What is Clickfunnels and How Does it Work? 

Before we begin discussing the topic “What Is Clickfunnels and How Does it Work,” we must first understand what sales funnels are and what makes them so valuable and practical.

Countless businesses joined the “vanishing wave” because they weren’t able to adapt to the new approach of selling and promoting stuff online. Bad conversion rates and a significant decrease in revenue are some of the things these businesses have experienced over the past couple of years, and it’s probably going to get worse as time flies. 

We know that turning clicks into conversions can be a challenging task, but failing to do so may determine the future of your business. It took so much time for business owners to realize that the best way to acquire new leads and close more sales is by using sales funnels in their marketing routine. They are a great way to provide more value for the customer and therefore extract more money from them. 

Business owners worldwide have stated that the best way to turn a penny into a dollar and make a higher return on your investment is to outline a specific path for the visitors and point them in the right direction. This way, the visitors have a “checklist” they need to complete before they reach the end of the funnel. 

And when we’re talking about marketing funnels, it would be foolish not to mention Clickfunnels. It’s one of the most popular funnel builders in the industry, and that’s why we thought it would be a great idea to write this article. We’re going to elaborate on what it is, how does it work, and, most importantly, how you can use it to generate more revenue and increase the lifespan of your business. But first…

 

Why Do You Need a Sales Funnel?

It’s no secret that sales funnels have taken the online world by storm, and that’s why we need to elaborate on what they are and how you can benefit from using them. 

For a business to function correctly, it continuously needs to attract more prospects and try to convert them into loyal paying customers. The only problem is that not every single person that sees your business wants to be a part of it, at least not at the beginning. 

It’s possible that out of a thousand visitors, only a few of them will get to become paying customers. This is entirely natural because of the level of interest that fades over time. That is why some of the visitors decide to leave your funnel and look for another solution for their problem. Look at the image below to see what we’re talking about. A sales funnel is very different from a traditional website, but that doesn’t mean it’s more important. They are both considered to be valuable business assets, and there is a specific time and place for both of them. Websites are a great way to establish credibility and authority in your industry, while funnels, on the other hand, are more sales focused. 

Sales funnels are considered to be a better option for selling online because they offer fewer distractions and guide the visitor through the entire buying journey. The last thing you want your visitors to do is to jump from one page to another and focus on stuff that are less important than the product you’re trying to sell.

The truth is – every business has a sales funnel, but some are more effective than other. A website is also considered a funnel, but it’s missing one crucial component – guidance! There are a few reasons why you would want to use a sales funnel, and here are some of them: 

1. Sophisticated Consumers: Times have changed, and consumers are more complicated than ever before. Nowadays, there’s so much competition everywhere that users have the privilege to choose which business to trust and which one to leave out. Funnels are very helpful for building long-lasting healthy relationships with leads, and that’s why they’re considered a more sophisticated way of selling online. Modern consumers demand sophisticated sales processes. It makes sense, right?
   

   ---

2. A Sale Takes Time: Have you ever been “funneled” into buying a $799 product? Chances are you’ve been, but that alone wasn’t enough to convince you to purchase the product straight away, was it? The funnel was set in place so it can catch your attention, attain your e-mail address, and earn the funnel owner the right to remarket the same product over and over again. All of this will make sense when you read reason number three.
   

   ---

3. Trust Makes Sales: Once you gave someone your e-mail address, they can bombard you with valuable content, which eventually builds trust. Trust is a very crucial component of a sale, and it’s something you should pay attention to if you’re serious about succeeding online.
   

   ---

4. Increased (LTV) Lifetime Value: Wouldn’t it be nice if you could sell multiple products to the same person? The trust factor is directly correlated with the lifetime value of the customer, and it helps boost retention rates. Simply said, it enables you to make more sales because you earn your customer trust, and they start to see you as an authority in a particular industry. Once they trust you, they won’t be hesitant to buy from repeatedly.
   

   ---

5. Converts Better: Sales funnels convert better because they don’t allow the visitor to leave. They “trap” the visitor and guide him through the entire sales process, step-by-step. Websites are filled with so many unnecessary options that can easily distract the reader and force him to leave. This is one of the main reasons why funnels are considered a better option for selling online.

 

What Is Clickfunnels? 

Clickfunnels is a SaaS company founded by a brilliant entrepreneur named Russel Brunson. The company was established back in 2014 and has continued to grow since then. What started as a startup is now a 360 million-dollar business with over 70.000 active members. 

Today Clickfunnels is one of the most popular funnel builders in the industry, and for an apparent reason. It’s a platform that enables members to create different types of sales funnels without having any prior coding or funnel expertise. Russel understands the fact that every business can flourish if it uses a sales funnel, and that’s why he gave his all to make Clickfunnels available to anyone. 

 

What Can You Create With Clickfunnels? 

The possibilities are endless, and there are absolutely no restrictions on what you create with Clickfunnels. It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to sell a high-ticket e-commerce product or promote a %10 OFF coupon for your restaurant – with Clickfunnels, you have all the needed features to deploy an effective marketing campaign. 

The platform uses a simple drag-and-drop feature that makes the entire funnel building process seem like a child’s play. You can effortlessly add, remove, and edit elements on the page until you can come up with the perfect design that matches your business theme. 

These are just a few of the things that can be created with Clickfunnels: 

✔  Landing Pages                                           ✔  Webinars                                

✔  Smart Shopping Carts                              ✔  Upsells                                   

✔  E-mail Automation Sequences                ✔  Downsells                              

✔  Sales Funnels                                             ✔  Hangout Funnels                  

✔  Lead Capture Pages                                  ✔  ClickPops                                    

✔  Checkout Pages                                        ✔  Hangout Funnels                            

✔  Integrations                                                ✔  Thank You Pages 

✔  High Ticket Funnels                                  ✔  Membership Funnels 

✔ A/B Split Tests                                            ✔  Follow-Up Funnels 

The only thing that is hard to build with Clickfunnels is an actual website. Don’t get us wrong; you can still do it, but it probably a better idea if you hire a programmer or use a site like WordPress. 

 

How Does Clickfunnels Work? 

Perhaps you have a product or service that you wish to promote and sell online. The best thing to do is to build a sales funnel that points out all the pain points that your prospects might have and try to persuade them that the product you’re offering is the right one for them. 

Clickfunnels allows you to create a sales funnel through pre-made and previously tested funnel templates depending on your trade, product, and value ladder.

The product or service isn’t as crucial as the funnel itself. You could sell five different things with the same funnel if you wanted to. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should only be using one type of funnel. There are different types of funnels to choose from, and each funnel is optimized for a specific goal. 

For example: if you’re trying to promote your services as a Facebook Ads Expert, then you should consider using a webinar funnel template instead of a lead generation one. Webinars position you as an expert in your field and are considered to be one of the most excellent platforms for building trust with your audience. 

Having more steps in a funnel doesn’t necessarily mean it will perform better. You’ll be amazed to find out that a simple four-step funnel can easily outperform a funnel consisted of ten steps. It’s not the quantity that matters – it’s the quality. A simple funnel like the one below is more than enough to get you started. Just to make things clear, we’re going to imagine a scenario where you’re a Facebook Ads Expert, and you wish to promote your services as one. We’re going to assume that you want to run a webinar, so in that case, you’re going to need a webinar funnel. 

Step #1: The first thing you would want to do is design a squeeze page where you would put a headline that communicates the benefit you are going to provide the webinar attendees with. The headline should be something that is going to force the visitor to give you their e-mail address and, at the same time, earn you the right to remarket to them times and times again. 

Step #2: Secondly, you’re going to need an actual Sales Page. The best thing to do when creating a sales page is to point out the problems that your attendees might have and try to position your services as a possible solution for their problems. If you want to see higher conversion rates, then you should consider using headlines that make promises and demand attention. It would be awesome if you had some anxiety-reducing testimonials to throw in as well. 

Step #3: The third page is the Order Page, otherwise known as a checkout page. We’re not going to talk much about this page because there isn’t much to be said. It’s just a simple page where the visitor needs to fill out some personal details like credit card number and confirm the transaction. 

Step #4: The final page is the Thank You Page. Just because it’s the last page doesn’t mean it’s less important than the previous ones. The best practice is to use social shares on this page or link to your most popular piece of content. You can also use this page as an upsell page and craft an irresistible one time offer. It’s probably better if you use an upsell page because a good offer can cover a large portion of your traffic costs. 

It took us two minutes to write this down, and it is probably going to take us another twenty to get it done. Building funnels doesn’t have to be complicated. A simple funnel goes a long way, and we just proved that in less than five minutes. The funnel template underneath is an actual template from Clickfunnels. It’s not the same as the one we discussed above, but it’s quite similar. Take a second to look at it and visualize the entire sales process. 

Who Uses Clickfunnels? 

Businesses with different backstories use Clickfunnels to achieve different goals. Some use it to generate new leads, while others use it to promote and sell their services online. For some (that’s us), it even acts as a full replacement for their marketing department since it can do everything from building landing pages to sending automated e-mail sequences. Why spend so much money on wages when you get the same amount of work done with software that charges a fraction of the entire cost? 

Can you guess what a pizzeria and a law firm have in common? 

They both need clients to survive. 

Clickfunnels was built with the following thought on mind – It doesn’t matter if you’re running a big-time company or a one-person show, the future of your business is dependent on your ability to attract and convert new leads into longtime paying customers. The truth is – every business needs customers to function, and yours isn’t any different. 

 

Is Clickfunnels Effective? 

With an estimated annual revenue of 89.9 million dollars, it would be absurd to say Clickfunnels is ineffective and does not work. Clickfunnels are experts when it comes down to creating sales funnels and launching effective marketing campaigns that convert. Its no wonder they’ve managed to grow their own company into a 360 million dollar empire. 

Another thing we love about Clickfunnels is the fact you don’t have to jump to several platforms just to get a campaign running. You can comfortably do it from one spot without having to worry about 3rd party outside sources like web hosts, autoresponders, affiliate management centers, CRM’s and whatnot… 

 

Clickfunnels Benefits 

What makes Clickfunnels stand out? The things mentioned below are just a small portion of users’ opinions on what makes Clickfunnels advantageous and valuable.

All-In-One Marketing Tool 

We were serious when we said that Clickfunnels could replace an entire marketing department. And it’s not just the marketing one, but the sales one as well. It’s a funny story (for some) because we actually fired two people when we started using Clickfunnels. The first person we fired was the sales guy – Jim. We no longer needed a salesperson since we had a machine that would do all the selling for us.

The second person was a designer – Robert. We didn’t necessarily need to fire this guy, but we couldn’t afford to give out an extra wage just to have somebody fool around with a drag-and-drop builder. At first, we thought that we might have a problem with the design, but it turned out we were wrong. Now we selfishly get to enjoy the entire funnel building process ourselves (Sorry Robert). 

 

A CHILD CAN DO IT 

And not just any child, but a four-year-old. Without a doubt, Clickfunnels has one of the most user-friendly interfaces we’ve seen, and it keeps getting better and better. This is an excellent thing since it makes the entire building process run much smoother.

We’ve had a bad experience with some of the other funnel builder on the market that felt too complex and laggy at times. The last thing you want when building a funnel is to look at a dashboard that has hundreds of unnecessary buttons and options added to it. 

 

SAVES TIME AND MONEY 

Clickfunnels can save you tons of time and money in the long run. We consider it to be a huge timesaver because it keeps you from the hassle of having to create everything from scratch. Half of the stuff you’re going to use inside Clickfunnels are pre-made and ready to go. Simply choose a template and edit it, so it matches your business theme. 

But how does it save money? It’s best to ask Robert. We managed to save a ton of money by cutting out two wages and investing the money in Clickfunnels. That alone was enough to convince ourselves that we’ve made the right choice.

“But I work alone and don’t have anyone to fire…” – It doesn’t matter; it’s still going to save you money. How exactly? By not having to hire a funnel expert to build a funnel for you. It’s probably going to cost you a small fortune, and you’ll have zero control over it. We strongly believe the money saved can be better invested elsewhere. 

 

 IT AUTOMATES YOUR SALES PROCESS 

The old hideous way of manually fulfilling orders is long gone, and it’s never coming back. Today, you can easily use automation tools like Clickfunnels to segment your audience based on consumer interaction. You can send different e-mails to different people based on what they have done on your page. With this feature alone, you can automate %90 of your sales process. The leftover %10 is making minor tweaks and running split tests to strengthen the funnel.

How much does Clickfunnels cost? 

Clickfunnels offers two pricing options. You can choose between the Startup Package at $97 per month and the Enterprise at $297 per month. 

You’re probably not going to need the higher plan if you’re just starting. The starter plan gives you enough space to mess around with the software, and you can always upgrade to the bigger plan if you feel like it. The Enterprise plan allows you to use the more powerful features like Actionetics and Backpack. Click on this link to see what each plan has to offer and what makes them different. 

 

Final Words 

Hopefully, you understood what Clickfunnels is and how it works. It’s a useful tool that is used by many businesses for different reasons. We use the software ourselves, and it works great for us. But just because it works great for us doesn’t mean it’s going to do the same for you. 

What better way to find out if it is the right tool for your business then to test it out using this 14-day free trial link. You’ll have plenty of time to play around with the software and see if you should invest in it. There are absolutely no obligations, and you can cancel anytime.