Once I had the sales funnel explained to me, I realised what I needed to do to start an online business. A sales funnel is basically a number of processes which a website visitor is sent through.
Initially, they land on a website or landing page where they can hand over their email address in exchange for some value of some sort.
In some cases this is a free ebook. On this website, I offer a free video series which explains some methods of building an online business and making money from the internet.
You should see a sign up form on this website where you can access this information. Feel free to sign up with no obligation just to see the process of how this works. You can always unsubscribe at any time and your details will never be shared.
The Sales Funnel Explained – The Landing Page
The landing page is where the sales funnel starts for the visitor. But before this step, the visitor had to have found an advert or piece of content in order to come to the website. So really, a sales funnel starts with marketing. Without marketing, no one will come to the landing page and you can’t start building subscribers. More on marketing later on!
Let’s start with the landing page.
A landing page is a simple web page which is designed with one purpose – to get a website visitor to subscribe to an email list. For this reason, it’s far better to have a web page which is completely separate from a website. If you’re using a website (like this one) there’s many distractions and options for a visitor. The more options there are, the less likely a visitor is to take a specific action on your website. Here’s an example of a landing page which is much simpler than a website:
As you can see, this page is very simple. There’s only two choices for someone to make once they’ve landed on this page: Sign up or leave. With a website there’s many more choices to make. On this landing page I offer my ebook Affiliate Marketing For Beginners. You can see a list of benefits, a picture of the book and an opt-in form.
Testing and Measuring
As with all elements of a sales funnel, the online marketing tests and measures. This means they track their results in terms of adverts, opt-in rates and cross test different landing pages, pictures and emails to see what works best.
Across 1000 advert impressions, one landing page might perform considerably better than another. It is the job of the marketer to find the best performing ad copy, targeted audience, pictures and so on, to give the visitor the best experience on the way through the sales funnel.
If the targeting is good and the right person is sent into the sales funnel, they are more likely to be in sync with what you are offering and therefore purchase a product from your sales funnel once they have opted into your email list.
The Sales Funnel Explained – Email Marketing
Once a website visitor becomes an email subscriber, they have entered into the sales funnel. Most bloggers and website owners want this because it means they can continue marketing their products to someone long after they have left their website.
If someone visits a blog or website, they only have a small ‘window’ of opportunity with which to purchase a product. Once they opt-in to an email list, this time period is vastly extended to weeks, months and even years and decades.
Cold, Warm and Red Hot Visitors
A sales funnel is designed to turn visitors into buyers. Some visitors might be “cold” in that they aren’t really looking to buy anything, and they don’t know the value of what you’re selling. They need a little warming up before they are even likely to consider buying something from you.
A warm visitor might have an idea about what you’re selling already. They might just need a little encouragement before they buy. Or they might have a few mental reservations which you need to address in order to help them make the right decision for them. With certain sales funnels, a number of emails are sent out to a subscriber to help them build trust in the products you are selling, in you and to overcome any scepticism they might have.
A red hot visitor is ready to buy. They know what the product is and have their credit card in hand. You just need to make it easy for them to do so and make the buying process straight forward and simple.
Products To Sell
Anyone can build their own sales funnel and learn the process of building an email list and creating an online business – see ready made sales funnel. One of the main obstacles for most people trying to do this is the products they choose to sell. With affiliate marketing, anyone can build a sales funnel and use other people’s products within their funnel to earn commissions. A good product range should include multiple products, a range of up-sells, membership products which offer recurring commissions, and high ticket products.
With a product range, your sales funnel offers a product funnel too! This means even after you’ve made a sale, your product range offers more products to existing customers which you can earn commissions from. This can happen even years after you have sold an introductory product to a customer. With a built in sales team, this happens automatically, even without your input. As long as you make the initial referral, you can benefit from sales made later on with a product range. (Sign up on this site to access the free workshops and learn more).
Marketing – The “Heartbeat” Of An Online Business
If cash is the blood “flow” of a business, marketing is its heartbeat. Without marketing, an affiliate marketer won’t get people to opt in to their email list. They won’t be able to promote and sell products. Basically, they won’t have a business.
I struggled for a long time trying to build an online business. I missed a vital element to the bigger picture. Once I had the sales funnel explained to me in terms of marketing, I realised where I was going wrong.
A business is about people and you need to help people through your marketing and products if you’re going to be successful. Without the right people, message or the right customer journey, people aren’t going to buy from you. Giving value is therefore the most important thing!
Unless there’s people in your sales funnel who ‘get’ your message and value your products, you’re not going to sell anyone!
The Sales Funnel Explained – Get Started
If you’d like to learn more and get started with your own online business, sign up on this website for access to the free workshop videos. You’ll discover how online marketers make money online and how you can too!