If you have an online business presence, as an entrepreneur, a work at home mom or dad, or as a first-rate internet marketer, you already know how critically important it is for you to have a robust marketing funnel working tirelessly for you 24/7. In fact, everyone I know who has an internet business is always building a bigger, better marketing funnel.
Funnel? How quaint that such a common household utensil represents a huge internet marketing tool!
Well, you know what an ordinary funnel is. According to the world English dictionary, a funnel (when used as a noun) is “a cone-shaped utensil with a large opening at the top and a small opening or tube at the bottom. Use: to guide liquids and other substances into containers.” Funnel, when used as a verb means “to direct or channel all of something from one place or use to another”
The bigger the funnel, the more ingredients you can pour into the wide end, and the more you will get coming from the bottom. That is what an internet marketer does day in and day out with every skill they can apply–get traffic to pour into their marketing funnel.
Today, your blog is probably the best sales funnel that you can utilize. So now you can visualize this business marketing funnel, with all those potential customers pouring into the wide mouth of the funnel. But how do you get the process going? Those are the strategies and ideas that website business owners work on constantly. The ways of getting the funnel full include creating a site that offers valuable, useful information, complementary downloads or free advice in a weekly newsletter. Resourceful and creative website marketers can come up with endless approaches to generating that all important full funnel effect. One important part of the process is creating a client base of people who have visited your site and submitted contact information to get the free items or make a purchase. These are the clients you can work with and interest in your products or services. They will be the backbone of your business’ success.
Usually people will request a first name and an email address if the free product will be delivered digitally. If the deliverable will be mailed, of course, you will then want to get more complete contact information including a mailing address.
Just like the shopkeeper who wants you to browse in his store, your marketing funnel leads visitors to browse your internet site (blog or website). You can display items that they might not have been looking for but could use. This is your chance to let them know about your higher end products that generate more revenue. For example, you might be offering online courses that they could use but did not know about. If your website is properly designed you can market your big ticket items such as entire programs for coaching and consulting.
The more people you can get to slide on down the sales funnel into the narrow end that leads to your products, the more opportunities to find a client who will be purchase an item. If your site has tons of great offers and products, and clearly belongs to an internet source they can respect, visitors will get interested in your offerings. A lot of “impulse buying” occurs at the narrow end of the funnel, as people get sold on items that they were previously unaware of. Those valuable clients who have navigated to the end of your funnel and learned all about you and your business will be your best customers, coming to you and referring others to your website over and over.
How to get your funnel started? Step one is your blogging activities. A blog is the heart of your marketing plan. The traffic will not start entering the wide end of the funnel without fully exploiting all the advantages of a good blog.
Your blog may be great and you are blogging away brilliantly, but it will all be for nothing if you do not use it to direct readers to your business site. That is one of the functions of a well designed marketing funnel. Creating a successful marketing funnel that operates in concert with your blog is an art that requires internet savvy and business acumen. The combined impact will build confidence and trust in your expertise. Your blog and funnel must work in tandem, however, to successfully attract and guide your visitors into investigating what you are marketing. Otherwise, rather than customers flowing down your funnel, your business will just be going down the tubes.
Creating a website or a blog is not rocket science, yet many online entrepreneurs are intimidated by the whole process. I know I was clueless and felt helpless when I began my first blog. Depending on your age group, blogging and website building are new skills you have had to acquire during adulthood. But you can learn new tricks. I dedicated myself to learning everything connected with building blogs and began to create several. I discovered that it is not all that scary. You also are probably quite capable of blogging and building websites, whether you are a computer geek or computer novice. I have used my personal understanding of the learning process to create tutorials and classes that will help you learn just like I did.
Still, many people take no pleasure in blogging. It is a chore that saps their energy and distracts them from the tasks that they feel best utilize their time and creativity. Does this mean they must choose between concentrating on what they love and having online success?
Absolutely not!
Trust your instincts. If you are confident that you can do more for your business by utilizing your own special skills to their maximum that is what you should do. You may have powerful business building abilities in organizing marketing, designing products, attracting clients and building business relationships. You have the option to use professionals to provide the blogging service you need to complement your own talents. You can concentrate on fulfilling your desire to create great programs for professional development. You will have time to provide the personalized training that is your greatest talent and asset.
Entrust us with your blogging project! We understand the entire blogging process and what it can accomplish. Your online skills should be used where you feel they will do the most good. If blogging was never a part of your action plan, but you understand its importance, consider our resources.
We know how to incorporate blogging into your business activities so that it will be the vital hub from which business information and activity can radiate.
I would be delighted to provide information regarding professional instruction available regarding the art of blogging. I can explain how you can use your blog to optimize traffic from search engines and expand your client base day and night.
We can set up your entire marketing funnel – including: 1) Your own WordPress blog 2) State of the art tracking software with full analytics 3) Opt-in form from your email marketing service 4) Social plug-ins to encourage interactivity 5) Administrative plug-ins for increased blog security 6) Your blog will be SEO optimized for Google’s search engines (and you’ll receive a free consultation from me on your blog’s functionality and how to use its features) 7) Your blog will be linked to social media sites. Their traffic sources are now even bigger than Google’s.
For details on our easy-button blog’s service, book your free telephone consultation with me to discuss your blog’s ging needs today. Press the “Book Now” button on my blog’s home page.