As a certified FG Society marketer, I can attest to what’s involved in being a master funnel builder. Building the right funnel often means a difference of thousands of dollars (or a huge amount of time) saved or lost. The process of selecting and implementing the right type of funnel for your business is complex. You can’t just throw something at the wall hoping some of it will stick. There are several types of funnels you can use in your coaching business to introduce your ideal client to your offer/business. And convert them into customers. All these funnels can be used at various stages of your business, depending on your goals.

The types of funnels you can use in your life coaching business largely depends on:

• Who your ideal customer is and how aware they are about your offer/industry/product.

How does your ideal customer like to consume their information? How much time do they have? 

• Your existing customer/viewer base. 

Do you have an email list? A social media following? How many people do you have on the list? How many followers?

• Your goals for your business 

Do you want more income? In what time? Or you’re okay with less income but need higher visibility?

• Where your customer is on your value ladder. 

A value ladder is how a customer moves through your company. Are they on the excite level? The stage at which the customer has just been introduced to your offer/company.  The establish level? The customer already knows you as an expert in your industry/niche. This is where you introduce your capstone training or your core product. Or are they at the elevate level? It’s for the customers who are your die-hard fans and are ready to pay a premium for a special offer for the select few.

On top of the points mentioned above, each funnel itself has a goal. And the type of funnel you need to select largely depends on that goal.  

The 5 most common types of funnels you can use in your coaching business are:

1. Lead Magnet funnel

The goal of the lead magnet funnel is to build your email list or lead pool. 

The lead magnet funnel often starts with a graphic or caption or even an ad on social media. This social content then leads your reader to a squeeze page or an opt-in page where they’re asked to give out their email address in return for a freebie. The freebie can be anything that’s helpful to your ideal audience. 

The most common ones used are pdfs, a checklist, a quiz, a swipe file, or an ebook. They’re cheap and super easy to set up. However, they might also attract some low-quality leads that might not turn into sales later.

A lead magnet funnel generally doesn’t sell anything and is the easiest funnel to start with. Its primary purpose — collecting leads.

The situations they are used best for: 

• For people who are new and don’t have a list or any recognition in the online space(yet)
• Contests and quizzes are great lead magnets if you want a huge volume of leads or want to lead up to a launch.
• Video training, free courses, summits, and webinars are some great lead magnet ideas if you want to educate your leads about your offer and lead them to sales.
• Applications and calls booked are gateway lead magnets for high ticket offers. AND the quality of leads is so much better.

Regardless of what your lead magnet is, it leads people to your email funnel. Where you can then establish a know, like, and trust factor with them, encouraging them to buy from you in the future.

2. The SLO funnel

The goal of the Self Liquidating Offer funnel (or the SLO funnel) is to make a sale and acquire a customer you can upsell your other offers to. You can start by promoting your small low-cost offers. It could be a $19 eBook, a $27 course, or a $37 swipe file, for instance. 

Here’s how the funnel works:

Say you’re selling an ebook for $19. (This is your actual low-cost offer)

Once your customer decides to buy your low-cost offer, and puts in their credit card info, they’re led to an order confirmation page that offers them a mini-course on the same topic they can add to their existing purchase if they pay an additional $47. (This is called an order bump)

Once the customer confirms their order (with or without buying the extra) you then lead them to a special one time offer, say a super helpful 7 module e-course that they can add to their cart, at a special one-time price of $250 instead of the existing price of $475.

The customer can then checkout with or without buying the special offer. 

The situations they are used best for: 

• If you’re on the excite level of the value ladder and want to introduce people to your offer/business. An SLO funnel is a great way to increase your brand awareness and focus on acquiring your customer. You help them dip their toes in your offer.
• If you don’t have a huge ad budget.
• Having more than one offer to sell at different price points.
• Wanting to build your email list while getting paid for your lead magnet
• You want to build a HUGE email list for your future offer

Fun fact! It’s called a self-liquidating offer funnel because you usually spend money on ads to acquire customers. Only in this case, the cost of the product you sold will offset the cost of paying for social media ads. Thus helping you break even. And if you’re lucky, make some profit along the way. 

 3. Webinar funnel

The goal of the webinar funnel is to make a free presentation/share tips/introduce your offer/showcase your value to your viewers and then make a sale from it. 

You can have a one-time-only webinar that’s live and which leads to your offer OR you can have a pre-recorded webinar (again leading to your offer) that is available all the time (commonly called an evergreen webinar).

You introduce people to the webinar (probably on social media) and lead them to a registration page where you ask them for their name and email in return for the registration/signup link. Once they watch the webinar they’re then led to the offer via the webinar. 

The situations they are used best for: 

• If you have a bundled offer or a sales page you can send people to at the end of the webinar.
• You can use an evergreen webinar to lead people to the application funnel mentioned below.
• If you’ve already established yourself as an expert in your niche and people are willing to spend time on your webinar.
• You can also use the webinar funnel as a tool to bring people from the establish level to the elevate level.
• The webinar funnel can be a gateway to a premium high-ticket launch.

4. Application funnel

The goal of the application funnel is to get somebody to talk to you one on one and then make a sale. You can offer them a case study or sales page or testimonial which leads to an application page which has a form for them to apply to a 1:1 call with you where you can convince them to buy into your offer. Like a high-ticket coaching service. You can send them an order form after the call. You can ask people to fill out an application to apply for a spot in the coaching program or mastermind.

The situations they are used best for: 

• If you want better quality leads. Because only people seriously interested in your offer will choose to spend time filling out an application.
• If you’re comfortable talking to people one on one.
• If you already have strong testimonials and case studies you can use, to prove that your offer works.
• You can use the case study or testimonials to convince customers at the elevate level to apply for a call. Once on the call, you can convince them to get your high ticket offer. 

5. Launch Funnel

The goal of the launch funnel is to launch one specific offer to your ideal customers. It includes a sales page and an order form. 

You can use social media or emails to get people excited about the launch. You can also sweeten the pot by offering early bird discounts and bonuses to fast action takers. 

Some launches are more elaborate and people have been known to offer some pre-launch activity like a video series, or a challenge which then leads to the final offer.

The situations they are used best for: 

• If you don’t have market validation yet or if you think people don’t know about you/your offer.
• Wanting to launch your offer and see how it performs.
• You have an email list or a social media following or are ready to build one.
• You can also choose to launch a high ticket offer to a select few from your list using the launch funnel.

Some of the other types of funnels you can use are the summit funnel, the business intensive funnel, the pressure launch and more. Depending on the situation, you can always use a combination of different kinds of funnels and make it work for you.

While the process of funnel building can be complicated, the right kind of help and focus can make it easier. It’s not something that comes naturally for most coaches and normally requires a funnel strategist, copywriter, and designer to produce a successful funnel that converts for your business.  As a certified FG Society marketer, I have given you some great basics to start with. There is much more that goes into building funnels for your coaching business.

When you are ready to build a funnel to collect leads, sell a course, or launch a coaching program, schedule a 30-minute free consultation to discuss your idea with us.  We are a full-service team trained in evaluating offers, writing convincing sale copy, and designing sales pages that convert.