How many of your relationships with your favourite online personalities started with social media but soon progressed to your inbox?
Ever feel like you know them? Do you see their name in the send field and can’t wait to click?
I have a few entrepreneurs like that. I look forward to reading their stories, seeing what they’ve been up to and learning about what they’re working on each time I open my inbox.
And they always give such great value.
Too many women step into their Next Chapter business and find that within a year or two they’re burnt out. The constant hustle – like that mouse treading the wheel and getting nowhere – finally takes its toll. And so you stop. You give up.
But image if you could have worked smarter? Imagine if you could have created a system that worked for YOU – instead of the other way around?
That’s what those online personalities you love are doing. They’ve created a system that’s automated to nurture their most aligned clients for them, to free them up to focus on the things they most love.
It’s about creating a “soulful client pathway” – that is, an automated pathway that leads ideal clients from discovering who you are through to inviting them to work with you in a way that’s authentic to who you are. It’s not about using icky sales tactics to convert, but using storytelling, systems and strategy to leverage your business.
And this is what I want to share with you today – because you can really systemise so much of your business to enable you to focus on the things that matter to you. The things that light you up.
Client pathways are wholehearted sales funnels
This is how a client pathway will look once you’ve completed it.
Traffic
Where are your most aligned clients hanging out? You need to meet them where they are.
Free Gift
Create an irresistible lead magnet you can offer them in exchange for their email address. This can be anything from a PDF checklist to an audio interview.
Lead Page
Design a high converting landing page to sell the benefits of them trading that email address for your free gift.
Email Path
This is the sequence that delivers the free gift to them, but also continues to nurture a relationship with those people by providing value and also then asking for the sale. Because if you can’t ask for the sale, then you haven’t got a business – and you have nothing to measure. And if you can’t measure it, then it’s not worth doing.
Sales
This is the final step in the sequence, which is leading people to your sales page. And that sales page needs to sell the benefits of your product, program or service.
What can a Client Pathway do for your business?
The impact of a client pathway in your business can be profound. I’ve seen how NOT having one can put a big hole in your business and how implementing one can greatly move the positioning of your business.
Early on in my business, I created a blog post that garnered a lot of attention. I was giving away a free template within that blog post and people would come and download it.
Well, 1059 people to be exact. The only problem was, these people would come, download and then go off on their merry way. And so I never had a chance to get to know them, continue the relationship with them, or invite them to work with me.
And all because I never asked for their email address.
Thankfully, I’ve gone on to attract thousands more people to my email list since then, but I do often wonder what happened to those 1059 and whether they enjoyed the free template.
Then there’s Sally and Justine who run a weight loss surgery business. These two were looking for a way to systemise and grow their business. By using and implementing their social media and blog platforms with a client pathway, they were able to get a significantly bigger email list in just a couple of months, a No. 1 book on Amazon and clients banging down their weight loss surgery membership door for entry, resulting in an increase in automated monthly income.
One of the things I’ve come to realise, and the reason I’m so passionate about client pathways, is because SEO can change in an instant, Facebook will keep decreasing the number of fans who see our content, and fad tools will fade.
But if I want a sustainable and successful online business, one that affords me the luxury of a lifestyle where family comes first, I need to be smart with my efforts.
That’s why my mission is to help you implement strategic sales funnels – but doing them in a way that’s authentic to who you are and who your most aligned client is.
The thing is, if you want to leverage what you’re doing in business, if you want to launch to a warm audience who are waiting for what you have to offer, and if you want to remove yourself from the trap of always working IN your business rather than ON your business, then a soulful client pathway is a great solution.
Want to automate and grow YOUR Next Chapter business?
As I said at the beginning, women often step into their Next Chapter business and down the track begin battling to get everything done. But your Next Chapter business CAN be more easeful.
But maybe you haven’t gone down that path yourself yet – that idea of building an email list and pathway so you can keep that relationship with your most aligned clients continuing.
If you want to know the steps needed to create a soulful system to nurture and convert aligned clients, then I’m sharing how to create your own soulful client pathway in a Training Webinar in Aligned, Angela’s Next Chapter Business Self-Study Program that I’m delighted to be a Guest Contributor for.
I’ll share how to attract those who are most likely to buy from you, create a pathway using strategy, systems and storytelling, and how to put it all together to eliminate overwhelm to automate your business.
I look forward to showing you how to build your own soulful sales pathway for your business in the Aligned program. You can enrol right here.
This post is by client pathway strategist Kellie O’Brien, who helps female entrepreneurs move their most aligned clients from discovering who they are through to investing in them using storytelling, strategies and systems wrapped inside a soulful sales funnel – which she has dubbed the soulful client pathway.
