You only have to do ONE thing to truly increase your leads AND continuously turn those leads INTO customers.

This one thing can mean the difference between a lead Xing out of your order form OR signing up for a lifetime subscription of your product. Or perhaps it’ll be the difference between a lead hitting the ‘download now’ button or clicking off your website entirely. Or maybe it’s going to be the difference between a new lead opening your email or marking it as spam. It affects ALL of these scenarios, ALL the time. 

And that one thing is…

‘Sharing.’ 

And by this, I don’t mean the ‘Share’ button on Facebook.

Of course, your market research, sales funnel, content marketing and security tested, and having a Google-ranked website are all important elements of an online business.

But are you sharing?

Let me explain, as it’s highly important you don’t mistake or interpret this version of ‘sharing’ for giving any of your business away for free OR pushing sales pitches all the time.

If you want to increase the business you’re doing, you need to share what you know. This can be accomplished in infinite ways. Here are a few:

  1. Writing for your own blog

  2. Guest blogging for other’s blogs

  3. Vlogging (video blogging)

  4. Creating a free group on Facebook where people can learn more about what you know and reach out to you for help

  5. Posting on social media about the latest trends you’re keeping up with and concepts/products you’ve recently learned about

  6. Sending out a newsletter to your list about a new product/concept you think would be valuable to them

  7. Offer 3 people the opportunity to try your latest product for free for a limited time in exchange for feedback

By no means do I suggest you offer yourself or your products up for free… but the fact is: you sharing actively about what you specialize in, whether it’s making socks or building online sales funnels, is often the difference between your success and failure.

This is about more than positioning yourself as a guru or the expert of your field. It’s more visceral, more emotional and much more raw than that. The importance of ‘sharing’ in business boils down to this: if you don’t care enough about what you are selling to share it, why should other people care enough to buy it from you? It’s that simple.

This is your livelihood. Do you care? Do you share? I’m not just making a bad joke here, I’m making a very expensive point, for those of you still choosing not to.

This (your business) is the reason you get up in the morning. No more of that BS about waiting for the weekend. As a business owner (and a person that exists on this planet of awesomeness) you have to LOVE what you do and what you’re creating enough to shout it from the rooftops.

Did I go too far with that one? Maybe you’re not proud of what you do. Maybe you’re stuck. You need a different blog post altogether then.

My point is that when your “work” or business becomes your true passion, it should feel easy to share.

Not there yet? Dreading your Mondays? Google Gary Vaynerchuk and watch every single one of his videos and then come back here. 

Moving on, here’s a quick example to make the effect this ‘sharing’ thing can have a bit more clear:

I have a friend named Joe Hughes. He is, to say the least, an incredible horse trainer. As are his kids. Joe and his family are helping to save the wild horses, Brumbies, of Australia. In order to do this, they are training them and then rehoming each horse. Great idea, right?

Here’s the catch: Joe and his family live in the middle of nowhere. Literally. They have thousands of acres in New South Wales, Australia. We’re talking the kind of place you need four-wheel drive all year long.

So what does Joe do? He shares.

Every step of Joe’s horse training method, 4BP, is available online via the videos he shares daily on his Facebook page. You can watch and learn how Joe trains these horses, start to finish. He’s created and shared videos covering all kinds of scenarios that come about during the training process; fearful horses, stubborn horses, mare, stallions… and the list goes on and on.

Joe is now reaching over 100k people per week organically and that’s JUST on Facebook. So, what has sharing these videos done for Joe and his family? It’s created free, organic traffic that has peeked the interest of thousands online. Rehoming these horses just got not only easier but more lucrative; their value has increased with the growing interest from the masses. People from around the world now know who Joe and his family are. 

Due to the effect of this sharing, Joe and his family are now positioned to begin selling merchandise (which they have begun to do already), as well as advertise for people to come and learn the training method first hand. People are sharing about his training with other people and a network of supporters has formed. But most importantly? Joe and his family can continue on their mission to work with these horses and make the world a better place. Their efforts are now being received globally. Just through sharing, an entirely new world of possibility and opportunity has opened up. 

So what is the lesson here? Share.

If you do nothing else for your business today, share. I don’t care which social media, website or email service you use – just SHARE. Get your message out, your why, and all the parts of what you do that light you up.  

You are your biggest asset, and after you, it’s those you reach. 

The more you share – the more that reach will grow – and the more you’ll find yourself learning along the way as well. Your goals and targets may begin to shift and morph as new connections present themselves. The more connections you make, the bigger your network grows, the more leads, customers, friends, colleagues and possible partners you’ll meet along the way.

You’ll never know what kind of opportunity you’re missing out on until you share. 😉 

So 15, heck, maybe even 10 years ago, you were probably one of the many skeptics who didn’t quite see the value in having a website.

Pay lots of money to someone that hibernates all year in a dark basement behind their computer, developing a site for you in some hieroglyphic coding, so you (and your site visitors) can be frustrated when the needle didn’t move? No thanks.

Things sure do change fast.

Today your business probably doesn’t exist, or at least turn a profit, if you are not online in some form.

Okay, let’s assume you bit the bullet and have a website. Now that you’re online profits are soaring….right?

Wrong.

Just because you are online today – have a website, Facebook page, and maybe threw some spaghetti at Google AdWords and SEO to see what stuck, does NOT mean you are marketing your business effectively.

But we’re not telling you anything new, that’s how life is for most small businesses online. Actually, many of them don’t even know how to gauge the “effectiveness” of their online presence. And this is a very fundamental problem, that when corrected, changes everything.

But first let me throw one more metaphor at you:

You want to get healthy and fit so you pay for a bunch of books on exercise and buy a gym membership but you never read the books and never go to the gym.

Sounds pretty stupid, right?

Well, that’s exactly what some small business owners are doing by creating themselves a nifty little website and praying that people land on it. If only the internet gods had a 1-800 number we could all dial and just put our requests in: “Hi internet gods! I have a request for next month. I need about 400 middle aged women to find my website and buy my new yoga line that makes them feel young and beautiful. Thanks!”

Okay, I went a little far with that one but I kid you not – this type of insanity is running budding businesses, full of potential, straight into the ground.

So, what’s my point?

There are a lot of factors that go into achieving a successful marketing campaign. And they don’t need to remain a mystery. In fact, let’s get the first one super clear:

Market Research. Say that three times. Market research, market research, market research. You have no business selling anything online before you do your market research.

At D4Y, we NEVER touch a project before completing our market research. Meaning, we head out onto the world wide web and see what’s happening in our clients’ space, see what’s being sold effectively, when it’s selling, who it’s selling to, and how they’re selling it. This is all so we can better develop a campaign that will produce results!

However, during this market research, we come across a lot of websites and brands that, for lack of better words, could use some help…

Simply put, many businesses are not making the best use of their website and marketing efforts.

So what are they doing wrong, you may ask?

We consistently see businesses making the same three, killer mistakes. Mistakes that in 2016, you simply cannot afford to make… because by 2017 you will be out of business.

If you want to not only keep up with the times but also keep more money in your pocket, heck, even create more money to put in your pocket, keep reading…

Mistake #1: Not establishing who you are

One of the most common and detrimental mistakes we see from businesses today is a lack of establishing and communicating who they are. This would seem kind of obvious, right?

Well, you would be surprised how many companies don’t mention who they are, why they exist and what their mission is on their website.

In essence, they’ve lost before they even started.

These also tend to be the same companies that claim they are doing online marketing but nothing is working…go figure!

Why is stating who you are and what your mission is, so important?

That is the easiest way for your audience (another bone to pick that we’ll get to later) to resonate with you and quickly determine if their values align with your brand’s values.

When someone learns who you are, it immediately creates trust and rapport. Now that website visitor, is closer to becoming  a customer or client.

If you lack this content on your website, it becomes harder for visitors to resonate with you and your message, deterring them from ever doing business with you.

In a digital world where there is competition everywhere you look, it is vital that you stand out. Being clear about who you are is what makes you stand out! No one can be you.

If you are hoping that random traffic from the internet happens to stumble upon your website, enjoy the little logo design in the top left corner, navigate their way through the clutter of information that tells them nothing about who you really are, and instantly pull out their wallets to buy something from you, you’re dreaming.

The entrepreneur’s guide, Start With Why, written by the highly sought after thought leader, Simon Sinek, illustrates the importance for not only businesses, but everyone, to start with WHY.

Why do you wake up every morning?

Why are you in business?

Why do you do what you do?

In his book, Sinek states: “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” Think about it; the best selling brands in the world don’t merely exist to make money. Of course, they are in business for a profit, but their legacy is what drives them to be great.

Steve Jobs, Apple’s late CEO, lead the company with this vision for their why: “To make a contribution to the world by making tools for the mind that advance humankind.” Today, Apple sells the #2 smartphone on the market, is one of biggest producers of computers, remains the biggest online music hub and has recently broken into the TV scene. As you can see, Jobs’ mission and vision, and his why for Apple, has lead them to change the game in multiple industries.

Every product they produce is in alignment with this why; from design, to use to marketing.

Apple has a purpose and a mission that people want to be a part.

Isn’t it easy to see when a company leads with a driving mission, purpose and vision, they can come to not only dominate but influence change amongst multiple industries, and attract millions of loyal households worldwide?

Mistake #2: Jack-of-All Trades, Master of None

This one can be bad, really bad.

Way too many businesses want to be everything to everyone, rather than mastering their own craft and appealing to a specified audience.

When you know that you are damn good at one thing, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel to try to win over everyone.

There are so many companies in the marketplace today that focus a mile wide and an inch deep, instead of an inch wide and a mile deep.

What I mean by this, is that real success comes from depth. You cannot win a championship without a bench. One hit wonders in the entertainment biz never get remembered. Top chefs never own a fleet of mediocre restaurants. The same goes for entrepreneurs.

You get the point. Find YOUR niche and dig deep in the trenches to strike gold! Create value, build your portfolio, establish customers for life and not customers for a paycheck.

Once you’ve established yourself as an expert or authority in a specific niche, it is critical that you define your audience.

If you are in the food industry, you can’t say that your target market is “everyone” simply because everyone has to eat. Is your focus on organic? Italian? Fast food? Etc.

If you’re creating an online marketing course, who are you speaking to? The beginners? Advanced marketers? Do you focus on Facebook marketing? Brand messaging?

The more defined and specific your avatar, the higher quality client you will attract.

Why is this?

If you know exactly the type of person you want to sell your products or services to, it makes it a heck of alot easier to not only find them, but for them to find you. If you’re offering them exactly what they want then you’re already speaking to them in ways that they will respond.

I come across a lot of business and life coaches on the internet regularly. It appears everyone out there today is a business and life guru, but I digress…

Most of these coaches seem to have no idea who their ideal client is, so instead of speaking to a specific niche, they speak to the masses, and attract no one. Are you a high-level business coach or a struggling single-parent life-coach? Are you a weight-loss coach or a bodybuilding competition coach? Do you coach people on building businesses or closing sales?

There are major differences amongst all of these!

People are extremely picky about where they spend their disposable income, so if you speak to everyone in your messaging, chances are you are going to speak too broadly for your ideal customer to hear you and miss the opportunity to work for them.

Ever heard of Bulletproof?

Most well known for their addition of butter to coffee and popularizing the term “biohacking”?

Founder Dave Asprey understood that there were successful systems in place for sports franchises to win championships, real estate professionals to sell eight-figures worth of homes in a year, why not develop a health formula for people to work, think and live more productively?

Bulletproof sticks to biohacking and biohacking only.

They don’t wander off into manufacturing technology products or even bringing soda into your home. They know what they are best at and they stick to that. Making their name, and the Bulletproof lifestyle trend, spread virally.

So, want a quick fix to mastering your trade while avoiding becoming the jack of all of them?

Find your favorite hat, wear it damn well and become the hero business for your defined audience.

Mistake #3: Not Tracking Customers

This one’s pretty straight forward. In laymen terms, if you are not tracking your customer statistics in 2016, you simply cannot expect to ever “crush it” in your business online.

For those who are keeping up with the times, technology enables you to track every action taken by your clients. From the second someone lands on your site to the time they, well, leave, you must be tracking what your client is doing.

What kind of power would you have with your business if you knew:

• How long your average visitor was staying on your website?
• Where they clicked on the most on your site?
• The email address of every potential lead?
• The percentage of people purchasing something when they visited your site?
• How long leads were staying on your site without buying what they put in their cart?
• Whether a lead ever returned to your site ever again?

Knowing all of this and more, can mean the difference between a successful business and a shop that has to close it’s virtual doors… for good.

So, why aren’t you doing it?!

I cannot tell you the number of websites that I visit who don’t really care what I want or ever really care to get to know me, let alone even ask me for my email address to stay in touch. It’s like ending a date without ever asking when you can see the person again. Basically, I’ve lost interest before I even click off that site.

Like I mentioned earlier, there is a science to it all. If you’re not implementing the systems that work, it’s most likely because you didn’t even know there were systems… nevermind how to implement them.

I want to convey to you the importance of doing all of this.

First off, obtaining their email address is the minimum you should be doing when someone lands on your page – for a multitude of reasons. 

The main reason you’ll want to catch their email is so you can deliver a free gift to them. People like, I mean love, free stuff.

If you are a weight-loss coach, and someone lands on your site and sees a free eBook showing them “5 things you can do today to lose weight”, you’re in! They will undoubtedly give you their email in exchange for that freebie.

Once you have their email, you can communicate with them a bit differently. You can send them a series talking a little bit about who you are and what you have accomplished (to build trust and rapport) but more importantly, share why you do what you do. Get them relating to you.

Second, tracking conversions and cart abandonment means knowing the numbers in your business in a whole new level.

Having the ability to contact someone after they abandon their cart can drive sales through the roof!

I was speaking to a business owner the other day and they said by merely beginning to track this number, they were able to increase sales by 34% in 1 month!

They had a lot of traffic to their site, a lot of people adding things to the shopping cart, but a large percentage of people not finalizing the purchase.

With a simple email and $10 off coupon for first-time customers if they completed the purchase within 24 hours, sales came pouring in over the next month.

These are just two examples of tracking your customers and what they can do to your business. Imagine if you only implemented these two things?

What if you implemented five more?

What would that do to your bottom line?

Let’s take a quick look at Amazing. I mean Amazon.

Amazon as we all (or at least should) know, is the largest online retailer on the planet and is expected to reach $100+ billion, with a “B”, in revenue for 2016. I think the proof is in the pudding but those numbers show that they’re definitely doing something right.

One of the greatest and revenue-generating tools on Amazon’s site is the “people who’ve purchased this item also liked…”.

Boom!

They learn your buying habits, present to you what they know you will like, you click a button and next thing you know it’s at your doorstep in two days thanks to Prime.

Can you imagine what this has done to their revenue?

They also track you, your buying habits and your searches quite closely, which you would realize if you ever saw an Amazon ad following you around the web with an item you recently looked at.

These are the little nuances of tracking which, over time can create a massive shift in your bottom line numbers.

The saying goes, “What is not tracked, is not done.” In this case meaning, if you’re not tracking your customers, you can’t capitalize or monetize all of the information at your disposal

It’s amazing what can happen to your business when you begin to make tiny shifts little by little. Whether it’s gathering your team and establishing your core mission, defining who your audience is or maybe even adding a tracking tool or two to your site, you can probably see the compound effect of doing so.

Finally, with technological resources at your disposal like never before, it’s crucial that you employ these techniques ASAP, unless of course you struggle mightily from mistake #1, in which case you should get a move on it yesterday!

If your business struggles from any of these common mistakes, maybe you can use some help. We’d be happy to offer you a FREE 15-minute strategy session and assist you with implementing these tactics properly into your business. At D4Y, our mission is to help you help yourself impact more people with your products and services!

Sign up for your FREE strategy session HERE.

Now that we understand that the value ladder is on the rise, how it works and why it’s important for your business… it’s time to dive into our proven 6-step formula to crafting your PERFECT value ladder!

If you are going to build a list of raving fans, you need loyal customers. If you want a list of loyal customers, you need a strong following. And to have a strong following, you need to give that following and your business your ALL. What does your all look like? Consistent blogging, value-packed tripwires, problem-solving core offers, intimate coaching sessions, packed masterminds and an environment where your customers come first… THIS is you giving your all. 

Fortunately for you, we are giving away our proven 6-step formula so you can streamline how you provide your all and create the perfect value ladder. We have been using this strategy in-house for a few years now with dozens of our clients, generating millions in revenue and impacting countless lives with remarkable products and services.

With that said, let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work!

Step 1: Research your market

While there may be a multitude of ways to go about creating a value ladder, at D4Y we believe there is ONLY one way to begin it: market research! This is non-negotiable. If you want to create a successful online business or any business for that matter, it is imperative that you understand what is currently going on in your industry. This step alone could be broken down into three actions:

Action 1: You must know your competition! In today’s fast-paced, dog-eat-dog world, it’s extremely important to understand who the other players are that are vying for your dream customer’s attention.

Action 2: Once you have figured out who those players are, you will want to understand their strategies and tactics. This is what we call “reverse engineering.” Filtering through their content, advertisements, email campaigns and offers to gain more clarity on where your message, brand, and offers fit into the marketplace. 

Action 3: The third action to take, is to understand where and how to best connect with your customer. What websites are they visiting? What books are they reading? How much income are they achieving? What are some of their goals? Challenges? Where do they live? Do they own or rent their home? You get the point… but essentially, the internet (especially Facebook) allows for us to narrow down our client to any degree we like!

Unfortunately, we have seen many business owners and entrepreneurs who have decided to forego this step and their market research. There is a saying that goes something like: “you can pay the price with your time or your money, but you must pay the price.” These individuals end up wasting so much of both their time and money in what doesn’t work because they neglected to invest some time to see what is working. 

If you haven’t received the point already, let me make it clear for you… do the work, because there are NO shortcuts!

Step 2: Establish your core offer

Once you have, and NOT until you have completed your market research, it’s time to define what your core offer is. Your core offer is the main product or service you are selling. This is the time to get super clear on what products or services you are offering. 

For a life or health coach this service may be one-on-one coaching; for a real estate broker this might be buying/selling a home, and for an online personal trainer, this could be a 12-week digital training program with workout and nutritional guides.

Many times, businesses (and individual entrepreneurs) attempt to be all things to everyone. Often times this leads to selling nothing to anyone. Why? Because you become a master at nothing and provider of everything. The key here is to clearly define your target customer and proceed, making sure your offer delivers great value to your specific audience and solve a specific problem or fill a specific need.

A confused consumer buys nothing. So, before moving forward, be sure your core offer is clear and valuable to the chosen audience.

Step 3: Splinter down to create a tripwire

Now that your core offer is established, and you can deliver some of your highest value to the masses, it’s time to create a tripwire. A tripwire? Yep! A tripwire is a small, irresistible offer that converts a prospect into a customer. Tripwires typically are priced between $3 and $20. There are many possibilities for how to structure your tripwire offer but essentially, you want to splinter off a small piece of your core offer and design it to be a stand-alone product. Splintering off allows you to easily lead to your core offer because you are establishing yourself as having relevant, useable value to offer someone.

The goal of a tripwire is to loosen the wallet of a prospect and entice them into joining your following even closer with a low barrier to entry. This sounds shady, but it’s just psychology. Once someone has invested a little bit with you, they’re more likely to invest more. This small investment (tripwire) can be in the form of a book, (usually a Free + Shipping offer where the book is free but the customer pays for the shipping), or access to a small piece of content from their core offer (a chapter of the book or a module from your course), or a “first time” discount offer ($15 first-time massage) to get your client “in the door.”

No matter what way you slice it, this is a pivotal point in your value ladder because it’s like your potential customer has just agreed to go on a date with you; the relationship between you and them has now changed forever. 

One last piece of advice… make this tripwire offer HIGHLY valuable! It is really the first taste that your customers have of what they receive when they invest their hard-earned money with you. 

Do it right; tell some great stories, don’t skimp on dessert… that date (I mean tripwire!) is your one and only chance at a first impression. 

Step 4: Splinter down, again, to create a lead magnet

So, you’ve done your homework with your market research, established your core offer, splintered down to your tripwire and now it’s time to reel in the prospects with your lead magnet! A lead magnet is a FREE offer to use as bait to draw the prospect in and experience your value ladder. In digital marketing, the goal is to give away something free to your potential audience in exchange for their email address. It’s a bit like getting that phone number from the person you really would love to go out on a date with. They give you their digits and boom. You’ve instantly established mutual interest in one and other. This lead magnet sets the stage for everything else. And you never know, they might just want your core offer.

A few examples of lead magnets could be a free report, an ebook, an infographic, a free 15-minute consultation or anything else that may suit your niche. See, the point here is NOT to sell them immediately, but to intrigue them to come closer and see what you are all about. Let the reader learn that YOU are the expert; let them hear (or rather, read in most cases) first hand what it is that you know and establish that you know what you’re doing and simultaneously develop some rapport.

Once they have consumed your free content, you can begin to communicate with them in a different way. This next level of communication is the beginning the engagement part of the relationship where you can lead them from the lead magnet, into purchasing a tripwire offer or upsell them to a higher value product or service rather quickly.

In other words, you had that awkward conversation where you get their phone number (lead magnet opt-in page). Then you started texting back and forth (the email series and communication that follows from that lead magnet download page). From here the next step is to just ask them out on a date (show them the tripwire offer). How much more likely are they to say yes now that you’ve been chatting it up? TONS. This is exactly what the lead magnet sets the stage for; a smooth and natural transition into a someone purchasing the tripwire.

Pro tip: Don’t let the importance of the sale ever come before the value you are offering. A lead magnet is used to captivate a reader’s (or watcher’s or listener’) attention, give them some free content. But just because it’s free, does not mean you skimp on the good stuff. In addition to capturing their attention, it should also begin to alleviate the pain or offer solutions to whatever problem they are experiencing. And this has to be valuable to help! So, make it count.

Whatever format you decide is best to package your lead magnet in, be sure it delivers immediate value or you will quickly turn that prospect away from ever growing into a follower!

Did I make my point? I definitely found a few different ways to say it but to sum it up: lead magnets are always free AND valuable!

Step 5: Add a profit maximizer

The core offer is where many business owners stop and it’s also where they leave a ton of money on the table. A true professional will focus on the backend=, while the amateurs focus on the front. What’s the difference? The front end of your business is what people can readily see: your lead magnet, trip-wire and core offer. The backend is what happens after someone has gotten this far; you didn’t really think you would just sell them something one time and the process would be over, did you? No! This person, who has bought your core offer, is now vested in you and your business. They don’t even know it, but they’re interested in more. So why wouldn’t you offer more? That’s the backend part of the funnel, at least in this metaphor. 😉 

You can certainly make a comfortable living if you create the front end properly, but the real winnings come when you deliver the highest value product or service on the back end, increasing your LTV: lifetime value of a customer.

A profit maximizer usually is designed as a mastermind, intimate group workshop, more personalized time or even a bundled offer of your core products. As you can see, it often involves more of YOUR personal time (or more of your products), meaning people are willing to pay a premium for it!

Living in an instant gratification world, it is easy to be enticed by the quick cash from selling tripwires and core offers. However, that will only take you so far… and are you really in business for a few bucks or to positively impact the lives of everyone who comes in contact with your brand?

Your profit maximizer goes that next level. It offers you the chance to sell to your core offer purchasers again… and again. You begin to develop loyal followers here, capable of organically referring you more business, spreading the word about what you’re doing and more. 

Step 6: Build value – did I mention that?

As you may have noticed, the value ladder can be both intimidating and inspiring. At D4Y, we like to think of it as empowering. There are so many business owners out there who have NO IDEA how to sell online, where to begin or even the importance of the value ladder.

The value ladder gives you, the business owner, a chance to scale your products and services, reach a greater audience and impact more people, all the while allowing for less time IN your business and more time ON it.

On the other hand, it creates a safe place for the customer to find your content, connect with you and create a form of trust, and gradually invest more and more depending on how committed they are to achieving the outcome they seek.

The biggest key in a value ladder, no matter what yours looks like, is that each step of the ladder builds 10 times more value for the next step. This is how it is relatively easy and automated to turn a “cold prospect” into a high value, a raving customer in 30 days or less! Isn’t that exciting? 

But let me repeat once more: ADD VALUE. Of course, the sale is exciting! But the whole thing falls apart without this element; value.

You can’t skimp on value. Period. It’s most likely the main reason you are in business in the first place; to provide a service or product that can aid or improve SOMETHING. Getting people to understand the capacity your business has in changing their life (whether it’s with dog food, business knowledge or something else entirely), all starts with your ability to communicate value.

I can’t wait to hear how this goes for you! Comment below and tell us about your experience building a value ladder. Did this get you excited to map it out? Do you want to re-create your current one entirely? We want to know!

Grab the infographic that outlines all six of these steps, just click here.

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.

Okay, so you’ve made it through the first four steps that will lead you to building a successful online business! Those 4 pieces to the puzzle, alone, can make you plenty of money… enough for you to quit your job and devote yourself full-time to your online business.

However, the game really changes with this fifth and final step. If you’re “in it to win it” and want the big bucks that will pay you for many years to come, let’s move right into the goodies!

Step #5 of starting your online business…

Keep building your list and selling value them!

When someone gives you their email address because they want your value-packed freebie… they are now on your prospective client list. When someone purchases something, you want to put them onto a customer list.

Treat these lists with love and discernment, they are worth their weight in gold.

Over time, these lists can and will make you more money than anything else if you treat it appropriately. That’s why you want to build an email list of customers… because if you treat them right and help them get what they want… they’ll help you reach a six-figure income and beyond.

Do not, and I repeat, do not send junk to this list… treat them like gold.  Send them incredible, life-changing information… and do so often.

Occasionally you can then recommend other products of yours or even affiliate products. NEVER offer them something just to make money. If they have been loyal enough to you and stay on your list, the least you could do is screen what you send them.

A good rule of thumb is to never recommend a product or service that you yourself wouldn’t or haven’t used. This way they know you have their best interest in mind. This goes a long way.

You can start by selling an ebook… then maybe webinars, DVDs, courses, coaching, seminars, other programs, there really is no shortage of stuff. If you have a good product and you treat your list well by helping them achieve their goals, they’ll continue to buy from you.

Over time, if you do nothing else but create value-packed products to continually sell to your growing customer list… you have the makings of a six-figure annual income.

While you’re continuing to grow your customer list, you should also continue growing your prospect list… those people who you’re trying to attract with your free stuff. You’ll always want to promote your freebies… and build a list of as many prospective clients as possible. The goal of any business is to have more leads than time…fill that pipeline!

Then, once they buy, they get put onto your customer list… which is 100 times more valuable.  That’s because it’s SO much easier to sell to an existing customer.

Action item here?

Go and scale! Keep bringing in new leads with your free offers, turn them into raving clients, rinse and repeat!

So there you have it. These 5 truths will help you start a successful business online.

Find a group of people with a major problem.  Then create a product or service that offers a solution to that problem.  Next, create a lead magnet that draws them in. Give them the freebie in exchange for an email address. Once you have their email address, then the fun begins! Create a sales presentation that entices them to invest in your full product or service.

Finally, build a list of customers who you can continuously engage with and market to again and again, selling relevant, valuable products.

It really doesn’t have to be any more difficult than that.

Hopefully you see that the entire process of building your list and making money online can be broken down into simple parts, together forming a system that can be repeated over and over again.

My wish for you is to apply these 5 steps diligently into your online business, create an impact for people out there that are searching for answers and live the life you’ve always dreamed!

We all know how hot social media is. Facebook reports more than 1.55 billion active users monthly. What’s happening is that marketers are finding themselves struggling for visibility and to be able to grab the attention of users who they consider to be in their target audience.

Even though there are more than a billion active Facebook users, it does not mean selling your product online is not as simple as promoting and selling. You are going to need to have a solid strategy!

Facebook has reduced the number of organic views your posts receive in the newsfeeds of those users that ‘like’ you. They have done this in an effort to increase their advertising dollars. Yes, you can still have a solid following that lets you market and promote your products and content with no charge to you, but unless you have a good strategy that will not happen.

Let’s face it. There are an incredible number of Facebook groups, pages, and marketers that you have to try to come out on top of. It’s difficult to be seen among the millions. You need to plan your moves out long before you make them if you have any hope of achieving your goal. This step by step guide will help you to create a social media marketing strategy that converts.

Step #1: Goal Identification

Whatever you goals are make sure they are realistic. Sure we’d all like to have 1 million Instagram followers but for most of us that’s not very realistic. Start to plan your social media strategy campaign make realistic goals. More realistic goals might be to grow your brand or to increase your sales using Facebook to promote your products. Those are very realistic goals.

When you define goals that are realistic, it makes them obtainable, which in turn helps to keep you motivated, and it gives your social media strategy a good place to start from.

Sure, you may one day get a million Facebook likes, but begin slowly and build – walk before you run!

Once you identify what your goals are, you can move to Step #2.

Step #2: Create Measurable Objectives

You need to have in place ways to measure the performance of your strategy. After all, if continue doing what you are doing and it’s not working then that’s a waste of time, effort, and sometimes money. If you can’t measure whether or not your strategy meets your objectives then you don’t know if you made a wise decision.

After you set your goal you need to be able to determine what you need to measure to determine whether you are successful. These are what business owners refer to key performance indicators.

There are a number of statistics to measure, like visitors, shares, followers, revenue, likes, etc. What you have to do in order to understand if you are heading towards your goal is to set objectives along the way.

Begin with simple objectives, such as get 50 shares for one post, grow followers by 100, or get 100 new likes. There are a number of options, but they are all easy to determine. If you want to generate traffic then measure the visitors that you gain from the social media accounts that you use.

One of the most popular tools for measuring objectives is Google Analytics. There are others, but Google Analytics is free and easy to use.

Step #3: Conduct a Social Media Audit

A social media audit will let you work out how well it is working with your social media accounts and the best way that you could improve things in the future. The easiest way to do your audit is to create a spreadsheet. A spreadsheet is an easy way to keep track of data from your audit and then later you can use it to compare the next audit you run. Hootsuite also offers a free template that you can use.

To start your audit, list all of your social media accounts you are currently using. Determine which channels are successful and which have not seen that success. Once you have the groundwork for your audit in place, you can begin to evaluate the various social media accounts, how well they are performing based on your goals and what you could do to improve your results.

Keep in mind that Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook each have a common user type that is easiest to reach on that particular platform. Take notice of these particular demographics and then align your goals for each platform based on where you can get maximum effect and efficiency. These demographics can easily be found online.

You need to identify your target audience from these demographics and then you need to adjust your social media marketing plan.

Step #4: Select Your Channels

It is impossible to reach everyone with all the platforms, and it is important that you do not spread yourself too thin. If your target audience does not use Instagram then don’t use it, or if only a few potential customers can be found on Twitter don’t use it. Maximize your benefits in the social media channels where you are going to get the maximum benefits.

Time is money, so don’t spend it on something that you will not see results or where you will see minimal results.

Step #5: Learn by Watching Others

There is a lot to learn by watching how others are handling their social media marketing, good or bad.

Avoid the mistakes that others have made, and find influencers in your own niche who have figured it out and then learn from them. After all, if they can be successful, so can you. Also keep a close eye on your competition, as they are more than likely on social media too. You can learn from your competition as well. Keep them close so you know what they are up to.

Keep a list of your competition and what their campaigns look like, what moves they are making, how they were able to execute these moves, etc.

Step #6: Decide What Your Content Will Be and Create Your Editorial Calendar

You must have a well thought out content plan for your social media campaign(s). In fact, it is key to establishing your brand identity. There needs to be a consistency across all the social media channels you are going to use. For example if tweet out hilarious pictures of your dog on Twitter, but on Facebook you are professional in both tone and voice, your audience is going to be confused and uncertain about your brand.

You can stay on track by creating your content plan along with your editorial calendar. This will also help you maintain your brand identity. There are different times for you to post with people living in various time zones and acting differently throughout their day. It’s important for you to know these and take advantage of them.

For example, according to BuildingSocialProof.com:

– Facebook peak time – 1pm – 4pm
– Twitter peak time – 1pm – 3pm
– Google+ peak time – 9am – 11am
– Instagram peak time – 7am – 9am and 5pm – 6pm

Step #7: Test, Analyze, & Adjust

You are not going to create the perfect plan first time round – nobody does. That’s why you need to track your strategies, and then analyze what you find, and adjust accordingly. When you react to your social media marketing campaign, adjust, and test, you will have the ability to achieve significant improvements in performance with minimal work.

Step #8: Keep Your Audience Engaged by Automating Your Marketing

You want some help running your campaign(s) and while you can hire someone to do it, your best option is to implement the right automation tools. You can save a bundle of money, keep your audience engaged, and reduce the time it takes to do that. There are a number of tools available that will allow you to automate your marketing. Do your research and find the one that feels like it’s a good fit for you.

Those individuals that you reach with your social media marketing are all potential customers, so always treat them well, including on social media. Keep them engaged, and answer their questions promptly.

You are Ready!

By implementing these 8 steps, you are as ready as anyone to make your social media campaign successful.