The 7 Types Of Online Sales Funnels That Work Really Well In 2019

This is part 2 of 3 of the Sales Funnels series.
1. What is a Sales Funnel And How Does it Work?
2. The 7 Types Of Online Sales Funnels That Work Really Well In 2019
3. How to Build an Automated Webinar Sales Funnel For Your Online Business

In the previous post, I talked about what a sales funnel is and how they work.

You’re probably really excited about the idea of sales funnels and want to start building a profitable funnel for your business asap, right?

Well, the truth is that there are many different types of sales funnels that you can employ in your online business.

In this article, I’ll go through the 7 types of online sales funnel that I’ve seen work really well currently!

The 7 Types Of Online Sales Funnel You Must Know About

1. Self-Liquidating Funnel (SLO)

The self-liquidating funnel is a funnel that you create not to make a profit, but to acquire leads.

Hence you are not aiming to make a profit from your SLO funnels, but simply to liquidate your ad costs.

Now, this may seem dumb to some of you – why bother creating a funnel that only breaks even? Will this even benefit your business?

I highly recommend that you create at least 1 front-end SLO funnel.

This is because when you are able to acquire leads essentially FOR FREE, any profit you make back-end from these leads in the future will be pure profit. 

You may not make a profit immediately, but you are able to acquire a ton of leads – and out of this bunch of potential customers, some of them will eventually purchase something else from you.

A SLO funnel typically looks like this:

Landing page > Tripwire (sell something for really cheap) > Upsell #1 > Upsell #2

With Clickfunnels, creating tripwire sales pages as well as upsell pages are extremely simple.

By selling something really cheap after people have opted in, you are able to convert a small proportion of cold traffic. This doesn’t bring you a profit, but you are able to liquidate your ad costs, allowing you to build your email list for free.

2. Automated Webinar Funnel

An automated webinar funnel is typically used for products & services that range from $297 – $1997.

A webinar is awesome because it is structured in such a way that you are able to spend more than an hour with a potential customer in one seating.

By the end of the webinar, he/she will likely trust you and have warmed up to you enough.

However, I highly recommend that you at least have a proven offer before attempting to build an automated sales funnel.

Start off with live webinars first, prove to yourself that you are able to sell your product/service LIVE, before attempting to automate the whole process.

3. Lead Magnet + Email Funnel

This is the most common type of sales funnel that you will see. All you need is an email service provider – I recommend Convertkit.

It works really well for products/services priced around $17 – $197. This is because it is difficult to sell something high-ticket via email only.

Here’s how it typically works:

Lead magnet landing page > Email nurture sequence > Buy your product > Upsell

You nurture your audience via an automated email sequence before pitching them a low-ticket product after a few days.

4. High-End Client Sales Funnel

For your premium programs (e.g. coaching packages, done-for-you services), you will need to get on a call with your potential client.

This is because people generally need to talk to a real person before they are comfortable with shelling out thousands of dollars online.

What a high-end client sales funnel does is that it helps you to qualify your leads first so that you only talk to people who are serious about signing up for your premium programs.

Here’s how it typically works:

Services page > Page with a pre-qualifying questionnaire (so you can choose to only talk to people who are your ideal clients) > Get on a free call > Sign the client

Of course, there are high-ticket funnels that are more complicated – but this covers the essentials. You qualify your leads first, talk to those that are a good fit for your program personally, and close them on a 1:1 free call.

5. Free + Shipping Sales Funnel

This is typically for low-cost physical products like a book.

You offer to ship your physical book for free to your customer, all they have to do is to pay for printing + shipping. By getting someone to take out their credit card to pay for your free book, you now have a list of hot buyers that are willing to BUY, not just freebie seekers.

After they have received your free book, they will read it and be indoctrinated into your brand and culture.

You can then upsell these leads and sell them more expensive products down the line. This could be a physical or digital product!

6. The Challenge Sales Funnel

A challenge sales funnel is very similar to an automated webinar funnel, except that instead of an automated webinar, you are holding a 5 to 7- day challenge instead.

Most challenges are live and work really well because there is a lot of value and excitement when a group of people come together with a common goal and try to complete the same tasks together.

7. The Affiliate Sales Funnel

The Affiliate Sales Funnel is great for online entrepreneurs that don’t have their own product.

Entrepreneurs typically use this funnel in conjunction with their affiliate marketing efforts, or if they are promoting an MLM product that they don’t own.

There are many variations of how an affiliate sales funnel could look like, but here’s an example of how it could work:

Relevant freebie > Thank you page with a video explaining about this awesome tool/course you’ve found and why they should check it out with a button below with your affiliate link to check out the tool > Email nurture sequence educating + adding value + soft selling the affiliate product 

This way, you are able to collect someone’s email address, educate them about the affiliate product, and follow-up with them via email to further convince them about why the product that you are promoting is so awesome.

Combining Multiple Types Of Sales Funnels

It is important to note that you can combine multiple types of sales funnels together.

For instance, you can have an automated webinar funnel TOGETHER with an email nurture funnel, where leads are nurtured further after they have watched your webinar.

A challenge funnel can be used to promote an affiliate product.

A lead magnet + email nurture funnel is often used as a self-liquidating funnel.

Also, once a lead has completed one funnel without purchasing, you can immediately try to push them to a different funnel in your business in the hopes that they will convert for that funnel. 

So for instance, if someone signs up for my automated webinar but didn’t buy, I can then start sending them emails to sign up for a different funnel of mine.

Summary

Once again, here are the 7 types of sales funnels that I highly recommend you try in your business!

• Self-Liquidating Funnel (SLO)
• Automated Webinar Funnel
• Lead Magnet + Email Funnel
• High-End Client Sales Funnel
• Free + Shipping Sales Funnel
• The Challenge Sales Funnel
• The Affiliate Sales Funnel

I hope that you have benefited from this article. Please share it if you have! I would really appreciate that. 🙂

Which funnel type are you hoping to implement in your business next? Let me know below!

Proceed to part 3 of the series, How to Build an Automated Webinar Sales Funnel For Your Online Business

This is part 2 of 3 of the Sales Funnels series.
1. What is a Sales Funnel And How Does it Work?
2. The 7 Types Of Online Sales Funnels That Work Really Well In 2019
3. How to Build an Automated Webinar Sales Funnel For Your Online Business