Do you have a product or service that you sell online??
Is your conversion rate less than desirable?
Do you you struggle to engage with potential customers?
There has been a growing trend in the last number of years with online entrepreneurs and marketers using the marketing funnel model to bring attention to their businesses and boost the their sales.
Have you considered building your very own marketing funnels??
In this article I am going to give you some insight into one of the more popular marketing funnel builders on the market today, ClickFunnels
What is ClickFunnels?
ClickFunnels is a sales funnel builder.
A sales funnel is the step by step process of converting a lead into an actual paying customer.
If you are new to the concept of a sales funnels check out my in depth post on sale funnels here.
Once you sign up to ClickFunnels it allows you to quickly build various types of web pages depending on what you need for your business.
It is a great tool that makes building and managing the various stages of a sales funnel very easy.
You get all the tools necessary to market, sell and deliver your products online all packaged together nicely under one easy to use dashboard.
That could be anything from a simple one page website to a complex funnel of landing pages, lead generation pages, sales pages, check-out pages to even hosting your own membership site.
Normally to build any of these types of pages requires significant knowledge in computer programming and coding.
Using a piece of software like ClickFunnels makes it possible for absolute novices to build sleek web pages and sales funnels that convert.
How does Clickfunnels work?
Any good chef will tell you that the secret to creating amazing food that gets customers talking and coming back for more, is not by having the best kitchen or an amazing recipe.
But by using the best ingredients.
I need to make one point very clear.
ClickFunnels is the recipe.
Without high quality ingredients and the right seasoning there is a good chance that all you will end up with is a bad taste in your mouth.
There is absolutely no guarantee that after signing up for ClickFunnels and putting a few funnels together that you are going to make any money at all.
So before you start building out your funnel you are going to need a specific plan for how you are going to covert a person visiting your landing page into a customer.
This should be done by preparing all the content needed solid marketing funnel i.e. your sales copy, high quality images, drip email campaigns, enticing lead magnets that provide value to your chosen audience.
ClickFunnels is the tool that will help you to link all off the above ingredients together but wont help you create them.
What features does ClickFunnels have?
Funnel Builder
Even if you know nothing about coding or designing, ClickFunnels allows you to quickly create custom sales funnels for your products .
Usually the three main reasons for building funnels are
- For generating leads – Squeeze Page Funnels or Application Funnels. The former builds a list by capturing email ID while the latter takes more information from the lead.
- For generating sales – Tripwire Funnels for low costing products, Video Sales Letter Funnel for products requiring more explanation and presentation, and Product Launch Funnels for selling and marketing the more expensive products.
- For running an event – Webinar Funnels for customizing the registration procedure and Auto-webinar funnels that allow you to use your own presentation for the whole event.
Within ClickFunnels there two main ways to start building your funnels.
- Cookbook funnel builder
- Classic funnel builder
Cookbook funnel builder
The cookbook essentially is a menu with a range of different ready-to-go funnel types that cater to various industries.
The type of funnel and your goal when using the Cookbook you will be provided with a number of narrowed down funnels and (free and paid) templates to choose from.
There are funnels designed for
- authors/consultants/coaches,
- professional services,
- retail,
- e-commerce,
- B2B,
- network marketing
- and other.
For each of the given funnels ClickFunnels provide a short video explaining the purpose of each funnel type and how to use it.
Once you select your chosen industry you are then presented with a selection of different funnels that may apply to your business.
If we take professional services as an example some of the funnels available are:
- webinar funnel
- lead magnet funnel
- homepage funnel
- hero funnel
- application funnel
- reverse squeeze page funnel
Once you select your required funnel it gives you a choice of some ready made templates that simply require editing for your personal content.
Classic Funnel Builder
The Classic Funnel Builder allows you to choose your goal for your funnel i.e. collect emails, sell a product or host a webinar.
Select a funnel type and name it and or assign a group tag and then select the page templates for the funnel.
With this option you need to think out how you want to construct and design your funnel based on your end goal.
For people who have a clear vision of what they want their funnel to be this option allows for a lot of creativity as you are putting together your own funnel step by step.
Click funnels Editor
Both funnel builder options are very easy to use and intuitive.
The cookbook really simplifies the whole process a provided you have your content ready i.e. copy-writing and images, CTA’s etc, ready the whole process can be completed in a matter of minutes.
While the Classic builder is more of a DIY builder and allows you to be more creative with how you build out your own custom funnel.
With either option you choose customizing the appearance of your template will be done using the powerful editor.
Let’s have a look at what you can do…
- Mobile/Desktop View – Check out how your funnel looks on both mobile and desktop devices.
- SEO Meta Data – you can add your funnels SEO details, including title, description, keywords, and more.
- Background – you can change the background of your funnel by altering the color, or adding an image or video.
- Sections – Add, copy, and manage your funnel sections. Here you can change section settings, as well as select from pre-made sections.
- Elements – Drag and drop pre-made elements onto your funnel from the Elements tab. Add forms, media, content blocks, and much more.
Does ClickFunnels integrate with 3rd party apps?
Yes! ClickFunnels will integrate with pretty much any other services needed for your business.
It is possible to brand your funnels by setting up custom domain names.
Linking with a SMTP service like Convertkit or Follow-up funnels, the internal Clickfunnels email auto-responder available on the higher price plan.
If you are selling a product you can setup a payment gateway to process payments with
- Stripe
- Paypal
- Authorize.Net
- ClickBank
- InfusionSoft
Follow-up funnels
Follow-up funnels (previoulsy know as Actionetics) is suite of tools that covers everything from email auto-responder, analytics to building segmented smart lists to really narrow down your campaigns and target very specific types of leads.
It allows you to build a picture on the types of visitors you are getting to your pages and how they engage with your funnels and how frequently, how much money the have spent.
This in turn allows you to tailor your email to target certain areas.
for example if you see that a customer is buying a product from you on regular basis at full price.
It may not be wise to include them in your 20% promotion of the same product because they probably were going to buy it anyway at full price.
However, armed with the knowledge that this individual likes your brand and buys regularly, you maybe try an email campaign to up sell them a more valuable product.
Likewise if you see that a lead is engaging with your emails, checking out your site often but not buying anything, including them in a promotion campaign with a discount coupon or reminder emails about a product they were browsing could entice them to make their first purchase.
Backpack Affiliate Program
Backpack is a tool within ClickFunnels that allows you to add and manage an affiliate program directly into your funnels, so other people can sell your products for you in return for a commission.
How much is ClickFunnels?
There are two main pricing plans available for your ClickFunnels account.
The $97 per month standard plan and the $297 Platinum plan.
The main differences between the packages are that on the lower price plan you have a limit on the amount of funnels, pages and visitors to your pages.
Most people will not really have an issue here until your site starts to gain popularity as you are allowed to create 20 funnels, 100 pages and up to 20,00 visitors to your site.
The other main difference is that the Platinum package gives you access to the email auto-responder ( follow-up funnels) and the affiliate management tool (Backpack)
Take a look at the full breakdown below and see what best suits your needs
Pros
- Create landing pages and sales pages quickly and easily
- Integrates with a wide range of 3rd party services.
- Great for lead generation.
- Good training materials and ongoing weekly webinars
- Very good affiliate program
- Has a 14 day free trial
- Regular updates and new features added.
Cons
- More expensive than other similar options.
- No 24/7 customer support – support is through the Clickfunnels community.
- Membership hosting area is a bit clunky
Conclusion
Overall I think ClickFunnels is a fantastic tool to help online entrepreneurs generate more leads and boost their sales.
That is what it is designed for and that what it does best.
But important to remember that it is a ‘tool’ and with all tools is important to know how to use them.
I feel some people have tendency (especially within the ClickFunnels community) to treat ClickFunnels as some sort of magic wand that will cast a spell on your business and turn it into a money making machine that will make you millions of dollars.
This is of course not the case.
Is it possible?
Sure, it could be.
Provided that you have all the ingredients that make up a mutli million dollar business.
Any entrepreneur with a solid product or service should definitely be looking to incorporate a sales funnel into their strategy for success.
ClickFunnels, provides a really fast and easy to use solution to building web pages and funnels that look great and preform well.
There are other similar products that can do this for you much cheaper than ClickFunnels but where ClickFunnels excels is in the creation of a sales sequence after your initial landing page.
This is generally where its competitors fall short.
So, depending on your goals i.e. you have a product or service and a plan on how to sell it ClickFunnels could be invaluable in helping to generate leads and boost sales.
At the same time if you dont yet have a sales orientated goal in mind could be a little too expensive for your needs.
