The One Mistake You Don’t Want to Make in Your Online Business

There is ONE Mistake You Should Never Make in your online business…

In this article, you’ll learn why your ads and posts may not be converting as expected, and what you can do to instantly change that.

Nobody wants traffic without conversion, so if you have a product, most especially a digital product, then you need to be absolutely sure you are marketing your product to the correct stage of your target buyer's journey.

If you mess up this one critical component, you'll never get conversions. Sound confusing? It's really not…read on for more!

Why are my Facebook ads not working?

One of the biggest mistakes that I see businesses of all sizes make with their online marketing and advertising efforts, is that they put together an ad (such as a Facebook ad or a Google ad) and they start driving traffic to the product or service that they are offering.

Oftentimes, they are paying for these ads, and looking at their analytics, wondering why they are getting clicks but not getting any sales. They are wondering:

1. Why am I not getting any sales…how long does it take, or are the ads being shown to the right audience?
2. How do I know what makes an ad “good” compared to a “not so good” ad?
3. I’m not sure how to interpret the data.

The problem is not that your product or service is a bad idea, the problem is that you are likely marketing to the wrong phase of the sales funnel.

Most new online business owners try to follow someone else's advice. Maybe they read a blog (or a few) or they got suckered into the online business ideal.

Don't worry. If you're not a professional marketer, it just means you could use a little guidance to get your online business off the ground.

Think about it. If you’ve never heard of someone, are you going to just scroll through your social media feed and then pull out your credit card as soon as they catch your attention?

Of course not.

You’re not an idiot.

You’re going to do some research first.

Google them.

Look at their website.

Read some reviews. Maybe ask around.

Check out their other social media channels.

Just because they got your attention with their ad doesn’t mean you’re rushing to open up your wallet and buy…especially if what they’re offering is upwards of $500.

But listen closely…even if it’s only $50.

The Digital Business Model

The part of the digital business model that includes the digital sales process has 3 very different phases of the buyer’s path toward purchasing your product or service.

These 3 phases are: Awareness, Consideration, and Decision.

When you develop a digital marketing campaign, remember the very first step is to first determine who you are targeting, but what most people forget, is that you also need to determine what phase they are in.

You absolutely must only market a decision phase offer (ie: your product) to someone who is in the decision phase! This does not work on a cold audience.

Here’s the thing, you can’t market a bottom of the funnel product (i.e.: something you expect them to pay for) to a top of the funnel prospect. Top of the funnel means that they are a cold audience. Reference the sales funnel diagram below.

People whom you are trying to attract to your business….Those are cold, those are the people who don’t know you, but you’re trying to get the word out about a solution you have to their problem.

Why can't I market my product to a cold audience?

Because if they don’t even know you yet, they don’t trust you. In order for someone to buy from you, they must first believe that you have a solution to their problem and that you can help them.

This is the single reason why so many coaches and online entrepreneurs fail miserably and lose their money on Facebook when they run ads for digital products. Because they’re running an ad to an audience that has never heard of them, they’re not ready to buy yet.

What exactly is the solution?

The better option is to market a lead magnet to your cold audience, and gain their trust by giving them something valuable in exchange for their email address. It’s a quick win for them because you’re giving them something that will make their life easier and solve a problem for them, allowing them to move forward, this proves that you can actually help them. So you gain their trust.

Next is where the nurturing comes in. Now that you have their email address, you can move them down the sales funnel to the next phase which is a warm lead, and eventually with the right automation sequence, you can feed your evergreen lead machine in a way that enables them to become ready to open up their wallet and buy from you.

See how that works? Lead first. Email them about your offer next. After some nurturing of course.

Maybe you’ve heard of a tool like LeadPages or Clickfunnels and you’re wondering what exactly it is, and how it can help you grow your business.

Think of this post as your official initiation into understanding how these kinds of tools work, and I promise you’ll walk away with a ton of ideas about how it will help grow your blog or your online business.

Now listen, I love my husband dearly, but I am a fempreneur all the way. I support women-owned business, shattering the glass ceiling, and all things #GirlBoss, especially in online business.

Clickfunnels was developed by a guy, and I’ll tell you right now, a lot of people who use this software fit into that category of men that make webinars showing their fancy sports cars (in the industry we call this “bro-marketing”).

But if you can get past their hype, you will recognize that the software really is exceptional, just don’t go to their Facebook Group with 100,000 members for support, because it’s full of arrogance and you’ll never get the support you need.

It’s not a good place for women entrepreneurs.

The software itself is magical, but I hate their Facebook group with a passion.

Ready to rock and roll?

How does a FREE half hour consulting call sound?

If you're interested…keep reading.

So I'm going to have to talk more about Clickfunnels because it's literally a magical landing page builder. This software is relatively “new” in the world of online marketing, as it only started in 2014, but here’s what it actually is, just in case you’ve never heard of it or you’re wondering if this post is even relevant to you:

Clickfunnels is a cloud-based software tool that you can use to create stunning landing pages for lead magnets, selling your digital products, and even webinars in order to grow your business.

Cloud-based simply means you can log into their website from anywhere and work on your website. You don’t have to download and install anything onto your computer. It’s very robust, but super intuitive and easy to use. I use it every day. Seriously…every.single.day.

What Clickfunnels is not:

Clickfunnels is *not* the same thing as your email marketing software, such as Mailchimp, ConvertKit, or Aweber. While Clickfunnels does give you the option to use their own built-in email marketing platform, I would not recommend it.

Instead, start with a free account from ConvertKit (Click here to sign up for the FREE account!). Almost all of the newer email marketing automation providers integrate with Clickfunnels, but in my experience, I have found that ConvertKit is the one that does the job best.

MailChimp used to be the only one that was free, however, in late 2019, ConvertKit rolled out a free program, so this is actually a game changer because ConvertKit is far and away the best email automation provider. Why? Because you can see your automations visually (like HubSpot). HubSpot is an enterprise system that is best suited for businesses making over $250,000 per year in annual revenue (and they require payment up front) so many new bloggers don’t have the ability to go pro with HubSpot Automation right away, but in my opinion, the closest you can get to HubSpot is definitely ConvertKit!

Clickfunnels offers a ton of one-click templates that allow you to start with a sales page (that is proven to convert) and then just customize it with your own brand colors and photos (and text obviously!). Because they offer tons of templates, you’ll be putting up high-converting landing pages and easily sending content upgrades like a pro!

What do you use Clickfunnels for?

Clickfunnels is super robust, you can use it for a variety of tech needs. If you can only afford to pay for one software tool, this is the one, because it can do so much! Here are 5 things you can do with Clickfunnels:

1. Use Clickfunnels to Create Your Own Website

If you don’t already have a website, you can create your website pages and essentially DIY your very own website using Clickfunnels. They offer templates with menu navigation so you can literally put a menu at the top on your regular website pages and then create your landing pages without the navigation!

2. Use Clickfunnels to Host Webinars

Webinar software can be pricy, but this solution allows you to do them nearly for free by embedding either a live broadcast or your evergreen video. It’s a great option for anyone getting started with webinars so that you don’t have to fork over the cost of software like WebinarJam right off the bat.

3. Use Clickfunnels for Automated Content Upgrades

If you’ve already signed up for a ConverKit account, then you will see how Clickfunnels is an excellent solution for content upgrades because you can style your forms to match your brand. While you can also do this inside ConvertKit, the catch is that there is a limited amount of customization. If you want to grow your list with content upgrades, but don’t know how to figure it out tech-wise, Clickfunnels can help. Here is an example of an appropriate Content Upgrade for this blog post (feel free to subscribe and download the checklist or just keep reading).

4. Use Clickfunnels to Create Beautiful Opt-In Popups

There is nothing worse than a popup that appears when you least expect it. The beauty of Clickfunnels is that you have complete control over your opt-in! I like to use a button, so if someone is interested, they click the button and know that a popup will appear. I use this on my landing pages a lot, and it’s also great for giving away free lead magnets.

5. Use Clickfunnels to Create Landing Pages and Sales Pages

This is one of my favorite things about Clickfunnels. Most of the time, designing a proper lead magnet landing page or sales page on on your blog or website is difficult because many WordPress themes don’t easily remove your navigation menu, or you have to figure out which plugins will work best or even mess with the code. Instead of all this, Clickfunnels makes it mega easy. You can literally just use one of their templates and it takes 10 minutes.

How Can Clickfunnels Help Improve Your Blog or Online Business?

I like to design my content upgrades in Photoshop or Canva so that I can insert an image of the free checklist or worksheet people will receive if they subscribe (it’s more convincing) as shown in the example above (you can also click on the link to create an account with ConvertKit for free so you can do these yourself), but if you’re looking for an easier solution, then Clickfunnels allows you to easily insert a clickable button right inside of their software.

Using Clickfunnels for Affiliate Marketing with a Bridge Page

If you do any advertising or Affiliate Marketing at all, Facebook Ads or Google Ads for example, then you already know that you have to send visitors to a verified website that you are connected to, and you cannot send them directly to an affiliate product.

Sending paid ads to a landing page means that they only have one choice: to subscribe or leave. There are no other distractions to keep them from opting in, so if they like your offer, they’ll subscribe. If you are selling something, then you can then put them in an email nurturing sequence to eventually pitch your product. Conversion rates on landing pages are much higher than simply sending someone to a blog post, and most often, if you’re paying for ads, you want to get the best chance of conversion. You can do that with Clickfunnels!

Once you have someone’s email address, you’re able to communicate and build a relationship with them. It’s much different than if they simply visited your blog once, two weeks ago and never come back.

Online marketing is no longer an option for today’s small business owner, and if you’re trying to start or grow an online business, then Clickfunnels is a no-brainer.

With as many as 90% of small businesses using online tactics, the question isn’t when, but what tools will you use to expand and grow your reach?

Too often, business owners feel stumped by all of the options, allowing all of them to take a back seat instead of harnessing the power of the ones that really make a difference.

Maybe it’s a fear of the unknown or the overwhelm that comes with learning something new. Whatever the case, the effective use of these online tools can confuse even the most seasoned business marketer.

But the good news is this…

No matter what stage you’re in, you can reinvent your online presence, starting now! Before Clickfunnels came on the scene, I had several different software integrations all designed to work together. Even though I had been using WordPress for 14 years (and I still do) when I discovered how easy it was to create the exact type of landing pages that I wanted using Clickfunnels, I couldn't believe how much easier the “tech” part of my online business became!

Huge BONUS just for my Blog Readers!

Vogue Media is partnered with Clickfunnels (because I love it that much!) I would never recommend a product that I didn’t personally use and love, so here’s the bonus…

If you decide to purchase Clickfunnels, make sure you click through and start with a FREE 14-Day Trial using my referral link (CLICK HERE for your FREE TRIAL) because if you do, to show my gratitude for the referral, I will offer you a FREE 30-minute phone call or video screen share, live with me, to help you out with anything you might be stuck on!

This is a huge bonus, because if you’re trying to set up an integration or a sales page, or anything…and you get stuck…I can help! But only for my referrals, so be sure to use this link to sign up, then contact me to schedule your free 30-minute session.

Questions about Clickfunnels? Let me know in the comments below!

What's next?

Sign up for Clickfunnels, and then contact me for your Free Consultation, and be sure to stick around here a while longer and read this article for more in-depth information about how to skyrocket your leads!