The Basics To Building A Sales Funnel By Using PLR Content

Hey guys. A post about learning how to use PLR was long due. Let’s go.

The idea of building a sales funnel can be quite arduous. It can become very intricate, meticulous, and complex.

There are plenty of options that you can use to create a sales funnel.

The learning curve and the many options can overload you and possibly hinder you from creating the funnel.

Using PLR content can help you to shortcut the creation aspect of the supposed “iceberg” funnel.

But before we get into that, let’s go over the basics of a funnel.

The Basics

A funnel either starts with the following: a lead page/squeeze page or a sales page.

The lead page/squeeze page is there for one purpose: to offer you something interesting (usually for free) in exchange for your email address. 

Why I say free is because in some cases there are lead pages that offer a “pay what you want” option in which the potential free subscriber can turn into a buyer with a purchase instead of putting 0. Think of sites like Gumroad or Thrivecart which offer this option.

In the case of the squeeze page funnel, sometimes the squeeze page will redirect to a new webpage after the signup (regardless of whether the person bought it or not).

This will usually be a bridge page or a sales page. Bridge pages are just short lander pages that motivate the subscriber to click through to the sales page.

People use bridge pages because they don’t like to send subscribers immediately to something else after the signup. Not everyone does this.

In the case of the sales page funnel, the sales page will sell a front-end product.

A front-end product is product #1 of the funnel. In Internet Marketing, it’s rare to have one product (hence, it is not a funnel).

In most online funnels today, marketers have become smart enough to add a frontend and a backend where they could make more money (the upsell).

So, if someone buys the frontend, the backend (upsell) is usually where they are taken next.

This is because a buyer is best marketed to when he/she is in the buying mood.

Continued…

If the buyer chooses to pass on the upsell, then he/she may end up on another sales page with either the same product or a different one.

This is commonly called the down-sell. If he/she declines this too, what’s supposed to happen is that they are “out of the funnel”.

But, marketers today are so clever that they reroute these people back into the funnel.

This is because marketers are trying to make as much as they can and don’t care if their buyers go through a funnel of 5-10 offers.

Picture Representation Of A Basic Upsell/Funnel

So, to make this easy to understand, I will put it like this; A typical simple funnel should not include a ton of upsells and downsells that put potential buyers through hell. 

In these wordy examples below, I will designate brackets for the upsells and parentheses for the downsells.

I figured it would be easier to help you understand if I drew it out. So, please excuse me for how rough my drawings are.

It should be as simple as this:

Front end > Upsell [if accepted, go to Upsell #2] (if declined, go to Downsell #1) > Downsell #1 (if accepted, go to Upsell #2; if declined, out of funnel) > Upsell #2 [if accepted, out of funnel] (if declined, go to Downsell #2) > Downsell #2 (if accepted/declined, out of funnel).

Picture Representation of What You May See/Deal With

Some marketers are doing this:

Front end > Upsell [if accepted, go to Upsell #2] (if declined, go to Downsell #1) > Downsell #1 (if accepted/declined go to Upsell #2) > Upsell #2 [if accepted, go to Upsell #3; if declined, go to Downsell #2) > Downsell #2 (if accepted/declined go to Upsell #3) > Upsell #3 [if accepted, go to Upsell #4; if declined, go to Downsell #3] > Downsell #3 (if accepted/declined go to Upsell #4) > Upsell #4 [if accepted, go to Upsell #5; if declined, go to Downsell #4] > Downsell #4 (if accepted/declined go to Upsell #5) > Upsell #5 [if accepted, go to Upsell #etc.; if declined go to Downsell #5.] > Downsell #5 (if accepted/declined go to Upsell #etc.)

Do you see the stark difference between the two funnels?

The first funnel doesn’t have as many “sells” as the other and it gets you out of the funnel.

The second funnel can be perpetual in terms of upsells and downsells with no end in sight.

The sad part is, most people wouldn’t even know they’re in a funnel unless they’re told that they are.

They simply can’t see the “tells” of a marketing/sales funnel. 

PRO TIP: In the internet marketing world, you can take a vendor’s product name and search for its joint venture (JV)/affiliate page. This way, you’d be able to see how many “sells” they have in their funnel, what each “sell” is selling and how much each of them costs. You may also be able to see how they constructed their funnel in terms of routing the buyer through the “sells”.

Continued…

Don’t be like the vendor with a ton of “sells” in their funnel. You can still make sales with a simple funnel.

That all starts with a front-end product.

A frontend can be created using PLR content but depending on where you launch it, you may have to change up the product to make it yours.

Warriorplus has this rule when it comes to launching public products within their marketplace; they don’t want any duplicates.

Clickbank is the same way but Jvzoo probably does not care.

Sites like Thrivecart and Samcart probably do not care but they don’t have marketplaces (go figure!). 

Once you figure out where you’re going to launch your product, then you have to create the product.

You can use PLR to do so; you can buy a PLR product and use it to create your product.

Depending on the website you use to sell it, you can get away with a simple rebrand of the PLR content.

In some cases (like warrior plus/Clickbank), you may have to do a full rewrite and/or reformat of the PLR to sell it on their marketplace.

Once that is complete then you will have a frontend product. But you’re “building a sales funnel” so it doesn’t end here.

Upsells Galore!

The next step is to figure out what you want your upsell to be.

Upsells are usually relevant to the front-end that you’re going to sell.

They are supposed to be related but not so much that without the upsell, the product is incomplete.

Once again, you can use PLR to create this as well.

You may want to differentiate it a bit to separate yourself from the rest of the PLR buyers. In the case of Limited PLR, you may not have to do so.

You can even use different PLR from different vendors, as long as the information is solid.

For example, if the front-end is on dieting, then the upsell can be about fitness or yoga.

The upsell isn’t necessary but it can be relevant because it’s in the overall market of Health.

The key to making the upsell work is to know your customer demographic.

If you can understand how the customer thinks and what their goals may be, you’re on the right track.

Once you know the reasoning behind their purchase, upselling them will become easier in the future.

By doing this, you can help the customer achieve their goals and you can put money in your pocket. A win-win.

Continued…

If you can’t find any PLR worth upselling, you can always take your front-end and repurpose it.

Say for example your front-end is an ebook or a set of articles. You can repurpose that ebook or articles into an audio format that people can listen to.

You can also repurpose it into a video series that people can watch. Some people would prefer listening to information via an audio source or a video source rather than reading.

Plus, the value of audio or video is perceived to be much higher than a document. With that said, you can easily reformat the front-end and sell it as an upsell for a much higher price.

More Places To Earn Money From Your Sales Funnel

The download page can also be another income-generating page in building a sales funnel. On that page, you give access to the product(s) the buyer paid for.

But, you can also give them access to other products that they can buy (from you or others).

The download page can serve to promote the upsells the customer may have missed out on.

Customers may buy the frontend and pass on the upsells. But, after going through the product, they realize that they like the product.

So, to give customers a chance to get the upsells, you can use your download page or email them about the upsells they may have missed. The customer may end up entering the funnel again from the upsell and buy one (or more) which puts money in your pocket.

Also, the download page can be a page that you can do integration marketing on (which is trading clicks).

You can stick some email marketers’ links on the download page as Unadvertised bonuses/free bonuses.

Exit popups can be a success in building a sales funnel but they have to be done right.

I find that when a potential customer wants to leave a sales page, a pop-up occurs.

This pop-up is to either give a free product away or it’s to get a potential sale by giving the customer a discount.

In the case of the free product, the vendor may try to get an email address in exchange for the product.

If it’s a discount, then clicking on the popup box may redirect to a lower-priced frontend.

You can go either way with this but be careful with the discount option.

A potential customer can become “conditioned” to be offered a lower discount because they know that you will offer it.

Plus, it can be unethical to offer certain visitors the option to get a lower priced product without dropping some of the benefits.

Continued…

The “gift” popup has been used for a very long time and can be very successful. Of course, you can use PLR content to create that “gift”.

If not, you can give away a small portion of your product that you’re selling as a gift.

By getting their email address in exchange, you can now follow up with the subscriber and build rapport while marketing to them about your offer.

With proper spacing and a consistent email schedule, the subscriber can warm up to your offer. All you have to do is market to them the right way.

To Conclude…

Once you get into the thick of creating sales funnels, it will become easy. Building a sales funnel really isn’t that difficult, but it can be depending on what processor you use.

Not everything is necessary for the creation of a sales funnel.

For your first couple of funnels, a lead magnet and an autoresponder sequence aren’t necessary. Over time that may change.

What’s most important is having good products, having a proper backend, and having a way to stay in contact with your customers.

After all, if you are in the process of building a sales funnel and you get sales once it’s complete, you may create one of the most coveted things in Internet Marketing: A Buyer’s List.

Till Next Time…

p.s. Check out my most recent post about PLR here: The 9 Simple Steps You Can Take Right Now To Increase Your Online Business By Using PLR Content