Author: Marta

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Women’s Day mailing – how to prepare it?

International Women’s day is celebrated on 8th of March. On this occasion, you can prepare mailing directed to men and also women. If you think it through, men will be thankful for reminding them about this special day, and women will feel appreciated.

How to prepare mailing for International Women’s Day?

When you use email marketing, you have many opportunities to promote your brand and your products. One of the ideas is to use Holidays and special days. It can bring you a lot of benefits. However, don’t use all of the Holidays for marketing purposes… use only those, which are consistent with your brand. If you feel that the particular occasion is not relevant for your client’s, don’t force yourself to participate. However, if you plan your mailing in advance, you can increase the traffic on your website. People will check out your offer and in effect you’re going to sell more.

Remember about targeting

You can’t send the same kind of mailing to women and men. Before you start preparing emails, divide your subscribers based on their gender. The same content wouldn’t be convincing for everyone.

Personalize the message

In this context, it is particularly important to personalize the content. While preparing it, use the recipient’s name, instead of a standard greeting. It will be more convincing and it will encourage the person to open the email and read it. Using personalization makes people click on emails more often. It’s not a secret that if you see your name, it will draw your attention. Thanks to personalization, you can create that special bond, which will help you get closer to your audience. This way you gain their trust and it translates directly into sales.

How to prepare the subject and the content of the email?

It all begins from the email subject and it can really influence the decision of the recipient, whether they would want to read the whole message or not. So focus on drawing attention and evoking emotions. If you write to women, think about what might interest them. What do they expect from you? Prepare something special for them and offer them a voucher or a discount.

On the contrary, men would be grateful for a reminder or a list of presents they could buy. See a couple of examples below.

Email subjects for women

  • Hello Kate, it’s going to be your day

  • Kate, get your Women’s day present now.

Email subjects for men

  • Carl, don’t forget about a special day that’s approaching

  • 10 ideas for a perfect gift for her

  • International Women’s Day is approaching… we have a list of presents for you

  • Oh no! Don’t tell me you forgot!

Next, let’s get to the content

Above all, you need to focus on the message you want to convey. It has to be clear and substantial. Paying attention to email is one thing, reading it is another. However, there is yet another thing you should care about. It is going to the offer page and making a purchase. So while creating email you need to remember about it.

  1. Before you send an email, read it a couple of times and check if the information is concrete and if the recipient would know what to do. Encourage to click the link, so they could see what you’ve prepared.

  2. Focus on one step they need to take.

  3. Show them what value they will find after clicking the button, and what they would gain by doing this.

  4. Don’t forget about the CTA button – it has to be visible and readable.

  5. Make sure the link works properly. Before you send the message to your subscriber list – test it.

Discover 10 methods: how to improve your newsletter

How to choose email colors?

While choosing the colors you need to look at the colors of your brand, but is it all you should consider? No. Colors play particularly important role on every stage of making a decision.

Recipients differ from each other and their shopping decisions are influenced by many factors. The same way, every color matters depending on whether your recipient is a woman or a man. Women love blue, purple, green, and they hate orange, brown, and gray. When it comes to men, they find blue, green, and black more appealing than brown, orange, or purple.

Source: buffer.com

When you create an email you can create different color versions. Especially the CTA (call to action) button. Take it into consideration, how the colors can impact the decisions of the recipient, but take it easy and don’t do too many colors.

Plan the strategy of your mailing

Plan the mailing in advance. Sometimes the decisive process lasts very long, but when you send mailing, you need to act fast. It is not the offer that is going to last forever, so make the impression of urgency and schedule the mailing. You’re not the only one. The recipient will probably get a lot of similar offers at the same time. You need to stand out from the crowd. The reader can miss your message, so one email is not enough.

Send the first message one week before the Women’s day, and another one, three days before the 8th of March, to the people who didn’t open the previous one or didn’t use the offer.

Ideas for Women’s Day mailing

See some ideas for Women’s Day mailing. It all depends on your business and what you can offer to your audience. It could be a one-time promo code or a discount on the second thing they buy. The possibilities are many. You can also offer a free delivery, if you can’t do a promotion. This form of gift would make women happy and they will gladly pick something at your store. If you direct your mailing to men, you need to put some images of products in the email. Make it easy for them.

Women's Day

Source: helfy.pl

Women's Day

Source: pasazgrunwaldzki.pl

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How to improve your newsletter? 10 sure-fire methods

Most people associates newsletters with discounts and freebies. And that’s correct. Effective newsletter should be valuable to the recipient. Unfortunately, in most cases the value is provided only in the beginning of the whole cycle. With every email the value and the feeling of getting something useful gets lower and lower. In effect, the recipients stop opening your emails to eventually stop being your subscribers.

However, it doesn’t have to be that way. If you want to start your newsletter, or want to improve your existing one, this article is for you. Discover 10 methods, which will make your newsletter come alive and be something meaningful for each side.

#1 Give people a reason

The absolute basis of the successful newsletter is having the audience. And here’s the first obstacle: you need to encourage your potential subscribers to sign up.

People won’t smash the “sign up to a newsletter” button just because you have one. It’s exactly the opposite. People will avoid the button at all costs. What interests the users, is the value behind the subscribe button. Make sure the value is attractive and visible. Only then you can expect first people signing up.

#2 One-off reason

You want to get crazy and give people 50% off the shopping in your online store, in exchange for joining the newsletter. People start signing up like there is no tomorrow. They buy your products and then they disappear. Hey! Come back! Oh no… only a few people left in your mailing list, so you can inform them about your “super-duper” news in your offer.

What’s the problem? People focused only on the discount. It was too high and it worked just this one time. If you function in such a competitive market, you need to attract people with lower discounts, which they could use for example every month. This way you give them a good reason to sign up and a good reason to wait for the next email at the same time. So while creating a newsletter, focus on adding value, which will make the customer loyal to your business.

#3 So why exactly do you need a newsletter?

One day you’ve read somewhere that building an email list is an absolute first step for effective email marketing. Of course. But on one condition: they can’t be just contacts. It has to be a group of people who take a desired action.

A question for you: what action should that be? Do people buy, download the guides, or go to external pages (landing pages)? Set up a goal for your newsletter. You will work much more efficiently then.

#4 Provoke the recipient

It’s not like you have to write a gimmicky click-bait titles, which tell the viewers to open the email. This procedure can be done not once, not twice, but every time. However, this is the fact that email topics are something that distinguishes them from other emails. So focus on this task and observe the reactions of your audience. Try to create the style that your subscribers like best.

See more: How to create effective mailing subjects >>>

#5 Be a human

Have you ever seen someone standing in front of the store and talk to a storefront? Nobody does that! If you want to know something about the product, you go inside and talk to… a human.

So when you create a newsletter, try to avoid the official narration as a brand, firm, business… Just write as a human to human. Begin with using your name in the footer of the email. Next, use the details your subscribers provided while signing up to a newsletter – call them by their name, and use correct pronouns. This way you can shorten the distance between you and your audience.

#6 A power of consistency

Nowadays, people can spot spam instantly and they are really sensitive to spam behavior. It’s easy to evoke negative emotions. One of the most common complaints is too many emails in the newsletter. Fortunately, you can get rid of this problem easily.

All it takes is to inform about the frequency of mailing, while the subscriber signs up for a newsletter. If you promised to send emails once a week, then send emails once a week. If once a month, then send them… once a month.

It’s so obvious but sometimes it’s tempting to change what you’ve agreed on and try to squeeze even more from your mailing list. However, it’s the easiest way to discourage people to the point of signing out of your list, or mark your emails as spam. All it takes is to be consequent. This way you can avoid subscribers’ disappointment and increase your credibility. This simple solution can make you seem like a person who keeps the promise. Remember that.

#7 Write relevant content

Another obvious thing, but a lot of newsletter owners seem to forget about this. And this is yet another common reason for the people to sign out of the lists. You can’t let this happen.

In order to do this, just don’t touch the subjects that don’t have anything to do with your brand. People who sign up to your newsletter have particular interests and expectations. They are defined by the fact that they sing up to your newsletter.

Selling lamps? Write about lighting, home décor, but not about how to cook a dinner for the whole family in under 10 minutes. For some of your subscribers it can be a nice and interesting thing, but for the rest it will be awkward. If someone looks for such information, they will sign up to a cooking newsletter, and not for the one of a store, which offers lamps.

If you want to surprise subscribers with the content, try to show the obvious topics in the not-so-obvious way. Even in the popular industries, there is a huge leeway to show fun or uncommon facts. This way you won’t disappoint your audience and will become an expert in their eyes.

#8 Write concisely…

Nowadays people complain about the chronic lack of time. Especially when they are online. In order to adjust the newsletter to these standards, just “don’t disturb”.

Write short emails that are relevant. Get straight to the point. You can think that those couple of sentences won’t make a good newsletter, but your audience would appreciate the fact that you value their time. You can even explain it in the first few emails, so they know that the number of words is a sign of respect and not laziness.

#9 … or tell a story

On the contrary to short, concise emails, there is storytelling. Begin to tell the stories, which would allure your audience. Of course, don’t tell the whole story in the first two emails. Focus on more appropriate dosing of your story, so you can permanently keep your subscribers hungry to discover more.

This is, for sure, a more demanding task than the “don’t disturb” solution. Moreover, people who create a newsletter usually get caught in the “I have nothing interesting to say” trap. That’s not true. Your story is in you. And the more you try to be someone you’re not, the harder it will be for you. Even if you think of one, two, even five interesting narrations, remember that newsletter contains dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of messages. Do you have enough power to run such a long distance? Unless your name is Seth Godin, because then it’s obvious.

Even better solution is telling stories from your life. This seems simple and obvious, but believe me, people love to read such simple stories. You can find everything on the internet… except your story. This makes it unique.

#10 Test, analyze, improve

People, who look for fast and effective methods to solve a particular problem, don’t like this step. They’d rather get a ready-made recipe, which will work, instead of working on their own. If you are one of those people, you need to know that this is not possible.

Email marketing, which includes newsletter, is rather complicated. It’s hard to find golden pieces of advice which will take you all the way to success. So you need to work consequently on your own style and methods, which will draw the attention of your subscribers.

In order to incorporate efficient solutions, you need to begin with analyzing the statistics of your newsletter. This way you can get data, which will guide you through the tests you run. Try various solutions and compare results to find out if you’re going in the right direction. This is a constant battle to find a perfect phrase, length of a text, or a color. But it’s all worth it. Newsletter can bring awesome results, which can even be better than paid Facebook or Google ads.

Good luck!

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How to start Lead Ads campaign on Facebook?

If you are into online marketing, you want to obtain as many email addresses as possible. There are several was you can do it. For example: set up ads on social media, which will direct the recipient to the sign up form, through a website or landing page. Today we’re going to focus on the first method; Lead Ads on Facebook, to be more precise. It is a great way to increase your mailing database. Discover a method of attracting customers and use it’s functionalities.

Start with designing a sales funnel

Before we jump to the “how” part of lead ads campaign, you need to establish, what is your goal on every stage, and spend some time on preparing a sales funnel. The first step is offering a free product: for example a guide on how to start with email marketing. It is a moment, when you need to spark your client’s interest and show them, that by going to the next step, they will get more valuable materials. Next stage – low price product.

The example of such product could be joining a full version of the online email course. And the third stage is the target product. It could be purchasing a subscription of an email marketing software, so the client can use the knowledge they have in practice and start their first mailing campaign. In the first step, you need to spark an interest. Then offer a low value cheap product, and finally offer a high value product at a full price. Of course, there can be more steps on the way. It all depends on your strategy and product you want to sell.

Find out more about sales funnels and learn how they work >>

Perks of generating leads through Facebook

  • Simple and intuitive form, containing necessary information.
  • It opens on Facebook directly, there is no redirection to another website.
  • Your clients can fill out and send details fast. The user’s data is downloaded from their profile, and all they need to do is to confirm it. If you need more information, you can create  a separate box for it.
  • You know that the person, who gives you their contact information is interested in your product or the subject you write or talk about. This way you can add them to your list, start building a relationship and encourage them to check out your other offer.
  • The form loads quickly.
  • Simplicity and convenience
  • There are no bugs in the form.

1. Choose a marketing goal

In the ad manager, where you can create a new campaign, choose your marketing goal – get more leads. It allows you to obtain more contact details to your potential customers. This way you can get email address to the people, who are interested in your brand or your products. After choosing a goal, you can name your campaign and go to the next step.

2. Create a set of ads

Next, you need to create a new set of ads. Name a set and fill in all the necessary information about your audience, i.e. people who you want to show your ad to. Choose a location, age, gender etc. For example: women living in Poland between the age 20 and 45, who are interested in marketing. Establishing a budget is also one of the most important things. You can choose a daily budget, which means a cost per day, or the whole budget, where you enter a fixed cost that you pay for the whole period of running the ad. We recommend choosing a daily budget, as it will be better in this particular case. At this stage, you also need to remember about accepting terms and conditions of obtaining contacts. If you don’t do that, you won’t go to the next step – creating an ad.

3. Prepare an ad in Lead Ads

This is the last step: advertising. Prepare an image and text that would encourage your audience to filling in the form. You create everything step by step, just line with a regular ad. The first thing, which you should do is choosing a type of form. We recommend choosing a high volume option, because this way you can make sending data easier for people.

4. Choose a contact form

Choose a contact form, which you want to use in your ad and generate it. In the settings, change the language to English and in the form configuration, choose the option “open.” Thanks to this option, everybody can share your ad and you can obtain more contacts.

5. Establish questions and privacy policy

In the content tab, you can freely edit your form by adding or subtracting the amount of data you want to collect. If the form type you chose is “volume,” information such as name, surname, email address, or even telephone number will be filled in automatically. However, you can also add your own questions to the form. Despite that, you should limit questions to the minimum. Less is more. Be careful, as some users may be cautious with providing a lot of details at such an early stage. Instead of open questions, use multiple choice questions. This stage requires your attention the most. The better the questions, the higher conversion rate. Remember about privacy policy and the rules of data protection. You need to place it at the bottom of the page, by putting the relevant link there.

6. Time to say “thank you”

Thank the users for filling the form. Additionally, as you almost caught your client, encourage them to visit your website. Alternatively, you can offer them your telephone number, if the form is complicated, or touches an important issue, and you know that your audience may have problems with understanding it. Inform them that they may call you in case they needed help. Remember about choosing the right button. In the one case, pick “website,” and in the other, pick “call the company.”

There is also a “download” option. You can offer a free guide in exchange for the email address. This way you can collect contacts, for the people who are interested in your offer, faster. And that is basically the end. The process of creating forms is relatively easy. All it takes is time to prepare it well. It’s worth to save the form in drafts, so you can use it in the future. First leads will appear after Facebook accepts the ad. Make people who signed up become your clients. Add them to your email database and send them offer emails.

Discover 5 key elements of email marketing and find out, how sales funnels are made >>

7. Collecting contacts

How to store contact details you’ve collected? If Facebook accepts your ad, contact details of your clients will start to appear. You can download them in a few ways. The easiest one is by going to “Publishing tools” tab and next to form library, and here you have them, ready for downloading.

Discover new possibilities with NetSendo >>

What is a cost of getting leads?

It all depends on a business sector. Is it difficult and for the advanced? It also depends on whether or not you try to provide a real value in exchange for email address: a part of guide, e-book, or report. The cost is influenced by all your marketing effort. The image, texts you’ve prepared, and even choosing a call to action button. You can also download them from the ad manager. Choose a correct campaign and go to the right set of ads. Moreover, you can im port such database straight to NetSendo tool and start selling your products immediately.

What to use a Lead Ads campaign for?

  • Newsletter sign-up
  • Participation in a course
  • Downloading a guide or report
  • Registration for an event

Summary of Lead Ads campaign on Facebook

Clearly present your offer, so the users understand, why you collect their data and be fine with it. Choose a right format of presentation of your product. It could be a carousel format, a single photo, or even a short video, where you talk about your product. If you choose a video as a medium for you, it can help you to raise your brand awareness and lead to a specific reaction. When you create ads on Facebook, you have an option to choose a particular marketing goal, which helps you to get to know your audience better.

Lead Ads campaign is one of the most efficient methods. If you are at the stage of building your contact database, the best way to understand your audience is to ask them questions. Also, plan your future actions. If you want to increase your conversion rate, prepare for a fast reaction. The faster you get in touch with your client, the bigger chances of convincing them to react in a certain way.

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How to keep regular clients, and attract new ones to your salon?

Everyone, who runs their own salon, eventually encounters the problem: how to attract new customers, and what to do so the existing ones keep coming back? Informing them about your services is not enough. You need the strategy, in order to achieve satisfying results of your actions. The right strategy will allow you to create a positive image of your salon, as well as increase your brand awareness and reach. I know, at this stage you may wonder, what am I talking about, but relax… I’ll explain everything in the text below. And maybe I even surprise you.

The process of attracting a client to the salon

The process itself is not as complicated as you may think. However, you need to spend some time, to put it all together. There are four elements that could help you increase the sales and attract new customers. These are: awareness, interest, decision, and desired action.

1. Awareness

It all begins here, and you need to be everywhere, where your clients are. I assume that you already have your Facebook page. If you don’t, there is plenty information online, on how to create one. Facebook page is an online equivalent of your brand’s business card, but you can also slowly build consumer awareness with it. Share interesting materials, document makeovers, show the effects of your work. Building awareness and visibility of your brand is a long and labor-intensive process, but it’s all in your hands. The growth depends on your skills, creativity, and commitment.

You can’t get off without online ad. You have to be everywhere, where your clients are. Try starting with running social media profiles, and then introduce your website, presenting your offer and what services you offer. It is not only about the image, but also about fast contact with the client.

2. Interest

If you run your own salon, you can interest your audience by offering them a free consultation. If it is a hair salon, you can offer a free appointment, and you can get to know your clients, find out what their expectations are, and help them to choose the best hairstyle for them. Additionally, on the test day you can offer a regeneration treatment, and schedule a makeover appointment for a particular day.

This is the moment, when you offer a free value and then paid services. At the end, you obtain their contact details, and this is the most precious thing.

A key to your success is to talk to the client, building a relationship, and gaining their trust.

3. Decision

If the client won’t make a decision about appointment, you can call them yourself. Ask them, if they are happy with the treatment, you offered them last time, and offer them another meeting. The decisive process of your customer is complex. Your task is to do everything, so they see you as a professional and trust you enough to make an appointment. During the conversation they still may have doubts if they want to use your paid services or not. The reason might be price, as it could be too high. In this case you can thank them for their trust and that they used your free consultation, and offer them a discount, if they decide to use the service.

4. Action

You almost got them! The client had already got a free consultation to choose the best hairstyle for them, used a free treatment, and also paid less for the service. You can attract a new client, when you act fast and be confident. Try to satisfy their needs and help them with every step on the way: from awareness to action.

Do you realize what you’ve just created? It’s a sales funnel. I didn’t explain it at the beginning on purpose. You can apply this model to every kind of business, and how they work on a particular example. It is the best definition of what sales funnel is. Before you start to create one, you need to find out what is the problem of your potential client, and how you can convince them to use your service.

Sales funnel as a perfect sales model

Sales funnels are tracks, which allow you to multiply your sales effect. It’s just walking your potential customer through the process of becoming your client.

Funnels are a wonderful idea for every type of business activity, so they will be perfect for your company. What’s more, they can become one of the most important parts of your strategy. Maybe you use funnels and you don’t realize it. Only after analyzing the particular example of the client in your salon, you start to think about it. All your marketing actions can be presented in a funnel scheme.

How to attract new customers to your salon through email marketing

Use the potential of email marketing and obtain an unlimited number of contacts. Start building your database now and collect email addresses of your existing and new customers now. By introducing email marketing to your business, you create consumer loyalty and build relationship with them. What’s more, you can reach an unlimited number of people, and inform them about your services and new products. And all these actions lead to increased sales in your salon.

Find out more: How to start with email marketing >>

Use Newsletter

Did you know, that newsletter is the best method to keep in touch with your clients? When you send messages to your clients, you can remind them to visit your salon, if they didn’t schedule an appointment for a long time. This way you won’t let them forget you and invite them to your salon.

Imagine that you check your inbox and you see a following email subject line: “Hey! When will you visit us?” or “Kate, you seem to forget us!”

You are curious, what is it about. In the email content, there is an invitation for another visit to the salon, where you got your hair colored few months ago. What’s more, the person who sent it, has to convince you to schedule an appointment, so they offer you a free treatment if you book your visit this week. See? Maybe you forgot that you were there, but this message made you consider going there again. Not only they remember you, but they also offer you an additional free treatment.

This is a simple example, but you can send such messages to your clients, so they won’t forget you. Even people, who visited you a long time ago, can be attracted again.

In the end, the most important thing is income. When you gradually introduce email marketing to your business, it will become more recognizable and will bring you more earnings. Social media posts are not enough.

Lead Ads campaign on Facebook

The best way to reach your customers is through advertising. If you have a Facebook page, you can create a marketing campaign. First, you need to establish the group of people you want to reach. You know your clients better than anyone. Answer the following questions. How old are they? Where do they live? What are their interests? What can draw their attention or interest them? Maybe it’s a mini guide, or a discount?

In order to obtain contact details to a person, who could be interested in your services, you can run a campaign on Facebook, and the ad will take them to the contact form. The form should be extremely simple, and contain basic data as first and second name and telephone number. The simpler the form is, the more likely you will obtain a contact. This way you can connect with your client fast and invite them for a free consultation. If the person gives you their number, it means that they are interested in your offer and is really close to making a decision.

However… Nothing comes for free.

In exchange for contact, the person should get value from you. You can prepare a short guide on how to take care of your hair in the winter, or how to keep the blond hair cold shade. The person downloads the guide, and leaves contact details, so you reach out to them and schedule a free appointment.

See the post, where you can find out how to start a Lead Ads campaign on Facebook >> 

Add a call to action on your page

Besides creating Lead Ads campaign on Facebook, remember about a fast contact option for your clients. Add a “call now” or “send a message” button. Call to action will be visible under your cover photo on your page.

Use remarketing

And now I’ll tell you about how to keep the existing client and make them come back frequently. You’ve made effort to reach the right person with your ad. You also obtained their contact details, they used your services once, twice… and they’re gone. They haven’t visited you for a long time. So, you’ve lost your client? False. You can’t leave it like that. Prepare a remarketing campaign, which will be directed to people, who were on your website and took action.

You can direct your remarketing message to the people, who visited your website, people from your Facebook page, or to the landing page.

How to sell more in your salon?

One of the problems that salon owners have to deal with is pricing. Yo really need to think about your prices so you gain new customers and don’t lose existing ones. Above all, you have to get to know your clients well enough. When you find out what are their needs and expectations, you can create an offer, and adjust the price to them.

Use the cross-selling and up-selling strategy

When you want to increase your income, you don’t have to raise prices for your services. Instead, take care of good communication with your client.

When the client comes to the salon, you can offer them an additional service. If they decide to have their hair bleached, you can offer them a product like Olaplex, which will protect their hair from chemical damage. Tell them about how it works, and encourage them to make a decision. When you finish, you can recommend another product such as shampoo, conditioner, which will keep their shade last longer and protect the color from washing out. This way, the client, who came only to get their hair bleached, decided to pay more for hair protection and for products you recommended to them. They are happy with the service, left your salon with a beautiful, new color, and they feel like someone treated them professionally. And you increased your sales. This strategy is cross-selling, that is offering complementary products.

There is also an up-selling strategy. That means offering a more expensive product. When the client wants to have a treatment done, you offer them a more expensive one, of a higher quality, or if they are interested in purchasing a product x, offer them a product y, which can bring you more income. Tell them about perks of the product, and explain why it’s better for their hair type.

Happy client is a loyal client

If the client is happy with your services, they will keep coming back. Every offer has to be tailored to their individual needs. Otherwise they can feel discomfort and see your propositions as pushy.

Listen, listen, listen. If you talk to the client during the bleaching process, and they tell you about their dry ends, act fast and offer them a product that could help. Tell them about the oil, which will make their hair smooth and properly nourished. Show them how it works. If it doesn’t work, give them a free sample, and they will certainly ask about it on their next appointment.

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How to create a sales funnel in 5 steps [mini guide]

Let’s create a sales funnel together

It’s the best to learn on a particular example, so in this entry we will create a sales funnel in few easy steps. You’ll find out that in order to make money this way, you don’t have to have a team of specialists. In practice, we can either make  a complex funnel, or a simple one.

In our case, we’ll focus on getting the best possible sales effects, using solutions you may apply by yourself. We’ll use the traditional sales funnel model.

Our company:

John Doe – eBay sales specialist (personal brand)

The offer:

How to open an eBay store in 2020 – an e-book guide – free

What to sell on eBay? The best examples – an e-book guide – $29.00

The best ideas for profitable eBay store – an e-book guide – $49.00

How to look for profitable products for your own business – a video curse – $199.00

As you can see, those are digital products, which makes distribution easier. It can all be prepared by one person, someone who is a specialist in online sales through eBay. Other interesting topics which can be used to prepare a fully digital offer:

  • advertising on FB and/or Instagram,

  • selling online on Amazon,

  • graphics

Step 1. Get to know your client

Who do you want to sell your products to? Everybody? Such target group doesn’t exist. You need to find out, who is your potential client. Next, establish, what problems they have and what are their interests.

Our audience is a group of entrepreneurs who make money online.

Potential problems: lack of technical knowledge, lack of market knowledge, low income.

Interests: e-commerce, sales, eBay, Aliexpress, etc.

Step 2. Draw attention

At this point, we encounter our first expenses. If you want to generate a significant traffic to your landing page, you need to invest in paid ads. Just ignore organic traffic, as we don’t have time for that. However, as your brand continues to grow, you should have accounts on social media.

If you run a blog, where you tell people about your passion, use that. Create a sales funnel with products, which correspond with it. Use all your capital to attract potential clients.

I our case, we will focus on Facebook ads. The product we offer is “How to open an eBay store in 2020.” In the beginning, we need to prepare two or three creations, where we can show our product in various ways. Creativity and clear form are the most important factors.

In the ad manager, we will choose target group with following interests: dropshipping, eBay, e-commerce. The aim of this campaign is to generate traffic.

Step 3. Create a landing page

You need to prepare several destined pages, so the Facebook campaign would have a purpose:

  • a page, where your potential clients can download the free guide (lead generator)

  • a sales/thank you page of the guide “What to sell on eBay? The best examples”

  • a sales/thank you page of “The best ideas for profitable eBay store”

  • a sales page of the course “The best ideas for profitable eBay store”

Step 4. Prepare mailing

If you have a lead page, you need to create a client database and the whole system of mailing. And you need to choose an external software. The best choice, that combines good price and quality, is NetSendo.

As we focus on maximisation of revenue in our actions, we won’t be creating a campaign focusing on providing valuable content. We concentrate on our particular offer. What’s crucial is to prepare three subscriber lists for the people who:

  • downloaded a free b-book

  • bought a guide for $29.00

  • bought a guide for $49.90

Every list needs to have a message queue assigned to it. Let’s say the messages will be sent on the third, fifth, seventh, and fourteenth day. On the first day, there will be a system generated message with a link to download the product and a thank you page.

So you need to prepare 12 messages to the message queue and 4 system messages, after the subscriber gets on the list. Below you can find a layout of the campaign:

Step 5. Stay in touch

Our sales funnel theoretically ends as the subscriber purchases a video course. In practice, it should never end. However, when you work in a specific field, your expertise is limited. If you create more funnels with new products, you will probably work on similar topic.

Instead of generating all the traffic once again, you need to use contacts, that you collected until this point. Contact database is totally independent, and the only person who can control it, is you – it’s the whole magic behind sales funnels. When you start to build a new funnel with an existing client database, it can bring you even better effects. The costs of generating traffic will be slightly lower.

Therefore, it is your responsibility to stay in touch with your subscribers after they bought the last product. You can do it through valuable content. You can drop the newsletter model and create a long queue that could be updated with new content. In effect, they will be available in full for the new people who decide to join to client contact database. When it comes to newsletter, content which was sent before doesn’t matter.

You can even go a step further and stay in touch with all the people who fell into the funnel, no matter if they bought a product or just downloaded the lead magnet. The choice is yours. What’s important is to never leave the clients unattended. You can’t let them forget you and your business.

Go to the entry to find out more: Types of sales funnels >>

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Sales funnel – what it consists of?

Every sales funnel is different

Depending on a model, funnels may differ dramatically from each other. The amount of options you have is so huge that it becomes a major challenge to organize them. Some specialists claim that sales funnel gives you all the possibilities online marketing can offer. Let’s see what funnels consist of.

Social media accounts -beginning of sale funnels

Sales funnel usually begins on social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram. It is hard to show valuable content there, but they can help you to build a brand reputation. Thanks to extensive possibilities of paid advertising they are, for the most part, responsible for generating traffic.

Google positioning

What people type into Google search bar is nothing else than questions. We can find answers for them on various websites. The more valuable the answer is the higher it appears in the search results. Then, the page can generate higher traffic. Therefore, all actions connected to positioning or Google Ads campaigns can be a perfect beginning of a sales funnel.

Affiliation

It is yet another element that could generate traffic for a sales funnel. Create your own partner program, where the members can recommend the brand in exchange for commission. Affiliate marketing is also a great as a way of generating leads.

Company blog

Blog is one of the best places for publishing valuable content. That makes it good not only for generating traffic, but also for warming it up. In order for the blog to do both, it should be filled with valuable content and function at least for a couple of months, so it is well positioned. If you don’t have that much time, just use the blog to heat the traffic up. Materials worth publishing on the blog:

  • Extensive educational articles

  • Guides

  • Case studies

Video Channel

Video materials are one of the most attractive forms of content, so it’s worth to use them. In sales funnels, video channel can function similarly to blog: it generates traffic and spark people’s interest in the brand. The example of valuable content, which can be put on video channel is a webinar or a course.

Landing page

Without a landing page, there wouldn’t be any sales funnel. It is a destined page, where you direct your clients with your marketing actions. Under this broad umbrella term, there are various types of pages, which provoke the client to take a particular action. They may differ from each other. For example, they can generate leads, or sell. Landing page may also be a particular page on your blog.

It is focused on one specific purpose. There should be no distractions, as they would decrease your conversion rate significantly. What does distraction mean? It can be any element that could divert a potential client’s attention from the action you want them to take.

But why would you direct your client to a landing page instead of company’s website? Because companies usually offer a broad range of products or services. Their websites are confusing and it’s easy to get lost on them.

A good example of such website is a platform of digital cable television company, which offers many different plans: family, sport, premium etc. If this company decides to do a marketing campaign, and direct the traffic to a generalcompany website, many clients will get lost while looking for the desired program. The number of finalized transactions would be really small, comparing to the amount of people who visit the website.

External destined websites can really help you. In this case the company can create as many ad campaigns as they have products in they offer. Every campaign has a dedicated page, which has all the information about a particular product. People, who click on the advertisement know exactly what to expect on the website, as they want to see the offer that interest them the most. Conversion rates are slightly better.

Lead page/Lead magnet

Lead page is a place, where your potential clients leave their contact information. Whereas lead magnet is a reason, why they want to share these information with you. In theory, it’s free, but actually it’s something the client receives in exchange for the possibility of contacting them in the future.

It’s a key element of every sales funnel, as it gives you the opportunity to build a closer relationship with the client. It could turn out to be beneficial to sales effects.

Obviously, the more substantial the lead magnet is the higher chance you have to collect leads. On the other hand, it shouldn’t be it’s only purpose. Lead magnet should also encourage the recipient to engage more with a brand and maybe to actually purchase something.

In order to achieve that effect, you can use a lot of engaging forms of lead magnet. The most popular ones are educational materials or discounts. But you don’t have to limit yourself to standard solutions. When you approach this task with an open mind, you have a higher chance to spark your client’s interest. Lead magnets which have the highest conversion rates are:

  • video courses,

  • ready-made templates/formulas,

  • demo versions (trials),

  • quizzes,

  • case studies,

  • coupons and promo codes.

Mailing

If the lead magnet works, you will obtain emails from your potential customers. The next step in your funnel is mailing, which means all the operations connected with gathering emails and running mailing campaigns. Since the moment you got the lead, this channel of communication has to be constantly used.

The biggest perk of email marketing is the opportunity to build a close, direct relationship with a customer. This effect can even be multiplied by customization of messages. Use the name of the addressee and their pronouns as often as you can. It will be easy to do in NetSendo.

Depending on funnel construction, mailing can be either more or less “aggressive” with sales offers. If your funnel is focused on providing content, mailing should function as a newsletter, where sales offers are rare or non existent. This way it’s easier to direct the traffic to the content that would encourage potential clients to take further steps.

However, if your funnel doesn’t form a long and extensive track, you can focus on presenting your offer in a mailing campaign. NetSendo offers you the feature, called message queue, and it would be the best for this purpose. This way you can create a series of offer emails, which will encourage to make a purchase by increasing the pressure. Standard message queue contains 4-5 emails, which should be sent in the right order and time intervals. It is recommended to send messages on first, third, fifth, seventh, and fourteenth day since joining.

Remarketing

Remarketing is a relatively new thing for a lot of e-commerce businesses. However, without this, it’s hard to build a successful sales funnel. In order to understand how it works, you have to answer the question: how many people decides to use the offer immediately after they first encounter it? It’s a very small number. They usually need time to make a decision about finalizing the transaction. That’s why remarketing is such an important part of funnels. It’s main purpose is to create opportunities for the clients to see the offer again and get familiar with a brand.

Remarketing is a type of advertisement, but it’s directed to the group, which take a certain action. Usually, it’s a visit on the company’s website. Based on this, you create a campaign, which appears on websites. It is the biggest advantage of remarketing. It appears, where you can find potential clients. This way, you can build the connection with your client without evoking negative emotions.

Sales page

Sugarcoating the offer

Sales page is nothing else then a site, where the client can finish the transaction. It is usually placed at the end of a sales funnel, however, it is not the end part. There could be a few of them in one funnel. It all depends on your offer and sales model. If you have a couple of products, you can put them in the message queue from the cheapest to the most expensive one, so the client could be guided through a range of sales offers.

In order for the site to function properly, it should meet specific criteria. Above all, it has to be clear and concise. The person who visits such site, has probably analyzed their decisions and doesn’t need a lot of information. If you want to recommend your product again, you should focus on aspects you didn’t mention before. In marketing, this term is called sugarcoating. It means that in the last step of the funnel, the client receives the information, which not only increases their motivation to close the transaction, but also leaves a mark on their consciousness. A great example of sugarcoating is buying a book with an author’s signature. The buyer finds out about the autograph from a sales offer page. This makes shopping even more satisfying. It also increases the chances that this person will buy something in the future.

Call to action

Excessive information about the product on the sales page can bring the opposite results to what you want to achieve. It’s all because of distraction. The purpose of a sales page is to guide the customer to a checkout and not to make them analyze the product, as they have already done that. The person who enters a sales page has probably made their decision or they are really close. So, you can highlight the benefits of purchasing, but don’t convince a person who is already convinced.

Another very important element of a sales page is CTA (call to action). When it comes to a sales page, CTA would be to proceed to checkout. In order to increase your chances to succeed, you need to put a couple of CTA buttons on the site. The absolute minimum is 2-3 spots that could take the client to payment gate. This could be explained by the client’s attitude. They don’t need a huge number of information, as they are already convinced. So one CTA should be on the top of the page, another one in the middle, and the last one at the very bottom.

 

Go to the entry to find out more: Types of sales funnels >>

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Types of sales funnels

Every sales funnel is different

Sales funnels can have various construction. In fact, we can say that there are no two identical funnels. Every offer and target group is different, and requires a different set of tools. However, we can assume that there are two types of funnels: classic and modern. Let’s take a closer look into them.

Classic sales funnel

The most popular sales funnel in Poland. The important element of this kind of funnel is valuable content, but obtaining contact details of your potential customers is far more important. In this model, shopping path is relatively short, and connection between the client and the salesman is really shallow.

Modern sales funnel

The most important element of this funnel is content. This is the thing the client sees, when they encounter a brand. It all starts with content. In effect, the whole path becomes longer and the transaction happens much later. The important part is remarketing.

Classic or modern?

Most e-commerce companies use the funnel in the classic version. This way they can count on relatively quick effects in the form of leads and possibly finished transactions. There is a common belief that even if one does not close the transaction at first attempt, they can push the recipient through mailing. Unfortunately, this concept becomes outdated, as people check their inboxes less and less frequently. In effect, email queue can turn out ineffective.

Using a model based on valuable content is a better idea. Generating leads happens after the client encounters your content. The contact, however, is superficial. Best case scenario – they read several posts or see a video. This way you can evoke positive emotions, before they even give you their email address. The result is the process of generating leads becomes much more effective.

Power of content

The biggest challenge in the modern type of funnel is preparing the right type of content. Right, means the type of content that sparks interest and solidifies the brand’s image in the mind of your potential client. The second factor is more important. Without it, all your effort can go to waste. Your content should help the client to understand, what your company does and how the product could benefit them. Of course, you can’t do that by pointing them to the pricing page. At this stage, it is only about establishing your company as competent and specializing in a certain field. It’s enough.

If your potential clients have such opinion on your brand, they would go back to you even if they are disconnected from your content. If they feel the need to, of course. The most important thing is that during this comeback, you don’t want them to be confused and to wander around. They should come directly to you. This is the good time to collect their email address. Of course, some people won’t come back to you. Don’t worry about them for now.

Generating leads on cold traffic

If the content was really valuable, and all the elements worked as they were supposed to, you can relax. The readers, who disappeared completely, probably wouldn’t become your clients anyway. You can notice it in classic funnels, where leads are generated on cold traffic. At this stage, there is no positive connection. In effect, when you send emails to them, they usually remain unopened. Such lead is useless and it’s not worth to waste time on it.

Of course, there are methods, which allow optimization of actions connected with cold traffic leads. One of them is systematically deleting inactive subscribers. Give them one or two chances to read your messages. Send them a reminder. If there is no reaction, you can give up on such contact. Another method is segmentation of your subscriber list. Remember that this group is not homogeneous. So it is recommended to divide it into subgroups, consisting of people, who have something in common. This way you can send customized messages to each group, to evoke positive emotions.

Remarketing as an alternative

The real problem in generating leads is different. It doesn’t matter if they were obtained from a cold traffic or a hot traffic. The fact is that people check their inbox less and less frequently, and this trend will be more and more prominent in the future. Communicators and storage platforms make things even worse. However, universality is a huge strength of emails and there is no doubt about it. If you want your sales funnel to work efficiently, you need to put the content, where it can be noticed.

Remarketing is an integral element of both classic and modern funnel. This way, despite low email opening rate, your audience has a constant contact with your brand. Remember, remarketing content should be diverse. This way you create numerous occasions for the potential customer to get interested in your offer again. The more engagement, the more focus on direct sales offer, when it comes to remarketing.

Summary

Every sales funnel model has to work efficiently in various conditions. In order to establish, which model would work the best for your business, you need to test different options. Divide your traffic generating budget into two sections and focus on generating leads and content. Change the proportions, depending on results. Remember that modern model offers gratification later than the classic one. Therefore, before you make a decision, take your time and observe the process.

Go to the entry to find out more: How to create a sales funnel in 5 steps [mini guide]>>

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What is sales funnel? Offline example

The sales funnel is not so black as it is painted

People often perceive funnels wrongly. They think it’s a very complicated system that requires all day and all night work. It’s a mistake. Sales funnel is a natural process that is compatible wit human psychology. Therefore, we usually don’t realize that we fell into the funnel. What’s more, it happens that we create them unconsciously.

In order to understand what funnels are, we need to follow the path of a person from the stage of having a problem, all the way through to the solution. Let’s take an example taken from life, shall we?

Toothache as a beginning of a sales funnel

Everyday, while commuting to work, you pass by the dental clinic with an aesthetically pleasing banner that promise fast and painless procedures. You don’t pay much attention to it. Few days later, you start to feel an alarming toothache. You try not to think about it, but you know that at some point you would have to go to the dentist.

Next time you drive to work, something catches your attention. It’s a clinic banner: it looks different. This time they offer a free teeth scaling for everybody. Hmmm… You think it’s a great opportunity to improve your dental health and also share your concerns about the toothache with a doctor.

After work, you schedule your first scaling appointment. During the procedure, you find out about several teeth problems, so you schedule more appointments.

When your teeth are done, the dentist encourages you to whiten your teeth. As the procedure is quite expensive, you ask for some more time to think about it. Unfortunately, after a few days you forget about the whole thing. However, two months later, you receive a text message from the clinic, informing about the discount for teeth whitening. It turns out that you can pay installments. It made the decision easier for you and you agree to get the procedure done.

Oops… you’ve just fell into a sales funnel

This whole situation is a classic example of sales funnel, but it’s offline. The clinic has created it and you fell for it. How do you feel about that? People, who realize that it works like that are often disappointed and feel manipulated.

So look into the mirror and see your white, healthy and shiny teeth. Think about it once again.

Did the clinic give you a reason to feel that you’ve been used? All your problems have been solved. The service has been performed at the highest standard. This was the first time in your life when you actually liked your doctor! At the end, thanks to an attractive offer, you had your teeth whitened, and you’ve always wanted to do that. That’s a success, no reasons to complain.

So how did it happen that you’ve chosen this particular clinic and spend a significant amount of money there?

What does it look like from the other side?

Let’s revert the situation. You’re the dentist. After long years of working in various clinics, you’ve finally opened your own and that was a dream come true for you. You put your whole heart and savings into that investment. You buy modern equipment and hire excellent specialists. This just has to work. Unfortunately, there is not a single client in the day of opening, to your surprise. The situation doesn’t improve dramatically in the nest days, weeks…

Increasing frustration makes you look for unconventional solutions. You spend your last coins to change the banner. The cheesy one where you advertise painless procedures is replaced by an invitation for a free scaling. In the end, showing the quality of your services should be a priority.

Wow! You didn’t expect that. A lot of people started scheduling their appointments. You use that to inform them about all their teeth problems. They didn’t even have the chance to pay you, and yet they get something valuable. You add a high standard and voila! People start scheduling more and more appointments. Finally, business starts growing.

What now?

So you just roll with the punches. You realize that drilling and filling teeth is not enough to use the whole potential of your clinic. You include aesthetic procedures to your offer – teeth whitening for example. In order to perform this procedure, the teeth of a patient have to be fully healthy. So you recommend the offer to the people, who have already done all the necessary procedures. It doesn’t go as well as you expected. Some of your clients immediately decide to get their teeth whitened, but for the most part the offer is not very attractive for them.

So you analyze, what could go wrong? Until one day one of your patients asks if they can pay in installments. Eureka! It was all about the money. The procedure itself is not so expensive, however, including all of the previous visits, it could be a challenge for your clients’ wallets. So you change the strategy. Now you inform your clients not only that the end of treatment is a perfect time to perform whitening. You also tell them about the real cost of such procedure.

At the same time you decide to remind your clients about whitening via text message. Messages are being sent 2 months after patient’s last visit. You also include installments option. The effect? A lot of scheduled procedures.

What does sales funnel include?

As a clinic owner you’ve done a fantastic job. By acting according to the doctor’s practice and your own gut feeling, you’ve been building a sales funnel for your business. You subconsciously optimized your actions to increase the sales and maintained the high standard of your services. In effect you implemented all the elements of a good funnel into your business:

1. Awareness

2. Interest

3. Decision

4. Action

Let’s explain all of the above elements, using the example of a dental clinic.

Stage 1. Awareness

Your clients need to be aware that your brand exists and what you do. When it comes to dental clinic, the banner was a great idea. Other methods that may work in this case are flyers or an ad in the local newspaper. In the typical funnel, awareness can be built on social media (Facebook, Instagram).

Stage 2. Interest

When people are aware that your company exists, another step is to get them interested in your offer. It is easiest to do by offering free value, which can be used to solve problems of your potential clients. When it comes to our example clinic, the element that sparked interest was free scaling offer. This encouraged the customers to consider paying for other services.

It is an important element of the whole funnel – you receive contact information to your potential client. As it turns out, the free scaling procedure was not entirely free. Patients had to give the clinic their personal data and contact information. It was a true price.

This way you can build your own client contact database. It is created by your potential clients, so you can direct your sales offers to them, without them getting upset. That was exactly what a clinic owner did, when he wanted to inform his clients about a discount for teeth whitening. He used the fact that his clients gave him their telephone numbers. It could’ve even been an email address.

However, the clinic owner didn’t do one thing: he didn’t build his contact list before opening the clinic. It would have been so much easier to grow a business at it’s early stages, if he had collected his patients’ contact information, so he could inform them about a new clinic directly. Of course, there are certain legal limits. The patients have to give their consent in order to receive sales offers.

Stage 3. Decision

Decisive process is really complex. The closer your offer is to solve the client’s problem, the faster they make their decision. Two biggest obstacles on the way are the price and the lack of trust. Your task is to make those obstacles insignificant in comparison to benefits of your offer.

When it comes to the example of clinic, the task was relatively easy, as a doctor is trustworthy. Of course, it is not enough. It is not easy to argue with a doctor’s diagnosis, however, the patient can still choose from a variety of clinics.

A key element is to build a relationship with the client. Kind and professional service make patients feel safe and they trust their doctor. This kind of relationship make decision easy, even if the price is high.

Stage 4. Action

A key element of the whole funnel. If your client sees your product as a solution to their problem, they trust you, and the price is acceptable, they will make a purchase. Don’t treat this element as an end of your funnel. A good system should contain several sales offers. What’s important, the price should correspond with real needs of your client.

A good example is a teeth whitening offer in our clinic. The price of this procedure was much higher than the standard, so the chances of success grew with building a good relationship with the client and by making the payment process easier with installment option.

And yet, the dentist, who knows what they’re doing, could even add a step between a standard procedure and teeth whitening. For example sealing, which protects teeth from decay. Doing that procedure would help the patient to patiently wait until they can afford the whitening procedure.

The power of problem

The example of dental clinic was supposed to show that sales funnels are a part of our lives and everyone can experience this kind of story. After all, who doesn’t go to the dentist? Exactly.

Everyone has problems. Not only dental ones. While creating your own funnel online, you should focus on the problems your potential clients have. This way you can understand their motivation and you will be able to complete your range of products.

Go to the entry to find out more: Sales funnels – what it consists of>>

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Earn on your passion – create your own sales funnel

Funnel created with passion

Passion is responsible for a huge part of what we do in life, including buying different kinds of goods and services. Don’t focus on big problems, such as illness. Usually it’s about small, simple life difficulties. Did you start to notice it?

Constructing an effective sales funnel means looking for solutions to these problems. Identify the problem, find people affected by it, and show them the solution.

You think you can’t do that? You’re wrong! Discover the magic of the digital world, and look what you can do and what brings you joy. Everyone has the knowledge and skills, which can be useful to somebody. Internet is a perfect tool to reach the right target group. Create your own digital product! Create your own sales funnel! Possibilities are endless. Let’s see how that works on a particular example.

Wild nature funnel

Your passion is wild nature. Ornithology, to be more precise. You love to photograph birds, and you take part in various events connected with it. The question is: how would you use such situation to make a sales funnel online so you make money and improve you skills at the same time?

In the beginning, ask yourself: why do you want to do that? Passion doesn’t need to equal making money. I fully agree. But what if you spent 8 hours a day doing what you love? Would you still have time and energy to go and make money? It doesn’t make sense. There is nothing wrong with earning on your passion. It’s exactly the opposite, people should earn only on their passions. This way they could be living a dream and also provide people with knowledge and the best possible products.

So, if you want to make money, without putting a lot of effort into it, do what you love! Money is a side effect. In order to optimize it, use online sales funnels. They will be perfect for that purpose. Let’s create a funnel with all it’s stages.

Stage 1. Awareness

Stage 2. Interest

Stage 3. Decision

Stage 4. Action

Everything starts with awareness of a particular product. The client has to have a chance to encounter it. If they see it, it is a key moment – they get interested in a product. The word “moment” is not accidental. Because usually it’s the matter of seconds. The next step, which is decision making, takes much longer. It is typical for online shopping. In some cases, this stage can last for weeks or even months. If everything goes well, your potential client becomes an existing one, by making a purchase.

Stage 1. Awareness

Okay, let’s go back to birds. You love to photograph them, so you must be very good at that. No? You don’t think your pictures are good? Change your attitude! If you’re a perfectionist, you will always be doubting yourself. Let others be your judges. Let them see your art. You’ll be surprised with their reaction. How to do it? Easy!

We live in a world, where social media have a huge influence on people’s lives, so images are really powerful. Text is very limiting. If you’re interested in photography, there’s no easier task than making it on social media. Put your pictures on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. Then you can begin to work with stock platforms like ShutterStock, Freepik, or Unsplash.

Remember to keep your social media accounts coherent. Names should be the same. The content can be the same, but it doesn’t need to be. Its important to stick to one theme. Of course, photos are not the only thing that interests you. You know a lot about various types of birds and a many interesting facts about them. So you can also try writing: start a blog! Share your thoughts and experiences. People, who encounter it while they search for answers to tough questions, would look up to you. You would become a specialist in their eyes.

It can be a first step in creating your own sales funnel. Potential clients will be aware of your brand by then. At that stage, you don’t need to have other elements of the whole system. Just don’t waste time and create accounts today, when you still have your daytime job. This way you can organically grow your community.

Stage 2. Interest

Offer concept

The next stage is much more difficult. You need to spark people’s interest with your offer. This is the moment, when you need to have a plan of the whole offer variety. Which products do you want to sell? What is their form?

Your offer should contain the following products:

  1. Free product (lead magnet) – it’s free in order to make people curious about your offer.

  2. Paid product 1 – first paid product, which should be the cheapest. It’s purpose is to “open” the wallet of your customer. A person, who spends even the smallest amount of money is a completely different kind of recipient. Not only they are interested in your offer, but they are also willing to pay for it.

  3. Paid product 2, 3, 4… In fact, there is no limit on the amount of paid products, but the whole path shouldn’t be too long. It’s important to adjust the price so it increases with each product.

  4. Final product – the most expensive one; it generates the highest income and gives the customer the highest value. It would be the best if it was a unique product, which is inimitable.

Lead magnet in sales funnel

When you create a plan for your offer, start creating your own lead magnet. It will draw potential clients’ attention to your brand. In order to make it work, be sure to add a significant value to it. The goal is to collect the highest possible number of email addresses (leads) in exchange for the unpaid material, that you share with your audience.

Remember, when you create a lead magnet, you can’t focus only on collecting leads. You should also treat it as a sieve, that decides who falls into the funnel, and who doesn’t. Depending on the topic and the form of your lead magnet, the mesh size may vary. It may appear that the best solution is to use general topics which would guarantee you a large number of customers. But what then? Are all those clients going to pay for your product? I don’t think so.

So when you create a lead magnet, you should constantly think about paid products. The whole product path has to be consistent. It’s much easier to achieve a high sales rate when your lead magnet attracts customers, who are realistically interested in your offer.

When it comes to your interest with ornithology, we advise you to create a guide book about bird feeding. Of course you can narrow this topic down. Instead of writing about feeding, you can write about how to build a bird feeder or a nesting box. Mention the advantages of having a feeder in your garden, and what kind of feeders should people get or how to DIY one. There are many possibilities, however, you focus on your paid products, which we’re going to be talking about in a moment.

Your own client contact database

At this stage, you should use precise solutions, which will allow you to collect contact information of people, who downloaded your lead magnet. It will be your potential customer contact database. In fact, funnels can’t function without your own client contact database. How else would you like to reach them with tailored offers? How else would you build further connection? We wrote more about client contact databases here.

Stage 3. Decision

It’s high time to change your potential clients into existing ones. The main factor that makes them decide if they want to pay for your offer is… the offer itself. It should be consistent with what you present in your lead magnet.

Below you can find our examples of paid products for an amateur ornithologist.

Paid product #1

As your free guide is about building bird feeders and advantages of having one in the backyard, it would be a good idea of launching a set of things you need to build a feeder – “Bird feeder DIY kit.” It could contain ready made wooden shapes, pegs, nails, tools, etc. Depending on type of birds, the kit could be different. Above all, the offer has to be visually and financially attractive. This way you can discourage your clients to build feeders on their own, and buy your product instead.

Paid product #2

Another product could be an extended version of your DIY kit. Create an upgraded package, where you can include a canned feed, and a guide about proper bird nutrition.

Now you can introduce product #1 and #2 as variants.

Paid product #3

Your client has a feeder now. They also know, how to feed birds and what to feed them… what are they missing? Any ideas?

In the end, the fun part is not to own these things, but to use them to… observe birds. During daytime, it’s not easy to do that. So in order to accommodate your customers, offer them a special digital camera, which they could install on the feeder and connect it to their computer. From now on, they won’t miss anything that happens in this little bird ecosystem.

Think about all the marketing opportunities it could bring!

You can start a YouTube channel with a live stream from your feeder. Stream in the preview mode or just upload interesting highlights from the whole live. Put the link to the free guide or a paid product in the description box.

See the pattern in the offer planning process? One product generates the need of having the next, more expensive one. Depending on your skills and how broad the topic is, you can expand the offer.

The final product of sales funnel

The final product can be the last paid product. It often happens that it’s price is much higher than other prices, and then we can say it’s a premium product. In our case, it’s just going to be a paid product #3. But the funnel can have an alternative ending: it could be paid access to valuable materials or subscription. This way you can make a steady income.

The role of trust

So now we have a complete offer. After potential client downloads your lead magnet, you offer them a product #1. Then they have to make a decision. It is a very important moment and there is a lot of things that could potentially influence their decision. Unfortunately, a lot of them is beyond your control.

So don’t think that your sales will go over the limit in first few days, weeks, or months. As we mentioned before, in the virtual world, it is much harder to measure the real worth of the product. People need time to consider the offer. In our case, the fact that we have a physical product is convenient. It automatically raises the authenticity of the offer.

In order to increase your chances to sell a product, you need to gain the trust of your customer. Trust is really powerful. You can build it by providing them with value in a free form (blog entries, free guides) and interacting through social media. A great way to build lasting relationships is email marketing. You can use it to create a newsletter. This way you can reach people, who didn’t make a decision about purchasing yet, and try to encourage them in various ways. However, don’t be pushy. Circulate around the topic, but avoid direct offers. Highlight the advantages of the product and constantly provide value.

The urge to buy

Another very important factor is the real urge to buy. In other words, the client thinks about whether they need the product or not. If you construct the funnel properly, they should ask themselves this question, when they saw the free guide.

– Well… what do I need this guide for? Of course, I went to build my own bird feeder!

And here comes the tailored offer: Bird feeder DIY kit

-Well… what do I need this kit for? Of course! I don’t have any materials or tools!

This is what decisive process can look like, in a simple version.

There are many more reasons why your client would need this product: no time, no skills, lack of experience. Unfortunately, it may turn out that there are many reasons why your product is unnecessary: it’s expensive, complicated, ugly etc. You need to be prepared for every problem, and create a special mailing campaign. People, who downloaded your lead magnet, but they didn’t make a decision to purchase the product, should receive messages, in which you would highlight the perks of the product and resolve their doubts. It’s important to stay creative.

Price policy

The last factor that has an influence on your sales success, is the price policy. Your potential client could trust you, they need your product, but they won’t make a decision… because the price is too high.

There is no perfect solution. There are many ways to establish the price policy. It’s important that the price raises with each product. From the cheapest to the most expensive one. Everything else is your decision. If you can’t price the products yourself, check the prices of the competition. Of course, don’t stick to the prices religiously. But it could be the starting point. You can change the prices later. Don’t do it too often though, as your potential clients might feel uncertain.

Stage 4. Action

Your clients have come from many different places before they ended up here. Some of them had more doubts and some had less. Your task was to resolve all of them. It could have been days, or weeks. But now, buckle up! Things start to get serious.

After making a decision, the client should finish the transaction as soon as possible. The payment page should be simplified to the maximum and lead to the one particular goal. The worst that could happen, is the client who wants to buy the product, but in the meantime they… changed their mind. So don’t give them too much time to think. Payment should be as simple as a few clicks, without distracting forms or excess information. Remember to include various payment and shipping methods. Everybody should find the best option for themselves.

Finished sales funnel

So you have a sales funnel, that was made because of your passion for wild nature. When it comes to our bird funnel, there is a drawback: you sell a physical product. This type of offer has some obstacles. You need to find a supplier or produce them by yourself. Anyone can produce DIY kits, however, when you sell a digital camera, you need to find an external source. It begins a new series of problems (price, margin, fulfillment etc.)

And what if you want to build a funnel that sells digital product, which you can create on your own? No problem. Let’s prepare an alternative product offer for a sales funnel. The core remains the same: we focus on wild birds.

Alternative offer

This time we are going to focus on your photography skills. It is a great foundation for digital products. Here is our example offer layout:

Lead Magnet – “Wild birds in Poland” album

Use pictures you’ve gathered and make a digital album. Under each picture, you can put a fun fact about each bird type, or a story behind the particular photo. Tell people about your passion. Tell people about your passion and show them, what you’ve gained thanks to it (great connection with nature, stamina, etc.)

Paid product #1 – “How to photograph wild birds” guide

In this guide, tell your clients about the technical aspect of photography. You can talk about topics such as gear, masking methods, useful accessories, how to find a particular type of bird etc.

Paid product #2 – a training program on bird photography

Video training, where you can show how to work in the field. You can include the instruction, how to edit photos.

Here, we can end the 100% digital offer. However, you don’t have to finish the funnel yet. You can include one more premium product in your offer – practical training in the field.

Premium product – practical training

For the real wildlife lovers, there is nothing more exciting than the company of like-minded people. Positive vibes and sharing knowledge. Use that and organize practical workshops in the field. It will give you the opportunity to show people like you, what you can do. You can even host a camp, where you can teach people photography step-by-step, for a several days.

This sales funnel is doable

Our ornithology example sounds made up? Ever heard about Dr Andrzej Kruszewicz, who is very well-known among certain groups. He is an ornithologist, who can speak about the world of birds for hours. He is a great example, that people with passion will always find recognition. What’s important is to put your whole heart into it. Talks of Dr Kruszewicz can be bought online in the form of book or CD.

Let this example be an inspiration for you to search for your own products and create your own sales funnels. Possibilities are endless. You can say that there is a funnel for every person. Everyone has their unique knowledge and approach. The most important thing is to find people, who can see value in it. Everything else is just a formality.

Go to the entry to find out more: Types of sales funnels >>

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11 ideas for lead magnet and how to grow your email database

Email marketing is the most effective way of reaching your client directly with your offer. Moreover, it works, because you can be sure that the emails go to people who are interested in the topic. They gave you their email address for a reason – so you can provide them with value they expect. There are a number of ways to generate leads which may be good for your business. So get inspired by 11 ideas for lead magnet, which will draw attention and help you to attract new customers.

What is Lead Magnet?

Before we get into listing examples, let’s start from the beginning. In order to build an email list, you need a strong lead magnet, which would draw the attention of people who are interested in the topic. Lead Magnet works like a catch on a client. It brings unpaid value in exchange for the email address.

Instead writing “join the newsletter,” write “download a free guide on how to increase your sales.” In both cases the person goes to the email list, but the second option will bring you way more email addresses. Quid pro quo.

If you create a lead magnet, you can be sure that the people who sign up are truly interested in your product. They become your potential clients. We can honestly say that email marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach your client directly with your sales content. And, as you know, every client is precious to your company.

What should Lead Magnet contain?

Above all, you need to answer yourself, what problem your audience has and what solutions they look for. Your Lead Magnet has to solve a particular problem your readers have. Lead Magnet doesn’t have to attract everyone. It’s job is to attract a group of people that are interested in your product. Only that way you can get a high conversion rate.

What are the qualities of a good lead magnet?

  • Solves a problem

  • Promises to solve a particular problem

  • It’s concise and has a focus on details

  • Contains value

  • It’s delivered to the recipient directly

  • It shows expert knowledge of the author

11 ideas for Lead Magnet

Lead magnets can be divided to useful, which solve a particular problem. It can also be a tool like a calendar. Another type is educational Lead Magnets, where you teach the audience and provide them with valuable information. They make you look like an authority in the field. There are also funny lead magnets, that provide mostly entertainment.

1. Checklist (control list)

List built from several steps, which help you to check your actions concerning a particular topic. The list is constructed the way you can check off the things you already did and what is still left to work on. It is a list of the most important steps, which you have to take to achieve something. By using such list, you can organize your business strategy. It is one of the best lead magnets, as it is fast to prepare for you and easy to use for the recipient.

2. Ready-made template

Templates make work easier to organize. All it takes is to create relevant spaces for the client to fill in with their own text or ideas. It could be a collection of email templates for a number of occasions. For example: email you need to prepare when the subscriber joins the list, how to encourage them to read the articles on the blog, etc.

3. Courses

Free courses can help you to create a good relationship with the participants. Establish the topic of a course and divide it into individual lessons. Lead magnet doesn’t have to be a product that the client gets in full version immediately. Instead, they can be getting a series of lessons over a certain period of time. This way, the person who takes the course gets an email everyday and gets familiar with the material. After the course is over, you can still maintain the relationship with the subscriber, by sharing your knowledge. Eventually, they will purchase your product and become your customers.

4. Calendar/Planner

Create a calendar with important dates, that could allow users to plan their actions. Calendars turned out to be useful in many business fields.

It could also be a planner, where you can put suggestions on what to post on social media. You could put there things like content ideas, suggest, what images to use depending on the season etc. It’s a useful tip on what to do and when.

For example, create a calendar for March, April, and May. Let’s say you run an e-commerce business. So you put all the important dates connected with this field in it. You can guide people on how to use that knowledge to increase the sales in their online store.

5. Webinar

Organizing a webinar is a great example of lead magnet. This way you offer a client much more. Webinar is a live meeting where you talk about the specific subject, or a problem. Participants can ask questions during the meeting, if they don’t understand something or have doubts. Give your audience a possibility to sign up to the webinar, as a part of subscription. You can sens the link to a webinar directly to their email address. The link would take them to a website of the webinar host. This way you get the email address of your potential client and you can inform them about any upcoming events.

6. Coupons and promo codes

You run an online store? Then it can be a particularly good option for you. All you need to do is to prepare a discount code and put a banner on your website. It could be a crucial part of the decision making process for the person who just looks at the products on your store. They will gladly use promo code and make a purchase. Congratulations, you’ve just made a new client and a new subscriber at the same time.

7. Quiz

One of the most entertaining ways of creating a lead magnet. Who doesn’t like quizzes? You’ve probably encounter this form numerous times, and you solved it out of curiosity to find out something about yourself. You can, for example, prepare a quiz titled “How much do you know about social media advertising.” Quiz contains a number of questions, and the user finds out the answer by entering their email address. This way you receive their answers and find out what is their weak spot. While you collect their email addresses, you can prepare interesting materials for them, which can help them to develop further in their field.

8. Trial version

Software is your product. It doesn’t matter if it’s email marketing software, e-commerce software, or a salon managing software. As you see, you can offer a trial version in a lot of cases. This way you can offer your potential clients to try your program. The user can use the full version of your system for, let’s say, 30 days. Limit the in formation you collect about the trial users to the minimum. Name and email address are enough to get familiar with the system. If the user doesn’t purchase your product after the trial period, don’t worry. Prepare a series of emails, ask for opinion about the software, guide the potential client, by showing them your offer until they become your clients.

9. E-book/Reports

E-book or guide. It’s all about creating a valuable and essential knowledge. It could be a guide on how to create an ad on Facebook, how to prepare a newsletter, or what are free ways of promoting an online store. Find out what could interest your audience.

Reports, which present data on a particular subject, have a huge value. They can be created based on data, statistics, or research studies. If you’re interested and you want to know, what changes happen in the field of our interest, you need to know what you should prepare for.

10. PDF version

When you prepare a report or a guide you can put a small part of it on your blog. Then put a sign-up form below. After signing up, the subscriber can see the whole article. This way, the person who is interested in the topic, will give you their email address, as they will be curious to read the whole thing.

You can also gather the most popular articles from your blog and save them in a PDF format. This way, you give the reader the opportunity to download blog entries in a PDF format in exchange for email address.

11. Free consultation

It allows you to be in a direct contact with your client. If a person wants to consult a specialist in order to see the offer, it means that they are close to making decision. You can offer a free consultation, as it is the best opportunity to show the best side of you and build a lasting relationship with a person who might become your client.

Your free product has to be valuable and substantial. Only then you will attract new customers. The ideas from this article will surely help you to build your mailing database. Adjust them to your business field and create products.

Go to the entry to find out more: Types of sales funnels >>