Why A Sales Funnel is Just the First Step
You built a sales funnel and people aren't showing up in droves to buy from you. I've got good news for you - nothing is wrong. This is actually when the marketing work begins. You built your house with your messaging. Now you've got to invite people into it with your marketing. Here are the simple fundamentals that all marketers know that will bring in and nurture new audience members.
What is a Sales Funnel, Again?
A sales funnel is a series of actions that happen automatically so that an audience member becomes a customer. If you are a small business - and especially if you’re a solopreneur - you want to have as much of this automated as absolutely possible. This will help save you immense amounts of time.
Here’s an example of a sales funnel:
You’re at your daughter’s school play and one of the parents asks you what you do for a living.
You tell him your one-liner so he succinctly knows what problem you solve, what you offer, and how it makes their lives better. His curiosity is piqued and at intermission he Googles you.
He goes on to your website where he can see what you offer, how it makes his life better, and how he can get it.
He’s not ready to buy right now because the Act II’s about to start, but he gives you his email address in exchange for your freebie so he can learn more about your product.
For the next few weeks he gets a series of emails about you leading him towards the next step in the buying process.
Do you see how - outside of the short conversation you both had before the show started - this required nothing for you to do.
You already put in the work to:
clarify your message
write and memorize your one-liner
optimize your website
set up a lead generator
create a bunch of emails that go out automatically
All of this happened in the past, like a film that you shot and released.
Sales funnel are the best way for a lean marketing team to make the most of the little time that they have.
To see if you are missing any elements of your sales funnel, you can take the free StoryBrand Marketing Assessment.
Got it. So… Where are the Customers?
“Messaging and automations are table stakes.”
Having a clear message, a good website, a lead generator, and an automated email sequence these are all things that you need to run in the background. They all have to work.
So that is the beginning.
It’s your house.
The hard part to hear is that having a well laid out house is merely the starting off point. That’s the minimum.
Now you need to invite people to come over.
I know, I know, I know.
You just worked so hard. Spent all that time. Spent all that money. And got all of those elements in place. And you’re not done?!
I applaud the efforts you’ve put in thus far. But that is only the beginning. That’s the set up phase of things.
Use Social Media Consistently to Attract New People
Learn more about the PAGER Method for Social Media at an upcoming Simplify Your Social webinar.
Once you have your messaging, website, and email automations in order, then you need to consistently reach out to people. Social media is an excellent way to do this. With social media, you can find new people with the intent to get them to trust that you understand what they’re going through. And get them to trust that you know what their doing. You want to build relationships with your followers. Then you want them to subscribe to your email list.
With the PAGER method for social media I discuss exactly how to create, vary, and automate your content so you can show up consistently on social media without eating up all of your time.
You want to create something, respond to someone, and share someone else’s work every day in order to develop and grow your social media account.
Doing this will help to establish your authority, grow your network of people, and build relationships with those that follow you.
As you do this, you also want to be building your email list.
Using Email Marketing to Nurture Current and New Audience Members
Relying on social media solely for nurturing relationships with your audience is dicey since platforms can come and go so quickly. Twitter is a very different landscape than it was in 2023 since Elon Musk decided one day to buy it.
Facebook and Instagram have both have days where they just went down.
And it’s easy to simply get kicked off of a platform with no notice, no reason, and no recourse.
So it’s a dicey place at best to put your .
Having an email list gives you more control over your audience because you always have their contact information and you can take that with you should you change from a Keap account to a Mailchimp account to a Constant Contact account. You can’t take your followers from Instagram with you if you decide to leave the platform for TikTok.
So with an email list, it’s important for your audience to regularly hear from you. They may have downloaded your freebie months ago and for whatever realized that they didn’t need you then. If you stay in their inbox regularly, though, when they do realize they have that problem again, you are going to be the one to solve it for them. You are most likely top of mind because you have landed at the top of their inbox consistently ever since they downloaded your freebie.
And then they hire you.
Easy? No. Simple? Yes.
You build a sales funnel to automate the “getting to know you” part of the sales process. People come to you to get their problem solved. And they decide quickly whether or not you can do that for them. But if you are holding their hand every step of the way, that is going to eat up too much of your time.
So with the time that your sales funnel saves you, you will:
create content in batches
vary that content in different formats (so say the same ideas in an email newsletter that you might put in tweet)
automate as much content as possible
repeat
That’s the process. It’s simple to understand. But not easy to be disciplined about. But you can do it! Because you need to keep more people interested in your business. And for the ones that have already raised their hands and said they were interested in hearing from you, they deserve to hear from you.
Consistent email and social media marketing strategies do just that.
Simplify Your Social Media
Many of our clients have started using the PAGER Method for Social Media to simplify their social. With this method, they learn to create, vary, and automate content so that they can free up their time. Get $10 off the next Simplify Your Social webinar with coupon code: BLOG. Register now.
