It’s probably best to define what a landing page is before we get into learning about the elements of a successful landing page!

A landing page is exactly what it sounds like – the page a visitor lands on after clicking a link (search results, advertisement, tweet, etc).

If that page is the homepage, then that’s the landing page. If the visitor lands on a blog article, then that is the landing page.

Now, with regular old search traffic, a blog article can be a fine landing page, especially if it answers the question the visitor is trying to solve. Of course, you want to try and optimize your blog articles for conversions as well, but that’s a topic for another day.

With any paid or promoted traffic, you want to send the visitor to a dedicated landing page.

A dedicated landing page serves only one purpose – to drive an action.

In most cases, and the in the case of this article, the action a landing page seeks is to collect contact information.

Just know, some landing pages attempt to sell products, others act as “click through” pages to keep the marketing message the same, and others aim to drive people to a physical location.

The Main Thing To Remember

This part is incredibly important, because without it, it won’t matter how great your landing page is – it will never perform well.

The message that you promote (advertisement), must match what the landing page says.

For example; you cannot have an ad that says “Get 10% off your next bike purchase!” and have a landing page that mentions nothing about a 10% off coupon.

The marketing message must remain consistent!

Elements Of A Successful Landing Page

Of course, some landing pages have all of these elements – some have one or two of these elements.

Main Headline

This is the big, bold, headline across the top of the page that promotes the marketing message received in the advertisement. It is arguably the most important aspect of a landing page because if people can’t get past the main headline, they’re unlikely to perform any action.

Supporting Headline

You guessed it, this headline supports the main headline!

Hero Shot

A nice, clean, pretty picture of what you’re “giving away”. Note: this does not always need to be a picture – videos can work well too.

Benefits

List some of the benefits people will gain after giving up their contact information. Remember, it’s all about benefits to the individual – it’s not about the features of what you’re giving away.

Opt-in Box

This is the form where a visitor enters their contact information.

CTA (Call-To-Action)

This is the button a visitor will press to submit their information in exchange for the promised lead magnet. Believe it or not, the CTA is the second most (and in some instances, the most)  important aspect of your landing page. The CTA should match the Main Headline and not be something generic like “Signup Now”.

Social Proof

Include a testimonial or two, or an “as seen on” section to give proof that what you’re offering is socially acceptable.

An autoresponder is a tool that automatically sends a series of emails to subscribers.

Now, why would you want to set this up?

Because, once it’s setup, it will deliver content to your subscribers in a fairly “hands off” manner.

What Can You Deliver?

Anything that you want delivered over time and anything that is “standard issue”.

• Sales funnel content: You can send the lead magnet, rapport building emails, and then go in for the close.
• Sales content: You can send emails that drive action and promote products.
• General content: You can send general emails that are informative, helpful, and/or entertaining in order to keep the relationship fresh
• Online course: You can “drip feed” a course to your subscribers. For example, produce a 15 day course, and each day automatically send an email with the day’s lesson in it.
• Milestone emails: When a subscriber has been a subscriber for X number of days, you can congratulate and thank them with a discount.

Warning

I do not recommend you go completely hands off. Keep an eye on your email. If people ask questions, make sure you respond to them.

Common Terms

• List: A collection of email addresses. For example; a list of subscribers to your site.
• Series: The sequence of emails that are automatically sent to your subscribers.
• Segmentation: Categories of subscribers within individual lists. For example; segmentation based on gender, age, product purchase, links clicked, emails opened, pages visited, etc. Some autoresponder tools can even pull social media data for more thorough customer segmentation. Note: Different segments can also have different series.
• Events: What starts an autoresponder. More on this below.
• Opt-in (form): How a subscriber initially joins an email list.

Events

All autoresponder tools are a little different. Some have more “events” and features than others, but most have what I have listed below.

• Join: When the subscriber first joins your email list, a welcome email can automatically be sent to welcome them to your list. This first email normally delivers the lead magnet.
• Length of subscription: How long the subscriber has been on your list. For example; once the user has been subscribed for 3 days, send this email. At 10 days, send that email.
• Date: Emails can be sent based on date. For example; birthday, monthly or annual payments reminders, appointment reminders, etc.
• Product purchase: Emails can be sent based upon the purchase of a product that say thank you or to recommend complementary products (upsells). Or, emails can be sent to remind people that they have items in their cart (cart abandonment).
• Opened/Didn't open an email: Emails can be sent based upon whether another email was or wasn't opened. For example; you send an email that has time sensitive material and the subscriber doesn't open it. You could then, automatically, send another email with the same time sensitive content so they don’t miss anything.
• Clicked/Didn't click a link in an email: Like the opened/didn't open email – emails can be sent based upon whether a link in another email was or wasn't clicked.
• Visited a web page: Emails can be sent based upon which pages a subscriber has visited. For example; if a subscriber looks at a page concerning one of your products, you could then send an email full of content about that product in order to help sway their purchase decision.

Basic Autoresponder vs CRM Tool

There are literally thousands of options when it comes to autoresponder tools. These options range in price anywhere from free to $1,000+ per month.

A basic autoresponder tool costs about $20/mo and it will have most, if not all of the features and functions mentioned above.

The more expensive solutions tend to go by the name of a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool and they usually start at approximately $200/mo.

The difference between a basic autoresponder and a CRM is that a CRM has a lot more features. Many try to be a “one-stop-shop”. Many will host websites, landing pages, sales pages, etc. Many have their own built-in payment processors that allow you to accept payments through them. Many track a lot more client/customer data and allow you to do lead scoring. Many track employee activity and production. Some have built in phone systems. And, plenty more features.

It all comes down to what you need.

If your main goal is to automatically send emails and have the features and functions listed above, then, more than likely, a basic autoresponder will suit all of your needs.

Popular Autoresponder Tools:

Basic Autoresponder Tools:

• ActiveCampaign: Great autoresponder tool and the one we use at Crazy Eye Marketing, payments start at $9/mo.
• MailChimp: Another great autoresponder tool. They do offer free plans, but in order to get the autoresponder service, payments start at $10/mo.
• Aweber: Another popular autoresponder tool. Starts at $19/mo.
• GetResponse: Another popular autoresponder tool. Starts at $15/mo.
• Constant Contact: Another popular autoresponder tool. Starts at $20/mo.

CRM Tools:

• Ontraport: Very popular CRM Tool. Starts at $297/mo.
• InfusionSoft: Another popular CRM Tool: Starts at $199/mo.
• HubSpot: Another popular CRM Tool. Starts at $200/mo.

While this strategy works well … there's now a “smarter” version I recommend you checkout by clicking here.

I’ll start this post with an if / then statement ~

If sales funnels are what convert leads into customers …

Then, sales pipelines are what multiply the lifetime value of those customers.

Sales Pipelines Are For Paying Customers

It’s been said, time and time again, that it’s much easier to sell to your current customers than it is to acquire a whole new customer.

Think about that for a moment. When you have a paying customer – you know that person is not afraid to open their wallet, and, unless you under-delivered the first time – they should be more than happy to open it for your business again.

Sales pipelines aim to keep that wallet open by automatically sending communications to your customers based on the products they purchased and/or their demographics.

Sales pipelines are where money is made.

2 Goals Of A Sales Pipeline

There are two primary goals of a sales pipeline:

• Retain trust
• Generate action

Retain Trust

Here’s the deal, unless you really under-delivered on the initial sale to the customer, your customer already trusts you and your business.

Having said that, it will be much easier to sell a second, third, fourth, fifth, …, time – however, if you continually send offer after offer, you may alienate your customers.

They’ll start to see you as a money hungry person or business who’s not looking out for their best interests.

Obviously, no one wants that – you need to retain the trust you initially built.

This is done by continuing to send content that is helpful, entertaining, and/or informative.

Generate Action

The second goal of a sales pipeline, and the one that’s directly responsible for more money generated per customer, is the communications you send that drives action.

An action is something you want the customer to do. These actions can include things like:

Having the customer…

• go to your online store and make a purchase
• go to your physical store and make a purchase
• go to an affiliate offer to make a purchase where you earn a commission
• refer a friend
• leave a review on Amazon.com
• record a video testimonial about your product/service/business

There are a lot of actions a satisfied customer will perform, if you simply ask.

And, if the plain ask doesn't work, you can spice it up a little bit – for example: You can send out a “loyal customer coupon”. Since they've been a great customer, you’ll give them 10% off their next order.

A Sales Pipeline In Action

I used to offer a personal training service where I created fitness and nutrition plans for clients online.

In this business I had several sales pipelines setup, one of which targeted males that wanted to build muscle.

In that pipeline, I sent an email that linked to a YouTube video of a killer bicep workout. I did not even own that video. It was just very informative, entertaining, and I felt any one of my male clients, wanting to build muscle, would enjoy watching it.

In that video, the instructor mentioned a few supplements he recommended for building muscle.

Can you guess the content of my next email?

Affiliate links to those supplements!

This way, when one of my clients followed the link and made a purchase – I earned a commission.

Hopefully that example clarifies how a sales pipeline can be used to maximize your customers’ lifetime value.

In Closing

I want you to remember two things:

1. Sales pipelines are where the money is made.
2. And, do not abuse your paying customers’ trust.

You need us because –

We Do What The Tools Can't

A question I receive all the time is, “What makes you guys different than X?”

Plugin whatever service you want for X:

• Click Funnels
• Lead Pages
• MailChimp
• Aweber
• Active Campaign
• Constant Contact
• Salesforce
• HubSpot
• etc,etc,etc

Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with any of the aforementioned services – they’re all great and perform exactly as they’re intended – and, I use tons of tools to be more effective and efficient.

The thing is …

• They don't come pre-setup with content and structure – someone will have to either write or import the content and then structure it within the tool so it's delivered in an effective manner.
• They don't automatically integrate with your website. Someone is going to have to add the forms to your website – and make them “pretty”.
• They don't automatically produce landing pages to suit your needs – someone will have to either modify or design landing pages.
• They don't develop lead magnets or incentives for prospective leads to entice them to join your sales funnel – someone will have to do that.
• They don't automatically grow themselves – someone will have to advertise and market the automated sales system.
• They don't re-write and test different subject lines, titles, links, content, and ad copy – someone will have to do that.
• They don't think for themselves. The possibilities of increasing customer value are endless with properly aligned, complementary, products.

As you can see, none of these tools are going to do that type of research and set up the kind of system that automatically multiplies your customers' lifetime value.

This is where my company, Crazy Eye Marketing, and I come into play.

We do what the tools can't.

I’m going to answer your question with a question:

Do you have customers, fans, or contacts that you want to remain in contact with?

If you answered yes, you need an automated sales system.

If you answered no, you’re probably not in business and do not need an automated sales system.

The following list is by no means all inclusive; however, it should make you confident in answering the question above.

• Related Article: What is an automated sales system?

Individuals

• Bloggers
• Authors
• Musicians
• Artists
• Graphic Designers
• Web Designers

Business To Consumer (B2C)

• Medical Offices (Doctor, Dentist, Chiropractor, etc)
• Specialty Shops (Flower Shop, Vapor Shop, Furniture Store, etc)
• Services (Lawyer, Accountant, Lawn Care, etc)
• Car Dealerships
• Apartment Complexes
• Pet Hotels

Digital Businesses

• SEO Services
• Web Design Services
• Digital Courses
• Digital Products

Business To Business (B2B)

Depending on the size of the deals and the number of clients, the use of an automated sales system will vary.

For example; if you have a few main customers and/or multi-million dollar deals – an automated sales system would probably not be ideal. In that case, you need close person-to-person relationships.

However; if you’re a manufacturer and have hundreds or even thousands of businesses you work with – an automated sales system can be highly beneficial to build rapport and recommend other products you manufacture.

Unsure?

If you’re still not sure – all you need to do is contact us, and we’ll be in touch shortly!

The whole idea of a sales funnel is to bring people through the buying process, in order to make them lifelong customers to your business.

The Online World

The idea of the “sales funnel” or “purchase funnel” has existed loooong before the Internet (1898 [Wiki]) – it's essentially how businesses are run.

However, in “Internet speak”, we tend to refer to sales funnels as a process, or system, that's streamlined with the help of automation and other tools.

By utilizing the tools and resources available, individuals and small businesses are able to multiply their revenue with much greater ease than in the pre-Internet days.

Ultimately, the concept remains the same while the “how” has changed (for the better!)

Sales Funnel Concept

There are a few phases customers go through within the sales funnel, but before we get into the phases, let me set the stage:

• Your business has a target market.
• Whether it’s local, national, or worldwide – you have an ideal customer.
• The problem is, this person may not even know your company exists –

1. Make ideal customer aware of your existence

Once your ideal customer is aware of your existence and is getting to know your business, you will have the opportunity to approach them and transform them into a lead –

2. Capture ideal customer’s contact information

You’re now able to have a conversation with your ideal customer. You will be able to determine what makes them “tick.” You will be able to inform and entertain this person –

3. Build a trusting relationship with your ideal customer

Once you’ve taken the time to learn about this person – their wants, their needs, their problems, their desires – you’ll be able to –

4. Ask for the sale

If you've done a good job targeting your ideal customer, building a trusting relationship, and identifying their problems – asking for the sale should be as simple as recommending a product that will solve a particular problem.

After the sale is made, they become your customer and it's up to you to –

5. Keep customers happy and coming back for more

You've done the hard part. You've taken a person from the top of the funnel all the way through to the bottom. It's now time to maintain that relationship and maximize customer lifetime value by recommending more solutions (products & services) for years to come!

Let’s dive into each of these phases.

Make ideal customer aware of your existence

I’m going to make a very obvious statement – the Internet is extremely large.

Large does not mean complicated. So, don't over think this.

Advertise where your ideal customer hangs out

It’s really that simple.

Many people get wrapped up in and overwhelmed by shiny SEO (search engine optimization) techniques, PPC (pay per click) techniques, social media techniques, content marketing techniques, and they forget the big picture.

Yes, techniques are fantastic; however, if you’re not where your customers are – all the techniques in the world will not help you.

If your ideal customers hang out on a set of forums – you need to be on those forums.

If your ideal customers are huge Pinterest users – you need to be on Pinterest.

If your ideal customers search for certain keywords – you need to be the answer.

If your ideal customer doesn’t use the Internet, you still need to be where they are. Are they listening to the radio? Watching certain channels on TV? Residents of a certain community?

• Related Course: How To Increase Leads & Sales On Facebook With The Triple Threat Strategy

Capture ideal customer’s contact information

Once your ideal customer knows you exist, you will want to capture their contact information.

This is going to allow you to converse with your ideal customer, thus keeping your business in the front of their mind.

If you fail to capture their information, they’re just as likely to bounce over to one of your competitors who will capture it, build the relationship, and have a lifelong customer.

The good thing is, capturing contact information has become fairly commonplace and you will not be “invading” anyone’s privacy by asking for a little bit of information (like a name and email address).

To help entice people to give your business their contact information you will want to –

Offer a lead magnet to increase leads

A lead magnet is a fancy way of saying the word – incentive.

What would make your customer want to give your business their email address?

• Coupon
• Contest
• Sample product
• Video/eBook/Course that solves a problem

You’ll want to capture their contact information and place it in a mailing list like ActiveCampaign or MailChimp.

The two services listed above are great for businesses just getting started and offer tools to create the forms required to collect the contact information.

• Related Course: How To Create Lead Magnets That SELL While Growing Your List

Build a trusting relationship with your ideal customer

Take a moment to think about yourself.

When you’re making a purchase, you may spend hours conducting research, reading reviews, and watching videos before finally making a decision.

Then, your trusted friend tells you they like this other widget and that’s what they would recommend.

Instantly, you throw your hours of research down the drain and go with your friend’s recommendation.

Why?

Trust.

Build trust by delivering value

With your ideal customer’s contact information, you will be able to reach out to them and provide valuable information.

Share helpful articles, insightful stories, product reviews, reminders, and answer their questions.

Even if they’re not your articles and stories – if they’re helpful, share them.

Ultimately, be ever present and helpful.

• Related Course: The ActiveCampaign & Interest Driven Sales Funnel Course

Ask for the sale

Customers can trust businesses like they trust their friends.

Once this happens, you can ask for the sale.

Ideally the customer will make a purchase and enter into the “Retention Phase” where you'll be able to maximize their lifetime value; however, if no purchase is made –

Continue to build trust

According to this Business Insider article, the total number of times you need to contact or “touch” a prospect tends to range from 3-12. While other studies show you need to touch your prospect a minimum of 7 times in an 18 month period.

So, the reason a sale might not have been made is that the appropriate number of “touches” has not yet been reached.

Don't give up, continue sending helpful, educational, entertaining, and informative content. Continue to respond to inquiries.

You can do it!

Keep customers happy and coming back for more

If you make it to this point, you've managed to bring someone in through advertising and convince them to open their wallet and give you money – congrats!

The absolute last thing you should do now is ignore that customer.

Why? Because they already trust you enough to buy from you and they have money and are willing to spend it.

Unfortunately, many businesses ignore those that are already paying and try to “impress” new potential customers.

Fortunately, you're smarter than that and you'll continue to help your customers solve their problems for years to come 😉

Are you ready to start building sales funnels? Checkout The Sales Funnel Training Vault!

While this strategy works well … there's now a “smarter” version I recommend you checkout by clicking here.

Keeping up with leads, prospects, and customers can be a very time consuming activity.

The thing is – it doesn't have to be.

An automated sales system, sometimes referred to as an automated marketing system, is a combination of education based marketing, database marketing, and email marketing (automation) in a planned, systematized, strategy with the purpose to accomplish two tasks:

1. Convert leads into paying customers
2. Maximize the lifetime value of those customers

In this article, I'm going to break down an automated sales system into its parts. In understanding the parts, you’ll be able to understand the whole concept.

What It Is, What It Isn't

An automated sales system is a system that is methodically planned, implemented, and optimized to convert more leads into customers and to maximize those customers' lifetime value.

An automated sales system is not a program, application, tool, or plugin that you simply add to your site and call it a day.

Sure, several tools are used in the implementation of the system. If your business needs a $10/mo autoresponder service – great! If your business needs a $1,000+/mo autoresponder service – great! The tools used are whatever fulfills your business's needs.

The tools do not make the automated sales system – people do.

• Related Article: Why you need us

Two Parts

Sales Funnels

The sole purpose of a sales funnel is to take a person and convert them into a customer by taking them through the buying process.

• Related Article: How does a sales funnel work?

Sales Pipelines

The sole purpose of a sales pipeline is to take a customer and multiply their lifetime value by maintaining relationships and recommending complementary products and services.

• Related Article: How do sales pipelines work?

Graphic Representation

How Is It Automated?

Email

Email is the primary method of communicating with leads, prospects, and customers. There are many tools and services that assist with automatically delivering emails to individuals based on a wide variety of segmentation criteria. For example, individuals can be segmented based upon which links they click, which products and services they are interested in, specific dates, and more.

The services that handle the email automation are called autoresponders and there are a slew of them. Their pricing can range from about $10/mo to $1,000+/mo depending on features and the number of contacts.

• Related Article: What is an autoresponder and how does it work?

Retargeting

Retargeting, sometimes referred to as remarketing, is a type of advertising that “follows” your prospective leads, actual leads, prospects, and customers around the Internet based on their interactions with your business.

While retargeting is truly powerful when it comes to turning prospective leads into actual leads, it’s also a powerful tool to communicate with your current leads, prospects, and customers.

Email combined with retargeting increases your “megaphone” and enables you to reach the greatest percentage of individuals who are traveling through your sales funnels and sales pipelines.

• Related Article: How does retargeting work?

What Type Of Content Should Be Sent?

Determining what to send leads, prospects, and customers can be the hardest part in the development of an automated sales system; however, ensuring each piece of content has a specific goal will make the task a lot easier. The two goals for the content is to either provide value or drive action.

Value

Value content is information that serves no purpose other than to inform or entertain your customer. You’re not trying to sell anything directly; however, this content will educate the customer on what you’re about to sell them. This value content may be as simple as a link to a YouTube video that helps your customer better understand something or learn something new.

Value content is what builds trustworthy relationships.

Action

Action content attempts to get the individual to perform an action. This type of content can also be informative and/or entertaining (it should be); however, its main purpose is to drive action. The action can be to make a purchase from you or an affiliate, a visit to your store, to click an ad, to sign up on another website, etc.

Action content drives customers to perform an action.