Building a sales funnel sounds technical, but it is really just a simple path. Someone finds you, gives you their email, hears from you a few times, then buys. In this guide we walk you through building one from nothing, in the right order, using tools you most likely already have. No jargon, and no forty-step blueprint to get lost in.
To set up a sales funnel, you pick one offer, choose one traffic source, then create a lead magnet and a landing page to collect emails. You add a short email follow-up, a clear sales step like a page or a call, and finally track what happens at each stage.
Who this is for: Coaches, consultants and founders setting up their first sales funnel without a big team or budget.
A sales funnel is just the journey someone takes from first hearing about you to becoming a paying client. People rarely buy the moment they meet you, so a funnel gives them small, easy steps instead of one big leap. If you want the fuller picture first, we explain the idea in what is a marketing funnel.
Think of it in three simple stages. At the top, strangers discover you through content, ads or referrals. In the middle, some of them join your email list in exchange for something useful. At the bottom, a smaller group decides to buy. Your job is to make each stage feel natural and worth doing.
A funnel does not have to be clever, and it does not have to be complicated. It just has to move people gently from curious to ready, one step at a time, so nobody feels rushed or sold to.
The trick is to build in order and resist adding extras. Here is the build order we use for a first funnel, start to finish.
Here is the same funnel laid out as stages, so you can see what each part does and a tool you could use for it.
| Funnel stage | What it does | Tool you could use |
|---|---|---|
| Traffic | Brings new people to you | Instagram, Google, referrals |
| Lead magnet | Turns visitors into subscribers | Canva, Google Docs |
| Landing page | Collects the email | Carrd, your website |
| Email follow-up | Builds trust over a few days | MailerLite, Brevo |
| Sales step | Turns trust into a sale | Sales page or Calendly |
| Tracking | Shows what to fix next | Google Analytics |
If you coach or consult, we have shaped this into an even simpler version in our guide to a sales funnel for coaches.
Your lead magnet is the small gift that earns an email address, so keep it quick to use. A checklist, a short guide or a ready-made template beats a long ebook that nobody finishes. We share plenty of ideas in best lead magnet examples, and the wider setup in the lead magnet funnel.
Once the freebie is ready, it needs a home. That home is a landing page: one page whose only job is to explain the freebie and collect the email. Take away the menu, the extra links and everything else, so the visitor has one clear choice in front of them.
Write a plain headline that names the result, add three or four lines on what they get, then the form. Keep the form to name and email only, because every extra field costs you sign-ups. If you want this page to actually convert, our guide to a high-converting landing page walks through it.
Getting the email is only halfway. Now you follow up, because most people are not ready to buy on day one. Three to five short emails are plenty to begin with. Welcome them, share a useful tip, tell a quick story, then invite them to the next step. You can wire these to send automatically, which we cover in our automated lead follow-up system guide.
The sales step is simply where the buying happens. For a lower-priced offer, that is usually a sales page with the details and a buy button. For coaching or higher-priced work, it is often a booked call. Pick one, and make the invitation clear in your emails.
Do not hide the ask. People who joined your list for help with a problem are happy to hear how you solve it properly, as long as you have been genuinely useful first. Being helpful and then inviting them is the whole game.
Once your funnel is live, tracking tells you what to fix. You do not need a dashboard full of numbers. Watch three things: how many people land on your page, how many give their email, and how many buy. Wherever the biggest drop happens is the one spot to improve first.
Change one thing at a time so you know what worked. A clearer headline, a better freebie or a stronger email can each lift the whole funnel. Give every change a week or two before you judge it, because a handful of visitors will not tell you much.
If all of this feels like a lot to build and run yourself, that is genuinely what we do. At Unbury we build and run funnels like this for coaches, consultants and founders, done-for-you, so you can stay on the work you are best at. You can see how we think about it across our marketing funnels hub whenever you are ready.
Start small. Pick one offer, one traffic source and one freebie, then build a single landing page and a short email series. You can have a basic funnel live in a weekend, and improve it once real people start moving through it.
A simple funnel can be built in a few days if you keep it to one offer and one page. The longer part is refining it once traffic arrives. We would rather you launch something plain this week than spend a month on something perfect that never goes live.
Less than you think. You need somewhere to host a landing page, an email tool to send follow-ups, and a way to take payment or book a call. Free or low-cost tools like Carrd, MailerLite and Calendly cover a first funnel comfortably.
You can set up a first funnel for very little, often just the cost of an email tool. Costs rise when you add paid traffic or done-for-you help. If you would rather not build it yourself, we handle the whole thing for clients.
Send us your setup and we will tell you honestly where it is leaking customers and what to fix first. Free, no pitch.