119 Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Email Marketing

Contributed by:

Karthik Reddy

Travel Blogger and Writer
Community Manager at Webmastersjury







Email marketing has been around for a while, and for those who do not know, it is worth pointing out that it represents the practice of sending commercial messages to a group of people via email. It represents a smart marketing strategy that can help build brand awareness, trust and loyalty, while also increasing the percentage of conversions and of revisiting users.

In a broader sense, all emails sent to a potential business partner or customers is a form of email marketing, as these emails can be sent out for various purposes, such as encouraging repeat business, convincing customers to purchase a new item or service, sharing third-party ads, but also enhancing the merchant’s relationship with a past customer.

This infographic will provide you with a total of 119 facts about this marketing strategy, while also sharing tonnes of interesting stats that will help you better understand the niche. Apart from this aspect, you’ll also get the opportunity to view studies, learn what works, what doesn’t, and what you should do to ensure that your email marketing campaign turns out to be successful, rather than a nuisance to your customers.

How to Turn Prospects into Customers with Your Landing Page

Contributed By:

Perry Marshall
Source: Entrepreneur

Perry Marshall and lead generation expert Talor Zamir introduce you to the basic framework behind a successful local marketing campaign. In this edited excerpt, Perry and Zamir reveal how to create a landing page that will increase your conversion rate.

Continued from Friday, October 13, 2017. See publication below:

Here's the headline and subheadline template:

Would You Like to ... (Insert Benefit 1, Benefit 2, Benefit 3)

If the answer is “YES,” then call us now for your free consultation and learn ...

Let’s look at a few examples and then discuss this formula in more detail.

Here’s one for a title loan company:

Would You Like Fast Cash in 15 Minutes or Less With No Credit Check at the Lowest Rates in Las Vegas AND You Keep Your Car?

If the answer is “YES,” then call us now at (888) 555-5555, or come visit us at (location address).

For a mortgage broker:

Would You Like to Refinance Your Home to Today’s Low Rates and Lower Your Monthly Payments Even If You Owe More Than Your Home Is Worth?

If the answer is “YES,” then call now for your free consultation where you’ll discover. . .

One of the keys to the success of this headline template is putting your prospects in “Yes” mode, which psychologically makes them more likely to take you up on your offer.

At this point, your prospect will see the yes, so you're getting them in a “yes” state of mind. That's why we follow up with “If the answer is YES . . .” to build off them being in that state of saying yes, then we follow up with a call to action. That call to action leads into the promise of discovering the biggest benefit you offer prospects.

Body Copy/Bullet Points

This section goes under your headline and subheadline on the left side of the page and expands on the promise/offer/value proposition they started.

Most people aren't going to read all your copy; they're going to skim it. So a few short paragraphs are all you need along with three to five bullet points. Bullet points are a list of short, punchy sentences that convey the main benefits/key points that prospects should know about your business. Again, keep things short, sweet, and focused on the main benefits you offer your clients.

Contact Form

Not everyone who lands on your page is going to call. So for those who don't want to call, the landing page should have a contact form where they can submit their information.

The form should have a clear call to action at the top that reinforces why they should contact you and what benefit they'll receive for doing so. For the form itself, only ask for the information you absolutely need from a prospect -- that's generally a name, email address, phone number, and an optional “comments” field where they can enter any comments or questions they have.

You can also get creative with the button that a visitor needs to click to submit their information. You can use a generic “Submit” button or a more action/benefit-oriented button such as “Get Free Estimate” or “Get Free Consultation.”

The “Proof Zone”

The space under the contact form is a great place to demonstrate your business’s credibility. We call it the “Proof Zone” because the information here should help prove to your prospects that you are a credible and trustworthy business.

How do you do that? One common way is to provide testimonials from happy clients. Having these testimonials in the form of a video or audio clip is very powerful. A text testimonial with a photo is the next best option.

With testimonials, the more specific they are and the more they reinforce the main benefits of your business, the better. Here's an example of a lame testimonial:

“These guys are great. I’m really happy with them.” -- Joe

Compare that to this testimonial:

“Following my car accident three years ago, I’d experienced nearly constant chronic back pain. I tried physical therapy, pain meds, and a few natural remedies, and nothing helped. I visited Dr. Smith after a friend recommended her, and I’m glad I did. After six visits, I’m moving better than I have in years and am virtually pain free!” -- Joe Williams, Seattle, WA

If you don't have testimonials, there are plenty of other ways to demonstrate your business’s credibility. These include using logos of media outlets you've been featured on, logos of well-known clients, and/or special recognition/credentials/awards your business has received from industry/business organizations.

Another Call to Action

At the bottom of the page, below the fold, reinforce your call to action. Put your phone number there again so people don't have to scroll up to find it. And again remind them of the benefit they'll receive for taking action and contacting you.

Tiny Links at the Bottom of Your Landing Page

If it were up to us, there would be no links on your landing page because we want people focused on the one action we want them to take. However, since we're advertising on Google, we need to keep them happy and follow their rules. And to satisfy Google’s terms and conditions, there need to be a few links on the page.

We place these, in a very small font, in the footer at the bottom of the page. The bare minimum you need to include here are links to a privacy policy, terms and conditions, and a contact page. The contact page exists so Google knows you're a real business and should include both your phone number and your physical address.

How to Turn Prospects into Customers with Your Landing Page

Contributed By:

Perry Marshall
Source: Entrepreneur

Perry Marshall and lead generation expert Talor Zamir introduce you to the basic framework behind a successful local marketing campaign. In this edited excerpt, Perry and Zamir reveal how to create a landing page that will increase your conversion rate.

We're sure you understand why a good landing page is so essential to your success, so let’s look at what a high-converting landing page should include. This information we're sharing with you is the result of years of testing and millions of dollars in ad spend, and has proved successful across dozens of different local business verticals. It's what we've found works the best for local businesses looking to get their phones ringing.

Header

The header is the section at the very top of your site. It should be relatively narrow because you don't want it taking up too much of the all-important above-the-fold space at the top of your site.

There are just two things to include in the header: your logo, which goes on the far left side of the header, and a call to action, which goes on the far right side of the header.

This call to action should be in a fairly large font so it stands out and people can read it easily. For a local business, we almost always have the business’s phone number here.

However, don't just put the phone number up there. Add a specific call to action above the phone number to give people a reason to call you. We recommend something like “Call Now for a Free Estimate/Consultation/Quote.”

Video or Image

Under the main headline, on the left side of the page, you should have a video or image. (This video or image could go either above or below the main headline. We've tried it both ways, and it doesn't seem to make much of a difference in conversion rates.)

The strategy for the image or video is pretty much like it is for the rest of the landing page: Put your best foot forward. You simply want something that looks professional and helps convey the benefits you offer. For a video, keep it on the short side: around a minute or a few minutes at the most.

For the image, make sure it’s relevant to your business. Ideally it’s a photo of you/your staff looking happy or one that visually shows the benefits your clients get from using your services.

Headline/Subheadline

Hands down, the headline is the most important copy on your landing page. It’s so important because it’s going to be the most read copy on the page and will largely determine whether your prospects pay attention to the rest of the page or simply hit the back button.

There's no shortage of detailed information out there on copywriting and creating headlines. Most of them require you to think really deeply about this, come up with a customer avatar, think about a lot of theoretical stuff, come up with 100 ideas, etc. A lot of this information is really helpful; we're not dismissing it at all. But our goal is to make things as simple and straightforward for you as possible.

Obviously we can’t write your headline for you -- you'll still have to do some thinking about this and at least come up with a list of your best benefits and main selling points. However, we're going to share a headline template that's proved to be successful on a number of landing pages we've created for clients.

To be continued at our next edition on Monday,  October 16, 2017. Please keep in touch!

These 9 SEO Tips Are All You'll Ever Need to Rank in Google

Contributed By:

Brandon Turner
Source: Entrepreneur

Why don’t planes crash more often from mechanical failure? With all the moving parts inside a plane, it seems that something would break fairly easily. So, why doesn’t that happen? One primary reason: checklists.

Before pilots push the button for taxiing and take-off, they perform an extensive pre-flight checklist to make sure everything is functioning exactly as it should be.

Entrepreneurs hoping for strong SEO (search engine optimization) rankings might take a lesson here. They can create a checklist of their own to make sure everything is perfect for their next website article. No, an SEO checklist won't protect you from crashing and burning. But it will help ensure that your post has the best chance it needs to rank high in Google. 

So, before you publish your next piece of web content, run it through the following 9-point checklist for the best SEO tips.

1. Pick a good keyword to focus on.

The first step is to simply pick the search term or phrase you want the post to show up for. If I am writing about the best dog toys for small dogs, I'll want to find out what people are actually searching for. 

The easiest way to do this is use Google Keyword Planner, a free tool that will show you an estimate for any search phrase. (Although Keyword Planner is free, you may need to set up an AdWords account to gain access.)

For example, I noticed that "small dog toys" receives 590 monthly searches -- higher than any other related combination of words. However, I'm still not totally ready to start writing about this topic. First, I need to do some research. 

2. Research the competition.

Now that I have a term I want to try to rank for, I'm going to go undercover and do some recon!

Jump over to your "private browsing" mode on your web browser ("Incognito" in Chrome, "Private" in Safari and Firefox, "InPrivate" on Internet Explorer) and head to Google.com. (At my company, we do "private mode" because we don't want Google to use our past search history to influence what we see on the search results page.)

Take a look at all the content on page one of Google, ignoring any ad results at the top. The 10 (or so) results are your competition! What are they missing? Can you do better?

3. Write the best content.

Now that you know what your competition looks like, it's time to create the content that is going to blow those folks out of the water. This is perhaps the most difficult part, but it's the most important. It needs to be amazing.

I don't care if you are creating a blog post, ecommerce store page or sales-landing page. It needs to be better than the rest, or else neither Google nor your audience will ever take note.

For an example of an article I recently wrote -- with just this goal in mind -- check out "How to Become a Millionaire: The Ultimate Guide.". My goal with that post was to write superb content about that topic. How did I do?

4. Put the keyword in your page title.

This should be a no-brainer, but I'll say it anyway: Your page title should contain your keyword, but that doesn't mean it has to be exact (though it can be).

Additionally, the title must also be interesting enough that people will actually want to click on it! A good example of this would be PT from PTMoney.com, who wrote a great post about "making extra money." However, rather than a boring title, like "Make Extra Money," he titled it "52 Ways to Make Extra Money." Now that is something I would want to read.

5. Put the keyword in your header.

You can organize most webpages by having a large title at the top, followed by several sub-headers throughout the page (like the sub-headers in this post).

This organization is helpful not only for people in skimming blog-post articles, it's helpful in showing Google exactly what your blog post is about. Therefore, be sure to use your exact keyword phrase at least once in your sub-headers.

6. Put the keyword in the name and alt-tag of your image.

Next, if your blog post contains images, you can use those images to cement the idea to Google about your post's topic. There are two ways to do this:

1.     The image name

2.     The image alt tag

To change the image name, simply change the name of the image on your computer before uploading. Instead of a file called "2831274.jpg," you can re-name it something like "small dog toys 1.jpg."

The "alt tag" is something you designate after you upload the photo to your website. Without getting too technical, the alt tag is simply the text that the web browser will show if the photo can't load for some reason. 

7. Use the keyword in the URL and in the post.

Another way Google is able to determine what your blog post is about is the URL. In other words, we're talking about what comes after the ".com" in your url (or .net, .org, or whatever you use). For example, which of the following URLs do you think Google will like better when deciding whether or not to show a certain page?

• www.ExampleDogToyWebsite.com/9124824834-1
• www.ExampleDogToyWebsite.com/small-dog-toys

You're right if you guessed the second one. While the former might not completely kill your SEO efforts, the latter definitely helps show Google exactly what the post is about.

8. Insert internal links.

If you aren't talking about your best content, why should anyone else care? For this reason, it's important that your best SEO content be linked to internally by other pages on your website.

Yes, this means you may need to go back and edit some older posts to include links to the new, incredible content.

9. The most-important SEO tip: Get external links.

Okay, finally we're finally at the big one: external links.

External links are links from websites other than your own. Google relies heavily on external links to determine how good a post is. And this makes sense, doesn't it? You can talk about yourself and your own skills all day long, but no one will believe you. But as soon as other people begin bragging about you, others take notice. 

While producing incredible content may get you some links, the truth is, you are going to have to do some "link building." This means reaching out to other website owners in the space to ask for links. For some great tips on getting these links, I like to read Backlinko.com. 

The above nine-point checklist may not include everything a person could know about SEO, but by simply following this checklist, you'll be miles ahead of the competition and will likely see your posts get significant SEO traffic. 

5 SEO Techniques You're Doing All Wrong

Great online content doesn't matter without an equally smart strategy to get your message in front of key audiences.

Contributed By:

Aaron Agius

Source: Entrepreneur

Ignore search-engine optimization (SEO) and focus on content.

Worst. Advice. Ever.

SEO still is kicking. The rules have changed and some of the starting lineup were in the minors a few years ago, but you need a plan.

Look at just a few recent stats:

• 93 percent of online experiences begin with a search engine
• 75 percent of users never scroll past the first page of search results
• 70 to 80 percent of search users ignore paid ads

Is SEO necessary? Yes, it is.

SEO simply "translates" your website into language that's easily understood by search engines -- so users see your pages when they go hunting for offers, products, services, information or answers to specific questions. The "how" is SEO, and even a beginner’s guide can seem overwhelming.

The exact formula used by Google and Bing is subject to debate. RankBrain, content and links that point to your site are three of the biggest ranking signals. But other factors play their role, too.

I’ve seen businesses make the same mistakes over and over again. Here are the three most frequent offenders.

1. Keywords.

Keywords used to be ... well, key. But then content became king.

You still need keywords. Two mistakes that novices and “experts” alike continue to make? Stuffing keywords and targeting the wrong words. 

Stuffing aims to trick the engines by using an exact keyword phrase in an unnatural frequency. Observe:

“Our car polish is the best car polish on the car polish market. If you’re looking for the best car polish, then look no further than our best car polish. It’s the best car polish money can buy!”

Horrible. Do that, and the engines will penalize you. It sounds stilted, it offers nothing of value and it’s obviously meant to game the system.

Google uses Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) to analyze your page's intent and determine keyword variations. Trust it. Use naturally occurring synonyms and alternatives instead of word-for-word repetition.

Have a keyword focus, but don’t force it. Include the keyword and its variations in the title, opening paragraph, meta-description and throughout the body of the text (within reason).

Use the Keyword Planner to identify words that pop in searches, but resist the automatic urge to go after those with the largest search volume. Instead, find the relevant long tail keywords (three- to four-word phrases that make up the bulk of searches) with a decent volume. Use Trends to determine what’s popular and what’s so last year.

A little homework goes a long way.

Related: How to Master Keyword Research, Production and Promotion for Your Content Marketing Campaign

2. Anchor text.

Anchor text -- the clickable words in a hyperlink -- can land you in hot water.

You want your page links to point toward other content on your site as well as relevant material on external sites. Businesses used to get away with exact-match or keyword-rich anchor text. Not anymore.

Your best bet is a healthy mix: 

• Branded text, as in "QuickSprout has a great user guide"
• Naked links, as in "www.entrepreneur.com"
• Long tail links, as in "use a wide variety of anchor types to stay safe”

Just don’t rely on “anchor text” as your anchor text in a piece about anchor text.

3. Image optimization.

We love visuals, and they increase engagement. Visually charged content gets more clicks, likes and shares. But there's a problem: Search engines can’t “see” images. Engines need textual explanations to understand what the image represents and how it connects to your topic.

Include a highly relevant file name, alt-description (a description of the image, as if you were telling a friend what the image depicts), caption, and image title. Some studies found captions are read 300 percent more than body text.

Consider a compression tool such as PunyPNG or JPEGmini to reduce file size and load time, with very little loss of quality. Faster page = better SEO.

4. Link strategy.

Backlinks matter. In the 2016 State of Link Building Survey, 90 percent of respondents reported they use content publication/promotion and guest posting as part of their link-building strategy. And 78 percent of survey participants believe it's the most effective SEO-boosting strategy.

It's still a case of quality over quantity. You run the risk of Google's wrath if you include links from penalized sites or those with a domain authority less than 20. Populating with too many backlinks, too quickly, also could have negative effects.  

Spammy guest-blogging or link directories will hurt you. Instead, write high-quality content. Share it with influencers in your niche, and promote it on social media. Establish relationships with influential sites so you can pitch useful ideas that fit with their subject and theme to offer real benefit to their readers. 

Yes, it will take longer. But three to four relevant, high-authority/high-quality backlinks are infinitely better than 100 backlinks from questionable sources. Commit yourself to playing the long game.

5. Fans and followers.

Social media is fantastic, but your number of fans is irrelevant.

It’s about engagement: How are you connecting and interacting with people, and how are they engaging with you?

Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst, John Mueller, would tell you that your social-media following has no direct affect on your SEO. All the same, an active community of members who share your content and link back to your site can spread your brand awareness and authority. In turn, this increases your site traffic. Social activity signals to Google that people are interested in your site and spreading its message. 

Remember this mantra: It's not about numbers, it's about activity -- the actions you generate and the engagement your audience takes forward.

Mistakes are bound to happen. SEO is a complicated beast, after all. Avoiding these common pitfalls will help you play it smart and pay off in the long-term.

This Is How You Write Headlines That Hook Them

Contributed By:

Craig Simpson
Source: Entrepreneur

The headline is the most important part of your sales letter or space ad. You could have the best advertising copy and the best product, but it doesn’t matter if the reader doesn't get past the headline. Changing the headline can make a huge difference in your response rate, even if you don't change one word in the rest of the sales letter. 

When starting to write a sales letter or print ad, advertising legend John Caples recommended spending hours just writing headlines. Or even spending days writing headlines if necessary. If you can come up with a good headline, then you can most likely write a good sales piece.

In writing a headline keep in mind that you have only a few seconds to get the attention of the reader. Remember that the reader's number one question is, “What's in it for me?”

Here are six steps to make sure your headline turns your audience into customers.

1. Lead with a key benefit or intriguing question.

I always suggest putting your biggest benefit in the headline. Not the entire sales pitch, but the biggest benefit to the reader. Or base the headline on the key question that will be answered in the sales letter. You want the reader to stop and think, “This letter applies to me. There might be a something in here of value to me.”

2. Make your message exclusive.

One way to do this is to say that the message is only for a special group of people. Readers see that they fit into the group, and they think that this sales letter is for them.

3. Include a “qualifier” that really doesn't exclude people.

An inclusive qualifier makes all readers feel like they are part of a group, and that the sales letter is directed to them. Here are a few examples of inclusive qualifiers:

• For women who would like to lose 10 pounds in 10 days

• Attention Drivers who drive less than 37 miles a day

• Car Owners: Save 2 Gallons in Every 10!

Almost everybody is a car owner, but people skimming through their mail think, “Wait, I'm a car owner!” and they stop and read the sales letter. For the sales letter that used the last headline above, the addition of the two little words “Car Owners:” in front of the headline increased the response by 22 percent! Remember, little changes can make a huge difference!

4. Attract people who are the most motivated of the group.

For example, one advertiser tested headlines for a baldness cure. One headline was “For Bald Men” and the other was “Do You Suffer From Baldness?” The headline with “Suffer” in it pulled better because it attracted men who thought that baldness was a problem. 

Specifics can also increase the power of a headline. For example, an ad targeting real estate brokers, saying “I gained 9 new real estate listings in 2 weeks” is better than “I gained more listings.”

5. Break up long-form ads with subheads.

Many people will skim through a brochure to decide whether they want to read it further or not. If they see something interesting in a subhead, then they will stop and read that part. If that part is interesting enough, they may go back to the beginning and read the entire brochure.

6. Cater headlines for online and offline ads.

If you are writing copy for both direct mail and the internet, you may need to write different headlines for the web. In direct mail, you are “talking” directly to the reader. On the internet, you also have to take into account there are key words that are more easily found by an organic search. Keep a swipe file of all the control sales pieces you receive.

Start your swipe file by opting in to mailing lists and study the mail that you receive. Believe it or not, many top copywriters read The National Enquirer to see examples of good headlines. The National Enquirer may not report a lot of “real” news, but they certainly know how to write headlines that grab people's attention!

What Is a Sales Funnel? The Guide to Building an Automated Selling Machine

Contributed By:

R. L. Adams
Source: Entrepreneur

Continued from Friday, October 6, 2017. See publication below:

Stage 1: Awareness

What's more important about the sales funnel is what happens when those visitors (we can call them prospects) actually do arrive. Through a variety of means, many of which you've already seen, such as email newsletter signups, ebook downloads, online quizzes and more, those prospects enter into your sales funnel through an enticing offer.  


The goal of your entire sale funnel and platform is to solve your customer's problem. When you know the problem, and you build content to draw them in, then offer them a product or service to solve their problem, that's when the real magic happens. However, getting to that stage takes work and you have to garner their awareness first. 

Once the prospect is in the proverbial funnel, you've peaked their awareness. That's the first stage of the funnel. However, getting a prospect aware of you is no simple feat. Depending upon how they've arrived to your website (organically or through a paid ad), those customers might view your funnel differently and your opt-in rates will vary significantly. 

For example, when a customer finds you organically through a Google search for example, that means you have some element of authority. When you have authority, prospects are more likely to enter into your funnel because they know that if they found you relevantly, that whatever it is that you're providing must be of a great value. That's just the nature of SEO and organic search. 

Of course, regardless of how they enter into your funnel, your goal as a marketer is to move them through the multiple stages that will take them from prospect to buyer. And once they're aware of you, you need to build their interest. To do this, you need to establish a relationship with the customer. You might have enticed them with a great offer (lead magnet) to grab their email address, but actually moving them through the funnel is a far greater challenge. 

The truth? People are smart. They're not simply going to buy anything from anyone unless they feel there's an immense amount of value to be had there. Thus, your funnel needs to built that value and bake it in through a variety of means. But most importantly, you have to create a strong bond with your prospect, and that happens by being relatable, honest and transparent in your email warming sequence.
Related: 5 Steps to Building Your First Online Sales Funnel

Stage 2: Interest

You gain the prospects interest through an email sequence. You begin to relate stories to them that tie into who you are and how you've arrived to this point in your life. Brunson, in his book, Expert Secrets, calls this the Attractive Character. Are you the reluctant hero whose journey happened almost by mistake, but you feel like you owe it to yourself and the world to convey something of great value?

Or, are you a leader, an adventurer or an evangelist? How you position yourself is entirely up to you, 
but your message must be consistent throughout your entire "pitch" and it needs to be steeped in the truth. Your backstory, and just how you convey that through parables, character flaws and polarity, has much to do with just how well you can "hook" in your prospects to create a mass movement.

Of course, implementing this isn't easy. You need to first develop your stories, then decide on how you're going to convey those stories and at what drip-rate. For example, your first email or two might go out on the day they first signup, then one email per day might go out afterwards. How much of that will be story-based and how much will be pitches?

In a recent conversation I had with Perry Belcher, co-founder of Native Commerce Media, he told me that you also need to train your prospects to click on links. For example, you could have them click on a link of what interests them or link them to a blog post or eventually to a product or service that you're selling, but you need to train them to build a habit of clicking on those links from the very beginning.

Related: The 4 Stages of Every Relationship -- And Sales Funnel

Stage 3: Decision

The next stage is the decision. Getting prospects to make a decision isn't easy. The best way to get them there? Beyond the art of story telling, copywriting and building the habit of link-clicking, you need to have lots and lots of customer reviews and testimonials. This is one of the most powerful ways that you can get people to take action.

Of course, if you're going the paid ad route, you could also use Facebook and Google re-targeting to keep that awareness and interest level high. For example, if you've ever noticed after leaving a particular website, that you begin to see their ad everywhere, there's a particular reason for that. Especially if they've already entered your sales funnel, this is a very powerful way to get them to act.

For example, you could show them re-targeting ads that have video testimonials or reviews by other customers. If you have media publications that have written about you, you could take that opportunity to highlight those. When they see this in your sales funnel and you follow them around with re-targeting, it's simply an added element of exposure.

But however you get them to decide to act, flipping that switch isn't simple. You need to present them with a great opportunity and use Robert Cialdini's 6 principles, outlined in his 1984 book, Influence, in one way or another to move them through this stage: 

• Principle of reciprocity -- This is achieved by delivering lots of value, either through whatever it is that you provided them as a free offer (lead magnet) in the very beginning, or in an ongoing exchange through your emails. 
• Principle of commitment & consistency -- When people commit to something, they're far more likely to purchase from you. That's why getting them to agree to something like a free + shipping offer or by agreeing with something you've said in some way. This is a powerful principle in sales and if you pay attention to some of the best marketers in the world, you'll notice that they work fervently to get your commitment to something, even if it's very small in the beginning. 
• Principle of liking -- When people like you (i.e. they relate to your stories) they are more likely to purchase something from you. How well you craft your story and convey that to your prospects is going to play a big role in whether they decide to act or not. 
• Principle of authority -- How much authority do your products or services have? Are their respected people in your community that have endorsed it? Scientific studies that are backing it? Are you yourself an authority? All these elements come into play in this process. 
• Principle of social proof -- Do you have social proof? Are people on social media raving or talking about how great your products or services are? Do you have some other type of social proof? Best-selling books? Something else? It's importnat that you present this to prospects if you do have them. 
• Principle of scarcity -- How much scarcity have you baked into your email sequence? Again, people are smart, but when you apply the principle of scarcity, as in there are only a limited amount of some offer or time left before a discount expires or slots available for an online class, it entices people to take action.

Stage 4: Action

The final stage of the sales funnel is the action that you're intending them to perform. In most cases this is the purchase. Again, how well you move them through the various stages is going to set you up with a specific conversion for this action. For example, if 100 people click on your offer and 10 people enter your sales funnel but only purchase people purchase, then you have a 2 percent conversion. 

However, the best part about this, and the most powerful route that entrepreneurs take to scale their businesses, is that if you know that sending 100 people to your site costs you $200, for example, but you get two people to convert at $300 each, then you have a $600 return on $200 invested (300 percent). When you know that, that's when the entire game changes and you can infinitely scale your offers.

This how the world's smartest marketers scale out their businesses. They know the conversion value and they've tweaked and perfected their sales funnels, so they go after this with a vengeance by simply scaling out their offers. If you know that, by investing $1 you're going to get $3 back, you will infinitely invest $1 repeatedly. Get the point?

However, getting to this stage is no simple feat. It takes an enormous amount of work and effort plus tracking. By implementing sales funnel software, such as the platform built by Brunson, you can definitely cut down the headache, but there's still lots of work to be done. Copy needs to be written, tracking pixels need to be installed and email sequences need to be created. But that's what it takes to succeed.


Think about that the next time you're building out a sales funnel. This complex and intricate concept in business can literally take you from a complete unknown to a global powerhouse quickly through the art of scaling out a highly-converting offer. Don't try to take shortcuts or implement hacks, and put in the time if you're looking to eventually reap the benefits and results.