Sales funnels – ick!  They can be so overwhelming.  Hilary Sutton had lots of questions and I'm sure they'll resonate with you!  Check it out.

Time for another small business hot seat.  This week features Hilary Sutton.  She wanted some help with her sales funnels.

Hilary has two sides to her work.

1. She's a freelance content marketer.
2. She's a thought leader around careers, creating a flourishing life and helping people with that.

Over the last couple of months, she's working on building her tribe and email subscribers.

She has developed several products that range from $10 – $250.  Once they sign up her email list, how does she go through the process of gaining trust and buying from her?  What should she offer when?

Sales funnels can be really overwhelming and make you feel like you have to do all the things.

Start with consistency.

They started with the low-cost product and get on your email list and start to build trust with you.

Hilary does have a welcome series when people first sign up.  And after that's completed they go into a monthly email newsletter.

The podcast is seasonal – so when it's live it's weekly.  Aspiring for it to be weekly – but it's tricky with a 9 month old.

At the First Click, we do weekly emails that share our podcast episodes.  You could also create an evergreen email sequence.  They start at the beginning of the sequence no matter when they sign up on the list.

We tend to assume everyone sees everything we push out and worry about people seeing it too many times.  Don't worry!

Hilary is worried about emailing too much and having unsubscribes…should she worry?

You want your email list to be engaging and having people open and click through.  If they unsubscribe they aren't going to buy from you anyways.

You want your list to be clean and interactive so it looks less spammy.  Plus you don't want to pay for people to be on your list that isn't going to buy.

Hilary's podcast is about a 25 min interview.  At the end, she does a moment of grace and then a hustle hack.

What content should they be getting in their emails?

We recommend teasing the story about the podcast.  Send them to the show notes so they can get more information.

I asked her about how her products are linked and if there is a natural progression.

At this point, they are pieces of content that have been created for different purposes along the way, but not to lead from one to the next.

Identifying your signature product is important.  Hilary's is her 21-day eCourse called “Get Your Dream Off the Ground.”

Pay attention to your suite of offerings and determine how it'll help get people to the signature product.  Those are the offers you want to focus on.

You don't have to get rid of the ones that don't fit.  But you won't be promoting those anymore as they don't lead to the ultimate goal.

Coming up with bonuses for an evergreen course is helpful to be able to create value and go into sales mode with your list.

One option is doing group coaching calls.  They still provide tremendous value and can maximize your time.  Plus when you hear questions from other people and give the option for collaboration it can be really helpful all around.

My main advice for Hilary is to:

• take a look at the product suite – which go together?
• move people through the products that end up at the course.
• use the podcast to drive people to the course.
• show up more in email – maybe bi-monthly.

Time Stamps

(4:22) Where is Hilary stuck?
(3:15) What's the most important first step?
(5:03) How does she get them to build trust and buy from her?  What should she offer when?
(5:52) Start with consistency
(7:05) The podcast is seasonal so it's weekly when it's happening.
(8:10) Weekly emails are great when not in a launch mode.
(10:14) How often is emailing too much?
(11:55)  What should she do in her emails to share information about the podcast?
(13:40) How and when should she sell and upsell?
(15:13) What is her signature product?
(18:46) Save time with group coaching calls
(20:06) Main advice

Resources

ConvertKit*
Your Starter Site

Connect with Hilary Sutton

Hustle and Grace Podcast
Get your Dream off the Ground
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Website

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