Christina: (00:01) You are listening to the Scaling of Freedom podcast, and if you are an online coach or course creator, you are in the right place. I’m your host, Christina Bernhard. I’m an ads agency owner that gets an inside look every day on what’s working and what doesn’t. In the online coaching space. I’m here to share with you what we see works in our agency as well as what we see happening and changing in the industry. Stay tuned to uplevel your coaching business to have the freedom you want. Let’s get started.

Christina: (00:30) Welcome to episode 175. In this episode, we are gonna be talking about the three most successful funnel strategies I’ve ever seen in the agency. So obviously we see a lot of different funnel strategies and our clients have all kinds of different offers. So they’re like group programs, there are membership models, um, there are low ticket courses, uh, there are high ticket courses, masterminds, all kinds of things, right? And so we see lots of different funnels, and I wanted to go over the three most successful like funnel strategies. And whenever I’m referring to funnel strategies, I’m talking about, um, what the, the backend looks like after the ads. Um, and so what does that sales process look like? How do they, how are they taking these leads and turning them into sales? So all of our clients are coaches. Um, if you’re new here, so I’m referring to, uh, our coaching clients.

Christina: (01:26) And some important details I want to go over first before I go through these strategies is that funnels take time. So funnels take testing and optimization. No one builds a funnel and it just brings in millions and millions on the first try. And so you don’t want to let time pass and not optimize. That’s really, really important. So you don’t wanna just keep filling out this sales process and not staying on top of the optimization because you’re missing opportunities to be able to get to that point where it’s really profitable faster. Um, and so you want to make sure that you are staying on top of that. And, um, you know, funnels, they also, you know, with that optimization, they do need leads to collect that data needed to optimize as well. So I wanna point that out because while these are the most successful strategies that we see in the agency, these were not successful on day one.

Christina: (02:23) So all of these took optimizations, um, in time. And, um, another point that I want to bring up is that funnels do not replace showing up. So they do give you more grace, whereas, you know, they just make it where you have it. It’s okay if you don’t show up 100% of the time. Um, and I mean, that’s really the truth, even if you only do organic, but, um, and you’re just organically selling through Instagram or something like that, um, if you don’t show up for a day, your business is not gonna like, you know, fall to the ground. But, um, with, if you do have some sort of sales process, you don’t have to be like front facing, constantly selling and hustling for leads, um, because you do have that, um, that system in the background. Um, so they just help stack income and growth, especially if you have any passive offers.

Christina: (03:15) You can just have that reoccurring revenue, um, in the background and they can stack. If you do one-on-one or you know, maybe you do a higher ticket, um, offers, then you know, they can help, uh, stack that and you can get to those higher revenues, uh, easier, a lot easier. Um, so I just wanna point those things out first before I dive into what we see works the most, um, because I don’t want you to think that these are magic in a way where if you use these funnel strategies that you’re gonna be just rolling in money on day one because all of them take work and, um, funnels are not as passive as they are marketed to be. Um, so now that we have that out of the way, the first strategy that I’ll go over is, um, using Evergreen webinars to booking calls.

Christina: (04:05) So these are, by the way, these webinars, these are past tested webinars that performed well. And whenever I say perform well, I’m referring to people signing up and also converting. So once someone has one of those webinars that really just resonates, a lot of people signed up for them organically and through pay it ads, um, and also that event converted really well using that as an evergreen webinar. With these evergreen webinars, everyone is aware that they are pre-recorded webinars. Um, the people that are signing up for the replay, they’re still getting a ton of value from them, and it also still converts really well. Now it typically will convert a little lower with the colder audience going through there and, um, also it not being live and it being pre-recorded, but they still convert really, really well. And, um, the strategy that I’m talking about here is that the call to action on the webinar is to specifically book calls.

Christina: (05:04) Um, so they do also get follow up emails, so they do go into an email sequence. Um, but the call to action being a call, um, is what we see works really, really well. So these calls are, they’re often held by our client or a trained sales team. So typically it’s, it’s the client for a long time until you just have so many sales calls, calls that you need to, um, turn it over to a sales team or at least have a sales team help you with the calls. Um, but I highly recommend calls for a variety of reasons. But, um, one of the reasons is that for one, getting a, having the skill of being able to sell is a really great skill to have and get really good at. But also the more that you talk to your leads and people coming through, the more that you’re getting to know what the desire is, what the problems are, you’re getting to know them on such a specific and more intimate level that you are able to have these events, the topics, the, um, different angles that you’re using in your marketing, all of those things are gonna be more and more dialed in because you’re actually talking to people face-to-face.

Christina: (06:14) You are, um, learning more about them, you’re hearing the language that they’re using. You are aware of what their objections are and what they really, really want or what they’re needing. And that is huge for sales, obviously. Like, and, and just creating those offers that are going to align with those people. So having calls with people is going to be so impactful in more ways than just, it’s easier to close a sales call than it is to get people to, you know, just direct by through an email sequence. Um, you know, they are easier to close. But that’s honestly, I don’t think like the biggest benefit of them. I think it’s the rest of the, the things I mentioned. Um, getting to know them, being able to craft those offers that are super aligned. So these are often for high ticket offers, so you don’t need to get on a sales call for a $300 course necessarily.

Christina: (07:05) But, um, if you do have high ticket offers, having people book through or book calls with you, um, we see such great success with that in the agency. The second strategy that I will go over is offering down cells or upsells. So obviously this is, you know, a really common strategy, but, um, I think that a lot of people do miss out on this opportunity and they don’t think to do it. And specifically after a launch. So after a launch, um, you know, Ty, typically what I see a lot of people do is, you know, when the cart closes, that’s it, the launch is over. Um, and not capitalizing on the fact that you do have this other offer that might be a down cell, um, and being able to direct those leads directly to that down cell. Um, you have these new leads and you want to capitalize on that traffic in the audience that you’re building. And what you can do is if you offer that down cell, everyone is already hyped up. They want to your live event and maybe they just weren’t ready for your offer, especially if it’s higher ticket. Um, but they might be perfect for the down sell. So just simply directing people that don’t purchase your high ticket program, um, to the down sell can be a great way to still make a lot of sales and have a really successful launch. Um, another thing is of course, upsells, um, can be

Christina: (08:33) Super profitable. Um, with, with that, you know, there are a variety of things to do with that. But another thing that I wanna point out, um, is that upsells can also be a, an affiliate program that you’re involved in. So if you think about your high ticket program and how that might be, um, you know, the highest offer that you have and your, your clients or students going through those programs, they might graduate to need more support or a different kind of support. Um, and with that, that might be something that you don’t actually offer. So you could have a partnership with someone where you can send your people to them and, um, they can actually take over that next step, but you get, um, a cut of the sales and this can be a really great thing to do if you never plan on actually offering that or you’re not going to right now or whatever the case is.

Christina: (09:27) Um, a great example of this is I had a client that was, um, an O B G Y gyn and she had a birth course. And so, um, as an example, she had no interest in doing postpartum work. It’s not really where like her work was, her work is, you know, during pregnancy. Um, but we all know that, you know, like once a woman goes to full term pregnancy, they enter postpartum. So a really good opportunity would be to have an affiliate program for someone who does, um, specialize in postpartum and has an offer for that. Then you could, you know, you’re already, again, building this audience, nurturing them, getting them to trust you, getting them to invest with you. You have all of this trust, um, and you’ve already served them and you are done serving them, but they absolutely have more needs or they have a need for more.

Christina: (10:18) Um, and so you can just send them over to someone else who, um, ex or is an expertise in that next step or that next phase that they’re going into, and you get a cut of the sales. So this can be, um, another way to do an upsell without actually having an offer prepared as an upsell. So that’s the second thing that I see clients make so much more money by just simply doing that. Because again, you have this, this audience, they’re hyped up, they’re, um, super, uh, intrigued and engaged in what you’re doing, so they’re listening. Um, and so offering them what is right for them, if the offer that you’re selling is not right for them can be huge for making extra money. The third strategy, and this is going to be like an obvious one maybe, but is live launching .

Christina: (11:10) So the reason I wanted to mention this is because my clients that make the most money, they still live launch now, all, not all of them, um, but most of them still live launch. So they still have the highest in sales when they live launch. Just creating that extra hype, um, I was talking about in the last episode about memberships and doing those, those quarterly events to have that live hype going into the memberships, that’s for something that’s like, you know, an evergreen ongoing membership. Um, same thing for any other program. Just having these live launches, um, are really going to help you not only, you know, create that hype and get more people in, but also get you better at sales, which is huge. Like, if you have skills in life that you should focus on getting good at, um, if you’re a business owner of sales, is just going to be one of those skills and you’re gonna get better at it the more that you do it.

Christina: (12:05) So live launching, still gonna put that in there. I see. I, I don’t know if this is like, you know, just because of the algorithm for me, but I get these ads for, um, where people are saying live launching is dead . I don’t know where people get these things from. I mean, I’m, I guess it’s just trying to get me to click through and be like, what is this person talking about? But, um, you know, it might just be a tactic like that, but live launching is not dead , it’s not. Um, my clients are making a ton of money live launching. It works really, really well still. It’s just like a tried and true, um, evergreen strategy. Just live launching is not dead . So, um, that is what I have for you this week. So those are the three strategies, those evergreen webinars, straight to booking a call and getting on those calls, um, offering down sales and upsells, not missing that opportunity from, you know, getting those, the, that audience in that you’ve already like, nurtured and cultivated. And then the last one is live launching. So I hope that you found this helpful and, um, you try out one of these strategies if you’re not already. Um, if you are doing these strategies and you’re not hitting the revenue goals that you want, hopefully this is the validation that you are doing. You are using a strategy that is working. Um, it all just comes down to dialing that messaging. So keep at it and I will see you guys next week.