Among all the funnels that a marketer can create, challenge funnels are fun and they’re the fastest to convert visitors into buyers.
The reason why challenges are trending is that they:
For a marketer or a business owner looking to step up their store’s sales revenue, there is nothing better than challenge funnels.
It starts with enrolling people in a challenge that they’re collectively passionate about and ends with achieving their goals.
But how can you create one?
Well, in this post, we’ll help you understand what a challenge funnel is, the key elements of building it and finally how you can build one in WordPress.
Let’s begin.
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A challenge funnel is a time-bound learning journey that guarantees favorable results. For example, lose 5 kgs of weight in 14 days or write your first book draft in 7 days.
The challenge has a specific goal that encourages users to subscribe to your mailing list.
The funnel starts with a challenge by offering a freebie to visitors in exchange for their email information.
This page briefly describes the challenge, the solution to your problem, and the free product that will guide you in overcoming the challenge.
For example, a PDF that daily guides users to improve their content writing skills for 21 days.
Once the users sign up, it automatically redirects them to a sales page or checkout page for your premium product.
Here’s an overview of the complete challenge funnel:
If a user doesn’t buy your paid offer, that’s okay! You can use emails to nurture them about your paid product and close the sale over an email.
This way, your challenge funnel clinches to generate leads and revenue at the same time.
Here are the benefits of incorporating challenge funnels into your business:
Now that you know about the basics. It’s time to look at the key elements of an efficient challenge funnel.
Before we dive into how to set up your challenge funnel, let’s explore the key elements behind it:
Focus on the end goal before you start putting up your challenge funnels. Ask yourself “What is the goal of your challenge?” or “What will my audience learn from it?”.
For example, a 30-day weight loss challenge will help your subscribers lose weight in 30 days with your guidance.
Please keep in mind that the challenge goal should be aligned with the area of your expertise. It'll help establish authority and make your challenges credible to participate in.
Figuring out each point of your challenge and the resulting action beforehand is surely the way that will make your challenge funnel successful.
The next step is to decide for how many days you'll run this challenge. Choose the duration of your challenge wisely because it has a big role to play in helping your audience reach their goals.
The stipulated time duration of your challenge should be in alignment with your goals. There is no such challenge that works for everyone, but we advise keeping it for at least 3 days and not more than 30 days.
Please note that the most important thing about your challenge schedule depends on the outcome. For example, if you’re aiming for consistency to achieve your challenge, then you should go for 30 days. However, if you’re trying to achieve a quick win, then allocating 3 to 7 days will be best.
Once you're done, it's equally important to decide the date and time when your challenge will go live. Your marketing strategy will have to be in place to make your challenge funnels a real success.
For a challenge funnel, it’s important to deliver the resources (free or paid) to users that will help them achieve their goals.
Think of your challenge as setting up a pathway for your users. Simply, you’ll be taking them from where they are now to the point where they want to be. Think of all the steps they need to take.
Focus on the content for each day to be offered as a freebie:
You have to carefully lay out the resources of your challenge to make your funnel successful.
Once that’s done, you have to lay the challenge out to a lead capture or opt-in page.
By this time, you’ve successfully provided your audience with a freebie to help them achieve their goals. But there are always some supporting elements to consider in helping your users get there faster and make them efficient.
That’s exactly the point where you transition to your main offer or paid program. This is the point where you can pitch your product and close the sales with a sales cum checkout page.
For example, if you’re putting up a weight loss challenge, you could offer a diet plan or daily 5-min healthy cooking recipes as your paid product.
Be mindful that your main offer should always align with the challenge.
The best thing about funnels is that you can make them work the way you want. If you want to put more offers in the middle, you can totally do that.
Once the users are in their buying state, show them some pre-checkout offers to earn extra. You can always add some revenue-boosting offers that enhance the average value of each order.
For example, if you’re offering the diet plan as your main order, some stress gummies or multivitamins are great pre-checkout offers.
There are also post-purchase upsells and downsells that you can set up to boost your store’s AOV (discussed in the next section).
To create a winning challenge funnel, you need a powerful tool. That’s why we’ll use FunnelKit.
FunnelKit is the most robust sales funnel builder for WordPress. It allows you to set up high-converting sales funnels, including your opt-in pages, landing pages, checkouts, one-click upsells/downsells and thank you pages.
Here are some eye-dropping features of FunnelKit’s Funnel Builder that you simply cannot miss:
Now that’s done, let’s dive into setting up our challenge funnel using FunnelKit’s Funnel Builder.
Get a copy of the Pro version.
FunnelKit’s Funnel Builder comes with both free versions and paid versions. However, we will use the premium version for more brilliant functionalities.
Know more about installing and activating FunnelKit’s Funnel Builder here.
Go to Funnels under FunnelKit and hit the 'Add New Funnel' button.
You’ll be directed to the templates page. Select Lead Generation and you’ll then be shown all the lead gen templates.
Choose your favorite page builder and click on 'Preview' next to the Challenge funnel template you like.
Here, we’ll select Elementor and choose the 'Challenger' template.
Next, you’ll be able to preview the full template here.
Once you’re satisfied with your template, hit ‘Import This Funnel’ and name your funnel - 21 Day Weightloss Challenge Funnel.
Clicking on ‘Add’ will create your challenge funnel.
Click on ‘Edit’ to start customizing your challenge page.
On the Design tab, hit the ‘Edit Template’ button.
Your page will load in the page builder you selected. Since we chose Elementor, our page will load up in the same page builder.
Now, you’ll be able to customize the elements of the opt-in page in your challenge funnel.
* Attractive Headline *
Click on the pencil icon to edit your headline.
Write an attractive title or the goal of your challenge that compels the visitors to subscribe.
* Simple opt-in form *
Make sure to lay out a simple opt-in form that takes less than 20 seconds to fill. You can have simple first name and email fields in your opt-in form.
* Compelling copy *
When it comes to writing compelling copy for your challenge funnel, you should clearly give out the goal of your challenge.
Back your copy with a scientific study and how you’ve planned it to get to your goal:
Pan out all the benefits of taking this challenge:
Finally, have an author section that demonstrates why you’re in this position to help your audience accomplish their goals:
* Actionable CTA button *
Add 2-3 actionable buttons where the users are able to start with your challenge.
Your CTA should be short, actionable and to the point.
Click on the Update button when done and head out back to your funnel.
Next, we will direct users to our paid offer.
For that, we’ll add a sales cum checkout page. But before that, we’ll remove the Opt-in confirmation step first.
Now, click on 'Add New Step'.
Select the 'Checkout Pages' and you’ll be shown all the FunnelKit's checkout page templates.
Follow the same step - choose page builder, preview the template, name your page and import it.
Click on 'Edit' to start customizing your checkout page.
The checkout page is fully customizable. Edit the fields that you want to show, split the checkout process into different steps, add new fields, and more.
In the Products tab, make sure to add your paid product.
Choose the product from your catalog and add it here.
Save the changes before you move to the next step.
Order bumps and one-click upsell offers are the AOV-boosting offers used to increase the value of each order.
Let’s discuss how to add each of these offers.
Order Bump
Click on the ‘Add Order Bump’ button below the checkout page in your challenge funnel.
Add the product you want to offer on your checkout page. You can further add some discount to make it appealing.
Next, write a copy of your offer and choose the order bump skin to make it compelling from the Design tab.
Save the changes and be done! Your order bump is now ready.
One-Click Upsells
One-click upsells are post-purchase offers that encourage users to buy once they have initially paid for the main offer.
Repeat the same process of adding a new step as did with your checkout page, but this time select ‘One-Click Upsell’.
FunnelKit has single and multi-product templates for one-click upsells. So you can add multiple products and offer them on a single page.
Make sure to hit edit and add your product as an upsell:
Further, you can also add a downsell offer and dynamically link both your upsells and downsells. This way, on acceptance of one offer you can show the other and on the rejection, you can show another.
This is the one-click upsell page we have created:
Finally, add a modern-looking thank you page.
FunnelKit lets you create custom thank you pages that help you carry forward your conversation.
Select from a range of thank you page templates and customize them the way you want.
We have chosen the Mentor thank you page template to close our challenge funnel:
And there you go! This is how you can set up your challenge funnel in 6 easy steps.
Looking for more? Check out our guide on some more funnel-specific strategies:
The challenge funnel gives you two opportunities to set up your automated email sequences:
1. Lead welcoming and nurturing sequences after the opt-in
2. Cart abandonment recovery sequences in case the user leaves at the checkout
FunnelKit Automations gives you the opportunity to set up these sequences with timed delays, well-thought actions and conditions, and more.
It has pre-built automation recipes that let you customize your workflows and automate your processes.
Go to the Automations section and you’ll see the FunnelKit Automations plugin.
Once done, there are various recipes including opt-in lead nurturing sequences, abandoned cart reminder workflows, etc., to take advantage of.
Based on your strategy, you can make these automations convert your prospects and sell while you sleep.
You can start setting up your abandoned cart workflows with its free version.
Further, level it by welcoming your new leads and nurturing them into top-valued customers gradually.
Here we have answered the common questions asked by users on the challenge funnel.
Can you give me some challenge funnel examples?
Here are two good examples of challenge funnels:
This video challenge is about learning the essential ingredients of making an engaging video that performs well online.
It uses a short description and well-placed CTAs to give all the information about this challenge. Plus, it gives a detailed day-wise breakdown of how users can achieve their goals with this free challenge.
The Green Smoothie challenge is about blending a smoothie each day to boost energy and improve your overall health.
The page highlights all the key benefits of taking on this challenge. Signing up will deliver some of the healthiest green smoothie recipes straight to your inbox.
How should I decide the challenge duration of my challenge funnel?
The duration of your challenge should at least be 3 days to a maximum of 30 days. It depends on the goals you want your subscribers to achieve in a set time frame.
How can I enhance my revenue if the users reject my offers?
You can boost your revenue through lead-nurturing emails in case any user rejects your offer. All you need is a powerful, easy-to-use CRM like FunnelKit Automations. It has all the events, actions, delays and conditions to set up brilliant automated sequences that drive sales.
We’ve finally come to the end! We looked at what a challenge funnel is, and how you can use it to grow your email list and boost revenue.
A challenge funnel helps you generate leads and make profits.
All you have to do is think of a challenge that your products can help your audience achieve their goals. Once they’re in your funnel, sign them up by giving them a free offer.
Sequentially placing your irresistible offers right after the lead magnet is the way to earn big.
Make sure your offers are aligned with your challenge funnel.
In case your offers got rejected, don’t lose hope because you already have your leads. You can set up automated email nurturing campaigns and convert them into paying customers.
So are you ready to create your profit-boosting challenge funnel?
