Funnel hacking is a concept that’s gained significant traction, particularly popularized by Russell Brunson of ClickFunnels fame.
There’s an entire industry, conference, and myriad books dedicated to the subject.
While it’s an accepted and taught strategy, I’m not a big fan of it for a couple of reasons.
While copying might be easy, the real challenge lies in understanding the “why” behind the successful elements.
The superficial understanding leads to issues when the copied funnel stops converting. Without knowing the underlying principles, marketers end up back at square one.
Many successful funnels involve complex backend processes that are not visible to the casual observer.
True mastery requires understanding the fundamentals. When a funnel stops working, experts know how to diagnose and fix it.
There’s also the ethical aspect…
If you’re in this to win, then funnel hacking may be your phase one approach, but at some point you need to transcend beyond that and truly know what the hell you’re doing.
Let’s explore a different way of funnel hacking.
The Power of Funnel Hacking
To illustrate the power of funnel hacking, let me share a real-world example.
Back in 2018, a member of LeadsHook ventured into the solar industry and skyrocketed from zero to $100,000 or $200,000 a month in just a month or two.
He shared his success story in a Facebook group—not the LeadsHook group, but another one—which I happened to see.
I reached out to him and said, “Hey, are you really sure you want to do this? Because you will get ripped off.”
He replied that he believed in abundance.
Unfortunately, within 30 days, his funnel was dead.
This was a stark confirmation for me that the novelty of your idea significantly impacts how much money you can make from it.
If many people come in and just steal your idea, your campaign will die quickly.
The Pitfalls of Funnel Hacking
Funnel hacking can get you quickly into the market by taking shortcuts.
However, the problem arises when something stops working. If you don’t have a fundamental understanding of the market, you’ll be stuck.
You’re relying too heavily on your competitor’s strategy without understanding the underlying factors.
Building a Venn Diagram
Let’s delve deeper into this with a Venn diagram to illustrate the key components.
The first section I want to cover is the prospect. This is something we focus on a lot in Persuasion SOS.
The next section is your product, which is another focus area in Persuasion SOS.
The third section is competitors, which is largely supplied by the funnel hack—understanding what the competition is doing.
If we could extend this diagram further, it would encompass the mood of the times. This refers to the current environment affecting these three elements, such as an election cycle, high-interest rates, or an inflationary environment.
External Factors and Their Influence
These external factors play a significant role in:
- Changing the offer you’re going to make.
- Rendering certain strategies ineffective due to a shift in the market mood.
For instance, an offer that worked well during COVID-19, when governments were distributing free money, likely won’t work now, even if the competitors, product, and prospect haven’t changed.
The Sweet Spot: Competitors and Prospect
The intersection of competitors and prospects is largely where funnel hacking fits in.
You basically copy your competitor and launch your strategy without spending time on understanding the prospect or product.
Let’s consider a simple heuristic to think about funnel hacking:
- If you’re the second person to copy a successful competitor, you have a roughly 50% chance of success.
- If you’re the hundredth person, your chance drops to about 1%.
This heuristic isn’t a precise probability but a way to think about it. The longer a promotion has been running, the lower your chances of success if you copy it.
Timing and Market Saturation
Using spy tools or analyzing market data can help you understand how saturated a particular strategy is.
For example, the “zero-down solar” promotion was new around 2017-2019, but today, it’s been overused and won’t be as effective.
The main issue with funnel hacking is that it’s too linear for the dynamic environment of business. While it may offer a quick entry into the market, it often lacks the foundational understanding needed to sustain long-term success.
When considering funnel hacking, it’s crucial to understand where you are in the timeline of its lifecycle.
If you’re early in the cycle, you have a chance to ride the wave of success. However, if you’re at the end of the cycle, it may have been done to death and won’t be as effective.
When people ask, “What’s really working right now?” it’s difficult to provide a straight answer without giving away someone else’s hard work and energy.
They’ve tested numerous strategies to find a hook or appeal that resonates with the market.
The Marketing Pandemic
I’m seeing a trend—almost like a marketing pandemic—where the idea of simply copying someone else’s strategy is rampant.
While you might get away with it for a while, or succeed if you’re early in the cycle, it’s crucial to consider if the campaign has already been run to death.
If it has, then it likely won’t work for you.
Assessing Longevity: Gary Bencivenga’s Approach
This concept is well-documented in the magalog space.
Gary Bencivenga often talked about how he liked to see what had already been done. This was to ensure that he either took something successful and created a new concept around it or avoided ideas that had been overused.
Whenever he did campaigns for his clients, he would do one that felt mainstream—something likely to work right off the bat—and another with a slightly edgy idea that had a lower chance of success but offered something novel.
This strategy allows you to start a promotion effectively. While copying someone can be great, consider what else you can bring to the table if it doesn’t work.
The main reason for highlighting these points is to ensure that if you are going to engage in funnel hacking, you should also have some new ideas and ways of doing things.
Doing the same things in new ways
For those of you in Persuasion SOS, we’ll be diving deeper into how to take an old idea and make it new over the next two to three weeks.
But today, I want to concentrate on the heuristic of funnel hacking and its importance.
The Order and Timing of Funnel Hacking
It’s crucial to understand your “pecking order” in the funnel hacking process.
If you’re the first to hack a funnel, you’re likely to succeed. However, if you’re the 50th or 100th, your chances diminish significantly because earlier adopters have already captured the better opportunities.
Sometimes funnel hacking is used a little too blindly. I’m not against it or for it—it’s just one tool in the toolkit. But the order in which you do it will have a massive difference in whether it works or not.
I remember running a CPA offer and wondering why some copied strategies worked immediately while others didn’t.
Access to tools like Adbeat provided insights by revealing ongoing campaigns, sometimes running for years.
This explains why newer funnels may struggle—they’re competing against highly visible, long-running campaigns.
Strategy for Renewing Old Ideas
In high-stakes arenas like financial marketing, companies always think of new ways to present old ideas.
This practice, called “Neologizing,” involves rebranding or rephrasing to keep the message fresh.
If you’re planning to renew an old idea, consider a two-pronged approach:
- Version A: A close or “lazy” variation of the original idea.
- Version B: A well-researched, innovative approach that taps into the current market sentiment and customer emotions.
Campaign one should be your version A— a close or lazy variation.
The next should be where you understand what the customer is saying, what the dominant emotion in the market is, and develop something new from that.
To wrap up, for those looking to build substantial businesses, funnel hacking should be a temporary phase. True success involves transcending the initial copying phase and understanding the deeper mechanics of marketing.
It’s essential to have a broader strategy and adaptability.
