The world is changing and if you want to scale online you need to create a sales funnel. I’ve made over $2 million online with funnels in the last 12 months and I want to help you create your own online funnel. You can use a well setup funnel in any niche, let’s dive in.
How Sales Funnels Help You
Sales funnels are marketing campaigns with several steps. Each funnel step is designed to present an offer and guide a client to the next one. The primary goal of sales funnels is to make a sale. Funnels allow you to guide a buyer into a series of steps which gives you control on how and when to precisely present an offer to your prospective customers.
For instance, when ordering a hamburger from McDonald’s, you will be given an option to add cheese before completing the order. With this, you can increase purchase size by delivering a series of offers in multiple steps.
A well setup sales funnels will simply help you make more money in your business.
Building Your First Sales Funnel
There are many programs you can use to create funnels. My recommendation would be to use a program called ClickFunnels. It’s designed specifically to great online marketing funnels. If you would like to checkout other program, I did an article on the best ClickFunnels alternatives that you can read here.
Before we get into learning how to build a funnel I would recommend getting a 14 day free trial of ClickFunnels.
Get free 14 day trial here then we can get started.
1. Go to your ClickFunnels dashboard and click the + New Funnel button to get started.
2. You can also add a new funnel by Clicking on ClickFunnels, and select Build Funnel from the dropdown menu).
3. A new screen will open, which allows you to choose between the following two options:
- The Classic Funnel Builder
- The Funnel Cookbook
4. The Classic Funnel Builder will pop up on the Cookbook menu. Close the pop up to access the Funnel Cookbook.
Please Note: The Classic Funnel Builder differs from the Funnel Cookbook. The Classic Funnel Builder prompts a user to select a goal for your funnel, the type, and choose a template for your funnel steps. The Funnel Cookbook incorporates more advanced options to tailor your funnel to your marketing needs and targeted customers.
The Funnel Cookbook allows you to select an industry, the type of funnel, and the goal of your funnel and prompts you to choose a template from a list of narrowed down funnels and templates (free and paid).
Step 1. The Classic Funnel Builder
Navigate to the + New Funnel from the ClickFunnels dashboard to access The Classic funnel builder menu. (You can also click ClickFunnels and select Build Funnel from the dropdown menu).
1. Click Choose to select a Goal for your funnel. You can create a sales funnel to help you to:
- Collect Emails
- Sell Your Product
- Host Webinar
2. Choose a funnel Type. Enter the name of your funnel in the Name field and Select Group Tag.
Group tags are a way to organize your dashboard. For instance, you can use Group Tags to segment Email Lists, Follow-Up Funnels, Broadcasts, and Funnels on your dashboard.
3. Select a Group Tag, such as Demo Funnel, and the respective Funnel Steps will be included as shown on the Funnel Steps menu. On your right, you can choose to Watch Explainer Video, which explains the basics of the type of funnel you choose.
- Click Build Funnel to add the funnel to your account.
- Select templates to use on your pages for your populated funnel.
- Click Opt-In page from the Funnel Steps menu and choose a template for your Email Landing Page.
- Click Thank You from the Funnel Steps menu and select a template for your thank you page.
5. The funnel is ready, and you can go ahead and customize it.
- The Launch Checklist button gives you additional options to customize your funnel.
- You can Add and choose a custom domain from the Register a Custom Web Address field and click Save.
- Click Add Email Integration to store your leads with either Actionetics or any third-party email integration platform such as GetResponse.
- Click Launch and share with the world to launch your fully developed funnel.
Step 2. The Funnel Cookbook
The Cookbook option allows you to narrow down the type of funnels you will be creating. Select Industry for your funnel from the list. The funnels will be filtered according to the type of Industry you selected.
You can build sales funnels for the following industries:
- Author/Speaker/ Coach/Consultant
- Professional services
- Retail
- Ecommerce
- B2B
- Network Marketing
- Other
1. Select the Type of Funnel. The funnels will be narrowed down again according to the type of funnel you choose.
You can build a Sales Funnel to:
- Generate Leads
- Sell a Product
- Create an Event
- Other
2. Choose your Goal for creating the funnel, for example if you click on Network Marketing industry and select the goal as Sell A product as the type of funnel your customer goal may be I’m Selling A Low Ticket Front End Product ($0-$37) or for leads in network marketing to be collecting contact details (I Want Their Contact Info). The funnels will be narrowed further to match your goals.
3. Click Select Funnel from the narrowed down list of funnels to choose the funnel which matches the needs and requirements of your business. For this illustration I have chosen Reverse Squeeze Page Funnel
4. Within the menu of the selected funnel, you will find video tutorial explaining the functionalities of the funnel, and you click the link Funnel Map to view the map of the funnel.
5. Scroll down the page to select templates for your funnel. You can choose from a list of Free and Paid templates and customize them to your branding.
6. Click on one of the templates and choose Get Funnel
Step 3: Adding A Product To Your Funnel
In this step, you will learn how to add products to your funnel and set a payment getaway integration to collect money from your prospects.
You will need the following to complete the process:
- Payment Gateway Integration
- An Order Form Page
1. Navigate to your funnel and a new Order Form page.
- Click + Add New Step, enter the name of the funnel step as Order Form and click Create Funnel Step.
- Drag the page and place it between the Opt-In Page and the Thank You page.
- Select the correct type of the page for this step by clicking Sales and selecting Order Form from the dropdown menu.
- Select a template for your new page to complete adding the Order Form.
2. Click on the Order Form page and select add product from the menu. Click + Add Product.
3. Enter the Name of the product and select your Billing Integration, such as Stripe. Enter the details of the product and select One Time for a one-time payment. Click Create Product.
Please Note: You should have a Payment Gateway Integration set up. To set up a new Payment Gateway Integration for your product, click Edit to open the product settings page. Within the Payment Options, click Add Payment Integration and select from the list of supported payment integrations.
How Sales Funnels Work
Sales funnels automate the marketing process and give you control over your prospects. Using a funnel, you can move your prospective buyers from one page to another while presenting different offers on each page until they finish the sale. Guiding your buyers in a series of steps gives them the right mindset before landing onto the next page, which is referred to as pre-frame.
Pre-frame prepares buyers on what to expect on the next page and helps in building trust and warming them up to accept the offer. When designing a funnel, you must concentrate on piquing the buyer’s curiosity to go to the next page.
Difference Between A Sales Funnel And A Website
If you need to eliminate distractions and control what users see on every page, it’s time to use a sales funnel instead of a website. Ordinary websites contain a lot of distractions, where marketers rely on a single page to close a sale. This leaves prospects to wander off the offer page and navigate to other pages, such as blog posts, they find interesting. Websites tend to lose many prospective buyers by providing many options which distract the user from the primary offer or product.
Sales funnels allow you to guide a user to a specific action. With this, you eliminate distractions and make sure you control what users see in each page. Each funnel step is designed to pre-frame a buyer to visit the next page and on. There is a higher likelihood of securing subscriptions and making sales when you control what visitors see firsts and then present the next offer. Managing traffic is essential in building effective marketing campaigns.
We did an article comparing sales funnel to WordPress. Click here to read more about that.
Common Mistakes When Creating Sales Funnels
When building your first sales funnel, you are bound to make some mistakes. While mistakes are not the end of the world, it is crucial to test all the elements to ascertain everything is working as planned and correct what does not work.
Mistake #1. Ignoring the ‘No’s Too Quickly
Not every visitor to your sales funnel will make a sale; however, discovering ways to turn these ‘no’s into buyers could be an essential determinant in your business growth. Include a series of downsells to be triggered when visitors choose to reject your offers presented in the upsell pages. With this, you can give visitors additional options and make them glued to your funnel until the end of the sale. The goal is to maximize every possible way to turn, leaving customers into buyers.
Mistake #2. Lack Of Consistency In Following Up Leads
When customers forget about your offers, you are set to lose a lot of money. Make sure to follow up your leads and remind them of the offers you provide and their benefits. Most people check their mailboxes more regularly. Follow up people who opt-in to your contacts lists and those who make purchases to ensure they continue thinking about your business and products.
Consistency will ensure you do not lose your customers to competitors, and you can finally turn prospects into buyers by convincing them regularly.
Mistake #3. Not Having A Simple Payment Option
No one wants to spend ages in your sales funnel trying to make a single sale. A complicated payment process will cause customers to abandon the shopping cart and exit without closing the sale.
Make your payment options simple and remove any obstacles that may distract users from making purchases. Payment is the last step in your sales, and it should not ruin your entire sales funnel plan.
Mistake #4. Developing A Complicated Funnel
A complicated funnel will cost you many prospects. Do not get over-excited and develop a complicated funnel with a lot of designs and many uncalled-for elements. Remember, the goal is to make a sale, not impress the visitor with many animations and design elements.
Use simple templates with clear and correctly placed call-to-Action. Make your funnel steps limited to your number of offers that you are presenting to your audience.
Sales funnels should be your number one shield in the digital marketing world. Sales funnels let you build high conversion marketing campaigns and present your offers in a series which eliminates distractions in your site. Unlike websites, sales funnels allow you to control what users see in each page which let you decide how and when to present an offer to the visitors.
Building a sales funnel in ClickFunnels can be accomplished within a few hours. Make sure to study and understand what your customers want before diving into the Funnel Classic editor. Use this guide to build your sales funnel today and see your business grow to a multi-million-dollar enterprise.
While building the funnel you might want to remove the ClickFunnels badge. You can do that here.
Even if you ClickFunnels ends up not been the right platform for you, you can cancel here.