Blog - SalesSong

How To Know If Sales Funnels Are The Answer To Growing Your Business

March 20, 2017 By hremec

Sales Funnels are an industry buzz word, and for good reason. Done well, they get results.

But, the business world is full of shiny objects, and we only have so much time in a day. (And that time needs to be productive!)

And many business owners ask the same question:

Should I put a sales funnel to work for my business, and will it bring results?

It’s smart to understand where your business is in the grand scheme of things and know your next right steps for growth. Not every business is ready for a long, multi-step sales funnel yet, but every business with a website and an online presence needs a process to begin turning website viewers into leads, and leads into customers. Sales Funnels are that process.

Simply put, a Sales Funnel is the pathway that your business creates to allow prospective clients to travel down to connect with you and your brand, to become customers, and to continue to be served by your products or services.

One of the first things to establish for an online business is an opt-in sequence. If you aren’t familiar with this phrase, let me explain… When someone lands on your website, you’ll want to offer a way to reach out to this person again. The process in which businesses can keep in touch with these website visitors is to create an opt-in (or freebie, lead magnet, bribe) to entice the visitor to leave their contact information. Your job is to create an exchange of value that the website visitor sees as being a ‘no-brainer’. The price is simply their name and email address, and it’s a valuable tool in growing your business.

Upon receiving their information, your sales funnel automatically sends this prospective client an email or download link with their opt-in. But, this is an opportunity to communicate further, and many, many business owners leave money on the table at this point. Don’t stop there.

Create an email sequence for the prospect to receive that introduces you, your brand, and tells a story. Generally, this story is about the journey you took, and the ups and downs, epiphanies and fears, on your way to deciding to serve people or businesses in the way that you do. This journey will allow the prospect to get to know you, relate to you, understand the reason behind the need for your product or service, and allow them to feel the impact it can create.

This is a basic beginning funnel, and your opt-in is your first, virtual ‘hand shake’. It should feel valuable and should teach the prospect to create a result in a short period of time.

But, don’t stop there! You have their attention, and your service has the potential to make a difference in their businesses and/or lives. It’s your responsibility to offer to them a way to work with you to achieve bigger and better things.

So, towards the end of our email sequence, we help them to understand the purpose and need for what you have to offer. Then, you make the offer. A small offer at first (usually under $100), but it’s going to allow them to get a win off of something you created, which makes them want to see what else you can do for them, and it allows them to test the waters with paid offers from you.

At this point, many beginner businesses with sales funnel processes in place will hop on a call with the client. But, as your available time diminishes and your business gets busier, you need more automation to lead your prospects or customers further down the pathway before reaching you. You’re lifting yourself out of the lower cost portion of your business and working with clients at a higher level. This, my friend, is how we scale a business, and it’s a fantastic way to plow through those plateaus we hit.

At this point in time, I take a look at the business and its offers.

Some businesses, like brick-and-mortar service based local businesses (ie. gyms, dentists, chiropractors, dance schools…) need a funnel created in which they hop on a call to schedule clients early in the pathway. In this case, we need to be sure to create a funnel that gets the clients excited and interested in picking up the phone or requesting a call, and the business must have their sales conversations in place and have prepared responses to commonly asked questions.

Other businesses need to develop offers and create a longer pathway by building in automation (hands-free interaction) to serve their clients and create income. The audience must be considered when creating this pathway (or sales funnel), and the business the funnel is being created for always looks at ways that they can serve their clients in the best way possible. This focus on service is a main key to success.

So, if you want to turn website viewers into leads and then into customers, you’ll be well served with a sales funnel.

To answer the question of ‘How To Know If Sales Funnels Are The Answer To Growing Your Business’, every online business needs an automated sales funnel, but some funnels should be longer than others. It depends on the business and how it serves.

Also, feeding the funnel with interested customers is an integral piece of the puzzle, because viewers don’t show up on your website if there isn’t anything to pull them in or nudge them over to it, but that’s another conversation:-)

If you’re interested in looking at the next steps in creating a funnel that brings in business, click here to fill out a short application for a call with me, where we’ll discuss your goals and what’s needed to reach them.

Helping entrepreneurs and businesses succeed is the name of the game. Are you in?

Warm regards,

Signature Heather

Heather Remec

Sales Funnel Strategist, Digital Marketer, and Owner of Sales Song: A Sales Funnel & Digital Marketing Studio

Five Keys to Writing Great Content

January 19, 2017 By hremec

Everyone is talking about writing content. It’s a virtual water cooler buzz word for entrepreneurs and bloggers. Write content, increase your exposure. That’s great and all, but how do I know that my content will resonate with my people?

Great question. Really. Because, if you’re going to put something out there, whether it be a newsletter, blog post, video, podcast… the list goes on, you want it to engage your audience.

To assist you in this little adventure, I put together a bite-sized list of 5 key elements to check off your list before calling your content creation complete.

5 Keys To Writing Great Content

Key 1 – Content

Distributing high quality content and delivering on your promise is the key to bringing in followers and selling your product or service. Be sure the information you’re sending is helpful and either leads them through story to a positive result you or others have achieved (that could potentially be theirs), or leads them through steps or actionable information to a tangible result. This is the time to give away your goods. Giving information on how to ease their pain points will allow them to know that you’re their solution, while giving them actionable results.

Key 2 – Clarity

The way you structure a message and deliver it should be consistent with your branding, as well as your personality. Be sure your message is clear, easily understood, and directed towards your customer’s needs and wants. And, it should be something that can be consumed in small doses. Breaking it up into smaller pieces is going to resonate with a larger group of people.

Key 3 – Connection

Storytelling, being relatable, and adding personality are great ways to increase engagement. Followers want to feel connected to you. Invite them in. Share something interesting you did recently, or a trip you enjoyed. Live stream in your home. Let them get to know you.

Key 4 – Consistency

Consistency is King. People like to know what to expect. Delivering your material to them on a consistent basis builds trust, which leads to sales. Let them know that you deliver on your promises before they’re even a customer.

Key 5 – Conversational

Keep your writing in a conversational tone. This approach results in a more relatable, easier to consume article. Use contractions, break up long paragraphs, and see your open rates increase. You don’t want to seem robotic to your readers. They’d much rather meet you in person and feel like they already know you based on your writing style.

And, in the same vein, don’t speak over their heads. Your industry jargon isn’t their every day way of speaking, so be sure to keep your information at a level that’s simple to understand, while still getting your point across.

Now go create something amazing and share your knowledge and gift with others.

Customer Avatars, Target Markets, Oh My!

January 5, 2017 By hremec

What if I told you that, with a little effort, you could create a baseline to make all your future marketing endeavors easier and more effective?

Did I pique your interest?

This simple, yet effective, tool is a customer avatar. This ‘avatar’ is your ideal client. It’s your target market, but fine tuned — and it’s who you’ll focus your marketing efforts on.

To start, we’ll begin by looking at who’s seeking out your product or service. Who has has a ‘wake up in the morning problem’ that can find a solution in what you have to offer?

You won’t sell to someone that doesn’t feel a need to purchase, so this is the base level of your target market. But, there may be a multitude of people interested in purchasing what you have to offer. Our purpose is to focus this further.

Ask yourself these questions to hone in on exactly who you’re here to help:

Would I be most effective with service-based businesses, digital product-based businesses, or physical product-based businesses?
Is there a type of industry I’d prefer to work with?
Would I prefer to focus my efforts on businesses that are still in the founding phases, established small businesses, or businesses that have expanded their team?
Do I have an income range that I’d prefer my clients fall within, or would I like to engage with them and focus on their capabilities for growth?

Now, here’s where the fun begins.

The avatar:

This person is your biggest fan. She or he loves your business and what you have to offer. And, it’s the person you’d most like to work with, and the person you feel will get the best results by working with you or will get the most out of purchasing your product.

Begin creating your avatar by answering these questions:

Are they male or female? (If your demographic includes both, feel free to create 2 avatars.)
Where do they live (location or urban vs. suburban vs. rural, house or apartment…)?
How old are they?
Do they have a spouse and/or children?
How do they generally spend their money? Where do they shop?
What do they like to do with their free time? (Ie. Travel, Hobbies, Interests)
What’s important to them? (Ie. Education, Religion, The Environment…)
What is their job/career/business?
What are their goals?
What culture do they originate from?
What do they look like?

These questions are a great jumping off point to help you to create your avatar. Get as specific as possible about this person.

Then name them and assign them a photo. Just google what they look like find an image that fits your perception, and store it to reference back to. It’s for your reference only. It’s purpose is to allow you a visual image of your avatar. This allows you to focus your product or services on a specific client in a specific market.

Then, you can use this avatar for narrowing down your messaging.

Use it when you…

Review, renew or establish your branding
Post to social media
Create your website
Begin creating ads on social media & need to narrow your audience
Write blogs, email marketing materials, and any other form of copy to distribute to your audience
Create customer service processes within your business

… and the list goes on.

This approach allows you to stay focused on who your ideal client is interested in and what appeals to them.

You want your business to catch their attention, so communicate directly to them.

It’s one way to set you apart from the rest of the crowd.

Hi there! I’m Heather Remec…