These are the 3 stages:
These are the 3 stages of the money funnel: top of funnel, middle of funnel, and bottom of funnel.
Top of funnel (ToFu)
- First or second time a person is exposed to your content
- Exposure, awareness stage
- Communities, social media, SEO
Middle of funnel (MiFu)
- Some people from top of funnel check you out further
- They go to your lead capture page or website/blog listed on your profile
- If they like what they see, they opt-in to your list
- You start building relationships with them so that they know, like and trust you.
Bottom of funnel (BoFu)
- A portion of your subscribers will buy your paid offers
- These are your customers who trust you to help them solve their problems
- You continue to build further relationships with them, getting them to like and trust you even more
- If you have multiple paid offers, some customers will buy more than one of your products/services; if you product is recurring-fee based, you’ll get them to stay subscribed as a customer longer
The purpose of showing you the 3 stages of the funnel is so you know when it comes to selling online, it’s not a 1-step thing.
It’s a multiple step process. There is no shortcut. So you shouldn’t be expecting instant results. You can’t just enter the market as someone new and expect to be making sales in the first week or month.
In an effort to give you realistic expectations, be prepared not to sell anything in the first 3 - 6 months IF YOU'RE NEW.
This is especially true when you’re selling an intangible product -- which, as an indie creator, you most likely are. I’ve mentioned this also in the beginning of the guide.
You’re a nobody still. You haven’t contributed anything. You haven’t provided any value. You haven’t built any kind of relationships. Why should people trust you?
Put yourself in their situation. Would you trust a stranger who just entered the market and tried to sell you something?
The solution is to keep showing up in their inbox with emails they look forward to reading. Over time, they’ll like and trust you → make sales.