Hey guys, Kelechi here, and in my last blog post which you can check out here, I mentioned that I was working on my sales funnel (I was selling gold chains which I was dropshipping from suppliers in China) which I wanted to launch, drive traffic too and then hopefully make a couple hundred bucks. Hang tight and I would be telling you how it went and the things I learned in the process.
So I launched my sales funnel Friday morning at around 11:30am. I had stayed up the night before trying to dot my “i’s” and cross my “t’s”. Making sure that the little things that needed to be fixed, were fixed.
I was at work when my influencer shoutouts went live and I was besides myself with excitement. I was pretty sure it was only a matter of time before my phone started going “ka-chings” from all the stripe payments of my new customers. I couldn’t wait to make some money so I could show my classmates see, it’s real, see this entrepreneurship thing works!
An hour went by and I thought you know a couple hours from now my phone would start buzzing. I started making excuses. Yeah my customers are probably just at work and they haven’t seen the influencer ads I put up. Give them some more time I thought…
Then 2, 3 hours went by and then I started thinking you know. They’re probably just not going to buy. I decided to enjoy the little wins instead, I launched my first funnel like I said I would, that means I can do the things I set my mind to do. I got it out there, that means I can go back and tweak it and make it work.
I remembered in my last post I said I would tell you all how it goes. So regardless of the fact that I didn’t make any sells, I’d like to turn this into a WIN for you, my reader, so if ever you’re at a point where you’re about to launch an online sales funnel or online store maybe you can learn from my experience and make some tweaks to yours to make yours a little more successful.
Start reaching out to influencers at least a week in advance and shoot for 100.
After you build and launch your funnel or store, the next step is getting your customers to show up. They are referred to as Traffic. There are a bunch of ways to go about getting traffic. Facebook ads and Influencer shoutouts are some of the easiest ways to go about it though, especially if you are short on time.
The latter, influencer shoutouts, is best if you’re short on cash. I fall into that category so I decided to reach out to influencers. I reached out to about 30 something influencers about two days before I launched my funnel. And only 5 of them responded. Out of those 5 I was only able to reach an agreement with 2 of them. They had total of 37k combined followers on IG so I thought I was going to be fine.
In hindsight, I should have reached out to more influencers. I didn’t get anywhere close to 100 views on my page which is the least I should be shooting for so I can properly analyze how good my funnel is doing…
My mentor suggests I reach out to a 100 influencers next time. The reason being not all of them would respond to you. Not that they’re mean, but sometimes they have so many people reaching out to them, that your message just goes to a long list of people trying to get their attention and do business with them…
Also pro tip, send both “dms” and emails. It would increase your chances of being noticed and getting across to the influencer and being taken more seriously. Reaching out a week before your launch allows for any delays in hearing back from them.
You learn by DOING not by thinking about it or watching youtube videos.
If you ever wanted to start an online business, you’ve probably googled, “How to make money online” or maybe searched for it on Youtube. This is great. It helps to see that what you are wanting to do is possible, that there are people like you succeeding and that you aren’t weird for wanting to do that.
Here’s the thing though, because of the wealth of information and content on the internet, it is very easy to be sucked into a vacuum of videos, tutorials, vlogs and what not that have nothing to do with starting. People get stuck watching videos and looking for answers to every single objection that might arise instead of simply starting…
It’s going to be uncomfortable and borderline scary but embrace it!
From experience, I know throwing yourself in uncomfortable situations is the only way for you to ever get good at that stuff. Just get started! You will learn as you go. This is something Stephen Larsen calls “Selective Learning”. Only learn what you need to know for the very next step…
This last weekend, right before I launched my funnel I didn’t know how to launch it. I knew how to build it though, but launching as in making it go live, buying a domain name, adding your products to the software integrating a payment gateway and designing the swipe up ads were all foreign to me. In my head I’d assumed that when the time came, my mentor Mason, would hold my hand and we’d figure it out.
Nothing could be further from the truth! When I thought I needed him most, he let me be uncomfortable. He was busy working on his own funnels and so I had to go figure it out by myself.
Trust me on this: Nothing compares to the feelings of confidence and certainty you get from figuring something that you thought was once really difficult!
The next thing is…
Set a Hard Deadline and Tell People about it.
While working on this funnel, my biggest fear was not that I wouldn’t make any money from it, it was actually that I wouldn’t launch it. See somehow I knew one key to being successful in this funnel game and online business is to take that first step! To get my first one out of the way or first failure if you will.
So how I made sure that I did launch it was to one, set a hard deadline. I told my self come rain or shine I would launch my funnel Friday and then the second thing is to tell people about it. I told my siblings, my accountability partner, posted it on my blog and the influencers I reached out to.
I made it so that I had to get it done and live by Friday and it worked for me. One thing this really helped with is that it made me only focus on the things, that really really mattered. If it was not going to help me get my funnel up and running I didn’t bother with it. So it’s something I would recommend. And not just in the funnel game but this is something you can apply in life as well.
Are there things you’ve been putting off that you want to get done?? Set a goal to do it, set a hard deadline and then tell people about it! If you still don’t get it done after doing this then it’s probably not that important to you and you shouldn’t be worrying about it anyway.
Whew…
If you’ve read this far, “you’re a real one, you’re loyal and I appreciate you” *dj khaled voice*
I know I did not make money from my funnel this weekend like I wanted, but I don’t want you to feel bad because I’ve got some good news!
Today, at the agency, Mason got a referral from one of our clients and decided the agency couldn’t take him on but I could as a personal client. Mason put in a good word for me and I am going to be meeting with him tomorrow. If the meeting goes well, I would have my very first client and can get paid.
I am excited but to be honest I am also nervous and a little uncomfortable. I have never managed a whole client’s account just by myself. So this is a first but it is in the right direction. I’m looking forward to the positive stress and growth that will come as a result. I will let you know how it goes.
So again guys, thanks for reading and till next time…
be great!
Kelechi Ochulo 