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I’m pretty sure that you’ve heard the term funnel once or twice already. It’s been used for ages, but lately it got some new meanings. So, what is a funnel and how can Simple Funnel Systems help you in your online business?
In it’s basic form, a funnel is the way we operate when we see something of interest. It can be depicted by a simple graphics like this.
First, you’ll have to tell people about your product. There will be no sales if they don’t know you, right? This step is building awareness. You can do that in many ways, the most obvious (and widely used) is by using social media. You build a campaign and publish it, hopefuly getting people’s attention.
Since there are stats that we (the buyers) need at least some 6-7 reminders about the offer before it really becomes interesting, this is not a one-time work. You’ll have to do it many times.
Of course, there are better (and more expensive) ways to build awareness. One of them for sure is paid advertising, being on Facebook or Google or something else. This usually brings results much faster, but can cost drastically more, in both time and money.
Once you’ve allerted people about your offer, you’ll have to present it to them in such a way that they start to consider buying it. This includes presentations that show people how your product can solve their specific problem(s). If you convince me that your solution solves something that I’ve been dealing with, you have a customer. It’s that simple, but in no way easy to do. Here, your qualities as a copy writer and presenter will come to full effect. If you’re not the kind of a guy that knows these things, it’s better to hire someone than to do it wrong. Remember, people who get here are already interested – if you make a wrong move, you’re literally throwing away the money you could’ve earned.
Once you convince me, that is, the interested observer, that your solution is capable of doing something useful for me, you’ve got yourself a customer. I will gladly pull out my card and spend some bucks on the product, because I know it will benefit me.
This is the step where you earn money. Congrats.
These two steps are very important for any business.
Loyalty simply means that you and your product are so good that the customer will keep using it and eventually come back for more. This includes all after-sales support and activities, as well as product quality, of course.
And when the customer is really happy with your product, he will eventually become your advocate. He will knowingly recommend your solution to his circle of people and will do the best job for you regarding spreading the good word. No matter what your advertising budget size is, this is by far the best advertising you can imagine.
You’ve seen the advertising where big shops advertise some product they’re selling with 90% off, right? And possibly wondered why are they advertising this small item and how can it be profitable with such a discount?
It’s very simple and very logical. All they want is to get you into the shop. They’re willingly giving away certain products with negative margins. Why? Because they know that you will not buy this item only. Instead, once they have you in the shop, they’ll advertise other stuff and do their best to sell you more expensive items too. In the end, we’re somehow all happy. The shop made sales, and the customer (you and me) walks out happy because of a bargain they got.
Can you see the similarity? They get your attention by offering something crazy (Awareness). They convince you that it’s such a bargain that you should take it (Consideration). It’s a logical step to buy it (Conversion). And if you’re happy with everything, you will return to the shop (Loyalty) and even tell your friends about it (Advocacy). Circle completed.
Online, things operate by the same principles, with certain adaptations because of the media itself. The main points are still there, though.
If you’ve ever bought anything online, you’ve seen the drill: the front-end offer, which is something you might need, almost as a cheap bait. It solves some problem(s), but it’s usually limited in some way. Then, if you want to remove these limitatios, you have a chance to buy upgrades (OTO – One Time Offer) that adds specific functionalities. So, basically, your journey is something like this (completely made up, based on a purchase of a simple WordPress plugin):
You buy a really good deal, because it solves one or more of your problems or at least saves you some time doing something. It could be a plugin, a training, anything. It will sell for a very low price, usually between $7 and $37.
Here, you get to buy an extension to the front offer. It can be an additional functionality of the plugin, maybe some extended training, anything. It adds value to the product you’ve already bought, and since you might need it, you’ll likely take it also. This will likely cost you a bit more, maybe between $27 and $67.
Now that you already have quite some functionality, it’s time to bring on some special training that will show you some special cases about how and when your new software will perform the best. It’s actually useful, and you end up buying it for something like $47.
If the vendor is established, you’ll likely reveive and offer for a membership on his platform where you’ll have access to even more software, trainings and tips. This will be a recurring offer and will usually cost you something like $17/month or even more.
Assuming you buy everything, you’ve just spent a total of $98, plus you’ll be paying the vendor additinal $17 per month until you cancel. But you’re happy, because you’ve got what you need. Please note that the actual funnel may vary, which is totally in the vendor’s hands.
Well, the vendor is even happier than you. After getting you into the funnel by offering a cheap $7 solution, he ended up earning additional $91 by selling you upgrades.
If you’ve ever thought about running an online busines, you must consider this philosophy. You should not be satisfied by selling something alone, whatever it is. You must retain the customer inside you funnel and sell more to them. Actually, it is probably the only method where you can make real money.
If you only sell a $7 solution, no matter how good it is, you’ll quickly hit the limits. There are only so many people you can reach that actually need your solution. So, let’s assume it’s really good and you’ve invested $1,000 in advertising. You’ll maybe sell 500 copies, and then it slowly stops, unless you throw more money in advertising. You’ll end up earning $2,500 ($3,500 – $1,000 invested), which is not bad, but let’s compare it with a situation where you put together a simple funnel.
Here, you’ll also sell the 500 copies of your front-end offer, bringing you the $2,500 in profits. Now you’ll have these 500 customers in your pipeline and it’s up to you where you take them. Why not taking them to the second offer, where you’ll add something valueable to your offer and sell it for $27? It’s been proven many times that people only need a fraction of convincing after they’ve made the initial purchase. You should always care about the upgrade offers – they should compliment the initial offer. Meaning, it should be an upgrade (like extended functionality), it should add value to your initial offer.
Assuming you’ve taken care of that, it’s somehow accepted (stats) that usually 20-30% of people decide on your upgrade offer. Taking the lower number into account, it means additional 100 sales at $27, which means additional $2,700 in your pocket.
Got the picture? You’ve just jumped from earning $2,500 to a total of $5,200, without ANY additional advertising cost.
Now, imagine you can put together some additional offers as upgrades, maybe even a membership that will bring you recurring income.
Then, you take $1,000 out of that and repeat with another product funnel. And yet another.
Running an online business can take two major roads, and each has its own pros and cons. Let’s take a quick look.
Running an affiliate business means, in short, promoting other people’s products and earning commissions at every sale. Which is great, and a business model we can see all around us today. It has some major advantages:
On the other hand, there are some negatives:
It’s great for starting an online business.
Acting as a vendor is a totally different story. Yes, you’ll have to work a little more, but the outcome is completely different. Here are the pros:
And, the cons:
All in all, to make it big, there are much better chances with this model. And, if the product is evergreen, you can count on sales for years after the initial work is done.
One of the ways to get started quickly is to get a good mentor. I can sincerely recommend John Thornhill and his trainings.
Take a look HERE.
Once you understand the basic philosophy of this process, it’s not that complicated, really. You can easily do everything in WordPress, building pages that correspond to the funnel steps, and linking everything together properly.
One thing a beginner usually stops at are the delivery pages. After all, once the sale is done, you have to point the customer to a page where he can download his purchase. This is not so complicated, but – how do you prevent this page from being accessible to everyone? People can find your page online and there you go, noone will ever buy it when it’s free. This can be either solved by building a membership site, which is already a bit over the limit for a beginner, or using one of the many affiliate networks out there. Like JVZoo, WarriorPlus, ClickBank, etc. The bad thing is that they will also take a bit of your profits, and the good thing is that they usually have good control over the possible affiliates that sell your product.
Still, you’ll have to build the pages by yourself somehow. For this purpose, many funnel builders exist today. Naming just a few – ClickFunnels, Convertri, GrooveFunnels, FunnelVio and so on. What they have in common is that they provide you with many templates you can use, and usually they have a good way to connect all the dots (that is, linking). Each has its own pros and cons, as well as a price tag. This can go from $97 (one time) for FunnelVio and all the way for much more for real pro solutions like Convertri (the fastest, $75/month) or ClickFunnels (almost everything included, $97-$297/month). You decide (here’s some help), taking care of your budget.
One of the options is a free account on GrooveFunnels. This is especially welcome if you’re just starting. Once you start earning, you can easily upgrade or choose another funnel builder that will better suit your specific needs.
Learning is always needed, and building sales funnels is no different. Even if you’re a master of WordPress, you’ll need some specific knowledge to build successful funnels.
There are so many trainings available online that it’s hard to select one as outstanding. Of course, price tags are also different, from a few bucks for simple trainings and all the way to thousands for pro trainings. It’s not really extraordinary to pay $15,000 for such a training nowadays, but it can pay back really good.
Again, as a user, I can really recommend John Thornhill and his training program. Inside, John will not only teach you how to create a product fast, but will also help you start the sales, using his own resources (email lists and blogs). While it may look a bit overwhelming in the beginning, it’s a value-packed training that will transform you into a full-stack product vendor in a matter of a few months, earning as you learn. Click the banner below, join the FREE webinar and see if this is what you want and expect.
The newest training, created by Matt Garrett and Alex Copeland, presents funnel building in an easy-to-swallow manner that is made for beginners. As such, it is full of valuable advice that everyone should follow when building funnels, but explained in a way that anyone can understand quickly. It’s called Simple Funnels Systems.
In case you’re wondering about the pricing, it’s available for a really nice price of just a little over $15. This, I may say, is absolutely affordable to anyone.
Inside, Matt and Alex are dealing with things such as
The whole product – imagine that! – is part of a funnel. Here is an outline.
The basic training and bonuses that will tell you most of what you need to know about funnel building in a short and understandable manner.
This is actually a must if you decide that Simple Funnel Systems is for you. It will give you 12 ready-to-run funnels, including popular products that sell well. All you have to do is get your affiliate links (all the training is included) and start promoting. There’s no easier way to start, really. And with this price tag, you should grab it immediately. Even this upgrade is worth $32 that you will pay for FE + this, because it still means that you’re getting ready-togo funnels for less than $2.7 a piece. Just think about how much you value your own time needed to build 12 funnels…
SFS Academy is a complete marketing and affiliate training membership.
It consists of 200 videos covering ALL the ESSENTIALS of marketing online, everything from starting a website to scaling with paid ads. This is their flagship membership site and will be added to monthly.
You have the chance to get in at the lowest ever price offered, and be grandfathered in to this price for as long as you stay a member, getting all of the updates at no extra charge.
Inside, you will learn different skills including:
The membership will feature new content, workshops & webinars every month.
No matter whether you are a total beginner or an experinced online marketer, you’ll have to use funnels if you want to make some real money online. It can be done in various ways, but not understanding the philosophy will create huge troubles for you.
The best way to start using funnels effectively is to join a training program. There are many around, but here I have two, and it’s on you to decide where to start.
Simple Funnel Systems is an entry-level training that will help you understand the philosophy of a funnel, giving you 12 DFY funnels as a good start. It is very affordable and a great starting point for everyone.
A comprehensive training by John Thornhill that will make a product creator and vendor out of you in a really short time. Including practically everything, from the basics to the most profitable practice. John will also help you market your first product, using his own email list and blogs. A fantastic way to seriously dive into the online business.
No matter what you decide, please be aware of one thing.
Nothing will happen without you taking action.
Whatever training you decide upon, it can not work for you if you don’t work for yourself. All the tools and softwares mentioned herein are just tools, and if you plan to use them, they will bring results. Otherwise…
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