Click Funnels has generated a lot of interest in the IM community recently. It has been touted as the next big thing, with compelling reviews online. The worst people seem to be saying is that it is too expensive (but more on that later) – and this even by veteran IM cynics in the Warrior forum.
What caught my attention was how one testimonial on the sales page described Click Funnels as a quantum move for his business; and more broadly, for the online marketing world.
Quantum is a dramatic word. Was it a hyperbole?
When I read the sales page, I realised how accurate this analysis was about what the debut of Click Funnels means in the world of Internet Marketing.
This is what has happened, in my opinion: why it could even be described as a quantum “leap”.
THE QUANTUM LEAP: SEEN IN TERMS OF TRADITIONAL MARKETING AND ONLINE MARKETING.
To understand this, you need to have a broader view of marketing in the context of evolving consumer needs, and life-style realities and constraints. Most importantly, you need to grasp how the concepts of the sales funnel and the upsell exploit consumer demand and interest – which might, or might not, be in their real interests. How entrepreneurs perceive these realities, and use them, is all a question of personal integrity. However, what is an established retail fact, on or offline, is that this is where businesses make most of their money, whatever their model might be. Understanding these concepts, therefore, is the first essential step for online success, whatever you might be selling.
In what now seems almost like “those distant days gone by”, shopping in the mall or on Main Street was an outing for the family. It was great fun; maybe because there was no other alternative at the time.
Recently I saw some eerie pictures of dozens of deserted malls in America on the Internet. It was striking. Prime retail space, desolate and abandoned to the weeds, simply because consumers had lost all interest.
What happened?
Could it have been this? Consumers stuck with malls and Main Street because that was all there was. If they had been honest, might they have admitted that it was time-consuming to hustle the family in the car and head off to the mall; frequently to be annoyed by sales people whose job depended on them getting that golden upsell. Most consumers dreaded that moment when, once they had bought what they wanted, they would have to endure being convinced that they needed something else as well.
When Internet retail started happening, consumers finally realised that mall life was not all that entertaining, after all. Suddenly, the unpleasant cracks and downsides became more apparent.
Ebay was probably the first “retailer” to make a significant impact, and convince consumers that all their needs could be met online. Not only was participating in a giant auction from the comfort of your own living room quite exciting, but the idea that there was a platform which, over a spectrum offered, at one end a huge garage sale, and at the other end, a sales platform for luxury watches, appealed to a wide range of people who wanted to earn some money. This was whether they were making extra money with a passion, or just to make a little extra from odds and ends on the side.
When they got bored with having to wait for the end of the auction, and then maybe losing the bid, the “buy it now” option became more comfortable, and less time consuming, than waiting for days for the end of the bid. And that is exactly the point. Life seemed to have become so frenetic, that people really didn’t want to spend hours shopping anywhere. It was a big drain on the little spare time they had to enjoy a life-style that was more satisfying – heading for the wilderness, yachting – whatever their income permitted. The consensus seemed to be that shopping was fun enough for a while, but there were many other activities which were more satisfying, and had assumed greater life-style priority.
Serious retailers started seeing the benefits. They realised they had a captive audience. So, when Amazon came up with its conglomerate retail model, many people leapt in – not only small retailers, but also bigger ones. We are at the point now where so many people, almost in every part of the world, trust Amazon, that no serious retailers can afford not to have a presence there, to capture consumer attention where it’s happening virtually.
But what Amazon really did was change the whole sales funnel and upsell model. Their platform was so superbly designed that no-one seemed to want to leave without buying something else as well.
Again, what happened?
The upsell had always been the most annoying aspect of Main Street marketing. How did it suddenly become the most attractive?
Amazon changed the upsell this way: “people just like you, have recently also bought this”. In a consumer society which is obsessed with being like the Joneses, knowing exactly what they had bought, in real time, became irresistible. Impulse buying became a runaway phenomenon, which some even classified as a new disorder, as the mental health experts are so quick to do.
Following the upsell trail on Amazon became an obsession. For retailers it became evident that it emphatically worked.
I admit, from my own experience, that it is difficult to resist. I have an interest in natural remedies, and am often caught in a moment of impulsive window shopping on Amazon I had not actually planned, because the storefront artfully leads you on from one exciting new discovery to another, in whatever niche you are interested in.
This is the real power of the upsell, which became Amazon’s trademark in the retail world. This is also the power of Click Funnels, which I will explain later, and why it is so relevant to this discussion.
Everyone was shopping on Amazon, so any aspiring entrepreneur could not help noticing two things: that the global market was an enviably desirable retail target, and that the upsell worked, and meant potentially unrestricted profits.
Everyone loved Amazon. Some were able to exploit this potential; but many were left out because their business did not fit into the Amazon model. But the hunger grew, as so many aspiring businessmen realised that the world could be their oyster, but they just didn’t know how to open it. Many could not risk going online due to lack of know-how, and expensive experts and visual designers. The possibility of failure was still too high.
What happened next was the software revolution. The geeks who had sold their services to high- end companies started repurposing their ideas for the general consumer market. They focussed particularly on the IM market, since it was evident what a hungry niche this had become. Software merged with IM ideas; and products like Leadpages and OptimisePress were born. The result was the ability to create landing pages and sales funnels, without having to know all about the coding; and the ability to do so at a cost that was not a potentially crippling liability.
The gamble that remained was time and energy; there was a learning curve and multiple tasks to achieve, before getting the desired results. This was a phase where only the busy beavers jumped in: those entrepreneurs who had long envisioned and calculated their potential success, and just couldn’t wait anymore – even though it took up hours of their time.
The reality remained that too many people who would have benefited from being online couldn’t find that time to dedicate, and carry through with, the whole online marketing concept from beginning to end, when it was only available in this form.
THE RADICAL SHIFT
In two words – Click Funnels.
If you have ever wanted to get online quickly, easily and effectively, and get the Internet thing done in a hurry, you need to read on – because this is exactly what Click Funnels has made possible. If you can point a mouse and click, the world to your oyster has just opened. This is what all those aspiring Internet millionaires had been so breathlessly waiting for.
Bear these two points in mind before reading on:
It is so easy that you could assign the task to your twelve-year-old.
Some people complain about the monthly cost. The real question is this: “would you buy a $1000 real estate calculator to make a few million dollars? “. Now, what has become as established fact is that in the world of online global consumerism you won’t even need that much to potentially make an unrestricted income.
That’s just how powerful Click Funnels is. If you think I’m exaggerating, read on…
This is what Click Funnels can do for you, if you are able to point and click a mouse. It’s that simple and do-able.
There are many things that Click Funnels has done to revolutionise marketing for almost anyone – from writers to retailers. Put in a nutshell: you can sell almost anything online, and set up the whole funnel in a way that is fast, easy and customisable. Leadpages and company could do this for you as well; but not so fast, not as easily, and definitely not in a way that you could create your online presence identifiably, and uniquely, as your own.
As with Leadpages and company, there is no coding and no techie knowledge needed. The difference is that with the others you needed 10 or more services to set it all up. With Click Funnels, you just need Click Funnels.
The drag and drop editor is remarkably easy to use. With it you can practically design your own landing pages; or use existing templates, if you are feeling lazy. Whichever you use, the end result has been expertly designed for high conversion. With a few clicks, dragging and dropping, you have a perfect sales platform, funnel, as well as follow up.
This all adds up to more than awesome, just by itself. But as if this were not enough, you can follow all your targets, and turn them into individual contacts. This next point has so much power, you should really stop and contemplate it for a minute or two, to fully understand what this could mean for you.
A website owner might boast of a million visitors a month. Before Click Funnels everyone was impressed. What Click Funnels makes possible is to turn those million visitors from a number into personal individual contacts. This is beyond awesome, it is revolutionary. Can you imagine the earning potential in being able to contact each one of the hot leads who has expressed interest in your product, very personally and individually, and carry on an ongoing conversation with them? Again, I invite you to sit down a while (you might have to, when the idea really impacts you !), and just imagine that. It’s worth the time.
These are just the points that make it a winner. There are a lot more features which make it an Olympic winner. If you’re so new to this that you don’t even know how to drive traffic to your site, the more expensive plan allows you to set up your own affiliate platform very easily, and track everything.
You can test drive it free for 14 days, if you have any doubts.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re an author or businessman; if you have anything to sell you really need to have a look at this, if, until now, you have avoided the Internet because it’s just too techie and time-consuming. This is your ship that has come in. Might it even be a luxury yacht? Could it be laden with gold? Would you honestly not stroll down to the harbour, at least to have a look at it – since you’ve been waiting for it for so long, and hauling the gold away could be so super easy?