Full Review of ConvertKit – The Perfect Email Marketing & Automation Tool

Email marketing has been declared dead many times. But it remains an effective, efficient medium for delivering a message to your target customers. A study performed by Capterra found that $1 invested in email marketing returns an average of more than $44. That is an excellent reason for you to find the best email marketing software possible. If you use it well, it can be the most vital tool you use to build relationships that result in sales.

An excellent email service comes with a few prerequisites: the ability to create drip campaigns, collect leads via forms and send email blasts. Ideally, it will also keep a clean database of your subscribers and give you reliable email deliverability. An email marketing platform called ConvertKit meets all of those criteria.

The platform was created for any type of business that depends on building an audience. Most email marketing software available only has one feature: It sends out emails. For any other capability, it has to be integrated with other software such as Leadpages and Click Funnels. But ConvertKit wraps all of those advanced features up into one tightly bound, easy to use package – especially for users who are experienced with email marketing services.

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Introduction to ConvertKit

To start using ConvertKit, you just have to sign up – they offer a free 14-day trial. Once you have signed up, you can login to the platform dashboard. The user interface, while having extensive functionality, is easy to use. You are immediately provided with three pre-made forms and four pre-made landing pages.

All of the templates are customizable; the headlines, colors and images can all be changed and swapped out. The one drawback is that elements within the template cannot be moved around. Email marketers searching for a more customizable email template should integrate external tools such as Leadpages or Thrive Leads.

The automation features offered by ConvertKit are similar to those of InfusionSoft. However, ConvertKit has two advantages: It is more affordable, and while InfusionSoft has a difficult learning curve, ConvertKit can be learned in a day.

The email marketing platform is perfect for sending email blasts to announce a webinar you are creating, promoting a product or service, or giving information to users via a newsletter. The first step towards starting a broadcast is choosing the type of subscribers who will receive the email.

Here, ConvertKit is a departure from its competitor email marketing services, such as Aweber. Most other services combine all of a user’s subscribers into a single gigantic account list. ConvertKit, however, gives its users the ability to separate subscribers into various lists, allowing them to be accurately categorized and divided.

For example, the user is able to segregate leads based on their subscription to certain Sequences (a “Sequence” is how ConvertKit refers to autoresponder series), Tags, Forms, or Dates. Or, if they want to bring cold leads back on board, they can use a filter preset that automatically shows only subscribers who have not opened or replied. Finally, since ConvertKit has incorporated many major shopping carts (including Shopify, Gumroad and SamCart), you can also delineate between buyers and non-buyers among your subscribers.

Users should be careful to send the first email to a smaller list of subscribers who they are sure are interested in the information they will receive; this can be verified by including a double opt-in when email addresses are required. Only sending emails that the user expects or finds value in helps decrease the chances of receiving dreaded spam complaints or unsubscribes.

After delineating which subscribers will receive the email, it is time to get down to writing and designing. Unfortunately, ConvertKit lacks drag-and-drop features, which means that designing an email newsletter can take some time. However, if you are familiar with HTML – or even just want a simple text email – email creation is still easy. 

Personalizing Emails with Tags

One of the ways ConvertKit helps you identify the users in your subscription database and categorize them is by using Tags that indicate their interests. If your subscriber lists are carefully curated with Tags, you can easily send different emails based on each Tag. There is a little bit of a learning curve here, as it uses a programming-esque syntax; however, once learned, it is a powerful tool.

For example, imagine you want to give a 30 percent discount to customers who regularly use your product; after all, you want them to reward them for being loyal to your brand. New or prospective members, however, should only receive a 10 percent discount. Provided the accounts are tagged correctly, when you send the email your faithful customers will see the email that offers a 30 percent discount, while all other customers will receive an email that offers a 10 percent discount.

ConvertKit’s integration with Zapier allows you to integrate email blasts with the shopping cart of your choice. Once you have integrated the shopping cart, an additional trigger is activated called “Purchases a product.” The trigger allows you to tag users based on the name of the product they bought, helping you up-sell and cross-sell to subscribers.

Targeting Unopened Email Recipients

It is common for a significant portion of subscribers not to open emails from email blasts. There are many reasons for this: It may have been filtered out of their inbox, it may have gone to their Promotions tab in Gmail, your email heading may not have been titillating enough, or maybe your subscribers were just plain too busy to read your email.

Thankfully, ConvertKit has an easy, robust solution for this problem. A feature in the platform gives you the ability to retarget any recipients who did not open your email the first time you sent it. To use this ability, click on any previous email blast you have sent. The platform will display a page of analytics that includes a button called “Resend to Unopens.” Click on the button to proceed with the workflow that targets subscribers who did not open the email.

This single feature is worth a ConvertKit subscription – it is almost nonexistent in any other email marketing service on the market, and it can double or triple your email opens and clickthrough rates.

Unique Double-Opt-In Feature

The Lead magnet double opt-in feature ConvertKit uses allows you to gather a more dedicated subscriber base. ConvertKit is able to immediately confirm subscribers’ requests as soon as they click download to receive their lead magnet. As a result, you get a verified, opted-in subscriber, and you don’t lose subscribers who would not click on the link in the verification email.

Industry-Leading Email Automation

Another feature unique to ConvertKit is its email automation. Automation gives you the capability to break your list of subscribers down into groups of people with the same interests. Then, you can automatically send series of ultra-targeted emails specifically to those small groups of people.

ConvertKit Pricing

Due to its simplicity and expansive feature set, ConvertKit is priced moderately higher than most other email marketing service providers. Pricing begins at $29 a month, which allows you to send unlimited emails to up to 1,000 subscribers. For greater than 1,000 but less than 3,000 subscribers, the cost is $49 a month. If you have more than 3,000 but less than 5,000 subscribers, ConvertKit is price at $79 a month. If you have more than 5,000 subscribers, you should contact the ConvertKit team for a price that is customized to your needs.If you use Aweber or MailChimp, each entry on every list is counted as a subscriber. As a result, you can be double- or triple-billed for the same subscriber. On ConvertKit, however, subscribers can be placed on as many lists as you like and still count as a single entry on your plan.

There is currently a 14-day trial for ConvertKit. In addition, they offer a full 30-day money back guarantee. If you are unsatisfied with the software at any time within the first 30 days of using it, they will send a full refund of your money, no questions asked.

ConvertKit vs other Email Marketing Services

ConvertKit delivers far more than its price tag, easily outperforming the other service providers in its space. Other providers, such as MailChimp, have extensive limitations such as only allowing users a single opt-in form for each list. That means adding any more than one content upgrade to your site is difficult; with ConvertKit, however, it is perfectly simple.

The automation capabilities provided by ConvertKit are where it really shines above all of the other service providers. Combine those with the visual automation editor, and the software easily takes one of the top places in the market. What really seals the deal, however, is the ease of use for the service. The platform features a simple, distraction-free interface that makes its use simple, even for inexperienced users.

Finally, the flexibility provided by the platform is unparalleled. Users can be created for everything from simple two-step workflows to Byzantine, complicated ones.

Pros of ConvertKit

• ConvertKit is specifically designed for businesses that need to build audiences.
• You are given templates for three forms and four landing pages for free as soon as you sign up.
• The template headlines, colors and images are easily customizable.
• Subscribers can be broken down into different lists, giving flexibility for sending targeted message.
• Available lists include divisions based on Sequences, Tags, Forms or Dates.
• ConvertKit has incorporated many major shopping carts (including Shopify, Gumroad and SamCart), allowing users to delineate between buyers and non-buyers among your subscribers.
• Emails can be sent to small lists, increasing the chance that the user expects or finds value in the email and decreasing the chances of the sender receiving dreaded spam complaints or unsubscribes.
• ConvertKit gives you the ability to retarget any recipients who did not open your email the first time you sent it.

Cons of ConvertKit

• ConvertKit costs more than most other email services providers on the market.
• The lack of drag-and-drop functionality makes learning the interface a little difficult for new users

Is ConvertKit Right For You?

ConvertKit is a best-in-class email marketing tool. It provides all of the features you need to effectively and efficiently send emails to your subscriber lists, converting them into buyers. The platform provides an easy-to-use user interface that makes creating emails easy.

While ConvertKit is not the least expensive option on the market, it makes up for it with its rich feature-set. ConvertKit is the professional email service provider of choice, even for small business owners. It will help you to grow your subscriber list and accurately target them with emails, increasing your revenue.

Try ConvertKit Free for 14 Days