How to build your first email marketing funnel [+ email pitch framework]

What’s one thing all successful creators have in common?

A fine-tuned email marketing funnel that works behind the scenes to nurture potential customers and lead them toward making a purchase.

As a result, these pro creators have a constant flow of new clients and customers without needing to tirelessly promote their offerings.

Today, we’re walking you through everything you need to know so you can have your own email funnel ready to go by the end of this article.

You’ll even walk away with templates to make the entire process fast and fuss-free.

An intro to email marketing funnels

What is an email funnel and what does it mean in email marketing?

An email funnel is an email sequence that moves subscribers from potential to paying customers by nurturing and guiding them through a series of strategically crafted emails.

Here’s how an email funnel works:

• Top: Gather email subscribers via landing pages and forms
• Middle: Send subscribers targeted, well-timed emails based on their interest to build trust and authority
• Bottom: Subscribers become your customer
• Repeat: Create lifetime customers

Why do you need an email marketing funnel?

Email marketing funnels help you:

1. Build an email list full of relevant subscribers
2. Nurture your leads so they’re more likely to buy the offer at the end of your funnel
3. Simplify and personalize the customer journey by offering a streamlined path that caters to each individual’s needs and preferences through tailored email content
4. Foster retention so you can build a base of loyal, repeat customers
5. Track your efforts by allowing you to track customer behavior and adjust your campaigns accordingly

In short, think of your email funnel as a detailed map, guiding subscribers towards their ultimate destination: purchasing your product.

Without this map, subscribers may feel lost and uncertain about the next steps, making them less likely to purchase.

How to create an email marketing funnel in 4 steps

Step #1 – Capture leads (top of the funnel)

There are typically two ways to capture leads for your funnel (and grow your email list).

1. Use an opt-in form

Opt-in forms are a fantastic way to lead traffic to your email marketing funnels because you can embed them anywhere on your website.

You can also create different opt-in copy—like headers and CTAs—for each lead capture form. This helps you test which copy performs the best. Kit automatically calculates these conversion rate stats so you can quickly determine which elements are clear winners.

Food blogger Amanda Wilens has a simple opt-in form on her homepage where readers can subscribe to get tips for entertaining and baking.

2. Use an email landing page

Think of landing pages as opt-in forms on steroids.

Instead of embedding a small opt-in form onto your website, you can create a dedicated landing page that leads to your email marketing funnel.

With landing pages, you have more room to include additional copy to persuade visitors to sign-up.

Food blogger Amanda also uses a dedicated landing page as well as opt-in forms on her website. Consider using a mix of opt-in forms and landing pages to attract people to your list.

Step #2 – Nurture leads (middle of the funnel)

After someone signs up through your opt-in or landing page, you need to get them to know, like, and trust you to push them further down the funnel. We call this process lead nurturing.

How opt-in forms, landing pages, and email marketing work together

By connecting your opt-in forms and landing pages with your email marketing, you can:

• Welcome new subscribers to your email list via your welcome emails and make a great first impression
• Nurture quality leads
• Send custom recommendations based on your email segmentation strategy
• Engage inactive users who may need extra assistance with your product

Creator Cara Chace automatically welcomes subscribers to her email list with this welcome email that introduces herself and gives the subscriber a free gift.

You can create a welcome sequence in one click using Kit’s Welcome sequence template.

To access the Automation Templates, head to your Kit dashboard and go to Automate > Templates.

There, you’ll find a list of templates ready for you to use!

How to connect your opt-in forms and landing pages in Kit

By now, you’ve got either an opt-in form or a landing page (or both!), and an email sequence. Time to get them talking and automatically move subscribers down your marketing funnel.

Using Kit, create Automations that instantly add new subscribers to your welcome sequence. This way, you never need to worry whether your leads are moving down your marketing funnel.

Step #3 – Turn leads into customers (bottom of the funnel)

After welcoming and warming up your leads, you’re ready to pitch your product (and make sales) with a strategic email marketing funnel.

Some strategies to try:

1. Send time-sensitive offers to your warmest leads (those who have interacted with your emails the most) to encourage them to convert
2. Send upsell sequences to those who have purchased to increase your average order value
3. Send downsell sequences with smaller offers to those who didn’t buy your product as a last measure to buy your product
4. Move those who didn’t purchase anything into a longer and more tailored sequence to continue warming them up

You can automate each point above using Kit’s Automations:

Try it with our framework for funnel email sequences

Time to create your own email marketing funnel. Remember: this comes after your welcome sequence.

We put together a template to quickly get you started. Use this template as a starting point and add—or remove—emails as you see fit.

Email 1: Teach

Use the first email to educate your audience on a topic related to your landing page or lead magnet. Make sure what you teach aligns with the lead magnet your subscribers opted-in for.

For example, if someone signs up for your list to access journaling prompts, but your email funnel teaches them how to declutter their office, they might be confused and unsubscribe (and never become a customer).

Here’s an email template to help:

Hey [subscriber’s first name here],

[Establish your expertise in the topic by highlighting your experience, but keep this section fairly casual and upbeat.]

[Talk about what they’ll learn in this email and in subsequent emails so they know what to expect from you next.]

[Start explaining the first lesson that relates to your niche topic. Explain the problems that many people, including your subscribers, have with the topic.]

[Introduce at least one tip or strategy to help them overcome the problems you explained in the previous section.]

[Mention when you will be sending an activity or more tips on your topic while getting ready to sign off the email.]

Best,
[Your name or brand name here]

In this first email, don’t mention what you’re selling. It’s important to keep your offerings out of the conversation at first and only focus on giving educational value.

Email 2: Soft Pitch

Your first email taught something of value to grab your audience’s attention.

After that, use the second email to mention your product or service for the first time, but only at the very end of your email.

We like to call this a soft pitch, meaning instead of making the entire email about your product or service, you’ll use the email to educate your audience with a very brief mention of your offering.

This gets your audience used to seeing the name of your product or service without feeling like they are hit with a big sales pitch right away.

Here is what the flow can look like:

Hey [subscriber’s first name here],

[Share how many more tips and recommendations you are going to share in this email and reintroduce the topic, problem, and solution.]

[Give two or three tips that directly relate to the topic and solve the core problem for your audience. Add your personal insights to strengthen your tips.]

[Leave them with a list of recommended resources tailored to their interests.]

[Talk about what the next email will teach them.]

Best,
[Your name or brand name here]

PS: [Mention how your product or service is a perfect fit if they are interested in the topic you’re teaching about in these emails with a link to your sales page. Remember, you are only lightly introducing it here so you don’t need to include details about the offering’s cost, features, or benefits.]

If people want to learn more about your offer at this stage, they can click the link to your sales page to browse through it on their own time.

Email 3: Teach

In your third email, you’ll go back to giving value through your educational content. It may feel like you are doing a lot of teaching at this point, but it’s important to show off your knowledge and position yourself as someone your audience can trust.

Here is a simple workflow for your third email:

Hey [subscriber’s first name here],

[Introduce the next lesson you’ll be sharing through this email.]

[Include a personal story of how you learned this lesson and implemented it into your own business or life so your audience can connect with you.]

[Share the top lessons you learned along the way with tips on how they can overcome some of the obstacles you faced.]

[Give them an idea of what your business or life looks like now that you know the value of the lesson you are teaching in this email.]

[End with a question prompt that asks your audience what parts of this lesson they resonated with and what they’re currently struggling with. Ask them to answer the question by replying to the email so you can engage with them privately.]

Best,
[Your name or brand name here]

PS: [Talk about what the next email will be about.]

Email 4: Soft Pitch

Time for another soft pitch. This is where you will lightly reintroduce your offering to interested subscribers while telling a bigger story through a case study.

You can use your own story as a case study if it is a strong example, but it’s best if you can use a case study from a past client if you are selling freelance services or a past student if you are selling an online course.

Follow this example to create a great case study email:

Hey [subscriber’s first name here],

[Introduce the person or brand you will be reviewing through the case study, whether it is a past client or customer.]

[Set the scene by highlighting the pain points the person had before working with you or buying your product.]

[Share the different strategies or educational value you gave the person through your offering after they invested in it.]

[Show the results of what happened after the person successfully implemented your product or service into their life or business. Share statistics wherever possible.]

[Talk about how your email subscribers can achieve similar results by investing in your product or service. Briefly explain the other benefits of working with you or buying your product before you transition into your soft pitch.]

[Add a simple link to your sales page for subscribers to learn more about your offer. You may also want to create a click automation with Link Triggers inside Kit to make sure you gather data from people who show their interest by clicking this sales page link.]

[Include a short testimonial from the person in this case study to end the email.]

Best,
[Your name or brand name here]

Ending with a testimonial from your case study is the perfect way to close the email. It gives your case study valuable social proof to impress your audience and give them another reason to trust you.

Email 5: Hard Pitch

All of your emails have led to this moment: the hard pitch email.

Most content creators feel their palms sweat as they write this email because they worry about coming off as “sales-y.” But since you’ve sent so much value leading up to this point, you’re anything but “sales-y.”

Start by highlighting the benefits of your product or service before you transition into the different features (or deliverables) inside your offering.

Then, make sure you answer any questions your subscribers may still have about your offer.

Since you’ve given valuable email content (not to mention a great lead magnet) away for free, their trust in your brand should be at an all-time high.

Here is a template you can customize for your own hard sales pitch:

Hey [subscriber’s first name here],

[Explain what main problem your offering is solving and how it is going to help them solve it in a more effective, efficient way.]

[Talk about who the product or service is perfect for so subscribers will know it is specifically tailored for them.]

[Showcase the benefits that other clients or students have walked away with after investing in your offer.]

[Mention why your solution is better than other products or services that exist in the market so your offer stands out among competitors.]

[Link to your sales page, contact form, or product checkout page, depending on what call-to-action fits your sales strategy.]

[Reintroduce the value of this offering and list out the features and deliverables inside the offering. People should walk away from this section knowing exactly what they get when they invest in the offer. A bulleted list works fine and saves on space.]

[Talk about how valuable the offering actually is but include the investment amount you are selling it for. Also, mention why it is worth the investment and include ways that they can make back their investment by utilizing your offer if applicable.]

[Include a short testimonial from past clients or customers who made back their investment or received great results from their investment.]

[Again, link to your sales page, contact form, or product checkout page depending on what call-to-action fits your sales strategy.]

[End with a final call-to-action to make sure people sign up. You can add a limited time offer with free bonuses, discounts, or anything else that adds more value to your offer. To add even more urgency, you can add an email countdown timer.]

Best,
[Your name or brand name here]

After writing your sales pitch, it’s time to finalize your sales funnel email sequence.

Then, with Kit’s Automations, create an automation that instantly moves subscribers who complete your welcome sequence into your sales pitch.

After someone finishes your sales pitch, you can use Kit’s Automations to further personalize their journey, either through additional sequences like upsells, downsells, or longer sequences to warm leads up who didn’t convert.

Step #4 – Create lifetime customers (repeat)

After a subscriber becomes a customer, you have the chance to use other marketing funnels to teach them even more, pitch them on more products and offers, and turn them into lifetime customers.

Tips on how to retain customers

Here are some tips to help you retain customers:

• Don’t go radio silent. If your subscribers are used to seeing you in their inbox a few times a week during a launch but then don’t hear from you for a few months, your relationship will grow stale and they won’t want to buy from you in the future.
• Personalize your emails so customers receive information that’s relevant to them. If they purchased a vegan cookbook from you, you likely don’t want to send them chicken recipes. Use segmentation to send highly tailored emails packed with content they’ll love to keep them around.
• Create products with tiered pricing. Tiered pricing allows your product to be more accessible by meeting people where they currently are in their own journey without leaving money on the table, ensuring your customers always have an option to buy what you’re selling.
• Upsell with bonus offers and complementary products and give your customers even more value than they’d get from a single offer.

Copywriter Brian Kurtz sent this upsell email to people who purchased a workbook from him.

The offer—a live working group—was highly-tailored to the initial product people bought. As a bonus, Brian had the potential to earn an additional $11,820 in sales from this simple upsell email.

How to improve your email marketing funnels

Follow best practices

If you want to improve your email marketing sales funnel, brush up on some landing page and email marketing best practices.

First, make sure your landing page is optimized for conversions. This means including a clear headline that states the value of your opt-in along with a compelling CTA, all bundled together in an attractive design.

Next, make sure your email marketing is tailored to your target audience. Craft personalized emails full of relevant content to move subscribers down the funnel to paying customers.

Keep an eye on the numbers

Numbers tell a compelling story and help you pinpoint problems. Metrics such as page visits, conversion rate, and bounce rate can help you understand the success of your landing page.

Email marketing KPIs like open rate, click-through rate, and unsubscribe rate tell you which emails your audience likes and which ones aren’t hitting the mark.

Test, test, test

Finally, make use of A/B testing to tweak and optimize your email marketing sales funnel even further.

Test different elements on your landing page, such as headlines, copy, images, and buttons. And A/B test your subject lines to ensure you get the most eyeballs on your emails.

Build your next funnel for email marketing

Between landing pages, opt-ins, and email sequences, Kit lets you build everything you need.

Even better, the entire process is hands-off, so you can focus on doing what you love while your products sell in the background.

Ready to try it for yourself? Sign up with Kit for free today!