3 Killer Tips For Increasing Online Sales Quickly

Want to make more sales?

You could experiment with random ideas until you find something that works for your business.

But we believe that focusing on proven methods for increasing online sales is a better approach.

Today we are going to share three tips that can help you get results FAST.

Implement them and watch your sales skyrocket!

Tip #1: Create a Value Ladder Sales Funnel

We are going to start with the most powerful piece of advice:

Build a Value Ladder sales funnel.

What Is the Value Ladder Sales Funnel?

We believe that the most effective way to sell anything online is the Value Ladder sales funnel.

It was created by our co-founder Russell Brunson who then used it to take ClickFunnels from zero to $10M+ in annual revenue in just one year (it’s at $100M+ now!).

This sales funnel has four stages:

• Bait. You offer the potential customer your lead magnet in exchange for their email address.
• Frontend. You offer the potential customer your least expensive and least valuable product or service.
• Middle. You offer the customer a more expensive and more valuable product or service.
• Backend. You offer the customer your most expensive and most valuable product or service.

Ideally, you also offer a continuity program of some sort, meaning, a subscription product that generates recurring revenue. 

We also recommend adding downsells, upsells, and cross-sells to these core offers in order to maximize your revenue. More on that later.

The reason why this sales funnel works so well is that it allows you to:

1. Start the relationship with that person by offering free value.
2. Nurture that relationship by continuing to provide free value via email.
3. Build trust by providing progressively more paid value at each stage.

Here’s how Russell explains it:

How To Build a Value Ladder Sales Funnel for Your Business

Okay, but what if you don’t have a lead magnet + three core offers + a bunch of downsells, upsells, and cross-sells?

You don’t need to have your entire product line ready in order to build a basic Value Ladder sales funnel.

You can start with a lead magnet + a frontend offer.

Here’s how:

Step #1 Create a Super Valuable Lead Magnet

A lead magnet is a freebie that you offer to potential customers in exchange for their email address.

It can be anything that they can either download to their device or access online:

• A report.
• An ebook.
• A webinar.
• An email course.
• A video course.

…etc.

Ideally, you want your lead magnet to serve as a free sample of the value that your frontend product offers so that the former would get the potential customer interested in the latter.

The easiest way to achieve this is to use a part of your frontend product as your lead magnet.

Say, if your frontend product is a book, then you could offer the first chapter for free.

However, this isn’t always possible, in which case you should at least ensure that there’s a logical progression from the lead magnet to the frontend offer.

For example:

if your lead magnet is a webinar that teaches people how to accomplish something, you could offer the attendees a paid one-on-one consultation on the same subject or a product that will help them implement what you taught them.

#2 Create a Landing Page for Your Lead Magnet

Your lead magnet needs a landing page.

We recommend starting with a simple squeeze page that has these three key elements:

• A headline that conveys the value of your free offer.
• An opt-in form where the potential customer can type in their email address. It can be either displayed immediately or shown once they click the call-to-action button.
• A call-to-action button that encourages the potential customer to get the lead magnet.

You might also want to experiment with various additional elements such as subheadlines, extra copy, social proof, etc.

Here’s a simple, yet effective squeeze page that we are using for our “The Funnel Hacker’s Cookbook” lead magnet:

#3 Create an Irresistible Front End Offer

It’s important to understand that the primary purpose of your frontend product isn’t to make you loads of money, it’s to convert leads into paying customers.

That’s why we recommend pricing it at $7.

It’s a price point that isn’t low enough to make the potential customer doubt the product’s value but also isn’t high enough to make them stop and think twice before purchasing it.

Yes, you can use a more expensive product or service as your frontend offer, but you would probably be better off if you created a new product specifically for that purpose.

Ebooks, email courses, and video masterclasses are the best frontend product formats because they are inexpensive to produce yet have the potential for providing a lot of value.

And make no mistake, your frontend product should provide a ton of value. You want to exceed people’s expectations with it!

#4 Create a Sales Page for Your Frontend Offer

Your frontend product needs a sales page

Sales page copywriting is a huge subject, so we can’t possibly cover everything that you need to know here. 

But here are some tips that can help you create a high-converting sales page:

Use the ”Hook, Story, Offer” Framework

There’s a simple but super effective copywriting framework that we use in all our copy:

• Hook. Grab the potential customer’s attention with a headline that conveys the #1 benefit of your offer.
• Story. Tell the potential customer a captivating story that resonates with them on a deep, emotional level.
• Offer. Transition from the story into a sales pitch and end that sales pitch with a call-to-action.

Here’s how Russell explains it:

Emphasize the Benefits of Your Product 

The distinction between features and benefits is one of the most important principles in copywriting:

• A feature is a function or a quality of a product (e.g. “These shoes are waterproof”).
• A benefit is the value that the customer will derive from that product (e.g. “These shoes will keep your feet dry”).

People make purchase decisions based on benefits, which is why you need to emphasize benefits all throughout your sales page, from the headline to the body copy to the call to action.

Provide as Much Social Proof as You Can

There’s no such thing as too much social proof.

Use your accomplishments, your credentials, relevant data, customer testimonials, and “As Seen On” badges to reassure the potential customer that you are the real deal.

Offer a Money-Back Guarantee

This might seem silly given that we are talking about a product that only costs $7 but you want to remove all financial risk from the purchase decision.

You should offer a 30-day no-questions-asked money-back guarantee and display that information next to the call-to-action button so that it would be impossible to miss.

Want To Learn More About Copywriting?

Our friend Jim Edwards has written an excellent book called “Copywriting Secrets” that you can get for FREE – all he asks is that you cover the shipping.

#5 Set up a 6-Email ”Indoctrination” Sequence

We don’t recommend hitting the potential customer with a sales pitch the moment you get their email address.

Send them this email sequence instead:

• Email #1: Who are you? Introduce yourself.
• Email #2: Where do you come from? Tell them how you came to do what you do now.
• Email #3: What do you do? Explain what you do in more detail.
• Email #4: How did you gain this expertise? Explain what makes you qualified to do what you do.
• Email #5: Who do you do this for? Explain who are your ideal customers + share a case study on how you helped such a person get the results they wanted.
• Email #6: How can you do it for me? Either pitch just your frontend offer or list all your offers and provide a short description for each one.

Also, use the Hook, Story, Offer framework to write these emails!

#6 Start Driving Traffic to Your Sales Funnel!

Once you have everything set up, start driving traffic to your lead magnet landing page.

It’s best to begin with paid advertising because paid ad campaigns are measurable, reliable, and scalable.

Set a small daily budget, start running ads, and see what happens. Are people giving you their email addresses?

And, more importantly, are they buying your frontend product?

Make sure that your ad campaign is profitable before you start scaling it.

Once you have figured out how to run ads profitably, you can start experimenting with other marketing channels.

You don’t want to be completely reliant on paid advertising forever, which is why you should invest in building traffic-generating assets such as a social media following, a YouTube channel, and a company blog.

However, keep in mind that this is going to take time, so be patient and play the long game. Future you will thank you for it in five years.

How To Optimize Your Value Ladder Sales Funnel (10X Your Profits!)

You should continuously optimize your sales funnel:

1. Analyze the conversion rate data. Which page converts the worst?
2. Take a closer look at that page. What is the problem?
3. Come up with a solution, implement it, then see if the conversion rate improves.

Once you have fixed the weakest link, move on to the next weakest link.

This conversion rate optimization process can help you 2x, 5x, or even 10x your sales funnel profits.

Here’s how Russell explains it:

Tip #2: Add Upsells, Downsells, and Cross-Sells to Your Value Ladder

You can increase your revenue by adding downsells, upsells, and cross-sells to each core offer in your sales funnel.

Downsells vs Upsells vs Cross-sells

• A downsell is an offer that you present to the potential customer after they have rejected your initial offer (it’s a downgrade on it).
• An upsell is an offer that you present to the potential customer after they have accepted your initial offer (it’s an upgrade on it).
• A cross-sell is also an offer that you present to the potential customer after they have accepted your initial offer (it’s complementary to it). 

How To Create an Irresistible Downsell

A downsell should be a downgrade on the initial offer that the potential customer has rejected.

Here are the three best practices that you should follow:

• Do not discount the original offer. This will only create problems down the road – you are teaching people to reject your offers in order to get a better price. Also, those who have paid the full price might get upset about this, which is something you want to avoid.
• Create a separate downsell offer. Ideally, you want to address the same problem that the initial offer addresses, but reduce the scope of the solution.
  Say, if they rejected your video course on online dating, you could offer them an ebook on how to optimize their dating profiles on each app.
• Keep the price within the impulse buy range. Price your downsell offer between $0.99 and $9.99. Obviously, the lower the price of your initial offer, the lower you should price your downsell.

How To Create an Irresistible Upsell

An upsell should be an upgrade on the initial offer that the potential customer has already accepted. 

Here are a few ideas:

• Offer a larger quantity. This can work well for food items, supplements, hygiene products, cleaning products, etc.
• Offer additional features. This can work well for info products and software.
• Offer a subscription. This can work well for products that people buy regularly such as food staples, supplements, hygiene products, etc.

How To Create an Irresistible Cross-Sell

A cross-sell is an offer that is complementary to the offer that the potential customer has already accepted.

You need to ask yourself what else could this person need. What would go well with your initial offer?

Say, if you are selling travel backpacks, you might cross-sell packing cubes, travel wallets, tech tool cases, etc.

Tip #3: Optimize Your Marketing Strategy for Lead Quality

You should also take measures to improve lead quality.

You don’t want just any leads, you want leads that convert into paying customers!

Lead Quantity vs. Lead Quality

Lead generation always involves a trade-off between lead quantity and lead quality.

• Focusing on generating more leads will likely reduce lead quality.
• Focusing on generating better leads will likely reduce lead quantity.

You can’t just choose one or the other, you need to find a balance between the two that work for your business.

However, we recommend erring on the side of quality.

Qualified Leads vs. Unqualified Leads

Qualified leads are leads that:

• Know that they have a problem.
• Are aware that you are offering a solution?
• Can afford to pay for that solution.

Simply ask yourself whether someone meets all three criteria can help you improve your targeting. 

It might also make you reconsider your target audience altogether.

Say, if you were trying to sell personal training to college students, you might realize that the average student can’t afford your services.

In that case, it would make sense to focus on a more affluent demographic instead, say, tech workers that are struggling to stay in shape due to their sedentary jobs.

How To Use the 80/20 Rule To Explode Your Revenue

The Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, states that:

“For many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes.”

In the business context, this means that it’s likely that 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your customers.

(Note that the exact ratio isn’t important, the point is that majority of your revenue probably comes from a minority of your customers). 

Here’s how you can use this knowledge to drastically increase your revenue:

1. Analyze your sales data.
2. Identify the minority of the customers that are generating the majority of your revenue.
3. Figure out what traits these customers have in common.
4. Use those common traits to create a customer persona that represents your ideal customer.
5. Use that customer persona in your targeting.

This should help you attract more people who are likely to become lucrative customers.

Target Your Ideal Customers, Ignore Everyone Else

You should target the right people (your ideal customers) and exclude the wrong people (everyone else).

For example:

Noah Kagan, the founder of Sumo and AppSumo, once mentioned that he excludes women from his Facebook ads campaigns. Why?

Because he realized that while women were subscribing to his email list, they weren’t converting into paying customers. So he stopped targeting them altogether. 

Here’s how Noah explains it:

“It’s not that I don’t like women. I love them! 
But the point is that they are not actually as interested in my content.
There’s probably someone who can better share that type of content with them.
So I target my audience which is males, 25-44.”

You should do the same. Get clarity on who your ideal customers are, then focus on them to the exclusion of everyone else.

After all, what’s the point of spending money to bring in leads that will never convert into paying customers?

There’s none!

Want Russell To Show You How To Build Your First Sales Funnel?

Let’s keep it real:

Building a sales funnel from scratch can seem like a daunting task.

That’s why we created our 5 Day Challenge where Russell walks you through it step-by-step.

You will learn how to:

• Generate unlimited leads.
• Create your first lead magnet.
• Build your first sales funnel.
• Create a simple 6-email follow-up sequence.
• And launch your funnel!

…in just five days.

So don’t hesitate.

Join our 5 Day Challenge today. It’s completely free!