Clickfunnels is being advertised by just about every affiliate marketer and online guru I know. I however am not someone who is promoting it. Let me explain why.
Quick Report:
Name: Click Funnels by Russell Brunson.
Price: Free 2 week trial, with one up-sell during registration for $47 (one time). After the 2 week trial, there are 3 levels of this program you can be part of, all of which will charge you every month. There’s the personal level for $37/month, then startup for $97/month and finally enterprise for $297/month.
Note: I believe the $37/month membership is no longer around.
Overall Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.
It has very beautiful designs and lots of micro niche oriented templates that are perfectly suited for a specific group of people: Experienced marketers who HAVE money.
The issue though is that if you are neither experienced nor have money, that Click Funnels might be a bit much for you. The people who use it best are experienced email list builders, online gurus and people who have the extra $97-$297 to spend.
I don’t use or promote Click Funnels, even though I think it’s great for CERTAIN users. But if you are a beginner, I don’t recommend starting an online business with Click Funnels (not yet at least).
There are alternatives which cost much less, this is a very high quality product that does make life easier for first time online business owners…
Click Funnels in a nutshell:
Click Funnels is basically a program that has ready made templates you can use for a bunch of different sales funnels you have set up within your business. There’s 100’s to choose from and you can use sub domains on the Click Funnels site to run your own personal campaigns.
Analytical tools are also included to help you monitor traffic, how many people sign up to your funnel and more. Overall, most of the funnels are gorgeous.
Video tutorials are very well done and most of the work just involves editing out the default text in the templates and adding your own. Most of the hard work is done by the program (graphics, videos, sign up buttons).
This program is meant to be used with autoresponders like Aweber. You can use the Click Funnel to bring in traffic and collect an email list using the autoresponder.
I was very impressed by this program as well as the sales page because really Russell reveals everything about the program which makes this whole product very transparent from the start.
Even people like Alex Becker have recommended this program to people like myself. I went through Alex’s Market Hero system and one of the things he does “advise” is to get Click Funnels.
I’m not going to say that Click Funnels is perfect for everyone who has an online business, because in my opinion it isn’t and I believe myself to be one of those people.
The 7 different funnels you can create with this program:
Many different sales funnels exist and the great thing about this program is that it covers probably all of them, at least the most important ones. I want to give a brief summary of each funnel in case you are currently running a business for which it may be useful for.
Odds are, this program will suit that, but after this section I’ll explain the alternative ways you can go about making your own funnels without relying on programs like this.
1. Opt-in funnel: This is the most common type of funnel you’ll see online. You basically have 1 page where people sign up to receive email updates.
2. Sales funnel: Sales funnels are types of funnels are meant to either collect an email address and then sell immediately to the person, or you can set this up as a page where people sign up after a product is purchased.
3. Webinar funnel: People sign up to an email list to be notified of an upcoming webinar. Webinars are becoming a very popular marketing incentive used to collect leads.
4. Auto webinar funnel: Almost identical to the previous one, but this is meant to have a recorded webinar be used instead of a live one (which is the case for #3). This makes it unnecessary to run a live webinar over and over and you can use the recorded one to keep collecting opt-ins.
5. Membership Funnel: These types of things are used to maybe provide people with some sort of training or lessons on a specific niche (like online marketing).
6. Launch Funnel: Great to use for products you create and are getting ready to launch. You can use this for people waiting to buy it, as well as affiliates who are ready to promote the product.
7. Custom Funnel: This one combines the previous 6 elements you saw and helps you customize more.
Click Funnels: Whose it for and not for?
Every product, program has it’s own group of people who it would be best suited for it and Click Funnels definitely has that, but it also has those who this program might not be suitable for.
Here are people who will benefit from this product:
1) People who have an online business and run multiple campaigns, sales pages. These are experienced veterans who understand how sales funnels work and need multiple ones prepared for them right away so they can test them on their projects and need something set up quickly.
2) People who are OK with paying the high prices for this program. There are also training programs Russell has released to help you to learn how to use CF, namely the Affiliate Bootcamp, and the One Way Funnel Challenge, each of which I added a link to since I also reviewed them.
People who this product might not be perfect for:
1) You can make your own opt-in pages uses the same autoresponder services like Aweber. They do have their own web forms set up that while not as pretty as Click Funnels are still in my opinion more than enough to get people signing up. It’s also cheaper.
2) People who are not involved with email marketing of any kind, including beginners to the whole business. I don’t do email marketing as often anymore so this product would just cost me money to use.
3) I find people who promote Click Funnels make it sound like it’s mandatory for online success, when on the back end, they make big monthly commissions from promoting it, but without properly knowing HOW to use it (and it can make you great money), beginners may have time profiting with this system.
It’s a very advanced online marketing tool, and in my opinion, only best used by very experienced marketers, not beginners.
With the websites I have that do deal with email marketing, I find it’s enough to have a normal web form in place.
Final Rating: Click Funnels
Green Light
5 out of 10 stars. If you fit into the group of people that can pay for this and can use this product, then it’ll really help you out.
BUT if you’re not, try NOT to get caught up with all the marketing hype it’s affiliates try to ensnare you with. There’s this “stereotype” that I personally see VERY often by CF promoters, which make it sound like if you just buy CF and make easy funnels, that the money will come in easily.
It’s WAY more complex and harder than that believe me…
My Final Thoughts:
I have seen multiple programs like this one and I have to say, this one is the most convenient and easiest to use. But the biggest point I always make when reviewing these types of programs is that there’s no point in using them unless you have seasoned experience with online marketing, and just as well, already have a great campaign working for you.
If you don’t have that, work on that first. Here’s where you can get training on setting up a strong online business.
If you already have that, then Click Funnels will act as the pretty bonus to the business, but again, only for the email marketing part of it.