How to Build an Email Marketing Funnel That Converts

Published on 16.12.2025 by Chizoba T

If you want to grow your business's revenue, you need to focus more on retaining repeat customers. Instead of focusing on getting new customers, you can focus on having a loyal customer base. In fact, statistics indicate that customer acquisition is usually more expensive compared to customer retention. Once you turn one-time customers into loyal customers, they also become your brand advocates, improving your ROI.

One of the best ways to improve customer retention is through a strong email marketing sales funnel. This can be a good strategy for individuals and businesses to connect with their target audience, nurture leads, and drive better conversions. That means optimizing your email marketing funnel should be a skill that every marketer, small business owner, or large brand should have.

Otherwise, you can spend hours creating compelling content, refining your product or service, and improving your online effort, but still struggle to convert. That's why, in this guide, we will take you through the steps to create an email marketing funnel that converts.

What is an Email Marketing Funnel?

The marketing funnel is a tool that helps visualize the customer buying journey from the moment they hear about your company to the moment they convert. It acts as a guide for potential customers through the different stages of the customer’s buying journey, from awareness to purchase. Whether you are selling on Facebook Marketplace, TikTok Live, or an e-commerce store, it can be a good strategy to drive conversions.

It is also a good lead-generation strategy that aims to provide buyers with value at each stage. It leverages targeted messages to help subscribers move toward a buying decision, convert, and become loyal customers.  

Therefore, an email marketing funnel involves creating a series of emails to nurture new leads and current customers into making their first or repeat orders. A good email marketing campaign is designed to serve the different stages of the buyer's journey, which we will discuss in the next section.

It differs from the traditional sales funnel that usually ends with a sale. However, an email sales funnel also focuses on building trust after the purchase. It involves sending the relevant content at the right time to trigger customers’ behaviors. When you align your content with the different stages of the sales funnel, you can increase trust, minimize friction, and create an intuitive path to improve conversion.

Benefits of an Email Marketing Funnel

By building a sales funnel for your email marketing, you can reap different benefits, such as:

  • Streamlining customers’ purchasing journey. The customer’s journey refers to the process a customer follows during their interaction with a brand. It begins when they first become aware of the brand and continues until they make a buying decision.
  • Great personalization opportunity. You can improve the effectiveness and relevance of your email by personalizing it, as it shows you understand your target audience's preferences and needs. Personalization can ensure that your emails resonate with the target audience, increasing the likelihood that they will be opened and read.
  • Measurable. An email marketing funnel will help you track metrics such as click-through rate, conversion rate, and open rate. This can provide you with insights into what is working and the areas you can improve.
  • Increase customer engagement. When you have a well-designed email marketing funnel, it ensures you have valuable, relevant content your audience will love and engage with.

Stages of an Email Marketing Sales Funnel

To better build an email marketing sales funnel, consider the different stages of the customer's buying journey. These are:

Awareness Stage

You can imagine a situation where a business you have never heard of comes knocking on your door. After opening, they bombard you with a sales pitch of their excellent product. No matter how good their products are, you are likely to ignore them. This is the same principle that works in the online world. Marketing your products or services to customers who have never heard about your business will not bring the desired results. 

That is why you need to begin by making customers aware of your brand. This is the essence of the awareness stage. When a prospect first hears about your business, they are likely to treat you as a stranger. This is why you need to start by introducing yourself to your prospects to ensure they remember your brand and what it sells.

The content of your emails in the awareness stage should make your company known. This can include different content formats such as:

  • Educational and informational content.
  • The values and mission of your company.
  • Your proof of experience in your industry.

In email marketing, this stage aims to convert first-time prospects into subscribers by offering a clear value and making it easy to opt in. Provide them with a simple promotion such as a perk for their first order, a 10% off, or a mini guide. You can then use a simpler form to collect their email.

Make sure the form is placed at the location with the highest traffic. Once they subscribe, deliver on your product by sending them a welcome email that provides details about who you are. You can also add links to three or four simple steps, such as the best-seller and how-to guides.

Show your prospects what your company is about, and use personal tidbits and humor within the content. You can use videos and articles in your email. One advantage of videos is that they help put a face to the brand. However, you also need to avoid anything that may sound too salesy. 

This kind of content is best reserved for the latter stages, or else your leads will drop away, rather than focusing on providing them with a solution to their methods. It can also be helpful to use standard digital marketing hooks such as checklists, newsletters, infographics, free webinars, and PowerPoint templates.

Interest Stage

After your email recipients become aware of you, aim to pique their interest. This should leave them hungry for more, depending on the customers' needs, desires, and pain points. Depending on your industry or the product or service you offer, your prospect may start looking at other companies selling a similar product or service.

While this is still not the right stage to sell to your prospect, you can now start introducing your brand to them. You can tell them about what you offer and why it works. In this stage, you can consider creating different content, such as:

  • How-to-guides
  • Social proof of your brand.
  • Ebooks.
  • Tutorials.

When you present statistical evidence of your product's effectiveness in your email, you will encourage them to buy. Create a blog post or a video that shows them how your product works. 

Also, don't try to sell at this stage; instead, focus on building authority. Remember, you are nurturing users to provide them with the information they need to make a buying decision. Focus more on explaining what they can expect from your product. By doing so, you will prepare them for the next stage.

Consideration Stage

In the consideration stage, recipients are in the middle of the sales funnel, and their interest is growing. This is where the audience is not considering your product or service to solve their problem. At this stage, they are also comparing the solution you offer to that of the competitor. Therefore, your goal should be to prevent them from buying from the competitor and to encourage them to consider your brand instead.

You can email subscribers case studies that show the benefits of your products. You can also send them product demos and videos to showcase your product's effectiveness. Organize a webinar to try to convert these leads, and you can show these prospects behind-the-scenes content that illustrates to them why your product is exceptional.

A quick email with an authentic photo or quote from your customer will show them why your product is exceptional. Pay attention to product views and click-through rate, as these will indicate whether interest in the product is increasing or decreasing. This is also a good moment to experiment with different email timing and frequency to determine what works best for your business. You can then use the data to optimize the whole process.

Conversion or the Purchase Stage

Once your customers have started comparing your brand to the competition, it's your role to dispel doubts and increase their confidence in your product. You can do that with plain-spoken emails that answer the customer’s FAQs on areas such as ease of return, product sizing, shipping speed, money-back guarantee, or fit guide.

You can send your prospects a 30-second GIF or a product demo featuring comparisons and reviews. This will provide them with essential insights into why your product stands out from the competition. You can also use seasonal promos, limited education offers, and time-sensitive offers to create a sense of urgency.

Remember that at this stage, buying intent is high, so focus on making it easy for them to buy. For instance, if someone viewed a product but didn't complete the purchase, you can send them a gentle reminder of the product's key features or show them related alternative products.

This is an excellent place for sending an abandoned cart sequence. If you find someone lingering without a purchase, you can send them an email reminder asking whether they are still considering it and showing them customer reviews. You can also reassure them by offering easy returns or free shipping. At this stage, it is essential to quickly respond to the customer inquiry before they change their minds.

Onboarding

After a prospect buys your product or service, it isn't the end of your relationship. Instead, it should be the start of your long-term relationship with them. Start by sending them a thank-you email. You can then provide them with essential details such as order tracking, processing time, and how to reach customer service. The aim is to give them their peace of mind.

After a few days, you can send them an email on getting the most out of the product. Include practical tips on styling, setup, use, and care. After one or two weeks, ask them to review the product to make it seem effortless. When you make the onboarding process easier, you can reduce buyer's regret and increase the likelihood of leaving a positive review. It can also help you rescue support tickets and create a good foundation for your future orders.

Customer Retention

After making a buying decision, your next focus is customer retention. You can do that by continuously engaging your previous customers. This stage aims to ensure that the customers you recently onboarded become lifelong customers. You can do that by strategically continuing with the automated email campaign to gain a pool of loyal customers and providing them with your current phone system.

Remember, this stage isn't just about asking your customers to come back. It's about sending relevant follow-up emails to continue your brand advocacy and awareness. Therefore, at this stage, you can send them emails providing education, such as personalized recommendations, customer testimonials, brand updates, and loyalty rewards based on their past orders. When you discover that one of your customers hasn't purchased any item in the last one to two months, begin a win-back campaign, aiming to bring them back to the fold.

Remember to be keen on your upselling and cross-selling tactics based on the customer’s buying journey. Pay attention to how they are interacting with your content.

Loyalty

Once you continuously get repeat customers, you want to turn them into loyal brand advocates. You can do that by providing them with VIP perks so they also promote your brand to others. The perks can be in the form of:

  • Early access to discounts.
  • Incentivized for the referral program
  • Collecting their views on early program development.
  • Turning them into exclusive ambassadors
  •  Inviting them to participate in in-person and virtual brand events.

When you build a strong community of loyal customers, it will help you increase customer retention and improve your campaigns. When creating content for the loyalty stage, you can focus on:

  • A monthly podcast that provides the best practices and tips in the industry.
  • A survey to find out the level of satisfaction that customers have with your product.
  • Educational content in your niche.
  • A 10% discount for customers who bought a monthly subscription

Reactivation

While not all email marketing campaigns include this step, some brands use it to target customers who have dropped off. Therefore, if there are some dormant customers, you can reactivate them by sending them a brief engagement sequence.

For instance, if someone hasn't clicked in the last 90 days, you can send them a reminder saying, “Are you ready to come back?” or “Don't allow this reward to expire”. You can also update them on what you have added since they left, or offer them help to find what they are searching for.

Steps for Creating and Converting Email Marketing Funnels

Here are the steps you need to follow when directing customers through the email marketing funnel:

Create a Strong Email List

The first step toward running an effective email campaign is to make your email list. When doing that, don't focus only on numbers but also on the quality of the subscribers. Otherwise, if you have an extensive list of disengaged followers, this will impact your conversion and deliverability.

If you can create a small, disengaged list, this will result in a higher lifetime value. Remember that the effectiveness of an email campaign depends on lift and on attracting high-quality subscribers.

Use a Lead Magnet

To increase the likelihood that people provide you with their email address, make sure you offer something in return. This doesn't have to be a physical gift, but could even be a 5% discount. By doing that, you will make the lead feel that it's worth investing their time in providing their email address or engaging with your brand.

Make the Sign-up Process Simple

Ensure that the lead-capturing form is easy to use and appealing to your audience. Keep it simple with just the name and email address, and place it in high-traffic areas, such as the homepage, blog, footer, and checkout. If they want to exit, you can use a pop-up that grabs their attention. This will help to minimize the bounce rate without affecting the user experience.

Add the Double Opt-ins

A double opt-in is a good way to maintain a clean list and minimize spam folders. This strategy requires a subscriber to sign up for the email to confirm subscription through the inbox. Doing this will ensure you have a higher-quality list and minimize spam and bot sign-ups. 

It's extra work to require subscribers to confirm their subscription before joining your email list. However, it's an essential step in reducing friction, as it ensures you have a high-quality list consisting only of people interested in your brand.

Email List Segmentation

Pay attention to how your subscribers are signing up to the email list. Are they signing up to take advantage of a particular discount, or are they doing so after reading a blog or participating in a quiz? This information will help you improve your segmentation into smaller groups based on preferences, behaviors, and more. This will ensure that you have more personalized emails in the future, resulting in more repeat customers. 

Follow-up Automation

When a subscriber signs up as a result of an incentive, such as free shipping or a discount, send them a welcome email that includes the incentive. When you deliver what you promised fast, this will increase their trust. They will also be encouraged to open all of your brand’s emails.

There are four foundational emails to help subscribers through the email marketing funnel and increase their engagement with your brand. These are:

  • An email welcoming new subscribers.
  • An email for visitors who only view the products but don't add them to their carts.
  • Cart abandonment emails are used to reach out to the visitors who add items to the cart but do not complete the purchase.
  • A post-purchase email to follow up with customers and encourage them to leave reviews and return for repeat business.

Track the Performance of Your Email Marketing Campaign

Just as with SEO or social media marketing campaigns, it's essential to track the performance of your email marketing sales funnel. You can do this by monitoring key performance indicators to understand your campaign's performance and identify areas for improvement. Some of the key metrics you need to track include:

  • Open rate. This metric will track how many email recipients open it.
  • Unsubscribe rate. This metric measures the number of people who opted out after receiving the email.
  • Click-through rate. Out of the people who opened your email, how many clicked on a link?
  • Conversion rate. This tracks the number of people who took the desired action.
  • Bounce rate. After opening your email and visiting your web page, what percentage bounced off or immediately closed it?

When you track the metrics above and realise that your email marketing campaign isn't meeting its target, you will need to consider areas to improve. One way to find the cause of the challenge is through A/B testing to optimize your marketing campaign. You can test different email copy and subject lines, and even A/B test your CTAs to determine what resonates best with your target audience. When doing that, make sure the email design remains simple and that you change only one element in each email campaign.

Tips For Success When Building An Email Marketing Sales Funnel

For success with your email list building, use the following tips:

  • Grow your email list on your social media and website. Make sure you regularly build your email list with leads generated from your social media platforms or website.
  • Improve your email delivery rate. You want to ensure your message reaches the intended audience without being blocked. To do that, make sure you follow industry best practices while adhering to industry regulations and standards. For insurance, make sure you get explicit consent from your subscribers.
  • Optimize your CTAs. Optimizing your CTA is essential to your email marketing, as it helps convert leads into paying customers. Make sure the CTA is short, clear, and persuasive enough to prompt users to take the action you desire.

Final Thoughts

Even when you have a good email marketing plan, you want to ensure you combine it with a strong email marketing funnel that drives conversions. This tool will ensure that you deliver the right content to the right audience. A good email marketing funnel will provide you with the structure, organization, and sense of direction, increasing your chances of success with an email marketing campaign. This is a handy tool that will enable you to lay the groundwork for your email marketing campaign.