Convertkit

Convertkit is one of the most popular email marketing templates in the market. Even though the tool lacks some of the templates that are popular in the other email marketing services, the ease of use and flexibility more than makes up for it. If you think that fancy emails of course harm to your business, the manner in which the team at Convertkit handles everything will show you that you aren’t giving up on anything. The tool is way easier to use and extremely flexible in comparison to the other email marketing platforms in the market. In this article, you will get to learn some of the top features of Convertkit. You will discover that it is one of the best tools to use especially when you compare its features with the pricing.

What is Convertkit?

Convertkit is a robust email marketing tool that is specifically designed for online creators like consultants, freelancers, podcasters, video creators, bloggers, and any other business that wishes to build relationships with its target audience. Convertkit did not begin as an email marketing solution but as a Web App Challenge publicly that Barry Nathan announced on his blog on 31st December 2012.

The Web App earned 6000 dollars in six months that made the author launch it as an email marketing app in 2013. Nathan is a great listener who only creates software, live events, or software that makes users happy.

To prove this, the name of this company was rebranded to Seva some time back. However, after listening to the environment of online creators and their audience, the company name reverted back to Convertkit.it gives you the origin of the name Seva Convertkit. From this humble beginning, the Convertkit team grew more than 1.04 million dollars in the monthly net revenue with more than 19700 active clients.

Most of the online creators and marketers that you read and follow their blogs could be using Convertkit. Examples include Christie Inge, Neil Patel, Derek Halpern, Mariah Coz, Joanna Wiebe, and Pat Flynn among others.

Online creators switch to Convertkit for several reasons. Some email marketing tools in the market are more popular than Convertkit but there are so many people who are switching from them to Convertkit. Some of the reasons include:

The deliverability rate that Convertkit offers is much higher than the other online marketing tools. Deliverability is a measure of the number of subscribers who receive your mails as a fraction of the total number of subscribers to whom you send out the emails to. Convertkit recommends people to use basic designs and simple designs to prevent the emails from getting to the spam folder. It explains why Convertkit comes with a collection of simple email templates that aren’t heavy on graphics and images.

It is easy for creators to turn to Convertkit because most tools lack this functionality. With Convertkit, you can use the ‘subscriber’ page to tag subscribers. This is possible through Bulk actions when they click on links in sequences and broadcasts or inside the subscriber page. The objective is to drill down on the subscribers who have similar interests to help you send targeted messages and get results.

This is one of the reasons why so many people out there are switching to Convertkit. The ability to create emails that go out to subscribers automatically when you trigger certain actions is quite awesome. The visual builder of Convertkit will help you to set up rules and allow the app to work in a very simple manner.

The mission of Convertkit is assisting creators to earn a living online. Creators can be teachers, designers, chefs, podcasters, musicians, painters, poets, YouTubers, makers, authors, and bloggers. Creators do work that matters to earn a living online on Convertkit. As a creator, you have to do something that you love most. Convert kit is the best email marketing software for you if this mission aligns with your business ethics and culture.

How to Use Convertkit?

Convertkit is among the best email marketing tools in the market. The platform allows users to send out their email newsletters to so many people and allows your audience to sign up to your mailing list. You can also tag or segment your subscribers and only send your email to that group of users. However, so many people don’t know how to get started with Convertkit. You should have all these details at your fingertips including how to convert ist to EDT. You will discover that you will become a pro within no time. Here is an overview of this process;

Sign Up for a new Convertkit Account:

Convertkit offers different accounts depending on the number of emails that are on your list. You can get more details from the Convertkit pricing section. The challenge with this tool is that it does not have a free plan. Once you sign up, Convertkit will approve your request. The company tries to make sure that you are trustworthy and really have a website. Continue with the setup but don’t make any payment before you get the approval.

Set Up Account Information in Convertkit:

Go to the right top corner and then click on ‘Account.” You will be able to enter the name of your company, enter default from an email address, and manage your passwords among others. You require an email address from the website domain because free emails like Hotmail, Yahoo, or Gmail will not work due to the international spam laws. Also, you should enter your real address and you can face huge penalties if you are reported.

Set up a form:

You need to add a form for each signup possibility. For instance, if you need a pop up for the homepage, it will be your first form. The next one could be a signup form for the blog sidebar. The procedure for adding new forms and landing pages is straightforward. There is also a possibility of customizing your form more. Once you are comfortable with the look of your form, you need to save it. You can check out the Convertkit knowledge base for more information.

Add the Form to the Website:

It is not hard to embed a form especially if you create it through WordPress. You need to activate it and then set it up using the API key that is in your account settings. You can use the shortcode of the form to directly embed it where you would like it to be.

Add Segments and Tags:  

Tagging allows you to assign labels or tags to your subscribers. You can use these tags in tracking individual actions. For instance, you can tag those individuals that signed up for your online course. You will be able to send out an email to that category of subscribers only. Tagging can also be done on the basis of interests. Segments are good for creating a group of individuals that sign up through various forms or possess tags that you wish to combine. For example, you can have tags for every online course that you offered. From here, you can create a segment for all those who attended your online courses.

Import Your List:

This only applies if you already have a mail list already as you can import the emails. You can do that manually or in MailChimp like the email addresses that you collect after a workshop. The process is simple as long as you follow the set instructions. It does not matter whether you want to import from MailChimp or manually.

Send Your First Email:

In Convertkit, newsletters are referred to as ‘Broadcasts.’ It is not hard to create a new broadcast in Convertkit. You should choose the people that you wish to send the broadcast to. If it is a newsletter, it can likely be all the subscribers. With filters, you can exclude filters or only send them to individuals in a given group.

The next step is to create your email and convert it prefers sending out very simple emails. There are no fancy forms like the ones in MailChimp. You can customize the forms and add CSS and colors but simple standard templates work so well.

You can add links and images within the email with the aid of the toolbar at the top of the email. From here, the next thing is to schedule when you would like to send out the email by clicking the ‘schedule broadcast.’ From here, you will be ready to get started with Convertkit. There are other things that you need to learn like email png or convertkit affiliate. All these things will help you to create a successful campaign with Convertkit. The good thing is that the signup process is free. You will only pay once you sign up for a particular package. Let us now take some time and look at Convertkit’s pricing and features. It will help you to tell whether this tool is the best for your brand.

1. Convertkit Email Automations

One of the defining elements which make Convertkit stand out is the easy to use email automation. If you set up this automation properly, it will assist you to send targeted messages automatically to your subscribers when certain events or actions are met.

Convertkit has created powerful but simple automation that has unique workflows for growing your revenue and profits via email marketing. With automation, you can send targeted or timely offers or content to your subscribers through the creation of automated funnels.

To set up the automation, just head to the automation page in the tool. Click on the “New Automation” button that is on the right-hand side of the page. From here, use visual automation to add triggers and text to your automation.

Visual automation is the map that will show you what exactly happens to the subscribers who sign up, where they need to start, and the sequences to send to them depending on their interests. You can set up the automation to send specific emails to your customers and target audience depending on the actions that they take.

Behind the sequences of Convertkit, you may use conditions, actions, and events as the building blocks of successfully creating your automation emails. The events that trigger automation work so well as long as you set them well. Some triggers can be an individual who subscribes to your email list, or when someone buys your products.

The rules of automation work in different situations but there is a limitation on what it can do using the Visual Automations. The + button helps you to add multiple entry points and it supports up to 5 of them in automation.

The user interface of Convertkit is quite easy to use. Once you begin to use Automation to manage your email campaigns, you may use the tags in segmenting the subscribers at deeper levels. For instance, you can automatically tag subscribers if users click on the link within your body or open your welcome mail. The event, in turn, triggers particular events to take place like free trials of your software, subscribing to the online course, and many more.

2. Convertkit Landing Pages and Opt-In Forms

To drive your campaign and start to add subscribers to your list, Conversion kit offers a broad range of high-converting templates that you can choose from. With the form builder, styling your forms and creating pleasant opt-in forms is quite easy.

The web forms are mobile-responsive meaning they can work on your tablets, smartphones, and on all parts of your web page; the footer, above the fold, and even the sidebar. Make sure you use the form builder to set it up in the right manner. Even though this is not a drag and drop form builder, it is highly intuitive and you can learn how to use it on your landing page or website easily.

The good thing about Convertkit is that users can connect their forms to sequences because both of them are designed to work together. Convertkit landing pages and opt-in forms are among the best in the market. It is one of the main reasons that motivate people to start using this conversion kit.

3. Convertkit Integrations

Convertkit integrates with so many platforms like the affiliate management system and ThriveCart for the shopping cart. Convertkit affiliate comes into great play at this point. It also integrates with Teachable; a top online course platform. With Teachable, users can create and sell helpful online courses to their target audience beginning with the email subscribers.

Convertkit also supports the platforms for the landing page software, email verification and scheduling, analytics and tracking, Facebook ads, quizzes and surveys, and membership sites. If you realize that your favorite website platform is not directly interpretable, you can use Zapier to get access to hundreds of additional integrations in real-time. Integrating a platform will just take you a few simple clicks. Zapier will come in handy.

4. Convertkit Email Sequences

A Convertkit email sequence is a tool that allows users to send a series of timed and targeted emails to subscribers once they sign up or are added to your email list through other actions. In case you are running a virtual summit or promoting an online course, you will need an automated email sequence. Purposes like a welcome series will fit perfectly in your email sequences.

It is not a hard task to create your first sequence. You can also create multiple sequences and even schedule them. The challenge with the options in the sequences is that they are quite limited. It is better to set up things in the visual automation builder as this will give you more options.

5. Convertkit Subscribers

You will get to view all the information about every subscriber. The segment and tags that they belong to, how to move them from one tag or segment to another, and their status. Once you make a Convertkit login, you will be directed to the default subscriber page. You will view a list of the 30 most recently confirmed subscribers by default and the exact date they subscribed. It is very easy to track the growth of your subscriber in Convertkit. It is more intuitive than other email marketing tools. It puts the subscriber growth in front and at the center which is very great.

6. Convertkit Broadcast Emails

Broadcast emails are the emails that you send to all your subscriber’s lists at the same time or a specific segment of the entire list. Setting up things with Convertkit is very easy. You can preview your email in the inbox or browser. Sending a single email broadcast to all your subscribers is very easy. However, it is not very easy to add a filter group as it can confuse beginners. However, it is not hard to learn the process quickly.

7. Convertkit Segmentation

To create segmentation in Convertkit, you need to tag your subscribers and then group your tags together. You will basically be utilizing tags to organize people. The first thing you can do in Convertkit is audience segmentation. To segment subscribers, you should know where they are in their journey. When you have the right information about your subscribers, you will know the disposition, engagement, and knowledge that your subscribers have with the topic. It will help you determine the best products to recommend and the informative and educational content to prepare.

At the end of the day, you will segment your subscribers based on their behaviors, needs, and interests in the funnel. Your enterprise can also run on complete autopilot if the email sequence that you set up connects to visual automation. Segmenting subscribers in Convertkit is very easy for even the people who are new to email marketing automation.

8. Convertkit A/B Testing

A/B testing is a critical element in any email marketing campaign. If you don’t have this in place, you will not tell the subject lines that can generate the best results for your campaigns. In A/B split testing, you will be comparing two versions of one variable like the subject line.

When you test how subscribers respond to one variable against the other, you will know the subject line that you need to use. You will be looking for the subject lines that get the highest number of clicks. Convertkit allows you to test your email campaigns and establish the winning variant.

It is advisable to run the A/B tests if your email list has over 1000 subscribers. If the size of your list is 100 and you send out an email, you may get an open rate of less than 50%. You will end up with a biased winning subject line because you have a small number of recipients. The A/B testing of Convertkit is quite basic. You can split-test more than two variants on your email subject lines. However, the tool misses advanced testing functionalities even though the case is similar to the other email subscribers.

9. Convertkit Email Templates

The email templates that Convertkit offers are designed to help business owners to make more profits. This brand takes a firm stance that you should write your emails as simple as possible and don’t mess around with the heavy images, graphics, and codes. There are three default templates that Convertkit gives to the users.

The first one is what we refer to as the text-only and these templates are not just text only. You will get some simple CSS and HTML formatting to make your emails easy to read and nice when it lands to the inbox of your subscriber.

Once you choose an email template from the available collections, what you can do next is customizing it. The process is clear but you can always find the desired help from the company team. You can also make some quick editing on your template using the default structure of Convertkit as a framework. The classic or text email template works perfectly for most people. If you want to create your own templates, you should write some HTML code because Convertkit does not have a drag & drop email builder.

When you log in to Convertkit for the first time, you will be asked whether you are migrating from a different email marketing software and if you have an existing website. From here, it will set up the options and interface accordingly. Convertkit also has an option that will help you to start off with its email marketing tools.

It comes out clearly that the primary focus of Convertkit is managing subscribers and not the creation of beautiful emails. The reason is that the available options are linked to the mechanics of running a campaign like automating sequences and segmenting and not the email itself.

Convertkit offers so many materials that will help you to learn about the various solutions. When using every feature at a time, it plays a demo video on the page so that you can know how it works and get the most from every option.

It doesn’t have a main dashboard to give you an overview of all the elements of your campaign. However, you can access the various information from the appropriate menus. Because there isn’t an option for creating an email, you need to play around with the tool before you learn that you can either select the Sequences or Broadcast option from its menu. In summary, when you analyze the ease of use, Convertkit is not a hard tool to learn.

It is critical to be able to track your campaigns and understand your automation sequences and emails work. Reporting and tracking isn’t the area that Convertkit stands out because it lacks some crucial features such as the bounce rate. What the platform offers is enough for most users but for marketing automation that needs a more robust and advanced thing, Convertkit does not offer so much.

With Convertkit, it is easy to track your email open rates, clicks, and subscribers and un-subscribers for various campaigns. It reports everything separately so that you are not confused. The reporting tools on Convertkit allow users to track website statistics for their forms and landing pages. It gives business owners a clear picture of their email campaigns. You will know the signup forms that are getting the highest number of subscribers and why that is the case.

You will know the number of people who subscribed to your email list through the exit-intent popup form or slide-in forms.  The other statistic is the subscriber conversion rate that uses the sidebar form to claim your incentives. Convertkit gives users full control of their sequences, campaigns, and contacts which is a great thing. You can either make use of the form graph reporting or subscriber graph reporting.

You will love the account-wide reporting for unique subscribers, subscribers, and the un-subscribers. Overall, it is pretty easy to understand this Convertkit feature. That said, Convertkit is quite limited and does not offer the best reporting and tracking features. For instance, overlooking the bounce rate is a crucial thing to note in this Convertkit review.

The support chat button of Convertkit is powered by Intercom and it is available at the bottom of every page. It makes the process of getting support from the company pretty easy. The support reps of the company are genuinely helpful even though they are a bit slow because the company is still small. It can take you a few hours before you can hear from a customer service representative.

However, the detailed knowledge base, tons of training materials, and slack groups complement the slow support team quite well. Because Convertkit is a popular platform, you can search on Google for some tutorials from bloggers on some of the most popular topics. Therefore, you will always get the desired support whenever you feel stuck with the use of Convertkit.