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Every business owner knows the pains of just missing a sale, but the real question here is, what made the prospect drop out at the last minute.

And, how do you ensure that this doesn't keep happening?

The answer is quite simple: You create a marketing funnel that works.

Let us show you how to implement a successful marketing funnel?

What's new?

What's new in Marketing?

An Apple (update) a day keeps the marketers away: iOS 15 spurs more privacy changes - A slew of privacy updates that Apple announced in June at its annual developer conference is officially kicking in, thanks to iOS 15!

Shopify Reportedly Surpasses Amazon In Online Traffic, Heating Up Race Between The E-Commerce Firms - Shopify has reportedly beaten Amazon in a notable metric, online traffic, according to data reviewed by Business Insider.

TikTok Outlines Rising Opportunities for eCommerce and the Unique Potential for Brands in the App - As part of its ongoing growth and pushes to implement more monetization opportunities, TikTok has been increasingly leaning into eCommerce.

LinkedIn Launches Updated Lead Generation Forms Integration for Zapier, Providing New Automation Opportunities - LinkedIn has made collecting audience data a little easier by launching a new Event Registration trigger in the Lead Generation Forms integration for Zapier.

What's Working?

To ensure that your business does not lose any prospects, creating a marketing funnel that works is important.

Today, we'll discuss the importance of a marketing funnel and implementing a successful marketing funnel.

What is a Marketing Funnel?

A marketing funnel is a step-by-step process of a customer engaging with your business or product.

Like a bee attracted to honey, they notice your product or service, and their interest leads them through your marketing funnel.

It’s up to you to keep them engaged and nurture transactions.

Once that happens, you want to maintain their loyalty and have them return and spread the word about your service. 

Importance of a Marketing Funnel 

Here are a few reasons why your business needs a funnel:

• Customers ultimately pay us to move them from an undesirable “before state” to a desirable “after state.”
• Well-crafted funnels show your audience that they need your product or service.
• Instead of making a single sale, funnels will create return customers with lifetime value.
• Funnels are ongoing stories with a beginning, middle, and end. Stories build relationships.
• Funnels enable your customer relationships to develop naturally.

Where Do We Start?

Like a Mystery Novel!

We’re going to work backward like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie.

1. Create accurate Personas.
2. Define our Core Product.
3. Define our Core Offer.
4. Come up with our Entry Point Offer (Tripwire).
5. Create valuable lead magnet(s) that provide REAL value.

Steps to Creating an Effective Funnel

1. Core Product

• Your product is not your offer.
• Your product is your product. 
• You already have a core offer. It’s your flagship (or steadily producing) product or service.
• An offer is a unique way of presenting or selling that product.

Core Offer

Understand AND DEFINE your Core Offer. 

• The mistake that many businesses make is trying to sell their core offer to cold prospects. 
• This almost NEVER works, because your core offer is too expensive. 
• Goal: build a system where you can afford to spend MORE to acquire a customer than your competition.
• Furthermore, Generate more customers and more LONG TERM profit.
• One of the reasons a business fails to grow is because they don’t have a compelling core offer.

2. Entry Point Offer

Also known as a “Trip Wire” (sounds bad).

Comes in 3 main flavours: Gated Content, Loss Leader, Product Review.

3. Lead Magnet

Even though there’s no $ involved, it IS a transaction.

Lead Magnets have to provide great value.

Purpose: generate leads so we can follow up with them.

4. Maximizers

Maximizers are intended to increased average customer value immediately.

There are no “Magic Bullet” test different maximizers.

Understanding your personas and test!

Remember, COA is the most expensive marketing activity in the funnel.

Goal: Increase the Average Transaction Value per customer.

McDonald’s hamburgers are the core offer. Fries and Pop are the maximizers.

Any offer after the initial sale is a Maximizer.

Optimizing Your Funnel - EPO and Core Offer

There are several ways to optimize your funnel and Core Offer:

1. Payment Terms.
2. Discounts.
3. Bonuses.
4. Premiums.
5. Bundles.
6. Kits.
7. Guarantee.
8. Extended Warranty.
9. Urgency.
10. Championing a Cause.

The Stages of a Successful Funnel

Awareness (STDC): You’re creating great content that makes the right audiences notice you.

Engage (STDC): You’re still creating engaging, relevant content for your target persona and audiences.

Subscribe (LM): You’ve created content and value of incredible value for your ideal persona. 

Convert (EPO): You’ve thought about it and crafted an Entry Point Offer your ideal customer can’t refuse. They also trust you.

Excite (Core & Maximizer Offers): You’ve tested and created a high-value core offer that provides tons of real and perceived value to your customers.

Promote (Referral): Since Lifetime Customer Value and profitability is KEY to success, we’ll provide the incentive and tools for our customers to rave about their experience with their network.

Marketer Knows - The Stages of a Successful Funnel 

Awareness (STDC): The Real Cost of Facebook Ads 2020/2021 Edition. 

Engage (STDC): SEO Seeds and Stems (Video), The Ultimate Guide to Google My Business.

Subscribe (LM): 7 Day Marketing Bootcamp. 

Convert (EPO): The Marketer Know “Forever Free” Community Membership.

Excite (Core & Maximizer Offers): The Founders Club $79 per month ($279 per month Regularly) lifetime 25% discount on one-one consultations and any new premium products.

Promote (Referral): Engaging with the Community weekly office hours, Q&A for Problem Solving, Screenshare and Co-working Huddles, Ready-to-Roll Campaigns, Creative and Marketing Services.

Marketer Knows

Core Product: Community.

Core Offer: Founder’s Club Membership.

Entry Point Offer: Free Community Membership.

Lead Magnets: In-Depth Free Content and Campaign Roadmap Giveaways.

Maximizer: 25% off everything FOREVER.

Brand Awareness

You want to raise your brand awareness by letting potential customers know that you are out there and you’re ready to help.

Potential customers have become aware of Marketer Knows through:

• Organic Search
• PR and Mention
• Email Leads
• Promotions
• Facebook

Example: An Effective Marketing Funnel

Marketer Knows features a "forever free" membership level, allowing us to build a new member funnel and community.

Account Creation

Potential customers will either LOG IN or REGISTER for a Marketer Knows account.

Visitors who are new and registering are then sent through an onboarding process in Active Campaign.

Throughout their web journey, Google Tag Manager is implemented to track interactions on your website.

FREE Available Features for Potential Customers

Once an account is created, users will have access to a wide variety of useful information, such as: 

• Roadmaps
• Forums
• Vault
• Q&A

It’s a great amount of FREE content to help them build their own skills. 

Onboarding Process: ActiveCampaign

These potential customers that have registered will trigger the email automation.

They will receive emails throughout the coming weeks to get them successfully onboarded and familiar with the site. 

Tips and tricks, along with other valuable tidbits, will be provided to them.

Potential Customers Become Paying Customers

Through the Roadmaps and Vault, your potential customers have had access to FREE content that they have used to hone their skills.

As they have gone through the basic training, they are now enticed to become a member or premium member, with access to more interesting and useful content.

Wrapping It Up

As you can see, building a marketing funnel is a crucial step in creating long-lasting customers and sustainable business growth. 

Each time you develop new content, think of the 4 stages of your marketing funnel to better understand your prospect’s journey so that you can feel confident from the Awareness stage all the way down to the Action phase. 

We hope you enjoyed learning about implementing a successful marketing funnel. If you’re looking for more great content, check out some of our other reads below: 

Using Email to Attract, Engage and Retain Customers

5 Effective Content Distribution Plays

How to Repurpose Long Form Video for Social Media

Social Media Calendars: Creating One the Right Way