Investing in ConvertKit is advisable if you're a blogger and e-commerce marketer looking to promote your products using email.
Email marketing is an incredible tool and you can get a much better ROI than social media. Once it is mastered, you can expect a high return for every dollar invested. For example, a study by Experian shows that email marketing had a $44 return for every dollar invested.
Do you want to build a relationship with your customers? Then you should have a list. Email-based marketing can be off-putting in this day and age, but it’s not marketing. Just think of it as writing to a friend.
Email marketing is a powerful tool for growing your business online. You can share your stories with customers all while offering them valuable services or products that you use all while building your business.
There are many popular email marketing platforms and tools that both bloggers and small businesses use, such as Aweber or MailChimp. Some bloggers and businesses use Infusionsoft for more advanced marketing. However, it is more complex and you will have to spend more for it.
Convertkit is a great tool for managing email subscribers and sending out emails, but it does not come with a lot of bells and whistles. If you are looking for a fancy editor or loads of options, there are other tools available.
What is ConvertKit?
ConvertKit is a relatively new email marketing platform specifically designed for bloggers. They have put together a product that is “easy and robust” for professional bloggers. It also targets YouTubers, course creators and podcasters.
You are able to capture the emails of visitors on your site, send emails to people who sign up to your list, manage subscribers, and you can create campaigns and send them to all of your subscribers.
ConvertKit Pricing
If you’re just getting started, one of the first things to consider is price.
ConvertKit’s free plan limits you in a few key areas. It allows you to send unlimited emails to up to 1,000 recipients per month, but it doesn’t include autoresponders or segmentation.
Like most modern email marketing services, ConvertKit has two paid plans. Its cheapest plan, called Creator, costs $29 per month and is only for up to 1,000 subscribers. It doesn’t include reporting tools, either. The Creator Pro is a full-featured plan that starts at $59 for up to 1,000 subscribers.
ConvertKit Support
The support you get fromConvertKit may be their very best feature!
ConvertKit offers a lot of support. They offer live chat and email support from 8 am to 8 pm EST Monday through Friday, and limited customer service during evenings and weekends.
The chat button is always visible.
ConvertKit has a robust, active online community who are always ready and willing to provide peer-to-peer support. You have access to a huge database of help documents. The database is accessible via a link at the top of the dashboard. The videos are also available at the top of each main feature page.
ConvertKit Functionality
While other tools may have similar functionality as ConvertKit, it is crucial to remember one key difference: You can get up and running quickly. You don’t need to spend days mastering the tool because it’s so easy-to-use.
Besides automation, ConvertKit users can send broadcast emails. These are one time emails that go out to every subscriber or just those who you have segmented.
Sending targeted broadcasts to customers who have shown interest in certain topics based on any links you have used in the past. This is a great way to avoid sending an email to subscribers who may not be interested in the content you’re sending.
In other words, it is more effective because it prevents you from sending emails to people who may unsubscribe or disapprove of email content.
Editing in ConvertKit is simple. They rely more on plain-text emails — which seem to be increasing in popularity. It’s an opinion that I share. I dislike overly styled emails. The emails you send should be perfectly crafted as though you're writing an email to a friend.
Just like you would in a conversation, try to engage your recipients and make them feel like you're talking to them instead of sending an impersonal email blast.
ConvertKit Automation And Sequences
Sequences are a series of emails that are sent automatically to specific subscribers (based on different criteria such as the type of subscribers). Personalization is one of the most important aspects of e-commerce and marketing.
By sending automated sequences to different subscribers, businesses can automatically personalize content and send the right message to the right person.
You can set up your email campaigns in advance and have them sent at precisely the time you want them to be sent.
Not only can you control which emails are sent, but you can even create reports and statistics on each email in the sequence so you can remove the worst performers and promote the ones that are most effective.
Combining Sequences with Automations can help you reach your ultimate goals. Sequences are triggered based on the actions of your subscribers. The most powerful part is that they can be triggered with other Sequences. There are five entry points for each Automation.
The good news is that if there are more than 5,000 subscribers on your list and you are with another company, they will help with the migration. I highly encourage you to take advantage of this service since it will save you time.
If you’re not yet familiar with ConvertKit and the power of automations, this page will be a great place to initiate your education: https://help.convertkit.com/en/articles/2502537-visual-automations-actions
Sending Broadcasts
A broadcast email is sent to multiple recipients at once. It's a one-time email, unlike a sequence. A weekly newsletter with news about your company is a fantastic use case for a broadcast.
How to use ConvertKit to send a broadcast
Sending a broadcast message is quite easy. Here's how to do it:
- Once you choose who to send to, you can select people that fit your criteria. You can filter by tags, segments, demographics, date of subscription and more.
- Create the content of your email. Choose the email template and set up an A/B test for your subject line.
- Make sure everything looks good and hit send. It's that simple! If you want to schedule the email for later, click on "Schedule for later" and pick a date and time.
Once you've sent an email, you can review your email analytics, such as open rate, click rate, unsubscribes, A/B test results and top links clicked.
You can also drill down into the exact subscribers and see each action and then tag them accordingly.
Selling Products And Services
With ConvertKit, you can easily set up products and services and sell them directly over email. You could sell a book, courses, coaching and even webinars.
You can track email subscribers’ purchases of these products or services on a dashboard and assign a monetary value to them. Also, you get paid via Stripe.
Targeted Promotions
Automated email marketing is a great way to keep communication with customers flowing smoothly. One of the most popular ways to do this is to send out targeted promotions and discounts. Whether it’s software you’re an affiliate for or discounts for some in-demand products, this is a way to ensure that all your customers receive the messages they need.
ConvertKit Creator Pro
It offers several useful features for people with larger lists, such as:
- Dedicated reports on the ConvertKit dashboard that show me which forms generate the most leads.
- An account at Sparkloop: this free service lets me give new subscribers a reward for referring their friends.
- Using custom audiences on Facebook for ad campaigns
- After sending a broadcast email with the wrong URL, this feature lets me change the URL.
You can add a virtual assistant to your team - Priority support for customers
Managing Your Subscribers
ConvertKit offers a convenient dashboard that lets you see your total subscribers, your new subscribers, purchases, and more.
Subscribers can also be tagged and added into different segments. You will then be able to send more relevant emails to the right types of subscribers, maximize reader engagement, and decrease unsubscribe rates.
Additional features in the subscribers section:
- Add or remove multiple subscribers manually to a sequence
- Export subscribers
- Unsubscribe them
ConvertKit Pros & Cons
Pros
Cons
ConvertKit Review: What’s The Verdict?
ConvertKit has helped us greatly over the years and we continue to recommend it to both individual creators and businesses that demand powerful automation.
The popularity of ConvertKit is really easy to understand. Everything is very simple, just like it should be – especially if you don’t want to waste your time on the technical aspects and would rather focus on producing a lot of content for your customers or run your business.
ConvertKit's email platform lets you sell all sorts of stuff via email, including ebooks, courses, coaching, and webinars.
