Have you been coaching for years but now that social media and online marketing has become increasingly popular, you’re at a loss to determine where to begin? How do you turn what used to be a word of mouth and networking system into an online sales funnel without coming across like you’re “salesy” or “pushy?”
If you’re like most of our clients, you likely spend most of the time working in your business – meaning you’re working with clients or administrative work instead of working on your business. You’re likely running in circles, trying to keep all the balls from falling and are feeling like you can never get caught up.
You want to create systems that run smoothly and keep generating leads without you having to do all the background work. But trying to sit down to create a strategy that works for you can be difficult, so this guide will get you started in the right direction. And if you’re still stumped by the end – I’ve got you!
Before you get started though, you need to do the most important task. Determine who your target audience is. If you feel like your target audience might be everyone, we need to re-evaluate. If you’re marketing to everyone, you’re marketing to no one.
Think about things like…
Age Group
Gender (M, F, both)
Location (local, regional, national &/or urban, suburban, rural)
Marital/Family Status
Income Level
Education Level
Occupation
How do they think?
Personality types
Attitudes
Values
Interest/Hobbies
Lifestyles
Behaviours
What needs, challenges and frustrations do they have?
Answering these questions and really getting to know your target audience is going to help with social media, email nurturing and online marketing as a whole.
The first step of our sales funnel is the most talked about part. Social Media. It’s the most common and easiest front-end work. Create a Facebook page, sign up for Instagram or Twitter and away you go! Right?!
Sure, creating the accounts are easy. Setting them up isn’t all that difficult. It’s important to remember though, that your social media is your first impression. It’s where your clients will get to know you, understand who you are and what you do. You want to put your best foot forward.
Social media is where you take a cold audience and build relationships, turning them into a warm (and sometimes hot) audience.
There are hundreds of different tips or tricks to getting the most out of social media. Here are a few things you should know.
1. Every target market is different – and because of this, every business, brand, and coach could potentially need to use different platforms! While Facebook and Instagram might work for one, Twitter and Pinterest might be best for another.
2. You’ll want to include a professional headshot as your profile image.
3. Your social media handle (i.e. @yournamehere) should be the same across each platform.
4. As a coach, you’re likely building a personal brand. Here’s an article that outlines everything you’d need to know about that.
In terms of content, the best and top performing content is the ones that are authentic and real. People can see when you’re being fake, and they won’t resonate with your content. When producing content, go into the process with the mindset of starting a conversation. Engage your audience by educating, entertaining and asking questions.
Video content is another important factor. Going live on Facebook is a fantastic way or increase your reach and engagement. It will help with your exposure and helps with the “real-time” marketing that users appreciate and are more likely to engage with.
Under the umbrella of social media comes Facebook and Instagram ads. We would run those after the funnel is fully set up. But that’s a topic for another day.
The second step of your funnel would be the lead magnet.
A lead magnet is an item or service that is given away for the purpose of gathering contact information. It’s usually instantaneous and easily downloadable. A PDF of valuable information is one of the most common.
You want to ensure that your lead magnet is one that resonates with your target audience and is worth enough to them for them to submit their email address!
You would create a landing page that showcases the lead magnet and has two fields – one for the name and one for the email. The best landing pages don’t have anything else so there are no distractions. Either the individual signs up or they don’t.
Once they’ve entered their email, it will be added to an email list and will trigger their email nurturing sequence.
Have you ever gotten a “thanks for signing up for my email list” email? Super boring right? You probably didn’t even read it. Or if you signed up for something, you open the email, scroll past all the obvious promotions and grab your download.
When you send out a bland “welcome to our list” email, you’re setting a precedent for future emails. We want to prevent this from happening, so we use a five-day email sequence coined by Russell Brunson called the Soap Opera Sequence.
Throughout the five days, you build a relationship with your readers WITHOUT actively selling. On the fifth day, you end the sequence with a call to action. This would link to the next step of your funnel.
This looks different for every business, brand or coach. Sometimes it’s a direct – “schedule a consultation” and other times it’s a free webinar so you can sell to them via the webinar.
Not sure what your next step should be? We’d love to help you create a clear and concise strategy. You can book a call here to discuss.