Last updated on August 13th, 2024 at 12:12 pm
A well-designed sales funnel can transform your online business.
It’s the best way to convert visitors into leads, leads into paying customers and paying customers into repeat customers.
That’s why today we are going to discuss how to build one in WordPress.
What Software Should You use to Create a Sales Funnel in WordPress?
Needless to say, we are biased here, but we recommend going with ClickFunnels as we believe that it’s the best funnel builder app on the market.
After all, we used our own software to grow our company from zero to $100M+ in revenue, so it worked well for us!
Meanwhile, at least 737 entrepreneurs have generated over $1,000,000 within sales funnels created with it.
And thousands upon thousands of our customers have built sustainable businesses with ClickFunnels.
As for WordPress, we made a plugin for it, so integrating our software with this content management system is super easy:
By the way, we offer a 14-day trial, so you can try ClickFunnels for free with zero risk!
Start Your Free 14 Day Trial Now
Which Sales Funnel Model Should You use for Your WordPress Sales Funnel?
Every sales funnel in existence has the same core structure:
- Top of the funnel: Target audience
- Middle of the funnel: Potential customers
- Bottom of the funnel: New customers
Here’s what it looks like:
However, this overall structure is too generic to be helpful for growing a business, which is why the term “sales funnel” is typically used to refer to a specific sales funnel model instead.
The most popular sales funnel out there is AIDA.
It has four stages:
- Attention: Grab the potential customer’s attention.
- Interest: Get them interested in your product.
- Desire: Make them want your product.
- Action: Encourage them to buy your product.
Here’s what it looks like:
There’s no doubt that AIDA works.
However, it was developed in the late 19th century, so it’s not designed to take full advantage of digital technologies.
In fact, we would argue that this approach to selling is severely outdated, which shouldn’t be surprising given that it’s over a century old. So what should you do instead?
We believe that the most effective way to sell anything online is the Value Ladder sales funnel.
It was created by our co-founder Russell Brunson who then used it to take ClickFunnels from zero to $10M+ in annual revenue in just one year (it’s at $100M+ now!).
This sales funnel has four stages:
- Bait – You offer the potential customer your lead magnet in exchange for their email address.
- Frontend – You offer the potential customer your least expensive and least valuable product or service.
- Middle – You offer the customer a more expensive and valuable product or service.
- Backend – You offer the customer your most expensive and most valuable product or service.
Ideally, you also offer a continuity program of some sort, meaning, a subscription product that generates recurring revenue.
We also recommend adding downsells, upsells, and cross sells to these core offers in order to maximize your revenue.
The reason why this sales funnel works so well is that it allows you to:
- Start the relationship with that person by offering free value.
- Nurture that relationship by continuing to provide free value via email.
- Build trust by providing progressively more paid value at each stage.
Here’s how Russell explains it:
Also, unlike AIDA, the Value Ladder sales funnel was designed with various modern technologies in mind, which is why it works so well in the digital age.
Why would you use a 19th-century sales funnel when you could use a 21st-century one?
It’s not the 1800s anymore!
How to Build a WordPress Sales Funnel in 5 Steps
Okay, so now you understand how the Value Ladder sales funnel works, but how can you build one for your business?
You don’t need to have an entire product line ready – you can create a basic Value Ladder sales funnel with just the lead magnet + frontend product using the ClickFunnels WordPress plugin.
Here’s how:
Step #1: Create a Super Valuable Lead Magnet
A lead magnet is a freebie that you offer to potential customers in exchange for their email addresses.
It can be anything that they can either download to their device or access online:
- A report
- An eBook
- A video course
- An email course
- A webinar
…etc.
There’s also an advanced type of lead magnet called “FREE + Shipping” lead magnet where you give away a physical product for free, but ask the potential customer to cover the shipping costs.
However, if you have never built a sales funnel before, then we recommend starting with a digital lead magnet, as it’s easy to end up in the red when dealing with the physical ones.
Either way, what matters is that your lead magnet offers an effective solution to a problem that your potential customers are struggling with.
If you need inspiration, you can check out our lead magnets:
- “DotCom Secrets” (book)
- “Traffic Secrets” (book)
- “Expert Secrets” (book)
- “Copywriting Secrets” (book)
- “The Funnel Hacker’s Cookbook” (book)
- “Death of a Website” (web class)
- “Funnel Scripts” (web class)
- “Secret Funnel Strategy” (web class)
- “Funnel Builder Secrets” (web class)
- “5 Day Lead Challenge” (online course)
Keep in mind that your lead magnet will serve as the foundation of your entire sales funnel.
Impress the potential customer with it and they might check out your frontend product.
Disappoint them and you won’t get a second chance.
Step #2: Create a Landing Page for Your Lead Magnet
Once you have your lead magnet, you want to create a landing page for it. It doesn’t have to be complicated – a simple squeeze page will do.
It needs to have these three key elements:
- A headline that conveys the value of your free offer.
- An opt-in form where the potential customer can type in their email address. It can be either displayed immediately or shown once they click the call-to-action button.
- A call-to-action button that encourages the potential customer to get the lead magnet.
Beyond that, you can experiment with various additional elements, such as subheadlines, extra copy, social proof, etc.
Typically, these additional elements increase the conversion rate, but you want to A/B test everything just to be sure.
Here’s a simple, yet high-converting squeeze page that we are using for our “The Funnel Hacker’s Cookbook” lead magnet:
You can also experiment with longer lead magnet landing pages, as increasing the length of the page can help increase its conversion rate.
Step #3: Create an Irresistible Frontend Offer
It’s important to understand that the purpose of your frontend offer isn’t to make you loads of money, it’s to convert leads into paying customers.
Here’s the formula for creating an irresistible offer:
High value + Low Price = Irresistible Offer
That’s why it’s best to create a frontend product that is ridiculously valuable, then price it ridiculously low.
$7 is a great price point for this because it’s not low enough to make the potential customer question the value of your product but also not high enough to make them stop and think twice before buying it.
You might also want to consider offering a 30-day, no-questions-asked money-back guarantee, as that removes all financial risk from the purchase decision.
For example:
One of our frontend products is “Perfect Webinar Secrets” where Russell teaches how to grow an online business using webinars.
He could charge a lot for that information given his track record – he primarily used webinars to take ClickFunnels from zero to $10M+ in annual revenue in just one year.
However, you can get “Perfect Webinar Secrets” + all the bonuses for just $7, which is what makes this offer so irresistible.
And yes, we also offer a money-back guarantee, so you don’t have anything to lose by checking it out!
Step #4: Create a Sales Page for Your Frontend Offer
You should also create a sales page for your frontend product.
The most important copywriting principle that you need to understand is the distinction between features and benefits:
- A feature is a quality or a function of a product (e.g. “These shoes are waterproof!”).
- A benefit is the value that the customer will derive from that product (e.g. “These shoes will keep your feet dry!”).
People buy because they want the benefits.
Say, they buy waterproof shoes because they want to keep their feet dry, not because they want to own waterproof shoes for the sake of it.
That’s why you should focus on the benefits of your frontend offer all throughout your sales page, from the headline to the body copy to the call to action.
How will it make the potential customer’s life better? Emphasize that.
Also, purchase decisions are typically made based on emotion, not on logic, so that’s what you should appeal to in the sales copy.
For example, if you are selling waterproof shoes, then you shouldn’t just state that these shoes will keep the potential customer’s feet dry and leave it at that, you should also paint a vision of a better life that resonates with that person.
Say, maybe these shoes would allow them to spend more time outdoors, go on adventures, camp with their friends, etc.
You want to figure out what is ultimately driving the potential customer, then paint a vision that illustrates how your product will help them achieve what they want.
Want to learn more about copywriting? Check out Jim Edwards’ book “Copywriting Secrets”. You can get it for FREE, all he asks is that you cover the shipping!
Step #5: Create a 6-Email “Indoctrination” Sequence
We don’t recommend hitting the potential customer with a sales pitch the moment they give you their email address.
Send them this 6-email welcome sequence instead:
- Email #1: Who Are You? Introduce yourself to the potential customer.
- Email #2: Where Did You Come From? Share your origin story. How did you come to do what you do now?
- Email #3: What Do You Do? Explain in more detail what it is that you do.
- Email #4: How Did You Gain This Expertise? Explain what qualifies you to do what you do.
- Email #5: Who Do You Do This For? Explain who are your dream customers and share a case study on how you helped such a person achieve the results that they wanted.
- Email #6: How Can You Do It For Me? Introduce your frontend product and encourage the potential customer to click through to its sales page.
Again, people typically make purchase decisions based on emotion, not on logic, so what you want to do here is establish an emotional connection as opposed to merely stating the relevant facts.
Use the “Hook, Story, Offer” copywriting framework for this:
- Hook – Grab the potential customer’s attention with an irresistible subject line.
- Story – Tell them a captivating story that resonates with them on a deep emotional level.
- Offer – Transition from the story to the offer and then to the call to action.
Here’s how Russell explains it:
Note that for emails #1 to #5, the call to action should be asking the potential customer a question, then encouraging them to hit the reply button and respond to it.
Only pitch your product in email #6!
Want Russell to Show You How to Build Your First Sales Funnel?
Let’s keep it real:
Building a sales funnel from scratch can seem like a daunting task.
That’s why we created our 5 Day Challenge where Russell walks you through it step-by-step.
You will learn how to:
- Generate unlimited leads
- Create your first lead magnet
- Build your first sales funnel
- Create a simple 6-email follow-up sequence
- And launch your funnel
…in just five days!
So don’t hesitate.