7 Sales Funnel Mistakes that are Costing You Money

spruce it - sales funnel mistakes


Let’s face facts.

Only about 2% of your visitors are likely to buy anything on the first visit (and that’s being generous). Without a sales funnel, you have no way of staying in touch with the other 98%, who may never come back.

When setup correctly, an email funnel can turn a weekly drip of 2 or 3 sales a week into a flood of 20 or 30. But get it wrong and you risk burning through your entire list from the first subject line.

So what would you prefer? To wake up to rocketing conversions or disintegrating subscriptions?

Thought so.

To help you succeed, here are 7 sales funnel mistakes to avoid:

1. No Planning

A properly structured sales funnel needs to coax, prod and pamper subscribers towards spending money. It’s an emotional rollercoaster that can derail if any message is out of sync.

This is why it pays, literally, to work out what you are going to say in each email and how each one builds on the previous one to present a compelling path to profit.

There are many ways to do this. You can follow this seven step strategy, create a weekly course or harness the power of storytelling in your emails, like autoresponder mastermind Andre Chaperon. Whatever you decide, consider how you can create a series which subscribers will eagerly await to see arriving in their inbox.

2. Doesn’t ask readers questions

If you want to keep your emails out of the junk (and gmail’s promotions) folder, your readers have to show they’re interested. A great way of achieving this is to ask them questions about what their biggest challenges are and how you can help.

Not only will this turn leads into friends, but it will improve the health of your list and its deliverability as a whole.

3. No empathy or sales psychology

You can’t hound someone into buying something they don’t want. They have to believe it is something they need and feel it in their gut before they’ll slap down the cash. This is why your emails need to build empathy and trust. You can achieve this by following time proven marketing and persuasion techniques.

Forget about ‘tripwires’ and ‘lead magnets’ for a second. The principles of writing persuasive emails are the same as those used by generations of direct response copywriters. These are techniques powerful enough to get people spending money based on a single ad they see in the newspaper. Imagine what they can do when you’re able to get your copy in front of eyeballs every week, or even daily like Ben Settle (who does a great podcast, by the way).

Re-read some of the copywriting classics to remind yourself what these techniques are.

4. Sells from the first email

Newbie marketers (and those who should know better) will typically start pushing offers from the first email. But email marketing is like dating. You need to build the relationship first. Dont pressure them too early, or you’ll just scare them away.

Use your first email to introduce yourself and to build anticipation for what’s coming up. Then ask them email you back with their biggest problem. This will create engagement and provide you with priceless insights on your market’s pains and hopes.

5. Doesn’t sell enough

You don’t want subscribers thinking this is one long freebie info ride. ‘Selling without selling’ is all well and good. But you can’t assume subscribers will naturally make the jump without a little push.

Start small with a low cost entry level product. Now while they’re feeling the the buzz from taking action follow it up with an offer for the upgrade.

6. No segmentation

Segmentation is something most marketers dont do but can have the biggest impacts on response rates. Remember, when you try to sell to everybody you sell to no one.

Segmenting your subscribers based on interest, buying history and other variables enables you to fine tune your message’s relevancy. This then keeps them engaged, subscribed and spending money for longer.

Even after they’ve registered, you can continue segmenting by offering new lead magnets, conducting surveys or getting them to visit specific pages on your website. You can track all of these actions and use them as triggers to switch them to another email series more attuned to their interests.

7. No tracking, testing or tweaking

Email marketing is hard work. When you’re feeling mentally drained after writing a 21 part email series, it’s tempting to just hand them over and wish clients the best.

But unless clients track, split test and tweak the results they’ll never achieve the massive ROI that email offers. Track and test everything to see which emails are conversion monsters and which are duds. Smooth down the funnel’s edges and remove any friction to create a slick path that increases the order value, buying frequency and profits gained from every customer.

These are my top seven email sales funnel mistakes, but there are plenty more. What would you add to the list? Please share in the comments.

If you’re struggling to get results from your sales funnel, drop me an email and I’ll get back to you with my suggestions on subject lines, body copy and bottlenecks that are blocking conversions..

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