Dotcom Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Growing Your Company Online with Sales Funnels

by Russell Brunson

He used me as an example: “Consider a person came from a website that said ‘Russell Brunson is a scam artist. He stole my money. He’s unethical. He’s a liar, and I don’t trust him. Click here to see his new product.’ What do you think will happen when they click through to see the product?” The pre-frame was terrible. That visitor would probably not like me, and I would have a hard time getting them to buy anything. On the other hand, what if the person came from a site that said “Russell is an amazing person. I had a chance to meet him; we talked for an hour, and what he taught me changed my business and my life. My company was able to go from nothing to $1 million in revenue a year. Click here to see his new product.”? The chances of converting that potential customer on my site are much, much higher.

I was backstage talking to Armand and he told me that after speaking at hundreds of events, he noticed that the number one thing that would affect his sales after his presentation was tied directly into how the event promoters introduced him before he came on stage.

As this was Armand’s event, he told me, “Watch how I introduce you, and then let’s see what percentage of the room buys your products when you’re done.” Typically, I would close about 15 percent of the room on my $1,997 course I would sell at the end of my presentation. During this event, after Armand introduced me and I delivered my presentation, I ended up closing over 42 percent of the people who were in the room. Same presentation, same offer, same price point, different pre-frame.

I became so obsessed with my pre-frame that I actually made a video that was crafted to give me the perfect pre-frame and I made all emcees introduce the video, and then I’d let the video deliver the perfect pre-frame every time. I rarely ever closed less than 40 percent of a room from that point forward.

As you go through my funnels and other people’s, notice how the good funnels successfully create a pre-frame that makes you more likely to say yes in the next step.

There are three levels of traffic that come to your website: hot, warm, and cold. Each group needs special treatment and individualized communication. Each needs to come across a different bridge to arrive at your landing page. Yes, that means you may even need three different landing pages, depending on how you’re driving traffic. Trust me, it’s worth taking the extra time to set this up correctly.

“If your prospect is aware of your product and has realized it can satisfy his desire, your headline starts with the product. “If he is not aware of your product, but only of the desire itself, your headline starts with the desire. “If he is not yet aware of what he really seeks, but is concerned with the general problem, your headline starts with the problem and crystallizes it into a specific need.”

Figure 6.2: Start your copy wherever your prospect is at the time.

Hot traffic is made up of people who already know who you are and what products you sell. They know what their problem is, they’re aware of all possible solutions, and they’re also aware of the products you offer to help them solve their problems. They are on your email list, subscribe to your podcast, read your blog, follow you on Facebook and Instagram, and subscribe to your YouTube channel. Because you have an established relationship with them, you’re going to talk to these people like they’re your friends (because they are). You want to use personality-driven communication through the Attractive Character.

Warm traffic consists of people who don’t know you yet, but they are aware of other potential solutions to their problems. When you read Traffic Secrets, I talk a lot about your “Dream 100,” or the people who have already congregated your dream customers. They are your warm traffic. You just need to make them aware of your solution to their problems. These are usually the subscribers, fans, and followers of other people who are already in your market.

Cold traffic is made up of people who have a problem, but they aren’t even aware yet of the potential solutions. These are typically the hardest to find and convert because they haven’t yet congregated with the other “who”s in your market yet. Most of our traffic efforts will be to warm traffic, but as you grow, there will come a point where you will have to learn how to tap into cold traffic and ...

For example, if I have an ad that is targeting Tony Robbins’s audience on Facebook, I may have a video talking about how I learned the concept of “growth and contribution” from Tony and that I have a book that will show you how you can take all the things you’re learning and start contributing by creating a business. I would then guide them into the funnel where they could buy Expert Secrets. Do you see how that works? The pre-frame bridge speaks to them where they are now and gives them the context they need so they understand why they need your product or service.

I used to own a company that sold supplements to help with neuropathy pain. We had our own customer list (hot traffic) that we would send emails to, and they would reorder just by us reminding them that they should. We would then target people who suffered from neuropathy (warm traffic) on all the social channels to let them know about our new, groundbreaking product that was the answer to their problems. It was easy to get this warm traffic to at least give us a try and become a customer.

If people aren’t willing to give their email addresses at this point, they are highly unlikely to give me money later.

Qualifying subscribers is done through an opt-in or squeeze page that offers something of value in return for contact information. This is typically the very front end of your value ladder. For my companies, it’s usually a free report or a free video showing the visitor one thing they would really want to know. Let’s say I have 1,000 visitors who come to my site each day. If I have a 30 percent conversion rate, then I know I have about 300 people who will be interested in my information. Now I have a list of warm leads and I can continue to move them through the rest of my funnel.

My early mentor, Dan Kennedy, taught me this golden principle: a buyer is a buyer is a buyer. If someone is willing to buy from you once, they’ll continue to buy from you as long as you keep offering value. So as soon as someone fills out their name and email address and clicks the Submit button, they should land on a sales page that offers them your first premium offer.

I typically sell very low-ticket products here that range from being free (they just cover the shipping and handling costs) to somewhere in the $7–$10 range. I like the offer to be extremely inexpensive so I can find out who all my buyers are. Who is willing to pull out a credit card in exchange for something I am selling? I want to know who those people are, because if they are willing to buy something, then I’m willing to spend more money to market to them. I might be willing to call those buyers on the phone, send them a postcard or a letter in the mail, or make them special offers that I don’t send to just my subscriber lists. At this point, I have two lists: subscribers and buyers. Each list is unique and gets treated differently.

You want to be able to identify these people as quickly as possible and help them. If you don’t, they will go to your competitor and give them money instead. When they’re in pain and want relief, they will spend money to solve that problem now.

I want to make sure that I give people the ability to buy when they want to buy. That is why having upsells and cross sells inside your funnel is so important, because if they don’t get their itch scratched by you in the moment, they will keep searching and spend their money somewhere else instead. If you honestly believe that you have the best products and services to help your dream customers, then you owe it to yourself and to them to offer upsells inside your funnel.

usually you have to change the selling environment if you want to sell high-ticket products. The most common ways to change the environment are to sell the pricier items over the phone, through direct mail, or at a live event or seminar.

People on the phone are more likely to listen closely to an offer. The salesperson has the benefit of live feedback. He or she can overcome objections and help people make up their minds on the fly. When we change the selling environment, we can communicate at a different level, and it becomes easier to move people up to the higher levels of the value ladder.

Phase #1— Determine traffic temperature: Are the people you are sending into this funnel hot, warm, or cold traffic? Phase #2—Set up the pre-frame bridge: Based on the type of traffic you’re sending, what type of pre-frame bridge do you need to create? Phase #3—Qualify subscribers: Who of all your visitors are willing to give you their email address in exchange for your free offer? Phase #4—Qualify buyers: Who of all your subscribers are willing to give you their credit card in exchange for your first premium offer? Phase #5—Identify hyperactive buyers: Who are the people who are willing to spend more money now to solve their problems? Phase #6—Age and ascend the relationship: Now that I have their contact information, how do I build their relationship with the Attractive Character? Phase #7—Change the selling environment: How can I move them up my value ladder by taking them outside of just my online funnels?

In Building a StoryBrand, Donald Miller explains that your brand is not the hero.12 He says that your customer is the hero, and your brand’s role is to successfully guide the hero through the challenges they will face. Therefore, he explains that your brand should be like Yoda to Luke Skywalker.

one of the core concepts that you will learn when you read that book is that there are only three types of traffic. Traffic that you control Traffic that you earn Traffic that you own

Once you understand how each type of traffic works and how they tie together, you will understand that your one and only goal is to own all the traffic you can.

Figure 7.4: Your goal is to turn all your traffic into traffic that you own.

Traffic you own is the best kind of traffic. It’s your email, Messenger, and customer lists. I call this the traffic that I “own” because I can send out an email or send a message to my followers to generate instant traffic.

That’s why it’s so important to convert the other two types of traffic (both traffic you control and traffic you earn) into subscribers and buyers (traffic that you own) as quickly as possible. The bigger your list, the more money you make.

For example, if I purchase an ad on Google, I don’t own that traffic (Google does), but I can control it by buying an ad and sending those who click on that ad anywhere I want.

my goal is always to send any traffic that I am going to purchase over to a type of landing page that is often called a “squeeze page,” because it will squeeze the email address out of the traffic you send to it.

Squeeze pages have one goal and no distractions. There is only one thing for the visitor to do on this page: join my list.

This squeeze page is a very simple page with one goal: to convert traffic that you control into traffic that you own. I send all my paid traffic to a squeeze page, and when the visitors get there, they only have one option: give me an email address or leave. Now, a certain percentage of people will leave, but the cool thing is that some of these people will give you a personal email address. After that, the traffic you control becomes traffic that you own, and you can start sending the new potential buyer through your Soap Opera Sequences inside your follow-up funnels.

The goal of a landing page and a funnel hub are the same: convert all your traffic into traffic that you own.

The goal is to quickly create an instant bond between you and the person reading the email. If your first email is boring, you’re done. They probably won’t open the next one. But if you give them something interesting and hook them with an open storyline in the first email, they will look forward to the next email, and the next, and the next.

Figure 7.9: In your Soap Opera Sequences, you’ll send out one email each day for five days that pulls your reader through a narrative to sell your products and services.

Your first email sets the stage of the emails that will follow.

learned from my friend, Daegan Smith, that you always start any good story at the point of high drama. Most people mistakenly start their stories at the beginning, but usually stories don’t get good until the middle, so it’s better to start at the good part, and then you can go back and fill in the backstory after readers are hooked.

Backstory: Once you have their attention with emotional drama, you’re going to go back and tell them the backstory. Tell them the events that led up to the high-drama moment. How in the world did you get yourself into such a predicament? Typically, your backstory is going to take you back to a similar spot the readers may be in now. If you’re helping them to lose weight, you take them back to when you were overweight. If you’re teaching them to achieve financial freedom, take them back to a time when you were broke. You want to bring them on a personal journey with you.

Wall: This backstory will lead up to a spot where you got stuck and hit a wall. Usually this is where the readers are in their lives right now. They’re stuck, and that’s why they’re open to your answers. You explain to them how you hit that wall and then found the answer. But don’t give ...

Your second email opens at the point of high drama.

An epiphany might start like: My epiphany was I needed to build a list, and that’s when I learned about ________________________. I had to get a support system to help me get over my addiction, and that’s when I found ___________________. I had to address the emotional roots of overeating, and that’s when I found ______________________________.

Your third email shares the epiphany you had regarding your core product.

Your fourth email explains the hidden benefits your reader may not have thought of before.

Up to this point, you’ve been casually using CTAs, but in this last email, you want to light a little fire under your readers. What legitimate reasons can you come up with that would make them need to take action right away? Your webinar starts tomorrow. You only have 10 seats left at your event. You only ordered 1,000 books, and most of them are gone. You’re pulling the video offline.

your urgency needs to be real. Fake urgency will backfire on you, and you’ll lose all credibility. Just think of a reason why you might “run out” of whatever you’re selling. If it’s an evergreen product, then create a special sale that ends soon or give readers a coupon that expires in 24 hours. Be creative! There’s always some way to create real urgency.

Your fifth email adds urgency and scarcity with a strong CTA.

Notice that the emails themselves are easy to read and fast to scan. I never write more than one or two sentences per line, and I add in lots of white space. Do not use long paragraphs because they slow people down and can look very overwhelming when they’re trying to decide if they want to read it or not.

Your email subject line hook gets them to open the email, the body story has a goal of entertaining them, and the ending body offer ties back into whatever your core offer is.

The Seinfeld emails I send are usually related to one of these three styles of emails: Episode style: I tell a story about what happened today in my life, tell a story that ties back into my core offer, or share a controversial topic in my industry. My goal is to get people to go back into one of my funnels. Epiphany style: I talk about different ideas, such as inspirational or enlightening/thought-provoking ideas, or I can challenge existing beliefs. My goal is to help my readers have an epiphany that ties back into my core offers. Educational style: These may be checklists, how-tos, Q and A’s, or FAQs that I can answer and use to direct people back into my core offers and funnels.

If you just send out entertaining emails and don’t tie in your products or services, you won’t make a dime (even if you’re the best storyteller in the world!). Every email and every story must be tied back into some type of offer for your audience.