The sales funnel for an online course, stage by stage

Published prices, verified

Building the funnel in four stages

1. The lead magnet. A checklist, a short video lesson or a template that solves one narrow piece of the course's problem, delivered by email in exchange for the address. It should be consumable in ten minutes and point at the course's bigger promise. This is the stage that determines how many people the rest of the funnel ever sees.
2. The nurture sequence. Four to six emails over a week or two: the problem, why the usual fixes fail, your method, a student's story, the invitation. Written once, sent automatically to every new subscriber. Several platforms include this automation on the entry plan; on others it is a higher tier or a separate tool.
3. The offer with a reason to buy now. A launch with a closing date, a cohort start, a founding price that rises, or an evergreen deadline tied to the subscriber's join date. Without one, a funnel produces readers rather than buyers. The offer page should carry the outcome, the curriculum, proof, the price and the guarantee, in that order.
4. The checkout with upsells and recovery. One page, card and PayPal, a payment plan above about $300, an order bump (a template pack, a call) and an abandoned-cart email. The platform's own page says whether upsells and cart recovery are on the entry plan; the verified table shows what that plan costs and what the vendor keeps.

Which platform class runs which stage

Newsletter platforms run stages one and two natively and sell the course as a digital product or a paid tier at stage three; all-in-one course platforms run all four, usually with the email automation gated by plan; community platforms run the offer and delivery and expect the list to live elsewhere; membership layers run the checkout and the gate over your own site. The platform-type pages in the index list the vendors evidenced for each class, and the vendor profiles quote what each publishes about its plans.

The funnel's cost is the platform entry plan plus the cut, plus any tool you buy to fill a stage the platform does not run. Price the whole funnel, not the plan.

Funnel numbers worth watching

Lead magnet conversion (visitors who subscribe), sequence open rate, offer page conversion (visitors who buy) and checkout abandonment. A warm offer page converting under 1% has an offer problem; a checkout losing half its starters has a page or payment problem. Fix the stage with the worst number before touching the others.

No stage here comes with an income figure. The funnel is a mechanism; what it produces depends on the audience entering it.

Common questions

What is a sales funnel for an online course?

A lead magnet that earns an email address, a short automated sequence, an offer with a reason to buy now, and a checkout with upsells and recovery. Each stage can run on the course platform or on a tool beside it.

Do course platforms include a sales funnel?

The all-in-one platforms include most of it, with email automation often gated by plan; newsletter platforms include the first two stages; community platforms and membership layers include the offer and checkout. Check the vendor's own page for what the entry plan carries.

Do I need a separate email tool for my course funnel?

Only if the platform's entry plan does not include sequences. Price the platform plus the email tool against the next tier up that includes it; the verified table gives the platform side of that sum.

Browse by platform type

• Compare Newsletter platforms on published prices
• Compare Online course platforms on published prices
• Compare Membership site platforms on published prices
• Compare Community platforms on published prices