How To Sell Online – 5 Tips To Start Selling Successfully

You see all these people making money online.

They have nice houses, go to the best restaurants, travel around the world. And their pictures on Instagram make everyone envious.

You want your piece of the pie as well. “If they can do it, why can’t I?’ you think. And you are right. You can make money online and live the life that you always wanted.

But the truth is that most people who try to make money online fail. Why?

Because they don’t know what they are doing.

No need to worry, though. We’ve got your back.

Today we will show you how to successfully sell online.

Here’s what we are going to discuss:

• What is the best way to sell products online?
• How to start selling online?
• Top 5 tips for selling online.

Ready to become a successful online entrepreneur?

Continue reading…

How to Sell Products Online Successfully

So what is the best way to sell online?

Here at ClickFunnels we wholeheartedly believe that it’s selling through sales funnels.

It works for info products, physical products, SaaS products, you name it…

In fact, if you are selling something online, but you don’t have a proper sales funnel set up, then you are almost certainly leaving money on the table.

What is a Sales Funnel?

Here’s a general definition of a sales funnel:

“A sales funnel is the path a customer takes to purchase from your business, all the way from interested prospect to converted customer.”

As my colleague Devender Kumar explained:

“Every business has a sales funnel because every business (presumably) is trying to turn visitors into leads and leads into paying customers.

But naturally, an intentionally crafted sales funnel is about 100 times more effective than a sales funnel which is left to random chance.”

Here’s how a general sales funnel that every online business uses looks like:

1. Top of the sales funnel (ToFu): Target audience
2. Middle of the sales funnel (MoFu): Potential customers
3. Bottom of the sales funnel (BoFu): New and existing customers

No matter what you sell, you need to somehow reach your target audience, catch their interest, and then persuade them to buy your product.

However, when we talk about sales funnels here at ClickFunnels, we are referring to intentionally crafted sales funnels that follow a specific formula.

There are two popular sales funnel templates:

• AIDA, which is a classic sales funnel – It was developed in the late 19th century by Elias St. Elmo Lewis.
• The Value Ladder, which is an upgrade to AIDA – It was developed by the ClickFunnels co-founder Russel Brunson.

Let’s take a closer look at each of them…

The AIDA Sales Funnel

Here’s how the AIDA sales funnel looks like:

AIDA is an acronym that stands for Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action:

• Awareness – You need to catch the attention of your potential customers.
• Interest – You then need to pique the interest of your potential customers.
• Desire – You then need to spark a desire for your product.
• Action – You then need to get them to buy your product.

AIDA is a classic sales funnel that has been used by marketers for over a century. There’s no doubt that it works.

However, we believe that we can offer you an even more effective sales funnel, one known as The Value Ladder…

The Value Ladder Sales Funnel

Here’s how The Value Ladder sales funnel looks like:

It also has four parts:

• Bait – also known as a lead magnet. It’s something that you give away for free in exchange for a potential customer’s email address.
• Frontend offer – This is your least expensive offer. Its purpose isn’t so much to make you money but to get the customer to buy something from you. That’s why frontend offers are sometimes priced as low as $7.
• Middle offer – This is a more expensive offer. Ideally, it should build on your frontend offer, targeting the same or related problem, but providing more value.
• Backend offer – This is your most expensive offer. Ideally, it should build on your middle offer, targeting the same or related problem, but providing a ton of additional value.

So what’s the difference between AIDA and The Value Ladder?

Here’s how my colleague Aaron Orendorff explains it:

“The key difference involves getting prospects actively engaged with you at every stage of the process.

Whereas AIDA has the company giving, giving, giving until a prospect converts, Brunson’s funnel has both parties engaged in a process of give-and-take throughout. This version elicits smaller conversions from the target consumer along their path to purchase.”

It implements one of Robert Cialdini’s six principles of influence known as commitment and consistency.

This principle says that:

“We value consistency in others, and we want to be seen as consistent ourselves.”

When it comes to sales, this means that a person who has already bought something from you is more likely to be open to your subsequent offers.

And that’s where the power of The Value Ladder sales funnel lies. You get the person to make increasingly larger commitments as they go through it.

It all starts with the small commitment of providing their email address to download the lead magnet and ends with a large commitment of paying a substantial amount of money for your most expensive product.

Of course, it goes without saying that as they escalate their commitment, you should increase the value that you provide. You need to over-deliver on what you promised if you want the customer to continue ascending The Value Ladder.

Why Do You Need a Sales Funnel?

Now, if you are not familiar with sales funnels, all this may sound unnecessarily complicated.

“Why use a sales funnel at all?” you may be wondering. “Why not just make your offer straightaway?”

But consider these two scenarios:

SCENARIO A:

A company that you have just stumbled upon today makes you an offer. The product costs $257.

SCENARIO B:

A company that you have known for quite a while makes you an offer. The product costs $257.

You have already downloaded their free ebook, bought their $7 ebook, and went through their $97 video course.

Each of these products has exceeded your expectations.

In which of these two scenarios are you more likely to buy that $257 product?

You can’t expect people who just found your business today to make a large commitment by buying your most expensive product.

You need to build a relationship, establish trust, and add value first.

And sure, setting up a proper sales funnel requires more work than just throwing offers at people and hoping they’ll buy something… But it’s work that actually pays off.

Plus, with ClickFunnels software, you can automate all this.

How to Create a Sales Funnel

Okay, so now that you understand the importance of sales funnels, it’s time to learn how to create one.

Step #1: Design the Sales Funnel

You should start by designing the entire sales funnel. What will you be offering at each stage?

You need to figure this out before you start creating the products because each product should build on the previous one in a logical sequence. You can’t wing this.

Here’s a template that you can use:

You can download this template together with a 10-point checklist.

Step #2: Create Your Lead Magnet

Now that you have sketched out the entire funnel, it’s time to start creating your offers.

You should start with bait, also known as a lead magnet, which can be anything that people can either download to their devices or access online.

Here are some ideas:

• An ebook
• A cheat sheet
• A spreadsheet
• A checklist
• A template
• An email course
• A video course
• An app

…etc.

What matters is that:

• Your lead magnet offers a solution to a problem your potential customers are struggling with
• That problem is either the same or related to the problem that your frontend offer solves

Also, as we shared in our recent Instagram post, your lead magnet should be super valuable:

Remember that your lead magnet is the first step in your Value Ladder. Your potential customers will use it to judge the value of your subsequent offers. That’s why it’s so important to go the extra mile and blow them away with it.

You should approach creating your lead magnet the same way that you would approach creating your paid products. You want to create something that you could sell, you just choose not to.

Ask yourself: “Would people pay money for this?”. If yes, that’s great, if not, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

Step #3: Create Your Frontend Offer

Once you have your lead magnet, the next step is to create your frontend offer.

What’s important is that:

• Your frontend offer provides a solution to a problem that the potential customer is struggling with.
• This problem is either the same as or relevant to the one that your lead magnet solves and the one that your middle offer solves.
• Your frontend offer provides more value than your lead magnet but less value than your middle offer.

Once again, the purpose of the frontend offer is not so much to make you money but to convert the potential customer into an existing customer.

You want to make sure that buying this product is a no-brainer for them. $7 works great as a price point because it’s in the impulse buy range.

Step #4: Create Your Middle Offer

Okay, now it’s time to create your middle offer.

What’s important is that:

• Your middle offer provides a solution to a problem that the existing customer is struggling with.
• This problem is either the same as or relevant to the one that your frontend offer solves and the one that your backend offer solves.
• Your middle offer should provide more value than your frontend offer, but less value than your backend offer.

The price of your middle offer should be outside the impulse buy range but shouldn’t be so high that it would require extensive deliberation. A price point in the $50-$100 range might work best here.

That being said, there’s a relationship between the price of your middle offer and the price of your backend offer, since the former sets the expectations for the latter.

Generally, the higher the price of your backend offer, the higher the price of your middle offer should be.

Step #5: Create Your Backend Offer

Your backend offer is the pinnacle of your value ladder. You should give it everything you got. You should also charge accordingly.

What’s important is that:

• Your backend offer provides a solution to a problem that the existing customer is struggling with.
• This problem is either the same as or relevant to the ones that all your previous offers (including the lead magnet) solve.
• Your backend offer should provide the most value.

The price of your backend offer depends on:

• Your target audience – You want people to be able to afford it.
• The product itself – You want to deliver enough value to justify the price.

It’s probably safe to say that most backend offers are in the <$500 range, though the $1,000 – $2,000 range is also popular, especially for live events.

Step #6: Create a Landing Page for Each Offer

Each offer should have a landing page.

A landing page is a type of web page that has only one goal:

• Lead magnet landing page (squeeze page) should be designed for getting the potential customers’ email addresses.
• Paid product landing pages (sales pages) should be designed for making a sale.

It’s important to implement landing page best practices if you want your landing pages to convert well.

There are three key landing page elements:

• Headline – It should emphasize the main benefit that the potential customer will derive from downloading your lead magnet or buying your product. How will it make their life better?
• Copy – It should further emphasize the main benefit as well as additional benefits that the potential customer will get from downloading your lead magnet or buying your product. 
• Call to action – This should be a large, prominent button that stands out in the overall color scheme of the landing page. It should make it clear to the potential customer what they should do next (e.g. “Get Instant Access”, “Buy Now”, etc.).

It’s worth noting that you can get away with not including any copy in your squeeze page if the offer is valuable enough and the headline communicates that value clearly.

You can make your landing pages more persuasive by adding social proof. The best way to do that is to feature customer testimonials.

Just make sure that those testimonials not only are real, but also look real. Consider including the person’s name, photo, job title, website, Twitter handle… Anything that reassures the potential customer that this is indeed a real person, not someone you made up.

Step #7: Set up an Email Autoresponder

It goes without saying that you can’t possibly manually email every potential customer that downloads your lead magnet.

That’s why you need to set up an email autoresponder sequence that allows you to automatically send lead nurturing emails to them.

You will need to pick an email marketing service provider for this.

Here are three options worth considering:

• Aweber
• Mailchimp
• ConvertKit

Aweber and Mailchimp are the most popular generic email marketing solutions out there, meanwhile, ConverKit caters specifically to content creators such as bloggers, YouTubers, etc.

Once you have chosen an email marketing service provider, you will need to write the email sequence for each stage of your sales funnel.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Your email subject line is its headline – You need to make it as enticing as possible. While we don’t advise you to go with blatant click-bait, it does need to catch the recipient’s attention and get them to open it.
• Your emails should add value – You need to earn your place in the recipient’s inbox with every email that you send. You can do that by consistently providing value. This includes offering solutions to problems that the recipient is struggling with, sharing various links they might find interesting, etc. Of course, you should include sales pitches for the next product in your sales funnel as well, but you don’t want the recipient to feel that you only send them sales emails.
• Your emails should have a call to action – Every email should have one goal. What do you want the recipient to do next? Hit the reply button and answer your question? Click through to your blog? Click through to your sales page? You need to make that clear. Make sure that every email has a call to action (either in the form of a text link or in the form of a call-to-action button).

Step #8: Set Up Your Sales Funnel

In theory, you could build an entire funnel from scratch.

In practice, however, that would be incredibly time-consuming, so it makes sense to use sales funnel software such as ClickFunnels.

It allows you to easily build out your sales funnel and automate everything that can be automated.

What is Funnel Hacking and Why You Should Do it

You can’t afford to waste time reinventing the wheel.

That’s why it makes sense to look at your competitors, analyze their sales funnels, then implement what you have learned in your own sales funnel. This is known as funnel hacking.

Here’s how you can do that:

Step #1: Create a List of Your Competitors

You may also want to check out companies that aren’t your competitors but sell to the same target audience as you do. This will help you better understand what works and what doesn’t work on your ideal customers.

Step #2: Explore and Document Their Sales Funnels

Start with downloading their lead magnets. 

Then consider purchasing their products if your budget allows that. 

As you go through their sales funnels, document everything (save emails, take screenshots, etc.).

Step #3: Analyze the Information You Have Gathered

Once you have gone through their sales funnels (or as far as your budget permits), it’s time to analyze all those emails, screenshots, and products to see what you can learn.

Start by asking these questions:

• What words (copywriting) are they using in their headlines?
• What colors are they using throughout their content?
• Are buttons located above the fold or below the fold?
• Do they use videos and images, or just text?
• Are they listing benefits or features?
• Do they include social proof like testimonials?
• Are there any pop-ups during exit intent?
• Is the header section of the site fixed?
• Is there a full sign up form or an opt-in form?
• Do action steps require more than one touchpoint?
• Is price mentioned for their products (if so, what are their price points?)
• How many words are there on the homepage?

You should also consider using competitive intelligence software to get a better understanding of their sales funnels.

This includes apps like AdBeat and SensorTower that will show you their online advertising strategy as well as Ahrefs and SEMRush that will help you understand their SEO strategy.

Once you have an in-depth understanding of how your competitors structure their sales funnels, you can take what you have learned and apply it to your own sales funnel.

Of course, you don’t want to blatantly copy them, since that would look silly. But it makes sense to structure your own sales funnel in a similar way if you know that the competitors’ sales funnels work well.

Also, you should always keep an eye for opportunities to improve on what your competitors are doing. How can you do it better?

How to Start Selling Online

Okay, so now you understand the big picture, but how can you get started?

Step #1: Pick a Niche

You should start by picking a niche. What is a niche?

A niche is a group of people who share a common interest.

Here’s are the three key criteria for identifying a lucrative niche:

1. Your target audience needs to have discretionary funds
2. Your target audience needs to have painful problems
3. Your target audience needs to be willing to pay for solutions to those problems

When you are evaluating a potential niche, you should make sure that it meets all three criteria.

While it’s possible to build a business in a niche that doesn’t meet all three criteria, it would probably be an uphill battle and you would likely struggle to make money. It’s not worth it.

Step #2: Find a Problem to Solve

Once you have chosen a niche, you need to find a problem that you can solve.

Typically, a niche that is worth going into will have a wide variety of problems that people are struggling with. Your best bet is to pick one that seems to be the most painful.

When you notice a problem that could be a business opportunity, you should research the existing solutions to that problem. What is currently on the market?

It may seem counter-intuitive, but you want there to be competition because competition means that there’s a demand for that solution.

It’s best to avoid going after problems that don’t have any existing solutions. No competition likely means that there’s no demand.

Step #3: Do Customer Research

Once you have picked a problem to solve, you should then conduct extensive customer research.

It’s best to talk to your potential customers directly. According to Gerald Zaltman, professor emeritus at the Harvard Business School, one-on-one customer interviews can yield deep insights.

Getting your potential customers to talk to you might be easier than you think. People love talking about stuff that bothers them and they want to feel heard. So don’t hesitate to approach your potential customers and politely ask for 15 minutes of their time for a Skype call.

You should also go where your customers hang out online and observe the conversations happening there. What are people saying when they feel free to speak their minds?

Here’s what you should pay special attention to:

• What are they trying to achieve?
• What are they struggling with?
• What are their complaints?
• What is their experience with existing solutions?
• What language do they use to express all the above (words, metaphors, etc.)?

Here are some places that you should definitely check out as you do customer research:

Reddit

Reddit is one of the most popular online discussion platforms out there where you can find a specific discussion group (subreddit) for pretty much anything.

For Example:

Let’s say that you want to sell to people who are into bodyweight training (calisthenics).

You may want to check out r/bodyweightfitness/ which has 2 million members.

YouTube

YouTube is the largest video hosting platform in the world as well as one of the most popular search engines out there.

So if you are going into the calisthenics niche, you want to check YouTube videos on the subject.

Be sure to not only watch the videos but also read the comments. It can help you better understand what in that particular video resonates with your target audience.

Online Forums

You may also want to check out online forums in your niche.

These can be either entire forums dedicated to it or subforums in a larger forum.

For Example:

StrongFirst strength training forum has a subforum dedicated to bodyweight training.

Product Reviews

It also makes sense to read product reviews for the existing solutions to the problem that you want to solve.

You can find review articles by simply putting in “[your niche] product reviews”, “[your niche] course reviews”, “[your niche] program reviews” etc. in Google search.

Note that you should prioritize organic, user-generated reviews over review articles because the latter tend to be biased (website owners often have a financial interest in the products they are reviewing because they get a commission from each product sold through their links).

Social Media

You should also keep an eye on the chatter on social media. Use hashtags to see relevant posts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

All this may seem like a lot of work, but that’s what will enable you to create products that are better than the current solutions on the market and present them in a way that resonates with your potential customers.

Step #4: Create Your Offers

Now it’s time to create your offers.

We have already discussed this in the “How To Create a Sales Funnel” section so there’s no need to repeat everything.

It’s worth noting that you need to avoid the perfectionism trap. Putting a product out there can be scary, so it’s easy to overthink it to the point where it never seems to be good enough. But then you might end up never launching it!

A concept known as Minimum Viable Product (MVP) may be helpful here. Focus on creating something that has the bare-bones functionality and content needed for solving the problem. You can add bells and whistles later.

For Example:

If you decide to sell a calisthenics video course, you can start with a series of videos shot in your backyard with your smartphone.

What matters is that you provide the solution to a problem that the potential customer is struggling with (e.g. they want to learn a pull-up, so you show them a pull-up progression).

You can improve the course over time by adjusting the content based on customer feedback, hiring a professional cameraperson to shoot it, hiring a professional video editor to edit it, providing a training program PDF for each exercise, etc.

Creating an MVP, then improving it as you go has two key benefits:

• You can get a product out there quickly
• You can get customer feedback before you invest in production value

Keep in mind that your customers will likely forgive you the low production value if your content quality is high enough.

Step #5: Choose Web Hosting

Once you have your:

• Lead magnet
• Frontend offer
• Middle offer
• Backend offer

It’s time to put everything online.

That starts with choosing the right hosting.

It may be tempting to go with the cheapest hosting, but we would advise against it since it comes with a higher risk of technical issues (e.g. your website going down due to a surge in traffic).

Plus, if you find yourself dealing with said technical issues, it may take a while to get customer support.

You can lose a lot of money that way in terms of potential revenue if your website is down when there’s an increased interest in your product (say, an influencer recommended it to their audience).

That’s why it’s better to go with premium hosting from the get-go.

Step #6: Set Up Your Autoresponder

We have discussed this in the “How To Create a Sales Funnel” section so there’s no need to repeat it here.

Step #7: Set Up Your Sales Funnel

Another thing that we have already discussed in the “How To Create a Sales Funnel” section. We recommend using ClickFunnels software for this.

Step #8: Start Driving Traffic to Your Sales Funnel

Okay, so now that everything is live and ready to go, it’s time to start driving traffic to your sales funnel.

Here are a few ways to do that…

Paid Advertising

Paid advertising is the quickest way to get traffic.

You set up an advertising campaign, the advertising platform shows your ads to your target audience, then you pay for each click to your lead magnet landing page.

It’s important to experiment with various ad headlines, copy, and creatives to see what converts best.

It probably makes the most sense to start with Facebook and Instagram ads, then expand to other platforms from there if you feel that it would be beneficial for your business.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is playing an increasingly significant role in selling online. It’s another way to get your offer in front of your potential customers fast.

Here’s the main idea:

• You find a social media influencer whose followers are your target audience
• You reach out to that influencer and negotiate a partnership where you pay them for a shoutout, a product recommendation, a product review, etc
• They present your product to their audience who then might check it out

While you may not have the budget to work with social media superstars, you can probably afford to partner with a micro-influencer (<100k followers) in your niche.

You should consider these three things before reaching out to an influencer:

• Their brand – Make sure that you are okay with your brand being associated with their brand. It may be best to avoid controversial personalities.
• Their following – Are their followers your potential customers? There’s no point in partnering with them otherwise.
• Their pricing – There’s also the return on investment (ROI) to think about. How many leads can you expect to get from a shoutout? Does partnering with this influencer make financial sense?

By the way, some micro-influencers who are just starting out may be happy to work with you in exchange for your products, so that’s something worth exploring as well.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of generating organic traffic from Google through content specifically designed for that purpose.

It boils down to two key things:

• Creating SEO content – Each piece of content should target a specific keyword that you want it to rank for. You can use Ahrefs for keyword research to identify promising keywords. 
• Building backlinks to that content – You then need to get other websites to link back to your SEO content. This can be done through broken link building, guest posting, creating linkable assets, etc. Note that the higher the domain rating of a website, the more valuable the link. You can check domain ratings using Ahref’s free website authority checker tool.

What you need to know about SEO is that it takes time.

It should definitely be a component of your long-term marketing strategy, maybe even the foundation of it. But you will need to combine it with some quicker traffic generation methods if you want to start making sales anytime soon.

YouTube

YouTube is a great way to generate traffic provided you can build a popular YouTube channel.

This is especially true for niches where the content is easier to understand when presented visually:

• Fitness
• Cooking
• Crafts

…etc.

It’s also worth noting that video as a medium makes it easier to build trust with your potential customers.

For Example:

Adam Frater has a YouTube channel with 493k subscribers.

This YouTube channel generates traffic to his Shredded Academy sales page.

Social Media Marketing

You can also generate traffic by building a following on social media, then encouraging your subscribers to download your lead magnet. You can start with Facebook and Instagram.

What’s important here is that the content you post on social media provides value to your followers.

After all, your followers are not following you to get bombarded with endless sales pitches, they are following you because they want to get value.

For Example:

On our Instagram page, we aim to provide inspiration, education, and tools to online entrepreneurs.

Affiliate marketing

You can also drive traffic to your sales pages by encouraging people to promote your products in exchange for a commission from each sale that was referred by them.

This allows you to expand your reach by tapping into the audiences of other people. It can be especially helpful when you are just starting out.

Webinars are a great way to do this. You partner with another entrepreneur, they invite their email subscribers to a webinar, then you host that webinar and make your sales pitch at the end of it. You then split the revenue with your affiliate partner.

Needless to say, for webinars to convert well you need to make sure that you provide value, not just give people an extended sales pitch.

Step #9: Analyze the Data and Make Adjustments Accordingly

When you launch your business, you need to rely on your educated guesses:

• Who are your ideal customers? 
• What is the best solution to a problem that they are struggling with? 
• What approach to marketing will resonate with them?

But the moment your sales funnel goes live, you should start gathering data. This includes both quantitative data like traffic metrics and qualitative data like customer feedback.

You can then start asking questions such as:

• Which traffic channel brings in the most traffic?
• Which ads work the best?
• Which landing pages convert the best?
• Who is buying my products?
• What do my customers think about my products?

You don’t need to guess anymore, you can answer these questions by analyzing the data that you have gathered.

Just note that it’s important to stay humble and keep an open mind.

Maybe the marketing channel that you thought would bring in a flood of traffic barely brought in anyone at all.

Maybe the people who are actually buying your product are not the ideal customers that you have envisioned.

Maybe your product was a flop and now your inbox is full of complaints from disappointed customers.

You can’t take any of this personally. You need to see it as valuable feedback. Then you need to adjust your business strategy accordingly.

5 Tips for Selling Online

Now that you know how to start selling online, here are some tips that we thought you might find helpful in your entrepreneurial journey…

#1: Research, Research, Research

We have already covered customer research in the “Do Customer Research” section, so there’s no need to repeat how you should go about it.

That being said, we want to take a moment to emphasize just how important customer research is because it can be so tempting to rush it (or worse, skip it altogether!).

Customer research is the foundation of your business. You should be obsessed with it. Your aim should be to understand your customers better than they understand themselves.

#2: Use Text Analysis for Customer Research

You can take your customer research to the next level with text analysis.

Text analysis is a machine learning technique that allows a computer program to go through enormous amounts of textual data incredibly fast.

Text analytics software can help you go through entire online forums, comment sections, Twitter hashtags, customer support messages, even your own inbox and see what comes up most often.

You can then analyze that data and derive valuable business insights from it.

#3: Gather as Much Social Proof as You Possibly Can

When people are just starting out as online entrepreneurs, they often make the mistake of not taking the concept of social proof seriously enough.

Don’t make this mistake. Start gathering social proof as soon as you start getting positive feedback from your customers. Collect it all in one place, organize it and ask people if you can use it in your marketing materials (website, landing pages, social media post, etc.).

When someone gets great results with your product, make sure to reach out to them and ask them if they would like to be featured in a case study. Then write up a case study that you can share with your potential customers.

You should also actively seek out media mentions. Network with journalists, build relationships with them, provide value… And try to get featured on media outlets. This will allow you to add extra social proof in the form of “As Seen On” media badges.

Remember, people know that you are biased when it comes to your own products, so they are more interested in what others have to say about them. So make sure to provide your potential customers with as much social proof as you possibly can.

#4: Pay Attention to What Your Potential and Existing Customers are Telling You

You know what’s the best way to come up with lucrative business ideas?

Paying close attention to what your potential and existing customers are telling you.

Seriously, this seems obvious, but too many entrepreneurs waste time trying to dream up their next product idea when there’s already a ton of product ideas in their inbox. They just need to go through the emails from their audience!

Set up an audience feedback capture system where you document all the messages you get in an organized manner.

Whenever you get an email from a potential or existing customer, copy-paste the relevant information to that document. This includes complaints, compliments, requests, etc.

That way you’ll always know what’s on your target audience’s mind and what product you should be working on next.

#5: Network With Other People in Your Niche

You have probably heard the saying:

“It’s not about what you know, it’s about who you know.”

And it’s true that the most lucrative business opportunities will probably come from your network. That’s why you need to invest in building that network!

Join relevant online forums, start attending meetups and conferences, message people on LinkedIn and invite them to grab a coffee… It may seem scary at first, but what’s the worst that can happen? Rejection won’t kill you.

And don’t hesitate to pursue connections that may not lead to immediate opportunities. Noticed an up-and-coming blogger in your industry? Shoot them an email. Who knows what doors that relationship may open 5-10 years from now.

Just remember that you need to play the long game. Always add a ton of value before ever asking for anything.

Conclusion

You can make money online.

You can build the life that you always wanted.

You can create a better future for yourself and your family.

But in order to succeed as an entrepreneur, you need to know how to sell.

And this is what it all boils down to:

Sales funnels.

So whatever it is that you sell, make sure that you create a proper sales funnel. That’s the best way to sell online.