Flodesk Email Marketing is all the rage right now for entrepreneurs who want a more visually appealing email marketing service.
But is Flodesk for you?
I’ve been doing email marketing for clients for years and used many different platforms for my clients so today I am going to give you a rundown of what I like about Flodesk, what I don’t like, and hopefully help you decided before you spend too much time going down rabbit holes trying multiple platforms on your own.
What is email marketing?
We need to do a quick overview of what email marketing is for those who may not be familiar with it. Email marketing is a mass/bulk emailing system that businesses can use to send marketing emails to subscribers in a quick and legal way. Most regular email services (GSuite, outlook, etc.) you cannot send bulk emails to people with and if you do, your accounts may be shut down before you know it. So if you want to market to clients, do it the right way via an email marketing platform of your choice. By doing so you are covering all the legal aspects needed to send bulk email like having people subscribe and be able to unsubscribe from your emails in a hurry.
All email marketing services let you:
- Bulk email subscribers
- Manage subscriber preferences
- Let subscribers auto remove themselves from your list
- Include certain data about your company required by law
So how is Flodesk different?
Design
Flodesk is a very much about upgrading the look of your emails and even some of the function. If you have been struggling to get a look you love with email marketing platforms like Mailchimp or Constant Contact, then Flodesk may be the alternative you didn’t know was possible.
When it comes to design on Flodesk vs the other email marketing platforms, you have many more design layouts and variation possible than you do using the standard Mailchimp or Constant Contact. The variety of fonts is increased. Button styles are easy to change and update and one of our favorite things is you can a variety of layouts to your email in minutes rather than having to custom code to get a similar look with the other guys.
Simply change colors, upload images, customize your fonts and you have a beautiful email set and ready to go. You get beautifully designed emails without having to custom code to get them that way! Huge bonus for entrepreneurs who aren’t website developers.
Another big difference between Flodesk and the other email marketing platforms out there is the number of subscribers allowed.
Rather than paying based on a tier system like you get with Constant Contact and Mailchimp, with Flodesk your price never goes up just because you get more subscribers on your list! Which is great but it also means you can’t work your way into the Flodesk system either, you are paying from day 1 of using it at a pretty hefty price.
At currently $418/year this is not your entry level email marketing software.
Is it worth it if you want better looking emails? Absolutely but you need to be committed to growing your email list quickly to make it worth the increase.
As a comparison, you can use Mailchimp for free up to 2000 subscribers or until you want to start running automations (though there are ways around this). Then you will start paying around $30/month to have 2500 Subscribers.
Adding freebie attachments with Flodesk is beyond easy!
Unlike other platforms where you may have to self host a file, Flodesk has made making sure only subscribers get freebies beyond simple! Simply add a button to your email and customize the wording and color. Then click on the button and click the link tab and you have the option to upload or connect a URL. So simple and easy to do. The number of steps to create is greatly reduced over other platforms.
Sending is flawless
We’ve used this for welcome emails for clients and sent other emails and it is super simple to send and from our experience they land in your inbox not junk mail which can be a downside of some email marketing softwares.
Automations are included
In Flodesk they are called workflows but the concept is simply creating automation steps to nurture new subscribers and old with preset email sequences. You could also setup launch sequences for course/program businesses very easily and turn them off and on depending on the season for selling.
With other email marketing providers sometimes full blown automations like Flodesk has are an extra fee/month. With Flodesk you get everything they have to offer at one price, no hidden fees or upgrades needed.
The downside is it isn’t super easy to connect your Flodesk to your website without some additional coding changes. Click here to learn how to install a Flodesk form on your WordPress website.
So all things considered, if you have the budget to do so we would highly recommend Flodesk for the business who want:
- Better design styling
- Automations built in and not an up charge
- Unlimited subscribers from the beginning
We don’t recommend Flodesk if:
- You have a small budget and can’t afford at least $38/month for your email marketing software
- You are okay with plain emails
- You don’t expect to use your email marketing software all the time
- You really just want to start collecting emails but don’t plan to email much if at all
If the latter is you, instead spend those marketing dollars on brand awareness not email marketing software you aren’t using – at least that is OUR opinion on the matter!
