3 Ways To Better Convert Website Visitors Into Customers

Last updated on May 27th, 2025 at 05:54 pm

Pretty much all businesses nowadays have websites.

But merely having a website is not enough – you need to be able to convert visitors into paying customers.

Today we are going to share three ways to do that.

#1 Build a Value Ladder Sales Funnel

The biggest mistake entrepreneurs make when it comes to their business websites is using the website to make sales.

But this approach doesn’t make any sense. Just because someone stumbled on your website, doesn’t mean they are ready to buy from you.

If you attempt to close the sale at that point, it probably won’t work because you haven’t built enough trust with that person yet. So what should you do instead?

What is the Value Ladder Sales Funnel?

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:

1. Start the relationship with that person by offering free value
2. Nurture that relationship by continuing to provide free value via email
3. Build trust by providing progressively more paid value at each stage

Here’s how Russell explains it:

How to Build a Value Ladder Sales Funnel (Step-by-Step)

Okay, so now you understand what the Value Ladder sales funnel is, but how can you build one for your business?

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 address.

It can be anything that they can either download to their device or access online:

• A report
• An eBook
• A webinar
• A video course
• An email course

What’s important is that your lead magnet provides a solution to a problem that your potential customers are struggling with.

Step #2: Create a Landing Page for Your Lead Magnet

A lead magnet landing page is a web page designed to convert potential customers into leads.

There are several types of lead magnet landing pages out there, but we recommend starting with a simple squeeze page.

It should have these three key elements:

• A headline that conveys what your free offer is all about.
• An opt-in form where the potential customer can type in their email address. It can either be displayed immediately or shown once they click the call-to-action button.
• A call-to-action button that encourages the potential customer to get your lead magnet.

You should also experiment with various additional elements such as subheadlines, extra copy, social proof, etc.

Typically, these elements increase the conversion rate, but you still need to A/B test everything!

Take a look at the squeeze page that we are using for our “The Funnel Hacker’s Cookbook” lead magnet:

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.

That’s why we recommend:

1. Creating a new product – You can use an existing product as your frontend product, but one designed specifically for that purpose would likely be more effective.
2. Pricing it at $7 – This price point is ideal 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.
3. Offering a 30-day, no-questions-asked money-back guarantee – That way, you remove all financial risk from the purchase decision.

Here’s one of our frontend products, “Perfect Webinar Secrets”, where Russell teaches how to grow an online business with webinars:

Step #4: Create a Sales Page for Your Frontend Offer

Your frontend product needs its own sales page.

The most important copywriting principle that you need to understand is the distinction between features and benefits:

• A feature is a function or a quality of a product (e.g “These shoes are waterproof!”).
• A benefit is the value that the customer will get out of your product (e.g. “These shoes will keep your feet dry!”).

People buy based on benefits, that’s why you should emphasize them all throughout your sales page, from the headline to the body copy to the call to action.

Here are a few other things that you should keep in mind:

The headline is the most important part of your sales page because it’s your one shot at getting the potential customer’s attention.

Use it to convey the #1 benefit of your frontend product. How will it make the potential customer’s life better? Focus on that.

When it comes to the body copy, remember that you need to create an emotional connection with the potential customer first.

You can do that by empathizing with them and sharing your own struggles with that same problem.

Keep in mind that saying “Hey, I understand what you are going through, I’ve been there as well” is much more effective than positioning yourself as some infallible authority figure.

Once you have established that emotional connection, you can move on to the benefits of your frontend product.

Also, you want to provide as much social proof as possible, so add “As Seen On” badges, endorsement quotes, customer testimonials, and whatever else you have to your sales page.

Finally, you should end your sales page with a call to action encouraging the potential customer to buy your product, accompanied by a 30-day, no-questions-asked money-back guarantee.

All that being said, sales page copywriting is a huge subject, so we can’t possibly cover everything that you need to know in this short section.

Our friend Jim Edwards wrote a book called “Copywriting Secrets”, which we recommend to anyone who wants to learn copywriting. It will get you up to speed real quick.

And you can get it for free – all Jim 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. They don’t know you yet!

Use this 6-email “indoctrination” 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 makes you qualified to do what you do.
• Email #5: Who Do You Do This For? Explain who are your ideal customers and share a case study on how you helped such a person get the results that they wanted.
• Email #6: How Can You Do It For Me? Pitch your frontend product to the potential customer.

You should end emails #1 to #5 with a call to action where you ask the potential customer a question and then encourage them to hit the reply button and respond.

As for email #6, you should end it with a call to action where you encourage the potential customer to learn more about your frontend product, then provide a link to its sales page.

Also, this email sequence isn’t just about providing information, it’s also about building an emotional connection.

That’s why we recommend using the Hook, Story, Offer copywriting framework:

• Hook – Grab the potential customer’s attention with the subject line
• Story – Tell the potential customer a captivating story
• Offer – Transition from the story to the call to action

Here’s how Russell explains it:

#2 Optimize Your Website for Lead Generation

Okay, so now you have your Value Ladder sales funnel all set up, but how can you use it to convert website visitors into customers?

You need to direct them to your lead magnet.

• Create a separate navigation tab for your lead magnet. Simply add your lead magnet landing page to your site’s navigation.
• Promote your lead magnet on your homepage. Feature your lead magnet above the fold so that visitors would see it immediately after arriving on your website.
• Promote your lead magnet at the end of each blog post. If a visitor has made it all the way to the end of your post, it’s likely that they enjoyed that content and therefore might be interested in your lead magnet. So make sure to plug it!
  For example, at the end of his blog posts, dating coach Matthew Hussey promotes his free “9 Texts No Man Can Resist” guide:

• Promote your lead magnet with an exit-intent pop-up. When a visitor is about to leave your website, you have nothing to lose by pitching your lead magnet one last time. And the best way to do that is with an exit-intent pop-up.
  For example, here’s an exit-intent pop-up that marketing expert Derek Halpern uses on his website Social Triggers:

• Create content upgrades for your most popular blog posts. A content upgrade is a lead magnet that is designed to add value to a particular piece of content.
  
  For example, Sumo’s “7 Must-Have Instagram Marketing Tools For Rapid Growth” blog post gets a lot of organic traffic, so they created a content upgrade for it:

Check out this video where Chris von Wilpert explains Sumo’s approach to content upgrades:

#3 Replace Your Website With Your Lead Magnet Landing Page

And now onto our most controversial piece of advice…

Traditional websites, the ones used by the vast majority of businesses out there, are a terrible way to convert website visitors into customers.

Think about it:

When a potential customer arrives on your website, they see a navigation bar with a bunch of links, so they start clicking around.

They click on this link. They click on that link. Maybe they read a few blog articles. And then they leave. Possibly to never come back again.

And sure, you can combat this by optimizing your website for lead generation using the methods we have just discussed.

But ultimately it’s a losing battle because the whole traditional website model is broken to begin with.

Why would you want to drive traffic to a confusing maze of links??

Meanwhile, a sales funnel is by definition designed to lead the potential customer towards a sale, one step at a time.

There’s no confusion because at any given point you are presenting them with a simple “Yes or No” decision.

This starts with pitching them your free offer. Do they want your lead magnet?

Yes or no?

Is it any wonder that, according to our data, on average, sales funnels generate 6x times more sales than traditional websites?

It’s probably safe to say that replacing your website with your lead magnet landing page would likely result in a significant increase in sales.

But we understand that ditching your website altogether might seem a bit drastic.

That’s why we suggest conducting this experiment:

1. Send half of your traffic to your website and the other half to your lead magnet landing page.
2. See which one performs better.
3. Keep the winner.

We already know what the results are going to be! 😉

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.

Join our 5 Day Challenge today. It’s completely free!