123rf29799235 largeWelcome to Part II of this educational series on how to build an email list using funnels (even if you don’t have a product or service yet), especially written for our newsletter readers. In case you missed Part I, you can read it here.

In this installment, I want to continue talking about basic funnels, giving you some examples and building on the “opt-in” funnel with a little more detail. I’m going to outline a very powerful, insanely simple, yet massively underutilized strategy, and give you some homework, because I want you to start implementing and getting results. You’ll find a special video tutorial here “Lesson #2 - Your First Funnel” in the link below.

This is free and exclusive to our newsletter readers who get more guidance and examples, links and other resources you can use here.

The Most Common Challenge Business Owners Face

Let’s talk more about the most common challenge business owners have with opt-in pages – also known as landing pages or squeeze pages – and how to overcome that challenge INSTANTLY!

The challenge is: How to build a large email list of followers to contact with offers today and into the future.

Often when I work with new clients, we start off by discussing “What free ‘thing’ can you give away on an opt-in page to build your contact list?” [quotesright]Nine times out of 10, they reply “Umm… I actually don’t have anything like that.” [/quotesright]

Time is precious when building a business. The bank doesn’t wait to collect the rent or mortgage payment from you, so we need to get on it… like NOW! But the big question is what do you do if you need to build that list now, but don’t have giveaways or a big email list already in place?

How many times have you had an idea to launch something, a product, a course, a widget but were stalled out wondered about how you’d market it before it was ready, and with a small or no list of followers?

[quotes]The solution is simple. [/quotes] It’s what I call a “Waiting List” or Pre-Launch Notification funnel. I LOVE waiting list funnels and I’m amazed so few business owners use them. It is simply a landing page that hypes up your “soon-to-be-released mega product,” where you promise to give a sneak peek or special price to those early birds who simply sign-up to be notified first about the launch.

Now the great thing about this strategy is that not only is it simple to execute, all you need to have is have the “idea.” [quotesright]The power of this is that it enables you to do very, very rapid market research before you spend a dime. [/quotesright] You could brainstorm 10 possible products/services that you have been thinking about launching and build waiting-list funnel pages for all of them. You can then market all those pages on your Facebook page, Instagram, LinkedIn, or whatever marketing channels you usually use, then see which of your ideas gets the most opt-ins.

Once you know what’s grabbed people’s attention most, you can prioritize and start building the products that have the biggest waiting lists.

You’re listening to your prospects’ needs, delivering what they want, and ensuring that your precious time is not wasted building products that no one is interested in.

Great examples of waiting-list or notification funnels, are Black Friday funnels that many retailers put in place in the weeks leading up to the annual Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend. They do this to create excitement and anticipation for the great stampede to come in November. It’s a strategy to ensure that they reserve some of their customers “wallet” when the sales open.

This past October, our team looked at the funnel pages of some major retailers, and we built ready-to-use templates in our funnel building platform of choice, Clickfunnels. Take a look at the examples here, and go to Lesson #2 to watch the video walkthrough to see those and other funnel templates. You can download and use them for free.

Put what you have just learned into practice right now. Ahead of next month’s article, I’m going to give you some homework. Think of at least five possible low-barrier-to-entry offers you could EASILY make, and then work on some simple wording for each of those offers to entice people to sign-up to be notified when they are available.

Here are some examples to help you get started:

  • FREE REPORT: The 3 secrets that [your industry] doesn’t want you to know that could save you $1,000s in [costs/insurance premiums/monthly payments/fees]
  • FREE WEB CLASS: Join the early-bird list for our new upcoming web class that shows you 7 ways of how to [thing your customers really want] without [pain they want to avoid]
  • SPECIAL PRE-LAUNCH SPECIAL! - We are launching a brand-new THING on April 1, 2018! Signup to our pre-launch notification list and receive an exclusive special discount!
  • FREE CHECKLIST FOR OUR EARLY BIRDS! We are about to release a checklist that [professionals in your field e.g. builders, gardeners, chiropractors, dentists etc…] will pay us thousands of dollars to not publish. It’s a list of 20 questions that anyone in the [industry] industry hopes you’ll never ask them, because it will reveal where they are ripping off their customers!
  • Join our BLACK FRIDAY/CYBER MONDAY/CHRISTMAS SALE/VALENTINES/EASTER/SUMMER SALE Special offer Waiting List! Signup to our list, and we will notify you FIRST of all the products/services that we will be putting on sale!

[quotesright]You’ll want to make sure the offer is so enticing that leaves your prospects no choice but to sign up to be notified.[/quotesright] Even if it means you’ll be giving those people access two weeks before anyone else, that will make them feel special. Or maybe you’ll offer a special discount, or extra bonuses etc.

That’s all for now. Get cracking with your homework and go to the training area to get the example funnels and additional free video training materials.

Having a newsletter that you regularly send out to the people on your list with content they find interesting, useful, and sharable is a great use of the contact email list you are building. You’ll create top-of-mind awareness of your business and build a stronger connection with your followers so your next product or service launch will be well and eagerly received.

Have fun!

- Jason “Funnel Jedi” Economides, co-founder of Funnel Kitchen

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