High Converting Funnels (How to Design One + Common Errors)


A sales funnel is an effective tool for boosting conversions and maximizing your revenue. However, for a sales funnel to convert, you need to put in the time and effort to create a good design. Luckily with a few tips, making an effective funnel is possible.

To design a sales funnel that converts, you need to create an attractive landing page and enticing offers. The landing page’s ease of navigation, copy and call to action directly influence a visitor’s choice to move further down the funnel. The offers also need proper design and positioning.

Everyone who makes a sales funnel wants to increase their conversion rate. In this post, we will discuss how to design your landing pages and offers to create a great sales funnel. We will also cover a few common design mistakes to avoid.

Designing Your Landing Page

The landing page is where your prospects first interact with your brand. The visual design and elements of this page can make or break your sales funnel.

Check out my article on landing pages vs. sales funnels, where I’ve included a section explaining what landing pages are.

1. Navigation and Aesthetics

The first landing page element you’ll want to consider is the appearance and ease of navigation.

Since you only have a few seconds to convince your audience to stay, avoid busy landing pages that are difficult to navigate. Keep it simple and to the point to eliminate distractions.

In addition, avoid excessive navigation menus and fancy graphics that do not add any value to your page. These elements will only add friction to the navigation of your page.

2. Landing Page Copy

Another essential element of your landing page design is your copy.

The content of your copy is where you can quickly impress your audience and deliver your message. The first element of your copy is the headline.

This often determines if your audience will read on to the following line. Therefore, you need to craft a killer headline that grabs your audience’s attention and sparks their curiosity.

Then, once you’ve captured their attention with a compelling headline, make the body copy clear and convincing as well. 

The secret is to tell them about the benefits of your offer/product without giving everything away. The goal is to get them to stick around, so don’t tell them everything at a glance. 

Once you have created an excellent copy, you also need to present it well.

A good copy would be pointless if your audience feels that reading it is a lot of work. Therefore, design it in a way that makes reading effortless and enjoyable.

The easiest way to do so is by using proper spacing, font sizes, and color. Ensure your copy does not look like a block of text.

If you have a lot of points/information to cover, break them down into bullet points.

Use bolded letters or different fonts when you need to emphasize a word. Ultimately, good copy design comes down to presenting it as though you were speaking to a person in front of you.

Try to present your information in a clear and easy-to-understand way.

Landing Page Copy

3. Call to Action

The last design element on your landing page is the call to action. This is the specific action you want your visitors to take after reading your landing page copy.

When designing your call to action, consider the copy and the button color. The way you craft your call to action copy can get readers to take action or not.

A good call to action should be clear, bold, and articulate. But at the same time, it should not sound like you are bossing your audience around.

Give them a course of action to take, but don’t order them around. The key is to give them a gentle nudge in a friendly way.

If you can, appeal to their logic or emotions. Instead of using generic words like ‘sign up,’ get creative and try to give them a unique action to take.

The visual design of your CT also plays a role. For example, the call to action button color can influence the click rates of your leads.

Some colors convert better than others. For instance, studies have shown that red icons can convert better than cooler colors.

Additionally, you’ll want to aim for high contrast between your call to action button color and the background.

This is to make the call to action pop, making it hard to miss. Simple black and white contrast works well, but try out a few options to find what looks best.

Designing Your Funnel Offers

Designing irresistible offers is key to boosting your funnel conversions. You may have a great product, but if you do not package the order correctly, only a few people will buy it.

Since people do not like buying products from strangers, you’ll want to pitch your offer gradually as you build the relationship.

Creating offers like tripwires is an excellent way to build your email list as you nurture your prospects. The tripwire is an irresistible, low-cost offer that is part of your product or service.

Do check out my article on what is a tripwire in clickfunnels to learn about tripwire and how it can help your business.

This gives them a lead about the main product hence increasing their chances of buying the main product.

You may also offer free trials, promotional content, discounts, and other enticing offers that help people engage with your business. A good offer goes a long way when you’re pursuing new customers. 

Designing Your Funnel Offers

Sales Funnel Design Mistakes to Avoid

You may make mistakes while designing your sales funnel that will prevent it from converting properly. Here are some common design mistakes you should avoid.

1. Not Properly Mapping Your Sales Funnel

If you don’t define your sales funnel clearly, it will lower your conversion rates. In addition to mapping out your sales funnel, make it clear and simple.

Do check out my article on building a simple sales funnel to learn about creating one from scratch.

Failing to do so leaves potential customers confused due to the presence of too many options and distractions. 

To stay on course, make the conversion path from lead to customer as frictionless as possible. Reduce friction by minimizing the number of your funnel steps.

Besides, using heat maps will help you identify the areas of your funnel that need improvement.

2. Weak Offers

Presenting your offers at the wrong point in your funnel will lower the chances of conversion. For instance, offering an upsell at the top of your funnel is likely to backfire.

You can check out my article on upselling funnels to learn strategies for making upselling successful.

Leads who have just joined your funnel may not know much about you or your product, so they won’t be interested in buying an upgraded version of it.

Instead, consider positioning upsells lower down the funnel. At this point, you will have built relationships and trust.

Besides, the leads will have learned the benefits of your offer at this point. Then, they will be more willing to buy. 

3. Ineffective Call to Action

A weak call to action can be a death sentence for your funnel. Similarly, a call to action with dull colors that fail to contrast against the background reduces conversion rates.

The call to action compels your audience to take steps towards purchasing. Therefore, taking time to create attractive and strong CTAs is critical for your funnel conversions.

Use bright colors and position your call to action strategically to increase visibility. 

Sales Funnel Design Mistakes to Avoid

Patience and Persistence Matter in Designing a Converting Funnel…

Having a sales funnel does not automatically boost your sales. A converting funnel takes time and patience to design.

If you create a great landing page, copy, and call to action, you will retain your audience and get them to take desired steps.

In addition, designing and placing your offers strategically will boost your conversion rates immensely.

Start with lower-cost offers to attract your customers as you nurture them via email campaigns.

Shailen Vandeyar

A proud Indian origin Kiwi who loves to do BJJ and play with his pet bunny when not taking a plunge into the vast ocean of funnel design, email marketing, copywriting, conversions, and customer retention.

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