Hi everyone, welcome to today’s episode of 10 Minute Marketing. I’m Sonja Crystal Williams, your host, and today joining me I have Karrie Chariton, and she is the owner of KMB Digital, a funnel building agency for visionary women, course creators and coaches. Welcome, thank you for being here, Karrie.

Karrie Chariton: 0:27

Hello, thank you for having me. I’m so excited to be here.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 0:32

Absolutely. So, I want to go back to your bio, because it says funnel building strategist, and I feel like funnel is one of those words that, like, people hear a lot but I feel like they don’t exactly know what that means. I want to start– or maybe they do, but I don’t know if they understand the fullness of it, which is why I think it’s really great having you here today. So let me start with the most basic of basic questions, Karrie. To you, what’s a funnel and what’s the value of any brand having a funnel set up for themselves?

Karrie Chariton: 1:11

Sure well, to put it simply, a funnel is just like the journey you’re taking your customer through, from how they meet you to, potentially, a sale or booking a call. You’re in charge of the funnel. Like you, you will reverse engineer it. What’s the thing? Do you want a sale? Do you want to call? You know what’s the end game, and so the way that I talk about what a funnel is, I compare it to what it’s not, because I think most people know by now what a website is. You go to a website. It’s usually like three to five pages. There’s tabs on the top like About and Contact Me, and you know all the things, and potentially a blog. So when you go to a website and that could be a whole other conversation about websites versus funnels.

Karrie Chariton: 2:05

But basically, when you go to a website, you do try to do a similar thing, you try to get a similar outcome, but there are so many places, as you’re reading down, to jump off. It’s like, ok, I came to this page to really learn about Sonja, for example. And then it’s like, oh well, she does Facebook Ads and she has a blog, and you know, you have, like all these options, like oh here’s a case study.

Karrie Chariton: 2:31

You know all the things, and so I may not get to where you want me to get to, because it’s like you know, we’re all busy scrolling with one intention. Kid calls, husband calls, you know something happens, and then you leave, right? And so nothing got accomplished, whereas a funnel is like virtually the same thing, but with no jump- offs. It’s like here’s the thing, why do you need it, why am I the person to help you? And like book the thing, buy the thing, whatever, and there’s like no place to go except to take action and it’s the one singular action. And so that’s it kind of works for comparison, like, what are you looking at? Cause you may be looking at a funnel. I mean, there, a funnel has a URL.

Karrie Chariton: 3:22

You know it doesn’t have to be “YourW ebsite. com/ something” you know. You can just buy a URL. I had a Pinterest course so it was like go to pinning foundationscom and it’s not there anymore, but that was sending them to a funnel and it was like by the course, so there are similarities in that regard. But you may not even know you’re on a funnel.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 3:46

Right.

Karrie Chariton: 3:47

Unless you’re probably a marketer.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 3:50

Yeah, Like. So the average person would think of this, like I went to this site and there’s some kind of offer being flashed in front of me and I click it and it takes me to this webpage. And, from our point of view as marketers, you’re now in my funnel, Right, exactly so, and I think you kind of described it like. The value of having that funnel is it’s directing your audience where you want them to go, which could lead to a lead or a sale. Great point. At what point does an organization need that? Like, when do I wake up and say you know what? I’ve got this website, and I always call them like a brochure style website. It’s great, it’s informational, but it might not convert people. At what point does someone need to say I think I need a funnel, or I need a lead magnet or an offer or something in place that’s going to start to bring people into my funnel?

Karrie Chariton: 4:48

I would say that is even it should be the very first thing, even before a website, because I know, when I got started in business, I didn’t have a website, but I had a LinkedIn profile.

Karrie Chariton: 4:58

You can always send people somewhere, but the whole point is that you need to grow an email list that you can reach out to, and so the best way to do that is what you had mentioned is a lead magnet, and so, to get the lead magnet, you create the lead magnet funnel and so you know it’s just send someone to your funnel, sign up, get a thing whatever it is, you know that shows your expertise and your knowledge, and then go to the next step. So that was something that I wish I had done sooner in my business. It took a while, but it’s definitely one of the very first things that a business should have.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 5:44

So any business can do this. If I’m doing it and I don’t have a website yet, like what does a person use Even some people, if they have websites? Like what are good softwares or tools or apps that people could use to host their funnel?

Karrie Chariton: 6:02

Yeah, there’s a couple different types of software. I mean one if you have a website. Oftentimes you can have a funnel on a website page.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 6:15

Okay.

Karrie Chariton: 6:16

So that’s using software that you already have. There is specific funnel software, Like there’s so many Carta, High Level, Systemio, I mean there’s a gazillion out there. They make it a little bit easier to do a funnel and it may be less overwhelming or less complicated, Like if you’re like overwhelmed at the thought of creating, like, oh my God, I have a website. You can often do something. You know, even a single funnel page could be a website and you can have like a single page website.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 6:51

But there’s, so there’s specific funnel software.

Karrie Chariton: 6:54

And then the third place I would argue is an email software OK form, like ConvertKit. Ok, one of those things, usually platforms like ConvertK it. Okay, one of those things usually well, I don’t want to say usually, but, um, it does simple, it usually does simple funnels. So it would be a great place to do like a lead magnet funnel if you’re just getting started. Get an email software platform and then have an opt-in page. That’s usually. I think that’s kind of usually where people start like kind of they’re dipping their toes into like what I need to do, and then when the whole world of marketing opens up, then it’s like then it leads to the overwhelm. Do I need funnel software? Can I build on my website, et cetera. So there’s, there are a lot of different places, not necessarily a right or a wrong, just sort of depends where you are in your business and where you intend to go.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 7:48

Yeah, I think that’s a good point because a lot of people will have MailChimp or ConvertKit. I haven’t used Constant Contact in a long time, but I know that’s a really popular one and those are places where it’s usually starting out with a landing page to host whatever’s being offered and then, yeah, eventually you could get into those softwares, but that’s more money. So if you already have an email list like, that’s a great starting point because you might already be paying for that email software and then over time, as your funnel gets more sophisticated or you build multiple funnels, that shift can start to happen. So, Karrie, tell me where you come in with your service. At what point are you usually helping business owners? Is it building the funnel from scratch? Or is it people that have a funnel and they’re like what do I do? I built this thing, I don’t know what to do with it, because I hear that a lot and you’re like the perfect person to step in and say well, here’s what you do. So where do you come in and help?

Karrie Chariton: 8:50

Yes, well, and I’ve had that too, like, oh, I’ve built the thing, now what do I do? And you know, “build it and they will come Doesn’t necessarily work. But I work with with all, like really all levels of businesses. I do have a soft spot and I do like to work with beginners because it’s like they’re like you know, they’re sort of green, like okay, I heard I need a funnel, this is what I want to do. Yeah, and I don’t know the tech. You know they might be like overwhelmed with it. Do I? Can I? I have software, I have an email list or something. Can I start with that? And so they, they just need a little bit more handholding and like reassurance and guidance. And like I was there too, like I mean, we were, I think we were all there. We weren’t born learning how to build an email list on an email software platform. So typically I will start with them a lot of them or I work with established business owners who already have multiple funnels in place. They may have. You know, sometimes businesses have like a funnel builder on retainer, like they’re just building funnels for like all kinds of projects and things like that. So usually I I have a soft spot for beginners. So I like to help beginners a lot because we you know, we were all there. I know what it felt like to be like, overwhelmed with all the tech and all the things. So I work with beginners and like holding them through the process and and I work with like the intermediate kind of business owner.

Karrie Chariton: 10:30

It could be for a couple different reasons. One is, you know, it’s kind of the evolution of business as we start out maybe doing it all ourself, and then it’s like, okay, I’m going to put the CEO hat on and start hiring a team. So you know, I’ll get hired to come in and like be the funnel strategist and like, let’s, you know, what are you doing, how can I help, and then what can I build? And so usually that’s where I fit in. It could be as a subcontractor for agencies, or people will just come straight to me as an agency and say, you know, we’re looking for someone to you know, fill this role in our business. And so yeah, it just comes with time and experience.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 11:17

Yeah, and I think you kind of started to answer another question, which is like one like once a funnel is in place, like who’s the person responsible for managing? And yeah, it just looks different for different organizations, because I’ll hear that some people are ready to really fully step up into that CEO role and pass it along. So there’s the outsource method. If someone’s managing it in-house or in coordination with the agency, like, who’s usually the point person for managing?

Karrie Chariton: 11:53

It could be me, it could be. If they have, like, a social media manager, okay, it sort of depends on, like, what their strategy is. So oftentimes people start out organically. So they, you know, may have a VA that’s like, hey, I’m just going to post organically. Then, okay, they may hire a social media manager if it gets to like, hey, we’re going to just put fire to this funnel and get, like, lots of people coming through and scale.

Karrie Chariton: 12:17

If they do it through ads, you could have a Facebook Ads manager, Pinterest ads manager, Google, LinkedIn, like all of the ads managers. Then in that that case, typically, like, my role is kind of I say at the end, where it’s like, okay, now all the traffic is coming through and I’m the one analyzing it, so like, are you getting sales, why, or why not? A lot of people think if they’re — a lot of times as business owners will pull like, “hey, I want like a you know million dollar launch, right, and then they don’t get it and they’re like you know why I, why did it get that and it’s like, well, was that realistic in the first place? So I’m usually like that person at the end of the funnel then at this point, like analyzing as the traffic has gone through, and so then like, when you get to a larger team, then there’s typically like a online business manager or an ops manager or somebody. So it just kind of it evolves really and it depends on the organization.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 13:20

That’s a good point and evolves. Evolving could take years. Some people want this stuff to happen overnight, but it doesn’t, don’t we all? Yeah, it just doesn’t work that way. So the other piece is we talked about kind of like the intro of the funnel, which is there’s an offer, it’s sitting on a webpage and then people are going to sign up for that offer and that’s the, I’d say, kind of oftentimes the starting point, like we might call it a conversion, but it’s usually the starting point, cause now this person’s on your email list, in many cases they might not make a purchase right away. So that’s one part of the funnel. Let’s talk about the next part of the funnel, which is OK, they’re on my email list. Now what? What are the pieces that come into play once, because a lot of people are great at that first step where they create or come up with some fun to offer.

Karrie Chariton: 14:21

I mean, well, I think even like stepping behind that it’s like, yes, you have the offer, but you have to get your offer seen. So it’s like really the whole like– they call it top of funnel, like how to get your funnel in front of people, and so that was sort of what we alluded to. You build the funnel and like why is no one buying or why is no one seeing it? And a lot of times, like beginners who are like, told you need a funnel, they’re like, okay, built the funnel, but who am I going to sell to? And so it to me like that’s the very beginning of like how do you like, how do you get people into your funnel?

Karrie Chariton: 14:59

And so that is, what I typically see is that it’s usually not your offer, it’s usually not the funnel. Usually all that works it’s you’re having a conversion problem because you have a traffic problem, which means that not enough people are seeing your offer, and that’s probably why you’re not getting as many sales. Oh, if everyone goes to my landing page or the page that they’re going to automatically buy, and so from a sales perspective, I mean, then what you were talking about is like a lead magnet funnel. So it’s like we have the lead on our email list. They got our little freebie thing, whatever that was. Now what do we do with them?

Karrie Chariton: 15:41

And that is another thing, a drop off point, where it’s like I got you on my list, but then if you don’t have like regular contact, I mean, so first it starts like usually when someone purchases, then there’s like what they call the welcome sequence, and so a lot of people that see your funnel are signing up. We call them cold traffic because they may have never heard of you before. So now it’s sort of like you know you and I are meeting for the first time. What am I going to say? Hey, Sonja, buy my thing right. I mean you’d be like… y ou know, what is that?

Sonja Crystal Williams: 16:16

I don’t even know you, right.

Karrie Chariton: 16:19

So it’s like, people equate it to dating. It’s like you’re not like, hey, buy my thing. Or you know, hey, let’s work together. People need to know each other and so in that welcome sequence is where you’re sharing more about you, maybe your philosophy, how you work. You know like, I like to work with women. I’m a homeschool mom. I usually work with parents, you know. So it’s probably in your marketing messaging to who you’re going to kind of like vibe with.

Karrie Chariton: 16:52

But you know it’s a way to, at that point, I mean, someone may have jumped on your list and then you’re going to go through your welcome sequence. That’s kind of like that informal, like dating and people are like, “I don’t know, she seems like a little bit too much. Or yeah, you know she’s someone that I feel like I could trust, like she’s. You know you share some of your experience. You may want to share other content you’ve created as a way to let people know about you and what you do, and so that’s sort of like that feeling thing, that relationship like okay, is this someone who I can work with? And so, as the business owner, you need to definitely have like that welcome sequence but then after that you need to have a regular email, like newsletter, or email cadence, like is it once a week, is it once a month? You know, set the expectation.

Karrie Chariton: 17:50

Usually it’s one of two things. At end of the welcome sequence, after we’ve kind of like danced around and got to know each other, like what’s next? Like for me, as a service provider, as a funnel builder? It’s you’re, “hey, let you know. Do you need a funnel? You know, do you need a funnel? Do you want to talk on a call?” Or, you know, maybe you’re, you’re, maybe you’re not at that point yet in your business where it’s like you have a thing “oh sell but tell them okay, you know, now you’re, now you’re on my email list.

Karrie Chariton: 18:19

You know the welcome sequence is over, we’ve gotten to know each other and you’re going to hear from me like once a month or you know, or once a week, so that you’re, so that when you pop up like I prefer like once a week so that you know continuing to stay in front of someone, but, like you know, I know it’s hard to be consistent. And so then, like you know, tell them oh, I’m going to email you, I have a monthly newsletter, so that when you show up a month later they’re not like oh yeah, who are you? Right, they’re expecting like oh yeah, that’s that Karrie, what does she have to say,” yeah, like that type of thing. So that is the key too, because way too many people like collect the leads but then they don’t do anything with them.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 19:08

Yeah, so OK. So I kind of skipped a step. Let’s rewind. We jumped to step three. So step one offer in place something to get people into the funnel. Step two, which we’re about to talk about we need to get traffic there. Step three, which you just talked about okay, I have a lead. Now what and welcome sequence is the starting to that answer? So let’s go back a step to that middle part that you brought up that a lot of people hear oh, you should have a funnel. And then they build the funnel and then it’s like but no one’s signing up for my offer, no one’s buying my course. So what are some in your experience? Just broadly, what are some of the most effective ways that you’ve seen businesses start to generate the traffic they need to get their funnel seen more or their offer seen more?

Karrie Chariton: 19:57

All the things work. What really is the key is what you can commit to consistently.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 20:05

Okay.

Karrie Chariton: 20:41

Facebook ads, Pinterest ads, all of them do. I mean that that is a way you know people. You either pay with time or money. All of, you know, the ads I mean that that way you know people. You either pay with time or money, and so if you got money do the ads.

Karrie Chariton: 20:57

If you got the time, you know, do go organic. There’s so many different ways and it’s whatever it really the thing is is one, people… you know coming into your funnel and “oh know it’s you getting in front of people, no matter which way that is. And so, even even if you don’t think a funnel is for you, I mean like, let’s you know, as you’re in business, you want to send people somewhere. So send them to. You know a funnel page, website page, you’re connecting with people locally. Hey, go, you know, go, get my thing.

Karrie Chariton: 21:33

I mean it’s just it’s some place to Karrie people so that you can, you know, grow your list. And not everyone is no one are people listening, that can’t handle like, oh, I can pay like thousands of dollars in ads, but if they got like thousands of leads, they’d be like, oh my God, I don’t know what to do with it. So I mean that that’s sort of up to you as well as like the pace and the consistency. And also, I mean people do have multiple funnels so you can have multiple offers and you know kind of say–a nd depending on what you do.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 22:05

Yeah, oh, such great points. Well, Karrie, I want to thank you so much for breaking it down because I mean, I hope I hope everyone was listening I mean just really some really great wisdom and advice dropped in there on how to approach creating a funnel, or like just making the funnel that you already have even better. Karrie, I always like to end every episode with just a few short questions. I call this the lightning round, just to get to know you a little better. And so KMB Digital. You’ve been in business for a bit. What would you say? And I know you said like one of your happy spots is working with beginners. So if you were starting all over again, you were a beginner and the Karrie of now was talking to beginner Karrie, what’s the little bit of advice that you would give beginner Karrie or anyone in that position?

Karrie Chariton: 22:59

Well, besides getting an email funnel, lead on magnet funnel, whatever you want to call it in place, talk about it because, like the mistake I made, was I exactly what I did? I, like, built it, I put it on social media like a couple of times and I thought the whole world had seen it and it was, you know. So once you build it and then talk about it some more.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 23:24

Very good, sound, sound, sound advice On a personal tip. So you also mentioned your primary audience. You work with a lot of women. You also mentioned you’re a homeschool mom. How do you balance the responsibilities of being a mom, running a business, like all the things? Like and I know that’s a very broad and loaded question, but just if you were to summarize know that’s a very broad and loaded question, but but just if you were to summarize like, how do I keep this together? Nine to five, Monday through Friday, even nine to five? Like what’s the reality of managing those things?

Karrie Chariton: 24:00

I don’t even know how you homeschool and run a business. That’s pretty amazing. Well, it’s funny. I have to say that actually, like I have to take the homeschooling hat off because now, just because we’re recording this, at the end of August my last one, my last baby, went to college. So now it’s like I’m not a homeschooling mom anymore, but like kind of going back to the beginning as like a newbie. It one of the things was like really building your business around your life and so, knowing the limitations, like I had already been homeschooling first, like I don’t know if you can like homeschool, start a business all at one time. I think you need to do like one first and then the other, and like just be realistic with your time, the type of business and so when I started I was a virtual assistant and I had done social media management.

Karrie Chariton: 24:59

So you know I was up-front. I’m like homeschooling. You’re not going to get me between like 10 and two. And you know I work in the morning, I work at night and most people are like, well, I don’t care when you work, just get the work done. And like social media, you . can plan it to go out anytime. And so I knew that. You know I was when I was up front with my clients and you’re like you’re either going to love me and you’re going to be fine with that, or if you’re not, then you’re not my person.

Karrie Chariton: 25:35

And then you know just planning. You know don’t don’t pick up a customer service role answering phones if you got kids like screaming in the background. So just like be realistic. And then also, you know, just try to and I say try to kind of set parameters and outsource. That would be my other thing Buy your groceries online, you know start. You know you don’t have to have the nanny and the cook, the chauffeur and like all the things like we think we would like. You know, but start small and try to like delegate, give your kids chores, like kids nowadays. You know mom does everything, or it’s, you know whatever it is, but it’s like it’s not going to hurt to have a kid to help around the house, and so that’s probably another conversation for another day but another, but also setting another type of expectation and parameters, and it’s just doing it with your kids.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 26:22

I love this. I went through this when I had my son, so I had my kids later in life. So I’ve got a eight and four year old but had to make a shift in how I manage things and, to your point, build the business around my life. Now my life is not built around this business, so I really really love that. Thank you so much, Karrie. So a couple of quick things as we wrap up. One you that people can kind of take away. Where can people find that? And for everyone, I’ll drop that into the description. So look out for that link, but, Karrie, tell us a little about it and where people can get it.

Karrie Chariton: 27:02

Sure, this is my Flood Your Funnel With Traffic guide, and so this like goes back to exactly what we were talking about. But this has like over 50 ways to get traffic to your funnel, and so there may be things you’re like, oh well, what else you know? And so you’ ve ways and it doesn’t have to be just one way, so you could like implement a couple. And so it was literally with a problem that I saw. It was like people would come to me. It was like people would come to me and it’s like my funnel’s not converting. It’s like it’s not a funnel thing, it’s a traffic thing.

Karrie Chariton: 27:38

Here’s your guide. Go, go, find you know four or five ways and, like you know, chip away at getting filled with traffic. And so that is my free gift and I hope that it helps all business owners. Whether you’re new or you’re. You know you’ve been in business 20 years. You know you need new people, new leads. You know the different ways change, but then they stay the same. You know it’s one of those things.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 28:10

So Awesome, so everybody look out for that in the description, as well as how you can get in touch with Karrie. Karrie, thank you so much for being here. For everyone else, we’ll see you next time.

Karrie Chariton: 28:21

Oh my God, thank you so much for having me All right.