June 24, 2025 • 21 mins
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Do you view sales funnels as some kind of sleazy marketing trap, or think they’re way too complicated to even attempt? That’s exactly why I recorded this episode. I’m breaking down what nobody tells you about sales funnels: that they can actually be simple, ethical, and—dare I say it—kind of fun to build. If you’ve ever avoided funnels because they felt overwhelming or a little gross, this conversation is going to change your mind.
I share how to create a values-aligned funnel using tools like Kit and Elementor, without relying on fake urgency or manipulative tactics. With practical tips on lead magnets, landing pages, and email sequences that serve, you’ll walk away feeling confident and ready to build a funnel that actually works!
02:27 - What a sales funnel actually is, and examples of what an effective (and simple) one looks like
07:32 - Ethical vs. unethical sales funnel tactics
09:51 - Four essential things you need for creating a sales funnel that converts
13:47 - What you should sell in your sales funnel and why
15:22 - Specific action steps for creating your first sales funnel
Links & Resources:
- The Savvy Funnel Starter Kit
- Kit - affiliate link
- Elementor - affiliate link
- ThriveCart - affiliate link
- Episode 72, What is a Funnel? A Simple Guide for TPT Sellers
- Episode 117, Launching Your Funnel Without the Stress [Funnel Series]
- Let’s Get (and Keep) Your Funnel Converting [Funnel Series]
- Follow me on Instagram @kristendoyle.co
- Check out my Everything Page: a one-stop shop for savvy selling!
- The Savvy Seller Collective
- Join my private Facebook community: Savvy Teacher Sellers
- More resources for growing your TPT business
- Rate & review The Savvy Teacher Seller on Apple Podcasts
Show Notes: https://kristendoyle.co/episode153
Tired of constantly hustling to sell your digital products? Check out my free 19-minute training where I show you how to turn all those products you already have into a profitable, automated business.
Get more freedom and less stress ➡️ watch now at kristendoyle.co/training
Check out my Everything Page at https://kristendoyle.co/everything
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristen (00:01):
Are you avoiding sales funnels because they seem too
complicated or manipulative? Iget it. Every time someone
mentions funnels, you probablypicture complicated diagrams of
dozens of steps or expensivesoftware, or maybe tech
nightmares. Or maybe the idea ofa sales funnel makes you think
(00:24):
about those bro marketingtactics that make you feel super
icky, fake countdown timers thatdon't really expire, and
pressure tactics that scream,"Buy now or else!" So you've
been staying away from funnelscompletely telling yourself
you'll figure them out later,when you have more time, or the
tech skills, or when you're notfeeling a little scared to try
(00:47):
it.
But what's happening instead isyou get stuck in this constant
cycle of creating more and morecontent, posting on social
media, and hustling to try andmake sales. So your income is
going up and down like a rollercoaster, and you could instead
be using some sales funnels.
(01:08):
Maybe you've heard otherbusiness owners talk about
evergreen funnels that makesales all the time for them, and
you're wondering what kind ofmagical knowledge they have that
you don't. Well, today we aregoing to talk all about sales
funnels, and I am here to tellyou that they are not magic
tricks. They are definitely notas complicated as you might have
(01:30):
made them out to be in yourmind. In fact, you're probably
already doing some parts of asales funnel now without even
realizing it. So today I'm goingto show you exactly how simple
sales funnels can be, and giveyou some steps to get started
creating a sales funnel.
Are you a digital product orcourse creator, selling on
(01:50):
platforms like Teachers PayTeachers, Etsy, or your own
website? Ready to grow yourbusiness, but not into the kind
of constant hustle that leadsstraight to burnout? Then you're
in the right place. Welcome toThe Savvy Seller. I'm Kristen
Doyle, and I'm here to give youno fluff tools and strategies
that move the needle for yourbusiness without burning you out
(02:13):
in the process—things like SEO,no stress marketing, email list
building, automations, and somuch more. Let's get started,
y'all.
The truth is a well designedsales funnel isn't manipulative
or icky at all. It's actuallyone of the most helpful things
(02:35):
you can create for youraudience. So let's start by
clearing up what a sales funnelactually is, because I think a
lot of that fear comes from justreally not understanding what
we're talking about. I've saidit before, a sales funnel is
really just a plan for howyou're going to help someone go
from, I have a problem, tohere's the solution I need, and
(02:59):
now I'm buying it. You can thinkof it like giving directions to
your house. You want to givepeople the clearest, most direct
route. And I know we all rely onGPS at this point, but if you
needed to give someonedirections to your house, you
wouldn't send them on some crazydetour through five different
neighborhoods. You would givethem the most direct route from
(03:20):
their house to yours. And thesame thing works with funnels.
You're really just mapping outthe easiest way for people to
get help from you with whateverit is that you offer.
If a friend came to you with aproblem related to the thing
that you sell, you wouldn'timmediately say, buy my course
(03:40):
for 4.97, or give them scaretactics about how if they don't
buy your course, everything'sgonna fall apart. You would
listen. Maybe ask somequestions. You would share some
helpful tips. And then if itmakes sense and you think your
course actually would help them,then you might mention how you
could help more through yourcourse or through services or
whatever else you might offer. Agood sales funnel follows that
(04:04):
exact same flow, and that's whatmakes it feel natural and not
pushy.
Let's say someone is strugglingwith getting their website to
convert visitors into buyers.
This is something that I love tohelp people with. So the blog
post approach that you might beusing right now is that you
write some helpful content andyou put an email opt in in
there, and maybe you post thatcontent on social media, you
(04:27):
send it out in your, to youremail list, maybe you run ads to
it, and what you're hoping isthat they will read this content
and sign up for your email listat the bottom. Maybe they do,
maybe they don't.
But the sales funnel approach isthat you create a page
specifically about the thingthey're struggling with, maybe
(04:49):
it's website conversions. Youcreate a landing page to give
them a free resource. Maybe it'sa guide or a checklist, whatever
will help them in exchange fortheir email. Then they get
helpful emails from you targetedto that problem that calls them
to sign up for this freebie inthe first place, and eventually
(05:11):
you can mention the thing youoffer. For me, I would
eventually start talking aboutmy web design services or my
coaching. And along the way, inbetween that free download and
talking about the services I canoffer, that's when I can share
those podcast episodes or thoseblog posts that are out there to
help them.
See the second route with thefunnel is a lot more direct, and
(05:34):
it's actually more helpful topeople, because you get them on
your list first, so that you cansend them the right helpful
content and point them to theright offers for them, instead
of just hoping they discover iton your own. Now, none of that
is to say that you shouldn'thave opt ins on your blog posts.
You absolutely should. It'srelying on people opting in,
(05:56):
when the purpose of that page isjust to educate them and to
establish yourself as an expert,that's the problem. You want to
have pages where the purpose ofthe page is the lead capture and
also giving you a littleinformation about what they're
struggling with, so that you cansend them the right sales funnel
and the right helpful emailslater.
(06:17):
Now, one thing I have noticed isthat people overcomplicate this
a lot, and I would encourage youto remember that simple beats
fancy when it comes to thisevery single time. I see people
trying to create these elaboratefunnels that have 15 different
steps and all these differentdirections that people could go
and all these extra tags andthings. But honestly, the most
(06:38):
effective funnels are usuallypretty straightforward. It's
like the difference betweenrunning into Target and knowing
where everything is versustrying to navigate some
confusing department store wherethere aren't aisles and
everything seems jumbled. Peoplewant easy.
Now, I know you might bethinking that sales funnels feel
(06:58):
a little manipulative, so let'sjust address the elephant in the
room. Yes, you are trying tosell something, but if you
genuinely believe in yourproduct and you know that your
product, your service, youroffer, helps people, then
guiding them toward it isn'tmanipulation. You can think of
it like recommending yourfavorite restaurant to a friend.
You're not being sneaky. You'resharing something you know is
(07:21):
good that will help. The key isthat you're being really honest
about what you're offering, howit can help, and who it is right
for and who it's not right for.
Let me give you some examples ofwhat not to do in your sales
funnels. And you probably willautomatically think, no, I would
never do that. But the thingsthat turn us away from sales
(07:44):
funnels are things like fakescarcity, where you're saying
there's only three spotsavailable, and you totally made
that up, and there's really 100spots available, or there's
really no limit to the number ofspots. Scare tactics, like those
pages that get us to believethat our whole business or our
whole life is gonna fail if wedon't buy this thing today. Bait
and switch tactics where youpromise one thing and then
(08:06):
you're really selling themsomething very different. Those
kinds of tactics might get yousome sales in the short term,
but they're gonna destroy yourreputation, and they're gonna
break down any trust that you'vebuilt with those people when
they realize that, you know, thething that you said there were
only three spots for actuallyhas 50 people in it, so there
must be more than three spots.
So you don't want to do anythinglike that.
(08:27):
Instead, let's talk about whatsome ethical funnels actually
look like. In those funnelemails, you are upfront about
what you're selling and how muchit costs. And I'm not saying you
have to do that in the firstemail, but when it comes time to
talk about the offer, you'rereally clear about what's in it,
what's not, how much it costs,all of those things you're
sharing genuinely helpfulinformation for people, whether
(08:50):
they purchase or not. You makeit easy for people to say no if
it's not right for them. Infact, in most of my sales
emails, you'll find a PS at thebottom that says, hey, if you're
not interested in this offer,just click right here to opt
out, and I won't email you aboutit anymore, because I don't want
people to leave my listcompletely just because every
(09:11):
single thing I offer isn't rightfor them. I want them to be able
to opt out of certain emails.
And you're sharing real successstories from real people who get
real results. This is how peopleknow that they can trust you and
that they can trust the thingthat you're selling.
And when you think about it,good funnels really do serve
your audience a lot better.
Instead of people digging allaround your website trying to
(09:31):
figure out if you can help themor how to help them, you're
making it really clear and easyfor people to take that next
step. You're organizinginformation in a way that makes
sense. You're saving them timeby sending the right blog posts
or the right podcast episodes orwhatever content you create,
sending that perfect contentright to their inbox so they
don't have to hunt around forAlright, so we've covered what
funnels are and why they're notit, and you're giving them all
(09:54):
the information they need tomake a good decision.
That's it. Everything else yousee happening in sales
(10:46):
evil. What about the tech stuff?
Because I know that's somethingIn fact, you probably can start
with tools that you alreadyhave. If you have a WordPress
(11:13):
website, then you can make yourlanding pages and your sales
pages right in Elementor. Foremail, I recommend Kit, which
used to be ConvertKit, becauseit is designed for creators like
us. It's super reliable. Theirdeliverability is amazing, and
it's not overly complicated.
(11:33):
It's very easy and intuitive toset up. And then you can sell
and deliver your offer, eitherthrough WooCommerce, if you
already have that on yourwebsite, you can do it directly
that gets a lot of people stuck,but really the tech is not that
through Kit, if you don't have aplatform set up already, or you
can use any other checkoutplatform that you might have,
like I personally have Thrivecart. So a lot of times I make
(11:55):
my sales page in Elementor on mywebsite, and I add a Thrive Cart
Checkout to it. Those tools allplay really nicely together, so
you don't have to worry aboutthings not working or figuring
out lots of workarounds, and youreally don't need some expensive
all in one platform.
If you go looking for salesfunnel platforms, they typically
(12:17):
start around $100 a month, andthat turns people off a lot, but
you really don't need to diveinto a platform like that. In
fact, the longer I've beenrunning funnels, the more I've
found that I don't like thoseall in one platforms, because
they tend to limit what I'm ableto do, because I'm limited and
I'm put into their box of howthey think things should be
(12:38):
done. So start simple, and thenadd things on and get more
scary. The truth is, when itcomes to good sales funnels that
complicated as you learn and asyou find that you need those
extra things.
It's a lot like learning todrive. I remember when I was
first learning to drive, myfirst car was a stick shift, and
I remember my dad would take meto the IGA grocery store parking
(12:59):
lot. IGA is like a small towngrocery store, and he would take
me out to that parking lot afterthey closed, so the whole
parking lot was empty. He didn'ttake me to the interstate to
figure out how to work a clutchand shift gears, because that
would have been a disaster. Hetook me out somewhere small and
simple so that I could get thebasics down first. So just like
(13:22):
that, get your basic funnelworking first and then add those
bells and whistles later.
See, what happens a lot of timesis I see people spend months
trying to build big, fancy,complicated funnels, and they
convert and make you money, youreally only need four things. A
probably are going to be greatfunnels eventually, but all of
the bits and pieces get in theway and they never actually
launch anything. So keep in mindthat most of the time, done is
(13:43):
better than perfect, especiallywhen you're just starting out.
Alright. So if I've gotten youon board with the idea of
funnels, you might be wonderingwhat you should actually sell in
your funnel. Your best sellingproduct is a pretty obvious
choice, but if it's somethingthat costs three bucks, five
bucks, the math can get supertricky if you ever want to start
(14:06):
running ads to that product,because it's harder to make a
profit when you're running adsto a low cost product. You can
absolutely test it, but justknow you'll need a really high
conversion rate to make itprofitable.
So I usually recommend startingwith something that's at least
10 bucks or more. That gives yousome breathing room if you
decide to try and run ads to itlater on, and really just, you
(14:27):
landing page where people cansign up for something helpful.
can think of it like thedifference between selling
individual pieces of candy,individual Hershey Kisses versus
a whole bag of Hershey Kisses.
That higher price point meansyou don't need to sell as many
to make the same profit.
I would encourage you, youprobably already have something
that you can put into a salesfunnel, but if not, really look
(14:50):
at what you already have beforeyou create something brand new.
Maybe you could bundle a few ofyour existing products together,
or you have some content, maybefrom your blog or podcast that
you could add a little bit toand package it up into a
different format that's worthyof selling, something like a
mini course or a master class,that you could sell. Either way,
just starting with a product ata little bit higher price point
(15:13):
is going to give you a lot morebreathing room in terms of what
you can do with advertising andthings like that to still be
profitable in your funnel.
Usually, this is a freebie, butsometimes you can do that with a
Alright, so let's wrap this upwith some specific action steps
that you can take. Here is whatI want you to do after listening
to this episode. First, findyour most popular content on
(15:35):
your website. Check out yourwebsite analytics. What blog
posts or pages or podcastepisodes are getting the most
traffic? And then, instead oftrying to get people to opt in
while they're reading that pageor post, create a specific
landing page with a lead magnetthat directly relates to that
specific topic. Maybe that meansyou need to create a lead
(15:57):
magnet. Maybe you already haveone, or you have something close
that you could tweak, but lookfor what people are most
interested in and create a leadmagnet directly related to it.
So if your most popular post isabout five ways to save time on
lesson plans, then maybe youcreate a landing page that
offers a time saving lesson plantemplate. Notice that although
very low cost offer. A series ofemails that get sent out
(16:21):
what we're offering is a lessonplan template, the phrasing I'm
using addresses the thing thatprobably got people looking at
that blog post about ways tosave time lesson planning. This
way, you're taking advantage ofwhat people are already
interested in, but you're alsomaking it a whole lot easier for
them to take that next step andget on your list, rather than
just reading a blog post andwalking away.
(16:42):
And if you're thinking, Yeah,but what if they just want to
rate the blog post and theydon't want to give me their
email address, you and I bothknow how often we read something
online and then we never takeany action from it. If you can
give them a freebie of somesort, something that will help
them actually take action, thatis so much more valuable to them
(17:04):
than just reading a blog post.
So I'd encourage you to kind ofshift your mindset around that a
little bit.
automatically when someone signsup for that thing. A sales page
Then step two, pick one thingworth at least $10 to test out a
funnel with. Look through yourexisting products. What do you
have that's related? What canyou bundle together? And pick a
product to test your funnelwith.
And then, last but not least,just map out your funnel. Don't
(17:26):
overthink it. You can literallyjust sketch it out on a piece of
paper or in a Google Doc. Thinklanding page first, what free
thing can you offer thatdirectly relates to what you're
going to sell? The email sign upform that goes with the landing
page. What is that gonna looklike? Email sequence. What do
people need to know to feelconfident buying from you? Are
(17:48):
there some mindset shifts youneed to help people make in
those emails between the freebieand the sale that you need to
share? Are there some pieces ofyour content you wanna make sure
that they've seen? If you're notsure what to put in those
emails, there are tons of salessequence templates out there,
for whatever you're selling, andthen a way to collect the money
and you can even use yourfavorite AI tool to help you
write those sales emails. Keepin mind, when you're working on
(18:12):
this, just keep it simple.
And then the last step in thatsimple sales funnel would be,
what are they going to buy atthe end? So map it out on a
piece of paper in a Google Doc,whatever makes sense for you,
and that will get you a goodportion of the way into creating
your first sales funnel.
Now, if you're thinking, okay,Kristen, yeah, this makes sense,
(18:34):
but I still feel superoverwhelmed with the idea of
actually setting this up. Itotally get it. I know the
strategy part might click foryou, but the actual tech setup
can feel really hard. So I amputting together a ready to go
funnel kit. It includes alanding page and a sales page
template, the email automationtemplate for Kit, so you can
just drop your emails into itand have that ready to go. And
(18:57):
they're all designed to worktogether really smoothly. It is
and deliver the product.
perfect for testing out yourfirst funnel without getting
bogged all down in the techdetails or spending tons of time
trying to figure that stuff allout yourself. If that sounds
like exactly what you need, youcan check out The Savvy Funnel
Starter Kit atkristendoyle.co/funnel.
Thanks for listening, and I'lltalk to you soon.
Are you avoiding sales funnels because they seem too
complicated or manipulative? Iget it. Every time someone
mentions funnels, you probablypicture complicated diagrams of
dozens of steps or expensivesoftware, or maybe tech
nightmares. Or maybe the idea ofa sales funnel makes you think
(00:24):
about those bro marketingtactics that make you feel super
icky, fake countdown timers thatdon't really expire, and
pressure tactics that scream,"Buy now or else!" So you've
been staying away from funnelscompletely telling yourself
you'll figure them out later,when you have more time, or the
tech skills, or when you're notfeeling a little scared to try
(00:47):
it.
But what's happening instead isyou get stuck in this constant
cycle of creating more and morecontent, posting on social
media, and hustling to try andmake sales. So your income is
going up and down like a rollercoaster, and you could instead
be using some sales funnels.
(01:08):
Maybe you've heard otherbusiness owners talk about
evergreen funnels that makesales all the time for them, and
you're wondering what kind ofmagical knowledge they have that
you don't. Well, today we aregoing to talk all about sales
funnels, and I am here to tellyou that they are not magic
tricks. They are definitely notas complicated as you might have
(01:30):
made them out to be in yourmind. In fact, you're probably
already doing some parts of asales funnel now without even
realizing it. So today I'm goingto show you exactly how simple
sales funnels can be, and giveyou some steps to get started
creating a sales funnel.
Are you a digital product orcourse creator, selling on
(01:50):
platforms like Teachers PayTeachers, Etsy, or your own
website? Ready to grow yourbusiness, but not into the kind
of constant hustle that leadsstraight to burnout? Then you're
in the right place. Welcome toThe Savvy Seller. I'm Kristen
Doyle, and I'm here to give youno fluff tools and strategies
that move the needle for yourbusiness without burning you out
(02:13):
in the process—things like SEO,no stress marketing, email list
building, automations, and somuch more. Let's get started,
y'all.
The truth is a well designedsales funnel isn't manipulative
or icky at all. It's actuallyone of the most helpful things
(02:35):
you can create for youraudience. So let's start by
clearing up what a sales funnelactually is, because I think a
lot of that fear comes from justreally not understanding what
we're talking about. I've saidit before, a sales funnel is
really just a plan for howyou're going to help someone go
from, I have a problem, tohere's the solution I need, and
(02:59):
now I'm buying it. You can thinkof it like giving directions to
your house. You want to givepeople the clearest, most direct
route. And I know we all rely onGPS at this point, but if you
needed to give someonedirections to your house, you
wouldn't send them on some crazydetour through five different
neighborhoods. You would givethem the most direct route from
(03:20):
their house to yours. And thesame thing works with funnels.
You're really just mapping outthe easiest way for people to
get help from you with whateverit is that you offer.
If a friend came to you with aproblem related to the thing
that you sell, you wouldn'timmediately say, buy my course
(03:40):
for 4.97, or give them scaretactics about how if they don't
buy your course, everything'sgonna fall apart. You would
listen. Maybe ask somequestions. You would share some
helpful tips. And then if itmakes sense and you think your
course actually would help them,then you might mention how you
could help more through yourcourse or through services or
whatever else you might offer. Agood sales funnel follows that
(04:04):
exact same flow, and that's whatmakes it feel natural and not
pushy.
Let's say someone is strugglingwith getting their website to
convert visitors into buyers.
This is something that I love tohelp people with. So the blog
post approach that you might beusing right now is that you
write some helpful content andyou put an email opt in in
there, and maybe you post thatcontent on social media, you
(04:27):
send it out in your, to youremail list, maybe you run ads to
it, and what you're hoping isthat they will read this content
and sign up for your email listat the bottom. Maybe they do,
maybe they don't.
But the sales funnel approach isthat you create a page
specifically about the thingthey're struggling with, maybe
(04:49):
it's website conversions. Youcreate a landing page to give
them a free resource. Maybe it'sa guide or a checklist, whatever
will help them in exchange fortheir email. Then they get
helpful emails from you targetedto that problem that calls them
to sign up for this freebie inthe first place, and eventually
(05:11):
you can mention the thing youoffer. For me, I would
eventually start talking aboutmy web design services or my
coaching. And along the way, inbetween that free download and
talking about the services I canoffer, that's when I can share
those podcast episodes or thoseblog posts that are out there to
help them.
See the second route with thefunnel is a lot more direct, and
(05:34):
it's actually more helpful topeople, because you get them on
your list first, so that you cansend them the right helpful
content and point them to theright offers for them, instead
of just hoping they discover iton your own. Now, none of that
is to say that you shouldn'thave opt ins on your blog posts.
You absolutely should. It'srelying on people opting in,
(05:56):
when the purpose of that page isjust to educate them and to
establish yourself as an expert,that's the problem. You want to
have pages where the purpose ofthe page is the lead capture and
also giving you a littleinformation about what they're
struggling with, so that you cansend them the right sales funnel
and the right helpful emailslater.
(06:17):
Now, one thing I have noticed isthat people overcomplicate this
a lot, and I would encourage youto remember that simple beats
fancy when it comes to thisevery single time. I see people
trying to create these elaboratefunnels that have 15 different
steps and all these differentdirections that people could go
and all these extra tags andthings. But honestly, the most
(06:38):
effective funnels are usuallypretty straightforward. It's
like the difference betweenrunning into Target and knowing
where everything is versustrying to navigate some
confusing department store wherethere aren't aisles and
everything seems jumbled. Peoplewant easy.
Now, I know you might bethinking that sales funnels feel
(06:58):
a little manipulative, so let'sjust address the elephant in the
room. Yes, you are trying tosell something, but if you
genuinely believe in yourproduct and you know that your
product, your service, youroffer, helps people, then
guiding them toward it isn'tmanipulation. You can think of
it like recommending yourfavorite restaurant to a friend.
You're not being sneaky. You'resharing something you know is
(07:21):
good that will help. The key isthat you're being really honest
about what you're offering, howit can help, and who it is right
for and who it's not right for.
Let me give you some examples ofwhat not to do in your sales
funnels. And you probably willautomatically think, no, I would
never do that. But the thingsthat turn us away from sales
(07:44):
funnels are things like fakescarcity, where you're saying
there's only three spotsavailable, and you totally made
that up, and there's really 100spots available, or there's
really no limit to the number ofspots. Scare tactics, like those
pages that get us to believethat our whole business or our
whole life is gonna fail if wedon't buy this thing today. Bait
and switch tactics where youpromise one thing and then
(08:06):
you're really selling themsomething very different. Those
kinds of tactics might get yousome sales in the short term,
but they're gonna destroy yourreputation, and they're gonna
break down any trust that you'vebuilt with those people when
they realize that, you know, thething that you said there were
only three spots for actuallyhas 50 people in it, so there
must be more than three spots.
So you don't want to do anythinglike that.
(08:27):
Instead, let's talk about whatsome ethical funnels actually
look like. In those funnelemails, you are upfront about
what you're selling and how muchit costs. And I'm not saying you
have to do that in the firstemail, but when it comes time to
talk about the offer, you'rereally clear about what's in it,
what's not, how much it costs,all of those things you're
sharing genuinely helpfulinformation for people, whether
(08:50):
they purchase or not. You makeit easy for people to say no if
it's not right for them. Infact, in most of my sales
emails, you'll find a PS at thebottom that says, hey, if you're
not interested in this offer,just click right here to opt
out, and I won't email you aboutit anymore, because I don't want
people to leave my listcompletely just because every
(09:11):
single thing I offer isn't rightfor them. I want them to be able
to opt out of certain emails.
And you're sharing real successstories from real people who get
real results. This is how peopleknow that they can trust you and
that they can trust the thingthat you're selling.
And when you think about it,good funnels really do serve
your audience a lot better.
Instead of people digging allaround your website trying to
(09:31):
figure out if you can help themor how to help them, you're
making it really clear and easyfor people to take that next
step. You're organizinginformation in a way that makes
sense. You're saving them timeby sending the right blog posts
or the right podcast episodes orwhatever content you create,
sending that perfect contentright to their inbox so they
don't have to hunt around forAlright, so we've covered what
funnels are and why they're notit, and you're giving them all
(09:54):
the information they need tomake a good decision.
That's it. Everything else yousee happening in sales
(10:46):
evil. What about the tech stuff?
Because I know that's somethingIn fact, you probably can start
with tools that you alreadyhave. If you have a WordPress
(11:13):
website, then you can make yourlanding pages and your sales
pages right in Elementor. Foremail, I recommend Kit, which
used to be ConvertKit, becauseit is designed for creators like
us. It's super reliable. Theirdeliverability is amazing, and
it's not overly complicated.
(11:33):
It's very easy and intuitive toset up. And then you can sell
and deliver your offer, eitherthrough WooCommerce, if you
already have that on yourwebsite, you can do it directly
that gets a lot of people stuck,but really the tech is not that
through Kit, if you don't have aplatform set up already, or you
can use any other checkoutplatform that you might have,
like I personally have Thrivecart. So a lot of times I make
(11:55):
my sales page in Elementor on mywebsite, and I add a Thrive Cart
Checkout to it. Those tools allplay really nicely together, so
you don't have to worry aboutthings not working or figuring
out lots of workarounds, and youreally don't need some expensive
all in one platform.
If you go looking for salesfunnel platforms, they typically
(12:17):
start around $100 a month, andthat turns people off a lot, but
you really don't need to diveinto a platform like that. In
fact, the longer I've beenrunning funnels, the more I've
found that I don't like thoseall in one platforms, because
they tend to limit what I'm ableto do, because I'm limited and
I'm put into their box of howthey think things should be
(12:38):
done. So start simple, and thenadd things on and get more
scary. The truth is, when itcomes to good sales funnels that
complicated as you learn and asyou find that you need those
extra things.
It's a lot like learning todrive. I remember when I was
first learning to drive, myfirst car was a stick shift, and
I remember my dad would take meto the IGA grocery store parking
(12:59):
lot. IGA is like a small towngrocery store, and he would take
me out to that parking lot afterthey closed, so the whole
parking lot was empty. He didn'ttake me to the interstate to
figure out how to work a clutchand shift gears, because that
would have been a disaster. Hetook me out somewhere small and
simple so that I could get thebasics down first. So just like
(13:22):
that, get your basic funnelworking first and then add those
bells and whistles later.
See, what happens a lot of timesis I see people spend months
trying to build big, fancy,complicated funnels, and they
convert and make you money, youreally only need four things. A
probably are going to be greatfunnels eventually, but all of
the bits and pieces get in theway and they never actually
launch anything. So keep in mindthat most of the time, done is
(13:43):
better than perfect, especiallywhen you're just starting out.
Alright. So if I've gotten youon board with the idea of
funnels, you might be wonderingwhat you should actually sell in
your funnel. Your best sellingproduct is a pretty obvious
choice, but if it's somethingthat costs three bucks, five
bucks, the math can get supertricky if you ever want to start
(14:06):
running ads to that product,because it's harder to make a
profit when you're running adsto a low cost product. You can
absolutely test it, but justknow you'll need a really high
conversion rate to make itprofitable.
So I usually recommend startingwith something that's at least
10 bucks or more. That gives yousome breathing room if you
decide to try and run ads to itlater on, and really just, you
(14:27):
landing page where people cansign up for something helpful.
can think of it like thedifference between selling
individual pieces of candy,individual Hershey Kisses versus
a whole bag of Hershey Kisses.
That higher price point meansyou don't need to sell as many
to make the same profit.
I would encourage you, youprobably already have something
that you can put into a salesfunnel, but if not, really look
(14:50):
at what you already have beforeyou create something brand new.
Maybe you could bundle a few ofyour existing products together,
or you have some content, maybefrom your blog or podcast that
you could add a little bit toand package it up into a
different format that's worthyof selling, something like a
mini course or a master class,that you could sell. Either way,
just starting with a product ata little bit higher price point
(15:13):
is going to give you a lot morebreathing room in terms of what
you can do with advertising andthings like that to still be
profitable in your funnel.
Usually, this is a freebie, butsometimes you can do that with a
Alright, so let's wrap this upwith some specific action steps
that you can take. Here is whatI want you to do after listening
to this episode. First, findyour most popular content on
(15:35):
your website. Check out yourwebsite analytics. What blog
posts or pages or podcastepisodes are getting the most
traffic? And then, instead oftrying to get people to opt in
while they're reading that pageor post, create a specific
landing page with a lead magnetthat directly relates to that
specific topic. Maybe that meansyou need to create a lead
(15:57):
magnet. Maybe you already haveone, or you have something close
that you could tweak, but lookfor what people are most
interested in and create a leadmagnet directly related to it.
So if your most popular post isabout five ways to save time on
lesson plans, then maybe youcreate a landing page that
offers a time saving lesson plantemplate. Notice that although
very low cost offer. A series ofemails that get sent out
(16:21):
what we're offering is a lessonplan template, the phrasing I'm
using addresses the thing thatprobably got people looking at
that blog post about ways tosave time lesson planning. This
way, you're taking advantage ofwhat people are already
interested in, but you're alsomaking it a whole lot easier for
them to take that next step andget on your list, rather than
just reading a blog post andwalking away.
(16:42):
And if you're thinking, Yeah,but what if they just want to
rate the blog post and theydon't want to give me their
email address, you and I bothknow how often we read something
online and then we never takeany action from it. If you can
give them a freebie of somesort, something that will help
them actually take action, thatis so much more valuable to them
(17:04):
than just reading a blog post.
So I'd encourage you to kind ofshift your mindset around that a
little bit.
automatically when someone signsup for that thing. A sales page
Then step two, pick one thingworth at least $10 to test out a
funnel with. Look through yourexisting products. What do you
have that's related? What canyou bundle together? And pick a
product to test your funnelwith.
And then, last but not least,just map out your funnel. Don't
(17:26):
overthink it. You can literallyjust sketch it out on a piece of
paper or in a Google Doc. Thinklanding page first, what free
thing can you offer thatdirectly relates to what you're
going to sell? The email sign upform that goes with the landing
page. What is that gonna looklike? Email sequence. What do
people need to know to feelconfident buying from you? Are
(17:48):
there some mindset shifts youneed to help people make in
those emails between the freebieand the sale that you need to
share? Are there some pieces ofyour content you wanna make sure
that they've seen? If you're notsure what to put in those
emails, there are tons of salessequence templates out there,
for whatever you're selling, andthen a way to collect the money
and you can even use yourfavorite AI tool to help you
write those sales emails. Keepin mind, when you're working on
(18:12):
this, just keep it simple.
And then the last step in thatsimple sales funnel would be,
what are they going to buy atthe end? So map it out on a
piece of paper in a Google Doc,whatever makes sense for you,
and that will get you a goodportion of the way into creating
your first sales funnel.
Now, if you're thinking, okay,Kristen, yeah, this makes sense,
(18:34):
but I still feel superoverwhelmed with the idea of
actually setting this up. Itotally get it. I know the
strategy part might click foryou, but the actual tech setup
can feel really hard. So I amputting together a ready to go
funnel kit. It includes alanding page and a sales page
template, the email automationtemplate for Kit, so you can
just drop your emails into itand have that ready to go. And
(18:57):
they're all designed to worktogether really smoothly. It is
and deliver the product.
perfect for testing out yourfirst funnel without getting
bogged all down in the techdetails or spending tons of time
trying to figure that stuff allout yourself. If that sounds
like exactly what you need, youcan check out The Savvy Funnel
Starter Kit atkristendoyle.co/funnel.
Thanks for listening, and I'lltalk to you soon.
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