Behind the Scenes of a High Converting Online Course Sales Funnel

Your online course sales funnel is not a one size fits all. And there are many different types of sales funnels you can use to sell your online course.

I have a sales funnel that runs on automation in my business. This allows me to sell my Facebook and Instagram ads consulting service on autopilot.

This is in addition to any live launches that I run during the year for my online course and consulting program (still a sales funnel) and other sales funnels that I run during various promotions to keep my content and offers fresh for my audience.

All online course creators and coaches need a sales funnel in their online business.

This can be a simple as setting up a discovery call to have a conversation with a potential client about your online course and coaching program, from an automated webinar, or a huge live launch such as a virtual summit or a bootcamp.

Needless to say, there are many different ways to sell your online course and all of them can work.

In this post, I’m going to take you behind the scenes of my high converting funnel for my Facebook ad consulting service.

What Is a Sales Funnel?

Simply put, your online course sales funnel takes your prospect on a buyer’s journey. When a potential client first comes in contact with you, either through a Google search, social media link, Facebook ad, blog, or podcast, they generally are not ready to buy.

But they have a problem that they need to solve. And your online course may be the solution they’ve been searching for.

Your sales funnel illustrates the journey that they will take before purchasing your online course, membership or coaching program.

Let’s assume that you’re a Style Coach and you help women in their 40s & 50s dress for their busy life.

You wrote a blog that talked about winter dress trends and in that blog post, you had a checklist as a free gift. After someone signed up for your checklist, you start your welcome series.

The next few emails could be value add emails with an invitation at the end to join your $27 membership program.

Another way to sell your online membership program would be a 5-day challenge with a Facebook Live masterclass and a pitch to join your membership.

Another funnel for this coach, could be for her high-end client services.

This is where she travels to the client location, goes through their entire closet and helps them refresh their wardrobe. This funnel could begin with a 30-minute discovery call from word-of-mouth marketing.

Another possible way to sell the membership is through an automated webinar/workshop. She could have a free workshop on her website that teaches them something related to her service offering.

At the end of the webinar or workshop, she would present the service she offers (e.g. her 1:1 styling service or her membership for those who are more budget conscious).

See all of the different ways you can sell your online course, coaching program, membership, or high-end service?  

 But what do all of these different types of sales funnel have in common?

 They walk the prospect through the buyer’s journey.

Stages of the Buyer’s Journey

Here are the stages of the buyer’s journey that all prospects go through for a purchase decision.

Awareness Stage

In the awareness stage, your prospect is just getting to know you. It’s when they get to know your business and what you have to offer.

This stage is like dating. You’re delivering valuable content and information to keep them coming back for more and engaging in your business.

Consideration Stage

In the consideration stage, your prospect is doing research, looking at your competitors and thinking about how they’re going to solve their problem. They know that you’re a possibility, but there are other options out there too!

In this stage, you want to establish yourself as an expert and help them make an informed decision.

This is why challenges, video series and webinars or workshops are a great way position yourself as an expert (even with prospects who are just getting to know you).

Decision Stage

At this stage, your prospects have narrowed the playing field and are most likely considering you along with some possible competitors.

This is when you make your best offer. Could you offer bonuses for purchasing your online course or service?

Now is the time to answer objections, offer case studies and testimonials. Social proof is one of the best sales people!

Behind the Scenes of a High Converting Sales Funnel

I wanted to take you behind the scenes of one of my sales funnels. It’s an automated sales funnel and when someone signs up for the workshop, they will get an email series.

This is for my Facebook ad consulting service.

We’ve established that there are different ways to set up a funnel. But all online course sales funnels need the elements described below.

Traffic Source

 My traffic sources for this funnel include:

1.       My website

On the announcement bar…

And on the front page of the website as an opt-in.

2.       Pinterest (organic)

3.       Promoted Pin on Pinterest (paid)

4.       Social Media (organic)

5.       Facebook and Instagram Ads (paid)

6.       Blog post (Website, Google search, and Pinterest)

7.       Podcast (The Course Creator’s MBA Podcast) sponsorship

Driving traffic into their funnel is where most entrepreneurs fail.

If you don’t have traffic coming into your sales funnel (e.g. people seeing your lead magnet landing page and signing up), then you can’t sell your online course.

Most online course sales funnels don’t have enough traffic coming in to assess whether the sales funnel is working.

As you can see from the list above, I’m driving traffic into this funnel from seven different traffic sources.

Let’s say that you have 100 people viewing your landing page each month. Let’s assume that you have 30% of them signing up for your free offer (e.g. workshop, webinar, video series or challenge).

This means that you’ll have 30 people in your funnel. That’s not enough to make educated decisions on whether or not your funnel is converting.

Your Landing Page

Your landing page is where you’ll turn your visitor into a subscriber. This is where you present your irresistible free offer with the goal of capturing a lead.

You will present your offer with a call to action to sign up.

Immediately after they subscribe, you will allow them to download the free offer or send them an email with next steps (e.g. put the webinar date on their calendar or download your free gift).

Here’s the landing page for my free Facebook and Instagram Ads Mini-Workshop Series.

One way to measure the success of your online course sales funnel is to track your conversion rate on your landing pages.

On the landing page for your free offer, you should shoot for a conversion rate of 30% or more. Most of my clients have conversion rates of around 40-50% on their landing page.

For some of my landing pages, my conversion rate is around 60%.

My Facebook and Instagram Ad Mini-Workshop Series

As soon as someone registers for my Facebook and Instagram Ad Mini-Workshop Series, they receive an email immediately with the Day 1 workshop.

They will continue to receive these emails Day 2-5. On Day 6, I present an offer for my Facebook ad consulting service.

 On the daily workshop video series landing page, there is a CTA link to my sales page for my Facebook Ad consulting service.

Another way to set up this funnel, would be to offer an automated webinar/training on Facebook and Instagram ads.

The only thing that would change here is that right after signing up for the webinar, they would get the link to watch the recorded webinar which would have a sales pitch at the end.

For prospects who didn’t buy, you would send retargeting emails to encourage them to watch the automated webinar with a cart close date.  

Behind the Scenes Tools Used for my Sales Funnel

Email Service Provider

I use ConvertKit for my email service provider. In ConvertKit from my landing page (which is done on Kajabi, more on this later), I load the subscribers into a ConvertKit form.

From there, I have an automation set up where they are tagged with the offer they signed up for (Facebook Ad Mini-Workshop Series), and then the email sequence starts. It looks like this:

The email sequence looks like this:

For each day of the workshop, ConvertKit will send out the daily emails based on when they signed up which allows this funnel to run on evergreen.

Landing Page for Mini-Workshop Series

For my landing page, I used Kajabi, but there are other great options out there like Leadpages. I host my online course in Kajabi and it has landing page templates that convert well.  

Daily Mini-Workshop Videos

Again, I used Kajabi for these daily workshop videos. They were set up separately and all of them have links to previous days so someone could view the video for a previous day if they missed it or wanted to review it.

Sales Page

I used Kajabi for the sales page, but other options include your own website, a sales page on your online course platform or even Leadpages.

Cart

I use Kajabi to collect payments from customers. But other options include SamCart and ThriveCart.

That’s your insider’s look at an online sales funnel for your online course, coaching, or service!

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