Chapter 04 · The build

Your funnel, start to ship.

Nine steps. ~35 minutes of real work. By the end you'll have a live page collecting emails, sending automated welcome emails, taking payments, and exporting leads — all yours, all under one roof.

Full walkthrough

Building your funnel from scratch, in plain language

Here's the entire arc, so you know where each step is headed before you start clicking. You'll open a fresh Lovable project, turn on Cloud in your very first message, and prompt a landing page that introduces your offer and captures emails. Then you'll add a leads table, wire the opt-in form to write into it, and turn on Lovable Emails so a branded welcome message goes out automatically.

From there you'll connect your existing email platform (Kit, Mailchimp, etc.) through Lovable's connector gateway so every new lead syncs over with the right tag. Last, you'll flip on Stripe for the paid offer, add a one-click order bump, run a real test purchase, point your custom domain at the project, and publish. Expect roughly 35 minutes of focused work — most of it is writing 4–6 sentence prompts and reviewing what Lovable builds back.

Get your idea funnel-ready

Before you open Lovable, get crystal clear on three things. This 10-minute exercise saves you 4 hours of rebuilding.

The one offer. Name the single thing you're selling at the end of this funnel (a $47 template, a $300 coaching package, a $19/mo membership).
The one person. Who specifically is this for? "Wedding photographers in year 2" beats "creatives."
The lead magnet. What free thing earns their email? Keep it tightly related to the paid offer.

Write these down. You'll paste them into your first Lovable prompt.

Founder audit

The 3-question idea audit, written out

1. Can you say the offer in one sentence without using the word "and"? If the answer is a paragraph, your funnel will feel like one too. Trim until it's a single clean promise — "A 4-week group program that helps wedding photographers double their booking rate" beats "coaching, templates, and a community for creative entrepreneurs."

2. Does your lead magnet make the paid offer feel obvious? A good lead magnet is a small, finished win that proves you can deliver the larger transformation. A pricing-template PDF is a great lead magnet for a "raise your rates" course. A generic "5 business tips" PDF is not.

3. Can you name the exact moment your buyer decides to pay? Is it after they read the case study? After the discovery call? After they use the free template once? Knowing that moment tells you where the CTA belongs and what every email in your sequence should build toward.

Set up Lovable + Cloud

Click "+ New project" on the dashboard.
Name it (e.g. "Brand Strategy Mini-Course Funnel").
In your very first message, tell Lovable: "Enable Lovable Cloud — I need a database, auth, and email." This gives you a backend without setting up Supabase, Postgres, or any keys.

Tip from Girl Tech HQ

Use Plan Mode for the first message — it costs only 1 credit and forces Lovable to outline the build before touching code.

Prompt your landing page

This is where most founders over-prompt. Keep it focused. A great first prompt names the audience, the offer, the lead magnet, the vibe, and the structure.

Copy-paste prompt template

Build a landing page for [audience] selling [offer].

The lead magnet is a free [lead magnet name] — visitors enter their email to receive it.

Design direction: [editorial / playful / luxe / minimal]. Use a [color palette]. Headline serif, body sans-serif.

Sections, in order:
1. Hero with headline, subhead, and email opt-in form
2. Social proof bar (3 logos or 1 quote)
3. "What's inside" — 3 benefit cards
4. About me — short story, headshot
5. FAQ — 4 questions
6. Final CTA with the same opt-in

Don't add a navigation menu. Make it mobile-first.

Iterate with small, specific asks: "Make the hero headline bigger and the opt-in button rose-gold," not "redesign it."

Prompt-by-prompt

Building the hero, opt-in, and About section in order

Prompt 1 — the shell. Use the template above to generate the full page in one go. Don't tweak anything yet; let Lovable show you its first pass so you can react to something real.

Prompt 2 — the hero. "Make the hero headline 20% larger, set it in the serif, and rewrite it as a benefit-led promise to [audience]. Move the email field above the fold so it's visible on a phone without scrolling." Lovable will rewrite copy and resize together — one prompt, one cohesive change.

Prompt 3 — the opt-in. "On the opt-in form, add a first-name field before email, change the button label to 'Send me the [lead magnet]', and after submit show an inline success message instead of redirecting." This is your single most important conversion surface, so iterate on it specifically.

Prompt 4 — the About section. "Rewrite the About section in first person, 3 short paragraphs: who I serve, why I started this, and one credibility marker. Add a circular headshot placeholder on the left at desktop, stacked on mobile."

Notice the rhythm: one section at a time, specific verbs ("rewrite," "resize," "move"), and concrete success criteria. Avoid words like "better," "nicer," or "more modern" — Lovable can act on specifics, not vibes.

Add the database for leads

Cloud is already on from Step 2, so a one-line prompt is enough:

Create a "leads" table with columns: email (unique), first_name, source (text), created_at (timestamp). Add RLS so only an admin role can read; anyone can insert.

Lovable will generate the migration, apply it, and confirm it ran. You can view your leads anytime under Cloud → Database → Tables.

Build the opt-in form

Tell Lovable: "Wire the hero and footer opt-in forms to insert into the leads table. After submit, redirect to /thank-you with a personalized message."

Add validation:

Require a valid email format
Disable double-submits
Show a friendly error if the email already exists
Send a toast: "Check your inbox 💌"

Strategy note

Why your thank-you page is your second-best salesperson

Most founders treat the thank-you page as a dead end — "Thanks, check your inbox." That's leaving money on the table. The moment someone hands over their email is the moment they trust you most; the very next screen is prime real estate.

Use it for one of three things, in this order of priority:

A tripwire offer. A $9–$27 product directly related to the lead magnet, with a one-click buy button. Conversion rates of 5–10% here can pay for your ads same-day.
A booking link. If you sell services, drop a Calendly directly on the thank-you page with copy like "While you wait — want me to look at your [thing] live? Grab a free 15-min audit."
A share prompt. "Know someone else who'd love this? Send them the link" with a pre-filled tweet or text message. Costs you nothing and compounds.

Tell Lovable exactly which version you want and it will build the route. The point is: never let that page just say "thank you."

Connect email + automate sequences

Lovable ships with built-in transactional email (no API keys needed). One prompt sets it up:

Set up Lovable Emails. When a new row is added to "leads", trigger an email to that address with the subject "Your free [lead magnet] is here ✨" and a branded HTML template that includes the download link. Use my brand colors.

Lovable will walk you through verifying your sending domain (it manages the DNS for you on a subdomain like notify.yourdomain.com). After verification, your welcome email sends automatically every time someone opts in.

Going further: a real sequence

Ask Lovable to schedule a 4-email nurture sequence over 7 days: Day 0 (delivery), Day 2 (story), Day 4 (case study), Day 7 (offer). Each email triggers from the lead's created_at timestamp.

Sync to your email platform via MCP

Most founders already have Kit (ConvertKit), Mailchimp, or another email platform. Lovable's connector gateway lets your funnel push every new lead into that platform — tagged correctly — automatically.

How to wire it up

In your Lovable workspace, open Connectors and connect Kit (or your platform of choice). One click — Lovable handles the auth.
Back in chat, prompt: "When a row is added to leads, also add that subscriber to my Kit account, subscribe them to the form ID [your form id], and apply the tag 'funnel-lead-magnet'."
If you have multiple lead magnets, ask Lovable to pass the source column as the tag — so every funnel auto-tags its own leads.

Exporting leads with tags

You now have leads in two places: Lovable's database (raw, exportable as CSV) and your email platform (segmentable, tagged, ready to broadcast to). To export from Lovable: Cloud → Database → leads → Download CSV. To export from Kit: filter by your tag, then "Export subscribers."

Walkthrough

Connecting Kit, auto-tagging leads, and exporting a clean list

Step A — connect Kit. Open the Connectors panel in your Lovable workspace and choose Kit. You'll be sent to Kit to authorize, then bounced back. No API keys to copy, no webhook URLs to paste. If you don't see Kit in the list, search "ConvertKit" — same product, older name.

Step B — wire the sync. Back in chat: "When a row is inserted into the leads table, call the Kit connector to create or update that subscriber, subscribe them to form ID 1234567, and apply the tag matching the value in the source column. If the Kit call fails, log it but don't block the form submission." That last sentence matters — you never want a downstream hiccup to bounce a real human off your site.

Step C — verify it works. Submit a test opt-in with your own email. Within 30 seconds the new subscriber should appear in Kit with the right tag attached. If you don't see them, ask Lovable to "show me the most recent function logs for the Kit sync" and it will surface the error inline.

Step D — export with tags. In Kit: Subscribers → filter by tag → Export. You'll get a CSV with email, first name, and the tag column. In Lovable: Cloud → Database → leads → Download CSV for the raw source of truth (useful for backups and for spotting leads that failed to sync).

Turn on payments

For a digital offer or service, prompt: "Enable Stripe payments. Create a product called [Offer Name] at $[price]. Add a checkout button on the /thank-you page and a dedicated /buy route. After successful payment, redirect to /welcome and add the row to a 'customers' table."

Lovable opens its built-in Stripe flow — no Stripe account needed to start. Test mode is live immediately so you can run a fake purchase end-to-end. When you're ready, claim the account and switch to live.

Selling physical products?

Ask Lovable to enable Shopify instead — it'll either spin up a new development store or connect your existing one, and your funnel pages can pull live products from there.

The upsell move

Right after the first sale, offer a $27 add-on with one click ("order bump"). Average order value typically jumps 20–35%. Tell Lovable: "Add a one-click order bump for [add-on] at $27 on the checkout page."

Launch on your domain

Click Publish in the top right. Your funnel goes live on yourproject.lovable.app immediately.

To use your own domain (e.g. shop.yourbrand.com):

Upgrade to Pro (custom domains require it).
Go to Project settings → Domains and add your domain.
Add the two DNS records Lovable shows you at your registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.).
Wait 5–30 minutes for SSL to provision. Done.

Before you announce it

Submit a real opt-in with your personal email — confirm the welcome email arrives.
Run a $1 test purchase in Stripe test mode.
Check it on your phone, not just desktop.
Add Google Analytics or Plausible (one prompt: "Add Plausible analytics with my domain.").

Launch checklist

Hitting publish: custom domain, SSL, and the final QA pass

Publish. The Publish button in the top right deploys your latest preview to yourproject.lovable.app. This URL is permanent and shareable — feel free to use it as your live funnel forever if you don't care about branding.

Custom domain. In Project settings → Domains, add the domain or subdomain you want (e.g. shop.yourbrand.com). Lovable will display two DNS records — usually a CNAME plus a verification TXT. Paste both into your registrar's DNS panel exactly as shown. Most registrars apply changes within 5 minutes; SSL provisions automatically right after, usually under 10 minutes.

The final QA pass — do this every single launch, no exceptions:

Open the live URL on your phone in airplane-mode-then-back (clears any cached version).
Submit an opt-in with a real personal email and confirm the welcome email lands in Inbox, not Promotions.
Confirm the lead appears in both Lovable's database and your email platform with the correct tag.
Run a $1 Stripe test purchase, then a real $1 live purchase, then refund it. You want zero surprises on launch day.
Click every link in the footer. Broken links scream "amateur" louder than anything else.

Once those five pass, you're cleared for takeoff. Post the link, send the announcement, and watch your leads table fill up.

You did the thing

That's a working funnel — on your own terms.

No $297/mo subscription. No "powered by" footer. Just your offer, your brand, and a real backend you control. Tag @girltechhq when you ship — we want to celebrate it with you.

Start your funnel free →Back to overview