Flodesk Review: Why I Made the Switch From ConvertKit

Business, Creative Entrepreneurs, Photographers, Tips & Tricks, Wedding Professionals

Flodesk is the new kid on the block you’ve been hearing all about, but is it worth making the switch? After months of using the platform, I can confidently say it’s the best of all worlds.

Not only is Flodesk a beautifully intuitive platform for designers and creatives, but it’s also improved my email stats. Because, let’s face it, our emails can’t just be pretty. They need to be powerful and effective too!

Since making the switch from ConvertKit to Flodesk, I’ve seen my email deliverability increase to 99-100% each month. This means my emails aren’t bouncing from people’s inboxes which can hurt your deliverability and engagement rates.

I’ve also had open rates of 40-50% when the average open rate for marketers is around 14.56% right now. I like those numbers!

I’m also getting more replies from my email subscribers than I did with ConvertKit, probably because my designs and content give them more to talk about. Since email engagement is incredibly important to me as a service provider, I couldn’t be happier.

Switching to Flodesk also financially made sense (or, should I say “cents”) for me.

It cut my email marketing expenses in half (and then some) because of Flodesk’s amazing beta pricing. Instead of offering their services for $38/month (which is still a steal), their lifetime subscription pricing is now at $19/month!

That means you can grow your email list to ANY size for 50% off their regular pricing forever.

Click here to start your Flodesk trial account to build your email list!

I’ll break down more reasons behind why I made the switch, but for now, let’s start with my perspective as a website designer.

 

 



Flodesk makes email marketing visual (finally!)

I would say Flodesk is a designer’s best friend, but really, it is the perfect email companion for any creative entrepreneur. As artists and creatives, we often think in a very visual way, so why shouldn’t our email marketing platform be visual too?

Flodesk makes it incredibly easy to design emails that reflect your visual branding without needing to touch the code. For non-techy creatives, this is a dream come true.

So, what kind of visual branding elements can you include in your emails then?

When you work with a brand designer, you’ll likely have a logo and submark. Including it in your emails will keep all of your marketing materials consistent from your emails to your website to your social media accounts.

You’ll also want to define a color palette for your brand, which you can set up in Flodesk under the “Brand preferences” tab in the main menu. You can include up to five brand colors. Once you save them, you’ll never have to hunt for your HEX color codes again!

 

After implementing your brand colors, choose signature fonts that create a cohesive look for your brand. From sans serif to script to serif fonts, you’ll be able to find on-brand fonts for your email typography.

Any patterns, illustrations, and textures will be the cherry on top! All of these visual brand elements can be easily implemented into your emails. It takes an initial time investment to get everything set up, but once you’ve completed your look, you can reuse these elements over and over again.

You can see how I used different elements of my visual brand in past Flodesk emails:

Example of an visual email I sent through Flodesk Second example of visual email sent through Flodesk

 



Flodesk doesn’t make you create emails from scratch

I can’t be the only one who gets intimidated from time to time when I see a blank page with a blinking cursor, right? 

While I like that there are infinite possibilities when creating a new email in Flodesk, it’s also nice to have the option to start with a pre-assembled template. Then you can make simple customizations from there!

Right now, there are nearly 30 email templates you can choose from, but the Flodesk team is always launching new templates. It almost feels like a Beyonce-style album drop every time they tell us to check our Flodesk accounts for the latest templates!

Here are a few of my favorites at the moment:

Example of Flodesk email layout 1 Example of a Flodesk email layout 2
 

   
Example of a Flodesk email layout 3 Example of a Flodesk email layout 4


With all of the different layout options, I’ve noticed that I tend to include visuals and links I never would have thought to add in my previous ConvertKit emails. It has helped me increase my click rate to 9% while inspiring way more subscribers to reach out and reply than ever before.

 



Flodesk gives you an unlimited list size for an unbeatable price

This is one of the Flodesk features that completely sold me! I love knowing that I can continue to grow my email list without having to worry about paying more to use the tool. 

I like leading with value and offering free downloadables to my email subscribers, but I didn’t want the growth to put me in an expensive pricing tier. I run a pretty lean business as a Showit website designer, so reducing my business expenses always feels like a win!

When I was using ConvertKit, I used to pay around $49/month for their tool. Now I have access to similar workflow and automated features with Flodesk while keeping my costs way down. It doesn’t hurt that it makes designing emails easier than ever, too!

If you sign up through my link or use the code “DIGITALGRACE”, you’ll only pay $19/month instead of their regular pricing at $38/month – that’s 50% off FOR LIFE! It was a no-brainer for me.

 

 



Flodesk integrates intuitively with your website

It comes as no surprise that selecting an email marketing platform that integrates well with websites was of the utmost importance to me.

When I build Showit websites for clients or make revisions to my own, I need to know that embedding an email sign-up form will feel like a seamless and painless process. Other email marketing platforms aren’t intuitive, making the process of embedding code feel clunky and confusing. 

Flodesk makes it easy to embed the necessary code on any website hosting platform with their step-by-step tutorials and instructions. You can do it in less than five minutes without having to call a designer or developer for help!

I also like how Flodesk’s email sign-up forms feel like they were built just for your website. They don’t stick out like a sore thumb. Instead, you can customize the fonts and colors of your form so it fits in beautifully with your website. You’re going to love it!

Here’s a preview of the different email sign-up forms you can customize for your website:

Flodesk Form Option 1
Pop-up option in Flodesk
Flodesk Form Option 2
Pop-up option in Flodesk
 

   
Flodesk Form Option 3
In-line form option in Flodesk
Flodesk Form Option 4
In-line form option in Flodesk

 



Flodesk transforms your automations with visual workflows

When 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. Since Flodesk is currently in beta, I decided to make the switch anyway, knowing they were focused on making updates to their workflows over time.

Imagine my surprise (and delight!) when I received an email a few weeks ago that announced that Flodesk added community-voted features to make their visual workflows much more powerful! They must have been reading my mind…

These new visual workflow features include: 

  • Triggers: You can trigger a workflow with more than one segment at a time.
  • Time Delays: You can choose a custom schedule to send emails inside your workflows.
  • Conditions: You can create a click-based automation inside your workflow when before, they only had segment-based automations (probably my favorite of the new updates!). 


Within the last month, Flodesk has also launched their new integration with Zapier! This allows you to create “zap” automations that connect Flodesk actions with some of your favorite tools, like Dropbox, Google Drive, Asana, Slack, and a lot more. Here’s a whole article to help you get started with Flodesk and Zapier

And, let’s remember for a second that Flodesk is STILL IN BETA… wow! They’ve done so much already for our beta community

Seeing all of the new features and updates gets me excited about the future of Flodesk.

I’m SO glad I took advantage of the special 50% off rate of $19/month. You can do by clicking here and using the code “DIGITALGRACE”!


See you inside the Flodesk Insiders community after you join us “Flosies”!


Why I Switched From ConvertKit to Flodesk

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