Since relaunching my newsletter a few weeks ago, I’ve received a lot of questions about what I am using to create these emails and why I’ve decided to invest more time into growing this particular channel.
I have always believed in the power of email marketing, but in the past I struggled to get my newsletter out the door for one key reason. Put simply: I don’t have a lot of time to build out beautiful, well designed emails.
Use the code “NATALIE” to get 50% off your subscription for the first year!
I am a busy perfectionist without a design background who can’t write a line of code. I wasn’t satisfied with the quality of the emails I was able to create in other platforms and without the help of a designer I didn’t have the ability to bring them up to my high standards. I felt overwhelmed and therefore put email marketing on the back burner.
Enter Flodesk a super simple platform to help you create gorgeous, high converting email campaigns.
It makes sending beautiful emails as simple as posting to social media. From the moment you create your account, you have access to beautiful templates and layouts that you can customize to match your brand in minutes.
Last year, two of my dearest friends from San Francisco, Martha Bitar and Rebecca Shostak, set out to build an email marketing platform unlike anything on the market. I have loved being an early adopter in their private beta and experiencing the Flodesk team turning feedback into features in real time.
In less than a year, they have managed to build a platform that’s more intuitive than others who have been in the game for 17+ years (I am looking at you Mailchimp). Yes, there are a lot of features still in the works, like a Zapier integration, but new features get released almost daily. And even more exciting you can request them.
Today, I am sharing the three reasons why I am switching my business over to Flodesk for email marketing. Let’s dive in.
ONE: CREATE GORGEOUS EMAILS IN MINUTES
In Flodesk, you can create beautiful layouts that make your emails look like they are coming from a big brand with an entire marketing + design team (think: Anthropologie aesthetics with Canva‘s click and drag functionality it is downright magic!).
The Flodesk team has built proprietary technology that allows you to add custom fonts into your emails that display correctly every time no other platform has this! You can also see how your emails will look on desktop and mobile so that your email display seamlessly across all devices.
You can also save your brand colors and logo in your account settings to make transforming templates a breeze.
TWO: GROWING YOUR LIST IS A BREEZE
Flodesk makes it easy to build your subscriber list. You can launch a lead magnet in minutes. Simply create a form, customize it to match your brand, paste the HTML onto your blog or website and direct your audience to download your magnet.
It only took me five minutes to build the subscription page on my website and it looks great on desktop and mobile.
With other platforms, I always felt like the form functionality was clunky and hard to customize. I’d spend hours trying to get everything to line up just right. Flodesk has simplified the process and put the power back into your hands.
And I really love the analytics overview for each email. It’s super informative and yet easy to understand—giving you insights that can improve your marketing performance.
THREE: THE PRICING STRUCTURE
Other platforms punish you for growing your list. The more subscribers you add, the more you pay each month. Flodesk is different.
For a single monthly fee, you get unlimited subscribers and access to all features. And they are enabling members of their private beta (like me) to offer you 50% off your Flodesk subscription. Y’all that is an amazing deal.
Before Flodesk, I was paying 10 times that every month to use ConvertKit.
I love that this platform doesn’t raise your monthly fee as you grow your list. That is a pricing structure that I can get behind.
FOUR: ZAPIER INTEGRATION
The minute Flodesk integrated with Zapier all bets were off. For those who aren’t familiar: Zapier is an automation tool that connects over 1,500+ web apps instantly. Now that Flodesk and Zapier are natively integrated, it is even easier to grow your email list, amplify your marketing efforts, and increase your sales by leveraging simple to use integrations.
Through Zapier, you can integrate Flodesk with platforms like: Shopify, Woocommerce, WebinarJam, Crowdcast, HoneyBook, Slack, TypeForm, Asana, Trello, and much more.
BONUS: ADD YOUR INSTAGRAM FEED
Oh, and for a time saving hack, you can easily pull your Instagram feed right into your email! It gets updated automatically and keeps your welcome sequence super relevant by pulling your latest content right into the email. Using this feature to leverage my existing Instagram content is becoming one of my favorite productivity hacks when it comes to email marketing.
I also invite you to subscribe to my newsletter to see these emails in action. I send a weekly email that’s packed with stories, business tips, doodles, and industry happenings.
Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links and I would love if you decided to use them. Affiliate links + referrals programs help educators like me to fund the free content that we provide on our blogs.
To take advantage of my referral offering, use the code NATALIE at checkout!
Hey Nat! How’s the tagging for subscribers compared to Convertkit? I’m a huge CK fan because of how I can organize my list- but Flodesk has a lot of great features that have me . How’s the experience after opt-in?
This is one of the areas I love the most! You organize your list with Segments, and you can Segment manually (say, importing your ConvertKit list) or automatically (subscribed to Lead Magnet). Tagging is done by their system so you can have more color on each subscriber and it makes it so much easier, for example, in my CRM view I can see what device a subscriber prefers and even add custom fields like last time we spoke, phone number, and so on.
This looks so awesome! Does it connect with WordPress or anything to do automated new blog post emails or is it just for single blasts?
I’d like to try out a trial but I have a couple of questions for them and can’t find an email ANYWHERE. Do you happen to know how to contact them?
I have their CEO on speed dial! 😉 They are the best. Connecting you via email.
Hi Natalie!
I just found you and subscribed to your newsletter. Looking forward to learning from you and the community you’ve created.
I was looking for your Flodesk discount code so I can sign up but didn’t see it in your article.
Thank you for your review of Flodesk- I was about to spend crazy money on another program but God placed this in front of me instead. Thank you!!!
Here ya go: https://flodesk.com/c/NATALIE — I hope you love it!
[…] few days later, Natalie dropped a blog post about switching email marketing platforms from ConvertKit to a new service she had been beta testing, […]
AHHH I’m SOLD– BUT, I need an integration with Thinkific before I can make the switch. Any idea on when that feature would be available?? DYING to switch now!! Also, how’s the customer service?? I have a free trial but don’t see where I can contact support or chat like Convertkit ;/
Hm, I know they have a few big integrations in the pipeline. I’m not certain if/when Thinkerific is on the list, but you can always reach out to their team to find out!
Hello 🙂 So, is that discount for just one month, or a lifetime? I’m not quite in the market yet for a paid email marketing system, but I’ve been looking around for cheap options so I have an idea down the road.
This is best part: LIFETIME. As long as you keep your account active and use the code NATALIE – you’ll get 50% off your subscription. Yayyy!
Hi, Natalie – I signed up through you and have already been emailing Martha! Am really excited. Anyway, I have CK and my host (is that what it is called?) is GoDaddy. Can I keep my ConvertKit account alive AND make my Flodesk account live? I’m not sure I can do the verification on FD and keep CK alive. GoDaddy was ZERO help. Thanks for this!
Woohoo! Martha and the devs should be able to best answer this for you. I made the official switch from Convertkit so I no longer use their platform at all. (Excited to have you in the Flodesk family!)
What service do you use to process payments? I am currently an Infusionsoft user and would love to kick it to the side for something easier.
I run most of my payments through the HoneyBook platform (I’m primarily a service based business). For shop items, I currently use Shopify as well. There are a ton of payment processing options out there and you may be able to get an even better rate than what you’re getting through Infusionsoft.
[…] Franke Hayes  answered a discussion in the Flodesk Facebook group […]
Thank you for sharing this Natalie- I too had gotten to the point where “I didn’t have the ability to bring them up to my high standards. I felt overwhelmed and therefore put email marketing on the back burner.”
After trying out Flodesk for 30 minutes I’m making the switch!
Love love love flodesk!
Hi! I manage several newsletters and want to have them all in 1 place like Flodesk. Is that possible?
Absolutely! You will need separate accounts for each individual domain.
Hey there!
I’m interested in trying Flodesk but am wondering what the inbox deliverability rates are like?
Do you have any insight on that?
Mine have been higher with Flodesk than they were before (averaging about 30% open rate to a list of over 15,000).
Hi Natalie,
I’m confused by this reply to Lisa’s question. You said, “Mine have been higher with Convertkit than they were before (averaging about 30% open rate to a list of over 15,000).”
Lisa was asking about Flodesk’s deliverability. Was it a typo where you put CK, or do you not have deliverability information regarding Flodesk?
Also, did I see correctly? You can only have one domain per account?
Yes! That’s a typo – fixing now. My rates are higher with Flodesk and still remain higher about a year later. I hope that is helpful.
Any possibility they let us use their addy like ConvertKit does?
Their addy? Explain! 🙂
excellent
Hi Natalie! Does Flodesk work with Squarespace sites? Thanks!
Yes! It does!
Does this feature work with Squarespace?
Yes! There are a ton of Squarespace users who use Flodesk as well.
[…] I first looked into making the switch to Flodesk, I wasn’t sure if the workflow features would be as powerful as the options I had at ConvertKit. […]
Does it have a forms feature like MailerLite?
Yes! Forms and the ability to create beautiful landing pages.
[…] It’s loved and used by creatives such as Jenna Kutcher and Natalie Franke. […]
[…] provides a lot of flexibility for bloggers. That’s why many people have decided to make the switch. Firstly, it’s designed for people who learn better with easy visuals and simple UX design. […]
Just wonderful