How To Do A Funnel. Part 1 – Marketing

Published May, 2008

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
* 1. Featured Article: How to do a funnel. Part 1 – Marketing.
* 2. Born to Read Book Club with convenient Amazon.ca links: Pop! Stand Out In Any Crowd by Sam Horn and 101 Ways to Enjoy Life’s Simple Pleasures by Donna Watson.
* 3. Think About This Question. What marketing do you do and does it get the results you want?
* 4. Read My Blog called Marketing to Small Business– I NOW WRITE 3 TIMES A WEEK! – at  http://www.trudyvanbuskirk.typepad.com
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TRUDY’S NOTE
Hi There Funnels are very important both in business and at home (ha!ha!). Do you even know what it is? Here is info on one kind – a marketing funnel. You probably already have it started and don’t know it! Next time I’ll write about the other kind – a product funnel. Read that, too. Read on. Everyone has a marketing funnel. I’ll show you what it is, why you should have it, and how to develop yours.
(See my blog at http://www.trudyvanbuskirk.typepad.com for more of my thoughts on this and other things that relate to marketing for small business.)
Thanks for reading. My Happiest Wishes for you,
Trudy
Marketing Mentor for Small Business
mailto:trudy@smallbizbuilder.com  http://www.smallbizbuilder.com
Please print or forward this ezine to your friends and colleagues – I have lots to tell you and would like you to give this info as a gift to yourself and others. Enjoy. ><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
1. FEATURED ARTICLE. How to do a funnel. Part 1 – Marketing.
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What are your goals for total sales and number of clients? How do intend to reach them? Start with the marketing and sales activities that you do now. Add a few activities that fill in the blanks and you’re done.
Sounds simple doesn’t it? It is. Read on to find out why it’s easy and how you can design your own.
1. WHAT IS A MARKETING FUNNEL?
Picture a funnel in your kitchen. It’s wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. You can use it to put “bulk” foods like flour or rice from a bag into several smaller containers. And you know just where it is when you need it.
A marketing funnel is just like that. It’s wide at the top to fill it up with your prospective clients from all different marketing activities. Most of the way down it gets narrower and that’s when you’re “face to face” and do sales activities. Out the bottom (which is the narrowest) come your clients. Sound familiar?
Once people buy from you (they’re clients now) they move back into the funnel and give you repeat and referral business.
This is a systematic approach to marketing and selling.
2. WHY SHOULD YOU HAVE ONE?
A marketing funnel helps by letting you have a visual record of what you do. That’s important since you also want to know what the result of each activity is and the system you have and use for each and every one. You need to know what kind of marketing gets you the most clients.
That’s why I developed my Forms Booklets especially the one called “Marketing Tracking Plan” (on my website at  http://tinyurl.com/6yx7se ) and why you need to look at your financial results each month not just at yearend. As you write out all of the things you do for marketing and for selling, you’ll see exactly what you do.
3. WHAT MARKETING DO YOU DO NOW?
You probably have a variety of marketing activities that you use such as networking, a website, a newsletter, ads in targeted publications, articles online, a newsletter, a blog, trade shows, and co-marketing programs with other businesses.
Make a list of what you do now. Fill the funnel with these.
4. HOW DO YOU DEVELOP A MARKETING FUNNEL?
It’s easy.
List what you do as marketing activities for new and for repeat and referral business now. Beside each one put the number of “replies” you get.
List what you do as selling activities now. Beside each put the number that become clients and how much they spend.
Fill in the kind of marketing you’d like to do.
Fill in the kind of selling activities you’d like to do.
Put them all in the funnel.
You have a marketing funnel! You may want to do this with someone else – an employee, another entrepreneur, or a business coach.
Print this out (assuming you’ve done it on your computer) or draw it as a funnel and add anything that you think is missing.
Put it up somewhere where you’ll see it every day.
5. FOLLOW UP – WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOESN’T?
Step back and look at what you have. It’s like brainstorming in that you don’t judge anything until you’ve finished.
Schedule these so that marketing is part of your daily routine.
Fill in either my Marketing Tracking Plan  http://tinyurl.com/6yx7se or something you design yourself. Check it at least monthly to see each one is getting the results you anted for it and that you are reaching your goals. Don’t do more of it if it isn’t.
Remember that there’s a difference between seeing an opportunity and seizing an  opportunity. Just take action! Do it!
Things work if you do them. Don’t just think about it.
** See my “Services” page on my website to get some of my time and I can tell you exactly how to do it! **
Keep learning, … and until next time.
© 2008 Trudy Van Buskirk
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2. BORN TO READ BOOK CLUB
Here are the two books for this issue. The first one is business and the second is spiritual. As always I own them both and have read them.
POP! STAND OUT IN ANY CROWD by Sam Horn.
Wow! Everyone should read and own this book. POP means purposeful, original, and pithy. Use this for a tagline, an idea, a product or a message if you want to stand out from the crowd.
Horn’s book (and her) is full of practical ways to brainstorm, connect with, communicate ideas to clients and colleagues. Each chapter has a technique you can try. If one doesn’t work then the next one will.
This book will become your tool to break out big and be seen.
Get this book and read and use it.

http://tinyurl.com/6ojm6b

101 WAYS TO ENJOY LIFE’S SIMPLE PLEASURES by Donna Watson. This is a practical and useful book. Each page has something you can do. Written from her heart, Watson has you slowing down to “smell the flowers”. Whether it is something that reminds you of your past or a moment in the present, it makes you smile and come alive as you read AND do it.
You will never forget to be good to yourself and to remember all of the blessings we have. Keep this book near you, open it to any page, and do the thing it suggests. You’ll be glad you did.
Buy this book and tell others about it.  http://tinyurl.com/4xcjc9
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3. THINK ABOUT THIS QUESTION: What marketing do you do and does it get the results you want?
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4. Read my blog at  http://www.trudyvanbuskirk.typepad.com to learn more about marketing tips. I’m writing three times a week here about whatever comes up.
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DO YOU LIKE THIS NEWSLETTER? Please pass it along to your friends, associates, and clients who you think would appreciate it. It comes to you once a month from marketing mentor for small business and consultant Trudy Van Buskirk.
ABOUT TRUDY VAN BUSKIRK
Trudy Van Buskirk, is the founder of Smallbizbuilder. As a small business consultant, trainer, author, and resource (she knows people, books, etc… lots!), Trudy ensures that her clients get the results they want using her practical and disciplined systems which motivate them to plan AND to take action.  She has built three businesses from the ground up in Canada and the U.S.; consulted with small businesses and professionals; developed and delivered training courses for entrepreneurs; given keynote addresses and authored four books for TVOntario’s Bits ‘n Bytes television series on computers in 1982 and Winning Women in 1992, and uses e-coaching (coaching by email which you can do any time) in her practice.
CONTACT ME: Email:  mailto:trudy@smallbizbuilder.com
Voice: 416-778-9976 (Eastern time)
Web: http://www.smallbizbuilder.com
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