Challenge Funnel Strategies for Course Creators and Membership Site Owners
Table of Contents
How to Optimize Your Challenge Opt-In Page
Love or hate his style, Russel Brunson’s copy is always on point. This is a simple above-the-fold opt-in page for a 5 Day Challenge.
- The countdown timer in the header instantly creates urgency.
- The attention section instantly helps people identify if this is for them and answers the question, “do I belong here?”.
- “5 Short Days” “5 days”: tells people when exactly they can expect the promised result, and “short” gives a feeling of reducing the time delay to achieving the key promise.
- “Exact Step By Step Method” provides a container for how the results will be delivered. It tells you that Russel has a process. He isn’t just making stuff up on the spot. It tells you that he has helped others do it before. It tells you that if you follow the process, you too can get the promised result.
- Russel stresses the words “For Free” twice. This is proven to increase on-page conversions. However, some people worry that it will attract a certain sort of individual that is interested in “For Free” but may not be as interested when it comes to a “For Fee” offer.
- The additional bonus here is smart. Getting an opt-in for a challenge, webinar or launch is only the starting point on the path to a sale. Once you have their email address, you have to work as hard if not harder, to get them to show up for the deliverable. Russel seeds this early in play.
Not one but two “free listing building software products” from the founder of the No.1 lead generation and sales software company in the world is a big incentive. But to get it you have to show up. - The Call To Action (CTA) is strong and clear. The green is not a Clickfunnels brand color. You will also notice that it is a different green than is used in the logo and the countdown timer. The goal is to ensure that the CTA is unique and stands out on the page. Psychologically while green is associated with “GO” neon green is also associated with vitality and excitement.
- Subline on CTA. You will also notice the subline on the CTA. In this, Russel tells people that they need to enter their email. Some people are not eager to give up their email. So he links the giving of the email to the benefit being offered. This will reduce sign-up friction and is designed to ensure minimum drop-off from stage one of the opt-in to stage 2 of the opt-in, which is submitting your details.
Optimizing Ads for Free Challenge Opt-ins
Now that you have seen the opt-in page, you might as well look at one of the Facebook Ads Russel uses to drive traffic to his 5 Day Lead Challenge.
This is what I classify as a medium-form ad. Russel and his team are fantastic storytellers and copywriters, so most of his ads are long-form, but this one gets down to business quickly.
Some key takeaways:
Headline:
What would you do with an extra 10, 100 or 1,000 New Leads Per Day? I love this. He has made something that is unquantifiable specific. A wide range of people will join the challenge. They will have varying goals and dreams. They will also have varying limiting beliefs.
I usually am not a fan of casting a wide net. Specificity for the WIN! But I think this headline does a great job of appealing to a broad audience in a specific manner.
Description:
Don’t be lazy. If you use the description section, don’t just repeat the headline. It looks silly.
As the description only shows in a couple of ad formats, I have stoped using it. Sometimes I like to throw in an Easter egg but that is how I look on it.
Creative:
Russell and his team crank out creatives like there is no tomorrow. It is not unusual to see 10-20 creative variations for a single ad.
They do a great job of creating curiosity in this image. “What’s under the post-it notes?” “What’s the magnet that is attracting all the leads?”
I also think the handwritten flip chart brings an element of authenticity and personal touch to the ad.
Talking about personal, I’ve found that creatives with the key person or entrepreneur, can outperform stock or non-human images. When launching ad campaigns for course creators and membership site owners, I always include at least one image or video of the key person.
Body:
A solid hook. Who doesn’t want an “endless stream of hot leads for your business”?
It could be argued that this isn’t the most imaginative hook and it certainly isn’t unique. For Russel, this is ok because he has the name and brand to carry it. For us mere mortals we may have to try a little harder.
The hook leads you into the headline from the opt-in page. When starting a lead generation campaign this is always one of the first ads I draft. The ad stats will give you immediate feedback on the effectiveness of the core promise, headline, and body copy. You can then use your ad data to optimize your opt-in.
Notice that Russel doesn’t simply list what he will talk about each day. Words like “Unlimited Leads” & “Creating Your Onepager” build curiosity and intrigue.
It is always a good idea to include links to your opt-in page in the body of your ad copy. This increases your Outbound Click-Through Rate (CTR). That’s the second critical success metric of any campaign.
All Caps is a good way of drawing attention to elements in an otherwise very plain section. Use it sparingly, however, as neither Facebook nor their users like you shouting all the time!
Bonus tip:
If you do want to add additional formatting like bold, italics, strikethrough etc. to your body copy, check out this website: https://yaytext.com/
Again, use sparingly and be aware that your formatting might not always show up.
