ClickFunnels is a website builder so why should you use ClickFunnels? There are so many websites builders out there and are ClickFunnels any better than the others out there?
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My First Funnel
I want to tell you a short story about how I made my first funnel, this was a funnel I created to collect email addresses.
I already had a domain name, hosting and WordPress. WordPress is a highly customizable website builder. All this is a bit complicated for new people, and it takes time to create. Now I needed a plugin for WordPress to create my funnel.
So I installed Thrive Architect and Thrive leads. This is the cheapest method, but I also wanted their theme, so I decided to go for the membership plan. This was a bit more expensive, but also more flexible for me since I then have access to everything they have.
Now I was ready to design a funnel. I had a lot of templates to choose from, and I was able to customize and tweak most of the design. I loved Thrive Architect and do recommend it.
Later I tried ClickFunnels, and I was able to create pages and funnels so much faster. I didn't need to tweak the design, just build and the pages looked fantastic right away. And ClickFunnels is easy to integrate with 3rd party software as autoresponders and payment processors. So I did see how easy ClickFunnels are to use from the beginning.
The Death of Websites
Russell Brunson has for a long time claimed that you no longer need a website. Websites are something from the past, and now you need a funnel.
I sort of agreeing on their statement, but websites are not dead. I see the reason for why they are claiming this.
A confused mind will ALWAYS SAY NO
Quote from Russell Brunson
A website usually has many pages, with menus and maybe a sidebar where top posts and other things are listed. This is great to keep people on your site, but if you try to sell something. You don't want to give your visitors a lot of ways to go away from your offer. Or maybe it's hard to find your offer. A website can confuse your visitor and then you need to remember the quote above.
With funnels, you will guide your visitors through a given path that you want them to go. The only steps they have to choose between is yes to your offer or no. This way you can pre-frame and optimize your funnels so you give your visitors a great experience that will provide them with more value, and you more money. A win-win situation for you both.
So is websites dead? Even ClickFunnels have WordPress to run part of their site, as you can see in the picture below.
ClickFunnels use WordPress for blogging
Websites are great to create many pages. So if you want to run a blog, or you want to write a lot of articles, a website is crucial. And even ClickFunnels is doing this. I assume they are running WordPress to write a lot of articles so people will find them when they are searching for a solution to their problem. But when they come to your website, try your best to get their email address.
You want to own the traffic - Funnels will fix that
There are different traffic out there, and I will explain it a bit since this is important to understand why you should use funnels.
Traffic you don't control
The traffic you don't control is traffic you don't know where it comes from. This can be from your youtube videos, people that find your blog post or someone who is mentioning you on social media. You don't know what this is and is hard to scale. What you want to do is to move this to your own traffic. You can do that by offering something that makes them want to optin to your email list.
Traffic you control
This is traffic you are paying for. This can be Facebook ads, solo ads or other sources. You control this traffic since you are putting something out there and tell them to go to a specific page.
By using retargeting of your visitors with Facebook ads or google ads, you can move traffic you don't control to traffic you control.
This is traffic you control, but not owning. Facebook can shut your advertising down, the same with google or other sources of traffic where other is owning the traffic, and you are paying to get some of it. That's why you want to move them to traffic you own.
The traffic you own
This is where you want to move people to. The traffic you own can be an email list. Here you are sending an email out, and you get traffic back. This is traffic you own.
You can use a lead magnet funnel to move people to traffic you own. If you are using paid traffic to get people to your site, you should definitely try to move them to traffic you own. That way, if they are not interested in your offer now, they may be it later by doing email marketing. Or you can promote other offers they may purchase.
Clickfunnels as a Membership Site
With ClickFunnels you can create a membership site. A membership site is actually a pretty good method to deliver what you have promised. Put the content inside the membership area, set it up and give the registration link to those who purchase your products. This is how Russell Brunson likes to do it, and he has delivered all his courses I have bought this way.
The member login page
So a membership site has a login page and a membership page. You can design the page as you like and everyone that goes to this page will be able to login if they have a username and password. So your member's area is restricted access to only those with a login and password.
If you want to grant access to new users, you will give them a secret login page where they can create their login and password. So you want to send this link to everyone that you want to grant access to the member area. This can be done automatically from the autoresponder you are using or ClickFunnels them self if set up correctly.
The membership page
In the membership page, you will create all the content. This can be sorted in Sections and lessons. So you create sections and put the lessons inside one section you have made.
The sections can be restricted to both tags used in Actionetics or product requirements. That way if your secret login page is shared with others, they will not get access to the content if chosen so.
Your members can get access to everything right away, or you can release the lessons in drips. One lesson each day or something similar, you can choose. You can also choose to release it at a set date and time. This is a nice function if you are launching the product on a specific date.
My experience with ClickFunnels membership is great and its working. This is also working for Russell Brunson so I will assume it will also work for you. There is probably better membership software out there that has specialized on this, but ClickFunnels will work for 90% or more of you that are reading this.
The membership area is easy to work with as everything else that ClickFunnels is doing.
ClickFunnels Webinar
ClickFunnels have webinar funnels and is recommended to use if you are doing webinars. The actual webinar can't be done in ClickFunnels. ClickFunnels is not a webinar platform, but it seems that this is something they are working to provide you in the future.
So what you do is create a page where you are telling why people should join your webinar. Hopefully, they want to join and do register to your webinar. If you have integrated your webinar platform to ClickFunnels correctly, this information will be transferred to the webinar platform, and a confirmation email will be sent out.
At the same time, you can integrate your autoresponder with your confirmation page so you can send them emails and follow up on them. In ClickFunnels you can create both a live webinar funnel or an auto webinar that is basically a replay you are showing them.
You can read more about webinar funnels here.
ClickFunnels and Ecommerce
ClickFunnels is great to use for e-commerce. You can use sales funnels to sell your products and ClickFunnels can handle the payments by integrating 3rd party companies like Stripe.
You can also integrate it with an ecommerce platform like Shopify. That way your customers can go from Shopify to your funnel. ClickFunnels can handle the payments, or you can send the customer back to Shopify checkout process.
This chapter is already long enough, and ecommerce is an important part that requires its own section. You can read more about ClickFunnels and e-commerce by clicking here.
The Share funnel
The share funnel is a fabulous function. You can create a funnel and then go to settings for the funnel. There you will find a link for your funnel you can share. So if a friend, customer or other people go to the link, your funnel will be loaded inside their ClickFunnel. You can share funnel and Actionetics emails.
With share funnel, you can create funnels and sell to other people. One thing you need to remember, everything will be shared. Also you pixel, tracking or other functions that you have installed in your funnel. So if you plan to share a funnel you are using to the public, duplicate it and remove settings you don't want to share.
ClickFunnels Integrations
ClickFunnels are a funnel builder and page editor so if you want to do more, you need to use 3rd party products and integrate them with ClickFunnels, this is easy to do, and I will go through some of the integrations. If you want to know how to do it, I suggest you use the ClickFunnels help sections that will explain how to do it perfectly.
How to collect payments with ClickFunnels
If you want to do some selling and is creating a cart funnel, then you want to integrate a payment processor to ClickFunnels. The most used method is to setup Stripe and integrates it with ClickFunnels.
If you want to use PayPal as a payment processor, you can add a Paypal button by copy an embedded button from Paypal and add it to your page. Your customer will go to Payal to pay, and the one-click upsell function will not work. You can redirect the customer back to your upsell page, but the customer needs to confirm the payment for the upsell. So Paypal is not recommended if you are planning to use a funnel with upsells. And you should use upsells!
ClickFunnels email integration and autoresponder
ClickFunnels have their own autoresponder named Actionetics, and this is a very good autoresponder, but you don't need to use it. If you want more advanced automation, you can use another autoresponder. The problem is that if you're going to tag subscribers before you are sending them to your autoresponder, you need Actionetics.
You can separate and tag your subscribers by sending them to different lists in your autoresponder, but this is not ideal. So I recommend to go for Actionetics, not only to unlock all the Actionetics features but also remove many of the limitations on ClickFunnels like max funnels and pages.
So you can connect other autoresponders, and the one I recommend is GetResponse. It's easy to setup, you can learn how in my post about ClickFunnels on budget.
ClickFunnels and WordPress
ClickFunnels and WordPress are two different website creators, but you can have them both on your website. A popular method is to have ClickFunnels as your front page where you send your visitors who want to read your blog or articles to a subdomain like blog.yourdomain.com. Then you install WordPress on your subdomain.
That way you can use blogs to get potential subscribers and customers to your site with SEO and push them to your funnels to get them on your list.
Another method is to use WordPress and use the ClickFunnels plugin described below.
The ClickFunnels WordPress Plugin
ClickFunnels have made a plugin that connects WordPress with ClickFunnels. You choose the page you want to connect with WordPress and give the page a custom address. It works like a charm and is easy to use. I use it for some funnels and some custom pages.
That way you can make a landing page for WordPress. Just search for "ClickFunnels" in the plugin section in WordPress.
ClickFunnels Training
With ClickFunnels you receive free training in funnels like the Funnel Cookbook. You also receive free marketing tips.
When you join ClickFunnels, you receive training that is included in the price. In this training, you will receive the Funnel Cookbook training that is both video and pdf. You will also receive training on how to use ClickFunnels and create funnels. This training is basic and will give you enough to get started with ClickFunnels.
If you order the ClickFunnels bundle where you receive advanced training in how to start building a business, Clickfunnels membership and other software, so you have everything you need for success.
I also want to mention the one funnel away challenge. This is 30 days training on how to start a business. You can read more here.
ClickFunnels Support
You will receive support from ClickFunnels. Like other software you have access to a ticket system where you can send in questions and requests for help where someone will help you.
You also have the Facebook group that is very good for help regarding how-to questions. More about the group later.
ClickFunnels Marketplace
ClickFunnels have their own marketplace where you can buy premium funnel templates. If you want something more unique than the free templates, this is the place where you can buy really fancy templates.
ClickFunnels have also recently made the Funnel Rolodex where service providers sell their services where you can buy funnels, design, copywriting and basically everything you need for your funnels. If you are looking for something that is not there, you can ask some of the sellers if they can offer this service for you. Most of them are very knowable and can do more than they have listed.
The Community
ClickFunnels have their own Facebook group with funnel hacker fans where everything regarding Clickfunnels is discussed. In this group, you can get help from other ClickFunnels members. Since many entrepreneurs may need help there, you will also be able to connect with service providers and ClickFunnels affiliates. This is both a positive and negative thing.
Funnel Hacking Live
Once a year ClickFunnels has an event named Funnel Hacking Live. This event has been in Boise, the same city where the ClickFunnels HQ is located. This is an event that is more and more popular. This event is a two-day event where you can learn about different topics regarding entrepreneurship.
This is both training, but also a sales presentation of ClickFunnels where they are presenting a unique offer for the event. But people are joining the event each year because of the atmosphere, training and connecting with other people. So this is not just a big sales event.
Two Comma Club Award
The Two Comma Club Award has become the "Emmys" of Entrepreneurship. There is some history behind the reward, and you can watch more about it here.
We often limit our self based on assumptions. So the two comma club award was made to show that it's possible to make $1,000,000 a year from one funnel. That way more people will believe it's possible to do, and more people will get to that level of sales.
The award is of course also made to reward each member that has made that level of money.
You need to apply for this to get the award and you can do it here.
Two Comma Club X
Recently they have also made a new award for people that have made $10,000,000 from one funnel for one year. Even more recognition and show other people what is possible to do with funnels.
Why you should not use ClickFunnels
There are also reasons for not using ClickFunnels and funnels in general. If you are running a blog or similar, there is no use for ClickFunnels. You should have something to sell or promote for you to use it.
Sometimes you want to have a niche site that is based on SEO, and you want it to be as passive as possible after the initial work. Then ClickFunnels is not something for you.
You should regardless follow Russell Brunson to learn marketing, but you don’t need ClickFunnels to follow him.
Conclusion - Why you should use ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels have many uses and especially if you are selling physical or information products. Choose a funnel that fits you and your products and you will sell more. To sell more products is definitely nice for your bank account, so is also that you are providing more value by helping more people as important.
If you just need a page to collect email addresses, other software will probably do the job to a lower price. I have not tried the funnel designer in Getresponse yet, but it will probably do the job.
And if you want to do affiliate marketing, you should definitely use ClickFunnels and promote Clickfunnels, but more about that later.
CONTINUE READING THE GUIDE TO CLICKFUNNELS
Chapter 1: What is ClickFunnels - A Introduction
Chapter 2: What is a sales funnel (with examples)
Chapter 3: What is ClickFunnels
Chapter 4: Why use Clickfunnels << You are here
Chapter 5: ClickFunnels and E-commerce
Chapter 6: How to promote ClickFunnels as affiliate
And more are planned.
