There are hundreds of thousands of limitless ways to make money online, and being an affiliate marketer is one of the more lucrative options.
However, becoming an affiliate marketer also has its ups and downs, especially because the tools available have varying efficiency.
If you are looking for a reliable tool for generating sales and building high-converting websites, ClickFunnels is one of the best choices… But to a newbie, the platform can be extremely daunting at first glance.
So in this blog post, we are going to show you how to use ClickFunnels for affiliate marketing and discuss how you can generate income through the use of something known as “affiliate funnels”.
What Is ClickFunnels?
ClickFunnels is a platform worth knowing about and learning about if you want to start making money online through affiliate marketing or product sales. It is a company that boasts more than $100 million in sales, and it has around 60,000 subscribers using its software services.
As a tool, ClickFunnels helps businesses and marketers automate their entire sales processes to control each stage of each customer’s purchasing journey. You can build websites, landing pages, opt-in pages, squeeze pages, webinars, and many others.
Collectively, all of these items constitute sales funnels, which contain the processes that potential customers will have to go through to make a purchase. In other words, ClickFunnels is a one-stop shop for online marketing solutions.
It offers web hosting, content management, web analytics, email autoresponders, online shopping cart building, page building, and other marketing tools.
And what’s more, is that all of the ClickFunnels tools include an extensive database of customizable templates so that you can build sales funnels with much ease.
How Does ClickFunnels Work?
Unlike many traditional online marketing tools, ClickFunnels does not require the users to have extensive technical knowledge of programming.
You can set up sales funnels to convert visitors to prospective buyers with just a few clicks. Once set up, you can automate the platform to approach prospects and turn them into paying customers.
ClickFunnels allows you to keep track of the appearance of every page built into each funnel you make. Furthermore, it helps you collect payments on every sale that your funnel generates.
How Does an Affiliate Funnel Work?
Being an affiliate marketer means you don’t have to create your own products because you make money selling other people’s products.
At ClickFunnels, you don’t have to build complete sales funnels covering all the tools that generate prospect awareness and interest and customer decision-making and purchasing. Instead, you can profit from building an affiliate funnel, which can be just a small part of an entire sales funnel.
With an affiliate funnel, you can integrate buyer psychology, build loyalty and trust, provide long-term value, and upsell products and services.
If you set it up correctly, ClickFunnels will help you collect commissions on every sale routed through your funnels.
How to Set Up a ClickFunnels Account
To take advantage of ClickFunnel’s useful tools, you must register for a ClickFunnels account.
Like other online marketing tools, ClickFunnel offers its services for a price, so you should find some time to understand it beforehand.
Fortunately for you, ClickFunnels offers a 14-day free trial, which you can use to get familiar with the platform before starting to pay for it.
Here are the steps:
Step 1: Visit The Website
Head on over the clickfunnels.com. As you open the webpage, you will find information about sales funnels and a list of offerings, features, and tools available.
At first glance, it will look much like any other online marketing website.
Step 2: Click The “Free Trial” Option
As you browse, you will notice a big blue button jotting the page in at least eight positions from top to bottom.
It will read “Start Free 14-Day Trial Now. Start Building Your First Funnel Right Now!”
To proceed to the next step, click on one of these buttons to be directed to the account setup page.
Step 3: Input All Necessary Details
The website will ask for your name, email address, and home or business address.
Step 4: Input Payment Details
At the bottom of the personal information input page, the website will ask for your credit card number and its expiration date. You can also use a debit card as long as its issuing bank allows online transactions.
Below the card details input field, you will find a checkbox enabling you to avail of the 14-day free trial.
Don’t forget to tick this box before clicking on the “Start Your Free Trial” button.
Step 5: Choose a Plan
The next page will ask you to choose between regular and Platinum plans.
Since you want to try all the services available, you’ll want to choose the Platinum plan. In any case, you can end your subscription by cancelling at any time.
Step 6: Enter Your Dashboard and Begin The Trial
Once you have completed all the required inputs, the website will direct you to your dashboard. Here is where you access all the tools necessary for creating a funnel.
How to Use ClickFunnels For Affiliate Marketing
With the free trial on a Platinum ClickFunnels account, you can enter the fray where thousands of entrepreneurs generate significant income. Use the following procedure to get the ball rolling:
Step 1: Choose a Product
In the ClickFunnels Affiliate Dashboard, affiliate products are available for promotion. For starters, choose a product that piques your interest, as it will be much easier to promote on your end.
If you need a tip, products that offer free training programs (like Commission Academy) have higher chances of converting website visitors into prospects.
This is because free training programs give customers the option to try out services or products before actually purchasing them.
As a general rule, collect the email addresses of every visitor and send them occasional emails to progressively foster interest.
Step 2: Create a Funnel
Once you have selected a product, you can build your funnel through the ClickFunnel Dashboard.
Remember that a funnel should only have two pages leading to the final sales page. They should include a squeeze, opt-in, or landing page and a bridge or thank you page.
With just these two pages, you have better chances of selling your chosen affiliate product.
Click on “Create a New Funnel” to start from scratch, or click on “Start Cookbook” to choose from 22 different ready-made funnel templates.
Step 3: Link the Pages
After creating the landing and thank you pages, don’t forget to link the two. Paste the URL thank you page to the corresponding field on the editor of the landing page.
Step 4: Generate Traffic
Even with the landing and thank you pages, your funnel is not yet complete. Of course, these pages will be useless without traffic flowing into them.
The best way to generate traffic for your funnel is to start an email campaign.
A successful email campaign involves preparing a list, drafting emails, and creating an automation workflow.
Mailing List
Your list will have to be a compilation of the email addresses of potential prospects. Build your mailing list from the ground up, and be sure that all the email addresses you add are authentic.
Email Drafts
Once you have compiled a substantial mailing list, you will need at least two types of messages for them.
The first message goes to the email addresses of every visitor who opts in on the landing page. On the other hand, the second message is a retargeting mechanism.
It goes to the email address of someone who opens the message but does not click the link within.
While ClickFunnels provides several email templates, you can revise them to make more personalized versions.
Automation
As your mailing list gets larger, sending email messages without automation would be highly impractical and, in most cases, even impossible. If you need email automation software that works well with ClickFunnels, check out GetResponse.
It features tools for setting up automatic mail sending based on your needs.
With such tools, you can set the duration upon which a particular email message pushes out to your mailing list.
Step 5: Keep Your Funnel Up-To-Date
You’re all set with a product, a funnel, and some traffic. However, it would be best to keep your landing and thank you pages up-to-date and in tune with the products you are trying to promote.
Doing so ensures that your promotions have accurate content and that your prospects are looking at the right products.
Free Affiliate Marketing Using ClickFunnels
If you don’t want to spend money on ClickFunnels Plans and still want to do affiliate marketing, you can become a ClickFunnels affiliate.
Instead of using the platform to upsell other peoples’ products and services, you can offer the ClickFunnels platform itself. All you need is a list of contacts and some skills for driving traffic to ads.
Since ClickFunnels is a great company, there shouldn’t be any problems promoting it. The ClickFunnels Affiliate Program offers up to 40 percent in commissions on referrals to the platform.
Generating Income Through ClickFunnels
Creating successful affiliate funnels isn’t as easy as many programs like to lead you towards believing as it requires lots of testing and strategizing for correct implementation. However, thankfully, you don’t have to spend so much time learning how to use ClickFunnels for affiliate marketing.
It is one of the most straightforward tools for generating sales funnels, and it doesn’t matter if you are a beginner.
But rather than going at it blindly & making guesses at what will work or what won’t work, we recommend that you take advantage of our free training & let us help you out.
In our free training, we explain the methods that we personally use to generate traffic & sales online & we share insights into how you can actually get more of your visitors to convert into sales.
So if you’d like to shortcut your way to success with affiliate funnels, be sure to check out our free training.
