And So what does both your work actually look like?
Well, unfortunately for most people, it looks like sales activity.
I know that lots of you will find this icky, but if you’re an entrepreneur, you have to get good at sales.
It’s a massive part of what you do, whether you like it or not.
So you’ll be working conversion activity.
You’ll be asking people to take action and making it easy for them to say yes because this is the stage where you’ll actually convert people to real clients.
It’s where you have the real conversations and you learn the most about your audience and thereby you’ll be constantly improving what you do too.
So what does this specifically and really detail of what does it actually look like?
Because it’s all well and good people offering advice, but what do I need to do?
This is what I want to know.
What actions should I be doing?
Well, let’s start with MOFU because essentially that’s what warms them up to the BOFU stage.
So if the bottom of the funnel is where you’re asking for the sale, the middle of the funnel is everything that kind of makes that ask feel safe.
And so middle of an activity looks like things like nurturing emails, not the weekly here are my thoughts emails right as that’s quite tofu ish.
I mean, nurture that moves people.
Like, for example, those emails which are like if you’re stuck on X, here’s Y or here’s what to do before you hire someone like me.
And you know, proofs stuff like here’s a client example on how we got the results.
Or maybe even here’s the biggest mistake people try when they try to DIY this hint, hint, hire me instead.
And so those emails answer the questions of why you, why now, why it works and what happens next.
So those emails are fantastic for Mofie stage.
I also want to see things like content that handles objections.
So it’s still crazy content, but it’s very specific and intentional and it’s where you talk to the almost buyers, so to speak.
It’s the people thinking is this worth it?
Or what if it doesn’t work?
And what’s the process and things like?
I’ve tried this before but it didn’t work.
So your MOFU content are things like the objection posts.
It’s here’s how it actually works, breakdowns and like I said, if you’re not ready, here’s what to do 1st and really clear who this is for and who it’s not for.
So that’s the content you need to be doing, which works in the middle of the long.
Now I think the third one is the most important, which people forget about.
It’s relationship building.
And this is even more important for those who are running service businesses because for me, this is all about the middle, the final stage.
It’s where you do things like you invite people to a small event, you voice notes, the warm leads because you get closer to them.
You apply properly to comments, not just thanks, you actually insightful and engage and continue the conversation.
And then you DM people with conversations that actually lead somewhere because I feel like most people treat community like a fan club.
It’s all about them and it’s all about, you know, oh, they’re, they’re part of my community.
But real MOFU stuff treats community like relationships and real relationships will always be the real key to business.
So that for me is the main stuff in MOFU.
And then I’d say that the bottom of funnel stuff looks more like, for example, direct outreach to warm people.
Now, I don’t mean cold DM spam, I mean genuine outreach.
I mean people who have replied to those nurture emails, the people who comment on your post regularly, they’ve been on your side, they’ve downloaded something and they’ve asked you questions even, and they’ve even said actually, oh, I really need this, but then disappeared somewhere.
They’re the ones you’ve been chatting to in the MOFU stage, essentially.
And so you now narrow in on that conversation and get deeper about what they really want.
That is really, really key bottom of the funnel action bit.
Then essentially you’ve just got to jump on those calls, those sales calls, consoles conversations, you literally have to just book in calls and follow-ups and all that sort of stuff.
And, you know, you’re not doing that thing where you go, oh, let me know if you have any questions.
And then you just disappear, right?
Unfortunately, you do need to follow up.
You have to be able to get good at handling objections and send those proposals and checking in again.
And then, you know, getting rejected and get used to that.
And, you know, a lot of people lose sales, not because the lead wasn’t interested, but because generally the founder just got awkward and stopped communicating.
And I see all the time, which then leads me on to probably the most important bit, the place where the money is hiding.
And I think that’s the follow-ups.
It’s definitely the most underused activity in small businesses.
And it’s certainly where I’ve fallen short.
And you know why?
Because I’ve actually been distracted by all the tofu activity.
But if you just follow up in the right way, then this is how you convert the most accurately.
And follow up isn’t being annoying, which is what a lot of fantasy as it’s being a professional.
And it’s hard and it can be awkward because sometimes you have to ask the questions like did you want to go ahead with that or did you want to me to hold that spot for you?
Or then even asking clarification questions like what’s stopping you from deciding?
And is it timing or budget or clarity?
And you see, like you need to ask these questions and it’s hard because most people aren’t going to say yes on the first ask, but it’s not because they’re not interested, it’s because they’re too busy or they’re uncertain or scared.
So if you’re not following up, you’re basically relying on miracles to happen for them to just convert on the first go.
So I, I really could go on for ages in this episode because I really do think this is an important thing that we might be doing wrong in marketing.
I didn’t realize how long I’ve been speaking about this already on this episode.
So I’m, I’m going to have to do a follow up episode, which is ironic considering what I just said about how important follow-ups are, but I really do.
But I really wanted to include a practical section on what you can do right now to improve your funnels.
So I want to, I want to add that here and I, I will go back to the stuff in more detail another time.
So I want to just say that if you’re looking to flip the funnel and spend more time on this conversion stage, then I’m going to say that a good way to ration your time and efforts probably be something like 20% tofu.
Just, you know, you don’t want the content to keep the, that top fresh.
And I would say 40% on the Mofi bit.
So you’ll nurture your trust, your proof stage another 40% on BOFU.
And this is what people don’t do.
I want you to spend more time on the outreach, on those calls, on the follow-ups, on those conversion fixes.
I think that you’ll see massive results if you do this.
But remember, obviously this only works if you already have an audience.
But if you’re doing this, you’re already going to be ahead of most people because currently their split is looking more like 90% TOFU, 9% MOFU, and only 1% BOFU.
And then they’re wondering why they’re broke, but somehow they’re doing well online.