Lead magnets? Opt-ins? Content upgrades???

Where does it end?

Just kidding!

Your opt-in, or however you refer to it, is your first step in gathering a list of leads for your online business. When you are looking to generate HOT leads for your business your opt-in acts as a way to gather these leads for your online business and help nurture them.

Sow where do you start lead generation for your online business?

Your opt-in is the first step

But having your opt-in in place is really just the starting point. It acts as a gateway for your business. Allowing people who are interested in what you do and what you have to say take action in getting to know you better.

Thus generating leads for your business.

But it isn’t the final step.

You’ve got to go beyond your opt-in to really create a lasting connection and nurture those leads.

If you are unfamiliar with this or just setting up your first opt-in you may be thinking… What comes next?

The answer which we will go into detail in just a second is a lead nurturing funnel.

Beyond your opt-in

To have a successful opt-in that grows your business and not just your email list. You’ve got to have a plan for how you are going to nurture these leads.

Let’s break down what a lead nurturing sales funnel is.

It lets your email list signups get to know you.

It keeps you top of mind for the people who are interested in your services.

5 characteristics of a nurturing email funnel

Encourages engagement

This may seem obvious as you are reading it but it is truly something that every single funnel should start with at the base.

How can I encourage engagement with my list through this funnel/email?

It’s so important to the long-term success of your funnel that you start from a place of engagement.

This really helps nurture your list and gets them to take action by interacting with you.

Provides value

Your leads are on your list for value!

Therefore a nurturing funnel will continue giving value so that you build the relationship with hot leads on your list.

Some quick notes on value…

People find value in all kinds of places. It doesn’t always need to be a long how-to email in your funnel.

In fact, I encourage you to think of ways to provide quick wins or boil your value into a story with a single focus or action step.

Just think about your own inbox…. all those emails waiting. Sometimes just being able to provide a quick singular focus is just the value your audience needs.

I’m also not saying to forget longer emails when necessary but try to mix it up.

Position yourself as the expert on their problem

This is a great opportunity for you to position you in their eyes as the expert able to solve their problem. If you don’t know where to start understanding your audience and their problems check out my Free Market Research Master Plan kit to get you started and on your way to digging deep into what your audience is looking for.

Write emails on the subject and talk about industry trends and how they related to your subscriber’s problem.

This also provides another layer of value to the lead. They are actively looking for someone to be the expert…to learn from or to hire and your job is to showcase yourself in that way through your lead nurturing funnel.

Talk about the problem you solve and then pitch your services.

Keeps you top of mind

Another characteristic of a lead nurturing funnel is that it keeps you on the top of your audience’s mind. Now, this isn’t because you are SPAMMING the heck out of their inbox but rather you are strategically showing up in their inbox and providing support and value.

You’ve heard this before. People can’t buy from you if they don’t know you exist. This is also true that they can’t buy from you if they can’t remember how to find you or even remember what the name of your business was because they got busy and closed the tab on your website.

Having the funnel in place also helps keep you from spamming or ghosting out on your subscribers it keeps you consistently showing up.

Builds trust

Your lead funnel also helps you build trust with your leads. And building trust is an essential part of relationship building for your business.

If you don’t have the persons trust they will most likely move on. So a good nurturing funnel focuses on that as well.

And this is even more important nowadays. I am seeing a shift in the online business industry in how effective marketing tactics have been working…spoiler they aren’t there are several reasons and I can’t go into them here, maybe I’ll write another blog post on the changes I see in the industry.

But anyway building trust with your audience is going to be a key factor in going forward. We as business owners want to focus more on building and growing relationships with their audience rather than just blasting them with information all the time.

 Now it’s your turn!

Let me know in the comments what your biggest takeaway from this post is?