A lot of people think that they need an ecommerce website or webstore if they want to sell their products and services on the internet. This isn't true at all -- anyone can start selling online without any technical knowledge. All it takes is some design skills, a little bit of creativity, and maybe even a few dollars to get started. However, just like anything else, there's more to running a successful business than having a nice looking product or service. You also have to promote it effectively. And one way to do so is through a sales funnel.
In fact, a good sales funnel will help you convert as many customers into buyers as possible. It's especially useful when trying to reach new audiences because it allows you to gradually introduce them to your brand by providing information about your company, your offerings, and why someone should buy from you instead of someone else. Sales funnels help you attract potential clients who are interested in buying what you offer. In addition, they allow you to capture leads before turning them over to other employees. Once these people become loyal customers, you'll be able to charge higher prices for your goods & services.
If you're thinking about starting an online shop but aren't sure where to begin, here we explain everything you need to know about building a high converting sales funnel using WordPress.
Before you dive right into creating your first sales funnel, you might want to consider whether you really need one yet. The truth is that most businesses don't actually need a funnel until they've been around long enough to establish themselves as a known entity. When you only recently launched your company, you may not have much experience getting repeat traffic and customers. So while you could use a funnel to grow your customer base, it won't necessarily make sense to invest too much time and money on something you haven't proven yourself with yet. Instead, focus on attracting visitors to your site. That way, once you get a large number of people coming back regularly, you'll be ready to add a funnel to your strategy.
So let's say you already decided to invest in a funnel. How would you go about doing that? Well, you'd probably start off by creating a landing page or homepage designed to convince users to click on a specific link. Then you'd provide an incentive or discount code that makes the purchase worth your while. After making the sale, you'd then take care of shipping and billing. Finally, you'd redirect those same customers to another part of the site where they'll find additional content related to whatever you sold to them.
This type of process works well for both B2B (business-to-business) companies and B2C (business-to-consumer) ones. But if you run a small startup that sells directly to consumers, you may not have a whole lot of options available to you aside from simply offering discounts.
That said, if you still decide that you want to create a funnel, you'll first need to learn how to set up your landing pages properly. Here's how you can do that.
Now that you understand exactly how a funnel works, it's easy to see how it can be applied to any kind of digital marketing campaign. Whether you're promoting affiliate offers, launching a blog post series, or hosting giveaways, you'll always have to get people excited about the thing you want them to buy. While email newsletters and social media ads work great for reaching out to existing fans, you can also try to target new prospects with paid advertising campaigns. To achieve optimal results, you'll want to follow a similar strategy regardless of which method you choose.
When you're setting up your ad copy, keep in mind that most people skim text rather quickly. If you write a paragraph describing your product or service, chances are they'll stop reading after two sentences. Your goal is to grab attention with short blurbs and headlines that promise value upfront. For instance, you could write "The Ultimate Guide to Learning How to Build Websites" followed by "Learn how to build websites fast." A headline like this grabs readers' interest because it promises actionable tips and shortcuts that save time.
Once you get a reader hooked into your message, you'll want to continue educating them on your topic. Consider writing several articles covering different aspects of your niche. Make sure each article has its own unique title so people come across them easily. Then include links within the body of these posts that lead them deeper inside your site. By following this approach, you'll encourage readers to stay longer and read more about what you have to offer. They might end up becoming regular guests on your blog instead of visiting every now and again to check the latest updates.
As you gain more followers and interact with them, you'll eventually notice that they tend to share certain types of content. These types of posts often turn into viral sensations, driving tons of traffic to your site. Before you attempt to publish such material, however, you should test it thoroughly. Ask friends and family members to give feedback on your ideas. Also, look for ways to improve upon them. As you tweak your posts, you'll soon discover that your audience likes things that you didn't expect.
Finally, remember to treat each step of the funnel as a separate project. Some parts require more effort than others, so you shouldn't rush through them. Take your time to plan out every aspect of your campaign. Even though you won't spend hours working on your Facebook ad copy or designing a catchy logo, planning ahead will ensure that you deliver stellar results.
To illustrate this concept further, here's an actual example created by Shopify, a popular platform for managing ecommerce stores. The image above shows the initial steps taken to drive traffic to a product listing. First, you'll see a banner advertisement that encourages viewers to visit a given page. Next, you'll see a pop-up box encouraging users to sign up for Shopify's newsletter. Last, you'll see an optin form asking visitors to enter their name and email address.
After signing up for the newsletter, subscribers receive emails containing helpful advice and exclusive deals. At this point, they're likely considering purchasing the item. Now comes the tricky part. Just as a real funnel requires multiple stages, so does a marketing funnel. Because of this, you'll have to split your efforts between various channels to maximize conversion rates.
For starters, you'll want to optimize your banners and advertisements for search engines like Google Ads. Then, you'll send targeted emails to prospects based on keywords found throughout your site. Finally, you'll ask customers to fill out forms that collect basic user data. With this info in hand, you'll be able to customize future promotions accordingly.
You can apply this same model to almost any kind of marketing endeavor. From sending weekly coupons via email to posting daily tweets, you can craft a tailored system that gets results.
There are seven distinct phases involved in any effective sales funnel. Each phase represents a specific stage of a buyer's journey towards taking an action that completes the deal. Every single element you place throughout the sales funnel helps to move people along toward purchasing your product or service.
1. Awareness - This is the very beginning of the sales cycle. Most marketers fail to recognize the importance of this phase because it seems simple enough. People usually hear about a particular product or service somewhere, either through traditional means like word of mouth or less conventional methods like YouTube videos. Regardless of how they came across it initially, awareness serves as a stepping stone towards generating interest in the next few steps.
2. Interest - Many people view interest as strictly limited to physical books and magazines. But since the Internet exists today, we should expand our definition of it. Anytime someone views a webpage or reads a news story, he or she becomes curious about learning more about the subject. Therefore, interest plays a big role during this stage.
3. Desire - During the third layer, called desire, people realize that the product or service they saw previously was interesting and compelling enough to warrant investing their hard earned cash. At this point, they're willing to pay money for it.
4. Action - Once a person decides to act, he or she needs to take the necessary steps to complete the transaction. Depending on the nature of your product, this could mean ordering online, calling a phone number, filling out a form, etc. Whatever the case, you should always strive to make the entire process as seamless as possible. Otherwise, people will feel overwhelmed and frustrated.
5. Evaluation - After completing the desired action, people evaluate the outcome. Did the result meet expectations? Was the price fair? Are there alternatives available? This stage is crucial because it allows people to weigh their decision against the pros and cons of each scenario. If you succeed in answering all of these questions correctly, you've successfully completed the fifth step.
If you’re looking to build an effective and converting ecommerce site on the internet, then it makes sense that you should make sure that you have a conversion rate optimization strategy ready before you start building out your site. You need to be able to convert people from one stage of your funnel into another and ideally, one where they are buying something or signing up for some sort of membership.
There is no point having all these great products to sell if nobody buys them. This can get expensive as well as time consuming so it's important you know what works when it comes to optimizing your funnel.
So how exactly does this work? Well, let me give you three simple steps which will help you understand how to optimize your funnel on your own website using WordPress.
A funnel is essentially a series of pages that lead potential customers through until they reach a final destination (a sale). The more stages you add to your funnel, the higher chance you'll have at selling something successfully. For example, you may want to set yourself up with two different types of funnels:
1) A basic landing page that leads visitors straight to checkout
2) A more complex sales process that takes visitors deeper down the funnel
The first thing you should do once you've decided on a few key points about your business is decide on the type of funnel you're going to go for.
This might sound obvious but it really isn't always clear cut. If you run a gym for instance, you could either offer just memberships or you could also sell equipment like treadmills, exercise bikes etc. Your choice here depends entirely upon your niche market.
You could even choose whether to focus on fitness training or health & wellness. It's crucial that you don't try to fit too many things onto one funnel because doing so would confuse your audience and potentially cause them to lose interest. On top of that, it'd be hard to track progress across multiple channels.
Once you've made a decision regarding how you'd like to approach your funnel, it's now time to plan each individual step. Each page within your funnel needs to serve a specific purpose such as driving traffic to your product listing, providing information to prospective buyers, encouraging users to sign up for an email list and finally promoting products like affiliate links.
As mentioned above, you shouldn't overload your funnel with too much content. Ideally, every single page should only contain essential information pertaining to its function. Having said that, however, you must allow room for any additional sections later on which may be required by your niche. For example, if you sell weight loss supplements, you may wish to include testimonials, videos and other motivational material. Ultimately though, keep everything relevant and focused towards achieving your goal.
While the concept behind a sales funnel has been around since ancient times, modern technology means we now live in the age of the digital consumer. As such, it makes perfect sense that businesses today are turning their attention towards ways of increasing their customer base and improving engagement rates. One way to achieve both of those goals is to implement a sales funnel.
In order to do so effectively, you'll need to ensure that your funnel contains a number of elements including a call to action button, optin form and perhaps most importantly, compelling copywriting. With that being said, not everyone knows where to begin when it comes to writing persuasive text.
Fortunately, thanks to tools like HubSpot, Google Analytics and others, it has never been easier to write powerful sales copy without needing to hire a ghostwriter. In fact, you can actually automate certain aspects of your sales funnel using software designed specifically for the job.
For example, you could utilize a tool like ClickFunnels to automatically generate an impressive homepage layout complete with a strong headline and engaging body copy. All you need to do at that point is fill out the rest of the fields according to the instructions provided.
In terms of automation, sales letters can easily be created by utilizing plugins that connect directly with popular platforms like MailChimp and Constant Contact. These services provide templates that you simply customize according to your brand identity. Once completed, you can send those emails off to subscribers who opted in via your newsletter program.
Ultimately though, the best solution here is to avoid automated solutions altogether and instead invest in hiring a freelance writer who specializes in sales copy. Not only will this save money but it will also mean that your sales letter looks professional and polished. After all, nothing sells like good old fashioned persuasion!
Now that you know how to craft a successful sales funnel, the next question is "how do you do it?" Thankfully, there are plenty of options available nowadays which enable anyone to create a website that converts. And while most of these programs come at a price tag, there is no reason why you couldn't still take advantage of them for free.
One excellent resource is WordCamp Central Europe. They have put together a comprehensive collection of articles outlining how to design a sales funnel using various methods. Amongst the suggestions offered are themes, plugins and web builders.
WordPress itself offers numerous resources that can help you accomplish pretty much anything related to designing websites. From drag and drop designs to customizing CSS codes, you can find almost anything you need right inside the official WordPress repository.
However, if you prefer a more hands-off approach, check out my article titled: How To Create An Effective Sales Page Using WordPress. It outlines several techniques that can be used to quickly develop a sales page for your website.
ClickFunnels was created back in 2014 by Russell Brunson, a former entrepreneur who started his company after realizing he had struggled with getting new clients during his previous career. He soon discovered that there were thousands of entrepreneurs struggling with similar issues.
It didn't matter if you owned a small shop selling handmade goods or an expansive brick and mortar retail empire, finding qualified prospects was difficult. That's where ClickFunnels came in handy. At a fraction of the cost associated with other comparable products, it enabled him to create a system that helped hundreds of thousands of individuals grow their businesses online.
Today, ClickFunnels continues to dominate the industry due to its ease of use coupled with highly effective features. While it doesn't offer nearly as much customization as competitors like LeadPages, Funnel Hacks or Builderall, it's nonetheless an extremely valuable resource for beginners starting out in the world of Ecommerce.
Whether you're interested in automating your entire website or simply adding a contact form to your blog, ClickFunnels provides tons of useful templates that can be customized to suit your needs. Plus, you can also integrate third party apps into your account allowing you to expand functionality further than ever before.
By taking full control over your sales funnel, you can turn your website into a fully functioning ecommerce platform capable of generating revenue day in and day out. So, if you're thinking about making the jump from blogging to running an actual business, I recommend checking out ClickFunnels.
It's pretty common knowledge that the best way to drive traffic and improve conversion rates on your website or blog is through a well-designed sales funnel. If you're not doing it already, then why are you still reading this article?
The truth of the matter is that every business owner needs to have one. Whether you sell products or services, it all comes down to two things -- building trust between yourself and your customers (or clients) and making sure they know exactly what to expect when interacting with you. The only thing worse than missing out on potential leads is sending them away from your site without any form of communication at all.
If you've ever wondered if there was an easier way to take care of these problems, we're here to tell you that there absolutely is. By using a WordPress sales funnel plugin, you can build a custom sales channel right within your own website or blog. You'll be able to capture new visitors' information and personalize their experience so they don't just leave after seeing your homepage. They will stay engaged throughout the process until they make a purchase.
We're going to show you everything you need to know about how to use WordPress as part of your funnel strategy. Read on to learn more about this powerful tool.
Yes, you certainly can. As far as platforms go, WordPress makes one of the most popular choices among web developers. It has become such a staple because its user interface is extremely easy to understand and customize according to individual tastes. This means you won't have to worry too much about getting bogged down by technical jargon.
There are several different ways you could set up a funnel in WordPress, but the easiest and quickest solution would probably be to use a WordPress theme designed specifically for selling. These themes provide various options for adding forms, landing pages, sales pages, etc., which allow you to easily add the content you want to display based on visitor behavior.
In order to get started, simply head over to ThemeForest and search "sales" under the category filter. Once you find something suitable, click on the download link provided next to each item. After downloading, install the theme into your WordPress installation. Then log back into WordPress and choose Appearance > Customizer. From there, visit the section called Sales Pages where you should see a list of available templates. Simply select the one you like and start working.
Once you've chosen a design, you'll also need to decide whether you'd prefer to work off of a blank slate or copy someone else's ideas. For the latter case, you may want to look into some of the premium plugins listed below. However, even though most of those are paid, you might end up finding enough value in the free ones to justify buying them outright.
Remember, WordPress doesn't require coding skills to implement a successful funnel system. All you really need is a good understanding of HTML5/CSS3 and basic familiarity with WordPress itself. Plus, since many of these plugins come with detailed documentation, you shouldn't run into any problems whatsoever.
One of the biggest advantages of using WordPress is that it's completely free. That's great news if you're looking to save money while giving your visitors nothing less than a fantastic customer experience. But what does that mean in terms of functionality? Shouldn't a $30 product cost twice as much just because it happens to be built inside a platform that costs zero dollars?
To answer that question, let's first talk about why people buy software instead of purchasing physical items. Software companies tend to give away their products for free in hopes of building brand recognition and gaining exposure to a large audience. In other words, they want to spread awareness of their company before asking anything else in return.
This is true in the world of WordPress as well. Most people who use WordPress never pay for a single upgrade or extension. So, if you're currently paying $20 per month for hosting services, installing a WordPress theme, and running ads, you're actually losing money overall. And if you think that sounds crazy, consider this: Many of the top blogs in the industry were created through free blogging tools.
So yes, you definitely can create a funnel in WordPress for free. Just remember that once you hit certain limits, you might need to move onto another platform. In fact, many of the features offered by our recommended plugins aren't included in the free versions of WordFence and Ninja Forms.
When you hear the term "funnel", chances are you picture a simple diagram showing how people interact with websites, apps, and digital goods. A typical funnel includes five parts:
Landing Page -- Here visitors enter your site and either opt in or sign up depending on your goal. Either way, you collect whatever data you need to identify them later.
Lead Form -- When users land on your page, they fill out a short survey about themselves. You might ask for their name, email address, age, gender, location, hobbies, etc.
Sales Letter -- Your lead fills out the contact info and gets sent to a thank you letter, which usually goes straight to spam unless you make it interesting enough.
Thank You Email -- Now that the person has filled out the form, you send them a friendly message letting them know you appreciate their interest.
Final Sale -- At last, you offer the prospect a chance to try your service or product. Depending on the type of sale, you might include additional steps here, like signing a contract, ordering a trial period, or setting up an account for future purchases.
This model works wonders for businesses because it allows you to track everything that happens during the interaction. You can see at a glance who bought what, when, and how often. This gives you insight into your current customers and helps you determine whether you should change something about your site to boost revenues further.
However, the problem arises when you attempt to apply this same approach to individuals. Because humans aren't robots. We react differently to each piece of content we encounter. Some of us might respond immediately while others might wait days or weeks to make a decision. How do you plan to keep your visitors interested long enough to complete the whole journey?
That's where a WordPress sales funnel comes in handy. Instead of forcing everyone to follow a rigid path, you can tailor the experience to suit each person individually. With a funnel, your visitors can navigate around sections of your site without having to deal with popups, endless surveys, or intrusive videos.
As soon as they reach a specific point in the sequence, they're automatically redirected to the next step. Even though they made a mistake somewhere along the line, they won't lose valuable time trying to figure out what happened. On top of that, you can control everything from the number of entries allowed to how much credit each person earns.
You bet it is! While both systems help you manage interactions with your target market, ClickFunnels focuses primarily on ecommerce sales whereas WordPress focuses on non-ecommerce sites.
For example, if you're planning to launch a subscription box business, you'll likely benefit greatly from ClickFunnels. Not only will it enable you to automate the entire process and maximize profits, it also offers advanced features like split testing, autoresponders, automated emails, and more.
On the flip side, WordPress isn't nearly as robust when it comes to handling subscriptions. Its lack of support for recurring payments creates a barrier for anyone who wants to scale their business beyond a few thousand subscribers.
At the same time, however, WordPress is perfect for small businesses that rely heavily on organic growth. Since you don't have to spend a dime on advertising, you can focus entirely on crafting quality content that attracts real readers. Plus, you can always hire freelancers to handle ad campaigns as needed.
Overall, WordPress is ideal for anyone who values simplicity above all else. Of course, you can use ClickFunnels alongside WordPress to achieve maximum results. Both platforms complement each other perfectly.
Still unsure about whether to stick with WordPress or switch to ClickFunnels? Check out our comparison chart to see how these two programs stack up against each other.
Just follow our battle-tested guidelines and rake in the profits.