Last updated on February 26th, 2025 at 11:17 pm
Building a social media following can help you grow your online business faster.
But it’s important to remember that merely having a social media following isn’t enough, you also need to know how to monetize it.
That’s why today we are going to share three ways to increase online sales through social media.
#1 Build a Value Ladder Sales Funnel
This is the most important piece of advice in this entire article.
Once you have your Value Ladder sales funnel set up, making sales through social media will be much easier!
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:
- 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:
How to Build Your Own Value Ladder Sales Funnel
Okay, so now you know what the Value Ladder sales funnel is, but how can you build one for your business?
Follow this 6-step process:
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 video course
- An email course
- A webinar
…etc.
What matters is that:
- Your lead magnet offers a solution to a problem that your potential customers are struggling with.
- That problem is either the same one or related to the problem that your frontend product addresses.
Also, as we always emphasize when we are talking about lead magnets:
People won’t give you their email addresses unless you offer them something super valuable in return.
That’s why the key to designing an effective lead magnet is to create something that your dream customers desperately want…
And then give it to them for free!
Step #2: Create a Landing Page for Your Lead Magnet
You should also create a landing page for your lead magnet.
Start with a simple squeeze page that has these three key elements:
- A headline that conveys the value of your free offer. How will it make the potential customer’s life better?
- An opt-in form where the potential customer can type in their email address. It can be either shown immediately or displayed once they click the call-to-action button.
- A call-to-action button that encourages the potential customer to get the lead magnet.
Also, consider experimenting with various additional elements, such as subheadlines, extra copy, social proof, etc. Just make sure to A/B test everything!
Here’s a simple, yet high-converting squeeze page that we use 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 creating a separate product for that instead of using an existing one.
We also advise pricing it at $7 because it’s a price point that:
- Isn’t low enough to make the potential customer skeptical of the value of your product.
- Isn’t high enough to make them stop and think twice before buying it.
Finally, you want to provide a 30-day, no-questions-asked money-back guarantee to remove all financial risk from the purchase decision.
For Example:
One of our frontend products is “Perfect Webinar Secrets” where Russell teaches his webinar framework that he perfected by hosting 160+ live webinars in 5 years.
He could charge a lot of money for it given that he has a proven track record of using webinars to grow an online business. That’s how he took ClickFunnels from zero to $10M+ in annual revenue in just one year!
However, you can get the “Perfect Webinar Secrets” training + a bunch of bonuses for just $7.
And if you aren’t happy with “Perfect Webinar Secrets”, you can send us an email and we’ll refund you those seven bucks, no questions asked!
Step #4: Create a Sales Page for Your Frontend Offer
You also need to create a sales page for your frontend offer.
Sales page copywriting is a huge subject, so we can’t possibly cover everything that you need to know in one short section.
Here are a few principles to keep in mind, though:
- Make sure that your headline clearly conveys the #1 benefit of your frontend offer. How will it make the potential customer’s life better? Emphasize that.
- Focus on the benefits throughout your sales page. Your copy should provide support to the claim you made in the headline and introduce various additional benefits. Don’t get carried away with listing features, continue emphasizing the benefits.
- Provide as much social proof as you can. Display customer testimonials, endorsements from well-known people, and “As Seen On” badges. There’s no such thing as too much social proof unless it distracts the customer from buying your product. So if you’ve got it, flaunt it!
Our friend Jim Edwards wrote a book called “Copywriting Secrets”. Want to learn more about copywriting?
You can get “Copywriting Secrets” 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.
Use this 6-email “indoctrination” sequence instead:
- Email #1: Who Are You? Introduce yourself.
- Email #2: Where Did You Come From? Tell the story of how you came to do what you do now.
- Email #3: What Do You Do? Explain what you do in more detail.
- 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 dream customers + share a case study on how you helped such a person to get the results that they wanted.
- Email #6: How Can You Do It For Me? Pitch your frontend offer.
It’s best to end emails #1 to #5 with a call to action where you ask the potential customer a question and encourage them to hit the reply button and respond.
Meanwhile, with email #6, you should encourage the potential customer to learn more about your frontend offer, then link to its sale page.
We also recommend using the Hook, Story, Offer copywriting framework that we use in our own email marketing:
- Hook – Grab the potential customer’s attention
- Story – Tell them a captivating story
- Offer – Transition from the story to the sales pitch
Here’s how Russell explains it:
How to Take Your Value Ladder Sales Funnel to the Next Level
Here are three tips that can help you maximize your revenue:
Tip #1: Have Several Lead Magnets
Everyone starts out with just one lead magnet.
We recommend creating more lead magnets as you go, though.
That will help you generate more leads because different lead magnets appeal to different people.
For Example:
Take a look at our lead magnets:
- “DotCom Secrets” (book)
- “Traffic Secrets” (book)
- “Expert Secrets” (book)
- “Copywriting Secrets” (book)
- “The Funnel Hacker’s Cookbook” (eBook)
- “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)
As you can see, they vary in terms of format, length, and the level of investment required. This helps us reach more of our dream customers.
Say, someone who isn’t interested in Russell’s books might be open to attending a webinar, etc.
Tip #2: Use a “FREE + Shipping” Lead Magnet
Our co-founder, Russell Brunson, has written three best-selling books:
They are available on Amazon, and each of them has 1,000+ reviews.
You can get all of them for free, though – all we ask is that you cover the shipping!
This “FREE + Shipping” approach to lead magnets can be a great way to generate high-quality leads.
After all, someone who is willing to spend money to get your lead magnet is more likely to buy from you than someone who downloaded a digital lead magnet for free.
Books work particularly well as “FREE + Shipping” lead magnets, especially if they are “real books” that are also sold in bookstores.
We recommend this approach to authors who want to branch out into selling consulting services, online courses, etc.
Of course, other types of physical products can work as well, what’s important is that you have a properly structured Value Ladder and follow up with an irresistible frontend offer.
Just make sure to account for all the costs: production, packaging, warehousing, etc. Don’t end up in the red!
Tip #3: Add Downsells, Upsells, and Cross Sells to Your Core Offers
You can also increase your revenue by adding downsells, upsells, and cross sells to your Frontend, Middle, and Backend offers:
- A downsell is an offer that you present to the potential customer after they have rejected your initial offer – it’s a downgrade on it.
You can create a downsell by reducing the scope of the core offer. Say, if you are selling a $97 course on online dating as your middle offer, a $7 ebook on optimizing one’s dating profile might work well as a downsell.
- An upsell is an offer that you present to the potential customer after they have accepted your initial offer – it’s an upgrade on it.
You can create an upsell by increasing the quantity, adding more features, or expanding the scope of the core offer.
Just like you can downsell from a $97 online course to a $7 ebook, you can upsell from a $7 ebook to a $97 course.
- A cross sell is also an offer that you present to the potential customer after they have accepted your initial offer – it’s a product or service that is complementary to it.
Say, if you sell a $97 course on online dating, you can cross sell one-on-one coaching.
Adding downsells, upsells, and cross sells to your core offers is bound to increase your revenue.
After all, if a potential customer isn’t interested in your initial offer, then you don’t have anything to lose by presenting a downsell.
And if they have already accepted your initial offer, then that is the best time to pitch them more products and services.
#2 Promote Your Lead Magnet on Social Media
Okay, so you have your Value Ladder all set up, now what?
It’s time to start promoting your lead magnet on social media.
For Example:
At the time of writing, we have 214k followers on Instagram.
We use this platform to drive traffic to our lead magnet landing pages.
Here’s a sample post that encourages people to get a copy of Russell’s “Traffic Secrets”.
When it comes to social media marketing (or any kind of marketing, really):
Your aim should be to persuade potential customers to check out your free offer. So don’t promote your products or services, promote your lead magnet!
If they decide to get it, you’ll have their email address, which means that you’ll be able to sell to them via the automated “indoctrination” sequence that we discussed previously.
Moreover, if they aren’t ready to buy at the moment, having their email address means that you can continue to nurture that relationship.
That way, if they ever decide to invest in a solution to the problem that your frontend product addresses, you will be the first person that comes to their minds.
This is a much more effective approach to selling via social media than the usual “here’s my product, now buy it”.
#3 Partner With Social Media Influencers
The influencer marketing industry is projected to grow to $16.4B this year.
And there’s a reason why more and more businesses are adopting this approach to marketing – it can be extremely effective if you do it right!
So consider experimenting with it:
- Find micro-influencers (10k-50k followers) that your dream customers follow.
- Reach out to them and agree on one-time shout-outs. You want them to promote your lead magnet, not your products or services. Make sure that you create a special link for each influencer so that you could easily track the effectiveness of their shout-outs.
- Evaluate the results. Don’t just look at how many leads you have generated, look at the lead to paying customer conversion rates as well. Which shout-outs were profitable? These are the influencers that you should continue working with.
Ideally, you want to build long-term relationships with various influencers.
We recommend always keeping an eye out for up-and-coming ones in your niche and related niches.
Partnering with them at that early stage in their careers can help you win their loyalty which will continue to pay off as their followings grow.
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.