How to Create a Sales Funnel: For Spriritual Entrepreneurs and Creatives

Everything I’m about to say here is directed to those who market directly to consumers or individuals. I’m sure there is someone out there  who’s utilizing sales funnels to appeal to their contacts at big corporations, but that’s not what we’ll be talking about here.

Secondly, a sales funnel is not (despite the hype on the internet) something that is without effort, work, or upkeep. YES, it can totally help you to introduce yourself to new clients and to literally “funnel” them toward your programs and services, but it’s not the panacea for client acquisition that some might claim.

 

What is a sales funnel then?

A sales funnel is a way to offer you ideal clients your beautiful offers and is the beginning of a conversation with your ideal clients. It’s simply an automated communication strategy, in which you get to engage with your ideal clients and open up the dialogue.

Of course, in an email sales funnel, that dialogue is a little one-sided. We understand the dialogue to be continuing by whether the ideal client clicks on that next email or not.

If they click, they want to hear more from you.
If they don’t, then they don’t.

And that’s totally okay. Because a sales funnel isn’t about getting EVERYONE to like you.

Again, you are trying to open up that communication. Which means that some of your ideal peeps will love you, and follow you through to the end of the funnel. And others…well, they  might fall off earlier on in that funnel.

If you think of this literally as the shape of a funnel, then imagine that there are many people who  start off in that open mouth of the funnel. And then, through a series of automated emails, we are slowly winnowing that larger group down to those ideal clients that really want to work with you and with whom you really want to work.

That might take many different forms, but most paths look something like this:

1. Start with a free offer (webinar, training, quiz, guide, planner, checklist, ebook). The prospective client enters their email in order to receive this amazing freebie (also called an opt-in.)
2. And then the automated email funnel kicks in. This is a series of emails, all carefully aligned to take your client from the path of just getting to know you to completely knowing, liking, and trusting you.

And here’s a general set-up of funnel emails:

1. Your initial “thanks for downloading”
2. Introduction to you and your story, your why
3. More introduction, possibly more vulnerable here
4. Showing them results of previous clients in story form à make sure they understand that these results are possible for them
5. More results of previous clients in story form
6. Pitch
7. Pitch
8. Pitch

How many emails do I really need?

The above are only suggestions. Generally speaking, they (whoever “they” is…) say that the bigger the price for your program or product, the more emails to get people to gain that confidence. But there are actually not any real rules.

Variations:

• Building blocks: Each new email is an additional building block, building off of your initial freebie. For instance, a client of mine offered a series of five meditations that all build up to the fifth email in which she picthed her offer.
• Including video: video is so great for allowing people to get to know you.
• Smaller offer: Adding in a smaller offer about halfway through.
• Rechanneling or retargeting those who didn’t click on the smaller offer into an even smaller offer/product
• Retargeting those who didn’t open the first email

How vulnerable should I be in my emails?

This is up to you, of course, but really, if part of your story is how you overcame depression and used energy healing in order to heal yourself, then you might want to write about that.

On the other hand, people don’t need to know every detail about your struggle, either. Simply start writing, as if you were speaking to your ideal client, and see where it leads you.

But can a sales funnel work for my business? Can a sales funnel work for spiritual entrepreneurs?

In a word, yes, but again with the caveat that you don’t think of this as something to be set up once and never touched again. Because YOU are always growing and evolving as an entrepreneur, you’ll want to also reflect that in your sales funnel.

How do I get people into the funnel?

What feels best for YOU? How do you generally like to market? A few ideas:

• Paid ads
• Affiliate marketing with JV partners
• Summits
• Social media posts
• On your business cards
• In your signature line
• In your social media profiles

These might all sound intimidating, so start with what feels most comfortable to you, like offering it on your business page.

How do I actually do this? What technology should I use?

Ha! There’s that “should” question.

My advice would be start with Mailchimp. Mailchimp now offers free automation as part of their free option. You can do a lot with Mailchimp before you’ll want to upgrade to its paid option or to another email responder like Convertkit or AWeber.

Mailchimp also offers free landing pages, which you can use (even if you don’t have a website) to steer people to your freebie or opt-in.

Or, if you prefer, you can host a page on your own website that contains the “name/email/sign-up” button from Mailchimp.

If you’re interested in a very detailed, step by step instructions on how to do this, receive my quick guide, How to Connect Mailchimp to my Freebie here.

How to Connect Mailchimp to Your Freebie: A Simple, Step-by-Step Guide

But more important than the technology or the “how” is…your energy!

Like everything in business, it’s not actually about the “how”. As a spiritual entrepreneur, you’ll really want to check in and discover whether a sales funnel is aligned with the way you want go forward in your business.

Each email title, each part of your offer, each pitch in your email needs to be aligned with you. That means if you don’t feel like it really represents you and your services, then it’s not going to feel good to send it out there.

You’ll want to get really in touch with:

• What do I most want to offer?
• What services do I truly want to provide to others?
• What feels right and true for me, right now?
• Is this aligned with my highest good and the highest good of all others?

Because the success of the funnel depends on your mindset:

A funnel’s success depends on you. And if you don’t believe it will be successful, then it won’t be. Are you telling yourself (even subconsioucsly), one of these things:

• people will unsubscribe
• I don’t want to sell
• I don’t want to pitch
• I don’t have great enough results
• people won’t like me sending multiple email
• I’m not a good writer.
• these don’t even work
• I don’t even know what my message is yet, so why bother?
• I don’t have a great website/branding/brand photos
• they take too much tech knowledge
• I don’t want to be vulnerable

 

These are all pretty common fears. The good news is, once you recognize them, you can release them. Notice where they’re sitting in your body, acknowledge them as true for this moment, and then allow them to release. (You can’t skip the acknowledging part!)

Where should I start?

Imagine you’re at a cocktail party and meeting someone for the first time, someone who is genuinely interested in you and your work and explain to them how you got started. Then write it all down.

Essentially, just start writing. I know that sounds super simplistic, but there’s no way to do this that doesn’t involve you telling your story.

And if you want more help, I offer help with sales funnels as part of my 1:1 coaching packages. We not only get it all set up for you, I also have my clients feeling totally confident about what they’re putting out into the universe.

Let’s chat!

So that sales funnel really, truly DOES bring them their ideal clients.