Why Have a Funnel?
I recently read an article by Twitter buddy Nabeel Azeez. He said that the best marketing funnel is to have no funnel at all. You can read why here.
This article is my take on the subject.
Direct sales are the best thing you can do. Be under no illusion.
If you can send a person direct from a message to a checkout screen and they’ll buy, then that is by far and away the best thing for you and the best thing for them.
It’s the best thing for you because creating sales, generating leads and filtering people through the sales process – no matter how simple or automated – takes time, effort and money.
It’s the best thing for your customer because if they want something or need it so desperately that they’re willing to hit “BUY” without any persuasion… well, they really need it so it’s best to get on with it. Then they can get on with their lives.
So that leads us to the conclusion that the best marketing strategy is to sell as directly and simply as possible.
So why think about funnels at all?
We Use Marketing Funnels Because Selling Isn’t That Easy
People think that sales are a dirty business. They think that if you’re selling, you’re lying, tricking and stealing your way into their wallets.
Well, at least until they want something and want it badly. Then, you’re just a mannequin and they were “going to buy anyway.”
Here’s the reality though: Most salesmen aren’t scammers. They aren’t overly salesy and they aren’t trying to seduce you into buying stuff you don’t want.
I like to think in terms of a journey that occurs in four parts:
- Uninterested and Unknowledgeable Reader
- Interested but lacking knowledge
- Knowledgeable but lacking interest
- Knowledgeable and interested
Most people aren’t even remotely interested in buying your product or even the problem you’re solving most of the time.
Take for instance browsing the internet. Every day, you’re bombarded with ads. You’re just trying to watch cat videos or stalk some hot girl on her Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or whatever. You aren’t looking to buy a vacuum and you aren’t looking to make a million dollars with bitcoin.
That’s the case even when your house is filthy and you could really use a million dollars’ worth of Bitcoin.
It’s also the case for every other customer/reader in the world.
Here’s why you need a funnel. Because unless you can catch someone at the perfect time (and make no mistake, this is the best time to catch them) you need to get them to the place where they want to buy.
How To Construct Valuable Funnels
I use the already-mentioned Matrix as the starting point for every funnel I build. To reiterate:
- Uninterested and Unknowledgeable Reader
- Interested but lacking knowledge
- Knowledgeable but lacking interest
- Knowledgeable and interested
In terms of what a funnel looks like, let’s use an example. Before we do, let’s talk about the end goal:
“Buy Now Button”>>>”Checkout Page”>>>”Thank You – Here’s How To Continue The Journey”>>>”After Care”
Those things are self-explanatory, but it’s important to mention two things:
- The “Buy” button isn’t the end of the journey, and
- If you can START a person at the “Buy Now” stage, then DO IT.
For everyone else, you work backwards.
First you target people who are knowledgeable and interested in your product or solution. You don’t need to sell them hard and you don’t need to sell them for long.
Then you target the people who are one step away from buying, but not quite there. This might mean retargeting people from earlier. It might mean targeting a competitor’s customers if you know your product has a unique feature that others lack. Finally, it might mean someone who is at the end of their tether with a problem and needs a good fix right away.
Gradually, you get further and further from the ideal conditions. The longest funnels are ones were you take an uninterested and unknowledgeable person and you gradually expose them over and over again.
Of course, that’s the hardest and arguably least profitable segment of your audience.
Surprise, surprise though… it’s the one most people target first.
Final Thoughts
For most of the time, you’re not selling. Even if you’re a pure-blood copywriter in the vein of Gary Halbert, you’re not selling most of the time.
Read Gary Halbert’s letters. Most of the time, he either educates you or sells you on the result. The product is an incidental mention until the point where it’s not.
I’ve written before that your call to action should be matter of fact. That’s because when a person is ready to buy, they’re ready to buy and your job is to give them the solution as quickly and efficiently as possible.
You should have already done the selling by the time you get to the call to action.
A marketing funnel is just an extension of that principle over the course of multiple documents/ads/sections as opposed to within a single sales letter.