A person going into a sales funnel with "Your Product" at the bottom depicts Russell Brunson's "hook, story, offer" strategy

Are you struggling to attract your ideal customers? What’s the secret to creating a sales funnel that actually works?

Russell Brunson’s book Traffic Secrets reveals a powerful strategy for capturing dream customers. He shares insights on crafting compelling offers and designing user-friendly web pages. His approach focuses on the “hook, story, and offer” framework to guide potential buyers through the sales process.

Read on for Brunson’s expert advice that can boost your business online.

Russell Brunson’s Sales Funnel Strategy

According to Russell Brunson, a sales funnel will capture your dream customers and guide them toward purchasing your products or services. He advises crafting valuable offers that resonate with the needs and desires you identify for your ideal customer and then incorporating them into an easily navigable web page.

Use a “Hook, Story, & Offer” Framework

To draw customers into your sales funnel, you need something to pique their interest, something to engage them further, and finally, something to clinch their purchase: what Brunson calls a hook, story, and offer:

  • Hook: an image or headline that grabs people’s attention. It will be something that will prompt them to stop scrolling their social media feeds and instead click for more information. 
  • Story: a description of something that happened (related to a problem your audience shares) that builds a connection with them. 
  • Offer: the product or service you’re offering as a solution to their problem.

Your customer avatar will guide you in creating a hook, story, and offer that appeal to your particular target market. A customer avatar is an imaginary yet detailed portrait of your ideal customer that describes their age, interests, spending habits, and frustrations. One way to do this is to examine your own experiences: Since you likely created your product or service to solve a problem you yourself had, you may have been your dream customer at one point. If so, think about what you were going through at that time—when you needed a solution like the one you have now. The problems you once had can point you in the right direction now.

To properly flesh out your customer avatar and fully understand your customer, you must determine which of these desires they’re focusing on: health, wealth, or relationships.

What Is a Sales Funnel?

Sales funnels—step-by-step, repeatable processes that businesses use to guide customers toward making a purchase—have been used by marketers since 1898 and are considered the cornerstone of marketing campaigns. They traditionally incorporate four stages


Awareness: A potential customer comes across a problem and encounters your product.

Interest: Your product engages her attention and she wants to learn more.

Desire: Your product sparks an emotional connection that moves the customer from “liking” to “wanting.”

Action: She decides to interact with your company—either downloading a brochure, subscribing to a newsletter, or purchasing your product.

Brunson’s three elements of hook, story, and offer align with these stages: His “hook” incorporates both awareness (when the customer learns about your product) and interest (when their attention is grabbed). His “story” aims to create a personal, emotional connection with your customer (the stage of desire), and his “offer” corresponds to the stage of getting the customer to take action

Brunson argues that the success of your business largely depends on how well you build and manage your sales funnel, as it can help you focus on the right prospects and turn those most likely to convert into paying customers.
Russell Brunson’s Sales Funnel Strategy: Hook, Story, & Offer

Elizabeth Whitworth

Elizabeth has a lifelong love of books. She devours nonfiction, especially in the areas of history, theology, and philosophy. A switch to audiobooks has kindled her enjoyment of well-narrated fiction, particularly Victorian and early 20th-century works. She appreciates idea-driven books—and a classic murder mystery now and then. Elizabeth has a blog and is writing a book about the beginning and the end of suffering.

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