Marketers and copywriters like to make sales funnels sound complicated, but they don’t have to be. The secret to a great email is being as helpful online as you are in person. Don’t send your prospects junk.  Always add value. The moment a subscriber opts into your email list is when they are most interested in your brand. That’s when they’re most likely to read whatever you send. Take the opportunity to show out. Hit them with your best stuff. Get them excited. Surprise them, delight them, serve them value and build a relationship. Now let’s break down the nine sales funnels that every small business needs. In Part 1 of this series, we talked about how to build great sales funnels; in Part 2, let’s break down the nine sales funnels that every small business needs.

1. The Lead Magnet Funnel:

A lead magnet funnel is typically the first sales funnel you need; it’s how you build an email list. First, you need to create a compelling free offer (aka your lead magnet) to draw people into your funnel. Your lead magnet should be so irresistible that your website visitors are willing to part with their contact information to get. Sample lead magnets: (video series, eBook, cheat sheets, templates, podcast, exclusive webinars, etc.) 

2. The Welcome Sequence Funnel:

The moment a subscriber opts into your email list is when they are most interested in your brand. That’s also when they’re most likely to read whatever you send them, so send them your best content. Your goal is to add value and build a relationship. A welcome sequence could be a single email or a series. The goal is to personally introduce the new subscriber to your brand, nurture a relationship, and build trust. NOTE: You don’t have to push a purchase. End with a call to action that encourages them to give your more information to segment them on your email list or take the next step in your sales process. This could simply be asking them to join you on a social media channel or answering a short survey.

3. The Social Media Funnel:

Social Media is typically part of most sales funnel stages to drive traffic to your website, but you can also build a sales funnel on a specific social media platform. For Facebook, you can use a chatbot through Facebook messenger s a funnel or run a campaign on Instagram or with a bio link using software such as linktree, or you can promote your lead magnet on TikTok with a link in your bio or a DM campaign. 

4. The Shopping Cart Abandonment Funnel:

Shopping cart abandonment is a major issue for online retailers. It happens when a shopper adds an item to a shopping cart and leaves the site before checkout. It happens nearly 70% of the time. Unexpected fees are the leading cause. The hard truth is people don’t want to pay for shipping.  These automated emails tend to go out quickly, 1 hour before leaving the site, 4 hours after leaving the site, 12 hours later email 3 comes, and on day two, you send a last chance email. You typically only have 48 hours to bring them back before losing the sale entirely.

Your subject lines could be, “Hey, did you forget something? In the second email, could you offer an incentive, “I see you didn’t finish checking out; here’s a 10% discount to help you complete your purchase.” The third email could be, “We’re running low on inventory; I don’t want you to miss out.” Then after the final email, it’s time to stop the chase. These types of emails tend to have higher open rates than typical email marketing efforts. 

5. The Upsell Sequence:

Your existing customers are the easiest to pitch for additional business. They already trust your brand, so you just need to pitch them another great offer. It’s especially important to upsell your customers if you want to pitch them on your premium or higher-priced coaching plans or a monthly subscription service. An upsell sequence identifies people who have made a recent purchase and are likely to make another purchase or upgrade. The sequence then sends promotional content or offers that clearly show the value of the additional purchase. Now you might need to offer a free webinar or to set an appointment with a sales rep to close depending on the price point, but you can get them interested with an upsell email sequence. 

6. The Advocacy Sequence:

Your happy customers are an untapped resource in your marketing efforts. You can use their goodwill to promote your brand and bring in new sales. First, create a list of your most active customers and fans who engage the most with your content on social media. Then create a sequence of emails that encourages them to become an advocate for your brand. Invite them to submit testimonials, reviews, and provide them with a copy to make referrals. Make sure at least one email invites them to share your content on social media too.

These people are super fans, so they would be happy to be a brand ambassador for your company. You just need to ask them directly and make it easy by sending emails with review links and a script to pitch to others. You might even want to consider creating a referral program to further incentivize them to make referrals. 

7. Re-engagement Sequence:

Don’t just let people leave your email list. Sometimes subscribers get distracted and stop engaging with your content. You just need to give them a little reminder. Re-engagement sequences are perfect for reminding your once active subscribers you’re still here and still care about them. These are usually triggered after a subscriber has been inactive for 30 or 60 days. Once an email address doesn’t interact with any of your content for two months, you should launch a re-engagement sequence (3 to 4 emails) to get them back to seeing you as a valuable resource. Maybe add a special offer or bonus with your comeback pitch.

8. The Onboarding Sequence:

The purpose of an onboarding sequence is to help your customers get started with your product or service right away. People who buy things they don’t use will someday remember and cancel your service. So, you want to provide training so that they can immediately see how to use your product or service. It’s training with a very specific end goal. For example, if you sell marketing tools, the prospect won’t build value until the business owner has a marketing message and content. 

So, the onboarding sequence walks the user through potential content ideas, helps them build a content calendar, and shows them how to use the tool to develop their marketing assets. By proactively training new customers, you’ll answer fewer questions and spend less time educating them one-by-one. Once they know how to use your product, they’ll be hooked.

9. Transactional Email Sequence

It’s good practice to email your potential or current customers when they take significant action on your website. You want to confirm a sale with a receipt, someone subscribes to your email list, confirm an appointment for a product demo when they complete an online course. Once you establish an email-based relationship, you can send content that drives the rest of your value ladder. You also use transactional emails to highlight other content you want to share, like your latest podcast interviews.

Building your own sales funnels is easier than you’d expect. All the email marketing platforms, including AWeber, to incentivize them further can build email automation sequences. So the sooner you start using automated sales funnels to engage with your list, the sooner you’ll leverage one of your most powerful assets.

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