If you have followed me for any length of time you know that I LOVE AUTOMATION!

A good sales funnel can create a business that operates on autopilot and do the hard lifting for you 24/7 at all time.

When putting a sales funnel together it's imperative that you have a few key elements in them for them to be effective and actually convert.

Missing just one of these can give you less-than-desirable results.

To ensure sales automation works for you, you need to know each of these 5 pillars and how they apply to your sales funnel approach.

Pillar #1: Clarity On Your Audience

Figuring out who your audience is should not take five years. As a matter of fact, it should only take a few minutes of just sitting down and getting your thoughts down on paper.

You will be tempted just like every other person on this topic, BUT…. don't overthink it either.

Here are 4 simple questions you can ask to help you hone in on your audience.

    1. What are the pains and frustrations of your avatar?
    2. What keeps your avatar awake at night?
    3. What are their goals and desires?
    4. What are their dreams and aspirations?

You can get more details than this, but when just starting out, don't overthink it. Keep it simple.

Here is another example of how you can think of your target market.

If you have products that are geared toward dogs, then it wouldn't make sense to market to people that only have cats, right?

The people to target for your product or service should be dog owners correct?

It's really as simple as that.

Pillar #2: Identify The Problem

What is the number one problem people have in your niche that you can fix with your product?

When it comes to your product or service, you have to think about how they would benefit from it, and how they can save time.

Your goal is to solve their problem with a “productivity” approach which gets more done for them in less time; and “efficiency” which also saves them money.

Find the benefit to the person and how you are going to solve that problem.

Automation helps you to make your process more efficient because you can do this with content in your funnel, namely videos.

One of the simple ways to automate the selling of your products is in fact videos. Here is an example…

Identify what is the most common question that your audience asks about your product, and record a video handling that exact question.

Upload it to YouTube.  Next time someone asks you that same question, you send them that video and a piece of content.  Or you send them a link to a capture page that they have to opt-in to get the video, getting automatically registered in your email list.

You don’t have to waste your time answering the same questions over and over. Automation is the best free tool you can use to make your business productive and efficient.

Pillar #3: Social Proof

We like to do things that we see other people do.

For example in a fruits-and-veggies-in-a-capsule type of commercial, people talk about how they felt before, and how after they started consuming the product they feel better, and how they can spend more time with their families now.

They don’t talk much about the product itself as they do about the benefits of the product.

Social Proof creates credibility and trust with your prospects.

It creates the “bandwagon effect,” which is that when people see other people doing something they feel like they should be doing it as well.

This is what we call “third-party credibility.” It gives people a sense of “community” that they are not alone in their endeavors or decision to buy.

Even  if you are brand new in your business, you can give your brand proof with “character testimonials.”  Reach out to people who know you to vouch for your integrity, in a video or Facebook post.

It doesn’t need to be something very formal; you could even just grab a screenshot from someone’s comment, thanking you.

Pillar #4: Risk-Free Guarantee

This is when you transfer all of the risks off of the buyer onto the person who is selling the product.

Studies show that one of the reasons people don’t buy is because they don’t want to make mistakes or don’t want to look bad to their peers.

But “risk reversal” means they cannot look bad or make a harmful mistake if they can get out of their purchase if it doesn’t perform as promised.

However, this is very important. Make promises you can keep.  Honesty in Marketing is pivotal.  The opposite would ruin your reputation really fast.

When there is social proof people feel compelled to buy also because somebody else did it also.

Pillar #5: Sense of Urgency

We see this everywhere.  It’s a “psychological trigger” of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out.)  The idea here is that if you don’t get it now, you won’t be able to get it later.

“Black Friday” is a prime example of this sense of urgency; if they don’t get the product that day, they won’t be able to get that deal later.

It’s very important NOT to abuse this strategy though.  When you use it: mean it. Mean it or else you are going to lose credibility with your audience.  Nothing would lose your prospect faster than that.

A sense of urgency is very important because if you give people the opportunity to procrastinate, they will.

Human nature is that if you don’t have to make a decision right now, you won’t do it.  Urgency gets people to decide.

It will not only help you to sell more but also to attract people that are decisive individuals.  This is sorting and sifting the tire-kickers from the people who really want to do something with your offer.

When you include these core principles in your automation, it's can perfect duplication for you, to really help you to accomplish what you need to do.

Additional Automation Resources

✅ OptimizePress Funnel Builder – Learn More Here

By far the best WordPress theme and funnel builder on the market. It's meant for marketers because it's created by marketers. It gets my highest recommendation and I use it on all my personal sites.

✅ Deadline Funnel – Learn More Here

Using REAL scarcity in your marketing with integrity is one of the most powerful aspects of making online sales. By far one of my favorite tools. It fully integrates with your email autoresponder and works amazingly well.

✅ Aweber Autoresponder - Learn More Here

Building an email list is ESSENTIAL to the longevity of your online business. If you are not sure where to start in the online marketing game, this is for sure the first tool you should invest in for your business. Aweber is considered the industry standard.

You rock,

PS: Want to work directly with me? Click Here

    1 Response to "The Five Pillars to a Dangerously Effective Sales Funnel (That Actually WORKS!)"

    • Carl Davies

      I think I’ve got this pillars down good now with my funnel. Keep delivering the value Mark. Impressive!

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