There are a lot of ways to make money online, but the simplest way to do it is to create a simple sales funnel and promote your products and services.
In this post, I will share how to create a funnel for your online business.
What is a marketing funnel?
Have you heard of a “Marketing Funnel?”
If you haven’t, don’t worry – we’ll go over exactly what it means in a second.
If you have, I’ll bet you haven’t realized that this singular concept runs virtually every business on planet earth.
And whether you realize it or not, it’s the key to understanding how a business is run.
Here’s the concept in a nutshell.
If you google the word “funnel,” you’ll likely see an image of a plastic mold with a wide opening at the top, slowly getting narrow the deeper it goes down.
This is a perfect picture of how any product or service is sold. It’s what we call “the customer journey.”
Here’s an example of how this looks in real life.
Think about your local McDonalds…
At the top of the funnel are people who drive by that McDonald’s every day.
Further down we those who stop and hit the drive-through.
Further down are those that don’t just get a cheeseburger, but fries and a coke.
Then even further down are those that come back later and bring their whole family!
Starting to make sense?
Mcdonald’s goal then is to help guide their target customers deeper down the ‘funnel.’
Here’s an example…
Let’s say Joe is a target customer. McDonald’s first job is to plant a location central to where people like Joe go to work drive by every day.
Next, Mcdonald’s offers a special deal on coffee that would appeal to a busy guy like Joe – so he stops and drives through.
Next, a pleasant cashier asks if Joe would like to grab a breakfast sandwich and a hashbrown. Joe conceds and goes deeper in the funnel.
The final step of the funnel is when we see Joe, strapped for time, picking up McDonald’s on the way home for the family.
He has gone from simply a random car on the highway, to a highly valuable customer.
Well, that’s great for McDonald’s but how does it affect YOUR online business?
An online business is pretty similar.
First are the drive-by customers who see your ad on their newsfeed. They aren’t customers, they haven’t joined your email list, they simply know you exist.
As you get further down, a smaller portion of people not only know who you are, but have taken an action like subscribing to your email list.
Even further down are those who not only know who you are, have signed up to your email list, but have taken the plunge and made a purchase.
(We can even go further than that and note an even smaller group who have made multiple purchases)
Once you’ve got an idea of how these funnels work it’s hard NOT to see them in every business.
How to Create a Funnel For Your Online Business
how do we set something up like this in our online business?
I’ve broken the process down into three steps. Be sure to follow this in order; you won’t believe how many times I’ve seen online businesses fail because they get these three steps wrong or mixed up.
Figure out what you’re going to sell
Figure out what do you want to promote and sell.
Here are a few options:
-Physical products that you purchase wholesale and sell retail (Kitchenware, Bath Supplies, etc.).
-Physical products that you create yourself (Jewelry, Hand-Knit Scarves, etc.)
-Services You Can Offer (Facebook Ads, Virtual Assistance, Consulting, etc.)
-Find an Affiliate Network and sell products as an affiliate (Clickbank, Digistore, Shareasale, etc.)
Sign Up for an Email Service Account
Remember, the goal is to guide your audience deeper into your funnel. So instead of blasting your friends, family, and the whole gosh darn internet with ads for your product – build an Email List of subscribers and send valuable emails that engage, excite, entertain, and ultimately persuade them to become a customer.
If you haven’t started building your email list then I highly recommend signing up for an Email Service provider before doing anything else.
You can even use my recommendation here for a free trial.
Invite People to Join Your Email List
You probably expected me to say you should learn Facebook Ads, YouTube, Ads, open a Pinterest Account, etc.
While those things are awesome and I use them myself, when you’re just getting started, I always recommend engaging with friends, family, and the Facebook groups you’re already in and inviting them to join your email list first.
Then, ask them to share your newsletter with someone who might enjoy it!
This may be hard to hear, but the truth is, if you’re not willing to invite people you already know to join your email list, then it’s probably not ready for you to spend money on growing it through advertising just yet.
FAQ: How to Create a Funnel For Your Online Business
What is a Landing Page?
This is a perfect question for our discussion of funnels today. A Landing Page (also called a squeeze page or an optin page) is a place your customer “lands” to take a specific action, like signing up to your email list.
Unlike a website which has tons of places to click, your landing page has one goal, collect their email address.
Once you create a Landing Page using your favorite software or email service provider, you’ll receive a link to send to potential customers so they can instantly join your email list.
What’s the Best Paid Traffic Channel to Grow an Email List?
As I mentioned above, the best place to start is not by using Paid Channels, but by inviting people you already know to join, and ask them to pass it along to anyone THEY might know.
That being said, I do believe Facebook ads are still the reigning champion of easily collecting high-quality leads at the best price. If you’d like to learn more about Facebook advertising, click here to learn how to do it.
