Dear Tommy,
This email is similar to a magician revealing his magic tricks. Please don't tell on me.
First, what is a sales funnel?
Well, you're in a sales funnel right now. This bootcamp is a sales funnel that is trying to funnel you towards purchasing a membership to the Billionaire Blog Club.
Almost every single time you give your blogger your email you're going to be entering a sales funnel. If you aren't in one it's just because the blogger doesn't know about them yet.
The idea behind a sales funnel is that you have a goal that you want to guide your audience towards.
For example, I hope that by going through this Blogging Bootcamp I accomplish two things:
  1. Give you enough insight into what goes into building a successful blog so you can step out on your own and conquer the world
  2. If you want to get even more in-depth information you join The Billionaire Blog Club
Bloggers create sales funnels because it's very hard to do a cold sale.
What that means is it can be hard to have someone come to your site and buy something on their first visit. Instead, you have to establish some trust with them and let them know that you are the person that they should trust with their money.
This is why you create a sales funnel.
You might see them referred to as email sequences, campaigns, or autoresponders. I'm going to refer to them as Sales Funnels.
Before we dive into them I want to explore the mind of a buyer.

How do buyers think?

You've bought stuff before but have you really taken the time to think about how buyers think?
If you have to go and buy a new computer do you buy the first one you see or do you take the time to research? What made you even consider the brand? What type of specs do you need?
If you're a huge Apple fan then you're only going to look at Apple. They've pushed you through the first hurdle of trying to sell to someone.
With your blog you are starting from scratch.
The first interaction you'll get with a visitor is with a blog post. If your blog post is awesome (and it is) then you have a chance of getting someone to sign up for your mailing list.
Your mailing list then becomes your next chance to interact with them. Here you must create even more value.
As they get to know you more and more about the problem(s) they have, they begin to consider the solution you are offering.
There are some crazy things you can do with Sales Funnels. If you never opened this email I could have my email software resend it 3 days later or maybe even send you a completely different sales funnel.
I used to have a countdown timer showing every time you visited the BBC sales page.
They can get really complicated and I think that's what scares people.
The audience I'm trying to sell to is bloggers but not just any bloggers. Most of the audience are suspicious bloggers that might've purchased a blogging book or course from someone else and got nothing out of it.
The audience also consists of people that have no idea how blogging works. They are the reason why we haven't gotten into the "Install WordPress" phase of things because I want them to understand the foundation of successful blogs.
Two different audiences that have different mentalities and I can only hope this bootcamp does it's job and addresses both of their needs.

Work backwards

The best way to plan a sales funnel is to work backwards.
Instead of thinking about the first time someone interacts with your blog think about what you want them to buy or what you want the end result to be.
Then you just walk backwards figuring out what is going to lead them to the step prior.

Gardening Blog Example

I have no idea why I always use a gardening blog as an example. Just roll with it.
Let's say you have a book on growing pumpkins and you want everybody to buy this book on pumpkin growing. This is the end goal.
You decide that the best way to get them to buy the book is by showing them a little bit on how to grow them.
This is where people get scared because they don't want to give away their whole product in a free email sequence but most of your value is in the product so you have to be okay with giving some away.
The email sequence can simply go over the supplies needed and how to set up your backyard to prepare for pumpkin growing.
The book you're trying to sell actually covers a lot more:
  • Where to buy good seeds
  • The best soil
  • Step-by-step instructions on building the right planter
  • How to set up a watering schedule
  • And other things
Your readers can get by on your email sequence but they can accelerate the process if they buy your book.
And that's the essence of a sales funnel. You're essentially teasing your reader. You're getting them hyped up on awesome information. They get so hyped that they want more but they have to pay for it.
How often do movie trailers give away the plot of a movie and yet people still go see them?

What if you have nothing to sell?

Sometimes you'll start a blog with nothing to sell. That's okay because you should set up some type of email sequence because it's a good way to conduct user research.
For my blog, Obstacle.co, I didn't start off with any products to sell. I created two separate email courses that people could go through and there was nothing at the end. There was no upsell but each email asked the reader to answer a question so I could engage with them and get to know their problems more.
This, in turn, helped me to create some service offerings along with a book.
When I had the book I then went back and tweaked the email sequences a bit to guide people towards the book.
An email sequence without a product serves 3 purposes:
  1. It gets people used to hearing from you. Nothing worse than having people sign up for your mailing list and you go dormant for 6 months.
  2. It gets them comfortable with the value that you provide them.
  3. It helps you get to know them and possibly segment them a bit more.
So that is what sales funnels are all about. Nothing too scary or too complicated. They take some practice and constantly need to be tweaked to be improved.
Every month this blogging bootcamp will get better as more and more people go through it. I'm not sure what iteration you're reading right now but I can promise you that if you came back again a month from now you'll see it's a little bit different.
Tomorrow you're going to go all the way to the beginning of a Sales Funnel and have a look at email opt-ins.
- Scrivs
PS: This is the end of Day 5. Is there something that still isn't making much sense to you? Ask away and I'll try my best to answer.
You'll also notice that we still haven't talked about blogging.
This is intentional because it's important that you switch your mind into business mode when working on your blog and not look at it as a hobby where you just write some things down.