The Fierce Business Babe Podcast Ep 95: Your First Funnel

Today I am going to be diving into the importance of a funnel and why I love using them so much! After digging into what a funnel is, I will help some people create their first funnel and help others expand their funnel to reach its full potential. All of this, and more!

Your First Funnel

By: Melissa Lin

I am so excited to be diving into the topic of funnels! Over the years, we have created so many funnels and we're actually working on our biggest funnel to date. It's pretty crazy. We're working on our seven figure funnel, the funnel that will continue to scale us to the seven figure mark.

Don’t Be Afraid Of Funnels

Now, anytime I say the word funnel when I am going live or if I'm talking to my clients or I'm chatting in the DMs with you, I can instantly feel that overwhelm and like literally I can feel the energy of "Ah! Funnels! Run! No! I don't want to deal with funnels!" And I know that funnels scare a lot of business owners.

It scared me. They freaked me out. They terrified me when I first started in 2014, and they really avoided them for quite some time. I love them now, but I really didn't like them in the beginning. So, do you need big scary funnels to scale to 5K months in your business? No. Do you need a funnel as a scale to 10K months? No, you don't. Which is exactly why this podcast episode title is "your first funnel" and not "your seven figure funnel". So I really want to dive into something for you to get started for your first funnel or maybe just seem to expand on your first funnel that you have already just a tiny bit.

Why I love Funnels

Let me share with you one of the big reasons why I love funnels: I love funnel so much because I can nurture my audience and sell to my audience. Hands off. Like, literally in my sleep. It's one of the coolest things, because my goal is to impact as many women as I can in this world. And I'm human. I can only reach so many people per day. So if I can get some help with some automation through funnels to reach more people, why not? It's helping me with my bigger vision and my bigger impact. So one of the big reasons, again, as I mentioned, why I love them so much is that I can nurture that audience, hands off, and continue to grow my vision.

So, for example, a new lead could find my funnel. They could opt into this funnel and they could go through my nurture sequence and then convert into one of my programs. So as you continue to scale, funnels will become part of your business at some point. Especially as you get closer to the six figure and multiple six figure mark in your business. So let's start with the basics.

What is a Funnel?

First, let's get into the basics of funnels. What is a funnel, what did the world is a funnel? No, not funnel cakes, but a funnel in business. A funnel is the process of basically turning your lead to the customers. So through your funnel, you will nurture and build a relationship with your leads, which will then narrow your leads down through each stage in your funnel. So have you ever seen one of those photos of a coach? Let's just say, for example, a business coach. Anytime I go live and I talk about processes and funnels and things like that, I always do this with my hands. You can see me when I'm live. I'm always drawing out an upside down triangle with my hands up in the air. I'm doing it right now trying to explain it to you. So anyways, that upside down triangle, usually people are trying to take you through the funnel process or explain what that process is.

So, again, upside down triangle. Feel free to draw it on your paper if you've got your notebook in front of you. I'm sure you do. Or up in the air draw with your hands an upside down triangle. The top of your funnel is everybody in your audience. Basically, the base of the triangle is upside down. Yes, we're in geometry class right now. But anyways, the top of your funnel is everybody in your audience that basically opts into your freebie. Then you may have a tripwire or, what we like to call, a low cost offer, like a seven dollar offer, a seven dollar offer to give your new customer a quick win.

That's a bit more of a mini advanced funnel. Then you may send a few emails to pitch your higher level offer. Not everybody will make it all the way down through your funnel. And what you'll most likely see is lower open rates the further in they go. Hence the upside down triangle, right? Bigger up top, bigger audience opting in. And then we lose people as they continue to go through and filter through the funnel.

What Your Funnel Will Look Like

Today, let's walk through what your first funnel can look like. We won't even go into trip wires, up sales and down sales, triggers, and things like that. We're going to keep it simple. So, what do you need for your very first funnel? What can this look like? First, we need your offer. We need a program, a product, an offer, a package that you are trying to sell. We need that. You also need a freebie that relates to this offer. I'm going to go into what this could look like in just a second. So those are two things you need. You need one more thing. You will need some type of email service such as MailChimp, Active Campaign, Kajabi, constant contact. Those are a few. So you have a freebie. And I bet it's amazing. Now, when your lead enters your funnel, meaning they opt in or they sign up for your freebie, you will already have it set up on the back and you'll have an automatic email that sends them their free gift. Whether it's a PDF download, a workshop training, a checklist, a blueprint. Whatever your freebie is, you wanted to relate to your core offer that you're selling. Whatever you want to convert at the end of your funnel, you want your freebie to relate to it somehow. You want to provide a quick win for your lead. Your lead is most likely, not always, but most likely, a cold lead unless this is a freebie that you're sharing to your warm audience. Usually these lead magnets are for capturing cold new leads into your audience so that you can nurture and warm them up through your funnel. So you've got your freebie. It's amazing! It's a checklist, blueprint, whatever your freebie is; that's when your funnel begins!

So let's keep this simple. Remember, this is your first funnel. No need to over-complicate whatsoever. So what's next? Your new lead needs to get to learn more about you and your business. So they downloaded your freebie for a reason. They feel you or your offer could help them solve a problem that they have. So what's gonna happen is over the next few days, you're going to nurture them, you're going to tell stories to them, and you're going to share testimonials. I'm going to walk you through an example of a few emails that you could push through your funnel. And again, this is all completely hands off. You should not have to do anything once you set it up. Once and it's done. It sends on its own. It's completely automatic and completely hands off.

So your funnel then begins over the next few days. So they've already received the instant welcome email. "Hey, here's your freebie" And it has the freebie inside. Over the next few days. You can send them one email a day. Don't go overboard here. Do not send ten emails a day. Don't go overboard. You can send one email a day. And the next day's email could be, "hey. I hope that you're enjoying your freebie for the next 72 hours. I am gifting you with two hundred dollars off my course." Or whatever your offer that you had, you know, have it be some type of discount or bonus. Something that makes sense to your offer and what the transformation is and that type of thing.

If you have a 20 thousand dollar program and you're only offering a two hundred dollar discount, that doesn't really match up very much. So make sure it makes sense. Ask some friends, see if that makes sense. And you can also hop into my free Facebook group. Tons of women in there. Feel free. Drop that question and ask. We can totally support you there as well. So that's the first. The next day, that first email is going out after they've already received their welcome email. The next day, you can send them another email. That's more of a storytelling piece. All right. We get to nurture. This could be a completely cold lead. You want to nurture it, too. So it could be a storytelling piece. Sharing more about you and why you created your course or your package, your product, your offer. Which is also the solution to their problem. It's why they downloaded your freebie in the first place.

So there's that day. The next day you can send some client case studies or some testimonials and remind them that the discount will be ending soon. All right. We get to share social proof because it's definitely needed with a cold lead. Add in social proof 100 percent. Then you can send another email when there's 24 hours left for the sale, bonus, or discount. Whatever you want to create for this. "Hey, here's your last chance!" And then handle some of their objections within your email. This could look like a Q&A of the questions that people tend to ask when you're selling your program. In one of our last funnels, we had a Q&A section in the email where we had five or six of the top asked questions. And they are also the same questions that we put onto our sales page because there are so frequently asked. We wanted to make sure we could answer them and also handle any of those objections there. And you have now created your very own, very first funnel.

As I mentioned in the beginning of this episode, funnels are not necessary to reach 5K months. They are not necessary to even reach 10K months. However, it is nice to start to add these into your business as you are scaling so you can be nurturing and selling behind the scenes. Like, literally while you're sleeping. And I want to share a quick story with you.

I remember when I first started back in 2014, this was way back in the day. Really, it was only a few years ago. However, I felt like a baby entrepreneur back then, really not knowing what I didn't know. And I remember my very first freebie. I laugh at this now, my very first freebie I ever had. I didn't know how to automate. I didn't know that you could even automate. I was so new to the entrepreneur space and emails and websites and all of those things that I was, one by one, emailing my freebie to anyone who opted in. I didn't know it was a simple link that you could link together for that automatic email. So if this is something where you're not sure how to link those two things together, let me know. Send me a DM. I can put together a mini training or we can do this inside of the Facebook group where we even hop on zoom and share screens and things like that.

I remember struggling so much because I thought, "oh, my goodness. Am I going to have to send, you know, hundreds of people this freebie by myself, by my hands?" You know, virtually by my hand. And I just did that for months because I did not know what I didn't know. So that's definitely something we get to automate. If you're not sure, let me know. We have a whole training inside of the fierce business academy. I begin our program for earlier entrepreneurs that are starting and scaling their business. If you haven't yet reached the 5K month mark, then this is the program for you. Send me a message. I can definitely help answer, but yes, I can put together a free training. And then if you want even more, the academy's got so much stuff in there for you.

Expanding Your Funnel

Now, if you already have a funnel: absolutely amazing! Let me challenge you and ask you, how can you expand upon it? How can you expand upon your current funnel? What down sale can you add? Do you have a tripwire? If this is your first funnel: amazing! Let me challenge you here, too, and ask you to draft your first funnel outline. And if you don't have an offer or freebie yet, those are some of the criteria for creating your first funnel. No worries. Send me a D.M. on Instagram. I've got resources for you to create your first offer or even to create your first freebies. Those are two of the three necessary things that you need to create your first funnel. And that third thing was your email, your email list, your email service that you use. So I got tons of resources for you. Feel free and share your biggest takeaways on Instagram stories. Tag me @themelissalin that I can see. I absolutely loved putting this episode together and I cannot wait to see you in the next episode.

Topics we cover include:

What is a funnel?
The benefits of having a funnel
How to create your first funnel

And so much more!

Times to check out:

(3:51) Don’t be afraid of funnels

(5:11) Why I love funnels

(6:24) What is a funnel?

(8:34) What Your First Funnel Will Look Like

(10:22) How Your Funnel Will Work

(16:23) Expanding Your Funnel

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