Why I Won’t Use Any Email Marketing Unless It’s Flodesk

I’ve been using Flodesk for almost 5 years and I’ll never use another email marketing platform. 

I’ve done the Mailchimp and Converkit thing, both of which are expensive and not always user-friendly. As a blogger / small business owner, I need an affordable email marketing program that’s also cute and matches my aesthetics.

So, when Flodesk got on my radar back in 2019, I was super intrigued about these new features it supposedly has, and investigated.

If you’re considering switching to Flodesk, keep reading for my honest opinions about this company, what they do well, what they can work on and, basically everything you need to know! Because spoiler alert: Flodesk is worth it!! 

Everything To Know About This Email Marketing Tool After 5 Years Of Use

Ok, I’m going to spoil it: I’m a big Flodesk fan and I’m really happy I switched all those years ago.

I’ll tell you all the amazing things I love about them in this post. That being said, there are some annoying things I think they still have to work out which I will go over so you can be in the know. But first…

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Why I Switched To Flodesk In The First Place

AKA The Struggle Flodesk vs Mailchimp vs Convertkit

We’ll talk about the good stuff first and the bad stuff second at the bottom of this post. So, why did I want to switch email marketing software in the first place?

I had my email list on Mailchimp for years but last year I decided to up my email marketing game and switched to Converkit after a friend’s recommendations.

I do think Converkit really nails automation flows, and I was keen on building out awesome flows to churn evergreen traffic and affiliate sales.

But dang, are Converkit emails UGLY! I was fed up with the lack of customer service on top of super high prices (I was paying close to $100 a month at one point, just for an email service! Not at all a practical price for small business owners.) So again, I was on the hunt for new email marketing services. 

So I switched back to Mailchimp. Ahhh, it’s been a wild ride for me.

I was doing ok for a while.  I had a paid plan but so many of my contacts were old or not active, so I deleted a bunch to reduce my list size, with the intent of upgrading to the paid plan again once I grew my new list to a point where it made sense to pay.

But then, I suddenly realized that my Mailchimp account wouldn’t let me schedule email campaigns anymore.

Apparently, as a free user, I was stripped of the ability to schedule emails! No way was I manually logging in each Friday morning to hit “send” when I should be able to schedule it after I create it. The larger your list is, the more you get charged with Mailchimp. They basically punish you for growing your list in that sense. 

When realized I couldn’t schedule out emails anymore on the free plan, it was time to find a new email service. They already were bothering me so I said F THAT SHIT Mailchimp and that day signed up for Flodesk.

That was February 2019. But it took me weeks to actually send out an email. It wasn’t until I had dinner with a friend who suddenly blurted out “have you tried Flodesk? My open rate doubled when I switched! I couldn’t believe it!” I went home that night, started designing my templates and haven’t looked back.

My favorite things about Flodesk email are that they are PRETTY emails! Like, so so pretty. But also, they have great open rates. I was really worried that the pretty emails would cause bounces or spam sends but that’s not the case.

Flodesk has merged the power of Converkit with the UX of Mailchimp, but all at an affordable price. 

I still need to finish designing my first welcome sequence. I’m writing this in the middle of Q4 which is the busiest time of year for our blog, so I’m drowning in Christmas campaigns but I have a map all written out and halfway complete. That’s the second thing I really love about Flodesk: their automation are just as good Converkit’s, but WAY EASIER to use.

New Things Are Always Happening At Flodesk

One thing I really appreciate about Flodesk is they are constantly working on their product and giving us users updates we ACTUALLY want. They do actually listen to use and make sure product better with our feedback! 

Flodesk is constantly adding on new features to make its platform better. They just launched a way for subscribers to opt into different workflows or tags with a toggle button. They also recently launched Link Click Track and Checkouts.

A new feature I also love is their timer and polls – you can use polls to have people self segment themselves, or help you learn more data about your subscribers. 

The timer is perfect if you sell offers. In fact, I just made an email sequence for my Whimsy Homes Airbnb and used the timer feature to help drive that sense of urgency for my subscribers on our Black Friday discount. 

I Love Flodesk Landing Pages

Another fun perk of Flodesk is their landing pages, which I have used in the past for mini-campaigns. For instance, last year I did a Happiness Challenge with my social media followers and built a landing page to use on Instagram Stories to help drive new email addresses and subs. 

Yes, other email service providers do offer landing pages but again, Flodesk is just so pretty it fits my brand standards. 

Flodesk Checkout Is A Handy New Feature

Due to popular demand, Flodesk now offers a checkout feature! Their colorful, engaging templates are optimized for selling and delivering digitally in just a few clicks.

If you sell courses, download, online products or other things like tours or services, this is such a great asset to streamline checkouts with your email list. I don’t have a proper Flodesk checkout review since I don’t use it for myself but I hear great things on the Facebook group! 

Template Sharing Is A Game Changer

One of my favorite new features at Flodesk is their Template sharing feature. Now, you can make email or forms and share them as a template! 

This is such a smart move if you sell digital products, such as courses. I’m working on building my first course and will be using free email templates as a lead gen. I can easily share a link for potential customers to download and, of course, capture their email to start a tripwire. 

Try the template sharing feature here!  This is my weekly blog newsletter template with a 30% open rate.

Flodesk Can Integrate With Mediavine Grow

If you are a blogger like I am, you know how important banner ad sites like Mediavine are for income. I’ve been on Mediavine since 2018 and it’s how I make the bulk of my income blogging. Using Grow to drive email subscribers and authenticate traffic is so important, and finally after years of requesting, Flodesk can finally work with Grow!

Flodeks Is A Female Founded Company And Really Kind People

I get to say that since I’ve met Martha and Rebecca in real life! I was invited to Flodesk’s first partner retreat in Lisbon this summer and had a blast learning more about the product, meeting other high power users, and meeting the team. 

This company is full of genuine people who really care about supporting small businesses, especially as many small internet based businesses are female led. If you want to use a product that is built by people who really care, this is the company to use. 

The New Link In Bio Feature Is Elite

Something that threw me for a curve ball but I actually really love is the new Flodesk Link In Bio. There’s a million link in bio companies out there, but the bonus of using Flodesk’s feature is the integrated form opt-in at the top. 

This makes it so much easier to capture leads if you have a really good lead gen, thus increasing your revenue and clicks. 

I do hope to see more updates on this feature in the future. I would love to see a grid feature like Metricool has so I can link images people see on Instagram to specific blog posts or offers. But for a new feature this is a great addition to the line up. 

What I DON’T Like About Flodesk

Overall, I’m happy with Flodesk but there are some kinks that still need to get sorted out. I’ve worked at startups in the past and I totally recognize they are a young company and are probably constantly updating their product. 

The biggest annoyance I have is within their emails there are sometimes glitches. Like, a feature won’t load correctly until I refresh the page or things load really, really slowly so it takes a long time to build forms. This has gotten much MUCH better over the years, but the form will still sometimes not save on me. 

My other pet peeve is the way they label some functions. For instance, I had scheduled an email and wanted to make a quick edit. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how to pause the email and edit it. Upon clicking the “…” in the top corner, I didn’t see and “edit” tab or a “pause tab”. 

I did reach out to customer service about my issue via their website and they got back to me within 2 hours so I was really impressed. Apparently, to edit my email, I had to press the button “cancel” which I think I makes for a confusing user experience, but I’m pretty sure they’ll smooth those things out soon. 

All in all, I was really impressed by an increase of 12% open rate on my first email after switching to Flodesk years ago, the quick customer service, the price point and the pretty emails along with easy to use automations. I think I’ll be a customer for the foreseeable future.

Pros And Cons Of Flodesk Email Marketing

Pros

• Pretty emails and design
• Not caps on subscribers
• New features added all the time
• Great customer support
• Affordable Flodesk pricing
• Connects with Mediavine Grow

Cons

• Still new and working out kinks
• Can’t connect with Manychat
• Workflow tags aren’t as easy to use as Convertkit
• No way to have team members on a Flodesk login 

If you’re a blogger or small business, I highly recommend you use Flodesk!

My ultimate thought after using Flodesk for years is they’re awesome and I’m willing to wait out any Flodesk problems. They don’t have a 7 day free trial, but your email marketing strategy is really important and worth the low price of $19 a month (that’s like, a pair of shoes from Target or a glass of wine at happy hour. You got this!) 

Have you switched to Flodesk? Or, maybe you’re on something else? I’d love to hear your opinions below! If you have questions, you can also put them below or DM me on Instagram @thewhimsysoul and I’ll be happy to help. 

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