Ultimate Guide to Sales Funnels: Create One In Under 15 Mins

What the heck is a sales funnel? And how can YOU set up one for your business in just 15 minutes? 

If you’ve asked yourself these questions, keep reading! In this blog, I’ll tell you all about the different types of funnel, how to select the right one for YOUR online course business,  and learn the step-by-step process of how you can create your OWN funnel WITHOUT the tech head ache and all the tools you’ll need for that.

CLICK TO HIDE 👆

So, what is a sales funnel exactly?

The whole concept can seem very complex, especially if you’ve seen these multi-step intimidating-looking funnel schemes online

But trust me, it’s not that complicated!

A sales funnel is simply the journey a person goes through from having NO idea about who you are and seeing you for the first time to buying from you and — in the best-case scenario — becoming a raving fan. It’s that easy.

A funnel is simply a strategy that helps you ensure that:

a. Your potential client has all the relevant information they need to make a purchase.

b. You’re maximizing your outreach and minimizing client drop off.

Example of a digital product funnel

To make this example more tangible, let’s pretend you’re a nutritionist, and you help people ditch the toxic diet culture and become healthier & fitter in healthy ways. 

Here’s how your funnel might look like in practice:

1. A potential client finds you through TikTok & subscribes.

2. In one of your next videos, you mention you have a free resource that solves their pressing problem.

3. Your lead magnet might be something along the lines of “The Ultimate Guide to Losing Weight Without Counting Calories.”

4. Your potential client decides to get that free guide because it solves their pressing problem-so they opt into your email list.

5. Now you know that they’re actually interested in what you have to offer, and are not just a bystander lurking around your socials. They are a perfect candidate for your online program, where you help people re-establish a healthy body image.

6. You nurture them with other information that they might find valuable that SOLVES their pressing problems while simultaneously positioning you as the expert on the subject.

7. After you’ve established the connection and trust, you can then invite them to your webinar during which you pitch your online course. They either buy the course or they need more nurturing, more questions answered, etc.

This is just one example of a funnel, and the variations are pretty much limitless, so you can pick and chose the one that works for your business and your offer.

So which types of funnels are there? Let’s take a closer look.

Live  VS  Evergreen Funnels

As the name suggests, a live funnel is the one you’d use for a live launch — meaning you’d either deactivate it after launch or change it up.

An evergreen funnel is the one you set up and automate once, letting it run in the background on autopilot. This one is not necessarily better than the other, and the type of funnel you decide depends on whether you want to launch live or evergreen.

By the way, I share the pros and cons of each type in detail in this video, so give it a watch if you’re not sure which is the right one for you.

Prefer to read up on the differences between the two instead? Read the article here.

Cold vs Warm Funnels

Cold vs. warm funnels basically come down to the level of familiarity your audience has with you.

A cold funnel is for people who don’t know you or your brand yet. They haven’t interacted with your content, and you're essentially starting from scratch to build trust and introduce them to what you offer.

The goal here is to warm them up, usually by providing value through free content, email sequences, or ads.

A warm funnel, on the other hand, is for people who are already familiar with you. They’ve engaged with your content, maybe they’re on your email list or have been following you for a while.

These leads are much easier to convert because they already know, like, and trust you.

In short, cold funnels are about introducing and nurturing, while warm funnels are more about conversion since the trust has already been established.

Webinar Funnel

If you’re sending your audience to a webinar, free masterclass or a training, you’re using a webinar funnel.

Hint: if your product costs upwards of $500, you probably should be doing that.

A webinar is a great way to deliver value upfront, build authority and most importantly, trust with your audience.

Video Sales Letter or VSL Funnel

A Video Sales Letter (VSL) Funnel is similar to a webinar funnel, but it's typically shorter and geared towards lower-ticket products. Since these products don’t require as much explanation or selling, a VSL is a quick and effective way to get your message across and drive conversions.

It’s all about delivering the key points in a concise, engaging video format that convinces your audience to take action without the need for a lengthy presentation.

Lead Magnet Funnel

A funnel where you make an offer to someone after they have downloaded your lead magnet. Low-ticket, emotional purchase products would work well with such a funnel.

Call Funnel

For high-ticket products (anything above $2.5-3k), you’ll want to use a more personalized sales process. The higher the price, the more customized the approach needs to be.

This can be similar to a webinar or a VSL funnel, but instead of directly selling your course, you’d invite potential clients to schedule a call with you or your sales team.

Which type of funnel is right for your business?

This largely depends on factors like whether you’re launching for the first time or relaunching, your budget for ads, the type, and price of your online courses, and a bunch of other details.

Don’t stress too much about the different funnel types and names. The main goal of any funnel is to guide a potential client from not knowing who you are to becoming a paying customer—it doesn’t need to fit a textbook definition of a “perfect” funnel.

Use the price of your product and the degree of “warmth” your audience has as a guiding factor and choose the funnel that offers enough nurturing for your potential clients.

Would rather have a pro help you with your funnel set up? Book a 90-minute Power Hour Call and we’ll define your ideal funnel set-up together.

The tools you need to create your funnel

Ok, so now that you’ve decided on the type of funnel for your offer, you need to get the right tools in place that will allow you to streamline this process and make it as easy as possible. So which tools do you need?

1. First off, you’ll need either a funnel-building software or - if you feel comfortable going at it on your own - a website CMS platform of your choice that will allow you to create your own pages. The one important thing to note is that if you host your funnel on your actual site, you need to make other pages inaccessible - so remove the header, the links to socials, the link to your blog, etc. You don’t want to distract your potential clients with any other trinkets once they land on that page.

2. Email provider/text provider - so that you can gather your audience’s email addresses & phone numbers and send them info and notifications. The important thing to note is that your email provider should provide possibilities for audience segmentation so that you can tailor your messaging based on your audience’s behavior (i.e., exclude them from email sequences once they buy, only send them relevant information, etc.).

3. Tracking: Whether you’re running paid ads or not, install tracking on your site AND funnel as soon as possible. That includes Google Analytics tracking code, Facebook Pixel code, Pinterest pixel code, etc. - all the platforms which are relevant to your target audience. Even if you don’t plan on running ads anytime soon, it’s NEVER too early to start tracking and gathering data.

4. Checkout page: this is arguably the most important page of your funnel, where people buy!

5. A payment provider so that you can securely collect payments. Stripe and PayPal are the go-tos that will have you covered on all fronts

You can either select a different tool for each part of the process OR go for all-in-one tools.

Both approaches have their pros and cons, BUT I’m leaning towards all-in-one solutions because honestly... connecting multiple different tools can get very messy VERY fast.

If you don’t have a person looking after your tech, there’s no reason to overcomplicate your own life.

Some of the all-in-one tools you can look at include Kartra, Podia, and Systeme.io.

Creating Your Funnel in 15 Minutes

So let’s take a look at how all of this would work in PRACTICE. Because all this theory is GREAT, but how would you actually go about creating this system?

I’ll show you how to create a funnel inside the Systeme.io software. The foundational principles will largely stay the same for other tools as well, but the technicalities WILL differ, so bear that in mind.

Sign up with Systeme.io and then head over to Funnels. Take a look at the different types of funnels available and what they can help you accomplish. Choose your preferred currency, and let's create your first squeeze page together. Check out the settings per page where you can define the name and URL.

The real magic happens in the automation rules section, where you can set up all kinds of cool stuff later on. You can also run A/B tests and keep an eye on your stats without needing to mess with any clunky Excel sheets.

Don't forget to set your deadline settings, which can replace another tool. If your funnel is inactive, an inactive page will be displayed. This is handy, for instance, if your offer has ended but you still want to gather leads into your waitlist.

And lastly, make sure to set up a custom domain in your profile settings.

Shadow funnel and why it’s important

After you’ve created your funnel, the work doesn’t stop. Because here’s the thing: in the real-life world, people normally don’t go through our funnel in a streamlined way.

Plus, especially if you’re working with cold traffic and haven’t built that level of trust yet, you can bet your potential clients WILL be doing their research on you.

People know that YOU’LL be saying your course is great, but are there non-biased people who can confirm that?

What that means in practical terms for you is that your social channels need to look alive and “legit” — no need to post 3 times a day if socials are not your focus, but your page needs to let people know you’re a real person, not some internet scam.

If you have your own website, you need to pack it with some proof: testimonials, press clippings, etc.

But most importantly, you need to watch out for what happens on the mediums you DON’T control. Turn on Google notifications for your business to stay on top of the game, invest in getting magazine features, and incentivize your students and business partners to write about you.

Reviews on platforms like Trustpilot, questions on platforms like Quora, Google reviews, YouTube reviews, blog posts about your course, magazine features, etc. – is there something to back up your claims?

And if there’s none, how can you encourage your students and/or clients to share their honest opinions about working with you on their mediums?

And there you have it!