This is a topic that I’m not a fan of talking about because for a lot of people it comes down to money.

They simply look at the price for each email service provider and they go with the cheapest one.

This makes complete sense if you think they are all the same, but they aren’t.

What it comes down to is what features you need and how you plan on using the software.

You might not know how you want to fully set up your funnel until you try to create one. 

In the next lesson, I’ll walkthrough one of my funnels to show you the features that I use in my ESP of choice. This doesn’t mean you need to use this one, but it’s just to give you an idea of the things that you might want to consider when looking at email service providers.

If you don’t think you’re ready to set up a funnel that uses logic to make decisions on what emails to send a reader, then you can go with the basic ones (MailerLite, MailChimp, etc) that has a free tier.

But when it comes time to really targeting the right person with the right message, you’re going to have to spend some money.

There is simply no way around it.

Especially if you want to be able to leave your computer and let your business run on its own.

The Feel Good Funnel

Let’s demystify something right here and right now.

Creating a funnel isn’t hard at all.

Don’t roll your eyes!

I mean it.

You know your Hero. That knowledge right there gives you everything that you need.

From there, you’re simply creating a funnel or funnels that walkthrough what is needed for them to achieve their transformation.

The funnel covers the WHAT they need to do and your product covers the HOW.

The funnel is your validation to them that you can be their guide.

What Is a Funnel?

You should understand what is a funnel because they are going to be one of the most important aspects of your business.

Depending how you set up a funnel it can be your 24/7 salesperson.

But what is a funnel?

Well, overall everything that you do with your business is part of a funnel, but I’m talking specifically about sales funnels.

You’ve probably been in more than you can count.

A big one nowadays is to get you to sign up for a webinar. You know, the webinar that is running at all times and always seems to start in the next 7 minutes?

God forbid you miss that webinar because you’re going to get a million emails reminding you about it.

The purpose of the funnel is to funnel you down to a product where you end up buying it. Funnels come in many forms.

You can check out one of my funnels by signing up for the 13-Day Blogging Bootcamp.

While one of the goals is to educate you about blogging so you don’t get trapped in the “sign up for Bluehost and succeed with blogging trap” the main goal is to get you to sign up for my blogging course, Blog Revenue Engines.

A lot of your time working on your business is going to be working on your funnels.

Because if you can nail those, then you’re golden.

The basic funnel is:

1. Person signs up for your mailing list
2. They receive emails
3. They go to your sales page and purchase

Funnels can get more complicated than that, but they don’t have to start off being complicated.

You have launch funnels, tripwire funnels, evergreen funnels and pizza funnels.

I made up the last one.

Or did I?

Your Funnel

I know you’ll want specific instructions on your funnel but I don’t like to give them because I think all funnels are different.

What I mean is that depending on the size of your transformation you might only need 3 emails to get all of your points across or you might need 10.

However, I don’t want you to think that a single funnel is what you need and you’re done. 

I want you to think long term.

I want you to think about what would a year of emails look like from you?

In essence, you’re writing a TV show and the funnel that you’re working on now is just one story arc or season.

The last thing that you want to do is write your sequence and then call it quits. 

What happens when people are done with your sequence? Do you just ignore them forever or do you continue to walk them through different transformations in the hope that eventually they recognize your greatness and make the move?

These are Evergreen Feel Good Funnels that seem like they run forever, but they continue to sell your products.

Every email that you send gives you more data that you can work out and that’s important because you’ll find that you will always be tweaking your funnel to get more and more out of it.

That doesn’t mean I want you to just see it as numbers. It’s still the main place where you’re going to build a relationship with your Tribe so it’s important that it’s always providing value.

However, don’t get lost in the idea that just because you’re doing an awesome thing and telling stories, that you get to ignore the analytics behind everything.

A year of emails might seem overwhelming but you have all of your Hero’s problems and worldview laid out in front of you.

You can do multiple emails per problem.

You can tell a crazy amount of stories.

Simply by focusing on those things you’ll discover that you’re creating more valuable emails than any one else in your industry.

In the Beginning

Here is something I want you to remember.

You can’t mess this up.

This is not me telling you that you better not screw this up.

This is me telling you that no matter how hard you try, you won’t mess this up.

Funnels are always a work in progress and if there was a surefire way to get 100% of the people that read your emails to purchase your product then I would’ve shared it with you at the very beginning of all of this.

But there isn’t.

The truth of the matter is you don’t know how an email or even part of an email is going to impact a person.

You don’t know when they are going to read your emails.

You don’t know where they are going to read your emails.

There are so many things out of your control when it comes to your funnel so think about it like this: the first funnel that you create sets the baseline.

With the funnel that you first create you’ll be able to see the numbers that you generate and you have something to work with from there.

I don’t want you to get caught in the idea of perfection right off the bat so you don’t end up creating anything.

Because you haven’t created any content for your site yet, you’ll still be able to go back and tweak your funnel before anyone even sees it. You might do this after writing some content and seeing that some parts of your funnel are off.

This is where mindset comes into play.

Growth over Fixed.

There is no ticking clock on your business. This isn’t the final hour you have to work on it so this isn’t make or break. 

We are still at the beginning and that’s important to keep in mind.

With all of that being said, it’s time to dive into your Feel Good Funnels where you’ll learn how to create funnels that aren’t sales and gross.

Product Launch

Decision time.

Do you do a product launch or do you just get your product out there and let it ride?

No worries, I’ll answer the question for you.

If you want to make big numbers every once in a while as you build hype then you’ll want to do product launches.

If you want to make consistent money over time then you’ll want to set up an evergreen sequence.

But that might not help you out at all right now because you’re still indecisive.

In that case, what I would do is start with product launches.

This serves two purposes:

1. Gives you practice in hyping up your Tribe and preparing them to buy
2. Allows you to see what emails work with your audience before putting things on autopilot.

For example, with your first product, you might focus on building up an audience and then do a 1-2 week launch sequence to get them hyped up and ready to buy.

When you launch the product you test out a series of emails to see how it works. The product is only available for X amount of time.

When you close up shop you get to see what worked and what didn’t.

Plus, you also get people using your product and providing you with feedback.

Remember, none of this is ever final. It’s a constant experiment in see what works and what needs to be improved.

One of the worst things that you can do, and I’ve done this plenty of times, is do a product launch, have it fail, and you think that means you need to create another product.

If you’ve done your research with your Hero and understand their problems and have created a product around that problem, then you should make sales over time.

On the first day? No guarantees so don’t get down.

You’re still at the beginning of this long journey.