“Funnels aren’t easy to build … you only have to build one successful one to be able to change your life.”
~ Rory Vaden
What is a funnel?
Savvy businesspeople in Rockland, Bergen, and Westchester know that a funnel is an effective tool to drive prospects through the marketing process (buyer’s journey) step by step from attracting a prospect to helping them decide. In simplest terms, a funnel is an automated system to build trust, educate prospects and continuously nurture them until they are ready to buy. They consist of email, videos, and landing pages.
What are the stages of a Funnel?
The five stages of a funnel are awareness -suspect, Interest-prospect, decision-lead, conversion-customer, and loyalty- ambassador. Once in the funnel, the prospect is driven through the funnel towards a decision to buy or leave. Smart marketers will entice prospects with valuable information pertaining to the product or service and will trade that information for the prospect’s email and permission to continue the conversation. This way if the timing is wrong at present and today the answer is no, not at the moment, you can communicate with the prospect, continue to educate them, and then make an offer via a nurturing campaign. If you have questions, feel free to contact us at 845-536-2019.
Where Did Funnels Come From
The basics of marketing do not change. A good marketer understands the value proposition as well as how the product and service can help their market achieve their goals or dreams. Then the marketer finds the best place to reach the ideal customer and tells them a compelling value story. Funnels, in many ways, are the descendants of the long-copy sales letter, done online with all the extra advantages and technology that the online environment offers. In 1974 the Wall St. Journal launched what would become the most successful sales letter of all time. The story of the “Two Young Men” has been responsible for driving $2 Billion of subscriptions from 1974 to 2003. However, The American Magazine used some of these ideas as early as 1918. Check them out here… . https://swiped.co/file/wallstreet-letter-conroy/ and your funnel should utilize what works from the past too.
How to maximize your return from a funnel
Kaizen is the Japanese term for change for better or continuous improvement. The Wall St. Journal’s ad was continuously tested, headlines, sub-headlines, copy, length of the letter over the years until they had a proven its effectiveness. It became the control (the standard to which other pieces will be compared). Then they continued to test… two pages, four pages, eight pages, headline, sub-headlines, and copy… but a version of the control prevailed. There are two takeaways. First, almost every marketing idea is built upon a proven technique from the past. Second, wise marketers let the market tell them what works by A-B testing. They start with proven techniques, but A-B testing allows them to constantly improve and maximize the return on their investment. The “Two Young Men” sales letters took years to perfect… and they kept testing to try to beat the control. This is true of funnels too. Funnels are not a get-rich-quick program. Depending upon the complexity of your funnel, it can take several months to a year to maximize your returns. However, if you utilize A-B testing, you will see the trend, speed the process and let the market guide you to success.
The Seven Benefits of Funnels
Funnels are a great investment and offer the following benefits:
- Attract new leads and qualifies them
- Automate the marketing and sales process allowing your salespeople to spend their time speaking with people who understand your product or service and have significant interest in it.
- Pre-qualify prospects and turn them into qualified leads.
- Enables you to continue the conversation with people who have some interest but are not ready to buy by placing them into a nurture funnel.
- Build your brand awareness, trust and enhance your relationship with leads prior to your sales team contacting them.
- Increases your conversion or rate of closes
- Allows you to continue the conversation after the initial sale by onboarding and nurturing them which allows you to increase your lifetime value of the customer by upselling and cross-selling them.
What is the difference between a funnel and a website?
A website allows the visitor to browse from topic to topic and links multiple web pages that deliver information regarding the company, the owners or key players, the products and services offered and other pertinent information. The visitor controls where they go, and the sequence of information consumed. On the other hand, a funnel moves the visitor in a linear process starting with increasing their awareness, to building their interest, to delivering information that will help them decide, to an offer to convert them to a customer, and finally nurtures them to become loyal ambassadors of the company. The visitor is moved in a linear fashion and does not have links to leave the funnel, so their choice is to continue or leave. While a quality website will help the visitors progress through this process a funnel is a more direct tool. You might compare a high-end website to an effective company brochure and a funnel to a sales letter. The goal of a funnel is to move the suspect along until they decide to either do business with you or not. If you have questions, you can email us, or call us at 845-536-2019 and we’ll answer them.
8 types of funnels that can help compete and win
in Rockland, Bergen, Westchester, or anywhere!
Below are some of the most common funnels…
1. The sales letter Funnel
A sales funnel can be either a short or long-form online version of a sales letter. Traditional sales letters have successfully been used for over 100 years to convince readers to buy. Online sales letter funnels can be short or long sales letters and order forms. Which one is best? The best way to know is to let your market tell you by A-B testing. A more sophisticated sales letter can also include the following components:
A. lead magnet funnel
The lead magnet funnel offers a free report or eBook, fact sheet or case study, or free consultation in exchange for their emails or their booking a consultation and continuing the conversation. The lead magnet must have value pertaining to the offer.
B. trust-trigger or tripwire or irresistible offer funnel
a low-ticket item with large value to have the prospect buy something, even if it is just a few dollars it still has a much larger perceived value.
C. profit bump or upsell
The profit bump or upsell funnel is offered to those who say yes to an offer. This can be a premium version of the product or a complementary product at a bundled price. These special deals offered after the initial sale can not only increase the amount of the sale but when bundling an additional product or service can begin the process of cross-selling more offerings to the client.
D. An exit pop or drop-down offer
Exit pop or drop-down offer funnels are for those who either are leaving the page or initially say no to an offer. It pops up as the prospect is leaving the page and gives the prospect an offer that is hard to say no to or a valuable report with or without an offer or a coupon.
“97% of video marketers reported that video increased user understanding of a product or service,
and 76% reported video helped them increase sales.”
– (Wyzowl)
2. The video Sales letter Funnel
It is a sales letter funnel with a video. Yes, I could have listed it as the 5th version of the sales letter, but when done correctly it is a powerhouse deserving of its own listing as the video does the selling and presents your value proposition in a highly persuasive manner.
The key to an effective video sales letter is to take the time to develop your video it must command attention, focus on and amplify the pain of letting the problem continue to exist, build trust and authority, introduce the solution (your product or service), proof that your solution can relieve the pain, effectively communicate the benefits of your product or service and why they need you, an effective call to action including what is in it for them… Take the time to storyboard your video and work out a thorough script that covers the points mentioned above and moves the viewer emotionally to act. When the prospect responds, you have a very hot prospect who is ready to speak with your team to help them buy (close.)
3. The landing page or squeeze page
An effective landing or squeeze page is simply designed pages with a powerhouse headline that most often evokes curiosity. Their bare-bones nature excludes fancy design, logos links to other pages. The short-copy landing page included a headline and a few benefits need to pique their curiosity so that they say yes (to either providing your information, setting a consultation, or buying.) The long-copy landing page will engage the readers’ emotions, highlight the pain of not acting expound on benefits, layout and expand the benefits of your product or service, build trust and authority, and deliver an effective call to action that moves the reader to act. Once again, the best choice is the one that yields better results via A-B testing.
the above image is a short-form landing page, to see the long-form version of this landing page click this link
4. The webinar or live-demo funnel
This is a funnel that invites the recipient to either a live demo of the product or a webinar. If your webinar is successful, you can automate the webinar and have the webinar start in a few minutes or whatever times you want from the time the register for it. An automated webinar is a great tool for small businesses to qualify leads while saving time.
5. The Beta offer Funnel
The beta offer is great when you are just getting into a market, launching a new product or service, or are entering a new niche for your products or services. You offer beta program discounts in exchange for permission to use their feedback in marketing and for referrals.
6. The webpage-funnel
This is a hybrid of a webpage and a long-format sales funnel. It will give them the basic information, prove who it delivers value to, answer their questions, it may offer a lead magnet such as an eBook, fact sheet,t or let the user sample the product or service such as a 14-day free trial. Additionally, a webpage-funnel will build authority and trust via reviews, testimonials and/or case studies. Finally, these funnels will offer ways to contact you, set up a no-obligation consult, email questions, and deliver powerful calls to action throughout the page. This is ideal for business people who want more leads from their web pages.
7. On-boarding funnel
This funnel will help welcome the new customer and continue the conversation. It not only indoctrinates the new client but also reduces the occurrence of buyers’ remorse.
8. Nurture funnels
There are two types of nurture funnels. The first is for customers. They have bought from you for the first time they have completed the onboarding funnel and you want to touch them 2-3 times per month to educate them, entertain them and offer additional products and services if available. The nurture funnel for new customers keeps you top of mind for the moment they are ready to buy more. Nurture funnels are a great way to continue to educate prospects who had interest and for whatever reason did not buy. The funnel keeps the conversation going allowing you to continue to build your products and services value in their mind as well ask keeping your company “top-of-mind”. Then when the timing is right, they raise their hand and ask you to sell them!
How long does a funnel take to build and how long does it take to get to full potential?
A simple short-form funnel or a funnel page can be built in about a week. A complex funnel can take 3-6 weeks, a bit longer if video is included. The key to getting any funnel to perform is A-B testing. With a basic funnel you can start to see results within a month or two. Let’s say you are using email to deliver a video sales letter for a simple proposition that has a tremendous perceived value and is easily understood. The Dolar Shave Club and Harry’s Razors are examples of companies that make an offer that makes no money but gain new customers. The money is made in the lifetime value of selling the customer new razor cartridges and save products. The Dollar Shave club offer a razor a couple of cartridges and several tube of saving lotions for $5 with free shipping and handling for new customers. If you are not thrilled with your current razor, you may buy this as there is very little risk and you get a great value. The results will come in quickly. However, if you are not making an irresistible offer or if your sale process is more complex your results will come in much slower. Additionally, Harry’s or the Dollar Shave Club have enough financial backing to A-b split test at a level to give them enough data to quickly determine the effectiveness of each offer. A complex offer with a complex funnel will take longer and may can take years maximize your returns. However, with A-B testing you can see improvement over 3-6 months and it will continue until you have your control A.K.A. – your most profitable funnel.
Accelerated Advertising, located in Rockland County, is an advertising and marketing agency that provides cutting-edge warm-market, online, traditional advertising, and guerrilla marketing. Based in Nanuet at the center of Rockland County, we service companies locally, in the metro New York region, and as far away as California and New Zealand without missing a beat. The most effective advertising and marketing tell a truthful story that resonates with the target audience and moves them to action. Our objective is to work with firms that deliver real value and position their offering in front of their ideal customers; effectively persuading them that our client is the best choice to fulfill their needs and desires. If you are hungry to grow in an ever-improving, yet controlled manner, we may be a great fit. I invite you to browse our website and look forward to discussing your needs. Our goal is to develop long-term relationships with quality companies. We succeed by helping good people achieve their goals. The start is always a no-obligation meeting. If we both feel we are a good fit, we will develop a plan of action to help you efficiently achieve your goals. If we are not a good fit, we will direct you as best we can.
– Al Garlick
President
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, the trouble is I don’t know which half.”
~ John Wannamaker
Three hallmarks of successful advertisers & marketers
Over the years, Accelerated Advertising has observed three things:
- Companies that deliver excellent value and invest in marketing and advertising – survive difficult times and grow and thrive in normal conditions. Those who do not offer superior value must invest considerable sums in advertising and sales. They must find people who are uneducated about the product or service and unaware of completion that provides better value. In a word, they need to spend lots of money to find the “suckers.” P.T. Barnum said were born every minute. (We have no interest in working with “snake-oil salespeople.”)
- Businesses that invest in tracking their advertising and marketing on average grow 30% faster. Over time, they spend 30% less than competitors who “save” money by not tracking their marketing.
- Businesses that test their results find the most effective marketing. Not every marketing activity will be a home run. However, savvy marketers will accelerate their results by testing small, dropping activities that do not do as well as others, and investing in the activities with the best returns. Those that commit to constant improvement enhance their growth and profits.
The team at Accelerated understands that you’re looking for a marketing partner that can help your organization grow. They are here to help you develop and implement the right strategy and continue to improve its effectiveness over time. If you have questions or would like to discuss how we might help you, please schedule a 30-minute consultation at a time that is convenient for you.
WE DELIVER RESULTS
A marketing agency that has your back
We understand that you’re busy running your business. You don’t have time to learn about and stay up-to-date with all types of marketing and advertising. You certainly do not have time to implement, test, and revise marketing programs constantly. You just want more customers, controlled growth, and a marketing agency that has your back.
At Accelerated Advertising, we are dedicated to helping our clients develop the most cost-effective strategies available. Our team understands your desires, what your customers are looking for, how to engage them, educating them, and convincing them to choose you to fulfill their needs.
CALL US TODAY: 845-536-2019
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