I know, it sounds crazy, but some people don’t have a website set up for their business yet. Or, its really bad. Or, they really just don’t need one. I’m going to show you how you can run your entire online business using Infusionsoft – without – having a website. It’s possible and I’ll show how it can be done.
(I got this idea from one of our talented developers, Joey Novak.)
- We’re going to get familiar with Trackable Links. Create a Trackable Link. Go to Setup ? Misc Settings ? Marketing Settings ? Links, or create it by clicking the “Open Merge Window” button while you’re editing an email template. Don’t tie any actions to this link.
- The next step is to make sure you’re using your default success page when someone clicks the Trackable Link. When this option is selected, you have access to an HTML editor to edit that page and make it look however you’d like. This is going to be your “landing page.”
- Go ahead and save the Trackable Link and then lets go create a Web Form to put on your “landing page”. Again, use the default success page, edit it however you’d like. Once you create your form, click “Save and Gimme the Code.”
- Once you get the code, head back to your Trackable Link, click the “HTML” button in the HTML editor, find the place in the code where you want the form and paste in the code.
- Now, send yourself a text email with the Trackable Link you created. Copy that link. This is the link you now use in your advertisements. Send pay-per-click ads to that link. Make an affiliate redirect to have your partners send traffic to that link. Put banners up that go to that link. Send emails to people (merge the Trackable Link if you’re sending from Infusionsoft) that drive to that link. Be creative, but get people to that link. When they click on it, they’ll end up on your “landing page” which is really the success page for the Trackable Link. But, it has a Web Form in it so you can capture leads (please be creative with how you capture leads).
- Basically, that’s it. But it doesn’t stop there. The success page from the web form could be an order form (hosted, of course, by Infusionsoft). The success page for the Order Form could be a One-Click Upsell. The initial web form could start a follow-up sequence that has Trackable Links that drive to more “landing pages” or to your Infusionsoft storefront or shopping cart or Order Form. The possibilities are endless if you get a little creative.
I hope this helps and gives you some ideas with how you think of using Infusionsoft. Even if you have a website, these strategies can help you be more efficient by not having to create landing page after landing page on your site every time you do something.
Don’t forget that you can edit the default success page for your “Thank You” pages by going to Setup ? Misc Settings ? Marketing ? General and editing the Web Form and Trackable Link “thank you” pages. Make them cool. Style them how you want, you know, with that CSS stuff. Then every time you create a Web Form or Trackable Link, you’ll be starting your thank you page with your “cool” looking template instead of the standard white and gray template that comes with your application.
If you have questions or comments about this “no website approach,” share in the comments section below. There’s a lot of potential here!
[Photo by a.pitch on Flickr]
Tyler-
Excellent point here! One thing to be aware of, for those using PPC to drive traffic, make sure you understand the terms of your PPC provider. Google, for example, requires the landing page to be on the same domain as the display URL in the ad. So in that case, for your example, the display URL would have to be Infusionsoft.com which is not ideal if you are promoting a dog training course. To solve this problem (and still not have a website 🙂 Infusion users could consider a free content sharing website service like weebly.com, wordpress.com, wetpaint.com or others.
Of course there are other PPC platforms one could leverage. This is a scenario I ran into personally with clients.
Keep up the great work!
This is a super creative approach to leveraging Infusionsoft with out a website. It goes to show that almost anything can be accomplished with Infusionsoft when you think outside the box.
Like Travis commented, driving traffic with PPC or SEO isn't going to happen simply because of domain restrictions and the thank you page being hosted on Infusionsoft's domain. This specific approach would work well for 2 audiences:
1) Businesses with a big list of their own
2) Businesses who have partners with big lists.
The first group probably already has or have had a website in order to build a large list. The second group is dependent on partners (usually a great way to grow quickly). However, most big partners are protective of their list – limiting communications and promotions to only select businesses. Are they likely to blast their list and risk opt-outs, especially if you don't have a website?
If you don't have a website is because of lack of capitol, Ty's instructions above are absolutely brilliant. With a decent amount of configuration and elbow grease, you can pull it off.
If you don't have a website is because of lack of help, we can help you establish an affordable web presence and get far more ROI out of Infusionsoft.
Truly Infused,
Jarrod Morris
http://imarketingmavens.com
Wow…this is awesome!!
I will be passing this along for sure…thanks Tyler!
Tyler – a couple more ideas perhaps:
With a GoDaddy domain, you can forward a domain to a specific place ie. the url for the trackable link.
Nvu is a great free HTML editor. It has everything you need to make simple pages, and it's easy to copy/paste the code right into Infusionsoft. http://net2.com/nvu//download.html
Travis – WordPress is a great option, however from my experience the hosted WordPress won't let you put your own HTML forms on it. I have seen a few that have kinda worked, but the hosted WordPress sites modify the HTML code on the form. The same thing happens with DotNetNuke. If you install WordPress on your own, it works great though. Just not if you have them host it (ie jordanhatch.wordpress.com).
Hey Flag,
You are right DNN will not allow the use of an HTML form on the page, but we host Infusionsoft integrated DNN sites, and use a javascript form which works with Infusionsoft. Additionally our memebership site back-end uses the Infusionsoft database and is tied to the Infusionsoft tags to determine membership roles and content displayed.
Dean
Sorry but if anyone is interested in DNN/Infusionsoft you can reach me at djb AT tmiWebMail.com
This is a super creative approach to leveraging Infusionsoft with out a website. It goes to show that almost anything can be accomplished with Infusionsoft when you think outside the box.
Like Travis commented, driving traffic with PPC or SEO isn't going to happen simply because of domain restrictions and the thank you page being hosted on Infusionsoft's domain. This specific approach would work well for 2 audiences:
1) Businesses with a big list of their own
2) Businesses who have partners with big lists.
The first group probably already has or have had a website in order to build a large list. The second group is dependent on partners (usually a great way to grow quickly). However, most big partners are protective of their list – limiting communications and promotions to only select businesses. Are they likely to blast their list and risk opt-outs, especially if you don't have a website?
If you don't have a website because of lack of capitol, Ty's instructions above are absolutely brilliant. With a decent amount of configuration and elbow grease, you can pull it off.
If you don't have a website because of lack of help, we can help you establish an affordable web presence and get far more ROI out of Infusionsoft.
Truly Infused,
Jarrod Morris
http://imarketingmavens.com
Wow…this is awesome!!
I will be passing this along for sure…thanks Tyler!
Tyler – a couple more ideas perhaps:
With a GoDaddy domain, you can forward a domain to a specific place ie. the url for the trackable link.
Nvu is a great free HTML editor. It has everything you need to make simple pages, and it's easy to copy/paste the code right into Infusionsoft. http://net2.com/nvu//download.html
Travis – WordPress is a great option, however from my experience the hosted WordPress won't let you put your own HTML forms on it. I have seen a few that have kinda worked, but the hosted WordPress sites modify the HTML code on the form. The same thing happens with DotNetNuke. If you install WordPress on your own, it works great though. Just not if you have them host it (ie jordanhatch.wordpress.com).
I have some questions on making the thank you page different. You refer to CSS stuff. How easy is it to edit that page, and do you have any on the site about it? The stock page is ugly.
Otherwise, keep the tips coming!
Thanks for sharing this here. It has enabled me to learn many important things. I am so grateful to you for this.