We all have leaks in our sales funnel. I don't care who you are, we can all use some room for improvement! My intent for this blog is for you to first recognize one or more of your possible leaks, and then know how to improve it! Improving a small leak on your front end, could dramatically increase conversions on your back end! Where Is Your Leak?So lets take a look at the flow chart? And have a full understanding on how the average sales process works then we can determine where your leaks are... This is one of the average sales funnel I have seen successfully convert a Facebook ads click to a Long Term Client Sale! Study this process and get a good fill on what areas you are missing out on! Keep in mind, everyone's sales funnel is "unique" or different! 1. From the Facebook Ad Click To LeadAbove shows an average funnel on click funnels. The lead signs up from a facebook ad click to a opt in page. Enters their details and then we start to email them and text them automatically. The process is quite simple... 1. User clicks ad - signs up on landing page. 2. User is emailed/texted directing him/her to fill out the application form. 3. User fills out the form and gets emails/text directing to a booking calendar. 4. Calendar is booked, lead is scheduled for a phone call. The emails are directed to pull them to the application form to fill it out! Then if the user signs up on the thank you page that has the application form (which only requires them to answer a few questions since they won't have to re-enter their name, email and phone) and we will email them directing them to book their calendar with you or push them to a sales page that directs them to a checkout process. Either way! The emails are segmented to email them based on where they are at in the funnel! Actionetics does this within the Click Funnels emailing software! That leaves me to my next thing! If you are not doing this #1 thing! You are LEAVING tons of clients on the table allowing others to steal them! The #1 thing you need to be doing is Nurturing Your Leads through emails and texting! Lesson #1... Nurture Your LeadsThey've already signed up, that's not the end it's the beginning! To many of us marketers fail this part because we don't believe this is the most important part of the process! What you do with your lead will determine whether or not they will buy from you! They all signed up with an intent to do your program! Why not close all 100%? But you have to understand that not all of them are going to buy your services today... You need a long term nurturing process that can build a solid relationship with them through emails to help assist your sales strategy later on in the process! If you want to close the most % of leads who signed up, YOU MUST FOLLOW THIS PROCESS! I can not stress the importance of email marketing enough! It is still to this day the most effective, highest profitable, less expensive platform to use to acquire clients! If you are not using it shame on you! If you are using it, shame on you, you're not using it enough! I have had clients ask me how long do we need to email the lead? Here is some very useful advice. I have a client who puts his leads on a 6-month long nurturing sequence. And guess what! He is able to close just about 80% or more of them. Why is that? The way you set up your emails will build a relationship with them, and over time some will sign up today, some will sign up tomorrow, some next week, some next month and some maybe even next year! It is all up to you if you want to close as many as you can or not. From the Lead Phone Call To the SaleNow that we have them into our sequence of automated text messages and automated emails we need to call them! Why? Because it increases our chances of getting into contact with them and while they are still in the moment of excitement phase! The sooner you call them the sooner they are even more likely to close right then and their on the spot! Lesson #2 - Call Them ASAP!I was on my emails late one night. I happen to see someone sign up to speak with me! I figured I was already in my emails, so why not call him now! I skipped the application process and skipped the booking calendar process and just called him as soon as he filled out the short form! I talked to him for about 10 minutes and closed him right then and their on the phone! Now, how did that happen? Well... 1. My message resonated well with his desires. 2. I was able to capitalize on getting him in that moment of excitement still as he was still in that phase while he was signing up! 3. Let's just face it! I am really good at selling my services! Consider that fact that the longer you wait to contact your leads, the more harder it will be to sell them! You wait too long and they may even forget what they signed up for! Contact them as soon as you can increases your chances of closing them! Try This...1. Call Your Lead 2. Leave a Voicemail Message 3. Wait 3 min. and call again I have done this myself and to this day answer rates are at least over 90% What You Should Take From This & What Parts of the Funnel I See Need Improvement the Most!Your emails need work! Come on... I have always seen this! The best place to learn how to email your users is to get copywriting training! I have an ebook that you can get that will allow you to improve your copywriting with some of our best headlines we have seen work!
Get It Here! #2. Are you calling your leads as soon as they sign up? If you can't I suggest hiring someone who is dedicated enough to just contact leads. This is a full time job you know! #3. Incorporate text message marketing into your system. I still don't see many people doing it. Keep in mind there is so much noise on emails, and besides the ones that go to spam it is a good idea to text them! Text messages have a 95% open rate vs emails! That's it! If this was helpful leave me some love below in the comments section! Thanks! Art Yea! They May Have Signed Up From Your Emails but… Where Did They Originally Come From?“Small businesses must spend money on Facebook, Google, and email marketing to find new customers and retain the ones they acquire. But there’s a problem in the market. Most people evaluate their marketing by focusing on the “last touch” of their marketing campaign — what is called “last click attribution.” This tells the marketer only the very last click before a purchase or financial commitment into your service. It does not detail how they first attracted the prospect, converted them to a lead, or re-engaged them while already a lead.” - Wicked Reports Attributes shown above, comes from Google Analytics. It shows that Social Networks assisted some of my conversions along with referrals, but the direct link clicks are the highest conversion value! That makes sense because if they really know me, they will type in the website URL and find me and take action! I have a client that gets organic traffic from google, and from his email list. “The traffic from those attributes seems to be higher quality than his Facebook ads” he said! He paused his Facebook ads, and his organic traffic decreased! Each played a role., and no one knew what was going on but us! Thanks to a software called Wicked Reports, (kiss metrics also does this) we were able to show the client that these people who saw his Facebook ads first because aware of his brand. Then they remembered him and searched him from google and purchased his services. By pausing his Facebook ads, there was no way for them to remember his brand therefore when they searched for his service they chose another competitor. This is called multi-step marketing, which is in our case nothing but touches. Example Below… First Touch!: Facebook ad video Second Touch: Facebook Ad Click to the website Third Touch: Google search and find the customer’s brand and clicked back to his website!, downloaded his ebook. Fourth-eighth Touch: Email Marketing Nineth Touch: They saw a broadcast of him offering a 28 day challenge and decided to take action and sign up for the program. You see! He believed that they all came from his emails, when infact they did but the only way they got to his email list from originally from Facebook. Traffic that is warm usually convert. After being on my email list for about 8 months, i have had users tell me they have been following my posts for months in and now decided to take action and sign up! Save your leads today, so that they will convert tomorrow. Sourced from Google Analytics it shows that it takes around 17+ touches for a user to take action on my website. For example #10 shows a user who came directly as a referral and then came back directly and took action. You can’t think of it as throwing fire in the furnace and the train taking off immediately!You have to feed the fire for a few hours, then it starts to take off, and later it will build momentum, and soon enough speed!
My email list is building now as we speak, and the people who signed up months ago for my ebooks are now signing up for my service! So consistently I am getting a steady flow of clients, and steady flow of leads! If that makes sense, click the image below to download my AIDA formula and understand the value of content to build warm lists that eventually turn into high quality customers! Nuturing ProcessMost leads who sign up are very interested in the services you have to offer but some may not yet be ready to financially commit to the program just yet. This is the time where you need to build a strong relation with the lead by giving them more content that is strictly revolving around their core offer they signed up for. DurationDuring this period the duration of each lead could average anywhere from 1-2 weeks or even 1-2 months. Sometimes these leads who do not commit financially yet or says no does not mean they won't buy your services in the future. It just means they are not quite ready to commit just yet! Most of our clients get their highest return on investment from leads who signed up for their program weeks or months ago. During this time period they are well nurtured and educated about the program. And we have since then maybe even talked with them over the phone and built a strong relationship with them. Phone CallIt is your responsibility to call the lead as soon as they sign up. Because they're going through a decision process and immediately when they signed up they have took the liberty to give you a answer that they are interested! During this moment of excitment you have the opportunity to answer some of their questions and transition them from the phone call to the actual walk-in or sale. The longer you wait to contact them the less interested they will become., and that moment of excitement has to be re-established. Some clients are having success selling them on the phone and some may transition them from the phone call to the face to face consultation or free taster session. It is important to use whatever works best for you and to test different approaches. Text MessageIf this is a local business it is very important to use text messaging. Text messaging has an over 90% open rate vs emails being at a low 30%. Use that extra form of communication increases your chances of reaching out to the prospect and converting them into a client. Awesome text messaging softwares: - Trendoo - success engine (links with infusionsoft) - Twilio - call loop - EZ texting Email marketing is still to this day the best form of marketing out there. The reason is because it hits users with content and builds a solid strong relationship with them and helps them to make financial decisions in going foward with your services. Fit pros, e-commerce websites and so many other get their highest return from email marketing.
Ideally by capturing their information from Facebook you can start building a relationship with them on a short term and long term scale. By doing this you are not leaving anything on the table. You are able to cater to the needs of people who are ready to commit with you today, and who are ready to commit with you later on in the future, thus being able to consistently close leads as sales from your business. In some cases you may have a client who signed up a few months ago and decided to join your program today! Email marketing requires time, and patience but is very much under utilized this day and age in the fitness industry. I highly recommend using emails not to push people into a sale, but our prime objective is to build a relationship with them to a degree where they trust making decisions with us and allow us to cater to their needs as we should. Recommended Email Marketing softwares: - Aweber - Infusionsoft - Mailchimp - Constant Contact I Have seen many advertisers try to do a Facebook ads promotion and right out the door FAIL. The thing is, with Facebook ads. If you are promoting an offer to "Cold Traffic." It's a hit or miss... Why? 1. The audience is not quite familiar with your brand (They don't know you) 2. The audience therefore doesn't trust you yet!!! (Trust is not given, it's earned!) 3. You are promoting an offer to a percentage of traffic who are not looking for your services. (Lets just face it, some people are not interested) What happens if you continue to promote like that, you risk ad fatigue, & ad blindness! This is an awesome example heat chart of a website that has a little data on where eyes are focused on on a page. Notice on the left, no one is hardly looking at the ads on the left. There are some people who have random success with Facebook ads, but that tends to dry up eventually. Create a Strategy Based Around Your Offer!FIRST! You want to create TONS of value!!! You have got to give value to people to gain their trust. Then give more value to people to start building good relationships with the audience so that you can present offers relevant to the information they were most interested in. For an example... Lets say that you offer a 28 day Fit & Lean Challenge. This is how an ideal content strategy is used: 1. Present Video Ads to people on Facebook showing your gym, clients having fun and getting some great workouts. 2. Present healthy video meal recipes, workout tips from home, and any other type of useful information you can give that the audience can benefit from. Now ideally when you present this content you want to stress where the content came from. So for example, if you gave them a green smoothie meal recipe on a blog, you want to educate them about the importance of signing up for your 28 day program where they would get a full meal recipe book that includes 48 delicious healthy recipes, 7 day meal plan, and grocery lists. If this was a case study about how one of your clients lost 13 lbs within the 28 days and how many of your other clients lost anywhere between 10-15 lbs. You want to educated them that their results came from the 28 day program. If you wanted to write a blog about a 30 minute ab workout, you want to let them know the importance that the 28 day program includes 27 different types of ab workouts, leg workouts, butt workouts and so much more! Content Is Key!Structuring your content around the offers you promote will help spike their "interest" into joining the program and you will start to receive organic traffic contacting you with questions regarding the program, price, schedule, etc... As this happens it is important to give content heavy advice to your audience and measure the types of content people are engaging in most.
By doing so, you will spend less money on Facebook, while gaining more trust, and credibility with your brand. Facebook will reward you for this! This is one of the key things that is missed when doing Facebook ads for most businesses. They want to jump right into the sale to an audience who is not quite ready to commit because that trust is not earned yet! Trust is something that is developed over time through giving value, spiking interest, and providing social proof that your services are indeed legitimate... You need to get my AIDA Formula! My AIDA Formula will indeed show you how to set up a KICKASS engagement Funnel with your Facebook ads. The difference from running the 21, 28 day campaigns and the 6, 8, or 12 week fitness programs vs running the 6 month or 12 month long term campaigns. Well I get asked this, and it is entirely up to what your targeted goal is... You have to also understand the market from the point of perspective from where they are at in the process. Most people are signing up to a fitness program with a goal already set in their mind. They already have an idea of what they want to look like, maybe because they have a image of someone, (including themselves) of what they want to look like. The timeframe is a micro-commitment that can give them the sense of accomplishment. So for example in the next 28 days, you can expect to lose up to 10 pounds, and increase your energy levels, feel great about yourself, improve your work performance, and etc... This gives them specifics. It gives them an expected timeframe, and it also lets them know commitment is minimum. That is what some people look for. And then, it is your job to up-sale them into longer term commitments once their foot is in the door. One micro commitment at a time, and one step at a time. You may find that some people need a longer commitment than others it just depends on what you think they need. Others, like to just give them month to month plans. Now their are a certain (yet small) percentage of people who will go ahead and buy your 12 month plan. You just can't cater that package to everyone, because not everyone is looking for that much of a commitment... yet..... Okay, if you want to run a longer term campaign on Facebook it is still possible but just expect: 1. Lead costs to be outrageously expensive (therefore fewer leads) 2. Even though leads are few, sales conversion will be fewer therefore you have to use a much more longer term sales strategy once acquired that lead Your Strategy - Head to ToeYou may have a Facebook ads strategy in place. Here is what a strategy normally looks like when you are doing a promotion:
1. Facebook ad click to Landing Page (28 day campaign) 2. User Signs up as a Lead - Lead Gets series of emails and content revolving around the 28 day campaign - Lead Gets text messages with information about the program and CTA to app form - Lead gets a phone call and you start to build a relationship with the lead and earn their trust to commit to coming into your studio 3. Lead is directed to an application form that prequalifies them (prequal) 4. Prequal is directed to a thank you page and is informed on the next step (awaiting call) 5. Prequal becomes a walk-in to the studio and therefore converted into a client 6. Client is converted into a longer term client So the incentive is to use a short term commitment FIRST, then that will help draw them in the door and you can give them a longer term offer up front or within the program they signed up for. This is Huge! Facebook has just recently rolled out with this and I CAN'T WAIT to start using it. How It Works!Imagine running a Facebook ad to people and using a call to action button that asks them to "send a message." And those who do they can click the button and message you directly to your Facebook page messenger. Why Is This Important?If you are able to build a relationship with the users early, by sending them a message you guys can communicate back and forth and therefore it will give the user a sense of comfort that there is someone on the other side who cares about their requests. Studies have shown most of our clients close many of their sales that start from their Facebook Messenger first... You see, when you run Facebook ads you have a majority of them who sign up on a landing page, and a % of those who may leave a comment on the ad asking a question, and then some who don't click to the landing page at all, instead they visit your Facebook page and send you a message directly. Most of the ads I run, unless it has a very strong call to action, tends to get users who send us messages directly to our Facebook page. It will in turn help you build more value, and trust through the transition of them seeing your Facebook ads to driving people into communicating with you over your services and helping answer any questions that they may have. How To Create A Facebook Messenger AdStep 1: Create a New Campaign and select Website Clicks as the objective Step 2: For your ad sets select your audiences and "newsfeed" for placement. Step 3: Under the Ad creative select destination - and Messanger Step 4: Create your ad, and be sure to select the call to action Send Message Be sure to keep a close eye on your messenger now. You may start to receive inquiries immediately.
The #1 reason we do not want to push traffic directly to a checkout page or payment page is because the audience isn't into the commitment stage yet! They are currently on Facebook scrolling the newsfeed, and happen to see an ad that talks about weight loss or fitness, and then clicks to to learn more about it only to go to a page that asks for their credit card #. I'll tell you what... That is one of the best ways scare people away! Meeting Someone For the First TimeYou're at a party. And then you meet some woman (or in another case a guy). And you may introduce yourself and say "hey I sell apples, would you like to buy some!" She looks at you like your crazy and says no, I am not really interested., and walks away... That is exactly what you are doing with your Facebook ads if you try to sell too quickly into the process. You are pushing people away from your services, and from the potential opportunity of helping them. Building A Relationship - The Facebook WayYou're at the same party. And Sarah, the lady you meet, you introduce yourself and you chat about things you like to do, and you learn from her what she likes to do. You then exchange contact details and part your way. Later in the week... You guys link up and go out to eat. Based on what she told you she liked, she don't really like apples, (BTW which is what you tried to sell her in the beginning) she enjoys blueberries. So you tell her, "hey I sell blueberries from such and such place. Here is my card if you are interested." She takes the card and says wow cool I may look into it sometime. She's On Your List - RetargetingShe happen to be watching TV at the moment and sees one of your ads. It has a awesome looking offer "Get 3 For the Price of 1!" So she takes that phone number down and calls it. And places her order.
Our brand was remembered as she knew us from the many times we went out, and therefore she happen to see an enticing offer, that she took action on. And that is all it takes! I had a client who had a hard time selling their services. We got them hundreds of leads from Facebook ads, but no matter what she was not able to sell her services. I figured out she was trying to sell them into the package right away over the phone. Unless the lead is warmed up to a degree where they are extremely comfortable already, the best way is to push them to the next step. Step 1. TransitionWe have already made the transition from ad click to opt in, then from opt in to phone call. So now that we have them on the phone. What the next step is, is transitioning them from the phone call to either a booked consult or taster session. In this case the client offered them a taster session. It was much easier for them to sell them in person during that session than it was over the phone. People need to see your eyeballs. They need to see you for who you are, and what you represent. This particular client was AWESOME at training people. But needed a little help with sales. Once the client saw them as a person, got a felt for the program and location. They felt at ease and was ready to commit to her service. This client was able to close 100% of the people who went to the taster session. What You Should Be Doing?Well for starters, you should know your conversion rates! How many people did you call? How many people booked a consult or came in for a taster session? How many people out of the consult or taster session converted to a sale? How many sales converted to a lifetime (longterm) client? Knowing these rates percentage wise, will tell you a lot about your business and what areas you need to improve on. What we do is we optimize for leads. Then we optimize for prequals. Then we optimize for actual sales. This is the most important thing you can do when trying to either scale your business or just improve your sales process. Step 2: WormsWe all get them! No matter how much we warm our traffic up we will always get our worms. We have to admit, we like our worms. They are the ones who teach us our lessons. You must wonder what are worms. My definition of worms are... Time wasters... People who click your ad and have no intention of signing up. People especially who sign up and have no intention of going forward. People who you call, and can't afford it! I have to admit, I don't like them very much. However, we will always get them. There is no questions asked... But the good news is. We can minimize the percentage of worms we get. And try to get close to 100% high quality leads. Worms will come, but not as many is what I am trying to say. Remember, adjust your prequal questionnaire or application form. Take a look at the type of leads you are getting right now. Adjust that prequal to where your percentage of higher quality leads increases. This is very important on the back end. Then on the front end don't mention price too quickly. You will scare people away. They should honestly never know the price until they are well educated about the benefits and features they get with signing up for your program. Follow Up!Those people signed up for a reason. They want to do this! Just because they said no right now does not mean it's no tomorrow!
No does not mean, no, it just means "not yet." So keep them on your list, and warm them up with tons and tons of content and build them up to a special place where they are ready to contact you and ask you again "how much do you cost?" Then we know they are ready to commit! Imagine walking to a brand new house that you want to buy. It looks awesome from the outside! It's big! Very Big! You expect this house to cost at least $600,000. You walk inside and it has marble floor... Leather seats... 8 Bedrooms, 4 bathrooms. 2 Kitchens! Even a voice activation mechanism that turns the lights on and off! WOW! It even has Jarvis(if you watch the movie Ironman) which talks to you and asks you how's your day going. Now your probably thinking this house costs more than $600,000. Because you are educated on the value of the house now... When the realtor tells you that it’s only $200,000. YOU JUMP RIGHT IN A BUY IT! Especially if there are 2 or 3 more people looking at the house. Do you see what just happened? Price is an illusion. You are educated about the value of the house before you know the cost, then you are discounted to the actual price. You can’t believe it almost. Because the price appears to seem cheap, but before you went inside the house it would have probably appeared expensive. If you want to attack a larger group of people on your table you are going to have to:
We have tested different price points in different locations including the ad. And we have found out that usually the lower the price, the lower potential quality of a customer. And the higher the price the higher the potential quality of a customer. And in some cases if the price is too high and they don’t buy they are just not educated about your services quite yet to believe the value of your service exceeds the cost. And if the price is too low, they feel the service could be in itself low quality. This is so important I am going to repeat myself. Educate them about your service FIRST…. Then, give them an offer! You may find that sweet spot or that happy medium, and you will start racking them in like hot cakes. Here's a Scenario...When someone goes to the landing page they see the benefits and features.
Then if they sign up, we know they took interest. Once they land on the thank you page we should qualify them with a application form or questionnaire. It should ask them a series of questions that is relevant in helping you close them more easier on the phone call or consult. Now... Lets take a step back for a minute. If we tell them on the landing page that our cost is $400. And then they sign up. Then they should land on the thank you page and we tell them to get this right now for only $200. Their price head is factored (or programed) to see $400 but when they go to the next page and see a lower price they see an enticing offer. And now they jump right in on it to take advantage of this offer. We may include things like 3 spots left, and may even put a countdown timer on it to get them to take action now! When we did this, the results were AMAZING. We’re talking 60-90% conversion rates on the thank you page! And most importantly it increased lead-to-customer conversion rates to! Don't take my word for it TEST IT OUT YOURSELF! Your turn… Have you ever tried this before? Leads not answering the phone? They signed up with an intent to take on the service, but for some reason life got in the away again and they are not committed? Try this.... 1. Call the Lead & Leave a Voice Message. 2. Wait 5 minutes 3. Call the Lead after the 5 mins What I have concluded is 9/10 the lead will pick up the phone. (depending on what time of day it is) But the reason is this... "I don't know who this number is..." "I am too busy." Try that strategy right now and see if it makes a difference! One of my clients in the UK was getting tons and tons of leads. However it is a little hard to close them as sales... The #1 reason was because it was quite difficult getting ahold of them on the phone call. She would call and call and they would not pick up the phone. Most of the time your users are not answering their phone is because they may see an unknown number and would likely be comfortable listening to the message. So here is what my client did that helped solve that problem!
Focusing more on text messaging and also getting ahold of them by calling them the exact moment after they signed up helped increase her conversions on the back end. This is a game changer. This helps me wonder are these people really reading our emails? And if so how long? After we made these changes the client was able to close her leads at 40% within the 2 days of the change. Your Turn!What are your thoughts? Are you having the same struggles with getting ahold of your leads from Facebook?
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