I want to dive deeper into a topic I briefly talked about in the last blog post where I introduced you to cozy marketing (and if you haven’t read that one yet, I highly recommend you go back and give it a glance over. It’s linked above and it is the foundation to my entire marketing strategy. It’s one of those juicy good blogs you don’t want to miss!). Anyway, like i said, today I wanted to dig more into a topic that I scraped the surface on in the last blog, which is funnels! No, not the tool in your kitchen, but a sales funnel in your business! There are so so many reasons to have funnels in your business and we’re going to talk about all of them PLUS we’re going to reverse engineer your own specific funnel right here in this blog. So grab your cup of coffee and let’s do this!

WHAT IS SALES FUNNEL?

Now, in case you’ve never heard of them or need a little refresher, let’s chat about what a sales funnel IS, because a lot of people really tend to overcomplicate them or try to do too much too fast and get overwhelmed. So the short and sweet version is that a sales funnel is an automated system that leads people to buy from you. Easy, right? If you want to break it down further, it’s actually an automated system based on buyer psychology that gets people ready to buy from you by warming them up, getting quick yeses from them, and getting them off of a platform you don’t own (aka social media) onto a platform you do own (your email list) because statistically it has a higher conversion rate. Now, I know some of my fellow marketing and psychology nerds loved that, but in case you’re lost, here’s an example to explain what I mean.

This is what a sales funnel looks like. A freebie leads to an automated sequence of emails that shift your audience’s minds and then leads them to buy your main offer, which you present at the end of the series. That’s a really generalized sales funnel. And here’s a little bit of the psychology behind why it works. Starting at the beginning, you offer that freebie that someone gets in exchange for their email address. This does 3 things - first- it is a quick win, getting them fast results that will build trust and establish your authority to them (aka you’re a pro). Second, it gets them to say Yes to you, and buyer psychology has shown that it’s easier to get them to say yes to your paid offer once they’ve already said yes to something else, which could be a freebie or a low price point product or service. Third, it adds them to your email list, which to this day is still shown to have a higher conversion rate of people buying from you than social media (plus you’re not fighting with an algorithm to get your emails seen AND it’s going directly to them so you can speak one on one with them).

Once they get that freebie, they are then given a series of automated emails that you write to lead them to your main product you want them to buy. This might be 4-5 emails spaced out over 2-3 weeks that will take them from point A of : you have this problem to B: here’s how to fix it, with xyz product or service of mine to get you whatever results it is that they want. The reason this series works, when you write it correctly, is because you’re not just going in straight for the sale. You are taking the time to help them understand they do indeed have a problem, switch their perspective around the problem, and then let them know you can solve the problem. This might look like someone joining your email list feeling frustrated with the photos they’re posting on IG. They are already thinking their problem is that maybe they’re not photogenic enough. They don’t look like a model so they don’t like the pictures they take. You help them realize that the real problem is that they don’t know how to use the camera on their phone properly to get a good picture. You give them little tips & tricks on the settings they need to use, how to find better lighting, to shift their mindset to taking better pictures rather than thinking they themselves are the problem. & finally, now that they know what the real problem is (using their camera) & have made the mindset shift that they CAN take good pictures using the tips you gave them, you now lead them to your offer of $10 editing presets to make their photos look like exactly what they’re dreaming of with one click of a button. That is in general what a sales funnel looks like!

WHY BOTHER WITH A SALES FUNNEL?

And you might be thinking, Courtney Jo, that sounds like a lot of work. Why do I want to set up a sales funnel? Ohhh, babe, there are so many reasons. First this sets you up for passive income - this is money that you get without having to trade your time for dollars. So if you have a digital product that they can get instantly without you having to do any extra work, you can increase your income without having to trade your time! Second, it’s automatic & evergreen - so you set it up once and it keeps on running in the background. So instead of setting manually walking each person through this buying process, it’s happening 24/7 for an unlimited amount of people without any extra work from you, beyond the initial one time setup.

Third, it works on your audience’s schedule! Maybe you can’t manually send an email until 4pm, but that’s when your ideal customer is off of their email until the next day, so you play endless games of email tag. This eliminates that, with your people being able to grab your freebie whenever they want, getting served your digital product instantly when they sign up and getting your emails on their own time instead of playing tag in the inbox. Fourth, it is a surefire way to lead your audience through your buying process the way YOU want them to. There’s no chance for them to take a way into your business that you don’t want them to. You set the path and they follow.

Fifth, it establishes trust and quick wins wayyyy easier because it’s giving them small chances to say “yes” to you throughout the process, building that trust and leading to higher conversions than just seeing your posts on social media (plus this is a way to sell without feeling spammy like we do when we constantly post offers on instagram). And lastly, like I just mentioned - it statistically has higher conversion rates than just posting your offer on social media alone. It takes away the algorithm, and the weird feelings with selling, making it natural, effortless, and automatic!

MAP OUT YOUR SALES FUNNEL

Alright let’s get to the juicy stuff, shall we? You know what the funnel is, and why you need it… so let’s break down the funnel to figure out what exactly you need in yours. I’m about to pull out a napkin and pen like I would at a coffee shop and we’re going to map out your funnel right here, right now by reverse engineering it.

And just a side note: i’m going beyond just what you need for your sales funnel because this list also includes what you need to MARKET & PROMOTE your sales funnel to get your people into it!

To create your funnel, you need 5 parts:

Your content that you post on social that makes them WANT the freebie
Your content map to lead them to your freebie
Your freebie that relates to the offer with a quick win or first step
An email series to lead them through the mindset shifts of wanting the offer
Your kick ass end offer

Now those are just the puzzle pieces. And yeah, you could try to just dive in and go from there BUT if you want to not waste your time and make your funnel as effective as possible, you’re going to want to create them in a specific order & this is where we reverse engineer your entire funnel to make it so drool worthy that your audience can’t help themselves but to sign up.

So we start at the end with the offer. What do you want them to buy & how much will it be. Digital products work best here, but you can adapt this to physical products and services as well. If you don't have an offer created already, take some time to make one, like an online course, presets, whatever it may be. Once you figure out what your offer is and how much it will be, then we move onto step 2.

& this will be a little different because we’re going to jump around a bit in the list here. You might think if we’re working backwards that you’d do the emails next, but trust me, that makes it wayyyy harder than it needs to be. So for step 2 we move onto our freebie. This is something your audience will get for free in exchange for joining your email list. & The secret to making this an effective part of your funnel is to make it related to the offer at the end! It gives them a little taste, a quick win, or even the first step so that they’re introduced to what your offer is about. Now you can get really creative with the format of this freebie. It could be a ebook, digital templates, a 3 day challenge, a webinar, or even the 1st module or a mini training that is directly about your main offer. Whatever it is, it should definitely be related to your end offer and get them introduced to what your main offer is about.

Now that your freebie is done, we backtrack a little and write your email series. Now here’s why we jumped ahead to do the freebie first….because now you have a clear “start” point with the freebie and “end” point with the offer. The email series bridges the two, and leads the audience from the freebie to the offer. Connect the gaps in a series of emails. Make them aware of the bigger problem them have, how the freebie is just the first step, and how your offer solves the problem. Once you get those emails written up & scheduled in your email provider, your basic funnel is done. & this is where most coaches & mentors would stop, but as I did this for myself, I realized there was more to the game of sales funnels which is why I’m not stopping there.

So now that you have your funnel done, we’re going to work on the content that will get them to sign up for the freebie, starting with your content map. You want to map out your content strategy to figure out when, where, and how you’re going to lead them to your freebie. This is very similar to how you used the email series to bridge the gap between the freebie and offer, except now you’re bridging the gap between where they are now and the first step they will take with your freebie. So again, focus on establishing their current frustration, make the mindset shifts to make them realize the problem, and then present them with your freebie that solves their problem. Once you map out that content strategy, it’s onto the last step, which is honestly the easiest part…

Creating the content! You just mapped it all out and now you get to create it. So pick out some fun canva templates or pictures you love, write up your captions, and get those posts scheduled. Or if you’re doing this in stories or reels, pre-record all of that content, batch it, and get it ready to go. Going live instead? Write out your outlines or scripts for your lives so you’re fully prepared and put all of your content on your calendar so you know exactly what is happening and when! After all of that, you have an amazing sales funnel plus the marketing pieces to start getting those followers to enter your funnel!

So is your mind blown right now? Learning this was one of the biggest uplevels in my business and opened so many new doors for me, and the fact that it could all be done on the backend automatically, working perfectly with my cozy marketing system was such a bonus! I have to know though, are you ready to run full speed at this or are you breathing into a paper bag, feeling overwhelmed?

Whether you’re already in your google docs planning this our or clutching a paper bag, one thing we all need is more time. So let’s give you even more time to get this funnel mapped out with your first year of plug & play instagram templates created with my cozy marketing method in mind (PLUS allll the other tools & templates you need to grow your business online) with the Business Bundle! Click the button below to grab it for 70% off!

PS: this bundle is like hiring a full time social media manager, copyrighter, professional photographer, and marketing strategist for only $.54 cents a day! That’s crazy!

So let’s set you up for massive business growth and success with your new sales funnel AND the business bundle!

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