Blog pages with certain functions can be combined into WordPress sales funnels. I will show you the best converting funnels and how you can build them.
Funnel Hierarchy Defined
The basic hierarchy of funnels is the following:
Content Blocks >>
Pages >>
Funnels
Part 1. Content Blocks
The most basic element of any page is a content block. This can range from a simple Text Block to more complicated blocks like Pricing Table or Testimonial. We use several Content Blocks to put together a Page.
Part 2. Pages
The term “Page” is being used in a very broad definition. It can be a
- WordPress page, post,
- an email in someone’s email client,
- a YouTube video page,
- a Facebook page
- or even a Facebook Ad.
Each page has a purpose, but the same purpose can be achieved through different implementation – different layouts, elements, colors, etc.
Part 3. Funnels (This post)
Different pages put into a strategic sequence, to get a certain result, make a funnel.
The person would need to click a hyperlink in order to get from one page to the next. This is where the term “click funnel” originally comes from.
This post is Part 3 of this series and covers WordPress funnel sequences.
1) “Free Plus Shipping” Funnel
This is a hugely successful e-commerce template that perfectly and simply implements the idea of a “squeeze page”, in this case promoting a free offer for the price of shipping only. In reality, the cost of the item is actually included in the shipping cost. The item needs to
- be either cheap enough to generate a profit
- or be able to radically decrease shipping costs by offering and selling 3 or 5 pieces of the same item (bundle)
- cool enough to prompt people to share it and possibly make it go viral
- have an upsell/cross sell of a complementary product that goes with the original offer
Part of the idea is the statistical fact that if you display several options, a certain percentage of people will opt for the bundle/take the upsell, thereby increasing profits.
Having an online store is a great way to sell, however it has some disadvantages.
- You have to list a huge number of products, some of them will sell, some won’t.
- There are too many choices and this decreases conversion rate.
As a general rule, there are always products that sell while other products that don’t. In your store maybe 1 out of 50 products will sell, but the ratio could be better or worse.
If you use paid ads, only those click on your ad who are already interested, because there is only one product (plus an upsell) per funnel.
This is how the the Free Plus Shipping system works for the customer:
- Person clicks on the Facebook ad that promotes that one product, because they are interested.
- The customer lands on your landing page (see above). They only have one product to buy. There are no distractions, recommendations or ads to lower the conversion rate.
- If the visitor decides to buy, he’s asked to fill out his information. There is no redirection to a payment processor or lengthy checkout. The customer goes straight to a secure order form like this:
- As a bonus, you can offer your new customer a one-click upsell. Here is an example:
For a detailed guide see Ultimate Guide To Build A Free Plus Shipping Funnel.
2) Free Trial Funnel
When you try to get someone to take his credit card out of his wallet and buy something from you, you are asking a lot from someone. It’s a challenge for you and often a fearful idea for him.
A free trial offers your potential customer a low-pressure, low-barrier-of-entry way to experience your product, and it gives you a proven means to make more sales. So by all means, if it’s appropriate for your product or service, consider offering your potential customers a free trial. You just might be very pleased with the results.
The purpose is to increase the number of free trial users that convert into paying customers.
There are two kinds of free trial funnels.
- The credit card of the buyer gets charged automatically, but they can cancel
- You need to convince the buyer to upgrade
After someone signs up for a free trial, many online marketers forget about him and quit marketing to him until the free trial is over. This is a mistake.
People are busy, and they are easily distracted. They could – and very often do – download a product for a free trial and then forget all about it and never use it.
That’s not a scenario likely to result in them becoming a paid customer at the end of the free trial period, don’t you agree? So here’s something you must do: market to them during the free trial period.
Tell them how they will benefit if they become paying customers before the trial ends. And remind them what they will miss out on if they hesitate.
Give them educational content that helps them use your product and benefit greatly from it. Engage them and given a first-rate customer experience by encouraging them to give you feedback about the product and to contact if they have any questions or problems.
You need compelling, persuasive copywriting.
Even if he says no to your offers during the free trial period and when it has ended, you can still market to him. He’s still on your email list. Make him an extra-special offer here. Ask him to fill out a brief survey telling you why he didn’t buy. Offer him a money-back guarantee if he’s unhappy for any reason.
Example for #1: Netflix
Research from Statista shows that in the 4th quarter of 2019, Netflix had 61.04 million US monthly users.
They also offer a risk reversal where you can cancel any time and not be locked into a contract.
Steps In The Sales Funnel
Homepage: their homepage clearly explains their risk-free trial with a progress bar/timeline design. They state that there’s no commitment with the free trial and you can cancel anytime. They emphasize the risk reversal because Netflix is a recurring charge.
Pricing Page: you can scroll right down to the FAQ section and find the pricing info.
By default, Netflix selects the Premium plan for you (which is a very smart move). You can downgrade if you want though.
Example for #2 – ClickMinded
ClickMinded, an SEO training course, leverages free trials of their course to create a funnel that generates sales on autopilot.
By taking a few actions, they were able to increase their number of new weekly email subscribers by 46% and drive numerous recurring monthly sales.
It’s safe to say that a visitor who has viewed a free trial of a course is more likely to buy it than someone who hasn’t.
There are three stages to building and setting up this automated free trial funnel:
- Adding a free trial on your course.
- Creating a signup wall.
- Nurturing your subscribers.
Example for #2 – Thinkific
Step #1: Email Opt-In:
Step #2:
You get the offer to sign up for the free trial on the Thank You Page
3) Tripwire Funnel
A Tripwire is a low ticket front end product that is so irresistible people have to purchase it. After they put in their credit card, you can then upsell them your more expensive products through
- Order Bumps
- Upsells
- Downsells
- Email sequence.
Example #1: ConnectSuite $1 Funnel
Step 1 – Offer
It starts with a $1 tripwire where you get access to all tools for 14 days.
Step 2: Upgrade
If you don’t cancel before the 14 days are over, you will be billed $97/month.
4) Online Store Coupon Funnel
This is a super simple funnel designed specifically to increase conversions for online store owners.
#1 The main page advertises a coupon deal that offers a discounted product in exchange for the customer’s details to open a free account on your store.
#2 PPC Opt-In
#3 A Thank You page
#4 A Welcome email to deliver the coupon and funnel people to your storefront .
This funnel uses the “Urgency Principle” highly effectively. It uses Scarcity (the page offers a limited number of vouchers and updates the number as it decreases in real time) rather than Urgency (a countdown until an offer expires).
Scarcity and Urgency are among the most effective tools for inducing rapid action on the part of a customer. When there’s limited numbers of a product its perceived value increases. This principle is evokes the powerful emotion of fear – in this case the fear of missing out on a good deal.
5) Opt-In Funnel
This is a short, focused funnel highly optimized for collecting sign-ups from website visitors, and can be connected to automated email services.
Step #1: Squeeze page/Opt-in form
Step #2: Thank you page
6) Quiz Funnel
I am pretty sure that you have seen a high number of quizzes taken, shared by your Facebook friends. Maybe you have done the same.
Tens of millions of us keep taking these quizzes (Buzzfeed’s “What City Should You Live In?” has amassed more than 20 million unique visitors), and the quizzes keep getting made, and keep making tons of money for the folks producing them.
The reason the number of quizzes has increased, of course, is the same reason they have any social relevance at all: We share our results with each other.
People have always been taking quizzes, but before social media, you were doing it for yourself. But now they’re specifically for performance. Here, part of the point is to share it, show who you are.
And this sharing has a huge viral/free traffic potential.
Would you like to be one of these people profiting from quizzes? Then create a Quiz Funnel. You can actually create more professional ones than the above.
The steps are the following:
#1 Landing Page
#2 Quiz questions
#3 Email opt-in (optional)
#4 Results/Social share page
7) Giveaway Funnel
Step #1: Opt-in
Step #2: Share page
Step #3: “Share to get this bonus” page
Step #4: Facebook ad to share
Step #5: Bonus download
Step #6: Individual downloads page
8) Free Consultation Funnel
Step #1: Email
[content_container max_width=’700′ align=’center’]
Hey, Brady here.
Warren Buffett has a popular quote:
“It’s good to learn from your mistakes. It’s better to learn from the mistakes of others.”
Mistakes in online business can be expensive in time and money.
But there is one thing you can do to drastically reduce your chances of failure.
You need a mentor.
So we’ve started offering consulting calls. No charge, no upsells, no gimmicks. Just free advice.
What do we get out of this? At BrandBuilders, our mission is to show people the life-changing power of online business.
So we get to see our dreams come true by helping you 🙂
Click here to schedule a free consulting call for your online business
[/content_container]
Step #2: Select date and time
Step #3: Collect Name, Email Skype ID
Step #4: Consultation
7) Automated Sales Webinar Funnel
This high-converting sales funnel template attracts users to sign up for a webinar. Page layout has been highly optimized in terms of content block placement, short and punchy calls-to-action, and a clean, attractive design.
Once users sign-up (either via pop-up or button), they will be redirected to a Thank You page containing a countdown, webinar calendar/schedule, info, and most importantly an opportunity to upsell.
This funnel also contains the webinar Broadcast and Replay pages, as well as optimized Upsell, Order Form and Order Confirmation pages (7 pages in total). All can be customized to your business. If you have a great short video to showcase your product, this is the perfect funnel to make it convert into sales and upsells!
8) Online Course Funnel
This is a sales funnel template specifically designed for selling online courses. This 5-page funnel starts with
- an optimized Squeeze page in which the user can sign up for a free offer,
- then leads to an Upsell page
- with Ordering, Payment, and Order Confirmation pages.
As part of the online course focus, it includes a membership area page with training courses.
