The Complete Guide to Building Simple & Effective Sales Funnels

A high-converting sales funnel is an invaluable marketing asset that empowers creators and entrepreneurs to automate lead generation — from awareness all the way through to conversion.

Funnels focus on relationship building, as opposed to making a quick sale. They work to attract interest and collect information, allowing creators to build stronger connections and prove an offering's benefit. This is accomplished with free, valuable knowledge, empathizing with pain points, product test-runs, and more — ideally ushering leads toward making a purchase and becoming loyal customers.

Businesses that nurture leads pay less (33%) to acquire customers while increasing sales (50%). This is significant when you consider that marketers use nearly half of their budget on lead generation. Small businesses and creators can take advantage of these opportunities too.

In this article, we’ll teach you everything you need to create your own sales funnel, including:

• What is a Sales Funnel?
• Sales Funnel Examples: How Do They Work?
• The 5 Stages of Sales Funnels
• How to Create a Sales Funnel for Your Business (in 3 Steps)

We’ll also cover funnel examples, what content to create for every stage, and how to support and persuade potential customers throughout the process.

While sales funnels can be intimidating, they’re simple to set up. With an understanding of how they work and how to use them in your business, you’ll be automating lead generation in no time. Let’s get started!

What Is a Sales Funnel?

A sales funnel is the content and marketing structure that entrepreneurs use to attract, capture, nurture, and convert leads from discovery through customer retention.

While it may sound complicated, funnels aren’t difficult. Think of it this way:

Have you ever taken a subway, train, or plane that required multiple connections to get where you were going? This method of travel is a good analogy for the journey that leads will take through your sales funnel:

• There are a lot of different avenues from which leads might find your business.
• Potential customers have their own agendas: a destination they’re trying to get to. They’ll only get on your train if they think it’s going where they want to go.
• Everyone is there for a reason: your funnel should bring them closer to what they want.

For these reasons, sales funnels tend to become more complicated as they expand to address various customer pain points, inform customers at varying levels of awareness, and capture leads across marketing channels.

Therefore, it’s important to begin with one or two marketing channels. Build a funnel, refine your offer, and measure the conversion rate.

That being said, it’s highly likely that you have already created a sales funnel without realizing it. Here’s an example:

Consider a website that attracts 5,000 visitors a month. Of those 5,000 people, about 100 convert into newsletter subscribers. Around 25% of people who are on the email list purchase products within the first year of subscribing. A significant portion of those people become repeat customers and loyal fans. In this example, the sales funnel is:

SEO blog posts > Newsletter > Conversion (purchase)

However, to achieve the conversions, the sales funnel had to create awareness, build interest or promote evaluation, encourage consideration, and motivate action. We’ll discuss these foundational stages later.

Sales Funnel Examples: How Do They Work?

In general, a sales funnel contains three or four major components; for example:

• Instagram ad > Landing page > Conversion
• Blog post > Email list > Conversion
• Youtube video > Landing page > Lead magnet > Conversion
• Influencer social post > Blog post > Conversion

Sales funnels are highly effective at generating leads, building relationships, and producing sales conversions. But they cannot anticipate human behavior.

For this reason, it is impossible to predict every path someone might take from discovering your brand to purchasing a product.

In the example below, two potential customers make the same purchase but take different paths to get there:

Customer A discovers your social media and becomes a follower. After a few months, they read a post that inspires them to click the link in your bio. They read a blog post but don’t sign up for the newsletter. They continue to follow you, engaging with the content occasionally. Another blog post is shared. They read it and buy the product you promote within the post. Customer B becomes aware of your brand through a paid Google search advertisement. They read the article but do not sign up for the newsletter. The next day, they see a retargeted ad and visit your website. They join the newsletter and receive an email sequence. When the sequence concludes, they buy the product you promoted in the concluding email.

Therefore, it’s necessary to (eventually) create top-of-the-funnel opportunities across your marketing channels. This will allow you to meet potential customers where they are and address differing pain points within your audience.

The 5 Stages of Sales Funnels

Each stage of a sales funnel should move prospective customers closer to making a purchase. To this end, it is necessary to create content that is tailored to each stage and builds on prior information.

Step zero of building a sales funnel is knowing your audience.

This is essential to creating an effective funnel. To generate leads, you must first understand who you are trying to attract:

• What pain points does your content solve? Beyond the demographics and crafted persona, who does your company seek to serve?
• Furthermore, what are your company’s values? What is your company’s mission beyond financial gain?

Knowing your ‘why’ will allow you to position your brand to attract those whose values, perspectives, and struggles are an ideal fit for your company’s products.

Stage 1: How Will You Attract & Engage Customers?

Awareness (Top of the Funnel)

The top of your funnel casts a wide net of potential new customers and generates awareness of your brand or company. At this stage, you’re not trying to sell a product or offering. You’re producing valuable, free content to attract the attention of your ideal customers.

Therefore, the top of your funnel starts wherever your audience is already spending time.

Draw attention through content, advertising, and events; examples include:

• Blog posts
• Podcasts
• Social media posts
• YouTube videos
• In-person events
• Sponsored ads

The main purpose of this stage is to inform, inspire, and delight potential customers.

However, a key aspect is knowing what action the visitor needs to take to move to the next part of the funnel. Are you building an email list? Is your goal to send people to a landing page or have them register for a webinar?

Determine the next step that will bring them closer to what they want. And consider how you will persuade them to proceed through the funnel.

Stage 2: What Will You Offer to Build Trust & Interest?

Interest & Evaluation (Middle of the Funnel)

Now that you have their attention, stage two is about building relationships and providing more specific information. At this point, the lead is not looking to buy anything. But they’re curious about the brand and evaluating its values, consistency, and content.

This stage is crucial for connecting with potential customers and making them part of your audience. Examples of content for the interest and evaluation stage include:

• Webinars
• Lead magnets
• Ebooks
• Blog posts
• Social media posts
• Ad retargeting
• Mini-courses
• Chatbots
• Email newsletter

During this stage, focus on providing high quality information that positions you as an expert or leader in your industry. It’s also important to track what visitors are engaging with and how often leads become audience members.

Determine your goals for this stage and measure the conversion rate (people who visit and complete a task divided by those who just visit) — for example:

Jacob has a website on indoor plants and how to take care of them. At the end of a popular blog post on monsteras, he promotes a free ebook: So You Bought a Monstera? Keeping It Alive & Other Hot Tips. To receive the ebook, visitors must enter their email address. Jacob’s blog post receives an average of 10,000 visitors every month. Of those 10,000 visitors, roughly 300 sign up to receive the ebook. This informs Jacob that his opt-in offer (also known as a lead magnet) converts well: 300 / 10,000 = 0.03 — 3% conversion rate.

Stage two has the largest drop-off: businesses are able to convert generated leads at a rate of 1-3%. Which means, the more opportunities you take to build relationships with leads, the higher your conversion rates will be. When building your first funnel, choose one or two marketing channels, create a funnel, and focus on improving the conversion rate.

If it takes seven times for a prospective customer to hear a message before becoming a buyer, stage two takes care of the second through fifth interaction — it’s that important to the overall success of the sales funnel. As this stage concludes, a prospective buyer should be familiar with the value you provide and confident you can solve their problems.

Stage 3: How Will You Stoke Consideration or Enhance the Offer?

Consideration (Middle of the Funnel)

At stage three, buyers are considering how your product or offering will fit into their life, including their budget, time commitments, and potential for transformation. They will also seek clear outcomes and knowledge of what to expect.

Your goal is to clearly define what life will be like with your product in it: what boons will they receive from their investment?

Make it easy to say, “yes!” to your product. Types of content for this stage include:

• Discount codes
• Free trials
• Live demos or tutorials
• Pricing page
• Product comparisons
• Customer testimonials
• White papers
• Webinars
• Timely sales

This content might demonstrate the value of your product without the potential customer having to make a purchase. This stage is also ideal for increasing demand through social proof, test-runs, and a fear of missing out (FOMO). Alternatively, your approach could be to sweeten the deal with discount codes and exclusive bonuses, such as in the example below:

Darius created and sells a video game. He uses social media to create awareness of his product and sends traffic to a landing page. This landing page includes gameplay videos, customer testimonials, pricing, and a discount code for email subscribers. When new subscribers do not use the discount code to buy the game, Darius sends them an onboarding email sequence. As it concludes, Darius offers the same discount, plus in-game bonuses, and sets a time limit on the offer.

Stage 4: How Can You Encourage Conversion?

Action (Bottom of the Funnel)

Leads become customers when they purchase a product or service. This action is the combined accomplishment of the prior three stages.

As this stage begins, the lead has moved from consideration to commitment by purchasing your product or offering.

There is no additional content to create or offer at this juncture. However, this stage is ideal for evaluation. Measure your results and determine where you can optimize your sales funnel.

Stage 5: How Will You Create a Stellar Customer Experience?

Customer Experience & Retention (Post Conversion)

When you cultivate relationships with customers beyond the monetary exchange, you cultivate loyal connections and encourage repeat buyers. Part of stage five is ensuring optimal customer satisfaction. Depending on the product sold, content for this stage might include:

• Educational tools
• Bonus materials
• Tips for success
• Private online groups
• Training webinars
• Follow-up support

Importantly, determine the best way to reach out and make yourself available for feedback, questions, and support. The more robust your customer service experience, the greater sense of community you will be able to build. In the example below, the author is able to cultivate community while encouraging repeat sales:

Rajesh writes a series of science fiction ebooks. As his fan base has grown, he realized there’s value in creating a community. Anyone who purchases one of his books receives exclusive access to an online Discord group. Using this group, Rajesh hosts a monthly Q&A that gives fans an opportunity to connect with him as the author. After purchase, he sends a ‘Thank You’ email that provides instructions for adding the ebook to Kindle. A week after purchase, he sends an automatic follow-up email that asks the reader to leave a review on Goodreads. It also features the next book in the series and reiterates that he’s available for feedback and customer support.

Repeat customers are the most loyal buyers in any business.

So much so, that 61% of small and medium businesses report that half of their revenue comes from repeat customers.

Beyond this stage, your goal is to enrich customer relationships and encourage reengagement with the brand. Focus on sharing new knowledge and cross-selling other products they might be interested in. Consider how your business can help them long term.

This segment of your audience is also the most likely to spread the word through a referral program or special offer. Consider the ways in which you can leverage these connections to improve your products and create repeat buyers who become loyal customers.

How to Create a Sales Funnel for Your Business (in 3 Steps)

Now, it’s time to put it all together. In stage two, we recommended beginning with one or two marketing channels, creating solid funnels, and improving their conversion rates.

As you cast wider nets with more top-of-the-funnel opportunities, it can become more difficult to refine. Consider scribbling a quick flow chart using the questions we offered with the stages.

With a clear idea of what you’re offering at each stage of the sales funnel, it’s time to create the content that will generate leads and nurture customer relationships.

1. Produce Content or Paid Advertising

We’ve already discussed the types of content you might produce for the top of the funnel. The key is to create content or run ad campaigns that target your ideal audience while casting a wide net of potential leads.

In all likelihood, you’re already producing this type of content. Review the most successful content you’ve created and consider how to reproduce its success or convert more people.

When in doubt, return to stage zero: engage with your audience to understand their pain points, wants, and needs. Then create content that is in alignment with your products and addresses their desires.

This step is on-going. It’s the marketing you continuously do to generate awareness of your business and build an audience.

The key is to refine the content you’re creating to encourage more and more people to convert from passive visitors to engaged audience members.

2. Create an Enticing Lead Magnet

Whether you are building an email list, registering users for a webinar, or directing traffic to a landing page, lead magnets encourage visitors to engage with your content and learn more.

This step is essential to generating prospective leads at scale.

The goal of your lead magnet is to provide something of real value to visitors that will persuade them to take a specific action.

This action might be to subscribe with their email address, allowing you to foster the relationship and send marketing promotions.

Alternatively, the action may be to visit a landing page or attend a webinar. There are endless ways to attract visitors and provide value.

Think of this as your ‘hook’. In the example below, the meal plan app uses free trials to ‘hook’ users and give them an opportunity to appreciate the service.

The meal plan app, Sweet Potato pays influencers to promote its products on their YouTube channel. When an influencer promotes Sweet Potato, they offer the audience a free month of meal plans when they use code: [InfluencerName]FreeTrial. This discount code acts as a lead magnet, enticing the influencers’ viewers to visit the Sweet Potato website. It also acts as the incentive to say, “yes,” because a free month of meal plans allows potential customers to use the service before spending money. This three-part sales funnel relies on the trust and authority the influencer has built with their audience, while appealing to a common pain point: cooking healthy meals. Furthermore, the company removes the initial cost to join, encouraging visitors to try the product. This free trial is part of the company’s overall sales funnel. A successful conversion, in this case, would be when the customer subscribes by paying for the second month of meal plans.

Once a lead has taken this first step, they have officially shown interest in your business and have some awareness of your offerings. The next step is to build on that relationship.

3. Build an Email Sequence or Landing Page

Once a lead has shown interest in your business, how will you continue to offer value and bring them closer to the solution that is your product or service?

Depending on how you generated awareness of your business, this might be with a landing page or email sequence. While they are different methods of building trust, both options have the same goal: persuade a lead to buy.

Landing Page

A landing page outlines the various details of a product or offering. They can be short and to-the-point or many pages long. They often include:

• Value propositions (that speak to user pain points)
• A full description of the product or service
• Testimonials or social proof
• Who you are (credibility and background)
• Pricing details
• Guarantees
• Frequently asked questions
• Checkout buttons

Creating an enticing landing page is an art of its own. Focus on showcasing the transformation people will receive through purchasing your product and how your expertise will help them.

Email Sequence

An email sequence is a series of emails that are automatically triggered when a visitor completes an action, such as providing their email address in exchange for a lead magnet.

This automatic sequence sends follow-up correspondences designed to educate, inspire, and nurture leads.

Email sequences generally contain four to ten messages sent over the course of a few weeks or months. The sequence’s goal is to move prospective customers to the bottom of the funnel (toward conversion) and often provide significant, free value.

Lacy sells digital collages on her website. She creates search engine optimized blog posts to attract visitors. At the bottom of her blog posts, she offers a free email mini-course on Creating Digital Collages with Canva. When a visitor provides their email address, this triggers the email sequence Lacy has created with her digital commerce platform. The first email automatically sends the new lead a welcome message that includes the course schedule, objectives, and a call-to-action. The next day, the second email is sent; it contains the first lesson on how to create digital collages. Over the course of the next three weeks, the lead receives each lesson by email. This encourages the lead to develop a relationship with Lacy and her content. It also allows the lead to become familiar with Lacy’s teaching style and the quality of her knowledge. At the end of the mini-course, Lacy sends a Congratulations! email, thanking the lead for participating. This email promotes Lacy’s digital artwork that’s for sale, as well as a paid course she sells on Living Collages: The Art of Combining Videos & Stil Art.

Email sequences are highly effective at leading prospective customers toward the bottom of the funnel, because they are an opportunity to create a stronger relationship with the lead.

The key is to provide knowledge with significant enough value that the entrepreneur could charge full-price for access.

This allows the creator to demonstrate their knowledge and convince the prospect that investing their money in the product will produce the results they seek.

Sales Funnels Try to Predict Customer Behavior

A successful sales funnel turns cold leads into loyal customers. But like all aspects of running a business, it won’t be perfect the first time. A simple funnel with room for improvement is 100% more effective than not having one.

Therefore, try different methods of reaching customers at each stage of the funnel, and don’t be afraid to tweak your messaging or create new lead magnets.

Remember: there is no objective way to consistently predict how users will move through your funnel and become a customer.

Ultimately, this is why sales funnels can become complicated, multi-headed entities. Start simple and add new branches to solve more specific problems for your customers. The most important aspect of a funnel is the relationships you build through them. Funnels are meant to help automate this process, not make it obsolete.

While the goal of a sales funnel is to convert leads, the focus and heart of a sales funnel must be on providing sincere value to customers and improving their experience.

When it’s time to sell your products, consider SendOwl. SendOwl is ideal for sales funnels:

• Promote your lead magnet anywhere - no website necessary.
• Create drip feed campaigns to nurture new leads.
• Use payment links to send potential customers directly to checkout.

Try it free today.

Conner Carey