Out on the World Wide Web, there have been some MAJOR breakthroughs over the last few years in favor of business owners.
The biggest innovation all business owners need to be aware of (outside of the massive changes that social networking has ignited) is the birth of the automated sales funnel…aka ‘the value ladder.’
Why should EVERY business owner know about this?
Let me ask you… Do you wish your business was creating more money while simultaneously requiring less of your time?
Do you want to automate your sales process?
Do you wish you were sharing your message and offers with more people around the world? And growing the number of people that were aware of your business… daily? If not hourly?
Do you wish you were doing more to scale your impact to the world?
Do you wish you could use the information you knew about your customers to target the right people with the right message, at the right time… in the right place… with total ease?
Okay, I think I’ve made my point. A value ladder does ALL of this. Or rather, it can, as long as you set it up to do so!
So how do you do that?
There is a sea of tools available to you. However, if you don’t consider yourself “tech-friendly” creating a value ladder can become a huge headache.
Which brings me to the one and only con.
While some basic value ladders may only require one or two software applications to run, others can get quite complex. In layman’s terms: some of this stuff can become pretty “techy.” So, if you already struggle online, I strongly consider hiring a digital marketer/developer that understands what they’re doing. They can help show you the way, or implement the value ladder for you.
Are you getting this? I can’t make this up: the pros to a value ladder are endless, if not a NECESSITY for online business owners, (as well as many brick and mortar businesses out there!) The only con is that you may have to hire a professional to help you capitalize and profit on the shifts taking place across the web.
Another version of what I’ve just told you is: vegetables can improve your health, but you have to either buy them or grow them in your backyard. Pick one and the sky’s your limit; the value ladder can change your business as you know it, give you more freedom and increase your profit… but you have to do your homework or get some help…
Ready to eat some spinach and grow some biceps? Keep reading…
See, most businesses who operate online host a flat website; visitors land on their page, and when they aren’t directed to take any sort of action they leave without giving their email, obtaining any real value and even worse – they’ve not spent a dime! This is a business owner’s nightmare. This is like someone stumbling into your store to buy some coffee but leaving because there’s no one to take their money. Without even leaving you their email or phone number to find out how much your coffee might cost. They’ve lost interest. Meanwhile, you’re in the back stocking bags of coffee to sell and wondering why no one is buying it.
Now, we all know what a standard boring website looks like: too much blank space in the wrong places, some ugly distracting color scheme, way too much text (that we never read), maybe some tabs on top sending us everywhere and nowhere all at once and occasionally… hidden somewhere on the home page… a magical box for us to type our precious email address into so they can send us their wildly uneventful monthly newsletters that we won’t ever read. That may have been a run-on sentence but I made my point, right?
Let’s agree to NEVER be the owners of those websites again, okay? Thanks.
With all this talk about internet marketing, automated income, sales funnels, value ladders, webinars, lead magnets, tripwires, upsells, down-sells… it’s enough to make your head spin! At D4Y Brand Builder we understand how confusing it can be just deciding where to start.
That said, let’s get to the good stuff; your value ladder.
A value ladder, simply put, is a process that takes your leads, and eventual customers, through a step by step process. They most likely start as contacts you acquire from cold traffic and your value ladder moves them through that process to become customers that are regularly buying high-ticket items and are raving fans. The key is to deliver a higher quality of value every step the client takes along the value ladder.
It’s important you understand the way it looks in real life, so let me describe a recent situation I experienced where a personal trainer took me from Facebook friend all the way to raving client in a matter of weeks:
About a year ago I noticed I had packed on an extra 15-20 pounds since college, and I was pretty committed to losing them. A day or two later, I saw a friend of a friend of mine post a blog article on her Facebook about losing 20 pounds in 30 days.. I thought: Give me that NOW, please!
The next week, I was on her blog again and noticed an ad of hers for a free video series about an at-home exercise routine she’d created. All I had to do was enter my email address and the video series would be mine. Seeing this tipped me over the edge. I wanted that information. It was possible to lose weight and exercise from home? I was in!
After entering my email I received a 5-day automated email sequence. On the last day, there was an offer for a FREE 15-minute consultation… sweet! I signed up and a few days later we talked about my health goals and what I was/wasn’t willing to do in order to achieve these goals.
Based on our discussion, she suggested that I do a 16-week challenge to shed some fat and build lean muscle mass. Since 80% of our health is based on nutrition, she first offered to customize my meal plans for 16 weeks.
Our conversation continued and we got to talk about what it REALLY takes to have more muscle, something I also wanted. While eating healthy would be great and continuing my yoga routine would help, I was serious about gaining muscle. She then offered me a personalized exercise plan for 16 weeks that would expedite the process. This 15-minute free consultation had turned me into a customer. I was sold!
I was all excited about my new plan, but before we got off the phone I told her I was worried about staying committed throughout the process on my own. She said this was normal and understood where I was coming from, so she offered me one-on-one coaching calls each week throughout my 16-week transformation.
Amazing… I was ready to go!
So let’s back up here, back to that moment I stumbled onto her site. I was, looking at some free information about losing weight and I ended up spending well over $1500 and hiring a coach who would customize my workouts, design my meal plan and hold my hand throughout the process.
Now THAT is the power of a well-structured value ladder!
I learned about her expertise with some free content; her blog. She then brought me closer to something we call a lead magnet, and in this case, it was her free 5-day workout video series. It can also be a video blog, free ebook, free report, case study, webinar, etc. The point is to educate your audience that YOU are an expert in your field and you can help them reach their goals.
Once a lead is captured, the goal is to move them into making a small purchase and loosen their wallet – this wallet-loosening item is called a tripwire. This is usually a low-cost offer anywhere from $5-20 in the form of a book (sometimes free plus shipping), an ebook, a sample or small course where they can get a taste of your core offer.
There is a saying: “it is a lot easier to keep a customer than to acquire a new one” and 5 times cheaper, too! The way to do this, again and again, is to treat your customers like gold; provide them with great products and service so they keep coming back for more!
After they have taken the first major step and been converted into to a customer, it’s time to up the ante.
This next offer should be reserved for customers that are excited about you and your content and have shown that they are willing to invest in your offerings.
This is where your core offer comes into play. A core offer is usually between $497-997 and is about 10 times more valuable as the tripwire or any mid-range product they purchased. The core offer should be a course, one-on-one coaching, an event or something along those lines.
For some business owners, the core offer will be the end of the road… meaning the end of the customer’s lifetime value. For others, this is where the profit margin really starts to grow.
Cue the profit maximizer!
Depending on your niche, the profit maximizer can be a mastermind program, higher level coaching offer, paid live workshop or even a bundled package of your products/services. This is called the profit maximizer because your profit margin on these deliverables is often very large! You already have the customer and over their course of going through your funnel, have more than covered your cost to acquire them.
And THAT is your value ladder…the most simple, effective and profitable way to structure your business!
The best thing about a value ladder? It works for practically ANY business! Chiropractors, dentists, nutrition companies, technology companies, personal development leaders, etc.
If this is all still new to you, be sure and pick up our MODERN INTERNET MARKETING LINGO 1.0 infographic which will surely help you decipher some of this tech-lingo.
Elan
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