The marketing funnel

Hey, so here’s your final instalment in my 3 part post about how to scale a service business, digital agency, whatever it may be.

1. Productising your services (link to this article)
2. Systemising for success (link to this article)
3. The marketing funnel (this week)

So, let’s dive into your marketing funnel, IMO the fun stuff…

So the main goal here is to drive people into your email list, where you can provide value and sell an offer to convert them from subscriber to customer. The ultimate goal for your email marketing.

The other goal, is to do all of this automagically, so you don’t have to keep topping up your funnel, spend hours on producing fresh content, and managing it all. We’re looking to create a scalable model.

Let’s look at the funnel…

1. Drive traffic to a high value lead magnet
2. Once in your email list, trigger an email sequence to deliver value
3. Send a special limited time offer = convert to customer
4. Upsell and cross-sell to increase revenue

I’ll break all this down for you, but first we need to set all this up, here’s what you need:

• A free lead magnet (I’ll explain what works best in a sec)
• A Mailchimp, Klaviyo or other ESP account
• A website or landing page connected up to your ESP account
• A paid product or service that you can super discount or mass-sell
• A small budget for some paid ads, or a decent social following to help drive some traffic

Ok, so let’s discuss lead magnets.

At MailNinja, we’ve spent thousands of pounds and a whole heap of time on our lead magnets, from our subject line checker to our email marketing book, then we’ve decided to give them away, absolutely free. We also produced an HTML email preview tool, and gave that away too.

Don’t worry, we’re not going mad. Bear with us…?

To make your lead magnet attractive, it’s gotta have some value, I mean a lot of value. Spend time creating something that is so awesome, you’d sign up for it. Yes you, the hardest of critics.

• A book worth $25 given away free, that’s got value
• A free tool that people would normally pay for
• A report or guide
• A free template
• A free course, like a multi-part email course?

Here’s a hack for you!

If you don't have anything you can give away, but you are an avid blogger, then grab all of your posts relating to a single top (Mailchimp, email, marketing, business, whatever that is), package it up into a PDF, add a cover, and call it something. We did this with our Superhacks PDF over on the Chimp Essentials website.

Back to the funnel… let’s go step by step:

1. Drive traffic to a high value lead magnet

We’re gonna assume you have your lead magnet ready at this stage. Once that’s in place, you need to grab the sign up form code from your chosen ESP and embed that into a landing page, also known as a lead capture page. Here’s an infographic on the anatomy of the perfect landing page.

As well as your landing pages, you may also want to use a tool like Optinmonster to display lead captures on your blog posts, or even when they visit your website and attempt to leave (exit intent) or are on a specific page for x seconds. Use everything in your arsenal to drive people to your new landing page, and start gathering subscribers.

Once your landing page is set up, you need traffic.

The best way to get some immediate traffic, whilst Google faffs about with their ranking (yawn), is to use social media. If you’re active on your social channels and have an audience, then you are already way ahead of most people, including us! If not, use social paid ads on Facebook, LinkedIn or even Twitter to help drive traffic to your page. The social channel you chose really depends on your audience, for example we focus primarily on LinkedIn and Twitter.

So, quick check in. You have the magnet, you have a form to capture the leads on a landing page, and a way to drive traffic, right? Great, let’s move on to the next step.

1. Once in your email list, trigger an email sequence to deliver value

Your email sequence is your golden opportunity to show people who you are. BUT, don’t make the rookie mistake of sell, sell sell. People don’t like being sold to, so go easy. Instead, focus on selling your brand, who you are, your culture, what you stand for, what makes you unique, who you’ve worked with etc. Try to space out a bunch of emails spanning a few weeks.

THE HOTH are an SEO company, and Clayton Johnson kindly told me that they use this method to drive sales, and have a sequence of 23 emails going out every 2 days, showcasing their value.

Share your most popular blog posts, your tips, case studies, but not the offer, not yet.

1. Send a special limited time offer = convert to customer

Mixed into your sequence is the subliminal message that you are the best, why chose anyone else, we’re here for you, we got your back, you found us, look no further, that kinda language. So once you hit em with an offer, they’re already sold, they know you, they like you, and they trust you.

This offer needs to be a limited offer (even if you say it is, and in actual fact it isn’t). Put a limited time or a limited number of redemptions on this offer to give the impression that this offer is exclusive to them – personalised and relevant. Try to relate this offer to your lead magnet, so there’s a consistent message.. ‘we’re the experts in X, we gave you Y for free, now buy Z’.

Last point on this one. Don’t sell your ultra-premium product or service, go for your entry-level service so it’s more affordable and likely to convert.

1. Upsell and cross-sell to increase revenue

So far, we’re gonna assume you have the sequence in place, running on autopilot in the background. Your flow is converting website visitors to subscribers, and subscribers to customers. BOOM, well done.

Now you have a bunch of customers, let’s convert them into high-paying customers. This involves sending a new automation sequence to your customers to incentivise them to upgrade to your premium plan.

The same rules apply, go for the value first, then go in with a super amazing discount offer that is exclusive to them, as a loyal customer.

So, there you have it.

The marketing funnel. Done.

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