how to design a sales funnel landing page

Written by Laura Farkas

Updated September 9, 2021

How To Design a Sales Funnel Landing Page for Profitable Campaigns- 3-step Effortless System Successful Businesses Like Yours Can Not Afford to Miss

Quick Navigation:

What is a Sales Funnel Langing Page?
How to design a Landing Page for a Funnel
Start with the end in mind for your Sales Funnel Design
The importance of Good Copy: Headlines turn Landing Pages into Conversion Machines
How to brand your Landing Page for Funnel Marketing
- Is your Landing Page building confidence in your audience?
Go for the Sale with your Landing Page
Ask for the Sale, Upsell, and Downsell in your Funnel Marketing
Sales Funnel Landing Page Design Checklist

Design is important when it comes to conversions, and this is true when you are setting up a sales funnel, too. Today we are going to talk about the best practices to design a sales funnel landing page; what to add, how to structure your content, and what to avoid.

At LMNts Marketing, we have planned, designed, and implemented hundreds of lead magnet-type landing pages and would like to share our insights with business owners who are just embarking on this journey.

What is a Sales Funnel Landing Page?

First things first: you need to understand the purpose of the design and the benefits of having a sales funnel landing page. It is a standalone page on your website (or your funnel builder) that has one purpose: to make your audience take action. No matter if you call it a lead magnet, sales page, squeeze page, or landing page; the concept is the same: drive people down your sales funnel and buy into what you have to offer.

To develop a successful sales funnel, you will need to join together a series of landing pages, so your audience always knows what the next logical step is and what you want them to do. That’s why sales funnel design is extremely important. You can’t just randomly create individual jigsaw pieces and expect them to fit perfectly together.

As a business owner or marketeer, your job is to welcome first time website visitors, show them what you have to offer, get them to take action, and to build a relationship with them to take them closer to the point when they are ready to make a buying decision.

How to design a Landing Page for a Funnel

The design of the landing page will depend on the purpose of the page, and its place in the funnel. You need a different design (and call-to-action) for the beginning of the relationship and for relationship building, or closing the sale. However, the main goals of every sales funnel landing page should be:

To feature your business in the most appealing way
To tell the audience how you can solve their most urgent problems
To create desire in your audience to solve their problem
To make them consider buying from you

Headline

People’s attention span is shrinking every day, due to the speed of the information highway. Without a powerful headline that stops them in their tracks, you will have no chance of getting their attention.

Image via agileleanlife.com

The headline will also need to talk about your audience’s problem, and not just how great you are. Using NLP methods to choose the right words for your ideal client is also a great way of ensuring that your headline resonates with your target audience. If you don’t promise a solution to your visitors’ problem, don’t expect them to stay and read on.

Your headline should be between 10 and 20 words, fit in one or two rows.

Keep your headlines simple, straight to the point, and enticing. Ask a question, promise a solution, or do both.

Body

In the body of the landing page (middle section), you will need to expand on the headline. You already answered one question: “What”. Now it’s time to tell them about the “how”and the “why”.

You will also have to set yourself apart from your competitors; detail the benefits, offer guarantees, and display your previous results.

Matching the language of your landing page to the one your audience is using will help your message resonate with them. Use examples, phrases they understand, and break down the text using short paragraphs, lists, and bullet points.

Call to Action

In the call-to-action, you are answering the question: “what next?” We see so many landing pages with confusing CTAs and messages that are not clear enough. You will have to give your visitors a clear instruction on what they should do to benefit from what you offer. The general rule is that there should be only one clear call-to-action in the copy.

Start with the end in mind for your Sales Funnel Design

When we engage in funnel marketing, we always reverse-engineer the process. We ask people what they want to sell, then create landing pages that will lead visitors to the sales page.

Let’s say you are a business coach charging £5,000 per month. You cannot expect people to go straight to the sales landing page, open their wallet, take out their credit card, and sign up. You want to build a relationship.

Once we know what the ideal outcome of the process is, we can begin with the sales funnel design. We map all the steps and create a series or funnel landing page plans that will do the following:

Build trust
Create reciprocity
Set expectations
Create credibility
Generate engagement

You might start with a free video giveaway that will require people to submit their details on the site. You will need to answer the most burning questions your visitors have in the video. Once they signed up, you can maybe start implementing quiz funnel marketing to learn more about your target market and engage in meaningful conversations.

After the freebies, you can introduce special offers, low ticket items, or even a free consultation or personalised report. This will deepen the relationship, feature you as an expert, and create reciprocity.

Once you have nurtured your leads, you will be able to ask the question: “are they ready to buy?” This is usually done using a sales page with strong call-to-actions and clear messages about the benefits of what you have to offer.

You have to design sales funnel pages differently, depending on where the visitor is in their buying journey.

Top of the Funnel Landing Pages

This is normally the first interaction you have with the website visitor, so you will have to appear credible, relatable, and helpful. You don’t normally ask for the sale, so you have to promise something in exchange for them signing up to engage with your brand.

This design is simple, straight-to-the-point, engaging, and its goal is to get visitors to make quick decisions. Offer something with a high perceived value for your audience.

Mid Funnel Landing Pages

In the middle of the funnel, it’s all about building a relationship and getting engagement. You can use videos to deepen personal connections, or a quiz funnel to find out more about your potential customers’ problems and give them tailored recommendations. You can recommend low ticket products or services, or another free download.

You will also have to qualify your audience mid-funnel, and this means that you can segment your audience and put them on the right follow-up sequence. You can have different customer journeys planned for those who are “just looking”, those who are moderately interested, and people with strong buying signals.

End of Funnel Landing Pages

At the end of the funnel you will need to go for a yes-or-no answer. It’s as simple as that. There are certain ways you can get people to give you a straight answer and to guide them to say yes. Limited time offers, limited number of spots, or tiered pricing work really well. If you implement these elements, you will see your conversion rates skyrocket.

The importance of Good Copy: Headlines turn Landing Pages into Conversion Machines

Copywriting is a skill. While there might be some web designers who can put together a stunning sales funnel design, they might not be wordsmiths. You have to use psychology when writing your landing page copy, understand your ideal client, and use the trigger words that will entice action.

SEO, good copy, and great design go hand in hand when it comes to successful funnel marketing.

The formatting of the copy is equally important. Your headlines should be clearly visible, and in a prominent position on your page. The call-to-action button should also be hard to miss. Here are a few great example of top marketers’ landing pages:

As you can see, both copies use “action words”, I and You, and very short paragraphs to break down the text. They also use images/videos to make the content appear genuine and the brand approachable. Anik Singal’s Lurn.com even uses the pronoun “your” in the call-to-action button.

On the second Tut.com landing page section, you will see a tick list, which is a powerful element of every landing page. You will also see an image representing – well -YOU enjoying the content. It’s all about language, structure, and psychology.

How to brand your Landing Page for Funnel Marketing

Your landing page needs to be “on brand”, no matter what you do. Of course, you don’t necessarily need a top navigation, as it might distract your visitors from taking action. What you need, however, is:

Your company logo
Your company colours implemented
Branded unique images
A strong mission, vision, and values statement implemented in the copy
Testimonials
Accreditations/Awards
Money back guarantee
No SPAM guarantee

Is your Landing Page building confidence in your audience?

People visiting your landing page will need to know that you are a real person, not a robot. You have to think about the questions your visitors might have when finding you, and answer every one of them. Period.

You should also display your credentials, testimonials, and results in a way that it builds trust and doesn’t appear fake.

Are you a legitimate business? Do you have a contact link, company registration displayed? These are things your audience is checking, especially the ones who have been burnt before.

Written testimonials will help you build trust and credibility, and they can be featured in any landing page. Always use real names and photos when possible.

Video testimonials are even more powerful than written ones. They are more authentic, personal, and detailed.

Case studies are great for sales landing pages, as they help people get answers to the last questions they have before making a buying decision. They are usually not featured on lead capture pages and free giveaway landing pages.

You can also add social media screenshots to build your reputation and credibility. If someone sent you a great message or comment, you can feature it on the sales pages.

Go for the Sale with your Landing Pages

The one button you want your customer to notice and click on is the signup one. That’s why you have to direct their eyes visually towards this element of your sales funnel design. If you are not sure where to place your CTA buttons or links, you can use a heat map software (AI) to help you.

When you implement a sales funnel landing page to close the deal, you will have to follow a certain structure in your copy. Here’s an easy way to do it:

Address the pain points of your audience
Offer help
Highlight and reinstate the benefits of your product or service
Handle the potential objections (what are they asking while reading your sales letter?)
Give them clear instructions on how to take action (CTA)

Ask for the Sale, Upsell, and Downsell in your Funnel Marketing

A funnel can be never-ending, and it should certainly not stop at the first sale. If you don’t have a follow-up strategy for people who already bought from you, you are leaving the bulk of the money on the table.

After the purchase is complete, you can ask people to upgrade, and sell them more. Or you can just send them a special discount code for the next product in your next email.

Likewise, people who abandon their cart need to be presented with a downsell offer. Maybe they don’t trust you enough just yet to give you all their money, but they like you enough to read the page. So why not offer a lower priced product or service they will benefit from? Once they have that, they might come back to upgrade, as they are confident enough to buy from you.

Creating a customer journey map for your funnel that includes all your offers is the best strategy to design a highly profitable sales funnel.

Sales Funnel Landing Page Design Checklist

As you can see, a lot goes into designing a winning sequence of sales funnel landing pages. Planning is essential, and we always start with this step. Here’s a simple checklist for you to use when planning your next funnel and testing a new product or service. Are you looking for help with your funnel marketing? We offer a free sales funnel overview and are happy to answer your questions.