Once you have a good idea of what you want to address and the intended goal, it’s time to lay out the funnel visually. There are some great software options out there that will help you do this. But if all else fails, you can draw it out on a piece of paper or on a whiteboard. Lay out where they enter the funnel (lead capture form, social media, your website, a paid ad, etc) and then where they will go in the journey. This could include SMS messaging, follow up phone calls or visits, webinars, emails, videos, etc. Clearly mark anywhere in the funnel that is considered a “conversion point.” These are the areas that you will want to track to determine whether your funnel is successful or not.
Now that you have a first draft, go back over the flow and take note of where you plan on going for a logical appeal versus an emotional one. Do you have a good enough mix of the two? Too much logic and you will fail to motivate your clients to act now. Too much emotional appeal and you risk losing your prospect because they won’t have a clear plan of action. The perfect funnel has a mixture of both.
At this point, you might be ready to start writing, but hold off just a little bit longer. You want a well-thought-out funnel that addresses everything you want to address, but you also want to make it as simple as possible for your clients to take the next step. So it’s time to review your funnel with an editing eye. Are there too many hoops to talk to a sales rep? Does the sales message get lost in a sea of emails? Simplify the process, and help your customers convert.
Now that you have spent some time planning out your funnel with a good mixture of emotional and logical information and you have gone through the editing process, it’s time to start writing. Begin with a draft, and have other team members (or a sales writer) review the copy for edits and clarity. Once you think you are at a good place with the draft, it’s time to launch. Review your numbers often, and make note of any emails that don’t have a good open or click-through rate, and focus on those for future rounds of edits.