If One Step of Your Funnel Is Not Working, Look at the Step Before It

The Mistake That Cost Me the Most

I made a lot of mistakes in the marketing game. The biggest one of all? Not having a working funnel. And this applies to any business, whatever it is. Whether you're generating leads so you can sell and deliver services, or you're a physical product brand, supplements, skin care, you name it.

I have a marketing agency. If I don't create an amazing funnel to get people through, I don't have a business. I don't have clients to service. And our family business, NaturalSlim, founded by my father back in 1997, became an e-commerce giant around 2013 and 2014. It wouldn't succeed at the level it does if it wasn't for funnels.

So what is a funnel, aside from being something that literally looks like one? Picture a jar of prospects on one side. These are people who are not your customers yet. Your job as a marketer, as an entrepreneur, is to get as many of them as possible to flow through the funnel into the container of clients who are actually paying you in exchange for your advertising dollars. That's it. That's a funnel.

How a Real Funnel Works: The Cesar Millan Example

Let me show you a real one. One of my partners is Cesar Millan, the original dog whisperer. We have a product called Calm Surrender, a dog supplement, an herbal product that helps dogs stay calm during intense moments. Cesar has many millions of followers, 22 million or more, and we post content on his social media channels.

That content develops something I like to call digital footprints. If you watch that video, Facebook, Meta, Instagram, TikTok, all these platforms know you were watching it. It's a digital footprint, but it's a footprint. So I build audiences from it, and then I place a second message. Does your dog pace when you bring out the suitcase? Hide during thunderstorms? Then Cesar delivers a video explaining the product, giving education, because Cesar is always education first. He's been an educator for decades.

When somebody clicks, they land on the funnel. Social media content, an advertising campaign, a landing page, an opt-in page. All of those are steps toward becoming a customer. And here's the key: the page needs a clear message, without making somebody scroll. Whether they're on mobile or desktop, they should know exactly what they get if they purchase right then and there. And by the way, desktop is only 10 percent of the traffic now. When I started marketing it was 90 percent. It keeps dropping.

This is the law of the numbers. In the USA alone you have a bucket of roughly 250 million people. You only want a few thousand of them. The funnel takes a little piece of that pool and brings them into your product, your service, your world. The game is to get as many of them to convert as possible so you can keep expanding along the journey.

The Diagnostic Rule I Use on Every Funnel

Most funnels follow the same path: ad, landing page, opt-in, purchase or book a call if it's a service, then a thank you page. And here's the simple rule. If one step is not working, look at the step before it. That's where it broke.

Example. A thousand people click your ad and you get 50 leads. Industry benchmark for social ads is around 10 percent of clicks converting into a lead. So out of a thousand clicks you should be getting closer to 100. You got 50. Something is off. So what do I do? I look at the step before, and I ask: how do I make it better? It's all a numbers game. Evaluate these numbers consistently and actively, and you will see things increase like magic. That's just the way it is.

Find the biggest drop, because that's usually where the problem is. Problem one: no one is visiting the page. Maybe the ad isn't good, it doesn't lead to interest, you're not introducing the problem, or the budget is too small. I cannot win in the skin care market in the USA, a multi-billion dollar a year market, spending 10 dollars a day. Know what game you're playing. Are you up against big beauty? Then you're going to have to invest to stand out. Or maybe you're targeting the wrong people, marketing a women's skin care brand to everybody including men. That won't work.

Problem two: people visit but don't opt in. Check the headline, check whether the benefits are explained, check whether the call to action is clear. Problem three: people opt in but don't book or buy. The leads come in and stop right there, which means the next step of the funnel isn't strong enough. Problem four: people book but don't show up. It happens a lot. A marketer is never able to set and forget. A marketer's job is always actively working to improve the funnel.

Real Numbers From My Own Agency

Just today, as I was recording this episode, I got an email from my own agency's reporting. Nine opt-ins. Three free calls booked. Cost per lead: 22 dollars and 26 cents. Cost per booked call: about 66 dollars.

Now I analyze it. A potential client that comes into my agency pays me anywhere from four to ten thousand dollars a month. Is 66 dollars per booked call worth it? If I get just one of those people to buy my services, how many times over did that investment pay off? That's what you're trying to do: understand the numbers. I spent about 200 dollars to generate nine opt-ins, but I only got three bookings. So maybe I need to figure out how to turn three bookings into six. Work on that actively and the numbers dramatically improve.

The Thank You Page Is Not the End

The thank you page matters, whether you're e-commerce, brick and mortar, or a service business. In our NaturalSlim world, when somebody adds a product and checks out, that's just the beginning of the journey. I introduce opportunities along the way. I show them more of what they can do with our company. We think of ourselves as a service business, not a product business. We want to educate, help people, and provide value.

So after the purchase, I introduce another product. If they say no to that offer, fine. Then I say: you want to talk to somebody from our team? Here's a consultant. I'm trying to turn them into loyal ambassadors of the brand. They already gave me the most important thing they could ever give me, their credit card and their information. They trusted me. Now I have to deliver on that promise. So the thank you page needs valuable information: a welcome video, testimonials, bonus content, clear next steps. It reinforces the commitment.

And loyalty is where the money is. At NaturalSlim, 50 percent of every dollar we receive each month comes to us for a second time or more. That's people staying on board. That's how this business is built.

Treat Your Funnel Like a Piece of Art

So in short: work on your funnel. Map it out. Just like you spend time writing a book or creating an essay or building a content routine, the funnel needs attention. You cannot start marketing unless your funnel is ready to receive traffic.

And don't expect overnight success. A funnel is like a piece of art. You keep working on it and working on it until you feel you've put together a masterpiece. And then you scale it to the moon.