One of the business goals I have in mind for 2016 is to learn the different ways to automate a sales funnel. The idea is I want to increase business revenue in the form of consulting packages, digital course sales and a membership site.
As such, I spent the first quarter of 2016 learning about how to automate a sales funnel through different methods, many of which I’ve begun to put in place in the last couple of weeks. In this article, I’m going to share some of the tips I’ve learned. But first, I have to address a few things.
It takes a financial investment to automate a sales funnel.
If there was a way to automate a fully functioning sales funnel for free, I’d try it. However, what I’ve found is that it’s going to cost money no matter what. Whether you’re running Facebook Ads or using webinar software, a financial investment will be necessary on your part.
It takes some time to completely automate a sales funnel.
Once I set my mind to something, I tend to work pretty fast. Because of this, I had an email funnel and a webinar ready to go in about six weeks. With that being said, I still need to incorporate a couple of other things to fully automate a sales funnel.
All of this is to say that automating a sales funnel takes a lot of work upfront. It also takes some time to tweak and perfect, so be patient.
Be patient with results.
I wish I could start running Facebook ads tomorrow and then see six-figures in revenue the next day. Unfortunately, that’s not really how this works.
Every time you make a financial investment in your business – whether it’s hiring a coach or paying for software that will help you automate a sales funnel – it will take a little while before you start seeing a return.
How to Actually Automate a Sales Funnel
Now that we’ve got all of the common concerns out of the way, it’s time to talk about some of the ways to actually automate a sales funnel.
This section will provide some tips and tricks I’ve learned to decrease no-shows to consultations, put more business deals on the table and even add a bit of passive income streams to my business all while saving myself time.
Use evergreen webinars.
Evergreen webinars refer to webinars that run on autopilot. It’s simply a recording of a webinar that you can use over and over again as a “live” webinar each month or even each week.
For example, you would drive traffic to the landing page which says the webinar will take place on X date. Registrants will receive emails to attend the “live” webinar on the date, but what they will actually see is a recording posing as a live webinar.
This is so much easier because it allows you to really perfect the sales presentation and increase your leads without having to do it live all the time.
Add texting to your funnel.
In the last few weeks, I switched my calendar scheduling software to one that offered text notifications. What I noticed is the number of people who actually showed up to the free consults increased. In fact, I haven’t had any no-shows since starting to incorporate this feature.
In the next few weeks, I’ll continue to further automate a sales funnel with text. For example, I’ll use software that allows me to text webinar registrants after they’ve seen the presentation. Judging by the success I’ve already seen with my calendar, I expect leads and sales to increase as a result of using this method.
Remember that email isn’t dead.
With all these new features one might jump to the conclusion that email is dead in terms of sales funnels. That is not true at all. People still respond well to email if your copy is on point.
Furthermore, as I’ve mentioned in the past, you always want to make sure you’re collecting people’s emails and growing your list. First, because social media channels could be here one day and gone the next. Second, because even if you start using a texting feature, not everyone will opt for it.
Have an upsell on your “Thank You” page after someone opts in to your list.
Another form of automating a sales funnel that I’ve been testing is having an upsell on my “Thank You” page after someone opts-in to my list.
For instance, I’ll offer some sort of freebie like a worksheet. When someone enters their information to receive the freebie, they’ll automatically be taken to a page where they can download it.
Directly underneath the download, there will be an up-sell for a product that can help them with the next steps of actually using the freebie. In my case, I’m using my monthly membership site as the upsell. It’s affordable and provides recurring revenue for me.
Start using Facebook Ads.
The next step in automating my sales funnel is to start running Facebook ads to drive traffic to webinars and freebie worksheets.
Facebooks ads are cheap and the targeting you can do is amazing. You can even go as far as uploading your email list to your ads manager to ensure that people who already visit your site see your ads.
I admit I haven’t experimented too much with this yet (I’m still working on images for the ads), but I’ve seen others use it with great success at a low cost.
Don’t forget social media.
I was able to book the last webinar I did almost entirely through social media. This was totally free because I hadn’t actually started using Facebook ads to drive traffic to a webinar landing page yet.
I’ll continue experimenting with this in the coming months by offering free downloadable worksheets to see the response. I’ll also use it to drive traffic to evergreen webinars.
After all, if you’re already building your social media presence then you might as well use it.
Final Thoughts
Automating the different moving pieces of a well-function sales funnel may take some time and money, but it’s well worth it when you see those leads starting to come in. Use it to increase leads, increase passive income and scale your business to the next level.
