"Do I need a new website, or a funnel?" is a question we hear a lot. The honest answer is usually "it depends what you want it to do", because these are different tools for different jobs.
The website: your home base
Your website is where people go to find out who you are. It serves many audiences at once: potential customers, existing clients, partners, recruits and journalists.
It's good at:
- Building trust and credibility
- Explaining everything you offer
- Being found in search for many different questions
- Hosting your portfolio, articles and company information
It's not great at: converting a specific campaign's traffic. A home page with ten links gives a visitor from an ad ten ways to get distracted.
The landing page: one offer, one action
A landing page is a single page built for one audience, one offer and one action. It usually has no main menu and no other places to go.
Use one when:
- You run ads for a specific service or product
- You launch an event, a webinar or a new offer
- You give away a guide, checklist or template in exchange for an email address
- You want to test a message before building it into your main site
What makes a good one:
- A headline that matches the ad or link that brought people there
- A clear benefit, not a feature list
- Proof: testimonials, results, logos
- Answers to the obvious objections
- One button, repeated
Because it does only one thing, a landing page typically converts its traffic much better than sending the same people to your home page.
The funnel: a journey, not a page
A funnel is a sequence of steps that moves someone from first contact to customer, and ideally to repeat customer. It combines pages, emails, messages and offers.
A simple service-business funnel might look like this:
- Attract: a social post, ad or article reaches the right person
- Capture: a landing page offers a useful free guide in exchange for an email
- Nurture: a short email sequence shares advice, stories and proof over a week or two
- Convert: an invitation to book a call or buy
- Follow up: reminders for people who showed interest but didn't act
An e-commerce funnel might add product pages, a checkout, abandoned-cart emails and post-purchase offers.
The power of a funnel is that it works on people who aren't ready to buy today, which is most of them.
How they work together
They're not alternatives. They're layers:
- Your website builds the credibility that makes everything else work, and catches people who search for you.
- Landing pages convert the traffic you pay for or send from campaigns.
- Funnels connect it all and follow up automatically, so interest doesn't go cold.
Which to build first?
Start with the website if you're new, rebranding, or your current site doesn't build trust. Ads and funnels pointing to a weak website leak money.
Add landing pages when you start running campaigns or ads, or launch a specific offer.
Build a funnel when you have steady traffic but too few people turn into enquiries or sales, or when your product needs more than one visit to buy.
Quick decision guide
| Your situation | Start with |
|---|---|
| New business, or your site feels out of date | Website |
| Running ads to a single offer | Landing page |
| Lots of visitors, few enquiries | Funnel |
| Launching an event or product | Landing page, then a short funnel |
| High-value service with a long decision time | Website, then a funnel with email nurture |
Not sure which fits? Book a free 30-minute call. We'll look at where your customers come from and what's stopping them from buying.
