The first couple years of my business, I used an INCREDIBLY simple marketing funnel to make millions of dollars.
Then I made it more complex… only to go BACK to the simple 6-step funnel I used before with a few small tweaks to make it work EVEN BETTER today.
In this blog, I’m going to share my whole funnel with you. And I’ve got receipts.
Hey, Posse! What’s up? It’s Alex.
Coming at ya this week with a tutorial to help you attract AND convert more customers in your online business.
Now, like I said, I started my business with a stupid simple funnel. And it worked GREAT for me.
Then, a few years ago, I tried to get all fancy by creating MORE offers, doing INTRICATE segmenting and creating complex automations…
The problem is, it all turned out to be A LOT OF WORK for not much reward.
I mean hey, you’ve heard me say it a million times, Marketing is one GIANT experiment, but why it gotta suck so bad when it doesn’t work?! lol.
So, anyway, I decided to go BACK to my business and SIMPLIFY everything– including my funnel.
I took a good hard look at the metrics, adjusted my “simple funnel” ever so slightly… and eliminated all the “fancy funnel stuff” that was just creating more work for my team.
And that leads me to the biggest misconception in marketing today: that if you want to be profitable, you gotta use all the bells and whistles and hacks and shortcuts and fancy tools that people slinging around the internet.
Nope. Of course, having a funnel IS important… You need SOMETHING to guide new leads through the buying process…
BUT more complex does not equal more money.
In fact, almost ALL THE TIME, the SIMPLER – the better. As they say, “Smart people take simple things and make them complex, the SMARTEST people take complex things and make them simple.”
My word for 2025 is SIMPLICITY and there are sooooo many areas of my business that I am actually scaling back and reverting back to the basics…
Because at the end of the day it’s your messaging and how you connect with your audience and customers that makes the biggest impact. NOT how “fancy” your funnel is.
I’m going to show you exactly what I mean by that at the end of this… I have screenshots that tell a very interesting story.
Before we dive in, make sure to join my newsletter to be notified when my next blog goes out.
Alright, now step 1 of my simple marketing funnel…
Step 1: Traffic
The #1 goal at the very top of every marketing funnel is getting attention (aka eyeballs on your stuff). We call this “impressions” or “views” in the marketing world…
And then converting those views into clicks. We call this “traffic,” and there are 3 different types…
- 1) Free Traffic. These are any landing page visits that you get from using free promotional channels, like social media or blog content, for example.
- 2) Borrowed Traffic. These are any landing page visits that you get from other people promoting you via collaborations, podcasts or other forms of marketing partnerships.
- And 3) Paid Traffic. These are any landing page visits that you get from paying for views on advertising platforms like Facebook or Instagram.
In this diagram, I’m referencing ads as the traffic source, you don’t HAVE to run paid ads in order to use this funnel.
The reality is that it’s not realistic for many brands and businesses that are just starting out. Many don’t have the budget to run paid ads right away.
So if that’s you, don’t worry – this funnel can still work extremely well for you.
In fact, for the first year of my business, I didn’t spend a single cent on paid ads.
I built my business 100% FREE via my social media channels.
Anytime and every time that it made sense, I would promote a lead magnet and drive people to sign up for my email list…
Which leads me to…
Step 2: Landing Page
Once you’ve got traffic, you need to DIRECT it somewhere.
Your landing page is literally the page this traffic will “land” on. And your goal here is simple: those leads into email subscribers.
No, you don’t want to sell them anything – yet. Right now, you simply want them on your email list!
You’re just getting them to go one step further with you so you can continue to build a relationship with them and move them through your funnel.
Remember – it’s rare for someone to buy from you if they just discovered who you are.
So instead of asking them to buy right away, you want to get them to make what’s called a “micro commitment”. And the best way to do this is to invite them to join your email list.
But we all know “join my list” isn’t the most compelling invitation… you gotta offer them something valuable in exchange for their email address…
Which in this case, is downloading my FREE Email marketing calendar with 279 ideas for emails you can send to your list.
The page doesn’t have to be long, and the copy is SIMPLE.
You just want to give them a few good reasons why they need to download this thing, something like this:
Btw you can click the link or image above to grab your free copy now!
And this leads us to the next component you need in your funnel.
Step 3: Lead Magnet
So your goal with the lead magnet is to give away something HIGHLY VALUABLE for free.
THIS is what the people are signing up to receive!
Now again, in this example, the Lead Magnet – the thing people are going to this landing page to receive – is a PDF guide.
But Lead Magnets come in MANY shapes and sizes like:
- Masterclasses
- Webinars
- Training Videos
- Mini-Courses
- Templates
- Checklists
- Cheatsheets
- Frameworks
- Quizzes
- Discovery Calls
- Critiques
- Audits
- Case Studies
- Industry Reports
- Challenges, Bootcamps or Workshops
- Customized Quote
- Exclusive Discount
The list goes on and on. You just want to make sure this is something that will move them CLOSER to their desired goal…
It needs to solve a problem and offer next steps that invite them to go further with your brand.
Now, I have an entire blog breaking down my lead-magnet formula, so you can read that next.
In order to access your lead magnet, they need to input their email address on the landing page, which will deliver the lead magnet to their inbox and voila! – You now have a new lead on your email list.
Now they can drop into the next part of the funnel…
Step 4: Welcome Emails
Once you’ve got the lead on your email list, you can begin the process of nurturing them through a series of emails often referred to as a nurture or welcome sequence.
The purpose of these emails is to build trust by providing valuable and relevant content.
So instead of hard-selling, your primary goal with these emails is to educate your prospects on how you can help them.
This is a great time to share who you are, what you stand for, and more importantly, that you understand THEM and their unique challenges and obstacles.
Again – I have a full tutorial dedicated to JUST breaking down my 3-step welcome sequence, you’ll find that clicking the link.
Now… after you’ve welcomed your leads – you can move them into the next part of your funnel…
Step 5: Sales Emails
Up until now you haven’t directly made an offer – but you’ve been seeding the sale in your welcome emails by offering them tons of free value, education, and tips to help them solve their biggest pain point.
Now it’s time to let them know you have something to offer them that will make solving their pain point EASIER/FASTER/BETTER than if they were to continue doing it on their own.
I recommend sending a minimum of 5 sales emails – I call this my 5-day Pop Up Promotion and I teach this sales campaign framework – along with 2 others – inside my 365-Day Inbox Income Mini-Course…
And all of these emails will have a call-to-action button or link that would bring your leads back to the final part of your sales funnel…
Step 6: The Offer
This is the sales page that actually sells the product or service. Over my decade of experience in marketing, I’ve found this 10-step formula to be a winner time and time again.
My HOT Offer checklist includes 10 conversion triggers that I always look for when reviewing copy to build trust, boost authority and ignite sales — and you can grab your free copy of that below.
So it’s…
- Traffic ➡️ Landing Page ➡️ Lead Magnet ➡️ Welcome Emails ➡️ Sales Emails ➡️ Offer
BUT… a funnel is RARELY EVER as simple as a person seeing a Facebook ad, signing up and then buying immediately.
Don’t get me wrong. That DOES happen sometimes. But it’s rare.
Especially TODAY.
Mistrust in advertising is at an all-time high and it can take up FIFTY touchpoints before a cold lead converts into a customer. This makes sense when you really think about the state of the Internet.
Leads today need so MUCH MORE than just a great offer and some well-written copy to buy…
They want to spend time getting to KNOW your brand – who are you (really?) Why are you doing what you do? Why do you want to help ME? And why should I trust you or believe a single word you say?!
The default mode of buyers today is skepticism.
Most people don’t buy from you the first time they meet you. Or the second. Or the fifth. Not even the thirtieth.
Which is exactly why – while your funnel IS extremely important…
What’s even more important is what you’re doing OUTSIDE of your funnel.
How To Maximize Your Results
Let me show you what I mean…
This is a REAL journey of one of our customers—from her first visit to her first purchase…
Let’s call her Alicia – which is not her real name!
Alicia officially entered the Posse-verse and joined our email list after watching a YouTube episode back in April.
She then engaged with dozens of our content pieces and visited multiple landing pages as a result.
There would be gaps where she didn’t interact with any of our content for weeks—but she’d return, click, explore, and leave again…
And then eventually, she made a very important decision…
Alicia made her first purchase from the Copy Posse by joining the Launch Pad, which is a $3000 product.
It took 8 months before we made things official. During that time, she was IN and OUT of MULTIPLE of my funnels.
But here’s the most important thing to remember…
Even when she WASN’T in a funnel, she was getting a TON of value out of her experience as she got to know my brand.
And because our messaging stayed consistent, recognizable, and aligned across every touchpoint, she didn’t just stick around…
She eventually became a paying customer.
This is why your branding, your messaging and how you connect with your audience matters so much.
This is why what you do OUTSIDE the funnel is crucial.
And this is the lesson SOOOOO many business owners have to learn the hard way – unfortunately.
So ask yourself…
- How are you nurturing and connecting with your new leads?
- How are you building a sense of rapport and trust with them?
- How are you showing them they can trust you? That you’re reliable?
I personally send out THREE content emails every single week.
I don’t sell or promote anything in these emails.
The purpose is to simply SHOW UP CONSISTENTLY in their inboxes and build trust.
So PLEASE keep that in mind as you’re mapping out your funnel…
Do NOT underestimate the power of showing up consistently for your audience!
Now I KNOW it’s easier said than done to show up consistently in the inbox.
And I created 365-Day Inbox Income to help with that exact problem.
I will help you map out an entire YEAR of emails – both content AND promotional – so you can be really intentional about everything you’re doing INSIDE and OUTSIDE of this funnel.
I’m telling you, out of all the changes I made to my funnel in the past couple of years, showing up consistently and building a connection with my audience has made the biggest impact.
You can grab that mini-course for just $27 now.
Until next time, I’m Alex. Ciao for now!
