I want to share with you a brand new email marketing platform called Flodesk that I believe just changed the game for entrepreneurs and small business owners like myself. (and there’s a 50% off code here so keep on reading so you don’t miss out!) Email marketing is a powerful tool to grow your business, and up until now, Convertkit was my platform of choice. I have talked about it often, and recently recorded an entire podcast episode on Finding Your Focus sharing 5 Reasons Your Business Needs An Email List. And up until now, Convertkit WAS the best option for me.

But there were a few things that I didn’t like about Convertkit and wished I could change. You can add images and make your emails visually appealing in Convertkit, but it was a lot of extra work. (and a lot of extra coding)

And here’s the thing:  when it comes to how I spend my time as a business owner, I want to make the most of every minute, don’t you? If it takes 3 hours to make a beautifully branded email, when push comes to shove, I end up sending out fewer emails. I put it off. I procrastinate because I don’t feel like sitting down to do it. It wasn’t as easy as I needed it to be. And one of the keys to effective email marketing that really grows your business is how consistent you can be.

I also didn’t like that Convertkit charged you more, for the more subscribers you had. The bigger my list, the closer I go to a higher pricing tier. I didn’t like feeling penalized for being successful on that platform. And it’s not just Convertkit that operated this way- every email marketing platform I researched priced their plans the exact same way. It was the name of the game, so to speak.

So basically when it came to choosing between MailChimp and Convertkit as a creative business owner, I really did feel confident that Convertkit was the best option between the two. UNTIL NOW. (insert happy dancing excited emoji faces everywhere) 

Flodesk is brand new, and it seriously feels like Christmas morning because it is everything I have been waiting for in an email marketing platform.

7 Features That Convinced Me to Switch From Convertkit to Flodesk for my email marketing :

1. The price point. While the features I am about to share with you were definitely deciding factors (because just because something is cheaper doesn’t mean that it’s better) being able to have UNLIMITED subscribers for $38 a month is unheard of in email marketing world. Want to save even more? Use my link right HERE (or enter “TIFFANY” as your coupon code to save 50% – giving you unlimited subscribers for $19 a month. I know, I can’t even believe it!! These features, that price….I made up my mind to sign up for Flodesk from Convertkit in just minutes and I want to tell you more about why.

Let’s talk about some of the features that Flodesk offers that fully convinced me to switch from Convertkit.

2. Segments. I never ever understood how to correctly use segments in MailChimp. That was a big determining factor in my moving to Convertkit in the first place is because they made organizing your list SO much easier. So naturally, I took one look at the price of Flodesk and then immediately wanted to know how I could segment my list. Because not everyone in my audience is the same. I have mamas on my list who want to stay updated about my travel schedule for booking my maternity and newborn photography when I am in NYC or Maine. I have photographers on my email list who want to stay updated about my online courses, motherhood photography workshops or get free education on topics like how to grow your brand and business using Pinterest. 

It is a HUGE honor to land in someone’s inbox, especially these days when every brand and business is competing for a spot, so I always want to make sure that I am only sending content that they asked for. Being able to send targeted emails to my list and keep my list organized is REALLY important to me. With Flodesk, every signup form can be assigned to a specific segment- or even more than one! List organization? Check, check.

3. The Automation and Workflows. When it comes to REALLY using your email list to grow your business and brand, automation is key. I am talking welcome emails, delivering free resources (lead magnets), and more. Flodesk is brand new, and they are rolling out features left and right. I saw changes and new details added just the first day of using them! So I know that they are coming out with more options to make the automation very effective. Currently, I am using automation to deliver welcome emails and deliver lead magnets. I plan to take this even further as new automation features become available.

4. Easy and branded email creation. Let me just tell you right now, you have never seen an email creation process that is so beautiful with so many branded options. From the gorgeous fonts, the color palettes, and layouts, the templates- creating branded emails to grow your business has never been easier or more visually appealing. I also love that you get a beautiful mobile preview as you are creating your email so you can see what both desktop and mobile versions will look like! It was also incredibly simple to deliver my lead magnet using Flodesk. I simply uploaded my PDF right inside the email and linked it to a custom download button. Easy for me, and easy for my subscribers to get their hands on what I promised them when they signed up.

5. Unique Features such as embedding your Instagram. This was one of the features that let me know
Flodesk is about using modern technology, and I know that they will continue to blow me away with new features. ALL I did was connect my Instagram in their step by step account set up, and I was able to add my real-time Instagram feed to any email, AND you can click on any image and be taken right to that insta post. IS ANYONE OUT THERE AS EXCITED ABOUT THIS AS ME?!? This also makes this an incredible business tool for fashion bloggers and Instagram influencers!

6. Their customer support. As I mentioned, Flodesk is brand new, so things like help pages, and guides and tutorials, I couldn’t find yet. But I had a few questions and so I responded to an email that I had received from my account automatically in the setup process. I wasn’t sure if I would hear back. But not only did I receive a response right away, but I received a personal, detailed reply that answered my questions above and beyond what I had asked.

Anyone who knows me well knows that customer service is literally everything to me. I have worked with so many disappointing companies over the years and even if their product or service was fantastic, if they didn’t have great customer support I would end up leaving. I am a busy business owner. And often I just need a quick answer to my question so I can move on. And that’s how I have ended up working with all the vendors and companies in my business is because their customer support is top-notch. Flodesk is no different, and that was such a relief! Their team is knowledgeable, kind, and I felt as though she went out of her way to make sure my questions were answered and I really appreciated that and took notice.

7. Their stats. Flodesk has a very detailed statistic area. You can view details about each of your subscribers such as what emails they opened. This will help you to identify what your subscribers are most interested in and what they tend to take more action on so that you can always make your email marketing better. I look forward to sending out my first emails so I can take a look at their email campaign stats- another thing to pay attention to and learn from so you can always do better.

Ok, have I convinced you yet? Have you been sitting on the fence of email marketing and just too overwhelmed to start? Maybe you didn’t feel techy enough to figure it out, or maybe being a brand new business, the investment that platforms like Convertkit were charging just wasn’t something you could commit to. I get that, I really do. I am writing this blog post to help you!

If you are hesitant to move to Flodesk for your small business email marketing just because of the steps it will take to move your list over, I wanted to help you out by sharing the very steps that I took (and will continue to take) in order to move my email list from Convertkit to make it easier!

I don’t want you to see how amazing Flodesk is but feel stuck because you spent all this time getting your Convertkit setup already. I felt the same way at first but knew that the savings and the features were worth the effort to switch. I want to share with you how easy it was, and I hope it’s helpful! After I set my basic account settings, I followed these next steps.

How to move from Convertkit to Flodesk Step by Step: 

1. I went to the subscriber section of my Convertkit account and did an entire export for my whole list. This emailed me a .csv file of all my email subscribers. I downloaded it to my computer, went to the audience section of Flodesk, and uploaded my .csv file.

If you’re thinking to yourself, “Wait! I don’t want to lose how my list is organized!” Don’t worry, I will cover that in the next steps. What I am looking to do in this step is to get my whole list in one segment, because not everyone in my own Convertkit list has a tag.

I named this new segment “CK Import” just for my own reference. You might choose to name this your “Newsletter” segment if you send your newsletter update emails to everyone on your list. Flodesk does have a built-in “All Subscriber” segment. There wasn’t an option to upload my full .csv list to the “All Subscriber” segment, so this was my easy workaround. Flodesk is encouraging you to have all of your subscribers in some sort of defined segment to keep your list organized. After this step, you will see that Flodesk has auto-populated your “All Subscribers” segment.

2. You can then decide to create the segments that you want ahead of time, OR you can add them as you upload subscribers. I chose to go ahead and add the segments that I wanted to have. For example, I have a segment that is just for my online course students, I have a segment that is for photographers and business owners, etc. Essentially, this is your opportunity to organize your list so that you can quickly choose who you will be sending your emails to. If you don’t have segments outside of just your newsletter, that’s ok!

3. I then went into my Convertkit Subscribers and created individual exports based on my tags. You could also export your Convertkit segments. I used tags more than segments in Convertkit so that’s how I did it. I took each tag, selected the subscribers with that tag, and then exported the list as another .csv file.

I went into Flodesk, selected the segment that I already made ahead of time, and uploaded those specific subscribers to that segment. I was pleased to see that just like Convertkit, subscribers were not duplicated. What I mean by that, is subscribers can be on more than one segment without being a “double subscriber”. Since Flodesk doesn’t charge you the bigger your list grows, that’s not an issue, but I like having an accurate view of how many subscribers I have on my list without a bunch of duplicates just because they signed up for more than one opt-in.

4. Then I made a list of all the opt-ins and sign up forms that I needed to replace.

5. Next, I will set up my automations. The two automations I want to first create is a welcome email when a new subscriber is added to my email list, and the email that delivers my free guide “How to Build Your Brand And Business Using Pinterest”.

I will be adding more automation in the near future, but I want to keep it simple to start. I also know that Flodesk is currently working on a lot of new features that are going to make my automation workflows exactly how I want them to be!

6. After I have any emails that are part of any automation created, I will customize the different sign-up forms so that I can replace all of my Convertkit forms. I want to make sure that I don’t have any broken email opt-ins out there on my websites!

Currently, Flodesk has what they call a “ribbon form” that you can embed in your blog post or website. I believe Convertkit called this an “in-line form”. They also have pop-up sign up forms which are amazing, because previously I couldn’t have this kind of automated functionality without using a third-party app like OptinMonster.

You can create your pop up sign up form, make it beautiful and branded, and then choose which page you want it to appear on. You can also set the time delay, so you get to choose whether or not you want the pop-up to show instantly as they browse your website, or after a few seconds of browsing around.

I loved that Flodesk made designing and customizing my sign up forms SO easy. I used to have to embed code on my Showit canvas to have my Convertkit form look the way I wanted it to with the right styling options- but no more!!

One of the things that I know Flodesk is working on being able to edit the segments after you have started creating your form. For example, I made a pop up for my Finding Your Focus website and after I created it, I wanted to go back and add another segment that subscribers who downloaded the guide would be added to. At the time of writing this post, Flodesk is working on adding this feature so if you get started and get stuck on that like me, know that it’s coming.

7. For me personally, I have decided not to cancel my Convertkit until I have all of the above steps completed and tested. I don’t want to revoke my access to all of my Convertkit data until I am sure that I have completely merged to Flodesk . As much as I am looking forward to reducing that email marketing monthly payment, I want to make sure I have everything I need set up and working with Flodesk before I say good-bye.

I hope this post was helpful in sharing about Flodesk and why I decided to switch to Flodesk from Convertkit for my business email marketing! Remember, you can use the coupon code “TIFFANY” when you sign up for your Flodesk account or click HERE to save 50% on your account- giving you UNLIMITED subscribers for just $19 a month!!!

You can also listen to the podcast episode on Flodesk that I recorded for my podcast below!

Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links and I would be so grateful if you decided to use them. Affiliate links and referrals programs help business owners like me to fund the free content that I provide on my websites and podcast.