What the F are Funnels anyway
Bree Boucher 
Have you been down the google rabbit hole and still can't figure out what these things people keep talking about are... funnels...? Then read on
What are funnels and why do you need to know about them?
If you're familiar with any sort of marketing strategy, you would know about Funnels, perhaps you don't even realise it yet. Some people I know talk about value ladders and how you use them to step up customers through your offerings.
If we think about a funnel, it's an upside down triangle. Is an open funnel, just like one that you’d use to pour rice into a bottle with. At the top of the funnel we have all of these people that you are talking to in your audience.
On social media, in emails, all of those people that are floating around the outside of the funnel. The top part of your funnel is where you offer your free stuff. Up the top of the funnel, we're going to have a lot of people coming into the free level.
For example, for me I have a Freebie Vault where all my free stuff lives. I also do create funnels for specific lead magnets (freebies), but all my freebies live in the freebie vault. That in itself is a funnel. It’s leading into a paid offering.
Lead magnets, things that we're gonna entice people to join into our orbit, generally you will give away something for free that you can share your expertise, your knowledge, your vibe with people so they can then start to see you and know you. That way they can start to see themselves working with you.
The next level down in the funnel is our low ticket offer. This is a low price point and you might have like a bunch of people kind of in that section of the funnel as well. As you start to move down the funnel, you have less people that you're serving, but as you get lower into the funnel, the price point increases.
What happens is people start out as a free opt in and then they maybe you start to entice them to join something at a low cost. Perhaps this is through a tripwire, upsell or order bump straight after the freebie is delivered. Sometimes, based on software capabilities or your email sequence, when people sign up for something for free from you, they can automatically be told about something that you can offer at a really low cost, that perhaps solves the problem they were having that drew them to your freebie in the first place. By purchasing at this lower ticket price point they can also test the water before making a bigger investment.
Of course some people can, and do, skip the low ticket section and go straight to the mid or high ticket price point first, or vice versa. So we have our high ticket, the funnel is getting narrower, that’s because there's less of these people. So as you can see, we're funnelling people through to our high ticket office, so that we can make the most money out of one individual. We are also weeding through the people who are not your ideal client through this process. People who resonate with you will ultimately remain in your funnel or continue to cycle through your funnels.
Let’s look at the funnel from top to bottom, what could you offer from TOFU to BOFU?
What this would look like practically is maybe a free checklist, that leads into paid training or workshop.
Phase 1: Checklist into Training
Then next, that paid training could talk about taking the next steps with them is jumping into a 6 week course.
Phase 2: Training into Course
Lastly down to the high ticket program, 1:1 or Mastermind, that is a continuation or extension on what was offered during the 6 week course.
Phase 3: Course into Mastermind
What you have created through these funnels is a customer journey. You have funnelled your audience, those people who were not leads, into prospects and through into a paying customer.
Each phase or component of the funnel is just as important as the other, without the middle of the funnel we aren’t building our revenue and income stacking. We aren’t taking our customers through a journey or building their experience or expertise. Without a funnel customers stagnate. Perhaps they don’t even have the opportunity to become a customer because they’re stuck in the audience, or lead level of the funnel.
Building out every level of the funnel is crucial to a successful business. Beginning with the BOFU and taking it back up the funnel. You may have an idea for a freebie / lead magnet, but unless you have a way to link it back to your core product or the offer you are selling at the bottom of your funnel, then it will serve no purpose, other than to confuse your audience and customers.
Ideally, and especially when you start out. You should only have one BOFU offer per funnel, but within that one funnel you can have multiple TOFU or MOFU offers/products. It does complicate the funnel offering multiple segments that a person can move through their own individual customer journey, but not out of the question.
Don’t put out a freebie and then hope that it's going to eventuate into someone buying from you, because in order for a sale to occur from a freebie unfortunately there is a fair bit of strategy that needs to go into it. Always, consider what is the reason behind this freebie. For example, if you put out a free checklist, but there's no logical next step, then your lead will fall back out of the funnel and then forget about you. This is where emails come in to keep connected with your leads. At the very least, send your leads an email nurture sequence!