Rundown
Newsletter Editor | Yes |
If/Then/Else Logic | Yes |
Sequences | Yes |
Automation | Yes |
A/B Testing | Yes |
Landing Pages Builder | Yes |
Sign Up Form Builder | Yes |
List Management | Yes |
Reports & Analysis | Yes |
Languages | English only |
Bounce Management | Yes |
Spam & Design Testing | No |
Integrations | Yes |
WordPress Plugins | No |
Support | Email only |
ConvertKit was founded in 2013 by Nathan Barry. He created this fantastic email marketing tool to reach his audience online to sell his books and courses through email (as he was a blogger & content creator).
In comparison to Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, etc. ConvertKit is a new player in the email marketing industry. The product is ideal for:
- YouTubers
- Bloggers
- Podcasters
- Course creators
- Authors
- Content writers
- E-Commerce order clerks
- And more…
ConvertKit allows users to connect with their audience, fans, and targeted audience for selling digital products via email marketing. For this purpose, ConvertKit is well-built from start to finish and helps content creators and entrepreneurs of all types of niches.
If you are looking for the best email marketing services tool for your online business, then you are in the right place. ConvertKit has a lot to offer and is a user-friendly email marketing platform. It contains a visual designer and is optimized for building automated strategies for its users.
We all are not email marketing professionals, and the need for an easy-to-use tool is always in high demand. ConvertKit offers an excellent solution for our query.
ConvertKit Short Review
Initially, when ConvertKit was released, it didn’t have a free version. However, now it does. For people looking to get an email marketing tool with 1,000 or fewer subscribers on their email list, ConvertKit holds a free plan for them.
The features in the free plan are limited, and the starting paid-subscription plan starts at $29/month/1000 subscribers. So, it is a bit pricy. Although, it does offer you features that are not available in other email marketing tools, thus making ConvertKit an excellent value for money email marketing software.
Some of the significant highlighted features offered by ConvertKit are as follow:
- Landing pages
- Email marketing
- Commerce
- Email designer
- Email sign up forms
- Email automation
- Creator Pro
- Deliverability reporting
- Newsletter referral program
- Facebook custom audience
- Subscriber engagement scoring
- Integrations
ConvertKit’s built-in landing page builder & editor helps the user run and manage end-to-end marketing campaigns without jumping from one tool to another. It allows the user to set in place focused campaigns to a specific group of targeted audience by using its segmentation system and flexible tagging.
For online sellers or people in the business of e-commerce, ConvertKit comes with integration features. People can connect the domain of their e-commerce or blogging website with ConvertKit and seamlessly add products to their campaign or newsletters. The only catch to this feature is that once your products start to sell, ConvertKit will cut a small percentage of the transaction fee on each purchase (3.5%).
The template shortage in ConvertKit is one of the things pointed out by many email marketing experts several times. However, according to ConvertKit’s research,” plain-texts and simple emails with no template designs perform much better and gets more conversions in comparison to an email optimized with colors and templates.”
ConvertKit comes with only three template designs:
- Text only
- Classic
- Modern
Furthermore, ConvertKit allows its users to perform email automation. You can create Email sequences, workflow-based visual automation, etc., with ConvertKit. Since the main agenda behind the creation of ConvertKit is to develop an email marketing tool that is really user friendly, the tagging, segmentation, and listing with ConvertKit is straightforward. You won’t need any formal training before you can use this tool (unlike its competitors).
ConvertKit can also create newsletters, sequences, landing pages, A/B testing, and automation. One feature which every email marketing tool provides and is not offered by ConvertKit is the heatmap feature. Nowadays, it’s an important feature necessary for e-commerce conversions by tracking user behaviours and developing social media reports. The bounce rate feature is also not available.
Also, it does not have a spam testing feature. However, it does automatically flags emails in the background. Design testing is also not available.
Overall, one can say that ConvertKit is a good enough tool for beginner level users or for people who want to run email marketing campaigns in the most straightforward manner possible. It does not address the complex email marketing aspects, but it is still a fantastic tool and helped creators’ gain 16.2 million new subscribers last year.
ConvertKit creators gain 84 new subscribers per account per month on average.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Benefits
- They offer paid newsletters
- Tagging and Segmentation of subscribers makes workflow smooth
- The landing page editor and creator is outstanding
- It has the best deliverability rate in comparison to other email marketing tools
- Collection of leads is streamlined and the overall momentum builds with time
- User friendly
- Not so complex
Drawbacks
- Costly
- Template designs is limited
- Reports needs to be more detailed
- Should offer live chat customer support
Features
Email Marketing | Landing Pages |
Commerce | Email Designer |
Email Sign Up Forms | Email Automation |
Creator Pro | Integrations |
ConvertKit Pricing – Discussion
The pricing plans offered by ConvertKit are based on the number of subscribers you have on your email. It starts with 300 subscribers to 500k+. ConvertKit has set three categories:
- Free
- Creator
- Creator Pro
The pricing plan for the 300 subscribers list starts at $9.00/month for the Creator section and $29.00/month for Creator Pro. Pricing increases with the increase in the number of subscribers list. You can enjoy the free version of ConvertKit for up to 1,000 subscribers. However, the list of features is limited in the freemium plan.
ConvertKit does not give access to the following features in the freemium plan:
- Automated funnels & sequences
- Newsletter referral system
- Advanced reporting & subscriber scoring
- Free migration from other tools
- Facebook custom audience
You can gain access to the features mentioned above if you get their paid subscription.
However, you can quickly build landing pages, sign-up forms, sell digital products, and send email broadcasts in their free version. Email support is also available in the free plan.
Features
What makes ConvertKit stand out from the rest of the competition is its unique set of features.
Like many other email marketing tools, ConvertKit also offers customizable sign-up forms and landing pages. You can add an unlimited number of custom fields.
Campaign automation can also be done with ConvertKit. The visual designer platform on ConvertKit allows you to create logical progressions for your email marketing campaigns. The entire process can be automated, and you can use the If/Then/Else component of the software to send follow-ups based on their tags and segmentation.
You can also perform A/B testing and save an unlimited number of email designs to use as your future templates.
Following is an in-detail analysis of some of the highlighted features offered by ConvertKit:
1. Newsletter
What makes ConvertKit stand out from the rest of the competition is its unique set of features.
Like many other email marketing tools, ConvertKit also offers customizable sign-up forms and landing pages. You can add an unlimited number of custom fields.
Campaign automation can also be done with ConvertKit. The visual designer platform on ConvertKit allows you to create logical progressions for your email marketing campaigns. The entire process can be automated, and you can use the If/Then/Else component of the software to send follow-ups based on their tags and segmentation.
You can also perform A/B testing and save an unlimited number of email designs to use as your future templates.
Following is an in-detail analysis of some of the highlighted features offered by ConvertKit:
2. Email Designer
Creators tend to struggle with the writing and editing of emails, which can cause problems for them when we take a look at the bigger picture of email marketing. ConvertKit’s email designer tools help the creators focus on writing their content (the most crucial part) instead of designing and makes editing easy.
The inline styling options help the user to add buttons, images, and videos on the go instead of adding layers one after the other.
3. Spam
ConvertKit has a great delivery rate. According to stats about ConvertKit’s deliverability rate, the delivery rate is 98%, and your email sent through ConvertKit will most probably end up in the inbox folder of your clients/subscribers.
4. Email Broadcasts
The filter option helps you to create separate lists of subscribers to whom you can send email broadcasts. You need to choose the subscribers you want to reach out to and then write your content in the next step. Afterwards, you can send them the email broadcasts or schedule your emails for later based on your preferences or the email marketing strategy you are following.
5. Automated Emails
Moreover, with ConvertKit, you can manually set up the path your subscriber takes through your set-up sales/subscribers funnel. Now you can write your content for every step of your sales funnel and add more directed/targeted emails to your series.
Once your visitors cover the several pathways of your sales funnel, emails will be sent automatically based on your visitors’ journey.
ConvertKit helps you create email sequences and workflow-based visual automation. To put it simply, it will automatically send your separate emails based on triggers (like filling out of form or making a purchase). You also have the liberty to customize your communication with your subscribers by adding actions like tags or putting different types of subscribers in a sequence.
6. Templates
There are a total of 3 default HTML templates offered by ConvertKit. According to ConvertKit’s own research, templates do not perform that well in email marketing and conversions. That’s why they have placed a lot of thought into the templates they offer in their software. The three templates are Modern, Classic, and Text Only.
Templates are limited in ConvertKit as you cannot add grouped images or create column-based layouts. Thus, there is a limit when creating visual content with ConvertKit.
You can also upload the HTML code to create your own templates. Nonetheless, the templates offered by ConvertKit are really responsive and helps in attracting subscribers to your business.
7. Sign Up Forms & Landing Pages
Website owners build their email lists mostly via sign up forms or landing pages. You can use ConvertKit to create interactive forms and pages whenever you launch a new project, service, or product.
There are unlimited landing pages and forms you can create with ConvertKit (even on the free plan). You can also add those forms as pop-ups, slide-ins and create various embedments. The visual editor offered by ConvertKit is easy to use and offers multiple designs from which you can choose.
It offers various customizable templates from which you can choose to create your sign-up forms and landing pages. There is no code involved, and it has a simple drag and drop interface.
Also, you can set an incentive in your forms, and ConvertKit will handle the rest. They call it the ‘Automatic Free Download Delivery” mechanism. For instance, you have created an e-book that your visitors/readers can get if they fill out your sign up form. You’ll only need to upload the file to your ConvertKit account, and they will automatically deliver the free e-book instantly to anyone who has to fill out your form.
You can also customize the domain of your landing pages and contact forms.
8. Tags & Segments
In the older email marketing tools, every time a user needed to create a new email list, that user would select subscribers manually. With ConvertKit, you can create a new list of subscribers every time you launch a new project or run a new campaign.
ConvertKit allows you to add a dropdown list to your sign-up forms where subscribers can tell them about themselves, or you can tag them depending upon the clicks in your email.
Once the tags are done, you have the liberty of creating customizable segments. ConvertKit’s filtering system allows you to create segments based on their assigned tags while filling out the sign-up forms. You can create an unlimited number of segments and can be as specific as you want to be.
These tags and segments help you know your audience better and create targeted content based on your subscribers’ interests.
9. Automated Email Funnels
With automated email funnels, you can build custom paths based on your visitor’s connecting events, conditions, and actions in their journey on your website. The entire process is customizable and offers smart filters.
ConvertKit is highly optimized in the automation department, and this feature is proof of that automation. The smart filters let you control precisely what you want to be sent and what doesn’t. ConvertKit never sends and pitches the same product to an individual subscriber twice.
Performance
ConvertKit outstands from the rest of the competition because of its easy to use and fast-paced set-up.
For instance, if you make a new form, you are given options of a few simple templates to choose from. You can use the designer platform to customize it, and it will only take you a few minutes to design a branded form and place it on your website via Javascript, HTML, and ConvertKit’s WordPress plugin.
Suppose you go on to work with the automation process of ConvertKit. In that case, the visual designer offers a lot of triggers and response actions that you can even customize according to your needs. You can also connect them using several logical operators.
The organization of your subscribers’ database is also outstanding as you can add tags and use automated workflows to segment users for future marketing campaigns.
Security
Emails are private and sensitive. You do not want your emails to fall victim to hackers and attackers who can ruin your email marketing strategy. For this purpose, ConvertKit comes with many features that can help you run your email marketing campaigns securely.
ConvertKit uses:
- Two-Factor Authentication
- CAPTCHA: Helps in the elimination of bots.
- Double opt-in: Subscribers will get an email confirmation that they intentionally signed up for your marketing list.
Customer Support
ConvertKit’s website holds a significant amount of literature, guides, videos, and tutorials for their present and potential clients. They also maintain and conduct weekly live workshops for their paid subscribers where you can join and learn about various email marketing techniques and how to use your ConvertKit software to the fullest.
Other than these guides, you can also contact their customer services center via email. There is no live chat or call center support. However, their email customer support team is pretty vigilant, and you’ll get the response to your query within a few short hours.
Conclusion
The only downside for ConvertKit is its high price. Other than that, ConvertKit is one of the best email marketing software available in the market nowadays. You can create custom landing pages and forms, perform email automation & broadcasting, put tags & create segments, and much more.
Also, you can perform integration of ConvertKit with other famous platforms from which you want to extract relevant data. ConvertKit easily integrates with renowned website builders and offers a WordPress plugin to publish landing pages and sign up forms.