Each year most businesses will lose between 10 and 20% of their existing customers. Ideally every business must have a steady stream of new prospects lining up for their products or services to fill this gap. With the arrival of Covid-19 many in the business world have been turned upside down and uncertainty is causing change away from what may have worked previously.

That said, business success isn’t complicated if you develop and nurture a system that delivers a steady stream of new clients to your business. Sometimes we just make it complicated in our heads because we want to believe there is some bigger unknown reason that’s holding us back.

The following 6 steps will give you a basic overview for creating a working lead generation funnel. If you want more leads in your service business, and you’re not getting the kind of results you want, follow these steps.

And if you need help or want to save time, you should consider engaging Starstruck Marketing to do it for you.

The first component you need for your lead generation funnel is a lead magnet. This is the incentive to get prospective customers to click on your ad and visit your page. Typically, the bigger the bait the bigger the catch.

A lead magnet is an offer (usually free) that is dedicated to giving your website visitor some relevant value in exchange for their contact information (an email address at the very least).

Some examples of lead magnets are PDFs, eBook samples, training videos, articles, coupons, and discount offers, webinars, and other limited, exclusive content. You can use a one-page, actionable template, or book sample. We offer a Free Business Growth package and a Free video training series.

Above all else, keep your lead magnet simple and be something your ideal clients would value. The more complicated it is, the more you may confuse your prospective customers.

In our experience, we’ve found that the more desirable and valuable your lead magnet is, the better it converts.

To get your lead magnet to convert, you need a landing page to promote it with more information and videos work well here. That brings us to our second step.

Your opt-in landing page is going to explain the lead magnet, including why prospective clients would want to download it. The copy should be focused on advertising the end benefit the potential client will get if they opt-in to receive it.

Use numbers and stats when you can to add credibility to the offer. Create a list of all the benefits of your lead magnet, including the problems it solves and processes it simplifies.

Make sure your download button is big, colourful, and prominent. Review how it looks in mobile format and keep it above the fold so prospective clients can’t miss it.

By this point in your lead generation funnel, your prospective client has converted and is on your email list. Now it’s time to 

automatically follow-up via an email drip sequence.

You should send at least seven email follow-ups. These are meant to engage your new leads.

Each email should deliver value and reinforce you as an authority in your area and you can never have enough social proof on display in the form of video testimonials.

Your follow-up emails should also bring them back to your website and to your core offer, which we’ll explain momentarily.

After your prospective client opts in to your lead magnet, they’ll be redirected to your service page.

Important tip: if you don’t already have a landing page dedicated to promoting your service, you need to build one.

The service page is where the real action happens within your client lead generation funnel.

Adding a little piece of free content before the visitor arrives on the service page—be that a PDF, webinar, article, etc.—is important because you create a positive lens through which your offer will be seen.

By giving the prospective client something good, you are starting a relationship where you trade value for value. This context leads to a higher overall percentage of people who visit the service page and make a consultation/booking.

Sure, you could always skip the lead magnet and send traffic directly to the services landing page. Maybe you would get some bookings/consultations, but not nearly as much if you offered your free lead magnet first.

For your first lead generation funnel, I strongly recommend including a lead magnet and as mentioned earlier, something of high perceived value for your target market.

On your service page, you need a few key elements besides a great copy, like your call to action (CTA), your contact/booking form, and even a phone number. (Phone numbers are very useful for building trust.)

Here are some of my best practices for writing effective landing page copy.

First, including a unique or compelling selling proposition. What makes your product or services different to all the others available? Why do people need them? Are you focused on servicing one particular niche?

You should also add the top three benefits of your product or service. This acts as a quick overview that attests to the value of your company.

As you present your selling proposition and your top benefits, make sure to write with clarity. Clear and simple is better than long and wordy.

Be sure to include lots of social proof in the form of testimonials and case studies as well.

Before we turn on the fuel to activate this little system that we’ve set up here, we want to put tracking in place. This gives us valuable information, such as:

>> How many people visited the opt-in landing page?

>> How many of those people opted in to get the lead magnet?

>> How many of those people clicked on the sales page?

>> How many of those people who were on the sales page booked a consultation?

Tracking is something you can set up in Google Analytics. There are a number of videos covering this on YouTube, so check out the tutorials there to get started.

Last but certainly not least is to gain your traffic.

At this point, you have a basic funnel and funnel tracking in place so now it’s time to fuel your sales engine with traffic. To do that you want to start running ads on Facebook and/or Google AdWords.

You want to start with AdWords first. It will cost more per click, but you can start with a budget as little as $10 - $20 per day and begin pulling in quality leads. The traffic from AdWords should be pointed directly at your service page.

With traffic from Facebook, there is no search intent, so you’ll need to warm up the lead first before they will be ready to buy. For this reason, you want to use the full-funnel and point traffic from here to your lead magnet landing page.

Now flip the figurative switch and let it run itself!

Your job isn’t over yet, though. It’s important to make tweaks and adjustments as you go along. This lets you discover where the biggest leaks are in your client lead generation funnel. You can then plug these and continue to iterate, optimize, and grow sales.

By following these six simple steps you will create a basic, working client lead gen funnel for your business.

These steps also give you a quick glimpse into the work we do for our clients every day as we build out their online lead gen funnel.

Lead magnets are essential for nurturing a relationship with a new lead.

Your email and sales copy must be strong and present your unique benefits clearly to get more opt-ins and to attract more qualified leads.

Use Google Analytics and ensure your Facebook Pixel is installed correctly to set up simple funnel tracking.

Once the funnel structure is in place, get traffic flowing fast with Facebook and Google search ads.

Investing in digital marketing services can help your company gain more leads, conversions, and revenue.

If you’re ready to take your business to new heights, contact us online and let us show you how we can help you make more money.