There is an endless amount of information about landing pages, funnels, and marketing automation out there. ClickFunnels is the best known “drag and drop” marketing funnel software and for good reason because it rocks. I personally believe that all companies would benefit from a well-tuned marketing funnel, so ClickFunnels does really make sense for every business. Now all of that sounds good and well. However, I see a HUGE reoccurring problem with the expectations of many of the clients that I work with. I am going to explore (and debunk) some of the biggest myths that I hear and see around marketing funnels. As well as the expectations that people have with them.
Myth #1 – Build It and they will come.
To put it bluntly, this is a steaming load of cow crap. Building a funnel that functions perfectly doesn’t mean that your business is going to explode overnight. Setting up a funnel is a whole lot better than just talking about it, but it is only the first step in a larger process. Most businesses also do not have enough organic traffic to jump-start and sustain the flow of people through a funnel either. If people aren’t entering the funnel, you aren’t going to increase your leads or sales. You need to get people in to get results out. Make sense?
Myth #2 – Designing the perfect funnel is going to happen the first time.
This is possible, BUT highly unlikely. One thing that I like about building a custom funnel is that you can split test each page and figure out what people are responding to the best. Testing and optimizing are extremely important processes in order to get the best results but this takes time. The more traffic that moves through the funnel, the quicker you can get stats and conversion data. Significant traffic usually requires paid ads and time, but we will talk more about that later. It always amazes me that the things that are expected to do well, often times do not. On the other end, the things that you don’t expect much from can do really well. The best of advice that I can give any client is to give a new funnel time to be thoroughly tested and optimized. Setting the correct expectations up front will make all the difference in the world. Here comes the big takeaway. Set realistic expectations for your marketing.
Myth #3 – A custom domain isn’t really needed.
A custom domain runs about $20/year and this includes privacy protection. It is a tiny price to pay for a legitimate looking funnel and it looks much better for running paid ads too. The second reason that I just gave you is a strong enough reason by itself. Have you ever heard the saying that it is all about the little things? Marketing is no exception!
Myth #4 – 30 days should be plenty of time to get everything figured out.
Believe me, as a small business owner myself, I understand how budgets affect everything that you do with your marketing. To get a marketing funnel up and running can take several weeks in itself. Funnels have integrations with other software, custom domains, upsells, downsells, and an endless amount of details that need to be created and tweaked. A lot of times the funnel building process allows for a lot of creativity and ideas and opinions can change along the way. Once a funnel is ready for traffic, it’s time to set up the paid ads whether from Facebook or Google or both. Testing and adjusting ads can take some time as well. There is no way around this and at some point, you need to hit go and see what happens. Once you have data, you can make adjustments and go from there. A better timeline would be 90 days to get the ads and the funnel figured out.
Myth #5 – The more information that I can put onto a page, the better.
Less is more. I am not suggesting that long-form sales copy doesn’t work because I know that it does. I am suggesting that you don’t add content, images, and videos just for the sake of doing so. My advice to anyone is to start simple and then split test to determine what people are responding the best. Most of the best converting funnels that I have ever seen (30% or better) have been very simple in nature. You can do a lot with a 3 to 4 step funnel, so start there and see what happens.
I hope that this has given you a fresh perspective and helps you on your quest for building your next marketing funnel.