Ultimate Sales Funnel Template: No More Guessing. Get It Free
Suit up, and sit down.
It’s funnel time.
::queue 80’s MC Hammer beat::
If you’re reading this, it’s because you want answers.
You want to know how to create a sales funnel that’s easy to copy, that isn’t SUPER complex, and that—of course—get results.
Well, you’ve made a great choice because right now I’m giving you two funnel templates (free).
(If you’re new here, you should know that I’ve got a bit of experience doing this. I’m the CEO of AutoGrow which has generated over $25MM+ in revenue for our clients and we’ve been in business since 2010. In short, I’ve worked on hundreds of funnels.)
The first template is my super simple sales funnel template.
The second template is more advanced, my ultimate sales funnel template (not for beginners). It has more bells and whistles, but I’ll explain why you should NOT go straight for this one coming up.
Let’s break it down, here we go…
Quick Recap: What Is a Sales Funnel & Why Does It Matter?
Sales funnels have attained almost buzzword-like popularity in marketing circles these days.
And like most buzzwords, “sales funnels” is a phrase that’s often misused and misunderstood.
So let’s cut through the fog of confusion and lay it all out on the table: what’s a sales funnel? And most importantly, why does having one for your business even matter?
Simply put, a sales funnel is a series of marketing assets set up in a sequential order designed to turn prospects into paying customers.
Or as I defined it in an earlier post…
A sales funnel is a series of steps designed to guide visitors towards a buying decision. The steps are composed of marketing assets that do the work of selling, like landing pages and emails.
For instance, a super duper simplified sales funnel could go something like this…
Google Ads–>Lead Magnet Landing Page–>Lead Magnet–>Thank You Page–> Sales Page
In this example, you attract customers with a paid ad, win their trust with a free lead magnet, and you convert them to a loyal and loving customer through your sales page.
Simple, right?
Now, if you go out and Google “sales funnel,” you’re likely to get back a bunch of images like this…
See how the funnel’s all broken down into different stages? Awareness, Discovery, Evaluation…
There are tons of sites that have pretty much taken this example and reiterated it on their own pages.
And in a sense, they’re right! This is a sales funnel (technically).
And more to the point, it illustrates how a sales funnel works: it shuffles your prospects along through each stage until they are nurtured enough and ready to buy.
See, when a prospect enters the first stage of the funnel, they’re not ready to buy what you’re selling yet.
But as they move through your funnel, they’re learning more about their problem. They’re discovering all the different kinds of solutions to that problem. And ultimately, they’re being convinced why what it is you’re selling is the solution to that problem.
And THAT is when they’re ready to buy.
But the way that our sales funnel discussion differs from images like those above is that we’re going to look at the exact types of assets to be used in each stage of a buyer’s journey.
We’re going to point out where your ads need to go. Which paths prospects should be sent down after not engaging with your content. What sequence of content types should be used to close the deal.
We’re going to look at the concrete (landing pages, upsell emails, blog pages, etc.) rather than the abstract (awareness, discovery, evaluation, etc.).
But more on that in a sec. First let’s answer the biggest question you likely have about a sales funnel…
Why Should I Care About Sales Funnels?
This one’s easy… because a sales funnel can save you massive time and massive dough.
Here’s how.
Do you know what 65% of sales teams say is their biggest challenge according to Hubspot?
Prospecting and qualifying leads.
That’s 2 out of every 3 marketers saying that finding new leads and qualifying them is waaaaaaaay harder than closing the sale.
When the leads are right and they’re properly informed about what it is you’re offering, your sales team doesn’t have to do a whole lot to get those leads onboard.
Why? Because all their objections are already addressed. They’ve already had all their questions about their problems answered. And they’ve already been shown the light—your product is the obvious solution they’ve been looking for.
In fact, according to Salesforce, “selling” only takes up about 36% of most sales teams’ time.
So imagine this: what if lead generation and qualification all become automatic?
What if you could free up a huge portion of your sales staff’s time? Or if you’re the one fielding all the calls and closing the deals, what if you didn’t have to spend 10, 20, 30 hours a week hunting for new clients and qualifying leads?
That is the power of a sales funnel.
It does all the hard work of selling for you. And that means you can spend more time on where it counts most—growing your business.
If you want to get the absolute most out of your sales funnel be sure to take a page from the 17 best sales funnel examples we’ve found recently.
Now, let’s get to the sales funnel templates.
Funnel Template #1 — Ultimate Sales Funnel Template (Super Simple)
Like many problems in life, the solution to bringing in more and higher-quality leads lies in simplicity.
No need to overcomplicate. No need to put in more work than is necessary. And no need to go rogue building out untested strategies.
Because honestly, most businesses will only need a “simple” sales funnel in order to start getting results.
That’s where the Ultimate Sales Funnel Template (Super Simple) comes in.
This sales funnel has all the basic necessities of a minimum viable sales funnel plus a variety of added strategic techniques for hooking in prospects, propelling them to your checkout page, and nurturing and qualifying them along the way.
Quick Walkthrough
Let’s walk through how this Ultimate Sales Funnel Template (Super Simple) works.
- Ads – First, leads are brought in by paid ads, either through social media (we tend to primarily use Facebook and LinkedIn) or through Google. This is the fuel for your sales funnel. And although it’s only step #1, nailing this part of the funnel is absolutely key to the rest of it working as it should.
- Lead Magnet Landing Page – The ads should bring in prospects by referencing your lead magnet. The point of a lead magnet is to offer a free item of value (ebook, coupon, webinar, etc.) in exchange for the prospect’s email address. That way, you have the contact info needed to keep nurturing them through your funnel.
- Lead Magnet Landing Page Retargeting – The lead magnet landing page should have 2 types of retargeting strategies: an exit pop-up and retargeting ads.
- Thank You / Congratulations Page – Once your prospect downloads the lead magnet, they’ll be redirected to a “Thank You” page. We’ve found that positioning this page as a “Congratulations” page instead is a great way to build enthusiasm and to keep leads moving forward.
- Long-Form Sales Page – The Congratulations page should also be directly connected to a Long-Form Sales/Lead Gen page. This page should follow all the best practices of a typical sales page. The only difference is that it’s actually attached to the Congratulations page. That way, you don’t have to worry about prospects dropping out of your funnel between pages.
- Email Follow-Up or Checkout Page – After the sales page, prospects who are interested in your offer will be redirected to a booking or checkout page where they’ll buy your product or service. If they instead drop off the sales page without buying, they’ll be retargeted to the sales page again using a 3-email follow-up.
- Sales Page Traffic / Retargeting – This funnel also includes a separate sales page (same as the original, just without the Congratulations portion at the top). Retargeting ads and Google search ads will direct prospects to this page.
- Email Follow-Up After Checkout – Finally, after a prospect buys your product or books a call with you, they’ll receive a 2-email follow-up sequence. This sequence is designed to keep nurturing your prospects even after the sale so that they can get even more value out of what it is you’re offering. And as a result, they’re bound to turn from simple customers into brand loyalists and returning clients.
Why Does It Work?
Simply put, this sales funnel template works because it’s got everything a successful sales funnel needs…
- A diverse source of funnel traffic
- The core funnel pages (Lead Magnet Landing Page, Congrats / Thank You Page, Sales Page, Checkout Page)
- Retargeting and nurturing elements (email follow-ups and retargeting ads)
On top of that, we’ve used this same funnel to achieve the following fantastic results for our clients…
- Led to a 7:1 return on investment for one info product client
- Created a massive 86% conversion rate for one entrepreneur’s lead magnet
- Brought in 200+ new leads for an interior designer we worked with
Funnel Template #2 — Ultimate Sales Funnel Template (Advanced)
In most cases, simplicity is the best solution. If you can bring in an adequate number of leads that are high-quality with a simpler funnel, then that should be the #1 choice.
However, some businesses may be better served by more complex options.
And that’s where The Ultimate Sales Funnel Template (Advanced) comes in.
Quite a bit more going on here, huh?
This type of funnel can be thought of as more of a “second step.”
Once you’ve built out your simple funnel and have seen consistent and high-quality leads coming in, it’s time to tweak it to produce even more impressive results.
And this is what we’ve found works when businesses are trying to achieve those more impressive results.
Quick Walkthrough
Let’s take a closer look at the flow of this template.
Now, this template takes what works from the simpler sales funnel template above and improves on it even further. So right now, I’ll just take you through the differences between the 2 templates.
For example, you’ll notice that there are actually 3 lead magnet offers in this template. That way, there are twice as many chances to capture leads with valuable info and bring them into your funnel.
After that, a survey separates them from receiving personalized emails and a tripwire offer or generic emails meant to warm up the prospect even further.
If after these email sequences the prospect has not yet bought, they are directed to an upsell sequence or another lead magnet if they haven’t shown engagement along the way.
Why Does It Work?
The funnel here is admittedly long.
But it’s particularly great for high-ticket products or services. Why? Because high-ticket products or services require significantly more nurturing in order to turn leads into customers.
On top of that, though, this funnel is also especially great at taking prospective customers through every single stage of the customer journey.
For example, low-engaging prospects are guided through generic email sequences before receiving personalized emails. And if they still stay at a low-engagement, then they’re led to a specialized lead magnet meant to reignite their interest in your product or service.
For high-engaging prospects, there are upsells, which can be an enormous source of additional revenue.
For example, have a look at this graph that outlines the financial impacts of improving customer acquisition, monetization, or retention by just 1%.
As you can see, a simple 1% increase in monetization of a single customer can improve your bottom line by 12.70%—9.38% higher than acquisition and 5.99% higher than retention.
And upselling is without a doubt one of the best ways of increasing the monetization of a single customer.
When you know how to upsell the right way, this funnel gives you the perfect opportunities to capitalize on high-engaging prospects and increase your value per customer.
Additional Funnel Templates You Should Check Out
These two core sales funnel templates work great for nearly any business in any industry.
And in all likelihood, they’re probably going to work great for your business too.
That being said, businesses in some industries can stand to benefit from using more specialized funnels.
And luckily, we’ve already built out templates for these industries in particular.
So have a look below and if you see one that matches the industry you’re in, give it a look and download yours now.
The Local Events Sales Funnel Templates
If your business is looking to host a workshop, meet and greet, seminar, or any other type of local event, you need to have the best marketing tools at your disposal to make it a success.
That’s where our local events sales funnel templates come in.
At AutoGrow, we’ve found that these two types of sales funnels in particular work well for this business model.
First, there’s “Old Reliable.”
This template gives your visitors everything they need to 1) get the information they need to make an informed decision and 2) register for your event.
It also includes light retargeting tactics to bring prospects back into your funnel.
Then there’s what we call “The Retargeter.”
This sales funnel is heavy on retargeting tactics. Two sets of retargeting ads, two different email sequences, and an exit pop-up ensure that anyone who drops out of your funnel is going to have the highest chances possible of getting sucked back in.
The SaaS Sales Funnel Template
The SaaS business is rapidly growing in popularity these days.
In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2021, SaaS will be a $113.1 billion market.
Now, the trick to capitalizing on this growth is knowing how to market your SaaS business well. And we’ve got 2 sales funnel templates designed to do just that.
First, there’s the “basic” one.
This diagram comes with loads of assets that are perfect for the SaaS model—namely the free trial (with a credit card) and the demo video page.
There are also plenty of opportunities for retargeting.
I also templated out what I call the SaaS 60-Day “Long” Trial Downsell/Upsell Funnel. This funnel actually comes from my personal experience using SamCart.
It features a practically unheard of 60-day trial.
Now, you may be thinking, “Why in God’s name would I want to give free access to my product for 2 frikkin months??”
And the answer is, because it works.
At the beginning of my trial with SamCart, I wasn’t ready to invest $99. But after a 14-day trial and then a 60-day trial, SamCart had become so deeply embedded in our processes that I gladly paid that and more to keep its functionality.
Lesson here: if you’re selling a great product, you can benefit from this template.
The Ecommerce Sales Funnel Template
The eCommerce business model is, of course, incredibly popular. And right now, when home delivery of products is practically essential, it’s seeing more action than ever.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that online sales had grown a whopping 14.9% from 2018 to 2019.
And with each passing year, online sales are making up a larger percentage of total retail sales in the United States.
But capturing that value takes having the right sales funnel on your side.
That’s where our eCommerce sales funnel templates come in.
First up is the “Knowledge-Based Funnel.”
One unique feature about this sales funnel is that there are 2 places where prospects can optin: a “learn more” page designed specifically to target prospects already knowledgeable about the product and a lead magnet for prospects who need a bit more education on the industry or product.
There’s also the “Pre-Sale Page Funnel.”
This funnel comes with a pre-sale page attached. This page is designed to inform, nurture, and build anticipation before users are directed to the actual shop where they can make their purchase.
That way, leads that land in the shop are warmed up and ready to buy.
The Coaching Business Sales Funnel Template
Professional coaching is becoming an increasingly popular career choice. In fact, at AutoGrow, we’ve worked with plenty of coaches specializing in everything from entrepreneurship, real estate, corporate leadership and more.
And with all that experience, we’ve gotten pretty good at creating high-converting funnels for our coaching clients.
Below is one of the best we’ve created specifically for coaching businesses.
Since personality and human touch play an enormous role in working with a professional coach, this funnel pays particularly close attention to requesting a free consultation.
There are also plenty of nurturing and retargeting elements interspersed throughout the prospect’s journey as well.
The Online Course & Info Product Sales Funnel Template
Last but certainly not least, there’s the Online Courses & Info Product Sales Funnel Template.
This template is designed specifically for businesses selling online courses and info products.
This one is perhaps one of the most basic templates so far.
But don’t be fooled here: as long as the core elements of a funnel are included (lead magnet, sales page, traffic sources, and retargeting tactics), then this funnel template is sure to bring in high-quality and consistent leads that are educated, nurtured, and ready to buy.
Conclusion
So there you have it!
I’ve taken you through the 2 best core sales funnel templates we’ve built and refined over the course of our 10 years in business.
And as long as you follow these templates down to a T while also following best practices for copywriting, graphic design, and quality assurance, you’re bound to start seeing leads rushing in.
Of course, setting up a leak-proof and eye-catching sales funnel on your own takes time and it takes expertise to pull off right.
That’s where AutoGrow’s instant, all-in-one digital marketing team comes in. We’ve been building high-converting funnels for 10 years now. And to be perfectly honest, we’ve gotten quite good at it. And we’d love to help you too.
So, which of these templates do you plan on using in your business? Do you have any other proven funnel templates that you’ve used to get results? Let us know in the comments below.
And as always,
Keep convertin’, stay focused,
Wow, this is really comprehensive. How will a sales funnel for a coffee shop differ?
I could see you doing facebook ads targeted to the region with a very clear ideal client, leading to a lead magnet offer of a coupon code discount with an expiration date. Follow up with regular emails about enticing new flavors, events at the shop, and valuable local information. Perhaps run some contests for bringing friends in. Keep it fun and community focused. It depends on a very persuasive landing page because it doesn’t have a way to catch people who decide they don’t want the coupon but you could try out an exit intent pop up with another offer. I think in that adding a higher discount would come across too desperate, but you could perhaps tell them about an event or something cool happening soon at the shop.