Do I Need A Funnel? What Exactly Is A Lead Magnet? A Glossary of Terms For First-Time Entrepreneurs
I can’t tell you how many Facebook groups I’ve been in or how many webinars I’ve been on where someone has asked this question. And it makes me realize how much language/vocabulary is a barrier for people. So in this blog, I’m going to define all the words that trip people up when they are thinking about starting their own online business.
Lead
A lead is a person who is a potential buyer of your product or service. This person knows you exist and has given you permission to engage them by giving you their email or having interacted with your webpage, Instagram, or Facebook.
Lead Magnet
A lead magnet is something you’ve created with the sole intention of attracting leads to you. Think of it like a sample at Costco. They give you a sample in exchange for your time and attention. In the online business space, you give them a sample in exchange for their email, so you can continue working to convince them that they should stop being a lead and become a buyer.
Landing Page (sometimes referred to as a Lead Page)
This is the page where your prospective buyer goes to get your lead magnet. You may have made a Facebook post telling them what your lead magnet is, what it does and how it’ll make their life easier. When they decide, “Yes, I want that.” they have to go some place to get it. That’s your landing/lead page. It’s typically on your website, or you can use leadpages.net, a program specifically designed for this very purpose. When the prospective buyer goes to this page, they put in their email, and you deliver your lead magnet.
Funnel
The steps you take to convince someone they need what you are selling is called your funnel. Your funnel is how you move someone from being a lead to becoming a buyer. No business operates without this. Period. Let me give you an example: When you visit a website, and then you click over to Facebook and see an ad for the thing you were just looking at. What seems like magic is actually that the store put you into their funnel. You interacted with them, and they put a tracker on you. So now they can follow you around and show you “commercials” reminding you how much you want that thing you were looking at on their website. And if you signed up to be on the store’s email list, they’ll also send you “email commercials” reminding you how much you want that thing. They might even offer you a discount code to make it easier for you to finally go ahead and buy. Congratulations! You are in their funnel.
Offer
This is the thing you want your leads to buy. Keep in mind though that you aren’t just selling the product. You are selling what they will be able to do after buying the product. How they will feel after buying the product. So you aren’t really selling a thing, you’re selling a change.
Sales Page
The page where people go to buy your offer. Be clear, this isn’t just a page with an Add to Cart button. Leads need to be convinced up to the moment they decide to buy, so you still want to do some woo’ing on the sales page.
Payment Processor
Your payment processor is how you actually get paid. This includes programs like Stripe, PayPal for Business, Square, etc.
Something missing off of this list?
Let me know in the comments, and I’ll reply with the definition.
Hi, I’m Aisha, and I am more than just one thing.
Rather than tell you what I do, I’d rather tell you who I am. I am an empowerer of people. I love to help people name their strengths and talents, and then encourage them to do something with those gifts. As a fundraiser, I help donors use their financial resources for good. As an educational consultant, I help parents see their children’s gifts, so they can choose schools that honor and develop those gifts. As a Dare to Lead™ Certified Facilitator, I help parents and teachers let go of the woulds, shoulds and coulds, so they can model what it looks like to live imperfect lives with grace. And here, I help everyday people see that they are so much more than their job, so they can use those skills to create something that changes lives (theirs and others’). That’s it…for now. ;)
