Building a full sales funnel can feel like prepping for a six-course dinner party when all you really want is a solid sandwich. You’ve got landing pages, email sequences, lead magnets, upsells; maybe even a webinar if you’re feeling ambitious. It’s a lot, and honestly, sometimes it’s overkill. What if you could skip all that and still sell something?
You can, and you should—especially if you’re testing an offer, running a flash sale, or just trying to get something out the door before your coffee gets cold.
Let’s talk about how.
Start with a direct offer page, not a funnel maze.
Forget the funnel for a second. Just give people one clean page that tells them what you’re offering, why it matters, and how they can buy it. That’s it; no detours.
A good direct offer page should do four things: explain the value, show proof it works, make it easy to act, and not confuse anyone in the process. Think of it as your digital elevator pitch, but with a checkout button.
Tools like Carrd and Leadpages are perfect for this. They’re fast, flexible, and don’t require a master’s degree in web development.
Example: A DTC skincare brand ran a 3-day flash sale using a one-page Carrd site. They linked it from their Instagram bio and dropped it in an email blast. No funnel, no fluff—just a clean pitch and a buy button. They pulled in over $12,000.
Skip the funnel. Go straight to checkout.
Here’s a fun fact: you don’t need a landing page at all if you’re using direct checkout links. Platforms like Shopify, Gumroad, and Stripe let you send people straight to the payment screen. No distractions; no extra clicks.
This works especially well for digital products, limited-time offers, or anything under $100 where the buying decision is quick. Think ebooks, templates, mini-courses, or even physical products on sale.
It’s like the express lane at the grocery store. You’ve got one item; you don’t need to walk through the whole store to buy it.
Use the channels you already own.
You don’t need to “warm up” your audience with a funnel if they already know you. Use your existing channels—email, social, SMS—to send them directly to your offer.
Email’s the obvious one. A clean message with a strong subject line and a single CTA button can do wonders. No need for a 7-email sequence. Just tell them what the deal is and where to click.
Social media? Same thing. Instagram Stories, TikTok posts, LinkedIn updates—whatever your audience actually sees—can drive real traffic. Just keep it simple and clear.
And SMS? If you’re not using it for promos, you’re leaving money on the table. With open rates hovering around 98 percent and
click-throughs at 19 percent, it’s basically a direct line to your customer’s brain. Check out these stats, or explore tools like Postscript and Twilio.
Link-in-bio tools are your friend.
If you’re running a promo across multiple platforms, don’t make people guess where to go. Use a link-in-bio tool like Linktree or Beacons to centralize your offer.
Update your top link to feature the promo loud and proud. You can even track which channels are sending the most traffic by adding UTM
parameters. Google’s Campaign URL Builder makes that part easy.
This isn’t just about convenience; it’s about reducing friction. If someone’s interested, don’t make them dig.
Urgency still works, even without automation.
You don’t need a complex countdown email sequence to create urgency. You just need a reason to act now.
Add a countdown timer to your landing page. Update your copy to say “Only 5 left” or “Sale ends tonight.” Send a reminder email an hour before the deadline. These things still work, even if you’re doing them manually.
The psychology behind scarcity and urgency isn’t new, but it’s still effective. One study found that using these triggers can boost conversions by up to 332 percent. That’s not a typo. Read more on CXL or try a tool like MotionMail.
Optional: collect leads while you’re at it.
If you want to grow your email list while running the promo, just add a simple opt-in box to your landing page. Offer something small—a free guide, a bonus video, a discount on their next purchase. It doesn’t have to be fancy.
This lets you build your list without building a whole lead-gen funnel. Tools like ConvertKit and MailerLite make it easy to tag and segment new subscribers without turning your brain into mush.
So, do you really need a funnel?
Not always. If you’re testing a new product, running a
time-sensitive promo, or just trying to move fast, a full funnel can slow you down. Sometimes you just need a page, a link, and a reason to click.
This approach isn’t about cutting corners; it’s about cutting the right corners. The ones that don’t matter as much when your audience already trusts you, and your offer is clear.
You can always build the funnel later. But if you’re sitting on an idea and waiting for the perfect setup, maybe the perfect setup is just a link.
That’s one more tool in the belt.
We’ll be back soon with more you can use.
Until then, keep building.
– Perfect Sites Blog