EP3: The Art of Free Advertising

Side Hustle Secrets

“The goal of growing a business the right way is to acquire customers for free.” - Austin Dixon (5:28-5:38)Austin Dixon The Whole Truth Paid advertising can be a gamble. Done right, advertising attracts the right clients to your business. But many entrepreneurs make mistakes that end up costing them thousands of dollars. There’s one strategy that can help you get better results, while having your audience cover advertising costs. This simple approach can drastically change how you grow your business. “It doesn’t make sense to put $2,200 into paid advertising and get $2,200 in return.” - Austin Dixon (5:11-5:18) Sales funnels are an essential part of doing business. Consumers have become good at tuning out the endless stream of sales messages. Businesses have learned to nurture prospects over time instead of immediately going for the sale. But most entrepreneurs are building funnels the wrong way. They create complex sales systems before they even have an audience. They spend time and money creating free products, lead magnets, and other marketing assets. They run paid ads without having the knowledge of what it takes to make a return on their advertising investment. If they’re lucky, these marketers break even. But many lose money. Some continue to pour marketing dollars into their ad campaigns hoping to turn a profit. So what’s the mistake they’re making? What can you do to avoid the same mistakes and make your marketing profitable and sustainable instead? Build Your Sales Funnel Around a High-Ticket Core Offer Building a sales funnel around a low-ticket offer is the biggest mistake marketers are making. They create ads to attract would-be customers but have nothing else to offer other than a product that brings in little revenue. If their ads and sales pages fail to convert, they lose money and prospects that would otherwise have been converted into paying customers. If you want better results from your marketing, build your sales process around a high-ticket item. This gives prospects a next step after they’ve said “yes” to your initial low-ticket item. When prospects enter your sales funnel, they’re offered the low-ticket item first. The sales you get from this initial offer cover the cost of your advertising. More importantly, you’ve acquired qualified prospects who are “warmed up” to buy your more expensive core offer. “If your business isn’t growing, take a step back and look at what your trying to sell to your audience.” - Austin Dixon (10:34-10:49) Rather than create a low-priced offer first and spend money on ineffective advertising, work backwards. Build your more expensive offer and then implement the low-priced offer to cover your ad spending. This approach brings you more of the right customers at a fraction of the cost. If you’re feeling stuck in your business and unable to achieve consistent growth, take a step back and look at the product. If you’re banking on selling a low-priced product with nothing else to offer customers, you are setting yourself up for failure. Creating effective sales funnels can be a challenge for entrepreneurs. But when you make this simple change in your strategy, you bring in more customers and revenue while achieving the growth you need for lasting success. How to Get Involved Want to learn how YOU can grow successful sales funnels to grow your business exponentially, and stop putting maximum effort into minimum results? Austin and his team at Sales Funnel Sharks have become experts at doing that. You can find them here. You can also listen to The Whole Truth Podcast here.