If you’ve ever heard of ClickFunnels you’ve probably wondered why they are as successful and profitable as they are. Especially so if you look at it from a technological standpoint.
At the technical level, they just provide a way to make landing pages. In theory you could make those same pages using any website building tool. You could use many other solutions. Anything from Wix, Squarespace all the way to the dozens of WordPress page builder plugins. And you would still be able to build those exact same landing pages you see in the ClickFunnels gallery.
There is nothing special about ClickFunnels at the technical level. However ClickFunnels commands much higher prices than many equally capable tools. And at this point, the brand has become a household name in the marketing world.
So what’s their big secret?
The big secret is that they do not simply focus on the technical side of building a page. They’ve really invested a lot of effort in promoting the concept of a “funnel”. At a technical level a funnel is merely a collection of landing pages (and email sequences). And this is why it looks deceptively simple on the face of it.
However, on a marketing level, an effective funnel is more than this. It is a well put together combination of lead magnets, initial sales offers, one-time-offers, upsells, perfectly timed email automation and follow-ups. In other words its about what you actually put on those landing pages, and in what order.
The other reason they make so much money is that they spend more time trying to educate you how to build a funnel than they do about the technical aspects of using their software. That’s why they make a ton of money from selling a software solution which isn’t that much better than often-cheaper alternatives.
They make most of their money by teaching you how to build funnels using their formula. And to top it all off, the moment you sign up for a ClickFunnels trial, they use that exact same formula to convert you into a paying customer.
Most of their courses, webinars, seminars and courses all center on talking about their one general formula that they recommend to everyone. And their own website uses this formula to get the most money out of you. So you can say it works pretty well.
Chances are you’re leaving a ton of money on the table and don’t even know it, and their funnel formula can help
From working and consulting with many of our clients, I find that most people are under-utilizing what they have to work with. In fact, most people can probably double, triple or even quadruple the money they make by simply re-engineering their funnels. That’s using the same type and amount of traffic that they already use. Just channeling it in a different way.
The formula that ClickFunnels teaches in terms of building funnels centers around a single central goal. It’s all about getting as much profit out of your traffic as possible. And this is done through the timing and nature of the offers that are presented, as well as the email sequences that act as the glue between the different offers.
Most businesses can utilize a ClickFunnels type funnel to boost their profits in a serious way
But what is a ClickFunnels style funnel? Well, you could pay hundreds of dollars to study it from ClickFunnels themselves. They offer this education as an OTO (more on that later). Or you can continue reading this article and learn most of the same formula.
It all starts with getting the email address
Typically a visitor’s first contact with you will be through a landing page that offers some freebie in exchange for their email address. It might be a video course, free eBook or a free trial.
Your landing page explains all the benefits of this free offering, and asks them for their email address. Once they enter their email address, you’ve gotten the most valuable asset you need from them. It’s where most of your profits will come from, but more on that later.
After they enter their email address, you redirect them to an initial offer
The initial sales offer is a page that generally follows an established format. It leads with an intro video where you share your story and your “epiphany moment”. Then you talk about the problems your visitors are facing. And then you promise a solution.
Then you share a bunch of testimonials from people whose problems went away by purchasing your solution to qualify yourself. And then you introduce the offer.
This initial sales offer will always be the lowest-level easy-to-purchase offer you can come up with. In the case of information products, it might be something priced as low as $7. In the case of a service, it might be a free trial that asks for a credit card. This is to ensure the highest possible number of people pulling out a credit card. And that’s where the magic happens.
Note: Not all funnels have the freebie as a first step
In some funnels you will have a freebie lead-capture page. This page asks for their email in exchange for the freebie. And then it redirects people to an initial sales offer after they give you their email. In other funnels you might start out by promoting that initial sales offer directly. You might have seen some big name marketers advertising a $7 eBook on Facebook. Even though you’ve never given them their email address and are not on their list.
There’s pros and cons to both approaches. When you lead with the freebie you will get more email addresses. When your first step is a low-priced item however, people need to at least click the checkout button and fill in their details.
If they purchase the initial item, they are then presented with an OTO
Once they enter in their billing information and click to checkout on the initial low-priced item, they’re immediately presented with a so-called “one-time-offer”. This is usually presented as solving their second most urgent problem. It will be a higher priced item. Whereas the first might have been a $7-$49 offering, the second one might be a $39-$149 offering.
There’s two things going on here from a psychological stand-point.
- This offer is presented as valued at a much higher-level. For example this is a product that is otherwise priced at (for example) $400. But on this page that they’re seeing at the moment it’s priced at just $125 and this is the only time in their life they’ll ever see it priced at $125. If they don’t act right away and add it to their cart, the only way they’ll be able to acquire it in the future is if they do so at a higher price
- They already filled out their billing information and confirmed making a purchase. Their cart only contains the lower priced item, but they’ve already decided that they’re checking out. In an OTO adding the second item typically involves merely checking a box to confirm they want to add it to their existing order. They don’t need to pull out their card or fill in anything again, just check a box
Note: The OTO is sometimes on the same page as the initial offer
In some cases you’re presented with just the initial offer. Only when you click to checkout, do you get redirected to a second page offering the OTO add-on. In other cases however, the OTO is explained on the same page as the lower-priced item.
In such cases the initial page is mostly focused on selling the lower-priced item, and the OTO is mentioned on the same page as an afterthought. The page just has a short description of the OTO upgrade and a checkbox to confirm that you also want to add the OTO to your order before you checkout.
In most cases this will depend on the pricing level of the items. Let’s say the initial item is just $7 and the OTO upgrade is merely an additional $30. In such cases you will see the OTO offered as an add-on that is presented on the same page, often with merely a short description.
If the OTO is however a $150 item, it might require its own separate page to describe all the benefits and reasons to purchase. In that case you will generally see the visitor redirected to the OTO page after they make a decision on the initial offer.
After they make a decision on the OTO, they are then presented with one more high-level offer
Whether they choose to add the OTO to their cart or pass it up, they will still get one more redirect before you process their order. This last offer will revolve around a higher-ticket item. Usually something like hands-on consulting at $997 or $1997.
This last offer might or might not be presented as a “one-time-offer”. Sometimes it will depend on the customer’s answer to their first OTO. Sometimes it will depend on the nature of the offer and your business.
“Follow-up funnels” are where most of your untapped profits lie though
While the funnel formula explained above will be sure to raise your profits, that’s just the start. That is nothing compared to the increased sales you will see when you combine it with “follow-up-funnels”.
What are follow-up-funnels? It’s just a term ClickFunnels came up with to talk about email marketing. However, the name is more than just a clever re-branding of an already existing term.
Yes, it is true that all email-marketing is about “doing follow-up” anyway. Why the need for this additional fancy term then? Why call it “follow-up funnels”? Doesn’t that describe all of email marketing anyway?
The difference is that not all email-marketing is organized in a funnel-like process. The term “Follow up funnels” reminds us that email marketing works best when it’s engineered as a funnel, as opposed to sending random emails without any particular plan or order. In other words, funnel-type thinking helps craft better email-marketing strategies as well.
Follow-up funnels in this strategy try to achieve much the same goals as the initial landing pages
If you try to study ClickFunnels strategies, you will notice that all of their “Follow-up Funnels” follow the same formula. Most of the email sequences (follow up funnels) will try to achieve the same goals as those initial pages we discussed before.
The email sequences will have the goal of getting people through that same overall process. And that means purchasing those same offers which were presented as optional during checkout.
A typical sequence might look something like this
Day 1 – The “welcome and thank you” email
This is the email that tries to set the expectations.
Day 2 – A value giving email
This one engages in storytelling and gives lots of value.
Day 3 – Another value giving email
Includes story telling that ties into a promise that you can solve their problem. This then ties into making an offer.
Day 4 – An email that adds qualification to the mix
It does the same as email 3, but this time adds qualifications before making the offer.
Obviously, you want the sequence to differ based on what they purchased
Now, obviously you will want the sequence to differ based on which items they did or did not purchase. If you want to achieve this in Emercury, you can build a different automation based on on which list they belong to. You would have people who did or didn’t buy a certain product in the appropriate list.
If you want to automate adding them to them to the appropriate list right after purchase, you will need to use an integration. For a list of integration guides, check out our integrations directory.
If you don’t see your shopping cart software in our directory, you can still integrate with Emercury. Just utilize a free Integromat account to connect to any shopping cart you can think of. In fact you can connect most any software solution and automate most any action to result in another action inside your Emercury account. For example, if a person buys product A in your shopping cart software, add them to the ABC list in your Emercury account.
Just check out our guide to integrating ClickFunnels and Emercury through integromat to get a sense or example of how this works.
Pro Tip: Focus on those Followup Funnels
It might seem like an over-simplification, but this article covers almost everything you need to know about the funnels system. You have already gotten the 80-20 of the matter. And if you apply the simple outline and ideas presented here, you will get most of the same results as people studying funnels for months.
You’re better served investing your time in learning more about doing the follow-up, or more specifically, mastering the intricacies of email marketing. In this article we’ve only briefly touched upon all the power that you can get out of email marketing and email marketing automation.
If you want to squeeze the most returns out of your list, be sure to read through our amazing blog right here. We delve into most any subject you’ll need to master in order to boost your profits through email automation (or “follow-up funnels” if you will).
Don’t forget that you also need a quality email automation provider to really get the most out of your email marketing
There’s a plenitude of ways to build your funnels, and whether you do it through ClickFunnels or use a “page builder” solution, in either case you have only solved at best 20% of the equation.
Tip: If you want an easy visual guide on how to build the landing pages in a funnel, look at our guide on building (customizing) a funnel with ClickFunnels. In this guide we use ClickFunnels as the software of choice and show you how to integrate it through Integromat. Most of the things you learn inside will apply to most page builders, where things will follow a largely similar workflow.
Most of your profits, initial sales, up-sells and cross-sells however will come from the quality of your follow-up email marketing (follow-up funnels). And the solution you use to deliver your emails makes a huge difference.
That’s one reason why even the most ardent fans of ClickFunnels avoid the built in follow-up solution. Successful marketers understand the power of a dedicated email solution. They let the email pros handle their email delivery.
Speaking of email pros. There is a reason so many owners of successful big lists are moving to Emercury. We have something in common with ClickFunnels, and that’s the fact that we’re more than just a platform or mere collection of software solutions.
When you join Emercury, you get a business partner
Someone who’s on your side and cares that you get the most out of your emails. We’re renowned for being “obsessed” with email deliverability. That means that your emails actually get delivered to your list.
Most people assume this should be normal and standard practice for email providers. It’s actually not. Most email providers actually don’t care if your emails get delivered or not. They are merely a software platform, which is why they focus so much on providing fancy bells and whistles that look good on a list of features. But they spend almost no time on customer education and helping customers actually get the most out of their platform.
Emercury is different. We actually care that you get the most out of your emails. And that means maximizing your profits in every way possible. The good news is that for a limited time we now offer an Emercury forever-free plan that has almost no feature limitations of any kind.
You get almost every feature that we have. In fact, the forever-free plan is so good in terms of functionality that you can build all the automations that you’ll see us discuss on this blog. That means you can start raking in those follow-up profits long before you even outgrow the free plan.
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Tags: affiliate marketing, clickfunnels, email marketing, integromat, marketing, sales funnels