#223: 5 Signs Your Marketing Funnel Needs a Fix

Welcome back to another edition of the Course Creation Incubator podcast. I’m your host, Gina Onativia, here to get you excited about whatever you’re putting together digitally right now. It could be your online course, a workshop group coaching, a certification, whatever. It looks like I’m here for you to inspire to you and to move you to take action.

And speaking of taking action today, we’re going to talk about marketing audits. And I don’t like the word audit, but everyone knows what that means, right? You hear the word audit and you think, okay, time for a review, a thoughtful review of what’s happening, and let’s take stock of everything that’s going in and out of your marketing and see what’s working and what’s not.

So I want to talk today about why it’s such a great thing to do a marketing audit and what an audit might be able to help you with. And then you may or may not be a fit for our marketing audit and strategic recommendations, which we’ve been doing of late, having so much fun. I’ve been talking about it on the podcast, reviewing different assets, course marketing courses, online funnels, customer journeys, and then giving a really honest assessment of where you’re at and where you want to go and what it’s going to take to go where you want to go.

So if you’re interested in that, you can go to course Creation Boutique dot com slash audit check it out and book a call. And before we dive in, this episode was definitely inspired by our own marketing audit that we’ve done for CCB. And I mentioned recently that I’ve just got back from vacation and just to me it’s a great time.

I didn’t do it to the end of vacation, but I was reading this book about how to reset my target business targets, company targets, and really got me thinking, what should our website presence look like? And really streamlined it, really happy where we’re we’ve evolved it. So I’ve been really mindful of where we’re taking CCB and want you to be mindful as well.

And I’m always asking is this where we want to go every six months? Is this where we want to go? Do we need to evolve? Do we need to change up the website? And that’s what we’ve done. All right, let’s dive in. Here’s a few ways to know if you’re ready for a marketing audit. And first and foremost, you’re spending money and you’re not quite sure where it’s going.

I’ve talked to a couple of clients who have enlisted agencies, so some really nice marketing agencies, ads, agencies spending thousands and thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars each month. I don’t care if you’re spending $400 a month, right. You want to know where your money is going. So if you’re listening to me right now and you’re saying I don’t have tens of thousands for agency, don’t worry about it.

If you are investing and even just a couple of hundred dollars, you want to know where your money is going. You want to know what you’re getting from it, what results, and especially ads, because it can be so difficult, right, in terms of how they influence if you’re getting leads, if you’re getting customers, if you’re getting product sales, etc..

So if you’re feel like you’re spending any money month to month or maybe you put out a lump sum, you’re not sure where it’s going, an audit might be right for you. The second reason you might want to do an audit and this totally tags into number one is you’re not seeing consistently. It’s like you’re putting in the money, you’re putting in the effort, but you’re just not seeing those leads on a regular basis.

And you need those as a lifeline of your business. And guys, these are just usually not the people that we want to go after, unless you’re hoping to attract a bigger audience, like in the thousands, hundreds, thousands for your low ticket, usually you don’t want those basement dwellers. You want somebody who’s willing to spend a little bit more money.

Another reason you might want an audit is that you are getting leads, but they’re not your people. Okay? So maybe they do have money. So they’re not your basement dwellers, but they don’t really need your solution or they’re not really part of your niche. Like I talked about niche niches a few weeks ago and thinking through that, so they’re just not your audience.

That’s another reason why you might want an audit and a fifth reason, and this might be perhaps the best one is you’re simply not seeing the money. You’re struggling to sell your course or your courses. Your offers simply aren’t connecting. They’re not working. You don’t know why. By the way, this could be your free offer as well. So I’ve done all this just on free lead gen funnels that did eventually have an upsell, but really the concern was the free lead magnet people not opting in and then going to the next step.

 

So that could also be another reason. Now here is where a review, a marketing review in strategic recommendations might really help you. It can help you if you lack a ascension ladder or if you lack a true customer journey from going from, say, a low ticket to a mid-price to a high ticket. Or if you’re just trying to jump to a high ticket right now and you’ve got nothing in between, then that’s where an audit and a strategic recommendation could really help you fill out your offers, fill out your customer journey to figure out, okay, what do I really need here to attract my core student and core customer.

So second part of that is an audit can really highlight with the bridge that you need. Hey, it looks like you just need a low ticket to go from your free to here to your mid-price point. Sometimes getting those outside eyes and perspectives can really show you what you need to fill in the blanks in terms of your offers.

A review might also tell you if your messaging is misleading. So I’ve done a couple of audits now where the messaging might not missile may not be misleading as much as doesn’t really explain the value of what this client is trying to bring. So if you are not making conversions, I’ve had Vic Vic Gibson on the podcast before.

Vic is a big mentor of mine and she always says to us, If you guys aren’t selling, it’s either the price or you haven’t explained the value of what they’re going to get from you. So a lot of times an audit will highlight, Hey, I’m not clear on the benefits here. I’m not clear on why I should go with you, why you above the rest of the competition.

That’s where an audit in strategic recommendations can really help you. Another piece at a review an audit might help you with is why you’re attracting the wrong people. So going back to the first part of the podcast, we’re talking about how you’re maybe attracting the leads that don’t really want your services. Why is that happening? What part of your communications or your messaging or your funnel is communicating that?

And a lot of times in an audit, we’ll figure that out. Okay. It’s in the first part, it’s in your website, it’s in the materials that you’re sending out. Where is that kind of disconnect happening? An audit can help you with that. And then another thing that I love about audits is it’ll really shine that one or two pieces are off, but not the entire system.

 

A lot of times we’ll do audits and we’ll see, Hey, this part is working. Don’t touch it like this. 80% of this funnel is amazing. These one or two pieces are just off and we need to really work on those and drill down on them. Another piece that a review will help you with is that old marketing might not serve you anymore.

Okay, So you might have gotten some great cheap leads from a lead magnet five years ago, but it might be time to update. And I know as well as anyone that sometimes it’s hard to evolve, especially with content and marketing and something that used to get you results just doesn’t anymore. We will look at that and say, Hey, you know, this doesn’t serve you anymore.

 

It’s time to move on. We just had a client who had three lead magnets that were circulating we were running ads against and now we’re down to one again because those we had to retire. Those other two, they just simply weren’t performing any longer. And I’d rather retire them than waste money. So sometimes you just got to take a good look and decide, okay, what’s really giving us results and what’s not.

 

And one final piece. I love about audits and reviews is that it allows you to innovate and cut back. So I talked about this in that reset episode part two, where even a times are tough, we do want to cut back and we want to be smart and we want to streamline, but we also want to put money into something that potentially could be working for you.

There’s no better way to do that than via an audit and a strategic review. So hopefully this has give you pause to think about what you might need to change in terms of your marketing, your messaging, your brand, how are you conveying your design, how are you conveying how you speak to your people? What are your social media channels and profiles saying about you?

 

What’s your website saying about you? Do an audit or hire us to do it and take a look at all your assets and help you connect the dots? Hopefully this inspired you. If you love this podcast, please, please, please leave me a review. Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss one episode until next week. Go create, be you and be brilliant and get it done.