As an internet marketer, the sales funnel usually begins when a prospect opts-in to your capture page. Your capture page, in essence, is a simple website that a marketer can use to “capture” the contact information of the person who is viewing that website. This capture page is critical to the development of the sales funnel, because without it, you will never be able to build a list of potential customers. Prospects will just visit your site and then leave. This is not what we want. Whenever someone visits our site, what we want is for them not to leave until they give their contact information, thus in effect agreeing to receive future correspondence from us via an email autoresponder.

Now, whether you use pay-per-click advertising, video marketing, ezine articles, or any of the other lead creating techniques, your sales funnel begins when someone gives you their name and contact information. But remember, before you even get to the front end of the sales funnel, you need to master the skill of attracting prospects to your website. This is one of the first critical skills that an internet marketer must learn – how to generate traffic to his/her capture page.

Once you bring a prospect into the sales funnel, it is your job to keep them engaged and interested in what you have to offer. If your correspondence with them via email autoresponder is weak and lacking substance, then you will probably lose them as a future customer. The goal at the beginning of the sales funnel is to prove that you can add value. If you can get your prospects to know, like and trust you, then there is a good chance they will do business with you in the future. My advice is to not try and make money off your prospects at the front end of the sales funnel. This is just my opinion. Many marketers do try to sell some small informational product on the front end, but I don’t like to do this. At the beginning of the funnel, my only goal is to add value, and at the same time both qualify and disqualify leads.

With regards to your email autoresponder, I believe you should have frequent follow-up correspondence with your list. Oftentimes, your emails will prove too many for some prospects and they will simply opt out of your list. This is perfectly fine. In fact, we want some people to opt out. That may sound strange, but if someone gets tired reading your emails, then they probably won’t have the patience to succeed in your online business. That makes sense, doesn’t it?! Weeding out the field is a smart idea. We don’t want everyone, we only want the prospects who want what WE have to offer.

Once you begin to establish a relationship with your prospects, you can start marketing to them. This takes place near the middle of the funnel. Maybe you offer a low ticket internet marketing boot camp first, and then later on offer up your high ticket opportunity. Similarly, depending on what you want to do, you can also offer products at the back-end of the funnel, both for those who elect to join your primary opportunity and those who don’t. I’ll expound upon this idea in one of my next postings. For now, just remember how the sales funnel should function.

1. Sales funnel begins when a prospect opts-in to your capture page.
2. It continues with you adding value via email autoresponder. Send your prospects useful information about online business and succeeding as an internet marketer. I recommend refraining from upfront sales pitches.
3. Once you develop a relationship whereby your prospects start to know, like and trust you, you can then start marketing your lower ticket products.
4. Then move towards marketing your primary opportunity.
5. At the back end, offer products which can both be used by the prospects who join your primary opportunity and those who don’t.

I look forward to continuing this discussion on the sales funnel soon.