243: Why Your Funnel Feels Broken (And What to Do Instead)

Hi there, Dr. Destiny Kopp here and welcome back to the Creators MBA Podcast. I'm super excited that you are joining me and we are in the middle of a series that I'm calling the Creators Growth Flywheel series. And yesterday we talked about the shift that has everyone feeling stuck in the online world. And I walked you through why growth feels heavier, slower and definitely harder than what it used to. And today we're going to go straight into one of those biggest sources of frustrations for digital product creators, and that is funnels. Because I hear this all the time. My funnel used to convert, but it's just not working anymore. People go through it, but not many people are buying or I have built multiple funnels and none of them are working like they should. And some people even say, I feel like I keep tweaking things, but nothing is changing with them if that is where you are in and if that is what you're feeling. Let me save you months of guessing in terms of what's going on. It isn't your funnel and it isn't your business is just that your funnel isn't connected to anything. Because funnels can convert, but they're only a piece of the system. They're one stage of a larger system and that is your growth flywheel. And I want to talk you through what exactly is happen. And really the big problem here is that funnel thinking is outdated. And for years the online business world preached that if you build a funnel, if you drive traffic to that funnel, you will make money. Just watch what happens. And for a while, I would say that worked pretty well. But here's what people are experiencing now. Funnels are converting maybe once, but when you have them connected to your overall business system, that's what we're talking about in this series, which is your flywheel. They create momentum because when you treat your funnel like a one and done type system, you've seen those funnel pictures out there where it's a funnel basically, and you have a lot of people coming in and some people convert and then the rest of them just fall out and go away. So when you treat it like that, here's what happens. People go through your funnel, maybe they see your tripwire, Some of them buy, most of them don't, and then nothing. They disappear into your email list and they don't hear about your offer again, or they're not taken on a very specific customer journey that shows them what the next best step is for them. Or worse, you just drop them into your random newsletter broadcast and you don't give them a path or no next step. And there's really no relationship that is being built with them. And that is not because your funnel is broken. It's because the system around that funnel is broken, missing. So let's walk through three reasons why funnels feel like they are not working. Number one is when funnels are not connected to your larger customer journey. And the reality is you cannot rely on one interaction anymore. Audience attention is fragmented and people need multiple touch points across multiple stages. And if your funnel is not leading them to something meaningful, meaning something that's going to change their life or solve a pain point for them, which you know, meaningful, meaning like a nurture plan, a next step offer, or a very clear next step for them, you are going to lose the attention of that person. Number two, the next reason why funnels feel like they're not working is I'll just build more funnels mindset, which a lot of us have gotten into that I'll put myself in that category. I'll just create another funnel, right, and drive people through it. That can create chaos in your business because a lot of people try to fix slow sales by, by building more funnels or more lead magnets or more tripwires and really they're just adding a lot of more moving parts. But again, when none of those funnels connect, you're not taking people on a very specific journey or showing them the next step between those funnels, your business is not going to compound. Number three, they don't have a warmup or a follow up system. Here's the thing. Funnels in a, in and of themselves, they do not create trust. Your nurture content, your newsletter content, and your other n nurture content, which might be videos or podcast episodes or whatever you're doing, that is what creates trust. And if your funnel isn't supported by kind of that weekly rhythm that you have with that authority, building content or emails that are moving people closer to a buy, to a very clear signature offer, then your funnel is doing all of the work alone. And that is why, my friend, it feels, feels like it stopped working. So now let's talk about what funnels should be doing for you. A funnel should, number one, introduce someone into your world. It needs to give them a quick win. It needs to segment them very cleanly so you know, based on how they came into your business, what they're interested in. It needs to set up a path to a clear next offer for them and it needs to give you context for how they entered into your world. Right. Because that's going to help you segment them. And it also, and I love this part of a funnel, it creates the first rotation of your growth flywheel. Because the fact is, funnels still matter, but they only work when the rest of your growth flywheel is in place. And the engage stage, which is where generally you're going to have your first tripwire type funnel that pulls people into your world. But the nurture stage is where you build that trust. And we're going to go through all of these in the next few episodes. I'm going to talk about the retain stage and that is where you increase your revenue there in advocacy stage. And that is where that momentum really takes off. But the funnels that you built, they are the doorway into all of this. But again, they are not the entire system. Now here's how you can fix this without rebuilding everything. And these are some of the simplest wins that you can do right now. The first thing is add a real next step, okay, in your funnel. So you're going to have a next offer or a next invitation or some type of next story really guiding them on what they need to do next. The number two, the next thing you need to do is build the nurture system that your funnel feeds into. So people were introduced to you right from wherever they came from. They went into your funnel, they signed up for your lead magnet, maybe even purchased a tripwire. So you need to build that nurture system that that funnel feeds into. It could be your weekly newsletter, obviously, I think that's very important. I have put together an entire program regarding newsletters and those weekly newsletters. In my newsletter, profit club. It could be post podcasts like what I'm doing now with this nurture content, the YouTube content, whatever it is, it is your thought leadership. It is your point of view. And that is something that AI cannot replace for you. So you have to have that thought leadership content. Number three, you want to tie all the funnels. At some point, all the funnels are going to lead to, to your signature offer. Whatever that offer is though, that is eventually the end game point for them. The other thing I want to make sure that you do, and I'll say this is number four, is to make sure that your final tags tell you something usable, right? So you need to be able to answer, how did this person come into my world? Because that's going to give you a very strong indication on what they are interested in. And that will help you from, or keep you, I guess, from flying blind as you're going through and kind of building out your funnels. Number five, I want you to stop building new funnels when the real issue is connection, not necessarily, you know, volume coming in there. You might not need an additional funnel. Some of you may, but a lot of you, you already have these funnels built into your system and you really just need to make sure that you're connecting all of the pieces together. So here's your next quick win. Your homework, if you would. I want you to think about these three questions. Number one, what is the one funnel most people go through to enter your world? And then what happens in the next like 14 to 30 days after someone enters into your funnel, into your world? And then what? What offer does this funnel ultimately lead to? And if you can't answer these clearly, that is one of the first things that you're going to want to go out and fix. And I have something to help you with this. Her name is Sloan and she is here to help you diagnose where these deficiencies are and your biggest opportunity and maybe even some things that you haven't even thought of. So you can go to destinycop.com forward/sloan and you can get a free 5 minute diagnostic and she will definitely help you. So if this episode is connecting the dots for you and you are realizing, okay, this is making sense, I might not need to build another funnel, I might just need to go in and look at the systems that I have in place in my business. I want you to start thinking about the creators MBA lab and that is where I will help you build your growth flywheel system together. So start thinking about that. I will put the link to the creators MBA lab in the podcast episode Show Notes. And tomorrow in the next episode, we are diving in to one of the stages that a lot of people kind of skip and they don't really understand how important this particular stage is in that growth flywheel. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye for now.