Making money is hard

I recently did a coaching call with a woman I’ll call Sarah.

Sarah’s an online entrepreneur in the fitness space. And she’s started getting some good traction with her audiences on LinkedIn and Instagram. But like many online entrepreneurs, she’s struggling to turn her engaged social media followers into paying customers.

As I dug into Sarah’s situation, I realized she was missing a simple but crucial piece of the puzzle: She didn’t have a cohesive marketing funnel. She had some parts of a marketing funnel running well. But she was missing other parts entirely — a common mistake.

Lots of folks can create great content, but they struggle to guide their audience from readers into buyers. They miss the bridge between "Here's my content" and "Here's my product for sale."

I know that feeling, and it’s pretty demoralizing. It turns out that making money is hard!

So today I'm going to break down the anatomy of a basic marketing funnel. But I’m not going to dig into any complex automation or tech stacks. I simply want to walk you through the fundamental stages your potential customers will go through, and show you how to guide them through the journey.

The anatomy of a basic marketing funnel

So, what is a marketing funnel?

It's the journey your potential customers take from first hearing about you to eventually buying something from you. To put it simply, it's how you turn random people on the internet into paying customers.

And understanding a marketing funnel has two big advantages:

1. It helps you plan your work effectively. You can see what content or offers you need at each stage.
2. It ensures you're giving your followers a cohesive experience. No more random content — everything has a specific purpose.

When you visualize your whole funnel, you’ll stop missing crucial steps. You start to bridge the gap between "Here's my content" and "Here's my product for sale."

Alright — let's break down each stage of this journey.

Awareness

Awareness is the very top of your funnel. It's that point in time where people first discover you exist, and it often happens on social media.

Think of this as the "Hello" stage of your relationship with your potential customers. And your goal here is really simple: provide value and show off your expertise.

Your social content, blog posts, YouTube videos, podcast episodes — all of these serve to introduce you to the right people.

Don't try to sell anything yet. Just focus on being helpful.

Sarah, our fitness coach, was actually doing really well at this part. She shares quick workout tips on Instagram, writes content about nutrition myths on LinkedIn, and solves small problems for her audience.

That content is all about spreading awareness of Sarah and her expertise.

Interest

Once people are aware of you, you want to pique their interest.

This is where you transition from "Hey, I exist" to "Hey, want to know more?" You want to get the right people to raise their hand and say, "Yes, I want to hear more from you."

One really great way to do that is with a lead magnet — a free, helpful resource that you offer in exchange for someone’s email address.

It could be a simple guide, a checklist, a mini-course, or a webinar. Whatever it is, it’s gotta be helpful in a very specific way. You want it to solve a small problem that unlocks a larger problem.

Sarah was missing this completely, so we brainstormed some ideas together.

One idea that we liked was a simple "Home Workout Quickstart Guide." We hypothesized that by getting more people to lean into home fitness, Sarah would have a larger pool of interested followers who would eventually want her training help.

This is the exact intention of your lead magnet — creating interest.

Consideration

Once someone is on your email list, it's time to start building a deeper relationship. This is where a lot of people completely drop the ball. They get the email address and immediately start selling. Or they never reach out at all! Don't do either of those things. Instead, focus on continuing to provide value to build trust.

One great way to do that is an email nurture sequence.

Nurture sequences can get complicated and there’s no “right” way to do them. Rather than break down some sophisticated 7-day series, here are some helpful basics that your nurture sequence should have:

• Your personal story and why you do what you do
• Case studies or success stories from clients
• Deep, in-depth content that shows off your expertise
• Answers to common challenges or questions in your niche

The goal with your nurture sequence is to position yourself as the go-to expert in your very specific field.

You're not just sharing information here — you're officially building a relationship.

Intent

After awhile, you’ll have lots of different readers on your list.

Some will drop off because they weren’t really interested, others will figure out you’re not actually the expert they were looking for (that’s ok!), and some will start to seriously consider buying from you.

The last group has started to trust you, they see you as an expert, and they're thinking, "This person might be exactly the right person to help me."

This is where you start to introduce your paid offerings.

BUT — you want to do it in a way that's focused on the customer's needs.

You could host a product-specific event that goes deep on the problem your offer solves, give a limited-time price to create urgency, and even consider a limited number of customers (for someone like Sarah, a personal trainer, this makes a lot of sense).

You want to make sure its crystal clear how your offer will benefit them specifically.

You're not just saying "Here's what I sell."

You're saying "Here's how I can solve your very specific problem, and here’s why I’m the exact right person to do that for you."

Evaluation

Alright, your potential customer is now weighing their options. That’s great news!

But while they're interested in what you offer, they will probably have some hesitations. Your job is to make the decision as easy as possible.

This is where your offer page should provide:

• Detailed FAQs that address common concerns and objections
• Comparison charts if you offer multiple pricing/package options
• A clear money-back guarantee to reduce perceived risk (optional)

The goal is to address objections before they're raised. You want to remove any friction that might prevent somebody from making a purchase.

And if you do that, you’re likely get some buyers.

In closing

Now that you understand the stages of a marketing funnel, it’s time to start building your bridge from “Hello World” to “Buy Now.” And to build your bridge, you need to determine what you’ll offer your prospective customers at each stage of your marketing funnel.

Remember, building an effective marketing funnel won’t happen overnight. It's a process of continual refinement and optimization, like anything else in your business.

Start with these basic stages, implement them one at a time, and pay attention to how your audience responds. Then tweak as you go along. And don’t be afraid to ask people what they like and don’t like. Sometimes the information you get from people who don’t buy is more helpful than anything.

And as always, the key is to just get started. Because a simple funnel is better than no funnel at all.

So take what you've learned today and begin mapping out your customer journey. Your future customers (and your bank account) will be grateful you did.

And when you’re ready to go deeper on marketing funnels, check out The Creator MBA. It’s jam-packed with actionable, step-by-step guidance for turning your audience into customers.

And that's all for this week.

See you next Saturday.