Thread by @JustinSaaS

The Creator Funnel 101

The concept of the "creator funnel" is critical to understanding audience growth, networking, and monetization.

But what is it and how does it work?

Here’s The Creator Funnel 101

🧵

First, why should you care?

The creator funnel is how you build a simple journey for your audience.

There are 4 distinct parts:

- Discovery
- Trust building
- Relationship building
- Monetization

Getting these right maximizes your chance to make a living as a creator.

1/ Discovery

Discovery means getting noticed.

The easiest way is to create where people are consuming.

Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.

And the content that works falls into 3 styles:

- Teach me
- Entertain me
- Make me think

None of this works without a little attention.

2/ Trust building

Next is turning attention into trust.

Trust meaning, "I trust this person knows their stuff."

My trust builder is my newsletter.

It shows people how I think at a deeper level.

BONUS: It also "de-platforms" my closest followers to my email list.

3/ Relationship building

You can continue to build trust through email.

At some point though, you must move from trust → building relationships.

This is where my community comes in.

Members join to deepen their relationship with me and our other motivated members.

4/ Monetization

With a captive audience of supporters, monetization is easier.

You can deliver:

• SaaS
• A course
• Coaching calls
• Cohort-based coaching

And offer it directly through your community.

No algorithm or open rates to deal with.
Just a captive audience.

5/ A few additional notes

Obviously, none of this matters if you're just focused on monetization.

You have to genuinely care about your audience and their success.

You must deliver high-quality products and, more importantly, results.

6/ A few additional notes (cont.)

The top of the funnel is where most people fail.

They don't spend enough time getting discovered.

So, in 2022, work on discovery, and then add your trust builder.

Getting these 2 things right makes the latter half of the funnel 10x easier.

7/ Summary

Get discovered ex: Twitter & LinkedIn
↓
Build trust ex: weekly newsletters
↓
Build relationship ex: community
↓
Monetize ex: online courses

That's a wrap!

If you enjoyed this thread:

1. RT to share this thread with your audience
2. Check out my deep dive on building your creator funnel here:

justinwelsh.me/blog/02262022