You should never create a single product in isolation. Instead, plan an entire sales funnel around a product idea. Here are the main parts of your sales funnel:
- Lead magnet. This is a quality product that you offer for free (in exchange for an email address) to build your list. Even though this product is free, it should be a valuable, desirable product. Indeed, it should be something you could easily sell for $20, $30, $50 or more.
This lead magnet also helps promote your tripwire offer, which brings us to the next point…
- Tripwire. This is a high-quality, low-cost product. The idea behind this product is that it should be irresistible. Your prospects should jump on it because it’s such a highly desirable product or service at a relatively low price (e.g., $10 or $20).
In other words, the idea behind this offer is to quickly turn your mailing list subscribers into buyers. Because once someone has made one purchase from you (and had a good experience doing so), they’re likely to purchase additional products from you.
Which brings us to the next product in the sales funnel…
- Core offer. This is your main product, and it often has a premium price tag ($97 and up). Depending on how you set up your sales funnel, this is the point where you may start making money.
However, in some cases you may only break even or even still be at a slight loss at this point (due to advertising expenses). And that’s okay, because the real profits in your business lie hidden in the backend.
Which brings us to the next item in the sales funnel…
- Backend products. Here you’ll have a variety of products at a variety of price points. For example, you might offer short reports for $20 or so, as well as premium offers such as workshops and coaching that cost thousands of dollars.
Your sales funnel will also include:
- Bonus products to boost the value of your paid products and increase conversions. You’ll include these products with all offers, including the tripwire, core and backend offers. These products should enhance the use and enjoyment of the main product. For example, if the main product is a copywriting course, then you might offer a pack of sales letter swipes and templates as a bonus.
- Upsell/cross-sell offers to sell on the order form. These are offers you use to boost the average per-transaction dollar amount. Just like the bonus products, these cross-sells should be highly related to the main offer, and they should enhance the use and enjoyment of the main product.
Note: Each product should naturally lead to (and promote) the next product in the sales funnel. E.G., The tripwire product should promote the core offer. The core offer should lead to and promote the backend offers… and so on.
When you’re planning your sales funnel, think about all the problems your prospect has. You can then create a sales funnel of products that address these problems. So, in a sense, each of your products is useful yet incomplete. That means each product solves PART of a problem (that’s the useful part), yet it’s incomplete so your customer will need to purchase additional products to solve their problem.
Here’s an example…
Let’s suppose you’re selling weight-loss products or services. Below you’ll find an example sales funnel. Take note that each product solves part of a problem and naturally leads to the other products in the funnel:
- Lead magnet: An overview report that offers dieting tips.
- Tripwire: A set of two weeks’ worth of meal plans and recipes that people can put to use immediately to begin losing weight.
- Core offer: A comprehensive weight-loss program that includes in-depth information on nutrition and exercise. The bonus package includes three months’ worth of meal plans and a low-calorie cookbook that covers the recipes listed in the meal plans.
- Cross-sell offers: A meal-planning app to make it quicker and easier to lose weight; a report that shows people how to substitute ingredients in their favorite recipes to make them healthier; access to a private support group.
- Backend offers: Custom coaching so that dieters can get a custom nutrition and exercise plan based on their lifestyle and needs; a product that shows people how to maintain their good results once they’ve lost the excess fat; a guide to eating out (e.g., healthiest meals at all the most popular restaurants).
So, you can see how one product naturally leads to the next product in the funnel, as they all solve pieces of the same overall problem.
You’ll cross-promote your offers all throughout your sales funnel, including:
- Inside your lead magnets and paid products. This includes links and calls to action inside reports, videos, audios, app dashboards, membership login pages and so on.
- On download pages. This is a good place to sell a backend offer. Your customer’s credit card is probably still out, and he or she is probably still in the buying mood, so this is a good time to offer them a related product or service.
- As upsells on order forms. The order form is a good place to offer a one-time offer. As the name suggests, customers can ONLY get this good deal if they order now. They may still be able to order the product or service at a later date, but they’ll need to pay more.
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For example, let’s suppose you offer personal coaching as a cross sell on your order form. You may offer this at a really good deal, such as $400. If your customers don’t take advantage of this offer, they can still get coaching from you later… but they’ll need to pay $600 or so.
- In follow-up emails that you send to prospects and customers. This is one of the best places to promote additional offers. That’s because you can send a series of emails to build relationships and introduce your prospects and customers to a variety of offers.
TIP: Train your mailing list subscribers to open your emails by consistently offering high-quality content inside your emails. If you can offer them information they’re not finding anywhere else, you can bet they’ll keep opening your emails – and they’ll click on your links and buy your products too.
- In private groups. If your offer includes access to a private group, then be sure to cross-promote your offers from within this group. You may use “sticky” posts to promote the offers, as well as occasionally creating posts in the group whose sole purpose is to promote an offer.
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