Digital Marketing Strategies That Produce Results

The best way to generate highly qualified leads on demand is to recognize that not all leads are created equal.

That's why we use the SSF Method. Something inspired by MJ Demarco’s book “Millionaire Fastlane”. SSF stands for Sidewalk, Slow Lane, Fast Lane.

If you aren't familiar with this method, it’s essentially a way to category the types of leads into these 3 buckets.

Leads in the Sidewalk don’t know yet that they have a problem worth solving. They need

someone to point out the pain in their life and show them that it really is a big deal that they

need to pay attention to. Someone on the Sidewalk isn’t going to give you much time, so

you have to quickly make the pain relevant while still adding value.

Once someone sees that they have a problem worth solving, they arrive in the Slow Lane.

Here, your lead is in “information gathering” mode and wants to know more about the

problem and the process for solving it. Here is where you explain the unique process you

use to solve their problem, all while positioning yourself as an authority. Once your lead

understands their problem, and how it’s solved they move into the Fast Lane.

A Fast Laner is basically ready to buy. These are the people you’re talking to on the phone.

Someone in the Fast Lane is ready to make a purchase to finally fix their problem. All you

need is a system for closing over the phone, handling objections, and collecting payment.

This is the method behind building an effective lead generation system for a high ticket

offer. Now, let’s take that theory and break it down into practical, actionable steps you can

take today.

APPLYING THE SSF METHOD TO ONLINE MARKETING

You know what an online marketing funnel is, sure. But when we take the SSF Method and

apply it, we end up with a special kind of funnel that caters to each of your lead’s mindsets.

In each lane, you range from having just content to having a full “funnel” with a Facebook ads, a landing pages, lead magnets, and email sequences.The idea is to generate your leads in the Sidewalk, and pull them through your funnel to the Fast Lane and your product or service.

Some people who join your list may be in the Fast Lane and we can give them the

opportunity to go straight to a phone. Others take more time to convert, so we bring them

through the Slow Lane to the Fast Lane before presenting them with the offer.

BUILDING THE SIDEWALK

The first step is creating Sidewalk content, also known as audience-building content. This

is typically a short video or blog article that talks about the pain points your audience

members are feeling.

Sidewalk content is a non-threatening approach to content marketing that essentially allows

our audience to put their hand up and say, “Yes, this is interesting to me.” The goal is to get

the minimum level of engagement from your audience so you can pixel them on Facebook

in order to send ads to them in the future.

The goal here is to actually get your audience members to realize that they do have problem

that needs some attention. This content should take less than 5 minutes to consume, since

your audience doesn’t know you and you have to earn their attention before asking for their

Email.

The overall purpose of your content is to make the pain they feel relevant to them right.

Your audience has a million and one problems in their life at any given moment. The job of

your Sidewalk content is to bring the pain you solve to the top of their mind so they are

compelled to take action on it.

Once you’ve built an audience with your Sidewalk content, you will re-target these leads

with ads for your Slow Lane lead magnet. Sometimes, you may need to send multiple

content pieces to your audience in the Sidewalk to get a maximum awareness of their pain.

You can do this with short video ads, long form Facebook posts, blogs, or even published

pieces in established media outlets.

The whole idea is to offer value first and start building a relationship with your lead. This is

especially important for those of us who sell high ticket offers.

To recap the Sidewalk, your job is to get your lead to pay attention to the problem you solve.

It’s about them, not you, so don’t talk about yourself. Capture their attention, and build

trust. Get their attention and start building your audience. Keep it simple.

PAVING THE SLOW LANE

In the Slow Lane, your job is to explain your unique process for how you solve your

prospect’s problem.

This is meant to be a high level overview. It’s not a detailed, in-the-weeds academic paper on

how to solve every intricacy of the problem they encounter.

In this lane, you offer a lead magnet to your prospect that’s either a longer guide (like this

one) or a 10-15 minute video. It should be process-oriented and educate the lead about

their problem and why your solution works. If you’ve done your job in the Sidewalk, they

should be aware of their problem now and an offer like this should make sense for them. You

can even have an opt-in to your Slow Lane guide within your Sidewalk content.

If you’re sending leads from Facebook to a landing page, it can include elements of social

proof, and have a short description of the lead magnet. Typically, having 3-5 bullet points is

appropriate in the Slow Lane.

Once they’ve opted in, you send a 7 email sequence that is focused on building up your

authority, showing the outcome of the service you offer, demonstrating that your solution is

the best, and offering them the opportunity to get into the Fast Lane.

SPEEDING THROUGH THE FAST LANE

Here, your lead is hyper-engaged. They feel the weight of their problem, they understand

your process for how you solve it, and they believe that you have the authority and expertise

to fix it. They’re ready to have a conversation about what it looks like to work with you.

This is the appointment booking portion of your funnel. You offer them your solution, and

it’s a very simple offer: “Let’s get on the phone to take a look at your situation and see how I

can help.”

You’ll likely want a simple application form that qualifies applicants based your industry and

their ability to invest in themselves. The application leads to a simple page where the lead

can schedule a quick 10 minute triage call. The idea here is to have a sales assistant get on

a call with a simple script and screen applicants so you’re only getting on the phone with

serious applicants.

If they get through the screening call, they book a call with the sales assistant on the phone

for a full strategy call with you.

Then you hop on the phone and close the sale :)

WEEKLY CONTENT STRATEGY

Now, not every lead is going to convert from your Slow Lane into your Fast Lane

immediately. In order to convert those leads, you simply need to create high quality content

on a weekly basis and send it to your email list.

This doesn’t need to take a ton of time. It can be a short text or video blog that contains a

“call to action” to book a call with you.

The idea here is to continue to have a conversation with these prospects

about your topic of expertise in a way that provides value to them. This

helps to build your authority and strengthen the relationship between

You.

It also enables you repeatedly make the offer for them to get on a call with you, in a way

that isn’t spammy, intrusive, or annoying.

Over the next week, month, year or longer, one of two things will happen for the prospects

on your email list: they will either unsubscribe or they will decide to take the next step with

you and book a call!

(Oh and PS - you can maximize the ROI of the time you put towards creating this content

by repurposing it as Sidewalk audience building content as well!)