So… You just found out someone’s available to meet you for a networking meeting and you need some quick information. Here are some tips for using your smart phone to get prepared, FAST: Read More
Tag Archives: Business
To Your Success
We are proud to introduce our newest Content Contributor, Ms. Alexis Loir. Your Success & Excellence Coach. Read More
Networking Etiquette 101
Just one faux pas during your networking can leave a bad taste in someone’s mouth that loses you dozens of potential contacts. Keep note of these golden rules of networking etiquette to stay on the right path. Read More
Getting OFFLINE to Gain ONLINE Traffic and Exposure
Business Owners tend to ignore the traditional press as a source for traffic and brand recognition. They’ll get exposure on social networking and social bookmarking sites, and they’ll try to get their content written up on other people’s blogs. But by and large, they don’t contact the offline public relations world.
Yet getting exposure in the offline world isn’t any more difficult than the online world. The difference is when you get exposure offline; the traffic is often both higher in volume and higher in quality than the traffic you get from online sources.
How do you get attention from the traditional offline PR world? Here are some tips that successful business owners use … Read More
3 Ways to Launch an Effective Digital Marketing a “Tell a Friend” Campaign
When digital marketing was still in its infancy, “tell a friend” campaigns were incredibly easy to implement and effective. All you had to do was put up an email box, ask people to send your stuff to their friends and they would.
Today, it’s far more challenging. People are very protective of their time and their friends’ time. In other words, they won’t send something to their friends unless they really think their friends will appreciate it.
So do “tell a friend” campaigns still make sense to use? Absolutely. But the approach has to be completely different from old-fashioned methods. Here are a few tried and true ways to make a “tell a friend” campaign work wonders for your marketing efforts. Read More
WINTER 2014 ISSUE NOW AVAILABLE
CLICK HERE TO VIEW
CLICK HERE TO VIEW
2014 Winter Issue Coming Soon
We are proud to announce that our winter issue will be available for download Jan. 19th.
Ideas for Your Sales Funnel
By the end of this section of the course, you will have identified the key components for your own sales funnel and created a visual “map” of what it will look like.
All sales funnels have the same basic shape and characteristics – wide at the entry point and gradually narrowing as the prospect moves through it. Each funnel is similar, but no two are exactly the same. You have many options when it comes to working out the specifics.
Researching Ideas
Before you start thinking about the specifics of your sales funnel, there is some important research that must be done. Start by taking your product idea and making sure there’s a market for it. No matter how enticing your offers or how well-crafted your funnel, you won’t succeed if there isn’t a hungry crowd eyeing the products you are offering.
You should begin by doing keyword research to see if people are searching for what you’re planning to offer. You can conduct more detailed research by looking at products in your niche and niches that are similar to yours. This can be done through product marketplaces such as ClickBank.com or Amazon.com. On these sites, you can see if people are actually buying products related to your niche. You can also find out about the potential of your market by looking at similar products offered by your competitors.
Your Competitors’ Funnels
It’s always good to investigate the sales funnels of your competition. The point of this investigation isn’t so much to get ideas as it is to find weaknesses within their sales process. You need to offer your prospects something unique that your competitors do not offer.
The best way to do this is to sign up to your competitors’ mailing list and see how they market from the point of view of a prospective customer. You should also take advantage of some of their offers to see what you’re up against. You’ll be able to assess not only their sales funnels, but also the quality of their products and service.
Brainstorming for Your Funnel
Once you discover your market and the approach of your competition, start brainstorming what you’ll do with your own sales funnel. First of all, brainstorm potential offers. Knowing what your competition is offering will help you target what the market could really use. What kinds of products would help you qualify these potential buyers? You might consider freebies, small-ticket offers for the front-end, medium and large-ticket offers for the back-end, and one-time offers.
You’ll also need to identify your traffic sources. Traffic sources include things such as search engines, social media, forums, blogs, content directories, press releases, information products, and anything else that will drive traffic to your landing page.
Planning It out
After your brainstorming, lay out your sales funnel in a visual way that allows you to see the big picture. You can do this by using tools such as mind maps, spreadsheets, timetables, and/or diagrams.
A good sales funnel is solid, well-planned, and detailed, but you also have to be flexible. Once you put it into action, be sure to carefully track your conversions to identify the strongest and weakest spots in your funnel. Troubleshoot and find ways to strengthen the weak points while replicating the strongest ones in order to improve your sales funnel.
Assignment:
Start researching and planning your own sales funnel.
- Who will be your target audience?
- What do your competitors’ funnels look like? Where can you improve?
- Use a mindmap tool, paper, or other format to draw out the components you want to put in your own funnel. Refer to the Sample Email Sales Funnel mindmap to help you plan.
For a copy of your own mindmap or for to receive the remaining SEVEN lessons in this series please complete the form below.
What Do You Do When A Customer/Client Is Not Ready To By?
Far to often we ask business owners this question and they have ABSOLUTELY no clue… There is a problem there. We spend all our time tweeting, posting, uploading and have no real systematic way to convert leads into customers.
We would like to take the next few days to explain the importance of having a Sales Funnel and would like to walk you through the process of creating yours.
Ready?!?! Here we go…
What Is a Sales Funnel and Why Is It Important for Your Success?: The term ‘sales funnel’ is an important concept for all types of businesses. Your sales funnel is what leads customers to purchase your products or services. As they pass through the funnel, they transform from random prospects to qualified leads and, finally, to buyers. As the funnel narrows and prospects get to your sales team, they are already primed to make a purchase.
The Sales Funnel Explained: The sales funnel is a sieve that leads prospective customers through your sales process. It casts its net wide and then gradually weeds out unqualified prospects that are not likely to buy your product.
As the term ‘funnel’ suggests, it’s wide at the top (the entry point) and narrow at the bottom (the point of purchase). At the top, a sales funnel attracts casual website visitors through a special offer that lures them in. You then use marketing techniques to offer them other deals. This gives you a chance to gather information about your prospects and further qualify them.
Why Businesses Use Sales Funnels: Sales funnels are important for a number of reasons. First, they make the sales process more efficient. Since only qualified buyers get to the end of the funnel, your sales team doesn’t waste time dealing with uninterested prospects who are just kicking tires.
A good sales funnel helps to make your sales process more predictable. Sales are never fully predictable, but when your sales process is organized in a standard, systemized way, you can arrive at a good estimate of your ROI.
Finally, a sales funnel helps you track different metrics at different points of the process. It’s organized into clear steps so that when there’s a problem within your funnel, you can troubleshoot and tweak accordingly.
An Example of a Sales Funnel: Here’s an example of a sales funnel in action. Imagine that you own a business that sells supplies and information about rooftop gardening. You create a blog about green roofing that includes a form on the sidebar where visitors can sign up for your list and receive a free eBook on the topic. Once a visitor downloads the book, you begin marketing to them through emails, offering them exclusive content, helpful tips, and special offers. The offers gradually increase in price, leading them to your main product, a comprehensive collection of rooftop gardening tips with a fairly high price tag. At first, visitors read your blog for information about rooftop gardening. At that point they may just be considering the feasibility of starting their own garden. Those who sign up for your list are truly interested, and the ones that jump on the email offers are seriously looking for a way to start a rooftop garden. The people in this segment of your list are the most likely to buy your kit, and therefore you begin marketing the kit to them.
Drive Them Away: An important concept to remember about the sales funnel is that you don’t need to appeal to everyone. You only need to focus on those who are truly interested in your product. When you lose subscribers, this is a good thing (as long as it’s not too many) because you don’t waste your time with those who will never buy. That’s the magic of the sales funnel in action.
Assignment:
- Do you already have a sales funnel? If so, compare the amount of sales you’ve made from your sales funnel vs. products you’ve sold through other methods.
- If you don’t have a sales funnel already, start thinking about what part of your business would benefit most from creating one.
- Use the Sales Funnel Planning Checklist throughout this course to make sure you’ve completed all the necessary steps.
To receive your copy of the Sales Funnel Planning Checklist please complete the form below.
NOW Accepting Applications for our BOSS Spotlight
Are you or someone you know a Female Over-Acheiver in the Metro Atlanta area? If so, we want to hear about her. We are now accepting applications for our 2014 BOSS Spotlight line up. To learn more send your (or your client’s) bio to Submissons.Bossnews@gmail.com. Or complete the form below
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