19 SALES And Marketing Automation Best Practices
19 SALES And Marketing Automation Best Practices
Would you like to grow your lead list, and boost your sales without being tied down to your business working 24/7?
The key to achieving your business goals is to learn how to automate sales. When you do this, you could have your business working for you round-the-clock, growing your lead list and encouraging your audience to get your products or services.
Contrary to what you may think, marketing and sales automation isn’t difficult to do. With these sales and marketing automation best practices, you could start learning how to enhance sales performance in no time.
Here’s what you are going to learn today:
Ready to get ahead of your competition? Try these sales and marketing automation best practices today!
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VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION:
“In this episode, I will share with you 19 sales and marketing automation best practices.
You will find out about tips and tricks like the secret weapon to sell MORE of your existing product at a HIGHER price and leave your competitors puzzled and behind.
Then The HIDDEN KEY to SKYROCKET the growth of your business WITHOUT changing your products or creating new ones.
Also, imagine a 17.4% boost in your sales on average in just a few minutes on autopilot. One of the best practices will show you that.
And another one will reveal an EXPENSIVE sales automation mistake most entrepreneurs make and how to avoid it! And much more.
My name is Istvan Bujdoso and welcome to The 47 Marketing Show that helps entrepreneurs like you to get more done in less time, grow your business…
…and gain freedom through marketing automation, delegation, and processes.
If these topics are interesting to you then make sure to subscribe on YouTube and hit the bell button so you get notified of the NEW episode every week.
And now, let’s get started.
Just a quick note this is a special collection episode, which means we put this together from previous episodes so you can find the BEST sales tips conveniently in ONE place.
Due to this, the numbering of the list is a bit mixed up. With that said, let’s queue up the content. Enjoy it!
Before we go through the sales automation best practices, let’s talk a bit about the one-to-one vs automated sales.
Doing one-to-one sales is time-consuming, can be stressful, your mood and state can highly impact the sales results…
…and it’s very limited to the hours you spend directly with potential clients.
On the other hand, the benefits of sales automation, it works 24/7/365 days, even when you’re doing something completely different the results don’t depend on the mood…
…and state of you or your team and a sales automation solution is virtually unlimited because your potential clients, from all around the world…
…can see the sales pages day and night and buy and a sales funnel can handle MANY potential clients and orders at the same time. OK, these are the KEY sales automation benefits.
And now, let’s dive into the list of the best practices and how to enhance sales performance.
No. 1: Start With The End In Mind. Set yourself specific sales goals. What do you want to EXACTLY achieve in this area?
This is not only important because it will give the direction on which way to go but more importantly…
…your end goal is the starting point to break down that long journey into small specific steps…
…and to work out what sales automation strategies you will need to use to get your desired results.
The next best practice is No. 2: Understand The Journey Of Your Customers.
Besides sales automation, what we are focusing on in this episode, it’s really important to understand the big marketing picture as well and where sales fits into that.
In a nutshell, this is the journey your customers usually go through.
Stage 1: Strangers find and consume some of your contents online and they get to know you, like you and trust you to a certain level. And by that, they turn into your audience.
Stage 2: Some of your audience not only consume your content they also react to the call to actions and visit your landing page and lead funnel.
Stage 3: From that traffic, the curious visitors type in their email address and they turn into your leads. Which takes us to what we are focusing on today.
Stage 4: Some leads on your email list develop enough trust in you over time, and buy the first product from you. With that, they turn into your customers.
And Stage 5: When some of your customers, who already have STRONG ‘know’, ‘like’, and ‘trust’ in you they turn into your RETURNING clients who regularly buy from you.
Now that you understand where sales fits into the overall big marketing picture, let’s talk about Best practice No. 3: Know Your Customers.
The more an entrepreneur knows their potential and existing customers, the better their sales will get.
Ultimately, the goal is to know your customers BETTER than they know themselves in your specific area.
Because that information is the fundamental of your marketing being able to get the most customers through the stages we talked about. Every part of your marketing has to talk to them.
Let me give you a simple and a bit extreme example to make a clear point Let’s say your target customers are first-time puppy owners of a specific breed, who live in the countryside.
If your sales page and other parts of your marketing would talk about how to keep elderly cats healthy in the city you would get 0 of your target customers.
But if your contents, your ads, your landing page, and every other part of your marketing talks to first time puppy owners of a specific breed who live in the countryside…
…then your marketing automations and sales will get you the most of the RIGHT customers.
And that’s why knowing your customers is one of the key sales automation best practices on this list.
And more is coming up includingThe KEY strategy to ULTIMATELY being able to replace yourself in sales and business and at the same time…
…keep growing your business, and have more freedom as well.
OK, the next best practice is No. 4: Mindset. Sales and marketing automation are big and complex and can be quite overwhelming at the beginning.
That’s why your MINDSET is KEY.
Instead of worrying about how to automate sales and the whole complexity of it chop the entire thing up into smaller steps…
…even into baby steps get started now, in small, and progress step-by-step.
Which leads us to the fact that you need to be persistent to be able to succeed, because it’s going to take a LOT of steps for a long time.
And besides being persistent, you need to be consistent with your online sales as well because selling a few products here and there will not get you to your end goals.
Best practice No. 5: Use Sales Funnels Instead Of Online Shops.
In case you’re not familiar with sales funnels, they’re SPECIAL step-by-step websites that tend to convert a LOT better than NORMAL webshops.
And here’s why: NORMAL webshops have a structure that gives the visitors options to click around, check out multiple things. Sometimes a lot of different things.
Let me ask you this: Have you ever gone to a shop that had a lot of things in it and you felt unsure where to even start looking for what you want?
And then, you start feeling overwhelmed and frustrated, and then you left WITHOUT what you wanted to get?
That’s kind of the experience that NORMAL webshops gives to potential customers. It scares most of them away.
Now, imagine a very different experience. You’d go into a shop, somebody would welcome you and present you ONLY ONE thing that you need.
In that moment, you’d have ONLY ONE decision to make: take it or leave it. No question where to start, no overwhelm, no frustration. Just one simple decision to make at that moment.
That’s how sales funnels lead the customers through the entire buying process step-by-step.
And in each step, there’s only ONE simple decision to make. In a nutshell, that’s why sales funnels tend to convert a lot better than normal webshops.
Besides the better conversion rates, a sales funnel is an amazing form of sales automation for small businesses.
Best practice No. 6: KISS. When it comes to any sales automation system, the KEY is KISS, Keep It Super Simple. Complexity creates confusion.
And “the confused mind always says NO”. So it’s not only about leading the customers through the buying process step-by-step. It is also about keeping each step as simple as possible.
Only having words, images, videos, or any other elements on the page that are truly needed to help customers to decide to buy.
Just for a moment, let’s stop here. If you’re enjoying this episode so far, then show it to us by clicking on the like button right now. Thank you for doing that. Thank you for your “like”.
And now, let’s continue with the list of sales automation done right. No. 7: Make A GREAT First Impression. I assume you’ve heard the saying in your life: “saving the best for last”.
Well, that’s NOT the case when it comes to sales funnels and sales automation. It’s quite the opposite.
The first step of the sales funnel has to offer the MOST exciting value that the customer wants and needs. And in a price range of an impulse buy. In most cases, that’s under $20.
Because that’s how you can make a GREAT first impression.
And once those customers are through the door then the next steps of your sales funnel can offer to solve more of their problems and upsell them to other products.
Which I’ll talk about more in detail, in one of the next few episodes.
And now, let’s talk about the next sales automation best practice No. 8: Bring The Right Traffic.
As I mentioned earlier, knowing your customers and audience is a KEY best practice for every area of your sales and marketing.
And that includes the area of bringing traffic to your sales funnels.
Just imagine this: To stick with the previous example, let’s say your target customers are first-time puppy owners of a specific breed who live in the countryside.
If you’d bring visitors who have elderly cats in the city, that would be a total mismatch and obviously, the conversion rate of your sales funnel would suffer.
On the other hand, do you think your funnel could convert much better if most of the traffic would be from the RIGHT people?
Like first-time puppy owners of a specific breed who live in the countryside.
When the RIGHT traffic matches with the RIGHT sales funnel, then you can get a lot more customers.
Besides generating traffic from new people, another part of bringing the right traffic is retargeting those who have visited your sales page, but not YET purchased the offer.
They are obviously interested in the offer, but may not be ready to buy YET. Some people naturally need to see your sales funnel and offer multiple times before they buy.
And that’s why it’s a best practice to keep bringing them back in different ways until they are ready to turn into your customers.
Best practice No. 9: Track And Optimize. When it comes to marketing automation and sales the rule of thumb is to avoid guesswork.
No matter how well your sales funnels seem to convert, there’s always space for improvements. And it’s best practice to always do that based on REAL numbers.
So, from the very beginning, track the performance of your sales funnels then use those REAL numbers to optimize the relevant part of your sales campaign.
With that said, it’s time to talk about Best practice No. 10: The A.D.P. Strategy
This is the strategy that is the KEY to ULTIMATELY being able to replace yourself in sales and business, and at the same time, keep growing your business, and have more freedom.
This A.D.P. Strategy not only can be applied to sales, it is a best practice in that area. The first part of the strategy is to AUTOMATE as much as possible.
In this case, as many parts of the sales as possible. The second part is to DELEGATE what’s not possible to automate.
And the third part is the most important one: PROCESSES.
The processes make it possible for your sales automation and team to work on their most optimum level WITHOUT your day-to-day involvement.
And that’s how you can replace yourself in sales, marketing, and more.
Recently, we’ve published a full, dedicated episode on the A.D.P. Strategy. I’ll leave you a link to that in the description so you can check it out after this episode.
While it’s good to know these marketing automation tips and sales automation best practices…
…you can only enjoy the REAL benefits of them when you take action and actually implement them. So I’d like to challenge you, and invite you to implement them.
The good news is you don’t have to do that all alone.
I’ll leave you a link in the description to the One Funnel Away Challenge that will help you to set up your first (or next) sales funnel step-by-step.
Marketing automation best practice for sales, No. 1: Use The RIGHT Shortcuts. “Learning by doing“ is a good practice in marketing and business.
But the truth is, it can be really hard, time-consuming, and inefficient. And may not take you where you want to go. What is a much better practice than “learning by doing” is MODELING.
Which best practice is a form of true and ethical shortcut. Let me explain.
There are people out there who started out in a situation where you’re right now and have already achieved your sales automation and business goals.
They went through a lot of difficulties, made many mistakes, and failed multiple times over long years. Their experience and knowledge is the bridge, the shortcut to your success.
Learn from the people who have already achieved your goals. They may have courses, books, YouTube videos, podcasts, or some other formats they share their experience and knowledge.
Model their mindset, habits, and actions to get to your goals quicker and easier.
Just to be clear, modeling is NOT about copying exactly what they do it’s about seeing what works and applying those strategies to your own situation.
For example, you’re looking out for how to automate sales and one day, you see somebody successfully using a certain type of sales funnel to automate their sales.
Instead of copying exactly the same thing, you can ethically model what works like the mindset of the person, their habits…
…using the same tools, a similar funnel structure, and customizing it to your own products and business.
So keep leveraging modeling as a marketing automation best practices in the area of sales and more.
With that said, we are on our way to reveal The secret weapon to sell MORE of your existing product, at a HIGHER price and leave your competitors puzzled and behind.
And that EXPENSIVE sales automation mistake most entrepreneurs make and how to avoid it!
But before those, let’s talk about the next best practice in the area of sales automation done right, No. 2: Focus On Digital Assets.
The ultimate goal is to grow your business WITHOUT your day-to-day involvement, and have more freedom.
The truth is, providing custom services can be a MASSIVE blocker towards that ultimate goal.
First of all, most custom services are time-consuming, because of the uniqueness of each project. And most importantly, it involves exchanging time for money.
Simply, while someone puts in the time, money comes in. And when that person stops putting in time, the income cuts off quickly as well.
On the other hand, digital assets that work instead of you, and for you, 24/7/365 days, open up virtually UNLIMITED income opportunities.
Although digital assets require time, energy, money investments upfront…
…you create them ONCE you can sell them to MANY people on autopilot and those assets can generate you income WITHOUT your day-to-day involvement for years.
That’s why focusing on creating digital assets is one of the KEYs to achieve the ultimate goal.
Such digital assets can be online courses, ebooks, audiobooks, templates, softwares, and so on.
A special digital asset category is software as a service, where you create and maintain ONE tool and sell that to MANY people and as long as they use it, it generates you income.
Another special digital asset is a type subscription service where you create ONE thing each month and MANY people pay to get the SAME thing.
As you can see, this best practice, in a nutshell, is to have digital assets that you only need to create ONCE and can sell them to MANY people.
And when you combine that with selling those assets on autopilot through sales funnels then it becomes even more POWERFUL.
And helps you a lot in achieving the ultimate goal, to grow your business WITHOUT your day-to-day involvement, and have more freedom.
Later in this series, we’ll go into more details of selling digital assets via sales funnels, and how to automate sales.
Let me interrupt this episode for a moment. If you’re enjoying it so far, then tap the like button right now.
With that, you can give us feedback and support us to create more episodes for you like this one. Thank you for your “like”. And now, let’s continue.
The next best practice related to marketing automation and sales is No. 3: The Secret Weapon. or in other words…
…how to sell MORE of your existing product, at a HIGHER price and leave your competitors puzzled and behind.
A lot of small businesses fall into the mistake of ‘price wars’, competing for a lower price than their competitors. And they keep cutting their profit margins and losing money.
The more two products are alike, the easier to compare them, and the easier it leads to the need of competing over the price. And we all know where that leads, down to the bottom.
The good news: it’s possible to make your product feel different than any others on the market WITHOUT changing your product.
And the way you can do is instead of selling your PRODUCT by itself, you need to wrap that into an OFFER.
Let me quickly illustrate that through a simple made-up example. A PRODUCT would be an item like a frying pan.
There are many on the market, they are easy to compare, therefore, it’s easy to fall into a ‘price war’. On the other hand, a great OFFER is a no-brainer and unique bundle.
Instead of selling that one frying pan by itself, let’s add a few bonuses to our imaginary bundle.
Like an ebook that teaches 60 quick and easy, healthy recipes for the new frying pan that not only helps the customers to lose weight…
…but also to have a lot more energy, and feel great throughout the days and even become the star of the family as they all enjoy the delicious home-cooked meals together.
Additionally to that, let’s say we include a healthy cooking ingredients cheat sheet as well that they can download to their phone and have it with them so when they are shopping…
…they always know what foods to choose that serve their health, energy, and more. And as a third bonus, we could add to the imaginary bundle.
Let’s say is an online course with 10 cooking mistakes that are commonly believed healthy YET they are proven to be harmful and how to avoid them simply.
This is a quickly made-up bundle, obviously, with more thinking, this could be better, more unique, more relevant, more exciting, and so on.
BUT the point is, we are talking about the SAME PRODUCT, the same frying pan WITH added value and uniqueness a unique ebook, cheatsheet, and online course.
And notice this, these bonuses are products that can be created ONCE and sold MANY times. This frying pan bundle is no longer alike to the individual frying pans on the market.
Now, it’s harder to compare them, and because of the uniqueness, you have more freedom to set the price. And as the bundle offers more value than an individual frying pan.
You can set a HIGHER price. On top of all that, a great offer is more exciting to the target audience, and you can likely sell MORE of it than of an individual product.
As an example, I used a physical product, but the exact same best practice applies to your digital products as well.
This is how you can sell MORE of your existing product, at a HIGHER price and leave your competitors behind.
No. 4: Move Them Step-by-Step.
If you’d walk down on the street and keep telling STRANGERS about your product or service…
…and ask them to pay you $5k, $10k, $50k, or $100k for it the chance that they would actually do that is close to 0.
The simple fact is, people buy from people who they know, like, and trust. And the BIGGER the price the MORE trust they need in you to pay.
The situation is the same online, maybe even harder to build that trust through the internet than in person. That’s why sales automation requires a different mindset and approach.
Instead of trying to sell a high ticket product or service to a stranger straight away the sales automation and the related marketing need to build trust step-by-step by providing more…
…and more value in each step. Imagine this: Let’s say you want to sell a coaching package for $10,000 per year (or $1,000 per month).
With the mindset that I told you about, the sales automation solution would be something like this:
Strangers watch a free coaching video from you, they learn something valuable, and build a bit of trust in you.
As a next step, that video can direct them towards an entry-level, paid mini online course. In which they get more value, and you gain more of their trust. Things don’t end there.
Besides the mini-course giving them value, and building trust, it can also offer them the opportunity to get another paid online course of yours, a higher level than the previous one.
Which will give your clients more value and they reach a higher level of trust in you.
These steps go on and on, to the point where some of your clients sign up to your $10k coaching package. And those steps can go even further, to higher levels.
Virtually, there’s no limit to it. It is one of the key sales automation strategies that is often referred to as the “Value Ladder”.
With this step-by-step approach, you not only can make money through the first steps of your value ladder while building out the trust in customers but because of that trust…
…you can also sell MORE of your high ticket product or service over time.
And when you make more money, you can also reinvest more into advertising, and bring in more and more new customers.
As you’ll see it in a minute, the “Value Ladder” is an even more important element of the sales automation process.
And then, I’ll tell you about the HIDDEN KEY to SKYROCKET the growth of your business WITHOUT changing your products or creating new ones.
The next on the list of sales automation done right, best practice No. 5: Step-By-Step Sales On Autopilot.
Earlier in this series, I told you about sales funnels, and why they tend to convert better than normal websites.
So now, just a quick reminder that Normal websites let the visitors jump around on the site, providing them many options to choose from and with that…
…more often than not, those websites confuse the potential customers and scare them away.
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On the other hand, sales funnels lead the customers through the buying process step-by-step, in a simple, straightforward way and each step asks the customers to make only ONE decision.
That’s the simplified reason why sales funnels tend to convert better than normal websites. And that is one of the main benefits of sales automation with funnels.
Earlier, I told you about the “Value Ladder” and the benefits of that. The “Value Ladder” is the fundamental of a sales funnel. Each step of a “Value Ladder” is a step of a funnel.
That’s how a sales funnel leads the customers through the “Value Ladder” step-by-step, on autopilot.
And when the first steps of the sales funnel sell digital products, like ebooks, audiobooks, online courses, and so on then even the delivery of those values can be automated.
Another one of the beautiful benefits of marketing automation.
When I told you about the “Value Ladder”, I mentioned that each product builds trust by giving value and offers the customers to go to the next level.
And that happens by directing the customers to the relevant step of a sales funnel.
For example, to stick with the previous example, somebody buys the mini online course. They complete it.
And at the end of that course, they are offered the next relevant step of a sales funnel. That way the customer may even buy the next multiple levels of the “Value Ladder” in one go.
This is how to automate sales and get more customers. And later in this series, I’ll also tell you about a simple hack that can boost the sales of any small business even further.
OK, now, let me ask you a quick favor. If you’re enjoying this episode so far, then give us a thumbs up right now. That supports us to create more episodes for you like this one.
Thank you for clicking on the like button. And now, let’s continue.
The next best practice among today’s sales automation tips is No. 6: Focus
On ACV That is the HIDDEN KEY to SKYROCKET the growth of your business WITHOUT changing your products or creating new ones.
Once you have a sales funnel up and running, this best practice can do its magic.
First, let’s go through a few KPIs of sales funnels including what ACV is, how to enhance sales performance with it and accelerate the growth of your business.
Then, we’ll go through a few examples. KPIs is the short form of Key Performance Indicators. And related to sales funnels, these are the numbers every entrepreneur should be familiar with.
Pageviews: how many people visit each step of your sales funnel.
If the first step of your sales funnel is an opt-in page, then Opt-in count and rate: how many visitors turn into your leads, and what percentage that means.
For all sales funnels, sales count, rate, and value: for each step of the sales funnel how many people buy, what percentage that is, and what amount of that money is.
Earning per page view: for each step of the sales funnel, what amount of money you make for each visitor.
And the overall KPIs for the whole sales funnel are Earnings per click: what amount of money you make for each visitor of the funnel.
Gross sales: the total amount of money you make in the sales funnel. And the last and most important KPI is…
ACV, which stands for Average Cart Value: on average how much money you make per customer in the sales funnel. Here’s a quick example of that.
Let’s say you have a 4-step sales funnel. A sales page, an upsell page, another upsell page, and a thank you page.
For the sake of making it easier to follow and understand I’m going to make up the numbers Let’s say your sales page sells an entry level offer for $10. 2,000 people visit that page.
5% of them buy, that’s 100 people. And 100 x $10 equals $1,000. The Average Cart Value so far is $10, because each customer paid $10 so far.
The next step of this example sales funnel is an upsell page. Let’s say that sells an offer that solves the next, related problem of the customers, for $100.
The 100 people, who purchased in the first step, will see this first upsell. 20% of them decide to buy it. That’s 20 people. 20 people x the $100 price = $2,000, from the first upsell.
Which means $3,000 sales in total so far. That $3,000 / 100 customers = $30, which is the Average Cart Value so far.
Let’s do one more step The next step of this example sales funnel is the SECOND upsell page. Which offers to solve another problem of the customers for $300.
The people who got the FIRST upsell will see this. That’s 20 pairs of eyes. Let’s say it’s a crazy good offer, and 40% of them buy the SECOND upsell as well.
That’s 8 people. 8 x $300 = $2,400, from the SECOND upsell. In total, that’s $5,400 of sales through this funnel. And with that, the Average Cart Value is $5,400 / 100 customers = $54.
Which means, on average, your sales funnel makes you $54 per customer. The HIGHER that Average Cart Value is, the MORE you can spend to acquire a new customer.
And as Dan Kennedy said: “Ultimately, the business that can spend the most to acquire a customer wins.”
That’s why focusing on the ACV, the Average Cart Value, and keep optimizing it, increasing it is the HIDDEN KEY to SKYROCKET the growth of your business.
And the way to do that is NOT changing your products or creating new ones it is optimizing your marketing, marketing automation, and sales funnel.
Here’s a few ideas on what to optimize the traffic to your sales funnel. The channels, quality, timing. The hooks, offer, copy, videos, images, social proof, etc. of each step of the sales funnel.
The follow-up emails to send more and warmer leads and customers back to the sales funnel.
And the list could go on and on what you can optimize to increase the Average Cart Value and grow your business WITHOUT changing your products or creating new ones.
Let me show you in numbers the impact when somebody focuses on optimizing the Average Cart Value.
I’m going to illustrate this on the same sales funnel example I was talking about earlier The second step of the funnel, the FIRST upsell was converting at 20%.
Let’s say you test that funnel step with a new video. And from that point, 30% of the people start buying the FIRST upsell. This would be the result of that.
The first step of the sales funnel is still the same, from 2,000 people, 100 buy, and a $1,000 is generated. Because of the improvement of the conversion of the second step.
Of the 100 people, 30% buy the FIRST upsell and with that $3,000 is generated. A $1,000 more than previously. That improvement also has an impact on the results of the rest of the funnel.
Because instead of 20 people, now 30 people will see the SECOND upsell and it still converts at the same 40% rate. Now, 12 people buy the $300 offer, and with that $3,600 is generated.
$1,200 more than previously. And that means, instead of $5,400, the whole funnel is generating $2,200 more.
In total: $7,600. And with that, the Average Cart Value now is, $7,600 / 100 customers = $76.
You’d have 40% MORE money than earlier to reinvest into acquiring MORE customers. And a $76 budget to acquire a new customer and still break even with your funnel.
And any future sales to those customers would be pure profit.
Can you understand now why focusing on optimizing the ACV is a HIDDEN KEY to SKYROCKET the growth of a business?
Before we carry on, a quick note. If you want to find out more about the topics of this episode, then make sure to check out the DotCom Secrets book. The link is in the description.
And I’ll also leave you a link in there to the One Funnel Away Challenge that will help you to set up your first (or next) funnel, step-by-step.
Best practice No. 7: Ethical Funnel Hacking.
Earlier in this series, I talked about MODELING in general as a best practice and shortcut to achieve your sales automation goals quicker and easier.
And ‘funnel hacking’ is a really specific strategy inside the MODELING strategy. The same basic rules apply to it as well.
Find someone who has been successful in your area for a longer time study and MODEL their mindset, habits, and actions.
When it comes to ‘funnel hacking’ it is deeper and more specific than that because you need to find a successful sales funnel, a successful sales automation analyze that…
…or in other words ‘hack’ it, and model it to your own offer and business. Those successful funnels have already figured out a lot of key elements of the success.
Use their knowledge and experience as a bridge to skip quickly over the errors, mistakes, and headaches.
Obviously, this process requires you to do what great entrepreneurs do, invest into your research and buy the offer in the sales funnel you’re hacking.
And while you’re doing that, take your time to analyze each and every single step. Make notes, think how you can model the steps, the elements, and so on.
Watch the videos, from the beginning to end, even multiple times. Analyze them. Read the entire copy, multiple times, analyze that as well. See what they say, how, and when.
What parts are focused on creating EMOTIONAL responses from the viewers and readers. What parts are really LOGICAL.
Look at where the sales page talks primarily about the benefits the buyers get. At what point it talks about the problems the potential buyers have. At what point it starts talking about the offer.
What kind of social proofs can you see? What is the pricing structure? How about the guarantee? And the list could go on and on.
Understand the structure and elements of each funnel step. And of the overall funnel as well.
Invest a great amount of time to hack, to analyze step-by-step that sales funnel, that success blueprint. And then MODEL it to your own offer and business.
Just a reminder, modeling is NOT about copying exactly what they do it’s about seeing what works and applying those strategies to your own situation.
OK, in a moment, you’ll see 3 sales automation examples, 3 funnels, so you can get some inspiration on this best practice, and on how to automate sales.
And after that, I’ll reveal the EXPENSIVE sales automation mistake most entrepreneurs make and how to avoid it!
As we go through the 3 examples, you’ll understand more how the sales automation strategies I talked about are applied in real life.
And the 3rd example is going to be a very special one because at the time of recording this episode, nobody has ever seen this sales funnel yet.
OK, let’s dive into the first example now which is the funnel, the sales automation solution of the DotCom Secrets book.
This a really successful marketing automation and sales funnel that sold over 100,000 copies of this book.
Even if you don’t have your own book or you’re in a different industry it is still really educational to ‘hack’ this funnel. Let’s analyze this page a bit and go through a few key elements.
At the top, it starts with a hook that says “Want To Geometrically Grow Your Company Online?”
“New FREE BOOK Shows 28 Virtually UNKNOWN Secrets To Grow Any Company Online With Sales Funnels…”
The goal of this hook is to get the right people really curious to check out the video and the rest of the page.
The overall page has 3 key segments. The top part, the video, is mainly talking to people who primarily make their buying decisions based on their EMOTIONS.
Both the visual and the audio content are created to positively shift the emotions of the person who’s watching.
Starting from a bit below the video, the middle segment of the page talks to the LOGICAL decision-makers through numbers, facts, proofs, details, and other logical information.
And the third and last segment, around the end of the page…
…focuses on the people who usually make their buying decision based on because they don’t want to miss out on a great opportunity.
And the copy does that by telling how limited this offer is, and why. In multiple places, including the video, you can spot what BENEFITS people get when they order.
Like that they are only asked to cover the shipping, and the actual book is free.
Also, the page details the 28 secrets as hooks and benefits, the ways the book helps the readers to grow their business, their company with funnels.
And another part that talks about the benefits people get is the bonus section.
It’s also worth looking at how the OFFER is structured and where you can find the first call to action, CTA, to it, and then the rest of the CTAs.
It’s a free + shipping offer, also the shipping fee is small, there’s no need for a lot of belief building before showing the offer.
Because of that, the first CTA is right after the video at the top of the page. Then, there are strategically placed CTAs at different parts of the sales page.
They are basically the SAME call to action to order, just in different formats.
And around the end of the page, there’s a stack, a summary of everything people get when they order the book the free book and 5 complementing bonuses that further improve the value.
Let’s talk a bit about what social proofs are used and where. Numbers like that over 100,000 copies have been sold so far, it’s close to the top of the page.
Also, further down the page, the fact that over 789 people implemented the secrets from this book and made over 7 figures with their funnels, and many people even made 8-9 figures.
And the third social proof used is the written and video testimonials, around halfway down on the page. OK, what about the pricing structure?
It shows up in multiple places, the same places where the CTAs are, making the price clear right where people decide and can start the ordering process.
It’s a free plus shipping offer, which means people only pay for the shipping, the actual book is given for free.
It is a great strategy for selling a low-ticket physical item like a book, or information on a USB stick, or some other physical product.
The reason why they can give the book for free is because some people will buy the upsells later in this funnel and that’s how they make their profit. But I’m digressing now.
In the previous episode, I talked about how funnels and this sales automation process work exactly, in great detail, with numbers. The link to that is in the description for you to explore later.
And another key element that is worth paying attention to is the guarantee.
If somebody is not happy with the book they get 100% of their money back and they don’t even need to send anything back.
It is strategically placed right before the stack that shows everything people get and where they can order.
As we have limited time, these were just a few of many key elements of ONE step of the funnel.
There are more you can analyze and learn from by actually ordering the book and checking out every little detail of ALL the pages and steps in the funnel.
When you’re ‘funnel hacking’ ANY funnels, remember that every element serves a purpose…
…so understand what that purpose is and invest a great amount of time into the process so you can learn the most from that success blueprint.
And then, MODEL what you learn to your own situations, offers, and business.
I’ll leave you a link in the description to the DotCom Secrets book funnel so you can analyze that funnel further and deeper…
…and even learn more about sales automation and funnels from the book itself.
And now, let me ask you something. Are you enjoying this information so far? If so, let us know by clicking on the like button right now. Thank you for your ‘thumbs up’. And now, let’s continue.
The second example is the sales funnel of the One Funnel Away Challenge. In a lot of aspect, it is similar to the previous example. In structure and elements.
The biggest differences are a bit higher price, a lot more social proof and the urgency factor because the next challenge starts soon, on a specific date.
To have time to talk about another example and the common sales automation mistake to avoid, I’ll leave you to analyze it further.
The link to the One Funnel Away Challenge is also in the description.
OK, the 3rd example is a very special one because at the time of recording this episode, nobody has ever seen this version of sales funnel yet.
It is 47smi.com…
…which is turning from a waitlist lead funnel into a sales funnel that offers to show “How To Get Your Next 100 Days Of Engaging Social Media Posts Done In Less Than 30 Minutes…
…WITHOUT Hiring An Expensive Social Media Team!”
When you visit 47smi.com and enter your email address you’ll see the sales page of the funnel.
And not surprisingly, you’ll notice some similarities to the previous examples as this funnel was modeled based on those, and multiple other successful funnels…
…I wanted to include this so you can get a better understanding of what it really means MODELING, but NOT copying.
Check out all the three examples and see what the similarities and differences are. The links to all of them are in the description. And with that said, let’s talk about…
Best practice no. 8: Avoid This EXPENSIVE Mistake. As Dan Kennedy said: “a buyer is a buyer is a buyer”.
Which means once a person buys something from you, as long as you can offer them more value they want, they will MOST likely buy more.
The commonly made sales automation mistake by most entrepreneurs is that they sell one or a few offers in a funnel, and then they stop selling, stop offering more value.
And they lose money, which can be an expensive mistake. Don’t misunderstand this.
It is a good thing to have only 1 or 2 upsells in a funnel so the buyers don’t get annoyed by too many upsells and they may buy other things from you as well in the future.
But, there’s a way NOT to annoy the customers, and at the same time, still keep offering them more and more value to buy.
And the best practice is to have your main offer in the funnel, plus 1 or 2 upsells. And on the last step of the funnel, on the thank you page…
…thank them for their purchase and give them access to it. THEN, this is the important part, have a recommendation section as well…
…where you link to another one of your sales funnels or link to a relevant affiliate offer.
This way you can keep serving your hyperactive customers, without annoying them, and make more money.
Best practice No. 9: Use The RIGHT Tools. Sales automation tools can make or break your success in the area of online sales. That’s why using the RIGHT softwares is so important.
When it comes to marketing automation tools for small businesses, or even to other softwares, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.
Ultimately, you have to understand and decide on what tools will serve you the best, and support you in achieving your goals.
In this best practice, I’ll tell you about a few solutions that many entrepreneurs consider the best sales automation tools.
We’ll focus on softwares in two KEY areas: how to automate sales and how to enhance sales performance.
With that said, let’s talk about the first one Which is a tool specifically designed for creating and managing the CORE part of automated lead generation and online sales.
It’s called ClickFunnels.
And with it, you can “Quickly Create Beautiful Sales Funnels That Convert Your Visitors Into Leads And Then Customers (Without Having To Hire or Rely On A Tech Team!)”
Currently, over a 100,000 entrepreneurs and small businesses use it. The reason why it serves as the RIGHT tool for many is because it’s MORE than just a tool.
They also offer KEY knowledge and resources to succeed with your automated lead generation and online sales.
And because of that, in the past few years, over a 1,000 entrepreneurs won Two Comma Club Awards. Which means those entrepreneurs have made 7-8-9 figures through this tool.
Besides that, the helpful support and strong community also make ClickFunnels a really popular marketing automation and sales solution. This is only a tiny bit of the top of the iceberg.
It’s an automation tool that can help you a LOT. Recently, we published an hour-long in-depth review of ClickFunnels.
I’ll leave you links to the tool and review in the description for you to check them out later.
OK, let’s move on and continue with this list of softwares including the one that can boost your sales by 17.4% on average in just a few minutes, on autopilot.
In the area of ‘how to automate sales,’ another KEY part is automated follow-ups because, as we all know, “the money is in the follow-ups“.
In this case, specifically, in being in the email inbox of leads and clients every day so when they are ready to buy, they buy from you.
OK, this was an oversimplified explanation of why email automation is so important. In the upcoming few episodes, I’ll talk about that in a lot more detail.
But, for now, let’s focus on the RIGHT email automation tool for follow-ups which is not other than ActiveCampaign.
Over 150,000 entrepreneurs find this tool the best for growing their business with. One of the great things about it is that it’s really flexible.
It makes it possible to use it for simple and complex automated follow-ups as well. Whichever fits exactly what your business, leads, and clients need in different situations.
All that through an easy to use, drag and drop editor, so doesn’t require any technical skills. This tool also provides great resources to learn from, and friendly support and community.
Although ActiveCampaign has a LOT more amazing features that are useful for the follow-up part of sales automation we’ll now move on to other softwares of this best practice.
The following episodes are going to be all about marketing automation best practices related to follow-ups. And in those, I’ll talk about ActiveCampaign in more details.
For now, I’ll leave you a link to this tool in the description.
The next handy tool is related to how to enhance sales performance. When you talk to a customer in real life or on the phone, you get certain instant feedback from them.
Their body language, their voice, what they say, and so on, are all sources of feedback that you can use to shift the way you sell to them.
In online sales, those instant feedbacks don’t get back to you because your customers sit in front of their own screen, looking at an online sales page…
…and maybe they’re even on the other side of the world while you’re sleeping. But obviously, feedback is KEY for optimizing and enhancing your sales.
To get that feedback, a great tool to use is Hotjar. Imagine that you’d be able physically to look over the shoulder of MANY of your customers and not only see what they do…
…and how they behave on your sales page and funnel but also you could record that to analyze those feedbacks in detail.
In a nutshell, that’s what Hotjar does amazingly in the background on autopilot. With that software, you can see and understand how your people behave in your sales funnel…
…what they need, how they feel. And you can use that feedback to optimize and enhance your sales. It is trusted by more than 900,000 websites in over 180 countries.
Another time, I’ll tell you more about it. For now, you can find the link to it in the description alongside other resources.
With that said, let’s stop here for a moment and please do me a favor. If you’re enjoying this episode so far, then tap on the like button right now.
Thank you for your ‘like’ and for giving us feedback this way. And now let’s continue.
The next two tools are similar to Hotjar in a sense of getting feedback and information that we can use to enhance sales automation performance.
If you’re using Facebook ads to generate leads and get new customers…
… then using a Facebook Pixel is essential for you and the Facebook Conversions API also can be beneficial for you to get feedback and insights for optimizations.
And if you’re using Google Ads or YouTube ads then Google Tag Manager is another essential tool to use.
Although these 2 analytic tools can be really useful related to sales automation, we are not going to go deeper into them now. The link to them is in the description for you to explore.
And now, let’s talk about what you’ve been really waiting for. The tiny, simple tool that can boost your sales by 17.4% on average in just a few minutes, on autopilot.
It’s a special social proof tool.
First of all, why does social proof have such a HUGE positive impact on sales automation for small businesses? Because of human nature.
When we are about to do something, if we see that others have already done that recently then we get more curious and motivated to take that action.
In this case, when your sales page visitors can see that others have recently purchased, then your visitors more likely will do the same action and that way, you get more sales and clients.
There are multiple forms of social proof. Dynamic notifications are the quickest and easiest to start with.
And the other benefits related to notification social proofs are you set it up once, and you can leave it to boost your sales on autopilot after the first few tracked orders…
…it will give you almost a full boost, so you can get more sales with it quite quickly. The best social proof tool I found so far is ProveSource.
And according to the ProveSource website, the average conversation boost the users get is 17.4%. Just like the other tools, you can find this one as well in the description.
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