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Module 1 Chapter 4 How to Plan Your Marketing Funnel

MODULE 1CHAPTER 4 HOW TO PLAN YOUR MARKETING FUNNEL1.0 INTRODUCTION2.0 OBJECTIVES3.0 MAIN CONTENT3.1 What is Marketing Funnel?3.2 Awareness3.3 Consideration3.4 Conversion3.5 Loyalty3.6 Advocacy4.0 CONCLUSION5.0 SUMMARY6.0 ASSIGNMENT1.0 INTRODUCTIONThe next thing that naturally follows Market Research is the process of setting up your Marketing Funnel. This chapter will focus on how to do just that.2.0 OBJECTIVES- To highlight what a strategic marketing funnel is- To demonstrate how to tactically set it up- To encourage each student to set her own in her chosen market niche.3.0 MAIN CONTENTBefore we go in to discuss how to plan your Marketing Funnel, there is a need to define it.3.1 What is a marketing funnel?It is an overall plan to channel new prospects into your business with the aim of developing a relationship, a sale, repeat sales and finally turning them to become not only your clients, but also your raving Fans for life.It has also been defined by other authorities as a simple marketing system that you set up to collect email addresses of your prospects in such a way that you can market to them automatically.There are two types namely: a lead-driven and a sales-driven marketing funnel.After securing a purchase from your prospect, the former puts the customer in your list, your control for further marketing while the later puts them in the affiliate merchants’ control, gone forever out of your hands.For beginners I recommend lead-driven marketing funnel as it is very useful for affiliate marketing, but sales-driven marketing funnel is good if you have your own product as a merchant in ClickBank etc. where other affiliate are selling for you. At the end you get the money and the list for further marketing.When you are setting up your lead-driven marketing funnel, you need 2 things namely: a free offer and an autoresponder. I will deliberate on them in other parts of this eCourse.However, strategically, a marketing Funnel is usually depicted as an inverted pyramid (or funnel), with 5 connected parts:

The top broad inverted base =>

The middle small part =>

The smaller underneath vertex =>

The smallest tip that opens into the funnel channel =>

The channel.
The inverted Pyramid (or Funnel) portions described above can then be labelled in that order as listed:

Awareness

Consideration

Conversion

Loyalty

Advocacy
3.2 AwarenessThe top broad zenith (in the inverted pyramid) represents all the ways you attempt to create awareness for your brand, product or website; to attract and lead the people to your website. This include over 5-10 free and paid ways that you will regularly use to attract prospects to your website and finally to your products.Top and easiest among them are the Social Media – Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google+, Squidoo Lens, Classified Ads, Press Releases, HubPages, Answer Sites, Forum, etc.There are simple ways of placing ads on those sites – those kind of ads you often see on sites like Facebook and Yahoo Answers, etc.The major aim is to create public/market awareness of your brand, products and services.3.3 ConsiderationThe middle portion called consideration. It is where you offer to them valuable goods and services as baits and pecks to get them involved in doing business with you.The goal here is to make a calculated attempt to convince them to join your list.Thus, whatever you are offering must be very relevant to your market niche, but quite different from what you are putting up for sale.If you are selling Affiliate products, the vendor will more often than not provide you with products that will serve as Free Offers which you can use here as baits to get people into your lists. If they don’t, you can create them by yourself using free but relevant downloads or free products from other sources.3.4 ConversionThe bottom portion represents the period that you have successfully convince them to join your list. This is called conversion.Two things may happen immediately they have join your list. They will either buy your product or fail to do so.As a savvy marketer, you must know that the game is not yet over till (and even after) they have bought from you.The next thing is to get them on your educational series by sending to them lessons on the relevant niche. More often than not, they will later end up buying from you (if they did not, initially).Thus, for most prospects, they need some kind of education on what they are about to get involved.Email series of at least 7 lessons can help the prospect pass over this stage to become a customer.3.5 LoyaltyLoyalty is when your customer shows up repeatedly to buy your related products in connection with the initial purchase.3.6 AdvocacyIf you did the above groundwork well, your customers by now will be recommending your products and services to other customers – his friends, relations, acquaintances, etc. It is a sign of Loyalty and what every Marketer that knows his Onions should be aiming at.This is the ultimate level of Internet Marketing!Planning your marketing funnel:Tactically, here is a simple and straightforward way to plan your marketing funnel.From top to bottom Marketing Funnel typically contains:

Freebies

Sign up

One Time Offers (OTOs) often at a very minimal initial prices

Free eCourse

Sales Promotion

Membership Site Offer or

Another OTO, all at reduced initial prices

These positions may vary slightly depending on your goal for setting up the marketing funnel
4.0 CONCLUSIONIt is only when you set up a marketing funnel for your niche market that you have really start business – online business. Otherwise, Internet Marketing is just your hobby and not yet a Business for you.5.0 SUMMARYThe conduct of this aspect of business is also influenced by the approach of the marketer, some prefers a Soft Approach while others use the Hard Approach to Marketing.I will return to this topic with more details when I will be discussing on setting up the Autoresponder Messages.What do you think you should do next after this?Did I heard you say: Domain Name Registration and Hosting?You are absolutely right, and that is what I will be talking about in the next chapter.6.0 ASSIGNMENTCan you plan and set up your own funnel in your chosen market niche before you go unto the next eCourse?

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Defining YOUR Personal Brand Image

Branding, creating, and maintaining your personal image can be a powerful tool in helping you become the type of professional that you want to be. But, why would someone want to brand themselves? Think about this in the way that you would think about how to market any product. If you were to market a new car you may talk about the cars features, such as gas mileage or how safe it is. You would also figure out who you are trying to market this car to. For instance, you would not want to market a two-door sports car to large family of six. Finally, when marketing a car, you will want to tell clients about the promises and guarantees that will separate this car from others like it. The style of marketing your personal brand is very similar.

You must market yourself by highlighting your individual features and emphasizing them to your potential managers and employers. You must know who in particular you are trying to target with your brand. And finally, what your individual brand message is and what you promise to accomplish in your occupation. By marketing yourself as a unique individual, knowing your target audience, and creating and maintaining your personal brand message and promise, you can develop a strong professional brand image. It is important to know who you are and what your existing personal brand is in order to further develop your image. Particularly, what makes you, you. By staying true to yourself first, you can begin to move your brand forward. Think about your personal beliefs and what type of person you are. These are the things that make you, you. Do not try to change who you are in order to develop an image. If you change and adapt who you are to create an image, you are not creating a personal brand image, but rather a generic brand image that will not allow you to emphasize what you offer specifically and on an individual level. Rather, you must grow your brand image from what you already possess. Focus on what makes you who you are and develop a professional brand image based on these existing attributes.

Once you have defined this personal existing brand, you can begin to address how you can make your brand different, set yourself apart, and grow your own unique brand image. For instance, what do you offer as a professional, and what can you bring to others? What are the skills that you possess that set you apart from the competition? These are the things that will make you stand out from others around you and positively grow your personal brand image. A positive attitude and confidence in your abilities and what you know you are capable of achieving are the first steps to developing your own unique and specific personal brand. Along with your individual attributes, it is important to develop skills that will help to set you apart from others around you. Focus on what you will do to go above and beyond the competition. This will help you to create that unique brand image that will take potential clients from possibly needing your services, to them wanting the services and skills that they know you offer. It is also important to focus on strong communication skills with your potential clients. This can be a positive step to boosting your personal brand by creating a strong relationship between yourself and your clientele, and will also help you to maintain this positive relationship.

Your unique personal brand image will set you apart from the competition for resources and help you to grow relationship that will last a lifetime. Finally, when developing your individual brand image, it is key to know what your message will be and what promises you can offer. You must put into place your personal brand values. These values are what services you can bring to your work situation and what you can achieve. Your message must focus on what you specialize in, what attributes in your unique brand image distinguish you from the rest, and your leadership abilities. This brand message will allow your potential clients to see who you are and know what they will receive from you and your work. Clients must also be able to see what your brands’ promise is to them. Your brand promise should focus on your commitment to service, what you can achieve for the potential customer, and finally, your individual reputation. It is also important to communicate to clients that you may not be perfect. Be honest with them. If mistakes have been made in the past, use these as a promise to clients that the mistake has been addressed, learned from, and will not happen in the future.

By creating your individual brand image, you are taking the most important step to success. Look at who you are as an individual, focus on what your unique abilities are, separate yourself from the competition around you, and maintain your brand through a commitment to service. Through these steps you can create and maintain a strong brand image that can lead to future benefits and success in your career.

Boomer Generation Fitness Tips

A generation of baby boomers is now entering their 60′s with high expectations of themselves when it comes to how they will spend their retirement years.  The boomer generation has always thought of lifestyle as a key factor in determining how successful they are at living and the key to that living is health.  Many boomers plan to travel the world and see all of the things that they have read about over the years, but without good health and a reasonable level of fitness, those dreams are often shattered.

Most of us dread the thought of spending long tedious hours in a gym grunting and groaning on machines that are dripping with someone else’s sweat and germs in order to restart some sort of muscle activity.  This process is usually spurred on by looking in a mirror and realizing that it will be difficult to view all of the sight seeing locations, let alone getting on and off the bus, without some minimum level of strength and agility. What is the easiest and most effective way to approach better health through fitness? We need to concentrate on three main body areas, mainly upper body, core and lower body.  There is no point in trying to work on minor muscles when what we really need to do is make sure that the major groups are strong enough to do the job.  The smaller ones will follow along as we become more active.  Let’s look at 3 specific calisthenics you can do at home in about 10 minutes per day:

  1. UPPER BODY   push ups are the obvious choice to make the most difference in the least amount of time.  If you can’t use your toes to sustain the full body push up, then use your knees and keep your back straight as you lower your upper body to the floor and raise back up.  It is very important to maintain correct form but just as important to do as many push ups as possible in 90 seconds.  I realize that might be only one, but to get the most benefit requires pushing yourself slightly beyond what you thought you could do.  Spend an honest minute and a half working at your pushups and record the number so that you can do an extra one next time.  When finished, rest for 2 minutes.
  2. CORE   you know what’s coming, situps, of course.  Two ways to do this, first crunches.  Lie on your back, raise your knees to a 45 degree angle with your feet firmly on the ground and cross your hands over your chest – never place your hands behind yur neck.  Now, spend 90 seconds lifting your upper body as high as possible (this might be only a few inches) and lowering back to the floor.  Try to move your head up and down vertically as opposed to bending it forward and straining your neck.  Count again and add more each day to increase your core strentgth.  The second method requires bending your knees in the same way but hooking your feet under a chair or something sturdy so that they won’t lift off the ground.  Now, keeping your hands crossed on your chest, lift your entire upper body to a sitting position and return to the floor slowly.  Count again and record the total number you do in 90 seconds.  You will do fewer of these but they are much more effective. Rest for another full two minutes.
  3. LOWER BODY   squats are a great choice and once again 90 seconds and do as many as possible.  Standing with your arms stretched straight out in front of you, palms down, move your arms back and keep them at shoulder height then lower them to your sides while you lower your body to squat position keeping your back straight. Lift your self back up, using your legs, thighs and hips in a smooth motion to your original position. 

The key to the success of this program is the natural process of your own body which continues to benefit from this brief activity for hours afterward.  Dr. Al Sears, in his program called PACE, shows how our bodies increase the capacity of our heart and lungs without creating more fat stores by the use of a short duration but high intensity workout.  This is especially important for a boomer generation trying to become healthy and fit in the most efficient way possible.

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