In this web-driven world, everyone knows you need a website for your business. 

But if you’ve ever tried to build a website, you’ve likely been intimidated…

Not by building a website itself…

That’s easy. 

But by building a website that is effective. 

After all… what the heck is the point of building a website if it’s not going to…

• Drive traffic
• Generate leads
• Make sales

… like clockwork? 

That’s the goal. 

You don’t just need a website. 

You need an asset. 

In this guide, we’re going to show you the difference between building a website that is… well, just a website… and building an asset that drives leads and sales for your business. 

If you need a quick laugh to help dispel the common illusion that a basic website will get you what you want, check out the video below…

Want to cut to the chase and see how ClickFunnels compares to all other common website builders, email service providers, CRMs, online course creators, etc…?

Then check out these charts. 

How to Build a Website the Tough Way

Here’s what really drives home the sting of building a website that doesn’t drive the results your business needs…

It takes forever. 

Every building a basic website. 

First, you have to purchase a domain. You have to find a domain name that isn’t already taken, and pay a fee to purchase it. 

But that’s not all. Once you have a domain, you have to get a hosting company to host your website on their servers. This requires fees as well. 

But that’s still not all. You have your domain and hosting, but you still don’t have a website. 

There are a couple of different options for building your traditional website. 

You could build a custom website which requires an expertise in coding to accomplish, or you could build a website using a content management system that has basic website templates that you can use. 

Assuming that as a business owner you don’t have the coding expertise necessary to build your own website, you would need to hire a web developer to build your custom website for you. 

Hiring a developer is expensive, and their finished product isn’t built to convert visitors into customers.

The other option, using a popular content management system like WordPress or Shopify, provides limited template options, meaning you end up with a basic website without customizable structure or automation.

Whether you build a custom website or use a CMS, you have to figure out which pages you want your site to consist of and how they will look. 

You have to figure out how you will use design elements throughout your website and plan and write the content that will go on each page. 

In case you’re not catching on by now, building a website takes a ridiculous amount of work. 

If that website ends up being ineffective…

Yeah… yikes. 

What you need is a way to build a website easy and fast. 

You also need something that gives you all the other tools you need to turn your website into a lead-gen and sales-gen machine. 

That’s what we’ve built at ClickFunnels. 

Let’s talk about that. 

How to Build a Website… the ClickFunnels Way

Want me to show you how easy and fast it is to build a website with ClickFunnels? 

Then get yourself a free trial right here (you can cancel anytime) and let’s walk through it together. 

First, you can click on “Site and Funnels” and then “Domain” to connect an existing domain or buy a new one…

Don’t worry, though. 

If you don’t have a domain yet, we’ll automatically provide you with a free subdomain where you can operate your website and funnels for the timebeing. 

Then you can choose a theme from our Theme Marketplace for free — all of these are high-converting. 

Then you can use our powerful (patent-pending) drag-and-drop editor to customize your website however you like (within specific restraints to make sure your website still looks nice). 

Point is… 

Building a website the ClickFunnels way is faster and easier than building a traditional website. 

And not only can you build a website. 

But you can build sales funnels, a blog, an ecommerce store, a membership site, landing pages, and workflows. 

You also get our CRM, analytics, a customer center, the ability to create and sell online courses, and tons more. 

(click on the links to learn more about each!)

… all for a single subscription. 

But ClickFunnels doesn’t just replace all of those tools… it outperforms them.

Check out, for instance, our TwoCommaClub, where we’ve given out nearly 1,000 awards to members who’ve grown their business to over $1M in revenue. 

There’s Jamie Cross…

Natalie Hodson…

Garrett White…

And so many more.

The purpose of ClickFunnels is to provide business owners with everything they need to succeed online.

However…

There’s one question we get more than all the others… 

What the Heck is a Sales Funnel?

Let’s look at how a website works.

People come to your website, they look around aimlessly, and then they decide on their own what action they’re going to take. And most of them leave.

The reason that most website visitors leave is because they haven’t been guided. 

They’ve been shown a ton of stuff — some content, some products, some ads, some news, and an About Page — but they haven’t been clearly instructed as to what action they should take. 

It’s sort of like if someone comes into your brick-and-mortar store… and you don’t greet them, you don’t ask them if you can help, you don’t guide them. 

That’s where a sales funnel is different.

Having a sales funnel instead of a website is like having your very best salesperson guide each prospect to conversion. 

Except it all happens online… automatically. 

Here’s how it works. 

Using a sales funnel, each page is intentionally crafted to guide the visitor to the next page and the next action… eventually leading to conversion!

For example…

You can see 6 different real-world examples of sales funnels over here. 

You can create sales funnels to…

• Generate leads
• Make sales
• Get new customers
• Grow your email list
• Host a webinar
• Sell AFTER a webinar
• Sell high-ticket services

And pretty much anything else. 

You can easily create sales funnels with ClickFunnels — in fact, that’s our bread and butter. 

Get yourself a free ClickFunnels account here and I’ll walk you through creating your first lead-gen funnel!

On the left, click on “Site & Funnels”…

Then click on “Funnels”…

In the upper right, click “Create Funnel”…

Then give your funnel a name and choose the URL path…

After you click “Create Funnel”, you’ll be taken to our funnel flow editor where you can add steps and visualize your entire lead-gen funnel. 

Click on the + button to add your first step and choose “page”. 

Now comes the fun part. 

You’ll get immediate access to our massive library of high-converting templates — these are all templates the ClickFunnels community has had success with!

On the left side, you can select your goal which, in this case, is “Opt In”. 

Choose the template that best fits your business and offer (don’t overthink it, you’ll be able to make big customizations here soon!) and click it. 

Give it a name and create it!

Then click to edit it. 

You can then use our patent-pending ultra-powerful drag-and-drop editor to customize your lead-gen funnel however you like!

One Final Tip: The Value Ladder

I have one final tip to offer before our time here comes to a close. 

It’s called the Value Ladder.

Russell Brunson introduced the idea of a value ladder in his bestselling book, DotCom Secrets (<– Get a FREE Copy There!). 

It’s a template for outlining the path your customers are going to take from signing up for your first lead magnet(s)… to buying middle-tier products… to ascending to the most valuable and expensive offer you have available.

If you understand your value ladder, then you’ll have a much easier time managing your sales funnel — if you don’t, then you’ll struggle to guide customers toward the most natural next step.

Here’s the basic template.

On each step. you have a different product or service — starting with your bait and ending with your highest-ticket offer.

The arrows and dollar signs at the bottom indicate your continuity program. This is the subscription program that people pay you for annually or monthly. It helps you create recurring revenue for your business.

The GOAL is to take people from your bait to the big green dollar sign one step at a time.

Okay.

But what does this actually LOOK LIKE in real life?

Let’s get UBER basic.

Imagine you move to a new city and you’re looking for a dentist. You find a dentist’s office that gives you your first teeth cleaning for free — WOOHOO, you think. Let’s do it.

You’ve been baited.

You go to get your teeth cleaned and the dentist asks if you drink coffee. Why yes you do! How did he know? Because your teeth are stained from years of that brown bean water.

He offers you teeth whitening. You say yes.

You’ve been upsold.

He later asks you if you used to wear braces. Right again! He mentions that teeth often slowly shift back from people who had braces when they were younger and that yours are starting to shift.

You ask if he can fix it.

He says he can build a retainer for you to keep them in place. You won’t even notice it.

Let’s do it, you say. 

You’ve been upsold AGAIN.

Get the point?

You were baited with his free offer (ethically), and then upsold on things that you didn’t even know you needed!

So.

What does your value ladder look like?

Take some time to outline it — this will help you understand how you draw people into your ecosystem and, just as importantly, how you ascend them toward your highest-ticket offers.

Who Wins?

ClickFunnels wins. 

And we aren’t trying to be mean about it. 

But the number of tools you get under a single subscription with ClickFunnels is incomparable to all other online tools. 

Don’t believe me? 

That’s fine.

I’m thick-skinned. 

I’d just ask that you check out these charts and then get yourself a 14-day free trial. Then you can tell me who you think is the winner. 😉

Start Your Clickfunnels 14 Days Free Trial Today!

Thanks for reading ClickFunnels Vs. Website: What It Really Takes To Build A Website For Your Business which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

When it comes to landing pages and their performance, there’s nothing more important than the process of optimizing the landing page to suit your visitors.

After all, if all your visitors hate your landing page, how could you ever make any sales?

In this article, I will cover the six most hated parts and features of your landing page, the reasons behind people hating them and how you can fix them to increase your sales fast.

The key to this whole process is understanding the behaviour of your customers to be able to tune these fixes fine to your specific audience, so if you’re not already measuring all the different metrics that actually run your business, I suggest you get right on it – now.

If you’re already using ClickFunnels, like you totally should be, then the process of measuring and analytics is made super simple for you with our integrated analytics tools. Just setup the different measurements you wish to track and voila, you’ll be provided with accurate data about the behaviour of your visitors right inside your ClickFunnels dashboard.

These fixes will work with any landing page, though, so stick along for the ride and learn how to battle those hideous and annoying features of your landing page that are preventing you from getting successful. Let’s go!

1. Poor (Or Lack Of) Mobile Optimization

Image Source: MackieVisions 

As many of you might know, Google’s so-called “mobilegeddon” has been in town for a bit over a year now and is showing no signs of stopping.

New algorithm updates and tweaks are coming each month to make sure Google can provide the best possible user experience for their mobile searchers, meaning it will become increasingly difficult over time to gain back those lost search engine rankings without proper mobile optimization.

However, that is not the only reason why you need to have proper mobile optimization for your landing page.

Over 80% of internet users on this planet use a mobile device to access the internet. What that means is that in all likelihood at least one-third of your landing page visitors are surfing on a mobile device, whether that is a smartphone, a tablet or a smart watch.

Understanding that sheer number of potential customers who find your landing page, can’t get it to work properly due to poor mobile optimization and leave is usually enough to scare you into starting the mobile optimization process straight-away, but let’s take this one step further.

I know I said potential customers in the previous paragraph, and I truly meant it. You know why? Because 70% of mobile searches lead to action within an hour of entering the website. Now if that doesn’t scare you to believe you’re losing potential customers right and left then nothing can.

But how can you fix this situation?

Well, first of all, it depends on a whole lot on the landing page tool or CMS you’re using, but the simplest way of fixing poor mobile optimization is to use a proper landing page builder like ClickFunnels. We provide you with an integrated feature to preview, customize and optimize your landing pages for mobile devices directly in our builder.

If you’re not using a tool such as ClickFunnels, don’t worry, the fixes are still the same, but the way to implement them varies a lot. I suggest you check out this guide I wrote some months back to truly dive into the different aspects of perfecting your mobile user experience.

2. Poor Display Of Call To Actions

Image Source: WordSteam

Let’s face it, call to actions or CTAs are the one final key to getting a visitor from the potential stage to convert to a paying customer. And that’s why you need to make sure your CTAs are properly displayed.

Make sure the colours are a match to your colour theme, but also that they are in accordance to colour psychology. The text needs to be easily legible and of course, the CTA button needs to look spectacular. Oh, and remember that spectacular doesn’t always mean a big flashy button that causes epilepsy, most of the times spectacular is stylish and controlled.

Not only does the display need to be proper, but also the CTA itself. The wording makes a whole lot of difference here, and you must not sound pushy or too much of a 60s vacuum cleaner salesman, but rather to the point “I can help you make things better” type of person. Keep it short and sweet, but don’t forget the actionable part of it.

A quick fix to this is to research the different types of CTAs that are known to work, and here’s a great list of different CTAs found all over the internet and some analysis on why they work and how to make your own CTAs work for you.

3. The Length Of Your Landing Page

Image Source: Unbounce

Look, if you’re selling a simple service or product, such as a book or a, well, a vacuum cleaner, then there’s no need to have the landing page be as long as the book itself. Or the vacuum cleaner’s user manual and warranty information booklet.

The point is, make it nice and short for a smaller and more affordable ask, or a product that is a really common item, and longer for a bigger ask or a new and innovative product you need to demo at the same time to prove it works.

But do not underestimate the power of a well-written and beautifully designed landing page that is very detailed and long, because those types of landing pages definitely have their purposes and are incredibly convincing and reassuring in the eyes of the customer.

However, keep it reasonable, as there are plenty of successful companies whose landing pages include less than 1000 words of copy.

And then there’s Amazon with their Kindle stuff, which is almost 5000 words and still works wonderfully. Well, I don’t have their metrics to say that, but it’s Amazon, they would have changed and tweaked it already if it didn’t work.

But there you have it, an idea as to how long the landing page should be and the approximate ideal length, which is anywhere between the Impact’s 207 words to that monster Amazon calls a landing page.

Also, never forget to TEST your landing page. Split testing is really simple with proper tools, and you always get statistical proof of what works for you.

4. Distracting Autoplay Videos

Image Source: Social Blade

I could make a thousand link long list of people hating videos that are on autoplay on websites, but that wouldn’t be too helpful, so I’ll just leave this here for you to know that hatred for auto-playing videos truly exists.

Instead, I’ll focus my efforts on this section of the article on helping you to fix that problem, which is really simple.

Remove the autoplay from your landing page videos and add a nice and large play button on the video. That way you’re making sure visitors don’t get confused as to what they should be doing and leave.

Alright, I cannot resist the temptation, here’s how much hate Snapchat is getting for their new feature that auto plays stories.

5. A Poor Headline

Never in a million years has the importance of headlines been stressed enough, especially when it comes to landing pages.

I’ll start off with the why this time because it makes you understand why this is seriously important in under eight seconds. The reason is that people have an approximately eight seconds long attention span, and you need to capture their attention within those eight short seconds.

Did I succeed in getting your attention in under eight seconds as to why you need to make sure your headline is amazing?

Good, because then we can get to the fix.

Short and sweet applies here too, and it needs to grab the attention as well, so that’s what similar with the CTA. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that’s it, as you really need to make sure the visitor understands what your landing page is about in under eight seconds. It’s not enough to sell your product in a short and actionable sentence, you need to give them a reason to read on.

And that’s a lot more difficult than you might think.

That’s why professionals and beginners alike should split test their headlines, every single time. More about split testing headlines can be read here in one of my previous articles about landing page split testing.

Get out there and start writing some killer headlines!

6. No Value Before Asking For The Sale

The boy has I got a treat saved for you.

The final piece of hatred your landing page gets is the easiest one to fix and probably the most efficient one of them all, at least if considering the time it takes to fix it and comparing that to some sales you get as a direct result.

Never ask for a sale before you prove the value of your service or product to the customer. Never.

Whether you decide to give the customer value in the form of a free eBook or have plenty of testimonials attesting to the value of your product you just described to the customer, it doesn’t matter.

What matters is that you do provide the customer with value, or at least proof of the existence of said value if they buy the product, before asking them to buy it.

Because why would you buy something you don’t believe is not useful and valuable to you in the slightest?

And there you have ladies and gentlemen, you’ve made it to the end. Congratulations, you now possess the knowledge required to make those sales soar in from you landing page like never before.

Do you have personal experience with these fixes, or perhaps you tried them out after reading this post? Nevertheless, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Just comment below and let’s have a chat!

Thanks for reading 6 Things People Hate About Your Sales Funnel which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Having a sales funnel means being able to convert lots of people into paying customers. At least that’s the idea. Sales funnels have been an effective way for decades to get people to buy your products or services. If you’re reading this, you likely have one up and running right now. Maybe you’re seeing the results you want, but there’s also the chance that it’s not making you the money you think you should be making.

So what’s going wrong? You’re using sales funnels, but they’re not leading to big payouts. You know you have the right product to offer. So why aren’t you getting the returns you expected?

It’s time to learn how you can fix your funnel. As part of his Marketing 101 series, Russell Brunson spoke about this very subject. In this video, he addresses what to do about sales funnels that aren’t making money and the steps you can take to remedy the situation. Let’s go over some of the ideas he brings up and mention a few other tips you’ll want to check out.

1. Actually Sell Your Stuff

This point may seem like a strange one to mention, but as Russell explains, too many sales funnels begin with just a picture of the product, the price, and a button to pay for it.

That’s not enough! Don’t just show your product or service to people — sell it! If you have a leaky funnel, chances are you’re not trying to sell the item to the prospect, you just expect people to buy it on face value alone.

There are plenty of great products out there that won’t go anywhere if you don’t sell it to the buyer. Make your offers irresistible. Get prospects excited about what they can gain from what you’re selling. Connect with each prospective buyer. Use persuasive language to explain why they need what you have. That gets them in the mood to actually buy from you. This art of selling a product extends to some of the other points in this article.

2. Tell People a Story

Storytelling is one art form you need to know to get people excited about what you have to offer. Talk about the personal struggle you’ve had and how you got to where you are in your life. It also all ties back into your product or service.

Russell goes into a lot of detail about storytelling in his book Expert Secrets. From this book, you can learn about what it takes to build a rapport with the hero of the story, from detailing the desires they have to the conflict they resolved.

This is engaging content helps audiences relate to you. It also shows how you’ve changed, which gives people the hope that they can change for the better as well. If you tell a good story, you’ll quickly see how much more effective your sales funnel becomes at making money.

3. Understand Your Audience

Along those lines, you also need to get to know the audience you’re selling to. Become familiar with their likes and dislikes. What do they desire the most? What do they want to change about their lives? What frustrates them all the time? Answer these questions and you’re well on your way to perfecting your sales funnel.

There’s actually a term for this called “market empathy.” This is basically where you put yourself in the customers’ shoes as you seek to understand them. If you can figure out what drives them, you can create a message that resonates. You’ll have customers going, “This person is almost exactly like me!” You build a personal connection with prospects and generate leads in the process.

4. Nail Down Your Copy

Nothing can bore a person more quickly than bland, uninteresting, generic copy. If your sales funnel isn’t seeing success, take a good look at the copy you’ve created and see if it captures the attention of any visitor to your funnel. If you come away thinking it’s boring, then you know you’ve got a problem.

Copywriting isn’t always easy, but it can often make the difference between engaging a possible customer and turning them away. With many of the above points in mind, you should be able to create copy that gets people excited and tells a compelling story.

5. Test Your Funnel

Getting the right sales funnel down can be a difficult process. Even the slightest tweaks can make a huge difference in the long run. To make sure you have the most effective funnel possible, you’re going to need to test it out.

You can do this through split testing, where you make subtle changes to your funnel and see which version performs the best. Change a word here, move the CTA button a bit there, and so on. The more you do this, the more you’ll settle on what works and how your funnel can improve. Do enough split testing, and you’ll quickly transform a failing sales funnel into one that makes you plenty of money.

Fix Your Funnel With ClickFunnels

That’s only scratching the surface of ways you can fix your sales funnel. Of course, one way that you can get help is by using ClickFunnels. When you sign up with ClickFunnels, you also get access to pre-built sales funnels that have been proven to generate leads, convert customers, and make money.

Have you never made a sales funnel before? You can build one in less than 10 minutes, even if you’re not a ClickFunnels expert. ClickFunnels can also help solve many of the issues listed in this article. Worried about copy? You can use tools and follow templates to ensure you’re using effective copy along each of the sales funnel stages. Want to test your sales funnel? You can split test each page with ease.

ClickFunnels is an indispensable tool for anyone wanting to make money with their sales funnels. If you want to give it a try, all you have to do is sign up for a free 14 day trial.

What fixes have you implemented in your sales funnel that has led to positive results? Talk about it in the comments below.

Recommended Reading

• What is Split Testing and How to Incorporate it into Your Sales Funnels
• Copywriting Tips: How to Write Killer Copy
• Sales Funnels 101: The Mechanics Behind Selling Online
• Sales Funnels: The Ultimate Guide

Thanks for reading Sales Funnel Not Making Money? Here’s How To Fix It which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

If you want to grow your online business, you’re going to need to know how to build a sales funnel. There’s simply no other way around it. Your company’s success may very well hinge upon it. If you’ve grown frustrated with a lack of success and stagnant growth, the key to overcoming these challenges may very well lie in developing an effective sales funnel.

But far too many people have very little experience with the sales funnel process. Even if they know they need to become familiar with it, diving into the topic can feel intimidating. If you’re in that camp, you’ve come to the right place.

This is a helpful guide for people who want to learn about sales funnels in just a few minutes. Perhaps you’ve only heard the term before but wanted to know more. Maybe you want to know how to create a sales funnel. Or you’ve just wondered why you should care about them in the first place. This guide will answer your questions and get you started on the path to mastering the art of sales funnel.

What is a Sales Funnel?

Okay, let’s get started off with the basics of an online sales funnel. Here’s a simple sales funnel definition: a sales funnel is a type of marketing strategy designed to turn people into interested customers who buy from you. The whole process starts off with a wide audience and gradually helps the most promising customers move along until they’re regularly purchasing the product or service your company offers.

The sales funnel isn’t necessarily a new thing. In fact, it’s been around for over a hundred years. The concept of a sales funnel was first introduced back in 1898 when an ad agency executive named Elias St. Elmo Lewis came up with the idea. He sought a way to explain the buying process and develop a more effective manner of converting customers. The result was the classic funnel structure with the funnel broken up into four stages. We’ll discuss the stages later, but it’s a model that many organizations still use today. Even as marketing continues to evolve, knowing the basic sales funnel can still be helpful.

Sales funnels aren’t always about selling a specific product. They can be used for that, of course, but there are many different types of sales funnels out there. Some may be used for generating leads, others may be used to bring people to your business’s physical location, while others may be used for generating applications. Whether it’s a lead generation funnel, product funnel, or otherwise, all operate under the same principle of turning people into loyal followers of your brand.

A Look At Sales Funnel Stages

Now that you know what sales funnels are, let’s take a look at the sales funnel stages as originally outlined by Elias St. Elmo Lewis.

1. Awareness

This stage involves informing people that you exist. Most companies don’t have the luxury of being a universally recognized brand, so your first step needs to make them aware of who you are and what you can do for them. Think of it as an introduction, but one intended to get them to pay more attention to you. This is your opportunity to demonstrate how you stand out from the crowd. When building a sales funnel, this is one step you have to nail since you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.

2. Interest

The interest stage is all about establishing a relationship with the potential customer. It’s where they look deeply into the problem they’re having and see if you can solve it. The brand doesn’t take a passive role in this either. You need to be constantly working with them, providing them with valuable information as to the solutions you provide.

3. Desire

This is where the person has the desire to make a decision on how best to tackle the problem they’re facing. That solution comes from you, and they want to know more. In other words, they start looking very carefully at what your company does and what you offer. They haven’t decided to give you money yet, but they desire to come to a conclusion. If they like what they see, they can move on to the next step.

4. Action

Everything’s been leading up to this moment. This is where you close the deal and the customer purchases from you. You’ve made the sale and hopefully gotten a lifelong customer in the process.

These steps are usually abbreviated as AIDA, and they were the standard for decades. The AIDA funnel isn’t the only sales funnel out there, however. Some add steps to the process, while others simplify things even further. With so many sales funnel examples out there, let’s look at one in particular.

Russell Brunson’s Sales Funnel

We’re talking about the one ClickFunnels CEO Russell Brunson describes in his book DotCom Secrets. There are some notable changes with this sales funnel.

Above the whole funnel is a cloud labeled as “Traffic,” which represents all the potential customers you could have. Starting out the funnel is a stage called “Bait.” That’s basically where you have something that attracts your dream customers to you, usually in the form of something offered for free. The next stage is “Front End,” which is a product or service that is a little more valuable and costs a little more. The next stages — “Middle” and “Back End” — are similar in that they feature progressively more valuable items that also cost more, all the way until you get to the most valuable and expensive option at the very end of the funnel.

You may notice that the important difference in this funnel is that the prospect is making purchases throughout. The funnel doesn’t end with a single purchase; rather there are always items and services to purchase during the process, and it finishes with a recurring payment option. The best sales funnels will usually include a step that revolves around retention, ensuring customers keep coming back.

Sales Funnels are the Future

As Russell Brunson explains in this video, sales funnels are the natural evolution of the website. When the internet first burst onto the scene, every company felt like they needed to build a website. Now, they need to create a sales funnel that emphasizes their strengths and reaches new prospects. Without it, they’ll be at a disadvantage from their competition.

Are you ready to build your first sales funnel? Nervous that you’ll mess it up? Don’t be. ClickFunnels offers you the tools you need to easily create an effective sales funnel thanks to pre-built templates that have already proven to convert leads.

If you want to give ClickFunnels a try, you can with a free 14 day trial. Then you can experience how successful working with ClickFunnels can be.

Recommended Reading

Sales Funnels 101: The Mechanics Behind Selling Online

Sales Funnels: The Ultimate Guide

Give Your Sales Funnel a Jaw Dropping Makeover

Thanks for reading A Beginner’s Guide to Sales Funnels: Getting Started with Sales Funnel Stages which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

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.

Are you looking to build you first landing page?

Do you want to give your first landing page the best possible start?

Let me explain some of the best practices of how to build your very first landing page.

Landing pages are a key factor in the optin funnel process and when designed right, can help achieve great results for your business.

If you’re not entirely sure what a landing page is, it is a web page that marketers build separate to the main website that is wholly focused on achieving one goal.

This goal is most commonly to convert visitors into leads or paying customers.

If you’re building your first optin funnel, then the best thing you can invest in is a landing page.

A quality landing page can make all the difference in your conversion rate.

Take VividBoard for example, they created a landing page that turned their 2% conversion rate into 27%!

Just imagine the amount of extra revenue you could be generating from building your first landing page?

I’m hoping by now you are convinced that a landing page is what you need to make sure your optin funnel converts.

If so, let’s move onto how to design a high converting landing page, what should and shouldn’t be on your landing page and some examples of successful landing pages.

How to Design a Converting Landing Page

There are some general best practices that you can follow when it comes to building your first landing page to make sure it has the best possible start.

Once you have run your first landing page for a period of time and have set benchmark metrics will you then be able to start changing and testing different elements on that landing page to constantly increase your conversion rate?

For now, though, here are some best practices for building your first landing page:

Only Give Visitors One Action to Take

One of the first and most important things you need to consider is what goal you wish to achieve from your landing page.

Do you want visitors to sign up for your free trial?

Do you want visitors to subscribe to your newsletter?

Do you want visitors to download your eBook?

Whatever it is, make sure that you only have one action on your landing page.

Giving visitors too many options on the landing page will only lead them to become distracted which will result in a low conversion rate.

[”Your landing page should be focused on one action and directing visitors to take that action.” username=”ClickFunnels”]

Add Visuals to Your Landing Page

It is all too easy for visitors to bounce from your landing page seconds after landing on it.

This is usually the case when there is no eye capturing visuals on the landing page.

When designing your landing page, think about how you are going to get the visitors attention.

This could be like a video or a relevant and bold image.

You have just a few short seconds to capture their attention so that they stay on the landing page and convert so use it well.

This doesn’t just count for the video/image on the landing page either.

The whole design of the landing page should be clean and consistent.

Think about what colors you will use to highlight actions and where important elements of the landing page will be placed.

Don’t Ask for Too Much Information

After visitors are convinced they want to remain on the landing page, they are now more than likely wanting to find out more information or sign up for your free trial.

The one thing that will stop them from doing this at this point is if you ask for too much information from them on the contact form.

If that visitor already has a slight doubt in their mind, asking for too much information will trigger that doubt and stop them from converting.

When designing your first landing page, think about what information is necessary for you to nurture a lead, not what information you want.

Once your first landing page has been running a while, you can then test adding and removing fields from the contact form to see which results in the higher conversion rate.

For now, though, only add fields to your contact form that are necessary.

Don’t Talk About Yourself

One of the most common mistakes businesses make with their landing page is they talk too much about themselves and not about what they or their product can do for customers.

People don’t want to know about you, they want to know about how you can help them solve their problems and achieve their goals.

For this reason, it is best to highlight the benefits of your product rather than its features.

You can use your customer avatars to target their pain points on your landing page and offer a direct solution.

What Should and Shouldn’t Be on Your Landing Page

You should now know the best practices when it comes to building your first landing page.

However, you don’t yet know exactly what elements should and shouldn’t be on your landing page.

Here is a list of important elements that need to be on your landing page:

• A compelling headline
• A short description of your product or offer
• Bullet points to highlight the benefits of the product or offer
• Image or video that will capture the eye of the visitor
• Testimonials and brand logos to instill trust
• A contact form that asks for necessary information
• Call to action button that will encourage visitors to take action

All of these elements will help to capture the interest of the visitor as well as direct them to take the action that will see them convert.

Now that you know what should be on your landing page let’s have a look at what shouldn’t be on your landing page.

• Navigation links are crucial for a website however they can become an unwanted distraction on a landing page. Your landing page should be a standalone page with only one action for the visitor to take.
• While having a call to action is crucial for your landing page, having too many can confuse the visitor and lead them not to convert at all. Again, only have one action on your landing page.

As a whole, make sure to keep your first landing page clean and free of clutter.

Don’t overthink it too much at this stage as you can test and optimize later on.

Keep it simple to begin with and add the crucial elements to make it convert.

Examples of High Converting Landing Pages

Now that you know landing page best practices and what elements should and shouldn’t be on your landing page, let’s take a look at how it should be done.

Sometimes the best way to explain what a successful landing page should look like is to show it in action. Here are some of the top landing pages I have come across:

ViziCities

ViziCities have managed to keep their landing page free from clutter and kept it super minimalistic with a compelling headline.

Grasshopper

Grasshopper has really taken on board how to target pain points by talking about how they can help rather than talk about themselves.

H.Bloom

H.Bloom has truly captured the concept of using bold visuals to capture the eye of visitors.

Basecamp

Basecamp certainly triggers pain points with this creative image on their landing page.

Kissmetrics

Kissmetrics have done everything right with this landing page. They have a compelling headline, simplistic design, mentioned the benefits and are only asking for one piece of information.

How to Measure the Success of Your First Landing Page

After you have finished building your landing page, there are a couple of things you will need to monitor to determine its success.

You can then use these metrics to change, test and optimize after the first run. Here are a couple of things that will help you determine the success of your first landing page:

Conversion Rate

The conversion rate is the amount of leads generated from the number of visitors who landed on your page.

This is the most important metric to monitor for your optin funnel and is the metric you will work towards improving as it has a direct result on your bottom line KPI’s.

Abandonment Rate

This is another very important metric to track; whether visitors start to fill out your contact form but then abandon it before converting.

If your form abandonment rate is fairly high, then it is a sign that your form is too long.

Time on Landing Page

This is a good metric to monitor as it will tell you whether your landing page is capturing visitors when they first land on your page.

If they are spending a few seconds on your landing page before leaving then, it is safe to say that your landing page isn’t grabbing their attention.

Conclusion

You should now have everything you need to build your first landing page so that your optin funnel converts.

Make sure to measure the performance of your landing page and set benchmark figures.

You can then continue to make changes, test and optimize to continue to work on improving conversion rates.

What has prompted you to want to build your first landing page?

Let me know by leaving your comments below.

Thanks for reading How To Build Your First Optin Funnel So It Converts 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.

If a business owner gets to meet a genie, what two wishes will s/he ask for? 

1. Covert their social media traffic into paying customers.
2. Convert your social media accounts into customer- or lead-generation machines.

If you are a business owner, you don’t need to go looking for a greedy merchant who will fool you into going down a deep cave. In fact, you don’t even need an old, antique lamp to get your wishes regarding content marketing fulfilled.

You already have a magic lamp, you only need to use it properly. The biggest gift of the 20th century is social media. Social media helps business owners reach an audience which spreads across the world. Through a strong social media presence, a brand can well become a household name, gaining the trust of a large number of people.

However, many brand owners have complained about not getting the intended return on investment which made them stop using social media as a tool for marketing. While social media marketing is important to promote your business, creating social media accounts is not enough to pull paying customers to your website.

There are many well-defined frameworks and tips that can help you identify how to create a social media sales funnel and transform your accounts into customer generation machines. 

Why Gaining Social Media Exposure Matters?

Today, traditional strategies that were used to create brand awareness are not working as well as they used to. With people spending most of their time on smartphones, outdated marketing methods like TV ads and billboards aren’t giving people the conversion rate they once did.

Brand owners are more likely to find new potential customers on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. Social media, as a result, plays an important role in raising brand awareness among people.

You can create brand awareness through continued postings and regular interactions with potential customers. However, you have to keep your social media accounts updated and maintain a constant presence. Many users will not search for your name if they don’t see a post from you. This is why it is important that you don’t go out of sight of your followers.

Social media exposure can have the following direct benefits:

Increased Visibility

Social media accounts will help you create your brand image. You can also use a conversational or humorous tone in your posts to reach a wider audience. For example, a US-based fast food outlet’s Twitter account responds to people’s tweet with witty and humorous replies. Today, people enjoy brands that are less formal on social media.

Gaining Traffic

As discussed, traditional advertising methods are not working anymore. People are now preferring an interactive model where they can get the maximum information about a product. Use your social media accounts to post a link to your website and allow customers to leave a comment about your products. Promptly reply to your customers’ queries and engage with them to form a bond. The idea is to use social media sites to send users to your company’s sales funnels.

Interacting With Customers

A user who will come to your page will not automatically develop a bond with your company or your product. You need to make an effort to convince users to buy your products or services. But before you spam your users comments with offers, engage with your consumers. You can engage with customers by posting fun questions that prompt users to leave a comment. Interact with users and ask for their opinions. You can also regularly post images and videos to help your followers connect with your brand.

Response Time

Do not compromise on your response time. A negative comment or review is damaging to your brand’s reputation. Listen to users’ complaints and give them a satisfactory response. Your social media team should be active all the time to monitor tags and mentions. 

How You Can Get Your Social Followers Into Your Sales Funnel

The above-mentioned strategies will help your followers warm up to your brand. Once you have successfully created a connection with your followers, you can easily drive them into your sales funnel. This section will go over how you can get your social media followers into your sales funnel.

Like a traditional sales funnel, social media sales funnels are also based on the principles of awareness, interest, consideration, and purchase. But what’s in this framework is specific to your social media ads.

The first step is awareness. Combine this with interest and develop content that will drive your followers to land on your page and browse through. The biggest mistake that a company does is they go right for the sale. They make a page and start marketing their product. However, your followers or fans will not instantly buy your product just because you are offering it.

You need to take steps to build their trust in your product. For this, you can use article-style listicles or guides that talk about the topic of your fans’ interest. For example, if you own a gym, you can make a listicle of exercises that you can perform in your lunch hour. 

This post on your page will bring your social media to your website. On this landing page, you can place an ad, not necessarily with an offer, for your potential customers. The ad can be placed wherever you want but is commonly placed at the end.

If you think that a visitor will not scroll down the page or leave the site, you can retain visitors through an exit intent popup. In this technique, a visitor’s mouse movements are tracked and if the browser detects that the visitor is about to leave, it will display the ad for the visitor to see.

You can link this page with Facebook or Instagram so you can track which social media platform your consumers are coming from and you can distribute your marketing methods accordingly.

The next step is the Facebook/Instagram retargeting ad. While the ad will have an offer, its main objective is to generate traffic and let your potential customers make an association between great content and your product.

This is a sort of ‘warming up exercise’ that you do before converting your social media traffic into paying customers. But be careful with your offer, you don’t want to use the ad to create brand awareness. The ad can be a free consultation or a buy one get one free kind of thing. You can also add some urgency to your offer, for example, a deadline, to get more people to land on your offer page.

This offer page should give them everything they need to know in a concise manner because more than 60 percent of the traffic will be coming from mobile. Mobile users don’t like lengthy articles where they have to actively search for relevant information. 

You can also use the Facebook Messenger app to engage with customers and answer any questions that your followers might have about your product.

How to Increase Your Social Media Presence and Followers

Building your social media traffic can be taxing. You have to be available for both your existing and potential customers and answer their questions in order to build a connection with them. In the first phase, people who will approach you are defined as warm traffic. They already have the know-how of your product and are only looking for more information to make a well-informed purchase.

These people are very important, but in order to expand your business, you need to bring your cold traffic into your sales funnel. For this purpose, you have to make an effort to inspire your audience.

Out of the many techniques that you can use for engaging your audience, a few are listed below:

• Statistics show that posts that have visuals increase users’ engagement by 650%
• Finding trending topics, hashtags, themes for the week, social issues and using them to interact with your audience
• Make sure your content is mobile friendly and shareable
• Figure out what’s working: what type of content, to what demographic, at what time of the day and what day of the week is your content reaching the most people. Analyze these numbers and post accordingly
• Make sure to respond and engage in your posts. Interact with your customers when they leave a comment on your posts

In Conclusion

Brands are shifting to social media platforms for creating brand awareness and gaining customers because traditional marketing methods like TV ads and billboards don’t work like they used to. Use your social media accounts to gain more customers and warm them to your brand. Once you have made a connection, you can send your followers into your sale funnel that you built using ClickFunnels.

Thanks for reading How To Create A Social Media Sales Funnel which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

If you’re a Coach, Consultant or Marketer – pay attention.

I want to show you how to leverage Facebook Marketing & ClickFunnels to get more leads & clients, grow your coaching business & generate a crazy ROI.

In this Case Study, I’ve outlined the entire process from strategizing & building the right sales funnel for your business, writing converting copy that resonates with your target audience, running Facebook Ads, making sales for your coaching business and everything in between.

Literally.

After spending the last few years running different campaigns and building a bunch of funnels in multiple niches, I wanted to share the best things I’ve discovered to help you maximize your own sales funnel and grow your business.

And there’s no better way to do that then break down a proven, converting funnel.

[Case Study] – The High Ticket Coaching Funnel That Generated a 4,0034% ROI

The Business – Winning International

Firstly, let me give you the background on the business.

Winning International is a business founded by Ryan Magdziarz (left) in 2014. Winning trains coaches on how to grow their business & change lives on their way to reaching 7 figures.

This includes many different kinds of coaches such as business, life, health, fitness, financial, dating and more.

Winning International achieves this by offering coaches 2 core, results-based programs – 6 Figure Coach & 7 Figure Coach – for coaches looking to grow their business and impact the world.

Our goal was to generate more leads and increase sales for both programs.

As Winning has an in-house sales team, we decided we would treat leads for both programs the same initially, and have the sales people qualify on each call, to decide which program was right for each person.

The goal for the funnel was to generate Strategy Sessions with as many qualified leads as possible.

The key here was to ensure they were qualified, so we weren’t wasting the time of the sales staff.

With that in mind, here’s what we did:

1. STRATEGY

The Coaching niche Ryan specifically wanted to focus on was Fitness Coaches & Personal Trainers.

This is a competitive niche with a lot of coaching programs targeting PT’s, so we knew we would need great execution from the start.

As far as the funnel goes, there are a few different funnel we had when it comes to generating strategy sessions with qualified leads, including:

1) Webinar Funnel

Run a paid traffic campaign to a Webinar Funnel and offer a Strategy Session to Webinar interested participants.

2) High Ticket Funnel

Create a video series of valuable content that solves the biggest problems PT’s were having in their business.

Offer a Strategy Session as a Call-To-Action for the interested prospects.

3) Tripwire Funnel

Offer a lead magnet solving a problem for PT’s, and then Low Ticket Item with a Bonus Strategy Session to prospects in the funnel.

The Low Ticket Item would be an extension of the Lead Magnet, to ensure congruence, and then the two coaching programs 6 & 7 figure coach again built on that.

Ultimately all 3 of these options have their own merit, and I believe all 3 of them would work equally as well. Without trying to give a generic marketing answer as to which one we chose – the only thing left to do was, yep – you guessed it – TEST them.

We started with the Tripwire Funnel.

The reason for this is I had actually created a tripwire funnel about 6 months before I started working with Ryan that targeted this same audience.

I had created a Lead Magnet, and a $7 Case Study Tripwire, both for Personal Trainers, that were converting well – so we decided to get straight to testing it for this new project.

When I went to build out this funnel initially, I started with developing a Marketing Hook for a Lead Magnet.

From my research, which included surveying PT’s to find the biggest pain points and problems they had in their business, the most common answer was gaining clients.

I knew being able to solve this problem with some simple advice would make a great Lead Magnet.At the time, I recalled a 9-word email by Dean Jackson that works amazingly well for generating clients from dead leads on an email list, so I created a free report that included this email and showed exactly how to use it. I called the report “Get 10 PT Client’s in 5 Days.”

I called the report “Get 10 PT Client’s in 5 Days.”

I tested this as a Facebook Ad, and it resulted in leads for just $1 each in a competitive niche.

Once I knew this marketing hook converted well, I turned the ads off and set about creating a Tripwire I could use to escalate prospects through the funnel.

From my research, I knew another limitation Personal Trainers had been using Facebook to generate leads. Also, the 9 Word Email wouldn’t really work if you didn’t have a list to begin with.

So I created an opt-in funnel a Personal Trainer could use, that gave away a free workout program. I generated 11 leads for under $30 on Facebook using this process, and I turned these results into a Case Study, which I sold for $7, showing PT’s how to use Facebook and Generate Leads.

When I tested it, it also converted well, and I was acquiring customers at break-even.

There was only one remaining issue at this point – I had no back end, and no intention of creating a coaching program or going any further with the experiment at this point, so I stopped running ads and put the project on the side.

Once I met Ryan and started working with him – we discussed how we could generate more leads and sales for 6 & 7 figure coach.

We brought the same funnel out and made one distinct change to it – we added a bonus strategy session to the funnel for anyone who bought the case study.

This gave both an added incentive to purchase and the strategy sessions we wanted.

Funnel Structure

2. BUILD

I want to break down in detail regarding the specific design, layout, copy & features of the funnel so you can understand how to replicate best it in your own business.

Firstly, when building this out in ClickFunnels, I rolled with the Sell Your Product > Sales Funnel Selection choices.

For the page templates – I chose ‘Simple Two Column Opt In’ for the lead magnet page and Ology Sales for the thank you / sales page to follow.

I love the Ology Sales Template if you have a sales page with long form copy on it. I’ve used it across a bunch of different niches and funnels with great results.

I’ve used it across a bunch of different niches and funnels with great results.

Landing Page

1. Design & Layout

With the design of the pages, we chose bright colors consistent with the Winning International branding.

The main ‘conversion’ feature of the opt-in page is the fact its split into two columns. The reason this is advantageous is on mobile; it shows one stacked on top of the other.

This gives the Headline, bullet point copies with benefits to the prospect, immediately followed by the image – which is the Facebook Ad (I discuss the specifics of this further below) – with the input form for the opt-in.

One key measure to consider here is that I left the name & email input on the landing page itself, rather than using a light box or a pop-up. The reason for this is some mobiles don’t work well with popups, so I didn’t want this to effect the conversion. The page converted at around 52% which I was more than happy with.

2. Copy

I’m a copywriter, so I wrote all of the copy for the funnel. I didn’t follow any particular formula as such, rather than just:

• Sub Headline – this tells the prospect more about what to expect, or what specifically they are getting from opting into your funnel. In this case, it’s an email marketing strategy.
• Call out your market – it’s more important to have this in your ads specifically, so you should just be stating this here for congruency.
• Marketing Hook / Benefit Laced Headline – Ideally, your target client should know what benefit they are getting just from reading your headline. If they don’t, you will have an immediate negative impact on your conversion rate. After stating this benefit / promise, you need to back it up with how or why it’s possible.
• Bullets – Elaborate on your offer in a clear and succinct manner with some irresistible bullet points to entice your prospect into wanting your offer.

One final point to keep in mind – the best lead magnets, and for that matter marketing offers, are always incredibly specific.

In that case, your copy should be brief, and not over the top.

If you have to write a lot to convince someone they should give you their name and email for a free offer, it’s obviously not specific enough.

This will have an impact on conversions.

Sales Page

1. Design & Layout

The design on the sales page is typical of any long form sales letter you would have seen.

It is a long letter of the text, with a specific structure here to set out all the information cleanly.

I will briefly touch on some of the key aspects of this page.

The sales page converted at 5% from just the opt-in, without any email follow up. We also continued to ensure funnel congruency by keeping the same colors from the landing page, throughout the rest of the funnel.

2. Copy

We had the following structure with the sales letter in terms of sales copy:

• Acknowledgment – firstly, acknowledge the prospect for having downloaded your first offer. Far too many people ignore this critical part and move straight into the sale for the next step on their value ladder. This can get prospects off on the wrong foot.
• Bridge – to extend on point (a), make sure you bridge the prospects from the report to what they need next. Acknowledge them for taking the first step, and then gently explain why they are missing a piece in the puzzle and how they can get to the next level.
• Headline – this goes without saying. Explain what they are going to get with benefit / promise based headline.
• Body of the Sales Letter – I won’t go into every little detail with the letter, but my advice is to follow a formula like PASPA when writing sales copy:

• • – Problem
  • – Aggravation
  • – Solution
  • – Proof
  • – Action

If you can remember a formula like that, it will help you to write copy that converts even cold traffic.

• Testimonials – I’ve jumped from the body into the ‘Proof’ aspect of the above formula. Make sure you include testimonials from previous clients to build trust.
• Bullets – Add bullet copy into your sales letter. You can add the most important benefits in as a bullet, which brings attention from the reader and gives extra punch to your sales message.
• Call to Action – Make sure you have solid CTA’s telling the prospect to take action and buy your offer. This goes without saying.
• Guarantee – Always add a guarantee, whether it be 30 or 60 days, to stand behind your product. It adds trust & credibility, and will help to increase your conversion rate.
• Bonus – I add a bonus to all offers to increase desire. Don’t overdo this with tripwire offers. I see people add a lot of bonuses in and this can make it harder to sell other offers in your funnel, as you train prospects to expect a lot for not much money. In this funnel, we gave a free strategy session with the case study.
• Post Script – Make sure you add P.S. & P.P.S to your offers, as some people will skim your entire sales letter and only read what’s below your final sign off. Include a summary of the offer and the bonus here.

From here, we only had the Order Form & Thank You Page remaining. The order form was standard and maintained the same design aspects as above.

The Thank You Page had a video of Ryan, thanking them for purchasing the case study and explaining that a sales person would be in touch to organize their strategy session.

With the funnel built out and ready to run, all we had to do was set up some Facebook Ads, and we could get started.

3. FACEBOOK CAMPAIGN

Creatives

For the Facebook Campaign, we already had the offer & the marketing hook. Given this, the copy was very straight forward to put together. The text at the top of the ad was simply:

“If you’re a Personal Trainer and want 10 New Clients in the next 5 Days – download this Email Template NOW!”

With the Headline being: “Free Email Template”. Both of these pieces of copy are incredibly clear and concise, which, when paired with the right targeting lead to a high Click-Through-Rate (CTR).

For the image, I had been experimenting with cartoons in a few other campaigns and decided to try a cartoon holding weights with the Marketing Hook in the image, as you can see below.

It turns out these ads performed very well, with a high relevance score, low negative feedback, and good opt-in rates.

Targeting

For the targeting, I created a conversion campaign and initially created two ad sets. These were for each audience I was targeting, which happened to be two Facebook pages that already had an audience of Personal Trainers.

When I run ads, I create each ad set with just one interest, so I can see which interest leads to the highest conversions for when the campaign gets scaled.

After this was set up, we started the campaign and ran it for the first few weeks in December 2015.

4. RESULTS

After 2 weeks of running the campaign, we were able to analyze the results and figure out whether anything needed to be changed or tweaked. The results we achieved and ROI generated proved the campaign a great success.

Facebook Ad Manager

We generated nearly 500 leads from $935 in ad spend. With a lead cost of less than $2, and high CTR’s & Relevance Scores on the ads, the cartoon image and copy on the ads were right on point.

The landing page converted cold traffic at 51% that was a great result without any optimization. This screenshot was taken a few days earlier, but tells the story quite accurately:

Of the 51% of people who landed on the thank you page, 5% of them bought the $7 case study, which provided us with phone numbers, to pass on to the sales staff who then rang the customers and booked them in for a strategy session.

The breakdown of numbers, from December 1st to 17th shows:

– 492 Conversions: 469 Leads & 23 Sales

– $935 spent on Ads

– 23 Sales @ $7 = $161 Revenue

Total Ad Cost = 935 – 161 = $774

Not everyone from the 23 sales was booked in for a call. Naturally some people weren’t interested, which is to be expected.

Of those the Winning Team spoke with, 4 Sales were made across the two programs, coming to a total of $32,000.

This produced an ROI of 4,034% – which of course is a great result.

This case study only covers the first two weeks in December.We will conduct more testing, optimization and strategy call in the weeks and months to come, to improve the ROI.

We will conduct more testing, optimization and strategy call in the weeks and months to come, to improve the ROI.

5. ANALYSIS

After breaking down this funnel and spending hours chewing over the data, I came to the conclusion there were 5 main reasons why this strategy worked so well.

1. Clearly Defined Starving Market

Firstly, and most importantly, this market is hungry for the solution. Personal Training is an incredibly competitive niche, so it is an evergreen market that will always need to learn how to generate leads and acquire clients.

This is the differentiating factor in most successful marketing campaigns.

While there are tons of other aspects of success, as you can see above, selling something that a market segment is desperate for will always be the most important part of a campaign.

2. Relevant Offers

Both the Lead Magnet and Case Study Tripwire’s solved the biggest problems Personal Trainers have and are incredibly relevant offers.

The first shows how to get more clients by Email, and the second by Facebook.

The first thing you need to consider when a campaign flops, is, are the offers relevant? Do they solve the biggest problem my market has?

Once you can do this, you are well on your way to success.

3. Sharp, Specific Ad Targeting

With the Targeting on the Ads, I selected a hyper-responsive audience that I knew from my research was full of Personal Trainers.

This meant that regardless all of the offers and copy and marketing pieces, I was getting in front of the right people. I can’t understate how important this is.

4. High Converting Copy

There will never be a substitute for great sales copy.

Having great copy in your sales funnel is worth every cent it costs to have a great copywriter produce it.Never underestimate it.

Never underestimate it.

5. Highly Skilled Sales Team

I have to recognize Ryan and his incredibly skilled Sales Team.

These results wouldn’t have been possible without it. Having a sales team that produces great results is essential to any high ticket sales funnel.

Split Testing

You may look at the above and wonder why I didn’t run one split test (at this point in time). The reason is very simple. I believe split testing is one of the BIGGEST wastes of time when you first build a funnel.

This may be controversial, but far too often I see people split testing either elements that don’t make a statistically significant difference, or they aren’t running enough traffic to pages to determine if the split test has an impact.

If you complete your research properly and know your market well, you shouldn’t have to run a split test until you’ve spent more than $1,000 in traffic and are looking to optimize your funnel.

Which I will be doing moving forward.

6. CONCLUSION

So there you have it.

Inside a High Ticket Coaching Funnel with a 4,034% ROI.

I’d love to hear your thoughts & questions in the comments below!

Thanks for reading High Ticket Coaching Funnel That Generated A 4,034% ROI which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

When it comes to online shopping, who doesn’t love seeing “free plus shipping” when looking to buy a product? In fact, it’s a great way to not only get people interested in your product, but your company as well.

For new visitors to a website, a free plus shipping funnel might be the solution you need in growing your consumer base.

At ClickFunnels, we provide our affiliates with various funnel templates and tools needed to help them build and launch successful sales funnels, including free plus shipping funnels. Best of all, these funnel templates are easy to edit in order to portray your product in the best light to the consumer.

What is a Free Plus Shipping Funnel From ClickFunnels?

Sales Funnels are powerful mediums that not only turn your visitors into customers, but they also have the potential to CREATE customers out of visitors especially those who just clicked your ads out of curiosity. There are many approaches to create winning sales funnel and many strategies to optimize it as much as there are many types of funnels.

All these sales funnels, if built around data and executed properly, are valuable tools that maximizes ROI and bring in the profit. One such type of funnel is a free plus shipping funnel.

A free plus shipping funnel is basically founded on the premise that since a customer got something for free with complimentary shipping to boot, they are justified to purchase something else to maximize the since they got something for free!

Examples of Successful Free Plus Shipping Funnels

What does a successful free plus shipping funnel look like in real life? From e-books and web tutorials to small products in demand such as hair vitamins and camping equipment, the key to successful free plus shipping funnels is to know your economics. Understand important factors in addition to ROI, including lifetime value vs. gross profit and average order value. As you keep an eye on these types of funnels, you’ll see what works in building long-term customers.

Why They Work So Well — Potential for Upsells

The key word here is FREE. And who doesn’t want a free cool product, right?

Add to that the lure of free shipping and your ship is ready to sail! And while they are at it, the lure of a free shipping cost offer has the potential to convince them into availing upsells. Not only did you get your ROI, but you profited from it as well!

Just because you offered a product for FREE.

Speaking of FREE, why not give our EXPERT SECRETS BOOK a try?

CLICK HERE NOW!

Where The Customers Are

Of course, your sales funnel won’t see the light of day without proper promotion or advertising. And most free plus shipping funnels thrive through advertising on social media networks like Facebook. Paid Advertising on social media channels like Facebook lets you acquire a lot of customers quickly and into your email list for marketing purposes. Why? Because most customers use social media channels as their virtual hangouts. It’s where they talk to friends, catch up on news, post their status updates, etc.

If you’re already a pro at creating and building free plus shipping funnels, there still may be something to learn here. Reviewing and touching bases with what you know is always useful. If you’re still a beginner, then this guide will teach you the basics and everything you should know about building and running a successful free plus shipping funnel.

Find A Product To Give Away

The first step is to find a product cheap enough to make a breakeven on cost of goods + ad spend + shipping. But hold your horses! This part needs some careful thinking and considering.

Consider the following key points in picking out a product:

• Fits right in to your niche. This category should be a no-brainer. Of course it has to be something related to your funnel’s niche.
• It’s something small. This is important because you’ll also be shouldering the shipping cost for the item.
• It’s something that people buy in bulk.
• It’s cheap to acquire. This is something you should consider since you’ll be giving it away and you’ll have to acquire it in bulk.
• It’s something that potentially costs more when bought in retail stores.
• It’s something that you can get from the manufacturers themselves. The reason for this is so you can add your own brand to it, as compared to buying it from distributors.
• It is something easily identifiable and is widely known in the market.
• It has mass appeal to your market.

Let’s say your target market consists of women in their 20’s to 40’s, who are always out for work, for social events, to hang out with friends, etc. What’s the one thing they might need? It can be something they will want to use everyday, like makeup.

And for most ladies on the go, they’ll want something that has everything they need and that will not potentially bulk up their bags. A good product to consider in your free plus shipping funnel is a makeup kit if you take all those points into consideration.

Create A 2-Step Order From

The next thing you have to do is to start creating your funnel and optimising your Order Page into a setup that has a high conversion rate. In this case, a 2 -step order form. Now, you may think that an order form with more than one step is a deterrent to converting your traffic, but it really is powerful.

Consider seeing a form with fields your shipping information, your credit card and billing information. Not only will your visitors be put off, they’ll find the form too long and may exit your funnel straight away. But with a 2-step order form, you only halve the form and still get to convert your traffic because you change your visitors’ perception. Not too mention, a 2-step order looks clean and organized as opposed to a form with too many fields.

ClickFunnels lets you easily add a 2-step order form element to your order page! It’s as simple as logging in to your ClickFunnels account > your sales funnel > order page > add 2-step Order element. Just a few clicks and you’re done!

After adding the 2-step order form to your order page, all you have to do is to edit accordingly.

1st One-Click Upsell

Your 1st One-Click Upsell is an offer similar to the one you will be giving out for free or it could be that plus something that will give it more value.

Let’s go back to your free plus shipping makeup kit. Your first upsell is another makeup kit, but it will be for a cost of course. It could be the exact same makeup kit you’re giving away free plus shipping or it could be a variation of that makeup kit for a party look, natural look, etc for a cost of $10. Package it into something your customer will potentially want to buy and price it competitively to promote how more affordable it is when compared to its retail price and you have a product worthy of an upsell.

2nd One-Click Upsell

Now this part is where the real profit will come in. Your 2nd one-click upsell should be something of real value, say a complete makeup kit complimentary to your initial offer plus a monthly membership packed with benefits that will surely interest your customer!

Now this part is where the real profit will come in. Your 2nd one-click upsell should be something of real value, say a complete makeup brush set to complement your makeup kits plus a 7-day free into a  $49/month program. This program could be anywhere from a curated box of cosmetics and skincare to a members only club where beauty tips, tricks and guides plus discounts await members.

If you’re looking to add upsells to your sales funnel, ClickFunnels upsell is a great tool that lets you easily add upsell pages to your sales funnel with just a few clicks. All you have to do is to login to your ClickFunnels account > Sales Funnel > Click Add New Step > Enter the information asked > Click Create Funnel Step.

Choose your funnel template. In our case it’s Sales > One-Click Upsell.

You can choose from the various funnel templates available and edit to align to your whole sales funnel.

What’s Next?

As you can see, free plus shipping funnels do work. But, like every funnel, you’ll need to put in the hours to see overall success.

It is important to provide offers that is of great value to the customers and something they will want to avail of for fear of missing out.

While the examples above make good products to offer in your funnel, always consider your niche and your target market. Always consider their needs and wants and what problems they want to solve and what YOU can offer to solve those problems or satisfy their wants.

In addition to researching your audience’s wants and needs, don’t be afraid to test different products with different audiences. This way you can use what you learn in future free plus shipping funnels. And reach out on ClickFunnels’ Facebook page if you have more questions, need advice or want to share your experience with free plus shipping ClickFunnel templates with other affiliates.

Remember that the goal of the funnel is to build up recurring revenue products.

Have you hear of free plus shipping funnels before?

Have you built funnels like this?

Want to know more secrets? Check out The Marketing Secrets Blackbook “99 Marketing Secrets That Will Change Your Business… And Change Your Life!”

Share your experiences and tips in the comments below!

Continued Reading

• Everything You Need to Know about Dropshipping
• Pricing Tactics and the Art of Clickfunnels Upsell
• ClickFunnels Order Form
  

Thanks for reading The Mechanics Behind A Free Plus Shipping Funnel which appeared first on ClickFunnels.