How to Create StoryBrand Sales Funnels

Taking advantage of every opportunity is vital to getting leads. Sometimes you have to create your own opportunities. Sales funnels are a way to create opportunities for potential leads and customers to get familiar with you. Here is how to create StoryBrand sales funnels that will help you get leads and grow.

What Are Sales Funnels?

Sales funnels are juicy pieces of content that entice prospects to share their email address in order to get it. They come in all mediums such as a guide, checklist, pdf, white paper, cheat sheet, infographic, video, free template, free email course and more. Sales funnels should accomplish the following objectives:

• Position you as the guide
• Build trust by solving a problem
• Stake claim to your territory
• Provide a high value (share what you know)
• Have a catchy and exciting but also CLEAR title

People are looking for you to help solve their problems. Your offer should be high value and help them along their customer journey from awareness to consideration to decision making. Start with your current customers and what problems you help them solve.

Creating a Sales Funnel

At BigOrange we create our sales funnels by following a process. We hold a content workshop where we gather as a team and brainstorm. We pick one of our personas (an ideal buyer) and read their pain points and goals. We then brainstorm individually and come back together and share as a team. We do this for each of our personas.

Examples of Our Successful Sales Funnels

1. Gary’s Guide: Top 4 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Financial Advisor: For our financial services client we created this guide as a sales funnel for them to get more leads. People face myriad choices in the financial industry from broker-dealers to fiduciaries, which can leave people confused and overwhelmed. The guide provides definitions of key words like “fiduciaries” and lists four simple questions that you need to ask such as, “How do you get compensated?” This guide was downloaded 200 times last year. (Four leads a week while you sleep!) 
2. Cyber Checklist: 14 Non-Technical Things You Can Do Today to Protect Your Business From Cyber Crime: The idea for this sales funnel came from a talk our IT provider client did. This is a fun guide that provides simple tips in a checklist format. This guide works because it has a broad appeal, anyone can do these tips. It also includes photos of the real IT team to be more personable.
3. Step-By-Step: 22 Marketing Strategies to Drive Sustainable Lead Gen in 2022: This is one of our own sales funnels: a guide that provides foundational marketing items to put in place to drive sustainable lead gen. The steps range from clarifying your messaging on a robust website to sharing consistently through social media. It has been downloaded 225 times, averaging out to two or three leads a week. 

Your Sales Funnel Checklist

The sales funnel itself is just one piece of the entire strategy. Use the checklist below to ensure your strategy includes every piece. 

• Your download should be “gated,” meaning people have to surrender their email in order to receive it. 
• They should be able to find the download on a landing page of your website. 
• The page should include a form they fill out with their information. 
• Design and implement an automatic “thank you for downloading” email that delivers the asset to them. 
• Integrate a call to action for downloading the content on social media, your home page, blog posts and even local publications.
• Design and implement marketing automation via an email drip/campaign (see below) that continues to send nurturing emails after delivering the asset.

Designing a Nurturing StoryBrand Email Drip

After the asset is delivered, you should continue to nurture the lead via an email drip that is triggered by the download of the asset. A typical StoryBrand email drip includes the following types of emails:

1. Delivery of asset
2. Problem and solution
3. Testimonial
4. Overcoming of an objection
5. Paradigm shift
6. Sales letter

We also recommend developing multiple sales funnels and having them available throughout your website to keep things fresh and continue to generate leads.

Creating a Sales Funnel with BigOrange

At BigOrange we are experts in all things StoryBrand. We help our clients create successful lead generating sales funnels as well as manage their digital marketing strategy. If you’re interested in guidance for StoryBrand strategy and more digital marketing techniques, book a free 30-minute consultation with us.