How To Make A Sales Funnel For Digital Products
Digital products offer incredible profit potential with minimal overhead, but converting browsers into buyers requires a strategic approach. A well-designed sales funnel can help digital product creators showcase value, overcome purchase hesitation, and maximize customer lifetime value. This guide will show you how to build, market, and implement a sales funnel specifically for your digital products.
If you're a creator, educator, or entrepreneur selling ebooks, courses, templates, software, or other digital products, there are several excellent platforms that can help you build effective sales funnels without requiring extensive technical knowledge.
The first step to making your digital product sales funnel is choosing the right platform. However, selecting from numerous options can be overwhelming, especially when each platform offers different features for digital delivery and marketing. Keep reading this guide to see our suggested picks and a step-by-step guide to making a sales funnel for your digital products.
The Best Platforms For Digital Product Sales Funnels
When choosing a platform for your digital product sales funnel, you need specific features that address the unique needs of intangible goods. The ideal platform should include secure digital delivery, licensing options, upsell capabilities, affiliate program integration, and content dripping or access control. It should also help you build ongoing customer relationships to maximize lifetime value through additional product offerings. Based on these requirements, we've ranked the top 5 platforms for digital product sales funnels:
1. ClickFunnels
Get started with ClickFunnels (Free Trial) ๐
ClickFunnels offers digital product creators a comprehensive solution with templates specifically designed for information products, courses, ebooks, and software. Its drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to create multi-step funnels with order bumps, one-click upsells, and membership areas for content delivery. ClickFunnels includes built-in affiliate management for leveraging partner promotion and provides a 14-day free trial to test all features.
2. Leadpages
Get Started with Leadpages (Free Trial) ๐
Leadpages offers user-friendly templates perfect for digital product sales and lead generation. Its conversion-focused approach helps creators capture leads efficiently through landing pages, pop-ups, and alert bars. The platform makes it easy to create lead magnets for list building and includes A/B testing capabilities to optimize conversion rates. Leadpages integrates with major email marketing and digital delivery platforms.
3. Thrive Architect
Get Started with Thrive Architect (One-time Payment) ๐
Thrive Architect is a WordPress plugin offering conversion-focused templates ideal for digital product sales. Its specialized elements like product showcases, pricing tables, and testimonial displays are particularly valuable for creating compelling sales pages. The one-time payment model can be cost-effective for digital product creators looking to minimize recurring expenses.
4. Unbounce
Get started with Unbounce (Free Trial) ๐
Unbounce provides digital product sellers with highly customizable landing pages perfect for showcasing specific products like courses, ebooks, or software. Its Smart Traffic feature automatically directs potential customers to the landing page variant where they're most likely to convert. Unbounce excels at A/B testing different value propositions and offers to optimize conversion rates for digital products.
5. Optimizepress
Get started with Optimizepress (Subscription) ๐
Optimizepress is a WordPress-based solution specifically designed for digital product and membership site creators. Its integration with WordPress makes it ideal for businesses that already use WordPress for their main website. Optimizepress includes templates for sales pages, membership portals, and checkout processes that can be customized for digital product delivery.
Conclusion
After evaluating multiple platforms, ClickFunnels emerges as the best choice for digital product creators due to its comprehensive approach combining secure product delivery with powerful marketing tools in one integrated system. While it requires a monthly investment, the all-in-one functionality eliminates the need for multiple tools and provides a seamless experience for both creators and customers.
However, if you're primarily selling simple digital downloads like ebooks, templates, or graphics, Leadpages offers an excellent alternative with a lower price point and more straightforward interface.
Now that we have identified our top choice, let's show you how to make a digital product sales funnel using ClickFunnels.
How to Make a Sales Funnel for Digital Products Using ClickFunnels
Creating an effective digital product sales funnel involves strategically guiding potential customers from discovery through purchase and beyond to additional offers. The following steps will help you build a funnel that showcases your digital product's value and maximizes conversions.
Step 1: Sign Up for ClickFunnels
Create your account and take advantage of the free trial period to explore all features before committing to a subscription.
Step 2: Create Your Digital Product
Before building your funnel, set up your digital product:
- Organize your content into a logical structure
- Upload your digital assets (videos, PDFs, worksheets)
- Configure access settings and drip schedule if applicable
- Set pricing options (one-time, payment plan, subscription)
- Create compelling product imagery for marketing materials
Step 3: Make Your Value-First Landing Page
Using ClickFunnels' drag-and-drop builder:
- Add a compelling headline focusing on the transformation your product provides
- Include a promotional video that previews content and builds credibility
- List specific benefits and outcomes (not just features)
- Add social proof with testimonials, user results, and success stories
- Include instructor/creator credentials and experience
- Create scarcity elements (limited enrollment periods, bonuses)
- Add a clear call-to-action leading to your opt-in form
Step 4: Create Your Free Value Offer
Develop a valuable lead magnet:
- Create a free sample, chapter, video module, or mini-course
- Design a useful template, checklist, or resource guide
- Offer a webinar or training session that provides immediate value
- Ensure the free content naturally leads to your paid offering
- Set up an opt-in form requiring email (and possibly name)
- Configure automated delivery of the free resource
Step 5: Build Your Nurture Email Sequence
Create automated email campaigns that:
- Deliver the promised free resource
- Provide additional value through educational content
- Address common objections to purchasing your digital product
- Share success stories and case studies
- Gradually introduce your paid product's benefits
- Include testimonials from satisfied customers
- Create urgency for taking action (limited time offers, closing enrollment)
Step 6: Make Your Sales Page
Create a comprehensive page that:
- Outlines the complete value proposition
- Shows a detailed breakdown of what's included
- Addresses frequently asked questions
- Lists bonuses or additional resources included
- Shows pricing options with any available payment plans
- Includes money-back guarantee or satisfaction policy
- Features extensive social proof and testimonials
- Addresses and overcomes common objections
- Contains multiple calls-to-action throughout the page
Step 7: Optimize Your Checkout Process
Improve your conversion rate by:
- Simplifying the checkout form to essential fields only
- Adding trust badges and security reassurances
- Including testimonials specific to purchase hesitation
- Offering multiple payment options (credit card, PayPal)
- Providing clear order summaries
- Adding last-minute order bumps for complementary resources
- Creating mobile-friendly payment flows
Step 8: Set Up Post-Purchase Upsells
Configure one-click upsells for:
- Advanced versions or expanded packages
- Complementary products that enhance the initial purchase
- Implementation support or coaching add-ons
- Exclusive community access
- Future course or product pre-orders at special pricing
- Make accepting the upsell as frictionless as possible
Step 9: Develop Customer Onboarding and Retention
Create systems for maximizing customer success:
- Welcome and orientation emails for new customers
- Getting started guides and implementation roadmaps
- Consumption encouragement emails for unopened content
- Progress celebration messages at key milestones
- Check-in sequences for inactive users
- Community engagement opportunities
- Implementation challenges or cohort programs
Step 10: Create Your Ascension Strategy
Design paths to higher-value offerings:
- Segment customers based on product usage and engagement
- Develop targeted campaigns for your next-level offerings
- Create exclusive offers for existing customers
- Build referral programs to leverage satisfied customers
- Implement affiliate opportunities for passionate users
- Plan recurring revenue opportunities through subscriptions or updates
By following these steps with ClickFunnels, digital product creators can build effective sales funnels that not only convert prospects into customers but also maximize lifetime value through strategic upsells, cross-sells, and ascension to higher-tier products.