Building a Profitable Online Sales Funnel

As an internet marketer, the sales funnel usually begins when a prospect opts-in to your capture page. Your capture page, in essence, is a simple website that a marketer can use to “capture” the contact information of the person who is viewing that website. This capture page is critical to the development of the sales funnel, because without it, you will never be able to build a list of potential customers. Prospects will just visit your site and then leave. This is not what we want. Whenever someone visits our site, what we want is for them not to leave until they give their contact information, thus in effect agreeing to receive future correspondence from us via an email autoresponder.

Now, whether you use pay-per-click advertising, video marketing, ezine articles, or any of the other lead creating techniques, your sales funnel begins when someone gives you their name and contact information. But remember, before you even get to the front end of the sales funnel, you need to master the skill of attracting prospects to your website. This is one of the first critical skills that an internet marketer must learn – how to generate traffic to his/her capture page.

Once you bring a prospect into the sales funnel, it is your job to keep them engaged and interested in what you have to offer. If your correspondence with them via email autoresponder is weak and lacking substance, then you will probably lose them as a future customer. The goal at the beginning of the sales funnel is to prove that you can add value. If you can get your prospects to know, like and trust you, then there is a good chance they will do business with you in the future. My advice is to not try and make money off your prospects at the front end of the sales funnel. This is just my opinion. Many marketers do try to sell some small informational product on the front end, but I don't like to do this. At the beginning of the funnel, my only goal is to add value, and at the same time both qualify and disqualify leads.

With regards to your email autoresponder, I believe you should have frequent follow-up correspondence with your list. Oftentimes, your emails will prove too many for some prospects and they will simply opt out of your list. This is perfectly fine. In fact, we want some people to opt out. That may sound strange, but if someone gets tired reading your emails, then they probably won't have the patience to succeed in your online business. That makes sense, doesn't it?! Weeding out the field is a smart idea. We don't want everyone, we only want the prospects who want what WE have to offer.

Once you begin to establish a relationship with your prospects, you can start marketing to them. This takes place near the middle of the funnel. Maybe you offer a low ticket internet marketing boot camp first, and then later on offer up your high ticket opportunity. Similarly, depending on what you want to do, you can also offer products at the back-end of the funnel, both for those who elect to join your primary opportunity and those who don't. I'll expound upon this idea in one of my next postings. For now, just remember how the sales funnel should function.

1. Sales funnel begins when a prospect opts-in to your capture page.

2. It continues with you adding value via email autoresponder. Send your prospects useful information about online business and succeeding as an internet marketer. I recommend refraining from upfront sales pitches.

3. Once you develop a relationship whereby your prospects start to know, like and trust you, you can then start marketing your lower ticket products.

4. Then move towards marketing your primary opportunity.

5. At the back end, offer products which can both be used by the prospects who join your primary opportunity and those who don't.

I look forward to continuing this discussion on the sales funnel soon.
Take Care,
Dan

Platinum One Destinations

How To Build a List of Prospects That Will Pay You Again and Again

Using an email autoresponder as an affiliate marketer will allow you to market to your prospects time and time again. This will essentially generate multiple streams of income for you in the process. However, you need to be strategic in doing this. No one likes being marketed to upfront, so you should not try to sell to your prospects the minute they opt-in to your list. Instead, it will pay dividends to build a relationship with these prospects first, so that they grow to know, like and trust you. Once you've properly established a relationship, then you can begin marketing.

To be able to generate multiple streams of income from this list, you will need to market several products. I would first recommend having a “primary, high-ticket opportunity” and then smaller ticket products that you can both lead with before the primary opportunity and follow with after.

Here's an example:

My primary business opportunity has a $1500 price point. Subsequently, when someone opts into my email list for this, it's not likely they will purchase until after 3-5 business exposures. So during this time, I begin building a relationship with them where I give useful content about online business and entrepreneurship. After I start building this relationship, I begin to market my primary opportunity to them. Then, once they join I get paid. I will make money again from this list even after they join my primary business. This is because I am an affiliate of several internet marketing products that my business partners will likely need once they get started (things like a website builder, email autoresponder software, and keyword research tools etc). So, not only can I market my main business opportunity to my list, I can also market a bunch of other useful internet marketing based affiliate products.

As you can see, an email autoresponder software, even a cheap autoresponder at that, can allow you to build a list of prospects that will pay you again and again. And assuming you are marketing useful products to them, then it's great not only for you but for them as well. For my email autoresponder, I use AWeber. If you're a serious internet marketer, I encourage you to check it out as well.

AWeber Email Autoresponder

Why An Email Autoresponder Is a Big Key to Your Success Online

In order to make money online, you need to be constantly building a list of new prospects. Without a list you have no business. I'm sure you know this by now. Bar none, the easiest way to build a list is by using an email autoresponder. An autoresponder will take the pain out of email marketing by following up with your prospects for you. Successful internet marketers use as much leverage and automation as they can, and having an autoresponder is one of the keys. Remember, the goal in internet marketing is to achieve as much success as possible with the least amount of effort.

For my email autoresponder, I use AWeber. It's a classic system that has worked wonders for my business. Although it's not free, it's very inexpensive and pays itself off in value in no time. I would not recommend using a free autoresponder, as they often incorporate a lot of distracting ads on the emails that you send out. If you are a serious internet marketer and want to profit online, an autoresponder like AWeber will serve you well.

In my opinion, the best feature of an autoresponder is that it works for you 24/7, 365 days a year. Even when you sleep, it will follow up with your prospects for you. If I write an email to my list, it may take me about 30 minutes. Once I'm done, I have it automatically sent out to my prospects. With an autoresponder, you never have to do things twice. Once and done. That's it. My email campaign is set up and is ready to go on autopilot for me. I don't have to do anything. When a new prospect signs up for my list, they are sent all of my emails at my predetermined intervals.

This is automation and leverage at its best. When I first started in internet marketing, I didn't have an autoresponder and I wasted so much time. If you're serious about succeeding online, you should profit from one as well.

AWeber Email Autoresponder