What actually is a sales funnel?

What it is meant to do

systeme.io describes a sales funnel as a structure designed to guide prospects through a sales process, built to raise conversion rates by keeping the visitor's journey simple.

That is the marketing meaning. The other meaning is a thing in the menu, and the two get muddled.

What systeme.io means by it

A funnel is one object in your account. It is created under the Sites tab, at Sales funnels, and it asks for a Name, a Domain and a Currency, and for one of four funnel types.

Every page inside it is called a step. New ones are added with + Add step.

The Create button is on that same Sales funnels page. Once the funnel exists, its pages are listed down the left, and that list is where one is opened or a new step added.

Order is part of the definition

The steps are not a loose pile of pages. systeme.io states that funnel steps must be in a set order to work, and it links some of them for you: once a payment is validated the buyer is sent to the upsell page, and a declined upsell sends them to the downsell and then the thank you page.

The full sequence systeme.io uses as its worked example runs: opt-in page, sales page, order form, upsell, downsell, thank you page. Six steps, in that order, inside one funnel.

Not every join in that chain is automatic. The first two are wired by hand, on the button. Opt-in to sales page uses Submit form with the redirection set To the next step. Sales page to order form uses Open URL with the order form's address pasted in.

Everything from the order form onwards is the part systeme.io connects for you.

One funnel is one thing your plan counts

The free plan allows 3 sales funnels. Startup, at $17 a month, lifts that to unlimited.

The figure counts funnels rather than pages.

A funnel has an on and off state

Funnels can be inactive. The funnel list can be filtered to show inactive ones, and a funnel is switched back on from the three dots beside it, then Activate.

The filter is a drop-down on the funnel list at Sites, then Sales funnels. Set it to Inactive and press Filter. Activate then asks for a Confirm before it takes effect.

This is worth knowing because an inactive funnel is not a broken funnel and gives no error. It is a funnel that has been switched off and is missing from the default view.

The word does not always mean selling

systeme.io recommends the sales funnel feature for building a simple website of up to five pages.

So a funnel in your account may be a shop front, a list builder, or a five-page site. The feature name is fixed, the purpose is not.

A funnel limit published two different ways

The FAQ under systeme.io's pricing table says the Startup plan carries unlimited funnels. Article 4243, which is about sub-accounts, builds its worked example on the opposite: "if you're on the Startup plan with a limit of 10 sales funnels".

Both are systeme.io's own pages. Neither is presented here as correct. Read your own plan screen before you build anything that assumes either number.

For a first one, the lead magnet funnel guide builds the smallest version there is: two pages that collect an email address and hand something over.