Justin Welsh is one of the most legendary creators on LinkedIn.
Over the past 6-7 years, he has:
Grown his social media audience to over 1.5M followers across LinkedIn, IG, and X
Built an email list of 200,000 people who read his newsletter every week.
And generated mora than $15M in revenue as a one person business (with ~90% profit margins)
So when I saw he’d launched a new lead magnet funnel, I knew I had to go through it.
Over the last 3 days, I spent about 3 hours analyzing it.
I opted in, clicked through every page, read every email, and filled a page with notes on what I thought:
He absolutely nailed
As well as what he could have done better (in my opinion)
And in this piece, I’m going to walk you through all of it.
Let’s get into it.
First, here’s a high level overview of the funnel works
Before we break down the individual pieces, here’s the full path from social post to sale:
Social traffic goes to a lead magnet landing page
Once you opt in for the free lead magnet, you get sent to a thank you page with a segmentation survey
If you complete the segmentation survey, you get a CTA to check out his flagship product
If you click on that CTA, you land on his flagship product sales page, which has a headline personalized based on your survey responses (super smart!)
And finally, you also get an email with the link to download the guide, which is a simple PDF
Five pieces.
Now, let’s break them all down - one at a time.
1. The landing page
My take: almost perfect. 9/10
What he did well
There were 5 big things he nailed with this landing page:
The headline is a banger. It has a big credibility outcome baked into it (a $15M business), it addresses a big objection, and it uses visceral language on top of that (”without destroying my life”).
The subheadline does a terrific job of increasing the perceived value of the asset. After reading it, the free guide suddenly feels like something you should pay for (because of how much effort he put into it).
The page follows the rule of one. There’s only one thing you can do on it: you can either opt-in or bounce.
Last but not least, the opt in form is above the fold. You don’t need to do any scrolling to take the action he wants you to take: opting in.
What I would improve
Now, there are 2 things he could’ve done slightly better here:
There’s no social proof above the fold. He’s got some near the bottom but a good chunk of people won’t make it there. Now, he can get away with that because he’s Justin Welsh, but generally I would definitely recommend not skipping this in your above the fold copy. Something as simple as “20,000+ people have already gone through it” is more than enough.
The mockup image isn’t super compelling or eye catching. If you scroll down a bit, you can see a mockup image of the guide. But tbh, it’s kinda of “meh.” For a guide he clearly poured this much work into, the visual doesn’t do it justice.
2. The thank you page
Now, let’s talk about his thank you page.
My take: this was pretty solid, but there are some low hanging upgrades here. 8/10
What he did well
2 main things:
The page does a great job of setting expectations for what happens next. You always want people to know exactly what’s coming after they opt in, and he nailed that.
He includes a quick segmentation survey (4 questions) to gather first party data from his subscribers. This is the part most people skip. This data allows him personalize his emails later and make them significantly more effective (because he can speak directly to your specific goals, pain points, and situation).
What I would improve
A couple low hanging upgrades:
The survey is below the fold. You have to scroll to even see it, which means a chunk of people never will. Easy fix, though.
There isn’t a super compelling incentive to fill it out. Right now he’s asking people to do work for free. Instead, I would offer an additional free resource in exchange for completing the survey. This can help maximize the number of people who complete it (which is important because that means > more people he can personalize his emails for > higher likelihood of generating more sales).
When you complete the survey, there’s a CTA to check out his flagship product. This is good, actually. But ****I would take it a step further and auto redirect people to that page as soon as they finish the survey (instead of relying on a click). I would just make sure there’s some copy at the top of the page making the transition before doing any selling.
3. The paid offer sales page
Alright, let’s talk about the sales page now.
My take: same story as the thank you page. Pretty good execution with a couple of low hanging upgrades. 8/10
As a reminder: you get a CTA to check out this sale page after you complete the segmentation survey (see below), which is smart - because that way he’s only pitching the most engaged/highest intent people.
What he did well
There were 3 things he nailed here:
The headline of the page is personalized based on your specific survey answers. This is super smart and a great use of the first party data he just collected.
He’s got a $250 off expiring discount. It feels compelling and it does a good job of creating urgency. (I also liked that the deadline is a much longer than the classic internet marketing funnel where they try to push you to buy in like 10 minutes lol.)
He’s got most of the “must have” sections for a course sales page like this one. Solid offer stack. Plenty of FAQs. Social proof. Bonuses. The works.
What I would improve
Now, there are 2 low hanging upgrades I would make here:
The product box image is taking up most of the real estate above the fold on mobile. Which means it’s burying the headline and subheadline, and those are far more important than the image. So I would either move it down or just hide it so it doesn’t show up at all on mobile.
The page is a bit too text heavy. I would include more screenshots, visual sneak peeks of the product, and pictures of the people whose testimonials he’s using - especially because they’re all well known.
4. The lead magnet delivery email
Last but not least, let’s talk about Justin’s lead magnet delivery email.
My take: this was pretty underwhelming, and it’s the part of the funnel that could use the most work. 4/10
What he did well
Before we talk upgrades, let’s talk about the 2 things he did a good job with:
He delivers the lead magnet right away. Which is table stakes - but hey, he got that right.
He has a final CTA encouraging people to reply if they found the guide helpful. I liked this because it can help with deliverability and it’s a nice way to get feedback from people + start conversations (which can be particularly helpful if you sell high ticket stuff).
What I would improve
Now, here’s how I would make this a 10/10:
I would hype up the guide and what’s inside wayyyy more. Especially because he put all this time and effort into it. Selling the guide inside the delivery email increases the likelihood that people actually open it and read it. Though a better upgrade would be to deliver the entire guide over 5 or 6 emails, in the form of an email course. That would increase the likelihood people consume the whole thing even more.
I would also include a quick version of his back story. He covers that inside the guide, but putting it in the email could help build trust and get people invested faster.
I would add a PS either reminding people to complete the survey (if they didn’t), or reminding them to take advantage of the expiring discount on his product (if they did fill it out).
Wrapping up
The front end of this funnel is excellent.
The landing page, the segmentation survey, and the personalized sales page were great overall & there’s plenty you can learn from those.
But there’s a clear opportunity to beef up the backend to (1) increase the likelihood people actually read the guide and (2) end up buying as a result.
Anyway, hope this was helpful!
And if it was, please:
Leave a comment letting me know what your favorite part was
Share this with a friend or colleague who could find it helpful as well
Until next week,
Daniel
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