Table of Contents

What is a sales funnel?

If you already know what a sales funnel is, skip down to the next section. For those of you who don’t know what I am talking about, you’re in luck. Here is a brief and simple lesson to get you up to speed quickly.

Even though the sales funnel has been around for 120 years, most internet marketers are self taught. They simply miss out on important lessons of these types of strategies.

The “Sales Funnel” is the name given to a business strategy that systematically guides an interested prospect through all of the stages of a sales journey.

When looking at these funnels, they can be wildly different, from business to business. But they all have the same purpose. To make the process of selling a product or service as efficient in time and effort as possible. They do this by clearly defining a set of actions that the prospect needs to achieve at each stage.

Funnelytics Sales Funnel

By doing this, a business is able to understand EXACTLY where the prospect is within this defined buying process. And from this information, the business is able to document the conversion rate between each stage.

From a 1,000 foot view, a business can take the conversion rate from each stage and draw them on a chart. And on that chart, the half shape of a funnel will emerge. Hence the name, sales funnel.

Why does every business, including those online, need a sales funnel?

The biggest advantage is being able to measure the efficiency of each stage in the process of the sales journey. If the initial contact is great, and they’re sold on the product, but the checkout process is confusing, it becomes very easy to identify and improve. When you can see the numbers, they don’t lie.

Up until now, the biggest disadvantage of a sales funnel, is a lack of accurately measuring each stage of the process. As internet marketers, we can sometimes slip into a state of complacency, and think our site isn’t making money because we don’t have traffic. But if we aren’t measuring our sales funnel, there is absolutely no way to know what is causing potential customers to go somewhere else.

We are currently living in the moment where analytics are becoming more important in business. But just because there are plenty of options, does not mean they are easy to use. Most of them still require a steep learning curve to understand, let alone to be considered advantageous. In fact, there are entire college courses designed to understand some of the software available on the market. That’s just plain old crazy!

Every successful business already uses these strategies. So what happens when you combine sales funnels and analytics?

(Drum roll please…) I would like to present to you, Funnelytics. Ta Dah! Yes, I’m being dramatic, and for a good reason… Mikael Dia’s team has created a software that filled a hole in the marketplace that none of us knew existed!

In a single sentence, they have combined the visual representation of sales funnels, with the data collection of analytics. And in order to make it as easy to use as possible, they’ve put it within a simple drag and drop environment, like any of the mind mapping software available today.

More than just software, Funnelytics helps by demonstration.

To go a step further than just giving you a blank slate, they have gone all over the internet with one simple mission. Team up with highly successful online businesses, and accurately map out their sales funnels.

This is done so that we, the small time marketer, can see what all of the pros are doing. All from a bird’s eye view.

Understanding the potential of this software, nearly every company that has been approached, is on board with the Funnelytics team. Once explained the power of the software, they’re sold for two good reasons.

First, they are gaining insight to see where they can make improvements for themselves. And second, they understand that there is no threat by their competition to steal their customer base.

This is why they are perfectly fine with revealing their winning strategies to the closed community of Funnelytics members. These funnels are stored in an area called The Vault. I’ll go over those details further along in the article.

Let’s take a closer look at the elements which build the maps of Funnelytics.

All of the design work is done on what they call the “Mapping Canvas.” This is where you’ll be…wait for it…mapping out your funnel. I know, they’ve chosen a brilliant name.

All joking aside, it has been designed as an easy to use, drag and drop system, similar to other available mind mapping software. Each element is positioned to where it belongs within your designed funnel by holding a single click, and dropping it wherever you want it.

To get to the mapping canvas, start by clicking on funnels, on the top left navigation bar. This will bring you to a blank dashboard. Once again, but near the top right, you’ll click Create Funnel, to reach the mapping canvas.

From here, you will see five tabs to your left, which are the major categories you will use to map out your funnel. For each of these options, you will drag and drop a thumbnail, called an element. Let’s talk about what makes each of the elements.

The First Category of Elements is Pages

There are fifteen options here, so it is highly likely that what you are looking for, is already defined. And they also have icons that coincide with their respective type, which is a neat little attention to detail.

If the type of page you are looking for isn’t listed, it will fall under the “generic” page. This is an element used as a catch-all, however you see fit. I use it for homepage, blog posts, about us, and other pages that don’t have a clear call to action.

The Second Category of Elements is Traffic

There are 22 options here, with any type of referring traffic that you can think of. This includes search traffic, social media, email, paid advertising, and plenty of other items.

If you have a source that isn’t listed, there is an option called “Source.” This is the catch-all option for traffic generated. I have yet to use this, because of how robust the available traffic options already are.

The Third Category of Elements is Actions

There are 8 options here because a call to action is not website specific, but instead, action specific. These are important to define, because this is how you are able to set specific goals for each stage of your sales funnel.

As an example, the first option isn’t going to be “buy,” after seeing a facebook ad. They have to go through a series of actions, which can be boiled down to something like this: Click Ad, Watch Sales Video, Add To Cart, Complete Form, and then Purchase. Each of these actions need to be tracked, in order to do effective analysis of the sales funnel.

The Fourth Category of Elements is Offline

There are 6 options here, available to describe offline events, and not just traffic generation. These range from advertising mediums, to meetings and phone calls.

For some of the more complex sales, you simply cannot close with a customer on a website. You MUST get on the phone, and this category is where you find the offline steps that are a part of your funnel.

The Fifth and Final Category is Templates

This is the only category that starts off completely blank. You’ll have to fill this with your own templates! Think of this as an easy to get to location for storing your frequently used funnels. And trust me, once you have a winning funnel designed, you’ll want to repeat it again and again!

Customizing the Elements

I want to show you how easy it is to customize your funnel. Once an element is on the mapping canvas, a single left click bring up the options bar. They will be directly below the icon.

The settings are accessed by clicking the first option, the gear. You will spend plenty of time in here, it is where you will be customizing each element. Here you can name it, provide a URL, and even generate a thumbnail of the actual item. You also have options to write notes, and define goals as well.

The rest of the options are straight forward. To duplicate the element, use the second option, the plus sign. To delete the element, use the third option, the trash can. And to delete JUST the linking visuals going to and from this element, use the fourth option, with the x and two arrows.

Also, I want to make a note of something really cool. When you’re dropping your page elements, you can go to the settings for that page, and put in the URL. Once the URL has been entered, you can generate a thumbnail of your ACTUAL PAGE! This is one of my favorite details. Especially if I were providing this as a white label service for a client. Nothing else that I know of, has this level of detail in their funnel software.

The Vault

This is the best place to start, if you’re not quite sure about how these funnels are supposed to look. The Vault is where all of the pre-made funnels are stored.

The first six funnels are generic and could be considered small foundations for larger funnels. They are used for generating leads, conducting surveys, registering for webinars, filling out applications, hosting mini-classes, and even driving product sales. They are included within the free membership, and are helpful even to the modest tire kicker, with building successful funnels.

Funnelytics Vault with 50+ funnels

The next forty three (and counting) templates are custom funnels. These are the funnels that have been mapped out from highly successful online businesses. If you have a favorite marketer, there is a strong possibility that they are working with the Funnelytics team.

These are part of the premium membership, and are an absolute steal. Not only are these mapped out, but their ENTIRE funnel has been swiped and included. I’m talking about the ads, the sales pages, and everything in between.

They also include a video run-through, where the Funnelytics team analyzes and explains every step of the process. This is invaluable for anyone trying to replicate the thought process of each of these successful marketers.

As mentioned above, the map is included, and you can even modify them. Load the map from the templates file, and use it as a guide so you can mimic the sales funnel for your own website.

And if you’re using ClickFunnels, they even provide a replica of the sales funnel. At this point, all you would need to do is add your business information in a similar format as theirs. It doesn’t get much easier than that!

The Analytics Script and Function

Once your funnel map matches your website, analytics are simple. You have a single tracking code that you add to your site. It’ll need to be embedded within the body tag so it properly tracks all actions. Most CMS providers, like wordpress, have specific sections for analytic tags, and you’ll want to put it there.

When you’re mapping, you need to make sure that clickable links have the standard arrow link between elements. Otherwise the software won’t show the tracking.

Their help desk has a great training video on going in depth setting up all of the links, and I highly suggest watching it once you’re a member.

Easily place the Funnelytics Script on your website

Final Impression

Well, as I said at the beginning, I’m absolutely impressed. The Funnelytics team has created a product that can change the lives of business owners. Especially online marketers that are trying to free themselves from slaving away to help someone else’s dream.

The software is simple, and easy to use. They provide multiple levels of membership, where even the free members can create and develop winning funnels. Troves of data including an ever-increasing amount of video analysis, swipe files, and templates are all provided for their premium members.

And the best aspect, is their support. Mikael and his team are always looking for ways to improve their software, and correct issues as they arise. Their help desk is phenomenal.

I can honestly say that this tool sells itself. Once you start using Funnelytics it will most likely become your daily go-to tool. Let us know if you decided to try it!