5 Steps to Building Your Online Sales Funnel

This review will show you the five steps to building your first or next online sales funnel.

Sales funnels, also called marketing funnels are very effective for businesses looking to quickly and regularly generate both leads and sales.

Though there are 5 steps in this review, many funnels have just 2 or 3 steps.

More complex funnels may have more.

Even though the process may sound difficult, it is possible to build a sales funnel that converts even if you are starting from scratch.

A sales funnel is designed to take a potential customer through a step by step sales process that helps them make a decision.

The aim is to turn your visitors into buying customers.

A sales funnel provides focus, straight to one product or service so your visitors do not get confused or lost, and leave.

Studies have shown that sales funnels are are about 54% more effective than websites in converting business leads into paying customers.

ClickFunnels is one of the most popular funnel building software.

It has several free sales funnel templates you can easily customize.

Get Free Ebook: 5 Steps To Building Your First Online Sales Funnel + Free Sales Funnel
High converting sales funnels for lead generation and sales.

5 Steps To Building A Sales Funnel

5 Steps to building your online sales funnel from a landing page, sales page with a compelling offer, an upsell one time offer and a downsell

Step #1: Create An Intriguing Landing Page

Your landing page should command immediate attention.

It is the first impression potential customers will get of your business..

The headline should be catchy and have an intriguing hook.

You can use a headline generator like Funnel Scripts to help write high converting headlines.

Another resource, the Lead Funnels Swipe File, has 114 of the most converting lead funnels in history you can choose and model from in building your landing page.

The landing page has a singular purpose…to obtain contact information like a phone number but more commonly an email address.

To do this you have to offer something in exchange – often called a lead magnet or ‘hook’.

This could be a free offer or a price discount on a product or service.

An email autoresponder service like ActiveCampaign can be integrated with the landing page to collect emails.

An email sequence on your favourite autoresponder allows you to set up an automated email marketing campaign.

Step #2: Present A Compelling Offer

The next page in a sales funnel is the sales page.

This is where you present your front-end offer.

Often a video or a sales letter is used to present the offer.

Make the offer compelling enough for the customer to buy.

This may involve adding some attractive bonuses to the main offer

Step #3: Provide An Upsell or One Time Offer.

At the next page of the funnel, you offer your customers an upsell or one time offer.

This is usually a higher priced product or service like a course, or a combination of your main offer.

The upsell should have some bearing and add value to the main offer.

For example, if the customer has just bought a financial product the upsell could be a course on personal finance and investment. 

Step #4: Offer A Downsell Option

For customers that do not take up the upsell offer, perhaps due to financial constraints, offer a cheaper option called the downsell.

This could be a payment plan on the upsell offer that allows them to pay in instalments for example.

A smaller, cheaper course could also provide a valuable downsell.

Step #5: Follow Up With Your Customers.

This is perhaps the most important aspect of the sales funnel.

The landing page allows you to collect email addresses and build your list.

You can then follow up on your leads by checking they are happy with their product or service.

Many of your leads that didn’t buy initially may subsequently do so as they come know and trust you.

More importantly you are able to present them with new offers and tell them about new developments.

As the saying goes, ‘the profit is in the list’. 

Make sure you build out an email sequence going into months right from the start.

With ActiveCampaign you can set up automated emails to your list and run periodic campaigns.

ActiveCampaign is an email marketing, marketing automation, sales automation, and CRM software platform for small-to-mid-sized businesses

Some Of The Best Sales Funnels

A strategy you can employ if you are looking for inspiration to build sales funnels is to look at some the highest converting funnels.

You want to see the structure, their copy and content.

Look at their headlines and how their offers are crafted.

You can buy the product, especially if it is something you need anyway.

That way you can go through the funnel page by page to understand the concept.

Some of the sales funnels to look at include:

Traffic Secrets Funnel

This book by Russell Brunson was launched in April 2020 with one of the best sales funnels I have ever seen.

The copy and the manner multiple order bumps and upsells were included in the design received wide acclaim.

It is a revolutionarey sales funnel.

You can see the Traffic Secrets funnel here.

Expert Secrets and DotCom Secrets Funnels

Expert Secrets and DotCom Secrets are two of the best marketing books available today.

Russell Brunson updated and relaunched both books to coincide with the launch of Traffic Secrets.

Both books have been the best converting funnels in the ClickFunnels fold.

The DotCom Secrets website receives over 5000 visitors daily.

Following the success of the new Traffic Secrets funnel, the Expert Secrets and DotCom Secrets funnels have both been re-designed in the same format.

Have a look at both funnels:

Expert Secrets Funnel

DotCom Secrets  Funnel

Author Lead Machine

Author Lead Machine is a social media lead generation program.

The blueprint enables any business to get more leads and sales by transforming their Facebook profiles.

Though directed at writers, authors, bloggers and online course creators though the blueprint can be used by any business.

The sales funnel is beautifully designed.

See the Author Lead Machine funnel here.

Learn How To Build Sales Funnels

You can learn how to build sales funnels.

No tech experience is required, neither do you need to know coding.

You may be starting out to build your online business, or you already have a website which is literally lifeless.

Are you looking to create, host and sell an online course using sales funnels?

Here are some resources that will help:

One Funnel Away Challenge Training

The One Funnel Away Challenge is a 30 day online training on how to build your first or next sales funnel.

This program delivers daily training by three coaches where tou are given all the resources to set up your business funnel.

The One Funnel Away Challenge training costs $100 and you can register here.

DotCom Secrets

DotCom Secrets is a playbook by Russell Brunson that gives you a strategy to grow your business with sales funnels.

Certainly it is a must read if you are looking to start or scale your online business.

You can get a copy of DotCom Secrets here.

Final Thoughts

Every business needs sales funnels to maximise their marketing strategy.

Sales funnels bring focus to lead generation and sales – the two key critical factors for business success.

The five steps above and the resources recommended will give your business a competitive edge in deploying the power of sales funnels.

I have put together an ebook with more details to build your first or next business funnel including a free sales funnel template. Click on the button below.

5 steps to build sales funnels for beginners from landing pages, upsells and downsells

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5 Steps to Building Your Online Sales Funnel

Chinedu Chiana

Chinedu Chiana is an Investor, Entrepreneur, Business & Financial Coach and Author of 'The Smart & Common Sense Investor'. He helps business owners with skills and strategies to create, build and grow profitable online businesses particularly with funnels, social media & email marketing, business automation and marketing advice.