Marketing is about generating traffic. But that’s just the first step!
You then need to convert those visitors into leads, leads into customers, and customers into repeat customers. So how can you do that?
You should start by building a marketing funnel for your business…
- What Is a Sales Funnel?
- What is The Value Ladder Sales Funnel?
- The Top Five Marketing Funnels That You Can Use to Grow Your Business
- How to Build a Squeeze Page Funnel For Your Business in 3 Easy Steps
- 3 Funnel Hacks That Can Help You Increase Conversions
- Build Your First Marketing Funnel in Just Five Days!
What Is a Sales Funnel?
A sales funnel is a system for converting potential customers into leads, leads into customers, and customers into repeat customers.
All sales funnels have the same core structure:
- Top of the Funnel (ToFu): Potential customers.
- Middle of the Funnel (MoFu): Leads.
- Bottom of the Funnel (BoFu): Existing customers.
Every business in existence has a sales funnel of some sort.
However, those sales funnels are usually built either by copying what everyone else is doing or by discovering what works through trial and error.
As a result, they generate enough revenue to keep the lights on but aren’t as optimized as they could be, which means that business owners are often leaving a lot of money on the table without even realizing it.
We encourage entrepreneurs to put more thought into their sales funnels because a well-designed sales funnel can enable you to grow your business faster than you ever thought possible.
There’s also no need to waste time reinventing the wheel when you can simply use sales funnels that have been proven to work.
For example, here’s the sales funnel that we used to grow our company to nine figures in annual revenue…
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 Russel 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.
So the main idea here is this:
Instead of driving traffic directly to your website or sales page, you drive it to your lead magnet landing page and convert those visitors into email subscribers.
Then, once you have their email addresses, you pitch your products and services to them via email!
The reason why this sales funnel works so well is that it allows you to:
- Start the relationship with that person by offering free value.
- Nurture that relationship by continuing to provide free value via email.
- Build trust by providing progressively more paid value at each stage.
Here’s how Russel explains it:
The Top Five Marketing Funnels That You Can Use to Grow Your Business
Okay, so now that you understand the general concept of the Value Ladder, let’s talk about how you can implement it in your business.
What Is a Marketing Funnel?
A marketing funnel, also known as a lead generation funnel, is the first stage of your Value Ladder: the Bait stage.
Its purpose is to convert visitors into leads, typically by offering them a freebie in exchange for their email address.
This freebie is called a lead magnet and can be anything that the potential customer can either download to their device or access online:
- A report.
- An ebook.
- A video class.
- A video course.
- An email course.
- A webinar.
…etc.
Once the potential customer gives you their email address, they enter your sales funnel and become a lead. This is the end of the Bait stage of your Value Ladder.
From there, you can use email marketing to pitch your products and services to your new subscribers.
Hopefully, they will continue to ascend your Value Ladder by purchasing your Frontend, Middle, and Backend offers.
Now let’s take a look at the top five marketing funnels that can help you grow your business…
Marketing Funnel #1: The Squeeze Page Funnel
The squeeze page funnel is the most popular marketing funnel.
It looks like this:
Page 1: A squeeze page.
Page 2: A thank you page.
This funnel is super easy to build and can work well for any type of business. We recommend starting here!
Build a Squeeze Page Funnel With ClickFunnels!
ClickFunnels includes a squeeze page funnel template, a visual editor that you can use to customize that template, and an email marketing functionality that allows you to collect potential customers’ email addresses and pitch them your products and services via email.
Marketing Funnel #2: The Reverse Squeeze Page Funnel
The reverse squeeze page funnel is a more sophisticated version of the squeeze page funnel.
It also looks like this:
Page 1: A squeeze page.
Page 2: A thank you page.
So what’s the difference between the regular squeeze page funnel and the reverse squeeze page funnel, then?
- With a regular squeeze page funnel, you keep the free value behind the opt-in wall.
- With a reverse squeeze page funnel, you provide some free value right there on the squeeze page itself then ask for the potential customer’s email address in exchange for more free value.
The reverse squeeze page funnel works best for video-based lead magnets such as video masterclasses and video courses.
But it can also work well for text-based lead magnets such as cheat sheets, ebooks, and email courses.
Either way, you want to create a video where you share how you used to struggle with the same problem that the potential customer is struggling with now but then overcame it using the method that you will explain in your lead magnet.
Consider using this marketing funnel if you feel comfortable in front of a camera. It’s much easier to create a connection with the potential customer through video than it is through text!
Build a Reverse Squeeze Page Funnel With ClickFunnels!
ClickFunnels includes a reverse squeeze page funnel template, a visual editor that you can use to customize that template, and an email marketing functionality that allows you to collect potential customers’ email addresses and pitch them your products and services via email.
Marketing Funnel #3: The Survey Funnel
The survey funnel allows you to direct different people to different sales funnels from a single starting point.
It looks like this:
Page 1: A survey.
Page 2: A squeeze page based on the survey results.
Page 3: A thank you page based on the survey results.
The survey funnel works best for businesses that serve several distinct customer segments because it allows you to easily tailor your sales messaging to each segment.
You can also use a variation of the survey funnel known as the quote funnel to generate leads for service businesses:
Create a survey designed to qualify leads and then ask for the potential customer’s email address so that you could send them a quote.
This can work well in situations where creating a lead magnet doesn’t make sense!
Build a Survey Funnel With ClickFunnels!
ClickFunnels includes a survey funnel template, a visual editor that you can use to customize that template, and an email marketing functionality that allows you to collect potential customers’ email addresses and pitch them your products and services via email.
Marketing Funnel #4: The Product Launch Funnel
The product launch funnel is designed to help you build a pre-launch email list, get your subscribers excited about your upcoming product, and then launch it.
Here’s what it looks like:
Page 1: A squeeze page.
Page 2: Video #1.
Page 3: Video #2.
Page 4: Video #3.
Page 5: Video #4.
Page 7: A product order page.
Page 8: An order confirmation page.
This funnel can work well for both one-time and evergreen launches. However, when it comes to the former, you might need to modify it.
It’s advisable to start building a pre-launch email list as soon as you know that you are going to be launching a product.
Given that the product launch funnel video sequence is supposed to take less than a week, using it doesn’t make sense if your launch is still 3 months, 6 months, or 12+ months away.
In that case, you might want to:
- Create either a regular squeeze page funnel or a reverse squeeze page funnel with a lead magnet that would appeal to your target audience.
- Continue providing free value via email up until the week before the launch.
- Use the product launch funnel video sequence to launch your product.
Also, you don’t necessarily have to use video, you can modify the product launch funnel so that the launch sequence would be text-based.
That might be a better approach if you are launching a text-based product such as a book or an email course!
Build a Product Launch Funnel With ClickFunnels!
ClickFunnels includes a product launch funnel template, a visual editor that you can use to customize that template, and an email marketing functionality that allows you to collect potential customers’ email addresses and pitch them your products and services via email.
Marketing Funnel #5: The Webinar Funnel
The webinar funnel is a marketing funnel where you use a webinar as your lead magnet.
Here’s what it looks like:
Page 1: A webinar registration page.
Page 2: A thank you page.
Page 3: A webinar page.
You can either end the webinar by encouraging the attendees to book a free 30-minute consultation with you or by pitching your product or service and directing them to its sales page.
This funnel holds a special place in our hearts because it’s what Russel used to get ClickFunnels off the ground during our first year in business.
He would aim to do 5-7 webinars a week but sometimes he would end up doing 2-3 webinars a day. Pretty crazy but it worked!
And he still swears by it to this day:
“I always tell people that the best business model in the world is to create a webinar selling your product or your service and then do that webinar live every single week for a year at least once a week.”
Build a Webinar Funnel With ClickFunnels!
ClickFunnels includes a webinar funnel template, a visual editor that you can use to customize that template, and an email marketing functionality that allows you to collect potential customers’ email addresses and pitch them your products and services via email.
How to Build a Squeeze Page Funnel For Your Business in 3 Easy Steps
Now let’s build a squeeze page funnel.
Step #1: Create a Super Valuable Lead Magnet
A lead magnet is a freebie that you offer to the potential customer in exchange for their email address.
Text-based lead magnets are the easiest to produce so we recommend starting with either an ebook or an email course.
What’s important is that:
- Your lead magnet provides an effective solution to a problem that the potential customer is struggling with.
- That problem is either the same one or related to the one that your frontend offer addresses.
Ideally, your lead magnet should not only serve as bait, but also set the stage for your upcoming frontend offer pitch.
Keep in mind that people won’t give you their email addresses unless you offer them something super valuable in return.
That’s why the secret to having an effective lead magnet is creating something that your dream customers desperately want…
And then offering it to them for free!
Step #2: Create a Landing Page for Your Lead Magnet
Now that you have your lead magnet, it’s time to create a landing page for it. This is the page that you will be driving traffic to.
Our software, ClickFunnels, includes a template library that features a variety of proven, high-converting squeeze page templates.
Once you pick a template you can customize it according to your needs with our visual editor!
Step #3: Create a 6-Email Welcome Sequence
We don’t recommend hitting the potential customer with a sales pitch the moment they give you their email address. You haven’t built enough trust yet!
Send them this six-email welcome sequence instead:
- Email #1: Who Are You? Introduce yourself to the new subscriber.
- Email #2: Where Did You Come From? Share your origin story. How did you come to do what you do now?
- Email #3: What Do You Do? Explain in more detail what it is that you do.
- Email #4: How Did You Gain This Expertise? Explain what makes you qualified to do what you do. Share relevant experience, credentials, and accomplishments.
- Email #5: Who Do You Do This For? Explain who are your dream customers + share a case study on how you helped such a person get the results that they wanted.
- Email #6: How Can You Do It For Me? Pitch your products and services.
End emails #1-5 with a question and encourage the new subscriber to hit the reply button and let you know what they think. Make sure to respond to every email that you get. This will make your subscribers feel appreciated!
As for email #6, you can either end it by pitching your frontend offer or by providing an overview of your entire Value Ladder with a short description of each offer and a link to its sales page.
You should send one email per day so that the entire sequence would be complete in six days. You can use ClickFunnels to set it up!
3 Funnel Hacks That Can Help You Increase Conversions
Here are three hacks that can help you increase the conversion rate of your squeeze page:
Use This Headline + Subheadline Combo
You want to have both a headline and a subheadline on your squeeze page:
- The purpose of the headline is to convey the value of your free offer. How will it make the potential customer’s life better? Lead with that.
- The purpose of the subheadline is to provide more information about your free offer. Explain its format and length and don’t forget to mention that it’s FREE.
When potential customers click through to your squeeze page, they will almost certainly read both the headline and the subheadline because that’s how human attention works.
This allows you to explain what your free offer is all about in a matter of seconds!
Pique Curiosity With Your Headline and Subheadline
You want to provide just enough information to pique the potential customer’s curiosity so that they would feel compelled to check out your lead magnet. Don’t give everything away on the squeeze page!
Keep in mind that if you provide too much information, the potential customer will feel that they already know what your lead magnet entails and leave without giving you their email address.
Display Social Proof
Figure out what is the most powerful piece of social proof that you have and then make sure to prominently display it on your squeeze page.
It could be:
- A testimonial from someone who has benefited from your lead magnet.
- An endorsement from a well-known person in your niche.
- “As Seen On” media badges.
…etc.
This will almost certainly increase your conversion rate!
Build Your First Marketing Funnel in Just Five Days!
Let’s be real:
Building your first marketing funnel can seem like a daunting task.
That’s why we created our Five Day Lead Challenge where Russel walks you through the entire process step-by-step.
During this challenge, you will:
- Create your first lead magnet.
- Build your first marketing funnel.
- Set up your 6-email welcome sequence.
- Launch your funnel.
- Start driving traffic to it.
All in just five days!
So don’t hesitate. Take action now. It can change your life!
Join Our 5 Day Lead Challenge Today!
P.S. This challenge is completely FREE!