Things you need to get started
Now that you know what a funnel is and why you might want one for your course, let's talk about the three things you'll need to have in place before you start setting up your funnel. These are the building blocks that will help you hit the ground running and make sure your funnel is set up for success.
Lesson aim
By the end of this lesson, you'll understand the key components you'll need to have in place before you start setting up your marketing funnel.
Requirement #1: A course to sell
First things first, you’ll need a course to sell! This might seem obvious, but it’s worth mentioning. Your course should be something that provides real value to your audience and helps them solve a problem or achieve a goal.
If you’re just starting out, you might not have a course yet. That’s okay! You can still start setting up a pre-sale funnel to build interest and start collecting leads before your course is ready—but this course focuses on setting up a funnel for an existing course.
Ideally, your course is ready to buy on a platform like Teachable or Thinkific, so you can start selling as soon as your funnel is up and running.
Requirement #2: An email marketing platform
Email is going to be the backbone of your funnel, so you’ll need an email platform that lets you send automated emails to your audience. There are plenty of options out there, but I strongly recommend ConvertKit because of how easy it is to use and how well it integrates with other tools. It’s also reasonably priced, even for beginners.
If you’re already on another platform like Mailchimp, AWeber, or ActiveCampaign, that’s fine too. You won’t be able to use the “one-click” funnel set-up I’ll be showing you later, but you can still follow along with the principles.
Requirement #3: A tool for building landing pages
You’ll also need a way to create landing pages for your lead magnet. If you’re following my recommendation to use ConvertKit for your emails, you can use their built-in landing page builder too at no extra cost.
Another option is to build the landing page on your course platform, which probably has a page-builder built-in. But I find it easier to use ConvertKit for everything to do with my funnel, and I can give you ConvertKit templates to use if you’re following along.
Summary
Before you start setting up your funnel, you'll need three key components in place: a course to sell, an email marketing platform, and a tool for building landing pages. These are the building blocks that will help you hit the ground running and make sure your funnel is set up for success.
Next, we'll talk about how to set up a funnel on a low budget, so you can start selling your course without breaking the bank.