So, you’ve heard funnels are the secret to creating a passive income stream that provides you with profits on demand like a digital ATM. 

Well, you know that saying about something being too good to be true…right?

Now I’m not here to burst your bubble – while there is a lot of big talk and buzz around funnels that isn’t exactly accurate, they are a highly valuable mechanism to have working within your business to bring in clients, customers, and sales. 

That is, when you understand how to structure them properly. 

But before you can begin building funnels, like with any structure you want to stand tall and securely, you’ve got to set a firm foundation first, which is exactly what we’ll do in this first episode of Season 1 of the Compel and Convert podcast. 

Let’s go!  

In this episode, you’ll learn: 

• What a funnel does and how it works to draw in your ideal client and convert them into being a paid client or customer 
• How a funnel helps you to build trust and rapport with your audience and why they’re critical for making the sale (ahem, a payment page alone doesn’t cut it!)
• Why it’s critical to consider the different types of buyers that exist within your audience and how that determines what type of funnel you’re going to build learning up to your product 

Read the Transcript for Season 1, Episode 1 – The Function of Funnels

Hello and welcome to the Compel and Convert podcast. This is episode one of season one. I am super excited to be bringing you this really focused series. This is going to be a ten episode series for season one focused all around Funnel. So the idea here and I’m being a little bit experimental.

Let me know how you like it in terms of just trying to go deep on one subject. That way you can really get a full comprehensive view of what a certain facet is in the digital marketing, digital business world space and feel like you’re getting a comprehensive overview versus different podcast episodes every single week. That kind of jump around from topic to topic. This will really give you a deep dive. So the focus of season one is going to be all about funnels and Funnels are definitely a hot topic online.

They have been for a couple of years, but it’s really only continuing to be a hot topic buzzword. And the reality is that funnels just real talk. A lot of times they’re posed as being this secret or like the thing that you need in order to just make money on autopilot. And I hate to burst your bubble straight out the gate, but that is not true. Funnels definitely have the capacity to bring you sales on autopilot.

But having a funnel in and of itself does not just give you an ATM machine in your business. That’s not how it works. It’s kind of that classic thing of if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. With that said, though, I’m going to dive into Funnels all the details that way you really understand how to best utilize them so that they can be really powerful mechanisms in your business, because if you know how to craft a funnel correctly and you really understand how they can be leveraged and utilized, funnels really are a powerful tool to have in play in your business.

And honestly, I think with the way that the online world is trending, funnels are something you need to have in place in order to properly guide your customer through the journey that they need to take in order to say yes to purchasing from you.

It’s not like back in the olden days where we could, like, go in and touch and feel everything that we’re buying. A lot of the products we’re buying these days aren’t even like tangible products. So let me not get too ahead of myself. I’m going to dive in to this episode where we’re going to just be talking Funnels 101. Like, what is a funnel?

So if you’ve heard me now say funnel 500 times and you’re like, I still don’t understand what this is. Don’t worry, we’re getting there. And why do you need one? So like I said, they are the hot marketing topic of the day. But honestly, funnels the concept in and of itself has been around ever since sales has existed.

Really? So let me put it into the context of something that is a little more old school. Think of when a circus would come to town like the traveling circus. Right. You would maybe have a circus parade that went through downtown downtown being the place where most people are shopping, working congregating.

So that is the top of the funnel where you have the most amount of people that are gathering who could see what it is that’s being advertised. So a circus parade goes through Main Street, USA. A lot of people see the parade. They get excited about the fact that the circus has come to town and it’ll be up next weekend. Right.

Then go a little bit lower into the funnel. You’ve got the big area where the Big Top Ten is being set up. Then you’ve got circus Barkers who are calling people in. Maybe they’re on the main stretch of road with signs, or a clown is on stilts or something like that to draw in attention and try to pull people into the location of where the circus is. Right?

I think I said circus Barkers. I meant Carnival Barker, but essentially that idea of like you’re drawing people closer and closer to the main event. And then eventually someone comes around the outside of the circus tent. Maybe there’s some snacks and some other entertainers on the outside. But they’re saying, hey, the really fun stuff, the really entertaining stuff that’s inside the Big Top Ten, and you’ve got to pay admission to get in there.

Right. So this whole concept of taking people from a large venue down to the smaller venue where you’re actually making the sale that’s been around for a really long time. It’s just now that we’re doing it digitally through what’s called a digital marketing funnel or a digital sales funnel.

Another example could be back in, you know, honestly, when I was growing up, you received catalogs in the mail for big box Department stores like Sears or JCPenneys. And these were really highly curated catalogs that showcased all the products in use in people’s homes.

And it would have spreads of information, really detailed articles about appliances and other stuff that these Department stores sell, hoping that it would draw you into the actual store where you would then be browsing and shopping. Then you would speak to a sales representative who would then convert you on the sale so you can see where it goes from wide to narrow.

And this idea, this whole process of taking someone from a wide audience down to the narrow sale, and I’ll include an image in the show notes the link to the blog post that coincides with this episode. It looks like an actual funnel. Like if you are in your kitchen and actually, that’s like one of the few tools I don’t have in my kitchen funneling enough.

But if you have that wide open at the top and then it goes too narrow. So if you were trying to pour flour into a smaller container from the big bag, it goes from wide to small. It’s essentially just a guided pathway that leads someone through to the sale of your product or your service. And having that sale take place online.

So you might be wondering, okay, I understand this concept. It’s a guided pathway. I’m finding somebody. Maybe on social media, the widest part of the funnel. I’m bringing them into my website, and then I’m hoping they make the sale.

What can I do? A funnel for? You could do a funnel for literally everything and everything you’re offering. You can put a funnel around. Now, mind you, funnels are going to look different depending on what it is you’re actually selling, because some products and services warrant themselves to have a little bit of a lengthier funnel because maybe it’s a larger, higher ticket item that you’re selling.

So someone needs to have a little bit of a larger pathway, aka a larger funnel to put them through, because there’s more steps they need to take in order to get to the purchase other items, maybe things that are a little bit lower ticket, lower end, a little bit of an easier yes for your consumer.

Perhaps those things don’t necessarily need as long of a funnel. So a funnel for a product like that may be a simple one, two or three step process. Not much at all. I’m going to dive into the actual details of moving through a funnel in future episodes of this season.

I just want to cover the basics here. So with that, you’ve got this idea of a guided pathway, and you might be wondering, okay, that sounds good. Why do I actually need that? Like, if someone wants to purchase this product, they’re going to buy it. If someone sees something that they need and they’re shopping around for it, they’re going to buy it.

Now. That is true. To an extent, however, there are a diversity of types of buyers out there, and the type of person who can simply look at a product and read a short product description that gives them maybe a few benefits and a few features, and they have maybe, hopefully, enough trust with you that they go, okay. Yes. I’ll put my money here and hope that it works out.

There are not that many types of buyers in the market, especially today, and that’s partially because there are so many places that consumers can purchase from. There’s a lot of elements that go into a buyer saying yes to purchasing your product, whether it’s a physical or digital product, they really need to trust you, the brand they need to trust what you’ve created, they need to trust the quality of what it is that they’re purchasing, and that takes time to build that trust and that authority with a buyer.

So the funnel acts as a really great way to ensure that you are one building that credibility and that authority with that potential buyer, so that you’re more likely to get them to say yes. But also, it helps with the conversion, because the reality is even if someone does know your brand, even if they know you personally, if they’ve worked with you before, they still need more insight into a specific product or service, especially when it’s a digital product or service than they typically would in order to say yes.

So the funnel really helps with giving them all the information they need to make an informed purchase that they can feel good about.

So I’ll just use a vague example here. There’s someone online who I really respect her work. In fact, she’s someone who I would say is like a dream client. I would love to work with her. One day I will put that out into the universe and hope it comes back to me.

She’s incredibly knowledgeable, really high expertise in her field. She has an online course. And even as someone and I’m speaking from a consumer standpoint here as someone who’s not a beauty or a wellness expert. But I work with many of them. Her course, if you go on her website and you click, it’s, just a payment page.

So she’s got this listing for her online course. It goes straight to a payment page, lists out a few of the details of what’s in the course, why I might want to sign up, like, in a matter of a couple of paragraphs. And then there’s a payment gateway there where I enter in my credit card information, and then I can purchase the course while I’m sure that I probably would really enjoy it, because I like her. And I like the free content that she puts out in my mind. And actually, this is true.

This is what I’ve done. I’ve bookmarked that page because in my mind, I’m kind of like, you know, I’ll come back to it eventually. Like, maybe when I have more free time on my hands, I’ll come back to this because I want to learn this technique that she’s teaching in this course, but I don’t really need it. Like, right now, I haven’t been given this greater sense of urgency or scarcity or really just like, desire to get me to make that purchase. Now, when in reality I have the money to make the purchase.

There’s just nothing driving me to do it right now, because right now I kind of feel like I don’t really have the time right now. So I’ll get around to it. And that’s not to say that funnels are just there to create urgency or scarcity, although that’s a very key component to a successful funnel. Again, something we’ll get into later on in the season. But if she had a more robust sales page that really wet my appetite in terms of telling me why this course is so important and actually why it’s important for me to get started now versus later, which I could definitely see being one of the marketing arguments based on the techniques that she’s teaching.

I don’t want to divulge too many details because I don’t want to seem like I’m criticizing I’m not. It’s more of an opportunity that she really has available for her. But if that were in place, if there were a sales page in place that created more desire and appetite to say, this is why you need this course now, I probably would have already bought it. I wouldn’t have just bookmarked the link and saved it for later. And even though I don’t think I’ll forget about it, I might.

And that’s another reason, too. Why email marketing is so important because bookmarking a link, someone can really easily lose that. So if someone is still on the fence, whether you have a funnel in place or not now, you want to have some way of capturing information. And a funnel is a really great way to capture that information, because most funnels have a piece at the front that captures email information. Again, if you’re kind of like, wait, how do I get their email information?

Let’s just pump the brakes really quick. I’m going to go through all of the correct pieces of a funnel in the next episode, but I just wanted to throw that out there that when you have the funnel in place, you are getting quality data, you’re creating more desire, you’re priming your customer for the purchase, and you’re also positioning yourself in the best way possible to get the purchase from the customer.

So that is the number one through ten reason of why you really need to have funnels in place in your business, especially when you’re in the realm of digital products and goods, which again, in a future episode, I’m going to go through lots of examples of what those could be as a beauty or wellness expert.

But to kick us off, I just want you to have a really solid foundational understanding that funnels are a guided pathway from someone being in a large group, whether that be on social media or someone from searching for something in Google, they’re in the mass media space, moving down into your funnel, getting closer and closer to your specific product where they say, yes, this is exactly what I’m looking for or no, it’s not because that’s the other good thing about funnels, too, is they help repel the people who are really not going to be the best fit for your product or service.

So you’re really calling in those people who are going to be like, your best quality leads your best quality purchasers and the people who are going to buy from you in the future, which is the goal.

Right? So that is the function of funnels. And in the next episode, we’ll go through all the key components that you need to have in a funnel to really make it successful. All right, catch you in the next episode. Thank you for joining me.

And if you are new, or if you are a subscriber who was on my previous iteration of this podcast, this is the first episode as the compel and Convert podcast. I would love if you would subscribe rate and review. That is so helpful for being able to show up in more podcast queues and to let other beauty and wellness experts know that you get some sort of value out of the show. Of course, leave an honest review. Let me know.

Give me feedback. I’m open to all of it. So if there’s something you would like to see on the show or you would like to see improved, I’m all ears for that too. Thank you for listening and I’ll catch you in the next episode.