Have you ever gone from a ridiculous high in business to an almost debilitating low? If so, you’re not the only one. It’s more common than you may think.

One month you’re on a high, celebrating an amazing month in business (e.g. you hit your financial targets) and then you get busy working with clients and spiral down into an unexpected low because you realize you don’t have any new leads.

It’s actually one of the most frustrating places to be—stuck on an entrepreneurship roller coaster comprised of frustration and anxiety about when your next client, customer or sale is coming.

Generally, this happens when you’re spending every waking moment generating new leads and when the actual client work beings, the time previously spent on lead gen is put on the back burner (and thus no one is patiently waiting in the wings).

This prompts the vicious cycle of ridiculous highs and stressful lows. This is why it is essential to develop an automated lead generation funnel that works behind the scenes to power your business in a consistent and profitable way.

Automation Is A Game Changer

Every business owner should take the time to create an automated funnel that will essentially keep warm leads flowing your way. When the proper systems are in place as you’re working with clients, new business is queuing up consistently and you can say goodbye to the redundant highs and lows that once plagued your business.

Create A Hook

Many entrepreneurs may wonder, does freebie marketing really work? Generally, your hook can be delivered in terms of a freebie or freemium offer. A freebie, tied to lead generation, can be delivered in three distinct ways: You can offer “your services for free – to build goodwill and new connections; your products for free – to advertise yourself and what you can provide other businesses; [or] your time for free – to consult and build new connections.” (Sproutworth)

Think of a pain point that your ideal clients and customers have and then solve it in a practical way. This could be done with a guide, a challenge, a video series etc. A freebie (when used correctly) will reel customers into your world. Once you’ve created your hook, build a simple landing page and ask them to sign up (so you can continue the conversation).

Drive Qualified Traffic

Now that you have the hook you need to drive traffic. There’s no point in having an enticing freebie or sleek landing page if no one actually goes there. You can test paid ads, implement content marketing tactics (e.g. guest blogging, social media, company blog posts, ect.), or both.

Warm Them Up

Next, create a sales funnel that leads off of your freebie, so once they’ve visited the landing page and signed up for the freebie your funnel takes them from cold prospect to a warm lead. This is where the magic really happens. This can be done by using CRM (customer relationship management) software like Insightly, Nimble, Infusionsoft and more.

The right CRM software can help you work smarter by automatically nurturing relationships behind-the-scenes as they sign up to receive your freebie. There’s also other things to consider when creating a funnel such as re-targeting (i.e., a highly effective marketing tool that targets your ads to people who have expressed interest in your site), but you can start with these basics:

Drive traffic to your landing page where prospects can download or receive your freebie by opting into your email subscriber list. Take them through this simple sales funnel – from prospect to lead.

Don’t forget: like any marketing effort you’ll need to tweak and test to see what copy and set-up works best for your ideal clients.

This article has been edited and condensed.

Jane Willmott is a successful business consultant who works with online business owners worldwide, she works with them to help create strategies that enable them to rise up become the go to expert and have clients banging down the door to work with them, by achieving this her clients are then able to hit their big income goals and live out the life they dream of. Recently, Jane has decided to lift the lid on the strategy behind her clients 10k days and she’s created this free guide to do just that. Connect with @womensbusinessa on Twitter.

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