The 4 Phases of A Self-Liquidating Offer

I want to start off by giving you an overview of the funnel and then I am going to bring you to step by step through each phase outlining the keys to success for each.

Ok so here we can see the 4 Phases.

Phase 1 is the Traffic Phase. In this phase, we choose the source of the traffic we wish to drive to our lead magnet. This could be organic or paid but for today we are going to focus on paid traffic.

Phase 2 is the Enroll Phase. This is where we capture people’s email addresses but instead of that being the end of the process we are actually only enrolling them in the concept that a better future is possible for them.

Phase 3 is the Elevate Phase. This is where we make a low-dollar offer that has been specifically designed to elevate them from their current level on your value ascension roadmap to the next level. I will explain this in more detail when we get into Phase 3.

Phase 4 which is often ignored by many marketers is one of the most important phases of the funnel. It is here that we prime people for the next offer that we will make which will normally be for our signature program or membership.

So what is the problem that we are trying to solve with this funnel?

Well the cost of advertising on any platform, especially the ones that get results, will increase.

We are seeing this with Google, Facebook YouTube. In fact, we actually see this within each platform when they launch a new ad type or channel. Also, all ad platforms are auction-based which means as more people get results on a platform more people want to advertise which increases the bids on the available advertising real estate.

As knowledge commerce businesses, course creators, or membership site owners, if we want to grow quickly and profitably eventually we may see our Customer Acquisition Cost catch up with our Average Order Value or our front end revenue which squeezes our profits and puts massive pressure on primary promotion conversion rates.

This is not a nice place to be in especially if we don’t have an established, dependable, back-end funnel that gives us comfort to go negative on our front end.

In the early days of Facebook, because you could acquire leads so cheaply and at such volumes, advertisers could wait months to recover their advertising costs and if the conversion rates on their offers were low it didn’t really make that much of a difference. Today it is a different story and that is exactly why we need this funnel.

The mini-front end funnel enables you to liquidate or profit from a low-dollar offer upfront immediately when someone opts in for your free lead magnet.

Getting this funnel up and running can transform your business and give you unparallel opportunities to scale both your profitability and impact.

Phase 1 – The Traffic Phase – Choosing Your Paid Traffic Source

When it comes to building your funnel I would focus on one channel first.

Which channel you chose will depend a lot on your target market.

In saying that unless you have specific expertise with Google or YouTube ads, I would start with Facebook.

Generally speaking the cost per lead from Google or YouTube will be higher than on Facebook so when you are setting up and optimizing your funnel this can be a better option for you as you will be able to get more data and feedback in a shorter time frame.

Some of the keys to successful Facebook Ads include:

1. Before you publish an ad set up Facebook Business Manager and your Facebook Ad Account. You can run ads from your personal profile but this is a huge mistake and you will be missing lots of critical functionality in doing so.
2. Audience selection is important. Don’t just stick to the obvious audiences that all your competitors will go after. Think parallel and complementary.
3. Keep your audiences large. This time last year 1.5m – 2.5m was the sweet spot for audience size. Now this is more like 10m – 15m per audience
4. Use custom audiences as the foundations for Lookalike audiences. Custom audiences may be previous customers or even your entire email list. Anything that gives Facebook data on who is most likely to be interested in your offer. Once you have uploaded your custom audience you can then create lookalike audiences based on a % population of countries who look most like the people in your custom audiences
5. iOS 14.5 may have had an impact on the effectiveness of retargeting audiences but make sure you have audiences built for people who visit each page of the funnel. Retargeting ads will always be your most profitable ads and without them, you are leaving money on the table.
6. Make sure you have 3-7 variations of your ad in each Ad Set. I normally start with 3 copy variations, short, medium, and long form copy, and 2 creative variations.
7. Test video and static images for your ad creative. Video can be tougher to get converting but will often outperform static images once it has been optimized.
8. Remember that no one launches a winning ad straight out the gate. The real skill with Facebook ads is knowing what and how to test and optimize each element of the campaign.
9. Start with a low budget and as you optimize to increase the budget over time

I recently recorded a video series on planning, launching, and optimizing a profitable Facebook Ad campaign a video series. You can check out that series here.

Phase 2 – The Enroll Phase – Lead Magnet and Landing Page Design & Copy

The success of your funnel will in largely be dictated by the conversion rate of your Landing page. Now, you can also check out that video here and I’ll drop a link to it in the description.

When it comes to launching an opt-in landing page for a lead magnet there are only 5 elements that should feature on the page and they are:

Headline

Subhead

Image

Body Copy

Call To Action

Here is the default landing page layout that I always start with. The key to success when you are launching a new landing page is keeping it simple.

If you are not 100% confident that a word is driving someone to register for your lead magnet then it is probably preventing them from doing so.

This is why it is better to start with fewer words and once you have optimized the copy to get a baseline conversion rate that you are happy with then you can start adding in other elements.

Over time you can also look at moving around the on-screen elements but as a starting point, this is your best bet to get good results early.

Here are some of the key ways you can guarantee landing page success.

1. Make sure your headline has a strong hook to capture your visitors’ attention. There are lots of different approaches that you can use for this, however, one that I love and regularly use, especially in the knowledge space is: Desired Outcome + Metric + Timeline – Frustration
   
   An example of this approach is –
   1. Attract your first (or next) 1,000 email subscribers in just 30 Days without a landing page
2. Use fascination in your copy. Don’t tell, tease the transformation, in other words how someone’s life will be different once they have implemented your lead magnet. For example
   1. Discover the secret to younger-looking skin in just 39 hours
   2. The #1 mistake even the most intelligent marketers make and how you can avoid it
3. Have a strong and clear Call To Action which stands out on the page. Your CTA in my example is the button that people press to sign up. Make sure you include an element of transformation in your CTA like
   1. For example: Attract More Leads Today, Reduce Your Cost Per Lead, Increase Your Conversion Rates Today
4. Make sure your landing page is highly focused. People should have one option and one option only. They either subscribe or leave. Make sure you don’t have any links on the landing page except those that you are legally required to have, Privacy Policy, Terms & Conditions, and depending on what you are offering an earnings disclaimer.

If you want to discover more about designing landing pages that convert I have a more detailed tutorial on that which you can here.

Phase 3 – The Elevate Phase – Self Liquidating Offer / Mini-Front End Product

We have driven people from paid ads to our lead magnet opt-in page. Now once someone opts in instead of our standard thank you page we are going to redirect them to a page that makes an offer for a low dollar amount normally in the range of $17 – $47.

I’m sure this isn’t a groundbreaking concept for you, however, many people who attempt this approach fail to achieve the results that they want.

The key reason for this is that there is a misalignment between their lead magnet and their mini-front end product.

To explain I am going to bring my Value Ascension Roadmap.

If you want a lead magnet to be compelling and attractive it has to solve a single and highly annoying issue for your target audience.

It needs to solve the very problem that they feel is holding them back and preventing them from moving forward.

It doesn’t have to and shouldn’t solve all their problems. It should help them take one small step on their journey to the ultimate transformation that you know is possible for them.

And, Your Value Ascension Roadmap is the visual representation of that journey. Now I have a more detailed post on that which you can check out here.

The key to a mini-product that sells like crazy is that it solves the very next problem that someone will face once they have implemented your lead magnet.

We have to break it down into small steps and make it feel like purchasing the mini-product is the next most logical step for them to take.

People will buy convenience and speed. If you can show them that your mini product will either get the same transformation as the lead magnet only easier or faster or that they can get to their ultimate goal quicker and easier then

You will have cracked this strategy.

The sale process will be driven from a psychological perspective based on reciprocity because you have just given them something for free and they will feel more compelled to take any action that you suggest.

You are also invoking the principle of consistency which is people’s need to behave in a manner that matches their past decisions.

Having made the decision that opting for the lead magnet was a good course of action, subconsciously they will feel more compelled to register for your mini-front end product to justify their initial action

But all the psychology in the world won’t help unless purchasing your mini-front end product solves a problem for them and feels like it is the logical next step for them to take.

Phase 4 – The Prime Phase – 2 Email Follow Up Sequences

Most people go to all the effort energy and expense of generating a lead only to completely ignore them after they have opted in.

Your actions immediately after someone has opted in are essential to developing a long-term repeat and high lifetime value clients.

Someone coming through this funnel will either have purchased your mini-front end product or will have declined the opportunity.

Based on their decision they are funneled into one of two email sequences.

The purchase sequence congratulates them for taking action and drives to them consume and implement the mini-product

This is hugely important because if someone purchases something from you and doesn’t consume or implement what you have sold them, no matter what the reason, they will be less likely to buy from you again.

The key is to help people gain momentum. Do this and you will have a client for life.

Drive them back into your mini-product. Outline some of the key content that will get them the majority of the results. Short circuit the process for them, give them the 3-4 key steps they need to take.

Oh and if you really want to create a lifelong relationship work in a big unexpected gift or surprise. People remember experiences that rise above the ordinary. Give them something unpromised that they will remember for a long time

The second is your non-purchase sequence. Just because these people didn’t buy right away doesn’t mean that they weren’t interested it could mean that you hadn’t built the appropriate level of trust with them or they didn’t grasp the value of the offer.

Begin this process with a nurture sequence of 3-4 emails where you give them insights into you, your business, your passion, your methodology. But remember this isn’t about you. You have to make it about them. How your business can help them, why your passion will serve them, how your business and your passion have helped others just like them.

Then after building a level of rapport and relationship with them schedule 2-3 emails where you remake the offer for the mini-front end offer to them.

Follow this process and you will almost double your conversion rates.

Bonus: How to Get Paid To Build Your Email List

Ok, so there are the 4 Phases to a Self Liquidating Mini–Front End Product that will produce free or cost-neutral leads from Facebook and any other paid or organic traffic source.

Now at the start of this post, I promised you a bonus session on how you can get paid to build your email list, and if you hang on for another couple of seconds I am going to get right to that but before I do I want to summarize what we have covered here.

Phase 1 is the Traffic Phase – I spoke predominately about Facebook Ads in this video but all paid channels are fair game here.

Phase 2 is the Enroll Phase. This is where we capture their email details through our landing page

Phase 3 is our Elevate Phase where we offer them our Mini-Front end product. This is the logical next step that someone needs right after they get our lead magnet

From here we split them into a purchase sequence and a non-purchase sequence and we begin the process of converting them into lifelong clients.

Ok and now I want to show you the additional phase that can turn this into a profitable funnel.

And I’m sorry but to do this I have to bring you through some maths.

Now let’s say you can get a lead from Facebook for $2.50.

So to get 100 people to your mini front-end offer page you would spend $250.

Now if you can convert 10% of these people on a $27 product you will generate $270 or effectively have broken even on your funnel

But here is the thing. A 10% conversion rate on your Mini-Front End product is above average. Now I have built funnels that convert at 25% but that is highly unusual.

You might be more realistic to estimate a 5% conversion rate, especially in the early stages when you are working on the optimization of your offer.

This would mean that for your investment of $250 in Paid Traffic you get a return of 5 X $27 = $135

But let’s say we no add in an additional upsell of $197. We know based on the application of the Pareto principle that for every group of people who purchase a product 20% would be willing to pay 5 times more.

This means that 5 people will pay $27 and one of those people would be willing to step up to a $197 product meaning that from your original spend of $250 you have now made $332.

Remember the purpose of this funnel is to generate leads. People normally look at this as a sunk cost.

And yes this will take refinement and optimization but with this process, you can begin to turn your lead generation profitable which means you are effectively getting paid to generate leads.

Leads that you will go on to make your primary offers to and profit from for years to come.

Ok so now that you know the phases of your Mini Front End Product Funnel you are probably going to want to take a deeper dive into Lead Generation

So make sure you check out some of my other posts for lots more on how to get started with lead generation and how to design landing pages that convert.