Last updated on July 11th, 2024 at 07:18 am
Are you offering financial services?
Digital marketing can be a great way to get more clients.
Today we are going to discuss three strategies that you can use to grow your business.
Table of Contents:
Strategy #1: The Value Ladder Sales Funnel
The most common mistake that people who sell their services online make is driving traffic directly to their sales page.
It’s the online equivalent of walking up to a complete stranger and saying “Yo, I provide this service, now hire me!”.
Not only is it cringe-worthy but it’s also ineffective. Great way to burn through your marketing budget, though!
But what should you do instead?
What is the Value Ladder Sales Funnel?
We believe that the most effective way to sell anything online is the Value Ladder sales funnel.
It was created by our co-founder Russell Brunson who then used it to take ClickFunnels from zero to $10M+ in annual revenue in just one year (it’s at $100M+ now!).
This sales funnel has four stages:
- Bait – You offer the potential customer your lead magnet in exchange for their email address.
- Frontend – You offer the potential customer your least expensive and least valuable product or service.
- Middle – You offer the customer a more expensive and valuable product or service.
- Backend – You offer the customer your most expensive and most valuable product or service.
Ideally, you also offer a continuity program of some sort, meaning, a subscription product that generates recurring revenue.
We also recommend adding downsells, upsells, and cross sells to these core offers in order to maximize your revenue.
The reason why this sales funnel works so well is that it allows you to:
- Start the relationship with that person by offering free value.
- Nurture that relationship by continuing to provide free value via email.
- Build trust by providing progressively more paid value at each stage.
Here’s how Russell explains it:
So if you want to sell your financial services online, the first thing you should do is build a Value Ladder sales funnel for your business.
Fortunately, you don’t need to have all four offers ready, you can start with just a lead magnet + a frontend offer, then build out the rest of the Value Ladder over time.
The Best 3 Lead Generation Funnel Variations for the Financial Services Niche
The first stage of the Value Ladder sales funnel, the Bait stage is also known as the lead generation funnel.
Here’s how it works:
- You create a lead magnet
- You create a landing page for that lead magnet
- You drive traffic to that landing page
The purpose of the lead generation funnel is to convert potential customers into leads by persuading them to give you their email addresses in exchange for your lead magnet.
Once they do that, they become a lead and enter your sales funnel, at which point you can send them a 6-email indoctrination sequence and pitch them your Frontend offer.
Or you can follow up personally and schedule a phone call with them.
There are quite a few variations of lead generation funnel out there but we believe that these three are the most suitable for the financial services niche:
Squeeze Page Funnel
The squeeze page funnel is the most basic lead generation funnel.
It only has two pages:
- A squeeze page
- A thank you page
A squeeze page is a basic landing page that has these three key elements:
- A headline that conveys what your free offer is all about.
- An email opt-in form where the potential customer can type in their email address. It can either be displayed immediately or shown once they click the call-to-action button.
- A call-to-action button that encourages the potential customer to get the lead magnet.
Usually, squeeze pages also have various additional elements, such as subheadlines, extra copy, social proof, etc.
Meanwhile, a Thank You page is simply a page where you thank the potential customer for subscribing and give them a link for downloading your lead magnet.
Just because squeeze page funnels are basic doesn’t mean that they aren’t effective – we are still using them in our business and we are doing $100M+ in annual revenue!
For example:
We are using a squeeze page funnel for our “The Funnel Hacker’s Cookbook” lead magnet.
Here’s the squeeze page:
And here’s the Thank You page:
You can use the squeeze page funnel for all kinds of lead magnets – ebooks, videos, email courses, etc. It’s also easy to set up because it’s so simple.
That being said, if your services are expensive, then you might be better off using the webinar funnel or the phone funnel as they are better suited for selling high-ticket items.
Webinar Funnel
A webinar funnel is a lead generation funnel where you offer a free webinar as your lead magnet.
Russell primarily used webinar funnels to get ClickFunnels off the ground.
This approach was so effective that to this day he believes that the best business model in the world is to:
- Create a webinar selling your service or your product
- Do that webinar live every single week for a year
The webinar funnel is a great option if you have a high-ticket service or product that doesn’t require a phone call to close the sale.
It consists of four pages:
- A webinar registration page
- A thank you page
- A webinar page
- A product order page
Your webinar should start with you introducing yourself, followed by a presentation on the subject matter, followed by a sales pitch for your services.
Note that the presentation should be valuable in and of itself – you want all attendees to walk away feeling like they have learned something, regardless of whether or not they choose to hire you.
If you aren’t sure what subject to pick, consider explaining how attendees can do something that people hire you to do, then pitch the relevant service at the end.
People who can afford to outsource it typically don’t want to manage their finances themselves, so teaching them how to do it is likely to trigger a “Can you just do it for me?” reaction.
And those who can’t afford to outsource it wouldn’t have hired you anyway.
However, providing useful information so that they could do it themselves can help you build trust.
That way, if their situation ever changes and they start looking for someone to hire, you will likely be the first person that comes to their minds.
Just remember to be engaging but concise – the whole event should last 45 – 60 minutes.
Arguably, the most challenging part of a webinar is transitioning into the sales pitch, as that can feel awkward if you don’t have much sales experience.
That’s why we recommend using this script:
“So now I’d like to offer you guys something that I’m really excited about. It’s something that I think is going to change tons of lives and businesses for the better. But I don’t want to do it without your permission. If you guys want to learn more about [PRODUCT/SERVICE] then just type “Yes” in the chat bar.”
If you have provided enough value in your presentation, people will likely want to hear your offer.
And if there doesn’t seem to be any interest, you can try one more time using this script:
“Okay. Well I don’t want to take up too much of your time. But I really think this is going to be a game-changer for you. Is it okay if I just spend 10 minutes showing you this offer I put together?”
If that doesn’t work, then simply thank everyone and end the webinar.
Yes, that’s super awkward, but there’s a lesson there – your webinar probably isn’t valuable enough, which means that you need to either improve it or create a new one from scratch.
By the way, Russell has developed a system for creating webinars that sell, which he explains in detail in “Perfect Webinar Secrets”.
We highly recommend checking it out if you want to learn how to grow your business via webinar funnels. It only costs $7!
Phone Funnel
A phone funnel is the best lead generation funnel if you need to get on the phone with potential customers in order to close sales.
It has three pages:
- Success story – This should be your most impressive customer case study.
- Application page – The application should include questions that will help you qualify leads to make sure that they are a good fit for your business.
- Homework page – This page should feature a small “homework” task that you want the potential customer to complete before the call (e.g. watch a video, read a short PDF, etc.).
This funnel allows you to qualify leads without having to talk to them, which can save you a lot of time.
Moreover, by the time you call them, the potential customer will have already invested time and energy in filling out the application and completing the “homework” task, thus making them more committed than they would be otherwise.
That makes it much easier for you to close the sale.
Strategy #2: Paid Advertising
Okay, so you have your Value Ladder sales funnel all set up, but how can you get traffic?
We believe that paid advertising is the best way to do it because paid traffic is both reliable and scalable.
All main social media platforms allow you to run ads:
- YouTube
You should choose the platform that makes the most sense for your business.
And if you don’t know which platform is the most suitable, then you might want to start with Facebook, as it is the most universal one.
Also, for B2B financial services, LinkedIn is probably your best bet.
No matter which platform you go with, the process is the same:
- Set up a small daily ad budget
- Start running your ad campaign
- Analyze the data and adjust accordingly
You can begin gradually scaling your ad campaign once you figure out how to run ads profitably.
Strategy #3: YouTube Marketing
You don’t want to be completely reliant on paid advertising forever.
That’s why you should also invest in building traffic-generating assets such as:
- A social media following
- A YouTube channel
- A company blog
Of these three options, YouTube probably offers the best effort-to-reward ratio, which is why we recommend starting there.
It’s also well-suited for the financial services niche because videos give people a chance to get a feel of what kind of a person you are and therefore can help you build trust.
Here are some tips:
- Invest in a decent microphone – Audio matters more than video. People might forgive bad video production quality if the content is great but they won’t forgive bad audio quality.
- Figure out the lighting – When it comes to video production quality, lighting is one of the most important factors. There are plenty of videos on YouTube that explain how to set it up properly.
- Target a popular keyword with each video – You can find popular keywords by typing in a search term related to your niche and looking at the suggestions that come up.
Say, if you specialize in estate planning, simply type in “estate planning” and see what comes up.
These are the popular keywords that people are searching for right now. Pick one and make a video.
Just make sure that you do your homework: watch the five most popular videos for that keyword, read the comments, and figure out how to make your video better. - End each video with a call to action – Encourage viewers to check out your lead magnet and provide a link to its landing page.
Remember, the whole point of building a YouTube channel is to get the attention of your potential customers and then direct them to your lead magnet landing page. - Create attention-grabbing thumbnails – You want your video thumbnails to stand out on people’s homepages, their subscription pages, and their recommendations.
Consider hiring a graphic designer that specializes in this. You can find one on Fiverr or Upwork.
Keep in mind that the most important thing when it comes to building a YouTube channel is consistency.
Of course, content and video production quality matters too, but you will get nowhere if you post a few amazing videos and then give up.
That’s why we recommend implementing a productivity technique called the Law of 100:
Set a goal of publishing 100 videos on your YouTube channel no matter what.
In all likelihood, by the time you reach this goal, you will have gained enough momentum to feel motivated to continue.
Remember, the reason why the vast majority of people who set out to build a YouTube channel fail is that they give up too soon. So don’t!
Want Russell to Show You How to Build Your First Sales Funnel?
Let’s keep it real:
Building a sales funnel from scratch can seem like a daunting task.
That’s why we created our 5 Day Challenge where Russell walks you through it step-by-step.
You will learn how to:
- Generate unlimited leads
- Create your first lead magnet
- Build your first sales funnel
- Create a simple 6-email follow-up sequence
- And launch your funnel
…in just five days!
So don’t hesitate.