Funnels are one of the hottest topics around, and you’ve probably heard people talk about how they’ve created a funnel for their online business. Or how you must have a funnel for something. But the real question is what funnels you need for your online business (and what you don’t need either).
All this funnel talk can be confusing and, let’s face it, kinda complicated. So let’s start at the beginning with why you need a funnel in the first place. Basically, an email funnel is a series of emails, as the name implies, designed to funnel people towards a specific action.
So many times when people talk to me or Maggie about funnels, they know they need them, but they aren’t 100% sure how to get started, or everything it entails. And with good reason – there’s a lot of planning and logic that goes into creating a funnel.
If you’re running an online business, the right funnel can help you connect with your audience, make sales and help you reach your email goals using email marketing. However, funnels are not a magical cure-all as many online marketers would have you believe. No funnel is a fill-in-the-blank, silver bullet that’s going to turn your business into an overnight success.
There are many different types of funnels you can create for your online business, so let’s cover 7 of the fundamental funnels you’ll need at some point:
Nurture & Opt-In Funnel
If you’re doing any email marketing and are focused on building your list, you need a funnel to get people oriented to you and your business. This is one of the most neglected funnels as people figure if they don’t have something to sell, they don’t need one. Which is all wrong!
You want your new subscribers to quickly grow to know, like and trust you once they sign up for your freebie. Not having these emails in place means you’re missing a golden opportunity to turn a new subscriber into a fan.
Evergreen Sales Funnel
When you have a product that’s always available, it can be super challenging to continuously sell it. This is where the evergreen sales funnel comes in as it will help you take the a new subscriber through a series of emails to a point where you can make an offer to them.
With evergreen funnels, your strategy is key as it’s easy to make fatal mistakes by being too aggressive or simply not nailing the offer. With this type of funnel, you need to really tap into what your would-be client needs to be ready to buy from you.
Pre-Launch Funnel
So many times launches miss a critical component – a lead-up to get people warmed up and ready to purchase what you’re offering. If you don’t have any type of pre-launch in place, you’re going from zero to 60 so quickly that your potential buyers have whiplash.
Creating a pre-launch funnel where you’re offering valuable content, such as a video series or challenge, will help you get people excited and engaged before your launch.
Launch Funnel
Launching can be seriously stressful, and it requires A LOT of email. In fact, many, many more emails are needed to launch effectively than most people ever realize.
Planning out your launch funnel well in advance of your launch will help you ensure you hit all the key points from what your offer is to what people need to know before they are ready to say yes and hit buy.
Product Delivery Funnel
It’s easy to overlook this funnel and not realize that once someone purchases, you need a series of emails to back that up. Don’t leave this critical opportunity to wow your new customer to chance – create a series of emails with all the information they need to be successful moving ahead.
Onboarding Funnel
If you offer a program, product or membership site, you need to do everything you can to create a funnel that greatly increases the chances of customer success.
Your onboarding funnel is a series of emails that helps guide your customer through everything they need to make the most of your offering. Don’t assume that people understand how to access information, where to find things or what order to do things in – use this funnel to spoon feed them.
Webinar Funnel
You’re doing a webinar – awesome! Now you’re going to need a series of emails to help get people to actually show up live to the webinar. And, if you’re selling anything on the webinar, to make the offer to everyone who’s signed up.
The success or failure of your webinar relies on having this funnel and most people don’t realize everything that’s involved. If you’re going to do webinars, do it right by creating powerful funnels to make the most of the event.
Funnels can be incredibly powerful for your business, but you need to go into the creation each of these funnels with a solid understanding of the strategy, copy needed and how to implement the logic for each funnel.
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