Imagine waking up each day knowing you’ll get a high-value lead or sale without doing anything.

That’s the power of a strong online presence.

But if you’re not currently investing any meaningful time into building your digital brand, you’re not the only one.

A lot of service providers get enough business via referrals that they neglect building out their online presence. Others selling info products or e-commerce products get enough sales via one of two marketing channels that they’re not investing into other channels either.

So why is building your online presence so important?

Relying on referrals or a single marketing channel is, frankly, a huge risk.

You’re often just one month or one technical issue away from watching your business collapse in front of your eyes.

Starting today, we’re not going to let that happen.

In this post we’ll look at 12 genius ways to build your online presence quickly and effectively, in a way that diversifies the sources of your leads and sales.

We’ll also give you key tips to use each method to get fast, short-term results.

Ready to start?

Let’s dive in!

Not convinced You Need an Online Presence? You’re Not alone

If you’re not completely convinced about investing in an online presence, you’re not alone.

Maybe your business has grown steadily through referrals, or maybe you’ve cracked a single channel (like Facebook ads or PPC) that brings in cash flow.

 If it works, it makes sense not to see online presence as a priority – why spend hours on social media, blog posts, or outreach when you’re already seeing results?

You’re in good company with this mindset.

Let’s look at some stats:

• 60% of small business owners don’t use social media at all (TBTech.co).
• 41% of small business owners feel their business doesn’t need a website (Moneyzine).
• 36% of small businesses don’t even have a website at all.
• 25% of small business websites get updated less than once a year.
• 40% of small businesses admit they don’t understand how websites or social media can help them attract new customers.

Mind-blowing, right?

Especially since we all know the internet’s reach: Over 3.1 billion people actively use Facebook, and 2.5 billion people actively use Google.

So why aren’t you taking advantage?

There are several common reasons that hold a lot of business owners back:

• It’s uncomfortable – You might feel uncomfortable putting yourself out there or promoting yourself on social media.
• You’ve been burned – You might have invested in social media or SEO services only to feel disappointed by lackluster results.
• No time – Delivering for clients might take so much time that there’s none left for online efforts.
• Operational overwhelm – Maybe the thought of where to begin feels overwhelming – so you put it off.
• No short-term gains – Maybe you feel the results will take too long to see, making it hard to justify the effort.

Despite these blocks, if you’re reading this there’s still a lingering thought that maybe it’s time to build your online presence.

So let’s look at some good reasons why.

5 Reasons Why You Need to Build an Online Presence

If you want a sustainable business or financial freedom, it’s essential to build your online presence starting today.

Think of online presence like having a storefront in a busy area: if potential customers can’t see you, they won’t come in.

Here are five reasons more reasons to convince you why building an online presence is so important:

1. Expand Your Reach Beyond Your Past Clients

• An online presence lets you reach a broader audience, connecting with people outside of your immediate network. Research shows over 50% of shoppers start their journey online, so building an accessible online presence is essential for stable growth and a steady flow of new customers.

2. Build Credibility and Trust

• Consumers tend to trust businesses they can research, and a solid online presence establishes brand credibility. Studies show that 81% of buyers research products online before buying; having a website and active social channels reassures potential clients and can make a difference in closing sales.

3. Unlock New Sales Opportunities 24/7

• With an SEO-optimized website or regular social media content, your services are available any time of day, making it easy for customers to convert when they’re ready. Businesses with consistent content marketing see six times higher conversion rates, allowing you to capture leads and clients without constant manual effort.

4. Resilience in a Changing Market

• An online presence provides resilience against market shifts, helping you connect with clients across multiple channels. If one source of leads dries up a diversified online strategy – using social media, organic search, or email – keeps you adaptable and keeps your income stable.

5. Scalability for Long-Term Success

• Unlike in-person efforts, your online presence can scale as your business grows, allowing you to expand your client base without a proportional increase in work. For digital service providers or info product sellers, this means reaching a global audience and gaining income stability as you scale.

Convinced?

Good.

Now let’s look at how you can start building your online presence, and see the results fast.

12 Genius Ways to Build a Strong Online Presence (And Get Results Fast)

Below we’ll go through 12 genius ways to build your online presence.

We’ll also give you some key tips to start using each of these methods to see short-term results and help you build momentum and motivation.

1. Get Clear on Your Target Audience

Why it works: Knowing your ideal customer’s pain points, motivations, and interests allows you to tailor your online presence specifically to them. You save time and resources by targeting the right audience from the start, enhancing your chances of engagement.

Who should consider it: Ideal for any business looking to grow its online presence, particularly if your offerings cater to a specific niche.

How to use it for quick wins: Create a one-page customer avatar that outlines your ideal client’s characteristics. Refer to it every time you create content or make an online connection, ensuring you always address their needs directly.

2. SEO

Why it works: SEO places your website in front of people actively searching for relevant products or services, making it a powerful organic tool for visibility.

Who should consider it: Essential for businesses selling products or services with high search demand.

How to use it for quick wins: Focus on low-competition, long-tail keywords. Rather than “weight loss products,” try “natural weight loss products for women over 50.” Targeting niche terms or highly localized markets can lead to faster results.

3. Google Business Profile

Why it works: Google Business Profile (GBP) is free and puts you in front of people searching for local services, giving you visibility in Google Maps above other search results.

Who should consider it: Especially beneficial for local service providers aiming to attract nearby customers.

How to use it for quick wins: Complete your profile thoroughly, including images and services. Gather reviews, as these contribute to rankings and attract customers, positioning your business as a trusted local option.

4. Build an Email List

Why it works: An email list gives you a direct line to potential customers without relying on social media algorithms, allowing you to reach out and convert leads at zero cost.

Who should consider it: Best suited for e-commerce, info-product businesses, or those with recurring launches.

How to use it for quick wins: Start with a CTA on your site or social media, offering a freebie or discount to new subscribers. Use an automated email sequence, like the “soap opera sequence,” to warm leads and guide them toward making a purchase within a week.

5. Social Media Platforms

Why it works: With billions of daily users, social media offers a vast reach for building awareness and trust with your target audience. Regular, relevant content lets you connect with potential customers personally.

Who should consider it: Any business—but it’s crucial to choose platforms aligning with your audience: LinkedIn for B2B, Instagram for e-commerce, TikTok for younger audiences, etc.

How to use it for quick wins: Use a “Dream 100” strategy to engage with key potential clients regularly. Comment, like, and share content to get noticed by your target audience and encourage reciprocal interest in your content.

6. Niche Sites

Why it works: Platforms like Behance, GitHub, Clutch, Upwork, and Fiverr attract users interested in specific professional services, helping you find a highly targeted audience.

Who should consider it: Perfect for creative professionals, tech specialists, or consultants whose audiences frequent these specialized sites.

How to use it for quick wins: Build a strong portfolio on relevant platforms, prioritizing positive reviews, ratings, and showcases of past work to establish authority quickly.

7. Build (Or Update) Your Website

Why it works: Your website acts as a digital storefront, showcasing your services or products while also providing valuable SEO potential and supporting credibility.

Who should consider it: Vital for any business building an online presence, especially those utilizing SEO or directing paid traffic to their site.

How to use it for quick wins: Emphasize social proof on your site. Showcase testimonials, reviews, and case studies that resonate with your target audience to foster trust and boost conversions.

8. Blog Content

Why it works: Blogging establishes authority by addressing your audience’s specific questions and pain points, drawing organic traffic, and encouraging social sharing.

Who should consider it: Valuable for any business whose customers research before buying, especially service-oriented or educational brands.

How to use it for quick wins: Focus on your audience’s biggest challenges. Create posts with actionable solutions, highlighting how your products or services provide essential support in their journey.

9. Video Content

Why it works: Many people prefer video for its accessible, engaging format. You can educate potential customers and demonstrate expertise, capturing interest quickly and effectively.

Who should consider it: Ideal for businesses needing to showcase product usage, provide educational insights, or explain complex topics.

How to use it for quick wins: Address common questions or problems with short, informative videos. Position yourself as an expert by solving viewer pain points, and upload to YouTube to capture SEO benefits.

10. Meta Ads

Why it works: With targeted ads, you can instantly reach your ideal audience on Facebook and Instagram, gaining traction without the lengthy process of organic growth.

Who should consider it: Especially effective for consumer-focused businesses with products or services suited to social platforms.

How to use it for quick wins: Promote a low-cost product or a lead magnet to gather emails and get people into a sales funnel. Lower-priced offers encourage impulse buys, helping you generate quick conversions while building a warm audience.

11. PPC (Pay-Per-Click)

Why it works: Like SEO, PPC puts you in front of high-intent customers, but without the extended wait. It’s an immediate way to drive traffic and sales with scalable results.

Who should consider it: Ideal for businesses with products or services people are actively searching for, particularly in competitive markets.

How to use it for quick wins: Set up targeted landing pages to capture leads efficiently. Optimize regularly to refine keywords, landing page copy, and conversion rates, creating a funnel that’s built to convert.

12. Influencer Marketing

Why it works: Influencers already have engaged audiences who trust them, making it easier to showcase your products to a receptive group, bypassing the need for gradual organic growth.

Who should consider it: Best for businesses with a strong visual element, such as lifestyle, fashion, beauty, or fitness, that can attract influencer partnerships.

How to use it for quick wins: Collaborate with influencers who share similar audience demographics. Look for those who have promoted products like yours successfully, as this indicates compatibility with your brand and customer profile.

Ignore This, and Your Online Presence Will be Worthless

Imagine you’ve just implemented one or more of the 12 strategies to build your online presence.

You’ve gained visibility and are attracting visitors to your website or social media profiles.

But as time goes on, you notice something troubling: the leads and sales you expected just aren’t materializing.

What’s the problem?

It’s likely your newfound traffic isn’t converting into tangible results. When this happens, it’s often because you lack an effective sales funnel.

Simply getting people to your site isn’t enough; you need a structured way to nurture them into becoming leads and ultimately customers.

This is where ClickFunnels comes in.

Designed specifically to address the issue of converting online traffic, ClickFunnels offers DIY funnel-building software that provides all the essential elements to turn visitors into leads and sales.

Here are five ways ClickFunnels can help implement the strategies we’ve discussed:

• Create Landing Pages for Lead Magnets: Attract email subscribers by offering valuable content that resonates with your audience.
• Add CTAs to Your Website: Direct traffic to custom landing pages, guiding potential customers through your sales process.
• Build Multi-Step Funnels: Seamlessly turn readers into leads, then nurture them into low-ticket sales before upselling to mid- and high-ticket items.
• Automate Email Sequences: Develop targeted email campaigns that sell products and keep your audience engaged over time.
• Design Without Developers: Easily create blog posts, embed video content, and customize design elements without needing extensive technical skills.

Don’t let your hard work go to waste.

With ClickFunnels, you can create a compelling online presence that effectively converts traffic into leads and sales.

Try ClickFunnels Free for 14 Days!

Final Thoughts: Turning Your Online Presence Into New Customers

Building a strong online presence is essential for success in today’s digital landscape.

Implementing strategies like optimizing your website, engaging on social media, and creating valuable content can significantly boost your visibility.

However, gaining traffic is only half the battle.

Converting that traffic into leads and sales is crucial. Without a structured funnel to guide potential customers through their journey, you risk wasting your efforts.

ClickFunnels is designed to address this exact challenge, providing user-friendly tools to create effective sales funnels.

By allowing you to build landing pages, automate email sequences, and design without needing technical expertise, ClickFunnels empowers you to transform your online presence into a powerful sales engine.

If you want to turn your traffic into real results, ClickFunnels is your go-to solution.

Start optimizing your conversion rates today!

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Thanks for reading How To Build A Strong Online Presence which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Marketing a new business can feel overwhelming – especially when you’re just starting out.

You have so many other challenges that finding fresh, effective ways to promote your business feels like an impossible mountain to climb.

But here’s the good news.

With just a handful of genius ideas, creating a marketing strategy that drives leads and boosts online sales is possible… and even fun!

In this blog, we’ll explore innovative marketing strategies tailored for new business owners like you who are looking to build something sustainable, impactful, and ultimately profitable.

At least one of these tips will be just the thing you’re looking for.

Let’s get into it.

Is Marketing a New Business Harder Than Marketing an Existing One?

Marketing an established business has some obvious advantages.

One of the biggest is referrals.

Existing businesses often rely on referrals from satisfied customers, which provide trust and credibility.

In fact, studies show that leads generated via referrals have 3-5x higher conversion rates than leads generated via ads or content.

For online businesses, dedicated referral programs (i.e. leveraging past customers to create new customers) can account for 35% of total online purchases when implemented effectively.

As a new business, you can’t tap into referrals.

Marketing a new business is like starting a race from a standstill, whereas established businesses begin with a running start.

4 Advantages in Marketing New Businesses

But established companies face their own hurdles too.

At least 65% of businesses cite generating leads and traffic as their biggest challenge, proving that consistent marketing remains essential for growth​.

So if you can master getting leads and sales right at the beginning you’re conquering one of the most challenging aspects of scaling any business.

And you have some advantages in your favor:

• Flexible Branding: You can experiment with bold, fresh branding and pivot based on early feedback.
• Focus on New Clients: With no need to appease an existing customer base, you can design offers and messaging that appeal directly to your target market.
• Time to Build Loyalty: With more flexibility to invest in client relationships, you can create a strong base for future referrals.
• Creative Freedom: No established brand guidelines mean you can be as innovative as needed to capture attention.

For ongoing success both new and established businesses leverage traditional channels like social media, SEO, email marketing, and even outdoor advertising or direct mail.

But in this post, we’ll focus on agile, guerrilla tactics that deliver immediate results.

We’re looking for rapid visibility, leads, and sales.

A new business may start from zero, but with the right approach, you’re setting the stage for long-term success.

23 Genius Ways to Market Any New Business

Genius Urban Marketing Ideas

1. Stickers

Stickers are a simple but highly versatile marketing tool that can quickly capture attention and create buzz for a new business. By designing bold, memorable stickers with your logo or an eye-catching slogan, you can make your brand visible in unexpected places: from laptops and water bottles to lampposts and community boards. Stickers work well for businesses targeting younger audiences, creatives, or anyone who values unique, shareable items.

NOTE: Be aware of the legal repercussions for where you place stickers in public places.

Bonus Tip: Distribute them in popular public spaces or add them to packaging to expand your reach naturally and encourage loyal customers to share your brand.

2. Chalk Writing

Chalk writing is a playful, cost-effective way to get your brand noticed, especially in high-foot-traffic areas. By creating colorful, eye-catching chalk messages on sidewalks or walls, you can turn everyday spaces into your advertising canvas. This strategy is ideal for businesses that want to reach local audiences, such as cafes, small retail shops, or service providers.

Bonus Tip: Use clever, memorable phrases or your website URL to leave a lasting impression and drive curious passersby to your online presence.

3. Paint a Mural

Creating a mural is a powerful way to build brand awareness and add value to your community. A vibrant mural featuring your brand’s name, logo, or unique messaging can turn any blank wall into a memorable visual experience, attracting social media shares and local attention. This approach is particularly effective for brands wanting to connect with their local community, as well as businesses in creative industries or visually-driven niches.

Bonus Tip: Work with a local artist to give the mural a unique, community-focused touch – boosting goodwill while also showcasing your brand’s creative side.

4. Leaflets and Flyers

Creative leaflets and flyers can be an effective way to capture interest, especially when they break from the traditional flyer format. With unique designs – like unusual shapes, bold colors, or interactive elements – flyers can become engaging pieces that people actually want to hold onto and share. This tactic works especially well for new businesses trying to build a local customer base or attract attention at events like markets and festivals.

Bonus Tip: Consider adding a QR code that links to a special offer or exclusive content, making your flyer a multi-dimensional tool that encourages immediate engagement.

Real-life example

The Crust Pizza restaurant in Pristina in Kosovo became famous for its innovative leaflet campaign. The business designed a leaflet that, when folded, looks like a wallet with euro bills sticking out of it. Passersby picked up the wallets and the campaign quickly entered news articles across the world for its ingenuity.

5. Poster Campaign

A poster campaign can be a high-impact, low-cost way to build brand awareness and intrigue, especially in targeted areas like busy streets, cafes, and community boards. By designing visually striking posters with bold messaging and a clear call to action, you can create a lasting impression that encourages people to engage with your brand. This tactic is especially effective for new businesses wanting to quickly capture local attention or for brands looking to drive event attendance.

Bonus Tip: Use QR codes or social media handles on the poster to drive traffic to your online channels and create a seamless offline-to-online journey for potential customers.

6. Billboards

Billboards offer bold, unmissable visibility that can create massive brand awareness in a short amount of time. Strategically placed along busy highways, popular streets, or in high-traffic urban areas, billboards can capture the attention of countless passersby and make a strong statement about your brand. This method works especially well for brands with eye-catching logos, memorable taglines, or creative visuals that stick in viewers’ minds long after they’ve driven by.

Bonus Tip: Use a short, punchy message and a simple design to ensure the message lands fast. Incorporating a QR code on digital billboards can make it easy for viewers to interact with your brand immediately.

7. Door Hangers

Door hanger adverts are an effective and direct way to reach customers right at their doorstep. By placing door hangers with engaging designs and clear messaging, you can make your brand memorable while bypassing crowded digital channels. This tactic works particularly well for local businesses or service providers looking to target specific neighborhoods, such as home service companies, real estate agents, or restaurants offering delivery.

NOTE: Be sensitive to homeowners and where you choose to place your door hangers, to avoid any angry repercussions.

Bonus Tip: Include a limited-time discount or special offer on the door hanger to motivate immediate action and make the most of this direct touchpoint.

Real-life example

Scotch Pools in Austin, Texas, used a door-hanger campaign that targeted only homes with swimming pools. The hanger offered the company’s weekly pool maintenance services. It was a success and helped the business pull in new clients who hadn’t heard of them before.

8. Business Cards

Business cards remain a timeless and highly personal marketing tool that can leave a lasting impression. Unlike digital messages, a well-designed card is a tangible reminder of your brand, especially effective for creating connections at events, networking meetups, or local businesses. Business cards are ideal for professionals and businesses looking to make a direct, personal connection with potential clients or collaborators, such as consultants, freelancers, and small business owners.

Bonus Tip: Consider adding a QR code linking to your website or portfolio to make it easy for recipients to connect with you online. A unique material or design, like a matte finish or embossed logo, can also make your card stand out.

9. Van Wrapping

Van wrapping is a powerful form of mobile advertising that turns your company vehicle into a traveling billboard. With eye-catching designs, branded logos, and memorable contact information, wrapped vehicles can build brand recognition and attract attention wherever they go. This approach is particularly effective for service-oriented businesses with local routes, like plumbers, landscapers, or food delivery companies, allowing them to maximize exposure while traveling to jobs or delivering goods.

Bonus Tip: Include a QR code or website URL on the van to encourage viewers to learn more about your services, even when they’re on the go. A bold, memorable color scheme can also help your vehicle stand out on the road.

10. Scavenger Hunts

Hosting a scavenger hunt is a creative way to engage your audience, build brand awareness, and encourage foot traffic to specific locations. By hiding clues, products, or branded items in various spots and sharing the hunt details on social media, you can spark excitement and generate buzz around your business. Scavenger hunts are ideal for brands with a local presence or those aiming to drive interaction and engagement, especially in the retail, entertainment, or hospitality industries.

Bonus Tip: Partner with other local businesses to expand the scavenger hunt footprint, adding value for participants and fostering community connections while boosting visibility.

Real-life example

The Old State Saloon bar in Eagle, Idaho, created a month-long scavenger hunt that brought in over 100 participants. The hunt asked people to find unique posters of legendary outlaws scattered around town. As a reward for finding all the posters first, one winner won a giant teddy bear – but you can customize your reward to promote your business.

Genius Lead Generation Ideas

11. Picture Contests

Picture upload contests are a fun and highly engaging way to encourage customer interaction while building brand visibility. By inviting users to send themed photos and offering a prize for the best entry, you can generate leads. This tactic is great for brands looking to grow leads fast – and you can choose your medium of distribution based on where your target audience is.

Bonus Tip: Offering a creative or valuable prize can encourage more participation and motivate people to share widely.

Real-life example

The marketer John Dwyer ran a picture contest in Australia that netted in three years’ worth of business for a new fencing company. The competition was called ‘The Ugliest Fence in Australia’. It was promoted via radio ads, and asked listeners to send in photos of their ugly fences with the worst example winning a free fence makeover. The business then followed up to make personalized offers for each participant who hadn’t won.

12. Tiny Challenges

Tiny Challenges are mini 5-day coaching sprints designed to deliver a valuable outcome in a short timeframe, making them highly effective for attracting clients to a service-based business. Pioneered by Richmond Dinh and used with great success by ClickFunnels co-founder Russell Brunson, Tiny Challenges offers prospective clients a taste of your coaching or services without the commitment of a long-term program. These mini-sprints work well because they focus on solving a specific pain point or achieving a quick win, giving participants immediate value and confidence in your expertise.

Bonus Tip: Offer a Tiny Challenge that directly addresses a pressing issue for your target audience, like increasing productivity or gaining clarity on a goal, and provides a meaningful result that leaves them wanting more.

13. MIFGE

The MIFGE, or “Most Incredible Free Gift Ever,” is an unforgettable lead magnet designed to grab attention by offering an irresistibly valuable, free gift to potential leads. This type of offer generates excitement and buzz, drawing in a large audience eager to claim the exclusive item and engage with your brand. The MIFGE is ideal for businesses looking to quickly grow their email list, promote a product, or make an upsell opportunity with future follow-ups to keep the audience engaged. The MIFGE concept was invented by veteran marketer Dan Kennedy, whose business Magnetic Marketing was acquired by ClickFunnels.

Bonus Tip: Make your MIFGE something truly valuable and relevant to your audience’s interests – whether it’s a tool, resource, or exclusive access – to boost conversion rates and maximize long-term engagement.

Real-life example

Click Funnels co-founder Russell Brunson is an expert in using squeeze pages and free offers to turn leads into sales via upsells and cross sells. One perfect example is how he bought Dan Kennedy’s company Magnetic Marketing and created $1 million in sales in the first 30 days with a MIFGE. You can watch the video of Russell’s MIFGE offer here.

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14. Gated Video

A gated video is a highly engaging way to capture leads by building curiosity and requesting an email address at a key moment in the content. Developed initially by Voomly (later acquired by ClickFunnels), this tool allows viewers to access the first part of a video for free and prompts them to enter their email to continue. This strategy works well because it creates suspense and leverages the viewer’s interest, making them more likely to subscribe. Gated videos are particularly effective for educational content, webinars, and demos, where your audience is eager to gain valuable insights.

Bonus Tip: Incentivize lead generation further by offering a free e-book, cheatsheet, or other valuable resource alongside the gated video. This doubles the perceived value and gives subscribers an extra reason to engage with your brand.

15. Lead Magnets 

Lead magnets are valuable, free resources you offer in exchange for a user’s contact information, such as an email address. By giving away something of real value – like an e-book, template, or exclusive guide – you can attract qualified leads who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer. This strategy is particularly effective for online businesses, educational platforms, and service providers, as it encourages engagement and builds your email list for further marketing opportunities.

Bonus Tip: Ensure your lead magnet addresses a specific pain point for your target audience and delivers a quick win, making them more likely to see your brand as a go-to resource and continue engaging with your content.

Genius Social Media Marketing Ideas

16. Viral Content Upgrades

Viral content upgrades take the classic lead magnet to a new level by encouraging users not just to subscribe but to share your content to receive a valuable resource. Instead of simply asking for an email address, you request that the reader shares the post on social media in exchange for the lead magnet, turning every download into a potential new source of visibility for your brand. This strategy is especially effective for blog posts, guides, and how-to content, where readers are likely to find the lead magnet highly relevant and worth sharing.

Bonus Tip: Offer a lead magnet closely tied to the content’s main topic – such as a detailed checklist, cheat sheet, or template – so readers feel it’s a natural extension and worth sharing with their networks. This way, you increase both lead generation and reach simultaneously.

17. TikTok Trends

Leveraging TikTok trends is a powerful way to build brand visibility by tapping into popular content that’s already generating high engagement. By participating in trending challenges, audio clips, or hashtags and creatively weaving in your products or services, you can catch the attention of a massive audience in a way that feels natural and entertaining. This approach is particularly effective for brands targeting younger audiences or anyone looking to increase their social media following quickly, as TikTok’s algorithm favors fresh, engaging content that aligns with trending topics.

Bonus Tip: Choose trends that naturally connect with your brand’s message or personality, and use engaging captions or calls to action to encourage viewers to follow your account or visit your site for more.

Real-life example

South Florida repair shop Clancy’s Auto Body got 6.3 million likes, 156k followers, and interviews on NBC and Business Insider within a week of posting their first-ever video on TikTok. The video was a trending type of TikTok video with a cartoon cat and a caption reading: “Guys I lied on my resume and got a job doing the social media of this body shop, please blow this up so I don’t get fired.”

18. Contests to Grow Followers

Running a contest is a proven strategy to grow your social media following while creating excitement around your brand. By offering a prize in exchange for following your account, tagging friends, or sharing the post, you can quickly boost engagement and expand your audience. This approach is especially effective on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, where followers can easily spread the word through tagging and sharing, bringing in more potential followers with each entry.

Bonus Tip: Offer a prize that resonates with your target audience, such as a product sample or a service discount, to attract followers who are genuinely interested in your brand and more likely to engage long-term.

19. Leverage Influencers

Partnering with influencers is a powerful way to tap into a new, highly engaged audience that already trusts the voice behind the recommendation. By working with influencers who align with your brand’s values and appeal to your target market, you can quickly build credibility and awareness while reaching potential customers who may not be familiar with your business. This strategy works particularly well for lifestyle, fashion, beauty, and tech brands, where influencer recommendations can drive traffic and encourage purchases.

Bonus Tip: Look for micro-influencers (influencers with a smaller, highly engaged following) in your niche to gain authentic engagement at a lower cost and focus on building long-term relationships for consistent exposure.

Genius Content Marketing Ideas

20. Write a ‘How to’ Guide

Creating a “how-to” guide blog post is an effective way to showcase expertise while providing real value to your audience. By addressing a specific problem and breaking down a clear, step-by-step solution, you can attract readers who are actively searching for answers and build trust with them as an authority in your field. This strategy works particularly well for service-based businesses, educational sites, or any business targeting people interested in skill-building, as it engages a motivated audience looking for practical advice.

Bonus Tip: Use images, examples, and clear subheadings to make each step easy to follow, and consider adding a downloadable checklist or template for added value.

21. Repurpose an Interview as Content

Conducting an interview with an expert in your field allows you to gather unique insights and first-hand knowledge that can be repurposed into highly engaging content. By transforming the interview into an actionable article, podcast, or social media series, you can provide your audience with valuable tips or strategies while boosting your brand’s authority. This approach works especially well for businesses in consulting, coaching, or education, where expert perspectives resonate deeply with audiences.

Bonus Tip: Break the interview into multiple pieces of content, such as key takeaways, quotes, or “top tips,” and distribute them across platforms to maximize reach and engagement.

Real-life example

In the video below, ClickFunnels co-founder Russell Brunson tells the story of his first $1 million sales funnel. Russell interviewed Vince James, author of The 12 Month Millionaire, who packaged the recording up as a product, and sold it for $37. He also sold a physical copy of Vince James’ book as an upsell.

Want to build a sales funnel just like this? It was built using ClickFunnels.

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22. Write a Case Study

Case studies are detailed accounts of your past successes, showing how you solved specific problems for clients and achieved measurable results. By demonstrating your expertise through real-world examples, case studies help potential clients understand the value of your services and envision similar success for themselves. This approach works particularly well for consultants, agencies, and service providers, as it builds credibility and offers concrete evidence of your impact.

Bonus Tip: Include visuals like charts or before-and-after comparisons to highlight key results, and focus on outcomes that address common challenges faced by your target audience.

23. Leverage the Public Domain

Utilizing public domain works is a creative way to offer valuable content without creating it from scratch. Since the copyright has expired on books, stories, and even some historical guides, you can repurpose these texts into lead magnets, like downloadable e-books or free guides, for your squeeze page. This approach is especially effective for education, literature, and self-help brands looking to attract a readership interested in classic insights, wisdom, or foundational knowledge.

Bonus Tip: Customize or update the content with modern commentary or additional resources, making it more relevant and attractive to your target audience while preserving the original value.

Real-life example

In 2023, ClickFunnels co-founder Russell Brunson launched a membership site focused on republishing works from the New Thought movement. These are authors like Napoleon Hill, Charles F. Haanel, Orison Swett Marden, and more. Most of these works are no longer under copyright so there is no cost to re-use them. The Secrets of Success membership starts at $97/ month. You can check out the sales page here.

Want to build a sales page just like this? It was built using ClickFunnels.

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Final Thoughts: Experiment With High-Impact Tactics to Grow Your Business

Each of these marketing ideas offers a creative way to generate leads or boost sales quickly.

They’re especially useful for a quick impact.

By experimenting with these tactics, you can discover what resonates most with your audience and keeps them coming back for more.

But what if you get clicks, shares, and visibility but no real results?

For turning eyeballs into engaged leads and sales, ClickFunnels is the ultimate platform.

With powerful tools to capture leads, create upsells, cross sells, and nurture customers all in one place, ClickFunnels is built to help you grow your business efficiently.

Take your best ideas from visibility to conversion in our free 14-day trial.

Try ClickFunnels for 14 Days for Free!

Thanks for reading Smart Strategies To Market Your New Business which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Have a great business idea but don’t know how to turn it into real sales?

You’re not alone.

Many aspiring entrepreneurs see the potential of their vision, but without design or coding skills they struggle to bring it to life. Over time, these dreams often get left behind due to limited time, tech frustrations, or the high cost of setting up an online business.

That’s why we created ClickFunnels.

With our intuitive drag-and-drop builder and proven templates, ClickFunnels makes it simple to build a professional website or store that’s ready to launch within minutes.

Since 2014, we’ve helped hundreds of thousands of people turn their ideas into income – 2,000 of whom have even made over $1M directly on the platform.

But our journey hasn’t ended yet.

As ClickFunnels keeps growing, we update our offerings every year to ensure we remain the most seamless, powerful way to start and scale an online business.

Keep reading to see the many benefits of ClickFunnels in 2024 and see how we can help you take control of your ideas and make them profitable.

Try ClickFunnels Free for 14 Days!

20 Ways to Build Your Online Business With ClickFunnels

1. Build a Sales Funnel

What is it?

A sales funnel is a streamlined online process that guides visitors from platforms like Facebook, Google, and Instagram into your online store with a strong intent to buy. By effectively directing potential customers down this “funnel,” you can increase the chances of converting visitors into buyers. ClickFunnels has helped over 100,000 businesses build these funnels, with over 2,000 earning a spot in the “Two Comma Club” by generating over $1 million in revenue through ClickFunnels.

Why do I need it?

If you’re looking to grow your leads and sales, a funnel is essential. ClickFunnels simplifies this by helping you build customer journeys designed to boost conversions. With high-converting pages like upsells and downsells, your sales can reach new heights.

How Easy is it With ClickFunnels?

ClickFunnels offers pre-designed, conversion-optimized funnel templates. Simply drag and drop elements, add your branding, and publish. Plus, with 24/7 support, you’ll have expert guidance to optimize your funnel whenever you need it.

Learn More About Sales Funnels

2. Create Your Own Website

What is it?

ClickFunnels allows anyone to build a professional, fully customizable website without needing to code. With a simple drag-and-drop interface, you can adjust any element to fit your vision. You can also dive into the code editor to add custom functionality or make finer adjustments if you know what you’re doing.

Why do I need it?

A website is essential to establishing your digital footprint and becoming the go-to authority in your field. It’s where potential clients come to know, like, and trust you. Plus, with ClickFunnels, you can use your website to guide visitors to all your products and services, generating interest and conversions with minimal effort. Typically, creating a website and covering hosting could cost thousands, but ClickFunnels includes it as part of your membership.

How Easy is it With ClickFunnels?

It’s designed to be simple and fast. Choose a theme, drag in your images, stories, and content, and within hours, your site is live. The themes are mobile-optimized by default, ensuring your site looks polished on any screen. A mobile page editor lets you fine-tune the mobile experience, so you have complete control over how your website appears to visitors on smaller devices.

Learn More About Websites

3. Online Course Platform

What is it?

With ClickFunnels, you can package and sell your knowledge through online courses without needing third-party programs. Choose from various course templates or create a custom course to fit your teaching style and needs.

Why do I need it?

Creating an online course is a direct path to expanding your reach and income. With ClickFunnels, launching a profitable course is easier than ever, helping you scale quickly and connect with a global audience.

How Easy is it With ClickFunnels?

The course builder is intuitive, using a drag-and-drop interface so you don’t need technical expertise. Pre-built templates let you create and customize courses quickly, while advanced options allow for user enrollment management, lesson tracking, and custom templates to sell. Plus, 24/7 support is available if you ever need assistance.

Learn More About Online Courses

4. Email Marketing Platform

What is it?

ClickFunnels simplifies email marketing by allowing you to design, schedule, and send emails directly from the platform. With its in-house SMTP, you can cancel other email subscriptions, making it a single end-to-end solution for email campaigns.

Why do I need it?

Email marketing is one of the most effective channels for nurturing leads, building relationships, and increasing conversions. Automation allows for timely follow-ups and engagement without the hassle, making it a critical tool for business growth.

How Easy is it With ClickFunnels?

Creating emails is fast and flexible. Use ClickFunnels’ custom email templates, or design your own to fit specific campaigns. Send live broadcasts for immediate connection or set up automated sequences to nurture your leads over time. The platform’s segmentation tools ensure you reach each contact with messages tailored to their needs and interests.

Learn More About Email Marketing

5. Analytics Dashboards

What is it?

ClickFunnels provides an all-in-one dashboard to track key metrics for your online business. It offers real-time data on sales, conversions, page views, and email performance to ensure you’re making data-informed decisions.

Why do I need it?

Understanding your data is essential to optimizing performance. With analytics on your pages and funnels, you can see what’s working, diagnose problem areas, and adjust strategies to improve your results. Track metrics like conversion rates, opt-ins, and cart values in one place for streamlined insights.

How Easy is it With ClickFunnels?

With ClickFunnels’ analytics dashboard, you can monitor essential data from one easy-to-access location. See how campaigns are performing, identify improvement areas, and stay on top of your business’s key indicators with ease.

Learn More About Analytics

6. Build Landing Pages

What is it?

ClickFunnels enables you to create professional landing pages designed to convert prospects into customers. Whether for organic or paid traffic, these pages provide a distraction-free space to drive specific actions.

Why do I need it?

Landing pages capture leads and focus visitors on a single goal, which can significantly improve conversion rates compared to traditional websites. ClickFunnels lets you create unlimited landing pages, so you can test and refine them to maximize effectiveness.

How Easy is it With ClickFunnels?

Creating landing pages is intuitive and flexible. Choose from a range of templates or build your page from scratch using the drag-and-drop editor. Customize landing pages for specific campaigns, use them for lead capture, event registration, sales, and more – all within a single platform.

Learn More About Landing Pages

7. Create Membership Sites

What is it?

With ClickFunnels, you can launch a membership site to provide exclusive, paid content, creating a recurring revenue stream. Membership sites are a valuable way to share ongoing resources, exclusive training, and valuable insights with subscribers.

Why do I need it?

Membership sites build loyalty, drive recurring revenue, and allow you to test new ideas with a trusted audience. Members-only access adds value and keeps users engaged, helping you retain customers and grow their lifetime value.

How Easy is it With ClickFunnels?

ClickFunnels’ membership site builder is straightforward and requires no technical expertise. It’s as simple as setting up your course and granting access to paying members, with a secure login to keep content private. Add new materials and update content easily to keep members engaged and coming back for more.

Learn More About Membership Sites

8. Create Global Products

What is it?

With ClickFunnels, you can create a product once and seamlessly embed it across your website, funnels, and email marketing campaigns. Whether it’s an online course, a membership site, or even physical products, ClickFunnels makes it easy to manage all of your products from a single platform.

Why do I need it?

Managing your product catalog shouldn’t be a headache. With ClickFunnels, you can streamline everything: you add product information once, and it’s available for use across your funnels, emails, and even landing pages. This consistency saves time and ensures a cohesive brand experience across every interaction with your audience.

This feature is particularly useful if you sell a range of products – like courses, ebooks, or subscription services. With ClickFunnels, you can control where and how each product is featured, creating a more organized and effective product strategy that meets your business needs.

How Easy is it With ClickFunnels?

Creating a product with ClickFunnels is as simple as clicking a button. Select the type of product—like an online course or a digital download—and ClickFunnels guides you through each step. Add descriptions, pricing, and images, and then choose where it will appear. With intuitive tagging, collection options, and layout flexibility, ClickFunnels makes product management both fast and flexible, even if you don’t have technical expertise.

Learn More About Global Products

9. Keep Track of Customers

What is it?

A Customer Center functions as an all-in-one area where users log in to access courses, digital resources, or membership sites, all within a secure, branded space. It’s like a personalized ‘hub’ that remembers each customer’s purchase history, making it easy to deliver exactly what they bought – no more manual access updates or separate logins for different products.

Why do I need it?

A streamlined Customer Center enhances your customers’ experience by providing them with a “home base” to access everything they’ve purchased from you. Instead of juggling separate logins or downloads, your customers can find all of their content in one place. This organized approach keeps customers happy and reduces support inquiries, ensuring they always get what they’ve paid for.

How Easy is it With ClickFunnels?

ClickFunnels makes setting up a Customer Center incredibly simple. Its drag-and-drop editor means you don’t need to be a coder or tech wizard to create a branded, professional dashboard. Customize layouts, colors, and themes to match your brand, and use built-in tutorials or 24/7 support for additional guidance.

Learn More About Customer Center

10. Have Your Own Blog

What is it?

A blog on ClickFunnels serves as more than just a space for content—it’s a tool for driving traffic to your funnels, online store, or website. With ClickFunnels, you can create and manage a blog that combines beautiful design with practical features like SEO optimization, content sharing and lead generation tools.

Why do I need it?

A blog is essential for reaching your audience organically through valuable content. ClickFunnels takes traditional blogging to the next level by making your blog an integral part of your business growth strategy. Every post drives more traffic to your funnels and sales pages, helping you turn readers into leads and then customers.

How Easy is it With ClickFunnels?

Setting up a blog is fast and intuitive. Just pick a theme, add your content, images, and stories, and your blog is live within hours. With the drag-and-drop editor, you have full creative control to customize or even clone themes, making your blog feel unique to your brand.

Learn More About Blogs

11. Drag-and-Drop Page Builder

What is it? 

The ClickFunnels Editor is a “drag-and-drop” editor that allows you to create high-converting pages without needing to hire designers or programmers. Imagine being able to create and edit your own web pages and funnels exactly how you envision them—all without needing a single line of code.

Why do I need it? 

You need an easy way to build landing pages, and ClickFunnels’ drag-and-drop editor makes it all possible, whether building or editing your site, making funnels, or creating blogs or landing pages. The ClickFunnels Editor simplifies funnel-building, eliminating the need to rely on designers or programmers.

How Easy is it With ClickFunnels?

With ClickFunnels, even a 5-year-old could drag and drop professional sales funnels, websites, and more. Collaborate in real-time with your team on funnels, web pages, or projects, and every change you make on one page updates universally throughout your funnel, store, or site. This editor allows you to express your unique personality across all your digital assets—no coding required!

Learn More About Our Editor

12. Automate Workflows

What is it? 

Workflows in the context of funnels and marketing refer to automated processes that manage repetitive tasks, keeping your business running smoothly without manual intervention.

Why do I need it? 

Workflows allow you to deliver the right message to the right customer based on previous actions, collecting sales, leads, and conversions on autopilot. This means you can focus on what’s truly important while your business is nurtured automatically. Automate your marketing with customized workflows to capture leads and generate sales around the clock.

How Easy is it With ClickFunnels?

Automate segments to deliver personalized follow-ups with dynamic content, A/B testing, and more effective drip campaigns. Integrate effortlessly with third-party platforms to maximize conversions and lead generation. Use split-testing to fine-tune campaigns, web pages, and promotional offers with ease.

Learn More About Workflows

13. Set Up A/B Tests

What is it? 

A/B testing (or split testing) compares two versions of the same asset to determine which performs better.

Why do I need it?

 A/B testing is a powerful tool for optimizing your marketing. It can turn a campaign from a potential loss into a profitable investment, creating a virtuous cycle that drives growth. Without A/B testing, you’re left guessing, often missing out on valuable insights that can improve conversion rates. But with ClickFunnels, A/B testing is included.

How Easy is it With ClickFunnels?

Running A/B tests is easy and can be applied to landing pages, funnels, emails, and more. Quickly test different elements like copy, images, and layout. ClickFunnels automates winning versions to optimize campaigns in real-time.

Learn More About A/B Testing

14. Add Countdown Timers to Funnels

What is it?

Countdown timers are a key component in funnels that drive urgency, moving potential customers from “interested” to “I need this NOW.”

Why do I need it? 

Even if an audience is interested, without a reason to buy now, many will hesitate. A Countdown Funnel uses timers to encourage timely decisions, helping your leads move off the fence and into buyers.

How Easy is it With ClickFunnels?

Most timers are easily dismissed by consumers, but ClickFunnels’ Countdown Funnel offers a “sticky” countdown that continues, even if a visitor leaves and returns. It can even sync with follow-up emails to maintain urgency, and is fully customizable to individual customer journeys, making it easy to set up recurring or hybrid countdowns.

Learn More About Countdown Funnels

15. Build an Online Store

What is it? 

With ClickFunnels, you can create an all-in-one eCommerce store without needing an external platform. Store Funnels provide dynamic carts, “Buy Now” buttons, and custom themes for a seamless online shopping experience.

Why do I need it? 

ClickFunnels Store Funnels streamline the sales process, from product display to order fulfillment. Selling physical products becomes easy with integrated marketing, sales, shipping, and fulfillment in one platform.

Instead of using separate tools for each part of the customer journey, you can keep it all in ClickFunnels. The Store Funnels feature automatically assigns each buyer to custom funnels based on their purchasing behavior, using upsells and cross-sells to maximize sales.

How Easy is it With ClickFunnels?

ClickFunnels Store Funnels help you categorize products, add upsells and cross-sells, and automate fulfillment with integrated tools like Shippo for shipping labels. Simply set up your store, configure dynamic collections, and watch your sales take off, all without lifting a finger.

Learn More About Online Stores

16. Build Checkout Processes With Smart Checkout

What is it?

The Smart Checkout feature offers various ways to optimize the customer journey, including “One-Click Checkout,” upgrades and downgrades, One-Time Offers (OTOs), and customizable checkout styling. Smart Checkout recognizes returning customers by email or phone number, autofilling their details (like payment info and previous addresses) for a seamless one-click experience.

Why do I need it?

Smart Checkout transforms the final purchase phase into an opportunity to maximize sales and cart value. Add “One-Click” Upsells: Prompt customers to add products, increasing the cart total in seconds. Flexible Upgrades/Downgrades: Offer customizable subscriptions or tiered options that match each customer’s needs.

How Easy is it With ClickFunnels?

You can design checkout pages to match your brand or pick from ready-made templates, and set up profiles for shipping rates. Create a checkout experience that’s simple for customers, with automated shipping costs for OTOs to keep fees manageable.

Learn More About Smart Checkout

17. Create an Online Community

What is it?

Build an engaging community site directly on ClickFunnels, where members can connect, share, and inspire each other in a focused environment free from distractions!

Why do I need it?

Online communities are excellent for customer engagement, loyalty, and content organization through groups and topics. Unlike Facebook or Discord, ClickFunnels offers ownership & control of your audience and platform. You can also integrate your online community platform with ClickFunnels’ monetization tools.

How Easy is it With ClickFunnels?

Members benefit from video playback, media embeds, and customizable feeds. Admins can organize posts by groups and topics, moderate content, and set privacy settings, creating a safe, structured community.

Learn More About Communities

18. Use API and Webhooks

What is it?

APIs enable apps to work together, and with ClickFunnels’ public API, the most popular software – from CRMs and eCommerce platforms to social media – can seamlessly integrate. Webhooks trigger specific automated actions, ensuring smooth workflows.

Why do I need it?

With an open API, ClickFunnels eliminates data transfer hassles and integrates: Payment processors, ERPs, CRMs, social media, email automation, accounting software, and more. Webhooks notify your tech stack instantly, enabling real-time actions like inventory adjustments, automated support, or triggered communications.

How Easy is it With ClickFunnels?

With Zapier, ClickFunnels simplifies integration, offering prebuilt “Zaps” that handle nearly every business process – perfect for automating without coding.

Learn More About API & Webhooks

19. Set Up Integrations

What is it?

Easily connect all your business software through ClickFunnels, including popular tools like ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, MailChimp, Slack, WebinarFuel, Zapier, and more!

Why do I need it?

Integrations are crucial for tasks like managing leads, automating emails, and connecting webinars. If you’re using other platforms (like those above) you can benefit from directly sending new leads from your ClickFunnels landing page to your Mailchimp email campaigns, for example. 

How Easy is it With ClickFunnels?

In just a few clicks, set up integrations directly in ClickFunnels to streamline operations and automate recurring tasks effortlessly.

Learn More About Integrations

20. Organize Customers in Your Own CRM

What is it?

With a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system in ClickFunnels, manage customer relationships from acquisition to support.

Why do I need it?

Build lasting relationships by managing the entire customer journey with ease, from sales pipelines to automated communications. ClickFunnels’ MessageHub feature, for example, helps you to manage SMS, email, and social messages in one place. You can also build out your automated workflows within the CRM, and use calendar integraitons to set appointments.

How Easy is it With ClickFunnels?

ClickFunnels’ CRM tools make it simple to track and nurture leads. MessageHub enables ongoing engagement, while Appointments and Opportunities streamline lead conversion through each sales stage.

Learn More About CRMs

Want to Try ClickFunnels Before Buying?

As you’ve seen, ClickFunnels offers a comprehensive suite of features designed to help you take your business from idea to profit – fast.

From intuitive design tools to proven templates, ClickFunnels makes it possible to launch your online funnel seamlessly and start converting visitors into loyal customers.

But don’t just take our word for it.

ClickFunnels lets you try it for yourself, risk-free, with a 14-day free trial.

There’s no catch, no long-term contract and no commitment if it doesn’t feel right.

We’re offering this trial because we believe in the transformative power of ClickFunnels, and we want you to experience how it can simplify your business journey and fuel your growth firsthand.

If you’re ready to unlock financial security and freedom with a tool trusted by hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs, the next step is simple:

Sign up now and get started in less than a minute.

This is your opportunity to turn dreams into reality. 

With nothing to lose and everything to gain, there’s never been a better time to take action. 

Sign up for your free trial today and join the many who’ve already found success with ClickFunnels!

Try ClickFunnels Free for 14 Days!

Thanks for reading Top Benefits Of Using ClickFunnels For Your Business which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Imagine stepping away from the daily grind for a day, a week, or even a month… meanwhile, your website keeps generating revenue.

No more pausing paid ads and watching your income plummet to zero. 

Sounds like a dream, right?

But, let’s face it – that’s not where you are right now.

Many ClickFunnels users focus all their time on paid ads, increasing budgets, and hoping for increased profits. 

However, buying traffic is only one part of building an online business. If you focus only on ads, the constant need to manage campaigns keeps you stuck in the grind you hoped to escape.

This is where SEO comes in.

In this blog post, I’m going to show you how properly optimizing your website for organic traffic through SEO can be the key to unlocking a new stream of automated, passive income.

And the best part? 

We’ll go through 10 steps to help you see results within just three months.

Ready to dive in? Let’s go!

Why Paid Ads Take So Much of Your Time

It’s been challenging, hasn’t it? 

You’ve poured hours, days, and weeks into building a profitable business. If you’re like most people on ClickFunnels, growing your passion or side hustle to profitability has let you quit your regular 9-5 job.

It took relentless work to get everything right.

And yet, when you’ve got a profitable funnel and you try to scale it, something isn’t working like you expected. 

The need to constantly monitor your paid ads takes up all your time and energy. You thought that more ad spend, combined with your finely-tuned funnel, would finally be the moment when you could step off the gas.

But it feels like you’re back at square one.

Is it your funnel that’s the problem? Or is it something else?

You’re Not the Only One!

You’re not alone. 

This is a problem many online entrepreneurs face when relying solely on paid traffic. 

ClickFunnels co-founder Russell Brunson writes about this problem in his book Traffic Secrets. The introduction is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs like you avoid relying on one way of getting traffic to your funnels and offers.

At first, it seems like the answer is quick, predictable traffic. 

But breaking free of this cycle is what leads to what you’re looking for consistent, scalable passive income.

5 Reasons Why You Can’t Afford to Rely Only on Paid Traffic

The root issue here is a lack of diversified traffic sources. 

When all your traffic comes from paid ads, you’re at the mercy of rising ad costs, competition, and ad fatigue. 

You can’t rest for a minute when this is your sole source of income.

And without an alternative source – like organic traffic – you’ll always need to reinvest in ads just to keep your sales flowing. 

Here are 5 more reasons why relying on paid ads as your sole traffic source keeps you stuck:

• You’re competing for the same space: It’s very rare for a business to have no competitors online. But sometimes your product or message is so unique, that it’s easy for you to make sales at first. But sooner or later competition is going to come and you’ll be fighting to survive.
• Ad fatigue sets in: As people see your ads over and over, they’re less likely to engage, reducing your conversions. This forces you to constantly build new sales funnels and campaigns.
• Managing campaigns is a full-time job: Paid ads need ongoing attention. Whether it’s monitoring performance, tweaking bids, or updating creatives, paid traffic demands continuous input. Instead of focusing on growing your business or exploring other revenue streams, you’re trapped in a cycle of campaign management, taking up hours every day.
• No spend, no sales: With paid traffic, the moment you stop paying, the traffic dries up. This means there’s no residual benefit – each new sale comes at a direct cost. You’re stuck in a hamster wheel, where maintaining the same level of traffic requires ongoing investment, leaving no time to focus on more sustainable, organic growth strategies.
• You’re missing out on 53% of all trackable website traffic: According to Fit Small Business, 53% of all trackable website traffic comes from organic and unpaid traffic from search engines. If you’re only focusing on paid traffic, you’re never going to reach everyone in your market.

But there’s hope.

In the next section, we’ll explore how SEO can solve this problem and help you achieve the scalable, passive income you’re aiming for.

How SEO Unlocks Passive Income for Your Business

You’ve already experienced how relying on paid ads alone can drain your time and resources. 

But what if you could grow traffic and sales without constantly throwing more money into paid channels?

There are a number of alternatives you might consider:

• Rely on word-of-mouth marketing
• Boost your social media efforts
• Strengthen your email marketing game

These are all valid options, but there’s one approach that stands out as particularly powerful and scalable: SEO.

In fact, a SearchEngine Journal poll found that 49% of marketers say SEO provides the highest ROI of any marketing channel. This makes SEO not just another option, but one of the most reliable ways to drive long-term results.

Why Does SEO Work So Well?

Here are 5 main reasons why SEO is a game-changer for online businesses:

• Sustainable, long-term traffic: Unlike paid ads, which stop driving traffic the moment you turn them off, SEO allows you to build a consistent stream of visitors for years. According to Ahrefs, 60% of the pages in the top 10 search results are over 3 years old. This means you can create content once, rank well, and let it generate leads or sales for years to come.
• Intent-driven traffic: Unlike paid channels like Facebook Ads, where you’re interrupting users as they scroll, people come to Google because they have a problem to solve. They’re actively searching for solutions. Organic traffic is generally more qualified, leading to higher-quality clients and better conversions.
• Less need for constant funnel creation: With a well-optimized SEO strategy, you don’t need to keep reinventing the wheel with new funnels every month. Instead, you can create a strong, evergreen funnel that consistently pulls in organic traffic and continues working for you, month after month, without ongoing effort.
• Retargeting opportunities: Organic visitors from SEO can fuel highly effective retargeting campaigns. These visitors can be fed into new lookalike audiences on platforms like Facebook, cutting costs and improving ad performance by targeting people who’ve already shown interest in your business.
• Gain a competitive edge: Unlike paid ads, where bidding wars determine who’s seen first, SEO gives you more control. If you optimize correctly, you can secure top positions on search engines and get in front of potential clients without constantly outspending your competitors.

Now, imagine what your life would be like with a steady stream of passive traffic. 

Leads or sales come in regularly without you having to spend thousands more on ads. Your time is freed up to focus on growing your business, not just maintaining it.

Of course, the common objection is that SEO takes too long to work. 

That’s why we’ll break down below how to implement this SEO strategy effectively – within 3 months – so you can start seeing results sooner rather than later.

10 Steps to Optimize Your Website for SEO – and See Results in 3 Months

1. Manually Index Your Website On Google

Indexing your website on Google is the first step toward getting organic traffic. This process tells Google that your site exists, so it can start appearing in search results. Although Google can automatically crawl sites, manually indexing ensures that your new or updated pages are picked up quickly. Without this, even the best SEO strategies won’t help if Google doesn’t know about your site.

Key Tip

Create your account on Google Search Console and verify your website domain as soon as possible. The easiest way to do this is to set up a Google Analytics account first and connect that account to your website.

If adding a piece of code to your website doesn’t sound scary, then you can also verify using a meta tag.

2. Create a Coherent Site Structure

A clear site structure is vital for both users and search engines. It refers to how your content is organized, like arranging pages into categories and subcategories that make sense. If your site is confusing to navigate, search engines will struggle to rank your content. A well-structured site boosts user experience and helps Google understand which pages are most important.

Key Tip

Create a hierarchy where your homepage links to category pages, and those category pages link to detailed subpages.

3. Make Your Website Easily Crawlable

Crawlability is about making your website accessible to search engine bots so they can analyze and index your content. If search engines struggle to crawl your site, your rankings will suffer. Blocked pages or overly complex URLs can prevent crawlers from doing their job. The easier it is for bots to navigate your site, the better your chances of ranking higher.

Key Tip

Create a sitemap.xml file and submit this file to Google. Most website builders and platforms will auto-generate a sitemap file for you. With a little research, you should be able to find this file and submit it to Google Search Console.

4. Keyword Research

Keywords are the backbone of SEO. They’re the phrases people type into search engines when looking for information. Effective keyword research involves finding terms your target audience uses and incorporating them naturally into your content. Without proper keywords, your pages won’t show up for relevant searches, no matter how good the content is.

Key Tip

Focus on keywords that have high intent (i.e. the people searching for these terms are likely to buy your services) but have low competition. Usually, this means you’re looking for ‘long-tail keywords’. These terms are called ‘long tail’ because they’re over 3 words long.

For example, a ‘short tail’ keyword might be protein powder. This is a highly competitive keyword that will take years or a huge investment into SEO to rank high.

But… if you type into Google ‘protein powder for’ you find a range of long tail keywords like:

• protein powder for women
• protein powder for weight loss
• protein powder for kids

You can get even more specific by finding even longer tail keywords.

For example… if you type into Google ‘protein powder for women’ you find a range of longer long tail keywords like:

• protein powder for women weight loss
• protein powder for women over 50
• protein powder for women weight gain

The trade-off is this.

The longer the tail on your target keyword, the fewer the number of people searching for it. But you’ll find it much quicker to rank for these long-tail keywords – and if it’s very relevant to your products or services, you’ll be making sales within 3 months.

5. Meta Info

Meta information includes meta titles and descriptions, which show up in search results. These snippets play a big role in whether users click through to your site. Optimized meta info with relevant keywords can improve your click-through rate (CTR) and signal to search engines what your page is about, which can help you rank higher.

Key Tip

Keep your meta titles under 60 characters, and keep your meta descriptions between 150-160 characters. Aim to create a compelling message in the copy you write for these sections. The meta info exists to get people to click.

6. On-Page SEO

On-page SEO refers to optimizing individual pages on your website to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic. This includes elements like title tags, header tags, images, and internal linking. It’s essential because search engines use this information to understand what your page is about and rank it accordingly.

Key Tip

Let’s imagine you decided on targeting a long-tail keyword like ‘protein powder for women over 50’. You’d need to include this keyword in your meta info. But also include it in the main title of your webpage, and throughout the text. Make sure your main featured images are of protein powder. 

7. Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals measure the overall performance of your website, including load speed, interactivity, and visual stability. Google has made these metrics a ranking factor, so websites that offer a better user experience will rank higher. Ignoring this can lead to slower rankings despite good content.

Key Tip

Regularly test your Core Web Vitals using Google’s PageSpeed Insights and aim to improve any metrics flagged as poor. If you’re DIYing your website, you may need to recruit a developer to help you improve these metrics – it will be worth the investment.

8. Create Backlinks

Backlinks are links from other websites that point to yours. They are one of the strongest ranking factors in SEO because they signal trust and authority. High-quality backlinks can boost your domain authority and improve your overall rankings. The more backlinks you have from reputable sites, the better.

Key Tip

Focus on earning backlinks from relevant, high-authority websites, and avoid spammy link-building tactics. One of the best ways to do this is by collaborating with authorities in your space – think podcast hosts, influencers, suppliers of your products, news websites, and more. 

9. Create Topic Authority

Topic authority means that your site is recognized as an expert on a particular subject. This is achieved by consistently creating in-depth, valuable content that covers your niche comprehensively. Search engines prioritize websites that demonstrate expertise and authority in their field.

Key Tip

Remember the long tail keyword we looked at earlier about ‘protein powder for women over 50’? This kind of keyword is what’s called a ‘commercial’ keyword as the person searching for it is likely to buy something. 

A good way to create topic authority is to look for ‘informational’ keywords. You can find these in the ‘People Also Ask’ section on Google.

For example… you might consider writing blog posts on topics like:

• Should women over 50 take protein supplements?
• What is the best source of protein for women over 50?
• Should menopausal women use protein powder?

10. Create Brand Authority

Brand authority refers to how well-known and trusted your brand is within your industry. The more people trust your brand, the more search engines are likely to rank your website higher. Building brand authority involves creating high-quality content, engaging with your audience, and maintaining a strong online presence across multiple channels.

Key Tip

This last tip is probably the most important to consider. SEO is a long-term game. Although you can get short-term benefits, we’re building up your SEO game in order to create passive income for years to come.

So here’s the key tip: only invest in SEO when you’re certain about growing your specific business for the next 5 or more years.

If you spend 6 months on SEO only to change industries or product offerings, you’re not going to build the kind of brand authority that will keep you ranking high for the long run. If you’re not sure, then keep testing out your funnels with paid ads and save this article for the future.

But what if you’re ready to scale now?

Then implement all these 10 steps and you will begin to see traffic and, ideally, sales within three months!

Why ClickFunnels is the Critical Tool for Making Your SEO Strategy Work

Imagine this: you’ve implemented the entire SEO strategy outlined above – your site is indexed, the structure is solid, and traffic is finally rolling in.

Your content is attracting visitors.

Things are falling into place.

But, despite all the benefits of proper SEO optimization, you’re still not hitting the kinds of revenue figures that would sustain your business.

Organic traffic is flowing, yet you’re not making the sales you expected.

What’s happening?

The problem is that while SEO is great for driving traffic it doesn’t guarantee conversions.

This is where ClickFunnels steps in.

ClickFunnels was designed to solve this problem by converting traffic into sales in the most effective way: a funnel.

Here are five ways ClickFunnels works to ensure your organic traffic becomes paying customers:

1. Optimized Sales Funnels

• ClickFunnels helps you create optimized, step-by-step sales funnels that guide users from interest to purchase. It’s designed to maximize conversions, which is the missing piece when traffic alone isn’t enough.

2. Built-In A/B Testing

• With ClickFunnels, you can easily test different versions of landing pages and funnels to see what converts best, ensuring you’re constantly optimizing for results.

3. Automation

• ClickFunnels integrates with your email marketing and CRM tools, enabling you to automate follow-ups and nurture leads that don’t convert immediately, ensuring you’re capturing every potential sale.

4. Templates Designed for Conversion

• ClickFunnels offers pre-built templates that are specifically crafted to convert traffic into sales, taking the guesswork out of creating effective landing pages.

5. Upsell and Cross Sell Capabilities

• After a customer makes a purchase, ClickFunnels makes it easy to offer additional products or services through upsells and cross sells, increasing your average transaction value.

By using ClickFunnels, you ensure that all the benefits of your SEO strategy lead to real, tangible results.

Try Clickfunnels Free for 14 Days!

Final Thoughts: Build a Business That Works for You – Not the Other Way Around

Throughout this article, we’ve explored how SEO can be the key to sustainable, passive income. 

SEO lets you get higher-quality traffic to your site without any ongoing ad spend. 

We broke down a 10-step strategy for optimizing your website including site structure, keyword research, and building authority – all of which create a solid foundation for long-term success.

But even with a fully optimized SEO strategy, traffic alone isn’t enough. 

You need to convert those visitors into paying customers – and that’s where ClickFunnels comes in. 

By providing optimized sales funnels, built-in A/B testing, and automation features, ClickFunnels ensures that the traffic generated by SEO turns into real revenue. It’s designed to work with your SEO efforts, filling the critical gap between visitors and conversions.

Ultimately, the goal is to build a business that works for you in a way that’s scalable, automated and works without a daily grind.

Your business is supposed to free up your time – not drain it.

ClickFunnels provides the tools to make this possible, helping you build a funnel that converts and unlocks the passive income you’ve been working towards.

Try Clickfunnels Free for 14 Days!

Thanks for reading A Guide To SEO Optimization which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Every entrepreneur dreams of launching their business idea to success, wealth, and a positive impact on their target audience.

But, not all entrepreneurs have the capital and resources to turn their ideas into reality.

Here’s where the minimum viable product (MVP) comes into play.

The MVP is a way for you to validate your business idea before you commit to it long-term. What’s even better, is that you could build and test an MVP on a limited budget.

In this blog, I’ll show you one of the most powerful methods to build your MVP without draining your wallet.

And here’s a hint.

This exact method helped launch a business that was sold for $1.2 billion just ten years later.

Let’s dive in.

Building a Business Without Capital

A lot of us have brilliant ideas for starting a successful business.

But very few people actually act on it.

It’s likely you get stuck thinking something along the lines of: “It’s a great idea, but can I really build a business without capital?”

You should know that ClickFunnels was built for people exactly like you.

Russell Brunson, the co-founder, started every episode of his influential Marketing Secrets podcast with this message:

“So, the big question is this. How are entrepreneurs like us, who didn’t cheat and take on venture capital, who are spending money from our own pockets, how do we market in a way that lets us get our own products and our services and the things that we believe in, out into the world, and yet still remain profitable?”

This approach took ClickFunnels to $100 million in revenue within three years—without a penny of venture capital.

The answer is clear: yes, you can build a business without capital.

And ClickFunnels exists to help you do just that.

Testing Your Business Idea With an MVP

If you’re reading this, it’s because you’re aware of the concept of the minimum viable product (MVP).

And in particular, how it’s a way for you to test your business idea without breaking the bank.

First, let’s look at what the purpose of the MVP is.

What’s the Purpose of an MVP?

An MVP is a basic version of your product with just enough features to test your concept with real users.

Unlike the traditional route of fully developing a product before launch, an MVP lets you get early feedback from users to refine your idea.

It’s the perfect way to see if your concept resonates with your market before spending time and money on a full-fledged launch.

The 5 Main Different Kinds of MVP

There are many different ways to create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

Each of them allows you to gauge interest, gather feedback, and refine your product idea before diving into full-scale development.

But they do it through different methods.

Let’s dive into five of the most common MVP methods, highlighting their benefits, drawbacks, and some real-world examples.

1. Product Explainer MVP

A product explainer MVP is one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to test a product idea.

With this method, you create a compelling video that presents your product concept to a targeted audience and asks for their interest. Usually, you collect responses in the form of pre-orders, sign-ups, or feedback.

This approach allows you to gauge demand without even building out the full product or even having a website.

You can also track viewer metrics and responses to see how well your idea resonates with your target market.

Benefits: Quick to implement and low-cost. Allows for easy A/B testing of different product ideas or messaging.

Negatives: Not full validation, as you’re not always charging at this stage, this getting feedback or sign-ups.

Famous Example: Dropbox used a product explainer video to test its concept. Before the product was fully developed, founder Drew Houston created a short explainer video and emailed it to potential users. The response helped validate the idea and secure funding for further development.

2. Single-Feature App MVP

A single-feature app MVP focuses on developing just one core functionality of a product.

Instead of building an entire, feature-rich product, you hone in on one key aspect that solves the primary problem for your users.

This method allows you to release the product faster, gather focused feedback, and iterate on the single feature before adding more complexity.

Benefits: Allows you to test an important feature without getting bogged down in developing an entire product. Speeds up time to market and reduces development costs.

Negatives: This can result in a narrow view of customer needs if only one feature is tested.

Famous Example: WhatsApp began in 2009 as a simple app designed to display statuses in a phone’s Contacts menu, showing whether a person was at work or on a call. However, when push notifications were introduced by Apple, users started using the app to send quick status updates, which evolved into instant messaging. Over time, the app expanded its features to include group chats, voice calls, and video calls.

3. Concierge MVP

With a concierge MVP, instead of using technology to automate services, you manually provide the service to your customers.

This MVP method is ideal for testing service-based products where the personal touch is important.

By manually handling every part of the customer experience, you gather insights into customer preferences, problems, and opportunities for automation or scaling later.

Benefits: Allows for personalized customer experiences and deep insights into their needs and pain points. Helps build a loyal customer base.

Negatives: It’s time-consuming and labor-intensive, so it can’t scale quickly.

Famous Example: Airbnb started with what you could consider a concierge MVP. Founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia manually rented out air mattresses in their apartment to test if people would pay for short-term lodging in strangers’ homes. The positive feedback from the guests validated the idea before they started working on the full platform.

4. Preorder Campaign MVP

A preorder campaign MVP is a powerful way to validate a product idea by asking customers to pay for it before it’s even built.

This approach works particularly well for physical products or new product lines.

It allows you to gauge demand while securing upfront funding. 

If people are willing to pay for something that hasn’t been built yet, it’s a strong signal that the market values your idea.

Benefits: Generates immediate revenue and validates customer demand before you spend time and money on product development.

Negatives: If you fail to deliver on your promise, you risk damaging your reputation and losing customer trust.

Example: Pebble Watch, one of the early successes on Kickstarter, used a preorder campaign MVP to raise over $10 million in funding. They tested demand for their smartwatch by asking customers to preorder it through the platform, using the funds raised to build the product.

5. Wizard of Oz MVP

The Wizard of Oz MVP involves creating the appearance of a fully functioning product, but everything is done manually. The goal is to present the illusion of automation and a seamless product experience, while you handle the work yourself. This method allows you to gather valuable feedback on how customers interact with your product without committing to building out a fully developed system.

Benefits: Allows for quick testing and iteration without heavy development costs. You get to understand customer behaviors and needs before scaling.

Negatives: Not scalable in the long run, and customers may feel deceived if they learn that the product isn’t fully developed.

Example: Zappos is the classic example of a Wizard of Oz MVP. Founder Nick Swinmurn tested the idea of selling shoes online by posting photos of shoes from local stores. When a customer placed an order, he would personally go to the store, buy the shoes, and ship them. Over time, Zappos built the infrastructure needed to scale into the billion-dollar company it became.

In this post, we’re focusing on the Wizard of Oz MVP.

Why?

Because it’s the best method to create an MVP on a budget that also fully validates your business idea. Customers buy believing the product comes from a fully operational business.

Once validated, all you need to do is scale.

It’s a personal favorite of thousands of ClickFunnels users—this is because our plug-and-play funnels help you build a professional-looking website & product in a question of hours.

Let’s explore how it works below.

7 Steps to Building Your MVP Using the ‘Wizard of Oz’ Method

Below, we’ll look at how Nick Swinmurn founded Zappos in 1999 using the Wizard of Oz MVP strategy.

Just ten years later, he sold the company to Amazon for $1.2 billion. This method is perfect for founders working on a shoestring budget.

Here are the four steps that helped Nick bring Zappos to life.

1. Find a Compelling Problem to Solve

The first step in the Wizard of Oz method is identifying a real, pressing problem.

You might already know what this problem is for your own business idea. But let’s dig into Nick’s story.

In 1997, Nick took a job working at Autoweb which was an online car-buying service. He specifically took the job because he wanted to start a business that could capitalize on the growth of the Internet.

Two years later he saw the opportunity.

Nick went to the mall on the hunt for a pair of brown Airwalk Desert Chukka boots.

Here’s what happened:

• One store had the brand, but not the size
• Another store had the size, but not the color
• A third store was out of stock

This sparked the idea of an online shoe store.

Nick realized that, like him, thousands of shoppers must be frustrated by the limited selection in physical stores.

Tips for Finding A Compelling Problem

• Look for frustrations in daily life
• Focus on limitations that traditional vendors in the industry can’t overcome
• Identify markets with high demand and limited supply
• Listen to your own needs – often, if you want it, others will too

2. Analyze the Competition

Before jumping into a solution, Nick needed to understand the landscape.

He looked around and realized that no one was effectively solving the problem of limited shoe selection in physical stores.

At the time, shopping for shoes was still primarily an in-person experience. But malls carried only a small variety of styles, colors, and sizes.

So Nick discovered an intriguing fact: 5% of all shoes sold in the U.S. were already being bought through mail-order catalogs.

This meant that 1 in 20 sales happened without a customer trying them on first.

If shoppers were willing to buy shoes through mail catalogs, there was potential for a more modern, efficient solution.

This realization laid the foundation for what would become Zappos.

Tips for Analyzing Your Competition:

• Look for market gaps where consumer needs are unmet.
• Research alternative solutions that already exist, even in low-tech forms.
• Pay attention to small but telling data points – like Nick’s discovery of the 5% mail-order shoe sales.
• Talk to potential customers to learn about their frustrations with current solutions.
• Identify industries that are resistant to change and innovate within them.

3. Play to Your Strengths

One of the key reasons Nick Swinmurn succeeded with Zappos was that he played to his strengths.

Before launching Zappos, Nick had already worked at an Internet startup called Autoweb, an online car-buying service.

This experience gave him invaluable knowledge about selling products online.

When the opportunity came to solve the problem of limited shoe availability, Nick’s skills aligned with the task.

It’s important to note that Zappos is an extreme example of everything going right. Not every MVP or startup will see such a smooth path to success.

Often, startups fail because the founder lacks experience in the industry or with the product they’re trying to launch.

Tips for Playing to Your Strengths:

• Choose an industry or product that aligns with your existing skills or experience.
• If you don’t have experience, partner with someone who does.
• Leverage past work experience to give your MVP the best chance at success.
• Be honest about your limitations and seek out mentors or advisors to fill knowledge gaps.
• Focus on industries where you have inside knowledge of customer pain points and market needs.

4. Come Up With a Valuable Solution

Once Nick understood the gap in the market, he came up with a solution that harnessed the power of the Internet to solve this problem in a more effective way.

The Internet was still relatively new in the late 1990s.

So Nick’s idea was simple: instead of forcing customers to drive to multiple stores and settle for whatever was available, he would build a website where they could browse a vast selection of shoes from their homes.

By leveraging the Internet, Nick could offer more variety than any physical store ever could.

Customers could easily find the shoes they wanted in the right size and color, and have them shipped directly to their doorsteps.

This approach solved a major problem for consumers and provided the convenience they didn’t even know they needed yet.

Tips for Coming Up With A Valuable Solution:

• Use emerging technologies to solve problems in a way that current methods can’t.
• Focus on convenience – how can you make life easier for your customers?
• Offer variety or personalization that physical or traditional businesses can’t match.
• Think about how your solution can meet customers where they already are – whether online or elsewhere.
• Create a seamless customer experience, from discovery to purchase, to keep them coming back.

5. Validate the Idea at Little-to-No Upfront Cost

Here’s where the magic of the Wizard of Oz MVP comes in.

You give your target audience the illusion of a fully developed product, even though you’re handling everything manually behind the scenes.

Nick went to Footwear Etc. in Sunnyvale, California, and proposed a deal: He asked to photograph and sell the store’s shoes online. If someone bought a pair, he’d come in and purchase them at full price.

A win-win situation.

The store agreed and Nick soon started getting orders.

He was sourcing the products, posting them online, handling shipping and customer service all by himself.

Validating Your Business Idea

• Don’t invest in inventory – validate first
• Test on a small scale to reduce risk
• Get feedback from customers as soon as possible
• Track key metrics to see if demand is real
• Keep it simple and low-cost at first

6. Set a Goal for Validation

As orders started coming in, Nick Swinmurn realized that his idea had crossed an important threshold: The order volume kept growing.

Nick proved that people were willing to buy shoes online.

Validation is one of the most critical milestones in building an MVP.

For Nick, the increasing number of orders was proof that his concept worked. He knew he was on to something when he saw consistent demand from customers who trusted an online platform for their shoe purchases.

This was a clear signal that it was time to take the next step: scaling the business.

Tips for Setting a Goal for Validation:

• Set a clear target for what constitutes product validation (e.g., consistent sales or repeat customers).
• Use feedback from early customers to refine your product.
• Focus on validating demand before scaling up operations.
• Track key metrics like customer satisfaction and return rates to ensure your model works.
• Be prepared to pivot if early feedback suggests changes are needed.

7. Scaling Your Revenue

Once Nick realized his MVP was validated, the next challenge was scaling the business to meet growing demand.

He couldn’t continue running the business by himself.

To scale Zappos, Nick raised money from personal sources, including friends, co-workers, and even his chiropractor.

However, the real turning point came when he pitched to the VC firm Venture Frogs, where he met Tony Hsieh. Tony saw the potential in Zappos and eventually became the CEO, helping Nick take the business to new heights.

The result?

A company that grew so successful it was acquired by Amazon for $1.2 billion.

Nick’s Wizard of Oz MVP method not only validated his product but also laid the foundation for scaling in a way that didn’t require upfront capital.

Tips for Scaling Your Revenue:

• Use early profits to reinvest in growing the business.
• Pitch to investors only after you’ve validated your product.
• Scale only when demand justifies the expansion.
• Maintain your focus on customer satisfaction as you grow.
• Diversify your funding sources – start with personal networks before seeking venture capital.

How to Save Time & Money in Making a Website and Taking Payments

We’ve just seen a powerful way to build an MVP and validate your business idea.

But you might be asking yourself.

If you don’t have web design knowledge, how are you going to create a website that accepts payments on a budget?

Enter ClickFunnels.

It’s one thing to come up with an idea and figure out the logistics, but you still need a professional site that can take legal, and secure payments quickly and effectively.

With ClickFunnels, you can set up a fully functional website in hours.

Here are some of the benefits of using ClickFunnels:

• Set up a sales funnel and start accepting payments within hours
• No need to hire developers or web designers – everything is drag-and-drop
• Integrates with major payment gateways for secure transactions
• Customizable templates for any type of product or service
• 14-day free trial to get started without risk

Try ClickFunnels Free for 14 Days

Final Thoughts: Building an MVP On a Budget

Nick Swinmurn’s Zappos story is a perfect example of how to launch a billion-dollar business starting with little more than an idea.

This was possible by using the Wizard of Oz MVP strategy.

It demonstrates that you don’t need a huge budget to get started – you just need the right process.

By validating your idea and growing smartly you can build something big.

To help you test your idea and start taking payments as soon as possible, don’t forget to check out ClickFunnels.

Click below to take advantage of ClickFunnels’ free 14-day trial and launch your MVP today.

Try ClickFunnels Free for 14 Days

Thanks for reading How To Build A Minimum Viable Product On A Budget which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Looking to scale your startup?

Then you’re about to discover the most important element in every business’ success: the business model.

A business plan outlines a company’s goals and strategies. But a business model is how they’re going to monetize their products or services.

Arguably, the business model is more important.

How will you achieve your goals if you don’t know how you’ll make money?

By the end of this article, you’ll understand how to create a simple but effective business model for your startup.

And you’ll also know what to fix when it’s not working.

Why Startups Die Without a Business Model

A business model is the way a company makes money.

It explains who you’re selling to, what you’re offering, and how you’re getting paid.

The business model is one of the most crucial elements in any startup. Without a business model, you can’t make money. And without a good business model, you can’t scale.

For example, let’s say you’ve built a shiny new app.

You decide your main goal is to get to 1 million users without worrying about how you’ll actually make money. You hit your target but soon when you try to monetize the app you aren’t generating enough revenue to stay afloat.

This is not just a thought experiment.

Take a look at three startups that went viral but couldn’t find a good business model:

• Yo (2014-2016)

• Yo was a viral app that let users send the word “yo” to friends. It quickly gained popularity on Product Hunt, but the founder, Or Arbel, admitted his biggest mistake was “not charging customers from day one.” Once investors saw there was no revenue, funding dried up, and the app shut down.

• HQ Trivia (2017-2020)

• It attracted over 2.3 million players with live trivia games, but the founder, Rus Yusupov, admitted they were still “solidifying their business model” when investors pulled out. Despite its viral success, HQ Trivia couldn’t figure out how to make money and eventually had to close.

• Vine (2013-2016)

• The popular short-form video app, saw similar issues. Vine allowed users to create 6-second looping videos and grew quickly – it attracted popular creators like Logan Paul and Daniel Dobrik. But without a strong business model, it couldn’t monetize its user base. Twitter, which acquired Vine in 2012, shut it down in 2017 due to increasing competition and the inability to generate sustainable revenue.

In all of these cases, the lack of a well-defined business model led to failure.

No business model = no business.

Below, we’ll walk you through a simple business model framework to help you avoid this fate.

An Effective Business Model Template

Scaling a startup to millions of dollars in revenue is exciting, but it’s not easy. Managing that money flow can be complex.

But the essence of a business model is simple.

Here’s a proven business model template from The Value Engineers, incorporating elements from academic research on the topic. It breaks down into four key elements:

1. The value proposition: What are you offering? Who is it for? What makes your offer unique?
2. The value network: Who are the key partners involved in delivering this value?
3. The revenue model: How does the business make money? What cash flows are involved?
4. The delivery model: How is your product or service delivered to customers?

You don’t need to write a long business plan to answer these. Short, clear sentences will do the job.

At its core, these are the four main factors that determine the strength of your business model.

Below, we’ll look at how some of the world’s top companies have their business models condensed into this simple template.

10 of the Most Profitable Business Models for Startups

Now that we’ve seen the template, let’s put it into action.

Below, we’ll dive into some of the most profitable business models by looking at real-world examples of successful startups.

Although a business model is more than just a revenue model we’ll categorize the following examples based on how they charge customers.

Remember, there are always more factors at play.

1. ClickFunnels (Tiered Subscription Fee)

The Value Proposition:

• ClickFunnels offers an all-in-one platform for creating marketing funnels, websites, and sales pages.
• ClickFunnels offers tools for businesses to increase conversions and sales.
• ClickFunnels is part of an ecosystem that includes live seminars, resources, training, and niche-specific funnels to help users grow their businesses.
• ClickFunnels is constantly adding new features to help users stay ahead.

The Value Network:

• Entrepreneurs, marketers, and online businesses
• Payment processors
• Third-party integrations (e.g., email marketing tools, CRM platforms)
• Developers and tech partners

The Revenue Model:

• Tiered subscription fee: ClickFunnels offers a basic subscription for startups and a higher-priced tier with additional features for larger businesses.

The Delivery Model:

• Cloud-based platform accessible through the web, with integrations and tools for building and managing online sales funnels.

2. Netflix (Flat Subscription Fee)

The Value Proposition:

• Netflix offers global on-demand video streaming at any place, any time, on any device
• Netflix has a large content library with original high–quality content
• Netflix provides personalized recommendations

The Value Network:

• Content producers
• UP holders
• Rights clearing organizations
• Investors
• Competitors

The Revenue Model:

• Flat monthly subscription fee: Netflix originally charged a flat monthly fee, though they introduced a tiered structure that includes ad-free viewing and the ability to share the subscription with extra members. This was to cut down on password sharing.

The Delivery Model:

• Streaming

3. Amazon Web Services (AWS) (Pay-Per-Use)

The Value Proposition:

• AWS offers cloud computing services like storage, databases, and machine learning on a pay-as-you-go basis
• Flexible, scalable, and cost-effective for businesses of all sizes
• High reliability and security for critical infrastructure

The Value Network:

• Developers and tech companies
• Hardware and software vendors
• Data centers
• Service integrators and consulting partners
• Global regulatory authorities (for data compliance)

The Revenue Model:

• Pay-per-use model: customers are charged based on their usage of computing resources (e.g., storage, processing power, data transfers).

The Delivery Model:

• Cloud-based delivery through a web-based platform, accessible globally

4. Facebook (Advertising-Based)

The Value Proposition:

• Facebook offers a free social media platform for connecting with friends, family and communities.
• Tools for businesses to reach and engage with their target audience through targeted advertising.
• Personalized user experience based on interests, activities, and behaviors.

The Value Network:

• Users
• Advertisers (businesses targeting specific demographics)
• Content creators (media companies, influencers)
• Developers (third-party apps and services integrated with Facebook)

The Revenue Model:

• Free for users: Facebook generates revenue through advertisers who pay for targeted ads.

The Delivery Model:

• Social media platform accessible via apps and web browsers

5. Airbnb (Commission-Based)

The Value Proposition:

• Airbnb provides a platform for people to list, discover, and book accommodations globally.
• Unique and personalized stays are often cheaper than hotels.
• Hosts can earn money by renting out their homes or spare rooms.

The Value Network:

• Hosts (property owners)
• Guests (travelers)
• Local governments (compliance and regulations)
• Insurance companies
• Payment processors

The Revenue Model:

• Commission-based: Airbnb takes a percentage from both the host and the guest for each booking.

The Delivery Model:

• Marketplace platform available via apps and the web, facilitating bookings and payments.

6. PayPal (Transaction Fee)

The Value Proposition:

• PayPal offers a secure and easy way for individuals and businesses to send and receive payments online.
• International payment transfers with currency conversion.
• Fraud protection and buyer/seller security guarantees.

The Value Network:

• Banks and financial institutions
• Merchants (e-commerce platforms, individual sellers)
• Consumers
• Regulatory bodies
• Developers (for PayPal integrations in websites and apps)

The Revenue Model:

• PayPal charges a percentage-based transaction fee to merchants for each sale processed through its platform.

The Delivery Model:

• Online payment platform integrated into e-commerce sites and apps, with a web and mobile interface for users.

7. Etsy (Marketplace/Platform Fee)

The Value Proposition:

• Etsy offers a marketplace for creative entrepreneurs to sell handmade, vintage, and unique items globally.
• Easy-to-use platform for small businesses to reach a large audience.
• Buyers get access to one-of-a-kind products with a personal touch.

The Value Network:

• Sellers (artists, craftsmen, vintage item collectors)
• Buyers
• Payment processors
• Logistics companies (shipping and delivery)
• Community of creators and buyers

The Revenue Model:

• Etsy charges a listing fee to sellers and takes a commission (transaction fee) when an item is sold.

The Delivery Model:

• Marketplace platform available via website and apps, with integrated payment and shipping solutions.

8. Microsoft (Licensing)

The Value Proposition:

• Microsoft offers software and tools, like Windows and Microsoft Office, to businesses and individuals.
• Productivity software for personal, educational, and business use.
• Frequent updates and support for users, ensuring security and new features.

The Value Network:

• Corporate customers and consumers
• Software developers and hardware manufacturers (PC and device makers)
• Channel partners (resellers, system integrators)
• Competitors (Google, Apple, etc.)

The Revenue Model:

• Licensing model: Microsoft charges per-user or per-device licensing fees for its software.

The Delivery Model:

• Software is delivered as downloads or pre-installed on devices, with subscriptions available for cloud-based versions like Microsoft 365.

9. Amazon Associates (Affiliate Marketing)

The Value Proposition:

• Amazon Associates offers a way for individuals and businesses to earn money by promoting Amazon products through affiliate links.
• Affiliates earn a commission on every sale generated through their unique referral links.
• Access to a vast product catalog and easy-to-use link-building tools.

The Value Network:

• Affiliates (bloggers, websites, social media influencers)
• Amazon (retailer)
• Consumers (those purchasing products)
• Merchants (selling products on Amazon)

The Revenue Model:

• Commission-based: Amazon pays affiliates a percentage of sales made through their referral links.

The Delivery Model:

• Affiliate programs are managed online through Amazon’s dashboard, with tracking and reporting tools available for affiliates.

10. Spotify (Freemium)

The Value Proposition:

• Spotify offers music streaming anytime, anywhere on any device.
• Free access to a vast library of music with ads.
• Premium subscribers get ad-free listening, offline playback, and better sound quality.
• Personalized playlists and recommendations based on user preferences.

The Value Network:

• Music creators and record labels
• Advertisers (for free users)
• Payment processors (for premium subscriptions)
• Hardware partners (e.g., smart speakers, mobile devices)
• Competitors (Apple Music, Tidal, YouTube Music)

The Revenue Model:

• Freemium model: free users with ads and premium users with a monthly subscription fee.

The Delivery Model:

• Streaming through apps on mobile, desktop, smart speakers, and other connected devices.

How Flexible Should You Be With Your Business Model?

If you’re reading this, you’re likely still figuring out your business model.

So, here’s the big question: After creating your business model, how strictly should you stick to it?

There are strong opinions on both sides of this debate.

• Flexible Business Models – Some argue that a business model will “figure itself out” as you grow. If you get too caught up in the details, you might never get to making actual revenue. For example, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams admitted that he didn’t know how to make money from Twitter even three years after its launch. Yet, he didn’t seem too worried. He focused more on user engagement and satisfaction. Despite struggling with its revenue model, Twitter was still bought by Elon Musk for $44 billion in 2022.
• Fixed Business Models – On the other hand, some insist that having a rock-solid business model is essential from day one. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, famously sketched out Amazon’s business plan and model during a road trip. He planned out every detail, including the decision to sell books via a marketplace model. This structure was used in Amazon’s early days and even during its IPO. Only after validating that business model did Bezos begin expanding Amazon’s offerings.

So, which approach is right? 

The truth is, that the best strategy is to have a business model but stay flexible. 

Be prepared to pivot if it’s not working. Some of the world’s most successful startups pivoted – even after getting funding and investment.

How ClickFunnels Helps Startups Like You Stay Flexible

ClickFunnels is an ideal tool for startups that need flexibility.

It allows you to test different business models without needing expensive developers or infrastructure changes.

Here’s how:

1. Rapid Funnel Creation: Quickly set up different sales funnels to test various revenue models.
2. A/B Testing: Easily run A/B tests to see what type of offers or pricing models work best.
3. Customizable Payment Options: You can easily switch between subscription, one-time payments, or pay-per-use models.
4. Integrated Email Marketing: Seamlessly update your marketing based on changes to your model and funnel.
5. Analytics Dashboard: Track real-time data to measure how successful each business model experiment is.

With ClickFunnels, startups can adjust, tweak, and refine their approach without major disruptions, making it perfect for testing new business models.

Not sure if it’s for you yet?

Don’t worry, you can take advantage of our introductory offer to try ClickFunnels free for 14 days.

Try ClickFunnels for Free!

Final Thoughts

Building a startup without a business model is like driving blindfolded. You might get somewhere, but it’s not likely where you want to be.

A business model gives you direction, focus, and, most importantly, a way to make money.

We’ve walked you through the TVE business model template, which is simple but powerful. 

We also explored examples of how companies like Spotify, Airbnb, and PayPal fit into this template. Each business model was tailored to fit their revenue strategies and delivery methods.

Finally, we made a compelling case for using ClickFunnels to help your startup remain flexible and adaptive. 

It offers tools like rapid funnel creation, A/B testing, and a customizable payment system, which are essential when pivoting your business model.

Remember, a business model isn’t set in stone. 

The most successful businesses adjust and refine their models until they find what works. And with tools like ClickFunnels, you can easily make those adjustments without losing momentum.

Try ClickFunnels for Free!

Thanks for reading How To Build An Effective Business Model For Startups which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Remember when you had to break the bank just to get your business off the ground?

Those days are long gone.

You don’t need a fortune to access powerful business tools. In fact, some of the most game-changing solutions out there won’t cost you an arm and a leg.

But here’s the kicker – with so many options floating around, how do you separate the wheat from the chaff?

In this guide, we’ll walk you through our top picks for affordable business tools that pack a serious punch. And the best part? You won’t have to sell a kidney to afford them.

1. ClickFunnels — Only $81/Month

There’s no shortage of cheap digital tools in the online world — you have this for email, that for hosting, and another for your ecom storefront.

But there is a shortage of tools that bring all those things into one place.

That’s where ClickFunnels comes in. 

It gives you everything you need to build, manage, and grow your online business — including sales funnels, websites, email marketing, and lots more.

ClickFunnels isn’t just another tool — it’s the Swiss Army knife of online business. 

For just $81 a month (that’s less than your coffee habit, admit it), you get a full suite of tools that can transform your digital presence.

So, what’s in the box?

Sales Funnels: Say goodbye to scattered web pages. ClickFunnels guides your customers through a smooth, conversion-optimized journey. It’s like having a digital salesperson working 24/7.

Website Builder: No coding? No problem. Our drag-and-drop editor makes creating stunning websites easier than assembling IKEA furniture (and way more fun).

Email Marketing: Keep your customers coming back for more with powerful email automation.

Online Courses and Membership Sites: Got knowledge to share? Turn it into cold, hard cash with easy-to-create courses and membership areas.

Analytics: Because guessing is for weather forecasts, not business decisions. Get clear insights into what’s working and what’s not.

A/B Testing: Because sometimes you need to test the waters before diving in. Split test everything from headlines to entire pages.

Smart Checkout: Boost your average order value faster.

CRM: Keep tabs on your contacts, appointments, and deals.

Workflows: Automate your marketing.

Global Products: Create once, sell anywhere. It’s like copy-pasting but for your entire product catalog.

Community Features: Build a thriving tribe around your brand.

API & Webhooks: For the tech-savvy folks, integrate ClickFunnels with your existing stack.

Store Funnels: Selling physical products? Ship and fulfill orders without breaking a sweat.

Blog: Position yourself as an industry expert.

And much more… 

But here’s the kicker — ClickFunnels isn’t just about features. It’s about results. 

Businesses of all sizes have used ClickFunnels to skyrocket their online presence and profits.

A well-oiled funnel is the difference between being a needle in the haystack and being the magnet that pulls customers in. And at $81 a month, ClickFunnels isn’t just affordable — it’s a steal.

Try ClickFunnels Free Today!

2. Voomly — Only $19/Month

Video content is king. But creating videos is only half the battle — hosting, optimizing, and leveraging them for business growth is where Voomly shines.

Voomly is a comprehensive video marketing solution that can significantly boost your online presence and conversion rates.

Here’s what Voomly brings to the table:

Cost-Effective Video Hosting: Voomly offers high-quality video streaming at a fraction of the cost of other platforms. They use the same content delivery network as major players like Amazon Prime and Hulu, ensuring smooth playback without buffering issues.

Interactive Video Features: Transform passive viewers into active participants with features like in-video email capture, interactive surveys, and call-to-action buttons. This allows you to build your email list and guide viewers through a customized journey based on their responses.

Advanced Analytics: Gain deep insights into your video performance with detailed analytics. Track views, engagement rates, and viewer behavior to optimize your content strategy.

Custom Branding: Make your videos stand out with a branded player. Customize colors, add your logo, and create a cohesive brand experience for your audience.

Video Funnels: Create tailored video experiences that guide viewers towards specific actions, whether it’s making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or booking a consultation.

Fast Load Times: Voomly boasts some of the fastest load times in the industry, which is crucial for keeping viewers engaged and improving your site’s overall performance.

Secure Hosting: Keep your content safe with SSL/TLS encryption and other advanced security features.

Voomly also offers a suite of video creation tools as part of their package, including Doodly for whiteboard animations, Toonly for cartoon explainer videos, and Talkia for text-to-speech voiceovers.

I’ll share more about these tools below!

Try Voomly Today For Free!

3. Geru — Only $37/Month

Launching a successful sales funnel can be a costly game of trial and error. 

Geru changes this by allowing you to simulate and optimize your funnels before you invest a single dollar in building them.

Here’s how.

Funnel Mapping: Use Geru’s drag-and-drop interface to visually map out your sales funnels, from landing pages to upsells and backend offers.

Profitability Simulation: Input your projected conversion rates, product prices, traffic costs, and other variables to simulate the potential profitability of your funnel.

Pre-made Funnel Library: Access over 30 proven funnel blueprints across various industries and business models, saving you time and providing inspiration.

Scenario Testing: Run “what-if” scenarios to see how changes in pricing, traffic costs, or conversion rates might impact your bottom line.

Detailed Reporting: Get comprehensive reports on key metrics like Revenue, Profit, Average Order Value (AOV), Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), and Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).

Agency Tools: Create visual funnel maps and potential ROI projections to impress clients and win more business.

Geru is particularly valuable for:

1. Entrepreneurs launching new products or services
2. Digital marketers optimizing existing funnels
3. Agencies pitching funnel strategies to clients
4. E-commerce businesses planning promotional campaigns

By allowing you to test and refine your funnel strategy before implementation, Geru can save you significant time and money. It helps you identify potential issues, optimize your offer structure, and ensure your funnel is set up for profitability from day one.

Try Geru For Free Today!

4. Doodly — Only $49/Month

Engaging visuals can make all the difference. 

Doodly offers a simple yet powerful solution for creating professional-looking whiteboard animation videos, even if you have no design or technical skills.

Here’s how! 

Easy-to-Use Interface: Drag-and-drop functionality allows you to create animations quickly and easily.

Multiple Board Types: Create videos on whiteboard, blackboard, glassboard, and even green screen backgrounds.

Custom Image Import: Use Doodly’s Smart Draw technology to animate your own imported images.

Vast Asset Library: Access thousands of custom-drawn characters, props, and scenes covering various topics and niches.

Voice-over Integration: Record or import voice-overs directly within the software and easily sync them to your animations.

Royalty-Free Music: Choose from a selection of background tracks to enhance your videos.

Multi-Platform Compatibility: Install and use Doodly on both Mac and PC.

Regular Updates: Benefit from frequent software updates with new features and improvements.

Doodly is particularly useful for:

1. Marketers creating engaging video content for social media or ads
2. Educators developing visual aids for lessons or online courses
3. Businesses explaining complex concepts or products to customers
4. YouTubers looking to enhance their video content
5. Non-profit organizations creating compelling campaign videos

By allowing you to create professional-looking animated videos without the need for extensive design skills or expensive outsourcing, Doodly can significantly boost your content creation capabilities. These engaging animations can help increase viewer retention, improve information recall, and ultimately drive better results for your marketing or educational efforts.

Try Doodly Free Today!

5. Toonly — Only $49/Month

Capturing and maintaining audience attention is crucial. Toonly offers a user-friendly solution for creating engaging animated explainer videos, even for those with no design or technical expertise.

Here’s how!

Intuitive Drag-and-Drop Interface: Create professional-looking animated videos with simple point-and-click actions.

Extensive Asset Library: Access a vast collection of custom-drawn characters, props, and backgrounds covering various topics and niches.

Premade Scenes: Get started quickly with ready-to-use scenes combining backgrounds, characters, and props.

Voice-over Integration: Record or import voice-overs directly within the software and easily sync them to your animations.

Royalty-Free Music: Choose from a selection of background tracks to enhance your videos.

Multi-Platform Compatibility: Install and use Toonly on both Mac and PC.

Regular Updates: Benefit from ongoing software updates with new features and improvements based on user feedback.

Toonly is particularly useful for:

1. Small business owners and service providers looking to introduce their offerings
2. E-commerce store owners aiming to showcase products in an engaging way
3. Digital marketers create attention-grabbing ads and social media content
4. B2B companies explaining complex products or services
5. Trainers and presenters seeking to enhance their educational materials
6. Non-profit organizations crafting compelling stories for fundraising

Animated explainer videos created with Toonly can be used effectively across various platforms:

• Website and landing pages to reduce bounce rates and increase engagement
• Social media channels to boost shares and attract new followers
• Sales videos to present products or services in an appealing way
• Email marketing campaigns to improve open and click-through rates
• Crowdfunding campaigns to stand out and increase funding success

Try Toonly Free Today!

6. Talkia — Only $49/Month

High-quality voiceovers can significantly enhance the impact of your videos.

Talkia offers an affordable and user-friendly solution for creating professional-sounding voiceovers without the need for voice actors or recording equipment.

Key Features of Talkia:

Advanced Text-to-Speech Technology: Utilizes WaveNet technology, also used by Google and Amazon, to create lifelike voices.

Diverse Voice Library: Offers a wide range of male and female voices, including different accents and even children’s voices.

Multiple Language Support: Create voiceovers in various languages, enabling international marketing efforts.

Customization Options: Adjust speaking rate, pitch, pauses, and emphasis to fine-tune your voiceovers.

Background Music Integration: Add background music from a library of tracks to enhance your voiceovers.

Easy-to-Use Interface: Simple text input and voice selection process for quick voiceover creation.

Multi-Platform Compatibility: Works on both Mac and PC and exports MP3 files compatible with all major video editing software.

Talkia is particularly useful for:

1. Digital marketers creating Video Sales Letters (VSLs) and promotional content
2. Content creators producing educational and training videos
3. Authors looking to create audiobooks cost-effectively
4. Businesses developing multilingual marketing materials
5. Website owners adding narrated videos to their sites
6. Social media marketers creating engaging video content

By enabling the creation of professional-sounding voiceovers without the need for expensive voice actors or recording equipment, Talkia can significantly enhance your content creation capabilities. These voiceovers can help increase viewer engagement, improve information retention, and ultimately drive better results for your marketing or educational efforts.

Try Talkia Today Free!

7. People Builder — Only $49/Month

Have you ever struggled to find the perfect characters for your whiteboard animations? 

People Builder might just be the solution you’ve been looking for. This innovative software is designed to work seamlessly with Doodly, allowing you to create custom characters that perfectly match your vision.

What sets People Builder apart?

Unparalleled Customization: With a staggering 52 million unique character combinations, you’re only limited by your imagination. Adjust age, gender, skin tone, body size, facial expressions, and outfits to create characters that truly resonate with your audience.

User-Friendly Interface: Even if you’re not tech-savvy, you’ll find People Builder intuitive and easy to use. The four-step character creation process is straightforward and fun.

Doodly-Ready Characters: Each character comes complete with pre-made draw paths, ensuring they integrate perfectly into your Doodly videos without any extra work on your part.

Versatile Output: Export your creations as JPEG, PNG, WebP, or DAS files, making them compatible not just with Doodly, but with a wide range of video software.

This tool is a game-changer for anyone creating whiteboard animations, but it’s especially valuable for:

1. Marketers looking to create relatable characters for their target audience
2. Educators needing diverse representations in their instructional videos
3. Course creators wanting to add a personal touch to their content
4. Storytellers aiming to bring their narratives to life visually

The ability to create characters that reflect your specific audience can significantly boost engagement and relatability in your videos. Whether you’re explaining a complex concept, selling a product, or telling a story, having the right characters can make all the difference.

A unique feature worth highlighting is the 130 different character poses available. This allows you to depict a wide range of actions and emotions, from a businessperson working at a desk to someone jumping for joy.

Try People Builder Today Free!

8. Pyks — Only $49/Month

First impressions are everything. That’s where Pyks comes in — a game-changing graphic design tool that puts professional-quality visuals at your fingertips.

What sets Pyks apart?

Simplicity meets sophistication: Forget complex design software. Pyks offers an intuitive interface that anyone can master, without sacrificing quality.

Template treasure trove: With a vast library of professionally designed templates spanning 23 genres, you’ll find the perfect starting point for any project.

Customization king: From eBook covers to product labels, Pyks lets you tailor designs to your brand with ease.

Image arsenal: Access over 1.5 million royalty-free images, clip art, and stock photos to elevate your designs.

Who’s it for?

Pyks is a versatile tool that caters to:

1. Authors looking to create eye-catching book covers
2. Course creators needing professional-looking course materials
3. Digital marketers crafting lead magnets and promotional graphics
4. Software developers wanting to visualize their products
5. Supplement sellers aiming to design attractive product packaging

Key features:

• 40 different types of eCovers
• User-friendly photo editing tools
• Special text effects for standout designs
• Background customization options
• Regular software updates

By putting professional-grade design tools in your hands, Pyks helps you:

• Save time and money on freelance designers
• Maintain consistent branding across all your visuals
• Quickly iterate and test different designs
• Increase perceived value of your products

Whether you’re an established brand or just starting out, Pyks empowers you to create visuals that capture attention, convey quality, and ultimately drive more sales.

Try Pyks Free Today!

9. Magnetic Marketing — Free

Magnetic Marketing is a comprehensive marketing education program that combines the timeless wisdom of Dan Kennedy with the modern digital marketing expertise of Russell Brunson. 

It’s not software, but rather a treasure trove of marketing knowledge delivered through multiple channels.

Key Components:

1. NO B.S. Magnetic Marketing Newsletter: A monthly physical newsletter packed with marketing and business strategies.
2. Behind The Scenes Walkthroughs: A complementary newsletter providing real-world examples of marketing campaigns and their results.
3. Extensive Bonus Materials: Including courses, live event recordings, and books covering various aspects of marketing and business growth.

Who is it for?

• Entrepreneurs and business owners looking to improve their marketing skills
• Marketers seeking to stay updated with both timeless principles and current trends
• Anyone interested in learning from two of the most respected names in direct response marketing

Value Proposition:

• Learn from Marketing Legends: Get direct access to the knowledge of Dan Kennedy and Russell Brunson.
• Practical, Actionable Advice: Receive strategies you can implement immediately in your business.
• Continuous Learning: Regular newsletters ensure you’re always up-to-date with the latest marketing insights.
• Comprehensive Resources: From books to video courses, cover all aspects of marketing and business growth.

By subscribing to Magnetic Marketing, you’re investing in an ongoing marketing education that can transform your business and marketing approach.

Try Magnetic Marketing Today Free!

10. Secrets of Success — Free

Secrets of Success is a mastermind community that brings together high-performers and aspiring achievers who are committed to personal growth and success across all areas of life.

Key Components:

1. Monthly Book Club: Curated by Russell Brunson, featuring in-depth discussions on rare and impactful books.
2. Exclusive Content Library: Access to rare, unpublished works from thought leaders of the ‘New Thought Movement’.
3. The Secrets of Success Masterclass: A foundational course to help members establish their path to success.
4. Nightingale Conant’s Greatest Hits: Access to a vast library of self-development content, including 7,000 never-before-released tracks from Earl Nightingale.
5. Affiliate Program: Opportunity for members to earn commissions by referring others to the community.

Who is it for?

• Entrepreneurs and business leaders seeking continuous personal growth
• Individuals passionate about self-improvement and success principles
• Those interested in rare, historical personal development content
• Anyone looking to be part of a community of like-minded, ambitious individuals

Value Proposition:

• Access to Rare Knowledge: Gain insights from hard-to-find and never-before-published works of renowned thought leaders.
• Community of High Achievers: Connect with and learn from other success-oriented individuals.
• Curated Learning Experience: Benefit from Russell Brunson’s expertise in selecting and interpreting impactful content.
• Holistic Approach to Success: Focus on improving all aspects of life, not just business or finances.

By joining Secrets of Success, you’re investing in your personal growth and joining an exclusive community of like-minded individuals committed to achieving extraordinary success.

Try Secrets of Success Today Free!

Final Thoughts

Having access to the right tools can make all the difference in your business’s success. 

From ClickFunnels’ comprehensive marketing platform to Voomly’s video marketing solutions, and from Doodly’s whiteboard animations to Talkia’s text-to-speech capabilities, each of these low-cost tools offers unique features that can help elevate your marketing efforts and streamline your operations.

However, tools are only part of the equation.

As the Secrets of Success community reminds us, personal development and a growth mindset are equally crucial for long-term success.

By combining powerful, affordable business tools with continuous learning and self-improvement, you’ll be well-equipped to face the challenges of entrepreneurship and achieve your business goals.

Thanks for reading 10 Affordable Tools To Help Your Business which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Have a business idea that you’re dying to get out into the world…

… but don’t know where to start? 

Russell Brunson’s Your First Funnel Challenge is a 5-day online boot camp where you’ll launch your first (or next) business idea side-by-side with real-world entrepreneurs… without taking on a mountain of debt or getting stuck in “analysis paralysis”. 

Here’s everything you need to know.

The Gameplan

Here’s the 5-day game plan…

Day 1 – Funnel Hacking

Each day is jam-packed with lessons to learn and actions to take.

Day 1 is no exception.

We’re going to unveil the most successful types of sales funnels in the online world today (this is changing all the time… so you’ll learn something new even if you’re uber familiar with sales funnels).

We’ll then help you determine which of these killer funnels is best for your specific business idea (whether it’s in finance, eComm, coaching, info products, biz opp, or some other niche) — and you’ll “ethically steal” the perfect funnel for your own purposes.

Additionally, you’re going to work with two superheroes in the funnel building world on Day 1.

Jamie Cross went from selling her soap at local farmer’s markets to building an online eCommerce empire, entirely bootstrapped — she even joined our Two Comma Club.

Stacey & Paul Martino are saving marriages with coaching funnels. And you’re going to learn exactly how they maintain a steady stream of high-paying clients (this is critical info for coaches).

Join The ‘Your First Funnel’ Challenge!

Day 2 – Your First Funnel

On Day 2, we’re going to show you the first funnel that every business (no matter your industry) should start with. And then we’re going to plug stuff into your funnels so it’s ready to go live ASAP.

We’re making it super simple… so you can take action and get real results.

We’ll also talk about how you can craft irresistible headlines and the five core follow-up emails that every funnel requires on the back end (you can write all of them in a single sitting).

Plus, you’re going to work with a few more amazing people on Day 2.

Garret J. White is a legend in the ClickFunnels community. He’s our most requested speaker by far because he spits fire whenever he takes the stage. On Day 2, Garret will teach you how he uses funnels to transform men’s lives all around the world.

Annie Grace has built an online empire helping people overcome their dependence on alcohol. On Day 2, she’s going to show the “hourglass funnel” she uses to attract her dream customers… so she doesn’t have to chase them.

Join The ‘Your First Funnel’ Challenge!

Day 3 – Hook, Story, Offer

Day 3 is a doozy.

We’re going to show you the secret behind how ClickFunnels went from a simple idea inside of Russell’s head… to the multi-million $$$ empire it is today.

It’s all about storytelling.

We’ll teach you how to find your unique hook, tell a compelling story that resonates with your core audience, and position your offer so that you can make as many sales as possible.

You’ll get to work with…

Stephen J. Larsen started as a freelance funnel builder learning the ropes. Now he’s got a massive funnel-building empire. He’s going to teach you how to transform your funnel-building skills(that you learned the previous days) into a massive profit-generating opportunity.

Kristine Mirelle (a.k.a. the “music hustler”) is a professional musician, 2-Comma Club Winner, and founder of Laugh My Ads Off. She teaches businesses how to create hilarious ads that grab attention and get conversions. And that’s what she’s going to show YOU how to do.

Join The ‘Your First Funnel’ Challenge!

Day 4 – Irresistible Ads

What’s a killer funnel without high-quality traffic?

On Day 4, we’re giving your our most closely held secrets about how to drive hordes of dream customers to your funnel.

You’ll unearth a “honey hole” of golden customers who are LOOKING for your offer, learn how to bring in customers like clockwork, and create high-converting, low-cost ads.

Plus, you’re going to work alongside…

Stephen J. Larsen started as a freelance funnel builder learning the ropes. Now he’s got a massive funnel-building empire. He’s going to teach you how to transform your funnel-building skills(that you learned the previous days) into a massive profit-generating opportunity.

Eileen Wilder had no idea what a funnel was just two years ago… and now she’s a multiple 2-Comma Club Winner! She’s going to teach you how ANYONE can add a virtual high ticket offer to their funnel for a MASSIVE boost in sales!

Join The ‘Your First Funnel’ Challenge!

Day 5 – DO it NOW!

Now we’re crossing the finish line.

On Day 5, we’ll help you eliminate your limiting beliefs, teach you how to stack your offer to increase your average order value, and tell you a story that will inspire you to keep taking action.

You’re going to hear from…

Daymond John, shark tank legend, is going to go LIVE and share his own story on how he “bootstrapped” his way to success!

Join The ‘Your First Funnel’ Challenge!

Here’s What to Expect From Your First Funnel Challenge 

So… what is this challenge going to require of you? What results can you expect to get from it?

Here’s what you can expect.

Your Mind is a Sponge…

You’re going to be taking in a LOT of information over these 5 days. You’ll be learning from some of the best minds in the entrepreneurial world… and it’s important to attend every session ready to take notes!

Take Massive Action…

You’ll need to put in the work to get results from this challenge. But don’t worry, we’ll be there with you every step of the way to help you take massive action and get results!

Get Everything You Need…

You’re going to get everything you need to build and bootstrap your business idea from scratch. The know-how, the mindset, the tools, and tactics — all of it, from real-world entrepreneurs who are living the life you want to live!

Funnel Hackers UNITE…

By signing up for this challenge, you’re going to be joining a community of entrepreneurs who are committed to taking their businesses to the next level.

Change Your Life…

It might sound cliche… but this challenge has the potential to change the trajectory of your life. More freedom. More impact. More fun making money the way you want to make money. We’ve seen it happen time and time again, and we know it can happen for you, too!

Who is Your First Funnel Challenge for? 

The Your First Funnel Challenge is for anyone who wants to build a business online.

If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur with an idea for a business, but you don’t know how to get started… this challenge is for you.

If you’re struggling to get traction with your online business, and you’re looking for a way to get things moving in the right direction… this challenge is for you.

If you’re fed up with your 9-to-5 job and you’re ready to take control of your life and your income… this challenge is for you.

The Your First Funnel Challenge is for anyone who is ready to take their business (or sapling idea) to the next level. 

If that’s you, then sign up!

Who is Your First Funnel Challenge NOT for?

If you’re the type of person who likes to sit on the sidelines and watch others take action… this challenge is NOT for you. 

If you’re not willing to put in the work to see results… this challenge is NOT for you. 

The Your First Funnel Challenge is NOT for people who are not ready to change their lives. 

If you’re happy with where you’re at in life, and you don’t want to rock the boat… this challenge is NOT for you. 

But if you’re ready for a change, and you’re ready to take massive action to see results… then sign up for the challenge now!

How Long is Your First Funnel Challenge? 

5 days. 1 hour each day.

Why?

Because we didn’t leave any fat on the bone (most long challenges could easily be cut down to less if they focused on action and execution).

It’s going to be an exciting and thrilling five days.

Make sure you set aside the necessary time and energy to take action!

But Wait! There’s More…

You know us…

At ClickFunnels, we love to blow your socks off with mind-boggling bonuses. We want to make the Your First Funnel Challenge an absolute no-brainer, value bomb.

So…

Here’s the other cool stuff you’re going to get!

Bonus #1: The World’s Greatest Funnel Builders

What if you got to sit at the feet of some of the world’s greatest funnel builders as they told you their deepest secrets of success?

That alone would be worth tens of thousands of dollars!

Dean Graziosi

Dean Graziosi is a multiple New York Times bestselling author, entrepreneur, trainer, and infomercial legend! For over 25 years, Dean has dedicated his life to helping entrepreneurs create the life and freedom they crave.

Grant Cardone

Grant Cardone is a best-selling author of The 10X Rule and If You’re Not First, You’re Last, as well as a marketing trainer, entrepreneur, and real estate mogul.

Grant will show you how to apply the 10X Rule to every part of your life so you can live a life of freedom, happiness, and wealth!

Myron Golden

Myron Golden, Ph.D. is one of the most in-demand speakers and trainers in sales, marketing, and business development in the world— helping men and women get what they’re actually worth!

Todd Brown

One of the top funnel builders and marketing legends in the world, Todd Brown has worked and consulted with titans of direct response marketing, including businesses such as Agora. 

He’ll be teaching how to develop YOUR “big idea” so you, your brand, and your offer can stand out even in a saturated market!

Russell Brunson

Hey, that’s our founder! Now that you have a funnel live, Russell will show you the “One Funnel Away” process that can help take your funnel to the next level and potentially break through the 1 MM in sales and achieve a 2-Comma Club Award at Funnel Hacking LIVE!

Bonus #2: No Product? No Problem

Wish you could build a baller business… but don’t have a great product idea?

This bonus is going to solve that for you.

Attend this exclusive one-day event where you’ll learn the secrets behind how serial entrepreneurs come up with an endless stream of great business ideas. Specifically, you’ll learn from…

Keala Kanae & Anthony Morrison

Keala Kanae and Anthony Morrison are two of our top ClickFunnels super affiliates who have won multiple 2-Comma Club Awards and continue to generate thousands ClickFunnels trials per day.

They’ll show you how they use funnels to promote other people’s products for big, fat commissions, and how you can ethically steal their secrets for your own funnel and start producing sales practically overnight!

Bonus #3: Your Winning Funnel

Every industry is different. Every niche is different. Every offer is different.

So how would you like to get THE BEST funnel that works for your specific business idea?

That’s what we’re going to give you — all you have to do is plug in your copy and offer, then flip the switch.

We invited the TOP EXPERTS of their field to show us the exact funnel that CRUSHES it for them.

And the crazy part is, they’re going to GIVE YOU their highest performing funnels.

Here’s the line-up of funnel experts coming to teach…

Jeff Walker

Jeff Walker is the KING of the product launch funnel. He’ll show you the “dos and don’ts” of this type of funnel, and how to win big every time you launch a new product.

Trey Lewellyn

Trey Lewellyn is a Jedi Master when it comes to high-converting eComm funnels… and he rarely allows anyone to see what goes on behind closed doors. He’ll show us how he uses advertorials to test and find winning offers… and when it’s time to scale scale scale!

Pedro Adao

Pedro Adao is an 8-figure business owner and the #1 go-to industry expert when it comes to “challenge funnels.” He’ll show you how to “niche down” and create a challenge funnel that attracts YOUR TARGET BUYERS to your offer!

Dan Henry

Dan Henry is a multiple 2-Comma Club Award winner and 8-figure business owner that has helped THOUSANDS of everyday entrepreneurs charge more!!! He’ll be showing you how to easily create high-converting webinar funnels.

Gabe Schillinger

Gabe Schillinger is a 2-Comma Club Award winner and music producer that’s worked with names like Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar. He’ll show you how to expertly craft contest funnels to grow your business, no matter the type of business you’re in!

Stephen J. Larsen

Stephen Larsen will join us once again, but this time, he’ll show you how to build an affiliate/networking marketing funnel that can help scale your business to the moon! (THIS type of funnel is level 10 critical to learn if you want to go from 0 to FAT STACKS OF GREEN in as little time as possible!!)

Perry Belcher

Perry Belcher is an 8-figure business owner, investor, coach, trainer, consultant, and marketing LEGEND! He’ll show you how to use “trip-wire funnels” to gain an AVALANCHE of ready-to-buy customers!

How Much Does the Your First Funnel Challenge Cost?

The Your First Funnel Challenge is only $47. We don’t want anything to stand in your way of having a successful funnel business, so we’re giving you access to everything you need to get started.

What’s the catch? 

Well, you are going to have to put in the work to watch the lessons and do the homework if you want to see results — there’s no way around it. 

Also, there’s an add-on option where you can buy a VIP seat for $29. This gives you recordings, a coach to help you implement, answer your questions, and NOT procrastinate. It’s a fantastic deal if you want the upgrade… (usually coaching like this costs hundreds)… we probably should have charged more. But, hey, we’re here to see you succeed! And we know that this will give you your best shot.

Awesome results require awesome action. 

But we’ll be there with you every step of the way, cheering you on and supporting you as you build the business (and life) of your dreams. 

So what are you waiting for?

Join The ‘Your First Funnel’ Challenge!

Thanks for reading What Is The Your First Funnel Challenge? which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Did you know that dropshipping actually started back in the late 19th century?

The roots of dropshipping can be traced back to mail-order businesses.

Companies like Sears, Roebuck & Co. in the United States used catalogs to sell products to customers who lived in rural areas. These companies didn’t always stock all items but would fulfill orders by sourcing from suppliers after receiving a customer’s order.

Now? 

Dropshipping is a way for you to find, source, and send awesome products to your customers — all without leaving the comfort of your sofa.

Let’s talk about what dropshipping is — and exactly how you can use it to build a successful e-commerce business. 

What is Dropshipping?

Here’s our “official” definition: Dropshipping is a retail fulfillment method where a store doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, when the store sells a product, it purchases the item from a third party and has it shipped directly to the customer. As a result, the merchant never sees or handles the product.

And yes, it’s just as awesome as it sounds. 

You don’t have to create the product or ship the product. All you have to do is sell the product.

In fact, you might be surprised to learn that 27% of online retailers use dropshipping in their business model.

Now you’re probably thinking, “That sounds too good to be true.” Is it really possible to just throw up an online store, sell, and let someone else take care of fulfillment? 

Yes. Yes it is. 

But as with anything, there are pros and cons. So let’s talk about them.

Pros & Cons of Dropshipping

Here are some of the main pros and cons you should be aware of with a dropshipping business.

Pros of Dropshipping

Low Startup Costs:

• No need for a physical storefront or warehouse.
• Minimal upfront investment as you don’t need to purchase inventory in advance.

Reduced Overhead:

• No costs associated with managing or maintaining inventory.
• Lower ongoing expenses like rent, utilities, and storage fees.

Wide Product Selection:

• Ability to offer a wide range of products without the need to stock them.
• Easier to test and add new products to your store.

Scalability:

• Easier to scale your business as you don’t need to worry about inventory management.
• Suppliers handle the shipping logistics, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your business.

Location Independence:

• Operate your business from anywhere with an internet connection.
• Flexibility to manage your business remotely.

Reduced Risk:

• Lower financial risk as you only purchase products after making a sale.
• Less risk of unsold inventory or overstock.

Focus on Marketing and Sales:

• More time and resources to focus on marketing, customer service, and optimizing your online store.

Cons of Dropshipping

Lower Profit Margins:

• Higher competition and reliance on suppliers can lead to lower profit margins.
• May need to sell a high volume of products to achieve significant profits.

Inventory Issues:

• No control over stock levels, leading to potential stockouts or backorders.
• Difficulty in managing multiple suppliers’ inventory levels and availability.

Shipping Complexities:

• Complex shipping logistics when dealing with multiple suppliers.
• Potential higher shipping costs and longer delivery times can impact customer satisfaction.

Quality Control:

• Less control over product quality and packaging.
• Increased risk of receiving defective products or poor-quality items from suppliers.

Supplier Errors:

• Mistakes made by suppliers, such as incorrect shipments or delays, can reflect poorly on your business.
• Challenges in managing customer service issues related to supplier errors.

Branding Limitations:

• Limited ability to brand products as your own.
• Difficulty in creating a unique and memorable brand identity.

Customer Service Challenges:

• Handling returns, exchanges, and refunds can be more complex and time-consuming.
• Potential for dissatisfied customers if issues arise with suppliers.

Dependence on Suppliers:

• Reliance on third-party suppliers for product availability, quality, and fulfillment.
• Risk of suppliers changing terms, prices, or going out of business.

Build Your Dropshipping Store Now (FREE)!

How to Create an Ecommerce Store With Dropshipping

Now that you have a grasp of what dropshipping is… and the pros and cons of creating your own dropshipping store, I should mention that you can click here to build your dropping store for free — using ClickFunnels and Zendrop.

Pretty cool, huh?

Now let’s walk through the steps of how you can build a successful e-commerce store with dropshipping (learn how to build a dropshipping funnel).

Step #1: Find Your “Blue Ocean”

This is the critical first step when you’re building any type of business — whether e-commerce, informational, or something else. 

You need to identify your “blue ocean”.

What is that? 

It’s an idea that Russell Brunson explained in his book, Expert Secrets (you can get a free copy at that link). 

You can think of a “red ocean” as one infested by sharks (i.e. competitors). There are already a lot of people in that spot and they are competing for food. 

But a “blue ocean” is a place where there’s not too much competition, a place with opportunity that is relatively unexploited. 

When you find your blue ocean, you make it 100 times easier to succeed! 

Here’s how you do it. 

Start by choosing a market: health, wealth, or relationship.

Then, choose a submarket, for which there are many — here are some examples…

• Health —> Weight Loss, Strength Training, Nutrition
• Wealth —> Investing, Real Estate, Finance
• Relationships —> Dating Advice, Marriage Advice, Love

Once you’ve selected a submarket, go one layer deeper to find your niche (or your “blue ocean”).

This can be anything — here’s one example for each market path…

• Health —> Weight Loss —> Personalized Meal Planning
• Wealth —> Finance —> Paying Off Debt
• Relationships —> Love —> Going Through Divorce

See how this works?

When you go a bit deeper, you’re able to identify a niche where you can operate without too much competition. 

There are a TON of people competing in the health niche, fewer people specifically in the weight loss niche, and even fewer in the personalized meal planning niche. 

It might be difficult to choose just one niche, but the more that you can do that… the easier it’s going to be when it comes to actually selling your e-commerce products.

Step #2: Create Your Branding & Messaging

The next step is to create your brand and your messaging. 

Why is this important? 

Because one of the things that make a product or e-commerce store POP is the brand or its vibe. Think of Liquid Death. 

That is literally just a can of water.

Heck — if I told you you should start a brand selling water in a can, you’d think I was crazy. There are already so many water brands that it’s ridiculous. To imagine that there might be more market share would seem nuts.

But there was. And there is.

Liquid Death has experienced significant growth since its inception. Recently, the company closed a $67 million funding round, bringing its valuation to $1.4 billion. This is a notable increase from its previous valuation of $700 million in October 2022​.

Pretty wild. 

But the question is WHY.

And the answer is that, although they’re just selling water, they’re doing it in a way no one else is — with “death metal” branding that a lot of people identify with.

This is a great example of how you can differentiate yourself with your branding — and create your own blue ocean that might not even exist yet.

Here are some questions to ask yourself…

1. What is your unique selling proposition (USP)?

What makes your product different from the competition? This could be the quality, the price, the customer service, or the branding itself. For Liquid Death, the USP is their unique, edgy branding.

2. Who is your target audience?

Who are you trying to reach? Understanding your audience helps tailor your branding and messaging to their preferences and needs. Liquid Death targets a specific demographic that appreciates unconventional and rebellious branding.

3. What is your brand’s story?

Every great brand has a story. What’s yours? How did your business come to be, and what are its core values? Liquid Death’s story revolves around breaking the mold of traditional bottled water brands and creating something that stands out in a crowded market.

4. How will you visually represent your brand?

What colors, logos, and design elements will you use? Your visual identity should align with your brand’s personality and appeal to your target audience. Liquid Death uses dark, bold imagery to match its “death metal” theme.

5. What tone and voice will you use in your messaging?

The way you communicate with your audience should be consistent and reflect your brand’s personality. Liquid Death’s tone is irreverent and bold, which resonates with its audience.

6. What platforms will you use to reach your audience?

Different platforms serve different purposes. Social media, websites, email marketing, and more all play a role in how you connect with your customers. Liquid Death has effectively used social media to amplify its unique voice and engage with its audience.

7. How will you build a community around your brand?

Community building is crucial for brand loyalty. How will you engage with your customers and make them feel like part of your brand’s journey? Liquid Death has fostered a strong community by aligning its brand with a lifestyle and culture.

When you’re creating your brand image, try to nail down…

• Your slogan — Your slogan is a concise statement that captures the essence of your brand and what it stands for. It should be memorable, catchy, and convey the core message of your business. A good slogan differentiates your brand from competitors and leaves a lasting impression on your audience. For example, Nike’s “Just Do It” encapsulates the brand’s ethos of empowerment and action.
• Your values — Your values define what your brand stands for and guide your business practices. They should reflect your company’s mission and ethical standards, influencing every decision you make. Clearly, articulated values help build trust with your audience and foster a loyal customer base. For instance, Patagonia’s commitment to environmental sustainability is a core value that resonates strongly with its customers.
• Your name — Your brand name is the first thing people will notice about your business, so it should be unique, easy to remember, and reflective of your brand’s identity. A well-chosen name can set the tone for your brand and make it stand out in a crowded marketplace. Think of names like “Apple” or “Amazon” which are simple yet powerful, and evoke a sense of innovation and vastness respectively.
• Your visual identity — Your visual identity includes your logo, color scheme, typography, and overall design aesthetic. It is the visual representation of your brand and should be consistent across all platforms and materials. A strong visual identity helps create a recognizable and professional image, making it easier for customers to connect with and remember your brand. For example, Coca-Cola’s red and white color scheme and distinctive script logo are instantly recognizable worldwide.

… and make it all align so that when people arrive on your website, it feels like something truly special and unique. 

The last thing you want is to feel like every other storefront in your niche! 

Step #3: Build Your Storefront

Just like you used to have to build and source your own products, you also used to have to design and code your own online storefront. 

But now it’s easy as pie. 

With ClickFunnels, you can use our AI Smart Funnels to create a funnel from scratch in less than 10 minutes — just answer a few questions. 

Even better, you can then use our AI assistant to help you with any changes you want to make to your funnel or website. 

We have an AI chatbot named Napoleon. Click on any element on the page, and the bot will recognize that section. Then you can ask the bot to rewrite the copy, expand it, shorten it, or change it in any particular way you like… 

So not only can you build your funnel with AI — you can also refine it with AI!

Amazing, huh? 

And when it comes to dropshipping, ClickFunnels now fully integrates with Zendrop — one of the best dropshipping companies on the planet, that will give you access to list and sell literally millions of products on your e-commerce store. 

In other words, you don’t need to hire an expensive web developer or even go hunting for different dropshipping or website-building companies. 

With ClickFunnels & Zendrop, you’re taken care of 🙂

Just click below to sign up and get started — then come back here and we’ll finish up!

Build Your Dropshipping Store Now (FREE)!

By the way, if you feel a little confused and don’t know where to start, then go sign up for our One Funnel Away Challenge, where you can now take the “e-commerce” path to learn exactly how to sell one product with one traffic source and make (literally) millions of dollars. Learn more here.

Step #4: Drive Traffic

So you’ve got your storefront built and you’re ready to sell products!

Thing is… you need people to visit your store and buy. 

That’s called “traffic”. 

And there are a seemingly endless number of ways you can drive traffic to your e-commerce store. All of which are effective. 

But here are the main ways to learn about and consider!

Content Marketing — Social media is a great place to tell people about your products. If you post consistently on, say, Instagram and build a following… people will naturally want to learn more, they’ll visit your storefront, and they’ll even buy your products. The key is providing genuine value or entertainment for your audience, putting a link in your bio, and posting at least 1-2 times per day. You can learn more about Instagram marketing here. 

SEO — SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization” and it’s all about optimizing your content to rank in search engines like Google. The more you rank, the more traffic you drive organically (for free) to your website and storefront. If you sell tennis rackets, you’d want to rank for phrases like “best tennis rackets” in Google. Then you’re getting relevant traffic. You can learn more about SEO here. 

Advertisements — If you’ve got some money to spend, then you can get results a lot faster by running ads. The easiest places to do this are on Facebook or Google. They have easy-to-use platforms that allow you to get ads up and running in as little as 10 minutes. The key here is to make sure you’re targeting the right audience with your ads, that you have a good hook, and that your funnel is dialed in so you’re not wasting money. You can learn more about advertising here. 

Sponsorships — Sponsorships are like a more “rogue” version of advertising. Instead of just running ads on the big platforms, you can find your own platforms where you want to run ads.

These could be email newsletters, blogs, specific websites, or even podcasts. It takes a bit more research because you have to find these places yourself… but you can get a lot more bang for your buck if you do it right. 

Influencers — You’ve probably seen influencers promoting products on Instagram or TikTok before… that’s because it works! You can find influencers using our “Dream 100” strategy and then reach out to them and ask them what it’d cost for them to promote your products to their audience. 

Affiliate Marketing — Did you know you can get people to sell your products for you… and you only have to pay them a percentage when they make sales? This is called affiliate marketing. You can build your very own “affiliate army” to promote your products.

Step #5: Test Different Products

Once your store is up and running, it’s crucial to continually test different products to find what resonates most with your audience. Here’s how to approach this:

Start with a Small Selection:

Begin by offering a small variety of products related to your niche. This allows you to manage inventory better and understand customer preferences without overwhelming yourself.

Analyze Sales Data:

Use tools to track which products are selling and which aren’t. Pay attention to customer feedback, reviews, and return rates to gauge product success.

Run A/B Tests:

Experiment with different product descriptions, images, pricing, and promotional strategies. A/B testing can help you determine what variations lead to higher conversions.

Leverage Customer Feedback:

Engage with your customers through surveys or direct feedback channels to understand their needs and preferences. This can provide insights into potential product improvements or new offerings.

Rotate Products:

Regularly introduce new products and phase out underperforming ones. This keeps your inventory fresh and exciting for repeat customers while allowing you to find top sellers.

Utilize Social Media and Ads:

Promote different products through social media and paid advertising to see which items gain the most traction. Track engagement metrics to refine your marketing strategy.

Final Thoughts on Dropshipping

Dropshipping presents a fantastic entry point for new entrepreneurs due to its low startup costs and scalability. By focusing on marketing and sales while leveraging third-party suppliers for fulfillment, you can quickly set up and grow your business from anywhere.

However, it’s essential to be aware of the challenges, such as lower profit margins and reliance on suppliers. Success in dropshipping requires finding a unique niche (your “blue ocean”), creating a distinctive brand, and continually optimizing your strategies.

Drive traffic using a combination of content marketing, SEO, ads, and influencer partnerships. Tools like ClickFunnels and Zendrop can simplify the process, allowing you to concentrate on growing your business.

Stay adaptable, keep learning, and focus on building strong customer relationships to thrive in the dropshipping world.

Build Your Dropshipping Store Now (FREE)!

Thanks for reading Beginners – Your Guide to Dropshipping which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

In the past, small businesses had to make important marketing decisions based on guesses and work with very limited resources.

But now, AI technology has changed the game!

With AI, even the smallest companies can go head-to-head with big corporations. You can open up a world of new opportunities to supercharge your marketing efforts — with ChatGPT, a brand new funnel builder we created, chatbots, and lots of other tools.

In this article, we’ll dive into the various ways AI can transform your marketing strategies. You’ll discover practical tips and insights on how to leverage AI to boost your business growth, optimize your marketing campaigns, and achieve a higher return on your investment.

Let’s dive in! 

1. Creating and Optimizing Marketing Funnels

Marketing funnels are a series of steps designed to guide potential customers through the buying journey, from initial awareness to final purchase.

These steps can include multiple pages or steps that guide people where you want them to go.

One of the simplest marketing funnels is the squeeze page funnel. It has only two steps — the page for snagging an email address and then the “Thank You” page. 

Here’s an example… 

Of course, you can create much more complicated and sophisticated funnels (that’s what we help people do at ClickFunnels!) 

Like this Webinar funnel for example…

It really just depends on what you’re trying to do… get emails, make sales, book calls, or something else.

Now you used to have to create all of this on your own. You’d have to write the copy, create the designs, map out the funnel, and everything else. It took weeks or months.

But now you can do 90% of the work with AI 🙂

In fact, at ClickFunnels, we created an AI funnel builder that will ask you some questions and spit out a functional funnel. 

The benefits? 

• No Prior Experience Required: If you’re new to digital marketing, setting up a sales funnel can feel overwhelming. The ClickFunnels Smart Funnel Builder provides step-by-step guidance, making it easy for anyone to create a professional funnel without needing extensive marketing knowledge.
• Time-Saving: Traditionally, creating a sales funnel involves multiple steps, such as designing pages, writing copy, and setting up integrations. This process can be time-consuming and complex. The Smart AI Funnel Builder automates these tasks, allowing you to create a fully functional funnel in under 15 minutes.
• Cost-Efficiency: With the Smart Funnel Builder, you get high-quality copywriting and design services included. This means you don’t need to hire additional professionals, saving you significant costs while still ensuring your funnel is effective and visually appealing.

Want to see how it works?

Let’s walk through it together! 

Go here and you can start building your AI funnel for free.

As I walk you through this, I’m going to imagine that I’m building a squeeze page for a fitness coach who’s offering a guide to his target audience: busy executives.

I’m going to select the “Optin Funnel” — same as the Squeeze Page Funnel. This will allow me to offer a gift to my target market in exchange for their email list. And once they’re on my email list, I can reach out to them whenever I want to for free! 

Then I’ll choose a brand color palette…

…and image style… 

… and finally, I’ll provide some details about my offer and the style of copy that I want. The more information and details you provide the AI with here, the better job it’ll do of creating a sales funnel for you that makes sense. 

Then watch the quick video from Russell if you’re new to ClickFunnels. After that, you can either create a ClickFunnels account for free or login to your existing account. 

Once you do, you’ll be able to access your complete AI-built funnel.

You can edit each page, delete, or even add more pages/steps to the funnel. It’s fully customizable but now you have an almost complete funnel that will need only a few tweaks (or none at all!).

Try Our AI Funnel Builder For FREE Here!

2. Website Copy Using AI Writing Tools

Copywriting is a critical component of marketing. Words have the power to persuade potential customers to make a purchase. 

However, writing effective copy is a skill that not everyone possesses. Crafting compelling and convincing messages requires expertise and creativity, making it a daunting task for many small business owners.

Now, AI can act as your personal copywriter. 

While AI won’t generate copy out of thin air, it can significantly simplify the process once you provide it with detailed information about your product and ideal customer profile (ICP). By doing so, AI tools can offer a variety of copy options, saving you time and effort in the brainstorming process.

Creating Headlines With AI Writing Tools

Using AI writing tools like ChatGPT or Claude, you can generate captivating headlines by giving AI-specific prompts.

For Example:

“You are an expert copywriter hired to promote a new [product or service] that offers [unique selling point]. Create headlines that showcase this USP and make it irresistible to the target audience.”

Additionally, you can guide the AI in creating compelling headlines. Here are some effective headline formulas:

• [Number] [Adjective] Ways to [Achieve Desired Result] That [Unexpected Benefit or Consequence]
• How [Unusual or Surprising Tactic] Can Help You [Achieve Desired Outcome] in [Specific Timeframe]
• The [Adjective] Guide to [Mastering Complex Skill or Topic] for [Target Audience]
• [Number] [Profession or Industry] Secrets That Will [Benefit or Transform] Your [Aspect of Life]
• Why [Common Belief or Practice] is [Surprisingly Counterproductive], and What to Do Instead
• The [Timeframe] Challenge: [Number] Steps to [Achieving Ambitious Goal] While [Overcoming Obstacle]

When using AI to write a headline, it’s important to provide context about your target audience, product, unique selling point, and where you will use the headline. 

For instance, to create a headline for a lead magnet landing page offering accounting tips for small businesses, you could use the following prompt:

“Use this headline formula to create a headline for my landing page which offers a free PDF of 5 accounting tips for small businesses’ – [Number] [Adjective] Ways to [Achieve Desired Result] That [Unexpected Benefit or Consequence].”

An example response could be:

“5 Simple Ways to Optimize Your Accounting That Save Time and Boost Profits”

By leveraging AI writing tools, you can streamline the copywriting process, generate a variety of effective headlines, and focus on other critical aspects of your business.

Features and Benefits Section

You can also use it to create the “Features and Benefits” section of your landing page or emails…

For Example… 

“Imagine you are writing a features and benefits section for a [product or service] that caters to [target audience]. Identify 8 unique features that address the specific needs and challenges of this audience. For each feature, highlight how it makes their lives easier, more efficient, or more enjoyable. Use relatable examples and scenarios to illustrate the benefits.” 

We used it to create features and benefits for a salon run for kids & asked AI to give us the information in a table. Here’s what it produced. 

For Product Descriptions

Have an e-commerce store or sell courses or eBooks? You could also use AI to write your product descriptions. 

Here’s a prompt to get you started.

• Write a product description page for a [product type]. It needs to appeal to [audience type]. I want to highlight [features list].

You can also use special tools like copy.ai, or writesonic. They have built-in fields where you enter your data and it will generate content for you.

This is what we did. 

We can further chat with it to create more content… 

Copywriting used to take hours or days. But now it’s a lot quicker with AI. Keep in mind that you won’t get great copy right out of the gate… but with some tweaking and editing, it can make the copywriting process a lot faster. 

3. Content Idea Generation and Social Media Posts

One of the most challenging aspects of managing social media is consistently coming up with fresh and engaging ideas. This is essential for standing out, but with all the tasks on your plate, there simply isn’t enough time to brainstorm daily. 

Thankfully, AI can assist you with ideation and execution, saving you time and effort.

Generating Social Media Post Ideas With AI

AI can be a valuable tool for generating social media content ideas. By providing specific prompts, you can get a tailored list of post ideas that suit your business needs. Here’s an example prompt:

• “Act as a social media manager. You’re running a coffee shop in London that caters to young professionals who are remote workers. Create a list of 10 ideas for social media posts to educate, inform, or entertain our target audience.”

Of course, not everything that the AI spits out is going to be worth your time. So how do you know which ideas are actually… good?

Three ways… 

• Assess whether the post idea aligns with your brand’s identity, values, and target audience. 
• Evaluate the feasibility of executing the post idea within your available resources, time, and budget.
• Assess whether the idea provides value to your audience, such as educating, entertaining, or inspiring them. Choose a mix of three for your week-long or month-long planning. Don’t just stick to one type. 

Let’s create a template of that prompt for ya… 

• You are a social media manager for [Business Type] in [Location] that caters to [Target Audience]. Create a list of 10 ideas for social media posts to educate, inform, or entertain your target audience.

And if that’s not getting you the results you want, here are some more prompt ideas… 

1. As a social media coordinator for a small [Service-based Business e.g. salon, repair shop, etc.] catering to [Target Demographic e.g. families, professionals, etc.] in [Location], provide 10 creative social media post concepts that educate customers about your offerings, share helpful tips related to your industry, and encourage interactions.
2. You are a social media manager for a small [Business Type e.g. restaurant, boutique, etc.] in [Location]. Create a list of 10 social media post ideas that will engage your local customer base, showcase your products/services, and build brand awareness in the community.
3. You manage social media for a small [Product-based Business e.g. bakery, craft store, etc.] targeting [Target Demographic] in [Location]. List out 10 unique social media post ideas that give a behind-the-scenes look at your business, promote new product launches, and run engaging campaigns or contests to boost sales. 

Writing Social Media Posts With AI

AI can also help in writing social media posts: from the ideas we get in the first phase of the process, choose one and ask AI to create content around it.

For Example: 

• “From the social media post ideas you gave me, I want to go ahead with creating Coffee Trivia idea (Engage your audience with fun coffee trivia questions or facts about the history and origins of different coffee beans and brewing methods.)
• Tell me 3 coffee trivias that are interesting. Don’t give me technical trivias that my audience — young professionals — can’t understand. They’re not coffee experts.”

Here was the output… 

That was a more detailed prompt. You can see an example of output when you use a simpler prompt. It’s important to keep in mind that if you want to talk to your target audience specifically, make your prompt as detailed as possible. 

Let’s add some more details to the prompt so we talk to the right audience. 

• “I run a small coffee shop that uses an organic, fair-trade roast from Ethiopia. Our coffees have different notes you can choose from. Could you write an Instagram caption promoting our 10% off deal for International Coffee Day? Our target audience is young professionals who work remotely. Use a friendly tone.”

See how much better that result is? 

When using AI, the magic happens in the details and information provided — give it as much information as you would give to an actual copywriter and you’ll get better results. 

Try Our AI Funnel Builder For FREE Here!

4. Chatbots for 24/7 Customer Support

Even if you own a small business, you probably have a website. And if that website is getting a consistent flow of traffic, then you might be able to benefit from a chatbot to add 24/7 customer support or sales. 

AI chatbots are super sophisticated now. They can even provide product recommendations or upsells. 

For example, we asked Kayak for recommendations for a family holiday in Europe and it recommended Prague.

But we wanted to be more specific this time, so we asked for only beach cities…

Pretty cool, huh?

It’s easy to see how you could use this to your advantage — guiding customers through product features and benefits, or pointing them in the right direction. 

Peloton is doing this as well…

The advantages are numerous… 

• 24/7 availability — serve customers anytime
• Cost-effective — you already have the content, just need to feed it
• Scalable — can do the work of hundreds of humans at a time
• Highly personal — leading to better customer interaction, and more business

5. Create Videos to Boost Engagement

People are watching more video content than ever before. In fact, YouTube is one of the biggest search engines on the planet! 

In the awareness stage, engaging videos can capture attention and introduce your brand to potential customers. 

During the consideration stage, informative videos can educate and build trust by demonstrating the benefits and features of your products or services. 

At the decision stage, testimonial and case study videos can provide social proof and persuade prospects to choose your brand. 

Finally, in the retention stage, instructional or behind-the-scenes videos can keep customers engaged and loyal by offering additional value and fostering a deeper connection with your brand.

And now you can create videos with AI! 

For example, an e-commerce website can create product demo videos by writing scripts that outline the key features and benefits of each product, letting AI generate visually appealing videos that enhance the shopping experience…

Or you could write the script and let any of the ‘stock’ voices or faces that come with Synthesia do the voice & video for you. Share these as ads, on your social media, or with your sales prospects. 

What’s not to like? 

• You get a diverse range of content without the need for hiring voice actors or on-screen talent.
• By using AI-generated voices and faces that align with your target audience, you can create more relatable and personalized video content for your website, fostering a stronger connection with your visitors and increasing the likelihood of conversions.

What’s Coming Next With AI?

I can’t tell the future — but I imagine the future of AI is bright… and that it’ll massively benefit small businesses. 

Because it lowers the cost and effort to be able to tackle big marketing campaigns. 

Above are some of the current ways you can use AI in your small business. But I’m sure there are others!

How are you using AI to market your small business? 

Let us know in the comments!

Try Our AI Funnel Builder For FREE Here!

Thanks for reading How To Use AI For Small Business Marketing which appeared first on ClickFunnels.

Some of the biggest companies, like Google, IBM, and Microsoft, are investing heavily in artificial intelligence (AI) and integrating it into their business processes.

But the exciting thing is that AI isn’t just for the tech giants. Businesses of all sizes can leverage AI marketing software to gain a competitive edge!

According to a survey from the Digital Marketing Institute, the number one way marketers and businesses are using AI is for the automation of routine tasks. Imagine the time and resources you could save by automating repetitive tasks that consume your daily schedule. Whether it’s handling customer queries, scheduling social media posts, or analyzing data…

But the potential of AI extends far beyond just automation. It can help you save time or money with virtually any marketing task you’re involved in. From enhancing your customer experience to optimizing your ad spend, the possibilities are endless.

If you’re unsure where to start, don’t worry.

We’ve prepared this blog to guide you through seven different ways to use AI in your marketing. Plus, we’ll reveal the most popular tools in each category, so you can implement these strategies right away.

Let’s dive in and explore how AI can revolutionize your marketing efforts!

Build Your Sales Funnel NOW With AI (Free)

What is AI Marketing Software?

AI marketing software refers to digital tools that are enhanced by artificial intelligence, allowing them to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence.

The nature of this software is complex and can feel overwhelming, but chances are you’ve already encountered AI in marketing without even realizing it.

Take Amazon, for example.

Since the early 2000s, Amazon has been using AI technology to provide personalized product suggestions to its customers. This feature uses data from your past purchases and browsing history to recommend products you’re likely to be interested in, enhancing your shopping experience.

Another example is Facebook. In 2017, Facebook started allowing developers to build AI-powered chatbots. These chatbots help businesses initiate more conversations with customers without the significant time investment typically required for such engagement.

In the early 2000s and 2010s, the use of AI in marketing was mostly restricted to companies with large budgets or cutting-edge developers.

However, the landscape has changed dramatically.

With the launch of user-friendly AI software like ChatGPT, there has been an explosion of AI-powered marketing tools that are accessible to everyone.

Even better, many of these tools are free at their most basic level, which means businesses of all sizes can take advantage of them. There are now thousands of tools specifically designed to help with various marketing tasks, from content creation and email marketing to customer service and data analysis.

This list will cover some of the most popular AI marketing tools available today…

1. Smart Funnels — Build your sales funnels in just 10 minutes with an AI by just answering a few questions.
2. Jasper — Helps with content creation, including blog posts, social media content, and marketing copy.
3. Surfer SEO — Analyzes SERPs, provides insights on relevant keywords, and offers suggestions to improve content quality and rankings.
4. Canva — Offers templates, stock photos, and easy editing tools for creating visually appealing content for social media, websites, and other platforms.
5. Looka — Looka is an AI-powered logo design tool that helps businesses create professional brand identities.

However, it’s worth noting that there’s likely a tool out there for almost any marketing-related task you’re currently spending time on.

Whether you’re looking to automate routine tasks, enhance your customer interactions, or optimize your marketing strategies, AI can help you achieve your goals more efficiently.

Benefits of Using AI in Marketing

The core benefit of AI is that it helps business owners and marketers work faster. Any digital work that is repetitive, time-consuming, or based on patterns is ripe for being replaced by AI.

But that’s not the only way you can use AI software in your marketing.

Here’s what the Digital Marketing Institute found were the most popular ways businesses are leveraging AI, according to their survey:

1. Automation of Routine Tasks (68%) AI excels at automating repetitive tasks, freeing up your time to focus on more strategic activities. For instance, AI can handle tasks like scheduling social media posts, sending out email newsletters, and managing customer support queries. By automating these routine tasks, you can ensure consistency and efficiency in your marketing efforts.
2. Improved Customer Experience (46%) AI-powered tools can significantly enhance the customer experience by providing personalized and timely responses. For example, chatbots can handle customer inquiries 24/7, offering instant support and freeing up human agents to tackle more complex issues. This leads to faster resolution times and higher customer satisfaction.
3. Improved Targeting and Segmentation (45%) AI can analyze vast amounts of data to identify patterns and segment your audience more effectively. This allows you to create more targeted marketing campaigns that resonate with specific segments of your audience, ultimately driving higher engagement and conversion rates.
4. Enhanced Personalization (44%) Personalization is key to modern marketing, and AI can help you deliver personalized content and offers at scale. By analyzing customer behavior and preferences, AI can recommend products, create tailored content, and send personalized emails that are more likely to convert.
5. Predictive Analysis (39%) AI’s predictive analysis capabilities enable you to forecast future trends and behaviors based on historical data. This can help you make more informed decisions about your marketing strategies, optimize your campaigns, and anticipate customer needs before they arise.

You may not know it, but there could be a perfect AI tool that instantly saves you hours each week or month. Or, you could find an AI tool that dramatically improves the performance of your marketing.

7 Ways to Use AI in Your Marketing

Below, we’ve outlined seven ways to take advantage of AI, complete with real-life examples of the most popular AI marketing software available right now to help you get started.

1. Funnel Building

Creating a sales funnel can be a complex and time-consuming process. However, this task has become significantly easier and more efficient. One of the leading tools in this space is Smart Funnels.

Smart Funnels is an AI-powered tool designed to simplify the process of building sales funnels. This tool helps you save time on several fronts, including writing copy, creating branding elements, and constructing the funnel itself.

With Smart Funnels, you can draft a complete sales funnel in less than 10 minutes!

• Time-Saving: The primary advantage of Smart Funnels is its ability to significantly reduce the time required to build a sales funnel. What used to take hours or even days, can now be accomplished in mere minutes.
• Automated Copywriting: Smart Funnels leverages AI to generate high-converting copy for your funnels. This means you don’t have to spend hours crafting the perfect message—Smart Funnels does it for you, ensuring your copy is optimized for conversions.
• Seamless Branding: The tool also assists in creating cohesive and attractive branding for your funnels. Whether it’s choosing the right colors, fonts, or images, Smart Funnels ensures your brand is consistently represented across all stages of the funnel.
• User-Friendly Interface: Even if you’re not tech-savvy, Smart Funnels’ intuitive interface makes it easy for anyone to create professional-looking sales funnels without any prior experience.

So how does it work?

Smart Funnels uses a combination of AI and user inputs to create a tailored funnel. Here’s a quick overview of the process:

1. Input Your Goals: Start by entering the main goal of your funnel, such as generating leads, making sales, or increasing webinar sign-ups.
2. Select a Template: Choose from a variety of pre-designed templates that fit your goal.
3. Customize Content: Provide some basic information about your product or service, and the AI will generate persuasive copy and suggest design elements.
4. Review and Launch: Review the generated funnel, make any necessary tweaks, and launch it. The entire process can be completed in under 10 minutes.

Click here to try it out for yourself!

Build Your Sales Funnel NOW With AI (Free)

2. Content Creation

AI tools have become indispensable for marketers and business owners.

These tools not only help in generating high-quality content quickly but also ensure that the content is relevant and engaging. Two of the most notable AI-powered content creation tools are Jasper.ai and ChatGPT.

Jasper.ai is renowned for its robust AI-powered copywriting capabilities. It stands out in a crowded market because of its ability to understand context and provide relevant content tailored to specific needs.

Key Features and Use Cases

• Understanding Context: Jasper.ai excels in grasping the nuances of context, making it ideal for creating content that resonates with your target audience.
• Versatile Templates: It offers a variety of templates to help you generate the exact type of content you need, whether it’s for email campaigns, product descriptions, or blog posts.

Content Types

Jasper.ai can assist in writing:

• Email Copy: Craft compelling email campaigns that engage and convert your audience.
• Product Descriptions: Generate detailed and persuasive product descriptions that highlight key features and benefits.
• Blog Posts: Create informative and engaging blog posts to drive traffic and establish thought leadership.
• Landing Page Copy: Develop high-converting landing pages that capture leads and drive sales.
• Sales Pages: Write persuasive sales pages that encourage visitors to take action.

ChatGPT is perhaps the most well-known AI software currently available. Its versatility makes it a powerful tool for enhancing various aspects of your marketing workflow.

Key Use Cases

1. Content Creation: Use ChatGPT to generate ideas, draft blog posts, social media updates, and other content types quickly and efficiently.
2. Audience Research: Conduct detailed audience research by asking ChatGPT to analyze trends, customer preferences, and market data.
3. SEO Optimization: Improve your content’s search engine rankings by generating SEO-friendly headlines, meta descriptions, and keyword-rich content.
4. Writing Product Descriptions: Craft engaging and accurate product descriptions that highlight key features and benefits.
5. Creating Chatbots: Develop AI-powered chatbots for customer service, lead generation, and customer engagement.
6. Creating Marketing Strategies: Get assistance in brainstorming and planning comprehensive marketing strategies.
7. Generating Customer Surveys: Create insightful and targeted customer surveys to gather valuable feedback.
8. Summarizing Information: Use ChatGPT to condense large amounts of information into key points, making it easier to digest and act upon.

Best Practices

While ChatGPT can significantly speed up your marketing workflows, it’s essential to remember that it’s best used as an assistant rather than a final content provider. Here are some tips for getting the most out of ChatGPT:

• Prompt Engineering: The quality of the output depends heavily on the quality of your prompts. Spend time crafting detailed and specific prompts to get the best results.
• Editing and Refining: Always review and edit the content generated by ChatGPT. AI can sometimes produce errors or “hallucinate” information, so human oversight is crucial.
• Iterative Process: Use ChatGPT iteratively. Generate drafts, refine them based on your needs, and then polish the final content to ensure it meets your standards.

The use cases for ChatGPT are virtually endless, making it a versatile tool in any marketer’s toolkit. By integrating ChatGPT into your workflow, you can enhance productivity and focus more on strategic tasks.

By leveraging the power of AI tools like Jasper.ai and ChatGPT, you can streamline your content creation process, improve the quality of your marketing materials, and ultimately achieve better results in less time.

3. Editing

Editing is a crucial step in the content creation process.

Two popular AI-powered tools that can greatly assist in this phase are Grammarly and the Hemingway App.

Grammarly

Grammarly is widely recognized for its comprehensive grammar and spell-checking capabilities. However, its functionalities extend far beyond basic proofreading.

Key Features and Use Cases

• Grammar and Spelling Checks: Grammarly scans your text for grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, providing real-time corrections to ensure your content is flawless.
• Enhanced Comprehension: It offers suggestions to rephrase your wording for better clarity and comprehension, making your content more accessible to your audience.
• Versatile Integration: One of Grammarly’s standout features is its ability to integrate seamlessly with various platforms. You can install it on your computer or as a web browser extension and use it across multiple applications such as Gmail, Microsoft Word, Twitter, Apple Mail, WhatsApp, Google Docs, Facebook, and more. This integration allows you to receive content suggestions and corrections as you type, regardless of the platform.

By using Grammarly, you can enhance the quality of your writing, ensuring that your message is clear, concise, and free of errors.

Hemingway App

Named after the famous writer Ernest Hemingway, known for his concise and straightforward writing style, the Hemingway App helps you achieve similar clarity and brevity in your content.

Key Features and Use Cases

• Readability Score: The Hemingway App provides a readability score based on U.S. educational grade levels. Many marketing resources recommend writing at a fourth-grade level to enhance comprehension, and Hemingway helps you achieve this by highlighting complex sentences and suggesting simpler alternatives.
• Content Simplification: The app highlights long, convoluted sentences and common errors, helping you rewrite your content to make it more readable and engaging.
• AI-Powered Rewriting: Hemingway uses AI to offer suggestions on how to simplify and clarify your text, ensuring your content is easy to understand.

Using the Hemingway App, you can streamline your writing, making it more accessible to a wider audience while maintaining the integrity of your message.

4. Chatbots & Customer Support

These tools can handle a multitude of tasks, from answering common queries to generating leads, thereby saving valuable time and resources.

Two standout tools in this category are Chatfuel and Reply.io.

Chatfuel

Chatfuel is one of the most popular AI-powered chatbot platforms available.

As an official partner with Meta, Chatfuel offers a robust and user-friendly solution for creating virtual personalities that can engage with customers in real-time.

Key Features and Use Cases

• Personalized Chatbots: Chatfuel allows you to create a personalized chatbot through a drag-and-drop interface. This makes it easy to design a virtual assistant that can match your brand’s tone and personality.
• Replacing FAQ Sections: Instead of having static FAQ pages, you can use Chatfuel to create interactive chatbots that provide instant answers to common questions, enhancing the user experience.
• Lead Generation: Chatfuel chatbots can help bring leads into your sales funnel by engaging visitors, collecting contact information, and even qualifying leads based on their responses.
• Time Savings: By automating responses to routine customer inquiries, Chatfuel saves you and your team significant time, allowing you to focus on more complex tasks.

Reply.io

Managing email communication can be a daunting task, especially when you have to respond to hundreds of emails each week. Reply.io addresses this challenge with its AI-powered sales email assistant.

Key Features and Use Cases

• Automated Email Responses: Reply.io helps create compelling and personalized email responses, ensuring that each email is professional and engaging.
• Outbound Email Campaigns: The tool can build and manage outbound cold email campaigns, automating the process of reaching out to potential clients.
• Lead Scoring: Reply.io’s AI can score email responses to identify and flag potential leads, helping you prioritize follow-ups with high-value prospects.

With Reply.io, businesses can automate their email workflows, improve the efficiency of their outreach efforts, and ensure that no potential lead is overlooked.

5. Visual Content Creation

AI tools like Synthesia and Canva are making it easier than ever to create high-quality visual content without the need for advanced technical skills or expensive equipment.

Synthesia

Synthesia is the most popular AI video creation platform, renowned for its ability to generate professional videos, avatars, and voiceovers.

Key Features and Use Cases

• AI-Generated Videos: Synthesia enables you to create professional-grade videos by generating video scripts using AI. This is particularly useful for businesses looking to produce video content without the need for microphones, recording equipment, or even appearing on camera.
• Customizable Avatars: You can create personalized avatars that can deliver your message in a human-like manner, adding a personal touch to your videos.
• Voiceovers: Synthesia offers high-quality AI-generated voiceovers, eliminating the need for voice actors and recording sessions.

Canva

Canva is already the leading graphic design platform, but its built-in AI features can further enhance your visual content creation.

Key Features and Use Cases

• AI-Driven Image Generation: Canva’s AI tools allow you to describe the type of image you need, and the platform will generate examples that match your text, styles, and sizing requirements. This feature is perfect for creating unique and tailored visual content without the need for extensive design skills.
• Design Templates: Canva offers a vast array of design templates for various purposes, from social media posts to presentations, making it easy to produce professional-looking graphics quickly.
• User-Friendly Interface: With its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, Canva is accessible to users of all skill levels, enabling anyone to create stunning visual content.

6. Automation

Automation is a game-changer for businesses looking to streamline operations and reduce the workload associated with repetitive tasks.

Zapier is one of the leading AI-powered tools in the automation space, offering over 3,000 integrations that can save you significant time and effort.

Zapier

Zapier excels in connecting different applications and automating workflows, which it calls “zaps.” These zaps can automate a variety of tasks, ensuring that your business processes run smoothly and efficiently.

Key Features and Use Cases

• Extensive Integrations: With more than 3,000 possible integrations, Zapier can connect a wide array of apps and services, enabling seamless data transfer and task automation.
• Automation of Routine Tasks: Some useful zaps that can significantly improve your productivity include:
  • Social Media Sharing: Automatically share new blog posts to your chosen social media platforms. This ensures your content reaches a wider audience without requiring manual updates.
  • Lead Management: Automatically add new leads to your CRM whenever you generate contact information from ads, your website, or messaging apps. This keeps your sales pipeline updated in real time.
  • Email Automation: Automatically send welcome or thank-you emails when you get a new sign-up or purchase on your website. This enhances customer engagement and nurtures relationships from the start.
  • Customer Support: Automatically create a customer support ticket whenever you receive a complaint or request. This ensures timely responses and efficient issue resolution.
  • Task Scheduling: Automatically schedule new tasks from platforms like Notion or Trello into your calendar. This helps you stay organized and ensures that no task falls through the cracks.

How to Get Started with Zapier

1. Sign Up: Create an account on Zapier and explore the available integrations.
2. Choose Apps: Select the applications you want to connect, such as your CRM, email service provider, social media accounts, and project management tools.
3. Create Zaps: Set up zaps by defining the triggers and actions for each automation. For example, a trigger could be a new lead captured, and the action could be adding that lead to your CRM.
4. Test and Deploy: Test your zaps to ensure they work correctly, then deploy them to start automating your workflows.

7. Market Research & Monitoring

Staying ahead in the competitive business landscape requires constant market research and monitoring.

AI-powered tools like AnswerThePublic and Brand24 can provide invaluable insights and help you keep a pulse on market trends and brand perception.

AnswerThePublic

AnswerThePublic is an excellent tool for gaining insights into the types of questions people are asking on search engines and social media platforms. This can help you tailor your content and marketing strategies to better meet the needs of your audience.

Key Features and Use Cases

• Search Insights: AnswerThePublic aggregates data from Google, YouTube, Bing, TikTok, and Amazon to show you what people are searching for. This helps you understand the interests and concerns of your target audience.
• Personalization: You can customize the search results based on location and topic, allowing you to focus on specific markets or areas of interest.
• Content Ideas: Use the insights to generate content ideas, such as blog posts, videos, and social media updates. This ensures your content is relevant and engaging.
• Handling Objections: Identify common objections or concerns that people have and address them in your sales pages or FAQ sections. This can help improve your conversion rates by preemptively resolving potential customer issues.

Brand24

Brand24 is a powerful tool for monitoring your brand’s online presence and managing your reputation. It continuously tracks various platforms and provides real-time alerts whenever your brand is mentioned.

Key Features and Use Cases

• Comprehensive Monitoring: Brand24 monitors news sites, social media, blogs, forums, videos, and other online platforms. This extensive coverage ensures that you are aware of all mentions of your brand.
• Sentiment Analysis: Its AI features analyze the sentiment of each mention, helping you understand whether the perception is positive, negative, or neutral. This allows you to gauge public opinion and respond accordingly.
• Crisis Management: One of the best uses of Brand24 is to respond quickly to criticism or negative mentions. By addressing customer support issues promptly, you can prevent small problems from escalating into major crises.
• Customer Engagement: Engage with your audience by responding to mentions and participating in conversations. This proactive approach can enhance your brand’s reputation and build stronger customer relationships.

Final Thoughts

AI marketing software offers significant benefits, primarily by saving time in your marketing workflows.

With its low cost, user-friendliness, and wide range of applications, AI is accessible to businesses of all sizes.

We’ve covered seven ways to integrate AI into your marketing:

1. Funnel Building: Use Smart Funnels to quickly create effective sales funnels.
2. Content Creation: Tools like Jasper.ai and ChatGPT help generate high-quality content.
3. Editing: Grammarly and Hemingway App ensure your content is polished.
4. Chatbots & Customer Support: Chatfuel and Reply.io automate customer interactions and email responses.
5. Video and Graphic Content Creation: Synthesia and Canva simplify creating professional visual content.
6. Automation: Zapier connects apps and automates workflows, saving time.
7. Market Research & Monitoring: AnswerThePublic and Brand24 provide valuable insights and monitor your brand’s online presence.

Now it’s time to explore these tools and see how they can revolutionize your marketing efforts!

Build Your Sales Funnel NOW With AI (Free)

Thanks for reading How To Use AI Marketing Software To Transform Your Business which appeared first on ClickFunnels.