If you’re like most health & wellness practitioners, you probably feel a little (or a lot!) overwhelmed by all the marketing advice out there today.
Honestly, it can feel like you’re drinking from a firehose:
- Create more “reels” on Instagram
- Create recurring income with a membership
- Create a signature group coaching program
- Get on all the podcasts
Trust me, I get it!
As a long-time entrepreneur & wellness practitioner myself, I spent *years* drinking from that firehose of advice & information. 😴
But here’s the good news:
When you choose to get your advice from someone who understands your industry & who’s actually walked in your shoes before, things feel less overwhelming! And that’s always my goal – to cut through the jargon & give you practical information that will move the needle in your practice.
So today, we’re taking the seemingly complicated topic of “sales funnels” & breaking it down into simple terms so you’ll know how to use it to get more leads and grow your wellness biz.
Sound good? I’ll make it fun for ya 😉
So, What is a Sales Funnel Anyway?
Simply put, a sales funnel refers to the path a person follows on their way to becoming a patient.
Simple enough, right?!
Just close your eyes for a second and envision an actual funnel. At the top, it’s wide, and this is where people enter your funnel. It’s where they first find out about you or your business – maybe it’s on social media, or maybe it’s a paid advertisement – lots of options here.
Now… if things work out the way we want, that person continues through our virtual funnel, eventually reaching the narrowest part, which represents becoming a patient 👏 We’ll talk about how to effectively get people to the bottom of the funnel shortly 😉
Even if you don’t realize it, you have some kind of sales funnel in place already if people are making appointments. Perhaps someone (1) finds you on Google and (2) books an appointment – that’s a basic sales funnel right there.
Or maybe they (1) see your post on social media about a particular symptom and (2) book an appointment on your website.
The only problem?
- It’s not happening as often as you’d like!
- Maybe these people aren’t quite your ideal patients
So, when you hear the marketing gurus talking about sales funnels, all they’re really talking about is addressing the two problems above.
Because a great sales funnel leads to more ideal clients choosing to book with you 🙌
So what does this look like on a more practical level & what makes a good funnel?
What Makes a Great Sales Funnel?
Now that we’ve established that a sales funnel is simply a journey that a person takes before becoming a patient, how do we make that journey more effective?
In other words, how do we encourage our ideal clients to book or buy from us once they’ve become aware of us?
Well… it really comes down to three things, which you may have heard of as the “know-like-trust” factor.
Just like relationships in the real world, there are stages involved. Every client is going to need a different amount of nurturing before they book, but a great sales funnel helps your ideal clients:
- Get to know you
- Get to like you
- Get to trust you
Because the bottom line is that most people aren’t ready to buy or become a patient the first day they discover you online. They need to learn from you & warm up to you over time.
So, how do you go about nurturing these people?
So glad you asked!
Typically, this starts by offering a free and valuable piece of content called a lead magnet – in exchange for someone’s email address. People love free stuff!
Now, you might be wondering:
“OK Ronda, but what the heck am I going to do with a bunch of email addresses?”
You’re going to send those people a series of pre-written emails (this is part of your funnel!) that provide even more value, warm them up to your wellness philosophy, and maybe even have a little humor woven in if that feels aligned for you. The idea is to make it feel personable rather than sales-ish, *but* you’re going to include “calls-to-action” at the bottom of these emails that invite people to book an appointment, or take another desired action.
Think of it like dating for your business – you’re putting your best foot forward & getting to know one another. The emails can be set to go out every couple days, letting things warm up naturally over time.
And the beauty of it all? This little sales machine, or sales funnel, is running on autopilot while you stay focused on serving patients.
Sounds like a no-brainer right?
4 Steps to Creating a Strategic Sales Funnel
Now let’s break this into actionable steps so you can get this sales machine up & running within your wellness business!
1. Decide on Your Free Thing.
This is the free thing we talked about above. You want something that your ideal patient would find super valuable. People don’t just fork over their email addresses for anything, so we want this to be really valuable. I wrote a whole blog on lead magnets if you need ideas, but this could be a recipe book, health guide, a pre-recorded class, a quiz, or even a discount code for a particular service. Something that entices people to fork over that email address so we can start our relationship building process in their inbox! 🔥
2. Deliver Your Freebie via a Welcome Email.
When a person enters their email address to access your free content, you’ll automatically send them an email with a “access now” button at the bottom. This email is the perfect opportunity for you to introduce yourself and invite them to take further action, such as following you on social media or sharing the freebie with a friend.
3. Write Your Automated Email Series.
Write a series of 4+ emails to automatically deliver after a person has downloaded their freebie. This is where you do all the relationship building – provide more value, show your personality, share thoughts on your philosophy, and invite them to take the next step with you. If you write 4 emails in this series, I would focus the first 3 on building rapport & providing more value, and then focus the 4th on making a sale.
Pro Tip: If writing makes you cringe, consider hiring a copywriter to help you write these emails. It’s a great investment that you will use over and over every time someone signs up for your “freebie”!
4. Advertise Your Free Thing.
Add your freebie to your website using an “opt-in” form, or even a dedicated landing page that describes why it’s so great. Then, start posting about it on social media once per week, and send people over to sign-up! Once you’ve received feedback and you’re confident that your ideal patient loves this new freebie, consider running some Facebook ads to the freebie.
Need Some Sales Funnel & Marketing Support?
Even when you’ve found someone who breaks things down with crystal clarity, making a plan for implementation can be hard to do on your own.
If you need a hand, I’d love to chat with you.
Book a call and let’s see what we can do together!
