Knowing what sales funnel steps to put where when building a funnel can REALLY make or break the entire thing.

Because I think we all know that sales funnels are all about being logic and guiding the visitor into taking the “right” action.

Therefore, the last thing you want after spending hours on building a funnel is for it to end up as an illogical mess. Leaving you with a something that visitor bounce off faster than you can say “What’s going on?”.

That’s why I’ve decided to gather 15 of the most popular and commonly used sales funnel steps out there, all in one place.

So, if you’re unsure about what steps to use where in your funnel, then you’ll love this guide.

Steps or Stages: What’s The Difference?

People tend to use steps and stages interchangeably when describing the sales funnel.

However, I feel like this is the wrong approach.

You see, in my world these are two different thing.

That’s why I think we need to separate the steps from the stages to get a better understanding of what’s going on.

So, before we dive deep into the steps, here’s how I see it…

The funnel stages

This is the core concept and overall explanation of how the sales funnel work. They describes how a lead “thinks and acts” in relation to your offer.

Within the stages we also talk about what actions you need to take in order for the lead to get to the next stage of your funnel.

Ensuring that the lead has a good flow throughout your funnel and that it doesn’t get stuck somewhere or confused on what to do.

At the stages we also talk a lot about attention, interest, desire and action or AIDA for short.

This to get a better understanding of what needs to happen in order for you to get the results you want.

The actual funnel steps

The steps are the actual building blocks of the sales funnel and each step contains one page (2 pages if you are running a split test).

You use the different steps to build up the layout of your sales funnel and to define what you want each step to do.

And within each step you then have a page to which you add your copy and design elements.

So, if you want to sell your product, you might start with a sales page step, then an upsell step, then a downsell step and last an order confirmation step.

Here’s comes the tricky part (so stay with me now)…

A lead would not get to that sales funnel until they’ve reached the “Action” stage.

So, before anyone even reach your funnel you would first have to do the marketing to get people “aware” of you.

Then you might use an opt-in funnel to get some new leads onto a newsletter…

From there you’d then pitch your product and now the prospect enters your actual product sales funnel.

Do you see what I mean?

One funnel doesn’t correlates to all the stages at once and one stage does not equal one funnel step.

I know this might seem like a lot of backwards and forwards between steps and stages, but I think it’s important to separate the two from eachother.

They are in the end two different things, with two different purposes.

Anyway, now that you know what the difference between sales funnel steps and stages, it’s time move on to the next step: Opt-in funnel steps.

See what I did there…next step…haha…no…moving on… 😉

Opt-In Funnel steps

Opt-in funnels are the simplest of funnels and most of the times they only consist of two steps.

And since their simple nature, there is only so much you can do with them. Therefore these are most commonly used for lead generation.

Examples of these kind of simple two step funnels would be: Lead Funnel, Bridge Funnel, or the Squeeze Funnel.

Email Opt-in page

This page only has one goal, to get someone to give you their contact information.

What you typically see on an opt-in page is a curiosity based headline, a lead magnet of some sort, input fields and a “submit” button.

Depending on what you need and the funnel type you’ve chosen, the content on a opt-in page can vary.

Some have video, some have plain text and some have both…

But they all have one important thing in common.

They are simple and to the point, no extra fluff or anything like that. Only the bare minimum to build enough curiosity for someone to opt-in.

“Thank You” page

If you thought the opt-in page were simple, the “Thank You” page is even simpler.

This might come as a surprise but, the “Thank You” page is even simpler then the opt-in page.

The name “Thank You” page might be confusing, but it’s not something super fancy. It’s named like this because of the action you take on it.

You thank a new lead for subscribing (easy enough).

Here you deliver on the things you promised on the opt-in page.

Whether that is to answer the curiosity based headline or to deliver a lead magnet is up to you.

But make sure to hold your end of the deal.

This is also a great place to introduce yourself or your business and also to give further instruction on what the new lead needs to do at this point.

You could ask them the check their email or wait for a call in the upcoming days.

Sales Steps

The sales steps are the back bone of the traditional sales funnel, which has been around for ages now.

Sales steps does one thing really good and that’s to sell your product and maximize the average cart value.

These types of funnels usually have a few more steps than the simpler opt-in funnel we just spoke about.

From my experience and from what I’ve seen, I would expect to see at least 2 steps in a simple sales funnel.

I say 2 since you could use a 2-step order form on your sales page and save an entire step, otherwise it would be 3 steps.

Sales pages

These pages are ment for selling and you can see that in the way they’re structured.

A sales page really emphasizes on the “hook, story, offer” method to capture the lead and nurture it to a purchase.

This is also what makes it’s so easy to recognize a sales page. They are “content heavy” compared to other funnel steps.

If you want to build a sales page, you have a few options to choose from:

• A classic sales letter page
• The upgraded video sales letter page

Basically, both are long form sales letters.

But depending on what you are comfortable with, you can either deliver your message in plain text, with video or combined.

Product launch pages

The product launch pages are specifically designed for building up anticipation in preparation for a product launch.

These are most of the times used in a drip-style campaign where you would give a sneak peak of your product a few days before the official launch.

There are a few different tactics you can use when you build up to a product launch.

Some might do a 5 day drip serie with videos being released each day till the launch.

Others might just do a simple page with a timer on it and then do the rest of the selling over email.

This all depends on what you like and what kind of products or services you are trying to sell.

Order Form pages

An order form page ties in closely with the sales page in the sense that this is where you’ll have customers enter their payment information. (Can be useful if you want to make money selling stuff).

I’m going to be honest here, most of the time you can add the order form directly to the bottom of the sales page…

And with the 2-step order page growing in popularity, there is really no reason for a separate order form at all.

This 2-step type of page allows you to deliver your sales message while still capturing leads and processing orders all on the same page.

Order form pages on the other hand are usually pretty simple and only contains an image of the product and a from for entering credit card information.

One benefit with the traditional order form pages is that it can act like an extra selling point, where you can emphasis on the benefits of your product even more.

Upsell pages

The upsell page is the first thing you’ll use when you want to try an increase the overall cart value.

These are also referred to as OTO:s or One-Time-Offer Pages.

As the name suggest, this is set up as a limited one time offer that a customer only can get access to on this page.

This could be an exclusive product upgrade or a chance to double down on what they’ve already ordered (this has proven to work really well).

The great thing with this is that you can use a One-Click Upsell which automatically bills the customers credit card.

And not having to enter their information again makes the upsell even more convenient and attractive.

If the customer accepts the upsell, it will then be taken to either another upsell or to the order confirmation page.

Downsell pages

If the customer rejects your upsell, then they’ll be taken to the downsell page.

Here you offer a cheaper solution to a problem the customer struggles with, while still relevant to the original offer.

For obvious reasons, never offer a discount on the original product here.

So, create an offer that provides tons of value and then charge a laughably low price for it.

What you want is an offer that so inexpensive that it would be foolish not to buy it.

Therefore try to keep the price of the downsell as low as possible. In the $7 to $12 range is a good starting point.

Here you also have the same One-Click function that makes the offer even more irresistible.

Downsells are good because even a small sale can add up to some serious money with enough volume.

I mean $7 x 1,000 people is still $7K in sales.

Order confirmation pages

Among the simpler pages are the the order confirmation pages.

The purpose of these could not be more straight forward…

Once a customer has gone through your sales page, upsells and downsells, you send them to a confirmation page where you summarize the order.

A good structure to have on this type of page would be:

1. Product receipt: First thank the customer for its order and display what he or she bought. If it’s a digital product somewhere in the funnel, add a “access product” button to it.
2. Get social: Then you ask the customer to join your social media accounts and invite them to read your blog. If you have a members exclusive community, make sure to tell them to join it.
3. You may also like (Offer Wall): Since they followed through with this order, why not show off some of your other amazing products. This is a good way to link together your funnels.
4. Share with friends: The most important for generating more passive sales, ask them to share this product with their friends.

Webinar Steps

If you want to host an online event, then these sales funnel steps are your go-to friend for building a webinar funnel.

Here you’ve got everything you need to get people to register for the event, get them exited for it and promote the offer in the best possible way.

From what I’ve seen, the webinar funnel is usually built with 3 pages, but that does vary a lot.

If you have the need for indoctrination pages, then the count could go as high as 7 pages.

Usually this type of funnel will be placed on the back end of an ad, where the actual ad does most of the heavy lifting.

Or it could be placed on a blog, where the content of the blog substitutes the need for an ad.

Registration pages

Believe it or not, but the webinar registration page is all about getting people to register for your amazing webinar. I know, pretty INSANE!

From what I’ve seen and learnt over the years is that these pages are pretty minimalistic.

If you’d compare it to a sales letter page, there is really not much content on it at all.

Usually, the first thing a visitor encounters on one of these pages is a curiosity based headline.

Most of the times below the headline is a video addressing any pain point and how attending this webinar can resolve them.

I would say that in 99% of cases you’d find a countdown timer right next to the video for added scarcity.

From there you’ll have a few options on elements you can add, like:

• Time when the webinar is going live and how many seats there are (to build scarcity)
• A quick summary of what the event will cover and what to expect
• An introduction of the speaker (you) and a little bit of backstory

Then it’s up to personal preferens where you’d place the “call-to-action” buttons.

Some like to have the input fields and “submit” button next to the video and maybe one more button at the bottom.

I however like a smooth look on my pages and would only add the CTA buttons and have them open a popup with the input fields. This way you can also have it open on exit.

Confirmation “Thank You” pages

I know that you might think that this “Thank You” page might be the same as the other one I talked about earlier…

But hold you horses now.

This one has a somewhat of a different purpose now that you’re working with webinars.

This time you confirm that the registrant has saved a seat for your event.

That means that you’ll most likely add a countdown timer to when the webinar starts. Also, add a “remind me” button to ensure that “no-one” misses your event.

To give this page more depth, add a video to it.

This way the attendee has something to do while waiting for the even to start. (No, you don’t have to add a full length Marvel movie here).

Just something that will get the registrants exited for what’s about to come.

(Unless there are more than one day to the event, then you should consider an indoctrination page).

This also gives you a chance to offer them a free guide (or similar) on how to get the most out of what you’re about to teach them.

Indoctrination pages (optional)

When you’re hosting a webinar and there are more than one day until the live evet starts.

Then you might want to consider using one or two indoctrination pages.

Now, instead of laving the registrants alone in preparation for the live event…

You’d use the indoctrination pages to stay in touch with the attendee every day until the event starts.

So, instead of just letting them sit around and wait for the event to start, you take this time and turn it into something great.

Meaning that for the next few days you’ll get an extra opportunity to:

• Address more pain points
• Further educate
• Explain the benefits of what you’re about to teach them in just a few days
• Build up even more excitement for your live webinar

As you can see, these pages are very similar to the product launch pages I talked about earlier.

I.e. you use them to build up anticipation, excitement and scarcity before your webinar.

Broadcast room pages

If you’re using a software like ClickFunnels (like I am) then you know that you have to use a 3rd-party app to host a live webinar. (If you didn’t know – well now you do).

This means that the broadcast room is where you’d show a replay of your live webinar.

Other funnel builders or pure webinar software might have this set up differently.

On this type of page you give the registrants an extra chance to watch the webinar again after the live is over.

This can be useful if you want to catch those who register but didn’t show up to the live…

As well as giving those who showed up an option to watch it one more time before making a final decision.

These pages a typically very simple in design, only containing the replay of the webinar itself and the initial offer.

Membership Steps

Although some might not see a membership site as a sales funnel, most of the time it actually is just that…a funnel.

That’s why sales funnel software like ClickFunnels support steps for membership funnels right away.

And since it’s so easy to build a membership site these days, people have gone crazy with the creativity on how to use them.

Here are just some ideas on how to use one:

• As a bonus
• Use as upsell or downsell
• Offer in a webinar
• and much, much more.

Or in simpler terms…

Membership sites can be sold as a stand alone product or be used to spice up an already existing offer.

The reason for their popularity is because they only consists of two pages, an access page and a members area page.

This makes them super easy to add to the back end of an already existing funnel.

Membership access pages

Remember earlier when I talked about the order confirmation page and the “access purchase” button?

This is one idea on how you can use that button.

When someone buys access to your members area and click on that button, they’ll be taken to the membership access page.

This type of page is super simple to set up and most funnel builders comes with this page pre-made.

To be honest, all that’s really on it is a “create new account” form and a login button.

Maybe throw in a little summary of what your members area is about and you’re good to go.

From there the customer creates their own username and password, and boom they have access to what they paid for.

If you’re a ClickFunnels user, then this page can serve as both a “create new account” and a login page.

From here users can also reset their passwords (because they are easy to forget) on their own. Leaving you with time to drink one more cup of coffee.

Membership area pages

The second part of any membership funnel, and maybe the most important one is the membership area pages.

Because without these everything falls apart.

Why?

Simple, it’s inside the members area you’ll add all of your content and training.

This is also what the customer signed up to get access to (maybe even paid money for). So it would be a shame if it wasn’t there to provide the user with any value.

These pages are pretty straight forward and are only made for one thing…

To deliver the training you’ve promised.

From what I know this can be done in two ways. Either with video or with plain text.

And within most good funnel builders you have the freedom to design the layout however you want.

Structuring the training into individual sections to make it easier to consume.

This also gives you the option to easily expand your members area when you come up with more amazing content.

Affiliate Management Steps

Maybe one of the most underappreciated sales funnel steps are the affiliate management steps.

These steps allow you to recruited affiliates and build an affiliate area.

From there you can then build up an arsenal of highly motivated affiliate to help sell your product.

If you want to use this kind of pages to build an affiliate management funnel, I’d recommend that you make it stand alone.

Add a link to it from a order confirmation page or at the footer of your pages.

But that’s just how I would do it. 😉

Affiliate access pages

The affiliate access page is pretty much the same as the membership access page.

Here someone lands when they want to become an affiliate working for you.

Anyone that lands on this page will be prompted to create an account in order to get access to the affiliate area.

Therefore these pages are very easy to make. The “create account” block is usually pre-made and all you need to do is drag it onto the screen.

Then there is the page design element, but I’ll leave that up to you.

Affiliate area pages

If you’ve ever seen the inside of an affiliate program you’d know what to expect.

The same goes for building your own.

On this type of page you’ll add all the assets your affiliate will have access to.

How much you add though is totally up to you.

But to get a general idea, here’s what you can add:

• An affiliate link (usually required to have at least one)
• Statistics dash: Here the affiliate can see how well things are going
• Image assets: This allows affiliates to grab the HTML code for an image and use it to promote your product
• Text assets: Here affiliates can grab the HTML code for a Text Block and use it to promote your product (could be an email for example)
• Visual funnel: With this affiliates can see how much their potential total earnings are for the product.
• Link builder: Using this allows affiliates to generate their own affiliate links with their own sub ID:s and such

Depending on the funnel builder the range of things you can do and add to an affiliate area will vary. But most reputable software have at least the things I mentioned above.

Conclusion

There you have it, the complete list of 15 of the most commonly used sales funnel steps and how you can use them.

And if you’re interested in getting started with sales funnels and don’t know which funnel builder is best for you, then you’ll love this guide.

Now I’d like to hear from you:

What steps are you going to combine in your next funnel?

Leave a comment below to let me know.