How To Transform Your Business Into A Money Printing Machine
Generate Income Online With Funnel Building
I started my business in 2014, and by the end of 2015, we had grossed over one million dollars. It has steadily grown ever since, and it’s all because of the talent, the marketing, and the funnels.
I’m going to share with you the process that we use to generate this income.
Most people charge a lot of money to teach the stuff you’ll learn in this article. I’m sharing it with you because I have enough money, and I don’t want your money.
Plus it’s my way to help and give back.
In this article, you’ll learn how to build a sales funnel that will automate your business, increase revenue, and give you freedom. If you follow the process, and take the time to implement these steps, I’m convinced it will change your life.
So buckle up, and let’s get started.
First, It’s Not About You
Instead of focusing on what you do, focus on what people desire.
For example, if you sell makeup, your customer wants to look good. If you’re a painter, your customer wants a fresh, new look for their home that will make it more enjoyable for them when they walk into a room.
If you’re a tree trimmer, your customer probably wants to ensure a tree isn’t going to fall on their home…or they are tired of picking up sticks in their yard.
The most important aspect to remember about marketing is that it’s not about you. It’s not even about your product.
It’s about the end result and how customers feel when they get it.
Most (not all) people buy on emotions, not logic. Ask yourself these questions: How will they feel? How will their life change?
I’d advise that you make a list of your answers.
It’s not about solving the problem, it’s about the change of state in the customer after the problem is solved.
I sell online horse training, and when I write my sales copy, I focus on what I know our customers want to feel due to whatever they may be buying from us.
I know they want…
To be able to get on their horse and enjoy the ride
To avoid dealing with problematic behaviors
To have confidence in themselves and their abilities
To have a good relationship with their horse
To be able to trust their horse that he won’t hurt them
There are more, but those are pretty standard across the board for us, no matter what we’re selling in the horse niche.
If you’d like to see an example of some of my best sales copy, go here: https://sp.carsonjames.com/horsetracks
Once you’ve made a list, and determined the desired outcomes for your customers or clients, you’re ready to start your first sales funnel.
The Sales Funnel
The sales process looks like this:
Content -> Lead Magnet -> Tripwire -> Core Offer -> Profit Maximizer
I will break each of these down in detail and do my best to give great examples of how to apply them to your business.
The idea behind a sales funnel is to introduce people to you/your product and move the relationship forward.
Ryan Deiss, the founder of DigitalMarketer.com, relates marketing to human relationships.
You’d first introduce yourself (content), then maybe go out for coffee (lead magnet), then go on a date (tripwire), then start a relationship (core offer), and finally you’d get married (profit maximizer).
This is the reason sales funnels work so well.
Instead of running ads and immediately asking people to buy your stuff, you establish goodwill by creating a relationship with your leads and customers.
Trust and relationships also create repeat customers.
The Content (Introduce Yourself)
What are the questions your customers ask you the most? What is most misunderstood in your niche? What does everyone in your niche need to understand before making a purchase?
Once you’ve answered these questions, create some content answering these questions. Your content could be in the form of a podcast, blog post, or video.
If you’re uncomfortable with writing, ask chat gpt to do it.
Here are some examples of content that could be created from different niches:
A roofer makes a video explaining the signs of a roof that needs to be replaced
A real estate agent explains the importance of having a virtual tour
A hairstylist shows how to do a unique and easy hairstyle
A tree trimmer makes a video explaining the difference between a healthy and unhealthy tree
A yard maintenance man demonstrates how to water your grass properly
Someone who sells makeup makes a video on how to apply a good foundation
Someone who sells paintings makes a video showing off their skills
Someone who sells pies writes a recipe for the perfect key lime pie
Once you’ve come up with some ideas for content, it’s time to start putting it out in the world.
Next, install the Facebook pixel on your website.
You can do this manually; however, most website builders now have an integration with the Facebook pixel. You still have to do the initial setup with Facebook, but you don’t have to install any code.
Just plug in your pixel ID and your website does the rest for you.
Once you have the pixel installed, create a Facebook ads account, and promote your content with a Facebook ad to an audience that would most likely be interested in your product or service.
For example, if you’re a local hairstylist, you would ideally target women who live within a certain radius of your location. You could also narrow your targeting by specifying an age and income level range.
Facebook has many different ad objectives to choose from and your medium (video, blog article, podcast) will determine what you should use.
If you’re using video, choose the awareness objective. If you’re using a podcast or blog post, choose the traffic objective.
If you want to go to the extra effort, you can create different ad sets and target groups of people individually to determine which group yields the best results.
The goal of creating content is not to make sales…yet. It’s to raise awareness of your brand and help people.
When people watch your video, and/or go to your website to read your blog, or listen to your podcast, Facebook will pixel their device.
A pixel is a small piece of code that allows you to track when people interact with your content.
Once your ad has run for a few days, and you’ve seen some video views and click-throughs to your website, it’s time to create an audience of people engaged with your content.
You can create custom audiences from people with pixels installed on their devices.
This allows you to re-target (send a different ad to the same people) your audience.
Creating an audience is crucial for the next step.
The Lead Magnet (Coffee)
A lead magnet is an irresistible bribe offering a specific chunk of value to a prospect in exchange for their contact information.
DigitalMarketer.com does a good job of explaining the lead magnet and giving some great examples.
I recommend reading it here: https://www.digitalmarketer.com/blog/lead-magnet-ideas-funnel/
A lead magnet could be a…
video
checklist
report
cheat sheet
resource list
template
discount
quiz
It needs to be specific and answer one big question.
The main difference between a lead magnet vs. content is that people now need to give you their email address (or phone number).
In my business, this is one of our best-converting lead magnets: https://sp.carsonjames.com/mental-soundness-checklist45887069.
A good way to determine whether or not your lead magnet is relevant to your audience, and something they want, is to look at your opt-in rate.
For example, if 100 people visit your web page where they can sign up for your lead magnet, and 35 of them submit their email addresses, then you’d have a 35% opt-in rate (which is pretty standard).
Anything below 25% needs work and anything above 35% is a home run.
Setting Up Your Lead Magnet
A lead magnet performs best on a squeeze page.
A squeeze page is a page where the website visitor only has two options.
They can opt-in (submit their email) for your lead magnet or leave the page. That’s it.
There are no other links for them to click and nothing else on the page for them to do other than opt-in.
You can set up a squeeze page on your existing website or use a dedicated funnel builder like ClickFunnels.
To collect their email address and send them the thing they signed up for (the lead magnet), you’ll need some type of email autoresponder.
Some website builders have built-in autoresponders, but I highly recommend ActiveCampaign.
I’ve used almost every autoresponder out there, and I can confidently tell you that ActiveCampaign is the best one.
Most website builders have a native integration with ActiveCampaign and will allow you to connect your website form to your ActiveCampaign account via API.
Once you’ve got your autoresponder connected to your web form, you’ll want to set up an automatic email that delivers the lead magnet to the person who opted in for it.
In this email, you’ll also want to make them aware of your tripwire offer.
Additionally, on the thank you page (the page they land on after they submit their email address) of your lead magnet, you want to pitch your tripwire.
Once you have set up your lead magnet, it’s time to return to your Facebook ads and retarget the people who interacted with your content.
This time; however, you’ll be running ads promoting your lead magnet instead of your content.
Remember, at this point, you’ll also be automatically building an email list crucial for your business.
The Tripwire (Your First “Official” Date)
A tripwire is a splinter of your core offer (the main thing you sell).
It’s a piece you can pull from your product and sell for dirt cheap to convert leads (people who opted into your lead magnet) to customers.
The only purpose of a tripwire is to get your leads to open their wallets and buy from you.
It’s an irresistible offer that they simply can’t say no to.
Here are some examples of great tripwires:
A guitar company sells 50 guitar picks for $5
One section of an online course for $7
McDonald’s sells a hamburger for $.99
A makeup company sells a sample kit for $9.99
Godaddy offers your first domain registration for $1.00
Service-based businesses will often give a steep discount on services to get new customers in the door.
If you’re familiar with Groupon, it’s a huge collection of tripwire offers.
It’s also a great place to go and steal ideas.
Also, it’s important to note that a tripwire’s primary purpose is to break even (or even lose some money on the front end).
You are not trying to make a profit here.
You’re trying to get people to open their wallets and buy from you.
When someone opens their wallet for the first time, even if it’s just $1, they are far more likely to open it repeatedly.
A financial transaction moves the relationship between you and your customer to the next step.
You’ve introduced yourself (content), bought them coffee (lead magnet), and now you’re going on an actual date.
I hope you can begin to see why it’s called a funnel.
Finally, it’s also a good idea to re-target the people with Facebook ads who opted for your lead magnet but did not purchase your tripwire.
You can set up this audience using Facebook custom audiences.
The Core Offer (An Official Relationship)
This is the main thing you sell.
If you have a business, then you have a core offer.
The best time to pitch the core offer is immediately after your customer purchased your tripwire.
They are in the right mindset and are more likely to make a second transaction.
One-click upsells are ideal because customers don’t have to enter their contact and payment information again.
The more barriers you can remove, the more likely they will buy.
And since they just bought a portion (splinter) of your product via the tripwire, it would make sense that some will want the complete package.
Additionally, you should pitch your core offer in the thank you email sent to those who purchased your tripwire.
It’s just another opportunity to buy.
And just like every other step, you can run retargeting ads to people on Facebook who purchased your tripwire but did not purchase your core offer.
The Profit Maximizer (Marriage)
This is something that is a supplement to your core offer but offers tremendous value for both you and your customer.
For example
A group consulting class offers a one-on-one with the coach
A pool installer offers a monthly maintenance plan
A makeup company offers a bundle of all its products
A vitamin company offers a recurring subscription
A VIP pass at a concert
Desserts at restaurants
Some businesses don’t have a profit maximizer, and if yours doesn’t, you are missing out on a ton of potential revenue.
Just like before, you want to ideally offer your profit maximizer directly after the core offer, retarget with Facebook ads, and follow up with emails.
Conclusion
I just provided a ton of information, and if you feel overwhelmed, it’s understandable.
However, please don’t allow that to stop you from building at least one sales funnel. The more you build, the better your chances of making money.
It may not work initially, but that’s no reason to quit.
This is how you turn your business into a money-making machine, build automation, and allow yourself to have freedom.