One thing that many coaches, speakers and other expertise-based business owners seem to have in common is a lack of understanding a basic concept of marketing: The Marketing Funnel. Since the next series of Turbo-Charge Your Marketing teleseminars (the first week in November) will be focusing on this key concept, I thought now would be a good time to start talking about it.
The idea of a marketing funnel, sometimes called a product funnel, marketing pipeline or product pipeline, is this:

At the widest point of the funnel, the mouth, your business …

There are lots of ways you can nurture a lead from “suspect” to member of your continuity program. Here is the outline of just one. Feel free to get creative with it!
Top of the Funnel: Entice them into the funnel with a free report on your topic. This report should be a taste of the kind of information they could get if they become a member of the program.
For example, if you offer a membership site for stamp collectors, give them a report that touches on the main points covered …

Last night I saw something that gave me a slight jolt. Actually, it felt more like someone hit me over the head. A woman posted on a forum how ecstatic she was about being “booked solid!” I associate these words with: tired, stuck in my office, chained to my desk, deadlines, no time for kids, movies, music, family, or taking a walk in the middle of the day.

Just imagine that you are on a drive to a fast-food restaurant. There comes a cashier and you have ordered a meal and he will tell you that if you would like to order a larger meal or a little bit extra only for a few cents, then it is obvious that you would agree to take that larger meal.
In just a few seconds, the cashier has created an upsell. Here the cashier has sold you more than what you intended to purchase prior to when you arrived at the …

A sales funnel is a series of products and services ranging from free to rather expensive that you make available to your prospects, clients and customers.
Usually, you start with a free offer to entice someone to join your list and then you can market your products and services to them.
A robust funnel has items at various price points, the theory being that there will be people who need to buy something less expensive from you before they are willing to invest in your high-ticket items.
But to make your sales funnel …