Andrew Monroe's take on Sales Funnels, specifically from an Indie Writer's book publishing point.
Sales Funnel 101 | Digital Marketing | Clients On Autopilot
OKAY- A little background on Sales Funnels, as requested by the group on Facebook.
First of all, let me add a little incentive- despite being a writer (albeit a freshly minted one), my background is actually in marketing and I've helped grow a few businesses through a variety of digital frontiers. This post will be specifically how I'm running it as a writer but works for just about any business.
Here's a picture of what I'll be covering for those visual learner types:
Sales funnels, specifically the digital kind, generally start on Facebook. What're you're looking for here is that awareness factor. You need a large number of eyes on a post or ad you put out so people actually see what you're doing. Generally, I run a promo, like a free book, to get people looking at my information. This can be called the lead magnet, like the picture shows, where people are interested in what I'm pushing out there. This is the tip of the iceberg that everyone sees.
Once someone drops that email address (it's the gatekeeper to getting the free offer or whatever I've put out there) they're dropped into an email sequence. I'm sure you've seen this in your own inbox. You either bought something, or grabbed a freebie online and then received a thousand emails from that company. It can be annoying, right? Well, that's also part of the awareness/engagement stage. Sure, you may be annoyed, but if that same email goes to 500 people, now you're looking at 10% of them considering buying whatever you're selling, or wanting to engage deeper with your brand. For instance, reviews are a huge thing to me, along with audiobook sales. So, my sequence that people who grabbed the free book go into are now being peppered with links to said audiobook and requests for reviews.
If you have enough contact with enough interested people (you know, the ones you found with the lead magnet/awareness), you'll start to find your actual clients and customers. Maybe you're selling homes, or books, or some kind of monthly service. In the end, it doesn't matter. You talk to them enough, and sooner or later people will decide to spend money on that product they were initially interested in. Sometimes, you can get this process all at once, and sometimes it can take months and months. But, it's an almost guaranteed way to sell.
All of the above is important, but whether or not your sales funnel has a product actually in it or not, the list is INCREDIBLY important. A lot of this takes place on Facebook, and to play the Facebook game costs a fair bit of money. For example- I've spent nearly $3,500 on ad spend to bring in roughly $3,000 of book sales. That's technically a loss, right?But here's the thing- when someone purchases my books on Amazon or wherever, they're now Amazon's customer. I can't contact them because I have no idea who they are or what brought them there. If I get an email first though, I now have the ability to circumvent social media ad spend, and talk directly to a potential customer at any time in my career. You think when that sequel comes out I won't be sending a few emails to all those people who claimed a free copy of the book? You know I am. And it will save me roughly $3,000 in just the first few months, money I'll be able to spend on marketing without biting the bullet as hard the second time around.
Want to know more? Here's a link to my other site where you can get yourself a free guide on spinning up your own marketing (either for a business, or as a marketing agency if you have the desire:https://www.axeandbow.com/diy-marketing
Not only does that link send you some information that will hopefully be valuable, but it's also a great example of this sequence building process that'll you'll see firsthand.
Don't care about that jazz, but want to support your favorite author?Here's that book: https://amzn.to/2JrY5kQ
Much love fam,Andrew Monroe
P.S. If you're truly interested in this kind of stuff, absolutely feel free to reach out and I'll try to give you as much advice and information as I can. A rising tide lifts all boats.
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