Raise your hand if you’ve been scared of the words “sales funnels.” I understand, because talking about funnels can come off as totally inaccessible and complex. But I want to totally demystify sales funnels! I’m sharing how to start creating EASY sales funnels to make more sales in your business!
Creating EASY Sales Funnels to Make More Sales
Want to listen to the podcast version of this post? I’ve got you covered!
I know that what I teach about sales funnels can seem scary, complicated, and technical. But on a basic level, it doesn’t have to be! Creating easy sales funnels to make more sales is easier than you think (ha). And I’m probably going to share some sales funnel ideas that you haven’t thought of before!
I don’t want you to think that if you’re a solopreneur or don’t have an extra penny in your budget, you can’t have a sales funnel. Because it is totally possible! You should and CAN be using sales funnels from the very beginning of your business.
The basic strategy of creating easy sales funnels
At a BASIC level, a sales funnel is an automated way to get people from finding out about you to purchasing from you. That’s it.
See how it’s not as complicated as we let people tell us it is?
Are there complicated funnels? 100,000%! But not all of them require super special software or take hours and hours to set up.
There are only so many hours in the day. If every sale that you make requires that you directly reach out to someone, there’s a maximum amount of sales you can make. If it’s automated and you don’t have to do a thing? “The limit does not exist” 😉
What are sales funnels I can use in my business?
Let’s dive into how you can start creating easy sales funnels to make more sales.
A Booking Funnel
This easy sales funnel idea is for anyone with a service-based business. Maybe you’re a wedding planner. If someone finds you and wants to book a fitting call with you, you can automate that whole process. So rather than emailing back and forth with a bunch of initial questions before you set up the meeting, it can be one step!
For example, you could set up automated answers to questions via Facebook Messenger. So if someone found you on Facebook, they could get the answers to initial questions like “what areas do you service,” or “how much do you charge?”
Then, you could also have a canned response that says, “Hey, it sounds like we’d be a good fit! Go ahead and fill out this form to book a call with me so we can go from there” with a link.
You just eliminated a TON of work from your plate by letting the system take care of that for you.
You could really ramp up this process by using something like a chatbot in Messenger. I really like the service ManyChat. It integrates with Facebook Messenger and lets you create automated sequences within it, so the bot could literally do all the work for you (including scheduling a booking call).
You could do this on your website as well with an automated form that sends them an email!
The power in funnels is that they’re a MACHINE
Once you set up your funnel once just like you’d like it, you never have to set it up again. And taking yourself out of as much of the in-between process as possible means less stress when you’re making sales!
Instead of sending emails, your job then becomes getting people into the front of the machine. And once they get in there, the machine will do the job.
Softwares you can use for Booking Funnels:
- ManyChat for Facebook Messenger
- Dubsado for website forms (this is my favorite!)
- HoneyBook for website forms
Small-Offer Funnel
This is one you’ve heard me mention before because I personally LOVE small-offer funnels. These help you build your audience and make money at the same time.
Small-offer funnels are where you create a low-cost offer that is REALLY robust. I like to say that a small-offer funnel sells someone the tools for very, very cheap, but not the instructions. Those instructions are what you’ll sell to them later on in the offer.
So you could create a $27 low-cost offer that contains ALL the tools. Then, they would get the option of an “order bump” at checkout that’s a no-brainer for the person buying the offer. For example, with my ClickUp Course, my order bump is 15 ClickUp templates. Then, once they check out, they have a one-time offer option! The one-time offer is a higher priced offer that would be the instructions for the tools you’ve given them.
This one might sound confusing, but it doesn’t have to be complex. All you need is a software that lets you add an order-bump and a one-time offer to an offer.
Softwares for Small-Offer Funnels:
Most of these softwares do have a higher price tag, but if you can make up the cost, it doesn’t matter.
Once you have the software, a small-offer funnel is easy to make. You just have to create the things that go in it, house them somewhere, and create a sales page for people to buy. More complicated than a booking funnel, but still not the hardest.
Long story short: the offer here should make you at least break even with your ad spend, but the best scenario is that you’re making money, too! Because you’re growing your email list to sell to those people later (and they’re all vetted), breaking even isn’t the worst thing.
I did a WHOLE episode on this that you can listen to right here!
I don’t recommend these to everybody, because you have to know your positioning. The whole goal is to sell people into a bigger offer, so if there isn’t one on the other end, there isn’t a point.
Email Funnel
Email funnels are one of the best ways to get started creating easy sales funnels to make more sales. You should already have an email marketing system in place, and that’s half the battle.
I use ConvertKit, but you can use whatever (except please don’t use MailChimp).
The point of an email funnel is to automate the sales process after you get someone on your email list! So your work stops at getting them to sign up, and the automation takes it from there.
How this would look…
Imagine I have a course about making digital products that’s $200, but I don’t want to spend ad money to get people into it. I’m going to rely on my organic content to get people into this funnel/this course.
I’ll create content that hits on the questions people who want to create digital products are asking. And in those blog posts or YouTube videos, I’ll offer a freebie that’s related to the topic. So I could have a freebie called Digital Product Blueprint (which I do!) that I would direct everyone to grab. Now, they’re on my email list.
My system is going to send them an email that delivers them the freebie. Then I’ve set up my system to add them to my “nurture sequence,” which helps people understand who I am better and connect with me elsewhere, like on Instagram.
People will TOTALLY dip out – there are people who only care about the freebie, and that’s fine. But for the people who stay, they’ll go through the entire nurture sequence. Then, I would add them to a different sequence that would sell them into a course about digital products. I know they’re interested in that topic, so it’s a natural transition!
I would treat those emails like a mini-course that builds on what the free guide would give them. After those emails, I will send them an email selling them into my digital products course for a discount. If 100 people grabbed my freebie, 50 made it through the nurture sequence, and 25% of those people purchased, I would make almost $2,000 with no money spent.
The key here is to have a time-sensitive offer. If you have a 24-hour discount but then they go to the page and see the discount anytime, they probably won’t take you seriously. Software like Deadline Funnels can help make sure your offer expires on time!
Evergreen Webinar Funnel
An evergreen webinar funnel will direct people to a pre-recorded webinar. People will be able to sign up for time slots. Then, they’ll be emailed the info about their webinar. You sell to them on the webinar just like it was live, and they have the opportunity to purchase from there.
This is another way to start creating easy sales funnels to make more sales! Once they’re set up, you can run an evergreen webinar funnel super strategically.
If they don’t purchase on the webinar, you can automate follow-up emails to remind them about the offer. This works JUST like a live webinar, except it’s pre-recorded so people can access it at any time.
Softwares for an Evergreen Webinar Funnel:
- Kajabi (if you’re already using it)
- WebinarJam
- Ever Webinar
- These are PRETTY expensive, so you can totally bootleg it, too
Bootlegging it!
All you need to do to bootleg it is to create a sign up page, allow sign-ups, and then send them a link to a private page on your site with an embedded YouTube video. Then, the email process is the same!
I’m getting ready to set this back up in my business over the next few months. But my biggest recommendation is to make SURE you have a webinar that sells before you set this up.
Content Funnel
This is the LAST funnel that I want to talk about, and if you’re already creating content, this is a totally easy one!
A content funnel uses free content to attract the right people and then adds them into one of these other funnels. It’s basically the strategy to fuel a different funnel!
If you’re a wedding planner, you could attract people with blog posts about popular wedding questions and then have a way for them to join another funnel in that post.
ALL of my content gets people somewhere – I ask people to go to Instagram and then tell people about an offer via stories, or a freebie embedded in a blog post.
That’s a list of the easiest sales funnels out there!
Let me say this – you don’t need ANY of these or ALL of these to be successful. I would suggest that you pick at least one funnel that will work for you in some way and create that.
We are only one person – and even if you have a team, you are only a team of people. If you create a funnel that does the selling process for us, we can make more money and have more time. So I HIGHLY recommend funnels to nix out the middlemen or sales processes that can be automated.
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