The behind-the-scenes of a 10k launch – this is the last type of post I ever thought I would be writing.

In case you’re a scroller, I quickly share some of my stats (details will be at the end) from my 10K launch:

  • Went from earning $250/month (on a good month) to $10,000 in 6 weeks which was a 2,700% increase in sales
  • My average cart value was $56.89 and average cost to acquire a customer was about $31 which meant about a $25 profit per customer.
  • Email list grew from 150 people to 600 people (400% list growth) of paying customers
  • 45-55% conversion rate with cold traffic direct to the sales page
  • 69% of my customers purchased an additional upsell offer
  • After the funnel launched, I worked 1-2 hours per day
  • Scheduled 7 new discovery calls 
  • Record dollar amount of business pitched for 1:1 work in a week

How to Create a Sales Funnel Offer

The biggest mistake that I see clients make is taking their course and just filling in the blanks to a page on ClickFunnels

There’s more happening behind the scenes than what you see!

ClickFunnels provides some amazing templates out of the gate, but you need to focus on developing your offer and your stories that will sell before you even touch the software.

There are three main components that I worked on to create my own success story with an online sales funnel.

  1. Passive Product
  2. Selling with Stories
  3. Structuring a Winning Offer

Before I get into the nitty gritty deets, I wanted to share my $10K Launch Timeline with you. 

How I Earned 10K in 6 Weeks: Launch Timeline

July 2018: Creating My Passive Product

I created my product and got approved to sell it on Creative Market in July 2018.

Yes, the product that I used as the base of my offer was something I created over a year ago.

Looking back, now I know that I could have also launched this funnel a year ago. Instead of going into a “where would I be now if I had done this a year ago” spiral, I decided to step into a place of gratitude for everything I learned before I launched. 

When the templates were available from this 3rd party, my potential customer had three different options:

  1. Buy my template (which would be ideal)
  2. Buy a template from another designer (which would stink)
  3. Get sidetracked by ‘squirrel syndrome’ on the website

Even with the competition and potential to be sidetracked by stock photos and other gorgeous design-related items, I was earning between $250 and $300 each and every month literally by me not doing anything. Creative Market takes a percentage of the sales, and they also delivered the template access link via a PDF. I had no hand in the process at all besides answering the occasional question.

This was ideal for me at the time because I was just gearing up to have my second baby and getting ready to take maternity leave from my business. I was planning to not really be on my computer for at least six weeks. And then after that my husband and I had a trip planned to Italy with our kids for not only our delayed honeymoon, but also celebrating a friend’s wedding. I knew that I wouldn’t really be on my computer for about eight weeks, and I was trying to set myself up to still have some income coming in that was hands off for me during that time. 

I rode this passive and hands off wave for about 10 months, but the question of ‘what if’ kept creeping into my mind. 

What if…I could actually transform my templates into a passive income stream and lead generation machine?

April 2019: Stepping Away from the Competition

As you’re growing your business, it’s likely there’s somebody out there who has either a similar offer or they are in the same niche as you and also offer a course, program, or template.

Although the goal in business is to put our own spin on things, you can still be seen as competition. 

I knew it was time to set myself apart from competition with my passive income product launch since I was selling it on a design website right next to hundreds of other designers who were offering the same exact thing. My product was side by side with my competition. 

The other issue I was having by selling my product on Creative Market was the fact that I was missing out on growing my email list with buying customers.

I’m such a big nerd that I love marketing and numbers and breaking down other people’s sales funnels just to satisfy my own curiosity.

I hadn’t actually ever created my own official sales funnel outside of a lead magnet and email sequence, cue in divine timing (or the powerful Facebook Ads Gods)…

May 2019: What is a Sales Funnel +  the 30-Day Challenge

The time had come to follow through with my own sales funnel process. Now the word sales funnel has been thrown around a lot lately. What is a sales funnel?

Basically you take your ideal customer on a journey, a buying journey, and offering them a solution to what they need. For example, as somebody who was coming into my sales funnel, I knew that they saw the value in growing an email list. In order to grow your email list, you need a lead magnet or basically an ethical bribe for future subscribers to give you their email address in exchange for some kind of information or content. 

I also knew that my ideal customer she wanted to her brand to look both beautiful and consistent online. So, the next logical step was offering her social media templates so she could stay consistent and on brand across the different social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and even if she was running Facebook ads which was the upsell that I offered.

I gave myself a deadline to get this up and running in 30 days. Yes, I knew this would put pressure on me, but it could also set myself up for success (and sales) over the Summer.

I’m a big believer in the idea that what you do today, will be ready for harvest in 90 days. For me, this self-liquidating offer launched over the Summer was going to set me up for a profitable Fall.

On day 24, I hit publish on my sales page and Facebook ads. Then, I stepped away from it. It was actually  the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. Probably not the most ideal day to start a launch. You can view my funnel sales page here.

However, I knew I wasn’t  going to be in front of my computer for a few hours because my family and I were going to go out on our boat and have some fun. 

Honestly, I was a little bit scared to start promoting my offer, and I knew this method of a launch would be ripping the bandaid off because they wouldn’t be able to check anything for a few hours, nor would I want to because I was spending time with family. 

A few hours later, we stopped to grab a bite to eat, and I decided to take a quick look at my phone. What I discovered was about $300 in sales waiting for me, and I had people waiting to join my private Facebook group that I set up as a bonus for this purchase. 

In a couple of hours I had done the amount of sales that I had been doing in a whole month selling my product on another platform.

One week later, I had earned the one-comma club award from ClickFunnels meaning my sales funnel sold over $1,000.

June 2019: Testing, Tweaking, and Nerding Out on the Numbers

If May was spent creating offers and designing inside of ClickFunnels, then June was spent nerding out inside of the Facebook Ads Manager.

I will be 100% upfront here. I have been running Facebook Ads and writing email sales sequences for myself and clients for the last 5 years. As someone who has spent over $45,000 in ads for my own businesses, I am not a FB ads newbie.

That being said, I love sharing my tips and experiences. I’ll dive into some of my FB ad launch details later in the post. But I want to add a quick word about copy.

I’ve created a workbook for you the 3 techniques I use to write Facebook Ad copy that converts by saying exactly what my customers are thinking. Plus, you can rinse and repeat for every Facebook Ad campaign you run.

There were a few things that I tested during June:

  1. Offer Price
  2. OTO Price
  3. Facebook Targeting

My initial offer price was $27. It worked very well, but what kind of marketer would I be if I didn’t test multiple price points? I also tested $37. The initial offer sales were fine here, but I found a lower conversion with the order bump and OTO, so the average cart value declined. For this offer, $27 seemed to be the sweet spot.

My OTO price tested from $67 to $97. In the end I found the highest conversion landed at $77 for what was included in the upsell.

Overall, 69% of customers purchased an upsell offer. Inside of a sales funnel training that I had direct from ClickFunnels and one of the heads of ClickFunnels was that the order bump is basically the most “free” money you will ever earn. After this experience, I am a believer. Every offer I make or build for clients in the future will contain an order bump.

July 2019: Hit $10,000 in Sales in 6 Weeks

“ahhh so i’ve hit $10k in sales with this funnel!” 

This was such a fun message to send my business coach. She’s actually the one that encouraged me to share this behind-the-scenes view into my launch with you.

Now, let’s get into the behind-the-scenes of this 10K launch.

Developing a Passive Product

It’s possible to create a sales funnel around a non-passive product like coaching. In fact, this is usually a higher ticket funnel that can really explode your business income and attract those high ticket clients.

That’s not what I’m sharing today. 

The type of funnel I used to create my $10,000 launch is a SLO or self-liquidating offer.

My goal of this funnel was two-fold:

  1. Use this SLO (self-liquidating offer) to cover the cost of FB Ads
  2. Develop an endless stream of clients and new email list growth

I believe that turning an online course into an evergreen and passive income offer is one of the smartest ways to leverage your time as an online business owner.

That being said, there is a lot development and work needed to fulfill on your course.

There are much simpler ways to create something passive. You can design graphics, done-for-you logos, templates, spreadsheets, workbooks, and copy-and-paste scripts.

I’ve seen high-converting sales funnels with done-for-you graphics, livestream topic ideas, and converting ad copy scripts.

Thinking that you need to create a course to have an endless stream of new customers is limiting your potential profits.

Selling with Stories

A friend of mine recently told me, “you’re really great at telling stories.”

Maybe it’s reading bedtime stories to my littles or the training that I’ve gone through on focuses on sharing my experiences and examples and stories versus hard selling someone.

I find that when I am to share real life experiences that lead into the offer I’ve created, then I am able to show up unapologetically in my messaging.

It creates clarity of what I’m selling AND why the customer needs it to make their life easier.

Right now, I have a 45-55% conversion rate on my sales page from cold traffic. In case you’re new to online business, the standard conversion rate is about 2-3%. I can’t credit this amazing conversion rate just to the stories I tell on the page, but I know that it has at least optimized it.

There’s no secret that story-selling has become the next biggest skill entrepreneurs need to be adding to their skill set.

Structuring a Winning Offer

Before I created my sales funnel process, I was selling my templates on a 3rd party website, Etsy, and my own website inside of a ‘shop’ tab on my navigation bar. It would have been easy for me to start running ads directly to the shop or to individual products that I have created.

When done right, a sales funnel can guide your ideal customer on a journey to something that she needs in her business, in a way that you can best serve her along the way at the same time.

It also bundles your products into an offer that lets you stand out from what your competition is offering.

For example, if you work with a network marketing company, you are selling the same product or opportunity of hundreds of thousands of other representatives. That’s a steep level of competition!

However, if you bundle additional training or education or courses as an added-on value for your new customer or business partner, you become the hunted instead of the hunter. I found this exact case when I started offering my MLM Authority Bundle for free and then my “Speak to Silver” Niche and Branding bundle to anyone who joins my downline. New business partners wanted to join me because I offer my team a program on how to own their story, discover their niche, and grow their network marketing business online (including a secret MLM Facebook strategy).

Where Did My Traffic Come From?

Traffic to your sales page is a must-have key to launching a successful funnel. The problem today with most online business owners isn’t that they need a new offer. product or course. It’s actually that they lack adequate amounts of traffic to actually be making any impactful income online.

Facebook Ads

Initial Ads

If you remember my beginning goal was to create a breakeven funnel (where I put $1 into my ads and got $1 out). During this time even with lots of testing within the offer itself and the Facebook Targeting, my average cart value was $56.89.

The average cost to acquire a customer was about $31 (just taking the average between ads/retargeting ads) which meant about a $25 profit per customer.

As soon as I hit 100 conversions, I created a Facebook Custom Audience using my list of customers. Then, I created a 1% lookalike audience using this custom audience, and set up the same ad copy and graphics to this lookalike audience.

Retargeting

Since I was sending traffic directly to my sales page, I knew that there would be some people that decided not to purchase right away. Side note: it can actually take 7 or more exposures to your brand before your customer is ready to buy.

Pinterest

I created 3 different Pinterest graphics to promote both my squeeze page and sales page. This is the key to having repins and being able to share your blog posts or offers multiple times without being spammy.

For me, I usually share to my Pinterest boards as well as several collaboration boards. Tailwind has also proven to be a useful tool.

I have another strategy that I will be implementing soon that integrates Pinterest and Facebook Remarketing.

If you need help designing beautiful graphics, you might want to grab my bundle here (or at least the Pinterest graphics here).

Facebook Groups

I love providing valuable insight as I’m interacting in Facebook Groups. A detailed comment on someone’s post inside of a Facebook Group can be the most powerful way to build your brand name and credibility.

However, Facebook Group engagement can be extremely time consuming! Choose one or two groups max that you show up daily in and engage.

Most Facebook Groups have a promo thread where you can share your latest content or freebie. Some even have a thread that you can promo your paid offer.

Want to learn my three favorite business-minded Facebook Groups with promo threads? Click here (or the image below), and I’ll send it your way!

Some people write paragraphs about their freebie. Usually these promo threads get LONG! I try to keep my short and focus on the benefit for opting in for my freebie. My secret hack is adding a photo to my comment to make it stand out because if you just rely on your link preview image, you could be losing some valuable real estate.

Here’s a peek at a recent post I added to a Facebook Group Promo Thread.

The only problem with Facebook Groups is the fact that it’s difficult to track sales unless you set up a special tracking code with Google Analytics or duplicate the sales funnel in ClickFunnels.

What Could Have Stopped Me

Along the way there were a few things that almost sabotaged my success. Here’s a few of them:

Mindset

Several times during the creation process, I thought to myself, am I worthy of a sales funnel? Is my business ready to have automated leads? Do I deserve this? Money doesn’t grow on trees. I need to work hard for my money. Basically all of the limiting beliefs around money that we are raised with…

Anytime I found myself even letting one of these thoughts come in, I dove back into a new book I started reading called Dollars Flow to Me Easily.

Perfectionism

If I was going for perfect, my funnel would still be hiding inside of ClickFunnels today. All along the way I have made tweaks, fixed broken links, updated copy, tested offer prices, and added trainings. I even did a launch-and-run. Meaning I published my ads to start getting traffic and jumped on a boat without my phone. You are not helping others by sitting on your voice or your product or your course until it is perfect!