Choosing the best email marketing platform for your business will depend on your goals and your audience. Below are several email marketing platforms for different types of business.
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Tailoring Messages For Your Audience
After you determine your target audience, you need to think about whether or not your audience has diverse interests. If your business focuses on more than one topic, you will likely need to keep track of subscribers based on their interests. Some businesses will benefit from complex email marketing platforms that allow for interest-based segmentation.
There are several factors you’ll need to consider when choosing an email marketing platform:
- Design features available (the email editor may require coding)
- The cost of the platform (some platforms increase monthly costs as your list grows)
- Automations available (you may wish to create funnels, schedule a month of emails ahead of time, or automatically send a welcome email when someone subscribes)
- The progression of your business (if your business is growing slowly, you might want to consider a low-cost option at first)
Different email marketing platforms offer different methods of keeping track of your audience within the software.
Convertkit
Convertkit allows businesses to tag subscribers when they sign up for a form. This information is useful because it allows businesses to write different newsletters tailored to different audiences within their niche.
For example, if one subscriber signs up for a blogging guide and another subscriber signs up for a design course, businesses can set up different automated email campaigns for bloggers and designers who sign up to the list.
Convertkit also allows businesses to customize opt-in forms for list builders such as free downloads, offers, discounts, or resource libraries. Although it’s best to create opt-in offers based on audience research, this can also be used to test new products and ideas. For example, if you are interested in creating a product try the topic out with an email freebie.
If no one signs up, you might need to adjust your message and complete further research before developing your product.
Convertkit offers the option to customize your emails with html code or use one of the predesigned options available in the email template library.
Considerations
Convertkit is free for the first 1,000 subscribers. As your list increases, so does the cost of using the platform. If you have a large list, you can end up paying over $1,000 each month to maintain it. This is one of the reasons why people remove inactive subscribers. As a creator, you are not only offering free gifts for subscribers and plenty of free content, but you pay for each place a subscriber has on your list so it’s important to consider this.
If you’re thinking about switching, you can use Convertkit’s pricing tool to estimate the cost of your list. On the pricing page, you can scroll down and use the “expand full feature comparison” option to estimate the cost based on your current number of subscribers.
Convertkit also uses an html email editor so it’s easy to add code or create your own templates. Having a plan text email can increase your deliverability rates as well, so it’s important to consider.
Flodesk
Flodesk is another email marketing platform designed to help businesses create well-designed email opt-ins quickly. The drag and drop editor makes it really easy to customize your emails. The service offers a template library and a simple tagging system for keeping track of subscribers.
Where Convertkit offers html-based design, FloDesk offers a drag and drop editor. Buttons and graphics are provided to increase sales and conversions. Below is a screenshot of some emails I designed within the platform.
All of the email platforms on this list have different strengths, but Flodesk is my personal favorite. I love how easy it is to design emails, schedule content, and create automations. The drag and drop design makes it really easily put together emails showcasing free offers for your subscribers. The platform also allows you to verify your email to improve your open and delivery rates.
You can try Flodesk with a 30-day free trial and get 50% off for an entire year with my affiliate link or use the code cleanstyle at checkout. No matter how many subscribers you have, you’ll pay a flat rate which is one of the amazing things about Flodesk. They won’t increase your monthly payments as your subscribers increase so your payments are predictable.
Considerations
Flodesk will require an automation tool like Zapier to integrate with some software platforms on your website so you’ll need to evaluate the software on your blog to make sure you can use it without any issues. You can use Zapier so for almost any integration, but this means you’ll need to pay for Zapier depending on the number of automations you need for your business to run smoothly.
MailChimp
I’ve tried MailChimp and, although I use Flodesk, this is an amazing option for new bloggers. Your list is free for up to 2,000 subscribers. MailChimp allows you to segment your list and schedule emails ahead of time.
I’ve been testing out MailChimp for a specific campaign, and the platform allows you to create an audience with different tags. The system is a little different than ConvertKit and Flodesk, but it’s very effective and I like how the platform is focused on the customer journey as well as the details.
Other Platforms
There are many other email platforms to explore if you need different features for your business. Whether you’re looking for a drag and drop email system, more customization, or social media scheduling there are plenty of options below:
Maintaining Your Email List
General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) require that subscribers provide consent before receiving newsletters. It’s best to consult with a lawyer to ensure you are providing proper disclosures and obtaining the different kinds of consent for emails.
Affiliate marketing is also important to consider. If you are selling products, each company will have guidelines about where it is acceptable to use affiliate links and some companies do not allow links in emails, pdfs, or anywhere the links can be downloaded.
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