How To Use ClickFunnels With WordPress

For a long time people would see website building, and funnel building as two very different needs, and that they should never cross or function together. But, in reality that's rubbish. 

As someone who has a variety of websites and requirements, I can confidently say, having the ability to add a funnel into a WordPress website, is useful, so today we are going to look at how to use ClickFunnels with WordPress, and how to add funnels. 

Why did I choose to talk about ClickFunnels? Because at the moment they are still one of the most used funnel builders, and WordPress is still the major player within the website building space (still 45%+ domination) so it makes sense to look at how to connect these two platforms to make life easier. 

Getting The Basic Integrations Sorted On Both Platforms

First off the bat, you are going to need both a ClickFunnels account and a WordPress website, which should not come as any surprise, considering we are talking about setting up ClickFunnels on WordPress.

ClickFunnels

You can use any funnel that you have within your ClickFunnels account on your website, though you can only really use one at a time.

Choose the funnel that you want to use or display and also decide how you want to display it. You will be able to change it later, but it's worth keeping a note of how you are planning on displaying or showing the funnel steps. 

Most wordpress owners will have a page set up to display a funnel step, or have a homepage set up as a funnel step, but we will cover the difference in a bit. 

WordPress

So the majority of the work and set up will be on WordPress, as this is the 'host' in this relationship.

First thing you need to do is finding the 'ClickFunnels' plugin on the marketplace, do this by heading to your 'Plugins' section within WordPress and 'adding new'. 

It's worth noting, there are a lot of plugins that appear when you type in ClickFunnels, as people use the keyword to try and get installations. 

The official one can be seen in the second row, created by Etison LLC (ClickFunnels parent company). Click install now, and activate. Once you have installed and activated, you will find the plugin appearing on the left hand panel within WordPress. 

Opening the plugin, you will see the 'Plugin Settings' page, that requires your account email (the one you use to login to ClickFunnels) and your authentication token. 

You will find your API key under your 'Settings' page within ClickFunnels, with a section called WordPress API. If you are unsure if you have got the right API, or you see any errors, you can use the compatibility check section

All going well, you should see green ticks all the way down.

The next step is to decide how you want WordPress to work with your funnel pages or funnel steps. 

Depending on the outcome, you can change how your funnel steps are displayed within the WordPress pages. It's kind of up to you, depending on what the page is doing or how you want it to show. 

Embedded iFrames will essentially keep your headers and footers etc found within your blog, whereas a re-direct will use your nice friendly URL from your website to then re-direct to the ClickFunnels site. 

How To Add ClickFunnel Steps To WordPress Pages

With the integration set up, you can now start to add your funnel steps into your WordPress site. You have multiple ways to add these pages, so it will depend on what you want to see, or how you want them to appear. 

Option 1 - Simple URL Display

For those who want to have that 'pretty' URL showing up for their funnel pages, without the need to embed anything into pages, then using the ClickFunnels Plugin in the easiest possible way. 

Choosing the 'Add New' tab on the plugin, you will be re-directed to the new page setup. 

You can choose the type of page, either a regular page, your home page or even a 404 (if someone hit's a 404 on your website, it will display a funnel step - Useful for lead capture). 

I have chosen a regular page to just display a thank you page. You are shown all your funnels within your account, the steps inside of your funnel and then the URLS that they are part of inside of ClickFunnels. 

The custom slug becomes the URL that people will be directed too and this method will not use your websites theme or header/footer, and simply uses the ClickFunnels page you have built. 

This method creates a new 'page-type', this doesn't use the WordPress pages, you can't do anything with the SEO meta descriptions, or do anything beyond showing the step you chose earlier. 

Option 2 - Embedded Pages (Shortcodes)

If you want to keep your headers, footers and basically the look and feel of your pages (as well as having access to the SEO side of things) then you will want to do the short code version. 

A shortcode is a simple block of code that WordPress can read, and display, without playing around with HTML or crazy PHP etc. 

First, you need to create your new page, or post, depending on what you are going to embed your funnel page in. 

Once you have clicked 'Add new' of your chosen place (post/page), you will be show the standard WordPress builder. 

Navigate to the block builder, and find 'Shortcode' 

Click on the Shortcode image, and you will have a shortcode block on your page. In the right hand corner, click save draft. 

Now, head back to the ClickFunnels plugin section you where on earlier, and this time click on Shortcode. And use the 'Embedded' option, you can also use an optin form or even am embedded form. 

Fill out the details, such as the funnel, page and if you want the iframe to be scrollable or fixed. Once you have your shortcope, copy it. 

Now, head back to the page/post we created earlier and paste the code into your 'Shortcode' box.

You can either create content around this short code, if you want to maybe write articles or just a short introduction, then you can do so as you normally would. 

When you are ready, click publish, and your new funnel page will appear on your page/post within it's Iframe.  

As you can see, the funnel page has been embedded inside of the iFrame. If you turn Scrolling off (I would) then you don't have the second scroll bar that you can see in the image above. Instead, you will simple embed the funnel inside of the whole page. 

This can make your funnels look similar and unified, as well as allowing you to keep pages and steps all on the same site (rather than using a sub domain). 

How To Use ClickFunnels with WordPress - Conclusion

As you can see, the overall steps to configure your funnel to show within your WordPress site, or prettify their links and domains is pretty easy, with a single plugin and a few clicks required to start getting your funnels to appear. 

If you are someone who uses WordPress for their blogging or even run an eCommerce store that could use funnels, optin pages or even the membership side of ClickFunnels, then hopefully this guide will have helped you get everything set up. 

Alternatives To Using ClickFunnels With WordPress

Of course to edit the funnels, you still need to use ClickFunnels, so you will be required to use two separate platforms, which for many, is a pain.

There are a number of alternatives that can be used, to help unify this procedure, so that you don't have to play around with different platforms, or trying to get things to communicate with each other. 

WordPress & Thrive Architect

If you really want to keep everything inhouse, using the WordPress platform with the Thrive Architect plugin. Thrive allows you to transform your wordpress blog into a landing page builder, even a rudimentary funnel builder, with a little more effort. 

Each page, or post can be turned into landing pages, with pre-built templates or easy to use drag and drop builder. You do have to link pages manually, for example creating the optin page and thank you page, or the sales page and an upsell, but it does mean you don't have to pay ClickFunnels and Hosting. 

DropFunnels

Another possibility, is to use a platform that offers both a funnel builder, and a blog option, as an all in one. DropFunnels launched mid 2020, as an all-in-one platform for those who wanted to both create articles and succeed with SEO, as well as build funnels using their in-house page builder. 

The funnel builder works a lot like ClickFunnels, simply on the WordPress platform, it is all packaged together, and you lose a lot of the flexibility you have natively with WordPress, but it is a good possibility. 

Also at half the price of ClickFunnels, the new DropFunnels platform may be a good alternative to having to run multiple platforms.