Quick Navigation:
- What Is a Social Media Marketing Funnel
- 7 Easy Steps to Building a Social Media Marketing Funnel
- Social Media Marketing Funnel Examples
- The Bottom Line
There’s a lot of confusion about social media marketing and funnels. You can indeed combine the two and create a powerful conversion machine; also called a social media marketing funnel. In this blog post we will cover the 7 secrets of developing a strategy that will fill your pipeline with leads. Let’s get started.
What Is a Social Media Marketing Funnel
Simply put, it is a marketing automation method that allows you to attract, engage with, and convert ideal clients. That’s the simplest definition of a social media marketing funnel we could come up with. Unless you are jumping on board of a brand new platform, you will need to earn or pay for engagement, so you will have to have an advertising budget, or you will fail. This type of funnel is great for those who are not afraid of putting themselves out there, and are happy to show up in person to create personal connections with their potential customers.
7 Easy Steps to Building a Social Media Marketing Funnel
As with every funnel, you will need to make sure that you are following the right order, or you will never get a high ROI (return on investment). So if you have five followers, there is no point creating a lot of content that only 0.1 person will see. That’s why it is important that you follow these steps to building your own social media marketing funnel.
Build Your Tribe
This is obvious; without a following, you will have nobody to market to on social media. That’s why this is the first step. You will first have to pick a “home” for your brand. It can be Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, or any other social media platform; the key is being able to create enough consistent valuable content.
This is the step where many people planning on setting up a social media marketing funnel go wrong. They focus on cashing in before they build a following that is engaged with their content. So you will have to participate in communities and groups on your platform, follow influencers, spot the trends early, and create content every day. There’s no way around this.
Well, there actually is: scheduling. If you don’t want to be “on 24/7, you can still look like you are. Scheduling social media posts for your campaign is an option, but – chances are – you’ll still need to show up live.
Creating a campaign with no audience is one of the biggest mistakes I see entrepreneurs make. The second one is not being consistent. I have seen business coaches going live every other hour for a few weeks, then taking a few months’ gap and expecting their followers to still be there waiting for them to come back. It will never happen.
As a conclusion, you will have to pick a platform, create a content plan, and be consistent until your audience starts listening.
P.s. did you know that most successful YouTubers posted new content daily for 1-2 years before they built their millions of followers?
Create Useful Content
At this stage, you will build your very own content funnel. You will already know what your audience’s pain points are and what makes them buy. So you can come up with a few great content ideas that will resonate with them.
Share and Ask for Small Commitments
Once you have a following on social media, you will have to engage with them on a personal level. Of course, you can start doing this in a group, too, if it is more comfortable. But they will need to have the ability to interact with you directly. Remember what we always say: there’s no such thing as a one-way conversation.
Asking for small commitments can be offering a free download, asking for their details before they join your group for free, or getting them to register for an online seminar or mastermind group. At this stage, you have to remember to forget about sales; the conversions will come much later. You just have to make sure that you have a way of contacting them in the future. Plus, you can offer them something valuable that will build reciprocity.
A small commitment can also be – we are talking about social media, after all- sharing your content with your hashtags, tagging you in their posts, etc. It depends on your goals and the content you deliver. Alternatively, you can implement message automation (MobileMonkey or ManyChat work great) to personally thank them for engaging with your posts and offering something valuable for free. Whichever method you choose, it will help you build strong follower relationships and create a highly profitable social media marketing funnel.
Create an Irresistible Offer
Once you have your audience “hooked” on your brand and the messages, chances are that they are ready for more. This is when you make an irresistible offer. One they cannot refuse. This can be a mini-course, access to your webinar or seminar recordings, or a worksheet. I can’t tell you exactly what your ideal client wants; it will depend on what you are offering and what their pain points are. This irresistible offer will be low-to-mid ticket; generally under
£200.
Adding a low ticket irresistible offer to your social media marketing funnel will help you qualify buyers and segment your list. You want to send out different messages to those who have already submitted their credit card details and bought from you than those who are still sitting on the fence.
Your first conversions will happen at this stage of the campaign, but your job is not done yet. You will still need to build loyalty and advocacy, as Supermetrics confirms.
Follow Up
The money is not in the list; it is in the follow-up. You have to remember that only a small percentage of people will buy the first time; this doesn’t mean that the rest of them are “dead ducks” as our sales and accounts managers would call them. In fact, you will find that only one more testimonial, one more valuable piece of content, or one more bonus will push many people off the fence. So follow ups are crucial. In fact, according to Forbes, it is everything in business.
No matter if you use email, messenger tools, DM, text messages, or other platforms; but you will probably have to remind your audience of what you offer at least 15 times. Now, this doesn’t mean that you have to send 15 emails. That wouldn’t be wise. Thankfully, marketing automation software now allows you to track your visitors and reach them through retargeting ads. So, you will not spend hard earned advertising pounds on cold traffic; you might engage with those who have already seen your landing page. A much better return on investment, indeed.
Be present on your main platform and make sure that your tribe follows you on other accounts, too. This will help you stay in front of them, no matter where they go and who they are listening to next. Remember that your ideal client is probably actively seeking a solution. You might be competing for their attention with other people offering similar solutions. So – again – consistency and persistence are crucial for building a high conversion social media marketing funnel.
Create a Sense of Urgency
Once you have run your retargeting ads and engaged with your strongest prospects, you will have to give your social media campaigns a “last push”. This will help you close more sales without having to develop a new bonus or making the offer even sweeter. And it is all down to FOMO (fear of missing out). End the current offer and make it clear that it will never be repeated. So if your prospect doesn’t act now, they will have to pay more.
I have seen many people doing this wrong. They simply relaunch the same campaign in 6 months, so – in essence – they lie to their audience. It is crucial that you end the offer and never promote it again, or you will lose face and nobody will take you seriously in the future.
You can add a countdown timer on your landing page (most funnel software are able to do this automatically), or limit the number of available offers at the current time by number. This is a great way of making an offer during a webinar when you introduce an exclusive offer only for attendees.
Cash In
This is where you have to create a winning conversion funnel and optimise your delivery, so you can get a high ROI. If you don’t ask for the sale you will never get it, but if you don’t have a strong enough relationship with your followers when you ask for the sale, your conversions will suck. So timing is extremely important, and you should always focus on the top of the funnel before sending people to the sales page.
Not many people make a profit from a social media marketing funnel by selling a low or mid-ticket item. They usually make the money in the back-end, or – in marketing language – during the upsell. It is now time to introduce your high ticket item that will take you beyond the break even funnel.
Once you are at this stage, your customer journey is almost finished. You will have made some initial sales, closed more deals after following up with your prospects. Now, it is time to cash in on the relationships you built. If you segmented your leads right, you will know exactly who you want to target with your high ticket offer, and you can maximise your conversions. And that’s when 500% plus ROI social media campaigns are made possible.
Social Media Marketing Funnel Examples
The Free Event Social Media Funnel
Socialiata Media created a free challenge that is advertised on Facebook and other channels. It is a simple invitation to an online event, and it asks for the name and email only upon registration.
The company is targeting aspiring social media managers who want to create better results.
Here are the screenshots:
This established company is likely to be targeting a specific niche. They have the branding right, and – my guess is – they will continue with a webinar funnel, including access to replay upsells, as well as selling their own training. What can we say? Clever.
The Book Launch on Social Media
This author has made a claim that their book is a bestseller, and I had to check it out. It indeed has a lot of testimonials, and there are almost 1,800 ratings on Amazon. So it sounds interesting. Let’s look at the social media funnel and the offer.
Once on the landing page, you will see a video of a guy burning money – so you have to look. The only problem is that it is a bit distracting; takes your attention away from the big red buy button.
I like the sense of urgency on the landing page, not sure about the little ticks, though. Here it goes, you’ll be the judge!
If you happen to want to save £9.99 (that’s the eBook price on Amazon), you will be asked to fill out a form.
On second thoughts, after going through the funnel and adding my details, I don’t really like the concept. It is “too much FOMO” and it asks for the payment details without mentioning the cost of shipping and handling. Well, I am sure this is where loads of people get confused and drop out of the social media marketing funnel.
There is an upsell, but it doesn’t really come naturally. People haven’t yet paid, they don’t know how much it will cost, so why would they want more of the same thing?
You can see for yourself here
I might be too critical, but – as a professional funnel hacker, I spotted the lack of logic which might be killing conversion rates. Reminder: always introduce costs if you have a free offer and upsells based on the additional benefits. Sorry, Sabri, I think we can help you fix your funnel.
Daily Content Funnel by Mike Dooley
I am a great fan of Mike Dooley and his messages from the Universe. I read a lot of his books, but don’t agree with his book recommendations. (Autobiography of a Yogi, really? Levitating saints and people who don’t eat for years are just a bit beyond me). Anyways, Mike’s funnel is simple. He has a huge social media following, he has his TUT (The Universe Talks) group, and his website that is based on a membership model. He goes live every couple of days to give you a few bitesize tips (spiritual tuneups).
His success is consistency and free quality content. He offers a pay what you choose pricing for his membership, and every couple of months he hosts free challenges featuring a spiritual teacher. This helps him create more content with less time.
I particularly love the countdown on his website that lets you know how long you’ve got to register before the next mini manifesting workshop which is free for members.
The Bottom Line
As you have seen from the steps and examples above, there is more than one way to skin a cat (or build a social media marketing funnel). You have to choose the platform that you are most comfortable with, the type of content you can create easily and consistently, and stick with it for a long time. Remember that Russell Brunson says you have to stick with one funnel until you make it to a million dollars in sales.
What’s your favourite social media funnel? Let us know in the comments below.
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