Sales Funnel Template: Free Plus Shipping Funnel

Sales funnel templates are shortcuts, more or less heuristics to start from and improve upon.

If you’re not clear on what a sales funnel is, see this article: Building a Million Dollar Natural Health Business Online

This article will be the first of several about specific types of funnels and templates for each. I’ll approach these funnel templates from a dietary supplement perspective since that’s my specialty.

Most funnel templates focus on either the up-sells or on the lead nurture. My approach for these sales funnel template articles will take a different perspective.

Instead, I’ll focus more on the sales page. Providing a sales page structure as well as explaining the strategy behind each specific funnel type.

The first funnel, we’ll look at is the free plus shipping funnel.

As you may know, a free plus shipping funnel sells a physical product for just the price of shipping.

The physical product typically consists of a book, or a smaller sized bottle of supplement or a trial offer of a supplement that adds the buyer to a monthly subscription.

The physical item you offer for free has to have a cost of goods (COGS) that is low enough so that the shipping price covers most or all of the COGS of the product plus shipping. Typically the shipping prices we see that work best for such funnels, range from $4.95 to $9.95.

The strategy behind a free plus shipping sales funnel template is simply: micro commitment and strength of the offer.

This funnel works mostly because of the strength of the offer. The appeal of getting something for free is hard to beat, even if you do pay shipping.

There’s also a bit of reciprocity built into the offer. After all the product is being positioned more or less as a gift, since from the buyers perspective, the company is covering the cost of the product. The exchange seems fair that a customer would have to pay for shipping after all you’re getting the product for free.

The micro commitment aspect of this funnel template, a second component of the strategy, is often overlooked.

The idea of a micro commitment is that it gains the prospects trust with a small ask on the way to the larger credit card ask of a purchase. (even though it’s free we still want a buyer.)

Since the offer is for a free physical item, be it a book or a bottle of supplements, it makes sense that you would need the prospects name and address to send their free item.

Most free plus ship funnels either ask for only the prospects email address as the first step. Or they don’t ask for any information at all and take you right to the order page to get your credit card to charge for shipping. (i.e going right for the sale.)

Instead it’s best to ask for their full mailing address in addition to their email all at once, before taking them to the order page to get their credit card info. The psychology behind asking for the full mailing address reinforces the free offer. After all, it makes total sense that you would need my address in order to mail me my free item. This also bolsters the fact that it’s a physical item you’re getting, which has a higher perceived value than a digital product.

If you want to go deeper into the economics of this type of offer, refer to the article: Free Plus Shipping Funnel Secrets (What Nearly Everyone Overlooks)

Here’s the funnel structure: Sales Page > Order Step 1 (micro commitment for full address) > Order Page > Up-sell 1 Page, Up-sell 2 Page, Thank You Page

Without further ado, let’s look at the free plus shipping funnel template…

Many supplement companies like BioTrust, are positioning their free plus shipping offers up front. Meaning the visitors know there’s an offer right away. This is exposed in the headline and in some cases even the ad that drives the traffic.

For an up front offer driven sales page, here’s how the template would look.

Headline: Offer driven with benefit.

For example: Claim Your FREE (product name goes here) and Experience (benefit #1)

Lead: Strong reason why it’s free right up front

Here’s some sample copy: We’re so excited about (key ingredient) found in (product name) that we’re willing to give it to you for FREE.

Add anything else they get with the offer, bonus reports, coaching, etc.

State the over all value of the product plus all the bonuses. i.e. worth x dollars. Restate that it’s FREE today adding scarcity.

Visually represent the offer value. Price slashed out with the word FREE in all caps.

To learn more about how to visually represent the value of an offer see the article: Expressing The Value Of an Offer For Maximum Sales Online

Body: Go into the benefits of your product and what makes it different. (what it does, what it contains and what it does not contain i.e. no artificial colors, etc.)

Additionally address any specific objections. For example if it’s a supplement that you mix and drink, address the taste.

Restate the offer

Here’s some sample copy: Today, we want to prove to you just how great (product name goes here) is by giving it to you for FREE.

All we ask is that you help us cover the small cost of shipping and handling (just $4.95 for U.S. orders, additional for international orders), and we’ll rush everything out to you right away – (restate everything they get again) 100% on us.

1st Call to Action (CTA): Click the “Yes! Send My FREE Bottle” Button Below While Supplies Last.

Retail price slashed out followed by FREE.

Visually restate the offer so they can see everything they get.

Use Trustmarks under the CTA button. (like an SSL secure seal, Better Business Bureau logo, etc.)

Use FAQs at the bottom to address all the objections and questions, including an image of the ingredients label if a supplement, how long will the free sale last (to create urgency) your guarantee if you offer any on the cost of shipping.

Restate The Final CTA: Once again state the offer and info from the first call to action above.

Conclusion

A free plus shipping funnel is a great way to bring in new customers and leads into your business.

But be careful, if you don’t have the funnel economics right, it may not work for your level of risk and cash flow.

One potential downside is bringing in too many low value buyers who just want something for free. The lowest end of these buyers, won’t buy any of your up-sells but they may buy something from your backend email follow sequence. So don’t write them off completely.

However, you’ll want to segment different buyers, ideally on RFM, Recency, Frequency and Monetization, to truly scale your business with a free plus shipping offer.

Another way to capitalize on a free plus shipping funnel for a dietary supplement company is with selling a physical book on the front end as the free offer with supplements as the up-sells. For more information on that see this…

CASE STUDY: What’s The Best Way To Up-sell a Supplement?