mindmap – Nicole Munoz Consulting

How to Plan your Offer Funnel

#1 Identify your most expensive product or service. This is the tip/bottom of your funnel and what all of your activities, products, and services funnel into.

#2 Identify the price for this product or service. It should be a fair price that meets demand and solves a high level problem and provides a substantial value.

#3 Identify a tiered product/service offering that gradually increases from free to your previously identified most expensive item. Each item provides value and builds upon itself to offer increasing value and benefit.

#4 Create a system to brainstorm your free content, the largest portion and top of your funnel. This includes all of the content you normally publish to generate awareness and drive traffic. You can use the following tools:

List
Mindmap
Keyword research
Google Alerts
Consumer surveys
Previously published content
Competition
Trends
Social media

#5 Create a schedule and content plan for your free content. The content marketing strategy includes:

Blog posts
Podcast(s)
Video(s)
Interview(s)
Viral Report(s)
Guest blogging
Article marketing
Social media posts

#6 Create a freebie or free offer to introduce or pull people into the next tier of your funnel. The goal of this offer is to capture an email address.

Newsletter
eCourse
Report
eBook
Audio
Video
Tutorials
Webinars

#7 Create an introductory product or service that meets your target audience’s basic needs.

Ebook
Guide
Webinar
Group Coaching

#8 Identify an introductory price for the product or service that your customers will be able to easily justify and part with.

#9 Create a mid-level product or service that meets your target audience’s basic needs.

Ebook
Webinar series
Home Learning Product
Individual Coaching

#10 Identify a mid-level price for the product or service that your customers will be able to easily justify and part with.

#11 Establish a marketing strategy to connect with customers as they move through the funnel to upsell and help them take the next step.

Use this plan for your offer funnel checklist to guide you as you plan your offer and create a system to introduce prospects to your funnel and move them through seamlessly.

How to Set Up a Sales Funnel Checklist

by Nicole Munoz

Creating an effective sales funnel and supporting marketing system helps you earn profits around the clock. Use this handy checklist with ten key steps to help you identify and complete the essential tasks of a profitable sales funnel.

#1 Have you made a list of all the products and services you will be offering, including the price points and promotional price points? Have you created a system to organize your products/services and relevant prices. You can use the following to improve the process:

Spreadsheets
Mind map
Flowchart
Notebook

#2 You need to identify:

the problem that needs a solution
the target audience
the benefit each product or service provides.

#3 You need to create a content plan that is used to drive traffic and enter the prospects into your sales funnel. It includes:

Social media posts
Blog posts
Guest blog posts
Free reports/case studies
Videos
Interviews

#4 Next, you will need to create an opt-in offer and squeeze page to build the email list. Your opt-in offer is a:

Report
Newsletter
Video series
Tutorial
Ebook

#5 You need to create automated email messages that follow up with new subscribers with a thank you page and follow up messages to transition them to the first product in your sales funnel.

Establish a timeline that takes into consideration the most effective time to deliver each message.
Identify the format, goal, and call to action for each message.

#6 Create and schedule the email messages using an autoresponder technology. For example, Infusionsoft.

#7 Look at your product/service list. Have you identified opportunities to:

Up-sell – When, during your sales and marketing process can you offer the next higher priced product to your customer?
Cross sell – When, within the body of your sales funnel can you offer complimentary or supplementary products to your customer?
Create special promotions – Where in your sales process and funnel can you introduce special promotions to your customers to help them move through your funnel?

#8 Create sales page for each offer. It should include:

Attention grabbing headline
Compelling benefit driven copy
Proof
Motivation to act now, for example a limited number, or a limited time offer
Call to action

#9 Test all elements of the sales funnel process including email links, sales page links, and how each element appears on various browsers. The shopping cart system is integrated into the sales material and emails and everything is working perfectly.

#10 You should implement a system of analytics and evaluation – create systems to collect data about:

Email messages click through rates
Links and calls to action on sales pages
Email open rate
Squeeze page conversions
Sales and profits for each customer and offer

and

Schedule a time each week/month/quarter to review the analytics and make any necessary tweaks or changes to your existing sales funnel.

Simple Guide to Novamind

by Nicole Munoz

Novamind is a mindmapping tool with an emphasis on great design. It’s ideal for presenters who want to create first class professional looking mindmaps for use in online or offline presentations. Of course, Novamind can also be used for note taking or brainstorming.

The price ranges from $49 for the most basic version to $249 for the platinum version. To try out the software, just download their 30 day free trial at:

http://www.novamind.com/download

Here’s how to use Novamind.

Step 1: Start Typing to Change the Main Topic

Click on the main topic to select it. Type in the name of the main topic.

Step 2: Learn to Create Topics

When the main topic is selected, just press enter to create your first sub-topic.

When any other topic is selected, press enter to create a topic on the same level. This is called a sibling topic.

Press insert when any topic is selected to create a sub-topic. This is called a child topic.

Step 3: Creating Callout Topics

Callout topics are attention-catching topics that you can use to draw emphasis to specific points.

To create a callout topic, first select the topic you want the callout to be attached to, then click “Callout” along the top bar.

This is what a callout looks like.

Step 4: Creating Floating Topics

Have a second main idea? Put it in a floating topic. Just click on the arrow under “Topic” and select “Floating Topic.”

This is what a floating topic looks like.

Step 5: Learn Your Formatting Options

Novamind offers a wide range of formatting options.

Fill color. This changes the background color of the whole topic.

Outline color. This changes the color of the line connecting to the topic, as well as the line outlining the topic.

To change Fill or Outline colors, click Fill or Outline in the top bar.

Text color. This changes the color of the text.

Text background color. Changes the background behind the text.

To change either of these options, click on the arrow next to the “A” in the top bar.

Bold, Italics and Underline. Click their respective buttons along the top, or use CTRL + B, I or U.

Font. Change the font by selecting the topic and clicking the font box.

Text size. Click the text size box next to the font box to select your text size. Alternatively, click the A^ or Av arrows to go one size up or down.

Here’s an illustration of the different formatting options.

Step 6: Change Your Map Design

Different designs work well for different purposes. If you’re taking notes for yourself, then a simplistic and fast design might work best. If you’re creating a mindmap for a presentation, then you might want a more classy design.

Click on Map Design along the top to access the map design menu.

Select the map design you want. Each design will look significantly different than other designs. Here’s an example of the Presentation design.

To change the colors, fonts or backgrounds in any design, just click one of the drop-down arrows on the right hand side.

Step 7: Presenter Mode

If you’re going to be using your mindmaps to make presentations, Novamind’s presenter mode can help.

To use the presenter mode, just click Presenter along the top.

To build a presentation, first select a topic, then click Create Slide From Selection on the left. Repeat this process for each topic you want to focus on.

Each slide will focus on one topic, zoomed in fully. Move from slide to slide to create a dynamic presentation.

Click on either of the Start Presentation buttons to play your presentation.

Wrap Up

We’ve just covered the most important features to Novamind. You now know how to create sibling and child topics, how to create callouts and floating topics, how to change text, outline and filler colors, how to change map designs and how to structure presentations.

Creating a Hand Written Mindmap

by Nicole Munoz

Illustration of a female presenter office worker businessman teacher writing presenting making presentation writing on white board with complex diagrams and mind maps done in retro woodcut style.

Hand written mindmaps are a powerful and fast way to take notes, brainstorm, get ideas out of your head or enhance creativity.

Unlike computer programs, they offer virtually unlimited room for adjustment. You can draw any kind of line you want, any kind of picture and put your text anywhere.

Drawing a mindmap by hand is a lot faster than doing a mindmap on a computer. If you’re in a classroom or an impromptu meeting, all you need is a pen and a sheet of paper and you can be taking notes mindmap-style.

How do you create a handwritten mindmap?

Start with the Central Concept

Put the most important concept in the middle. This helps you sort out your mindmaps later and also helps your brain categorize and remember the mindmap.

If you’re taking notes on an advertising class, you’d put “Advertising” in the middle.

Branch Off a Main Concept

Then, let’s say the teacher starts talking about a specific topic within advertising. For example, designing a strong brand.

Draw a line, any kind of line, from the main topic to create a new topic. In this case, the new topic is “brand.”

From the branch topic, keep on branching out sub-ideas. Use different kinds of fonts and lines to make it more memorable for you.

Continue Until Finished, Then Start a New Idea

Keep taking notes in this manner until the branch idea is finished. Then start the next branch.

Add Images and Creative Lettering

Your brain tends to remember plain text rather poorly when compared to images or unique lettering.

Add images next to concepts you want to remember. The more unique the image, the more likely you are to remember it weeks, months or even years down the line.

In our example, let’s say the advertising teacher tells the class they can get a 15% discount on any TV ad they buy through what’s called the “agency discount.”

If you want to be sure to remember this concept, make the 15%’s lettering unique and draw a picture of some sort next to it.

Text First, Then Images

At times you’ll have ideas flowing so fast that there just isn’t time for pictures or creative lines and letters. In that case, just jot down your ideas in branches as quickly as possible.

Again, in our advertising example, say the teacher starts talking about online advertising and goes through so many concepts so fast that you can’t afford to slow down.

In that case, just get the main ideas down in text form first.

Then come back in and add the images later. (Upper right.)

Condense Similar Thoughts and Topics

If you have several topics that are very similar, consider either grouping them under one branch or linking the branch through arrows.

In this case, if the teacher is talking about magazines and newspapers together, just create one branch for both instead of a branch for each.

Choose Where Your Eyes Will Go

If there are particularly important concepts to remember, make sure to draw your mind map in such a way that your eyes will automatically be drawn there next time.

For example, if the teacher is talking about the importance of testing in advertising, you might write “TEST” in block letters right above the branch to make sure you see those notes first when you pick up the mindmap.

Recap of the Main Points

To recap:

Start with the main idea in the middle. This helps you organize your mind maps and helps your brain sort different ideas.
Use images to draw attention to different areas of the mindmap. This also helps your brain remember and process concepts.
Add emphasis through size and texture to the most important concepts.
Use different lines and images throughout the mindmap. Again, this helps your mind process concepts.
If you need to take notes or write quickly, leave out the images first then come back and add it in later.

Here’s an example of a completed hand-drawn mindmap.

Now go and make your own!