Sales funnels are all the rage. Companies like ClickFunnels, Monday, PipeDrive, and Hubspot have made assembling extremely effective sales funnels an easy task; giving some successful companies a way to generate good sales without having a “complete” website.
Here at DEVUPP Studio we work with ClickFunnels, and recommend them (disclaimer: we are a ClickFunnels Affiliate) for all your sales funnel needs. Their system is easy to use, has an amazing set of tools, and our professionals who have years of experience with this system can help you build an amazing and profitable solution!
Now that we have the obligatory advertising out of the way let’s get into just how you can critique your own funnel! Whether you have decided to use one of the named sales funnel creators above, or have simply mapped it out on paper – we are here to help you review your funnel, find its weaknesses, and shore them up so you can have a great sales funnel that starts to help funds pour into your company like they should!
Elements of a Simple Funnel
Today we are going to start with a simple sales funnel, just as an example, and then move into critiquing what you have, and how you can assign yourself a score, work on improving what you have, what tools there are for you to do that, and how to get started.
So first, let’s talk about this “simple funnel.” In our simple funnel example we have the following pages:
- Landing or Squeeze Page
- Purchase or Checkout Page
- Upsell Opportunity Page
- Thank You Page
Let’s quickly review these pages, what is important about each one, and then we will move onto critiquing your own funnel.
The Landing Page
Your landing page or squeeze page is where you need to accomplish two things – and quickly. Here you must make an immediate impact, and have a very clear call to action. It is great to have additional information, and to have the “squeeze” as it were, to back up your call to action, but most importantly this is the place where you want a person to get interested. This means great imagery, awesome colors, video, whatever it takes to make a quick impact to get the person interested. It is important to have your message, your offer, and your pricing on this page.
Typically, if this page is somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 words includes a video, an amazing header image, and a solid color set it will both play well in the search engine optimization (SEO) space, and look great to actual humans that will need to make a decision on page.
The Purchase Page
After clicking the call to action button on your landing or squeeze page the real action starts. The user needs to be driven to make the purchase. This page reinforces that it was a good idea to click the call to action button and allows them to enter their payment details to receive the product you are trying to sell. A user completing this page though also needs to be setup for the next step in the action, the upsell.
The Upsell Page
The page, commonly also referred to as the opportunity page is where you “add to the deal” – and in many cases where you are trying to sell the real product you want a user to purchase. In many cases the initial page includes a “free offer” or “fremium product” or even a low priced entry level product. On the upsell or opportunity page you have the chance to sell a higher priced product, an add-on to your original product, or the paid version of what you are trying to get out there.
In most cases, since the user has already entered their payment information on the previous page the transaction here is much easier, and is completed by a simple yes or no confirmation. If the user chooses yes, they are shuttled to one version of the final page, and if they choose no, they are shuttled to the other version, and usually placed into some kind of nurture program (typically emails or texts that are sent out over a period of time).
The Thank You Page
The Thank You Page, or the final page in our “simple funnel” is the page that determines the future of the funnel’s prospect. This page again reinforces the actions the user has taken, and sets them up for future interactions. Typically on this page you want to give them all the details of acquiring the product, confirm that it is okay to send them messaging (emails or texts), and let them know what happens next.
This page also needs a great design, and can include some additional content. In many cases people use this page to send users to additional funnels, which can be great for moving a customer or potential customer along your value chain with a high conversion rate.
Your Own Funnel
Now that we have talked about a simple funnel, let’s discuss a simple system of rating and improving your own funnel. We will break down the critique into 5 major parts:
- Elements of the Landing Page
- Quality of the Design
- Usage of Keywords
- Upsell Opportunities
- Length of the Funnel
To critique your funnel we will start by creating a simple rule and point system, and recommend improvement at various point levels. It will break down like this:
- 1 Point – Definitely needs improvement
- 2 to 4 Points – Good start, but you could do better
- 5+ Points – This is the sweet spot
Elements of the Landing Page
- Has a well designed header – 1 point
- Has a video of at least 30 seconds – 1 point
- Includes pricing – 1 point
- Includes a clear call to action – 1 point
- Has a clear call to action – 1 point
- Repeats the call to action more than once – 1 point
- Includes faces and people – 1 point
- Presents only one option (or leave) – 1 point
- Includes important keyworks (SEO) – 1 point
If you think you have fallen short on any of these items, this is a good opportunity to make revisions. This is not a test, and nothing goes on your permanent record, so change away! This is also an important time to say that it is totally fine NOT to include some of these things, but know why you are doing or not doing EVERYTHING.
Quality of the Design
- Does the page load quickly – 1 point
- Has a clear color theme that matches your brand – 1 point
- Has a consistent use of fonts – 1 point
- Has a uniform feel – 1 point
- Includes attractive and high quality graphics – 1 point
- Includes an easy to read color set – 1 point
- Has a consistent easy to read flow (light then dark, good headers) – 1 point
- Is it mobile friendly – 1 point
Consistency of design, aesthetics, and attractiveness of a page matter. Things that are hard to read, hard to look at, or hard to follow will make users leave. Most importantly, things that take too long to load, or look like they never quite loaded (poor quality images) can have the exact same effect.
Usage of Keywords
- Do your headers include keywords – 1 point
- Are you using key phrases in your content – 1 point
- Do you images, their alt tags, and titles – 1 point
- Do descriptions in pricing include keyworks – 1 point
- Are your keywords and phrases repeated – 1 point
- Do your keywords and phrases “fit” in your content – 1 point
A keyword that sticks out like a sore thumb is not a keyword, it is a distraction. Google will not like it, and neither will your users. People and computers are not fooled by poorly used keywords. If your keywords stick out; rethink your images, content, and headers. Something must be wrong there. These should fit naturally into the flow of material, and not feel like they were forced in to meet a marketing or sales need.
Upsell Opportunities
- Includes at least one upsell – 1 point
- The upsell naturally fits as an “improvement” to the original sell – 1 point
- Includes at least two upsell opportunities (but no more than 3) – 1 point
- The upsell has way more value than cost – 1 point
- The upsell is advertised as heavily discounted – 1 point
- The upsell opportunity is a keyword rich as the landing page – 1 point
- The upsell opportunity is pitched using some sales psychology like FOMO – 1 point
Upsell opportunities and the page they come on must accomplish some magic. First, they need to make the person feel good about what they already have at this point. Nothing is worse than getting something and then being made to feel it was second rate or inadequate. On the upsell opportunity you have to reinforce that what they have already gotten is “enough.”
That being said, you need to convince them that what you are offering now is better, and worth it. Most importantly, it is a “must take this now” type of offer or they will lose out (the FOMO or fear of missing out). I may seem hard, but it is quite possible to accomplish both of these things. Either way, if you accomplish this no matter the choice you will leave with a satisfied customer.
The Length of the Funnel
Having a funnel that is too long or too short can ruin the experience. You must think through what you would be willing to read, how many clicks you would be willing to make, and how difficult it is to “get this done.”
- Is your funnel at least 5 pages, and no more than 8 – 1 point
- Is your call to action in multiple places – 1 point
- Is your checkout easy to use – 1 point
- Is your pricing clear and clickable – 1 point
- Is your content concise and does not require “too much” scrolling on each page – 1 point
- Did you remove any unnecessary content or options – 1 point
Nothing is worse than a long, slow, wild goose chase. Make sure you have limited the options, made clicks you want them to make clear, and that every action moving forward has some kind of reward.
Now it is your turn!
We have given you the basics to give your funnel a score, and as a result of that score to start making some revisions to get you closer to a funnel that really delivers revenue. These recommendations in this article are designed to simplify, amplify, and truly improve the experience of your funnels for your users.
Remember though, every funnel and the goal of every funnel is different. If the recommendations here do not make sense, do not make the change, and ignore the score. These scores are for creating simple funnels with simple experiences, and may not work for every situation.
We hope you have gotten something from this, and would love the opportunity to work with you. Remember, our team user ClickFunnels as our sales and marketing funnel platform of choice. We have studied and practiced with this tool and know how to get some great results from it. If you have another tool or platform you use or prefer we are open to, and have used many other systems, including HubSpot – which is our second choice.
Also remember, if you do not want to pay for a platform funnels can be built directly into WordPress, Shopify, or other e-commerce driven websites with just as much effectiveness. Though they lack some of the tools that systems designed for this purpose have there are many plugins that can provide some of this functionality.
Thank you for the read, and happy funneling!