There are many benefits to creating and selling digital courses online…

• High margin – nearly 100% pure profit
• Scalable – you can sell an infinite amount
• Helpful – you can literally change people's lives with your courses
• Boosts authority – you've probably heard the saying, “you wrote the book on it”… well, that applies to courses too, “you created the course on it”, making you an authority on the subject

I'm sure there are more benefits, but those are the biggest.

This post is will walk you through the steps to create and sell “affordable” courses. Note: if you want more step-by-step instructions, you can checkout the course here.

What's An “Affordable” Course?

Before we dive into the details, let's define “affordable”…

• A course that's less than $300

And here are some of the pros and cons for selling these “affordable” courses…

Step 1) Plan & Create Your Course

If you don't have a course already, then you need to start here. If you already have a course, feel free to jump down to step 2.

There are a few things to take into consideration when planning your course…

1. Audience – who is this course for? ex. Small business owners.
2. Topic – what is the course is about? ex. Facebook ads.
3. What type of course are you going to create?
   • Mastery level – Everything you need to know about [topic]. ex. Everything you need to know about Facebook Ads.
   • Results-based – How to [generate result]. ex. How to generate leads for your small business with Facebook Ads.

Once you've answered those questions, it's time to work on your course outline.

Creating an outline is a critical step because it…

• Ensures your course follows a logical progression.
• Ensures you cover all necessary topics and details.
• Makes your life easier because you don't have to think about “what to do next”, you already know what you need to do.

The video below will show you how I go about creating my course outlines. Note: the video is from the course, so you might hear me reference some other videos, but the “meat” of the training stands on it's own. Y don't have to watch those other videos prior to watching this one!

After you've taken a few days to plan your course, it's time to actually create it.

There are many ways to create a course, but here are a few of the key tools I use for mine:

• Camtasia
• PowerPoint
• Draw.io

Is your course made? Great, move onto the next step!

Step 2) Sell Your Course With A Funnel

Sure, you could sell your course by setting up a sales page, slapping a PayPal button on it, and delivering it via email. Or, by using a tool like Gumroad to make it even easier… but, in my experience, the best way to sell a course is with a sales funnel…

Why use a sales funnel? A couple reasons:

1. Funnels can increase conversion rates. On average, sales pages convert between 1-5%; however, with the proper strategy, you can dramatically increase conversion rates by bringing people through a funnel which “warms” them up before presenting the offer.
2. Funnels can increase Average Order Value (AOV). Funnels give you the opportunity to present more offers to people as they checkout in the form of order bumps, 1-click upsells, and 1-click downsells.

Obviously, being able to sell to more people and increasing the amount they spend is something we all want to do… right?! Well, a funnel is the best way to do it!

Let's examine the parts of the funnel:

1) Squeeze Page

The “Squeeze Page” is designed to capture someone's contact information in exchange for a Lead Magnet. Having someone's contact information gives you the opportunity to follow up with them and build a relationship.

A Lead Magnet is something of value that your potential customers want. It can be a checklist, cheat sheet, flowchart, or even video training.

Ideally, you'll be able to use a resource (pdf, doc, etc.) or even a training video from your course, as your Lead Magnet.

From my experience, having a very simple squeeze page with a headline, possible sub-headline, and a picture of the offer, tends to convert better than something “fancy” with a lot of details.

This is my top converting squeeze page format:

2) Welcome and Pre-Sell Page

The Welcome and Pre-Sell Page is the page an individual lands on after they request your Lead Magnet.

There are 2 courses of action you can take on this page…

Course of Action #1: Pre-Sell

For this CoA, I recommend having a short 1-5 minute video that does the following…

1. Congratulates them on requesting the lead magnet and tells them it will land in their inbox in the next few minutes. Also, remind them to check the spam folder if they don't see it.
2. Confirm the lead magnet will help them with X, Y, and Z, but…
3. It's just one piece of the puzzle. If they really want to get to the next level… you have a special offer for them on the next page! (you can end the video here if you want, or you can keep going…)
4. Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How…
   • Who needs this special offer? Call out your audience. Makes sure people are in the right place… this special offer is for small business owners looking to drive more leads.
   • What is the special offer? It's a step-by-step video course on [topic] with dozens of resources and flowcharts, supportive community, and a 30 day money back guarantee.
   • When is the special offer? You can gain instant access right now at this introductory price; however, the price will go up in the near future.
   • Where is it? On the next page!
   • How to get it? Click the button below… (you can end the video here if you want, or you can keep going…)
5. Here's what our customers are saying about the course… scroll through testimonials, reviews, and real world results.

Course of Action #2: Teach

In this CoA, you're not going to go straight into selling.

Instead, you're going to deliver the Lead Magnet right on this page, so they have instant access.

Then, teach a lesson on the Lead Magnet – how it relates to them and how to use it so they can get the most out of it. This training will be as long as you need – from 3 minutes to 90 minutes and anything in between is perfectly fine here.

During the training, you want to soft-sell and tease your course. Basically, highlighting the fact that the Lead Magnet isn't “everything” and there's more stuff they can learn from you.

I highly recommend split-testing these two CoAs.

The Page

Here's what my typical Welcome & Pre-Sell page looks like:

The content on the page is pretty self-explanatory, so I won't bore you with those details. Below the video, you may want to have a few bullet points that highlight the key points covered in the video, just in case someone would rather read than watch.

3) Sales Page

The Sales Page is the page where you sell your course. (obviously!)

While you've certainly seen thousands of sales pages in your lifetime, you may have never created one.

To help you understand the underlying principles of a sales page, here's a breakdown of the common elements most sales pages have:

• Headline – Only job is to capture attention
  • Ex. How to get [benefit] without [pain].
• Subheadline – Clarify headline, share main benefit of the offer
  • Ex. Title of your course. (or vice versa, use the title of your course as the headline with the formula as the subheadline)
• Image – You will likely have a bunch of images on your sales page; however, the very first one should be focused on grabbing attention
• Video – You can use a video instead of an image. In the video, cover the…
  • Who – Who are you and who is your course for?
  • What – What do you have to offer?
  • Why – Why should someone want what you’re offering? Scarcity!
  • How – How to get what you’re offering?
• Lead Copy – Brief paragraph that pulls the individual into the rest of your sales page
• Trust Signals – Social proof, testimonials, “as seen on”, etc.
• Longer Copy – What you’re actually selling. Features, benefits, description of offer (what they get, bonuses, payment options, etc.), etc.
  • For courses, I breakdown all of the individual lessons and share their benefits
• Call To Action (CTA) – How to get it

Here's what my typical Course Sales Page looks like:

4) Order Form Page

The Order Form Page is where the individual enters their payment information, selects their payment option (if there are any), and actually buys your course!

Here's my typical Order Form Page:

I believe the elements on it are pretty self-explanatory. I'll cover the key ones briefly…

• Re-confirm they're about to purchase the correct product
• Highlight your guarantee
• Include more social proof
• Request their payment information
  • Note: Even though you don't need their physical address because they're buying a digital product and you're not shipping them anything… I still recommend asking for that information because it reduces fraud.

5) OTO Page

The One-Time-Offer (OTO) page is the page immediately after the order form page.

This page presents another offer to your customer in the form of a 1-click upsell. (by clicking “Yes, I Want It!”, the customer can upgrade their order with the offer on the OTO page)

This offer should complement the course they just purchased from you. Some good options are:

• Coaching/Support – 1-on-1 call, group coaching, etc. / one-time or recurring
• Something Extra – Another plan, calculator, tool, etc. that will help the individual achieve their goal
• Another Course – Another course you have that your customer might also be interested in

Here's what my typical OTO page looks like…

It looks quite similar to the “Welcome and Presell” page, right?! Why? That page structure works!

To breakdown some of the elements on this page:

• The page starts with a notification to let people know they've purchased the course; however, their order is incomplete and they have a chance to upgrade their order.
• Then, there's a headline and sub-headline, just like all the other pages. Same concept here.
• The video should be short, about 2 minutes or less. People are wanting to get into the course and aren't very patient on this page so don't overwhelm them with too much information. The general flow of the video is:
  • Congrats on buying the course, it will help you with X, Y, and Z!
  • Now, if you want to take it to the next level, you'll want to also grab [OTO] as it will do A, B, and C!
  • I normally charge $197 for it, but on this page only, it's $97! That's 50% off!
  • Click the button below to add it to your order!
• Include a few simple bullets that highlight the details outlined in the video.
• Have a big, giant, 1-click upsell button and a “No” Link.

6) Order Confirmation

The Order Confirmation Page is the final page your customer lands on after purchasing your course and hopefully your OTO.

It simply confirms their order, gives a summary, tells them how to access their purchase and support, and possibly contains links to other offers you sell (Offer Wall).

Here's my typical Order Confirmation Page…

7) Membership Pages

The funnel also includes the Membership Pages.

The first is the Membership Access page. It lets people login and/or create an account…

Then, the second page is the Membership Area.

This is where you have your course.

8) Lead Magnet Delivery Automation

The first automation in your funnel is the “Lead Magnet Delivery” automation.

This is a simple automation that delivers the lead magnet you're offering on your squeeze page.

There are 3 primary elements of this email:

1. A link to the promised resource
2. A reminder of why they requested the resource and some reasons to go check it out right now
3. A subtle Call-To-Action (CTA) for your course

Here's what my typical “Lead Magnet Delivery” email looks like…

9) Video Delivery Pages & Emails

After delivering the Lead Magnet, you should wait a day before beginning to drip high quality content to your lead.

What is “high quality content”?

My recommendation is a video training series and/or other resources that prove you know what you're talking about while simultaneously getting people to know, like, and trust you. All the while, subtly promoting your course.

If you're familiar Gary Vaynerchuk's, “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” concept… this is what you're doing here.

The Video/Resource Content

Here are a few ideas for the video/resource content you can send to people:

• First few videos of your course. Think of it like a “free trial”.
• Use select videos from your course. If you have certain videos that can stand on their own and provide really valuable insight, you can use them as your content.
• New videos that teach the overarching strategy/theme. For instance, create new videos that teach the “what” of each section of your course – ie. for a course about creating courses, one video could be about course planning, one on course creation, one about the funnel, one about marketing automation, and so on. Basically, teaching people the concept of your course, while not telling people “how” to actually do it. (they need to buy the course to get the “how”!)

The Video Pages

While you can host your videos on public sites like YouTube and Vimeo, I would not recommend sending people to either of those sites to actually watch your videos.

Instead, create unique pages for each video and embed the video on those pages.

Here's my typical video page:

Say what?!?! That page looks just like the Welcome and Presell and OTO pages!!!

Yes. Yes it does.

Again, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Obviously, on this page you have the topic of your video as the headline/subheadline, the video will be your training video, the bullets will outline what they're going to learn in the video, and the big CTA button will take them to your course's sales page. Simple.

The Video Delivery Emails

To get people to watch your training videos, you'll primarily use email marketing. (you could also get fancy with retargeting, but that's beyond the scope of this article)

Here's my typical email:

It's a pretty simple and self-explanatory email; I'll just outline it really quickly…

• Include a screenshot of the video with a super-imposed “play” button on it. When the person clicks on the image that looks like a video, they'll be taken to your video page where they can watch it.
• Include a short description of the video with a few bullets outlining what they'll learn. Recommend having a text link somewhere in the written description.
• Include a button with a link to the video page.

The Order Confirmation Email

The Order Confirmation Email is sent to your customers.

It contains information on how to access their purchase:

The content of the emails is self-explanatory; however, it should be dynamic and only present access information to the products/services the customer purchased.

3) Send Traffic

After creating your course and building a sales funnel to sell it, it's time to find some people to buy it… it's time for some traffic!

Of course, there are many ways to send traffic, but in this section we're going to focus on Facebook traffic because it works very well for selling digital courses.

If you refer back to the funnel diagram above, you see there's really only two places we're going to send traffic for this particular funnel. (of course, you can get more advanced with it, but let's get the basics down first!)

You should spend 90-95% of your budget, sending traffic to your Squeeze Page… you need to get people on your lists! Note, there are two lists here, your email list and your retargeting list. This way, even if they don't opt-in for your Lead Magnet, you still know they're interested in your particular topic. Once they're on your retargeting list, you can recommend other Lead Magnets they may be interested in (if you have them) or go straight into promoting the course.

The remaining 5-10% of your budget will be spent on your retargeted traffic – people that have engaged with you already. You want to direct this traffic directly to your course's sales page.

That's the core of the ad strategy for this funnel. It's pretty simple, but works amazingly well when you have a Lead Magnet and course people actually want!

Ad Copy 101

No matter whether you're sending traffic to your Squeeze Page or Sales Page, the basic ad copy strategy remains the same.

This video gives ya the basic ad copy strategy to apply to your ads:

4) Scaling Your Business

Congrats on launching your course! That's a big accomplishment and more than most people will ever do!

Now that you're armed with one course, it's time to think about scaling your efforts.

There are two ways to scale…

• Out – Create more courses that complement the course you just created. For example, I have a course on creating courses. In that course, I briefly cover ClickFunnels, ActiveCampaign, and Facebook Ads. What I can do now is create more detailed courses on those various tools, so if people want to learn more… they can!
• Up – Create more expensive courses/resources to sell. Offer done-for-you services or other, complementary services. Offer coaching/consulting. Create a Mastermind group.
• Up & Out – Create more complementary courses AND offer more products/services that are more expensive, but provide more value to your customers.

Everything in this section should be pretty obvious, but I wanted to make sure you realized creating one “affordable” course probably isn't going to be enough to change your whole life. However, by scaling your efforts out and/or up, the sky is the limit on how much money you can make!

Build A Course & Funnel

I hope you learned a lot from this post.

I really tried to lay out the entire plan for creating and selling “Affordable” courses.

Having said that, if you would like to learn all the nitty-gritty technical details and to get a copy of the Course Creator's Sales Funnel…

I have a course for you!

Click here to learn more about the course!

You have a product or service you want to sell…

So, you setup a website or sales funnel to try and buy it, but…

No one is buying it!

It sucks. But, I believe everyone who has ever tried to sell something has run into this problem… so, you're not alone.

This post serves as a guide to help you troubleshoot your problems so you can start to generate sales!

3 Thing To Look At / Think About

There are many reasons why people do and don't buy things; however, most (if not all) can be handled by focusing on 3 key areas:

1. Introduction – How a prospect is introduced to your product/service
2. Framing – The benefit/result your product/service provides
3. Offer – Your product/service wrapped up in a nice, pretty box

These 3 key areas should be thought about in order AND all at once. Let me explain…

The Introduction is important because you need make a good first impression; however, depending on your Offer, your Introduction may change to better suit what you're going to try to sell the individual.

The point is, each area is critical and you need to focus on all 3 individually, but you must think about them holistically (big picture) as well. If you don't, your results won't be as good as they can be!

1) Introduction

The Introduction is where you think about the Customer Journey:

Where, on their journey, are they when they come across your product/service? (Note: from now on, instead of typing “product/service” each time, I'm just going to say “widget”, but I mean both products and services).

• Are they aware they have a problem?
• Are they aware there's a solution out there?
• Are they aware of your widget?
• Are they looking for widgets to buy?
• Are they considering your widget?

Where they are in their journey will impact how you Introduce your widget.

If the individual has no idea they have a problem, then you can't scream, “Buy my widget!” at them – it's not going to work.

Conversely, if the individual is actively comparing widgets, screaming “Buy my widget at a discount!” might do the trick.

Also, you really need to consider your widget and align it with the Customer Journey. For example, if you sell a $10k coaching package, or even a $1,000 coaching, package for that matter – your prospect is going to need to know, like, and trust you before they hire you as a coach. Maybe they're aware they need coaching and they're aware of what you have to offer; however, they're trying to decide between you and two other coaching (Evaluation). What could you do, at this level of the Customer Journey, to move them onto the next level? Maybe a complimentary coaching call?

The point is, you may need to create other “widgets” to “sell” first, so they continue to move down the Customer Journey funnel with you and buy your “final” widget.

For example:

• Content – blog posts, videos, podcasts, etc. that generate awareness and position you and your business as an authority
• Lead Magnets – freebies in exchange for contact information. Usually PDFs, videos, coupons, etc.
• Consultation – hop on a quick call to see if you'll be a good fit for each other
• Cheap(er) Widget – a more affordable widget before purchasing more expensive widgets

To quickly summarize the Introduction section, you need to think about where your potential customer is in their Customer Journey and where your widget fits in. Then, you may need to backwards plan how to move the person through the Customer Journey by “selling” other “widgets” prior to them buying your “final” widget.

2) Framing

As previously mentioned, people buy and don't buy things for all types of reasons…

Some reasons are logical, while others are based on emotion.

Logical

Logical reasons are often results driven and “make sense”.

• Results – I want X. Product Y will help me get X.
  • I want a hole in my wall. A drill will help me make a hole in my wall.
  • I want to get better at Facebook Ads. Nathan's Facebook Ads course will help me do that.
• Makes Sense – There are “good” reasons to buy Product Y.
  • Cheaper
  • Faster
  • Stronger
  • Higher Quality
  • High Value

Emotional

They say, most purchases are driven by emotions first, then backed by logical reasoning, so it's important to consider people's emotions as you frame your widget.

For example, you probably don't need to drive a Ferrari to pick up lunch from Chipotle… but, people do. Why?

• Cool
• Fun
• Fast
• Makes Me Feel Like I “Made It”
• Make People Envy Me

Your objective now is to identify all of the Logical (results & makes sense) and Emotional reasons an individual would buy your widget. You then address each reason as you promote your widget!

3) Offer

The third step is to convert your widget into an offer.

A product or service is NOT an offer… and offers are what people buy.

So, what is an offer?

An offer is your product or service + everything else that comes with it…

• Guarantee
• Payment Option(s)
• Scarcity
• Other Benefits
• Bonuses (HUGE!)

By “offeratizing” your widget, you're able to dramatically increase it's perceived value (make people think it's worth more), which will make selling it much easier!

Guarantees

Your widget should come with a guarantee of some sort. Whether it's a simple money back guarantee, a double your money back guarantee, lifetime guarantee, a guarantee your widget will save X amount of time, etc….

The point is, you should have a guarantee of some sort for your widget.

Payment Option(s)

If your widget is big and expensive, you probably want to offer payment plan options to make paying for it more reasonable.

Alternatively, if you have a cheaper product, but people might want to buy multiple quantities; you could incentivize the purchase of greater quantities by offering price breaks. For example, buy 1 get 1 for 50% off.

Scarcity

Is your offer going away soon? Is the price about to increase? Are you about to stop taking new clients?

If there's a reason someone should act now, make sure you address it!

Other Benefits

Does a percentage of your profits go to help a charity?

What are you doing with the money people are giving you? If you're giving back to the community, make sure you let people know!

Bonuses (HUGE!)

Bonuses are important!!!

There have been many times when people buy a widget simply because they want the bonus that comes with it! I recently purchased a YouTube Ads tool… not because I wanted the tool, but I wanted the course that came with it!

Frank Kern also uses a lot of insane bonuses which often “push” me over the edge!

Bonuses can make or break your offer!

Here are a couple ways to add bonuses to your offer:

• Create multiple formats.
  • Ex. If you're selling a book, make sure you have a digital version, audio version, video version, abridged version, etc.
  • Ex. If you're selling videos, include a written version and/or checklists and other handouts to improve your offer
• Include additional widgets that enhance your original widget.
  • Ex. Other resources and courses if you're selling software, training, coaching, or even physical products. By adding digital products to physical product offers, you can dramatically increase your offer's perceived value with very little effort!
    • Ex. If you're selling a first aid kit, you could also include an ebook of 51 life saving skills.
      • Pro tip: Create multiple formats of your bonuses (ie. a video version) to really increase the perceived value!
  • Ex. Batteries if you're selling something electronic.
  • Ex. Free coaching session(s) with purchase of high-end training.
  • Ex. Free or expedited shipping if you purchase $X amount of product or within Y amount of time.

Coming up with bonuses shouldn't be too difficult either… simply think about the problems your widget creates!

For example:

• If you sell a training on one topic, it's going to open the door to dozens of other topics. For instance, I sell a course on ClickFunnels. It's a great course that teaches people everything they need to know about building sales funnels… but, then my student needs traffic (problem!). So, I have a training course on traffic, which opens more doors to more topics, and so on.
• If you sell a flashlight, what problems will it create for people? Batteries, light bulbs, insurance/warranty if it breaks, etc.

No matter what you sell, it's going to create more “problems” for people and you can use these “problems” to help you generate ideas for bonuses and additional offers!

Putting It All Together

After analyzing your Introduction, Framing, and Offer, you want to incorporate your discoveries with ALL of your marketing efforts…

• Your ads will target and speak to people based on where they are in their journey.
• You may bring people to different “widgets” first to help move them through their journey OR you may take people directly to your offer.
• Your widget's sales page and follow up will hit on the logical and emotional reasons people want your widget.
• Your sales page will outline your entire offer and all its bells and whistles.

As you can tell, the information uncovered by going through these three steps will be used throughout your entire marketing effort…

By doing a good job and really evaluating everything, it will surely help you sell your stuff!

We've all heard that most businesses fail in the first few years…

The thing is, this statistic accounts for ALL businesses…

From businesses that are started from some hair-brained idea or because the owner likes to bake/fish/collect stamps/etc. These businesses are typically doomed to fail because they're building a hobby, opposed to an actual business.

Compare that to businesses that are well thought out, planned, and follow proven business models and strategies. For obvious reasons, these businesses have a much higher success rate.

Going into 2019, my question to you is…

Do you want to build a hobby or a business?

This post is going to give you a proven system for starting a successful business in 2019 and beyond!

Step 1: Pick Your Market/Niche/Avatar

This first step is probably the most important step; however, it's often overlooked as people typically jump to Step 2.

But, here's the deal, you're going to be spending A LOT of time thinking about this topic and working with this group of people… you want to make sure it's something you like and that these are people you actually want to hang around with!

I've seen too many people try to chase the money and wind up miserable because they wind up hating the topic and/or their customer.

There Are 3 Profitable Markets

I'll be referencing Russell Brunson's book, Expert Secrets in this section.

Russell states there are 3 profitable markets:

1. Health – everyone wants to be healthier, live longer, etc.
2. Wealth – everyone wants enough money to be secure, some people want more than that.
3. Relationships – everyone wants to have great relationships; marriage, love, friends, etc.

These 3 markets have dozens of sub-markets:

1. Health – diet, nutrition, strength training, weight loss, etc.
2. Wealth – business, investing, real estate, sales, etc.
3. Relationships – love, dating advice, marriage, parenting, etc.

Then, if you go another level deeper, you have niches… and, this is what you want to figure out.

• Health –> Nutrition –> High Fat Diets
• Health –> Weight Loss –> Weight Loss For College Students
• Wealth –> Real Estate –> Flipping Houses On eBay
• Wealth –> Online Business –> Facebook Traffic For eCommerce Stores
• Relationships –> Parenting –> Dealing With Teenagers
• Relationships –> Dating –> How To Recover After A Breakup

Got a niche?

Cool, now let's figure out who your customers are!

Construct Your Customer Avatar

Your objective is to answer all of the questions below. Doing so will help with targeting your audience and with your messaging.

Some of these questions are pulled from the Customer Avatar Worksheet available from DigitalMarketer.com.

Demographics

• Name
• Age
• Gender
• Marital Status
• #/Ages Of Children
• Location
• Occupation
• Job Title
• Annual Income
• Level Of Education

Interests

• Celebrities/Gurus
• Causes
• Organizations
• Websites
• Apps
• TV Shows
• Clothing
• Musicians
• Books
• Magazines
• Movies

The 3 Whys

Go through the Demographics and Interests you came up with, asking “why” three times to uncover the individual's psyche.

Once you understand their psyche, you'll be better able to answer these questions as they pertain to your market/niche/business:

• Goals and Values
• Challenges and Pain Points
• Objections and Roles

How To Create Your Customer Avatar Quickly With Facebook's Audience Insights Tool

• Audience Insights Tool
• Avatar Sheet, Blank (file, make a copy)
• Avatar Sheet, Filled Out Example
• Expert Secrets Book
• Digital Marketer's Avatar Worksheet

Step 2: Figure Out What To Sell Them

Hopefully you've completed Step 1 and have a Niche and a Customer Avatar. If not, go do that first!

Now that you have your customer and you know their goals and values, challenges and pain points, and objections and roles… it's time to figure out how to help them!

Help them?

Yes! What you sell to people should help them… otherwise, why would they buy it?

So, with your helpful and caring mindset, it's time to go looking for products and services to sell.

But, where do you start?

5 Types Of Products You Can Start Selling Online TODAY!

Alternatively, if you don't want to watch another video, you can check out this blog post here.

To recap the video and blog post, here are the 5 types of products:

1. Dropshipping
2. Print on Demand
3. PLR/MRR
4. Productized Services
5. Sell Other Businesses' Products

Finally, you don't have to use one of aforementioned product types if you don't want to. If you want to create something from scratch or you already have products you want to sell – that's great, do that!

This list is simply for those that are stuck and don't know what to do.

Come Up With 3-5 Things To Sell

Your goal now is to come up with 3-5 products or services to sell.

JUST 3-5!

Yes, you can probably find thousands of options, but we want to get some momentum first. You can always expand your product line later.

If you try too many products at once, you'll spread yourself too thin and nothing will work out for you…

And, believe it or not, customers don't want a million options either…

Ever been to a restaurant that has a million items on the menu? How long did it take you or your significant other to make a decision? I bet one of you took “forever”!

Start simple. Give your products/services a fair shot. Adjust from there.

Uncover The Features & Benefits Of Your Product/Service

You've probably hard the saying, “people don't want a drill, they want a hole.”

You can take it a step further, “people don't want holes, they want to hang their shelves.”

And, further… “people don't want shelves, they want a place to store their extra stuff.”

(the 3 why's ringing any bells here?!)

The point is, people aren't buying a product/service… they're buying the result.

You need to take the 3-5 products/services you've come up with and merge the result they produce with the goals and values, challenges and pain points, and objections and roles your customers are facing.

An easy way to merge all of this is with feature/benefit bullet points.

Which feature of your product/service helps with…

• The goal(s) they're trying to accomplish
• The value(s) they hold dear
• The challenge(s) they're facing
• The pain(s) they're feeling
• The objection(s) they have
• The role(s) they play

What you may find, after doing this, is that the product/service you're selling is underwhelming.

Or, maybe there are too many objections or you're not directly addressing the decision maker.

This happens, and it's OK.

Everything you sell isn't going to change someone's life…

But, everything you sell can (and should) be of great perceived value!

“Offeratize” Your Products And Services

Your products and services are NOT offers…

While an offer includes a product/service and its features, benefits, and advantages… it also includes all the other bells and whistles:

• Bonuses (HUGE!)
  • This is how you increase the perceived value of your regular ol' product!
• Money Back Guarantees
• Pricing Terms (payment plans)
• Risk Reversal (how are you going to ensure they don’t waste time, money, etc. this includes your money back guarantee)

I recommend listening to Todd Brown’s “The Marketer’s Mind” episode 20 for this, click here for it.

Also, take a look at what your competition is offering. Are they selling products and services or are they selling offers? How can you offer more?!

The point is, you can take your underwhelming product/service that's facing too many objections and “soup it up” to make it irresistible!

An Example

Let's take Josh from our avatar example discussed in the video above – 35 year old male, interested in Keto Diets, in the military, etc.

After asking the 3 why questions, we know he's interested in enhancing his performance, in order to perform his job well. He's willing to workout hard, eat right, and even take supplements. (note: we've uncovered 3 categories of products we can sell our avatar: exercise stuff, nutrition stuff, and supplement stuff)

We decide to work with a white label supplement manufacturer to produce a performance enhancing supplement…

Pretty cool looking container, right?!

Of course, I'm being sarcastic… it's a lame looking container, but you get the idea. It's a performance enhancing supplement designed specifically for our customer avatar!

Now, let's extract the features and benefits of our product by comparing it to…

• Goals: Optimal performance on the job
  • Get Some! has a sustained release, ensuring you're performing your best all day without any ups, downs, or crashes!
• Values: Eating healthy foods, ketosis
  • Get Some! contains 100% organic ingredients and is the only FDA approved performance enhancer on the market!
  • Get Some! contains no sugars or fillers that hinder ketosis!
• Challenges: Works a lot, limited time, sometimes has to eat MREs (unhealthy Army food)
  • You'll feel the power of Get Some! within 5 minutes of ingestion! Our fast action formula makes sure you feel good when you need it most!
  • Get Some! contains Exogenous Ketones which have been proven to offset the negative effects of sugar and other high carb foods!
• Pains: Worried about being off his game when it's time to make hard, on-the-job decisions
  • After 2 years and 10,000 scientific tests, Get Some! is proven 100% effective for maximizing the decision making part of the brain! (lateral frontal cortex)
  • Doctors and scientist everywhere are calling it “The Limitless Pill” because it unlocks your whole brain!
• Objections: Has tried performance enhancing supplements before, they don't work
  • Get Some! contains a brand new, proprietary blend of ingredients never before released on the market, until today!
• Roles: Key decision maker
  • Take control of your performance with Get Some!

We now have some features and benefit bullets for our product that align with our Customer Avatar.

Now, it's time to offeratize our product!

• Bonuses
  • Waterproof pill container so they are with you on the go
  • Mobile app with 5 minute puzzles that activate certain parts of your brain so you can prepare for what's ahead
  • 31 day workout program for increasing day-to-day performance (PDF and Video)
  • 31 quick recipes for increasing day-to-day performance (PDF and Video)
• Money Back Guarantee
  • If you don't feel a significant difference in your performance within 30 days, you let us know and we'll refund your payment AND give you a $100 Amazon Gift Card for wasting your time!
• Pricing Terms (payment plans)
  • Free Shipping on all orders
  • Buy 2, save 10%
  • Buy 3, save 20%

Step 3: Build Micro Sales Funnels To Sell Your Offers

You should have a couple offers created for your customer avatar.

Now you need a way to display your offer and collect money from your customer.

The best way to do this is with a Micro Sales Funnel.

What is a Micro Sales Funnel?

It's a collection of web pages, engagements (email, text messages, phone calls, etc.), and retargeting ads that act like a digital sales rep that works for you 24/7/365!

Think about ordering food at McDonalds. You order a burger, then the cashier asks, “Would you like fries with that?” Then, they offer a drink, the chance to Super Size it, etc. Instead of spending $4, you've spent $14. That's a Micro Sales Funnel.

Here's an example:

Micro Sales Funnels come in all shapes and sizes, depending on what you're trying to sell and who you're trying to sell it to. If you'd like to learn more about the various models, I recommend checking out this post: What Kind Of Sales Funnel Should I Build?

The example funnel above is what I call a “Classic” Micro Sales Funnel. Here's a breakdown of the funnel:

• Opt-in: An individual enters their contact information in exchange for a Lead Magnet. A Lead Magnet is simply a freebie offer someone wants, like a coupon, checklist, video training, trial, etc.
• Welcome & Pre-sell: After the individual has given you their contact information, they land on a Welcome & Pre-sell page that tells them the Lead Magnet they requested is on its way and while they wait, here's some info about our company and how we can best serve them!
• Sales Page: This is the page that's selling one of your offers.
• OTO #: Stands for One-Time-Offer. These are typically 1-click upsell offers, where the individual can add additional offers to their order with 1-click.
• Downsell: These are pages shown to individuals that turn down the OTO. Usually, you try to sell your OTO again; however, this time you incentivize it by including some bonuses, a discount, or payment plan.
• Order Confirmation: This is the final page of the Micro Sales Funnel that confirms the individuals order and may also link to other, complementary offer funnels.
• Engagements: These are emails, text messages, Facebook Messages, ringless voicemails, phone calls, direct mail, etc. that is typically automated and designed to help pull your customers through your funnel.
• Retargeting Ads: These are advertisements that follow individuals around the web, advertising your business and offers again and again, in an effort to drive more sales.

All of the pages, engagements, and ads are specifically designed to help you sell your offers.

You're not simply building a random website with some products on it and hoping someone buys something.

Everything you do with a funnel needs to be calculated and methodical.

Of course, it's going to take you some time to understand how these things work. It's going to take time to understand psychology and marketing…

But, it's all worth it because as Russell Brunson, founder of ClickFunnels, always says, “You're only one funnel away!”

Your goal: Build a Micro Sales Funnel for every. single. offer.

Watch Me Build A Micro Sales Funnel Quickly

• Get the Micro Sales Funnel I built off of in the video

Step 4: Connect Your Micro Sales Funnels With Marketing Automation

Let's recap everything you should have right now:

1. Your niche and a customer avatar
2. 3-5 different offers
3. 3-5 Micro Sales Funnels (1 for each offer)

For step 4, you want to connect all of your Micros Sales Funnels with marketing automation.

What's marketing automation?

Emails, text messages, ringless voicemail, direct mail, Facebook Messenger… any type of communication and engagement that can be automated, leaving you with something that looks like this…

Pretty cool, right?

Note: Even though the diagram above only shows emails, you can use other mediums like text messages, Facebook Messenger, ringless voicemail, direct mail, and more to connect your Micro Sales Funnels together.

What Do You Send To People?

We could spend months, if not years discussing this topic, so I'm going to keep it pretty high level for this post.

Your audience and customers go through a journey, right?

The “Customer Journey”:

1. Awareness: of pain, of need, of solution, of your business
2. Interest: they start conducting research
3. Evaluation: they’re going to buy something, but they want to make sure they get the “best” one
4. Decision: they buy
5. Retention: keep them happy, sell more
6. Advocacy: they tell everyone about your business

Depending on where they are in this journey will dictate the type of content you send them.

With that said, there's two types of content you will need to send to people:

1. Relationship Content
2. Action Content

Relationship Content

Relationship content, you guessed it… builds a relationship!

It's content that's educational and/or entertaining. Content people enjoy consuming.

This can include helpful how-to tutorials, funny stories, deep data analysis, back & forth communication, and so on.

You're also using this content to gauge your audience members' interests… what topics are they clicking on and viewing?

Are they interested in Keto recipes? Keto supps? Lifting heavy weights? All of the above?

While you're building a relationship, you're figuring out what the person is interested in so when it's time to sell them something, you can recommend a product or service they're most likely to actually buy!

Action Content

Action content drives the person to take action, ie. buy something, come visit your store, give you a call, etc.

You've spent time building a relationship while simultaneously figuring out their interests…

Now, it's time to recommend a product or service to them!

One of the simplest action pieces you can deliver to someone is one that highlights a sale or special promotion: “1 day only, get 30% off our Get Some! supplement… click here!”

Simple enough, right?!

Of course, you can get fancier by using copywriting formulas like the Problem-Agitate-Solve formula, or the Before-After-Bridge formula… but, typically, what I've found is that if you've spent the time establishing the relationship FIRST and then place a really attractive offer in front of them… you don't need to try and mind-hack them or anything!

You can be a normal person (a friend or trusted adviser) recommending a product/service to another normal person!

This is why it's critically important to take the time to understand your audience's needs, wants, and desires AND to craft super-awesome-amazing offers! It saves you so much time later on.

Watch Me Integrate My Micro Sales Funnel With Marketing Automation

• Get ClickFunnels
• Get ActiveCampaign

Step 5: Fill Your Sales Funnel With Traffic

By now, you should have…

1. Your audience/niche figured out. You know where they hangout and you're ready to approach them!
2. Your irresistible offers developed for your audience members.
3. A few Micro Sales Funnels setup to actually sell your irresistible offers.
4. Those Micro Sales Funnels interconnected with Marketing Automation that builds a relationship, gauges interests, and then promotes your irresistible offers.

Got all that?

Great! Now, lets fill your system up!

Introducing “The Triple Threat Strategy”

The Triple Threat Strategy is comprised of three parts:

• Acquisition: Convert cold traffic (people that don't know about you or your business) into warm traffic (people that know about you and/or your business)
• Direct: Convert cold traffic into hot traffic (leads and buyers)
• Retarget: Convert warm traffic into hot traffic

Also, notice how it's a funnel a giant funnel, just like the Customer Journey funnel displayed above… same exact concept here!

Acquisition Campaign

The main goal of the Acquisition Campaign is to convert cold traffic into warm traffic. (ie. grow your Custom Audiences [retargeting audiences])

This is accomplished by producing great pieces of content that connect with your prospects and helps them establish rapport with your business.

You want the prospect to know, like, and trust you at this stage.

Here are a couple Acquisition Ad examples…

This first one is a video. Videos work great as acquisition ads because you can build Custom Audiences (used for retargeting later) based upon how much of a video an individual watches. For example, 3 seconds, 10 seconds, 25%, 50%, etc.

It's typically a lot easier to get someone to watch 10 seconds to 25% of a video on Facebook than it is to get them to click away from Facebook to visit your site. Thus, you're able to grow your Custom Audiences for pennies on the dollar!

The second ad is an image ad that links to a high quality blog post…

Those are examples of Acquisition Ads.

As you can see, they're pure content and goodwill. Nothing for sale (at least not directly) in either of them!

Direct Campaign

There are two goals for the Direct Campaigns:

1. Convert cold traffic directly into a lead or customer. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't… but, it's usually worth giving it a shot.
2. Convert cold traffic into warm traffic. Introduce your business and what you have to offer.

Here are a couple Direct Ad examples…

This first one is a “direct to offer” ad where I'm trying to convince cold traffic to claim a “free” dog training clicker.

The tactic behind this ad is to make the offer soooo good, it's impossible to refuse. Basically, I'm looking for impulse buys…

The second Direct Ad brings people to an opt-in page where they can request my Lead Magnet: 100 Dog Training Tips.

The purpose is to convert cold traffic into leads that I can follow up later with email and retargeting.

Those are a couple Direct Ad examples.

As you can see, they bring people directly from Facebook to an offer… whether it's for a product or a just a lead magnet.

Retargeting Campaign

The main goal of the Retargeting Campaign is to take your warm traffic and convert them into leads, customers, and repeat buyers.

By this time, you will have warm audiences either from people engaging with your Acquisition or Direct Ads…

They know about your business and what you offer…

It's now time to promote offers to convert individuals into leads, customers, and repeat buyers!

Here's an example Retargeting Ad…

Since Retargeting Ads are used on warm audiences, you can make “bigger” offers. Basically, you don't have to try and sell some cheap product in order to attract impulse buyers.

Often, you'll lose money on the Direct Ads, but make up for it 10 fold during the retargeting phase!

How To Execute The Triple Threat Strategy

We've uncovered the Triple Threat Strategy and the 3 core campaigns…

But, how do you actually execute it?

How do you know when an ad is working? How do you know when it's not?

Don't worry, I have a flowchart to answer all of these questions and more!

Yup, she's a doozy!

Now, I'm not going to explain this whole thing right now since it would take hours…

But, hopefully it gives you some perspective of how that funnel diagram translates into real life actions you can take to execute the strategy!

Here's How To Launch A Facebook Ad

Links Mentioned:

• FB Pixel on WordPress
• FB Pixel on ClickFunnels
• FB Pixel on Kartra
• Facebook Ad Copy 101
• Facebook Campaign Objectives

Are You Ready To Make 2019 YOUR Year?!

This post has outlined an ENTIRE game plan for you from start to finish!

You now know what you have to do…

• Identify your audience/niche
• Develop your offers
• Build Micro Sales Funnels to sell your offers
• Connect your Micro Sales Funnels with Marketing Automation
• Fill your entire sales system with traffic

This is your chance to start that side hustle to get some extra cash flow or to even replace your 9-5!

People are making money every day with sales funnels, marketing automation, and traffic generation… why shouldn't you be able to make it work?

2 Reasons These 5 Steps Won't Work For You

1. You don't actually do anything with them. You keep doing what you're doing.
2. You do them halfway. Maybe you get overwhelmed by the technical stuff, so you quit. Or maybe you bounce over to some shiny object. Whatever the reason, you do things half-assed (excuse my french!)

The point is, if you do everything outlined in this post…

You avoid excuses…

And, you put in the time to make it happen…

I guarantee you'll be successful!

Finally…

I have a full blown training program that teaches you the nitty-gritty details of EVERYTHING outlined in this post.

Click here if you're ready to DOMINATE 2019!

NOTICE: I've come to realize most people are just here to checkout the $632 in bonuses they'll receive when they signup for ClickFunnels through my link… so, click here to see what ya get!

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What Is ClickFunnels?

If you ask 10 different people what a “sales funnel” is, you'll get 10 different answers.

For our purposes, a sales funnel is a series of web pages, engagements (emails, text messages, ringless voicemails, etc.), and advertisements that convince an individual to buy something from your business.

There are many sales funnel models and the one you choose will depend on what you're trying to sell and who you're trying to sell it to.

For example, if you're trying to sell a $10 flashlight, your sales funnel would probably look like this…

Compared to a $1,997 digital course…

Compared to a $10,000 service…

The point of ClickFunnels is to provide an all-in-one solution to help you build these various sales funnels.

Also, here's the official “what is ClickFunnels” video if you'd like to watch it:

The BIG ClickFunnels Lie

ClickFunnels gets positioned as something “magical” that's just going to make you tons of cash…

This is NOT true.

ClickFunnels isn't going to make you any money.

It's a tool. That's it.

A hammer is also a tool and you probably don't expect it to “magically” start building stuff for you, right?

Don't expect ClickFunnels to be the magic pill.

You still need the business fundamentals. You still need to have a great offer and you need to get that offer in front of the right audience.

Now, ClickFunnels can certainly make doing that much easier; however, it's not going to do it for you.

Clear?

#1 Question: Is ClickFunnels Easy To Use?

“Ease” is relative.

Is it easier than hand coding everything? Yes.

Will you have a fully functional funnel up and running in 10 minutes? No, not even if you're a seasoned pro.

Will you have a fully functional funnel up and running in 1 day? No, not if you're new to the platform.

Will you have a fully functional funnel up and running in 7 days? Maybe.

How about 14 days? Yes, probably! (hence, the 14 day free trial)

There is a steep learning curve with ClickFunnels and it's going to take 7-14 days to become comfortable with it.

You need to ask yourself… Am I willing to spend 7-14 days to master a tool that can potentially provide a massive upside to my business?

Of course, once you master the tool, you'll be able to build full funnels within a day and the world will be your oyster; however, the first 2 weeks will be rough.

Pros and Cons of ClickFunnels

In no particular order, here's a breakdown of the pros and cons of ClickFunnels…

Pros

• It does A LOT. You can build pages, funnels (1-click upsell/downsell), membership sites, automations, affiliate portals, and more. It's a very powerful tool.
• Intuitive page builder. You can become a “master” of the page builder in about 30 minutes. Once you understand Sections, Rows, Columns, and Elements – you'll be able to design beautiful pages in no time!
• Hundreds of pre-built templates & funnels. Create professional looking pages in minutes!
• No Coding. You don't have to be technically savvy to master ClickFunnels, ie. you don't need a background in code and web development to build amazing sales funnels. All you need to do is spend the 7-14 days learning the system.
• Shared/Import Funnels. You can share funnels with friends and clients. Alternatively, you can import other people's funnels into your account which can save you a tremendous amount of time! (note, if you join CF through my link, you're going to get access to 11 shared funnels!)
• Split Tests. It's very easy to split test your pages. Basically, click a button, make your changes, and click save.
• Has a lot of integrations. ClickFunnels makes it easy to integrate with autoresponder tools like ActiveCampaign, Aweber, Constant Contact, Drip, etc. As well as other tools like GoToWebinar, Kajabi, PushCrew, Twilio, ShipStation, Sly Broadcast, and more!
• Has several payment gateways. ClickFunnels integrates with Stripe, PayPal, BlueSnap, ClickBank, JVZoo, NMI, and more! No matter where you're located, there will be a way to integrate ClickFunnels with a payment gateway.
• Zapier Integration. ClickFunnels integrates both-ways with Zapier, ie. you can push info from ClickFunnels to another platform or from another platform directly into ClickFunnels! Therefore, the total number of integrations is 900+!
• Evergreen Webinar Funnels. You're able to host evergeen webinars inside of ClickFunnels which can easily save you $400/year.
• Desktop & Mobile Modes. The page builder allows you to build desktop and mobile versions so you're confident your funnel looks great no matter the device.
• Massive network of users. I believe ClickFunnels has over 60,000 users.  They have a massive Facebook group and 3rd party businesses dedicated to supporting the tool.
• Incredibly passionate founders. Russell Brunson and Todd Dickerson are tremendously passionate about marketing and building/programming tools. They're not in it just to make money, they're in it because they love it.

Cons

• It does a lot. Since it does so much, it can be very overwhelming and takes 7-14 days to actually learn how to use it.
• Some basic integrations. Some of their integrations are so basic, they do more harm than good. For instance, the Shopify integration is completely pointless because it doesn't combine all products into one order and it doesn't handle quantities.
• Doesn't easily support variants. If you offer products with several variants, think clothing with different colors and sizes, ClickFunnels does not support this well. You'll have to “hack” things together with a 3rd party tool called CF Pro Tools to make it work.
• Sometimes buggy. Being that it's a massive tool with a lot of moving parts, you can expect some bugs every now and again. It is what it is.
• 3mb limit on file storage. If you have large files you're trying to deliver to your customers, you're going to have to store them elsewhere as ClickFunnels only lets you upload files that are 3mb or less.
• No undo button. There's been at least 10 time when I've unintentionally deleted an entire section of my page. An undo button would prevent a lot of headaches!

Neutral

• Decent support. Support typically replies in about 4-12 hours and they're usually quit helpful. However, I have had instances where there's a bug/glitch and it does not get fixed… ever.
• It's “expensive”. The basic package, which only includes the page/funnel builder and 20 funnels, costs $97/mo. If you want to take advantage of Actionetics (marketing automation), Backpack (affiliate platform), and more funnels, you'll need the $297/mo package. Of course, the word “expensive” is relative. In theory, you should be using ClickFunnels to save you money (they host most everything, so you can ditch other services) and/or to help you make more money (funnels)… so, it should more than pay for itself. It's up to you to ensure ClickFunnels is an asset instead of a liability.

ClickFunnels Tour

Will ClickFunnels Work For My Business?

After everything you've read and seen above, you may still be wondering if ClickFunnels will actually work for your business…

Fortunately, ClickFunnels has put together a bunch of industry specific case studies that show you how different businesses are using ClickFunnels to find massive success…

• Agency/Freelancer
• Info Products
• Ecommerce
• Affiliate Marketing
• Blogger
• Coaching/Consulting
• Network Marketing
• Local Business
• B2B
• Non Profit

If you have a few minutes, I recommend checking them out!

Do I Recommend ClickFunnels?

I believe that ClickFunnels is THE BEST sales funnel building tool on the market today!

If you're wanting to build sales funnels for your business, then I HIGHLY recommend it… assuming you understand it's just a tool and it's going to take 7-14 days to master.

Finally, right now I'm offering $632 in bonuses when you join ClickFunnels via my link! 

Real quick – you're going to get…

• The Ultimate ClickFunnels Training Course + 7 Premium Funnels ($197 value)
• The AliExpress Sales Funnel Course ($97 value)
• The Shopify Sales Funnel Course ($97 value)
• The Get Clients Now Funnel & Training Course ($97 value)
• The 2-Step Lead Gen Funnel Course ($97 value)
• 28 Fill-In-The-Blank Email Templates ($47 value)
• Premium Support – Ask questions on the lessons or in the Private Facebook Group

To claim the bonuses:

1. Register for ClickFunnels by clicking here. (either plan is fine)
2. Forward your welcome email to support@crazyeyemarketing.com and let us know you want all of the bonuses!
3. We'll verify your order in the system and grant you access to everything within 24 hours!

 

As you may, or may not know… I have courses on both ClickFunnels and Kartra, plus I use both platforms across an array of businesses… so, I'm intimately familiar with both.

Which is why, on a nearly daily basis, I'm asked, “Should I use ClickFunnels or Kartra?”

It's an important question.

It's like asking, “Where should I live?”

You don't want to mess this up because it can impact your livelihood!

This post will give you my perspective on the two tools and which one is better.

Disclaimer

Let me clear the air real quick, while I'm an affiliate for both tools, I am not an employee nor do I have any undisclosed reason to choose one tool over the other.

I believe in using the least amount of tools possible in order to multiply your business with marketing automation.

Basically, I don't personally care what tool you decide to use. It makes zero difference to me and my life….

Which is why, this comparison will be truly unbiased.

I am tool agnostic.

Let's get into it.

ClickFunnels vs. Kartra

Bottom line up front:

• Both tools are very good. Compare either tool to any other way to build a funnel, and these tools make life sooo much easier.
• Both tools have their own quirks. Neither is perfect.
• Both tools have a fairly steep learning curve. Expect to spend a couple weeks mastering the tool before you have a functional funnel.

Differences

I'm not going to include a full breakdown of all the features as you can go to the different products' sales pages and see what they have, but I will try and point out all of the differences.

There's no real organization here because what's important to one person might not be important to another:

• Kartra is all-inclusive from the start. You get funnels, marketing automation, an affiliate platform, etc. with even the most basic plan ($89/mo). With ClickFunnels, you need their more expensive plan if you want all of the features ($297/mo).
• ClickFunnels integrates with other autoresponders. You can integrate with ActiveCampaign, MailChimp, Aweber, Infusionsoft, etc. without using Zapier. With Kartra, you're “stuck” using their automation software or making connections with Zapier.
• ClickFunnels lets you run multiple businesses out of one account. If you have a bunch of different domains and business ideas, ClickFunnels will support you. Kartra, on the other hand, only wants one business per account.
• Kartra's page builder has pre-built sections. Instead of selecting whole page templates (which Kartra also offers), Kartra's page builder comes stacked with dozens, if not hundreds of pre-built sections that you can drag and drop onto  your page. This can help you create beautiful, custom pages in minutes.
• Kartra offers “dynamic” OTOs. You can take people to different pages/offers based off their purchases whereas with ClickFunnels, they will see all of your OTOs no matter what they previously purchased.
• Kartra offers Behavioral Marketing. You can show different elements to different people based on previous actions, ie. purchases. ClickFunnels doesn't offer anything like this.
• Kartra hosts your videos and files. You get a certain amount of bandwidth with each plan, and if you go over that amount, you will pay for it. It looks to be about $0.19 per gig compared to Amazon S3, which starts at $0.09 per gig. So, it is kind of expensive, but nice to have everything in one place. With ClickFunnels, you'll need to host your videos and files elsewhere.
• ClickFunnels offers evergreen webinar functionality. While it's not “the best” evergreen webinar technology, it's often “good enough” especially if you already have ClickFunnels and you want to run an evergreen webinar. Kartra does not have evergreen webinar functionality.
• ClickFunnels has been around longer. They've been around since 2014 and have developed an extensive support network. There's a massive Facebook group and even entire companies that support ClickFunnels. Kartra is very new and lacks a lot of this 3rd party support.
• Kartra has a help desk feature. No need to integrate with Zendesk or anything like that, Kartra has you covered. ClickFunnels doesn't offer anything like this.
• Kartra's timers are better. If you like running evergreen promotions, Kartra's timer system is much better since it's connected to people's account and can be tracked more closely. ClickFunnels' timers are only tracked with cookies.

While it's not necessarily an all-inclusive list, those are some of the big differences between the two platforms.

Which Tool Is Right For Me?

The million dollar question, “Which tool is right for me?”

Again, both tools are very good. I'm a fan of both and have successful funnels running on both platforms, so there's no definitive answer here… instead, it depends on what YOU need/want to do.

There are only a few instances I would recommend one tool over the other:

• Ecommerce: ClickFunnels
  • It offers more flexibility around your products and variations, especially when using CF Pro Tools.
  • It natively integrates with ShipStation.
  • There are 3rd party integrations like AppTrends and Orderlytics which integrate with Shopify and even AliExpress.
• Lead Gen: ClickFunnels
  • You can have multiple domains in your account which you need when you're generating leads for different businesses.
  • It integrates with 3rd party autoresponder tools more easily than Kartra.
• Evergreen Webinars: ClickFunnels
  • While it's not the best evergreen webinar platform available, it's often good enough and Kartra doesn't have this function.

If the above scenarios aren't relevant, it may come down to budget. Kartra's all-inclusive starter plan is only $89/mo, which is cheaper than ClickFunnels' starter plan which doesn't include marketing automation or an affiliate platform. If your budget is tight Kartra may be the better option for you.

Finally, beyond the reasons above, it really comes down to personal preference. Both tools offer trials. ClickFunnels' trial is free and Kartra's is only $1. Try both and see which feels better to you!

What Is Your Situation?

I know I did not cover every single situation or all the differences between the two platforms. If you have any specific questions for your particular needs, please post them in the comments below!

As advertising on Facebook gets more expensive due to increased competition…

We simply can't send cold traffic directly to offers anymore…

We need to adapt and become more proficient in acquiring new leads and customers…

We need to take advantage of the tools Facebook gives us to get ahead of our competition and lower our costs!

Introducing…

The “Triple Threat” Facebook Ad Campaign Strategy

This Facebook Ad Campaign Strategy consists of 3 core campaigns:

• Acquisition
• Direct
• Retargeting

Acquisition Campaign

The main goal of the Acquisition Campaign is to convert cold traffic into warm traffic. (ie. grow your Custom Audiences [retargeting audiences])

This is accomplished by producing great pieces of content that connects with your prospects and helps them establish rapport with your business.

You want the prospect to know, like, and trust you at this stage.

Here are a couple Acquisition Ad examples…

This first one is a video. Videos work great as acquisition ads because you can build Custom Audiences (used for retargeting later) based upon how much of a video an individual watches. For example, 3 seconds, 10 seconds, 25%, 50%, etc.

It's typically a lot easier to get someone to watch 10 seconds to 25% of a video on Facebook than it is to get them to click away from Facebook to visit your site. Thus, you're able to grow your Custom Audiences for pennies on the dollar!

The second ad is an image ad that links to a high quality blog post…

Those are examples of Acquisition Ads.

As you can see, they're pure content and goodwill. Nothing for sale (at least not directly) in either of them!

Direct Campaign

There are two goals for the Direct Campaigns:

1. Convert cold traffic directly into a lead or customer. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't… but, it's usually worth giving it a shot.
2. Convert cold traffic into warm traffic. Introduce your business and what you have to offer.

Here are a couple Direct Ad examples…

This first one is a “direct to offer” ad where I'm trying to convince cold traffic to claim a “free” dog training clicker.

The tactic behind this ad is to make the offer soooo good, it's impossible to refuse. Basically, I'm looking for impulse buys…

The second Direct Ad brings people to an opt-in page where they can request my Lead Magnet: 100 Dog Training Tips.

The purpose is to convert cold traffic into leads that I can follow up later with email and retargeting.

Those are a couple Direct Ad examples.

As you can see, they bring people directly from Facebook to an offer… whether it's for a product or a just a lead magnet.

Retargeting Campaign

The main goal of the Retargeting Campaign is to take your warm traffic and convert them into leads, customers, and repeat buyers.

By this time, you will have warm audiences either from people engaging with your Acquisition or Direct Ads…

They know about your business and what you offer…

It's now time to promote offers to convert individuals into leads, customers, and repeat buyers!

Here's an example Retargeting Ad…

Since Retargeting Ads are used on warm audiences, you can make “bigger” offers. Basically, you don't have to try and sell some cheap product in order to attract impulse buyers.

Often, you'll lose money on the Direct Ads, but make up for it 10 fold during the retargeting phase!

How To Execute The Triple Threat Strategy

We've uncovered the Triple Threat Strategy and the 3 core campaigns…

But, how do you actually execute it?

How do you know when an ad is working? How do you know when it's not?

Don't worry, I have a flowchart to answer all of these questions and more!

Yup, she's a doozy!

Now, I'm not going to explain this whole thing right now since it would take hours…

And, in fact… I break it down with step-by-step video instruction in my new course…

How To Increase Leads & Sales On Facebook With The Triple Threat Strategy