Need a landing page?
You can create one in a matter of minutes with our software. No web design or web development skills required!
But merely having a landing page is not enough if you want to make money online. You should also build a proper sales funnel for your business!
Big Picture: How Does Your Landing Page Fit into Your Overall Sales Funnel?
What is a Sales Funnel?
A sales funnel is a system designed to convert visitors into leads, leads into customers and customers into repeat customers.
Every business in existence has a sales funnel of some sort, with the exception of VC-funded startups that prioritize growth over profitability.
However, these sales funnel often aren’t well-thought-out: typically, the business owner has either stumbled into something that works or is copying what appears to be working for their competitors.
The problem with this approach is that the business owner inevitably ends up leaving a lot of money on the table. So how can you build a sales funnel that allows you to maximize your revenue?
This is where the Value Ladder sales funnel comes in…
What is the Value Ladder Sales Funnel?
Our co-founder Russell Brunson is the creator of the Value Ladder sales funnel.
This sales funnel is based on three core ideas:
- Closing sales requires trust. This is true regardless of how much the offer in question costs.
- The more expensive the offer, the more trust is required to close the sale. This means that it doesn’t make sense to start the relationship with the potential customer by pitching them your most expensive product or service. You haven’t built enough trust yet!
- The best way to build trust is to start small by offering free value, asking for the potential customer’s email address in exchange for it and then delivering what you promised. Once you have their email address, you can pitch them your least expensive offer, then a more expensive one and then finally the most expensive one. Obviously, the more expensive the offer, the more valuable it should be. Hence the name “Value Ladder”!
Here’s what the structure of the Value Ladder sales funnel looks like:
In our experience, the Value Ladder sales funnel is the most effective way to sell anything online because this funnel structure is the fastest way to build the trust required to close sales.
And we aren’t saying that just because one of our co-founders came up with this idea. It’s the sales funnel that we used to grow our company from zero to $100M+ in annual revenue. The proof is in the pudding!
How Do Lead Generation Landing Pages Fit into the Value Ladder Sales Funnel?
When people use the term “landing page”, they are usually talking about leading generation landing pages.
Meaning, that the landing pages are designed to persuade the visitor to provide their contact details.
This is the Bait stage of the Value Ladder sales funnel where you offer the potential customer a freebie in exchange for their email address. It’s also known as the lead generation funnel.
If you want to make money online but don’t have anything to sell yet, we recommend setting up a simple lead generation funnel and driving traffic to it with social media marketing. Start building your email list ASAP. You can always monetize it later.
However, if you do have something to sell already, you need to build a Value Ladder sales funnel for your business!
Create a Sales Funnel for Your Business With ClickFunnels AI Sales Funnel Builder
We added an AI sales funnel builder to ClickFunnels to simplify the process of creating sales funnels.
Here’s how it works:
Step #1: Tell Us About Yourself and Your Business
We start by asking you a few questions about yourself and your business.
- Who are you?
- What do you want to do?
- Who is your target audience?
- What will you help them achieve?
Step #2: Select a Funnel
Then we ask you to choose a funnel template from these six options:
- Optin funnel – This is the most popular lead generation funnel out there. It’s perfect for growing your email list, even if you don’t have anything to sell yet.
- Application funnel – This lead generation funnel is designed to help you qualify leads. It’s perfect for businesses that sell high-touch products or services that require scheduling follow-up calls in order to close sales.
- Webinar funnel – This is a sales funnel where you use a free webinar as your lead magnet and pitch your product or service at the end of it.
- Summit funnel – This is a sales funnel where you organize an online summit with several speakers, invite people to register for the event for free, and then upsell them VIP tickets that include extra perks.
- Bridge funnel – This sales funnel is popular among affiliate marketers because it allows you to create a “bridge” between your website and the sales page of the product that you are selling as an affiliate. That can help you provide context for your audience and pre-sell them on that product before sending them to its sales page.
- Video series funnel – This sales funnel is also known as the product launch funnel and is designed to help you build anticipation before launching your product.
As you can see in the screenshot below, each funnel type is explained in detail, so it should be easy to determine which one of them makes the most sense for your business.
Step #3: Select Your Main Brand Color and the Style of Your Funnel
Then we ask you to decide on
- Your main brand color which will determine the color scheme of your funnel.
- Your funnel style which will determine fonts, corners, borders, and spacing across your funnel.
Step #4: Select an Image Style for Your Funnel
Then we ask you to select an image style for your funnel from these three options:
- Isometric 3D illustrations
- Flat illustrations
- Stock photo portraits
Step #5: Provide More Details About Yourself and Your Business
Finally, if you want to, you can provide more details about yourself and your business and select a writing tone for your sales funnel copy.
On this page, you will also see an example of AI-generated copy based on the information that you provided. You can tweak it until you are happy with it!
Step #6: Click a Button and Wait for AI to Generate a Funnel for You!
Click the “Create Funnel Now” button and AI will generate a sales funnel for you in a matter of minutes!
Step #7: Claim Your Sales Funnel!
You can then claim your sales funnel and the complementary ClickFunnels 14-day FREE trial!
How Long Does it Take to Create a Funnel With ClickFunnels AI Sales Funnel Builder?
It will probably take around 10-15 minutes in total.
Once you have your funnel, you can edit it with our visual drag-and-drop editor to make sure that everything is just the way you want it.
Once you are happy with it, it’s time to publish it and start driving traffic to it!
Optimize Your Sales Funnel for Conversions With ClickFunnels A/B Testing Functionality
Once your sales funnel is up and running, you can use our A/B testing functionality to optimize it for conversions.
What is A/B Testing?
A/B testing is the primary conversion rate optimization method that digital marketers use to optimize landing pages for conversions.
How Does A/B Testing Work?
Step #1: Come Up With a Hypothesis
You should start by coming up with a hypothesis.
For example, maybe you believe that a landing page with a red call-to-action button would convert better than a landing page with a green call-to-action button.
Step #2: Design an Experiment to Test Your Hypothesis
Next, you want to create two variants of your landing page – variant A and variant B – which should be identical except for the element that you are testing.
For example, if you want to see which call-to-action button color works better, you should create two variants of your landing page, one with a red call-to-action button and the other with a green call-to-action button.
Step #3: Test Your Hypothesis!
Finally, once both variants of your landing page are live, it’s time to start driving traffic to them.
You should split your traffic in two and drive 50% of it to variant A and the other 50% to variant B.
Let the experiment run until it reaches statistical significance and then evaluate the results. See which variant converted better. Was your hypothesis correct?
What Should You A/B Test?
Your Free Offer
Your free offer is the most important factor that will determine the conversion rate of your landing page. You can use A/B testing to experiment with various offers until you find a winning one!
Landing Page Design
Our template library includes landing page templates that have already been optimized for conversions.
However, we still recommend experimenting with various color schemes and call-to-action button colors.
Note that when it comes to call-to-action buttons, it’s not so much the color itself that matters but whether or not it stands out in the overall color scheme of your landing page!
Landing Page Copy
The headline is the most important element of your landing page copy so it makes sense to A/B test various headlines.
The subheadline is the second most important element of your landing page copy so you want to A/B test various subheadlines as well.
Your aim should be to find a winning headline + subheadline combination that resonates with your target audience!
Social Proof
Adding social proof to your landing page is one of the most reliable ways to increase its conversion rate.
Consider experimenting with:
- Endorsement quotes from well-known people in your niche
- Testimonials from people who got great results with your free offer
- “As Seen On” media badges
And if you don’t have any social proof to speak of yet, you should probably go out there and acquire some!
Images
Finally, using images to support your copy can also help you boost the conversion rate of your landing page.
If you have a personal brand, consider experimenting with these two types of images:
- Photos of you where you come across as relatable, friendly, and trustworthy.
- Photos of you where you come across as an authoritative expert (e.g. you giving a talk at an industry conference).
Meanwhile, if you have a company brand, consider experimenting with various aspirational images that represent something that your target audience wants to achieve.
For example, if your target audience is aspiring digital nomads who want to become location independent and travel the world, you can use an image of a person working on a laptop at a beach bar to represent that.
Try ClickFunnels Risk-Free!
Let’s be real:
We are biased in favor of our software.
So we understand if you take what we say about it with a grain of salt.
Fortunately, we have a free 14-day trial, so you don’t have to take our word for it.
You can go and see ClickFunnels for yourself without any risk!
So what are you waiting for? 🧐