This document provides instructions for creating a basic 3-page sales funnel to build an email list at low or no cost. The funnel consists of an opt-in page where visitors enter their email to receive a "lead magnet" (a short, valuable freebie related to the topic), a one-time offer page where they can purchase a related product at a discount, and a thank you page. Traffic is driven to the opt-in page initially using paid ads like Facebook ads. If the revenue from product sales equals the advertising costs, the funnel is breaking even while still generating free leads. The guide outlines best practices for the lead magnet, one-time offer, page design and copywriting, testing, and tools to use

1. Sales Funnel Strategy To
Build A Huge List At Zero
Cost!
By Jack “Straight Talk” Sarlo

2. Asales funnel is vital for an Information business. Once you set up your sales funnel it
will be your automated “machine” that brings you fresh new leads every day!
Every Info business needs to acquire new leads consistently and then cultivate a
relationship with those people through helpful content.
Over time you’ll become their trusted advisor. People buy from people they trust! You’ll be
able to recommend your own products, or someone’s else through an affiliate program and
that’s how you’ll make money.
But it all starts with a sales funnel. In this guide you’ll discover a free sales funnel
template, that’s super simple yet highly effective. It’s a proven template. It has been used to
generate thousands of leads in just a single month and build a 5 figures a month business!
This guide covers in great detail the funnel building process and the products that’s you’ll
need for the funnel.
It’s important that you keep things as simple as possible, until you’re confident and
experienced enough to try more advanced techniques. If not you’ll become frustrated and
confused very easily! That’s why you want to use this basic sales funnel and the process I
outline in this guide!
There are a lot of other more complicated sales funnels, but the one in this guide can be
used by anyone in any niche. Furthermore you won’t have to pay expensive monthly fees for
sales funnel builder software or expensive shopping carts.
Below you’ll find a useful table of contents, so let’s get straight to it…
Table of Contents
What Is A Sales Funnel?...................................................................................................4
Benefits Of A Sales Funnel............................................................................................5
Sales Funnel Strategy...................................................................................................5
How To Drive Traffic To Your Sales Funnel...................................................................6
How To Make Money With Your Info Business..................................................................7
Email Marketing.........................................................................................................7
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3. Content......................................................................................................................7
The Lead Magnet..............................................................................................................8
Fast To Consume......................................................................................................8
Specificity..................................................................................................................9
Naming Your Lead Magnet......................................................................................10
The 'One Time Offer' Product..........................................................................................12
The Optin Page...............................................................................................................14
The Headline..............................................................................................................15
Instant Gratification.................................................................................................15
The Best Result.......................................................................................................16
Headline Templates.................................................................................................16
3 Bullet Points.............................................................................................................18
How To Write Great Bullet Points............................................................................18
Lead Magnet eCover...................................................................................................20
Download Button (2-step)............................................................................................21
The One Time Offer Page...............................................................................................21
The Confirmation Message.....................................................................................22
The One Time Only Headline/Message..................................................................23
The Thank You Page.......................................................................................................25
Sales Funnel Design Tips...............................................................................................25
Ad And Optin Page Congruency.............................................................................27
Sales Funnel Tools..........................................................................................................27
Sales Funnel Benchmarks..............................................................................................29
How To Calculate Conversion Rate?...........................................................................30
How To Create A Break Even Sales Funnel....................................................................30
Increase Conversion Rates.........................................................................................30
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4. Decrease Your Advertising Cost..................................................................................31
Split Test Your Sales Funnel Pages............................................................................31
Split Tests To Consider............................................................................................33
Split Testing Tools....................................................................................................34
Use A One Click Upsell (Advanced)............................................................................35
Sales Funnel Tools To Create One Click Upsells....................................................36
Sales Funnel Building Summary.....................................................................................36
What Is A Sales Funnel?
A sales funnel is just a series of webpages designed to collect the name and email of your
prospects to build your list!
Sales funnels can be simple or very complex, but it’s recommended
to stick with a basic funnel at first. Or else you can easily get
confused and frustrated when you analyze the conversion data and
optimize your funnel. All that will be explained in this guide.
Follow the K.I.S.S. principle for anything you do in your business,
keep it simple, stupid.
Building a sales funnel isn’t an overly complicated task!
The most basic sales funnel, and the one you should consider
using consists of only 3 pages. All 3 pages should be on the same
domain name. You’ll see examples of each page, and the actual
process to build them further below.
• Optin Page
The first page of the funnel is the optin page. This page will ask your visitors for their name
and email address in exchange for a free Info product. That Info product is also known as a
lead magnet. It has to be valuable and something your prospects wants so that you get a lot
of leads. More about lead magnets below…
After they optin they’ll be redirected automatically to the second page of the sales funnel.
The lead magnet will be delivered to them via email.
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5. • One Time Offer Page
The second page is a sales letter that sells a product you have. You should reduce the price
of the product by about 30% and give that special reduced price nowhere else. That’s why
it’s called a one time only offer – the can only get that discount on this page.
If they buy it, they see the third page…
• Thank You Page
The thank you page contains the download links for the product they bought on the one time
offer page.
Benefits Of A Sales Funnel
A sales funnel will get you leads constantly, every day at practically no cost to you, even if
you use paid traffic.
Your goal is to create a break even sales funnel (but if you manage to make it profitable
that’s even better). A break even funnel means you’re earning from the sales funnel (from the
one time offer sales) as much or more than you’re spending on paid traffic.
For example if you spend $300 on paid traffic (e.g. Facebook Ads) within a month to send
500 visitors to the funnel, you’ll make $300 in one time offer sales in the exact same month.
The benefit is that you’ll get hundreds or thousands of new leads from the first page of the
funnel. So in essence you’re building your list for free.
You can nurture a relationship with those leads by constantly communicating with them via
email. Give them valuable tips, promote products, tell them to read your articles, or watch
your videos and so on…
Now let’s see how those 3 pages in this sales funnel strategy work together to build your
list!
Sales Funnel Strategy
You’ll drive traffic (ideally paid traffic) to the first page, the optin page. Whoever optins will
see the second page, the one time offer page. They don’t have to buy the one time offer, but
if they do they’ll see the third page, the thank you page.
It’s as simple as that and once you set it up it works completely automatic.
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6. It’s an automated sales funnel to get a consistent supply of new leads.
The order form is automatically generated by the order processing service you use, for
example JVZoo. You don’t have to design or build it yourself.
How To Drive Traffic To Your Sales Funnel
Ideally you want to use paid traffic to drive traffic to your sales funnel. You’ll send all the
traffic to the first page, the optin page. After they optin they see the second page, the one
time offer page. The reason we use a one time offer is to recuperate (liquidate) some or
preferable all the cost we spent on paid traffic.
If you do that you’ll be getting leads and build your list for zero cost! You’ll be spending for
example $300 every month on paid traffic and make $300 in one time offer sales every
month. And of course at the same time you’ll be getting thousands of new leads added to
your list, which is the objective of a sales funnel!
Currently, Facebook Ads are highly recommended as a paid traffic method. Because
whichever niche you choose for your business you’ll probably find your audience on
Facebook! Their advertising system is also very effective, containing lots of tools to help you
succeed. And there’s a lot of guides online to help you use Facebook Ads.
I recommend Miles Beckler, he can show you how to use Facebook Ads to build your list
with a sales funnel, for just $5 a day!
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7. How To Make Money With
Your Info Business
It’s important to realize that a sales funnel isn’t designed to make you money or profit. That’s
not how you make money with your Info business.
The money is made promoting products via email to your list and on your web site
(a content site).
Email Marketing
Your sales funnel is building you a large list. You have to communicate with them regularly,
preferable daily. Send them helpful information. You don’t have to send them long articles in
your emails. An email is just a friendly message from one person to another.
Whatever you think they’ll find valuable and useful just share it with them. If it’s a long article
just share a summary of it’s most important points and then link to it so they can read the full
article.
You can share an important lesson you’ve learned, resources or tools they should know
about, etc. Just keep the email short and to the point and link out to any videos or articles
you think they should really see.
You can read my full email marketing strategy in my other guide. Once again follow the
K.I.S.S. principle.
You don’t need to setup overly complicated email marketing strategies.
Just put everyone who optins on the same list. Create a new campaign and setup 5-7 follow
up emails with valuable information, and once the follow ups end send them regular
broadcasts (preferable every day)!
Aweber is the recommended autoresponder service because it’s still has the highest
deliverability rate, and it’s extremely easy to use.
Content
You should also have a content site, where you put helpful content regularly. You can write
articles or create videos, whichever you prefer.
As you keep providing helpful content and advice to your list over time they will begin to like
and trust you. That’s when they’ll buy the products or services you recommend, and that’s
how you make money.
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8. Of course on your content site you can also recommend your products or services (or
affiliate products) within your articles or videos.
You can refer to my free content creation course for a complete strategy to creation good
content for your website.
Now let’s see how to build your sales funnel.
First we’ll see how to create both products for the sales funnel… the lead magnet and the
one time offer product.
The Lead Magnet
On the optin page you’ll give away a free Info product. This is also known as a lead magnet.
Fast To Consume
These are the most common and best performing lead magnets formats:
• Template
• Swipe File
• Mind Map
• Checklist
• Short Video
• Short Audio
• Info graphic
• Worksheet
Or any other easy to consume format… Ideally it should be consumed in 10 mins or less!
Therefore it cannot be a 50 page ebook, or a 1 hour long video.
There are two reasons why it should be consumed quickly.
Reason #1:
They’re going to see the one time offer after they optin. And they’ll receive a link to download
the lead magnet via email. Some of them will check their email to download the lead
magnet.
You want them to consume it quickly so that they can look at your one time offer sales page
and ideally buy it!
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9. If the lead magnet is for example a 1 hour long video they will totally forget about the one
time offer by the time the video ends. People can get distracted easily on the Internet…
Reason #2:
If your prospects already know, like and trust you then they’ll probably won’t mind investing a
good portion of their time to consume a large ebook, long case study or a big course,
because they know you’re going to deliver something great like you always do!
But your optin page is going to be seen by people who don’t yet know or trust you (cold
audience), so they’re not going to risk wasting their time. Furthermore they’re too busy with
other things, e.g. Facebook newsfeed, messenger, email, and so on.
Therefore your lead magnet has to promise a great result or benefit that they can get in a
little amount of time! If you use any one of the above lead magnet formats (or any other
quick to consume format), they instantly realise they can quickly download and read, listen
or watch it…
But if your lead magnet is a 1 hour case study, or a course you’ll be asking them for a huge
time commitment, something they’re not yet willing to do!
Specificity
The lead magnet should offer a specific solution to a specific problem, issue, challenge or
need that your prospects have.
It cannot be general or vague like for example “A crash course about cars”.
Instead it has to be specific, for example one or more short videos specifically about care
tire maintenance. Just about that specific topic:
How to check tire pressure
How to properly check and fill tires
How to measure tread depth
How to change a tire
And so on…
You can explain more about what they’ll actually learn (in particular the benefits) in the bullet
points of the optin page. More about how to build the optin page further down…
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10. The solution you offer has to be something that pretty much everyone in your niche wants or
needs to know… so that it will be of interest to almost everyone! Because your goal is to put
as many prospects as you can on your list.
An analogy is with fishing, throw a large enough net so you capture as many fish as you
can!
However you cannot offer a solution that they can easily find with a quick search on
Youtube, like for example one simple video on how to change a tire. There are probably
hundreds of videos about that. They’re not going to give you their name and email to watch
a video they can easily find on Youtube in 12 seconds or less.
Naming Your Lead Magnet
Use the words “checklist, swipe file, cheat sheet, recipe” or whatever it happens to be in the
name of the lead magnet. In this way it becomes an actual thing. In the example below it’s a
video series.
Example:
“The Complete Car Tire Maintenance”
10 min Video Series!
by Your Name
Here are some more good lead magnet examples. You can hire an ecover designer to create
a nice looking ecover, so they look professional like these:
This lead magnet is a cheat sheet, called “The Vegan Diet Cheat Sheet”.
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11. This lead magnet is a checklist, called “The Ultimate Wedding Planning Checklist”. It’s
solves a specific problem quickly and easily – that’s how a lead magnet should be.
This is a very short ebook, just 28 pages. It contains several recipes that can help with pain
relief… It’s called “The 7-Day Meal Plan for Ultimate Pain Relief”.
If you want to use an ebook as the lead magnet try to keep it between 10-30 pages, so it’s
quick to consume.
Once they optin to get the lead magnet they’ll see the next page in the sales funnel. On this
page we’ll sell the one time offer product. Let’s discover more about this product.
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12. The 'One Time Offer' Product
The lead magnet and the one time offer (oto) product have to be relevant to one another.
The one time offer would be a product they would love to have after consuming the lead
magnet. It has to be something related to it. Think of what they would need to know or have
after they consume the lead magnet. That would be a great oto product.
The one time offer is like an upgrade of the lead magnet. The lead magnet on “steroids”.
The “Complete Car Tire Maintenance To Make Them Last Longer!” lead magnet is about car
tire maintenance.
After they consume those quick 5 minute videos they might be interested to learn about
other car maintenance topics, for example:
How to check oil levels
How to check drive belts
How to check engine coolant level
How to replace engine air filter
How to replace spark plugs
How to check battery terminals and clean the contacts
how to replace broken indicator bulbs
How to store your car for winter
and more…
Since they downloaded a lead magnet about car tire maintenance, they’ll probably be very
interested in other maintenance guides. It makes sense.
So the one time offer product could be a much larger video course that shows them how to
do other maintenance work on their car.
I’ve made another guide about Information products. Take a look it can help you generate
new ideas for Info products and actually create them!
You can price the one time offer product from about $27 up to $97. You can sell this product
from another regular sales letter, but in the sales funnel you have to reduce the price by
about 30% of what you normally charge. Don’t give this price reduction discount anywhere
else (so it’s a one time only offer).
For example if you regularly sell this product from another salesletter at $67, reduce it’s
price by 30%, therefore about $47 for the oto page.
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13. Now let’s discover how to create the actual pages, the optin page and the one time offer
page for your internet marketing sales funnel.
Keep in mind that it is very important that you become a good copywriter, so that you’ll write
really good copy for both pages. I’ve made an entire guide about copywriting, plus another
guide specifically about sales letters (you’ll need a sales letter for the one time offer page).
Let’s start with the first page of the sales funnel…
The Optin Page
The optin page is a very simple page. You don’t need to put anything fancy on it, in fact the
most basic and simple looking optin pages perform the best.
This particular optin page can reach a conversion rate of 45% after you optimize it with split
testing. So it’s incredible effective! Split testing is explained further below…
It consists of 4 main components:
• Headline
• 3 Bullet Points
• Lead Magnet eCover
• Download Button (2-step)
I made a separate guide showing you exactly how to build the optin page.
Here’s an example of my own optin page containing all those 4 elements:
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14. Put the Headline at the top, 3 bullet points on the left side, ecover on the right side and the
download button at the bottom.
All four components, including the button at the bottom of the page should be visible without
the need to scroll down!
You only have maybe 7-12 seconds to make a good impression, and forcing them to scroll
down to see the download button on such a short page is unprofessional.
You want them to see everything on the page as soon as it loads… so they can read the
headline, the bullet points and click the download button!
Now let’s discover how to create each of those 4 components. The first one is the most
important, it’s the headline.
The Headline
Use the tips below and those in my other copywriting guide, specifically the part about
writing catchy headlines in order to write really good headlines. With practice your your
ability to write really great headlines will improve!
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15. Keep in mind your prospects want to know ‘What’s In It For Me’. That’s a fundamental
copywriting principle. That’s why you should not talk about yourself in the headline. If you
use the word “I” or “We” try to rewrite it to use the word “You”.
The job of the headline is to tell the visitors a great benefit they’ll receive from the page.
Remember the lead magnet has to offer a specific solution to solve a specific problem. And
the headline has to promise a specific benefit or solution as well.
You want the headline to be interesting enough so they read the rest of the copy, in this case
the 3 bullet points.
Wrap your headline in quotation marks, it’s proven to attract more attention.
Instant Gratification
If possible, your headline should promise them they’ll learn to do something right now, in the
next 35 minutes. That’s a great benefit, people love instant gratification so it will appeal to
almost everyone.
For example you can tell them something like:
“Free Video Reveals The Exact Steps
To Perform A Complete Tire Inspection &
Maintenance In 35 Minutes Or Less!”
The Best Result
Don’t try to tell them everything the lead magnet will do for them in the headline. Your
headline should be focused around the single best benefit, solution or result they’ll get after
they consume the lead magnet.
Headline Templates
To make it easier to write your headlines you use the following templates and formulas.
These are proven to produce attention grabbing headlines, which is what you want. Pick and
use the one that will work best for you.
Template No.1
Free Course/Video Reveals The Secret To [desired end result/outcome]!
Example:
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16. FREE 3-PART VIDEO SERIES Reveals the Secrets to Achieving Your
MAXIMUM Potential as a Singer, Performer, or Recording Artist!
Template No.2
Problem – Solution. First mention the problem and then the solution.
Are You Tired of Your [biggest problem]? Well
My New Free Report Will Teach You How To _____
Example:
Are You Struggling To Drive Traffic With Facebook
Ads? My Free Video Will Show You The Exact Ad
That I Used To Generate 14, 000 Leads Online!
Template No.3
Specific Desired Result in a Specific Amount of Time. People love specifics.
Example no. 1:
How To Lose 14 Pounds In 10 Days.
Example no. 2:
Grow Enough Food To Feed A Family
of 4 In Just 4 Square Feet Of Space –
Even If You Don’t Have A Yard!
Template No.4
Get a specific result while avoiding doing the thing you don’t want to do.
[Lead magnet] gives you [desired result]
without [thing you don’t want to deal with].
Example no.1:
How To Lose Weight Without Exercise!
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17. Example no.2:
“InfusionX™ Give You EVERYTHING You
Need To Market, Sell, And Deliver Your
Products And Services Online!”
(Without Having To Hire Or Rely
On A Tech Team!)
Template No.5
This is similar to the previous one.
Get a specific result while still being about to do that thing which you think you have to give
up.
Example:
How To Lose Weight Without Giving Up Pizza!
I have 57 more headline templates to generate really great headlines in my other guide
about swipe files.
Now let’s see how you can complete the next component of the optin page.
3 Bullet Points
3 great bullet points are enough!
Some marketers spend 30 minutes to write a single bullet point. Take your time, they have to
be short but they must pack a punch!
Keep in mind that sometimes you write a bullet point that’s so good it can be used as the
headline of the optin page!
How To Write Great Bullet Points
The 3 bullet points on the optin page are like the trailer of a movie. They reveal the
best benefits or things about the lead magnet!
Keep in mind the ‘What’s In It For Me’ copywriting principle applies also when you’re writing
bullet points. So avoid talking about yourself in the bullet points.
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18. If you use the word “I” or “We” try to rewrite the sentence to use the word “You”.
Below you’ll find some templates and ideas to write your bullet points. I don’t recommend
you spend days to write bullet points. You can always get back to them later on and improve
them…
“So you can… [benefit]” or “so that… [benefit]“
This bullet point template mentions a feature and how it can benefit the prospect.
Example:
• Discover how to supercharge and restore your immune system, so you can FIGHT
any illness like a SUPERHERO!”
Give It A Name
If your lead magnet reveals any strategies or techniques, give them a name so they stand
out. For example in the tennis niche you can name one of your techniques “The forehand
crusher”.
Rather than just saying “discover a technique to improve your forehand power and speed”,
you can give that technique a name and you make it stand out and increase its perceived
value.
Example no.1:
• Discover the forehand crusher technique that will increase your forehand power and
speed!
Example no.2:
• The “You Forgot” reminder trick that allows you to increase your productivity tenfold!
Specific Bullet Points
One of your bullet points can offer a very specific benefit they’ll going to enjoy. Specificity
works well because the prospect can understand in greater detail what they’ll get.
Example:
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19.
• How to use 3 little-known “positioning secrets” to completely cancel out the superior
size or experience of your attacker!
Pluck Interesting Things
You can look carefully at the contents and information in your lead magnet to find the best
benefits or things about it. Then feature them as a bullet point!
Answer Their Objections
Make a list of your prospects’ biggest questions, objections or problems they have, that your
lead magnet answers, and then write bullet points about them.
You can put the objections on the left side of a piece of paper, and on the right side write the
corresponding bullet point, the benefit, the thing that the lead magnet gives and does to
solve that problem.
Example:
Problem: the prospect needs to know how to change a tire.
Bullet point: The exact step by step process to change a tire in 7 minutes or less!
Notice the bullet point is being specific, which is always a good thing to do when writing
bullet points.
Lead Magnet ECover
Even though the lead magnet is free it should still look professional. You can hire an ecover
designer to design a nice looking ecover for your lead magnet.
These are some options to purchase ecovers:
• DesignInca - I've hired them for ecovers. On their portfolio page they don't have
much examples of past work yet. These are some of the ecovers they did for
me: example one, example two, example three.
• Warrior Forum - In this forum they have an entire section where you can find and
hire designers.
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20. • Fiverr - Most of the freelancers on fiverr provide very low quality graphics. So look
carefully at their portfolio before you pick someone. If you're lucky you can find
someone good, and they can be really cheap.
• eCover Expert - Decent ecovers.
If the lead magnet is a video you can put a video thumbnail with a play button, here’s an
example:
Video thumbnail example
Download Button (2-step)
The download button uses a 2 step optin form. This means when you click the button a
“popup” loads, where user can enter their name and email. Here’s a screenshot:
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21. A 2 step optin form has been proven (from various split tests) to work much better than if
you had the optin box (name & email forms) directly on the same page! Pretty much
everyone uses a 2 step optin form.
To create these “popups” in WordPress I use a plugin called Layered Popups.
The One Time Offer Page
The one time offer page is a a normal sales letter, with a few adjustments. You can read my
other guide on how to write sales letters, in order to write a really good sales letter for the
one time offer page.
The length of the sales letter is usually affected by the price of your product.
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22. Because if you’re selling a $27 product you’ll probably need less copy to explain all its
benefits, features and persuade the prospect to invest in it, than if it was a bigger or larger
product, with a price tag of $69 or more.
At first it’s recommended that you don’t use video to keep things as simple as possible, to
avoid overwhelm and frustration. Much later on you can consider adding a video at the top
of the sales letter, this is known as a video sales letter (VSL) and split test to see if it
outperforms the regular sales letter.
Split testing is discussed further below…
The Confirmation Message
The only modifications you want to make is at the top of the sales letter.
Above the first component of the sales letter, therefore the headline you should put a
confirmation message. They have just opted in for your lead magnet, so you want to put a
note to inform them that their lead magnet will arrive shortly in their email inbox.
Here are three examples of one time offer pages. Click the thumbnail to see the full size
image (it’s a screenshot of the actual page).
Notice at the very top they both have that confirmation message…
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23. The One Time Only Headline/Message
Below the confirmation message you can also put another message or headline to inform
them the offer on this page is a one time only offer…
You can write something like this: “This Is A One Time Only Offer – You Won’t See This
Every Again!”…
And below that you can put your sales letter… which starts with a headline or a pre
headline. Headlines, pre headlines and sales letters are explained in my other guide
about sales letters.
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Click image to see
full size
Click image to see
full size
Click image to see
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24. Here are 3 examples of this one time only offer message. These examples are a little bit
fancier, you don’t necessarily have to use any arrows, or graphics like these examples…
The one time offer page will contain the sales letter that will sell your product. And just like
any other good sales letter you’ll need to give them about 3 free bonuses as part of the offer.
I suggest you check out my other guide about Information products to discover how to
create the bonus products.
The last page is the simplest one, it’s the…
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25. The Thank You Page
The thank you page is the easiest page, because all you have to do is thank them for
purchasing the one time only product… and give them download links.
Give all necessary instructions and tools they need, for example ebook readers, video
players or anything else they need to consume your product. Put your email address on the
thank you page so they can contact you quickly in case they have trouble downloading their
products.
Sales Funnel Design Tips
Congruency (or branding) is very important in a sales funnel. This means all 3 pages have to
look very similar to one another in certain aspects. So that the visitor feels, learns and
understands quickly that he’s still on the same website after they optin.
They can easily become confused if each page of the sales
funnel looks different… because you use different colors for
example. They may think the one time offer is a “popup” or
something crazy like that…
Keep the following components identical or very similar
throughout the sales funnel, to give the visitor a consistent
experience as they move from one page to another.
• Headlines - Use the same font family, size and color for all
headlines, the one on the optin page and the other one on the one time offer page.
• Subheadlines - These too need to have the same font family, size and color. These
are used on the oto page.
• Fonts - Use the same font family and size on all pages.
• Colors - Use one main color e.g. red on all pages. This color can be used in
headlines and/or subheadlines, background colors, etc. You can also use that it in
the product's ecovers but this is optional. The body text should always be black.
• Download or Buy Buttons - Use the same button color, and font family for the button
text for all the buttons in the sales funnel.
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26. • Logo - You can put your logo at the very top or bottom of each page of the sales
funnel.
• Favicon - You can use a favicon, this is the icon that appears in the browser's tab.
You can use your logo as the favicon.
• eCovers - You can order the ecovers for the lead magnet, the one time only product
and its bonuses all from the same designer... so that they design them using similar
colors and styles. This is optional, but it too can give that congruency (or branding)
effect.
If you use anything else on more than one page you can make them identical or very similar
to each other to give the visitor a consistent experience.
Below are the three pages of my own sales funnel, notice the similarity between the various
elements from the list above, e.g. headline fonts and colors, button colors, favicon, logo, and
so on…
Click the thumbnails to see the full screenshot.
Optin page
One Time Offer page
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27. Thank You page
Ad And Optin Page Congruency
There should also be congruency between the ad (e.g. Facebook Ad if you’re
using Facebook Advertising), and the optin page as much as possible.
For example you can use the same headline of the optin page for the ad title. In this way
after a visitor clicks on your ad they’ll see the exact same headline on the optin page. They’ll
immediately know they landed on the exact and appropriate page they had to in order to get
the lead magnet.
A confused visitor won’t think twice before abandoning your website, so it’s paramount that
you do anything you can to make everything quick, simple and easy to understand.
Sales Funnel Tools
For this basic sales funnel you don’t need a lot of tools. The following are the tools you’ll
need to setup this funnel.
• Autoresponder
After they optin they will be added to your list so that you can deliver the lead magnet and
then email them regularly (preferable daily). Aweber is the recommended autoresponder
software.
• Page Builder
To build your sales funnel pages you can use WordPress.org and a page building plugin for
WordPress. The recommended plugins are Elementor or Thrive Architect.
This video shows you how to install WordPress:
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28. To install elementor’s free version of their plugin you can follow this guide on their website:
How to Install Elementor Page Builder
If the free version doesn’t contain all the necessarily features consider upgrading to the pro
version, and this guide shows you how to install the pro version:
Installing Elementor Pro
This video shows you how to install Thrive Architect:
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29. • Order Processing
You have to link to an order form from your one time offer page, so your prospects can use it
to purchase the OTO product.
You can use Jvzoo to accept credit cards and paypal. It’s free. You want to accept credit
cards, but ideally also paypal because it’s widely used.
If for whatever reason Jvzoo doesn’t work for you these are some other options:
CCbill (this is the one I use currently, not the easiest to setup but it’s still beginnner friendly)
PayKickStart (there’s a monthly fee for this one)
…and there are more options.
I don’t recommend Clickbank, because they require that you put their Trust Bade (a kind of
banner) on your pages, which can hurt your conversions.
Sales Funnel Benchmarks
Once you’ve finished creating your sales funnel, with all three pages and the various
products… you can drive paid traffic to test it.
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30. You should get about 25% conversion rate on the optin page and between 1-2%
conversion rate on the one time offer page.
If you don’t get those conversion rates you have to improve your copywriting skill, so that
you write better copy for those pages.
Check the copywriting guide and the one specifically about sales letters, and use swipe
files because they’re a very useful tool to write copy!
How To Calculate Conversion Rate?
The 25% conversion rate on the optin page means out of every 100 visitors 25 become
leads.
The 2% conversion rate means that out of every 100 people that see the one time offer page
2 will buy it.
To calculate the conversion rate divide the number of actions that occurred in a given time
frame, e.g. in the last 30 days, by the number of visitors the page got in the same time
frame. Then multiple by 100 to get a percentage value.
For example our optin page got 250 leads and 1000 visitors in the last 30 days.
250 / 1000 = 0.25 x 100 = 25%.
You can use this free tool to calculate the conversion rate.
How To Create A
Break Even Sales Funnel
A break even funnel means if you spend e.g. $300 in a given time period, e.g. 1 month, you
earn $300 or more from your sales funnel one time only sales, in the same time period.
You’re losing no money… and you’re building your list.
If you increase the number of OTO sales you make you’ll obviously more likely to create a
break even funnel.
And to do that there are several things you can do, let’s discover them…
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31. Increase Conversion Rates
If you increase the optin and OTO page until they have average conversion rates, you’re
more likely to create a break even funnel.
So the first thing you can do is reach the average conversion rates for both
pages. Remember that means at least 20% on the optin page and 1-2% on the one time
offer page!
There are two ways to do that…
Write Better Copy
You should improve your copywriting skill in order to write better copy and that will increase
the conversion rates for your optin and oto pages. The result would be more leads and more
sales, which both can result in a break even funnel.
Test New Products
If you still cannot reach the average conversion rates (20% for optin and 1-2% for OTO
page), even after drastically improving the copy of your pages, then you may need to try
new products.
Perhaps your prospects don’t like the lead magnet or OTO product. In which case you have
to test new ones!
Decrease Your Advertising Cost
Another thing you can do to create a break even sales funnel is lower your advertising cost.
How you do that depends on what paid traffic source you’re using.
For example if you’re using Facebook Ads you can decrease your advertising costs (cost
per click or CPC) by increasing your ad relevancy score, and increasing your ad click
through rate (CTR).
If you can spend less money to send the same amount of visitors to the sales funnel you’re
obviously more likely to create a break even funnel.
Split Test Your Sales Funnel Pages
Once you reach the average conversion rates, your sales funnel may still need more
tweaking in order to reach break even point.
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32. You can use split testing, but it’s a slightly more advanced technique. Don’t worry about it
until you’ve built your sales funnel and it has the average conversion rates.
The average conversion rates should be reached with the above methods. Split testing is
used to go beyond the average conversion rates (not the reach the average).
K.I.S.S Princinple: The K.I.S.S. principle, keep it simple stupid, should be
applied in anything you do in your business. If you feel things are getting a
bit too complicated you have to simplify some things... And then slowly add
complexities bit by bit. Master the basics and test more advanced things
later on.
You can split test your optin or oto page. Always split test just one page or the other, not both
at the same time, to keep things simple.
It will be easier to perform a split test on the optin page, because it’s a very short page, so
ideally start with that page.
To split test means to duplicate the page, and change just one element from that page.
For example you can create an exact duplicate of the optin page, but the second copy will
have a totally new headline.
Then you’ll have 2 variations of the optin page. You send traffic normally to your optin page
url, but the split testing tool (e.g. Google Optimize) will rotate the pages. This means half
the traffic you send will see variation A (the original page) and the other half will see variation
B (the page with the new headline).
You have to wait until your optin page gets 500 conversions (leads) or 1,000 visitors in order
to decide which variation is the best. (You may have to be patient at first if you’re only getting
few visitors).
When split testing sales pages e.g. your one time offer page wait until you get a total of 100
conversions (sales) at least.
Important: It's important to wait until you get enough conversions. Technically
speaking that will be known as a statistically significant test.
Here’s a good video about statistically significant tests, that comes directly from the owners
of a split testing tool called Thrive Optimize:
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33. To decide which optin page is the best you simple take a look at which page got the most
leads. If it was the new variation you created (with the new headline), then start using that
optin page instead of the other one…
Once a split test ends you can start another one… and in that way you keep improving your
conversion rate slowly and steadily.
After you split test the headline you can split test another element on your page. Here are a
few suggestions…
Split Tests To Consider
Not every element on your pages are worth split testing. For example button color can be
split tested – that will tell you which is the best button color to use between two different
colors. But you will only see a very minor improvement in your conversion rates, an
insignificant improvement.
However if you split test a headline and find a better one you can see big improvements in
conversion rates. You can go from 20% to 25% just by changing the headline.
• The headline is the first element you should split test, because that's the most
important element on your optin or one time offer page.
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34. • The offer format is the second element you should split test after the headline.
This means test a free video versus a free checklist, or a free template versus a
free special report. Take the information of your lead magnet and just put it in a
new format, and test to see if people prefer that format versus the other.
• After the offer format perform a split test on your actual sales copy. This is much
less important than the other two. For example test a new bullet point. Remember
always make one simple change, don't change all three bullet points, just change
one only.
Once you finish the first split test on the headline, you can test the offer format, and then the
copy. And then restart back from the headline…
Split testing is an ongoing process, you should always have a split test running. You’ll see
small improvements in your conversion rates with each split test, but over time they
accumulate into big improvements.
Split Testing Tools
When you do split testing all you have to do is duplicate a page (e.g. the optin page), and
essentially have two copies of it… but one of them will have one variation, e.g. a different
headline.
The reason you need a split testing tool is because they’ll rotate both pages when you send
traffic. So some visitors see page 1, and other see page 2. Split testing tools also calculate
conversion rates and provide a lot of useful data about the split test you’re conducting.
All you need is Google Optimize and Google Analytics. Both are free tools. You can read this
rather long, but well detailed article on how to setup everything and run your first split test.
https://elementor.com/blog/a-b-testing/
That tutorial works for any page building plugin you’re using, not just Elementor.
There’s also a new split testing plugin that works specifically with Elementor, called Split
Test For Elementor.
Thrive Optimize is another good split testing tool, but it works only with Thrive Architect,
and it’s not free.
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35. Use A One Click Upsell (Advanced)
If you cannot make a break even funnel with any of the other methods, the last resort is to
use a one click upsell (OCU). That will basically increase the amount of money you can
potentially earn from the funnel.
The one click upsell is just another sales page in your funnel that will sell a additional
product. It will only be visible to those who purchase the OTO product.
Here’s how the sales funnel will look with this new page:
If you price this OCU product for example $69 and the OTO product $37, now your sales
funnel can earn you up to $106 from a single customer. This means it’s now more likely to
recuperate (liquidate) the advertising cost and break even!
The one click upsell can be a much shorter sales letter (and typically it’s a video sales letter,
containing just a video instead of a sales letter) and you can offer the customer another
related product to what they just purchased.
Think of what other products or services your customers want after they buy the OTO
product. What would they need next?
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36. The one click upsell page will have two buttons at the bottom of the page.
One button will allow your customers to buy the OCU product. Their card will be charged
instantly, they won’t have to fill an order form again.
The second button will allow them to reject the offer and it takes them to the thank you page
for the OTO product they purchased.
Sales Funnel Tools To Create One Click Upsells
You need a special shopping cart that has the one click upsell feature. Here are just a few
good ones:
SamCart
PayKickStart
Sales Funnel Building
Summary
This guide gave you a simple but proven sales funnel that you can use regardless of your
niche. Remember this funnel can be used to generate thousands of leads every month
and build a 5 figures a month business.
This funnel consists of just 3 pages. And I’ve also showed you ways to improve the funnel
until it break evens, so that you’re earning as much or more than you’re spending on paid
traffic.
A sales funnel is the core of an Info business. It’s the “machine” that supplies the business
with fresh new leads every day. So you should build one.
Remember the K.I.S.S. principle because it’s truly important, keep it simple stupid! Use this
basic sales funnel and avoid any complicated or advanced strategies until you master the
basics.
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37. Keep things simple and easy so you accomplish a lot! Otherwise you can get confused and
frustrated… both can halt your progress and lower your motivation to take action.
Jack “straight talk” Sarlo
P.S. For more free guides go to InformationMarketingExpert
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