There’s lots of talk about funnels. Conversion funnels, email funnels,

It’s the path your client will take from learning about you to purchasing from you (and beyond). There are many resources dedicated to creating funnels and writing emails that help you to convert a looker to a buyer. But all of that might be over your head at this point and you want to figure out how to get somebody who just learns about you to stay put and end up staying in your orbit with a stand-out message that’s unique to you.

Before we think about all the emails and pieces that go into it, we need to think about the journey that your future client is experiencing and meet them where they are.

We’ve talked about taking your person from Point A to Point Z on a journey and understanding what they’re experiencing and what they want.

Figure Out Your Areas of Expertise.

Figuring out your areas of expertise can feel intimidating but in essence, we’re drilling down to the things you’re going to be talking about the most – things that relate to that person’s journey – that you might consider your content buckets. For example, if you’re a fitness and healthy lifestyle coach, you might have expertise in areas of low intensity workouts, healthy meals, and tracking your goals.

Each of these categories deserves its own vertical and you can showcase your views, thoughts, products, and organize all the content you create on the topic.

Breaking down your Verticals:

STEP 1: Name it.

Give your vertical a name. If you don’t have a clever name for it, that’s totally fine for now, but my philosophy is that you can coin a term that embodies that topic. Having a word or phrase become synonymous with your community is a great way to build your credibility!

STEP 2: Philosophy and Personality.

I’m guessing there are lots of people talking about the same exact topic as you. That’s not a bad thing! There’s nobody that’s talking about your topic the way you are, with the same philosophies or personality as you. That’s how you position your message so you can shine!

For example, in the fitness and healthy lifestyle coach, if you believe that low intensity workouts should have modifications for people who are in wheelchairs (because your sister is in a wheelchair and can never find any resources to help her), then you should definitely include that.

Alternatively, if you feel like most low intensity workout videos are SUPER boring and zen and your personality is more like a stand up comedian’s, use that!

These philosophies and quirks make your content stand out and differentiate you from the other people doing similar work to you.

If you don’t have anything as “out there” as the examples above, here’s a question that might get your wheels turning. In your industry what’s the general accepted fact about your area of expertise and what makes you fired up or pissed off about it? What’s your opinion?

Coming up with your spin on your topics allow others to see you as a thought-leader or a mover and shaker. People want to follow interesting people! Dig deep and figure out what you believe and what makes your personality stand out and infuse that into your vertical!

STEP 3: Meet them where they are.

It’s our job as business owners to know what our clients are experiencing and what they’re feeling before they interact with our work, our products, or our services. Think of yourself as a detective. You have to notice small clues (like the way they say something or the way they’re behaving) and use that information to showcase that you understand them. Instead of using your industry language, use as many non-marketing terms as you can to show your person that you get them!

STEP 4: Invite them to enter your orbit.

You’ve most likely heard the concept of the Know, Like, Trust factor. People have to know about you then like you to trust you (and ultimately work with you or buy from you). The first step is to invite people into your orbit. If somebody doesn’t know about you to begin, how can you invite more people to join you on the journey you’ve created? This might be in the form of creating consistent content  and promoting it to have them join your email list. It might be in the form of being featured on a podcast.

The Invitation into your orbit should be absolutely free (as in not even an email is required to gain access). Think about all the free content that’s available in the world: podcasts, blog posts, newspapers, YouTube, Facebook communities. You can make these invitations on any and all of these platforms. This is what we call the FREE FREE FREE content.

STEP 5: Get their digits.

So, you’re not actually asking for their number. In Step 5, our goal is to provide your person with something valuable enough for them to give you their email address with permission to contact them further. This is done in many forms but often called lead magnets, opt-ins or content upgrades. You can create a guide, an e-book, a video training, a live or pre-recorded webinar, or a resource that they’d love.

STEP 6: The Offers.

This step consists of understanding what your offers (products, services) are that relate to this particular vertical. The Low cost offers all the way to Premium offers are outlined here. If you’re a service-based business, your price points might be very different from somebody who has a product-based business. Essentially, though, you want to figure out what the possible solution for your person might be to help them get from your free content to the end result (Point Z) they want to arrive at. If you have a service-based business, you might think of your lower cost products/offers as things that are lower level of access to you (courses, passive products, resource guides) and higher priced offers high more access to you (masterminds, in person events). You might simply think of the price differential as a way to reflect the level of intimacy or access with the leader.

Once you’re creating content left and right, it can be easy to forget what you’ve already created and where you’re trying to lead your person. We’ve created the Verticals Board for you so you can get and stay organized and better lead your person down an intentional funnel and journey!

Grab your Verticals Board here!