Episode 4 | The Three Types of Funnels EVERY Business Owner Needs

Ion today’s episode, we’re talking all about the three types of funnels every business owner needs.

What is a funnel?

A funnel is simply the journey a potential customer goes through on their way to make a purchase.

You might hear people call them sales funnels, marketing funnels, or even purchase funnels. But they all mean the same thing.

A potential customer’s journey to becoming a paying customer (or repeat purchaser)!

Funnels are an important part of your business.

In fact, you have a funnel in your business whether you know it or not. 

So knowing that, wouldn’t you rather be in CHARGE of your potential customer journey and lead them intentionally down a path that serves both you and them instead of just wishing for the best?

The benefits of a strategically planned funnel

With a strategically planned funnel, you can:

• Capture leads and turn them into customers
• Build your customer relationship
• Increase the return on your sales and marketing efforts
• Deliver the right message at the right time
• Properly track and monitor your efforts so you can make tweaks to increase performance

How do funnels work?

A funnel moves potential customers through different awareness stages.

1. Awareness – a person is aware that they have a problem. They might be trying to identify their true challenge and they need resources to help educate them.
2. Interest – the person is interested in solving their problem and is actively looking for solutions, aka shopping around
3. Conversion – the person has now made a purchase from you in an attempt to solve their problem.
4. Loyalty – the customer was happy with the solution and will think of you for future solutions to their problems. 
5. Advocate – the customer has become one of your BIGGEST fans, typically purchases anything you put out and shouts your name from the rooftops

Your funnel is how you interact with potential customers at each stage of the process.

It is how you take people from having no idea who you are to becoming loyal customers who buy from you again and again.

Why you need multiple funnels

You are going to have multiple funnels in your business.

The goal is to be strategic and understand where they each land in terms of your value ladder so that you help move customers through it.

The BIGGEST mistake you are making

The biggest mistake I see people make is creating something but not knowing what the next step is.

You don’t necessarily have to have all the answers now (as some of the funnel types are great for qualifying ideas first) but eventually you will want a well-rounded business with each offer or funnel leading to the next!

Funnel Type #1: List Building Funnel

You need a way to grow your audience, and more specifically your email list!

Different Types of List Building Funnels

Lead Magnet Funnel

A lead magnet funnel is a funnel where you provide something for free in exchange for an email address.

Lead magnets, also known as freebies, are typically things like checklists, PDF guides, workbooks, roadmaps, a short video training, or even an email course or pre-recorded challenge.

SLO Funnel (or Lead Launchpads™)

SLO stands for self-liquidating offer, meaning it is a funnel that is meant to pay for itself.

It is a funnel that consists of at least 3 parts:

• A main offer (typically $17 – $47)
• A complimentary bump offer (typically $7 – $47)
• A next step OTO (or one-time offer) (typically $67 – $197)

I call SLO funnels Lead Launchpads™ because they immediately launch a person to the conversion stage of the funnel and they become a paying customer.

People tend to run ads to these and the goal is to essentially break even with ad costs.

Summit Funnel

A free virtual summit (also called an online conference) is actually a lead funnel!

At its core it is a lead generation tool just like a lead magnet (but a lot more complicated of course!) It however is a much better way to grow your know, like + trust factor with your leads than with a typical lead magnet.

These are the top ones. Of course there are other ways to grow your list like with webinars, live challenges, etc. BUT those are typically used in conjunction with live launches.

Funnel Type #2: Live Launch Funnel

You need a funnel to actually promote your main offer.

Launching can be a lot of work. And so many people are saying you never need to live launch. I disagree. The energy, the excitement, the feedback, you get through a live launch really can’t be beat.

Different Types of Live Launch Funnels

Live Challenge Funnel

A challenge funnel is where you host a 3-, 5-, 7-day etc. challenge where you provide educational content to help the registrants achieve a goal.

Basically at the end of the challenge, they should have walked away with their problem solved (or at least part of their problem solved!)

It should tie into the product, service, or offer that you are launching.

The cost of the product you are launching off the backend is typically $497 and higher because of the work involved.

Live Webinar Funnel

A live webinar funnel is where you host a live training or masterclass teaching on a topic related to the offer you plan on launching at the end.

You are probably pretty familiar with these.

They almost always end in a pitch.

The cost of the product you are launching off the backend is typically $197 and higher because of the work involved.

Paid Event Funnel

A paid event funnel is something like a paid masterclass, or paid online summit or conference.

These can be the product themselves, but they can also be used to pre-qualify people BEFORE you promote your offer.

Expect a lot less registrants for something like this than your would a free challenge, webinar, or summit.

The common thread here is that it promotes a LARGER offer, typically your main offer.

Your goal is to generate qualified leads for your big launch, rather than just every day list growth.

Funnel Type #3: Evergreen Funnel

Once you have your list-building and live launch funnels on lock, it is time to consider adding in an evergreen funnel.

An evergreen funnel is one that runs on its own. There is no live aspect. It is just constantly running in your business providing you a way to make sales every day on autopilot.

Different Types of Evergreen Funnels

Evergreen Webinar Funnel

An evergreen webinar funnel is very similar to a live webinar funnel except it isn’t live!

This means that you can offer the webinar to be available immediately to watch rather than wait for a specific date or time, or you can use software to act like a live webinar forcing people to show up at a certain time.

I highly recommend that you test your live webinar a few times before you make it evergreen so you can test your pitch, test your email sequence, and test the offer in general because evergreen webinar funnels tend to convert at a lower rate than live ones (but the tradeoff is less energy and more automation on your end!)

Other Evergreen Funnels

• Evergreen Challenge
• Evergreen Summit
• Evergreen Masterclass

Evergreen funnels don’t have to be hard.

There are just a few more things to think about if, say, you are doing something like expiring bonuses, but you can take all of your experience from your list-building and live launch funnels to use here!

My Biggest Piece of Funnel Building Advice

Take it one funnel at a time!

It is important to take the time to fully map out your funnel.

Some funnels are more complicated than others of course, and you can always improve them but make sure you take the time to have all the basics and necessary aspects for the type of funnel you are creating.

The last things you want is a bunch of have done or poorly throughout funnels, it won’t do you any favors.