Marketing Secrets with Russell Brunson - Funnel Hacker Onboarding #1 - Why Funnels?

Episode Date: September 6, 2017

On today's special episode of the Marketing Secrets podcast, Russell shares a video for the new onboarding process in Clickfunnels. He talks about the four core things you should know and goes into detail on the first one, which is what a funnel is and does your business need funnels? Here are some awesome things you will hear in this episode: What the four core concepts are that you will need to know to use Clickfunnels effectively. What the difference between a website and a funnel are. And hear about Russell's first experience using a funnel and if it worked well for him. Listen hear to find out more about the first core concept you need to know for the Funnel Hacker Onboarding process. Transcript - https://marketingsecrets.com/blog/funnel-hacker-onboarding-1-why-funnels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up everybody, this is Russell Brunson. I want to welcome you to the Marketing Secrets Podcast. I've got a really special episode. Actually, the next four episodes are kind of some special episodes I want to share with you guys that I think you're going to love. So let's get into it. So the big question is this. How are entrepreneurs like us,

who didn't cheat and take on venture capital, who are spending money from our own pockets, how do we market in a way that lets us get our products and our services and the things that we believe in out to the world and yet still remain profitable? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Russell Brunson and welcome to Marketing Secrets. Alright, so on this first episode I want to give you some backstory on what's happening and why I made these four special episodes for you.

So right now, inside ClickFunnels, we are working towards our big viral video launch on the 15th. And with that, we're trying to change a whole bunch of things, fix the onboarding process, make things simpler and simpler for people. Because if we get a huge influx of customers, especially people who don't really know our marketing, understand what funnels are, how they're doing it. We have to really simplify the process. That's what we're doing, a simplification of this whole thing.

I don't know if you've noticed, our ClickFunnels support has gotten so much better. We shifted from, it was taking on average a little less than an hour to get live response. Now we're at a three-minute medium. So many cool things we've been doing, trying to prepare for this thing, which is like two weeks away for us i'm kind of stressful not gonna lie and one of the cool things we're having is um this really cool gaming badging system so when somebody comes in to um at the click funnels there's like the this uh this gamified like onboarding process you're doing things you're moving throughout it and um it's gonna be really really cool so by the time some of you guys are listening to this it'll actually be live so you can go and see it um

but in there you know a couple things with ClickFunnels. Like ClickFunnels, we're teaching how to use the software, but also people have to understand the marketing behind it or else they're not going to be successful with the software, which is kind of interesting. And so I tried to like how do I teach all this funnel psychology and stuff in a very short, compressed period of time. And so we did that with one of the little badges that people will win here inside of the onboarding process. So that's kind of what's going down, right? And so with that, I basically created four different videos that are the core foundational things to get people onboarded to understand the marketing behind funnels very, very quickly, very rapidly. And so that's what these episodes are about is I'm actually going to just play those four video clips. Now, in the video clips, I'll say click down the button down below, and you're going to get this thing these episodes are about, is I'm actually gonna just play those four video clips.

Now in the video clips, I'll say, click down the button down below and you're gonna get this thing over here and this is your homework assignment. So just know that those are from the onboarding process. If you actually wanna get the homework assignments, if you wanna see the things I talk about, you do have to actually log into ClickFunnels and go through the onboarding to get those.

But I want you to understand because I think, hopefully it made sense, we'll find out, maybe it makes no sense, but I tried to really simplify the process of four core things, the four things to really understand. Number one is like, why do we have funnels? Like, why is that important?

Number two is the value ladder. And a lot of times we think about value ladder from like a high level, like first I'm gonna have a book and then I'm gonna have an event and then we're gonna do one-on-one coaching. But I wanna talk about value ladder from a micro standpoint instead of the macro. So it's like landing

page. Like why, how do you, how do you give value on that? And then what's the value on the sales page and then the upsell page? Like how do you do that? So we go into the value ladders video. Number two, number three, that's how to create an offer, which is something it's been funny. Like in my mind, I think this is common sense to me or intuitive or I've done so long. I don't think about this, but it seems like as we've been doing the two comical coaching, the, the, one of the biggest problems and questions people have to Stephen deals with

every day is like, how do we create an offer? And, and so I've never really talked about it. I guess I assume, I think I assumed that people understood it. I found out now that they don't. So,

um, I go deep into like how to create an actual offer, which I think was cool. Hopefully, hopefully it was good. Maybe it's lame, but hopefully it turned out good to help you understand like, oh, that's what I need to be doing. I'm creating lots and lots of offers. Like that's the key to this whole thing. And then the fourth step

was understanding copywriting because copywriting is like the last layer is how you actually present the offer. So we have, why do you need a funnel? And then inside the funnel, like what is the value you're providing each step inside the funnel? And then from there, what's the offer that you've created each step inside the funnel to actually provide that value, and then the last one is the copywriting, which is how you actually sell the offer, which provides the value, which is how you get someone through your funnel.

Ho ho, that's kinda cool. So anyway, that's what I'm gonna share with you guys. So over the next four episodes, we're gonna go over that. So this first one, we're talking about why do we need a funnel? Now some of you guys obviously have been funnel hackers forever, you know this stuff. Some of you guys may be like,

what the dump is Russell talking about? And so that's what we're going to talk about now is why funnels. I'm going to show you guys that clip, and that'll be what's happening here on this episode of the Marketing Secrets Podcast. Hey, this is Russell again, and today I'm excited because today we're not just talking about ClickFunnels, which is one of the coolest things in the world, but for you to really utilize ClickFunnels and really have success from it, I think it's vitally important that you not only get good at using the software and using the tool, but you actually become a marketer. ClickFunnels was built by marketers like me for marketers to be able to market their products and their services. And sometimes people come in and they have a product, they have a service, and they want to sell it.

And they throw it in ClickFunnels and they build a funnel. And then they're like, nobody's buying it. Nobody's coming to my thing. No one's giving me their email address. I'm just like, why not? It's because it's not just something you put out there and hope that the best happens. It's something where you have to understand the marketing behind it. And so what I want to do during this walkthrough is to help you understand some of the core fundamental concepts of marketing that are essential for your success

inside of funnels. Okay. Cause if you understand these things and when you're building funnels, your funnels become profitable to actually make money and you have success with ClickFunnels, and that's our number one goal for you. So that's kind of game plan. So to kind of step back, because I know that a lot of people, when they first get into ClickFunnels, they don't even know what a funnel is. So depending on where you're at, either you may know exactly what it is, you have kind of a hazy idea, or you have no idea at all. Most people obviously have heard of a website, right? When I got started in this business 15 years ago, websites were the thing. And it's funny because I remember back then, everybody would come and they would say,

you're like, oh, do you think I need a website? Everyone's talking about websites. Should I get one? And now we kind of laugh about that because today, you know, like there's no business I don't think that doesn't have a website. You have to have a website to exist. And so we just kind of assume it now. And that's kind of what funnels are today.

Funnels are the future. They are the evolution of websites. It's where everything is going. And so people always ask me like, well, do I need a funnel for my business? And I always kind of chuckle because they don't understand the strategy. And when they do, it's like, oh wow, like there's no point to a website. Like the only thing I need is a funnel. Like it's where everything's going. And so that's what I want to really help you guys to understand. And so I think the best way for you guys to really understand this, I'm going to tell you guys a story about how I kind of got it and when you understand this it should hopefully make

more sense inside of your business so first core concept you have to understand I learned this initially from one of my very first marketing mentors his name is Dan Kennedy and he said this whoever can spend the most money to acquire customer wins now when I first heard that it didn't make perfect sense to me I was was like, that doesn't make any sense. Why would I want to spend a whole bunch of money? And I remember hearing that and it just didn't really resonate with me. But bear with me as I share this story with you. You're going to find out this is the key, most important thing to understand in business,

in marketing, in funnels. Whoever can spend the most money to acquire a customer wins. So let me tell you my story. So when I got started in this business back 15 years ago, I was in high school and I had built my very first website selling potato guns. Now I had created an information product. I set up a website. I'd done my best. And back then the way that everybody got traffic to the websites was by using a website called Google. So I went to Google. I started buying my very first Google ads. Now as a college student, I didn't have a ton of money. So I was able to invest about $10 a day into Google ads. And the good thing for me is I was selling this DVD for $37. And what happened is on average for every $10 I'd spend, I'd sell about one DVD. So you do the math

on that. I was spending $10, making $37. I had $27 profit that I was putting inside of my pocket. Now what happened is a little while later, Google shifted their algorithm and kind of changed how, how things work and the price for every single click started going up and it got bigger and bigger and bigger. Now what happened is one day I woke up and the ads that I was running were exactly the same. I was getting the same amount of clicks, same amount of people on my website, but now instead of spending $10 a day to get the same amount of traffic, I was spending $50 a day. Now, if you do the math on that, you spend $50 a day, you make $37 a day. I was losing $13 every single day because of my website.

Now, I don't know about you, but I really quickly, my wife and I realized we couldn't keep doing that and stay in business. So after four or five days, I had to turn off my website. And it was over for me. And unfortunately for me and for so many entrepreneurs, that's where most entrepreneurial dreams die, is in you're spending money and you can't be profitable and it just falls apart.

Okay. And I started learning this lesson. Okay. Whoever can spend the most money to acquire customer wins. I couldn't spend more than $37 a day because that's all I was making. I was capped at that. And that's if I just wanted to break even. And so, um, a few months later, I had a friend who was in a similar business to me and he called me up and he said, Hey, Russell, I think I figured out the secret. He said, I started adding upsells to all of my products. And I was like, what do you mean an upsell? And he said, well, it's kind of like McDonald's. You've been to McDonald's.

I'm like, yeah. He said, do you know when they offer you a hamburger? And I said, yeah. He said, do you know that for them to sell that hamburger, they actually lose money? The money for the ads and the promotion, the marketing, they actually lose money. So they sell you a hamburger for like two or three bucks and it costs them four or $5 to get you there in the drive-in. We said, and they added this little sentence on there and said, Hey, would you like fries and a Coke with that? And the majority of people say, Oh yeah, sure. Throw that in there.

And they did that. The fries and the Coke is where they make their money. So they spend, you know, three or $4 to get someone there. They sell a hamburger for $2. They lose a dollar. They add fries and a Coke and all of a sudden, boom, they're profitable. And when he said that, the light bulb went off in my head. And I said, OK, well, how do I do this? And so he showed me his website. He had similar websites to me selling little information products. And he said, look, what I did is I started having upsells trying to sell the next thing that someone would need if they bought my first product.

And I said, well, how would that work for my potato guns? I don't know. He said, well, when somebody buys a potato gun DVD, what's the next thing that they need? And I was like, well, you know, the next thing they have to buy the pipes and the glue and the barbecue igniter and all those pieces that you have to go to the store to get. And he said, you should make a kit and just upsell the kit. And so I was lucky. I found someone up in Northern Idaho who actually sold potato gun kits and we did a partnership and I started adding those as upsells. And so I transitioned my, my little website into my

very first funnel. I didn't know that's what it was called at the time, but it was a funnel. So somebody would buy my DVD and then the next page we'd upsell them a potato gun kit. Now, if you look at the math and how this all worked, I was still spending $50 a day on Google. That didn't change. They didn't lower their prices for me. They were still charging the same amount and I was still averaging about one sell a day of my DVD. So I was only making $37. So I was actually losing money. But then what was cool is that one out of every three people who bought my DVD ended up buying my upsell and buying my kit. You look at the math and that my kit was $197. That means one out of three means I made an extra $65 for every DVD I sold. That means I spent $50 a day and I was making $102 a day. So we do the math behind that. I was actually making $52 every single day.

Now that is when the whole light bulb went off my head. I was like, that's the secret. Like if I can spend more money to acquire a customer, then I win. And that's when I realized that websites made me broke, but funnels actually made me money. Now as I started my career, after I did that, I started getting excited. I started realizing like, wow, there's so many ways to do funnels and I can put funnels into any business. And I started my career, after I did that, I started getting excited. I started realizing, wow, there's so many ways to do funnels, and I can put funnels into any business. I started doing that, and I started going into really competitive markets where there's tons of competition. I would look, and I would see these people.

All they had was a website selling a product. I would take that concept, and I would start adding upsells and downsells and adding different things in there, and I'd start competing against these people. What was crazy is they could spend however many dollars a day they could spend in advertising. I could spend two or three times as much money and still make more money. And very quickly, I started beating out all my competitors in every market we went into. And that's when I realized, just like Dan Kennedy told me, that whoever can spend the most money to acquire a customer wins. And that's why funnels are so important, especially if you're struggling in your business right now. If you have a business

and you're breakeven or you're losing some money, a funnel is the secret. That's what gets you from breakeven to becoming profitable. If you're doing well but you want to grow, a funnel is the secret. It's how you start taking your business and scaling it. You make more money for every single person who comes into your funnel. The funnels are the secret to growing businesses and getting your message, your products, your services out into the world.

And so that's why we're so excited about funnels. So I want you guys to understand the concepts behind those things. Now, obviously, there are lots of different types of funnels, as you learned in the earlier walkthrough. Inside the cookbook, we had 22 different types. And so some of the funnels are specifically for selling a product, like my Potato Gun DVD, where I sold the DVD, then I upsold the Potato Gun kit. Some funnels aren't for that.

Some funnels are for generating a lead. Then you can send emails to them and sell them things in the future. Some are to generate applications so you can call them on the phone. Some are funnels to get people into your actual location. It doesn't really matter. There's different funnels for different situations. But all a funnel is is something where you're taking somebody and you're taking them through this process to get the end result. And what's interesting is that I think a lot of people think that funnels are this mysterious thing, yet it's happening every single day right now. In fact, if you run an offline business, I promise you, you already have a funnel. It may be a really, really bad one,

but you have one. Think about this. Let's say you're a chiropractor or a dentist or something, right? Somebody sees an ad, they drive by, they see your billboard, they see your place, they get a referral, something, right? And they come to your location. They walk up to your door. What's the first thing they do? They open the door, right? And they walk in. Now something's happening to them. They're coming into this funnel. Now they're greeted by somebody. It could be your front desk receptionist or whoever, right? And they're saying something. They're trying to get them to schedule an appointment or set up a call or whatever the thing might be. And then after that happens and they take them to the next step and the next step. And every business has

it. There's some kind of funnel, some kind of process you're taking people through all the time. And the online funnels are the same thing. People think it's something different, but it's not. It's if I'm driving an ad from Facebook, they're going to come somewhere to a page. And maybe that page, I'll try to ask for their email address. Maybe I'm selling them a product or I'm taking them down this path,

just like I would if I was selling somebody face-to-face. So the cool thing about funnels is it's not something new or different that you're not used to. It's the same thing you're used to. It's just in an online format. And when you start realizing that, you start realizing like funnels are happening everywhere around you. And for me, I started noticing them over and over and it gets me so excited to see it. And now it's coming back like, okay, how do I do this for my business online? And so that's kind

of the game. Now I'm going to be walking through a lot more of these things through the next training videos down below, but I want you to understand that's what a funnel is. I want you to understand the one core concept. It's that whoever can spend the most money to acquire a customer wins. That's how you grow a company. That's how you beat your competitors. That's how you sell more products. That's how you get your ads more out there. That's how all the things that you want in business all come off of that concept. Whoever can spend the most money to acquire a customer wins, and the way you're able to spend more money profitably is by having a funnel. all come off of that concept. Whoever can spend the most money to acquire customer wins. And the way you're able to spend more money profitably is by having a funnel.

So I hope at this point I've sold you on funnels. They are the key to everything in life, at least related to business. And so I hope you understand that. So with that said, your assignment right now is just to kind of think through that and understand that and understand the power and importance of funnels.

And think about your existing business. Think about the business you're in right now. Let's say you do have a regular website. How do you take this thing with all these things? How do you restructure them into an actual funnel? Okay, well, where are you seeing funnels right now? If you have a regular business, are you seeing, you see the funnel right now? Like, what does that look like? Like, what's the process somebody's coming through? And then what can you do to fix those things? And just start thinking about those things because it'll get you excited about funnels. So with that said, thanks so much and I'll see you guys on the next training. Want more marketing secrets? If so, then go get your copies of my two best-selling books. Book number one is called Expert Secrets and you can get a

free copy at expertsecrets.com. And book number two is called Dot Com Secrets and you can get your free copy at dotcomsecrets.com. Inside these two books, you'll find my top 35 secrets that we've used to become the fastest-growing, non-VC-backed SaaS startup company in the world.