Lesson 22: Why email is the best foundation for your funnel

All about why anyone still uses email

A funnel, of course looks basically like so:

opt-in page → email sequence → sales page → purchase

Now, before we begin, I’d like to change our terminology. The term funnel implies a lot that is not true: it sounds like leads go in the top, and just keep falling by force of gravity into an ever-narrowing pipeline before popping out the other end as paying customers.

If only, right?

In fact, it’s rather the opposite: leads have to climb up to become customers, and most fall out along the way.

But there is nothing like that in real life that we can use as a metaphor. So I prefer a different analogy.

I prefer to think of your sales sequence as a railway trunkline — the main line between a common starting point, and a popular destination.

(You can have supermodels handing out free booze if you like, but that’s not really the point here.)

The point is that Sam decides your destination sounds interesting, and hops on board at your opt-in page.

Then, along the way, he has many opportunities, many stops, where he can get off again.

Every time you ask him to read something, that’s a new “station” he can disembark at. He has to make the decision to stay on the train and keep going all the way to the destination.

It’s not a perfect analogy — what analogy is?

But it’s helpful for remembering what’s really going on, and for thinking about the structure of your sequence.

So from now on, I will no longer refer to your funnel, but rather to your trunkline.

Before you plan and build your trunkline, there are some important facts you should know about why I teach this system. I’ve found a lot of people simply aren’t aware of these facts — but without understanding them, you have a much diminished confidence in the approach you’re learning. With apologies to the apostle Paul, without a solid grounding in the value of email, you’re likely to be tossed to and fro whenever you hear some guru talking about the latest shiny object. You’ll be carried about by every wind of marketing doctrine, human cunning, craftiness...and let’s not forget deceitful schemes.

The problem with selling online