This is How I Created My Sales Funnel From Beginning to End

The One Person Startup

This is How I Created My Sales Funnel From Beginning to End

You know that feeling when you create a good product, and no one buys it.

That feeling sucks.

You probably spent several days, possibly even weeks to build that one Notion template. Then you go and spend another few days creating some nice product covers on Canva.

You get the colors all nice, set your brand fonts, and make the perfect layout that you learned from those Satori Graphics YouTube videos.

Then afterwards, you upload your product onto Gumroad, and wait to see the sales rolling in.

Except….

They don’t.

If only it would be that easy to upload your products and start making that $10k/month that everyone talks about.

Well, I know the feeling.

I know it all too well.

That’s why am writing this, to help you make more sales. Or, start making sales.

Let’s face it, we all been there. Struggling to get that first sale.

Keep pushing, because you will get there.

The key you’re looking for just might be some social proof. Especially if you’re not widely known like Justin Welsh, Dan Koe, or Kieran Drew. Pretty much anyone would buy from them without much hesitation if money wasn’t an issue (I know you’re waiting for that half-off discount).

How do you get social proof?

In short, you give away your product for a limited time and request testimonials to add social proof.

So, in this post, I’m going to break down the full process of creating a product, all the way down to requesting a testimonial for that product.

Create the Notion template

I know there are a ton of product creators can make, but for this example, I’m using my most recent project, my Notion Social Media Planner.

I spent roughly 15 hours creating and testing this template. To be honest, I spent way more time than I should have. But, I was doing so much research on other similar templates.

That's part of the business here. You look for products that other creators make and see how you can improve them. If you can't make it, then start watching YouTube videos. Watch Thomas Frank, Red Gregory, follow Easlo, or a ton of the other creators on X or Instagram.

Once you have an understanding of how to connect tables, databases, and connect multiple pages, then you can really start building something useful.

That’s what I did.

I seen what new techniques everyone else was sharing, and I implemented a few of them to create my Notion template.

Time Frame: 10-15 hours

Tools: Notion

Design the marketing images

After you finish the template, now you want to get some good images of your template. I use Go full page to capture full screenshots and those nice-looking scrolling page screenshots as well. I use it on my PC, and it makes it much easier to get a long image of your entire workspace.

From there, I open up Canva, select one of my templates, and start adding the images.

Always use Canva templates. Either the free ones or make some yourself.

Another option is to go and buy some templates on marketplaces like Etsy or Gumroad. There are a ton of nice templates out there that you can use.

Here’s a link to my Canva designs you can get for free on Gumroad.

By using templates, you can significantly reduce the time it takes to create marketing images. I spent about 25 minutes on this.

Time Frame: 15-60 mins

Tools: Canva

Write the marketing description

Three things help you make sales.

Good images
Good pricing
Good descriptions

This part is harder. It takes some practice to start writing good product descriptions, especially if you have never done it before. But, like all things, you can learn.

If you continue to struggle, you can always use AI to give you a rough draft idea of what you can write. Don't copy and paste it though, because AI sucks at providing you with good copy right off the bat. You need some prompt engineering for that.

There are 3 suggestions I can give you.

Practice till your keyboard breaks.
Learn to use AI and prompt engineer
Read other listings and learn from them

It took me a couple of years to get comfortable writing product descriptions, but it makes a big difference. Your products are competing with tons of other great creators, so you have to sound good enough to make your customer want to buy.

If you're struggling with this, you can send me a message, and we can talk about how I can help. I have a special prompt that generates most of my product descriptions, but it's still a prototype.

I also offer writing services that can turn your copy into something that sells.

But, I suggest you try the first three suggestions first.

Time Frame: 1-2 hours

Tools: Notion or Google Sheet, AI

Upload to all marketplaces

Once I'm done with images, pricing, and descriptions, it's time to load them up into all the marketplaces I do business with. Here are the main four.

Etsy
Gumroad
Lemon Squeezy
ConvertKit

Etsy has the best marketplace because of all the traffic they get on their site. They get roughly 600 million visitors every month. And, Etsy is still growing, so that number is going to get larger.

Gumroad is the only other marketplace competitor out of the four, but the marketplace is not as good. Gumroad receives most of its traffic from direct links. But, I still add my products here anyway.

Lemon Squeezy: I upload my products here so I can link them to my website. They have much lower fees than Gumroad, and they make your life easier by handling the collection and remittance of taxes.

ConvertKit: I upload my products here so I can easily link them in my blog and newsletter posts. Additionally, when people visit my ConvertKit profile, they can see my products linked right there as well.

Remember, you don't have to keep all your products in one place. You can spread your business as wide as you want. The more places your product is listed, the more chances you have of making those sales.

Time Frame: 1-2 hours

Tools: none

Create landing page

This one is fairly simple. When you upload your products onto the four platforms mentioned above, you're also building out the landing pages at the same time.

This is true for Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, and Etsy.

Just upload your images
Add the description
Mark your pricing

and your landing page will be set to publish.

Here’s a look at the same Notion template on all platforms so you can decide which one looks best.

If you ask me, I always prefer the Gumroad landing page. It's the cleanest one. I also like how you can add images and videos directly into your product description. It adds to social proof and helps make those sales.

Remember, the reason you're reading this whole post is to improve your sales.

Time Frame: 15-30 mins

Tools: Gumroad, Etsy, Lemon Squeezy, ConvertKit

Create automated workflow

Now that you have your product listed, here comes the part that will set you apart from 75% of the rest. An automated workflow - the same thing as an automated email or email automation - will be sent right after a successful email submission.

This means that once someone submits their email, they will be tagged, and they will start receiving a series of emails. Email marketing at its finest.

I set up the tag with ConvertKit, so that anyone who submits their email from my landing page will be marked with the name of the template I'm giving away. That will trigger the email automation to start sending them the pre-written emails I made.

I wrote three total emails for this sequence.

Welcome email with the link to the template
Follow up email where I share a helpful video on how I use the template
A testimonial request

That’s it.

Not to fancy, and not too long. The point was to get more sales. We determined that we need testimonials to give our product social proof. So, in only three emails, I gave them a bit of value on top of the template, and requested a testimonial within a week.

If you’re wondering, I used Senja to collect testimonials. It’s so easy to set this up, and they make it easy to customize it too.

If you’re ready to start collecting testimonials, try out my affiliate link here Senja.

I am hoping that most of the people who took the template will provide some sort of testimonial. But, as long as I get a few of them, then I can add this to my landing pages.

Time Frame: 30-60 mins

Tools: ConvertKit, Senja

Market online

The funnel is complete at this point. Now I need to market my Notion template. So, I go to all the platforms where everyone is at.

Blogs
Twitter
YouTube
Pinterest
Facebook
Instagram
Newsletter

There’s so many more platforms you can market yourself. But, for now, those are the main ones.

Marketing is like inviting people into the front door of your shop. Your marketing to people walking by and asking them to come in. You know not everyone will buy, but if it’s free, then a lot of people will come in.

By offering your template as a free giveaway, this can bring a ton of people into your funnel, which at the end, some of them will give you that social proof you are looking for.

Then a week from now, you can add those testimonials onto your landing page, and set yourself apart from nearly everyone else.

People love reviews.

When I go buy something on Amazon, I always look at the reviews. I look at the pictures, the price, sometimes I look at the description, but I always look at reviews.

If they don’t have any reviews, than I don’t know if I want that product. I go somewhere else.

it’s the power of social proof. If others like it, than I might like it too.

Market your product with those testimonials.

I know that I don’t want to market this product everyday. I don’t have that kind of time. So, I create social media posts, blog posts, pins, and videos. Then I add some of those into my newsletter and email sequences.

This product is going to be marketed by all the work I do up front.

Occasionally, I will promote it again and again. But, at least I know that I created plenty of marketing opportunities so people can find it online. All while I sleep. All while I go to work, While I go to school. The marketing is running in the background for me.

My final thoughts

It takes a lot of work to create a product, so you might as well spend some time to properly market your product.

Get reviews.

Create blog posts.

Link it on Social Media.

Link it back to your newsletter.

Make those links direct to landing pages.

Here’s a basic look at the funnel process

There’s a full process in this, and it gets easier the more often you do it.

But if you need help, you can always send me a message or sign up to my newsletter where I guide other creators on all the steps of a funnel that sells. The One Person Startup

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I have been doing e-commerce for several years and use many platforms. If you need help to start your own online business, send me a message to see how I can help.DM me on X (Twitter)