June 18, 2025
Basic Funnel Design for Solo Consultants
One of the folks in my private coaching Slack asked a classic question about the optimal funnel setup for a solo consultant (edited for clarity, personal details removed):
I’m trying to organize my various marketing channels into a proper funnel. Here’s what I’m thinking:
Podcast and YouTube -> LinkedIn post -> website -> newsletter
Basically I would promote my website on every piece of content I produce.
Does this funnel make sense to you or would you reorder it?
It’s a good start!
Here’s how I think about it...
Of this list, the “top of funnel” platforms are YT and LI. They are best for discovery (i.e., people encountering you for the very first time).
I would send people from YouTube and LinkedIn directly to a landing page for a lead magnet that your ideal buyers will find irresistible.
In exchange for the lead magnet, they give you their email address and you add them to your mailing list.
Once you have them on the mailing list, you can periodically include links in your email messages to sales pages on your website.
So the funnel would look like:
YT/LI -> landing page for lead magnet -> mailing list -> sales page for entry level offering
That’s basically it.
Where does the podcast fit in?
Podcasts are great for building trust with people who have already heard of you but they’re not great for discovery.
So here’s how the podcast fits in...
Whenever you drop a new podcast episode, announce it to whoever’s on your mailing list in hopes that a few of them will binge listen to a ton of episodes.
This will turn you into a minor celebrity in their minds and can have a strong positive impact on your pricing power and close rate.
Where does the website fit in?
The landing page for the lead magnet and the sales page for your entry level product will probably both live on your website but strictly speaking, that’s a “nice to have”, not a requirement.
This might sound like heresy, but I don’t really think my website is particularly important. It’s just a convenient place for me to host web pages. For years, I didn’t even have navigation at the top of it.
If I was forced to choose between deleting my mailing list or deleting my website, I would delete my website in a heartbeat.
The mailing list is WAY more important to me.
It’s not magic
The funnel approach I have suggested here is by no means the only way to design a funnel for a solo consulting business. But if you’re new to the concept, it’s a reliable and simple structure to copy.
That said...
There’s no magic in the structure itself.
The magic is in the content you create.
You could copy this design exactly and it won’t work for you at all if the content you share in these channels is mediocre.
Yours,
—J