The Funnel Theory of Marketing Relies on the fact that
it is far more expensive to attract new customers then to resell existing customers. By Combining Automated Sales techniques with the Funnel theory of marketing you can keep your Back End Sales Flowing 24/7
Direct Mail Merchants understand the funnel theory of marketing very well. It is not unusual to receive Direct Mail Pieces months or years after your first and only purchase from a direct mail merchant. As an Online Marketer by using Automated Tools and E-Mail you are in a far better position to take advantage of the Funnel Theory then those Offline Direct Mail Guys. (Some of those Direct Mail Guys also E-Mail me).
Product Levels
The Key to the Funnel theory is to have Products at Various Price Points. As your Customers make purchases you start to offer them products at Higher Price Points. Here are some suggested price Points
1 - Entry Level Free to $5.00
2 - Customer $5 to $100.00
3 - Spender $100 to $500
4 - Big Spender $500 - $5,000
5 - Cream of the Crop Above $5,000
The Nuts and Bolts
It appears to be a Fact that the average person needs to see your Sales Message 5-7 Times before they make a purchase Decision. By Offering a Low Cost or Free Product in return for an E-Mail Address you are feeding people into the Top (The Fat Part) of your Marketing Funnel. You send them an E-mail with a Link to their Free Download.
A Day or a so later you send them a E-mail sales letter for a Low Cost Product. Every few days you send an Additional E-mail Sales letter offering the same or a different low cost product.
When someone buys your Low Cost product they move down a little to a thinner part of your Funnel and are Added to a list of customers who bought a Level 2 Product You now start sending these Customers offers for a slightly higher priced product.
As your customers continue to buy products they keep moving to the thinner part of your funnel and are offered products at higher and higher price points.
It is Ok to cross promote your lists offering High Cost Product to your low cost buyers and Low Cost Products to High cost buyers.
A Simple Example
Let's assume we have a Cookbook of Vegetarian Recipes for Dogs. We may offer 5 Free Recipes if they join our Mailing List. Every few days you can send them an E-mail offering (you may even want to include an additional recipe) to sell them your Vegetarian Recipes for Dogs cookbook with over 500 Recipes for $19.97. (Mark Joyner told me always end your price with 97 cents).
As People Buy your cookbook for $19.97 you may want to send them a Thank You letter and add them to your next level mailing list, Some Products on this list maybe a DVD of how to house train your dog for 39.97 or a Mink Leash for 89.97.
Again as you sell these Products Move them down the Funnel and Start to offer them the $497.97 High Tech Dog House. Next you can offer them the $3,000 Doggie/Owner Cruise.
You may even offer them products for cats or birds as many pet owners have multiple pets.
Tools
All you need now are a Lead Capture Page and an Autoresponder. A lead capture page is a Page with an Input form where prospective Customers sign up for your newsletter. An Autoresponder is an E-mail Robot Pre Loaded with your Messages that are automatically sent to your customers. Most Autoresponders come with software that automatically builds your input form you simply cut and paste it and place it on your lead capture page.
Now that you are building that list of Vegetarian dogs you may want to have other Entry level or free products targeting other segments of the Dog Market or the Pet Market. Think of Lead Capture (Filling the Fat end of your Funnel) as a garage sale one man's junk is another man's treasure. Free Recipes may appeal to one dog owner where as Free or Low Cost plans to build a Dog House may appeal to another Dog Hose.
Don't be afraid to Sales Pages with Low Cost Products as well. The More open doors you give your customers to enter your sales funnel the more customers you will have.
About The Author:
Mike Makler has been Marketing Online Since 2001 When he Built
an Organization of over 100,000 Members
Autoresponders, Leads and Generic Lead Capture Pages
http://ewguru.com/ufd
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