Two Popular Sales Funnels For Selling Your Online Course

Are you ready to launch your online course, but don’t know how to get started?

Here’s what you do know:

• You need a sales funnel that doesn’t exhaust you

• You need a sales funnel that can be automated and used again and again

• And doesn’t break your bank

There is a way to do this that doesn't put you on the launch roller coaster and can be replicated again and again within your budget.    

Two popular funnels for selling online courses:

5-Day Challenge Funnel

First, let’s focus on the 5-day challenge funnel. In this funnel, you’re walking your audience through a 5-day challenge, so they can achieve a specific outcome. It’s important to have an outcome they can achieve in 5 short days.

For example, let’s assume that you want to help your students to lose 10 pounds. They won’t be able to lose 10 pounds in five days. However, you can challenge them to exercise for five days straight to increase their energy levels and feel better about themselves or replace one meal with a vegetable and fruit smoothie for increased energy.

To fill up your funnel, you can promote your challenge on social media, your blog or podcast, invite subscribers from your email list, or promote using ads on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram. 

If you want 30 sales from your challenge, you will need about 25 times that target in your challenge depending on whether the audience is cold or warm. For example:

30 courses (sales target) X 25 = 750 challenge participants

20 courses (sales target) X 25 = 500 challenge participants

The 5-Day Challenge Funnel looks like this:

During days 1-4, you are delivering your content through email and also via the Facebook group that you have set up specifically for the challenge. On Day 5, you will deliver your content and your sales pitch for your online course. You will direct your challenge participants to your sales page. For any participants that did not purchase on Day 5, you will continue to retarget them until your sales cart closes.

Webinar Funnel

Next is the webinar funnel. These are sometimes called masterclasses, workshops, or just plain class. Webinars have a bad reputation in the market because so many of them are full of information about the presenter (trying to justify why they’re the expert) and delivering very little value. However, there is something to be said about delivering a training or class that provides true value and solves a problem for your audience.

The same as a 5-day challenge, you fill out your webinar through your social media following, original content such as a blog or podcast, inviting subscribers from your email list or Facebook group to your training webinar, and by using ads.

The conversion rate for webinars vary by presenter and topic, but generally are in line with the 5-Day Challenge Funnels. They can be valuable for promoting higher priced courses.

The Webinar Funnel looks like this:

Towards the end of your webinar, you transition over to your sales pitch, outlining the benefits and what’s included in your online course. The last step is directing webinar attendees to your sales page.

In both funnels, you continue to retarget any non-purchasers through an email sequence until the cart closes. You can offer bonuses and incentives to encourage purchase in your retargeting email sequence. It’s typical for cart closing day to be your highest sales day. We need incentives and a deadline to create the FOMO (fear of missing out)!

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