Course: Sales Funnels for Coaches 2

by | Jun 24, 2017 | Sales Funnels for Marketing Business

Several applications or tools help you build your sales funnel. Are you ready? Here are some of the most popular options when it comes to putting together both free and paid funnels.

Top Tools for Building Sales Funnels

Lead Pages—when it comes to building opt-in pages, LeadPages.net is one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal. They’ve tracked and tested a variety of page styles to determine which ones convert best, and they make it easy for you to build similar pages for your funnel. It does come with a monthly fee, though, so before investing, you’ll want to be sure you can recoup your investment.

 Instabuilder--Similar to LeadPages, but without the monthly investment. Instabuilder is a plugin for WordPress that allows you to create your funnels. It includes several pipeline templates and a drag-and-drop page builder for the look you want and making it easy.

AWeber—Probably the most friendly email manager on the market today, AWeber is the choice for many small business owners, not only because it's simple to use, but because it's also economical. Starting at less than $20 per month for up to 500 subscribers, AWeber offers both autoresponders and broadcast emails, list automation, and segmenting emails, so you can send emails exactly when—and to whom—you want.

 AW Pro Tools—an add-on to AWeber, AW Pro Tools gives you added control over your list management by automatically removing unsubscribes, moving subscribers from one list to another based on the link they click, and other useful automation tools.

 PayPal—The simplest of all payment processors, PayPal allows you to take payments online for a very reasonable fee. It will also act as a simple shopping cart.

 Ontraport--Another email manager, Ontraport offers shopping cart functionality as well, so you can create powerful, fully-integrated funnels for your sales process. The benefit here is that you have a complete email system to sync with your shopping cart.

 Infusionsoft—Probably the top tool for any business model, Infusionsoft is an all-in-one solution for customer management, funnel setup, mailing list, and even membership sites. It's high-priced, but if you can (and will) use all its power, then Infusionsoft is well worth the investment.

You  have options when it comes to building out your sales funnels, but what are the must-have items? At the most basic level, you must have:

  1. A way to create web pages. A simple WordPress website will fill this need, with a little bit of work. LeadPages or Instabuilder are nice to have, but not essential, especially if you’re just getting started.

2. A shopping cart. PayPal is as easy as it gets when it comes to shopping carts, but other options include 1- Shopping Cart, Woo Commerce, and aMember.

I recommend you start small. Build the funnel framework using tools that don't cost a fortune. Once you have a few funnels up and running, you will be able to see where they can use improvement, and how the tools available to you can help make your funnels convert better and work more efficiently.

 

 

 

5. Help Your Customer Stories Be Told

by | May 24, 2017 | Storytelling in Your Business

This article focuses on customer stories. Let your customers do the storytelling for you at least some of the time.

Look at customer stories as a way to get powerful marketing materials. Your customers' stories and testimonials can be the most powerful tools in your marketing toolbox.

Start with compelling stories your clients already share with you - their testimonials. Share your customer's testimonials anywhere on your site.

  • Work them into your sales pages.
  • Set up a dedicated page for testimonials.
  • Add a testimonials at the bottom of your email.
  • Sharing customer stories on social media is another powerful strategy.

If you have a decent client base and your product is good, you'll likely see more and more testimonials as you start to use them. Current customers read them and decide whether to share a story of their own.

Pay attention to the emails you receive. If your readers are anything like mine, they'll write in explaining their situation and ask if the product or service is right for them. Use questions in your frequently asked questions emails and web page. Even if the situations aren't 100% the same, your target audience will be in similar situations and have the same issues.

Encourage your customers to talk about how they feel about what you have to offer.

  • Has the information been helpful?
  • Has that course on writing and publishing Kindle books inspired them to launch a series of how-to books?
  • Showcase how clients can use your products and services. They are some of the best stories you can share.
  • Share stories or articles that offer personal social proof.

Don't be afraid to ask your customers to share their stories. Is one successful client willing to share their success on your blog?  . As you start to publish some of these customer stories, share them with your customer base and ask if anyone else would like to share. Eventually, you'll have a nice little collection of stories submitted by your clients who will not only help you market your products and services, but also show that you're the genuine person that's making a difference in other people's lives.