{"id":749,"date":"2017-12-18T01:40:34","date_gmt":"2017-12-18T01:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thesubmarineguy.com\/newblog\/?p=749"},"modified":"2017-12-22T13:44:48","modified_gmt":"2017-12-22T13:44:48","slug":"1-what-the-heck-is-a-sales-funnel-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesubmarineguy.com\/newblog\/1-what-the-heck-is-a-sales-funnel-anyway\/","title":{"rendered":"1 \u2013 What the Heck is a Sales Funnel, Anyway?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For an online business owner, a sales funnel is probably the most important marketing tool you have. And yet many entrepreneurs &#8211; both new and established &#8211; have no clear understanding of what a funnel is or how it works.<\/p>\n<p>As you can imagine, failing to fully understand this critical part of your business means fewer sales, lower profits, and ultimately, an unstable business.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_hSZ9yr-Kqs?rel=0&amp;controls=0&amp;showinfo=0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2><strong>A Simple Sales Funnel<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>At its most basic, a sales funnel consists of <strong>free content<\/strong>, which typically <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-748 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thesubmarineguy.com\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Sales-Funnel.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"293\" \/>requires nothing of your readers. Many sales funnels begin with blog posts, YouTube videos, Facebook content, and other information readers can access at no cost. This is the \u201ctop\u201d of your funnel.<\/p>\n<p>Next, you\u2019ll have an <strong>attractive offer<\/strong> that requires a very small \u201cpayment\u201d of sorts &#8211; typically an email address. This is also known as a <strong>Lead Magnet<\/strong>.\u00a0 You\u2019ve seen this type of offer on websites all over the internet, and probably even signed up for some. This is the free ebook or guide, video series, checklist, workbook, or other valuable content that is available in exchange for \u201c<strong>opting in<\/strong>\u201d to an email list.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Once on your mailing list<\/strong>, you\u2019ll then present your readers with a series of low-cost offers. Perhaps you have a low-priced ebook or a trial membership.<\/p>\n<p>Customers who purchase your low-priced product move further down the funnel, and are presented with more, higher priced products. As they continue to buy, they move closer and closer to your top-end offers, which make up the bottom of your funnel.<\/p>\n<p>Your <strong>email list<\/strong> become critical in delivering further offers to your readers.\u00a0 Of course, you can not flood them with sales offers all the time&#8230; No one would stay on a list that did that.\u00a0 80% good, informative content about the purpose of the list should be fine mixed with 20% offers of related materials.<\/p>\n<p>80% of all sales are made between the 5<sup>th<\/sup> and the 12<sup>th<\/sup> contact.\u00a0 Your <strong>EMail List<\/strong> is how this is achieved.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>How Your Sales Funnel Works<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>If you imagine your funnel as looking like, well, a funnel, it\u2019s easy to see that your free content\u2014at the top\u2014is consumed by the largest number of readers. Below that, your extreme low-cost item (available only for the cost of an email address) attracts a smaller subset of the true freebie seekers. Next, your low-priced products bring in yet a smaller group.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, as you near the tip of the funnel, only the loyalest of fans and customers will purchase your highest priced offers.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: #ffff00;\">Your job, as the business owner, is to ensure that your funnel leads buyers naturally from the top, free offers all the way to the bottom. The more buyers you can keep in your funnel, the more money you will make.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Most new\u2014and even established\u2014business owners can easily envision the top of the funnel, but if you truly want your business to grow, you must <span style=\"background-color: #00ff00;\">master the entire process<\/span>, and that starts with understanding what a funnel really is and how it works.<\/p>\n<p>To see an example of a well constructed Sales Funnel, hop over to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.Fred77.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.Fred77.com<\/a> and put your info in.<\/p>\n<p>See the next article in this series:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesubmarineguy.com\/newblog\/2-sales-funnel-leaks\/\">Sales Funnel Leaks &#8211; What to do about them!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For an online business owner, a sales funnel is probably the most important marketing tool you have. And yet many entrepreneurs &#8211; both new and established &#8211; have no clear understanding of what a funnel is or how it works. As you can imagine, failing to fully understand this critical part of your business means [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sales-funnels","tag-email-marketing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sales Funnels - What are they and how do they work?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The best way to construct your sales funnel is to start with a free offer then move the prospect through your sales process to higher and higher offers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thesubmarineguy.com\/newblog\/1-what-the-heck-is-a-sales-funnel-anyway\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sales Funnels - What are they and how do they work?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The best way to construct your sales funnel is to start with a free offer then move the prospect through your sales process to higher and higher offers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thesubmarineguy.com\/newblog\/1-what-the-heck-is-a-sales-funnel-anyway\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Submarine Guy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-18T01:40:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-12-22T13:44:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thesubmarineguy.com\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Sales-Funnel.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"fvraley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"fvraley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thesubmarineguy.com\\\/newblog\\\/1-what-the-heck-is-a-sales-funnel-anyway\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thesubmarineguy.com\\\/newblog\\\/1-what-the-heck-is-a-sales-funnel-anyway\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"fvraley\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thesubmarineguy.com\\\/newblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/69433e67a9a3ec016f39361d65367cf0\"},\"headline\":\"1 \u2013 What the Heck is a Sales Funnel, Anyway?\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-18T01:40:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-12-22T13:44:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thesubmarineguy.com\\\/newblog\\\/1-what-the-heck-is-a-sales-funnel-anyway\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":553,\"commentCount\":3,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thesubmarineguy.com\\\/newblog\\\/1-what-the-heck-is-a-sales-funnel-anyway\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thesubmarineguy.com\\\/newblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/Sales-Funnel.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"email marketing\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Sales Funnels\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thesubmarineguy.com\\\/newblog\\\/1-what-the-heck-is-a-sales-funnel-anyway\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thesubmarineguy.com\\\/newblog\\\/1-what-the-heck-is-a-sales-funnel-anyway\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thesubmarineguy.com\\\/newblog\\\/1-what-the-heck-is-a-sales-funnel-anyway\\\/\",\"name\":\"Sales Funnels - 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