Selling on Amazon has some MASSIVE benefits …
- They give you traffic
- High conversion rates
- They handle the logistics
But, it has some MASSIVE downsides as well …
- You don't “own” your customers
- Insane competition
- And, what if they ban you? You're screwed.
Of course, you already know this – these are the reasons you're here, reading this article.
What you've probably done thus far is setup a half-hearted ecommerce store on Shopify “in case” Amazon changes something that disrupts your business.
While your intentions are good, really … ask yourself … “How screwed would I be if Amazon shut me down today?”
If your answer is anything other than, “I wouldn't even notice it” – you're in the right place!
I'm about to give you a FREE Sales Funnel with the full blown strategy, specifically designed for people like you!
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An Ecommerce Store vs A Sales Funnel
An ecommerce store probably sounds like the right solution to you.
You sell on Amazon which is an ecommerce store, so it seems to make sense that if you make something similar, it should work.
I'm here to tell you, you're wrong.
Try it, you'll see.
Running an ecommerce store is hard.
Beyond the technical aspects of building it, automating it, and maintaining it (that's actually the easy part) …
The BIGGEST challenge you're going to have is to CONVINCE someone to buy off your store when there's Amazon.
You will have to build trust.
Building trust takes time and/or money.
You'll probably have to …
- write great, compelling, trust building copy
- develop a social media presence
- start a blog
- post videos on YouTube
- run paid ads
- handle customer inquiries
- and manage it all
Building trust is hard when you're competing against Amazon.
They already have the trust and you inherit it when you sell on their platform.
But, if you're off their platform … you're on your own.
You Need To Do Something Different
While an ecommerce store may sound like the logical solution, it's not.
It's too hard to compete with Amazon.
You need to do something different.
But, what?
Imagine having a system …
Imagine having a system where you could put a dollar in and receive at least a dollar in return.
How many dollars would you put into it?
That's the sole purpose of a sales funnel – you put money in, it spits more money back out.
Yeah, you're kind of doing it on Amazon already … it's generating more money than you're putting into it.
But, try running a Facebook ad to your ecommerce store … let me know how that works out for ya.
Unless you really know what you're doing and have your ducks in a row, I'd be willing to bet big money you will not even break even on paid traffic to your ecommerce store.
It's the nature of the beast.
You need a sales funnel
A Sales Funnel is your answer to the ecommerce store “problem”.
With a few working funnels you won't have to worry about Amazon anymore.
The good news is, you already have the products. You already know who your customers are. You already know what sells. You can even use Amazon's Fulfillment Centers.
You already have everything you need. Now, you just need to “funnel-ize” it!
The Amazon Seller's Sales Funnel
Preview Pages: Free + Shipping | OTO #1 | Downsell | OTO #2 | Order Confirmation
>> [thrive_2step id='7377′]CLICK HERE TO GET THIS SALES FUNNEL[/thrive_2step] <<
Free + Shipping [see page]
Grow Your List With Buyers
The first page in this sales funnel is a Free + Shipping offer.
What does that mean? It means you give something away for free, all they have to do is pay shipping & handling!
This is a great way to get BUYERS on your list – people that have proven they'll spend money with you.
There's no reason you can't create a Free + Shipping offer for your business. There must be a product you can acquire for under $2 that your audience will love (if you don't have one already).
Tip: incorporate the cost of the product in the shipping & handling price.
Cart Abandonment
Another cool feature of the Free + Shipping page is the 2-step form.
If someone inputs their contact info and goes to Step #2 (billing info), but doesn't pay, you will still capture their contact information. You can then re-engage them via email, phone, and/or snail mail. Think of it like a cart abandonment feature. (Really powerful!)
Order Bumps
Finally, on Step #2, right before the individual clicks the “Complete Order” button, there's an option to add a bonus to their order.
This bonus option is called an “Order Bump; it's a fantastic way to increase order size.
What you want to offer here is a product that complements the free one they're ordering and is usually incentivized with a discount.
For example, with my Crazy Mug, I could include some Crazy Coffee Beans for 30% off.
Another option that works really well is to ask if the individual would like to double or even triple their order!
I'm about to run some numbers; if you hate numbers – skip to the next section.
Let's say my Crazy Mug costs me $1.50 to get in the Amazon warehouse. Amazon charges me $5.95 to ship it. However, to ship a second one, they only charge $1.20. So, to give away 2 mugs, it costs me $10.15 ($3 for 2 mugs + shipping & handling). If I charge $5.99 shipping & handling per mug, that brings in $11.98 and I'm able to net $1.83. Yes, not much in this particular example; however, what if my product cost was closer to $0.50? What if people were tripling their orders? There are lots of things to try!
OTO #1 (One-Time-Offer) [see page]
Obviously, you'll go out of business if you only give away free stuff.
You're going to have to make money somewhere in this funnel, and the first place to really make it is with OTO #1!
OTO stands for One-Time-Offer and it's essentially a special offer presented to an individual, only one time, which is right now! If they don't act now, they miss out on this exclusive offer forever. This added element of scarcity increases conversions.
Typically, OTO #1 should be around $50; however, depending on your market, it could be more. It's typically less than OTO #2. (This is just what's “typical” – heck, try selling some really expensive stuff in OTO #1 and see what happens!)
While there are several strategies and tactics for OTOs – the main objective of your OTO in this sales funnel is to sell something that has an incredibly high margin. This will allow you to recoup ad spend and turn a profit.
Hopefully you already have some incredibly high margin products in your inventory that even when paired with an irresistible discount, you're still able to reap a nice profit.
However, what if you don't have an incredibly high margin product to offer? Here are some ideas that work well:
- Create a bundle – combine a few products so the OTO, as a whole, has a higher value
- Add digital assets – courses, training, documents, membership
- Video Training: How to build a membership portal in ClickFunnels
- Introduce continuity (recurring) – membership, community
- Add a subscription (recurring) – consumable products typically need to be replaced, can you offer a subscription service?
The Video
The video included in the funnel is just a placeholder. You need to shoot your own video or you can make a text based offer if you'd rather; however, video typically converts better.
The video should only be 3-5 minutes in length and hit on a few key points:
- Tell them the free product they just grabbed is freakin' awesome and will be on its way to them shortly. Reiterate a key benefit or two.
- Introduce the OTO as a special offer that's going to make that free product even better.
- Also, hit on the fact that this offer is not for everyone. It's only for individuals that have grabbed the free product.
- Tell them what the OTO is and how it will benefit them.
- Tell them to click the “orange” button below to accept the offer.
- If you offer a guarantee, mention it.
- Share a review or two. Or at least snippets with the key points.
- Tell them to again click the “orange” button below to accept the offer.
If you hit on all of those points, you'll easily fill the 3-5 minutes!
What An OTO Is Not
An OTO should not be an upgrade of the free product they just grabbed.
For example, if I'm giving away coffee mugs, my OTO should not be a really expensive coffee mug because they already requested a mug … why would they need another one?
Instead, what you offer needs to complement what they just purchased, not replace it.
Downsell [see page]
Unfortunately, not everyone is going to accept your OTO #1, no matter how awesome it is.
For the people that say “no” to OTO #1, offer them a downsell.
There are a few ways to handle this:
- Offer a discount on the OTO #1 – Like in the funnel I'm giving away, the downsell is a discount on OTO #1. This option can work incredibly well; however, bear in mind your margins as well as how you want to be perceived. Are you sure you want to “reward” people for saying “no”? However, if it's more of a “churn and burn” play as opposed to brand building – this option may work well for you.
- Add a bonus – Add another product to OTO #1, physical or digital to sweeten the deal. Note: similar to providing a discount, this option may inadvertently “train” people to say “no” so they can see what bonuses they'll receive.
- Break up OTO #1 – If your OTO #1 is a bundle, break it up and allow people to purchase pieces of it individually. This works well because your customer may not want all of the items included in the bundle; however, if offered a discount on one of the products, they'll take it.
- Offer a payment plan – Instead of one payment of $47, can you make it 2 payments of $23.50? This may entice your customer to make the purchase, but make sure you're not going to lose money if they only pay one payment. (Tip: include a “just charge me the onetime payment of $47” option in addition to the payment plan option.).
- “Are you sure?” – Offer the exact same OTO #1 again. Reiterate the fact that it really is a one-time offer and they won't see it again.
OTO #2 [see page]
Whether or not your new customer purchases OTO #1 or the Downsell, they are presented with OTO #2.
OTO #2 is usually one of three things:
- A higher-end, more expensive product – While OTO #1 is typically cheaper at around $50, and more “reasonable” to purchase, OTO #2 is typically one of your more expensive products. One where you're celebrating if it sells (as long as it's in line with everything else you're selling in your funnel).
- Another product that complements the Free + Shipping product – If you don't have any expensive products to offer, that's OK. You can still recommend another complementary product that helps your customer while simultaneously increasing order size.
- A continuity offer (if not included with OTO #1) – A membership or subscription that provides recurring revenue is the holy grail. It provides consistency and predictability to your business. If you can fit one in somewhere, do it.
Like OTO #1, you want to use a 3-5 minute video to sell it. You can follow a similar script as the one outlined above.
Order Confirmation [see page]
The Order Confirmation page is simply that, a page that confirms the individual's order.
It simply thanks them for their order, breaks it down for them, and tells them how to get in touch, what to expect, and what to do next.
Offer Wall
An Offer Wall is what it sounds like, a wall of offers. Essentially, you'll display 3-6 products with links to them and possibly some exclusive discounts. If your new customer wants to buy more from you, they know where to look!
I didn't include one of these with the sales funnel I'm giving away. However, it's relatively simple to add and something you may want to consider doing!
ClickFunnels to Amazon FBA
Since you're already selling on Amazon, I'm sure you're taking advantage of their fulfillment centers.
This is the best way I know how to do it:
Take Action!
Now is the time for you to make a decision.
Are you going to stay dependent on Amazon while running a half-hearted ecommerce store or are you going to take control, build a few funnels, and dominate?!
In this post, [thrive_2step id='7377′]I've given you a sales funnel for free[/thrive_2step] and outlined the entire strategy for it.
All you need to do is execute.
For more training on execution, check out The Sales Funnel Training Vault!