Many of us crowd around the television during the Olympics, in awe as we think “Man, I wish I could be that good at, well, just about anything!”

Why not take the motivation and drive of elite athletes and apply that passion to your marketing strategy?

With enough focus and intensity, you can make your next sales funnel worthy of a gold medal.

The Olympics represent the pinnacle of spectacle and athletic performance, with millions around the world tuning in to see the best of the best compete for the glory and the gold.

The blood, sweat, and tears that go into the training regimen of the most Olympic athletes is difficult for the average person to wrap their head around.

From training for six hours a day, six days a week year-round to insanely strict diets that we could never stomach ourselves, the dedication and intensity of those competing in the Olympics are absolutely staggering.

Okay, so what the heck does this have to do with building a sales funnel?

More than you might think.

While comparing your sales funnel to pole-vaulting or the 200-meter dash may seem like apples and oranges, consider the struggles that marketers face:

• Some days it just feels like we’re going nowhere, essentially spinning our wheels trying to support an underperforming sales funnel.
• Throwing in the towel can be incredibly tempting when we’re not seeing an ROI for our hard work and research.
• Overcoming that final financial hurdle into profitability can be like staring up at a giant, seemingly impossible to overcome.

Likewise, athletes face similar challenges in the midst physical and mental roadblocks as they spend four years preparing for events that could last mere seconds.

But do they give up?

No.

And neither should you.

It’s time to take your funnel out of the kiddie pool and get on Michael Phelps’ level.

How?

Practice Makes Perfect

Olympic athletes aren’t simply born: they’re made as a result of their years of fierce training and focus.

Likewise, killer sales funnels don’t fall from the sky: they’re created as a result of intense research and a fool-proof sales strategy.

If your first funnel falls flat, does that mean you should give up altogether?

Of course not. Instead, learn from the mistakes of your first funnel and understand what not to do the next time around.

Some common pitfalls that even seasoned funnel-builders make include:

• Ignoring the elements of conversion focused design, ultimately resulting in a funnel that fails to convert.
• Relying on a cheap or inexperienced team as a means of cutting corners which therefore cuts sales.
• Focusing too much on the front-end instead of implementing a back-end that grows the profit.

Think of fine-tuning your funnel as simply part of the process, much like athletes have to train for hours on end to recreate their best performances.

The more time you spend building and launching new funnels, the more opportunities you have to grow as a successful funnel-hacker.

Split Test Strategies

Dozens of world records have already been broken at the Rio Olympics.

In fact, it seems like records are constantly being broken the Olympics, year after year.

Why?

Athletes evolve. As researchers and trainers uncover new ways to train, athletes adapt accordingly to raise their own standards to match their competition.

On a similar note, you should constantly work to evolve your marketing and funnel-building to meet the expectations and best practices of your niche.

Funnel-builders should always be split testing to optimize the potential of their marketing strategy.

From the color scheme to copywriting, there are always tweaks that can be made to make your funnel smarter and stronger.

Sure, you can let your funnel sit in autopilot mode; however, that’s no way to grow your network for future funnels and stand toe-to-toe with your competition.

If you hope for your funnel to stay competitive, you can’t afford to test.

Play the Long-Game

It can take some athletes years of rigorous training before they make it to the Olympics: earning a medal requires extreme patience and perseverance.

You can’t always expect your funnels to kill it from the word “go.”

Remember: funnel-hacking represents a marathon and not a sprint.

Think about how long-distance runners kick it into high gear at the end of the race: they fact that were ever “behind” becomes irrelevant as long as they cross the finish line first.

For example, it’s okay to sacrifice some conversions on the front-end to create life-long customers on the back-end.

Many funnel-hackers get laser-focused on their launches that they ignore essential elements of their back-end such as retargeting and segmenting their lists.

In reality, ensuring that you build a base of customers and employ a strategy to turn them into life-long advocates of your business represents the difference between a killer and average funnel.

By focusing on the back-end of your funnel, you play the long-game to ensure more revenue for your business with less legwork.

There are No Shortcuts

Building.

Writing.

Testing.

Funnels represent a lot of hard work, and there are no shortcuts.

Similarly, Olympians train their entire lives to relish a few moments of glory; however, such glory can easily be stripped away from those caught cheating or attempting to undermine the integrity of the games.

On a similar note, funnel-builders attempting to rely on black-hat techniques can lose their funnels and organic search presence at little more than a moment’s notice.

Google is more than happy to punish any business looking to game their system, whether through duplicate content or black-hat link building.

Sure, it may take a while to get caught; however, punishment is usually always swift, sudden and severe.

When it comes to funnel-building, you’re on a relatively even playing field. In other words, there’s no need to “cheat.”

Therefore, use the best tools in your toolbox to outdo your competition rather than looking for the easy way out.

The risk simply isn’t worth it: plus, the energy spent digging for a shortcut could be spent optimizing your next funnel.

Knowing the in’s and out’s of your competition can take you much further than trying to undermine them.

Remain Consistent

Many Olympians live by the mantra of “never give up.”

You should treat your funnels the same way.

If you’re persistent, your funnel has nowhere to go but “up” over time.

Perhaps the biggest mistake a funnel-builder could make is dropping what they’re doing and simply giving up when the going gets tough.

Yes, it can be frustrating to see our traffic drop.

Yes, it sucks when we don’t see the conversion we want.

But that doesn’t mean you should let your funnel fail out of frustration.

Don’t expect your sales funnel to start turning a profit overnight.

Sure, we’re always hoping to become the next big success story; however, realistic expectations will keep you grounded and focused.

Keep going and keep testing. If something’s broken, figure out why and do what you can to fix it.

There’s No Single “Key” to Success

From optimal training and immaculate diet, there are many variables to an Olympian’s success one the day of an event.

There are so many pieces to what makes a successful sales funnel. For starters, let’s think about:

1. The design of your sales funnels, professional in appearance and pleasing to the eye.
2. The copywriting and marketing message of your funnel, designed to encourage visitors to click through rather than bounce.
3. The management of your various traffic streams, from paid ads to organic search and beyond, and how you continue to bring new visitors into your funnel.
4. The performance of your affiliates and referrals optimized to help you build new leads.
5. The strength of your back-end, including your email autoresponders that will help bring back any users who may have fallen out of your funnel.

Here’s a not-so-secret secret:

The success of your funnel doesn’t lie within one single element.

It’s the elements combined that determine the potential of your funnel.

Unfortunately, one weakness can hinder your funnel’s potential.

Similarly, many Olympic athletes train their entire lives for an event just to slip in a split-second of weakness and essentially lose their shot at glory.

Fortunately, you always have the opportunity to bounce back.

Stay organized. Stay diligent. Stay hungry.

Your efforts will pay off.

What Separates a Golden Funnel from the Rest of the Pack?

While funnel-hacking isn’t exactly an Olympic sport (yet), there are some parallels between the struggles of star athletes and the challenges faced by modern marketers.

The marketing world moves fast and is difficult to maneuver in the wake of evolving technologies, new faces and the promise of “the next big thing.”

Much like Olympians, funnel-builders should consider patience, focus and consistency as key virtues to help ensure their success.

So, what do you think separates a star funnel from the rest of the pack?

Thanks for reading Launching A High Converting Sales Funnel Out Of The Box which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

If there’s no demand for your product or service, you can have the best sales funnel in the world and you will still struggle to make money.

Unfortunately, we often see entrepreneurs spend months or even years working on business ideas that were doomed from the start.

That’s why today we want to share our step-by-step guide to determining whether your business idea has potential:

Step #1: Sell a Product or Service That has a Proven Demand

Entrepreneurship has come to be associated with innovation in our culture.

Perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising considering that the most iconic entrepreneurs of our times are the tech billionaires of Silicon Valley.

However, if you want to start a business, you don’t need to have an innovative idea. In fact, pursuing one would decrease your likelihood of success. How so?

Well, if you go with a product or service that has proven demand, you’ll know for sure that people want it, you won’t have to waste time explaining to everyone what it is and you will be able to learn from the mistakes of your competitors.

Meanwhile, if you attempt to do something that has never been done before, you will be starting from absolute zero, without even knowing if anyone is interested in your product or service to begin with.

And sure, if you already have an innovative idea that you believe has incredible potential, then it might make sense to pursue it. Who are we to say that you shouldn’t?

However, if all you want is to create a better life for yourself and your loved ones by building a sustainable business, then going with something tried-and-true is a much better bet!

Step #2: Do Competitive Research

Competition is a good sign. Why?

Because if there already are a bunch of companies selling the same products or services that you intend to sell, it means that there’s money to be made doing that.

However, if you want to carve out a market share for yourself as a newcomer, you need to first learn everything you can about the main players in your niche:

• Purchase their products and services yourself to see what their entire buyer’s journey looks like from the customer’s perspective. Screenshot and save everything so that you can use it for reference later. We call this “funnel hacking”.
• Make sure to actually try the products and services that you bought. Do your competitors deliver what they promised or is the experience disappointing? Think about how you could do what they do but do it cheaper, faster, and better.
• Read customer reviews on your competitors’ websites, various third-party platforms, and online forums like Reddit.
• Watch YouTube reviews and read the comments. Just keep in mind that if it’s a sponsored review then it’s unlikely to be objective.
• Use text analytics software to uncover more insights. For example, you could use it to analyze all tweets that mention one of your competitors, which may not be possible to do manually.

Your aim here should be to get a good understanding of the general landscape of your niche and then look for a market gap that you can capitalize on.

Generally speaking, as businesses grow, they tend to expand the scope of their products, which typically leads to them gaining a broader appeal but becoming less suited for any particular use case.

This is something that you can exploit as a newcomer: instead of competing against the big players in your niche directly, you can steal a slice of their market share by creating a product that only has one use case but is perfect for it.

Keep in mind that there are plenty of people out there who have made their first million with a single eBook, online course, WordPress plugin, Shopify theme, e-commerce product, etc. so it is possible to become a millionaire by solving one problem exceptionally well!

Step #3: Create a Minimum Viable Version of Your Offer

The concept of the “Minimum Viable Product” (MVP) was popularized by Eric Ries, the author of the classic book “The Lean Startup”.

An MVP is an early, bare-bones version of the product that only has the core functionality required to solve the main problem that it aims to address.

We recommend creating a lead magnet – a freebie that you will offer to potential customers in exchange for their email addresses – that you can use as your MVP.

As our friend Alex Hormozi puts it, a lead magnet should provide a complete solution to a narrowly defined problem:

So think about what you can give away for free that would solve a narrowly defined problem related to the problem that your core product or service addresses.

Here are some ideas:

• Thinking about writing a non-fiction book? Write the introduction and the first chapter and use them as your lead magnet.
• Thinking about writing a novel? Write a short story or a novella in the same genre, ideally one that is a prequel for the novel, and use it as your lead magnet.
• Have an idea for a computer game? Create a 30-60 minute demo and use it as your lead magnet.
• Want to sell services? Offer the setup service for free as your lead magnet.
• Want to sell an online course? Create one lesson and use it as your lead magnet.
• Want to sell software? Create a free app that only has one feature and use it as your lead magnet.

Of course, this approach only works if the product or service already has proven demand.

If you have an innovative business idea, you should only consider it validated once you get enough people to pay you.

In that case, we recommend reading “The Lean Startup” and going with that strategy instead!

Step #4: Build a Simple Squeeze Page Funnel for Your Offer

The squeeze page funnel has two pages:

1. A squeeze page where you explain what your free offer is all about and encourage the potential customer to take advantage of it.
2.  A thank you page where you thank the potential customer and tell them what they need to do to redeem the free offer.

Our software, ClickFunnels, includes a proven squeeze page funnel template that has been optimized for conversions!

Step #5: Start Driving Traffic to Your Squeeze Page Funnel With Paid Ads

It doesn’t really matter which platform you advertise on, what’s important is that you put your free offer in front of your dream customers.

If you don’t have any previous experience with paid advertising, we recommend picking up a Facebook Ads course on Udemy and going through it to learn the basics.

Then, set up an ad campaign, start running it with a small daily budget, and see what happens. Are people giving you their email addresses?

If your free offer is related to something that has a proven demand, you should be able to get leads provided that your targeting, your ads, and your squeeze page copy are all on point.

If you aren’t able to get leads no matter what you do, it’s possible that your free offer isn’t appealing enough, in which case you need to either find a way to make it more valuable or come up with something new.

Ideally, you want to optimize everything to the point where your cost-per-lead is $2 or less.

We would say that if you can build an email list of 1,000 subscribers at that cost-per-lead, your business idea is probably worth pursuing!

Okay, But What if You Can’t Afford to Spend Money on Ads?

There are other ways to drive traffic to your squeeze page funnel such as building a following on social media and promoting your free offer there.

However, getting to that 1,000 subscriber milestone will probably take you at least a year with this approach.

If you want to reach it faster, it might make sense to simply pick up a part-time job so that you would have money to spend on ads.

That would also help you learn paid advertising, which is a skill that will likely prove to be extremely valuable in your entrepreneurial career.

Finally, if you want to sell a service that has a proven demand, you can always start with cold outreach and get some money coming in that way, then build a proper sales funnel later.

Want to Learn How to Build Sales Funnels That CONVERT?

Our co-founder Russell Brunson used sales funnels to take ClickFunnels from zero to $100M+ in annual revenue in less than a decade.

He is now widely considered to be one of the top sales funnel experts in the world. Want to learn from him?

His best-selling book “DotCom Secrets” is the best place to start because it covers everything you need to know in order to build sales funnels that convert.

This book is available on Amazon where it has over 2,500 global ratings and a 4.7-star overall rating.

But you can also get it directly from us for free…

All we ask is that you pay for shipping!

So what are you waiting for? 🧐

Get “DotCom Secrets” for FREE!

Thanks for reading How To Validate A Market For Your Next Sales Funnel which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

It’s always a thrill when we make our first dollar from a fresh funnel; however, how do we turn that dollar into more serious cash flow?

By following this six-step scheme, you can finally take the training wheels off and supercharge your new and existing sales funnels.

Making money online is pretty easy, right?

I mean, anyone with a blog and some time on their hands can pick up a niche, slap some affiliate content on a WordPress site and play the waiting game.

But that’s dollars and cents.

Making serious money online is another story.

Serious money requires a sales funnel and a serious one at that.

Again, building a sales funnel is relatively easy (especially with the functionalities provided by ClickFunnels).

However, the legwork that goes into a truly effective funnel is nothing to scoff at. Consider, for example…

• Crafting the perfect copy, language and pitch to pique the interest of your audience (and keeping that message uniform throughout your funnel)
• The time and resources involved in competitive analysis and understanding what the neighbors are up to (including what sort of deals they’re pushing to users)
• Designing a sleek site that attracts the attention of users and drives traffic through proper SEO

And that’s just for starters.

If you’ve gotten your funnel off the ground but want to build a serious revenue stream, you’re going to need to put in the hours to make it work.

However, building a powerful funnel is about working smarter and not necessarily harder.

Take a good, long look at your funnel. Then, ask yourself the following:

• Who’s helping you push users through your funnel? Is the answer “nobody?”
• What’s incentivizing users to go through your funnel? Be honest: are you offering a sweeter deal than your competitor?
• Where are your visitors coming from? Are you reaching your targets or simply bouncing random traffic through your funnel?

Don’t shrug your shoulders and let potential business pass you by. Instead, consider it time to get down to business.

Rome wasn’t built in a day; likewise, killer funnels aren’t built overnight or by accident.

If you’re looking to build a funnel that goes beyond the ordinary and builds a truly impressive revenue stream, consider the following six steps as part of your sales strategy.

This mixture of marketing and networking represents the recipe for conversions rather than just clicks.

Network, Network and Network Some More

It’s natural for entrepreneurs to want to go the “lone-wolf” route.

However, when you consider the benefits of a joint venture, it’s hard to deny that a little bit of outreach can go a long way.

Networking is the name of the game when it comes to your funnel.

In short, the more traffic you drive, the more potential you have to drive revenue and further optimize your funnel.

That being said, what sorts of outreach can ultimately benefit your business?

Schmooze with Influencers – Today’s users want to build relationships with the brands they buy from; therefore trust and authenticity are key when it comes to sealing the deal. By associating yourself with influencers within your space (think: must-read bloggers, social media big-wigs and so on), you can get your product in front of eager buyers who are more likely to convert. Offering incentivization such as a free trial or guest post to such influencers may help deal the deal.

Partner Up with JV’s – Simply put, two heads are often better than one when it comes to your sales funnel. By having a partner in crime, you poise yourself to get more eyes on your funnel and additional resources to market it in the future. Likewise, building up a network of JV’s can open up opportunities for your business and get your product in front of some fresh faces.

Bring on Affiliates – There’s plenty of power (and billions of dollars) in affiliate marketing; likewise, there’s perhaps no better way of working smarter than by having someone else market your product for you. If you’ve tested your funnel and feel that it has potential to scale, consider affiliates as a means of doing so.

Give Them a Push

Let’s be frank: some sales funnels just plain stink.

If you aren’t incentivizing your visitors with some sort of push, you’re letting your traffic go to waste.

The question remains: what sort of incentives and bonuses are proven to drive users to convert?

What do users want?

Whether it be a software, e-book or video series, providing users with something of value for nothing is one of the oldest tricks in the marketing playbook; however, it works.

By offering free tools or education to your users, you’re perceived as a helping hand rather than a salesman.

Likewise, users in your funnel should feel as if you’re the go-to resource for whatever they’re looking for.

By building up your offers with exclusivity (first-hand, cutting-edge information or a product marketed at truly unlike any other), users go through your funnel with a sense of accomplishment.

Score with Scarcity

On a similar note, scarcity is an incredibly powerful sales tool.

However, building a sense of scarcity and the need for users to act now versus later is completely based on the set-up of your funnel. For example, scarcity can be achieved by…

• A countdown clock at the beginning of your sales funnels (implying that time is running out)
• Advertising a limited stock of your product due to demand (implying that supply is running low)
• Marketing your product as a one-time deal, establishing a sense of exclusivity (implying that it’s now or never for the product)

Regardless of your product or service, scarcity should most definitely be center stage at some point in your funnel.

Note: ClickFunnels offers multiple means of establishing a sense of scarcity within your funnel.

Congruency Matters

Often overlooked, the elements of design can make or break your sales funnel.

It’s incredibly important to maintain consistency across your funnel from beginning to end (this includes email marketing efforts and affiliate programs).

Consistent design includes…

• Marketing language, copy, headlines and deals (ex: you wouldn’t advertise a 25% discount which clicks through to a 10% off deal)
• Color scheme, design, and logo (switching between colors and branding can potentially confuse visitors and cause them to bounce)

While the design may be a rather subtle component of the sales process, it’s something that’s completely under your control and should be consistent.

Forget the Junk Traffic

Don’t kid yourself: not all traffic is created equal.

It may feel great to get tens of thousands of visitors per day; however, what does it mean if only a dozen of those users convert?

Either your funnel’s conversion potential is abysmal, or your traffic is trash.

In order to make the most of your marketing efforts, you should target quality traffic.

What qualifies as quality traffic? For starters…

• Organic traffic is driven by targeted keywords, perhaps readers of your blog who tend to spend the most time on your site
• Social traffic from highly-targeted Facebook ads, which you’ve hopefully optimized through A/B testing
• Affiliate traffic from users who are truly interested in what you have to say (and sell)

Traffic means very little for your funnel if it isn’t actually converting.

Instead of focusing on the numbers game, work to build traffic streams that will actually buy your product when push comes to shove.

The 80/20 Principle

The 80/20 principle states that for many events (including marketing), 80% of your outcomes result in 20% of your total effort.

While there are tons of moving pieces to your sales funnel, from marketing to design, consider how one or two missteps within your funnel can diminish your efforts.

So, where does the 20% come from within your funnel?

From most marketers, it comes at the beginning in the end (think: the first 10% of your funnel and the last 10%).

In other words, if there’s anywhere you need to strengthen, make sure you have a strong pitch as it represents the visitor’s first impression and arguably the most critical aspect of the funnel itself.

Likewise, you need a strong closer if you’re looking to seal the deal, especially with funnels selling higher ticket products.

Naturally, all parts of your funnel matter; however, starting and ending strongly is crucial if you’re in search of more conversions.

Putting it All Together

At the end of the day, the successful funnel is built.

Not bought. Not stolen. Not copied.

Built.

The building isn’t always easy; however, your decision to set your funnel apart from the crowd and fix its weaknesses will ultimately decide whether or not you cash in on your efforts.

Making money online isn’t rocket science.

Building a successful sales funnel doesn’t have to be, either.

If you had to name the most common mistake you see funnel builders making today, what would it be?

Thanks for reading How To Take The Training Wheels Off Your Sales Funnel which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Extra, extra! Read all about it! A new marketing trend is starting to take shape, and Click funnels is the ground floor for it.

It might sound like one of the craziest ideas you’ve ever heard, but in the post-desktop world, it simply cannot be ignored.

Your website, that one so many marketing pros and companies say you need, is probably actually hurting your conversions.

In reality, no matter how well-designed, it is very possibly driving away a ton of your potential leads.

Now, I know you probably just spit your coffee out at the very thought.

My website is hurting my conversion rate?! This idea runs against so much of the….

Well, marketing about marketing, that you’re going to see.

Look around, and you’ll find companies pushing you to set up a website and purchase hosting.

Yet, all your brand needs is a sales funnel.

Not only that, but your brand will thrive with only a sales funnel.

And here’s why.

1. A Website isn’t Conversion Focused

Let me say this again: websites, at their very core, are not conversion focused.

And with the numbers we’re seeing, it’s not hard to identify that a shift is needed.

The process of converting leads is nowhere near as simple as it once was.

And audiences across the internet are practically screaming about how frustrating it is to connect with their favorite brands online.

But we have the power to change that.

• Instead, a Sales Funnel is a Journey about Conversion

And sometimes, it can be a complex journey. No single website is equipped to address the context-sensitive needs of your audience. In contrast, a sales funnel puts your audience through a step-by-step progression. It filters them to the location they’re searching for, guides them with their needs in mind, and unites them with real solutions.

• And There’s an End-Goal in Mind

For websites, there’s not really an end-goal in mind. Yet, especially for us Clickfunnelers, converting is the destination, every single time. And when you stop to consider it, your audience also has this in mind when they’re shopping. Just take a look at the numbers. A website is like a salesperson that’s not even trying to close the sale, while a sales funnel knows the audience craves it.

• Plus, Sales Funnels are Data-Driven

Websites are mostly made to look nice. Sure, you can hire a UX designer to jazz things up a bit more. And of course, you do want your funnel elements to look nice. But at the same time, unlike a website, every step of a sales funnel can be measured, optimized, streamlined, and so much more. This gives you an incredibly powerful method to peek into exactly where and how you can boost your conversion rates.

Protip: There’s probably one big tip here. When you’re creating and honing funnels, take time out to account for how your audience interacts with every step of your funnel.

ClickFunnels lets you create engaging and professional quality pages for your funnels. With it’s selection of various templates, drag and drop functionality and robust editing features, you’re sure to build quality pages every single time.

2. A Website Simply Has Too Many Calls-to-Action

Really, when a user lands on a website, they’re bombarded with different calls-to-action.

We’ve seen before how important it is to craft a high-converting call-to-action.

Our calls-to-action are the backbone to our conversions.

But imagine yourself coming to a site and being pulled in every direction by a bunch of them.

It’s like being shouted at by a million voices at once.

Why don’t we quell that chatter for our audience?

• A Sales Funnels Cuts the Layers of Overlapping Calls-to-Action

You’ve probably even been to websites that had so many prompts that it was like peeling back the layers of an onion. With each new call-to-action, there seems there’s another and another and another. Instead, the pieces of a sales funnel present the audience with one at a time, in an ordered way that makes sense for their experience.

• And Every Funnel Call-to-Action is Aimed at You

A sales funnel is exactly what it sounds like a funnel. It’s similar to the power of retargeting. As our audience goes through the journey, they branch out and take the path that’s designed for them exclusively. As the funnel gets more narrow, each single call-to-action is a conversion machine aimed right at them and for them specifically. This approach maximizes our conversion possibilities.

• Also, Sales Funnels aren’t Static

Websites are so… boring. Even when they have some nice pictures or some other glitz and glam, it’s not really about movement. But sales funnels are all about the moving forward, progressing, even enjoying the momentum. And it feels good! They’re fun, interesting, and an entire experience that your potential leads enter.

Protip: For our funnels, we want steps that present one message at a time with, ideally, one call-to-action. If you find yourself putting more than one at a time, think about breaking it out into its own piece in your funnel.

ClickFunnels lets you create multiple pages for your funnel with dedicated unique CTAs letting you avoid overcrowding one page with too much CTA. Simply click Add New Step on your funnel editor, determine what kind of page it will be, edit accordingly and you’re good to go!

3. The Majority of Content and Offers on a Website are Untrackable

At the same time, not only are there way too many calls-to-action on most websites, the problem goes even deeper.

In fact, you’ll find that all that content on your website isn’t even tracking anything.

This goes back to what we were saying about funnels being data-driven, but to a whole different degree.

When it comes down to it, all those images and all those little pieces of content… none of it is trackable at all. On the other hand, sales funnels have this aspect under control.

• Sales Funnels are Built on Tracking

You may have heard the age-old 80/20 rule in marketing. And marketers often joke that you’ll never know which 20% of your efforts are producing that 80% of your sales, not really anyway. Yet, nothing could be further from the truth for sales funnels. For every piece of content and every offer, we can break it into a new step, get our audience interacting with it, or tag it to make it trackable. If it’s not working, we can discard it at the drop of a hat.

• And, We Can Adapt Our Funnels Every Single Day

Unlike websites, where you have to wade into a time-consuming project, funnels are remarkably nimble. Because websites are built on more traditional tools and approaches, the content and offers are more difficult to change. And in the high-speed world of marketing, we want flexibility, not stiffness. Want to roll in a text message blast into your funnel? Sounds good. How about an Instagram offer? Let’s make it happen!

• You’re Also Able to Focus Your Audience

I like to think of a website like a poorly designed amusement park that you don’t have a real map for. People tend to feel lost, confused, and often bored. On the flipside, sales funnels are the exact opposite. With each step, we narrow their focus dead center toward our brand. And with each step, we give them an ever bigger, more customized bit of fun and games. Finally, they get to the very best ride in the entire park: purchasing our product or service.

Protip: The lesson here is that stunning simplicity creates focus and boost conversions. Don’t overwhelm your leads, impress them.

ClickFunnels lets you add tracking pixels be it for Google Analytics or Facebook. Simple click Settings > Tracking Code and paste your marketing pixel.

4. Websites are Too Hard to Change If You’re Not a Designer

Or if you’re not a developer, for that matter.

And in many cases, you’ll find that a good developer or designer can be hard to come by.

Pivoting back to our sales funnels, though: we’re the ones at the helm.

In most cases, armed with the Click funnels blog and some additional resources, you’ll also discover you can almost do whatever you like with your funnel.

No complex coding involved.

It’s a wonder that some people have clung to their websites when a better alternative is available.

• With Sales Funnels, You Can Really A/B Test

Since you don’t need a designer or developer, you can test to your heart’s content. What website owner can say that? The best part about sales funnels is that you can A/B test just about every single step too. This allows you to sharpen each piece of your funnel toward the conversion process.

• And You Don’t need to Shell Out Tons of Money

And let’s be honest for a second. Designers and developers aren’t exactly cheap. And often times, the projects aren’t quick either. Especially when you’re just launching your first sales funnels, every bit of revenue should be maximized to the full extent possible.

• You can Skip Lengthy Interviews for Your Sales Funnel

One fact remains true: talking with designers and developers to weed out unqualified candidates takes time. Lots of time. And that time could be better spent elsewhere, like tweaking your sales funnel until it’s a growth engine for you and your brand.

Protip: Now, you might still want to hire a digital assistant or two to aid you in your funneling. And if you decided to do this, these interviews are often quicker and more straightforward.

Create variations for your pages in your funnel and split test. With ClickFunnels, optimising your pages is made easy!

5. A Website Doesn’t Build A List Of Prospects

Potential leads. In marketing, we want to convert as many of them as possible.

Most people know that a website has an audience.

Maybe they even watch their live Google Analytics as people browse their site.

Doing so might be fun, especially for new marketers, but just because you’re getting visitors, doesn’t mean you’re able to use your site to compile a list of prospects.

Instead, these people come, and they go.

You can retarget them a little, but that’s about it.

Cue the defender of our lead conversion strategy: the ever-reliable sales funnel.

• Your Sale Funnel Collects Info and Builds Prospects

With every step giving us more insight into our leads, we’re going beyond traditional marketing. Websites just can compete in this realm. During the funnel process, we’re learning about our leads’ values, desires, and what triggers their actions. Meanwhile, we’re collecting all this information and plenty more.

• You Start Actually Viewing Your Leads as Prospects

An audience is nice, but prospects are better. Sure, you might have something to say, specifically for your content marketing on your blog. But having an audience isn’t the primary purpose. When you shift to using sales funnel exclusively, you start understanding that your leads don’t want to be talked at. Instead, they’re people with the desire to make purchases for their lifestyle.

• With a Funnel, You’re Also Seizing Every Opportunity

If a website has a high bounce rate, people aren’t sticking around very long. And with about 50% of website visitors only visiting a site one time, you’ll start to see just how many opportunities are being completely wasted. Yet, the exact opposite is true for sales funnels. If we recognize an underserved group of leads in our funnel… we branch out our funnel. We don’t let them just pack up and go; we adapt and convert!

Protip: If you aren’t yet centralizing your prospects, now’s the time to start. Your sales funnels will definitely benefit from doing so.

Are you starting to see what I mean? But I’d love to hear from you.

What are the greatest benefits you’re seeing from funnel building?

Thanks for reading 5 Reasons To Replace Your Stock Standard Website With A Sales Funnel which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Are you looking for ways to improve your sales funnel performance?

Today we are going to share ten simple tips that can help you increase conversion rates, revenue, and profitability!

Tip #1: Simplify Your Landing Page and Sales Page Design

When the visitor lands on your page, you only have a few seconds to convey the value of your offer so that they would want to stay and learn more about it.

If their senses are assaulted by a cacophony of clashing colors, crazy animations, and jarring autoplay sounds, they will probably feel overwhelmed. That can prompt them to leave and never come back.

That’s why it’s so important to keep your landing page and sales page design simple. Avoid bells and whistles that look cool but ultimately act as distractions and lower your conversion rates!

Tip #2: Add More Curiosity to Your Landing Page and Sales Page Copy

While it’s important to explain what your offer is all about, you don’t want to give everything away in your landing page and sales page copy.

Instead, you should provide just enough information to pique the visitor’s curiosity, so that they would feel inclined to get your lead magnet or buy your product. If you provide too much information, they might lose interest and leave.

This is especially important when it comes to info products like eBooks, online courses, and webinars. If the visitor feels like they already know what you are going to say, there’s no reason for them to proceed with your call to action, is there?

Curiosity – or lack thereof – can have serious implications for your business and be the difference between losing money and turning a profit. 

For example, our co-founder Russell Brunson once helped a friend decrease his cost-per-lead from $24.85 to $5.84, increase his webinar show-up rate from 22.4% to 31.7%, and make his sales funnel profitable. So how did he do it?

He added more curiosity to his friend’s landing page headline.

Here’s the original headline:

“How to Add 6 Figures to Your Web Design Business by Copying My Secret Method for Helping Companies Get More (Real!) 5-Star Reviews WITHOUT Selling, Spending Lots of Time or Money”

Here’s the improved headline:

“How I Added 6 Figures to My Web Company by Adding This One Easy to Offer Service THAT DOESN’T Require Cold Calling, Spending Lots of Time, Money or Require Extra Resources”

See how the new headline didn’t give away what the method that allowed Russell’s friend to add 6 figures to his business was? The only way to learn that was to attend the webinar. So that’s what people did!

This was the only change Russell made and it saved that entire sales funnel. That’s how powerful curiosity can be!

Tip #3: Add More Social Proof to Your Landing Page and Sales Page Copy

We live in a digital age where anyone can say anything on the Internet and there’s no way to verify it.

That’s why social proof is becoming increasingly important for businesses that sell their products and services online.

Displaying social proof can help you:

• Position yourself as a trustworthy subject matter expert.
• Reassure potential customers that you can deliver what you promised.
• Reassure the potential customers that they can get the results that they want because people just like them have done so in the past with your help.

Generally speaking, the more social proof you can provide, the higher your conversion rates are going to be.

The most powerful form of social proof is testimonials from happy customers but you need to make sure that these testimonials not only are real but also look real.

The best way to present testimonials is to include the customer’s photo, full name, and job title, which makes it easy for the skeptics to look them up and verify that they are indeed a real person.

Testimonial walls like this can work really well:

Tip #4: Make Your Lead Magnet Irresistible

Your lead magnet is the foundation of your entire sales funnel.

Improving your lead magnet can help you increase your ad-impression-to-click, visitor-to-lead, and lead-to-customer conversion rates.

We recommend applying the Lean Startup methodology here. First, create the minimum viable version of your lead magnet and see if potential customers are interested in it.

Then, once you are sure that there’s demand for it, start investing resources in making it more valuable.

You can do that by improving its production value, making it more comprehensive, and adding various helpful bonuses to it.

That is going to make your lead magnet more appealing to potential customers!

Tip #5: Make Your Paid Offer Irresistible

Here’s our irresistible offer formula:

Irresistible Offer = High Value + Low Price – Financial Risk

Increase the Value of Your Offer

You can do that by bundling your core product with several bonus products to create a complete package designed to help the customer solve a specific problem.

Digital products like printable sheets, eBooks, video classes, webinars, and online courses work best as bonuses because of their high-profit margins.

You can also drastically increase the value of your offer by throwing in a one-on-one consultation with you. It’s not scalable but it can help you make more sales if you are just starting out.

Reduce the Price of Your Offer

If your sales funnel follows the Value Ladder structure, you shouldn’t be charging much for your frontend offer anyway. Why?

Because the purpose of your frontend offer isn’t to make you a ton of money, it’s to convert leads into paying customers. That’s why we recommend charging as little as possible for it.

In fact, some businesses go as far as selling their frontend offer at a loss, which is known as the loss leader strategy and can be an effective way to acquire new customers.

Of course, in that case, it’s important to make sure that the revenue from your middle offer and your backend offer make up for that frontend loss so that your sales funnel can remain profitable!

Eliminate Financial Risk

The most obvious way to eliminate financial risk from the purchase decision is to offer an unconditional, no-questions-asked money-back guarantee for a specific time frame.

30-day guarantees are the most popular but you might also want to experiment with 60-day and 90-day guarantees to see what works best for your target audience.

And if you are selling a service, see if there’s any way to switch to performance-based pricing where the client doesn’t have to pay you if you fail to deliver results.

This can work especially well if you are just starting out and don’t have any social proof yet. Getting clients is still going to be an uphill battle but performance-based pricing can make it much easier.

Meanwhile, if you are already established, this pricing model can help you charge more for your service, but you’ll need to be selective and only work with clients that you are confident you can help.

Tip #6: Add an Order Bump to Your Core Offer

An order bump is an inexpensive, straightforward offer that you present to the potential customer on the order form of your core offer.

You know how grocery stores display all these small items like packs of chewing gum and candy bars in their checkout areas?

They do that because customers who are about to check out might grab a KitKat and throw it in their cart without a second thought. Impulse purchases like that increase the average order value and can have a significant impact on the bottom line of that store.

Order bumps are a digital equivalent of that KitKat. For example, if you are selling physical products, you can offer expedited shipping as an order bump. It doesn’t require any explanation. All the customer needs to do is check the tick box. They might do it on an impulse!

Tip #7: Add an Upsell to Your Core Offer

Upsells are another way to increase your average order value.

An upsell is an offer that you present to the potential customer after they have accepted your core offer. It’s supposed to be an upgrade on it.

It typically means either pitching a higher quantity of that product at a better price per unit or a subscription for that product at a better price per unit.

Alternatively, you can upsell a package that includes the product from the original offer plus a few additional products that the potential customer might be interested in.

For example, if the potential customer is about to buy a winter hat, why not upsell them a package that includes that same hat but with a matching scarf and matching gloves?

You can use this approach when simply pitching more of the same product wouldn’t make sense.

Tip #8: Add a Cross Sell to Your Offer

You can also increase your average order value with cross sells.

A cross sell is also an offer that you present to the potential customer after they have accepted your core offer. 

However, instead of being an upgrade on it, it should be complementary to it. What would go well with the product that they already decided to buy?

For example, if the potential customer is about to buy a travel backpack, why not cross sell them a set of packing cubes and a tech toolcase for their electronics?

Tip #9: Add a Downsell to Your Core Offer

You can also use downsells to increase your average order value.

A downsell is an offer that you present to the potential customer after they have rejected your core offer. It’s supposed to be a downgrade on it. Downsells are the opposite of upsells.

For example, if your core offer is a $257 online course on dating, you can downsell a $7 eBook where you explain how to optimize one’s profile on the most popular dating apps.

Worst case scenario, the potential customer is going to leave without buying, which they would have done anyway. You have nothing to lose by pitching them a downsell!

Tip #10: Improve Your Traffic Quality

Do you already have an established business?

Then you can use your sales data to improve your traffic quality and thus boost your sales funnel performance.

Look at your existing customers, figure out what they tend to have in common, and then use those common traits in your ad targeting to attract more people like them.

You might also want to look at what leads that don’t convert into customers tend to have in common and then use those common traits to exclude people like that from your ad targeting.

We recommend reviewing your sales data and calibrating your ad targeting every quarter. Zero in on your dream customers as much as possible!

Make Sure to A/B Test Everything!

Everything that we discussed in this article is just general guidelines that shouldn’t be taken as gospel.

A/B testing is the only way to learn what works and what doesn’t work for your business.

When you have an idea for something that you want to change on your landing page or sales page, don’t just implement it blindly and hope for the best.

Instead, test two versions of the same page – the original one (version A) and the new one (version B) – against each other.

There should be only one difference between these two versions: the element that you want to change.

Say, if you want to change the headline, that should be the only difference between version A and version B, everything except for the headlines should be identical.

Drive the same amount of traffic to both versions. This will enable you to see which version converts better. Why guess when you can just look at the data?

Want to Learn How to Build Sales Funnels That CONVERT?

Our co-founder Russell Brunson used sales funnels to take ClickFunnels from zero to $100M+ in annual revenue in less than a decade.

He is now widely considered to be one of the top sales funnel experts in the world. Want to learn from him?

His best-selling book “DotCom Secrets” is the best place to start because it covers everything you need to know in order to build sales funnels that convert.

This book is available on Amazon where it has over 2,500 global ratings and a 4.7-star overall rating.

But you can also get it directly from us for free…

All we ask is that you pay for shipping!

So what are you waiting for? 🧐

Get “DotCom Secrets” for FREE!

Thanks for reading Easy Ways To Improve Your Sales Funnel Performance which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Design has a huge impact on conversion rates. 

That’s why today we are going to share 15 tips that can help you improve the design of your landing pages and sales pages.

Are you ready to give your sales funnel a complete design makeover?

If so, continue reading…

#1: Make Sure That Your Design Looks Modern

Not only are outdated designs aesthetically unappealing but they can also damage your credibility.

At the very least, using designs like that indicates a lack of care when it comes to how you present yourself to the world, which potential customers might interpret as a lack of professionalism.

Moreover, if your landing pages and sales pages look like they belong in the 2010s – or, even worse, in the 2000s – people might start wondering if you are some sort of a scammer.

Generally speaking, the dominant web design trend over the last few decades has been a gradual shift towards minimalism: lots of empty space, not too much text, no clutter. You can use that to guide your design choices!

#2: Use Proven Templates Whenever Possible

Landing page and sales page design is its own discipline with a heavy focus on conversion rate optimization. 

If you don’t have any previous experience with it and aren’t familiar with its most important principles, it’s probably best to use proven templates instead of attempting to design your landing pages and sales pages from scratch.

Typically, email marketing apps, website builders, and all-in-one marketing platforms come with template libraries, so finding templates that have already been optimized for conversions shouldn’t be a problem.

Of course, you will still need to do A/B testing to find out what resonates with your target audience, but at least you will have the basics covered right from the get-go.

#3: Have One Conversion Goal Per Page

The most important conversion rate optimization principle is having one conversion goal per page.

Note that a conversion goal is not the same thing as a call to action. 

For example, by definition, the conversion goal of a sales page is to persuade the visitor to buy your product or service.

You can have more than one call-to-action button – in this case, more than one “Buy” button – but they should all serve the same conversion goal!

#4: Keep Your Design Simple

Keeping your design simple is important not just in terms of modern aesthetics but also from the conversion rate optimization perspective. Why?

Because if there’s too much going on, visitors might get distracted, overwhelmed or confused.

Visitors Might Get Distracted

Anything that can distract the visitor from the conversion goal is going to reduce the conversion rate of that page. 

For example, you might want to add a cool animation to your sales page, but that may not be the best idea from the conversion rate optimization perspective because the visitor might get distracted by it. 

Next thing you know, their phone rings or their dinner is ready, or they have switched to another browser tab out of habit and started watching a cat video. You had their attention but now you lost it!

Visitors Might Feel Overwhelmed

Sensory overload is also something worth taking into consideration. It’s probably safe to say that a significant percentage of the general population is feeling overstimulated in their day-to-day lives. 

If someone like that visits your landing page or sales page and their senses are immediately assaulted by loud sounds, crazy animations and a bunch of images, they might feel overwhelmed and instinctively click the “Back” button or close the tab.

Visitors Might Feel Confused

Finally, people might simply find all the bells and whistles on your page confusing. And, as the old salesperson saying goes, “A confused mind always says no”. 

If a potential customer decides to check out your landing page or your sales page and it’s not immediately clear to them what your offer is all about, they probably won’t stick around in an attempt to decipher it. 

In all likelihood, they will simply leave and never come back!

#5: Make Sure That Your Color Scheme is Harmonious

When you are working on a landing page or a sales page design, it’s important to make sure that all the colors in its color scheme go well together. 

Otherwise, if the colors clash with each other, it will likely have a negative impact on your conversion rate. 

Visitors who aren’t familiar with color theory may not be able to put their finger on it, but they will probably sense that something is off and feel irritated by the lack of harmony. 

Color theory is a vast field of knowledge that covers everything from the fundamental properties of the visible light spectrum to effectively using color in web design, product design and branding. 

Unfortunately, we can’t do this subject justice in this article because of space limitations, but we want to share some helpful resources. 

First, we recommend reading “Color Theory Fundamentals Every Web Designer Should Know” by the product designer Alina Khazanova. This article covers the basics of color theory and how it applies to web design.

After that, we suggest reading “7 Rules for Choosing A Website Color Scheme” by the UX writer Orlee Gillis. This article explains how to use color theory to create a harmonious color scheme for your website.

Finally, if you need some inspiration, check out the color palettes on Color Hunt!

#6: Use Color Psychology to Evoke the Right Associations

You are probably already familiar with basic color psychology and have seen how various companies use it in their branding.

For example, the color pink is associated with femininity, which is why it’s so commonly used in products targeted towards women and almost never in products targeted towards men. 

Think about what associations you want to evoke and then use colors that will help you do that (e.g. blue for calmness and relaxation, green for nature and wellness, red for passion and romance, etc.)

Of course, these associations can vary between cultures, so make sure that you take the cultural context into consideration.

If you want to learn more about this subject, check out the Color Psychology website. It covers the psychology of red, yellow, blue, green, orange, brown, pink, grey, white, and black, as well as of the different variations of these colors.

#7: Use a Color That Stands Out to Draw Attention to Your Call-to-Action Buttons

Of course, the overall look of the page should still be harmonious. You want to choose a color that stands out from the other colors, not one that clashes with them and ruins the entire color scheme. 

For example, on “Your First Funnel Challenge” sales page, we are using the color red to direct people’s attention to the most important page elements.

Above the fold, we emphasize the dates and encourage the visitor to watch the video below. By the way, notice how you only see the top of the video player when you arrive on this page?

That is intentional and is designed to get the visitor to scroll down. We’ll talk about using videos on your landing pages and sales pages later in this article.

Then, right below the video, we have our first call-to-action button:

See how the color red stands out in this color scheme but also works well with all the other colors? You want to aim for the same effect on your landing pages and sales pages!

#8: Have One Call-to-Action Button Per Screen

If your landing page or sales page is longer than a single screen, you want to have one call-to-action button per screen.

That way, as the visitor is scrolling down, there will always be a call-to-action button that is either already visible on the screen or about to become visible.

This ensures that once the potential customer is ready to proceed with the conversion goal, they will be able to easily find a call-to-action button regardless of where they are on your page.

#9: Use the Text Layout, Fonts, and Font Sizes to Draw Attention to the Most Important Copy Elements

Here’s how our homepage looks above the fold:

As you can see, it features:

1. A headline: “Meet ClickFunnels.”
2. A superheadline: “Struggling To Get A Constant Flow Of Customers?”
3. A subheadline: “Getting People To Your Website and Turning Them Into Happy Paying Customers Is What We Do Best”

(In Latin, “super” means “above” and “sub” means “below”, hence the terms “superheadline” and “subheadline”).

Notice how we are using the text layout, different fonts, and different font sizes to draw people’s attention to the headline, the superheadline, and the subheadline?

In all likelihood, when a visitor arrives on our homepage, they are going to read the headline first because it’s the largest copy element. 

Then, they are probably going to read the superheadline and the subheadline, in that order, because they are used to reading texts written in the Latin alphabet from top to bottom. 

Finally, they are probably going to read “Zero Computer Skills Needed”, “Works for Every Type of Business” and “Market, Sell and Deliver Like A Pro”. 

Plus, as they are reading all that copy, their eyes are probably also going to wander to the calls to action that are highlighted in light blue. 

This setup allows us to convey the most important information about our software in a matter of seconds because of the unconscious reading pattern that we just described.

We recommend taking a similar approach on your landing pages and sales pages: use the text layout, fonts, and font sizes to guide the visitor’s attention in a way that allows you to quickly convey the most important information about your offer.

#10: Use Images to Evoke Associations With the Outcome That the Potential Customer Wants

Ask yourself: what does the potential customer hope to achieve by getting your lead magnet or buying your product or service?

Think not just about the specific result that your offer can deliver but also about why they want that result. What is the ultimate outcome that they desire?

Then, use images that evoke associations with that ultimate outcome.

For example, if you go to Nick Stephenson’s “$0 to 1K Per Month” landing page, this is what you are going to see above the fold:

The typewriter era is long gone. In fact, it’s probably safe to say that the vast majority of Nick’s target audience of aspiring full-time authors have never used one.

However, this old-fashioned device is still associated with being a writer, much more so than computers, despite them being the primary tool of the trade in 2024. 

So it makes sense for Nick to use an image of a typewriter on his landing page: it’s a powerful symbol of the ultimate outcome that his potential customers are hoping for!

#11: Emphasize Social Proof

Nick also uses his landing page design to emphasize social proof. 

If you start scrolling down, you’ll see a video followed by this testimonial by a New York Times best-selling author Joanna Penn.

It’s featured in the center of the page surrounded by white space, which makes it impossible to miss.

As you continue scrolling down, you’ll see three more impossible-to-miss testimonials placed in between page sections. At one point, two of them take up the entire screen!

You want to similarly emphasize social proof on your landing pages and sales pages. That will almost certainly help you increase your conversion rate!

#12: Add a Muted Autoplay Video Right Below the Fold

Autoplay videos get a bad rap but it’s the autoplay audio that is the problem.

After all, it’s jarring when you open a website and the audio starts playing automatically. When that happens, people’s first impulse is to leave.

Fortunately, this problem is easy to solve: you can simply mute your autoplay video!

Here’s what we recommend:

1. Place the video right below the fold.
2. Make the very top of the video player visible above the fold.
3. Place a call-to-action bar above the video player and encourage the visitor to watch the video.

That way, when a visitor arrives on your page, they will immediately notice the video because we humans have evolved to spot moving objects in our environment. 

Then, the fact that they can tell that a video is playing but are unable to see the whole thing will pique their curiosity and make them scroll down so that the rest of the video player becomes visible. 

Finally, being able to see the video but not hear it will likely make them even more curious, so they will probably feel inclined to unmute it.

From there, whether they will watch the entire video or not will depend on how engaging it is, so make sure that it’s good.

Check out our homepage if you want to see an example of this approach!

#13: Make Sure That Your Pages Look Good on Different Devices

People browse the web on different devices.

That’s why it’s important to make sure that your landing pages and sales pages look good on computers, tablets, and smartphones. 

Keep in mind that nowadays mobile traffic makes up more than half of all web traffic and that has been the case since the third quarter of 2019.

This means that you are probably leaving a lot of money on the table if your pages aren’t optimized for mobile devices!

#14: Optimize Your Pages With A/B Testing

A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a conversion rate optimization method that you can use to increase the conversion rates of your landing pages and sales pages. 

Here’s how it works:

1. You come up with a hypothesis that you want to test. It has to be focused on a specific page element. Say, maybe your landing page has green call-to-action buttons at the moment, but you believe that red ones would work better because they would stand out more.
2. You create two versions of that page that are identical except for the element that you are testing. Say, If you are testing green vs. red call-to-action buttons, you will need one version with green call-to-action buttons and another version with red call-to-action buttons.
3. You drive the same amount of traffic to both versions and see which one converts better. Was your hypothesis correct?

By the way, Performable once conducted this exact A/B test and the red button outperformed the green button by 21%!

Ultimately, the only way to know what works best for your business is to A/B test your ideas.

The fewer assumptions you make and the more tests you run, the easier it will be for you to optimize the pages in your sales funnel for conversions!

#15: Keep Your Page Loading Speed Under 4 Seconds

Page loading speed is an often overlooked factor that can have a drastic effect on your conversion rates. 

For example, Portent found that the difference in conversion rates between blazing-fast sites and modestly quick sites was astonishing. 

In fact, in their research, they discovered that B2B websites that loaded in 1 second had 3x higher conversion rates compared to similar websites that loaded in 5 seconds.

And the difference between blazing-fast websites and slow websites was even more pronounced.

According to the same research, B2B websites that loaded in 1 second had 5x higher conversion rates compared to similar websites that loaded in 10 seconds.

Portent recommends aiming for a page loading speed that is between 1 and 4 seconds. That is something that you should keep in mind when designing your landing pages and sales pages!

Want to Learn How to Build Sales Funnels That CONVERT?

Our co-founder Russell Brunson used sales funnels to take ClickFunnels from zero to $100M+ in annual revenue in less than a decade.

He is now widely considered to be one of the top sales funnel experts in the world. Want to learn from him?

His best-selling book “DotCom Secrets” is the best place to start because it covers everything you need to know in order to build sales funnels that convert. 

This book is available on Amazon where it has over 2,500 global ratings and a 4.7-star overall rating. 

But you can also get it directly from us for free… 

All we ask is that you pay for shipping!

So what are you waiting for? 🧐

Get “DotCom Secrets” for FREE!

Thanks for reading Elevate Your Sales Funnel with a Stunning Design Makeover which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

In a world where we’re told to “always be testing,” finding the ideal starting point to experiment on your funnel can be a bit of a headache.

Thankfully, we’ve uncovered five funnel elements for unconventional funnel-hackers to test.

Test, test and test some more.

Testing has been the name of the game since the dawn of modern marketing: from copy to deals and beyond, you can’t afford to be split testing.

Likewise, failure to test could mean that you’re needlessly throwing money away.

The numbers don’t lie regarding the importance of which elements to test, either.

For Example:

• 75% of marketers A/B test offers on a regular basis: you better hope that you’re part of that number, right?
• Most optimization and abandonment issues happen at the shopping cart: do you know whether or not your users are bouncing instead of dying to buy?
• Video and email marketing are perhaps the secret weapons of optimizing and converting traffic: have you implemented them on your funnel yet? Since they integrate so easily with ClickFunnels, why not?

The point is this: if you’re not testing, you’re essentially guessing.

You can’t build a business on a guess, can you?

Now, here’s the problem that often arises when it comes time to run a test: with so many moving pieces of any given sales funnel, what can we test?

How can we effectively test without interrupting our current traffic?

Fear not.

We’ve uncovered some rather unconventional means of testing that won’t break the flow of your funnel.

In fact, our five mad scientist tests will more than likely ramp up your traffic and result in more conversions with some patience.

Whether you’re tired of the “same old” tests or simply want to make sure there’s nothing you’re missing regarding optimizing your sales funnel, consider the following five testing points for your future funnel-hacking efforts.

Exit Pops

Simply put, you need to do absolutely everything in your power to keep users glued to your shopping cart when it comes time to buy.

The reasons why most users bounce during a purchase are subtle yet clear, including:

• Unexpected shipping costs.
• The need to create an additional account to complete a purchase.
• A lack of testimonials or authenticity during the checkout process (which again stresses the need for funnels to leverage social proof).

The question remains: how can you win those visitors back or simply keep them from abandoning in the first place?

Accordingly to the study above, 54% of shoppers are willing to purchase the items abandoned in their shopping carts if they were offered the same items at a lower price.

That’s a big if that impacts your bottom line; likewise, over half of your buying base is nothing to scoff at.

So, how do you engage your customers to keep them from abandoning while also keeping yourself in the black?

Enter the exit pop.

In short, exit pops work to keep users on the page and further incentivize them to buy by either offering a down sell or a better deal.

For example, you could implement an exit pop-up to drive a 20% discount or an additional offer to help sweeten the deal.

Keep in mind that you shouldn’t go needlessly throwing exit pops around, considering that it could effectively drive down your bottom line if overused.

Instead, implement them as a way of foolproofing your shopping cart by targeting users who are spending a lot of time on your page without taking action or those who try to click away from the funnel.

There’s little risk involved in exit pops, which ultimately serve as a win-win for both you and your customers.

Play around with different offers to see what helps keep visitors sticking around: just be sure not to make your deals or discounts too steep.

If you find this task daunting, you wouldn’t think so if you’re using ClickFunnels. Set-up is a breeze!

Step 1: Log in to your ClickFunnels account

Step 2: Head on over to your funnel > sales page

Step 3: Click Edit Page

Step 4: In the bottom left corner of the editor, click Show Pop Up

Step 5: A pop-up will show prompting you to Add New Row. Select the number of blocks.

Step 6: You can choose whether your pop up is a headline, a text block or an image. Afterwards, click Edit Popup Settings.

Here’s an example using the Headline/Text element.

Step 7: Set Animation Settings

Optimizing Your Order Confirmation Page

Think that your sales funnel has done its job by the time your customers have clicked “purchase?”

Not by a long shot.

Keep in mind that your order confirmation page allows you to do a combination of the following with a bit of creativity:

• Encourage users to opt-in to your email list or newsletter (if they haven’t already).
• Incentivize them to boost their offer or deal to their friends and colleagues.
• Push worthwhile deals and content to create even more positive interactions with your base.

There’s plenty you can do as means of optimizing your order confirmation to drive users to take further action without interrupting them.

For Example:

• Offer an additional product from your own business or a promotion from an affiliate at the end of an order (granted it’s relevant).
• Give incentive for users to tweet or post on Facebook about their purchase: perhaps offer a 10% discount on future transactions, or a “refer a friend” deal.
• Share a video or case study that will keep users on your page or the pages of your affiliates: the more interactions you have, the more likely they are to evangelize your business for the long-term.

Small tweaks can result in huge returns. In short, your order confirmation page allows you to increase engagement across multiple marketing platforms of your funnel and see what best appeals to your base.

Add a progress bar to your sales funnel page in Clickfunnels using the Progress Bar element.

A Phone Call Follow-Up

Email marketing is a fantastic way to grow your business, market your funnel and effectively create a list of hungry customers.

However, some of our customers may find the era of email to be somewhat impersonal.

If you really want to think outside the box, consider a follow-up phone call to make sure that your customers are truly satisfied.

Why bother?

For starters, your users won’t be expecting it. Sure, we’ve become accustomed to autoresponders that say “Thanks!”

But hearing a legitimate, heartfelt “thank you” from an actual person is relatively rare in the digital world, isn’t it?

Besides, the benefits of effectively following up with customers are difficult to ignore:

• For starters, following up, sets you apart from the competition and perhaps presents your business as being more empathetic than its neighbors
• It shows that you care and emphasizes your company’s confidence: taking the time to actually personalize a call speaks volumes in today’s hustle-and-bustle marketing sphere
• You create yet another opportunity to leave a positive impression on your customers: the more positive interactions you have with customers, you more you’ll convert and keep them around

Granted you collect your customers’ phone numbers upon checkout, the ability to ring them up is at your fingertips.

If you don’t have the bandwidth to perform the calls yourself, you could have a virtual assistant take on the task via VOIP; however, make sure you can trust whoever’s calling your customers.

After all, a lack of authenticity may backfire on you.

Friendly Competition

A bit of competition never hurt anybody, right?

Likewise, implementing a competition amongst your customers to “refer a friend” for a free product or prize can pay off brilliantly with the proper incentive in place.

After all, people will go to great lengths to get something for free.

Refer a friend promotions can come in many shapes and sizes, although they’re perhaps most prime platform for such a content comes via social media, primarily Facebook.

Referral contests are a great way to get satisfied customers talking about your company and product.

Likewise, you can use the results of your contest as a form of social proof, showcasing how many satisfied customers you have that are hungry to spread the word about what you have to offer.

Use Actionetics to send out email updates and notifications to participants. Set-up is easy and you can segment email lists to promote your contest!

Affiliate Incentives

Just as contests and prizes offer incentives to your customers, the same rules apply when it comes to encouraging your affiliates to drive sales.

Think about it: many affiliates have their hands in a lot of simultaneous projects and funnels.

By offering a prize, either monetary or otherwise, you can give them the extra “push” they need to focus on your product first and foremost.

You can see above how Fat Diminisher mentions their contest in their headline for affiliates to promote.

You can even set your prizes up as a sort of rewards program: the more milestones your affiliates reach, the more extravagant your prizes yet.

Much like the strategy above of getting customers on the phone, sending affiliates prizes in the mail is rather unexpected and will definitely grab your affiliates’ attention.

Your promotions may include rewards for reaching a sales target, being the first to ship a product or a “most improved” prize for affiliates who’ve recently stepped up their game.

Your rewards can range from anything to concert tickets to gift cards; however, if you can afford it, don’t be afraid to handsomely reward your affiliates to keep them around for the long haul.

Also, keep in mind the word-of-mouth benefits: the more affiliates that hear about your sweet rewards, the more they’ll want to sell your products.

Managing your affiliate program and nurturing it is no walk in the park, but you can streamline your process with ClickFunnels affiliate management system, Backpack. Easily integrate your affiliate programs into your sales funnels!

What Other Mad Scientist Tests Should You Try?

Picking aspects of your funnel to test doesn’t have to be a headache, but rather a distinct opportunity to ensure that you’re creating the best customer experience possible.

At the end of the day, that’s exactly what any test should represent at its core.

What other outside-the-box tests do you feel are worth running?

ClickFunnels Action Steps

Creating variables and Split Testing any page in your funnel is easy with ClickFunnels!

Step 1: Log in to your ClickFunnels account

Step 2: Head over to your funnel

Step 3: Click the page you wish to split test

Step 4: Click Create Variation

Step 5: You can choose to create a variation based on the control page or create from a template

Step 6: Add elements and content to your variation and edit accordingly

Visit the ClickFunnels site today to start your free trial!

Thanks for reading Add These 5 “Mad Scientist” Tests To Your Sales Funnel which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Blogging can be a great way to generate organic traffic, build trust with potential customers, and get leads for your business.

However, merely publishing content is not enough, you also need to make sure that each blog post provides value to your target audience.

That’s why today we are going to discuss how to write value-packed blog posts that captivate your readers…

Clearly Define Your Target Audience

If you already have a business, the target audience of your blog should be your dream customers.

And if you don’t have anything to sell yet, we recommend focusing on a demographic that is relatively easy to monetize.

Take inventory of your knowledge, skills, and experience. What is the most painful problem that you can help someone solve?

Aim to attract readers who have that problem and who are willing and able to pay for a solution.

Of course, if all you want is to have a personal blog where you can share your thoughts with the world, then none of that matters. Write about whatever interests you.

However, if you want to make money online, you need to think carefully about choosing your target audience. It’s a decision that will have a huge impact on the business potential of your blog.

Generally speaking, the more you niche down, the easier it will be to create valuable content and monetize your blog, provided that your readers have enough disposable income to pay for your products and services!

Create a Content Strategy for Your Blog

Here are the five types of blog posts that you should consider incorporating into your content strategy:

• Content pillars that serve as comprehensive introductions to the main subjects that you discuss on your blog.
• SEO articles that target long-tail keywords and are designed to answer specific questions.
• Thought leadership essays where you share your unique insights. Ideally, these posts should be evergreen.
• Case studies where you break down how someone who was in a similar situation as your readers achieved something that they want to achieve.
• Timely content where you comment on the latest industry developments, news, trending topics, etc.

As you add more and more content to your blog, you will be able to start linking back to your previous posts, which will make it easier for your readers to catch up to speed if they are not familiar with something.

Eventually, your blog should evolve into a comprehensive knowledge base that your readers can explore if they want to learn more about your area of expertise!

Do Keyword Research and Choose a Target Keyword

Content pillars, SEO blog posts, and timely articles should all be optimized for specific target keywords.

If you are just starting out and your blog is brand new, you want to go after keywords that have low to medium search volume and low competition.

There are a lot of free keyword research apps out there. You might want to check out Ryan Robinson’s keyword research tool, Ahrefs’ keyword generator, and Google’s keyword planner.

Consider investing in Ahrefs if you can afford it. This premium suite of SEO tools is widely considered to be the industry standard by digital marketers who specialize in search engine optimization.

Also, Ahrefs has a ton of free resources that can be helpful for SEO beginners. For example, this free 3-hour course that is available on YouTube provides a great introduction to blogging for business!

Do Competitive Research and Figure Out How to Make Your Blog Post Better

Google optimizes its search algorithm to meet the user’s search intent.

If you want to get one of the ten spots on the first page of search results, you will need to meet the search intent better than the content that is already ranking for your target keyword.

So read everything on the first page of search results and figure out how to make your content better.

Here are some ideas:

• Make your blog post more comprehensive
• Format your blog post properly so that it is skimmable
• Include real-world examples, case studies, and data with sources
• Embed relevant, high-quality YouTube videos that add value
• Share your unique experiences

The difficulty of outcompeting your rivals will largely depend on the space you are in. Some industries are lagging behind in terms of search engine optimization. Meanwhile, in other industries, everyone is using the latest, cutting-edge SEO tactics.

Ultimately, though, it all boils down to this: are you willing to put more work into your content than your competitors have put into theirs?

Write a Blog Post That Meets the Search Intent for Your Target Keyword

Don’t Use AI!

If you are tempted to use ChatGPT to write your blog post, we strongly advise against it. Why?

Because large language models like ChatGPT are too unreliable: they have a tendency to make things up and state them as facts. Computer scientists call this phenomenon “hallucinations”.

You might also want to consider the fact that the current flood of “AI slop” is ruining search results. This means that it’s just a matter of time until Google starts cracking down on AI-generated content if it isn’t doing that already. That’s why it’s best to avoid it altogether!

Prioritize Meeting the Search Intent Above Everything Else

Your top priority should be to meet the search intent as best you can.

This means that you might need to disregard some of the common search engine optimization advice if it comes into conflict with meeting search intent.

For example, there’s this popular belief that the longer the blog post, the better. But that’s just not true.

Your blog post should be however long it needs to be to meet the search intent. Maybe that means 500 words, maybe 5,000. It all depends on your target keyword.

Don’t pad the word count just to make your article longer because Google is getting better at detecting fluff and downranking bloated articles.

Always orient yourself towards meeting the search intent because that is the only way to align your blog post with Google’s primary goal of helping its users find the information that they are looking for. SEO tactics come and go but the search intent remains!

Follow Copywriting Principles if You Want to Make Your Blog Post More Captivating

We highly recommend learning some copywriting and following its principles if you want to make your blog posts more captivating.

Also, if you are blogging for business, the purpose of your blog posts should be to attract potential customers and convert them into leads. Copywriting can help you with that. It’s persuasion via the written word.

In our opinion, “Copywriting Secrets” by our friend Jim Edwards is the best introduction to copywriting. It was written specifically for entrepreneurs who want to learn this skill so that they could grow their businesses faster.

What’s best is that you can get this book for free. All Jim asks is that you cover the shipping!

Get “Copywriting Secrets” for FREE!

Add a Call to Action at the End of Your Blog Post

So how exactly do you convert blog readers into leads?

First, you will need to create a sales funnel for your business. If you want to learn how to do that, check out our definitive guide on building sales funnels.

Alternatively, you can read our co-founder Russell Brunson’s book “DotCom Secrets”, in which he explains everything that you need to know in order to build a sales funnel that converts.

Get “DotCom Secrets” for FREE!

Once you have your sales funnel, you should create a call to action (CTA) designed to promote your lead magnet. Add this CTA at the end of every blog post.

And if you have several lead magnets, create CTAs for each of them and then choose the most relevant CTA for every blog post.

For example, at the time of writing, we are using six different CTAs for six different lead magnets: four for Russell’s books, one for Jim’s book, and one for our free trial. At the end of this article, we have our “Copywriting Secrets” CTA because it’s the most relevant to the subject.

You can also mention your lead magnets in the article itself but you should only do that when it’s relevant and adds value. It should not interfere with meeting the search intent.

For example, we mentioned “Copywriting Secrets” and “DotCom Secrets” because we assumed that if you were reading this article, you would probably be interested in blogging for business. Both books are highly relevant to that!

Format Your Blog Post for Optimum Skimmability

Usability research has established that Internet users typically don’t read online content in its entirety. Instead, they scan it. This has been true for more than two decades.

That’s why it’s so important to make sure that your blog post is skimmable:

• Use the title tag for the title
• Use the H2 tag for the headlines
• Use the H3 tag for the subheadlines
• Incorporate bullet points, numbered lists, and tables
• Break up the text with images and YouTube videos
• Keep your paragraphs short. Most of them should be 2-3 lines. 4-5 line paragraphs should be rare. Do not go above 5 lines!

We also recommend adding a table of contents at the beginning of your blog posts, especially if they are longer than 1,500 words.

You might also want to preview your blog posts on a desktop, tablet, and smartphone just to see if the formatting looks good on all devices. Keep in mind that mobile traffic makes up the majority of global web traffic (54.67% as of Q4 2023)!

Optimize Your Blog Post for SEO But Don’t Go Overboard With it!

Finally, if you can afford to invest in content optimization tools like Clearscope or Surfer, you might want to consider doing so.

If you paste the draft of your blog post into Clearscope, it will show you:

• Overall content grade. Aim for A++.
• Readability level. Aim for middle school level.
• The word count of your blog post and the typical word count for that keyword. If your word count is way below the typical word count, your article might not be comprehensive enough to fully meet the search intent.
• A list of semantic keywords that are related to your target keyword. Include as many of these in your blog post as you can but only if you are able to do it naturally. Don’t turn your article into a keyword salad.
• The number of times each semantic keyword is typically mentioned in the content that is currently ranking for your target keyword. Ideally, you want to use the same frequency, but only if it makes sense in the context of your article.
• Which semantic keywords typically appear in the headlines of the articles that are currently ranking for your target keyword. You should probably incorporate them into your headlines as well.

The suggestions of content optimization apps can be helpful but they can also lead you astray so don’t follow them blindly. Always use the search intent as your North Star!

Want to Learn How to Write Copy That CONVERTS?

You can have the best product in the world but guess what?

If you can’t convey its value to your dream customers, you will lose out to competitors with inferior products but better copy. Sad but true.

That’s why if you are serious about building a business, you need to learn copywriting.

In fact, we would argue that it’s the single most important entrepreneurial skill.

Our friend Jim Edwards wrote a best-selling book “Copywriting Secrets” for busy entrepreneurs just like you.

In this book, he covers everything you need to know in order to start writing copy that CONVERTS.

“Copywriting Secrets” is available on Amazon where it has over 1,800 global ratings and a 4.7-star overall rating.

But you can also get it directly from Jim for free.

All he asks is that you cover the shipping!

So what are you waiting for? 🧐

Get “Copywriting Secrets” for FREE!

Thanks for reading How To Write Engaging, Value-Packed Blog Posts which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

While CRM systems and marketing automation relate and complement each other, they do have their differences and I’m going to give you a complete guide as to what they are.

I have been asked this question many times and so I think it is time to put it down in writing for all to see.

I am going to go through everything including what each of them is, the differences between them, their goals and their benefits.

By the end of this article, you will be able to understand better which one your business could greatly benefit.

What Are They?

To be able to determine whether your business can benefit from a CRM system, marketing automation or both, you need to understand what each of them is.

Marketing automation is a newer concept than CRM and there is still a lot of confusion as to how the two differentiate from each other.

The heart and soul of both of these are for you to be able to manage better your client relationships and will give you deeper insights into your sales funnel.

Let’s go into each one in a bit more detail.

CRM

Image Source: ZOHO

CRMs, otherwise known as customer relationship manager systems started to grow when businesses realised just how much information they can gather from clients.

This information can be entered into a CRM system to trigger them notifications for follow-up phone calls with prospects, schedule quarterly meetings with clients and to stay in regular contact with prospects and clients.

These notifications will help your sales team and customer relationship team stop leaks from your sales funnel by managing the workflow better.

There are many features with CRM systems including sales and client relationship management, lead scoring so as not to waste time on unqualified leads, task tracking so as to not miss proposals or reporting deadlines and many more.

Marketing Automation

Image Source: Marketo

Marketing automation grew when online businesses realised the great detail in information that can be collected from landings pages and lead capture forms.

Information such as birthdays, recent purchases and content they’re interested in can help us send personalised and automated emails to our clients.

Gathering this information and managing it would traditionally be very time-consuming but marketing automation allows for this process to be fully automated by using your online marketing efforts to combine with your marketing automation system.

Having marketing automation will customise communications with prospects based on their behaviours as seen in the below image.

Surface Level Differences

Upon first glance at the two systems, you can certainly see the similarities and surface level differences; however it doesn’t fully tell us the purpose of each system and their benefits.

I will carry on going into further details into the goals and benefits but for now, I want to give you an idea of how they both look from different viewpoints.

Overall Business Viewpoint

From an overall business point of view, CRM systems are great for managing relationships with existing clients as well building relationships with prospects in your sales funnel.

On the other hand, marketing automation is great for making one-on-one communication with prospects in the early stages of the sales funnel and for determining which leads are qualified.

As you can see, both systems are useful for different stages of the sales funnel; from scoring them when leads first enter the funnel so time can be better spent on qualified leads to managing client relationships to retain their customer.

Sales and Marketing Viewpoint

From a sales point of view, the CRM system is more suitable as it helps them stay on top of prospect communication and continue to build relationships with existing clients to reduce the churn rate.

From a marketing point of view, marketing automation is more suitable as it helps them tailor their marketing messages in order to determine which leads are prospects to pass through to the sales team.

As you can see, both of these systems can work in perfect harmony and keep communications between your marketing team and sales team clear and consistent.

This can result in a more effective and efficient sales funnel.

Technical Viewpoint

From a technical point of view, a CRM is more of a database that holds the information you have gathered from your clients and sends your sales team notifications to contact prospects or clients for the sales team to execute.

With marketing automation, however, the system itself performs the communication while the marketing team feeds it information and rules.

It can also hold information about prospects but mainly how they engage with the emails, you send them.

The two systems are similar but you can see that they both have their differences in their purpose that I will go into more detail now.

Their Goals

Now that we have had a look at the different viewpoints from your business, it is time to look at the viewpoint of the CRM and marketing automation systems themselves to find out what their goals are.

Knowing this will help you sync these objectives with your business goals.

CRM

The goal of a CRM system is to help client relationship managers keep track of their communications with clients and target opportunities that will keep clients with them for longer.

It was also designed to help the sales team keep track of their prospect communication so they can thoroughly nurture prospects into paying customers.

Overall, the system is there to free up time otherwise spent doing administration tasks so your sales and client relationship teams can be more efficient.

Having a CRM system in place can also give you great insights into how your sales and client relationship teams are performing; what is the loss rate and win rate?

How long does it take for a prospect to become a paying client?

If you know exactly which stages in the sales funnel are losing sales, you will be able to plug that leak more quickly.

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is a communication platform that makes the lead nurturing process more efficient by automating personalised emails to qualified leads.

Think of it as sending one-to-one emails but in bulk.

You may be thinking what the difference between email marketing is and marketing automation?

Marketing automation is behavioural, where as email marketing is just sending campaigns to your list.

Make sense?

When you send mass emails to your email list, it is usually with the same message.

With marketing automation, the content of emails sent to your email list will depend on their behaviour.

This is the best solution for the middle stages of your sales funnel to nurture better leads into prospects.

The sales team that those prospects are then sent to will have a history of behaviour insights to better understand how to convert prospects into paying clients.

Their Benefits

Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of the differences between CRM systems and marketing automation and their goals.

To put it bluntly, though; CRM is mainly for the sales team and marketing automation is mainly for the marketing team.

They can, however, complement each other to create a seamless sales funnel.

Salesforce, a CRM provider, says it is “a strategy for managing all your company’s interactions with current and prospective customers”.

While Marketo, a marketing automation provider says it “allows companies to streamline, automate, and measure marketing tasks and workflows”.

Let’s take a closer look into the specific benefits of these two very clever systems.

CRM

Some of the main benefits of having a CRM system in place are:

1. You and your sales team can clearly see which stages prospects are at in the sales funnel that can help your sales team close deals.
2. Having a history of communication with prospects will help your sales team alter communication methods and target pain points to each prospect.
3. Having a history of communication from paying clients can help your client relationship team build stronger relationships with clients to boost retention rates.
4. Both your sales team and client relationship team will never forget about prospects and clients with notifications to call.

Marketing Automation

Some of the benefits of having a marketing automation system in place include:

1. Your marketing team will be able to segment easily email lists based on behaviours, interests, purchases and more.
2. More of an efficient and effective lead nurturing process with personalised emails being sent to contacts based on triggers when they are most engaged with your brand.
3. Detailed insights into how leads engage with your emails for your marketing team to score which leads qualify as prospects.

Which One to Choose

Infographic Source: Pardot

Asking what are the differences between CRM and marketing automation is like asking what is different between your sales team and marketing team.

These two systems have different purposes, goals and benefits and complement different stages of your sales funnel.

For this reason, consider having both systems in place to create a sales funnel that is streamlined.

Do you need help determining which system will most help your sales funnel at this current time?

Let me know by leaving your comments below and I’ll do my best to answer them all.

Thanks for reading Beginners Guide To Marketing Automation & CRM which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Create a winning sales funnel by deconstructing the sales funnels of those that are doing it right and learning from them.

I know many businesses and marketers who get themselves all tied up when it comes to planning a winning sales funnel and while it is no easy feat, you shouldn’t be getting tied up about it.

I have found 3 SaaS companies who have winning sales funnels which I am going to deconstruct so you can see how they have built them and why they work.

CrazyEgg

First up is CrazyEgg which is a SaaS company that provides heat mapping tools for online businesses.

It was founded by Neil Patel who left the company to start KISSMetrics but is still somewhat involved in CrazyEgg.

I have watched them optimize their marketing and website over the last few years and I’m sure they will continue to optimize well into the future… I would.

Stages in the Funnel

I am deconstructing their sales funnel based on their current strategy, but I am sure this will change again in time as they continue to optimize.

Essentially their sales funnel is in two stages; to get a user to click on their website and to convert that user into a sale.

However, I have broken their sales funnel down into five stages to get into it in a lot more detail.

1. Awareness – The first stage in the sales funnel is awareness.This means they will use the likes of paid search ads, organic search, content, organic social media and paid social media ads to get their brand out there. I saw one of their Facebook ads which captured my attention because of its simplicity and to-the-point message.The images showed exactly what their product is and they told how they could help in the first 8 words.

2. Homepage – The second stage in the sales funnel is the homepage. When a user sees the CrazyEgg Ad on Facebook and it piques their interest, they will click on it to find out more. Once they do that, they will land on the homepage where they will see a box where they can enter their website URL to get a heat map report.

3. Pricing – Once the user has filled in their website URL, and clicked “Show Me My Heatmap”, they will be directed to a Google Accounts screen that will ask them if CrazyEgg can view their email address and Google Analytics. Once the user has clicked “Accept” they will be taken to the Pricing page where they are asked to choose from one of the four price plans.

4. Nurturing – If a user leaves the website at the pricing page because they are not ready to buy, CrazyEgg has a number of autoresponders that will be sent to that user. These autoresponders aren’t pushy or sales focused, they are nurturing.For example they have an FAQ email that will be sent to educate the user about them and their product and a “How Can I Help You” email for reassurance and to build rapport.

5. Purchase – If a user returns to purchase after the nurturing process or straight after landing on the pricing page for the first time, they will be greeted with indications of further reassurance and trust. CrazyEgg displays recognised brands that use their product on the purchase form and also highlights that there will be no charge for the first 30 days.

Why it Works

The CrazyEgg sales funnel works so well because they have kept things simple and all the stages relevant to each other.

They offer something of value that will help resolve pain points of their target audience and also offer a lengthy free trial period which shows they are confident in their product.

They also use a smart sales funnel by setting cookies on the user browser so that when they do revisit, they can pick up right where they left off.

Basecamp

The second SaaS company on my list is Basecamp which is a project management tool that is used online.

It is great for companies who have employees or freelancers around the world, for companies who want to share project management tasks with their clients, or companies who want to use it so they don’t have to worry about losing information if systems crash.

Stages in the Funnel

Just like with the CrazyEgg sales funnel, Basecamp has kept their sales funnel simply by having just 3 simple stages; creating awareness about their product, attracting traffic to the website and converting that traffic into sales.

I have broken down their sales funnel into these 3 stages so as to explain more about each one and how it links onto the next.

1. Awareness – Basecamp aren’t as active on paid search or paid social Ads as the other two SaaS companies. They use their blog to share content and updates on social media and are very active with PR. They use more of an inbound marketing approach when it comes to generating awareness for their brand and product rather than outreaching using paid Ads.
2. Homepage – Once a user has either seen a social media post, a referral link on an article or a word-of-mouth referral that has piqued their interest they will then proceed to either click on the link or do an organic search with the brand term. They will then land on the homepage where they will be greeting straight away with a signup form.
3. Trial – After the user has submitted their details, they will be sent an email where they are prompted to start their free trial. When they click on that button, they will be taken back to Basecamp where they have the choice to start with a dashboard Basecamp have set up for them or to create their own.

Why it Works

This is one of the simplest sales funnels out there.

They have created a strategy that takes the user to a lead within 2 clicks; when they click on the link to land on the homepage and when they click the submit button on the free trial form that is in the centre of the homepage.

They have made it unbelievably easy for the user to convert while shutting out all noise.

Grasshopper

The last SaaS company on our list is Grasshopper which is a virtual phone system that businesses or freelancers can use to set up toll-free numbers and manage them online or by their phone.

They are known for their unique and brilliant marketing tactics and their sales funnel has certainly not failed them bringing in over $30 million annually.

Stages in the Funnel

Grasshopper has continually optimized their sales funnel like CrazyEgg has and actually removed a stage out of their sales funnel to make it simpler.

They used to have a Features page after the Pricing page but soon came to realise that they were putting an obstacle in front of the last stage in the funnel.

• Awareness – Just like the first two SaaS companies, they need to start the sales funnel by creating awareness about their brand and product. They use all possible channels you can think of to create this awareness such as paid search, blog, YouTube and Facebook. They create some very unique and creative content to generate traffic which you can see for yourself in the below YouTube video.

• Homepage – Once a user has seen their Ad, their video or their content, they will then click through to the homepage where they will find a short video that will explain how they can help and a stand-out CTA button that asks them to find out how it works. They have also bullet pointed key unique selling points.

• How It Works – Once the user clicks on the “See How It Works” button, they are then taken to a page where they can find all the information they need to make a decision as to whether they want to continue to the pricing page which is directed through by a CTA at the top and bottom of the page.

• Pricing – If the user does decide to continue, they are presented with a choice of 4 price plans with what each one includes and also which price plan is the most popular. Just like CrazyEgg, they have also placed recognised brands on this page to instil trust and reassurance into users.

Why it Works

Their product is clearly explained throughout sales funnel so as to weed out many unqualified leads.

By displaying videos and having a whole page dedicated to how their product works, the leads they will generate will mostly be qualified.

Because they display their most recognised brands on both the How It Works page and Pricing Page, users will believe this is a company that can be relied on.

How to Apply This to Your Sales Funnel

There are a few common denominators with these three sales funnels that you can implement into your own sales funnel:

1. Keep your sales funnel simple with two to three stages.
2. Make the journey as easy as possible for users by minimising clicks and having only one clear path.
3. Display any trust signals such as recognised brands, testimonials, case studies and awards.
4. Clearly explain what your product is and how it can help solve their problems.

How do you make sure your sales funnel is as clear and effective as possible? Do you use some of the strategies the SAAS companies we’ve looked at today use? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Thanks for reading Deconstructing Sales Funnels of 3 SAAS Companies which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Nearly every marketer and entrepreneur in today’s world understands the need for landing pages. They’re a crucial part of your sales process, or even the whole process for some, yet not everyone truly understands the elements needed for a successful landing page

We all love awesome graphics, subconsciously or knowingly, which makes the background of your landing page all the more crucial as a part of it all. But when should you have a clean white background, when to use a fancy stock photo and when to draw something unique to be used as the background?

In this post, I’ll look into the different types of choices you have for the background, their uses and how to use them correctly to give your visitors that ‘OMG’ moment.

Solid colours, stock photos or drawings?

When building a new landing page, you need to consider the restrictions of your platform first. For example by using ClickFunnels you can easily choose the type of background you like, where as a landing page theme for WordPress might require some modification of code to accept custom images as the background.

This means you’ll need to pick the best possible foundation for your landing page before starting to build it. Plan your creation out, and only then jump into work on the platform of your choice. That way you can make sure the foundation is solid and multi-functional enough to support your vision.

Now that you have a solid foundation to build your landing page on, I’ll assume it can use a custom image as a background, instead of just a solid colour. At this point you’re ready to build your landing page.

Whether you decide to go with a solid colour as the background is completely up to you, but I’ll say this: It’s extremely hard to get a visitor go OMG about a basic blue background they’ve seen a thousand times before.

For a list of inspiring and exciting landing page designs that are sure to bring out the creative genius inside you (they certainly did so for me!), check out these two blog posts by Ginny Soskey and Lindsay Kolowich, which list a total of 26 extremely attractive landing page designs.

Take careful notice of their background choices. Basecamp is a good example of a very clean and minimalistic look, whereas Muck Rack goes for two separate images side by side. Basing the background on your own brand identity is important, as well as considering the desired impact.

A/B testing can be a great help if you’re trying to decide between the two choices, and can shed a lot of light on the impact that each background style has on your visitors.

The science of colour psychology

You can use colour psychology to benefit your business in many ways, one of which is by painting walls and decorating your office space according to certain psychological effects the different colours create.

But these same psychological principles also work with high efficiency on landing pages and websites in general, impacting the thoughts and emotions of your visitors.

Two of the more commonly used colours, apart from black, white and grey of course, are green and blue. And there’s a very good reason behind that.

Green is a colour that creates a sense of optimism and calm in a person. That’s why you can find it in many blogs, such as Brian Dean’s Backlinko.com. It can also improve the visitors reading speed and comprehension capabilities, so it is a common colour to be found online.

Blue on the other hand is a favourite colour to a ton of people that conveys a steady and stable environment, which translates into a huge potential with marketing materials and landing pages.

Therefore you can find blue as the main colour on multiple websites and landing pages, such as Wistia’s website.

By comprehending the different emotions and feelings colours can convey, you can go a long way in affecting your visitors’ actions and behaviour when visiting your landing page. But don’t forget testing different colours, because it’s really simple to switch colours!

Tools to create graphics that stand out from the masses

Now that we’ve covered the different colours that you can use, let’s take a look at creating some custom graphics for that landing page of yours.

Photoshop is an amazing tool for designers young and old, new and experienced, but it has a rather steep learning curve.

That’s why I suggest using Canva for making images that stand out nicely without spending too much time on the process.

Canva is a free web-based tool that you can use to create different graphics, and it comes with a number of premade dimensions that suit multiple purposes, like Facebook cover photos, blog post images and even infographics.

It also includes many free images and elements, but the selection mostly consists of paid elements and images, costing an affordable $1 each.

That means you can create a professional looking custom image using a one dollar stock photo, a one dollar graphics element and a couple of lines of text.

For two dollars, that’s quite the result, don’t you think?

You can also upload your own images and graphics to be used in Canva, free of charge naturally. Canva is an easy, free and function filled tool to create attention grabbers out of ordinary stock photos.

Finding amazing images

There are dozens of stock photo sites, such as Shutterstock and iStockphoto, and you can easily find free images by changing the Google image search filter to only show images with rights to reuse and modify.

What’s more important than where to look for background images, which can be easily found out about with Google and two searches, is to know what you’re looking for.

First of all, make sure the image matches your brand identity. Don’t use girls in bikinis if you’re promoting a mommy blog, or baby pictures for a manly man DIY blog.

Next up is figuring out the perfect layout, so that the image focuses the readers’ attention to certain parts of the copy. Use the image to boost the call to action’s effectiveness, not vice versa, by planning the layout so that the background doesn’t steal the CTAs attention.

Also make sure it conveys a message, as pointless images are… well, pointless.

Lastly, keep in mind that photos with humans in them make for a positive effect on visitors, and that makes for a strong boost with a single picture.

The ‘OMG’ effect

Having read what you’ve read by now, you most likely already understand what I mean by the OMG effect, but just to be sure here’s a quick focusing chapter about what it is and how you should aim for it.

1. To begin with, pick out a background style to go with your brand identity and style. It needs to resonate with your target audience for it to be effective, and that’s why you should always split test everything before settling for one option over another.
2. Following the choice of background, you’ll need to decide on the colour scheme. For this you can use either the colour you’ve already chosen for your website and brand, but you can also go for something different based on colour psychology.Make sure to have your images grab the attention of your visitor, and force their focus on to the main selling tool, i.e. the copywriting. That’s what convinces the visitor to buy from you in the end. But it doesn’t hurt to have a background that makes them go OMG!

The OMG effect in its simplicity means that the visitor will be admiring your background in awe and thinking to themselves: Oh My God.

Making the visitor go ‘OMG’

We’ve now covered how you can make your next visitors admire your landing page background, what tools you should use to get there and how to pick out the perfect stock photos. The process in itself is not that difficult, or anything special really, but it does take some thorough thinking to get to the best results.

You’ll need to consider many different aspects of choosing a background, from the type of background to the colour scheme and layout of your landing page, but the most important thing of all is to have a landing page.

There’s no background without a landing page, so get working on having one, right now using a simple ‘Opt In Funnel’ which you can try directly from ClickFunnels.

Do you have a resource that you use when generating backgrounds or making your visitors gog ‘WOW!’ when they hit your landing page? Drop us a line below!

Thanks for reading Make Your Website Visitors Go OMG At Landing Page Background which appeared first on ClickFunnels.