If your marketing strategy starts with online advertising, you’re probably leaving money on the table.

Imagine throwing a house party while you’re remodeling your living room. It wouldn’t work, would it?

Why?

Because your house just isn’t set up to host people yet. As much as I love a room that’s been demolished, I don’t want to have cocktails and play board games in it. 

Sadly, that’s how a lot of businesses approach marketing. They pour time and money into SEO and Google/Facebook/Instagram ads to drive traffic to their website. But when people get there, they stop. Why? Because their website isn’t set up to host them well.

It’s a house party at a demolition site.

In general, most people don’t arrive at your website with their credit cards in hand, ready to make a purchase. It’s the job of your sales funnel to nurture the relationship and provide clear mini-commitments for them to say yes to–mini yes’s that eventually lead to a buying decision.

It’s called inside-out marketing, and it works. You get strong at your core (i.e. your sales funnel), then look outward to drive traffic to it. With a strong sales funnel, you’re set up to convert more leads into sales, which means a better return on your advertising dollars. But if your sales funnel is weak, you’ll be overspending on ads. It’s just that simple.

Here are 4 ways to strengthen your sales funnel:

1. Craft a clear and compelling message
   1. Without a clear and compelling message, your marketing collateral will limp. The best messaging tool out there, in my opinion, is the StoryBrand 7-part framework. Click here for a shorter online copy or here to get the book.
2. Apply that message to your website
   1. Too many websites don’t convert leads like they could because of being too wordy, too confusing, and too disorganized. But yours doesn’t have to be. Re-doing your home page is a great place to start. Here’s another helpful StoryBrand tool to get you going.
3. Develop a lead generator
   1. What if someone’s interested but not yet ready to pull the trigger on buying? A lead generator is a perfect next step. It can be a PDF article, a webinar, a podcast, etc.–something you can give in exchange for their email address. Just make sure it’s valuable information–“Sign Up for Our Newsletter” or “Join Our Mailing List” won’t cut it.
4. Write an email campaign
   1. Now that you have their email address, you can continue building the relationship there. I typically suggest starting with a 5-email sequence to nurture the relationship and then a 5-email sequence to try selling them again. If they don’t open all the emails or don’t buy after 10, that’s okay! You’re staying on their radar–keep watering those seeds, and eventually some will sprout into a purchase.

Try implementing these 4 steps to start converting more leads. If you start feeling stuck, or if you know up front you don’t have the time to build it out, give me a call. As a StoryBrand certified guide, I offer done-with-you and done-for-you packages to get you the sales funnel you need to stop overspending on advertising and maximize your marketing dollars.