About this course
A sales funnel can be thought of almost as a slide. It can be a series of purchases of increasing value, that inexorably build up momentum and take your visitor closer and closer to the final ‘big’ item. But that’s not the only thing a sales funnel can be. At the same time, you may wish to include other free stages in your funnel. For example, this might mean that you have a blog, or a mailing list, or a free report. These items work even better because they allow you to capture the people who aren’t yet ready to spend any money with you. And to be honest, that’s going to be most people. Most people do not surf the web with their wallets at the ready – especially if they’re on their smart phone! Even to make a small purchase, most of your visitors will need to have some idea of what you’re all about, what your product does and why they should trust you and buy from you. Think of this like the free coffee or the free cake you get outside of Starbucks. You’re just walking past, you’re in a hurry and you’re not ready to buy anything at this point. But then you see a nice snack and it’s completely free, so you think why not? And perhaps while you’re there, you take a flier or a money-off voucher so that you can use those things later on. For an internet marketer, this is basically what we mean when we talk about content marketing. The objective of content marketing is to get people to become interested in the content you’re sharing, to the point that they will regularly keep checking back of their own volition. Then maybe they decide they like what you’re offering so much, that they want to subscribe and start hearing more. Then, once they’re on your mailing list, you might offer them a free seminar. At each stage of the way, they’re becoming more engaged and more interested in your brand – more willing to be marketed to more in the future.
