The much-quoted marketing and sales funnel comprising of 4 stages - Attract, Convert, Close Delight - provides business the opportunity to segregate its various brand-consumer touchpoints. Right from the day this funnel was conceived, it has enabled businesses to set a measurable objective and then chunk the challenges part by part.
ClickFunnels is a product of this innovation. To describe it in one line, it is a marketing platform to "create sales funnels easily and effectively. It is between the words "easily" and "effectively" where all the magic lies.
Knowing that you need to have a robust sales funnel in place is only 1/50th of the job done. Creating a sales funnel that moves the needle along in your marketing endeavors, and with a rate that empowers your business to grow fast and sustainably, is anything but simple. Especially when you are someone with not a lot of experience in coding or design, and are running on a tight budget, so much so you can't invest heavily in the fancy automation platforms, you need a tool that can address all your needs without digging a hole in your pocket. You need a powerful tool that not only breaks the process down in easy-to-carry-out steps but also produces results that are characterized by high conversion rates.
ClickFunnels is that tool that makes it a non-fussy exercise for any entrepreneur or marketing and sales professional to build a marketing funnel with just a few clicks and in the minimum time possible. You don't need to study any technical manuals to set up a funnel that can produce the desired results. The best thing is, you don't need a lot of resources to be invested in order to reap the riches. But we will come down to the pricing part later. ClickFunnels has great features for you to customize the funnel creation and event registration processes and give you a better chance to convert and close the leads.
For now, let's take a closer look at all the features in this ClickFunnels review and how they can make a difference to your sales and marketing efforts.
ClickFunnels Features
ClickFunnels segregates its features under 3 broad goals:
- Create a funnel to generate leads: This includes the basic email captures and leads that can that come through messengers and chatbots on your website and can be added to a list. Or you can have longer forms that capture even more visitor details, like their name, occupation, contact number, etc.
- Create a funnel to generate sales: Funnels to generate sales involves elaborate schemes and strategies. You can aim to generate sales for a lower priced product, with the goal to upsell the more expensive products to the customers at later stages. Or you can create a funnel for a product that requires an elaborate explanation on your part to the customer, order to present the true value of the said product. The sales funnel can also be created in the event you are about to launch a new product, and you want to create the right buzz during the pre-launch period. If done right, this funnel can help you sell the costlier products, especially considering the fact that you have more time to build the excitement around the product and market its features.
- Online events like webinars are a great way to reach out to prospects and customers. Therefore, more and more businesses, Create a funnel to run an event:especially the B2B ones, are using webinars to have more human interaction with their users. With these events, brands can make use of visual marketing and address customer needs and problems through very direct interaction.
When you open the ClickFunnels tool and select the action for building the funnel, you are given 3 options, as highlighted above, in terms of the goals for your campaign. Once you select your goal, you can proceed to select the type of funnel you want to create.
As soon as that is done, ClickFunnels sets up all the pages that you want to include as part of the funnel right away. The flow of the funnel that you have in mind can be made into a seamless framework with just a few clicks. This framework is already optimized for great conversion rates, but of course, you will have plenty of data to test the conversions out.
Add and modify pages as you wantClickFunnels gives you the freedom to make customizations to your funnel in terms of how you wish to add the different pages, or move them around, delete, add memberships, etc. Talking of adding pages, this is a great feature for those who see an opportunity to include a page for additional services offered by their business. This is especially useful in scenarios where you are offering some additional benefits to existing customers and do not want them to go through the checkout process again. So upselling is made easy and very rewarding in this way with ClickFunnels.
You can also create an exclusive page for hosting the training material you have or for hosting specific content for the subscribers who have signed up for more content with you. Your visitors can create their own login in order to be able to access the content or to become a part of the drip-funnel you have in place. This way, you also get to free yourself of the need to integrate a third-party Learning Management Software or any other cumbersome tool.
Capture LeadsIf one has to point out one page or event where most websites face maximum drop-offs or cart abandonment, it's got to be the checkout page or process. With ClickFunnels, website builders can have the easiest checkout process for their buyers. You will notice an immediate drop in the cart abandonment rate and rise in purchase rate. Whether you use the traditional forms or the shorter forms, capturing lead is easy in case you wish to pitch your products and their benefits to those who abandoned their cart. You can also have those instant add-ons to encourage impulse purchases, further increasing your margins.
Make affiliate programs work for youRunning websites through affiliate programs is a revenue avenue for countless websites on the internet. But running an affiliate program in the right manner so as to maximize profits is important, and something not everyone is expertly equipped to do. With ClickFunnels, you can bridge that expertise gap by integrating your affiliate program with your sales funnel in a matter of just a few minutes. Once you set up the affiliate program, you can customize the commission plans, the types of affiliates, make payments and have dedicated sections for affiliates. The best part of this feature is that you get to generate affiliate links that can point out to any of the pages that are set up using ClickFunnels.
No coding, no hasslesClickFunnels can be used to completely redesign and rework your website pages, without having to get your hands dirty with code. You can easily change the logo on a page or replace the existing videos, text and product listings with your own. The sheer customization capability combined with the simplicity of the entire process makes ClickFunnels an absolute must-have tool.
For those who do understand coding and have a decent knowledge of designing concepts, ClickFunnels features can be used to take website redesign to a whole new level. There are custom CSS code snippets available that can be used to pick individual elements in a page and make changes in their HTML codes. The padding adjustment feature gives you complete control over how you want the different UI elements on the page to be placed apart. You can have the optimum spacing between the different elements that are pleasing to the eye and yet conversion-friendly. The colors on the website - be it for the page as a whole or the text on the page on specific elements, ClickFunnels provides a tool for all diverse needs. So if you do want to customize your page, the editor provides that option as a built-in.
Engage leads more with personalized and conversion friendly email featuresCapturing leads with ClickFunnels is another easy and a much-rewarding process. It provides you an automation tab wherein setting up email messages can be done, along with setting up the sequence of actions you plan to take to establish a connection with your audience. This can then be followed by opt-ins and sales. Every time your users take action desired by you, you get a notification. You can find the automation tab on every single page on your funnel. Once you decide the page for which you plan to send out the email, all you gotta do is to insert an "Add New Email" button. You can then include other details like name, subject line, the SMTP configuration, so on and so forth.
Creating a functionality for auto-email sending is one of the many things you need to accomplish for having a successful email campaign. In order to ensure a great open rate for your emails, you need to do a lot of things right, for example scheduling the emails at the right time, having a great subject line, etc. While these things may help you achieve the required email open rate, what will actually lead to better conversions is if your email receivers click on the links or buttons you have included in your emails. Any email you send out should have the UI elements, and CTAs aligned in a way that it is optimized to nudge users to click where you want them to click.
All of this can be easily achieved using the email templates provided by ClickFunnels, with very useful features such as Editor, copy editing, image swapping, creating CTA, and a whole lot of other customization options. You can also edit the template by adding your own custom message and eventually automate the email sequences that are most optimized for high conversions.
ClickFunnels has a tool within it that goes by the name Actionetics. This feature serves as a great follow-up tool; it enables you to easily create follow-up funnels that go beyond being an autoresponder. While you create, schedule and deliver emails, Actionetics can help with having a direct line of communication with individual customers, based on the very specific data you have about them, like who they are, what did they buy from your website and when, the customer's demographics and locations, the actions they have taken when in your funnel, etc.and it is not just the email medium that Actionetics takes care of, you can reach out to your audience through different mediums like the F acebook messenger, desktop notifications, retargeting ads, SMS, etc. It also allows you to send messages to individual users or even broadcast certain important messages to all your subscribers.
Essentially, you are not doling out those generic messages to be sent out to all the customers at once, regardless of what their motivations may be. Instead, these features enable you to have a one-on-one conversation with consumers by adding personalization to your communications. This way, you tell your users and customers that you know who they are and you care about what their aspirations are from your product. Eventually, these lead to them viewing you as thought leaders and as a business that knows what it is doing, further boosting the conversion rates.
The entire process of creating lists under the Actionetics feature is pretty straightforward too. You can add certain rules and qualifiers to your list, which basically takes the data from your system to add users in a smart way to the list. Once your messages are sent through the different platforms and mediums, you also need to be able to track their performance. With Actionetics, you can see who opened your emails, whether they clicked on the links within the email, who made the purchase, and how much revenue was generated via each email.
ClickFunnels Reviews
Having taken a detailed look at everything that ClickFunnels has to offer, it would be worth your time to check out whether these features perform as well as ClickFunnels claims they do; is the end user satisfied with what he is getting in exchange of the investment in the tool?
In order to find that out, we can refer to the two most trusted source of customer feedback - G2 Crowd and Capterra.
On G2 Crowd, the reviews have been majorly positive, with the average score standing at 4.2 out of 5, at the time of writing this document. There are digital marketers who have appreciated the versatility this tool provides and the sheer attention to detail that is in the offing. The users have posted glowing reviews about the follow-up features and the support services that ClickFunnels offers. A co-founder of an upcoming business says that companies investing a lot of effort and resources into sales should absolutely use ClickFunnels. After a small learning curve, it can help small businesses make that leap and become successful.
On Capterra, the average score of ClickFunnels stands at very impressive 4.5 out of 5. Again, there are reviews posted not only be marketing professionals but also by CEOs who handle or are heavily involved with the marketing initiatives of their business. The reviews highlight how ClickFunnels has a lot of moving parts, and all of them run in total sync with each other. While the tool provides a huge range of features, it never feels bloated. There is a lot of focus delivered on every single feature. The customization options and the fact that it covers all bases makes Clickfunnels an absolute must-buy. The users are also satisfied with the long-term benefits of the tool, not just the short-term gains.
Following is the screenshot from the Capterra website:
The ClickFunnels website also provides a number of testimonials for one to take a look at. These are detailed testimonials wherein different professionals have explained the challenges they were facing as part of their web presence and sales strategies. They then go on to explaining how ClickFunnels with its custom features for every stage of the buyer's journey helped them overcome challenges and boost their growth in short turnaround time.
ClickFunnels Pricing
The pricing of ClickFunnels is also something that sits well with most users. They offer a free trial period of 14 days, and if you are satisfied, you can choose from primarily two ClickFunnels plans. The more economical one costs 97 Dollars per month, which has a cap on a number of features, like maximum 20 funnels, 100 landing pages, 20000 landing page traffic, etc. The enterprise plan allows you to build unlimited funnels, landing page, has no cap on traffic, and you have a plethora of features to choose from that you think will be useful to you; and this applies to both the plans.
ClickFunnels Alternatives
Digital marketing is an industry in itself, which is the reason why the marketplace is flooded with tools that make the jobs of marketers simpler and more result-oriented. Therefore, there are a lot of tools with functionalities and features similar to those of ClickFunnels. Let us check out some of the highly recommended tools and how they fare when compared with ClickFunnels.
ClickFunnels vs. LeadpagesLeadpages is among the most trusted tool for those who want to capture and nurture leads. The integration with a host of third-party tools makes the entire process of capturing and nurturing leads easier and optimized for great results. Check out the following Leadpage integrations in the image below:
On the other hand, ClickFunnels not just offers lead capturing, but it serves as a tool to build complete sales funnels. You can process payments digitally with ClickFunnels, and it also integrates with Stripe, Recurly, NMI and other similar tools. Leadpages does not integrate with payment processors.
Leadpages has a drag and drop feature that enhances the usability of the tool; ClickFunnels also keeps the usability quotient high. Another feature that makes Clickfunnels a more preferable tool is its ability to upsell and downsell, something which Leadpages lacks.
For digging deeper in this comparison, check out this post.
ClickFunnels vs. Builderall
Builderall is another tool that provides a wide range of capabilities.
It provides drag and drop page builders, but it is not as customer-oriented as ClickFunnels is. The feature that lets you embed the page builder feature with your sales funnel is a great differentiator for clickFunnels. Builderall works great as an email marketing automation tool, allowing you to stay on top of your interactions with your leads. As opposed to ClickFunnels, the option to use email templates and smartly add users to the email list is not as easy and effective with Builderall , but it does allow you to quickly write personalized emails in order to build a good relationship with leads.
ClickFunnels vs GetResponse
GetResponse is a very popular marketing platform that also allows you to build website pages and create webinars.
For tracking the performance of functionalities built and implemented using GetResponse, you have Advanced Analytics that give you an in-depth report. ClickFunnels report is also great for gaining insightful information, and it also provides A/B and Split testing for you to determine which versions would fetch better conversion rates. The upsell and downsell features in ClickFunnels are missing in GetResponse. Go in-depth on GetResponse in this post and read all about its capabilities.
Below a small snapshot of upsell and downsell feature of clickfunnel:
Irrespective of whether you are new in the world of digital marketing or a seasoned player, there is little chance that you wouldn't have heard of Unbounce. A giant brand, Unbounce dwarfs most of its competition by a fair degree, except for when you compare it with ClickFunnels side by side.
The primary focus area with Unbounce is building intuitive landing pages. ClickFunnels, on the other hand, lets you build sales funnel right from scratch, and building landing pages is one of the many focus areas. Both the tools provide the A/B Testing functionality, which is a must for any web page builder. With Unbounce, you need to integrate with the third party email marketing tools, but this feature is in-built in ClickFunnels. The integrations available with Unbounce are with platforms like HubSpot, Marketo, Mailchimp, Zapier, WordPress, etc. But ClickFunnels being an email marketing platform in itself does not integrate with a lot of third-party tools. With the rare ones it integrates, Mailchimp stands out.
The below picture is the integrations offered by Unbounce:
For very large enterprise requirements, the Unbounce features have a more suited setup and can handle more data as compared to ClickFunnels. The affiliate system you can build with ClickFunnels is not available with Unbounce. Also, Unbounce does not provide the autoresponder feature or an activity dashboard, both of which can be found with ClickFunnels. You can have rule-based workflows in ClickFunnels, but Unbounce provides no such feature. Also, SEO management is one of the most sought-after features by ClickFunnels, and Unbounce users are left wanting in this respect.
ClickFunnels vs. Instapage
Instapage is a fast-growing platform that proves to be useful when building a landing page. The web pages created using Instapage pitch websites in a suitable position to be marketed to the relevant audience so that high conversion rate is achieved. As explained earlier, ClickFunnels enables users to build landing pages, sales pages and deliver focus on every aspect of the sales funnels. So, while Instapage is great for online promotion and winning leads, ClickFunnels covers the whole nine yards. Not only can it help capture more leads, but you can also use the ClickFunnels platform to close sales as you can follow your customer all along the buying journey.
Bonus points for you on completing this entire article - a full comparison on Instapage and Leadpages!
Conclusion
Growth marketing in the online milieu has witnessed terrific innovation over the past few years. The tools highlighted in this document are enabling businesses to leverage the power of technology and stay on top of the mind of their consumers and prospects.
If you are a business owner or digital marketer, it is a no brainer that you must use tools for not only having the most optimized web pages for your online presence, but also for boosting your sales on a consistent basis. User engagement is among the most critical areas for you to deliver on these aspects, and tools like ClickFunnels give you the arsenal to maintain high levels of engagement.
While most alternatives to ClickFunnels have their strengths in one or two focus areas - primarily in creating wonderful landing pages - ClickFunnels is the most comprehensive tool that takes every stage of the user's journey into account. The sales funnels created using ClickFunnels give you a bird's eye view of every activity and engagement going on within your business, while allowing you to deep dive into specifics so that every little thing that can potentially stunt or slow your growth down can be identified and dealt with.
