If you hang around people who do internet marketing, you no doubt have heard them talking about their “marketing funnel.” You will have heard them discuss the strategies they are employing constantly to increase the power and effectiveness of the sales funnel. They may be talking to you while working from their home computer or blogging online to fellow entrepreneurs. Clearly the funnel is an urgent item on their agenda.
“What”, you may ask, “is a marketing funnel?”
Well, you know what an ordinary funnel is. According to the world English dictionary, a funnel (when used as a noun) is “a cone-shaped utensil with a large opening at the top and a small opening or tube at the bottom. Use: to guide liquids and other substances into containers.” Funnel, when used as a verb means “to direct or channel all of something from one place or use to another”
We like funnels because they avoid waste and spillage. The bigger they are at one end the more efficiently we can transfer anything that pours from a large container to a smaller-mouthed one. The same advantages come from your marketing funnel. Potential business should pour into the big opening and be guided to the proper spot without losing any. The bigger the funnel the more business it can handle.
Today, your blog is probably the best sales funnel that you can utilize. So now you can visualize this business marketing funnel, with all those potential customers pouring into the wide mouth of the funnel. But how do you get the process going? Those are the strategies and ideas that website business owners work on constantly. The ways of getting the funnel full include creating a site that offers valuable, useful information, complementary downloads or free advice in a weekly newsletter. Resourceful and creative website marketers can come up with endless approaches to generating that all important full funnel effect. One important part of the process is creating a client base of people who have visited your site and submitted contact information to get the free items or make a purchase. These are the clients you can work with and interest in your products or services. They will be the backbone of your business’ success.
For example, you only need an email address and their user name or first name to give a visitor access to a free download. If you want to obtain more detailed contact information, you can offer complementary items or newsletters that required addresses.
Once you have potential customers and clients in your marketing funnel, you can then attempt to up-sell them by offering even more value in the form of bigger ticket items that are more expensive. You might offer a video boot camp or a training seminar. Ultimately you might funnel your prospects into high-end coaching and consulting programs, live events, retreats, and the like.
If you have devised your campaign well, you will have people excited about what they have found on your website. By the time they have spent time swirling around that funnel ride they have gotten to know your products and read your articles. You want to fill their experience with exposure to highly valuable products and services, and business connections.
How to get your funnel started? Step one is your blogging activities. A blog is the heart of your marketing plan. The traffic will not start entering the wide end of the funnel without fully exploiting all the advantages of a good blog.
Once you have your blog engine humming you need to harness the marketing energy and activity it can generate. Ensure you gain full advantage from the interest and good will you have created with your blog by directing contacts neatly into your marketing funnel. This requires some creative ideas and a carefully crafted plan. You want to make sure that your own business benefits from all your blogging efforts. Your blog should become the central dynamo around which you construct your marketing activities.
Creating a website or a blog is not rocket science, yet many online entrepreneurs are intimidated by the whole process. I know I was clueless and felt helpless when I began my first blog. Depending on your age group, blogging and website building are new skills you have had to acquire during adulthood. But you can learn new tricks. I dedicated myself to learning everything connected with building blogs and began to create several. I discovered that it is not all that scary. You also are probably quite capable of blogging and building websites, whether you are a computer geek or computer novice. I have used my personal understanding of the learning process to create tutorials and classes that will help you learn just like I did.
Still squeamish about wading into this new world on top of all the other things you must accomplish? Just not into blogging yet?
Well, NO!
You can outsource it. That way you can spend your time on other, productive things, like networking and meeting new people, being a solutions provider, and helping the people you meet learn more about the entire internet marketing process. Help them get plugged in to some excellent professional development and personal training.
We can provide the blogging you need to promote your business. You can then devote yourself to the business activities you enjoy. Your online marketing should not be a chore but an outlet for the creativity and productivity within you. Your financial success will ultimately come because you have given yourself the opportunity to create an outstanding product or service and truly care about your clients. Blogging will help you accomplish your goals but we understand that blogging itself is not the reason you are doing business on the internet.
We know how to incorporate blogging into your business activities so that it will be the vital hub from which business information and activity can radiate.
If you want to know more about our blogging classes or how you can have your own search-engine optimized blog working for you full time, simply contact us.
We can set up your entire marketing funnel – including: 1) Your own WordPress blog 2) State of the art tracking software with full analytics 3) Opt-in form from your email marketing service 4) Social plug-ins to encourage interactivity 5) Administrative plug-ins for increased blog security 6) Your blog will be SEO optimized for Google’s search engines (and you’ll receive a free consultation from me on your blog’s functionality and how to use its features) 7) Your blog will be linked to social media sites. Their traffic sources are now even bigger than Google’s.
For information on our done-for-you blog’s service, schedule your free telephone consultation with me to discuss your blog’s ging needs today. Press the “Book Now” button on my blog’s home page.