3 automated marketing funnels that convert leads into customers.

Are you “manually prospecting”? Like going networking online or offline to get in contact with people? It’s time-consuming, exhausting and it prevents you from getting much more leads and prospective clients! Automated marketing funnels are a great alternative. In this article, I discuss 3 must-have automated marketing funnels.

Manual prospecting

A lot of entrepreneurs do “manual prospecting”: They meet people in person at e.g. networking events (online or offline) and follow up with them. I’d say perfect for generating quality leads that are likely to convert into clients. Because it makes perfect sense: If you spend the time speaking one on one with each and every lead, they get to know-like-AND- trust you in a short amount of time. So you’re bound to have a high conversion rate, meaning lots of the people you speak with will decide to work with you if you offer your services.

Two big disadvantages

However, there are a few big disadvantages to this way of getting prospects and potential clients. Problems that every business owner who relies solely on manual prospecting runs into after a while. Whether you’re a coach, trainer, consultant:

1. 1. Manual prospecting is very limited

How many people can you speak at a networking event long enough to get their attention to your services? Or when you’re networking online and are in a break-out room on Zoom? You might hope they remember your name and face when you contact the majority of them. Also, when networking sooner or later we’ll run out of people to meet in our networking circles. Because every time you see the same faces again. And the fewer new people we meet, the fewer sales appointments we can book. The fewer sales appointments, the fewer the opportunities to sign new clients.

2. It’s very time-consuming

Also, networking is very time-consuming. You have to build a relationship. Sometimes it’s easier, e.g. when you have lunch at your network event with one person. Other times it takes several meetings with the same persons to establish some sort of connection and relationship. So it’s definitely time-consuming. And the more successful we become, the busier we get as well. That means we have less time to go around networking and need to squeeze it into our busy schedule.

So what alternative is there for “manual prospecting”?

Cold calling and knocking randomly on doors are typically not on our to-do list, since it’s not the most rewarding work, to say the least. Spamming people online via messenger is also not done and often not appreciated by the leads in your online network. It seldomly works. So let me introduce you to automated marketing funnels.

Get the Marketing cycle flowing!

When we consider manual prospecting it’s actually maximum work for minimum return. Marketing automation, on the other hand, get’s the marketing cycle flowing: It helps leads to enter your pipeline and get them through your conversion pipeline. You’ll do work upfront to build a marketing system that consistently generates leads and gets them ready to buy, but your reward is so valuable: Having an automated process.

It does the work for you.

The systems you install work so you don’t have to do the work. It runs like it’s supposed to and gets the job done every time. When you have a marketing automation system in place, it brings you leads and clients every single time (i.e. day, week, month). No more following-up one on one with people, or relying on vague referrals or manually sending emails to one person at a time or manually posting to social media without knowing how to monetize your efforts!

Every business needs funnels.

As business owners it is crucial that we at one point build automated marketing funnels to handle the sales process for us so we can focus on what’s most important in our business — delivering our “core value” like coaching or whatever service that is in your situation and making our impact in the world!

The top 3 Automated Marketing Campaigns that turn prospects into clients

Now, which 3 marketing funnels should you start with? Typically I advise my clients to focus on 3 automated marketing funnels first:

1. 1. Launch Funnel

A launch funnel is an automated email campaign designed to educate and motivate people to buy something from you. When somebody first makes contact with you, we need a way to deliver great value and get them to buy while the emotion is hot. Buy?? Yes, ideally you have something they can buy from you. A low-priced, front-end offer. So you can get a ‘micro-commitments as I call it. It depends on what business you are in, but the general psychological principle behind it is that when people buy from you and become a client, they tend to buy more from you.

So you get the people into your launch funnel, designed to get them to the next phase using the momentum you already have, and then have them move straight to the conversion event. And a conversion event might be a sales conversation with you, where you offer let say a 3-month course or program. That’s the goal: The next phase.

1. 2. Nurture Funnel

If they don’t opt-in for the conversion event, like they don’t take you up on the offer of having a free session with you, the second thing you need is a Nurture Funnel. This is a long-term, ongoing educational system where every day, every week, or every two weeks you send something useful that educates and invites. This is about the value and a call to action or invitation. You need a nurture funnel, otherwise, those precious leads and prospects forget who you are.

1. 3. Connect Funnel

Another funnel that I suggest is a Connect Funnel. This starts with sending a quick email to just connect and aiming to people reply to you. For instance, I might say something like “Hi, I had to think of you. How’re you doing? Still interested in getting more clients while working less?” If people respond to me, I find myself in a dialogue suddenly, which allows me to move them on to the next phase within the funnel.

Summary

So the Launch, Nurture and Connect funnel are the first three funnels we really should automate. It really frees up our time, but more importantly, we get so confident about our marketing and converting leads into customers that we can move on to designing and implementing more marketing funnels. It takes time, sure. Time for mapping out the funnels, creating them, writing all the emails, automate the sequences. etc. But once you have a couple of funnels in place you wonder why it took you so long…

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Next Steps

Want to start growing your business by leveraging marketing funnels, but not sure where or how to start? Book a Marketing Priority Call with me. It’s free, my treat. Click the image below to grab a spot!