A sales funnel is not just another marketing term you can ignore.
I know you’d like to, but once you find out how it can help you be less “salesy” in your day-to-day marketing, you might love me for helping you create one for your business.
(Keep in mind that I hate chocolate but love young adult novels when you want to send me a gift when this completely changes your marketing game.)
A sales funnel is a way to collect leads (people who might be interested in buying your products) and turn some of them into customers.
It’s all about getting the right people (aka, the ones who might buy your stuff) onto your email list and getting them to open and read your emails.
If you can do that, you can set up a sales funnel that works for you in the background of things.
Instead of having to work so hard for each individual sale, you’re working hard to get people onto your list (by giving them something for free that they really want) and then your emails do the work for you.
You set up your emails as autorepsonders once and then each person who signs up for your emails gets them.
A sales funnel can work for any type of business from a life coach to a watercolor artist to a candle maker.
It’s easier to show you what a sales funnel might look like then try to explain it further than that, so I’ve created a sales funnel for a jewelry designer.
SAMPLE SALES FUNNEL:
Business Overview of Indigo and Silver (which is a made up brand for the purposes of this post):
A minimalist jewelry designer who focuses on creating high-quality pieces that can enhance any outfit. Her pieces are more expensive than a lot of handmade jewelry sold on Etsy but her customers see them as an investment and don’t mind spending more because they only buy a couple new pieces a year. Her customers would rather spend more money on one necklace they love, can wear with most of their outfits and will keep for many years than five trendy necklaces that they might not wear again next year.
Sales Funnel:
Opt-in Freebie: Your Capsule Wardrobe Guide
This guide is a free downloadable PDF that’ll help subscribers design their own capsule wardrobe. Even though this doesn’t revolve around jewelry, it works because it grabs her ideal customer’s attention and she can include her jewelry in it.
1st Email: Free Capsule Wardrobe Guide Inside (sent immediately upon opting in)
In this email, she welcomes new subscribers to her list and provides the link to download the capsule wardrobe guide.
2nd Email: How to Avoid the Top 3 Mistakes When Building a Capsule Wardrobe (sent three days after first email)
In this email, she reminds subscribers to download the guide and goes over the top three mistakes women make when building a capsule wardrobe. One of the mistakes is buying pieces that don’t work with most everything else in the person’s wardrobe. Within that tip, she discusses why it’s better to invest in jewelry that can be worn with most outfits and that lasts for years (aka, her jewelry).
3rd Email: The Truth Revealed: What Retailers Don’t Want You to Know (sent five days after second email)
In this email, the jewelry designer gives subscribers a budget breakdown of someone who buys cheap trendy jewelry versus someone who buys one or two quality pieces per year. It reveals that the person who buys cheap jewelry actually spends more or just as much as the person who buys high-quality jewelry on a yearly basis. The difference is that the person who buys high-quality jewelry keeps her for years and years.
This email reinforces the minimalist mindset which tells subscribers that they’re in the right place.
4th Email: The Story Behind Indigo and Silver (sent one week after third email)
In this email, she talks about why she started Indigo and Silver and the main principles of the brand.
People are more likely to buy from brands that they know, like and trust. This emails helps subscribers get to know the brand better.
At the end of this email, she includes three testimonials she’s received from past customers along with a link to find additional reviews.
5th Email: My Summer Capsule Wardrobe (sent one week after fourth email)
She shares pictures of 10 outfits she can create with her capsule wardrobe for that season, and each season, she switches out the content so that it works for whatever season we’re currently in.
She includes one of her necklaces, a pair of earrings and two bracelets with the outfits to show how her minimalistic jewelry goes with it all.
6th Email: Free Shipping Code for Indigo and Silver Inside (sent one week after fifth email)
Now that subscribers have received a handful of emails and have grown more familiar with the brand, they’re more likely to buy something, especially if given a reason to purchase now. The free shipping code gives them the reason to buy now.
Within the email, she includes three testimonials from past customers.
7th Email: Quiz: Are you an Audrey, Marilyn, Brigitte or Kate? (sent one week after sixth email)
Because people love quizzes and she wanted a fun way to talk about jewelry, she put together a quiz that will tell you whether you’re most like Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot or Kate Middleton when it comes to fashion. And, at the end of the quiz, she links to jewelry (including her own pieces) that best matches those personalities.
8th Email: Top 3 Best-Selling Pieces of Indigo and Silver (sent one week after seventh email)
One of the reasons people procrastinate buying is because they don’t know what to choose. If subscribers have gone this long without buying, showing them the top three best-selling pieces might help them choose what to buy.
This helps them focus on three choices as opposed to the thirty-five choices in her online shop.
As you can see from this example sales funnel, it’s not all about selling.
You want to mix helpful, entertaining content that your ideal customer will love with sales copy, testimonials and reasons to buy now.
I’ve created a mini workbook (hip hip hooray for workbooks!) for you that gives you a few more notes on this example sales funnel and will help you to brainstorm ideas for your own sales funnel.
Download your workbook right here.
Have questions? Ask them in the comments below.
Thank you so much for the workbook, April!
I have been trying to figure out how to build my mailing list and this is definitely a big help to brainstorm some ideas 🙂
You’re so welcome! Thanks for commenting and good luck with your email list. 🙂
This is wonderful. Thanks for actual substance and laying out a plan. All too often bloggers give waaaay too much fluff and no actual tactics ands steps to actually achieve their goals.
The internet is so saturated with the list post about why to do something, but the posts about how to actually do it are few and far between.
Keep up the great work, April
Thanks Sarah! I definitely try to think of ways to explain something that will really help and using thoughtful examples seems to do the trick. 🙂
thank you for this gorgeous workbook!! you have the best books <3
Awwww…thanks Richelle!
I still very much shy away from my email marketing! But, as always, this gives me a ton more confidence. I’m currently working on a new freebie that leads into my logo email sequence (that I haven’t written yet ha!), so I will absolutely referring back to this when I get stuck.
Thanks!
You should go for it! Your writing is great. Your photos are beautiful. Your content is helpful. 🙂
This perfect! I’m going to get started on this tonight. Thank you so much for putting this together in such a useful, actionable format!
You’re so welcome. Glad it’s helpful.
Hi April, this is amazing!! Thank you. I’ve always thought of a sales funnel as being an icky sales tactic, but this is genuine and approachable.
Anything can be used as an icky sales tactic unfortunately. You could use a sales funnel to foster lots of ‘if you don’t buy this right now your life will be over and you’ll suck at everything for the rest of time’ feelings–and some people do.
But, you can also use it to provide helpful, entertaining content while selling your products/services.
Glad I showed you how to make this more genuine. 🙂
April! You rock. I was just sitting down to update my opt-in and this is making me think way more strategically! Timing could not have been better.
YAY! I love when things work out like that. 🙂
Amazing! Thank you
You’re so welcome.
Thank you April – this is so helpful!
YAY! You’re welcome.
Thank you, April! Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING you do is so helpful. Love this so much.
Awwww…you’re giving me the warm fuzzies–the best feeling ever. 🙂 Thanks!
Thank you so much April. This is so helpful having actionable examples to inspire our own strategy. 🙂
I’m wondering if you would alter the emails if someone buys in the 3rd or 4th email for example.
Would it be too much to keep sending them your auto emails? Remove them from the sequence? Or move them onto another “softer” sequence? I hope I’m making sense.
Thanks again! Great post!!!
Awesome question.
It depends what type of business you have.
For a jewelry designer, you wouldn’t stop sending the emails. When someone purchases and ends up loving their purchase, they’re more likely to use that free shipping code or buy another piece.
If you’re selling a course and someone joins the course, if your email provider gives you the option to stop sending the email sequence to people who buy (some do and some don’t), then I would stop sending them emails related to that specific course. If it’s a beginners course and you also have an intermediate course, I might move the person to my sales funnel for the intermediate course after a month or so.
I hope that helps some!
Hei Janne!Jeg ønsker deg og din familie en riktig god jul!Ser fram til mange fine blogginnlegg fra deg i det nye året :)Klem fra Linda
I love this, April!
I’m still in the process of putting together my own funnels, & your timing couldn’t be better! Time to get this one off the ToDo list, for real.
xo
K
PS – WORKBOOKS! YASSS!!!
Thanks Kris! We have a mutual love of workbooks…one of the many things we’ve got in common. Polka dots…Kate Spade…copywriting… 🙂
Vegan snacks, cute glasses, fun giggles…the list goes on!
THANK YOU April for ALWAYS sharing details with your blog posts…you are always so very helpful! And thank you for using a jewelry designer as an example – lol. I am having the hardest time in coming up with a freebie for my sales funnel (which I am currently writing) because all though I do custom jewelry, it’s horse hair jewelry which is very unique and very niche. I keep seeing suggestions of style guides – but the core of my clients really don’t care about style necessarily – more about the memory and keepsake that I provide. Maybe your followers will have some suggestions as to what I can offer as a freebie because I’m blank!
Your jewelry sounds interesting – I am assuming your target market is horse lovers who want to have something made using their horse’s hair? If so, could you do something that focuses on a topic that would internet them like where to go trail riding or something else and tie in your jewelry as a nice reminder of their precious times with their horse? Then maybe some more follow ups about your favorite ride? Seasonal rides, etc.?
That’s a great idea Chris!
April, you are an absolute Angel for doing this. So, so helpful and it happens to be amazingly perfect timing for me. Your content is always top notch, thank you, thank you, thank you! xo
Oh wow, thank you so much for this plan! Can’t wait to use it in my business!
This is great, April. Thank you! I’m gonna work through this workbook soon. One a side note, I’d love to see a post on a long term email approach at some point. You know… after this initial email sequence is over, what next? How do you blend in email sequences with sending subscribers your individual blog post snippets with selling (your own products or affiliate products)? I feel like my emails are so hodge-podged at times, and I’d like them to flow better. Do you just keep adding to this sequence with every email you write that has valuable info? Are blog post snippets separate from this list? How to you get more open rates? I have a big list, but honestly, my open rate feels really small, especially the more people that subscribe. I think the majority of people sign up for my freebie and that’s it. I need to figure out how to improve my engagement because I feel like I’m wasting a ton of money sending emails to people who don’t open them. Sorry for all the questions, but this is something that I’m really trying to figure out right now. My blog is more of a lifestyle blog, but I’m launching a membership site (As soon as my blog redesign is done. I think we’re in the same boat here!) and I’d like to have this be the main part of my sales funnel.
This is great timing and super helpful for me, thank you!
April, you’re amazing! Every time your email comes each week, my heart does a little happy dance! Thank you for being passionate enough about what you do to give us such wonderful resources. 🙂
Hello April,
Again you come to my rescue just at the right time.
Thanks for this wonderful workbook.
Thank you April! This is just what I needed to motivate me to walk through the process. I loved your Creative Live class (so much that I purchased it). I’ve worked on a lot of the items you discussed in the class but this is one item that I hadn’t quite gotten to. Now I will!
THIS is amazing April! I made an executive decision last week to scale back my business to its MVP, so I can get back to the root of why I’m doing this in the first place. This workbook is exactly what I need right now; I’ve been so overwhelmed with trying to do all of the things that I haven’t done much at all. Examples help so much to bring it all together. This will help me set up the consistency I’m looking for from the get go, especially for my readers – Thank you! Plus I love me some workbooks…time to get out my favourite coloured pens!
Keep being Ah-Mazing!
Trace x
Thanks, April, this is really helpful. I’ve been meaning to put together an autoresponder series for a while but never really known how to go about it for my digital scrapbook papers. Have put it in my planner for later this week! Loved your CreativeLive classes too!
This is quite informative. Thank you. One question do you send all of the emails even if someone has already signed up at some point in the process?
April,
What a great workbook! Thank you for breaking it down for me. I have avoided the sales funnel approach because it seemed like a ginormous learning curve! You have made it easy and I really appreciate it.
I knew I needed to revamp my opt-in but couldn’t quite figure out how to go about formulating each of the subsequent emails. You workbook definitely helps clarify things going forward. Thanks April!
Thank you SO much for this post April!!! It couldn’t have come at a better time. In fact, I’m using it as we speak to put together my opt-in sequence. Thank you for your work and the amazing content you share. You’re making a difference!
Kristin
Thanks for the informative post, April. Maybe I missed it, but do you have any advice about which software to use that would create these sequential e-mails? Thanks!
Oh April, How I love you…lol
This is great! I am always a sucker for a great, practical example to help understand and a workbook to help apply a concept.
Thanks for all you do to help entrepreneurs like me make the most of their business – You Rock!
Thank you so much for the workbook. Looking forward to your seminar on CreativeLive!
Super helpful! Thank you!