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Sales Funnel Strategies

Posted on 11. Sep, 2009 by MRR in Marketing Tips

One question I get asked a lot is how to setup a perfect sales funnel, so here I am with my thoughts on this:

• First Of All You Need To Create Your Sales Funnel Plan

One of the steps often forgotten in the excitement of creating a new online business is the planning phase.  This is particularly important when you’re creating your sales and marketing strategy.  Spend some time mapping out how your content, products and services, and marketing are all going to work together to build a profitable online business.

Step One: Develop high quality products.  Starting off on the right foot with your customer service approach is very important for the livelihood of your online business. Quality products, from the very first freebie to your largest ticket item, will help you gradually build a positive reputation for yourself. Any future dealings you have where you can do repeat business with your customer should leave them feeling as if they were treated as well if not better than the first time around.

Step Two: Create your product line.  A sales funnel is a series of incrementally more valuable, and perhaps more expensive, products or services to offer your customers.  However, people are going to enter your funnel at various stages.  Some may begin by taking advantage of your free offer while some may jump right in and buy a product or service.  Create a plan for each type of customer.  Set the stage for the next level of products you have available. Figure out which ones might be of interest to your clients, or which ones could be useful. Help them to see just how they can be helpful and how to implement them effectively into their present business or organization.

Step Three: Maintain the Communication.  In addition to creating a line of high quality products and services, you’ll also want to establish consistent communication with your prospects and customers.  Accomplish this by continuing the flow of valuable information in the form of blog posts, email messages and perhaps a newsletter.

Maintaining the flow of valuable information makes it easier for your customers to confidently pass your information on to others. You could soon find yourself starting the process all over again with new referrals, or other people you have found on your own who have become customers.

Planning is the key to online business success.  Create your sales funnel plan, marketing plan and content plan and work to integrate the three into a seamless and efficient system.  Consistency is the key, and by using the same plan over and over again with each new person, your online business will grow. And everyone will be receiving the same great quality products and services you have to offer.

• The First Step to Choosing a Profitable Sales Funnel Niche

In the world of internet marketing, the term “sales funnel niches” is heard often.  It’s a technique used in affiliate marketing as a means to seek out smaller sections or sub-groups of a larger market. This permits you as an internet or affiliate marketer to develop and promote these smaller sections to better suit the needs of your potential customers or prospects.  There are several steps to choosing a profitable niche.  Let’s take a look at the first steps.

An Interesting Niche – It’s much easier if you choose a niche to work in which will provide you with some satisfaction. An advanced interest in the topic makes it that much easier for you to continue being able to supply your customers with valuable information on a regular basis. This is the key to getting your successful sales funnel started on the right path. If you can’t come up with enough information to keep your prospects coming back for more, you may need to reconsider your niche choice.

Demand for Your Chosen Niche – If you’re concerned whether your chosen niche is one that will be popular enough to keep your online business going strong, take it for a little test drive. Perform keyword research to guide you towards stats about your niche idea and how many searches have been done on your potential niche.

For example, if your chosen niche were cotton balls you would do keyword research based on that. Let’s say cotton balls returns a result of 152 searches per month. This is not a very in demand topic and it could be a difficult niche to profit from.

Now let’s change that keyword research to your second choice, homemade beauty products. It returns a result of over and above 30,000 searches per month and is definitely worth looking into. The higher the search result, the more popular the niche – the more demand for information on your chosen topic. The more popular the niche, the better chance you have of succeeding with your sales funnel using this niche as your starting point.

Making sure your topic is interesting to you and researching demand is just the beginning to a profitable niche and sales funnel.  There is a method to success with niches and sales funnels. The best way to succeed is to take it one-step at a time.

• The Most Important Element in Your Sales Funnel

Perhaps it’s starting to become evident at this point how important a sales funnel is for your online business success. Sales funnels facilitate your ability to build trust with your customers. Trust is the key to having a profitable funnel, and it can be quite simple.

There are times when you, the business owner, need to make the decision to give away a product of value. Something your customers will know is a top-notch giveaway. Most often, the best sales funnel system starts out with a free product, and then begins to gain momentum with something at a low price, then on and on gradually increasing the value and the price of your offers.

Eventually, the trust and confidence between you and your prospects will reach a point where you can break out the dealmaker item you’ve been preparing. This is your product, which carries the larger ticket price, and your customers won’t even hesitate to purchase it. This is a result of the time you have spent building that relationship of trust and confidence.

Keeping you customer in control of the business relationship, with them able to severe the ties without worrying about any risk, is what will sustain their trust in you and your business.  These are essential keys – it’s all about your customer, building their trust and serving their needs. Sales always come afterwards in this particular line of priorities.

Once trust is established and prospects have become customers, they’ve entered your sales funnel, then you can begin to offer your higher end products. Earn your prospect’s trust with valuable and quality information and you will have a company built with a positive and solid reputation.

• Tips and Strategies for Superior Customer Care

Many internet marketers have questions about customer care in relation to their online business. While wanting to convince just about everyone they encounter to hop on board with them, they could easily be spending precious time, resources and money on people who just don’t really fit in the mix.

When working with niches and sales funnels, it’s important to know not everyone is going to follow you. And frankly, you probably wouldn’t want them to anyhow. If it’s not “their” niche, they aren’t going to get use from it, while your time and resources could be of better use elsewhere.

Understand Buying Behavior – It’s important to understand buying triggers and purchasing behavior.  People tend to buy from those they know, have established confidence in, and like. You can achieve all of these things with your customers without ever meeting them face to face. It just takes some time, email messages with a slightly personal tone, followed by trusting actions. Most people can connect with these, and will feel they know you, even if they have never heard your voice or seen more than a picture of you on an internet web page on their computer screen.

Valuable Information – Another thing required to keep your customers happy and coming back to you, often with much excitement, is a consistent supply of valuable information relative to the niche in question. This information can range from e-books to articles and reports to audio sessions. It’s all dependent on your particular niche sales funnel and what your customer base actually needs.

Consistent Communication – Encourage your website visitors and customers to come back often by offering a newsletter or free product for them if they sign up for further information from you. Offering quality resources makes it easier for even the most reluctant person to divulge their contact information to you thus enabling you to connect with them on a regular basis.

Taking care of your prospects and customers is essential to keeping them engaged in your sales funnel.  They’ll appreciate the effort you put in to the service you are providing when they see something of good or even great quality offered on a consistent basis.  It’s what will keep them loyal to you, as well as have them recommend your site to their friends too.

• Understanding the Difference Between Back and Front End Sales

When you first start planning your sales funnel and creating your marketing strategy you may be confused by the terms Back-End Sales and Front-End Sales. Understanding these concepts is key to a successful sales funnel and ultimately your online profits.

Front-End Sales. Your Front-End Sale is the first product your prospect purchases.  In your sales funnel, this could be at any price point.  Your front-end sale could be your lowest priced item, say a book or an introductory report for example.  It could also be one of your higher priced items. While most customers may enter your funnel at the very beginning, that’s not always the case.  Therefore, it pays to have back end offers designed for each and every price point in your funnel.

Back-end sales. Back-end sales are where the money is truly made.  Your back-end products and offers are designed to enhance the product your customer just purchased or is getting ready to purchase.  For example, if your customer just purchased a book then your back-end offer might be a corresponding workbook or online course to compliment the book.  The key to having a successful back-end sales strategy is to make sure each offer compliments or enhances the value of the product they just purchased.

If, for example, your customer purchased a book and your back-end offer is an unrelated software product then your customer is going to be left scratching their head. Their confidence in you and their trust in you is going to falter.  Not a good thing.

However, if your offer compliments what they just purchased or are getting ready to purchase and offers them more value, their trust and confidence in you is going to increase.  See how this works?

The key to a successful sales funnel is to create complimentary back-end products and offers.  Understand that customers may enter your funnel at different points and be ready to up the ante, offer them more value, and increase your profts.

To your continued success,
Connor

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