultation and you can still help them get pointed in the right direction. Who knows, maybe that particular service wasn't a good fit for them; it doesn't mean the next problem they face wont require your services. Or, they may refer someone else to you if you help them the best you can.

“Education” Series / Article

The Education Series is a series of emails for the individuals that don't know you, what you offer, or their problems as well – the intent of the series is to educate them on those points.

This is accomplished by sending content that makes them aware of the problem(s) they're facing, the result of fixing those problems, handling objections like time and money, case studies, and other educational material that's helpful, informative, and motivates them to think the same way you do.

The point is to show the person they have a problem and you're the solution.

The call-to-action (CTA) is then to schedule a free consultation with you where you'll close the deal.

“House” List

No matter how hard you try, even with all the fancy email series and autoresponders, most people will not schedule a consultation with you. (If you happen to prove this wrong, let me know!)

It's OK, don't take it personally.

It doesn't mean they never want your help.

People are busy. People forget. People get distracted.

The ultimate point here is they've at least shown some interest in you, your business, the service(s) you offer, the problem they have … something … and you don't want to just let them wander off into the sunset.

For this reason, add them to your “House” List where you send more generalized content, recommend other products/services you offer, and continue building and maintaining a relationship with them.

Who knows, maybe six months down the road they will finally decide to fix the problem and schedule that free consultation!

Want More?

Do you want more awesome sales funnels like this one? Check out the Sales Funnel Training Vault!