Email marketing is, in my opinion, one of the most effective ways to differentiate your business in the noisy online world.
This is especially true, when you find yourself overwhelmed by the ‘latest trends’ in social media and you’re not sure how to best reach your audience.
In 2024, email marketing is still effective because it allows you to reach your audience with personalised content, taking them on an educational journey (even if they’re not ready to buy), and ultimately helps you build stronger relationships with customers.
It’s also one of the most cost-effective marketing channels out there!
As a digital marketing consultant helping wellness business owners grow their online businesses, one question I hear often is:
“What is the best email marketing platform to use?”
With numerous platforms available, selecting one that offers comprehensive features without costing a small fortune can be daunting!
While many business owners start with free solutions, there are often limitations and hidden costs that come down the line.
I’m all about getting maximum bang for your buck when investing in marketing, which is why I recommend Flodesk to all my marketing clients and students in my Thriving Biz Club.
I’ve been using Flodesk for over a year in my business – and the feedback and engagement I’ve had from my email campaigns has been phenomenal.
Flodesk is an emerging star in email marketing, offering an all-in-one solution that’s affordable, with powerful tools typically only available in pricier platforms.
You might wonder, “with all these other platforms and tools, why am I raving about Flodesk?!“
I’m going to break down the 5 features I love and use the most – they make my life so much easier and save so much stress and trying to figure things out!
1.
Beautiful, Customisable Templates
Flodesk has a library of modern, well-designed templates that are super easy to customise for your brand. The templates feel luxe without being overly fussy and styled.
I love that I don’t need to create things from scratch (although you can if you like) – I can simply pick the ‘goal’ of my email and browse through templates that are already designed for engagement and conversion. Then, I customise the templates with my own brand colours and images, creating emails that look professional, but also “like me”.
It’s also super simple to use the templates with the click-and-drag builder, and the best part? No coding or design team required—hooray!
You can also personalise your emails and subject lines, which is something I highly recommend, as personalised emails have better deliverability and higher open rates.
You can even schedule your emails in advance—a lifesaver when you’re on holiday or busy with other things. Flodesk will even suggest the best times to send the emails, based on your audience’s previous engagement – which maximises open rates.
2.
Insights and Analytics
On the analytics side – I can also get detailed feedback on each email I send in terms of: open rates, click throughs and the percentage of views on desktop and mobile. With a significant portion of emails being opened on mobile devices, Flodesk’s designs ensures that emails look good on any device.
This is helpful information to then incorporate into your future emails to maximise the value you’re bringing to your email list.
One final thing that may be slightly boring/techy – but is hugely important in the world of email marketing is deliverability:
Flodesk follows best practices for email marketing, including compliance with regulations like CAN-SPAM and GDPR. This means emails sent via Flodesk are less likely to be flagged as spam, which improves overall deliverability.
A couple of extra tips for you::
- Be mindful of language in your emails that might trigger spam filters, like excessive use of words like “free,” “guarantee,” or “no risk.”
- Regularly clean your email list to remove unengaged subscribers or invalid email addresses. As this will improve your overall deliverability and open rates of your emails.
3.
Audience Management
One of the stand out features of Flodesk for me, is that you pay one monthly price for unlimited subscribers. Flodesk doesn’t charge you more as you grow your email list, which is not the case for many competitors.
You can also put your audience into different segments, which makes sending more targeted and personal emails to those different segments, or a group of those segments really simple to do.
This is so helpful to me as my business has 3 different sub communities, and it means I only need one email solution to manage all 3 of my businesses. I can also see what segment lists are performing and growing well, and leverage this in my email strategy.
4.
Simple Sign-Up Forms
In case you’re wondering how you can grow your email list … Flodesk makes people signing up to your email list or freebie downloads so simple!
I can create customisable sign up forms – be that a pop up for my website, or ‘link to bio’ I can share on my socials, or a page I can share on multiple platforms to sign up to my lead magnets.
As well as creating a professional impression to your audience – it saves so much time, hassle and money using extra software or needing to code this into your website.
In fact, with this feature alone – you won’t need a website to grow your email list, which is a big bonus for beginners.
Flodesk have literally thought of everything for growing your email list and marketing your business online so simple to do.
And for when people do sign up to your list, and you’re not sure what to send them or how to manage these new subscribers … Flodesk has got your back with workflow templates too!
5.
Done-for-You Workflow Sequences
Flodesk have predesigned workflow sequences – which are a series of emails that are automatically sent when someone joins your email list.
This is perfect if you are not sure what to say or how to craft an optimised email sequence, which invites engagement and sharing your key ‘call to actions’ for your reader.
I used to get so overwhelmed with the tech of how to set up a workflow and what I should be saying but with easy ‘drag and drop’ features, it’s so intuitive to use – even if you consider yourself a ‘technophobe’.
You’re able to set a ‘trigger’ when someone joins the segment you select, and then you’re able to customise the emails sent in your own branding and words, and select the time (eg. 2 days apart) you want to send these as a follow-up.
For example:
if someone signs up to get my free Digital Marketing Essentials guide – once they input their details, Flodesk triggers to send them my guide, and then spaced a few days a part, further resources to help them grow their online business and ways they can work with me further.
Flodesk even has a cool feature called ‘link actions’ – giving you the ability to add automations you’ve set up in your workflows within your email. I use this in my emails so readers can simply click a link in my email and opt in to receiving a download I have for them – without them having to input their details into a form for it (as they’re already on my email list). This just gives users a seamless and professional experience.
Even as an experienced email marketer – I still come back to using these workflows as the base for my sales sequences, delivery of a new lead magnet resource or a nurture sequence.
And now I’ve saved the best for last … and this will blow your mind!
Ready to make sales?
Have you ever seen what seems like fancy sales pages online marketers use for selling courses, e-books or coaching services?
Think you need a fancy designer to make them for you? Think again!
Flodesk gives you customisable checkout pages to help you monetise your list by creating sales pages, upsells, delivering resources or selling tickets to events.
Payment Tools
It’s so straight forward to use this e-commerce feature, as you are literally taken step-by-step through setting this up. You’re then able to link it to payment tool, Stripe – to manage payments being made into your bank account.
You can even set up your workflow delivery sequences using the workflow templates for this, as well as getting your audience to opt in to your main mailing list. It’s genius.
You can forget the overwhelm you can often face when setting up selling anything online – Flodesk take e-commerce ease to the next level!
Final Thoughts
There are so many incredible additional features for the more experienced email marketers (especially around analytics) that I haven’t covered in this blog.
However I wanted to really focus in on the key features I use day in and day out, which help me run my business with one simple and cost effective solution.
I always recommend trialling Flodesk for 30 days (which is free), and then should you feel like this is the right solution for your business (I’d be surprised if you didn’t), then you can use my affiliate link to give you 50% off your first year.
I personally pay monthly, but there is also an annual payment option.
Struggling to make sense of email marketing? I get it! That’s exactly why I wrote “Email Marketing 101: From Building Your List to Driving Sales.” – Simple steps to help you build a list that connects with your people and helps grow your business. Ready to make this email thing work?
