How to Build an Effective Sales Funnel for Beginners

Now that we talked about the difference between funnel and website, the basic structure of an online sales funnel, and why you should use a funnel to sell your products, let’s go through the setup.

Later in the video I’m gonna give you 3 extra tips to make the most of your funnels and succeed smarter - because that’s what this channel is all about, after all...

So first of all you need your product or products that can be delivered automatically...

Ideally, they are all digital products such as courses, software, tools, e-books... Anything that you can create once and then sell and deliver automatically over and over...

If you sell physical products, on the other hand, you can still take yourself out of the equation if you have a team in your business that can deal with the delivery, or if another company handles the fulfillment entirely, which is the case with print-on-demand products, for example.

Going back to what we discussed earlier, at the top of the funnel you need to build awareness about your brand and your offers.

People need to get to know you and your brand. This happens via your content on social media, podcasts, YouTube, blogging, or with paid forms of traffic such as Google ads or Facebook ads...

In the middle of the funnel, you then turn your leads into prospects by making them product-aware, so they know what you offer and that you might be able to help them solve their problem, but they are not sure yet if it’s right for them...

It’s at this stage, the middle of the funnel, where you offer them a so-called lead magnet, you start building a relationship with them...

This can be a quiz, a webinar, a workshop, downloads, checklists, educational resources... This is the first exchange between you and your lead, but without money changing hands yet...

All you do is to give your lead something for free, in exchange for their email address...

Obviously, this must be an offer that converts... something intriguing that they want and can’t resist to opt in and learn more... so they can see if you are really able to help them get their results with what you provide...

One great thing you can - and definitely should - do at this point, is to present a so-called tripwire offer to your leads that just opted in to get your free lead magnet...

The way this works is that after someone submitted their email address on the opt-in page, they will be forwarded to a thank you page, where you thank them for opting in and confirm that they will get that thing that you promised them, your lead magnet.

But at the same time, you use this thank you page to present a first small offer to your new leads. This is a tripwire offer, also called a loss leader.

This strategy is widely used in all kinds of stores both in real life as well as online..., and it means that you offer a product for much less than its actual cost, or something that has a really big value but you sell it for a very low price...

Now, again... you don’t send them directly to your main offer after they only just opted in... you need to nurture your new leads first and address any remaining concerns about your main product.

This is what the bottom of the funnel is all about. We’ll get to that after talking about the middle section here.

So... instead, you present your tripwire offer. Very important - this product must be something that is related to your main offer.

Let’s make a quick and easy-to-understand example here.

Say your main product is an online course about how to become a professional video editor. You sell your course for $250.

Now, your lead magnet that you use to get people to opt in could be a free checklist of “the top 10 things you must know to become a successful video editor”.

In this document, you list those 10 valuable and very helpful tips that get your new leads some quick results. You see how your lead magnet and your main product are related?

So now your tripwire offer must also fall into this specific category, and for this example, let’s say... your tripwire offer is a package of your best audio and video transitions and effects, color grading presets etc. etc. that you have built for yourself over the years.

You sell this product as a standalone offer for $97, but... to your new lead who has now just entered your world to get your lead magnet, you offer this package as a one-time special for just $5.

They can only get this deal right now because they are your new leads. They will never get this offer again.

What do you think will happen? Several different things...

First, many of your new leads that are really serious about becoming a professional video editor will buy this tripwire offer.

This in turn means that you make already at least a small amount of money, but most importantly, those leads who just made this first exchange of “product for money” with you, they have begun to trust you...

They trust and believe that you and your products can help them achieve their goal. This is key, because this makes it much more likely that they will also purchase your main product later...

You see how this works?

Now we’ve arrived at the bottom of the funnel... This is where you turn your prospects into customers by taking them from product-aware to most aware...

At this stage they know about your product, they know that you can help them get what they want, and they have started to know, like, and trust you because they took the first steps by opting in for your lead magnet, and maybe they even bought the tripwire offer.

But to solve their problem, your goal is obviously to get them to purchase your main product.

So what you need to do now is to nurture this new relationship. Your prospects still might have some questions or concerns that your product is not the right one.

Your job is to address all of those objections or false beliefs, so they can make an informed purchase decision.

The way we do this is mostly by email and by using an email autoresponder. We’ll get to that in a minute...

Your goal now is to have this entire system automated as much as possible. Why?

Because only when your business runs mostly on autopilot, you can ultimately work less and earn more... Much more if done right...

That’s the steps we need to take to move towards the passive income that everybody desires...

But always remember, passive income requires upfront work - there’s nothing free in this life...

The question is only, how far are you willing to go to achieve what you want...

Most people give up too early - but that’s a topic for another time...

So, to get your system up and running 24/7... working for you automatically, even when you sleep or lie on the beach, this is what we need to do...

First, as I said at the beginning, all your products and lead magnets must be deliverable automatically.

In case of webinars or workshops, you can hold them live for a couple of times, tweak them based on your audience’s responses, and then turn those webinars or workshops evergreen.

There are many ways and options to go about this...

Second, we need a tool to build our funnel, and, as just mentioned, we also need an email autoresponder that allows us to automate and send out all our different email sequences.

In the next video I’m going to explain which email sequences you want to set up first to get started so you can build and nurture your relationship with your leads.

I’m also gonna show you what those emails need to include, what the strategy is behind them, how you should structure them, and a couple of other key points to be considered when sending out your email automations.

If done right, your email sequences can be very effective and generate some great profit for you...

So please subscribe and turn on notifications so you don’t miss it!

Now let’s move on to the 3 extra tips I promised you at the beginning of the video.

Tip #1: Keep it simple

To increase the conversion rate of your landing pages, opt-in pages, and all your funnels, for that matter, there are certain psychological and technical aspects to consider... one of the most important ones is to keep your pages simple.

Make sure that there is only one focus on your page and there’s only one thing people can do.

For example, your opt-in page should have an intriguing title and a subtitle that highlight the benefits, an input field for your leads’ email, and a submit button. Nothing more.

This ties back to what we discussed about websites at the beginning of the video. The more you distract your visitors, the lower your conversion rate will be.

Tip #2: Design is not important

Sometimes the ugliest landing pages perform the best. We can never know how well a page or an entire funnel converts without testing it.

The copy, meaning all your headlines, your sales texts etc. on your pages and in your funnels is much more important than the design.

Tip #3: Tag and segment all your leads

What do I mean by that? Every single person that opts in on one of your landing pages, can be tagged with your own custom tags.

For example, if you sell multiple products and therefore have multiple landing pages, multiple funnels, multiple follow-up email sequences..., you want to know where all those leads are coming from... so you know where to send them in the future and offer the most suitable products to them...

If they opted in on landing page A, you want them to receive the email nurturing sequence for your main product A, not for product B which they might have never heard of or not be interested in...

My recommendation is to tag everything you can tag on a new lead and on your existing customers. This whole topic is tightly integrated with the email automation sequences that we’re gonna talk about in the next video.

Bonus tip

Now, I said 3 extra tips... but for those who are still watching, here’s a bonus tip for you... which is also a very important one...

Build value ladders.

What’s a value ladder you might be asking? Let me phrase it this way: as long as there are buyers, keep selling.

After someone purchased your main product, you don’t just stop and tell them “well, thanks for your purchase, have a good life and never see you again...”.

You obviously want to keep your customers, build a stronger relationship, and keep serving them for as long as possible...

Help them solve follow-up problems they might have, or help them get their desired results even faster...

Let’s go back to our video editing course from before. After your $250 main product, the online course, you could offer an even higher-priced product, which could be for example a real-life 3-day event where you teach a small group in person way more advanced techniques than in your online course.

You can sell such an event for $2,000, for example. But it doesn’t stop here...

If people want more from you or get to where they want to be even faster, keep selling!

Maybe someone asks you for a 1-on-1 on-site training for a week because they know they would never finish the online course due to their own constant procrastination...

For such a private training you could easily charge anywhere from $5,000 to $10k plus cover of your travel expenses...

It might sound crazy, but think about it this way...

Most people fly economy. Some fly some sort of premium economy. Less people fly business. Even fewer people can afford first class. And only the top ones fly in a private jet...

That’s how it works everywhere.

Another example... think of a software you use... Most likely you started with a free trial, then you got the basic plan... Then, as your business has grown, you needed to upgrade to a more expensive premium plan...

See how this works? There will always be buyers. Always.

Never stop them from purchasing from you if you can help and serve them on the highest level possible.

While we have just covered the basics in this video, it certainly gives you a big advantage and you are already one step ahead of everyone else.

If you’re interested in diving even much deeper into this topic and to get the most out of it for your successful business, you will find some links down below.

A link to all the resources and tools I use myself in my business and definitely recommend.

A link to my free “Succeeder Secrets” Sales Funnel course, in which we cover everything about sales funnels, affiliate sales funnels, other funnel types, funnel builder tools, an in-depth introduction to ClickFunnels, integrations, testing, tracking & analytics, and much much more...

Check it out, it’s free.

And if you haven’t seen my previous video where I explain what you can expect on this channel and why I do what I do the way I do it, please check it out here after this video...

Thank you so much for watching! If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below.

Please like and subscribe and hit the bell notification so you don’t miss out on future videos about starting and growing your successful online business.

In the next video, we’re gonna talk about email marketing and email automations.

I’m Sascha Meier. Helping you succeed smarter.