ClickFunnels case study

The problem

ClickFunnels is one of the most popular sales and marketing platforms on the market. They’ve built a strong reputation among entrepreneurs, agencies, and marketers for taking the technical headaches out of building a full sales funnel.

ClickFunnels had previously integrated with Entri Connect, the API for DNS configuration. Their users are largely non-technical, and the process of manually setting up DNS records to connect custom domains to their funnels was affecting user activation. Connect solved this problem, and got their users enmeshed in the ClickFunnels product while reducing support tickets.

But ClickFunnels had a different problem: their users were going to other platforms to purchase domains. Some of these domain registrars were offering their own marketing solutions, such as website builders and email marketing platforms. 

However robust ClickFunnels’ product was, they didn’t like the idea that they were sending their hard-won customers to their competitors to purchase domains, and began to look for a solution.

The compliance headaches associated with becoming a registrar or reseller

When SaaS applications want to sell domains directly to their users in-app, they essentially can go two routes:

1. They can participate in a registrar’s reseller program, or

2. They can become a registrar themselves

Becoming a registrar or reseller is a difficult and expensive process. Once you complete it, you’re then left with the problem of managing domain compliance across the full lifecycle of the domain, which gets complicated quickly. 

Domain compliance rules are different for every country-specific TLD, and there are organizational compliance requirements as well. On top of everything else, you’re responsible for managing disputes between users regarding intellectual property, and the legality of domains.

To further complicate things, ICANN policy is constantly changing, which means you need a dedicated team of legal and compliance professionals to keep an eye out for changes to inform your platform. 

The question then becomes: do you want to become a registrar platform, or do you want to continue to build and sell the SaaS product you have today? 

Alternatively, reseller programs often require SaaS applications to pay for the privilege of their use, or offer razor-thin margins that force platforms to take a loss on the domains sold. They may even re-market competing services to your users, such as site builders or email marketing solutions. 

On top of this, resellers are put in the challenging position of being the end customer’s first line of support, creating an over-large support burden. CcTLDs come with their own set of decentralized regulations and standards, which internal support teams will have to stay up to date with.

The solution

ClickFunnels likes to move fast, and always innovate to deploy new features in their product. With the goals of a unified UX and domain revenue capture in mind, they decided to explore selling domains within the ClickFunnels UI using Entri Sell.

Entri Sell allows SaaS applications to sell domains in-app, directly to their users, without becoming a registrar or reseller.

Through a partnership with IONOS, Entri Sell allows users to purchase any available domain, at no cost to the platform, while paying the platform (in this case, ClickFunnels) a flat commission per domain sold. IONOS also has an exclusive agreement with Entri to never market competing services to SaaS applications who use Entri Sell.

For ClickFunnels, implementing Entri Sell was a no-brainer.

“We were already using Entri’s Connect product, so Entri Sell was a natural next step.”

ClickFunnels users could now purchase domains directly within the ClickFunnels UI, without having to leave the platform. Best of all, ClickFunnels was getting the best domain reseller commission in the industry, without having to devote internal resources to supporting an in-house solution.

Entri Sell is a free to use product, and now nets ClickFunnels a six-figure annual revenue.

“Selling domains was a natural extension of our platform, and Entri made it easy for us. The compensation model Entri uses is extremely competitive, too. It was incredible to see a user experience improvement contribute this much revenue, with so little development work on our part.”

- Matt Petka, Director of Product at ClickFunnels

Entri Sell’s straightforward implementation uses a javascript snippet to embed directly within a product. With just a little bit of QA, the ClickFunnels team had an in-app domain purchase flow for their users, and an overnight revenue stream.

Instant revenue, and a fully native domain selling experience

Entri Sell makes it easy to sell domains directly to your users, and keep them safely in-app. Entri and IONOS handle all of the related support requests, while your platform earns the best commissions in the industry.

Best of all, Entri Sell is 100% free to use, and DNS records for domains purchased through Sell are automatically configured, free of charge.

To learn more about selling domains on your platform, reach out to our team to get an in-depth demo, or launch an instant demo now.