Out of these two - which is more forgiving in email marketing?

I have personally seen people make beautiful funnels only to have extremely questionable followup emails that were borderline generic emails they just scrapped from somewhere.

How is that profitable?

Well, they made their money up front with their sales funnel. Any money they make from people clicking on their emails and/or buying their promotions is all profit (given that they've made back their ad spend on ROI made from their funnel).

I know it is much harder to actually convert people on your email sequence alone if you're solely relying on making back your traffic investment that way.

People will naturally respond to your emails less and less (also dependent on the market, why they subscribed to you, are they are customer of yours etc etc) so you need fresh leads all the time to make the most out of your efforts, even if it is just an email sequence OR a sales funnel you've invested the most time/money into.

From experience the easiest way to make $$ from any traffic investment is to have an email campaign (of whatever quality) but with a well crafted sales funnel on the front of it.

I know of very few marketers who don't have any sales funnel in front of their AR sequence. The one marketer i know who relies solely on his email sequence without having a sales funnel is a copywriting expert, so he can get away with a lot and still make bank.

The one questionable point you've said that makes me doubt your situation...why would you pay someone to make your funnel for you?

I get that that's the easy way out, but i seriously recommend you learn some html and put together your own funnel so you can tweak things for yourself.

Once you have the skill, the skys the limit. But if you rely on others for something as big as your entire funnel, you become dependent on them for all the little parts of it once you want to tweak and change things.

Trust me man, I've been there and one that. There is a learning curve to creating your own products/ pages or whatever, but it's 100% worth it in the end.

I don't get why you have to pay for one and have the other one be crap?

Answer is, you can't get away with either of these being "mediocre"
..if you want to make actual money.

My question is what do you consider a "high converting sales funnel"?

Because here are the major elements of a "high converting sales funnel" in my opinion:

• Valuable free offer
• Ability to convert leads into buyers
• Build a unique relationship with subscribers
• Create open loops
• Structure a funnel in terms of offer sequences
• Ability to create a basic sales letter & build value and desire in the eyes of your subscribers
• Give away free information that is actually valuable and not re-hashed and re-filtered infromation
• Create your own products

Go learn the basics of copywriting and creating desire and interest and then
get a subscription to ClickFunnels (Russell Brunson's) and you can create
quick sales pages and a complete funnel.

PS- Don't be a moron and waste your own time. Go learn how to do both these skills.

I'll cut straight to the point - and it's all in my very humble opinion of course....

But it is easier (to me) to learn how to build a strong follow-up series than it is to create a high converting funnel.

When you're talking about a high converting funnel you're thinking about graphics, technical setup, websites, copy-writing, hosting, sales platforms....etc.

When you look at building a strong followup series - there are just A LOT less moving parts. Now - don't get me wrong - it's very crucial because more of your $$$ is coming from the back end more so than the front end - so keep this in mind. BUT....

You won't have anyone to sell to in the back end if you can't get people in the front door first. Just my opinion - but if I were in your shoes - I'm paying my money to get a high converting funnel, graphics and copy. You need to prove your worth, your expertise and value to your customer. Once they have bought from you they already trust you.

Now - you just continue to add and add on that trust, build more value and be yourself. Just my opinion. BUT - good luck in all that you do.

Everyone's business operates differently and the best way to find out is to proceed, get your hands messy and dive right in!

Happy marketing!

A good sales funnel that can convert cold traffic, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Not sure what ya mean there...

But it's kinda hard to 'get away' with any type of funnel / follows if the ROI is always in the red.

I'd definitely say a good sales funnel for sure.

If you have something that converts like crazy then all you'll really have to do is sell the click with a short email which isn't hard to do, and then you just let the funnel close them.