If you know anything about marketing, or have been in the business world for any length of time, chances are you’ve heard the term “sales funnel” tossed around once or twice.

It may be referred to as a marketing funnel, a marketing pipeline, a sales pipeline, or even a revenue funnel or sales process. While definitions can very slightly, for the most part, all the terms mean the same thing.

A sales funnel at its most basic is the process a customer must go through to purchase a product or service from your company.

It typically consists of several steps (or stages) a potential visitor must navigate, and each new step or stage will differ depending on the type of products or services you offer and your company’s sales model. Each new step or stage moves them closer toward the end goal, which is making a sale and gaining you a customer.

Even if you think you don’t have a sales process, you do in fact, have one. It just may not be a very effective one. That’s why it is important to intentionally create your sales funnel, and design it to move your potential customers in just the direction you want them to go, rather than leaving it to chance.

Sales funnels are arguably the hottest concept to hit the marketing world in years, and their popularity is heating up. If you’re running a business today, you must have a sales funnel if you hope to compete successfully.

With that in mind, there are several platforms to choose from that can help you to create the perfect sales funnel that’s right for your business. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most commonly used options.

ClickFunnels®

ClickFunnels® is an all-in-one sales funnel platform that helps you build your funnel very intuitively, only needing just a few clicks to create a working sales funnel.

It uses a visual drag-and-drop editor and has over 40 templates for a variety of purposes that can help you get started quickly and easily, without feeling overwhelmed by all of the features.

Don’t let the intuitiveness of ClickFunnels fool you though. It offers a wide scope of functionality that is defining it as a leader among sales funnel building platforms, not only because it works, but because the company itself is determined to ensure that all who use their tools succeed with them.

The fact that they upgrade their software regularly, plus let you try them out with a 14-day free trial is just icing on the cake. ClickFunnels is emerging as a clear winner in the space of sales funnels, and if you aren’t yet using them, you could be leaving money on the table.

Keap

Keap by comparison is also a great choice, often used by businesses that want to take their business game to the next level. The platform tracks lead data and segments those leads based on behaviors.

Keap is designed to help you segment, track, convert. Their goal is to get your leads engaged, using incremental improvements. Keap is often chosen by businesses that already know they plan on scaling, and by businesses that already know the value of a well-optimized sales funnel, but it’s not nearly as intuitive and user-friendly as ClickFunnels.

It is also geared toward businesses that may have larger budgets to get started with, so it might not be a good fit for smaller companies looking for more budget-friendly solutions.

LeadPages

While LeadPages is useful if you need build a sales funnel, it’s not an all-in-one solution like ClickFunnels. LeadPages is a tool designed to help you build landing pages. It does have some similarity to ClickFunnels in that it offers a drag-and-drop functionality that makes it easy to use. It is also a platform that is compatible with and integrates beautifully with WordPress.

However, LeadPages is not specifically a sale funnel tool, it is a landing page builder. Therefore, it can only be used as a sales funnel tool by linking pages together manually, but it isn’t truly designed for sales funnel purposes.

Linking pages manually can get confusing, because you have to make sure each page is linked properly to the next page in your funnel. However, if you don’t mind the extra complication, it can be a good option when building a sales funnel, plus be used to create amazing stand-alone landing pages.

GetResponse

If you don’t have the budget for more robust platforms like ClickFunnels or Keap, you can create your own sales funnels using an autoresponder service such as Get Response.

Bear in mind that using Get Response in this manner will require you (much like LeadPages) to link the pages you create together in the right order manually, to effectively funnel your leads in the direction you want them to go.

Nevertheless, at its most basic, Get Response will allow you to create a simple sales funnel using a single landing page, a thank-you page, and your autoresponder, all for a very reasonable monthly fee. This might be ideal for a business that is just starting out.

Whether you are looking to build your own sales process or use a tool that does most of the work for you, there are a wide variety of options available.

However, there is no denying that when it comes finding a tool that has all the bells and whistles required for building effective sales funnels, while at the same time being easy to use, ClickFunnels is the leading choice on the market today.

The most important thing is to choose the solution that best fits your business and model, as well as your budget, and get started setting up your first sales funnel. Then watch your business begin to grow, seemingly effortlessly.

Author: Cori Padgett-Bukowski

Cori is a wildly hire-able freelance ghost blogger as well as the creative brains and dubious brawn behind her blogs (yes, blogs plural) Big Girl Branding & Salt, Light, and Faith.

When she’s not engaging in dork shenanigans or writing words that matter for her clients, she’s on a rather absurd, misfortunately funny road to grace, bent on spreading a little salt and light to all and sundry. Well, that and being a mom of course.

In her spare time, (Wait, what? Spare time? What’s that?) she’s busy exploring the realms of urban fantasy and dystopian fiction under her pen name C.B. Stone and writing stories readers love to read.

She’s also convinced the mom thing should totally come with superhero powers, in her very humble opinion. Nutshell… she’s a dork by genetics, writer by trade, lover by choice. Word.

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Disclosure: I am an independent ClickFunnels Affiliate, not an employee. I receive referral payments from ClickFunnels. The opinions expressed here are my own and are not official statements of ClickFunnels or its parent company, Etison LLC.