Systeme.io Review – Cheaper Alternative to ClickFunnels?

Launching an online business is a daunting task, and you’ll need to take into account many aspects before even thinking about your offer or marketing strategy. 

From choosing the right platform for your marketing to tools like analytics that will help you track sales and customer engagement, there are so many options that it can be hard to know where to start.

It’s not uncommon for people who have never started their own online business before, or those with experience in another field of work entirely, to feel overwhelmed by all the choices they need to make ahead of time. 

Some may also worry about how much money they’re going to need to get it all up and running.

Luckily, there is software like systeme.io out there that offers all the services you need to start an online business at a fraction of the usual price.

Besides being a cheaper alternative to clickfunnels, systeme.io has received really positive feedback from its users since its launch.

Just take a look at a few of the stellar testimonials that Aurelian Amacker, the founder of systeme.io, has received recently:

In this post, I’m going to cover and review everything about systeme.io, an all-in-one online business building platform that lets you launch, grow and scale your business in the ever-changing online market.

With systeme.io, you can build sales funnels, send automated emails, create and manage online courses, run affiliate programs and evergreen webinars, sell products, and so much more.

Best of all, the platform has all of these features under the same roof! 

You won’t have to worry about managing and integrating countless software subscriptions, as systeme.io gives you access to everything you need to run your online business.

With over 7,500 paying customers across the world, systeme.io is definitely one of the top up-and-coming business tools in the industry.

Now, what does systeme.io look like? What can it do for your business?

Systeme.io Features

Sales Funnel Builder

As any online entrepreneur knows, if you’re going to make it in the current digital landscape, you’re going to need an excellent digital marketing strategy, and sales funnels are one of the most effective marketing strategies out there.

With the systeme.io funnel builder, you can create high-converting funnels in just 3 clicks.

It provides its users with a choice 4 categories of funnels that are tailored to suit every aspect of a conventional online business:

  • β€œBuild an audience” allows you to create a squeeze page to get people’s email addresses and grow your email list.
  • β€œSell your products” lets you create an order form and add a payment page.
  • β€œRun an evergreen webinar” allows you to create an automated evergreen webinar that is released according to your specified automation.
  • β€œCustom funnels” lets you build a funnel from scratch if you’re looking for something a little different.

You’ll be able to choose from close to 100 fully customizable templates when setting up your funnel.

Once you’ve decided on your template, you’ll be able to customize it to fit your exact specifications by tailoring your pages in the Editor.

The systeme.io editor boasts a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface with tons of features to add to your pages.

In the Editor you can:

  • Fully customize the layout of your page
  • Add forms and checkboxes
  • Add data from social platforms (Facebook comment boxes and a Twitter share button)
  • Add a fully customizable survey
  • Include fully customizable payment pages (we’ll get to that later)
  • Add raw HTML code straight onto your page
  • Upload video, audio and images

Analytical Features

Each of the stages in your sales funnel will require a different approach.

Understanding the inner workings of your funnel in action helps you find its weaknesses and helps you optimize it to generate the best results.

Systeme.io’s funnel builder comes with integrated analytical features such as A/B tests, sales tracking, and traffic statistics that will help you optimize your sales funnel to get the most out of it.

Email Marketing

If you’re using funnels in your marketing strategy, you’ll most definitely be making use of email marketing.

Luckily, systeme.io comes equipped with an all-in-one email feature that comes packed with everything that most independent email-marketing platforms provide.

And you’ll still be paying for just one subscription.

You can send email newsletters and set up email campaigns that can be triggered in whichever stage of your funnel you want.

Systeme.io is all about automation, their email editor allows you to write emails and schedule them to be sent according to your specified time. 

You can even set up your email campaigns to be sent to your customers over time with the drip feature. You can literally make money while you sleep!

With systeme.io’s unlimited email count,  you can send as many emails to a contact as you deem necessary.

Their text-orientated email editor prioritizes your copy to help you convert as many readers as possible.

You’ll also be able to view the open rate and click-through-rate of every email you send, as well as the average statistics of all the emails you’ve ever sent since you started using the platform.

Contact Management

As your business grows, you’ll start getting new customers through multiple channels. 

Here’s where systeme.io’s all-in-one nature comes in handy.

You’ll be able to view the entire record of your contact’s history with your business.

You can easily view what funnel or email led them to your business, their purchase history, even the exact location where they opted-into your list or purchased your product!

You can even categorize your contacts using β€œTags”, so you can target different customer groups by sending tailored emails to those who are assigned a specific tag.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing has become one of the quickest and most inexpensive methods of making money without the hassle of actually selling a product.

It allows people who are part of your target audience to earn an affiliate commission by promoting your product or business to others.

Systeme.io has a built-in referral management feature where all of your contacts are immediately assigned an affiliate ID that is connected to their email address. 

To earn commissions, all your contacts have to do is start sharing the link (which you can send to them using a newsletter or automated email) and they’ll start earning.

This feature eliminates the additional step where contacts have to register for a separate affiliate program. In other words, your contacts immediately become affiliates without even knowing it!

Plus, you’ll be able to integrate your affiliate commissions with your offers.

You can choose the exact amount of commission your affiliates will earn when they successfully promote a product, as well as the number of days before their commissions are paid out. 

You’ll also be able to add a second tier of commission to your affiliate program. 

This means that your affiliates will not only receive commissions on the sales of those they refer but also commissions on the referrals of their referrals!

With other platforms, you’d usually have to pay your affiliates separately, which can take quite some time.

With the help of Transferwise integration, systeme.io allows you to set up automated payments to your affiliates via Paypal, Stripe, or a good ol’ direct wire transfer.

In their Affiliate Dashboard, you’ll be able to manage your affiliates by viewing the exact amount of leads they’ve garnered as well the amount of commissions they’ve earned.

If you want to make your affiliate program available to the 7,500 systeme.io users out there, you can also publish your offers on their Marketplace at no extra cost!

You can also use the marketplace as an affiliate to find offers to promote.

Courses

If you’re a course creator, you can use systeme.io to set up a funnel to sell your course. Plus, you’ll be able to host your entire course on the platform itself!

Systeme.io’s course feature lets you:

  1. Set up the content of the course within the platform (including videos, images, text)
  1. Design the enrollment and payment page, where students/participants can register and pay for the course
  1. Manage students and communicate with them via emails or automated newsletters

Systeme.io has been designed to sell paid courses, but it will also let you set up a funnel that provides access to free resources.

After a student has enrolled, they’re added to your contact list, letting you easily manage your course participants.

With the email feature, you’ll be able to create a custom newsletter that can be sent to your students.

You can easily add new courses, manage student payments, send emails to students and monitor the statistics of your course on the dashboard.

The content of each lecture in a course can be customized using the Editor. 

You get freedom and control over the design of your lecture pages, allowing you to create the exact experience you want for your students.

So you can add videos, images, and text to your online course as part of your curriculum.

If you don’t want to upload your course videos straight to systeme.io, you can just use YouTube, a custom embed or link directly to a video anywhere else on the internet.

Sell products

With systeme.io, all you have to do to create a product to sell is give it a name and add it to your product list. In an instant, you can start selling the product immediately.

From there, you can add it to any funnel you’ve created with systeme.io, as well as decide on what happens after a customer makes a purchase.

Want them to get access to a course? Just choose the desired course from the drop-down menu.

Should they get a file download right away? Add a tag that sends an automated email with the link.

You can even offer a coupon or a payment plan with just a few clicks.

Systeme.io also currently works with 22 currencies, so you can sell your products in countries like France, The United States, India or even Thailand.

Blogs

We all know how content marketing has become one of the most powerful long-term strategies to grow a business.

A powerful blog allows you to generate free traffic organically, without spending too much of your hard-earned revenue on ad services.

Normally you’d have to set up a WordPress account to create a functioning blog, set up your hosting, and design the layout – all of this coming at an extra cost to you. 

With systeme.io, however, you can easily create and host your blog within the platform. You can create separate blog posts, pages, and categories for your blog and customize them in the Editor.

Cheaper Alternative to ClickFunnels – Systeme.io Pricing:

When it comes to price, systeme.io is definitely one of the most affordable funnel builders out there.

There are 3 payment plans that you can choose from when signing up to systeme.io:

  • Startup ($27/month): Launch your business with system.io’s most basic plan, 3 membership sites, and 5,000 maximum contacts.
  • Webinar ($47/month): Increase your capacity to 10,000 contacts and 5 membership sites. Plus, you’ll gain access to 2 domains and the ability to host 3 webinars.
  • Enterprise ($97/month): Get unlimited membership sites and webinars and increase your capacity to 15,000 contacts and 5 personalized domains.

Don’t worry about making any commitments, as systeme.io offers a free 14-day trial that you can use to test the waters, no credit card required!

This is an extremely affordable deal, just look at Clickfunnels’ prices, one of systeme.io’s biggest competitors:

Clickfunnels most basic plan costs the same as systeme.io’s Enterprise plan. And with the systeme.io Startup Plan, you can get unlimited sales funnels (and it’s only $27 per month), compared to 20 funnels with Clickfunnels’ most basic plan.

Conclusion

Systeme.io is a great online marketing tool for those looking to start an online business. With their simplified interface, you can finally focus on what’s important: your company’s success and growth.

They offer an efficient and affordable software that takes care of all the integrations and complicated tech aspects.

Whether you’re looking to build the next million-dollar e-commerce business and you’re just getting started or if you’ve already got a product and business model down, systeme.io can help you with everything from funnel building to email marketing.


Plus, they offer a free 14-day trial, so it’s definitely worth giving it a try! Who knows, it might change the way you look at digital marketing forever.

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How to Come Up With SAAS Ideas – Already Validated but Not Solved

Where do you go to look for new SAAS ideas where there is clearly a need that is not being served well?  

Tonight I was working on a complex automation solution to make the entire content marketing machine run much more smoothly with a single input for a couple of projects. 

While digging in and then in some discussions I started to see some consistent new opportunities connecting tools in more native ways then using automation tools like Zapier, Automote.io. 

My intent of sharing this is to scratch my bright shiny object syndrome but I won’t be executing on this exact idea. Feel free to run with it πŸ™‚

10 years ago a post about companies being born out of each Craigslist category went viral. 

This post is now 10 years old! 

So what is the modern SAAS version of Craiglist…

Popular Automation Tool API Connectors…

What I mean is that where automation tools have been used heavily it shows there is a need not being easily solved with a native solution to the tools being connected.  

Popular Automation Tools:

By looking at the most popular use cases for these automation tools it reveals problems people have and are willing to pay to solve. 

Let’s do an example…

1. Go to a Popular Automation Tool

Automate.io

2. Select a Popular and Paid App 

I would think focusing on paid business app’s would be best since if the tool being used to solve a problem it means it is generating value. 

For this example, I will select Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce as they are businesses I am familiar with. 

3. Review the most popular integrations for that app 

All 3 have a few common use cases which can be summarized as…

  • Problem 1 – Add user to database (MailChimp, SalesForce, ActiveCampaign etc)
  • Problem 2 – Email user with a personalized email from GMail 
  • Problem 3 – Save order information to database (Google Sheets) – related to #1

The image above shows what people most commonly use Automate.io to connect Shopify to. 

4. Is there a better way with a native app to solve this problem?

Given that this reveals there is clearly a need where people are willing to pay Automate.io to connect between Shopify and their CRM / autoresponder why is it not being solved with a native Shopify app?

Automate.io makes it easy but it is not completely trivial the way an app can make it. 

Some quick research on the app store revealed a few solutions with weak reviews that try and work with multiple CRM’s and then the native solution made by each CRM. The reality might be that keeping current with the integration of each solution is incredibly time-consuming but tools like Automate.io can do it because that is what they are built to do. 

Might be a dead end but it looks like if it was solved well with a native app people would be interested. 

5. Analyze Reviews for Similar Solutions (Positive and Negative)

Use these reviews to identify WHY people are not using the app and are going to tools like Automate.io to solve their problem. 

Given that there are many native solutions for connecting CRMs/email lists and Shopify I am not clear on why people would use Automate.io… but in that answer lies the potential for a popular/profitable Shopify App. 

In fact there seems to be solid solution that does exactly this for WooCommerce – https://www.crmperks.com/

Summary:

I don’t know if this is a great idea or not, there are some outstanding questions I don’t understand the answer to. 

However, my hope in sharing this is it shows one way of going about systematically mining for ideas leveraging autoation/API connection tools. 

If there is a tool you have deep knowledge of Salesforce or similar that is commonly used then digging into how people are automating activities might reveal something you could get built or a service you could offer.

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February 2017 Income Report

Although February was a short month it was a very busy one! We have a lot of projects on the go and have the feeling of momentum behind many of them.

Definitely sometimes struggling to ensure I give new projects enough of a push before I try and hand them off. I have a concept that I am still thinking through but essentially it takes a 10x increase in my effort to onboard/launch a new business vs maintain it so I only have a limited amount of energy I can invest in those growth projects. When I have too many in the critical phase it doesn’t go well… but the flip side is that once I correctly get on onboarded it takes limited effort. So, basically I need to limit the number of growth projects, give them 110% focus and then not move until it is above my imaginery “self-sustaining” line.

In February, I was also very appreciative of my key team members both in house and over-seas they have been able to continually take on more and more work but what is most impressive is how much they are continually invested in growing the business which is fun! Although the dream was to work from home initially working from an office with talented staff pushing in the same direction is fun!

This report covers the results of the business over the course of February.

The Business β€œDivisions” For My Online Business:

  1. Money Site Portfolio
  2. AuthorityWebsiteIncome Blog
  3. Services – Web Development, Content Marketing & Link Building:
  4. Amazon FBA Business
    • Brands 1-6 – All have specific targets for 2017
    • – Amazon FBA Hijacking and Suppression Monitoring
  5. Put Outside Capital to Work Efficiently in the Online Asset Space

Key Successes

  1. ContentRefined.com Customer Support – Maddie is going the extra mile including a few examples of getting a clients unique dog food sent to her so she could get photos with a dog
  2. BrandBuilders Deal – A deal was finalized in February that increased my % stake in BrandBuilders, provided a vehicle to look at bigger deals moving forward and setup the existing team to build the business even more.
  3. New Website Growth Strategy – Several of the sites I have been building have been having some great success out of the gate! I am looking to continue testing this out myself and then scaling and sharing it!
  4. FBA Deal – I am starting to purchase some small Amazon FBA deals and the first one is performing well. There are not very many outlets for people looking to sell Amazon FBA businesses making under $2k/month but they can be solid little businesses. I am working to setup systems to onboard these businesses efficiently. If you are interested in selling your FBA business let me know.

Key Failures

  1. Passive Income Portfolio – Both my time and a team members time I hired to help run the portfolio is getting pulled in other directions. The immediate payback is low but the long term payback is great so I need to figure out a way to put more effort in here. The solution I am looking at in March is a re-organization of my team to re-balance workload.
  2. FBA Brands – I still don’t quite feel like I have nailed the business model here, plenty of challenges with existing brands and lots of learnings again this month.

2017 Business Goals

Below is my businesses main goals for 2017…

Part 1 – Passive Authority & Niche Website Income Profit/Loss

3 Goals in 2016 for my Website Portfolio Business

  1. Everyone Win at the Mortgage Crushing Competition

Feb Update – The team is doing very well in the MortgageCrushingCompetition. Everyone struggles with the same issues of finding time to invest in this project but all sites are looking good!

  • Traffic = 1,199
  • Earnings = $2.64

2. Buy 1 Site Per Month

Feb Update – 1 larger site was purchased and a new business was spun up with a manager and investor. It is a unique dropshipping business that existed for 9 years and the deal had a substantial earnout component to it. So far it is performing on baseline for revenue with a lot of efficiencies already realized. We are looking at some nice growth opportunities moving forward.

  • GOAL = 1 New Website Purchased
  • ACTUAL = 1 New Website Purchased

If any readers are looking to sell their profitable site(s) VERY QUICKLY let me know by emailing me. I can let you know in 12hrs if I am interested and complete the purchase in 24-48hrs – Contact Me Here

I have found the right sellers are those…

  • Looking to sell FAST (under 24hrs has been accomplished!) (shorter time for due diligence on my end increases risk for me)
  • Not wanting to spend a lot of time on the sales process (analytics and income proof is all I need)
  • SEO done to the site can be questionable and that increased risk will be reflected in the sales price
  • Site being associated with a banned Amazon Associate is still possible to sell (but STEEP discount!)
  • Understand that the benefits of the bullet points above means the sales multiple will be lower than if you went a more traditional route

If you have a profitable website you are looking to sell fast please let me know

Amazon FBA, SAAS or Larger Websites I Can Close on Quickly As Well – Contact Me Here

3. Scalable New Site Creation Strategy adds $5k to Portfolio

Feb Update – Some great progress here! Several sites have started to perform well that were brand new builds using a unique strategy. The goal of this strategy is to add $5k/month to the portfolio.

  • Traffic – 37,281 uniques per month
  • Earnings – $177.24

PRIMARY GOAL – OVERALL INCOME FOR WEBSITE PORTFOLIO GROW TO $15k/MONTH CONSISTENTLY

Feb Update – With some  changes in how one site is being monetized I had a big drop in earnings but expect it to bounce back nicely next month. Overall the portfolio is performing well in terms of traffic but not getting the level of attention it deserves!

Part 2 – Authority Website Income Blog Profit/Loss

3 Goals in 2015 for AuthorityWebsiteIncome.com

  1. Post Once Per Week

Feb Update – Some big posts were published in February including my post and tool about how to calculate your drop in amazon affiliate program earnings.

  • Plan = 4
  • Actual = 4

2. Systematic Promotion of my Content and Building of my List

Feb Update – No progress – need to develop system to systematically promote posts. With my Amazon Affiliate Program earnings calculation tool I did a bunch of outreach to let people know I had a tool for them to easily calculate the change in their earnings and as a result received a large number of links back.

3. Increased Intelligence with Email Automation

Feb Update – Progress moving all customers and contacts into one database with established tagging practises so we will be able to take the next step of applying some intelligent automation.

PRIMARY GOAL – GROW TO 30k VISITORS PER MONTH

Feb Update – Lots of work to do this year to hit this target! I will continue pushing!

Part 3 – Services Business Profit/Loss

  1. Systems First Focus

Feb Update – Continued focus point during my meetings with each business manager. As businesses are growing we are continually finding ourselves outgrowing our systems and needing to adapt quickly.

  1. LightningRank.com – Quality and Efficiency Improvements

Feb Update – The tests are part of the new systematic money site creation strategy that resulted in 37k visitors within a couple months after starting a series of sites. The results we are seeing are fantastic and are looking forward to continuing to explore these strategies with more tests.

Visit LightningRank.com for Link Building Services!

  1. ContentRefined.com – 20k MRR by June & 40k MRR by End of Year

Feb Update – Another great month for this new and promising business. With happy customers, VERY low churn numbers we achieved the target growth rate. To hit our end of year goal it is clear we need to develop additional sales channels and branch into new markets. We expect some learning curves branching into additional markets but are looking forward to it! Maddie as mentioned above is doing a great job at taking care of all customers and growing the business.

  • Planned MRR = $12,000
  • Actual MRR = $12,989

Visit ContentRefined.com for Content Marketing Services!

4. BrandBuilders.io Structurally Well Setup & New Offering Launched

Feb Update – This goal I can now call complete for 2017! It is structurally well setup, new office for this business has been established and the team is growing. The TurnKey affiliate sites ready in 24hrs are fantastic and feedback has been great.

PRIMARY GOAL – SYSTEMATIC GROWTH!

Part 4 – Amazon FBA Business

  • Brand #1 – HG – Running Lean and Spinning off Cash
    • Feb Update – Running lean (don’t have the numbers for this business so not included in the income report)
  • Brand #2 – CF – Quarterly Dividends Ahead of Baseline
    • Feb Update – First loan repayments have been sent and the business is operating efficiently and ahead of baseline. Unfortunately for me as manager with a big hole to dig out of before I get any upside consideration it isn’t adding a lot to the monthly profit yet.
  • Brand #3 – NT – Path To Strong Market Position and Successful Pillar Product
    • Feb Update – This business might be on its way to be my first FBA flob… the product is great but the price point is simply too high to compete with the much cheaper competitors. We have a few more tricks up our sleeve to pull out to see the results.
  • Brand #4 – CF – Systematic Growth to $20k/month Profit
    • Feb Update – Still having issues with Amazon and needing to get our listing live again. Great product which had been doing great sales! We have $30k worth of inventory waiting to start selling again!
  • Brand #5 – PC – Successful launch and $5k/month Business
    • Feb Update – Had a few bumps in the road with the labels for the products. It took a while to get that sorted out now and Amazon will have the products in March.
  • Brand #6 – SE – 4X Value Expansion with Dream Team!
    • Feb Update – The investment needed for this project has started to make it look less attractive but coming up with some other strategies to validate the idea before launching.
  • LE – Hijack Monitoring Service
    • Feb Update – Continued slow growth.

Part 5 – Put Outside Capital to Work Efficiently

Overall Income Update

Original Monthly Net Income Target (original goal $15k/month reliable income by age 35)

  • (very old) Target Net Income = $10,575
  • Actual Net Income = $52,155
  • 2017 Average Net Income = $38,346.34

 

 

Gross revenue is a vanity number for my business and I do not share it.

Final Comments

 

Feb was a short month but definitely one where a lot of great progress was made. My disappointing performance with FBA is still a pain and I have some ways I am looking to solve it moving forward. In addition some great progress on setting up unique opportunities looking longer term, excited to keep the momentum going in March!

Hope your year is starting well!

 

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