One thing I can’t stress enough in my digital marketing guides is knowing how to sell your products and services smartly.
If you ask me, you can sell anything to anyone, provided you are familiar with the right tools and know your way around creative sales technique which I recently talked about here.
If you are trying to sell things online and looking for ways to do it more successfully, you must be familiar with ClickFunnels.
If not, you must have definitely seen a business using ClickFunnels and maybe even have bought an informational product or service through it.
Rings a bell? Let me remind you!
You see a cool call to action button with a video on a side or a pop up of a course description along with testimonials about how it helped someone else make money. And finally the “Today Only” discounted pricing with a timer which may tempt you to opt for it!
Now you know what I am talking about!
This conversion formula of call-to-actions, social proof and urgency is mastered by Clickfunnels, which is a tool that essentially helps you build proven landing pages.
Given its simplicity and effectiveness, Clickfunnels made quite the fuss and became one of the largest SaaS companies in a short period of time.
The whole goal of using this software is to nudge your customers in the right direction when it comes to making the purchasing decision without being too pushy and building proper trust in your brand.
This is what many businesses need, which is why ClickFunnel became a go-to platform for many users.
I decided to put together this guide to explain everything you need to know about sales funnels, and how you can use ClickFunnels to deliver highly converting landing pages.
What Are Sales Funnels?
A sales funnel is one of the core digital marketing industry concepts that can transform your business from an unknown company to a successful multi-million business and this can happen quite fast.
It’s just a series of steps that your prospects take from the first time they interact with your brand to the time they purchase.
For instance, someone can see your ad on Facebook, click on it, get to a landing page, fill out their info, buy your product.
It works like a normal funnel.
You pour something from one side, and get the filtered content from the other end! As simple as that!
Similarly, a sales funnel lets you filter a larger audience into those individuals who will actually make the purchase.
Stages of a Sales Funnel
There are 4 stages in a sales funnel :
- Awareness— people come to the sales funnels through different channels such as advertisements, newsletters, e-mails, eBook downloads, online quizzes, etc. There is always an enticing offer that brings them to the funnel. One thing I would suggest here is to always be aware of your customers’ problems and try to solve them through your funnel. In order for that to happen, they need to be aware of your business.
Once the prospects are aware of your business and offering, it is your job to make them go through the multiple stages and turn them into buyers.
The prospects won’t buy just anything that is offered to them unless it has a lot of (perceived) value, so you need to think about how best to market the value that you’re offering.
- Interest— once people are aware and see the value, you need to keep them engaged. Try to be relatable and start telling your story on how you’ve arrived at this point.
The message that you are conveying has to be consistent throughout the whole sales funnel and you mustn’t lie. These are ways through which you can “hook” the prospects to turn into buyers. Now I know this won’t be easy, but it’s necessary.
- Decision—the third stage in the process is the decision. Pushing your customers to make a purchasing decision is always a hard thing to execute.
There are some things that you can do to try and convince them to make a decision. A good story-telling, encourage them to click links, and most of all having reviews or testimonials of your existing customers.
Let me add here that word-of-mouth is always the best marketing tactic. You can also try some retargeting ad strategy to try and change the minds of those who are interested in a particular subject but don’t opt to buy your offer for any reason.
- Action— is the final stage of the sales funnel and in most cases, this end in a purchase. Otherwise, it’s basically any other action that you’re hoping to inspire in your prospects(Which could be signing up for a free volunteering event, for instance)
The conversion in this stage will be based on how well you performed in all the previous stages. A good marketer knows their conversion value and they try to perfect their sales funnel according to it.
Getting here is pretty complicated and requires a lot of work. You need to put an effort and do a lot of tracking in order for it to work. That’s where sale funnel software comes in.
[Also, don’t forget to check my guide on White-Hat Link Building Techniques]
Difference between Sales Info and Sales Funnel
By now, you might be wondering what is the difference between a simple website where you have all the sales info, and a sales funnel?
The difference is that when your website is the landing page, it might be offering general information.
On the website, you will find information about the company,
But when it comes to a sales funnel, it is like the equivalent of an experienced salesperson in a store that can identify the needs of the customers.
Now, if you’re thinking well I can just run ads for that purpose, no? Sure, you can.
But the question is how likely you are to convince people to actually make a purchase through those ads?
I have to go a little off track and plugin the metaphor or marriage here! Yes, you will understand this even better, trust me! You can ask any stranger to marry you right away, but are they going to say yes?
And even if they do, will that marriage work?
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A better way would be to meet somebody you like, get to know each other, start a relationship, maybe move in together, and then make a big commitment.
That’s how sales funnel works; by nurturing the customers stage by stage until they are ready to commit.
Background of ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels was launched in 2014 and in the span of three years, it revolutionized the online marketing industry.
It provides an online sales funnel for businesses and entrepreneurs making it easier for them to sell their products online.
Russell Brunson is the man behind ClickFunnels, and this is not his only success. He is a great marketer that has had other marketing adventures as well.
He is also a bestselling author of two books: DotCom Secrets and Expert Secrets.
In the beginning, ClickFunnels was supposed to be a way for Brunson and his teammates to quickly create different funnels for different purposes.
Once they developed it, they got the realization that it can be a great product that other people can find useful as well.
How does ClickFunnels work?
ClickFunnels basically automate the entire sales process while providing you the control over all the stages of the buying process of your customers.
It is a software that is quite simple, and it grants you leads through a very simple process.
Let me explain how the process usually works.
- You run an ad—drive traffic to your ClickFunnels landing page. For the sake of the explanation, let’s imagine that we’re selling an SEO course. (Hint: you can create beautiful imagery using Canva)
- Landing page—when people click on the ad, they go to the ClickFunnels landing page where you, according to our example, offer a free trial of the course or a free first SEO lesson. When people click on the button for free access to the lesson or trial, they need to leave their e-mail for registration. You can use this later for retargeting.
- First sales page—once they leave the e-mail and continue to the next page, they get the first sales page where you offer them a special type of course for only $30. Here they give credit card info and proceed.
- Upsell—this is the original product or the best product that you want to push on people. Here, we might sell the one month course or advanced course for $400. The page remembers the credit card info so customers only need to click a button.
- Downsell—if they refuse the big offer, they are sent to a downsell page where you’re saying “oh if you don’t want that $400 course, maybe you’d be interested in a cheaper course of $50”.
- Thank you page—the last page is like a thank you page, giving the free course we offered, our links to social media, etc.
Relevant: Read On-Page SEO tips here
Ready to see what this looks like in action?
Here are some great Sales Funnels Examples
There are many companies that use sales funnels very well, so I will just introduce a few good examples that do it right
- Groupon
Groupon has one of the best CTA buttons. They are clear, large, and smartly positioned.
They draw a lot of attention from the customers and sure enough, they work.
In addition, Groupon uses non-intrusive pop-ups that combined with the ClickFunnels produce amazing results.
The reason this works is that they always use the perfect balance between pushing customers and being too pushy and scaring them off.
- Netflix
Netflix is already a very successful company, and they have the expertise needed to create a profitable sales funnel.
The main selling point of their sales funnel is the fact that you can cancel the subscription any time you want at no cost.
Also, the pages are created in a way that is very simple without too much text, but at the same time, they leave nothing for the users to guess about.
It is basically a three-step process where the customer only submits the absolutely necessary info.
However, they could use some A/B testing since one page has a white background and the next has black, making in a bit unharmonious.
- Mixergy
Mixergy made something a bit different. They are straight to the point with a huge CTA button and they offer a video for the users’ information.
All of this looks visually appealing, and it comes naturally with the website.
That is of course only the first step of the funnel, and after that sale, pitches follow.
They are doing it in a way to not spam the users. The prospects know what they are getting into from the start.
- Harvest
They have a very simplistic design that is pleasant to the eye. But the real thing here is their social value which is one of the best-selling points of the company.
User reviews and testimonials are included along with a few CTAs that make Harvest look inviting but not pushy.
Some of the best ClickFunnel experts
- Bryan Dulaney: is considered to be in the top 1% of all marketers and funnel experts currently. He launched a very successful ClickFunnel for Russell Brunson that achieved more than 95.000 members. He also helped in the biggest launch in history when it comes to CF, selling over 500 courses for Tony Robbins & Dean Graziosi. The price of these courses was$1997 each, so he generated more than $1MM.
- Wes Bewley: is an entrepreneur from Texas who earned his first million by the time he was 28. He is an expert in building ClickFunnels. So much so, that he has the infamous membership into the Two-Comma Club for earning over $1M with CF for his Entrepreneur Fight Club CF.
- Jason Fladlien: is another name on this list. The CF for his company RapidCrush functions all too well-offering webinars to people. His success with this CF is why he is on this list of the best CF experts. He is also a member of the Two-Comma Club.
- Adrian Morrison: another member of the $1M CF club. The CF that he succeeded with is on his own webpage. He is one of the top Facebook marketers in the world, generating millions of dollars via Facebook Ads. His vast marketing knowledge applies to CF as well apparently.
- Alex & Leila Hormozi: are in this list as members of the Two-Comma Club for their GymLaunch CF. They use their gym expertise to teach other gym owners on how to build profitable gym models with high profitability. What takes it to the next level are the interactive elements and professional graphics that are included.
Features and Pricing
ClickFunnels has these main features:
- Activity Dashboard
- A/B Testing
- Auto-Responders
- CRM Integration
- Conversion Rate Optimization
- Conversion Tracking
- Custom Landing Pages
- Customer Database
- Drag & Drop Interface
- E-mail Tracking
- Monitoring
- Performance Reporting
- Referral Tracking
- SEO Management
- Web Analytics
- Web Forms
- Website Management
These are just some of the most frequently used features, but there are a lot more in addition to them.
ClickFunnels Pricing
When it comes to pricing, ClickFunnels has different models based on the features offered in each plan.
The most affordable one is $97 per month and is for startups.
The Full Suite option will cost you $297 per month, the Funnel Hacks option is $997 per 6 months, and the priciest option Funnel Hacks 1 Year will cost you $1997 per year.
The main difference among these options is the number of landing pages and the sales funnels per month.
Is ClickFunnels Worth the Hype?
- I really believe that ClickFunnels makes it very easier to generate leads and scale your offerings.
- According to their website, in 2017 they paid out more than $11 million in commissions to affiliates. By this year, this number is probably much higher.
- And according to their statistics, the average payout was $2,552 and the median payout was $458.
So, even if you are a starter you could make some additional revenue for sure, but if you master the usage of ClickFunnels then you can make a substantial amount of money.
I recommend giving Clickfunnels a try.
If you found this post helpful, I am sure you will also find these reviews and guides that I have written handy
- Should you outsource your tasks for $5? A Fiverr Review
- Audible Review: How I read 30-40 books per year.
- Amazon SEO Guide
If you have any suggestions or want me to review something, leave a comment below. You can also follow me on Facebook here!