If you’re looking for an effective way to streamline your online sales process, you may have come across ClickFunnels. Being actively involved in funnels, I know that ClickFunnels has been around since 2014, and many businesses have been using it since then to create sales funnels.
As someone who has been using ClickFunnels specifically for funnels since 2018, I can attest to its power and effectiveness.
While a website is often the go-to choice for establishing an online presence, there are other options available, including the marketing automation tool called ClickFunnels.
ClickFunnels is a powerful all-marketing tool that allows businesses to create sales funnels and drive conversions, but can it really replace your website?
In this article, we’ll explore the benefits and limitations of using ClickFunnels as a website replacement and help you determine if it’s the right choice for your business.
What is ClickFunnels?
ClickFunnels is a popular all-marketing tool designed to help businesses create effective sales funnels quickly and easily.
ClickFunnels also help generate leads, sell products, and several more amazing things you can think of when it comes to scaling an online business. It provides a variety of customizable templates that businesses can use to create landing pages, opt-in pages, order forms, and other types of pages needed for a sales funnel.
ClickFunnels as an all-in-one online platform is for entrepreneurs who prefer simplicity over using multiple tools for different purposes. Using multiple tools can make you confused, especially if these many tools serve different purposes.
With ClickFunnels, you can build your website from scratch, generate leads, make sales, grow your email list, and create a brand. It is more than just a sales funnel builder or marketing automation tool.
You may have been curious and read about ClickFunnels to see how it works and what it does. So now you want to know if ClickFunnels can replace your website. Is it better to use it than your regular website?
I’ll answer that but before I do so, let me show you what a website is and what a sales funnel is so you know the difference. You’ll see if you need a website, a sales funnel, or both.
What is a Website?
A website is a collection of interlinked web pages that share a single domain name. Websites can be created and maintained by an individual, group, business, or organization to serve a variety of purposes.
Website home pages showcase your brand, products, and services, while ClickFunnels landing pages focus on prompting visitors to take action.
Having a website is very important for boosting your online presence and building trust. Your target audience uses your website to know more about your company, products, services, and so on. If you don’t already have a website for your business, you are making a big mistake.
However, it is one thing to have a website and it is another thing to have a website that generates traffic. Sadly, a major percentage of the websites on the internet do not generate any traffic.
So how do you boost traffic on your website? You need to have a well-targeted sales funnel. Let’s look at what a sales funnel is.
What is a Sales Funnel?
As stated earlier, a sales funnel is very important when it comes to scaling your business. It is a series of steps that a potential customer goes through to become a paying customer.
A sales funnel is the marketing platform that potential customers go through on their way to purchase. It is like a guide that helps a visitor to become a paying customer. A sales funnel has 3 parts: top of the funnel (TOFU), middle of the funnel (MOFU), and bottom of the funnel (BOFU).
A sales funnel is extremely important for your business because it helps you to understand the thoughts of potential customers and their purchasing patterns. These insights also help you to invest in the right marketing activities and channels, creating relevant messages during each stage.
Sales funnel stages include awareness, interest, decision, and action.
Now let’s take a look at how these stages work:
Stage 1: Awareness
The first stage of the sales funnel is called the “awareness” stage because it’s the stage where people first become aware of your business, product, or service. People can be aware of your product or the service you offer through your advertisement, social media, or word of mouth.
The rate at which people scale down the sales funnels and the reason behind why they scale depends on how you sell and market your product online.
On the other hand, the people you should pay more attention to are those in the middle leads and lower sales funnel stages. They are no longer just aware, they are now interested.
Stage 2: Interest
The moment people get to learn about your brand, they will find out the worth of your brand based on their interest level. They will consider if what your brand has to offer matches the solution they require.
If these people are satisfied with what your brand has to offer, they obviously will have to do more research.
Stage 3: Decision
After getting all the information they need about your company, then the interested individual will dig deeper into your pricing and packaging options. Sales pages, webinars, and during these processes, calls are helpful to sway the individual to make a purchase.
Stage 4: Action
All the product and services your business has to offer comes down to this stage. The essence of your sales funnel is to generate more leads and possibly “paying customers”. The action you want them to take can be to type in their email address, subscribe to your newsletter, book a slot, or purchase your business.
Related: ClickFunnels vs WordPress
Can ClickFunnels Replace Your Website?
The straightforward answer is no. ClickFunnels can be a valuable all-in-one sales and marketing automation addition to your website. But it cannot replace your website.
However, it can 100% be used together with your website to help you increase your conversions. This means that you can use ClickFunnels to increase your website traffic and generate more sales (or leads).
Your website is still the foundation of your online presence and it is the platform where you get to drive most of your traffic. When people check you online, they want to see your website, not your ClickFunnels account. Your website makes the first impression.
ClickFunnels on the other hand is an additional value to your website. You can use it to create beautiful, high-converting landing pages that can drive traffic to your website and help you increase conversions
In addition, you can also create and manage email marketing campaigns.
I love ClickFunnels a lot because it specifically targets your audience. It ensures you get results. I’m not trying to be biased or anything but I have been an avid ClickFunnels user for years now, so I’m talking from experience.
A Sales Funnel vs Website (Comparison Table)
| Sales Funnel | Website |
|---|---|
| Typically includes a home page, about page, product or service pages, and contact page | A collection of web pages that provide information about a business or organization |
| Focused on converting leads into customers | Focused on providing information and establishing a web presence |
| Typically includes landing pages, lead magnets, email marketing, and sales pages | Typically includes home page, about page, product or service pages, and contact page |
| Provides a clear path for customers to follow | Provides a broad overview of a business or organization |
| Helps businesses to identify and target potential customers | Helps businesses to establish credibility and showcase their products or services |
| Often used in conjunction with advertising campaigns | Often used as a marketing tool to drive traffic and generate leads |
| Can be optimized and improved over time to increase conversions | Can be optimized and improved over time to improve user experience and search engine rankings |
| Requires ongoing maintenance and updates to remain effective | Requires ongoing maintenance and updates to remain relevant and up-to-date |
Can You Use ClickFunnels With Your Website?
Of course. ClickFunnels is an excellent marketing automation software that increases your sales and conversion. To get more traffic, you need ClickFunnels.
You don’t want your website to be among the thousands of websites that have very little to no traffic.
Sorry to say but such websites are useless. What ClickFunnels does is make your website stand out. You will definitely enjoy the best of both worlds if you use ClickFunnels with your website.
Look at it this way, your website is the final destination your customers will go to after going through the funnel. Any action you take will be on your website. But the work of ClickFunnels is to get them so interested that they are ready to take any action you want them to take.
Finally, you should know that ClickFunnels is a WEB PAGE BUILDER, not a website. Don’t get it twisted.
ClickFunnels as a Sales Funnels Website
If you are looking for a simpler website that shows specific information about your offer (product or service), then you can use ClickFunnels. ClickFunnels allows you to create beautiful landing pages for your business. You can also create a blog.
Generally, ClickFunnels is so good that you can build a targeted website within minutes, even if you don’t know how to code. All you have to do is use the drag-and-drop editor feature to edit the website templates. The website from ClickFunnels will consist of your landing page, product page, and maybe an about page too.
The website you created isn’t just a website, it’s also a sales funnel.
How To Build a ClickFunnels Website
A ClickFunnels website is made up of several well-designed sales funnels that guide your customer’s journey to purchase your product. The information in the funnels is specific and directly addresses what the customers need. Unlike the traditional website, there are no unnecessary side distractions.
The website builder feature is one of the free features you’ll get when you sign up ClickFunnels. If you are using the 14-day or 30-day free trial, you can still access this feature.
Now, let’s get right into how you can build a ClickFunnels website.
Step 1: Get Your ClickFunnels Account
I know this one is a no-brainer but I still have to mention it. You CANNOT build a ClickFunnels website if you do not have a ClickFunnels account.
If you are using ClickFunnels for the first time, I would advise you to use ClickFunnels 2.0.
This is because the ClickFunnels 2.0 has better features and is more updated than the ClickFunnels Classic. The ClickFunnels Classic will soon be outdated because all updates and advancements are made towards the ClickFunnels 2.0, the creators said so themselves.
You should sign up for the ClickFunnels 2.0 account through Your First Funnel Challenge. This will give you access to a ClickFunnels 30-day free trial. That is enough time to create your website and see results.
Signing up directly will only give you access to the 14-day free trial. It’s not enough to see better results from your website. There is also a 30-day money-back guarantee. So you can enjoy ClickFunnels 2.0 for 60 days without worrying about your money.
You can check out my detailed ClickFunnel 2.0 review to get more information before creating your account.
Step 2: Choose a Template
Once you have signed up for an account, you can choose a template to use for your website. ClickFunnels offers a wide range of templates, so you can choose one that best suits your needs. You can also customize the template to your liking.
Step 3: Customize Your Website
After choosing a template, you can begin customizing your website. You can add text, images, videos, and other elements to make your website look unique. ClickFunnels has a user-friendly drag-and-drop editor that makes it easy to add and arrange elements on your website
Step 4: Add The Funnel To Your Domain
You can now add the loaded funnel to your domain. If you want to rename your domain name, you can do so. Just go to “Settings” and click on “Domain”. Then change the name and click “Save”.
Step 5: Name All Your Pages
You have to name all your pages for easy navigation. When a visitor first comes to your website, they want to know what page they are on. You can rename the first page as “Home”, your product page as “Product”, and so on.
On each page, click on “Settings”, then click on “Edit Page”. Update the name on both the “Name” and “Path” fields. Then click “Update”.
In the preview, you’ll see it as yourdomain.com/pagename. For example, let’s say your domain name is “mybabyshoes.com” and you renamed the page to “home”, you’ll see “mybabyshoes.com/home”. When you change the other page names, you’ll see something very similar in the preview.
If you wish to add a new page, you can click on “Add New Step”.
Step 6: Set Up Your Sales Funnel
ClickFunnels is primarily designed to help you create sales funnels, which are a series of pages that guide your visitors toward a specific goal. You can use ClickFunnels to create a sales funnel for your website, such as a lead generation funnel, a webinar funnel, or a product launch funnel.
Step 7: Publish Your Website
Once you have customized your website and set up your sales funnel, you can publish your website to the internet. You can use your own custom domain name or the unique domain name ClickFunnels gave you.
Note: One important thing to note about building a ClickFunnels website is that you do not need to have any coding experience. You can still create a killer website even if you are just a beginner.
Benefits of ClickFunnels For Your Website
1. It Increases Your Visitor-to-Customer Conversion Rate
ClickFunnels helps you focus on creating web pages and funnels that are goal-oriented. A traditional website is filled with distractions and a visitor may end up not taking any reasonable action, except leaving. ClickFunnels ensures your funnels are more targeted, especially with a specific call to action.
ClickFunnels helps you design sales funnels that focus on one specific goal, which is getting the visitor to take the desired action needed.
2. It Helps Generate Traffic
A website is only successful if it has traffic. It makes no sense to have a website that attracts just 2 visitors every 3 or 4 months. If this is you, I’m sorry but your website will be drowning in page 2 of the search engine. Almost nobody checks out page 2, except if they are very desperate.
Using ClickFunnels, and its incredible marketing features, you can generate high traffic to your site every week.
3. It Allows You to Nurture Each Lead
ClickFunnels is designed in such a way that it can help you track each lead and monitor their progress journey. When a visitor gets confused and drops halfway, you can follow them up with personalized emails, etc. You can also guide the interested leads to the final part of the journey.
Pros & Cons of Using ClickFunnels as a Website Builder
Pros:
- It is mobile-friendly
- It is cost-effective. You don’t have to pay for domain main and hosting.
- You don’t need to have coding expertise to create an amazing ClickFunnels website
- Can duplicate pages easily
- WordPress Plugin allows you to add ClickFunnels funnels to WordPress sites
Cons:
- Pricing plans are quite expensive – not affordable for small businesses
Conclusion
ClickFunnels does not replace your website but it can modify it so it becomes more effective. The software can add life to your traditional website and help you attract more customers. While website home pages present visitors with the brand, products, and services which you offer, ClickFunnels landing pages, on the other hand, have the main goal of presenting visitors with a call to action.
FAQs
Does ClickFunnels Host Websites?
Yes, it does. It provides a hosting service for your website, so you don’t have to use 3rd party hosting services. You can also register your domain through ClickFunnels. If you want to get a domain, no need to purchase from a 3rd party either. Your ClickFunnels subscription plan covers the price of a domain. So you can get it for free.
Is ClickFunnels Better Than Websites?
In simple terms, Yes it is. Funnels are a lot specific in terms of the goals they want to achieve and they also make sure they get to the target audience. On the other hand, a traditional website can be very distracting and include different CTAs that can get the visitor confused. The best thing to do is to use both your website and ClickFunnels together.
Do You Need a Website To Use ClickFunnels?
Yes, you do. Never forget that your website is still the foundation of your presence online. It is the platform where you get to drive most of your traffic. While on the other hand, ClickFunnels is an added value to your website.
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