There’s no doubt, social media has definitely taken over most of our lives. There are still quite a few people I know personally who aren’t members of Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. What I do know is that they still receive email. So, which is the best email marketing service for my blog and how can you get people to subscribe?

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is a tool to communicate with subscribers so you can share information, sell products or courses. People subscribe to your blog or website through a subscription sign up form and you can then communicate with them via one email to those subscribers. You can have many sign up forms for different reasons.

Currently I have the Domesblissity Digest subscription form where people can subscribe to a monthly newsletter detailing the previous month’s blog posts, a subscription for crafters who like to make do with products they already have, a subscription for bloggers who want to stay in touch with posts about blogging (like this one) and a subscription for people who are on a waiting list for more information on my H.O.M.E. Program, when it comes to hand.

I don’t like my Inbox bombarded with emails so I don’t like to bombard my subscribers either. My emails are sporadic and people can unsubscribe at any time. I’m a busy Mum and try to be as active as I can on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram but they all take time. Even scheduling posts on these platforms takes time but with an email marketing service, I can write the email and send it at any time of the day or night and my subscribers can read it at leisure.

Which Email Marketing Service?

I started subscribing myself to a few bloggers who offered a weekly or monthly newsletter. This was my first introduction to email subscription and I noticed a few different platforms they used. Some of the services were Aweber, Mailchimp and ConvertKit (aff link). I didn’t want to pay for a service until I knew exactly how it worked and if it would benefit me and my blog so I started with Mailchimp. Mailchimp was very ‘clunky’ especially when I didn’t understand how it all worked. I stuck with it at first because the service is free for your first 1,000 subscribers but then I heard about ConvertKit.

Why ConvertKit?

I did a bit of research on other email marketing services and good things were being said about ConvertKit. I looked into it and found this service wasn’t free but only US$29.00 per month for the first 1,000 subscribers. For the price of a couple of takeaway coffees per week, I could justify the cost and also because I found the system to be very user friendly and I love how it’s set out. It’s very straight forward, it’s a ‘what you see is what you get’ format so you can see immediately how your subscriber form looks. It has the ability to be custom designed using your own code (not that I would use that feature) but it’s been an absolute joy to use compared to Mailchimp. I’m not sure how the others services shape up in comparison but I’m happy with ConvertKit so will stay.

I’m about to embark on using the sequencing features in ConvertKit to set up email automations for upcoming e-courses I’m creating and I’m really looking forward to the process. I’ve been able to manipulate the subscriber information to suit my business, create the different forms for different subscriber interests and the statistical information is very thorough. I can see at a glance just how many people read and click through on the emails that I send from this service.

Why Make the Switch to ConvertKit?

If you’re unhappy with the email marketing service you’re with, I think you should give ConvertKit a try. Besides being a really easy to use service with many functions and informative data available, the support at ConvertKit is amazing. They are great at keeping you informed of system updates or problems. They give you heaps of fantastic ideas about blogging and how you can use the service to better suit your needs. The Facebook Group is really informative with many of the other ConvertKit users giving great advice as well as the ConvertKit team. There is so much online help available as well as interactive ‘live’ support.

Email is here to stay

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (as well as any other social media platforms still being used today) will still be around for a while. For as long as I can remember, since personal computing has been around, email has been the best way to stay in touch with someone. You can be as personal or as business like as you want. Subscription forms can be custom designed in your email marketing service to suit various topics. You can send email sequences automatically so that the service is working for you even though you may be tucked up in bed. Users can opt in or opt out at any time. You can still be interactive with your subscribers without having to be constantly on social media like you are with say Facebook or Instagram.