FUNNEL MAGAZINE TRAFFIC & LEAD GEN
EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
6 FUNNEL FEATURES
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LOCAL LIVE COMMUNITY IN 15 MINUTES: THE POWER OF FACE-TO-FACE CONTACTS
THE INTERVIEW
42 METRICS
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STRATEGY & TACTICS
LEADERSHIP
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66 SOCIAL MEDIA
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LETTER
FROM THE EDITOR
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THE NEW WAY TO BLOGGING
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MARKETING IN THE FAST LANE
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CHATBOTS BECAME MY BEST FRIENDS
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HOW FACEBOOK SOLD OUR CLIENTS’ DATA
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WARM ‘EM UP & WEED ‘EM OUT
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CREATE ADS THAT CONVERT
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SKYROCKET YOUR FACEBOOK ORGANIC REACH
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DOES YOUR MISSION FEEL LIKE PUNISHMENT?
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LEVEL UP! “FACEBOOK”
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RYAN STEWMAN LOOK FOR THE STRUGGLE AND FOCUS ON THE WIN
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR OF
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Dear Funnel Hackers, I want to introduce myself to all of our readers, I am Tricia Wilkes, I will be taking over as Editor of Funnel Magazine. I am so excited to embrace this new journey and hope to continue pushing the envelope on the articles we will deliver to our loyal readers. Thank you so much for choosing to read Funnel Magazine we have a hardcore edition for you this month! I am so excited to bring you The Hardcore Closer Ryan Stewman as the feature article for my first month as your editor. “Look For The Struggle and Focus On The Win.” In this interview, Ryan Stewman references the Law of Attraction and the mind being the most powerful tool on the planet in his own unique way. The Law of Attraction has been taught by many different authors, coaches, and speakers over the years. My husband and I prefer to listen to the audiobook set by Esther and Jerry Hicks as well as the set by Michael J. Losier on long road trips. Each and every time we listen, I always pull something new from it. Every time I listen I am always at a different place in my life as well as at a different place in my life journey. We are always pausing the audio to discuss what that particular passage meant to each of us. I will never forget certain road trips because of The Law of Attraction passages that inspired focus and change in our lives. There are so many versions of the Law of Attraction each author has their spin on the mindset. However, Ryan Stewman took the Law of Attraction mindset one step further with the Force of Average algorithm. He goes deep in this interview with the Force of Average and how the world is set up to keep you average, but If you keep focused and change struggles into opportunities you will achieve great things and past the limitations the world set on you over and over again and break through the obstacles the world sets in your path. Ryan like many of us has had many obstacles and challenges to overcome, and through each one he grew more empowered, stronger, and reached a new level of competency. A few things that I would like you to remember. Keep an eye out for those daily struggles, look for a way to reverse that struggle and gain an opportunity! Continue using your biggest asset, your mind and protect your focus. Stay focused on your long journey of Success. Don’t forget to listen to the Law of Attraction on long road trips because it may give you that change in perspective that you didn’t know that you needed. At the very least it will provide you with a sense of possibility, gratitude, and help you come from a place where you are looking for opportunities in your challenges instead of focusing solely on the challenge itself.
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- Tricia Wilkes, Editor-In-Chief VOLUME 2
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Local Live Community in 15 Minutes: The Power of Face-to-Face Contacts ARTICLE BY: Julia Antufjew
Meeting people face-to-face is the strongest and the fastest way of building long-lasting relationships and strong partnerships. We can email or chat with someone for ages – still, one face-to-face meeting changes worlds. According to research by Mahdi Roghanizad and Vanessa K. Bohns published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology face-to-face contacts are reported to be 34 times more successful than email.
Six months after my arrival I’ve built up a large network of like-minded people who in their turn helped me with the challenging task of opening a company in a foreign country, without speaking the language (at that time), in an industry, I was not familiar with. How did I create this network of people? The answer is simple – Live Networking Events.
All key people in my network, even my partner – I have When I came to Shanghai in 2005 as a Business met in a Live Networking Event. Analyst for a large multinational, I did not know a single person in the Orient. Live events are hot in a large city like Shanghai. Through the years I’ve always been a participant, until one day Nevertheless two years later I was setting up my it hit me – why not organize my own? own companies in Shanghai and Hong Kong, hiring my own employees and manufacturing high-quality First I thought the organization of a live event would designer garments for emerging fashion designers and be quite complicated. Not until my partner started fashion entrepreneurs. popping out his Linux live events one after another. His live event management went very smooth. On the top All these activities require a solid network of professionals of that, he also managed to create an audience of 100 helping one to learn local laws and regulations, highly qualified attendees in a matter of four weeks on not to mention all ins and outs of conducting a topic he just started out with, at no marketing cost. a fashion manufacturing business. Mesmerized by such results I’ve decided to test the same method of live event organization for our business. The nine letters, making organization of a live event as easy VOLUME 2 as our life should be, are Meetup.com. FUNNEL MAGAZINE
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In this article, I would love to share with you the simplicity of creating your local live community in a matter of 15 minutes and the great advantages of having such a local live community next to your digital communities.
people in real life. From a marketing perspective, footage of a live event is increasingly stronger than any other type of video training due to its social proof connotation. If other people have taken their time to go to an event – it is most likely worth your time to listen to According to the Meetup.com ‘About’ Page, ‘Meetup the content. is the world’s largest network of local groups. Meetup makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or Experience with our first live Group in Shanghai find one of the thousands already meeting up face-to- inspired me to take it even further. In 2018 I’ve started face.’ frequently traveling between two countries: China and Germany. This was when the following question crossed And that’s true. Meetup.com makes it easy to organize my mind: How would it feel to come to Germany local groups and most importantly to build an audience and to have your audience waiting for you already? of highly engaged people interested in the topics Followed by the next question: How about building a covered by the group in a very short time. mastermind community of fearless entrepreneurs in Preparing for the beta launch of our Wild Cat Fashion every country you spend the most time in, to promote Business Training Program, I was looking for a group expertise exchange, collaboration, mutual assistance, of ambitious fashion designers and (e-commerce) and mentorship? I am in love with this idea, and we entrepreneurs aspiring to launch their own fashion have started with implementation in two cities I spent brand. This is how our first group Fashion Cats Shanghai the most time in Shanghai and Berlin. came into existence. It took me literally 15 minutes to Having a local live community is great! The reasons are set up the Group. A few days later we had about 100 many. members. Currently, the Group stands 332 members strong, all recruited by the Meetup platform. • Are you developing a course or a training program? Present your modules as separate live I’ve decided to involve our live Group in the very events to your local group. Use video material development of our training program. We have planned as core content for your course and for future 12 live events with the Group, each event covering a advertising. training module of our program. • Are you looking for more speaking engagements? Speak frequently to your local Now, two events later I am extremely enthusiastic. group of like-minded people. Use video material Live interaction with people is very rewarding. The as your proven track record of success as a presentations are being videotaped to become the seasoned speaker. core part of our training program. Most beta members for our program will join directly from the Group. Why • Are you looking for great interaction with fellow entrepreneurs, expertise exchange, joining the program if you have learned the core content collaboration, mutual assistance, and during the 12 live events? Because finally, knowing mentorship? Create your local mastermind how-to, participants become eager to implement the community and rock the world! new-learned strategies and are enthusiastic about our professional help with the strategy implementation. Quite often it’s being said that entrepreneurial journey
The accountability sessions with the future beta is a lonely experience. Not as long as there is Meetup. members of the Wild Cat Fashion Business Training com! It takes you literally 15 minutes to have your very own local live community, no matter your geographical Program will happen in the Meetup format as well. location. And that’s great because loneliness becomes Is it necessary to have a local group and to organize a matter of choice, rather than a given. But this is a live events if you want to launch a course or a training topic for a separate conversation… program? No. You can do everything online via webinars. We’ve decided to combine our training Tools: program development with live face-to-face Local group creation and management: Meetup.com interaction as an extremely rewarding way to share value and build strong relationships.
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The New Way To Blogging ARTICLE BY Tucker Ferwerda
We’ve all seen (and possibly asked) those same questions before… • • • •
How do I set up a blog? I have a blog, now what? How do I get people to my site? And even better, how do I make money with a blog?
Blogging is a great way to get eyes to your offers, but it’s not the only way to get there. In fact, if you were to tie social media into your blogging habits, you’ll be more successful. Posting on social media on a regular this pattern until we find what we’re looking for. We’ll basis can help get more traffic to your site, and more search websites, blogs, pages, etc until we find it, right? What this method lacks is the human element. Unlike eyes on your products. aged and static sites and blog posts with a comment Understanding Social Media section added at the bottom, social media adds more In order to blog on social media, you have to life to the picture. You have an audience, you make a understand how social media works. We’re post, and you get likes, comments, and shares. Not used to searching something on Google, only that, but you have an audience who knows you. clicking on something that meets Not only that but you have real time results within a our interest, and continuing matter of minutes. Think about this for a second: You’re looking for VOLUME 2 something very specific that you need right away. You
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find it on social media, and see your friend or family member is also following that page. What’s the next thing you do? You send them a quick message asking them about the certain product or service you’re looking for. You ask them about their thoughts, and base your next purchase decision on what your friend or family member says. This is how social media has an edge and needs to be leveraged in order to be successful. Social media is all based on the user experience and algorithm. Simply said, algorithms are simple ways of making things more or less popular. We’ll get into that later. But let’s establish some fundamentals first.
Have no fear. Let’s dive into this... I use a system called the 3-2-1 Method. Let me explain…
Most people try to push products. They bug their friends and family to buy, buy, and buy more. This rarely works. You have to make sure you’re posting things they want to see. Social media is about starting, keeping, and improving conversation. What helps is making sure your audience is interested in the topics you want to post about. For example, if you’re interested in dogs and post all the time about dogs, but your audience is interested in cats, you’re not going to get any engagement, likes, comments, or shares at all. Once you have an audience Consistency Is Your New Best Friend that is interested in you, your content, and your offers, Just like blogging on your favorite blogging platform, then you can start using the 3-2-1 Method. whether it be WordPress, Wix, or similar, it’s important The 3-2-1 Method is simple. 3 days in a row you post to stay active and consistent on your social media lifestyle posts. 2 days in a row you post value posts. channels. Take Facebook for instance. Facebook now And on day 6 you post something business related. has over 2 billion active users on a monthly basis. This keeps people interested in what you’re doing and Let’s say you have 1,000 “friends” on your Facebook in your offers without seeming salesy or pushy. channel. Think of these friends as your subscribers. They have accepted your friend request, and in return are Lifestyle posts telling you they want to hear more about what you’re up to. Just like email subscribers, they want updates and Lifestyle posts are posts you’re doing on a regular basis. news from you. Just like you sending out an email once These are posts about what is going on in your life. If a day to your subscribers, you should be posting at something funny happened at home, post about it. If least once a day on Facebook. This also works for other something amazing just happened, post about it. If you’re traveling, post about it. If you’re at a social media channels. special event, post about it. If a special The 3-2-1 Method life event just happened, “That’s all great and all, but I don’t know what or how to post? I post all the time and never see results. I never get any engagement on my posts! I need to know how…”
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post about it. These are posts you post the most and are happening to you or your family. We post more of these because at the end of the day, people don’t buy stuff from people they don’t like. You don’t buy stuff. You buy from people you like, know, and trust. Now, we don’t always have to post positive stuff. We want to show people we’re human. Sometimes things don’t go according to plan. Sometimes things can backfire. Why do you think soap operas and TV series are so successful? It’s because they bring you along the roller coaster of life. The ups and downs and everything in between. Now this also doesn’t mean to be Negative Nancy, but the more genuine you can be and the closer you can bring people into your life, the better.
the previous days, and we did a great job at letting people know beforehand that this offer was coming (in our lifestyle and value posts) then we should get a sale or something similar. More Comments, Likes, and Shares
Now this is where it gets fun. The more engagement we get on our posts, the more the social media platform will show it to others. Let’s use Instagram for example. The more comments, hearts, shares, and tags a photo gets, the more Instagram will help us by showing it to more people. This is where the viral effect comes in. The more viral a post can be, the more successful you’ll become. Add humor to it, you’ll do just fine. Tell some stories, and they’re hooked. It’s important to comment Value posts and reply back to people on social media. This then These types of posts are just that. They offer value. They shows you’re listening, and the post will be seen by help lift your audience from where they are to where more people. they want to be. They always are based on the topic Finally, what we all want at the end of the day. of your audience. They could include tips, tricks, blog posts, how-to’s, case studies, shout-outs, lead magnets, At the end of the day, we want to make money while free stuff, surveys, etc. These posts are extremely blogging. We want eyes on our products and services, important to your audience, but we don’t want to give and sales streaming in. Leveraging the tools that are too much away which is why we do them two days in a easily accessible can greatly increase our chances for row. This helps establish us as an authority on our topic success. We’ve used these methods for a long time and and shows others we care about them and their success. have always seen success from them and I hope you see it too. Business posts Now, go enjoy being successful. This is when we ask for the sale. We post about something business related that will lead to someone making a purchase or get closer to making a purchase. This could include joining a group, making a purchase, or subscribing to another social media channel. We use language as a call-to-action. We direct people do doing something that will lead them closer to purchasing from us. If we have done this right during
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Article by Amee Gray
Marketing in the Fast Lane
Establishing a marketing strategy can be scary. Marketing is generally a large portion of your budget, and naturally, it takes some time to see the results. When you have taken huge risks to realize a personal goal or dream, taking the leap of faith into a marketing plan can feel like jumping off a cliff where you can’t see the bottom. This is a very exciting time too. Marketing your product or service is the way you tell the world about what you’ve created or what you are doing, presumably something that you have cultivated from a place of love and passion. It’s a highly personal, invested and meaningful time in your business development. Good communication with your digital marketing consultant will help ease the anxiety and keep you informed as your campaign progresses.
your business to a particular theme or mission promotes the kind of loyalty that would convert a big box, instant gratification shopper to a dedicated consumer willing to wait for a smaller business to furnish inventory or services. And finally, customer service. Without a good customer service plan, every dollar spent on marketing, website, storefront, sales, and inventory are a complete waste. Don’t neglect it! Big Box stores and corporate conglomerates have policies and procedures, but they really struggle to enforce customer service policies. Smaller organizations have much more control over who they hire, how they train their staff and finally how they incentivize and show appreciation to their employees. I wish I could tell my clients that digital marketing is an easy, overnight execution with instant results, but the marketing of any kind takes time, requires a scalable plan, a budget and cooperation. However, there are a lot of tricks of the trade that will help rapidly increase your search ranking and drive a lot of traffic to your site. With the right plan and team, this can be done effectively in a reasonable time frame. But it takes commitment, perseverance and a bit of fearlessness.
Most new businesses and start-ups are competing in industries where the giants have purchase power and big marketing budgets. That can be intimidating. But new businesses have many advantages, among them; a consumer trend towards buying local and supporting businesses that are part of and contribute to the communities or causes that are dear to them. Consider too that the larger the business, the more exposure they have to liability and a cynical Start with a budget! and easily disenfranchised consumer base. Consistency to brand and anchoring Know exactly how much you can afford to spend on marketing in the first year and be prepared to spend about 60-70% in the first quarter. Clearly communicate
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that number to your hired marketing strategist or consultant. If you aren’t sure how much to allocate towards marketing, consider that 10-12% of revenue is the magic number for increasing revenue. Don’t have revenue yet? Project your revenues and allocate 1012% of that. But be realistic. Don’t just say, “I want a zillion dollars in revenue!” Know your true market value and be realistic in your estimates.
presence at events where your product is relevant. Send a team of high energy, relatable brand ambassadors out on location to talk about and demonstrate what your product or service can do. Offer samples, give away freebies, ask for email addresses, offer discounts, and set up social media activations. Get people curious and talking. Make sure there are lots of signs and information about where and how to buy what you are selling.
My prescription for delivering quick and high marketing impact results includes multiple platforms and experts You need a marketing plan and a sales plan, (yes they dedicated to delivering on time and on budget. Among are 2 different plans). my dream team would be: If the survival of your business depends on a quick return on your investment, then I highly recommend • A graphic designer with a great understanding investing in a strong closer as early as possible for your of your determined brand personality. sales and customer service team to make the absolute • A dedicated SEO focused site programmer best use of marketing efforts. Many great customer on maintaining curated relevant backlinks as service platforms can assist with data capture and well as for consistent on page optimization, relationship management that are very affordable site maintenance, and tagging/tracking the compared with the cost of losing potential clients, but performance of your website. nothing can outperform an interpersonal connection • A social media and PPC search engine media and the availability of a strong customer service person buyer who knows exactly where and when and sales rep. Running simultaneous and cohesive to place your ads and who also has a keen understanding of search engines and audience sales and marketing strategies is the absolute key to success in the first year. The old saying goes, “You can targeting. lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink.” • A social media manager with a proven track Remember that a great marketing platform will deliver record for audience growth and community curious, interested and motivated buyers to your site or building and a keen sense of customer service to your call center, make sure you implement a strategy within social. with a quick customer service response and get those • A crack email marketing expert to deliver sales! optimized automated emails that keep your product or service top of mind. SEO Search engines are the yellow pages of today. Cliche as it sounds, Content is truly King. Don’t even Remember looking up services in the yellow pages start marketing until you have a content plan to include: and calling several until you finally found one that could work within your schedule and budget? Today, A highly engaging client-facing website search engines not only simplify finding products A beautiful cache of original artwork including high- and services specific to our needs, but they also help quality professional photographs of your products or ensure our satisfaction because of the wide availability your services in action. of supporting information and reviews found online. Lots of professionally written copy for email, website, Oh! Kids today don’t know how good they got it! press releases, communications, social media, and Pew Internet Research says 77% of online business to business seekers began their last session at a search advertising. engine such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo. According to High-Value Production videos! Video content is the #1 a recent Hubspot survey 72% of consumers who did way to communicate with your audience. a local search visited a store within five miles, Local Brochures, physical coupons or other leave behind searches lead 50% of mobile visitors to visit stores within one day (Google, 2014) and 78% of materials including swag and promo items. local mobile searches result in offline A solid social media plan. purchases. (Search Engine Land, Finally, and I cannot stress this enough: have a physical EDITION 9
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2014) (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing- the Authority and has a significant impact on SEO. statistics) Pretty convincing statistics! Conversely, if you drive a curious audience to your site from social media and the campaigns aren’t cohesive, Google ranks pages based on two primary metrics: that can also negatively impact your SEO with a high Authority, which is a measure of how many people bounce from a turned off or confused audience. Keep share or link back to your content, and Relevancy, your posts on social media relevant and maintain a which is a measure of how well you create content that consistent voice throughout your digital footprint. relates to the keywords users type into search engines (like Google) to find your website or blog. Websites and Social Media Advertising blogs which create relevant content that gets found by Social media advertising is the perfect way to deliver internet users, and then gets shared across the web, is highly targeted ads to individual users by using deemed as being authoritative. profile data to match audience interests, geographic I believe in organic and authentically cultivated traffic. location and other demographics that might determine I do not believe in buying an audience or creating a purchase history, intent or general interest in an item or bunch of non-relevant backlinks. These tactics will only service. With so many social media forums available give you heartbreak in the long run. When multiple right now, all or at least most of them offering an content channels are orchestrated, they will serve to advertising platform, there is most certainly one where strengthen all others and give you a greater authority your audience is spending time. The most popular sites in search. Therefore the tighter the budget, the shorter being Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn are joined the timeline with a heavier concentration of services in the advertising world by SnapAds from SnapChat on the very front of your strategy. If you set a yearly which is no doubt “the” place to market to millennials. If budget, I believe it is better to focus the majority of your audience is not definitively on one platform or the your budget in the first 120 days of the marketing plan other, you may consider diversifying your ad spend with to creating high-value content and distributing it in cross-platform marketing. The social media advertising volume across the matrix. options are limitless and offer you a direct avenue to a “ready to buy” community like never before. Search Ad Campaigns (PPC) Targeted Email Marketing Campaigns Pay-Per-Click (PPC) through Google Adwords is a time-saving and cost-effective way to gain more 62% of B2B consumers prefer communication via visibility, referrals, and recognition for your business. email in comparison to direct mail, phone calls, and Piggybacking off of SEO, there is really no better office visits. If you consider that it takes an average way to capture new relevant traffic from the business of 7 points of contact to generate consumer curiosity, to business community than through a combination then I strongly urge you to add an email campaign to of optimized keywords and highly targeted search your arsenal. Additionally, you can pack a lot into an advertising. Searchers who discover products and email that you can’t fit into an ad. Offers, contests, services they are already looking for are more likely to audience growth through sharing and information! In convert than consumers seeing advertising that is not the age of texting and remote, non-familiar contact, targeted to their search history or demographic. email marketing acts as a much more personal means of reaching out to your audience. Email marketing is Social Media Engagement the best place to promote new services and products, Social Media should not be neglected. When a well offer introductory pricing and specials to build a base crafted Social Media campaign creates an engaged for generating new revenue streams. following with return users who share, like and follow, Two Spoonfuls of Sugar with Your Medicine those social media pages also show up in a search. We’ve all googled a keyword and had the first page Two final bits of advice: One: Don’t let marketing flood with the website and 3 or 4 social media pages of distract you from handling your business. Too often one specific company. When that happens, a searcher business owners get wrapped up in trying to monitor naturally feels that the specific company dominating and track their SEO and advertising on an hourly the top of search engines also dominates the basis and then neglect their business development. If market. And, generally, they do. Social you’ve hired an agency or a consultant, set up a routine Media contributes greatly to reporting procedure and let them do their job. If your consultant or marketing director is on the phone with you, educating you about analytics or how digital VOLUME 2 advertising works, they aren’t doing the job you hired
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them to do. If you are on a retainer, time spent with you on the phone or in meetings are billable hours just as they would be with any professional such as an attorney or an accountant. Don’t spend your consultants allocated hours for you getting a cliff notes education on digital marketing. Study the results of the reports they provide to you and be clear on timelines and expectations from the beginning. Two: Don’t confuse Marketing with Sales. Marketing is meant to drive awareness and deliver an audience to your sales funnel. A good marketing consultant will advise you on the keenest solutions for strengthening the joints between marketing and sales. And a reputable salesperson will generally be skeptical in contracting with a company that doesn’t have a marketing funnel because they generally work on commissions and don’t want to have to do marketing and sales just to close a small percentage.
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Generally, a great website design will carry you through a marketing funnel and with the right Information Architecture will capture data for future remarketing and best of all convert visitors to lifelong consumers. It takes a great marketing AND sales strategy to create this seamless consumer habitat. Be sure to get these two arms of your business development in sync as soon as possible.
Article by Andrew Johnston
Designing a Funnel for Lead Generation - 5 Steps to Getting More Leads
Your leads aka ‘potential customers’ are the lifeblood Step 1: Create a Consistent Message of your business. Once you have created a funnel, then Your message needs to be consistent across all traffic the only thing you should be asking yourself is “How do platforms and your funnel. I get more leads?”. For example: Pretend you’re a dentist, and you’re Why? posting content around the benefits of flossing and Because more leads = more customers, and more telling people to click on your link to learn more. When customers = more profit. Simple as that. someone clicks on your funnel, you don’t want the headline to read “7 reasons why you should invest in Now, I’m not going to tell you a ‘perfect’ traffic source getting your child braces”. to use, because there’s a ton out there (social media, paid traffic, organic traffic, etc), and they’re all good if Instead, it could read “7 reasons why flossing is crucial used correctly. However, you can have the best traffic to your health.” source in the world, but if you’re leading them to a In your message, you had been talking about the funnel that isn’t relevant or isn’t properly designed for benefits of flossing, and now you’re offering them them, it’s not going to convert. a complete guide or report, on the why flossing is so You might even have a life-changing product, and important. The message is consistent. a million followers on Instagram, however, if you’re Whoever your target audience is, make sure you are guiding all those followers from Instagram to a continuously giving them relevant information based funnel that doesn’t match your message, isn’t mobile on what your message is stating or teaching. optimized, and is off-brand, then most likely, you won’t be making very many sales. Step 2: Optimize Your Branding If you want to make sure your traffic is converting into leads, then you need to follow these 5 steps to designing a funnel for an optimal lead generation.
Now that we have a consistent message, we want to make sure that when your potential customer goes from the traffic source to your funnel, it’s a seamless transition.
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In other words, we want them focused on your message and your offer. They should know they’re still on your site and no one else’s even if you’re about to lead them
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When you share value with your ideal audience, you build authority. You build trust. And they see you as a For example, if the colors of your website are dark blue relevant choice in your niche. and white, and your customer clicks off your website, into your funnel, then the colors shouldn’t be pink When you drop links before building rapport, before and lime green. That would most likely cause them identifying someone’s pains and desires, before giving to question if they’re still on your website or someone value, then you are wasting yours and their time, else’s and all the pre-framing and consistent messaging because people don’t buy from people they don’t trust. would go right out the window. And the way to build that trust, is to take the time to get If you have a logo, add it onto your funnel pages, to know your audience and build a quality relationship however, don’t let your ego get involved. Your logo with them. I guarantee you’ll have more leads after shouldn’t be the most eye-catching item on your opt-in doing that, rather than high jacking someone else’s post or spamming your link to as many people as you page. can a day. Step 3: Call to Action (CTA) Step 5: Test and Edit I talk to clients every day who say, “I don’t want to come No one creates the perfect funnel the very first time. off salesy”. That’s why it’s so important to split test (A/B test) your A call to action doesn’t have to come off as a sales opt-in page. pitch, however, without a call to action, no one is going This way, your audience will tell you if your headline to click on the link to your funnel. sucks if the colors you chose don’t work, and where you Just because you put it on your website, or under your need to make the necessary changes. IG profile, or in a Facebook post, doesn’t mean people are going to suddenly click on it. Sure, 1 or 2 people Building a funnel can be a humbling experience. I’ve may click on it out of curiosity, but they’re most likely not spent hours designing what I thought was the ‘perfect’ funnel, just to see it convert at 20% or less. going to be your target audience. somewhere else after collecting their information.
Give your audience value, build up curiosity, and give a call to action. If you give value first then you can give a subtle, yet powerful call to action such as “check out the link in my bio for more tips” or “if you want to learn more, click the link here”.
However, I didn’t scrap it. I tweaked it. Then I tweaked it some more until I got that funnel to convert over 90%!
It ended up being one of my most successful funnels, but if I had never chosen to pay attention to what my audience was telling me, and had never edited it, then By giving value, you have eliminated the idea of being it would’ve been one of my least successful funnels. “salesy” in your leads’ eyes, plus you have built enough As you get to know your audience, you’ll learn more interest around the subject, that if a person reads your about them, and it’ll be easier and faster when it comes call to action, they’re sure to click on your link. to getting things right, however, never assume you know what your audience wants or likes. Let them tell you. Step 4: Quality vs Quantity Be strategic when it comes to placing your link. Don’t Having a successful funnel that brings in more qualified leads isn’t always easy to create; however, it can be drop it anywhere. simple when following these 5 steps. One of the worst things you can do it to constantly drop your link in front of people who aren’t in your target audience and who will see it as spam. You don’t want to be known for being a ‘spammy’ marketer, especially to your audience. For example, I’ve seen people drop their funnel links under other people’s Facebook ads, in the comments on a YouTube channel, or messaging them in Facebook messenger. Doing that is a sure way to failure. EDITION 9
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Article by Charly Wigstrom
WHY Chatbots Became My Best Friends When We Talk About An Increase in ROI ?
In just a few months, Messenger bots have exploded onto the digital marketing scene. Not a day goes by without a new article, or a new opinion, about how they’re the Second Coming. And while the initial results are incredibly promising, chances are, you still probably should avoid them for now.
But they’re getting smarter.
In the not too distant future, low-level artificial intelligence will be baked to infer and predict what you’re saying. Both Facebook and Google are reportedly investing in developing virtual assistants. There are also companies like Magic+ springing up to help people solve complex It’s unsurprising, given there are 900 million users on problems through a unique mix of machines & human Facebook Messenger, to begin with. And Messenger capital. Bots have already been successful on other chat-based The future is incredibly bright. Currently, nascent, no platforms like Slack. doubt. Yet promising as hell. There’s only one problem. There are so much hype and excitement that they’re You already have enough on your plate. expected to “eat the web.” But that hasn’t stopped many Here’s What to Fix Before Developing a Facebook companies from already doing interesting things, Even Chatbot the Army and Alaska Airlines are considering enlisting (corny and obvious, I know). Half of the companies using digital marketing don’t have a digital marketing plan. Only ~35% of which Chat platforms are nothing new of course. They’ve have a content marketing plan. literally been around for decades. It seems like a lifetime ago when my high school algebra homework Some facts: was neglected because I was spending too much time • Content marketing is 62% less than ‘traditional talking to girls on AIM. marketing’ (which I’m assuming means offline However, the promise of bots added to the mix has advertising. Which ain’t marketing FYI.) changed the game. Currently, most the chatbots are • It also generates 3X the number of leads, too. actually kinda dumb. Many interactions are pre-built, with bots able to only kick back It’s unanimous. It works. relatively primitive data. Then. Why. Does. Your. Content. Still. Suck?
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sign up now that they’re ready) Only a dismal 12% are optimistic. And 68% say their • Move #2. Try testing the offers, or using a efforts are “basic” or “inconsistent”. ‘product splintering’-like a one that helps you Sound familiar? Here’s how to move to reality your separate the buyers from the triers. efforts: • Move #3. Still nothing’? Start by messing with your combination of Research + Lead Magnet • Move #1. Make sure you have a mix of + Ad copy first to boost relevancy or message commercial and unbranded content to bring match. in visitors who’re searching for solutions to a problem or pain point (and not your services yet). • Move #2. Liven’ up your tone to inject personality, humor and – gasp! – entertainment in your content. That will give it a leg-up on the other 2+ million posts getting published daily. • Move #3. Always focus back on the problem (i.e. the hole) and not the tool (i.e. the drill you sell) when creating content. That keeps the message on-point from a customer’s perspective, giving Or take marketing automation for example. The fastest growing CRM trend over time. Proven; capable of delivering a 451% (!) increase in qualified leads. I dare you to almost find any negative report about marketing automation & personalization in emails. And yet… 85% of executives using it aren’t satisfied with their effort. So try this: • Move #1. Setup a dedicated workflow for each of the three ‘funnel stages’ you created above. • Move #2. Send nurturing emails every 3-4 days, for a ~30 day period with a specific action or goal in mind (e.g. sign up for something, click something, purchase something). • Move #3. Create a ‘re-engagement’ campaign you the chance to eventually show them how after that 30 days (like a discount, promotion, your widget can solve this problematic pain or even an unsubscribe notice) to make sure point. they’re still interested in what you have to offer How’s your Facebook ad funnel going? Are you and ‘win back’ these peeps to inspire action. targeting fans, running multiple campaigns and consistently testing images? Have you set up Canvas I’m not blaming you – it ain’t your fault. Simply securing yet? Dynamic product ads? a budget for these activities is still a problem for most. Or, like 75% of marketers, are you still struggling to But we haven’t even scratched the surface yet on prove ROI on mobile ad spend? organic search, mobile, conversion testing, etc. Remember, ‘Likes’ ain’t the goal. So try these tips The list goes on and on and on and on and on and on instead: and on and on and on and on and on and on. (Wow, • Move #1. Make sure you have campaigns set up that was annoying.) to target the Top of the Funnel (like a content Throwing up a chatbot will deliver a piece to draw in visitors), the Middle of the nice little PR boost no doubt. But Funnel (target those website visitors with a lead then what? And at what magnet) and the Bottom of the Funnel (like cost? sending those new leads an offer to purchase or EDITION 9
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Conclusion
line from ad spend to ROI.
Facebook chatbots have an incredibly promising future. Even in the small sample of early examples, it’s clear how compelling and ultimately useful they will be to your marketing plan.
Those things ain’t easy. They take time. Attention. And money. In other words, they take a lot of the stuff that would otherwise be sunk into developing a new chatbot.
You shouldn’t ignore them. But you shouldn’t rush to join them quite yet, either. Because chances are, you’ve got enough to deal with already. You need to get a content plan in place. You need to start utilizing marketing automation and other personalization techniques. And you need to right-size your advertising efforts to make sure you see a clear
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Article by Tod Holland
How Facebook Sold Our Clients’ Data
How Facebook Sold Our Clients’ Data and Why They Should Be Thankful For it Privacy.
I’m the farthest thing from a Zuckerberg fanatic. Politically, morally, street-jivedly; I’ve never found a single action taken by that man to be anything short of disagreeable.
The latest hot topic for international business conduct That is until I saw him testify in front of Congress a few and the thing most forgone when stepping into a public months back. restroom stall. Now I know I’m writing about this a little later than One thing I know I don’t need to tell the readers of this everyone else. That’s because I wanted to digest the magazine is that while privacy may not be something news, put on my utilitarian economics hat, and really you’re particularly concerned about, the preservation try to decipher whether Facebook is doing something and definition of it absolutely affects your day to day morally wrong by sharing third-party data. activities as a marketer. If you’re tired of reading, the answer is I don’t agree that If you think about it, all of Facebook’s eight hundred it’s immoral or even in bad taste for Facebook to share and thirty-four jillion interest parameters represents and purchase consumer data, and to be quite honest some breach of privacy or another. They’re tagged as and speaking purely as a consumer, I wish they’d log such because they did what they thought was a private and transfer more of my data. activity on their private computer. Yes, the man who previously complained about the lack And in comes Facebook, teeth bared and salivating, of privacy in public latrines is making a case for higher ready to just tear that privacy away from the consumers availability and transfer of data. and sell it to the highest bidders, effectively treating the general user base as chattel that exists purely for us to Back to Zuckerberg’s hearing, though. Some of the try to pawn our crappy digital courses onto. questions were laughable, and we all got a kick out of it. Many of us wondered how these reincarnated Or at least, that’s what everyone would have fossils from the 1800’s got elected to preside over our you believe. nation’s technology. Others still questioned the efficacy of having a group of Senators who received sizable campaign contributions from Zuckerberg chastise and scold him for whatever made him profitable enough to VOLUME 2 lobby politically. FUNNEL MAGAZINE
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The consensus across our communities, though; the ad forgiven for having a few doubts. buyer communities was closer to mortified. Doubt causes hesitation, which creates a shift away Some of the questions asked were genuinely against from uncertain marketing to other forms (incidentally, some of the core principles of personalized marketing, almost all also owned by Facebook). which I believe to be one of the greatest inventions in Especially when this is all under the misguided goal of the past 18 years (yes, this includes hardware like the protecting the consumer. iPhone, which I can get into in another article). Protecting us from what, exactly? For example, one Senator asked if Facebook can track activity on other websites to custom-create People are going to see ads no matter what. So they ads for people based on how they interact with a might as well be shown ads that resonate with them. particular webpage. Those of us in e-commerce is Ads that make sense in the context of the person’s probably nodding our heads as we set up our sixteenth interests. Abandoned Cart Event Tracking pixel of the week, which we use to remind potential customers that they It’s either that or another Tide ad. You decide. didn’t complete their purchase. Quotes: Another asked about custom audiences and marketing directly to users on Facebook, as opposed to a search based protocol like Google, as if it were on par with burning witches in Salem or microwaving last night’s tuna in the office (we know it was you, Adam, and we hate you for it).
Many of us wondered how these reincarnated fossils from the 1800’s got elected to preside over our nation’s technology.
People are going to see ads no matter what. So they might as well be shown ads that resonate with them. Ads that make sense in the context of the person’s These types of things are the only real Quality Of Life interests. improvements for our potential clients. It’s either that or another Tide ad. You decide. The reality is that if we’re going to be on the internet, someone has to pay for that, and advertising revenue has historically been the bridge between “hey, I like this website” and “hell no I’m not paying $4.97 a month to use Facebook”. And if you suddenly take the clear bottled jug of water we’ve been buying for all these years, put it in a black bottle and tell us “trust me, it’s still water,” we can be
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Warm ‘Em Up & Weed ‘Em Out ARTICLE BY Darryl Turner
for marriage on the first night. Yet we do that in our advertising all the time. We spend very little time wining & dining our prospects, and focus so much energy on getting them to say yes on the first click. If we can step back and make sure to warm our audience up to what we have, who we are, or what we’re about, we have a great chance of sealing the deal.
Many times in our own marketing, or the marketing for our clients, we get so focused on getting the lead, or making the sale, sometimes we forget that decisions aren’t made so quickly. It’s very easy to create direct response ads to try and run traffic to the perfect site, or the perfect funnel, with the perfect sales copy. But, sometimes we need to remember the context of our marketing, and sometimes you just need to warm the prospects up, or at the least weed them out. Here’s a shift in mindset & strategy that should help your marketing efforts.
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There are several ways you can warm up an audience, all of which work in the right context. Free video content, free opt in content, awareness ads, or just stacking your ads in layers, so you know who’s interested. Here’s a quick list of ideas you can use to warm up an audience before you send them an offer: An ‘About Us’ Video Awareness style video, with no specific sales message A blog post related to the product or service you’re trying to sell A testimonial from a previous or current customer A walkthrough of your service or tour of your building
Those are just a few ideas to get you started. Take advantage of retargeting and now pitch your products We hear this all the time, marketing is like and services to people who have first interacted with dating, you’re not supposed to ask something else. It’s not uncommon to see your click through rates (CTR) double when you make sure to warm up your audience first. Ultimately, you’re trying
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on your ads, then the goal should actually be to get the least amount of clicks possible. What you actually want is the lowest cost of the right people. With this idea, you’re creating top of funnel ads that only your ideal prospect will click on, and focus more of your energy on retargeting. The goal isn’t to make a sale or capture the lead outright, but to separate your ideal prospects from the rest of the general market. From there, take advantage of retargeting, and really focus your sales efforts. These are just 2 shifts in your marketing approach that you may have not used, or forgotten along the way. Have they worked for you? Leave a comment down to find the people who may want what you have to below with your experience using these ideas. sell. This leads to the next point, you may need to weed them out. In pay per click marketing, whether it be on Facebook or Google, it can be pretty easy to try and cast as wide a net as possible to get the most people into our funnels. But, sometimes you just need to weed prospects out. Consider this mindset shift - if you are paying per click
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How Every Business Owner Advertising on Facebook Can Create Ads That Convert Article by Tish Luka
Before advertising on Facebook, knowing your audience is important: understanding their demographics and location, what they like and don’t like, their spending behaviors and much more. And while most businesses realize targeting the right audience before running an ad on Facebook or Adwords is a must, too many companies start with an ad and not a campaign. This strategy causes them to panic when they fall short on conversions and stop the ad too soon. The first ad in any campaign will likely be the most Here’s what I mean: if your business is selling an expensive and that’s because it’s the lead acquisition informational product and you’re targeting an audience who’s never heard of you or your business, it may be stage. difficult for them to connect with you or your brand. Knowing who Your Audience “Might Be” Isn’t After all, they are only seeing your sales ad and they Enough! haven’t made any kind of connection with you before. What’s just as important in an Ad campaign is where Your brand and your story means nothing to them and YOUR audience is on their buying journey. There your sales ad isn’t going to convince them to buy. are 3 core stages to a typical buyer’s journey and if So How Do You Connect with an Audience in the your ad is targeting the right audience at the wrong Commitment Phase? stage, then your ad is sure to fall flat. You may end up overspending on a website conversion ad because you 1. Custom Audience with Engagement haven’t taken your buyer through the first two stages, a. Let’s say you were to create a video, and that video or worse you are spending money on the first stage and gave away a portion of the information from the product never getting to the 2nd or 3rd stage. you’re ultimately selling as a “how to” or a “DIY”. The video would attract your audience, grab their attention Here are the 3 Core Stages of the Buyer’s Journey: and push them to engage. (Like, Comment and Share) • Commit By giving them valuable information first and not being • Consider too salesy they will probably want to like, comment and • Convert share the video. And, you’d also be setting them up to The First Stage of the Buyer’s Journey is the Commit be part of your next ad campaign, shifting this audience from the “commit stage” into the “consideration” stage. Stage or Attraction Phase. I’ll explain more about targeting video views later... During this phase, you or your business should be introducing yourself, your business or ideas to your new b. When it comes to likable, shareable videos, don’t audience and the goal is to interest them by getting just stick with educational value, people love to engage them to notice you and even engage with you. Your with all types of content! Creating a video that is focus should be on just getting noticed, liked and empowering or entertaining will also capture those likes, comments and shares and help you to connect shared but not on converting a sale. with the right audience!
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a. The second option is through Facebook Lead Generation. Here you can offer your audience
something with a “call-to-action” in exchange for their You can target your audience with an ad for product email. Offers can be a free consultation or evaluation. sales using retargeting when you set up your next ad using engagement on Facebook b. Using Facebook, you can create a signup form that connects to your ad and Facebook automatically • Choose engagement gathers the information you are requesting on the form • Choose Video Views - Choose Video Views to (emails, questions, survey, etc.) target the audience that watched your original video. You can also filter this into sections like c. Or, you can link your ad to an “Optin Sales Funnel” watched the video for more than 20 seconds where your ad links to a landing page that houses your or 1 min views to really find out where your free content: a download, video, or whitepaper, in audience peaked and what they were most exchange for their email address. interested in. This first ad campaign can really help you narrow your audience and determine who’s ready for the next stage. Once you’ve collected the data, you can use it forever. Using Your Data in the Consideration Stage or Advertising to Your Warm Audience: The consideration phase, often referred to as the “warm audience”, is when your audience has shown some interest in you or your business by engaging with your content previously. And, on Facebook you can target this audience with an ad you are promoting in the conversion stage. Facebook Allows You to Retarget Your “Warm Audience”
• Lead Ad – Choose to engage anyone who filled out the form on your Lead Ad. Your warm audience is anyone who’s shifted from the Now, your audience is ready for the promotion. “commit phase” to the “consideration stage.” Facebook rewards you for targeting an audience whose shown *Facebook also lets you create “lookalike audiences” to interest in you or your product previously by dropping target this same type of audience using the cost to advertise to them (more impressions for less their data. $). Facebook knows that this audience will more likely be interested in seeing your next offer than someone who has never shown any interest in you before. And this is where using Facebook’s video views becomes a great tool!
So How Does This Help You Determine Your ROI? For the commit stage or lead capture stage, you can determine your cost per lead (CPL) which is the total ad spend divided by the total of leads. And to determine the VALUE of that lead, you will need to know the total revenue divided by the # of leads.
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CPA-COST PER ACQUISITION: Total ad spend divided by the number of sales: $4000 by #20 is CPA $200 If you’re only calculating the cost per lead, then you will never really understand the value per lead, and to determine the value of a lead, you must understand the total revenue. You can only calculate the total revenue by closing a sale. Using all 3 phases of the buyer’s journey and creating a sales campaign vs a sales ad in Facebook is the best way to determine your ROI and have a winning ad campaign strategy. Start your campaign today! Example: COST PER LEAD: Total Ad Spend divided by # of Leads: Spend is $4000 by #500 is CPL $8 VALUE PER LEAD: Total Revenue is $40,000 # of Leads is 500 the VPL is $80
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Simple Methods to Skyrocket Your Facebook Organic Reach Article by Daniel Veiga
With over two billion monthly active users, Facebook is one of the best social media platforms for your business. Unfortunately, it comes with a huge downside: complications in finding out how to reach your target audience and lead them back to your website.
See How Your Competitors are Doing
You can gauge what your audience likes to see more of by referring to post performance. However, it’s worth noting that you are not limited to checking your own content. Similar to any other form of digital marketing, It’s much more difficult than ever before, considering doing some competitor research is an effective way to the declining organic reach on Facebook. Do you want improve your strategy. to see your hard work pay off in 2018? Then maybe it’s Facebook makes that process easier as long as you time to explore and adopt new techniques. can identify your competitors. Do your research and In this article, I’ll share with you a collection of ideas investigate which post types are working well for other on how to get greater organic reach and beat the businesses in the same industry. Of course, you can’t Facebook algorithm. copy another company’s business strategy, so just use what you learn as inspiration on planning your own Interact with Community Members approach. One effective way to convince more users to support Share Your Ideas with Statuses and Emojis your business is by offering true testimonials. You do this by having your customers participate in a live or video In every post you make, the goal is to catch the reader’s interview. Storytelling is an important part of boosting eye as they scroll furiously through their feed. If you can’t organic reach because you connect with your followers even make them stop for a beat to see your post, you on a deeper level. have no shot at engaging them. It helps if you include an emoji and make each post as compelling as you Use the power of word of mouth. Search for customers can. You must do something that will make your post or community members who love your products. If stand out from the usual content people see in their they have a story to tell, they may be willing to take news feed. the relationship a bit further. Put them in front of the camera and let the world hear what they’ve got to say. Not a fan of emojis? Maybe now is the time to love them. Emojis and statuses like “feeling wonderful” seem There’s No Need for Many Links to be more eye-catching compared to ordinary and Too much of anything can be bad – and the same boring posts. thing goes with links. Facebook wants us to get more Less is More people into the platform and not the other way around. Therefore, the website’s algorithm favors posts that are Most people think that posting more equates to more originally found on Facebook instead of the ones that engagement. While this may be true for some, it’s not lead people to other sites. effective for a lot of people. Allowing your schedule to dictate your content can also be bad for your brand. This means if you post content directly on Facebook, chances are it will consistently resurface in For instance, if you decide to post four times per day, more news feeds. It also leads to a larger you must come up with content even if it’s of a mediocre Facebook organic reach, boosting your quality. Any post that’s “just okay” is obviously not good engagement significantly. because all your content needs to be top-notch for a wider organic reach.
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Instead, online marketers recommend posting no more than once a day or a few times each week. This lets them give emphasis on high-quality posts – which results in an increased organic reach on Facebook.
of more people. Since they can’t see the entire post because of its length, they need to click the “See More” button. This is a smart way to get more clicks on your posts.
Tag Relevant Pages
It’s All Up to You
Are you tagging a place or business in your post? Don’t forget to tag them – or anything that has an official Facebook page. It helps by expanding the reach of your post to the feeds of anyone who are followers of those pages.
There’s no solid formula to skyrocket your organic reach on Facebook. The only way to increase engagement is by digging deep into your audience. What are their frustrations? What motivates them? What are their goals?
Facebook will show them your post even though they’re not following your page. This method works great because the chances of your page getting more likes increases as well.
Keep in mind that no user is the same. But if you have a clear picture of who you’re trying to reach, it’s easier to point out which content and formats are suitable for getting that message across. Good luck with gaining more Facebook followers!
Focus on Longer and Better Words Captions play a big role in every post. Have you tried writing longer captions on your Facebook posts? Captions that are long enough to trigger the “See More” link are actually effective engagement boosters because readers are compelled to click them. If your content is interesting, it will capture the attention
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LOOK F O
R THE S
AND FO
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THE WI
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// Kate Mikado
was privileged to up to that point was spiraling out of reach from him quickly banking and farming to a poverty-stricken apartment complex. His parents’ marriage was crumbling apart, and at the age of six, his father disappeared not to see his father again until he was almost an adult. Ryan’s mother was shortly remarried to a guy who was abused as a child who completed the cycle to emotionally and physically abuse Ryan because the stepfather didn’t know any other way of raising a Look For The Struggle child. Ryan’s stepfather adopted The stepdad put Ryan to work And Focus On The Win him. at the local Car Wash at a young Intro by Tricia Wilkes age to pay for his own shoes and necessities. Ryan dropped out of The Hardcore Closer school at fifteen, with an eighthRyan Stewman The Hardcore grade education. Closer If you don’t know his name, his polarizing personality, his He was pushed out into the real magnetizing closing skills, you must world at such a young age which be living under a rock! A six-time led Ryan to start using drugs: Best Selling Author, a contributor marijuana, LSD, and the first time of not only our magazine but also, he tried cocaine he overdosed. He Forbes Entrepreneur, Huffington woke up after being saved from Post publication. He has half a overdose handcuffed to a hospital million followers throughout his bed. Ryan was facing felony social media platforms! He has a charges for possession and intent to raving fan following throughout the distribute. His family had nothing, Entrepreneur, Internet Marketing, no money for a lawyer, he ended Mortgage, Banking, and Sales up with a public defender convicted industries because of his fight and and spending two years of his life in ability to push through and close eight different prisons. sales when most would give up! Three divorces, Two felony prison sentences, foreclosure, bankruptcy and, a mentally and physically abusive traumatizing childhood, yet he’s still giving the corporate business world the one, two punch!
Three Out Of Four The Bureau of Justice Statistics found that three out of four former prisoners will return to prison within five years of release. The first thing Ryan tells himself once he got out of prison was that he will “never ever ever in his life, put himself back in this situation, sell another drug, do another drug, never break another law,” and he will move on with his life. He went back to the Carwash where he spent his childhood determined to be the best car washer he could be. He worked his way up to manager with hopes of one day owning the car wash. One day he was working at the car wash and, one of his usual customers noticed him. She offered him a position in the mortgage industry, he skyrocketed into the mortgage industry within the first sixty days. He wrote and followed a business plan that leads him into a 700,000 dollar a year income. However, somehow that downward spiral found him again. Ryan Stewman was facing felony gun charges. Gun charges not only on owning a gun with his past convictions but also on charges against the clip size. His lawyer at the time, became the first Democratic, African- American
His childhood started off pretty prosperous with his family being in the booming banking industry. Until’ The Savings and Loan Crisis of the 1980’s reached his family’s Texas bank Ryan Stewman was only five years old. His grandmother was sent to federal prison for trying to protect the local farmers of their small town and the bank’s books. Everything he
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District Attorney in the state of Texas but, before transitioning into the District Attorney, he bargained to have Ryan’s charges dropped to fifteen months in a Federal Prison instead of fifteen to twenty years for having two strikes against him. Before, leaving for federal prison, he married his girlfriend, gave her control of his entire estate. Which included thirty-three properties under management, a massive bank account, a successful mortgage pipeline. She took everything and left with the gardener. Fifteen months after entering the federal prison, Ryan Stewman was released with twenty-five dollars given to him from the Federal jail system. He was forced to move back into the house he bought for his mom and stepdad. As an adult, his stepdad forced him into compromising situations that could have put him back into the prison system for life. He decided he had to make a change. So he went back into the Mortgage industry. In 2009 he went to the largest privately owned Mortgage in Texas company and became the Top Producer of that bank. He was in the one percent of top originators in the World! He got married in 2010 to his high school sweetheart who was his third marriage. The Frank Kern Video What also happened in 2010, was that the Obama Administration signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. In 2010 Ryan had only been released from prison for one year, The Dodd-Frank Act required seven years time period between federal prison time and being able to obtain a financial mortgage license. He needed to make another change! Ryan says “I said listen I need to figure out a job that doesn’t require a license, doesn’t have a boss, and I can start my own business” to a VOLUME 2 * FUNNEL MAGAZINE
friend in the real estate business. This friend introduced him to Frank Kern, Internet Marketing, and Word Press. In the interview with Hawk, Ryan tells us about his first impressions of Frank Kern and the video that inspired him to nose dive into the Internet Marketing Industry. Ryan went on to be mentored by Frank Kern as well as speak on stage in La Jolla for his event.
and internet marketing to the sales world.” The Break Free Academy
Ryan’s very first funnel was built in Word Press using templates. Ryan in Hawk’s interview says “I built this funnel to sell an energy drink, of all things. And I had this domain. The Energy Producer.com I am Ryan Stewman the Energy Producer.” And, He goes on to tell us a story about making his first Energy Drink Sale and calling his customer at 3 AM. Ryan says “If you can sell it once you can sell it a million times, You just need to find out what you did right.”
Eights years Ryan updates us in the interview with Hawk and says “I built an eight-figure year, this year for the first time. In one of my companies. I have eight companies that do seven figures” Ryan also started teaching seminars called The Break Free Academy. Ryan explains “The Break Free Academy When I started teaching these seminars at first it was all organic marketing. And then I started Teaching how to build sales funnels, and it went from one-day event to a two-day event.” These seminars target entrepreneurs and salesperson in mortgage companies, real estate companies, roofers, painters, plumbers, consultants, and coaches. He continues to do these seminars, four times a year. This is a get it done now before you leave implement now seminars! You leave with all the technology to implement what you learn and, close sales.
The Hardcore Closer
The Entourage
That first sale was eight years ago and led him down this pursuit which he created The Hardcore Closers which started out as a sales training program. He quickly came to realize that closing the sale is step two in the process. That Lead Generation had to come first. Ryan explains to Hawk “ If you don’t have anyone to sell to, then you could be the best salesperson in the world if you don’t have anyone to sell to your going to go broke because you don’t have any leads.” Getting your message into the right audience always has to be step one! He saw the need for teaching Lead Generation to the sales community and stepped right in, making it his Niche. Ryan says “They didn’t know this internet marketing world. So I have been this evangelist for LEAD GEN
The Entourage is Ryan Stewman’s mastermind program! The cost is five thousand dollars for the year up front. There is a lot of value within his mastermind program. There’s a massive networking group of seven hundred people within that group! Two events per year. He provides Mindset Training Mondays and Q & A Sessions on Wednesdays. His Marketing Autopsy once a week where he will deconstruct submitted not working funnels to help find out why they are not converting to give solutions. Additionally, a Facebook support group and a monthly newsletter to all in his mastermind’s program! Continue on to read Hawk’s interview with Ryan to hear about the story he went out partying in Texas with Billy Gene and these Mastermind events.
Ryan Stewman The Energy Producer
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Clyxo
with Clickfunnels or Infusionsoft. He wants to go after a different market of people not the Tech-Savy Internet Marketers but any salesperson or entrepreneur whose business can thrive using sales funnels marketing campaigns. You can check out more about Phonesites at https:// phonesites.com
Clyxo is a social media bookmarking software Ryan created for his own personal use. It’s free software! This tool is used by linking all your different social media platform accounts to your site. You can also use this ONE search tool to connect with someone on every platform Keeping it Simple, Sells! they are on. Phonesites Phonesites is a simple funnel building software that runs through your mobile device that Ryan created to solve an issue he was experiencing during The Break Free Academy. He was experiencing issues with everyone participating in the seminar getting connected to the internet, being able to understand the technology, and being able to broadcast their message to the appropriate audience. Ryan says “I want something that can be done from a phone in the palm of their hand without a desktop. I know the world is going more and more mobile.” He also explains in the interview with Hawk that this software was not meant to compete
In the interview with Hawk, Ryan says “The Navy has this saying Keep it Simple, Stupid. I think it’s a little degrading. It’s the Military, that’s how they talk to each other. Like Locker Room Talk, So I say it; differently, I say Keeping it Simple, Sells! And it’s true! When your monkey brain can make decisions! That’s really where the decisions come from, is the subconscious primate brain. When you get the monkey brain to pull the trigger. That’s how you get rich!” Throughout the interview with Hawk, The trend is simplicity. Ryan mentions a lot of successful millionaires and billionaire’s who use simple funnels. Ryan says “ So people would spend all their time making these fancy funnels, and then they would launch
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and ask where’s there two comma club Plaque. This thing had every flashing widget that Clickfunnels offers Why didn’t I make a million dollars?” In the interview, he goes that funnels are simple things, that they only need three components to be successful. Continue to read the interview for the answer to what those three components are. The Force Of Average The force of Average is Ryan’s algorithm of the planet. He says your focus needs to be on all of these four areas: Faith in Yourself, Finances, Fitness and in Family to level up beyond the average person, to be successful. That the force is going to try to make you fall back down to average continuously. The video of The Force Of Average is very enlightening and motivating. He puts a real perspective on how to deal with daily struggles and overcome to succeed as he does. I would recommend every person to watch this video. You can find the video at https://www. breakfreeacademy.com/p/force-ofaverage. It’s a free video!
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Look For The Struggle And Focus On The Win Ryan says in the interview “Every day when we wake up if we own a business or even if we are a salesperson or whatever we are going to have a struggle that faces us. An employee is going to get mad, A client is going to get mad, a funnel is going to break, an ad isn’t going to work, we are going to be banned from Facebook, Our server is going to go down, stuck in traffic, miss a meeting, get sick. Things are going to happen. There’s going to struggle” I find this advice from Ryan so powerful to keep moving forward and not wait for the struggles but get a foot deep into the struggles and find a way to overcome these every day struggles that everyone faces and prevail! The Interview Interview with Hawk Mikado
Hawk Mikado: Hello Everyone, Hawk Mikado Funnel Genius, and Publisher of Funnel Magazine. We have a Brilliant marketer and salesman on with us Ryan Stewman, he’s an absolute genius when it comes to sales by the way. Love your hardcore closer stuff. You’ve been up to some incredible things. You spoke at Funnel Hacking Live a couple years ago. You’ve written multiple articles for the magazine. Now you’re on the cover. Can you share a little about your journey? How did you get started? How did you get to where you are today? Ryan Stewman: Awesome First Thanks for having me here. You know It’s always awesome to hang out, and I like writing for you guys, I obviously write on my own blog gives me a different angle to write. And it’s something for your publication.I appreciate you guys doing that I actually sent yall quite a few talented people to write articles for you too. I really like giving back VOLUME 2 * FUNNEL MAGAZINE
to you guys, You been awesome to me. My journey is really simple for a complicated guy. I was in the Mortgage Business. We will just flash forward past a lot of things. I was in the Mortgage Business for the almost ten years. And I was really good at it! Something’s happened to me, and I was ready to get out of the Mortgage Business. I went to meet a real estate buddy of mine. And I said listen I need to figure out a job that doesn’t require a license, doesn’t have a boss, and I can start my own business. I am really burned out on real estate I don’t want to do anything with mortgages anymore. And I didn’t leave because I wasn’t good at it. I was one of the best in the nation. It was just time to go. Long Story Short! And the real estate agent said Man you have to check out this internet marketing thing. And he shows me this guy named Frank Kern, And I thought at the time I don’t smoke weed anymore this was almost ten years ago at the time I smoked a little weed, and I don’t think Frank Smokes anymore, I talked to him on the phone yesterday, but we don’t talk about those sort of things. but I thought this guy was cool, he’s a pothead surfer dude You know? And he seems like a cool guy! I’ll check him out. I watched this video. It totally changed my perspective on a lot of things. I am sure there is plenty of people that have to listen to this show, watch this video, read your magazine. That have seen stuff by Frank have opened their eyes as well. I know I am not the only one, this guy changed a lot of lives. Including People like Tony Robbins. And I thought that if this guy, he’s one of my closest friends if one thing I can say about old frank. He’s the best in the world playing dumb like a fox. You know what I mean? He’s one of the smartest people out there. But he’s really good at playing dumb! And if he watches this, he’s
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going to say Damn it! Why are you telling them my secret Stewman? He’s really good at playing this dumb old guy who kind of stumbled into things. It really intrigued me so I thought if this guy can do it, I can totally do it. I ended up looking at internet marketing. And I bought the program called mass control or list control one of the programs he put out there.and I dove right into it. I thought I was going to get rich. Kind of like when you sign up for Multi-Level Marketing. I am going to have a Ferrari in a week. I am just going to sell enough of this lotion to people I don’t know. I don’t even know anyone who uses lotion, I am going sell a bunch of it, and I am going to be rich! It was just that kind of situation. I built this funnel. Back in the day where you had to use WordPress site, and you had to use a template that worked just right. It wasn’t the world we live in now. And I built this funnel to sell an energy drink, of all things. And I had this domain. The Energy Producer. com I am Ryan Stewman the Energy Producer. I put it together. We are Done. We are going to be rich! I kind of waited, and I wasn’t rich, a couple days later, and I still wasn’t rich. I set it up to where my computer would make a noise. When I made a sale. I would get an email from this particular email address saying I made a sale. And I had that email having an alert on it. Very complicated Tech by the way. And so I would know I made a sale. Three or Four days went by I’m sleeping and its 2am, and I hear that noise. I woke up as if the house alarm was going off, I live in Texas, so when your house alarm goes off, you run and grab your pistol because you have an intruder. It startled me in the middle of the night. Oh, that’s the sale noise. I made a sale! Its like 3 in the morning. I waited til like 4am. And I called the person that bought from me, I’m like how did
you find my site. My buddy was like This is Internet marketing you’re not supposed to call anyone. I wanted to know How he found me! At that point I knew this was real If you can make one sale, you can make a million. I tell that to salespeople all the time. If you can sell it once you can sell it a million times, You just need to find out what you did right. From that point, I went on a pursuit to find out what I did right. And that was eight years ago. I’ve been on that pursuit all along. I built a company called hardcore closers started off in sales training. Then I started realizing that sales are step 2 in the process because if you don’t have anyone to sell to, then you could be the best salesperson in the world if you don’t have anyone to sell to your going to go broke because you don’t have any leads. So I realized there are all these great sales trainers, Grant Cardone,
Brian Tracy, Jordan Belfort, but none of them teach LEAD GEN, and that’s a crucial part of sales training that wasn’t out there. I wanted to be the guy that taught LEAD GEN to the salespeople. There’s a lot of people that teach LEAD GEN, but the sales world look at these LEAD GEN people as the marketing guys down there that make 30,000 a year think they are above them. They didn’t know about this internet marketing world. So I have been this evangelist for LEAD GEN and internet marketing to the sales world. And, if you flash forward eight years from that, I built an eight-figure year, this year for the first time. In one of my companies. I have eight companies That do seven figures. With high margins it’s not like we sell 10 million dollars and keep a hundred grand, we have high margins. I built this thing up. We have the largest sales
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group on facebook. I have half a million followers on social media. My website is viewed a few million times per year. And I built up like a rabid following of actual buyers and people who are true Tribe Members. I have over 11,000 clients in the last five years alone. And I only gave 54 refunds. Fifty of them took your money back this shit isn’t going to work for you, kind of deal. I have an amazing Track Record! I write for you guys, Forbes, Entrepreneur and I just started off from a guy from the Mortgage Business, that was forced out of it. Long Story Short! And I didn’t come from a rich family, I was adopted. I have every disadvantage. If you want to go in it, We can, But it would take forever to go through all the crap that I been through Every disadvantage you can think of, I overcame it because of internet marketing, sales funnel and everything else. I own a
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technology company, a coaching company, a real estate company. I have looked at these sales funnels, and I think of it as a hub. Ok I know how to build sales funnels, we can flip houses using these things right? And I got a little money we can buy some houses and flip them, we do a million dollars a year in flipping houses. Then I say How Can I make some things and build software that bolts onto this stuff that makes things a little easier. Ok, How Can I teach this? So I built my entire life around Internet Marketing and Sales Funnels and changed my life. Today I drive, I have a collection, It’s crazy to say this I have an entire collection of exotic cars, Friday I close on a house that’s 8,000 Square feet. My life has totally changed from being a dude that’s a paper pusher behind the desk of the mortgage company all because of the internet and Sales Funnels Hawk Mikado: That is an incredible story Man I love it! One thing that you said, really resonates with me is you said if you can sell once you can sell a million times and that’s very similar to something I say “If you know how to make a thousand dollars, you do just that 10 or a hundred times, and make 10 or 100 grand. Once you figure out how to do that you can 10x you can make a million. Obviously Man! You invested in multiple streams of income, the big hundred dollar bill on your wall back there. Can you share a little about why you surround yourself with amazing art like that? And the right people? The right mindset? Right away you can have 8 businesses 7 of them making 7 figures, and one making 8 figures? Ryan Stewman: I think you become what you focus on. Your parents don’t like you saying this, but I grew up poor my parents hate to admit that because they feel like they weren’t doing something VOLUME 2 * FUNNEL MAGAZINE
right, I didn’t grow up with any money. We grew up in the poorest neighborhoods in the city we lived in. Then I left home at an early age. And when you leave home at an early age, you don’t have any money so you end up living in the poorest neighborhood in any city or become homeless or whatever the case may be. When I had my first 30,000 dollar month, which would be a days worth of work now. Back then it was a really big deal in the internet world. I had done it in the Mortgage world. But that was a few years prior. I finally had a 30,000 dollar month in the internet game. I saw this on, and Floyd Mayweather had it at his house. And I went Money Mayweather got it. That’s a badass piece of art. I look it up. And found out from this dude MR. E and I hit MR. E up on Instagram. And I’m like Hey I want to buy this Benjamin… they call it Benny. I want to buy this benny painting that you got. He said Man, I got an original or I got a print I am like Dude I want an Original and I don’t know nothing about art. I said who else has an original. He said Floyd Mayweather and you. He sent me an invoice. I was thinking about how much can a piece of art cost? If I remember correctly, this thing 20,000 dollars they sell the reprints of it for 2,500 dollars. At the time this was the most expensive thing I ever bought outside of a car and a house for myself ever. At that point, I have committed this point. It just made me work harder to go make more sales to make money back. So this painting is in my office. We are in a building were google in on the floor above us we have about 4,000 square feet, we got a studio, podcast studio, a newsroom a bunch of employees around here, we are in one of the nicest buildings in Dallas. That’s always on the wall because when I do things like this, I am obviously seeing it in the corner
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of my eye. Most of the time I am turned around at my desk working and looking at it. To remind me where I came from. To remind me why I do this. It’s about the money. Second of all, it’s the first big money purchase I ever did. I have had that painting from my home office, my penthouse office now in my corporate office here. It’s just a reminder where I came from. That at one point that was a lot of money to me and at one point that I gave all I had to the almighty dollar in all reality. Still today I and Floyd Mayweather only people who have the in particular print they have some others where they switched things up print are the only ones who have the original. As far as surrounding myself with the right people you know. I spoke on the stage at Russell Brunson’s event, I been at Russell Brunson’s house! I have been a member of his stuff. Frank Kern Is a good friend of mine, I been to Frank’s house several times I just spoke at his event about a month ago in La Jolla. Dan Kennedy same thing spoke at his event last year. I just spoke at Dan Henry’s event a few months ago. Pretty much at any BIG player out there other outside Gary Vaynerchuk, Cardone or, Robbins. I haven’t spoken on their stages yet. I probably will. Matter of fact I just joined a mastermind with Andy Frisella and Ed Mylett Who I became good acquaintances with both of those guys. I like them a lot. I just paid 50,000-60,000 dollars to join their program. Part of that program Tony is in it, and Grant is in it. Vaynerchuk is not but the other two guys are, and it will be a matter of time before we are buddies too. And the reason why I surround myself with those kinds of people. I grew up with losers. When you grow up in the poor part of town, Everyone in that part of town for a lake of a better phrase is a loser, they don’t know any
better. They lost their way, or they would be in the rich part of town. And, I don’t say that to degrade my parents or degrade other people’s parents, and the lifestyle kids go through if they were winners they wouldn’t have us in that particular neighborhood that’s just it is, what it is! And I surround myself with that kind of people, and I find myself doing what losers do Drugs, Getting in trouble with the police, breaking the law, I never was a thief. I have never broken into anyone’s house, I never stole anything. For some reason, I was born with honesty bone in my body, so I was never a thief. However, I watched Losers do Loser Stuff! And that’s how who I hung out why. While I realized after watching the first video from Frank Kern. That if I started surrounding myself with people like him and people that are in traditional business like Andy Frisella is not an internet marketer he obviously has a traditional business Then things would get good. The first time I hired a coach was in 2004-2005, And I hired a coach in the mortgage business, and I quickly became the top producer in a rather large company. And I started to say this person is successful how I can be like them? So I did the same thing in the marketing world. At first, I started to hang out with people were making a million dollar or so. Right? I paid them, I joined their mastermind and joined their program, learned their stuff. And I became a millionaire. That was awesome I will never forget the day That I officially made a million dollars in a year when I say million dollars a year, I got to keep it. It really my money, wasn’t made a million dollars, I got to keep 10 thousand dollars because of the cost of doing business, and then I Remember the first time I made 5 million in a year. And I’m like wow this is insane Now I’m going to start hanging out with people who make
10 million. Then I Thought Why would I limit myself Why don’t I just go straight for people who make 9 figures, So this year Andy Frisella company does 300 million a year. Ed Mylett he has a net worth of 400 million. I spoke on the stage of Marshal Silvers, and I stay at his house once or twice a year, he is a good friend of mine. He’s worth 250 million dollars. I met Jeff Bezos five weeks ago now at an event at a college. I paid to go and actually meet Jeff Bezos There was a dude who did a Q & A session with him.
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It was two thousand dollars per ticket, took my 6-year-old son and me. Two tickets I bought. I wanted my son to meet the world’s richest man at 6 years old. Because at 6 years old I was meeting the world’s poorest people right? Just about 4 weeks ago I flew on a private plane for the first time ever up to Omaha Nebraska, to Virtue Hathaway Shareholders meeting. I own 35 shares of Virtue Hathaway now. I have been investing in the stock market since 2006, it’s not EDITION 9 FUNNELMAGAZINE.COM
something I teach or Talk about, but I got a really good portfolio. And obviously, if you are doing anything that long, you’re going to win a little a bit. And went to the Virtue Hathaway meeting up there in Omaha And I got to listen to Bill Gates because he’s in Virtue Hathaway and sits on the board. Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, and a bunch of other people who are 9, 10, 11 and 12 figure people. And I always wanted to surround myself with people who have. It’s not about the money. If you can sell one thing, you can sell a million things. Look At Amazon and Jeff Bezos world’s richest man he figured out how to sell books and went like shit I can sell whatever, Whatever I want. He learned how to sell one thing, you can learn how to sell anything. It’s about the way they think. Let me give you a good example Hawk. When I was at Jeff Bezos meeting, they said so Elon Musk is going to Mars, and You’re going to Mars too. You guys are Essentially your in a race to getting a human to Mars. Jeff said let me interrupt you. I am not really interested in sending humans to Mars. See Elon wants to colonize Mars that’s awesome, that’s great for him. What I want to do is I want to Remove our Carbon Footprint from Earth, and I want to outsource shipping and delivery for Amazon to Mars. So your Amazon packages would actually come from Mars to Earth from Amazon And, I’m like See you have to be a Big Thinker, I’m trying to figure out how to leave this event fight traffic to get home and this guy is talking about delivering packages from a planet that’s 10,000 light years away or whatever the distance is. Those people cause you to level up on your thinking. And of course I’m not thinking how to sell sales funnels on Mars unless that’s an opportunity that presents itself to me But at the same time those guys are thinking VOLUME 2 * FUNNEL MAGAZINE
big that reminds me the box that I am in is so small that’s why I think you want to align yourself with people who are doing what you want to do or things you think your not capable of. Hawk Mikado: That is brilliant man! I love that you surround yourself with so many incredible people, that’s an awesome story from Jeff Bezos, just thinking about, order now, wait 18 months. Ryan Stewman: Probably at first, but It probably won’t even be like that. Just seeing how he operates, I feel like he’s smart enough, to where you’ll push a button, and you’ll be like how did it get from Mars so fast. How does that even happen? Hawk Mikado: Pay like 10,000 dollars shipping and handling? Ryan Stewman: Right?! Hawk Mikado: Awesome Man! You’ve been using Clickfunnels and some of the other platforms, you mentioned to me before this, that you have a platform that allows you to literally click buttons on your phone, for someone who is a complete sales funnel novice they don’t want to know how to build, they don’t want to know how to code, they don’t want to know how to do any of those sorts of things. Can you talk about your platform? Ryan Stewman: Absolutely, I want to preface this with I know Brunson pretty well I have for a few years now, I use Clickfunnels, I am an internet marketer that’s what I do by nature. I use Clickfunnels for a lot of our stuff. I use INFusionSoft as well, and I use LeadPages. I didn’t want to create something to compete with those guys. A: they’re giants in the space. They have a shit ton more money than I do. It would be pretty futile INFusionSoft is backed by Goldman Sachs, and Russell has got 35,000 users already on
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clickfunnels and is doing a really well he has a nine figure sales structure. That they have done in the last five years. They are doing amazing things. Leadpages I love them too I am an affiliate all things said. I’ve been promoting them for years. I’ve been promoting Clickfunnels for years. There’s was a couple of snapfoos . I was never able to comprehend Clickfunnels I always hired someone to build for me.it was just too complicated If I can’t get something done fast, Then I am not going to mess with it Right? Since I had to deal with WordPress templates back in the day. That was it for me. After that I know what needs to be done, I am going to outsource it. And I never really got good at clickfunnels because it was pretty complicated. Without taking anything away from it. We use it! I have people on staff that build them for me, We use clickfunnels and everything else I have two comma club awards hanging on my wall not one but two. I could have five, But I stopped applying for them because I would be running the score up but and defeating the purpose. So I stopped at Two. I have five funnels that have done 7 figures with clickfunnels. So I am a huge fan of their platform. When I first started in the business Clickfunnels didn’t exist yet. But LeadPages was the first on map and Leadpages was so simple you could build one in an hour. No training Without any videos it was so intuitive, And Clickfunnels showed up and at first was a competitor for LeadPages. But then Russell I guess, and this is documented, you can tell what he has done he decided to go after INFusionSoft. He calls them ConfusionSoft Killers and all that stuff they got their shirts that say that. But because of that Clickfunnels got really confusing. Well than LeadPages looks at over at Clickfunnels and They say Dude are competitors are doing all this
stuff so, we better to do all this stuff too and, LeadPages got really hard for people to understand. For me, I can build Lead page. I never built a Clickfunnel. I have people who do that for us. For me but I can build a LeadPage I built 1500 LeadPages over the years. We sold a lot of funnels we built for people in the Real Estate and Mortgage World. But I teach these seminars called The Break Free Academy When I started teaching these seminars at first it was all organic marketing. And then I started Teaching how to build sales funnels, and it went from one-day event to a two-day event. When LeadPages was really easy to make, it was pretty easy to teach people to do that. There would be a few people in the room that would get frustrated. I was only taking ten people at the time or so. Then One time we tried to teach Clickfunnels, and I brought someone from the outside to teach, and it frustrated a lot of people in the room. And you know when your in these funny hotel rooms when you get a hotel room there might be ten people who can’t log into the WIFI so all these wildcards that can happen when you throwing a LIVE event but I am charging these people 5,000 or 10,000 dollars to come to this event So in my mind I got to deliver results to them. They better be leaving with a funnel. At these things got more complex, which was needed to happen in the marketplace. I am selling to Novices I’m not selling to Internet Marketers, I’m selling to people who are owners of Mortgage companies, Who own real estate companies who are roofers, who are painters, who are plumbers, who are consultants, who are coaches, not necessary internet marketers these are people who have never built a funnel before or they wouldn’t be coming to my event.When I would start to try showing them this TECH they would be like you’re killing me,
Stew, it’s over my head I would give them homework for the night they would show up the next day, and they say I got confused, and I didn’t do the homework, and I don’t like letting people down. I have 11,000 plus clients in the last eight years I have only given 54 refunds Dude, I don’t let people down. And 50 out of those 54 people I was like here take your money back you’re not doing what you’re supposed We don’t want you in this program to here take your money back.the majority All but four have been my decision to remove the person from my program. That’s how I work, that’s how I operate, that’s the kind of person I am. I continue having these programs, I do four a year. I make a million dollars a year from these events. Sometimes I make a million dollars from this event with the upsell with what we do. I am actually doing the last one for this year tomorrow and Friday. I am getting ready for that this evening. We were always running into the same problems. Everyone is trying to build a sales funnel on their computer, they can’t get on the internet, they’re not able to finish their sales funnel it kind of frustrates them. Which frustrates me. About a year ago I said I had created some software before its called clyxo. It was a social media bookmarking thing, it’s still out there it has great SEO it’s a free tool for people. I built this for myself.I let people use it for free. Just to be Honest. I never Marketed it or anything like that. I know that I can build software I knew I had the connection to get it done. I called the person who built clyxo up for me, And I say I got this idea to build a sales funnel in 5 minutes from your mobile device without needing a desktop here’s how I can think it will work.Do you think you can build that for me He made the typical dodgeball move, that’s a bold move Cotton,
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I was like I don’t want to compete with Clickfunnels, and I don’t want to compete with LeadPages! Let those guys keep evolving. I want to dumb this whole thing down. For the person who has never built anything before because If there are 3 hundred million Americans. Maybe a million have built a sales funnel before then there are 299 million people out there that haven’t built a sales funnel that don’t have TECH skills, And I want to cater to those people. The car dealers, the mortgage people, the real estate people.I want something that can do from a phone in the palm of their hand without a desktop. I know the world is going more and more mobile. A lot of times You don’t see people carrying a laptop, and you go to events five years ago everyone was brought a laptop. Nowadays you go to an event or seminar, and everyone is taking notes on their phone. Things have changed a lot. So we developed something called Phonesites. And on Phonesites, it’s actually like your ninety-year-old grandma that has zero TECH skills would be able to build something in ten minutes. Someone like you and I who have built a few sales funnels before we can build one in three minutes. The average person after they build their first one, they would be able to build one in five minutes. Once they see where all the buttons are.Basically, You don’t download an app or anything you just log in on chrome or safari on your phone depending on which browser is downloaded on your phone. Log onto your phonesites account you create a new page you scroll down you fill out all the blanks, you go through, and you add your picture or your video and integrate with your CRM and bing bang boom the technology elves do their thing. And you have a sales funnel that
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you can share to social media and I don’t have a plethora of templates. I got one sales page, which is your opt-in page and I have either a video thank you page or a regular thank you page, that’s it! To have TECH skills like me or you, that you can customize all this stuff, we don’t tell people that you know because we don’t want to confuse people. The secret is you can customise all you want if you’re a funnel builder You can Embed anything you want on there But the average person can literally fill this out I have studied I don’t know how many thousand of funnels over the years I am sure you have too, I have made thousands of funnels myself. I look at Agora who do a billion dollars plus a year in sales. And I look at people like Dan Kennedy and John Carlton that do massive amounts of millions of dollars of sales. Stansberry and Altercher who do billions in sales. Frank Kern’s is another one. One thing that all of these top guys have in common. Their funnels are really simple they rely on three things. And VOLUME 2 * FUNNEL MAGAZINE
I’ll get back to that And three things only. If you look at the internet average marketer they think they have the flashing offer, the oneclick upsell, and all these things which are great but the average person can not build that stuff. The average person doesn’t care if you have a countdown timer or not. It’s been proven. People know that it’s BS these days anyway. You see a countdown timer it’s still available when they send all 100 emails to you tomorrow. We reopened the cart for you. We are not falling for that anymore. You look at places like Agora, they don’t use that technique, and they do more than all of us combined. So I started studying them heavily. Because I never heard of Agora. But I had two copywriters who quit working for me to work for Agora at different times. One Quit to go work for Agora, I hired another copywriter, and then he quit to work for full-time Agora. And I was like who in the hell is this Agora place. I started looking into them. And I was like Damn they offered more
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money than I can. And I started to see how they work they have real these simple funnels And they rely on three things they rely an offer the copy that you put on the page you can have the world’s worlds greatest product, but if you have a terrible offer, you won’t sell anything. And they rely on putting that offer in front of the right audience.You can have the greatest offer in the world but IF you’re offering financial advice to people in the hood, they ain’t going to take it. Or if you are offering fake Louie Vuitton bags to people who are Millionaires, they aren’t going to take that either. So you need to make sure you have the right offer that’s aligned to the right audience and the technology that will capture the leads. Those are the only three things you need to be successful And Agora, Stansberry, and Dan Kennedy and all these other places proved that. So I built these templates for Phonesites based around that theory, that you just get good at making an offer and you put that offer in front of
the right audience which would be on social media or running an advertisement through Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Youtube, Google, Twitter, or wherever you want to put your ads. I even have billboards up all the stuff we have here, this technology. A lot of people try to act Like the technology to be the missing piece to it. The Technology should be the simple piece you should be able to put the technology together about 5 minutes to 10 minutes. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Frank Kern taught me for eight years now, Every day Thou Shall Work On the Offer, You need to get better at making offers, every single day. That’s how you get rich in this industry or any sales industry. Is by perfecting your offer. In the sales industry, we say by getting better at your Elevator Pitch! That’s what your offer is it’s your elevator pitch! So people would spend all their time making these fancy funnels, and then they would launch and ask where’s there two comma club Plaque. This thing had every flashing widget that Clickfunnels offers Why didn’t I make a million dollars on this funnel when they had a terrible offer, they didn’t need to spend all there time on technology, the technology is the easy part. They should have spent their time on getting an offer to get it in front of the right audience That’s what Phonesites does, it makes it to where that I’m working at the seminar that no one needs to log on to the internet they can build it from the mobile device and its super easy they can do it 5-10 minutes, they don’t have to go home and study a bunch of videos and learn how everything works, and I get to spend those days with working with my students and clients teaching them about the value of offer creation. And get in front of the audience which is truly crucial and more important of the
three parts that matter. I just really wanted to simplify my life of the byproduct of that. We launched this product in Beta came out of the Market in Beta last Friday, It hasn’t been a whole week, in the open marketplace, we launched into beta and charged an introductory price right now 47 bucks a month or 447 dollars a year. Significantly priced less than the other competitor’s price as well we launched the beta price at the half at that when we first came out. This week alone we stole 600 units of it. When we were in BETA for 45 days, we moved 1600 and something units. Right now we have over 2,000 members that are already on our platform. Today I have a painter a direct message this morning saying hey man, I got a 3 thousand dollar paint job yesterday. I never built a funnel in my life. It changed my life. I got a car guy in Atlanta that says dude I have 700 leads in the last thirty days from the one funnel I made, and it’s out there collecting leads every day I don’t even know how it’s working, but it’s working. I had a young man in life insurance salesman he works for multi-level marketing company for Life Insurance agencies recruited seven people in the last two weeks from his Phonesite he never built a funnel ever in his life, never even watched a video how to do it, He got on it and said it’s pretty simple! It’s literally changing lives. We are just now about to start running ads, I haven’t even messaged my list yet. I just posted in the sales group, which has 80,000 members a few times, My Facebook sales group, and we got the numbers we have. And now that people are getting results. People are becoming raving fans. I’m excited it’s a much-needed solution for the marketplace I didn’t want the compete with my friend Russel, or Clay over at LeadPages I respect those guys, I think what they are doing is absolutely awesome!
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This is what a salesman does, they see a huge need in the marketplace, and they go after to fill that void. Hawk Mikado: That is absolutely true. Your group is awesome, I am part of your group. I have seen your webinars, pieces of training. You also mentioned earlier The Break Free Academy as well. You can share a little more about how you created it? And Designed it to help salespeople and marketers to level their game? And Connect with their audience better? Ryan Stewman: Again I saw this need, You know there are already sales pages creation platforms out there. The World Didn’t necessarily need another one, they needed a simpler one. There were already seminars out there, Frank Kern, Tony Robbins Grant Cardone you can go to any one’s seminars out there. What I noticed. When you go to these seminars Because I was paying to go to them. I spent over half a million dollars on mentorships and Seminars. Plane tickets, hotels and everything else to get there. I am just talking about in fees to join these things over the years.I think Earners are Learners. If you want to earn a lot of money, you need to continue learning. I read a book every couple of days, I Listen to audiobooks. I am always watching educational videos. I am a lifelong learner Even though I dropped out of school. I realized they just weren’t giving me the education I want, I went to these seminars I realized I would go to these seminars, I would leave there I would be on cloud 100 I would be pumped, I’m going to be rich. I’m going to take over the world. And you got to do the work, you learned all of this stuff,. And then you turn around on Monday you have to do the work and what happens on Monday Life hits you,
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and you have to do work the work you didn’t do the two days you were at the seminar. Then you have to do the work your behind on. The work you have to get ahead on, you have to do podcasts, videos, blog posts, get on social media, got to makes sales, build a funnel, you have to do all these things plus the things you learned to optimize your life. All of this stuff. Dude, What am I am going to do? Nothing That’s what people do when they are overwhelmed, nothing. Well, I spent ten grand. The Seminar made me feel good, and now I’m depressed again, and I’ll buy another seminar. And they repeat that process over and over again. And they never get results. We hear the term seminar junkie all of the time rights? So What I wanted to do Was create a workshop where someone can come in and spend two days with me and the things they learned they left with. So it was already done by the time they walked out the door. So they didn’t just come and learn about sales funnels, they came a built a sales funnel went home with it The first time I did this. I realized why no one does this. That shit is frustrating. When you try to help someone with no TECH skills, get tech skills. You want to bang your head into the nearest sharp thing you can find. This is why no one guarantees results. This is difficult. Everything seems easy until you know enough about it. At this point, I was committed. Because if I am all in something I am all in. I will start off with five people. So the first one we had five people, the next one we had three. That’s usually how it works so on and so on. But when I got to 90 people these cost 5-10,000 dollars per seat. When I got 90 people, I got frustrated because I couldn’t scale it. Even with a team of people helping. I couldn’t scale it because there was Always with an audience that size, 5-10 people who don’t do the work VOLUME 2 * FUNNEL MAGAZINE
or get it. It’s not what I want that for people If you give me money I want you to get results. I don’t want you just to feel good. I am not Dr. Feel Good. I want you to get the results. It’s just one of my core values, So I started to feel the whole. So when you go to work On Monday You already have your funnel up, you already had your ad running. You’re going about your life. And your ad is just adding leads and value to what you’re already doing. So basically you came in and got the work done. So I’m up to 27 of these. And once I got up to 90 people I had to scale it back down to 30 because I found 30 people is the number that works. We have 30 coming here tomorrow and, and this will be the first time to use Phonesites. So if this works the way I think it will. We will be able to go back up to 90 people. Because now everyone will be able to do it on their mobile device. A lot of people don’t understand this you can run Facebook ads from your mobile device Facebook ads has a facebook ads app you can create a fan page from your mobile device. You can upload photos videos all that stuff into Facebook to create a fan page. We will See! I think I can get everything done by a mobile device and actually, everyone gets results. When everything works for my test group. They don’t know they are my test group until they show up tomorrow. When it works for them tomorrow. Then I will be able to scale back up to a bigger event. Where it’s a workshop full of people again that actually gets results. It all started because I was tired of leaving something and going Shoot then going back and not having time. Now I feel like a loser because I don’t have time for the things I’m supposed to do. I wanted to relieve that anxiety and tension from other people’s lives.
key. I know when I go to Seminars I’m the person who has their laptop out and working on what they’re teaching because most people don’t. We don’t do any feel-good workshops or pieces of training We only do get it done implement now workshops. It’s powerful! You also have your monthly mastermind as well its an incredible group. Can you share a little bit more what you guys do in there? And how you support your clients with that? Ryan Stewman: We have something called The Entourage, and we used to do it monthly. Now it’s just 5 thousand dollars for the year. So it includes two tickets, we do two big events called the Million Dollar Masterminds where they are two-day events. The next one is in October I got Billy Gene. Me and Billy Gene we were out at the club until 2am last night here in Texas Do you know Billy Gene? Hawk Mikado: Yes I do
Ryan Stewman: Dude he shows up in cowboy hat and boots. I live in Dallas this is a big city. It’s not rural Texas, everyone has this preconceived notion of how it is. He shows up in a cowboy hat, leather vest, and boots. It was a spectacle last night. We were buying bottles of champagne like they weren’t making them anymore. It was a Tuesday night, and I totally shouldn’t be at that scene. But Billy is a good friend of mine. So we party when we get together. He will be speaking at the million dollar mastermind, Katrina Ruth, Marshall Sylver, Myself, Chris Evans, Setema Gali. A bunch of others super popular internet marketers and motivational speakers so like that. We have two huge events like that every year. Every week we do two calls. On Monday we call it Motivational Monday I work on people’s mindset Hawk Mikado: That’s absolutely that’s a big deal for me. I realize if
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you don’t work on your mind, you won’t keep your money. You see people make it to the NFL, and they don’t keep their money they leave the NFL two years later, and they are broke. Or a Lottery winner that spends all their money it is because of the NFL people and The NBA people or any professional sports player.it’s Because They’ve been told they are a natural, it’s so easy for you, and it’s like you’re not even working. They get all this money, and they like they do not even have to work for it. Therefore they don’t feel like they deserve it it’s a psychological disconnect that causes them to blow all their money and go broke for the most case. So I work on people’s mindsets because it’s the same for entrepreneurs, are the same way. So if you tell an entrepreneur that sales are easy for you, a salesperson will blow all their money because they don’t think they deserve it. They feel they didn’t work for it, I work on people’s heads on Monday, we do an hourlong motivational Monday called to start the week out right first thing in the morning, Every Wednesday, Matter a fact I just got off before we recorded this we do a Q & A Session. So everybody who wants to, can log in on a live call and ask questions for an hour and I answer them all. We have a Facebook Support Group, We have online training that has 350 or so different training videos, We record every single thing that we have done for years now, and it’s all in one place. If people want to go into an informational mode. They have tons of access to information. And Once a week we do something called Marketing Autopsy, where everyone who wants to submit their not working funnels, and then we yell at them, and we show them why they didn’t listen right and why their shit isn’t working right. We demean them, degrade them and then destructure them. We really support
our people a lot, especially at the price point that we have. We send them a monthly newsletter to them and all that; The Idea is to take a somebody who’s already making 6 figures a year in a business, or salesperson or manager or coach or consultant or entrepreneur or someone of that nature and help them triple or quadruple that money sometimes even more. Yesterday I had a guy who’s a loan officer out in South Carolina, he said I’ve been a part of your program for two years now. So he invested 10 thousand dollars When I first met you I was making 8,600 dollars a month that’s 100,000 dollars a year he showed me a check stub yesterday for 81,000 dollars that’s for May that’s life-changing. That’s a million dollars a year! He went from 100,000 dollars to a million dollars in two years. While those results are not typical and all that typical legal disclaimers stuff, That’s what we are aiming for. Plus we have 700 people in that program. It’s one hell of a network. Good Ol’ Boy Network! That you can’t get in. I make it rain. I give people referrals and hook people up, and introduce each other. I am not like your typical leader in this industry. Where I take your money, and you never hear from me, and you hear from all these different coaches, other fill in people. I like my people. I want to meet you. I throw these live events. Not because we have to, We already provide enough value Because I want to meet them, I want to fist bump them, I want to hug them, I want to drink a beer with them, I am just that guy, I am not your typical Internet Marketing Introvert, I am an Extrovert! I want to go all out and have a good time with people. Plus we are committed. We help people write books and do all the other stuff they want to do! There are all sorts of training back there! We have had a little more
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than 2,000 people come through that system in the last two years. We had that system up since we started in December 2016. Hawk Mikado: Powerful! Can you share one major thing whether it was mindset, strategy, or tactics? That can be implemented in their business or life today to increase their sales or their business? Ryan Stewman: Yeah! It’s two-fold you want to look for the struggle and focus on the win. A lot of us, we try to complicate stuff! We are smart people. Smart people listen to podcasts like this, smart people read Funnel Magazine, smart people listen to my stuff, The average Dumb person is listening to Nicki Minaj. No offense to Nicki Minaj. I like Nicki Minaj The Average person Listen to things like that, not a podcast The smart people are trying to get smarter and more educated. The thing with Smart people tries to over complicate things. We don’t believe in simplicity. Even though our monkey brain operates on simplicity. The same thing with Funnels, we try to complicate these funnels over, and we make a million dollar off these funnels. When there’s Agora has this stuff so simple, anyone could build them. They’re making a Billion dollars from them. Because of simplicity! The thing I would say if you want to Look for the Struggle but Focus on the WIN! Every day when we wake up if we own a business or even if we are a salesperson or whatever we are going to have a struggle that faces us. An employee is going to get mad, A client is going to get mad, a funnel is going to break, an ad isn’t going to work, we are going to be banned from Facebook, Our server is going to go down, stuck in traffic, miss a meeting, get sick. Things are going to happen. There’s going to be struggles We look for
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this happily ever after. I’ll just make a million dollars, and I’ll live happily ever after. We see it in movies, We read it in books, We have been lied to about it since we were young. So we spend our whole lives looking for this Happily Ever After, this thing that doesn’t exist. We focus on try to find this Happily Ever After that isn’t real! It’s a trick! A Force of Average it’s an algorithm of this planet. We don’t have time to get into that. You can go watch the free video on that at Forceofaverage.com There’s a free video, and I educate you on how that works. Again That’s Forceofaverage.com. This force of average on this planet tricks you into getting focused on Happily ever after and we stay distracted because it doesn’t exist. So What I tell you to look for the struggle and focus on the winning. You know this struggle is going to come up, and you’re aware of it. But how can you go to win? Dude, that how you really take over in business. It’s a mindset thing! Because if you master your mindset first, you’re going to make money. If you let struggles get you reactive all day instead of you proactively being aware that it’s going to be out there when it shows up instead of panicking, instead of freaking out, instead of letting you ruin your day, instead of allowing you distract you. You focus on how to turn that struggle into making into a strength somehow. Man, I lived the last two years of my life with that ideology, and things have changed tremendously for me! Because when something happens like why are they mad about this? Why are they hating on me online? Or Whatever? It’s just part of the struggle. How Can I turn this into a Win? Right now it’s impossible for me to lose because all I’m focused on is the Winning Like the Law of Attraction. What they don’t tell you is the mind is the most powerful weapon on this planet. It gets VOLUME 2 * FUNNEL MAGAZINE
what it focuses on. But we walk around saying we have A.D.D, or I can’t seem to focus, Or I keep getting distracted. I don’t say any of those things. I am one focused individual because I get what I am focused on! I wanted to become a millionaire. I surrounded myself around millionaires, do I focus on what millionaires do. Here I am! My goal is within the next twenty years is to have a Half Billion Dollars, I am focused on what people who have a half billion dollars do. And I don’t do anything else. And I’m going to win! Because I know that the Law of Attraction as Hokey as that sounds on this planet as long as your focused on that thing you have to do the work too obviously it’s not going to show up because you stared at something. But I’m focused on doing those things. And doing those things only! I don’t let outside things distract me and if I do I get out of that reset period, really fast. Man, as simple as that may sound to me. And if they thought I was going to give them some closing line or something like that. This is more important if you really grasp it and go after it! Hawk Mikado: That is, powerful Man! I’m going to check out this Force Of Average thing as well. That looks pretty cool! I really appreciate you for being on, sharing your wisdom and insights, you really dropped some incredible knowledge today, Incredible Insights! You went above and Beyond! You’re a genius in sales and Internet Marketing! Ryan Stewman: I appreciate That! Hawk Mikado: Absolutely Ryan Stewman: I really do! You can tell, Maybe you Can’t tell! I am a little passionate about this Stuff! I have a little bit of energy and effort that comes with me behind this stuff. I really do care! I
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really do Enjoy it! I roll out of bed in the morning even after partying with Billy Gene last night till’ 2 in the morning! And I’m excited to come to the office in the morning! Not too many people are like that! But I know that through podcasts like this and through my Q & A I get to change someone’s life even if one person watches ForcesofAverage. com or just one person signs up for Phonesites, and they get a few leads and makes a sale, and it leads to changing their life. If just one person Implements this stuff. My job is done every day! Hawk Mikado: That’s an incredible point of view! That’s one of the reasons why we do this! We wanted to get real intelligent, real geniuses who are actually producing. That are getting real results with their funnels or business to share what they are doing. Instead of listening to some other person in a facebook group telling you what to do is Frankly either outdated or complicated. Over the Last Year, I realized how much simplicity and I’m going to go funnel hacking Agora Now because right? The simpler, the better! The easier you can make it the Better! Ryan Stewman: It is! The Navy has this saying Keep it Simple, Stupid. I think it’s a little degrading. It’s the Military that’s how they talk to each other. Like Locker Room Talk, So I say it; differently, I say Keeping it Simple, Sells! And it’s true! When your monkey brain can make decisions! That’s really where the decisions come from, is the subconscious primate brain. When you get the monkey brain to pull the trigger. That’s how you get rich! It really is! When you’re on Amazon and you order a book from Tony Robbins book, and they say Do you want to Order this Ryan Stewman book that’s similar To? And your one-click upsell it. And that was triggering your monkey brain, you
didn’t have to think about it you went Oh Tony Robbins Ryan Tracy that makes you go there you go it makes sense! That’s really how you get it rich! Agora is a master at it! Because when you keep it simple. When you over complicated there are too much to think about. You can’t make a decision Like I teach my sales staff you sell one thing at a time, you don’t pitch two ideas at a time. You don’t say well we have a 5,000 deal, you have this deal, or that deal, you need to pinpoint what it is! And you need to stick with that and never mention you have anything else because if you give them multiple decisions, they will never make a decision because they will go into overload mode Hawk Mikado: absolutely, One quick question on sales calls, do you have to talk about, that you have 25,000 dollar sales how long should it really take if you keep it simple? High ticket low ticket any ticket? Ryan Stewman: Our Average sales
call is about thirty minutes, But the average person watches me, and this is important, Now I am a little over the top I toned this down a lot because this is Hawk’s show here. And I didn’t want to be over the top hardcore closer here! The average person watches me for about six months before they even give us a dime. Because people are like is he just another douchebag? Is he a windbag? Or is he really have done this? Does he think he’s cool because he has a car? People have to go through those phases. Just like a Young man you meet the Quarterback, and you’re the linebacker, and you go I can’t wait to get this guy into practice! He’s such a douchebag And three months into playing the sport together with your best friends and spending the night at each other’s houses. And it’s not just guys it’s women too! They are like look at that purse those nails. She better go back to Walmart or whatever It’s just how we are. You first need to end up being best
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friends. People have to go through those phases. Some people they are a lot more likable a lot quicker, A good example is Ty Lopez the first time people see him they hate him. But if they check him out for a little bit, you realize that he’s not what he appears to be at; first, he’s a very intelligent, you just have to go through what he uses to draw them in, he’s alright fella he’s really smart. I’m the same way! People have to go through those phases until they can make those decisions. People are not going to buy from you, till they can trust you. First, they are going to judge you! Right? And I put myself out there to be judged! So the Average person watches us for 6 months, and when we make a sales call its usually thirty minutes but usually at the sales call at that point they put their hand up, and they said I just need to know how much it is and what I get for it! Hawk Mikado: Absolutely! I agree Ty Is a Brilliant Affiliate Marketer I see him out there. He is absolutely
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brilliant. Model Success! I absolutely Love that you know that someone has to watch you for 6 months before they jump. Any Last Words? You know, Yes two last words. Definitely, if you are tired of the over complication technology come over and check Phonesites. I’m sure they will have a link somewhere for you to come and check it out! Definitely, if you are struggling with anything in life like your adopted if you are abused if you been on drugs, anything you have to check out the Force Of Average. I haven’t
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talked about it on this show, but I have been through hell in my life I got to go from shit to sunshine using this formula. It’s absolutely free, I didn’t go that if you give me two hundred dollars, I’ll explain it all day out all out there and tell you. For many of you. Even dudes it’s going to be hard for you not to cry watching. I did this on purpose it will be hard. It’s a game changer. I just recommend you check out those two things out depending where you are in life. I appreciate you having me on!
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Hawk Mikado: absolutely thank you for being on and sharing. Awesome guys, We just heard from the genius of internet marketing and hardcore closing Ryan Stewman! Absolutely blessed to have him on! Stay Tuned make sure you watch the other stuff if your not a lifetime member of Funnel Magazine yet go to Funnelmagazine.com\lifetime and sign up to be a lifetime member or just subscribe.
LIVELAUNCHWEBINAR.COM
Metrics
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Why Metrics?
ARTICLE BY Janice Means
numbers, you really should have more than doubled You’ve probably heard you should track your marketing/ your revenue. Your Ad Clicks have gone up. Better advertising spend, track your clicks, track your leads, copy? However, the percentage of clicks that turn into track your conversions, track your sales, track your leads has declined by 10%. What changed on the sales repeat business, and … track…track…track. But, WHY? page? If the tweak that improved the number of clicks The short answer is, so you know if you have made on the Ad remains and the originally leads to sales ratio would remain, your overall revenue would go up. progress in your business or not. The long answer is, so you know that the progress that you are making is in the right direction. Not only do you need to track the data but you need to do some analysis on the data that you have collected. So, what changes need to be made to gain the potential revenue? You may want to do some A/B testing on the Sign-Up copy and determine if it’s a color and wording or the offer? Again, measure these. At the raw level, let say you’ve collected the following What do your numbers tell you? Have you looked at metrics from your data collection and overall you feel them over time? very happy that you have doubled your revenue. Please note, there are more metrics that are valuable At first glance, this looks like you doubled your to your business than just these. We selected this small Facebook spend and directly doubled your sample to demonstrate the value of reviewing the revenue. However, if you look closer at the numbers. Janice R. Means, MBA, and President of Marketing
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with JR – Common Sense Marketing with Extraordinary Results. Janice spent years in Corporate IT interwoven with various Marketing stints. Janice brings her Fortune 50 experience to you with a focus on traditional offline marketing strategies. However, she is pretty savvy online and likes to make sure that the online and offline strategies complement each other.
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Does Your Mission Feel Like Punishment? You Might Be Doing It Wrong. Article by Mike Caldwell
We have a responsibility to be an instrument of abundance to our team members...as they are to us.
Our purposes do not just involve us. They are not onedimensional paths to success or gratitude. They involve ensemble players; each of us serving the other and when you are becoming an opportunity hoarder, you So many people start working in their passion when lose your purpose. they finally identify what it is. And it is a terrifying step to take. For one, you need to realize that you are in a Cycles are funny. We get into them like we circle the comfort zone and roll around in your mind what that drain. This is where we live; this is where we should stay discovery means to you. close to; this is my supposed comfort. But we evolve out of each one and when we remain open to what our true Are you blissful in the comfort zone? How does it make jobs are, we move into another cycle. you feel? Do you see other people working in their purpose and it flips on a switch inside you to change In case this is clear as mud, let me explain. When I your life? first opened the doors of my digital marketing and editorial agency, it was out of necessity. I wondered, Then, it is time to make the leap. what amount of money do I HAVE to make to survive? Let’s say you figure out making the leap and you even I lived in this cycle for a long time like a hungry catfish manage to assemble some sort of common-sense on the bottom of the ocean, seizing anything that came processes. You are open to receiving your abundant my way. gifts and the easy opportunities (the ideas that find Then my mind cracked, light flooded in, and I realized you and that you can reap some sort of currency from. that service and commitment were my brand and that Time, money, lifting someone else up. In other words, a people were responding to that. meaningful conversion.) I shifted internally: What can I do? How can I become Yes, you are pounding away at the pavement in your limitless? factory. Grinding every day, as the saying goes. We can’t traverse this journey by ourselves. We need Stop and sit in your moment. help. I accepted that truth and my mindset shifted Contemplate where your energy is going again. It wasn’t my purpose to become everything and ask yourself if you are living in to everyone, but to identify how I fit into the cast of your purpose or becoming characters. To find people who were gifted and able to serve as I loved to do…so I could still go ham in my enslaved by it. strengths. VOLUME 2
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And as this new idea set up shop, I also realized that when we work alone, and when we accept abundant gifts and manifest that THAT is only the beginning. If we are fortunate enough to be busy and work in our beloved passion, then we also have a responsibility to grow as large as we can in our mission, but we need help. Obviously.
And that is when the real blessings begin to show up, in the form of people you have been waiting to meet. Who are working in what captivates them, in the most reciprocal relationship you didn’t even know you needed. You WILL blow each other up.
Echoing relief, you will also learn some jobs are not yours in the time it takes to snap, they are gone. Given When we take on help, we avoid grueling work; we to their rightful owner, a team member wallowing in joy avoid burnout. We avoid being a person who can’t turn over the hand off. any opportunity down for ourselves, but who instead, accepts it knowing it is ours, but only to share. It is Protect your passion. Plan for its continual evolution. If ours, but only to give since we are an instrument of this is what you want to do, you WILL succeed. And abundance for people. We are supposed to be in this when you do, I hope your team is ready for you. Your team carries on with the elements you cannot manage place offering an assist. We snap into place innately. anymore, that they love, and you will have your true You can work in your passion and your drive may be mission returned to you, but better. hijacked as you ply your loving energy, but as you swell with the possibilities of blessings, then you need to make plans to handle it. You need to sit back and say, “I need help. I want to help. I am grateful for this landslide abundance but it is not meant for me alone.” Living in this space is such a trip and knowing we are here for a greater collaborative reason is heady and simply beautiful. Selfishly, it is so much more rewarding than seeking only to fill our own hunger. We kill for the pride.
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Fail Forward, or Die Tryin’... Article by Loren West
went a little something like this: You climbed onto the seat, nervously (or excitedly) gripped the handle bars, pushed the pedals down as hard as you could, then slowly started to move forward… Just as you begin to pick up speed, all of a sudden, you feel yourself starting to lean dangerously to one side. The next thing you know, you fall off the bike, slam into the ground and scrape yourself up for the first time. Once you’re done crying and wipe the tears from your eyes, you’re faced with a choice: Either stand there, Have you ever met a person that was so good at upset and discouraged… or get back on the bike and something it’s like they were born that way? Or someone try to ride again. so knowledgeable in their field, hobby, or interests, that people from all walks of life seek them out for advice Eventually, the more you “fail”, but continue to practice, your skills will slowly but surely increase. Over time, and direction? you’ll be able throw away the training wheels, and ride My guess is you know at least one person like this in smoothly into the sunset. your circle of peers. Truth be told, you may know several people who fit this description, but you’ve just been This, for many people, is the first conscious and memorable experience we have with determination. oblivious to it... until now. More simply put, this is the start of building While your subconscious mind works silently in the WILLPOWER in your life. background to identify these individuals, I want to take So, what does this have to do with marketing and you back to your childhood for a moment… building businesses online? When you first start out, Remember the first time you tried to ride a much like learning to ride a bike, or with any skill you bike? Did you sit down, put your foot on wish to acquire, it’s important to understand one very the pedal and take-off down the simple concept… street? No! Of course not… I’m guessing that YOU-WILL-FAIL… sometimes horribly. experience It’s a hardcore fact you just can’t escape. And the more VOLUME 2
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you try to avoid it, the more likely it is slowly creep up like I had just won the Superbowl! from behind and make you its next casualty. And yes… it was THAT EPIC for me… I’ll never forget it. The good news is that you have the ability to recognize your mistakes, analyze what went wrong and what went Although that may seem like a small victory in the as planned. Then, take stock of where you are now and grand scheme of things, I now have larger, much more AWESOME stories that produce similar feelings. gear up to take another crack at it! Whether it’s affiliate marketing, ecommerce, scaling Because as the rapper Meek Mill would say… “It’s Levels paid traffic, or just getting a solid understanding of To This $h%t”. the basics of entrepreneurship, it’s going to take some But I would never know or even imagine what those determination to push through the roadblocks and levels of success could be like if I wasn’t determined avoid the pitfalls that lie ahead… enough to fight my way to the top!
Like forgotten land-mines in the jungles of Vietnam, I’m not saying I’m some phenomenal 8-Figure guru or a poacher’s trap in the forests of Africa, if you walk sipping champagne on a yacht in the Caribbean… yet. around long enough, something’s going to catch (or ;-) explode on…) you eventually. But I AM saying, it’s possible. On the flip side, the more you move forward, take calculated risks, and make sound decisions when faced As long as you know something is attainable and you’re willing to accept varying degrees of “failure” at some with adversity, eventually… you-WILL-succeed! point, and most importantly, you have an undying When I first started on the path to becoming an online willpower to move forward and breakthrough the marketer, I was so clueless it was comical! I didn’t know challenges that stand in your way… how anything worked and the worst salesletters & VSLs on the planet would have me maxing out my credit cards Whatever desires you have in your heart can be yours. to buy all kinds of courses, programs, and “reports” on Don’t think you have what it takes to succeed? Think making money, and living the “laptop lifestyle”. about it like this: This caused two things to happen:
If you’re lucky enough to work a fulltime job in today’s 1.) I went broke on infoproducts that taught outdated world, you already have the indispensable trait of strategies & tactics which produced zero results and determination. You’re just focusing that energy on a 9 to 5 instead of building a business… zero ROI for the money I spent. 2.) I quickly learned what not to do, what doesn’t work, Think about it… and to not trust every person claiming to be an “expert” • You have to show up, ON-TIME, every day. just because they said so. • You sacrifice 35-40+ hours weekly… plus overtime. Unfortunately, this was a MAJOR setback for me at • You make sure the work that’s done is correct the time. I was constantly between jobs, and could and up to standard (hopefully lol). barely afford to put gas in my car to make it to the next • You offer suggestions on how to improve the paycheck. workplace. At that point, I was faced with a choice… give up on • And you’re always looking for ways to get the my dreams, and focus on getting a “stable” career in job done faster, better, & easier. the job world (which ironically is not stable at all) or continue to pursue my goals despite what so-called Did I mention all this has to get done with a “smile” on family & friends had to say about it. your face?! Thankfully, I chose to listen to my own inner-voice, and through the power of DETERMINATION, I eventually Well, the beauty of doing your own thing online is that found someone who was actually making a full-time you get to use all these traits on a daily basis and not have to put on a front for people at the income online. office (or wherever it is you work). I ended up purchasing a 1-hour phone session with this guy, which led to me making my first sale through Or kiss-ass to management PayPal within two weeks of our conversation! The first in the hallway to EDITION 9 time I got a notification of a payment in my email I felt get some
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lousy raise that won’t put an extra $20 in your pocket Just pick up your bike (goals, dreams, desires), unscrew at the end of the month.If you feel like crying in the those training wheels and ride like the wind! corner because “life is so hard…” you have that privilege. Because no one will see you, so no one can judge you. Thanks for reading… :-) As long as we wipe those eyes, stand up straight, and decide that we’re going to make things happen no matter what, everything will be ok. I promise. ;-) Life will get better…. Even when it’s hard on us.
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Level Up! “Facebook” is changing the game of Business Article by Reekita Shah Alias Gala
Level Up! “Facebook” is changing the game of Business and Marketing in 2018 with Augmented Reality
What exactly is Augmented Reality?
Augmented Reality is not just for gaming. It’s the 4th wave in technology similar to all our past technologies. In fact, AR has shown the highest ROI of any technologies to date. It is a new way of communicating and engaging with your audience and if used strategically for business and marketing, it can increase sales, engagements, enhance brand value, and provide better shopping experiences along with many more benefits.
I am sure you know about Pokemon Go released in the year 2016 or may have even played the game at some point. Many of you may be unaware of the technology used to create this game and those of you who may be aware of it, may not be aware of what exactly it is and how it works.
We all have heard, known or maybe experienced “Virtual Reality” by now. But many of us are still Facebook is giving its Messenger Bots a new power: unaware of what “Augmented Reality” is and its “Augmented Reality” potential.
AR is providing promising results for top brands and gaining more popularity in the consumer market in 2018. Brands like Amazon, Ikea, Wayfair, ebay, Nike, Sephora and many more topmost companies have integrated AR (Augmented Reality) into their business and marketing strategies. A Deloitte survey found that almost 90 percent of companies with annual revenues of $100 million to $1 billion are already leveraging AR or VR technology. In fact, you are currently using “Augmented Reality” in your life on daily basis, in one form or the other. For instance: Your Facebook Filter, Snapchat Lenses or Google Maps are all some form of Augmented Reality.
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What is the difference between “Augmented Reality” and “Virtual Reality”? “Augmented Reality” is a mysterious sibling of “Virtual Reality”. Unlike “Virtual Reality”, which requires you to inhabit an entirely virtual environment, “Augmented Reality” uses your existing natural environment and simply overlays virtual information on top of it. As both virtual and real worlds harmoniously coexist, users of augmented reality experience a new and improved natural world where virtual information is used as a tool to provide assistance in everyday activities. What is Augmented Reality (AR)? An enhanced version of reality where live direct or indirect views of physical real-world environments are augmented with superimposed computer-generated images over a user’s view of the real-world, thus
enhancing one’s current perception of reality. Simple Explanation of AR The origin of the word augmented is augment, which means to add or enhance something. In the case of Augmented Reality (also called AR), graphics, sounds, and touch feedback are added into our natural world to create an enhanced user experience.
What are the Hardware Requirements for creating “AR experiences and viewing AR Content”?
Social Media Platforms and Brands have taken “Augmented Reality” to Mainstream in 2018… Starting currently, a handful of brands will certainly be able to incorporate AR effects right into their automated messaging bots-- those automated replies you get when you engage with brands on Messenger. The brand-new AR abilities are similar to Snapchat’s recently-launched “shoppable” lenses: brands and services can produce AR experiences suggested to obtain you to buy stuff. Yet in Messenger’s situation, the function isn’t linked to animated face filters. So while Sephora’s bot could guide a potential client to essentially try out various sorts of makeup, Nike can display how a new footwear looks from any angle, and Kia might make cars and truck appear in your driveway.
To create AR content like adding images, videos, audio, text or many other forms of content all you need is desktop and decide which platform you want to use from various easy drag and drop options available today. For more advanced AR development like games or animations you may need some programming skills. In order for you to view AR content you need is a smart phone or pads, which is available in each and every person’s pocket today. The future of AR within next five to ten years will be smart glasses and contact lenses Source: SiliconANGLE enabling mixed reality features combining virtual and augmented reality technologies. The idea, of Facebook, is to integrate these sorts of experiences right into the kinds of conversations already Source: Popular Science occurring by means of Messenger bots. However, the company won’t be able to message the customer until the customer does not allow access to the camera and opt in to view the products in AR experiences. The AR feature will be available if customer has actually previously connected on Messenger with your brand or they click an ad from their News Feed. AR features are restricted to a handful of business for now-- including Kia, Nike, Sephora, and also Asus-but Facebook prepares to ultimately make it offered much more widely. As of now they have a waitlist open for brands who want to integrate AR into their bots starting summer; however the official date is not yet released for making it available for all brands.
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• It opens a whole new world of opportunities to create new business models • Provide more valuable content to customer and stay ahead of your competitors • Above all it can be useful for creating your own blue ocean Level Up! Stan Chudnovsky, Facebook’s Messenger head of Product, says that augmented reality is the next natural step for advertising. “If worldwide previously, brand were all into, create advertisements to get individuals to our shops,’ in today’s world they create ads to get Source:Adage individuals into the augmented reality experiences Messenger is simply the latest system to begin trying out where they could engage with the product in the closest branded augmented reality. Instagram additionally just method to the physical world possible,” he claims. opened its AR effects to third-parties, and Snapchat Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality is here to stay has actually lately gone all-in on it, too. with us for long coming years and to take full advantage List of how VR/AR adds value for brands and of these technologies, the key is to hire an expert and consumers start working on integrating these technologies into business or marketing strategies to provide more value • It opens a new channel to communicate with to your customers and enhance business operations. your customers Start reading and learning about VR/AR to understand • Your customers can now try the product even how you can incorporate these technologies to solve before they buy them problems faced by your business .The future is now, if • Your company can take first mover’s advantage you wait for too long it will be much harder for you to to create new strategies to acquire customers get started in 2019 as its already very hard to catch up and generating sales which your competitors with all the advancements happening in the market in may not be using 2018. The early you start the better are the chances to • This technology can help your company build sustain in the market in coming years moving forward. personal relationship with your audience and stay closely connected Tags: Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality, • With the assistance of augmented reality your Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Instagram, AR, VR, company can provide better customer support MR, Marketing, Sales, Customer Engagements • It enhances buyers shopping experiences and helps customers make better decisions • Augmented Reality can also help customers retain and recall your brand once they engage with your products which can result in brand loyalty and increase sales • This technology can also be useful for increasing brand awareness and creating a buzz for your products and services
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FUNNEL MAGAZINE VOLUME 2 EDITION 9
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