The ultimate goal for any business is to obtain paying clients who will ideally become long-term, high-value members. But getting to this point requires the development of a sales process, and this can be done very easily by building a simple sales funnel for your organisation that should be followed religiously. A sales funnel encompasses the journey you take web visitors through to try and convert them into a customer.

A sales funnel can be as simple or complicated as you like, but in our example here, we’ll keep it simple.In the health and fitness industry, a well thought out sales funnel should be the lifeblood of your business and the core that all your leads and new members flow out from. But if you’re a new business owner or unfamiliar with sales processes in general, you probably have no idea where to start.

That’s why we’ve developed this simple how-to guide so you can create a basic sales funnel that’s perfect for your business.To keep our example sales funnel as simple as possible, we’ve stuck with three simple steps:

• Opt-In Offer
• Promotion & Landing Page
• Nurture Your Leads

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Opt-In Offer

To start generating traffic to your website and business, there needs to be some type of opt-in offer to attract interest to your business.The most successful sales funnels include multiple offers divided into two key offer types – low-threshold and high-threshold offers. Low-threshold offers involve requesting basic contact information in return for added value. T

his type of offer requires minimal commitment. A high-threshold offer on the other hand usually involves the person signing up to something. For a high-threshold offer to be effective, the person would need to be interested in what you do already and come on board.Consider the type of offer you want to provide. Keep in mind that whatever offer you choose, it must be irresistible – providing such an extraordinary amount of value that your target audience can’t say no.Stumped for offer ideas? Here’s a few you could consider:

‍Low Threshold Offers involve requesting basic contact information such as email and / or phone number in return for something that provides added value such as:

• Downloadable fitness or nutrition guide
• A competition to win a prize
• Email subscription full of useful health and nutrition information.

High Threshold Offers usually requires people to sign up or pass on their information to then convert them to sign up. Some ways to do this include:

• Discounted membership price
• Free consultation
• Free or discounted sign up
• Free trial period
• Referral offers

Landing Page & Promotion Setup

Once you’ve decided on one or more offers, each offer should have its own landing page that directs from a social or online ad. The landing page is the first impression web visitors will have of your business and offer, so take your time to get the visuals and message right.After people submit their contact information onto the landing page, they should then be taken to a thank you page immediately. On the thank you page you could incentivise them further with links to blogs on your website or include a call to action to get in touch.

The thank you page should also tell them what will happen next – whether it be a follow-up phone call, email or clicking on a download button.With your landing page and thank you page set up, you need to attract web visitors toward that landing page, and this is done by implementing an online ad. When setting up the promotion on social media or AdWords remember to consider the following:

• Platform – Will you promote on AdWords, social media or both?
• Budget – How much are you willing to spend on each promotion?
• Target Audience – Who is most likely to respond to each promotion?
• Ad Duration – Is the offer only valid for a limited time?
• Creative – What type of visual content will you use for the ad?

Nurture Your Leads

Building a sales funnel is about setting up a natural set of steps to grow your following and gain new clients. Once an opt-in offer is developed, the next focus for your sales funnel is to nurture your leads and turn them into fully fledged members and even brand ambassadors.You will need to nurture your web visitors differently depending on whether they opted in for your low threshold or high threshold offer.

‍Nurturing Low Threshold Leads – Once you gather leads from your low threshold offers, you’ll need to take additional steps to nudge them further towards membership.Utilise their contact information to send useful and informative emails about your fitness business direct to their inbox. Remarket high-threshold offers to them. Encourage them to follow your social media pages and read your blogs for further brand exposure. Tactics like this can help get these prospects across the line.

‍Nurturing High Threshold Leads – If these leads have already signed on to become members, your next focus is to keep them on as members long-term or encourage them to increase their spend on your business.You can do this by sending targeted emails focusing on the benefits of upgraded memberships, setting up a Facebook group to generate valuable community interaction or implementing further value-added benefits within the facility. Simple initiatives like membership events, discounts or other added goodies and bonuses for members can help turn them into brand ambassadors.Nurturing is a process that should take place continually. Give your members a reason to stick around and maintain their membership.

Build the Perfect Sales Funnel for Your Business

Whether you own a gym, yoga studio, martial arts studio or any other form of fitness centre, a sales funnel like this one is a good place to start and can easily be adapted to suit your type of business.A sales funnel can vary in any number of ways and include many more involved steps. But with a simple framework in place to start with, you will easily be able to build a more complex strategy onto it further down the track that’s fine-tuned to suit your business processes and goals.