Last updated on December 18th, 2025 at 03:19 pm
Online marketers love to talk about landing pages. But are they really that important or is it all just hype?
Here’s everything you need to know about digital marketing landing pages…
- What is the Value Ladder Sales Funnel?
- What is a Landing Page?
- How to Build a Lead Generation Funnel
- How to Optimize Your Landing Page With A/B Testing
- What if Your Landing Page Isn’t Converting?
- Okay, You Have the Potential Customer’s Email Address, Now What?
- Build Landing Pages That CONVERT With ClickFunnels!
What is the Value Ladder Sales Funnel?
Landing pages don’t exist in isolation.
They should always be viewed in the context of your overall sales funnel.
That’s why we recommend designing your sales funnel first. It will be much easier to create landing pages that convert if you understand how each page fits into the big picture.
But there are several popular sales funnel models out there. Which one should you choose for your business?
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 more 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, if the Value Ladder graph above seems overwhelming, don’t worry.
You can start with just a lead magnet and a frontend offer and then build out the rest of your Value Ladder over time.
In fact, you can build a Lead generation funnel (the bait stage) and start growing your email list even if you don’t have anything to sell yet!
What is a Landing Page?
A landing page is a web page that is designed with a single conversion goal in mind.
Lead Generation Landing Pages vs. Sales Landing Pages
In theory, the conversion goal can be anything, but in practice, the vast majority of landing pages fall into one of these two categories:
- Lead generation landing pages that are designed to persuade the visitor to provide their contact details – typically, their email address.
- Sales landing pages that are designed to persuade the visitor to buy a specific product or service.
Other possible conversion goals include persuading the visitor to share a particular piece of content on their social media, filling out a survey, leaving a review, etc. These conversion goals are extremely rare, though.
Short-Form, Medium-Length, and Long-Form Landing Pages
There are three landing page formats:
- Short-form landing pages aka squeeze pages – This is the most basic type of landing page that is characterized by being one screen long. Squeeze pages are used exclusively for lead generation.
- Medium-length landing pages are longer landing pages that are several screens long and require scrolling to reach the bottom of the page – They are used as both lead generation pages and sales pages.
- Long-form landing pages are the longest landing pages that seemingly go on forever – They are almost exclusively used as sales pages, the one exception being “FREE + Shipping” lead magnets where people can get a physical product for free provided that they cover the shipping costs.
It’s important to choose the right landing page format for your conversion goal.
Common Usage of the Term “Landing Page”
The term “landing page” is an umbrella term that includes all web pages that have a single conversion goal.
However, when online marketers use it, they are typically referring specifically to lead generation landing pages.
Meanwhile, when online marketers talk about sales landing pages, they usually refer to them as “sales pages”.
In this article, we will be focusing exclusively on lead generation landing pages, but most of the principles that we are going to discuss apply to all landing pages.
How do Landing Pages Fit Into the Value Ladder Sales Funnel?
Okay, so now you understand what landing pages are, but what is their role in the Value Ladder sales funnel?
The Value Ladder sales funnel can be viewed as a sequence of landing pages connected by email marketing:
- Bait – lead generation landing page
- Frontend – sales landing page
- Middle – sales landing page
- Backend – sales landing page
So you drive traffic from external sources to your lead generation landing page to grow your email list and then you drive traffic from your email list to your sales pages to make sales.
As you can see, landing pages are an essential component of the Value Ladder sales funnel, there’s no way to get around that. That’s why it’s so important to learn how to create landing pages that convert!
How to Build a Lead Generation Funnel
The best way to grow your email list is to build a lead generation funnel:
- Create a lead magnet
- Create a landing page for that lead magnet
- Start driving traffic to that landing page
Let’s take a closer look at each of these three steps…
Step #1: Create a Lead Magnet
A lead magnet is a freebie that you offer to potential customers in exchange for their email address.
Digital Lead Magnets
A digital lead magnet can be anything that the potential customer can either download to their device or access online:
- A report
- An eBook
- A video class
- A video course
- An email course
- A webinar
…etc.
We recommend starting with a digital lead magnet because they are relatively easy to produce, especially if you follow the Minimum Viable Product approach that we recommend (more on that later).
Physical Lead Magnets (FREE + Shipping)
Physical lead magnets, also known as “FREE + Shipping” lead magnets, are physical products that the potential customer can get for free if they cover the shipping costs.
For Example:
Russell has written three best-selling books on the subject of growing an online business:
They are all available on Amazon.
However, we also use them as “FREE + Shipping” lead magnets, so you can get them for free directly from us.
Get “DotCom Secrets” for FREE!
Physical lead magnets are a much riskier bet because they are much more expensive to produce + they need to be stored somewhere + someone needs to package them and ship them.
There’s also a trade-off between lead quality and lead quantity: with physical lead magnets, you will probably get fewer but higher-quality leads.
We don’t recommend this approach to beginners because it’s just too risky. If you don’t have any previous experience building sales funnels, it’s best to stay away from physical lead magnets.
However, once you learn the ropes and gain confidence in your ability to build profitable sales funnels, it might make sense to take a proven digital lead magnet and turn it into a physical lead magnet (e.g. turn your free ebook into a free paperback).
What Makes a Lead Magnet Effective?
Regardless of whether you decide to go with a digital lead magnet or a physical one, what’s most important is that:
- Your lead magnet offers a solution to a problem that the potential customer is struggling with
- That problem is either the same one or related to the problem that your frontend offer addresses
Ideally, your lead magnet should not only serve as bait but also set the stage for your upcoming frontend offer pitch.
One way to do that is the “free sample” approach. You know those free sample stalls you sometimes see in the grocery stores where you can try some food item and then buy it if you like it?
You can use the same approach in your sales funnel by creating a lead magnet that gives the potential customer the taste of the value that your frontend offer provides.
Say, if your frontend offer is a book, you can use its first chapter as a lead magnet. People who like it will probably feel inclined to buy the book.
Another way is the “free information + paid tools” approach. That’s our go-to as a software company.
Our lead magnets provide free information about growing businesses with sales funnels and then we pitch our funnel building software that enables people to implement what they learned.
The main point here is this: make sure that there’s a logical progression from your lead magnet to your frontend offer because that will help you convert leads into paying customers!
The Minimum Viable Product Approach
Eric Ries, the author of the classic business book “The Lean Startup”, described the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) concept as:
“The version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort”.
Basically, instead of investing a ton of resources into building a product based on your assumptions, you invest the minimum viable amount of resources to build a minimum viable version of the product.
Then, you show your MVP to your target audience, collect feedback, and iterate based on that feedback.
Then you show the new version of your product to your target audience and the cycle continues.
We recommend using the same approach with your lead magnet: create a minimum viable version of it, see how your target audience responds, and iterate based on that feedback.
Say, if you have an idea for an ebook lead magnet, just write the text, compile it to a PDF, and present it to your target audience.
Then, if your dream customers show interest in your minimum viable ebook, you can start iterating based on their feedback and investing in production value (e.g. hire an ebook designer).
Don’t go all out with unvalidated lead magnet ideas because you might end up wasting resources – time, energy, and money – on creating something that no one wants.
Step #2: Create a Landing Page for Your Lead Magnet
Okay, so you have your lead magnet, now it’s time to create a landing page for it.
Format
Start with a simple squeeze page that’s just one screen long.
Once you have validated your lead magnet, you can create a medium-length landing page for it and see if it converts better than the initial squeeze page.
Design
We don’t recommend designing your landing page from scratch unless you have previous landing page design experience. Why?
Because online marketers have been relentlessly optimizing landing pages for at least two decades now.
At this point, we know what works and what doesn’t. Or, to be more precise, we know what’s most likely to work.
That’s why when it comes to the initial design of your landing page, it makes sense to follow the established landing page design best practices.
And the most straightforward way to ensure that your landing page complies with those best practices is to use a proven, high-converting landing page template.
Our software, ClickFunnels, includes a template library that features landing page templates for all of the most common use cases.
So why waste time reinventing the wheel when you can simply do what’s been proven to work?
Headline
The most important element of your landing page copy is its headline. Why?
Because it’s your one and only opportunity to grab the potential customer’s attention – if you fail to do that, they’ll leave and never come back.
There are several approaches to writing compelling headlines but the most straightforward one is focusing on the value that your free offer provides.
Your headline doesn’t have to be fancy, especially if your free offer is self-explanatory. What matters is that you convey its value.
For Example:
Here’s the headline that we use on our “The Funnel Hacker’s Cookbook” landing page:
“Get My Top 22 Sales Funnels for FREE Inside of The NEW FUNNEL Cookbook!”
If you are an entrepreneur who wants to learn more about sales funnels, the chances are that this headline will get your attention!
Copy
And what about the rest of your landing page copy?
Typically, squeeze pages don’t have much of it, if any.
But if you want to add a few sentences, you should use the same approach as you did with your headline and focus on the value of your free offer.
How will it make the potential customer’s life better?
Emphasize that!
Call-to-Action Button
The human eye is naturally drawn to page elements that are:
- Large
- Of a color that stands out in the overall color scheme of that page
So make sure that your call-to-action (CTA) button is large and of a color that contrasts with your landing page’s color scheme. Ideally, that color should only be used for the CTA button.
As for the CTA button copy, we recommend using offer-specific copy (e.g. “Get Your FREE Ebook Now!”) as opposed to generic copy (e.g. “Sign Up”, “Subscribe”, “Download”, etc.).
Social Proof
Social proof is a psychological principle that says that whenever people are unsure of what to do, they look at what others do in order to determine the best course of action.
In the business context, this means that whenever the potential customer is unsure of whether to trust you, they will look for indications that other people trust you.
When online marketers use the term “social proof”, they are usually referring to those indications of trust.
There are two types of social proof:
- Direct social proof that relates to the offer in question – Typically, this means testimonials. Can you get a testimonial from someone who benefitted from your free offer?
- Indirect social proof that relates to you as an individual or to your company as a business – This can mean mentioning relevant education, credentials, accomplishments, awards, media features, etc.
In general, the stronger the brand, the less social proof you need, which means that if you are just starting out, you should make an effort to acquire as much social proof as possible and then display it all throughout your sales funnel.
Background Image
Squeeze pages usually have a background image.
You can use an aspirational background image that reminds potential customers of what they want to achieve.
Alternatively, if you have a strong personal brand, you can use a photo of yourself to lend credibility to your landing page copy.
The latter approach works best if you are prominent enough to be recognizable to people in your niche.
Example: “The Funnel Hacker’s Cookbook” Landing Page
Here’s a simple, yet high-converting squeeze page that we are using to promote our “The Funnel Hacker’s Cookbook” lead magnet:
Get “The Funnel Hacker’s Cookbook” for FREE!
Step #3: Start Driving Traffic to Your Landing Page
Okay, you have your lead magnet landing page, now it’s time to start driving traffic to it.
Entrepreneurs that are just starting out tend to be enamored with the idea of “free traffic” but there’s no such thing as “free traffic”.
When people say “free traffic” they usually mean “organic traffic” but generating organic traffic requires an investment of time, energy, and money over an extended period of time. It’s not free!
Moreover, while organic traffic is great in the long run, it’s terrible for testing lead magnet ideas because it takes too long to get market feedback this way.
That’s why we recommend paid advertising if you can afford it: paid traffic is targeted, predictable, and scalable.
And, most importantly, it’s immediate, which allows you to validate ideas quickly.
All major social media platforms allow you to run ads on them:
- YouTube
- TikTok
Pick the platform that makes the most sense for your business, create an ad campaign for promoting your lead magnet, and start running ads with a small daily budget.
Once you figure out how to run ads profitably, you can start scaling your campaign by gradually increasing its daily budget.
And once you have mastered paid advertising on one platform, you can start experimenting with other platforms using the same approach.
How to Optimize Your Landing Page With A/B Testing
A/B testing, also known as split testing, is the primary method that online marketers use to optimize web pages for conversions.
Here’s how it works:
- You create two variants of the same page: variant A and variant B. There should only be ONE difference between them (e.g. the headline). That’s the element that you are testing.
- You split your traffic into two and send half of it to variant A and the other half to variant B.
- You let the experiment run until it reaches statistical significance, evaluate the results and keep the winning variant.
Any software with an A/B testing functionality, such as ClickFunnels, will do the mathematical heavy lifting for you, so you don’t need to worry about that.
Also, while A/B tests that produce incredible results get an insane amount of hype in the online marketing world, big wins like that are extremely rare.
In all likelihood, most A/B tests that you run won’t produce any meaningful results and the ones that do will only lead to small increases in the conversion rate, especially once you run out of the low-hanging fruit.
However, those small increases in conversion rate add up over time and have a substantial impact on your bottom line, especially in the long run. Plus, if you run enough tests, you will probably stumble upon some big wins as well.
That’s why we recommend adopting the “Always Be Testing” mentality: develop a habit of always running A/B tests without getting your hopes up for any particular hypothesis.
What if Your Landing Page Isn’t Converting?
What if Your Landing Page Isn’t Converting?
Okay, but what if you have implemented all the advice in this article, but your landing page still isn’t converting?
You should examine:
- Your offer
- Your copy
- Your traffic
Your Offer
It’s possible that your free offer isn’t valuable enough.
In that case, you need to scrap the whole thing, go back to the drawing board and come up with something better.
Your Copy
It’s possible that your free offer is valuable enough but your landing page copy doesn’t convey that value.
In that case, you need to improve your copy.
Your Traffic
It’s possible that your free offer is valuable enough and your landing page copy does convey its value but you are driving low-quality traffic to your landing page. What does that mean?
All traffic can be divided into two categories:
- High-quality traffic aka your dream customers
- Low-quality traffic aka everyone else
The terms “high-quality” and “low-quality” doesn’t represent general judgment about any specific traits of your landing page visitors.
They represent an evaluation of how closely the traits of your landing page visitors match your dream customer profile.
Say, if you have a free offer that is designed to help aspiring bodybuilders put on muscle, you can create a perfect landing page for it but it won’t convert if your traffic is primarily made up of rock climbers who have zero interest in bodybuilding.
Obviously, this is an exaggerated example meant to illustrate the point, but you’d be surprised how often entrepreneurs cast too broad of a net in terms of targeting and then wonder why their landing pages aren’t converting.
Your landing page traffic will always be a mix of high-quality and low-quality traffic but you want to increase the proportion of the former and decrease the proportion of the latter as much as possible.
You can do that by improving the targeting of your marketing campaigns, specifically your ad targeting if you are driving paid traffic to your landing page.
Troubleshooting
We recommend examining these three potential issues in the reverse order: first, look at your traffic, then at your copy, and then at your offer.
Scrapping your lead magnet should be the last resort because producing lead magnets is a resource-intensive endeavor even if you are following the previously discussed Minimum Viable Product approach.
However, the reality is that sometimes lead magnets fall flat and there’s nothing you can do about it because your dream customers simply aren’t interested.
You might need to test several lead magnet ideas until you find one that resonates with your target audience.
Okay, You Have the Potential Customer’s Email Address, Now What?
We don’t recommend immediately hitting your new subscriber with a sales pitch. Just because they decided to check out your lead magnet doesn’t mean that they trust you enough to hand you their hard-earned money!
Send them this six-email welcome sequence instead:
- Email #1: Who Are You? – Introduce yourself to the new subscriber.
- 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. Share relevant experience, credentials, and accomplishments.
- 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 get the results that they wanted.
- Email #6: How Can You Do It For Me? – Pitch your frontend offer and provide a link to its sales page.
This welcome sequence was designed to build trust on autopilot.
If you get it right, by email #6 the new subscriber will be receptive to your frontend offer pitch and curious enough to check out its sales page.
And if they aren’t ready to buy yet, you still have their email address, so you can continue building trust by providing free value via email!
Build Landing Pages That CONVERT With ClickFunnels!
ClickFunnels has everything that you need to create landing pages that convert:
- Proven landing page, sales page, and sales funnel templates
- Visual editor that you can use to customize those templates
- A/B testing functionality that you can use to optimize your landing pages
And we offer a free trial which means that you can check out our software without any risk!