You might have a question that do I need a website or a funnel. There’s a lot of misconceptions out there about what a funnel even is. There’s so much buzz in the online marketing world about funnels right now. Honestly, they do seem to be the sexier newer option.

I’m going to go over all the key differences between a sales funnel and a website. So you’ll walk away with a really clear picture of what you need to build your business this year without any unnecessary and expensive software subscriptions.

Sales funnels are such a big talked about topic and for a good reason. You know the way we think about selling online whether that’s products or services or consultations. You name it everything is changing so fast.

We now know that just having that passive brochure where the informational only website is a huge missed opportunity for any business including yours.

So the questions we need to answer once and for all today are

What exactly is a sales funnel and does it replace my need for a website.

What is Sales Funnel

So first of all let’s just talk about what a sales funnel is and I can definitely tell you that most people equate sales funnels or confuse them with the software that people use to build them.

In other words, you hear sales funnel you think Click funnels or Leadpages now these are two really popular funnel builders with out of the box landing, pages, sales pages, and checkout pages.

The owner of the click funnels Russell Brunson has the motto. You’re just one funnel away meaning with the right funnel you can do great things, sell more, grow as a business.

But the thing is a true sales funnel isn’t just any one thing. It’s about a lot more than a series of templates that you just string together toward a sale.

So a funnel does not really refer to software or landing page builders.

How sales funnel works?

A sales funnel is simply a path you take your prospects on from never having heard of you. All the way through a warm-up process to a final sale or sometimes even follow-up sales and then years of repeat business.

This can be done through a series of any combination of

  • Content you create
  • Ads
  • Pages
  • Emails.


All designed to move people through that journey.

Are these funnel builders the best way to create that journey for your customers?

Well I definitely think they have their place and lots of testing has actually proven that their landing pages do convert pretty highly.

If you sell something and need checkout pages. They do have some pretty good ones that are going to work right out of the box – without the need for you to do a lot of testing and having those headaches on your own website.

But here’s the thing at the end of the day using click funnels or Leadpages or anything like that. Instead of your own website is pretty much just taking the easy way rather than the right way.

So what’s wrong with that I mean if it saves you time that’s great right.

Do Page Builders Help Us To Build a Brand?

Well here’s what I’ll say about that so the bare minimum digital presence for any business right now is having a website.

So if you don’t even have that you run the risk of looking fly by night to your customers and to Google as well.

We know that Google likes to reward brands. You know businesses who they see as being in it for the long haul. If customers can only get to one single page that exists purely to funnel them right into a sale. When we now know that 80 to 90% percent of those people coming there aren’t ready to pull the trigger yet. You know that’s just not ever gonna work very well not in the long term anyway.

That’s why these kind of funnel landing pages tend to be really popular with supposed online gurus. People out there just trying to make a quick buck before they move on to their next idea. Not only that but these funnel programs don’t really account for the whole funnel.

You know they don’t address getting traffic to it in the first place.

Or the really important follow-up process that engages people after they’ve been to your page but haven’t converted yet.

Are Page Builders Free?

So we’re pretty much just left talking about the landing page and checkout pages and ClickFunnels starts at $97 per month for the most basic plan.

But there are a lot of marketers out there who have some pretty harsh criticisms of websites saying that their days are numbered.

So they’ll say things like websites are unfocused that they don’t lead people toward a sale that they’re just digital brochures.

Well yeah.
They can be that and to be fair a lot of them actually are. But guess what else they can be. Anything you want them to be including a pretty killer piece of your overall sales funnel. That’s exactly what it should be you know the central hub of all your marketing efforts. Meaning it needs to be a part of your bigger overall funnel.

What we Actually Need

So here’s my recommendation for not just quick but long-lasting success right you know.

Right Information

You want a thoughtfully structured website that gives out the right information in the right order without a ton of different pages.

Helpful Pages

You know just a handful of really important ones that are actually going to help you funnel people closer to that conversion.

A Blog Or Vlog

It should have a blog or a vlog or podcast section you know some type of content marketing piece. That you can basically use as bait to attract your most ideal customers or clients to your site.
You can do that either organically or by using paid ads.

Clear Paths

Once they’re there going through your helpful actionable content. You’ll have clear paths for two different types of customers.

1. Ones who are ready to take action now.

For them you’ll just want to make it crystal clear what you do how that helps them. What they need to do to get the ball rolling. We’re talking a really clear call to action there.

2. The ones who are not ready to take an action.

The other path is for the customers who aren’t ready yet. Which is going to be the vast majority. For them you’ll have some type of lead magnet or freebie that they would just basically opt in for using their email address.

Email Follow-up

Weekly Emails

From there we need to think of the back end piece aka the follow-up. So this is where email really comes into play. You’ll want to further your relationship with them by warming them up with more helpful content each and every week for as long as it takes them to decide.

Link back to your website

So ideally you’ll drive these people back to your website to check out a specific article or a video or a podcast episode.

This is where the real magic happens you know trust starts to build. Then they just start moving further and further down your funnel. You can even do this for people who actually didn’t opt into your list.

Retarget Customers

If you retarget your website visitors with either Facebook or Instagram ads and yes after a few of these really helpful trust-building, content-based emails.

Direct sales with more follow-up

You can follow it up with a more direct sales email letting them now that you can do even more to help them. If they schedule a consultation appointment or if they buy whatever it is you’re actually selling.

Retarget with Facebook or Instagram Ads.

You can even retarget them with Facebook or Instagram ads. Which address a series of common objections they may have or that feature customer testimonials.

I like this way better than doing it through click funnels or Leadpages. Because those services don’t address all these touch points anyway. You can do all this on your own WordPress website that you own.

Do I really need a funnel?

You don’t need to rent your funnel out alright. So we know that these software programs to build your funnel charge monthly fees.
So is doing this on your own website going to be free.

No

You still need to pay for Hosting which is actually pretty minimal and you probably also want to invest in either SEO or in paid ads they go to your website and your articles to really fill up the top of your funnel with leads WordPress.

You’ll also need an email service provider like MailChimp, Drip or ConvertKit. But most of those have a free or at least really cheap starter plan that’s going to work just. Until you get to a certain number of subscribers.