How to Build a Funnel for an Online Course - 3 Funnel Types for Course Creators

If you’re a course creator and you’re not using funnels, you’re leaving money on the table. Funnels help you grow your audience, build trust, and turn interest into sales. And when it comes to online courses, having the right funnel can make all the difference.

In this article, we’ll cover three essential funnels for course creators and walk through exactly how to build them. Whether you’re just starting out or ready to scale, you can have each funnel for an online course built in under an hour even if you have zero technical skills. Let's dive right in!

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Lead Funnel for Online Courses

A lead funnel (also called an opt-in or squeeze funnel) is designed to grow your email list by offering something valuable for free. This might be an eBook, a checklist, or even a mini-course — as long as it solves a problem your audience has.

How it works:

1. Opt-in page: Visitors enter their email address or other contact information to get your free resource.
2. Thank You page: Confirm what they’ll receive, tell them when it’s arriving, and optionally introduce your course.

Now that you have their contact information, you can send them follow-ups and even promote your course in the emails.

Why this funnel works: You’re not asking to buy anything from you, just an email address in exchange for something genuinely helpful.

Building a lead funnel for your online course

You don’t need to be a designer or a tech expert to build funnels for your online course. The tool that makes it extremely easy — the one I use and recommend — is Clickfunnels.

It’s an all-in-one platform with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor, and built-in tools for everything from collecting emails to taking payments. You don’t have to start building from scratch — just pick a template, adjust sales copy and images, and launch your funnel in no time.

By the way, if you want to give Clickfunnels a try, use our link to start an extended 30-day Clickfunnels trial (instead of the usual 14-day trial) and get our bonuses - DFY course framework, a pre-built course sales funnel template, and step-by-step Clickfunnels course to help you master the platform faster.

Check out the video below for a step-by-step guide on how to build a lead funnel for you online course.

Sales Funnel for Online Courses

Once you’ve got people joining your list with the lead funnel, the next step is to actually turn those subscribers into paying students. That’s when the sales funnel for your course comes in. A sales funnel helps take someone from just being curious about your course to actually buying it.

It usually starts with the sales page, where you introduce your course and explain the transformation it offers — not just what your students will learn, but the outcome they can expect. Then you have an order form with the checkout form and an order confirmation page.

How it works:

1. Sales page: Explain the transformation your course delivers, not just the topics. Share your story, outline benefits, show testimonials, and answer common questions.
2. Order form: A clear, easy checkout page where they can purchase. If you have a product that you can bundle with your course, you can sell it as an order bump or an upsell
3. Order confirmation page: Thank them for purchasing, confirm details, and share the next steps - tell them how to access the course, other assets, where to get answers to their questions.

Why this funnel works:
What makes a sales funnel better than just dropping the checkout link to a course somewhere is that it gives you the chance to show the value of your course.

You can tell the story behind it, share how you acquired the skills you’re teaching, highlight the benefits, and help people understand why it’s the right fit for them.

You also have room to answer questions, address concerns, share testimonials, and connect with your audience before asking them to make a buying decision.

Building a sales funnel for your online course

Building a sales funnel for your online course doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. In fact, you can skip most of the work by using a complete, done-for-you funnel template.

When you start your Clickfunnels account through our link, you’ll get our ready-made course sales funnel template among other bonuses.

This template already has a sales page, an order form, and a confirmation page, all set up for selling online courses. Just change the sales copy, images, or video, update the product - and you're ready to go.

Webinar Funnel for Online Courses

If your course is more in-depth or on the higher end price-wise, you might need more time to build trust and show its value. That’s when it makes sense to use a webinar funnel.

Instead of pitching your course right away, you invite people to a free training webinar where you can actually teach something, give real value upfront, and demonstrate your expertise.

It works like an online class or workshop - you spend 40 to 60 minutes helping your audience understand the problem they’re facing and what steps they need to take to solve it. But when it comes to the “how” - the detailed process, the tools, and the support, - that’s where your course comes in as the next logical step.

How it works:

1. Registration page: Visitors sign up to attend your webinar by providing their name and email.
2. Confirmation page: They receive details about the event, including the date, time, and a countdown timer to build anticipation.
3. Broadcast page: This is where your live or recorded webinar takes place. You deliver value, teach key concepts, and introduce your course as a solution.
4. Sales page: After the webinar, attendees are directed to a tailored sales page that reinforces the benefits of your course and encourages them to buy it.

Why this funnel works:
A webinar funnel gives you time to build trust, prove your expertise, and connect with your audience before asking for a sale. By teaching valuable concepts and sharing with your audience the steps to solve their problem, you position your course as the natural next step. This makes the buying decision feel easier and more logical, especially for higher-priced courses.

Building a webinar funnel for your online course

Here’s where it gets really exciting! You don’t have to spend hours staring at a blank page wondering how to build your webinar funnel or what to say in the webinar.

When you use Clickfunnels, their AI will do the work for you—writing your sales copy, picking images, and putting it all together into a webinar funnel in no time. It’s like having a copywriter, designer, and funnel builder all rolled into one.

You’ll also get the Perfect Webinar training and a proven webinar script so you know exactly what to say to keep people hooked from the first minute to the final call-to-action.

Plus, you get ready-made email follow-up sequence so you can warm people up before the webinar and keep the conversation going after. All that’s left for you is to show up and deliver your best teaching.

Grab a webinar funnel for your online course, a high-converting webinar script and a powerful follow-up sequence here.

We’ve now covered three powerful funnels every course creator should use.

The lead funnel helps you grow your email list and start building trust. The sales funnel turns those leads into paying customers. And the webinar funnel gives you the time and space to teach, connect, and sell, especially if your course is higher-priced or more in-depth.

Each funnel plays a different role, but together they create a complete journey for your audience.

And the best part? You don’t need to be a designer, tech expert, or copywriter to build them. Clickfunnels makes it easy with ready-to-use templates, a drag-and-drop editor, and even AI tools to speed things up.

If you’re ready to build your first funnel—or all three—start your extended free Clickfunnels trial through our link and get our exclusive bonuses, including a ready-to-use course sales funnel template, so you can plug in your content and launch even faster.

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