Content Funnels Are Not Sales Funnels

Are you having a tough time with your sales funnel? Do you even know what a sales funnel is?

In this blog post, I will talk about what a sales funnel is and how you set up a successful sales funnel, getting people to buy through your whole sales funnel.

So look, chances are you have set up your website the wrong way or you are probably just blogging or posting content in the hope that somehow, someway, somebody would click on a link that somehow, someway would put dollars in your pockets.

Unfortunately, the whole “somehow, someway” mentality is not going to ticket to riches. If you are serious about making any kind of money from the Internet, you have to pay close attention to sales funnel building.
The problem is a lot of people are confused as to the kind of funnels they should be building. They put themselves in that situation because they did not go about it systematically and methodically.

A Sales Funnel Is Not A Content Funnel

Many people just think a funnel is a funnel but they could not be more wrong. Content- and sales funnels are not similar to each other and are not the same.
But why do people confuse sales funnels with content funnels? Maybe it is because of the similarities in words.

So, what is the difference between a sales funnel and a content funnel? A sales funnel can apply to an email list, it can apply to social media, it can apply to paid campaigns, and many other content channels that have trust-building capabilities.
Unfortunately, it is too easy to confuse form with function and end up with a hazy view of what kind of outcome to shoot for.

First, to understand the difference, you have to go back to basics and the idea behind sales funnels. A sales funnel is built to drive traffic to it and then separate people who are not interested from people who are. When you identify interested people, you push them to a lower level that increases their demand or willingness to buy.

Sounds pretty simple and basic, or not?
The problem is that when marketers come across this form of sales funnel, they automatically assume that publishing content that filters people works the same way. Content funnels are different from sales funnels.
Content funnels can be plugged into sales funnels but content funnels need and demand attention by themselves. When you are setting up a content funnel for your, for example, fog breed website, remember what your end goal is. Your goal is not to set up an online home for people looking for anything and everything related to dog breeds. That is nice to achieve but you have to go several levels deeper. Your goal is to sell dog supplies for example. That is what gives you your bread and butter.
You have to set up your content in such a way that you can eventually get people to buy those dog supplies. Otherwise, you are just wasting lots of time posting content that has no chance of turning your site’s traffic into revenue.

Use The Right Content Structure Is The Key

So you start with questions that are going to be asked by people who are looking for dop supplies and then you lead them into a comparison page of many different options available so you can make the product category you are promoting stand out. From there, you can start zeroing in on specific products.

Build Trust

When was the last time you bought something from a stranger? I will guess that the answer would be never. If that is your answer, you are absolutely normal and average because most people would not spend their hard-earned money on somebody they do not know. It is all about building trust and you have to set up your content funnel in such a way that you build heavier and heavier trust until finally, they are ready to trust you with their hard-earned money. This can take the form of a review page, or you can plug your content funnel into a sales page. There are so many ways you can do this.
Unfortunately, people confuse these two so instead of building trust, they are just repeating the same information. The more you repeat information, the less effective your messaging becomes. Don’t confuse the two types of funnels.

Content Funnels Explained

They are all about turning traffic that is looking for certain types of content and filtering those people in a way, that eventually will convert into buyers. Content fans are all about building credibility and authority. When you plug them into a content funnel, their questions get answered and before you know it, they build more and more trust in whatever it is you are promoting/writing about.

This can then lead to email list subscribers which you can then convert later through a future update. This can also lead to actual sales right then and there. Pair this with simply pulling traffic from the internet by dropping links, or buying traffic, and then people will see a sales page, realize they are not interested, and then they bounce out. There is not much opportunity to build credibility. It is really important to understand that sales funnels are very different from content funnels.

How To Build A Proper Sales Funnel

You can build a complete sales funnel into one page, This is called a conversion page.

You buy traffic or get organic traffic and people come in and read the page. The more they read the page, the more they find details and answer questions and the more they may build trust.
Eventually, the person who reads the bottom of the page is the one to most likely clicks the order now button. What happens to everybody else? They just bounce out.

After they read the content on the sales page, they realize they are probably not interested or whatever value proposition the product you are promoting does not appeal to them.
So, the conversion page did its job. It filtered people. Content funnels, on the other hand, qualify prospects over an extended period.

Content funnels are powerful because they can rapidly build trust in the mind of the visitor. Almost everyone who finds themselves on your site is looking for answers. They have certain questions they want answered.

When they get their initial questions answered, most should want to bounce out. But if you have other content on your pages that speaks to other questions they may have or, better yet, deep needs they may have, you get a chance to pull them deeper into your site and impress them even more.

The deeper they go into your site, the more likely they are to join your mailing list or click an ad. Set up proper content funnels to build enough trust for consumers to want to click through to an actual conversion sales funnel.

Understand that these funnels are quite different from each other. Don’t confuse the two.

To figure out how to set up the right funnels and optimize them for maximum profits, just continue reading.

Produce A Complete Picture

People hate getting tricked. When was the last time somebody pulled a bait-and-switch trick on you? It didn’t feel good right? It was not exactly a happy experience. And the more these tricks are pulled, the more jaded consumers become.

They are always thinking to themselves, “Well, that is too good to be true. What is that other person getting out of it? How come this seems so smooth and quick?”
These are natural questions to ask because if you have been tricked, defrauded, scammed, or otherwise mistreated by online sales pages in the past, you too would develop this kind of attitude.
It is an all too human and all-natural response. As the old saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” This is why it is imperative for any responsible marketer who is truly interested in becoming successful, to be as transparent, sincere, and authentic as possible.
Believe me, I have seen a lot of sales funnels on the internet. A lot of people would say that I have seen too much. And I can guarantee you that a lot of the failing sales funnels have one thing in common. They produce an incomplete picture.

This does not mean that you cannot position your product so it looks superior even to a product that is known as the category killer in your industry. This does not mean that you can not position the product that you are selling in such a way that it is under the best light possible. That is different from misrepresentation or lying.

An effective sales funnel must provide a clear picture, and it has to be complete. So you can’t just show your product in a way where the only thing people can see is one dimension of the product. Because once people buy your stuff, they can see that they got taken in because they did not see all the other dimensions of your product, how do you think they would feel?

Let’s put it this way, how would you feel if somebody did that to you? So what is important here is to give the control back to the consumer. When they see a complete picture of the product, and I am talking about decisions and reviews that point to all the dimensions of the product, both good and bad, they can see that you are a straight shooter. They can see that you are not hiding that ball.
This way, you give them control, because now, they can still choose your product because they have all this information. Of course, there has got to be a lot of positioning here. You can not just say, “Well I have this product, and it is kind of a thing, here, please buy it for me.” That is pathetic.
People won’t buy from you because you just said it is one of a kind. You just have to lay out the numbers, and you have to let them connect the dots. Of course, you can’t do this passively because you also have to position the product that you selling based on its strength.

Maybe the product has one of the best options on the market. Highlight that, then just say that this is the thing. This is why you should buy that specific product. Now if they did the research, they would know that this is one kind of a product, but not that good. Sure it is good, but there are better on the market. But that is on them, you did your part. You share the information, you are not hiding the ball, you are giving them the whole picture.

Compare this with somebody who is saying that he is the best product on the market, and that is all that person said. We did not mention the negative things. He did not mention all the other elements that could disappoint you. This way, it is going to lead to higher refunds and a tremendous amount of dissatisfaction.

So, do yourself a big favor, and set up effective sales funnels that maximize transparency, sincerity, and authenticity.

To figure out how to do this right, and maximize your profits download the free report.

Don’t Lose Track Of What People Are Converting For

Some people think that they just need to copy and paste what somebody else is doing and they will end up producing the same results.
There are tons of “Warrior Special Offers” making this claim, Don’t believe the hype.

Let’s cut straight to the case, just because someone posts nice screenshots of amazing results does not mean they are showing you the complete picture. Who knows what they did to produce those numbers? Outside of flat-out scams where promoters post fake or doctored statistics (these are more prevalent than most people think) you can not give too much to online income claims because you don’t know those awesome numbers’ context.

Maybe they bought very expensive traffic? Maybe they got access to cross-registration traffic? Maybe they have high refund or chargeback rates? There are just so many unanswered questions about those rosy statistics.

What makes those come-ons especially dangerous is when they get you excited about statistics that are supposed to lead to conversions like page views, ad clicks, dwell time, total page viewed, etc. Many rookie marketers fall for the bait. And they continue to suffer.

I used to think that way. Things started to change for me when I focused on one key thing; remember that conversions are sales.
Conversions measure whether you made money or not. Simple black and white open and shut case.

The problem is, that it is very easy to get confused with all the intermediate processes that have to happen before dollars appear in your bank account. In the beginning, I was all excited about how many people showed up at my site.
I was ecstatic one day and I was able to break the 5,000 visitors mark. I did not make a penny that day, but it did not matter because 5,000 people showed up on my site. The metric that I should have paid attention to was my bounce rate. When I got my act together and checked my statistics and looked at my bounce rate, it was 98%.
In other words, of those 5,000 people who showed up on my website, only a tiny fraction even bothered checking my internal pages. It was no surprise that I did not make any money.

What happened to me is a very familiar story. I am hardly alone because when people lose track of what they are converting for, they struggle. Focus instead on the prize.
What is the prize then? It is the amount of money you are making off your sites on a passive basis. That is the name of the game. As far as you should be concerned, anything else is just noise. Do not get sidetracked by “alternative success metrics.” Focus on the bottom line.
Understand what you are doing. You are trying to make passive income. You are trying to build something once and make money many times over. But for all that to happen, you have to focus on conversions.

Optimize And Pre-Qualify

You probably have seen sales funnels before. You probably have gone through a sales funnel and did not even know it.
The truth is effective sales funnels work in an undercover way. They don’t look like sales funnels.

It does not seem like they behave like sales funnels, but believe me, once you whip out your credit card, enter your credit card information into an online form, and make a purchase, you have just been through an effective one.

This is how awesome sales funnels are. If they are well-put together, they can help you make money from online traffic. The best part is your customers do not mind. They would eagerly hand you their money because they can see as they go through your sales funnel, that you are delivering the value that they came for.

Please understand that if you put your marketing materials in front of the right eyeballs, people will be eager to do business with you. Why? Because they are looking for a solution to their problems. You make it obvious that you have that solution, and that your solution compares so much better than all the other options on the market.
Since they can see the superiority of your offer, they make the move. It is a win-win situation. They get to solve their issue, you get to make money. What is not to love? That is the essence of effective sales funnels.

But you and I know that it is not that simple. It is not simple precisely because a lot of marketers do not pre-qualify their traffic. You have to understand that just because somebody is somewhat, somehow interested in what you have to say, does not necessarily mean that that person is ready, willing, and eager to buy right here, and now.
You have to filter that person. If that person is thinking of maybe buying next year, then that person has to be filtered by your system. You can’t let that person go all the way to the sales page because they are not going to do you any favors. They are just going to bounce out. You waste all that time, effort, and energy creating this system attracting the wrong eyeballs.
An effective sales funnel pre-qualifies people early on. Either they are interested in your product category, or they are not. Either they are interested in a particular line of solutions, or they are not. As simple as that.

What makes effective sales funnels effective is that they have been optimized over an extended period.

Pre-Qualify Your Traffic To Earn More Money

The idea of pre-qualification is very straightforward. If you were going to make money off your online traffic, they better come from places that are populated by people who are already interested in whatever it is you are promoting.
This is pretty straightforward. If you are selling shoes, for example, you would not want to advertise in places where people are looking for livestock feed. Those people would not care about what you are selling. But okay, a very small fraction of those people may be interested in shoes and are looking for shoes to buy. However, their main interest, which is why they visited the site, is to buy livestock feed. That is why they are visiting sites that are selling livestock feed.

Pre-qualification makes marketers’ jobs easier because it is the forum of the location that indicates a certain tendency to be interested in a particular topic. Your job as a marketer is just to find these places that are already lined up with the niche, category, or topic of whatever it is you are promoting. It is that simple. It is all about finding the right mix. Unfortunately, it is very easy to just get caught up in traffic volume, click-through ratio, page views, and all that. I am not saying that those metrics have absolutely no place in marketing, but they are essentially means to an end, you only should start caring about them once you have established some sort of pre-qualification.

Pre-qualification is the name of the game, if you think about it because it filters people coming into your website based on their interests. Let’s put it in another way: If your website attracts people who are not at all interested in what you have to say, then no matter how much you optimize click-through rate, page views, and other success metrics, at the end of the day, you are not going to win with the success metrics that is the only thing that counts. I am, of course, talking about conversions.

The way to pre-qualify your traffic, to earn more money online is pretty straightforward; start with conversion. In other words, start with a big-picture view. What is the outcome you are looking for? And then take steps back from there. This will enable you to create a map as to where on the internet you are going to create a presence, and how you are going to deal with people to pre-qualify them.
With pre-qualification guiding, you are more likely to find the right pockets of existing traffic on the internet. At the very least, if you are spending money on a paid ad campaign, you would have a good initial profile of the people who are the most likely consumers of your product. Otherwise, you are just going to be wasting your time. Sure, from time to time, some people may hit it big, but that is like buying a lottery ticket. You can not base your business on getting lucky. To learn how to build a systematic and methodical way to pre-qualify your traffic so you can earn real big money from the internet.

Wrapping Up

Before you start building a sales funnel you have to know the difference between a sales funnel and a content funnel. Many people think they are the same but it is not.

Then, when you know the difference you should tell a complete picture about the product you are selling and want your visitors to buy. If you do not produce a complete picture, chances are people will opt opt-out and this because is a lot of sales funnels are not telling the complete picture, they are tricking people, and they just want them to buy.

Another thing you have to do is optimize your funnel correctly so the right people will visit your funnel. If not, your sales funnel will be shown up for the wrong people, people who not are interested in what you have to offer, and they will just bounce out. So, don’t forget to optimize your funnel so it attracts the right audience and pre-qualify your traffic. If you do this, chances are much bigger that you will make money out of your funnel.

This is where a lot of marketers fail. They think that they just need to slap together a nice-looking sales funnel and call it a day. No, that is just the beginning of your journey. So do yourself a big favor. If you are looking to put together an effective sales funnel, you have to pre-qualify and filter your traffic first for maximum sales conversions.

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