Lead Generation Sites & Examples Of Working Models

Today we are going to analyze three lead generation sites.

Looking for some lead gen inspiration?

Continue reading…

#1 ClickFunnels 

ClickFunnels is a software company that sells funnel building software.

Our co-founders, Russell Brunson and Todd Dickerson, took the company from zero to $100M+ in annual revenue in less than seven years.

We want to start this article by sharing how we approach lead generation…

ClickFunnels Homepage

Did you know that we don’t have a traditional website?

We’ve been telling everyone that websites are dead and sales funnels are the future ever since we launched back in 2014.

That’s why we use a lead generation landing page as our homepage.

It was designed with one goal in mind:

To persuade the visitor to sign up for our free 14-day trial.

There’s nothing on this page that could distract someone from doing that.

Yes, we have a survey funnel on it that takes you to another page with a case study that is relevant to you, but there you are also encouraged to sign up for our free 14-day trial.

So even if you leave our homepage to fill out the survey, it’s simply a longer route to the same destination.

Russell’s Book Trilogy

Our co-founder Russell Brunson has written three bestselling books on building an online business:

• “DotCom Secrets” is about using sales funnels to grow your online business.
• “Traffic Secrets” is about generating traffic for your online business.
• “Expert Secrets” is about becoming an expert in your field and monetizing that expertise.

And these aren’t the usual lead magnet ebooks that you see everywhere nowadays.

All three books are real books available on Amazon with 1,000+ customer reviews each and Goodreads ratings above 4 stars.

It would be easy for us to offer people digital versions of these books as lead magnets but we decided to take a different approach.

We offer physical, hardcover copies as lead magnets instead.

Yes, for real, you can get any of these books for free, all we ask is that you pay for shipping.

Our 5 Day Lead Challenge

We also have a lead magnet called the 5 Day Lead Challenge where Russell walks you through building your first sales funnel step-by-step.

In this course you can 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.

You can sign up here:

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

Various Other Lead Magnets

We also have various other lead magnets. 

Here are the three most popular ones…

Funnel Hacker’s Cookbook

Our “Funnel Hacker’s Cookbook” features Russell’s 22 favorite sales funnels.

Why waste time reinventing the wheel when you can simply use one of our funnel “recipes” that have been proven to work time and time again?

Marketing Secrets Blackbook

The problem with the online marketing space is that the vast majority of self-proclaimed marketing “experts” only know how to make money online by teaching others how to make money online. It’s a meme at this point.

Unlike all these “gurus”, Russell has actually built a software business that generates $100M+ in annual revenue, so it’s safe to say that the guy knows a thing or two about marketing.

“Marketing Secrets Blackbook” features his top 99 marketing secrets that can help you cut through the noise and learn the principles that matter the most.

Death of a Website Webclass

We keep telling people that having a traditional website is a terrible idea that is costing them money.

In fact, we have an entire webclass on this topic, so if you want to learn why websites are dead and sales funnels are the future, you should check it out.

What Can You Learn From ClickFunnels?

So what can you learn from our approach to lead generation?

Lesson #1: Ditch Your Website!

Okay, we have mentioned it two times already, but we will say it again:

Websites are dead. Sales funnels are the future.

The problem with websites is that they are mazes of links that do nothing but confuse potential customers.

Think about it:

What happens when a visitor lands on your homepage?

They see the navigation bar and start clicking around. They check out this page. They check out that page. Maybe they read a few articles on your blog…

And then they leave. Possibly to never come back again. 

How does this help in your business?

It doesn’t!

Meanwhile, by definition, sales funnels are designed to guide the potential customer towards the sale, one step at a time.

When a visitor lands on your lead generation landing page, they are presented with just two options:

1. Subscribe to your email list to get the lead magnet.
2. Leave the page.

It’s a simple “Yes or No” decision. There’s nothing confusing about it!

Then, once you have their email address, you can pitch them your product, which is another “Yes or No” decision.

And if they say “No”, you still have their email address, so you can continue nurturing that relationship by providing free value.

That way, if they ever decide to buy a product like that, yours will be the first one that comes to their minds.

Do you see how having a sales funnel makes way more sense than having a traditional website?

In fact, according to our data, on average, sales funnels generate 6x more sales than websites, so your outdated website is actually losing you money!

Switching from a website to a sales funnel can help you gain a competitive edge and leave your competition in the dust, especially in industries that are lagging behind in this regard (pretty much all of them).

Lesson #2: Educate Your Potential Customers

We don’t just give people the tools they need to build profitable online businesses.

We also educate them so that they would know everything they need to know to make the most out of our software.

After all, their success is our success, because if they make money with our software, they’ll probably continue using it.

That’s why Russell wrote three books, compiled a “cookbook” with his favorite funnels, released a marketing black book, etc.

All these resources not only serve as “bait” that attracts potential customers but also help to convert them into paying customers and then into repeat customers.

Lesson #3: Offer a Wide Variety of Lead Magnets

As you can see, we don’t just offer one lead magnet, we have a whole bunch of them because different lead magnets resonate with different people.

Obviously, it’s okay to start with one, but you want to add more lead magnets over time as you get to know your potential customers better.

#2 Get The Guy

Matthew Hussey, a world-renowned dating coach, has a brand called Get The Guy.

Let’s take a look at its website…

Get The Guy Homepage

Above the fold on the Get The Guy homepage you see a squeeze page that encourages you to type in your name to get a personalized solution to your dating woes.

Once you type in your name and click the “Start Here” button, you are taken to a personalized squeeze page that asks for your email address:

Once you type in your email address and click the “Next” button, you are taken to a survey page where you can choose the option that best applies to your situation:

Once you choose one of these options and click the “Get My Solution” button, you are taken to a page that offers a product that provides a solution to your problem.

For example:

If you choose the “I’m so stressed I’ll say the wrong thing to him. Please give me examples of what to say and text in every scenario so I feel confident and get the result I want” option, you will be taken to this page:

“The Momentum Texts” guide only costs $7 which makes it easy for you to say “Yes” to this offer.

However, if you aren’t ready to buy yet, that’s not an issue because at this point Matthew has your email address and can use it to continue to provide value.

What Can You Learn From Matthew Hussey?

So what can you learn from Matthew Hussey’s approach to lead generation?

Lesson #1: Display a Squeeze Page Above the Fold

Not ready to ditch your entire website just yet?

It’s okay. We understand. And we have a solution…

Why don’t you keep your website but display a squeeze page above the fold of your homepage?

That’s what Matthew does. When you land on his homepage, you see a squeeze page. However, if you scroll down, you see other stuff such as blog posts and products.

Just to be clear, we don’t think this is ideal, but it’s a much better approach than a traditional website that doesn’t have a squeeze page like that.

Lesson #2: Use a Survey Funnel If You Sell Multiple Products

When you only have one product, a simple sales funnel is all you need.

However, as your product line expands, you need a more sophisticated sales funnel because different people have different problems that require different solutions.

This is where the survey funnel comes in.

The idea behind it is straightforward:

You ask potential customers questions to better understand what they are struggling with, then direct them to a sales page that offers a solution to that particular problem.

Matthew’s survey funnel only has one question, but we recommend having several questions in your survey funnel because that increases the potential customer’s investment in getting the solution (each step serves as a “micro-commitment”).

Here’s a video that gives an overview of this type of sales funnel:

Lesson #3: Personalize Your Survey Funnel

We like how Matthew asks for the potential customer’s name at the beginning of his survey funnel and then uses their name to personalize the funnel by featuring it in the subsequent pages.

#3 Your First 10K Readers

Nick Stephenson is a best-selling author and a business coach that teaches writers how to sell more books.

His lead magnet is a video course called “$0 to $1k Per Month” and he uses its landing page as his homepage.

Here’s what you see above the fold:

Below that, there’s a video:

Below the video, there’s the first testimonial:

Below the testimonial, there’s a quick explanation as to what you can expect from the course:

Below that Nick explains what he and his team can do for authors:

Then there’s the second testimonial:

Below it there’s the third testimonial:

Then you see a detailed course breakdown:

Below the breakdown, there’s info on the bonus course. Yes, Nick is offering not one, but two free online courses.

Below that there’s the fourth testimonial:

Then there’s more information about the course:

And at the bottom of the page there’s one final call to action:

What Can You Learn From Nick Stephenson?

So what can you learn from Nick Stephenson’s approach to lead generation?

Lesson #1: Go Above and Beyond With Your Lead Magnet

Whenever we talk about lead magnets, we always emphasize this:

Potential customers won’t give you their email addresses unless you offer them something super valuable in return.

Back in the 2000s, when lead magnets were a hot new marketing tactic, even low-effort ones were effective because everyone was excited to get free stuff.

Fast forward to now, people are bombarded with low-effort lead magnets from all directions, which is why Internet users have developed lead magnet blindness – they simply ignore the free offers unless they notice something super valuable.

That’s why you can’t just throw together some random freebie and expect leads to come flooding in.

The key to designing an effective lead magnet is this:

Create something that your dream customers desperately want…

Then give it to them for free!

Nick’s “$0 to $1k Per Month” lead magnet is a great example of this. 

There are countless writers out there who know how to write books but have no clue how to sell them.

They desperately want to make money from writing…

And Nick is offering the information that they need to make it happen for free!

Lesson #2: Promise a Result that Seems Achievable

Entrepreneurs often make grandiose claims believing that it will help them grab people’s attention.

And guess what?

That might work…

But it often leads to various problems down the road.

Claims like that might make potential customers feel…

• Suspicious that the whole thing is a scam.
• Skeptical about whether you can actually deliver.
• Hopeless because the result you are promising seems completely out of reach.

Moreover, if they decide to get your lead magnet, they will feel tricked and disappointed if you don’t deliver what you promised.

And if they feel tricked and disappointed, they certainly won’t buy anything from you, now or in the future. So what was even the point of acquiring those leads?

That’s why you might want to take a page out of Nick’s book instead.

All he’s promising is that he will teach you how to go from $0 to $1k per month in book royalties.

Now, an extra thousand bucks per month might not seem like much to some people, but that amount of money can be life-changing for his target audience of broke writers who are tired of being archetypal “starving artists”.

Moreover, the goal of making $1k per month in book royalties seems realistic and achievable, which makes these writers more likely to sign up for the free course.

Finally, we assume that Nick is confident that if people follow his advice, they will be able to achieve that goal…

This means that they will then be interested in what else he can teach them aka his paid products.

Lesson #3: Provide As Much Social Proof As You Can

We have already mentioned the problem of self-proclaimed online marketing “experts” who have never built a business outside of the “make money online” niche.

This phenomenon of questionable self-proclaimed “experts” isn’t unique to the online marketing space, though. It plagues the entire Internet.

That’s why you should expect your potential customers to be skeptical and have their guards up when they first stumble upon your business.

“Why should I listen to you?” is what they want to know.

It’s important to reassure them that you are indeed a legitimate expert by providing as much social proof as possible.

This could mean:

• Mentioning relevant credentials and achievements.
• Sharing customer testimonials.
• Displaying “As Seen On” media badges.

…etc.

Remember how Nick described his team’s experience in working with authors + included four testimonials from verifiable people?

That’s his answer to the “Why should I listen to you?” question.

We want to encourage you to acquire as much social proof as possible and then showcase it on your lead generation landing page.

In fact, we’d go as far as to say that there’s no such thing as too much social proof, provided that it doesn’t distract from the conversion goal of getting the potential customer’s email address.

If you got it, flaunt it!

Want Russell To Teach 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 Lead 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 Lead Challenge today. It’s completely free!