6 Video Marketing Funnel Use Cases That Work for ANY Industry

“Hey Summer, it’s easy for you to sing praises about video marketing funnels… but they don’t really work for my industry.” 

YES THEY DO. 

…Oops, sorry for yelling. 

What I meant was: sure they do! 

In fact, no matter what you sell or to whom — I bet you dollars to any sugary food item of your choice that your business can benefit from not one, but several types of different funnels. 

And don’t take my word for it, because I’m about to prove it to you! Right here, right now.

This week, we’re digging deep into the exciting, profitable world of video-powered marketing funnels… all to unearth 6 different blueprints that will help you generate leads, nurture prospects, and close sales — with ANY offer, in ANY industry.

Intrigued? Then let’s get started!

Inside, you will learn:

• The #1 “fastest-acting” funnel that will quickly flood you with high-quality prospects and book your sales team solid.
• My favorite kind of funnel for engaging the absolute cream-of-the-crop leads on your list, so you can sell to them later — at monstrous conversion rates.
• How to generate massive interest and even real sales for an offer you haven’t even created yet! (This is the holy grail of entrepreneurship, hands down.)
• The most effortless way to “print money” without acquiring more customers… or developing any new products or services.
• The second most effortless way to “print money” by acquiring more customers on autopilot — without paying for ads or promoting your butt off.

And more!

If you’re interested, I welcome you to dive in. Let’s start with the most valuable funnel of them all…

 

1. The appointment funnel

Whether you call them strategy sessions, free consultations, sales calls, or something else entirely — appointments are the lifeblood of businesses across hundreds, if not thousands of industries.

And if you rely on these types of conversations to generate revenue, then having an effective appointment funnel can give you a fully booked calendar with very little hands-on effort!

That’s why I believe that the best time to set it up would be on Day One of your company’s existence. …Or failing that, as soon as possible.

Let’s break down how it can work.

What does it look like?

At the most basic level, an appointment funnel follows this simple structure:

1. You present off-site messages (PPC ads, social posts, guest articles, sponsored posts etc.) to leads, attracting them to your website.
2. They end up on your landing page, where you present them with your ultimate solution, positioning the appointment as the risk-free next step.
3. Leads complete the opt-in form on the page, which could be short (just the name and email) or long and detailed to qualify them thoroughly.
4. After moving on to the thank-you page, they pick a time and date for the call.
5. In anticipation of the appointment, you nurture this new prospect with emails that serve bonus content and remind them about the upcoming call.
6. On the big day, you or a member of your sales team talks with the prospect and makes the offer, (hopefully) closing the sale!

Where does video come in?

You have two key opportunities to leverage video in your appointment funnel.

The first one is video ads, which you can use to drive traffic to your landing page.

And the second one is your landing page explainer video, which will break down your awesome solution for them and get them pumped to talk to you!

My advice is to create a long-form explainer video first (2-3 minutes or even more) — and then use that as a basis for 1-2 short ads (30-60 seconds each). That way, you can cover two touch points on the customer journey with technically just one piece of video content!

 

2. The challenge funnel

How can you determine that a prospect is high-quality, and not a waste of time and resources?

That’s the million-dollar question most entrepreneurs grapple with.

Well, here’s one of the sure signs that a customer or client is promising:

If they are eager to implement your free advice, they will be just as passionate about investing in your offers!

And yes, the operative word here is “implement” — not “consume.” You want doers who take action, not passive consumers expecting a quick fix.

Challenge funnels are designed to attract exactly those kinds of prospects. They emphasize consistent, structured action, oriented towards a specific result — and that’s why they appeal to your ideal customers.

Now, let me show you how you can structure your own…

What does it look like?

Here’s the breakdown of a simple challenge funnel:

1. You attract new leads from “rented” platforms, e.g. your social media, or through joint ventures with other business owners. (I don’t recommend using paid ads for this.) You can also target your existing leads and subscribers — this is a powerful way to identify the most passionate, engaged segment of your audience!
2. Leads visit the landing page for your challenge, where you learn the details: the #1 desirable outcome they can expect, how many days it will last, how you will be teaching them, etc.
3. After opting in, they will land on a thank-you page that validates their decision, sets future expectations for the challenge, and invites them to share it on socials.
4. Challenge participants get a confirmation / welcome email right away, followed by content / value-focused emails for each day of the challenge.
5. Right after the end of the challenge, or close to it, you pitch your product or service to all those highly motivated prospects who you’d just helped do something awesome and improve their lives! Give them a valuable bonus or a deep discount to increase uptake. I recommend putting together a customized sales page to maximize conversions.

P.S. Instead of a challenge, you can do a giveaway funnel. It’s similar but much shorter, and it does require you to invest in prizes! Learn more about giveaways here.

Where does video come in?

There are so, so many ways to enhance your challenge funnel with video! Here are just some of them:

• Explain the challenge in a landing page video to boost conversions.
• Use a thank-you page video to onboard new participants.
• Create a series of video lessons / tutorials for each day of the challenge…
• …or go BIG with live streamed webinars and workshops!
• When you pitch at the end, consider using an explainer video on your sales page.

If you have the resources to spare, I would highly recommend doing a video series for your challenge, or hosting a few live workshops — the engagement benefits are totally worth it! But if not, even a well-placed thank you page video can do wonders for your funnel.

 

3. The pre-order funnel

Imagine pouring piles of cash, along months and maybe even YEARS of effort, into a new product or service…

…only to launch to the sound of crickets.

Zero interest. Zero sales. Zero hope of breaking even, let alone turning a profit.

As far as business owners’ worst nightmares go, this one has got to be up there. Oof, my hair is standing up just typing this!

That’s why pre-order funnels are so powerful. They exist to prevent this exact scenario, and validate your offer idea with real money in the bank before you spend any time, money, or energy on creating it!

Let me give you a quick and dirty summary…

What does it look like?

So, the recipe for a winning pre-order funnel is as follows:

1. Start with an existing list of prospects — or even paying customers who already know, like, and trust you. Note: you could market a pre-order product to total strangers… but it doesn’t work nearly as well. Established trust is key here.
2. Send a series of 5 or more emails to those prospects. Use the first couple to build anticipation and deliver unconditional value (that’s right, help before you sell!); then for the next two, introduce a pre-order pitch in the second half of the email; and finally, make the last email an unapologetic, assertive sell. Or rather, a pre-sell!
3. Everyone who clicks through on your email pitch will go to a pre-order sales page, where they will get to learn more about the offer… and vote with their wallets if they want it or not.

And just like that, you have money in the bank for a product or service you haven’t even finished yet… AND hard evidence that your target customers are loving the thing you want to create!

Where does video come in?

I’m sure you can predict the answer here…

Your pre-order sales page will absolutely benefit from a kickbutt explainer video about your upcoming offer.

Breaking down complex ideas in a clear, impossible-to-misunderstand way is one of the undisputed strengths of video marketing. To promote and pre-sell a product or service that’s not officially out yet… that’s exactly the kind of task marketing videos are best at.

And if you want to have a lucrative pre-order campaign, you’ll need this superpower!

 

4. The lead magnet funnel

A lead magnet, if done right, can flood your marketing funnel with high-quality prospects like almost no other kind of offer.

The only catch is:

It MUST be relevant, actionable, and valuable. Your ideal customers will accept nothing less.

These days, everyone and their goldfish deploy lead magnets — but 99,99% of them fail at least one (or usually all three!) of those requirements. So, unsurprisingly, people have become understandably hesitant to give away their info in exchange for a potentially mediocre offer!

Now the only way to get that sweet, sweet contact information… is to create the kind of exceptional lead magnet that will blow your audience away. (Read this guide to learn all about it.)

Once you have that, the funnel itself can be really straightforward. Here’s a breakdown:

What does it look like?

I bet you’ve seen hundreds of lead magnet funnels by now. They usually go like this…

1. Somewhere online, leads see a message linking back to your website. It could be on an off-site article somewhere, in a YouTube description, in your Instagram bio, or on any number of other marketing channels.
2. They end up on a landing page inviting them to opt in — in exchange for the lead magnet. It can be as simple as a headline, a short description of the promised outcome, a bullet list of benefits and results, some supporting visuals, and an obvious CTA.
3. After signing up, prospects move on to the thank-you page with the lead magnet waiting for them — or with instructions on how to access it.
4. Post-conversion, prospects receive an email autoresponder sequence that nurtures them and pitches your solution to them.

Tip: this is the most basic structure for a lead magnet funnel, but feel free to expand it as you see fit. E.g. you can add remarketing ads that will find and recapture the leads who didn’t convert, or introduce a small upsell on the thank-you page (more on that later).

Where does video come in?

Video can be a valuable lead magnet in its own right! This alone will help it stand out from the sea of generic PDFs and other digital dreck that’s so ubiquitous online.

Alternatively, you can have a downloadable text-based lead magnet (well, text + visuals, to be more precise)… but then ALSO offer a companion video explaining how to make the most of it. This will make your lead magnet seem much more valuable!

 

5. The upsell funnel

Here’s an underrated, low-effort, high-impact strategy to grow your business…

Nudge your customers to spend a little more every time they buy from you. That’s right: it’s the good old “would you like fries with that?” tactic, also known as upselling.

The logic behind upselling is simple:

A buyer who’s about to make a purchase — or has already made one — is primed to invest even more money if presented with the right offer at the right time. Not everyone will go for it, of course… but you don’t need them to! Even if customers say “yes” to the upsell only 5% of the time, this tiny share can generate disproportionate revenue for your business.

With the power of marketing funnels and automation, upselling on autopilot becomes laughably easy. Here, take a look…

What does it look like?

Because upselling is so timing-specific, this is less of a fully-fledged funnel and more of a short add-on to your existing marketing system. There are two main ways it can work:

Option A:

1. A customer or client buys something — for the 1st time or for the 100th, doesn’t matter.
2. After buying, they get forwarded to another sales page for a NEW, complementary offer. As a rule, an effective upsell should build on, or be directly related to, the main purchase.

Option B:

1. A customer is about to buy something, and they’ve just started the checkout process.
2. At that point, they see a related offer, or multiple offers that they could also add to the order — that’s the favored tactic of ecommerce brands everywhere.
3. The customer (hopefully) adds more products to their order, and ends up spending more money than they otherwise would have!

As you can see, the real power of upselling is in its simplicity. You can tack on this tiny lil’ funnel to any other marketing funnel that you’ve got going, and boost your revenue pretty much INSTANTLY!

Where does video come in?

For Option A, you can produce a customized upsell video that will play on the new sales page after your customers have completed their order. This will help make the offer seem bespoke and personalized, increasing your conversions.

And as for Option B, you don’t really need a video there. That’s right, I said it!

…Weeeell… You can still send in a thank-you video by email after the purchase is finalized. But it’s not essential by any means — only delightful.

 

6. The referral funnel

Imagine… your favorite customers going out there and doing your marketing for you.

Imagine… their passionate word-of-mouth evangelism attracting EVEN MORE customers to your door.

Customers who already match your “dream-fit prospect checklist” on all counts. Who already feel giddy at the possibility of buying from you. Who are practically begging for you to take their money.

That, right there, is the power of referrals: “free,” unlimited buyers you don’t have to chase.

And the best part is, no matter what industry you’re in, referral funnels are some of the fastest and easiest to set up. Here, allow me to demonstrate right now!

What does it look like?

A simple referral funnel goes like this:

1. Your existing customer or client reaches a certain milestone with you. It could be the end of a project, an “anniversary” of doing business with you, or a specific result they’ve achieved.
2. After hitting that milestone, they get contacted by your company with a referral request. This could be an automated email, a manual email from someone on your team, or even a call — e.g. I like to go with the most high-touch channel available to me.
3. The customer / client gets a few follow-up messages over a few weeks to remind them about your ask.
4. If they say yes, they receive the resources and the support they need to send referrals your way, for example: a word-for-word script, a unique link to a special landing page, etc. They use those resources to reach out to prospects on your behalf.
5. Referrals visit your website and book an appointment, buy something on-site, or enter one of your existing funnels. Profit!

Tip: when it comes to referral marketing, I do want to recommend manual, personalized outreach over automation. Yes, it takes time; and no, it doesn’t scale. But the response from personal attention is far stronger than from any generic and templated marketing!

P.S. Check out this article to learn more about referral marketing — it will explain the optimal time to ask for referrals, how to incentivize it, and more.

Where does video come in?

You can create a bespoke landing page for incoming referrals, along with a special explainer video just for them. This will create the impression of a highly personalized message, even though everyone will watch the same video in the end.

For extra credit, your team can go old school and record unique video voicemails for each potential referral. E.g. those can be sent out after your existing customer makes an email introduction between someone on your team and a potential referral. Once again, it doesn’t scale… but it sure works!

 

Want to build a profitable funnel? We’ll do all the work for you!

Hey, I hope I’m not coming on too strong, but…

My team and I want to build a high-performing video-powered funnel for your business, from start to finish. You won’t have to lift a finger, or even show up in front of a camera — we’ll build all the assets, produce all the content, and even set up the entire thing for you!

Check out all the assets you will get as part of your brand-new, shiny, revenue-generating funnel:

• 2 prospect-pulling video ads to drive targeted traffic to your site
• Powerful explainer video that captures the life-altering value of your offer
• Personalized video-powered landing page that converts (plus a thank-you page!)
• Custom 5-part nurturing email sequence to convert prospects into buyers

Plus, you’ll get:

• 1-on-1 marketing audit where we’ll deep-dive into your business and strategize how to create a funnel that supports your goals.
• And hands-on tech support and implementation — so you can deploy your new funnel and start generating revenue as quickly as possible!

Interested? Then head over to this page to learn more and book a free, no-strings-attached appointment:

Click here to explore our Video Marketing Funnel solutions and book your free appointment