Your email marketing tool can make all the difference between a highly profitable Shopify store and one with underwhelming results.
Email marketing has an incredibly high return on investment. However, it can be incredibly time consuming and frustrating for small business owners to implement.
Here's where Flodesk comes in and saves the day.
Have you heard of Flodesk?
Today's post is all about Flodesk, what makes it different from other email service providers, and why I think it's a great tool for ecommerce businesses.
Flodesk is a relatively new, powerful yet simple email marketing platform. They make sending out beautiful, tasteful, email newsletters enjoyable.
And it’s taking the entire industry by storm!
I’m sure you’ve heard of other email service providers (also referred to as ESP’s in the tech world) like MailChimp, Convert Kit, Active Campaign, the list goes on. There are tons of ESP’s out there and even being in the web design space, I can’t keep track of all of them.
All of these ESP’s have different templates, set up, and fees, but their core functions are all the same - send mass emails to a list of people you’ve collected.
ESP’s are great for sending automatic emails for things like a welcome sequence, delivering an opt-in, and for sending out any type of automated email you can think of.
Note: A few people recently told me that they were sending mass emails through their Gmail Accounts. Just an FYI - that is against their terms and conditions and they could shut your account right away. The legal way to send these mass emails, is by using a designated ESP.
Flodesk was designed by designers FOR creatives. Simply put, they have beautifully designed templates that are easy to use and function incredibly well.
All that you have to do is swap colors out, add your text, and add your photos. Then voila, you have an email that looks professionally done.
These are the types of things you can create easily with Flodesk.
And the best part - they are incredibly easy to edit! Here's what the editing process in Flodesk looks like:
One of the things I like most about Flodesk is that their templates are created with HTML. That means that all of their templates will translate better to your customers inboxes. I’ve had clients that will design an email in Canva, then upload the image to their email, and then the email shows up in their clients inbox looking all kinds of crazy. This is because people look at their emails on different device types and in different platforms. Simply put, if you spend the time creating a graphic and are sending out an email, you want to make sure your clients can see it!
These are perfect if you don't know what to send out to your customers and need some inspiration. All of their templates are pre-formatted and are really beautiful. Unlike other ESP's, Flodesk includes the price of all Email Templates in your subscription. So, email away!
(Also known as sign-up forms or subscription forms)
There's no need to install a third party app to get a great looking landing page. You can make these right in Flodesk and add them to your site! And since you don't have to install another app, you don't run the risk of slowing down your site! It's a win-win!
With Segments, you're able to group all of your subscribers together. For online businesses, you could have a segment built for customers, one for visitors who abandoned their carts (more on that later), and one for anyone who signed up to be notified when your new product launched. By organizing these groups into segments, you're easily able to assign each group a different email follow up.
Sequences are automated emails that go out periodically to your customers or anyone who has signed up with their email on your site. Flodesk already has templates built out for you, making this process extremely easy.
Flodesk has fixed pricing at $38 per month. Meaning that you can send as many emails as you want for $38/month. This is HUGE because other ESP’s charge you depending on how many emails you send out.
But here’s the really cool thing - Flodesk is currently letting my visitors sign up using my link to get 50% off for life! This makes it only $19/month! Click here to sign up.
Flodesk is so uncomplicated and easy. Once you’ve created your segments, you can easily assign them to workflows to automate your emails.
Flodesk has fantastic features for both growing your ecommerce store's email subscriber list, and sending emails to your subscribers.
At this moment, Flodesk only integrates with Shopify. More integrations are surely going to be added over time, but for now, they just support Shopify.
Adding various forms on your online store's site is an excellent way to get more email subscribers. Flodesk allows you to create:
Automated emails should be the central part of your marketing strategy. Like I said earlier, the ROI on email marketing is huge for ecommece businesses. Here are a few basic sequences that you should set up to gain new subscribers and keep them coming back to your online store:
Connecting Flodesk and Shopify is Easy
Here's how to do it:
Since Flodesk is a new platform and still in beta, they are missing features that shop owners might need. For example, some shops need difference post purchase sequences based on customer tags or product tags. At this point, Flodesk doesn't have this capability.
Other ESP’s have graphs to see where your sign-ups are originating. Flodesk doesn’t currently have this. However, I’m sure it will come later. For now, you can sort through your lists using the segments to find out where your sign ups are coming from.
Shopify does have a feature within their platform to send a follow up email after a customer abandons their cart. However, there are a lot of limitations. With Flodesk, you can send an email that gives you creative control. The problem is that there isn't a way to do this without adding in another platform to make this automatic.
Developing analytics and reporting takes time, which could be why Flodesk may not have it all to offer yet. But that doesn't mean they aren't going to have great analytics in the future. As of now, you're unable to track things like monthly opt-in sign ups.
So here's the deal, Flodesk is a great choice for shop owners who want a simple, quick, and streamlined email service to build a grow their email lists. However, it's still a new platform and has some things to work through.
I personally use Flodesk and recommend it to most of my clients because it's so easy to use and doesn't require a lot of time to get up and running. But, no platform is perfect for everyone.
I definitely recommend signing up for Flodesk's 1 month free trial and deciding for yourself if it's the best platform for you and your business. You might love it just as much as I do! Don't forget to use this link to get 50% off for life!
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