Create a Profit Funnel: 6 Steps to Better Offers

What are your product peripherals? I mean what other products and services are your readers interested in? What else can you offer them, besides your own products and services? More products means more ways to enter your funnel, and create more profits.

For example, people come to me to get help with their newsletters and blogs. But what else do they need? They need other marketing tools. They need content marketing planning & coaching, they need video, shopping cart, ebooks, etc.

Having a great newsletter or a great blog doesn't mean squat if it doesn't work to sell your stuff. My target audience of smart professionals may also need help with copywriting, social media strategies, surveys, podcasts and teleseminars, videos, and information products like ebooks.

When I started out ten years ago, I only did one thing: wrote content and designed printed executive newsletters for coaches. Today I offer online services but it goes way beyond e-newsletters, beyond blogs. I can help with several content marketing tools.

Along the way, I've had to adopt a few key programs to market my own business, such as KickStartCart, and MyKnowledgeGenie. I've learned from a few experts and I recommend their products and services.

The reason this is important is because of your profit funnel. Someone may come to you for one thing, like and trust the way you work, and decide they want to rely on you for other related services.

Here's what you need to do to set yourself up for more robust sales and services:

1. Look at the small picture: what's the one thing you can do better than anyone else?
2. Look at the big picture: What's the umbrella term for what your people need?
3. What other products and services under that umbrella can you provide? Make sure you make it easy to find and buy from you.
4. What products and services you can't provide, but what affiliate products and services can you offer?
5. Contact good providers of those services and products and offer to promote them in exchange for a referral fee.
6. Always be upfront with your readers when you do this, let them know you get an affiliate commission.

I like to provide examples of how this works for myself, and it also serves a double purpose of promoting some of the products I'm affiliated with! I have no qualms about promoting these products because I've used them myself and endorse them from personal experience.

Never promote something simply because you get a nice affiliate commission, and always let people know you do. In fact, it's the law now: if you promote something on your blog, you must reveal if you are getting any financial benefits.

Here are some of the peripheral services I promote and recommend:

The Grandaddy of all Shopping Carts

First and foremost is a good shopping cart and database management system, to segment your marketing list of email addresses and to provide digital downloads. It will also manage subscriptions, send out email promotions and e-newsletters, and manage your affiliate programs, and so much more, including online sales:

• KickStartCart: They are the best! Great online tutorials and videos to help you master this comprehensive marketing infrastructure. No small business professional who does business online should be without it.
  
• AudioAcrobat: Create podcasts, audio files, record teleseminars and interviews and testimonials
  
• MySurveyExpert: Having a customized survey available for your web visitors to take is a great way to engage with readers, and build a marketing database. Take mine here: ContentMarketingSurvey.
  
• MyKnowledgeGenie: This is a marvelous ebook and info product creating wizard that saves time and energy to write, publish and sell online. Check it out: Here's an example of what you can create, Content Marketing for Online Profits, completely free to get access.
• MySocialMediaSolution: Find out what you're missing in social media through taking this survey which creates a customized social media strategy for you and your business.
• iFlashVideo: They will create professional video clips for you for just $49/month (Value $400).
• Fastype VA Services: Terry Green and her staff can provide a multitude of back-office services. Don't even try to do it all yourself, or spend time learning things you're not swift at.
• Journal Engine Self-Coaching Software: Learn how you can provide customized online coaching programs for your people.

Please note, I don't get commissions on every one of these services, but I do recommend using them because of the big benefits in terms of saving time, money and energy. There are others I use and recommend, too, like Typepad.com and Wordpress blogging themes.

Ask yourself, what else do my customers need? Then find out how you can create relationships and programs that promote additional, peripheral products to expand your business profit funnel.

Comments

[Jon Buscall]

Some great tips there. I think it's important to have a variety of services like this but a newbie has to be careful not to waterdown their initial brief.

Too many people are unclear (at least how they appear online!) about what they are actually selling.

I'm definitely checking out AudioAcrobat from your list. I liked the way the Seth Godin piece was featured. My WordPress plugin has been causing a few prob of late.

[Patsi Krakoff]

Great Advice, Jon. Yes, some plug-ins, and some shopping carts that come with websites, don't have all the important features that lead to automated marketing. Best to go with what the experts all use, there's a reason so many people use the popular programs.

[Dan Wedin]

I like points 1 and 2. Looking at your position from extreme perspectives usually provides insight for future direction.

[What Is Your Net Biz]

I like it how you call it "profit" funnel - has much better ring to it and definitely more benefit-oriented term than "sales" funnel.

Thanks,
Ana/YourNetBiz Mentor

[how to sell ebooks]

I like point number 3 particularly. You need to discover relevant products and then sell those to your target audience as well.. either as a back end product or later as a new product. Thanks for sharing.