When you’re looking to integrate email marketing into your small business marketing strategy, the sheer number of platforms out there can be utterly overwhelming.
Some are free, some are paid, some are user-friendly, most aren’t. But each time I look at what is out there, I always come back to Flodesk.
Before we get into it, this blog contains Flodesk affiliate links where I earn a small one-time commission from new sign ups created through my link.
I logged into my Quickbooks the other day and have been a paying Flodesk customer since January 2022, and feel like this important to disclaim because I truly want you to know that I wouldn’t recommend (much less earn affiliate income) of a product that I don’t use and love.
Effortlessly Create Beautiful Emails
The thing that drew me to Flodesk right off the hop was how simple it is to create stunning email marketing campaigns. Other platforms I’ve used like ConvertKit make it challenging to create aesthetically pleasing emails without knowing a little bit of HTML or putting in a lot of effort.
The templates in Flodesk are gorgeous and so simple to tweak in order to fit cohesively with your brand style. No expert coding or design experience needed.
Library of Inline Forms & Lead Pages
Making it simple for people to join your email list? Yes, please!
I love that there is no worrying about exporting a list of subscribers from another platform and importing them into your email list. Whether you want to embed the form on your website or have a standalone opt-in page, Flodesk makes it easy for you to add subscribers to your list with no added hassle.
Simple Step-By-Step Email Automation
After someone takes action to join your email list, it’s incredibly important to nurture them. Thankfully Flodesk makes it easy with their user-friendly email automation tool.
Under the Workflows heading, you can set up different triggers and subsequent actions to automate your marketing. This could include anything from delivering your freebie to running a challenge, welcome sequence and more!
I truly love set-it-and-forget-it style automation so that my business works hard behind the scenes without adding more to my plate. Another added bonus is the simplicity of this feature. Some email marketing platforms have way more depth to their automations, and while that may seem great at first glance, it’s often confusing for small businesses (not to mention, very few actually get use out of the complex tools).
Frequent Updates & New Feature Releases
Flodesk has come a long way since I joined 2+ years ago. From allowing for more customization, simplified and enhanced editing and personalization abilities. Since February 2024 alone, I have 3 emails sitting in my inbox describing the improvements that Flodesk has made.
Some of those improvements include:
- | Expanded pallet + colour picker to make it even easier for you to ensure your emails are on-brand.
- | New integrations with popular platforms
- | The ability to save/template content blocks so that you can use them again and again
- Template sharing links – this allows you to share a link to your email template which is perfect for anyone who wants to use what they’ve created as a freebie or income generator!
They’ve also introduced a public roadmap which is a really cool way to keep their users up-to-date with any new integrations and feature development that is in the works. I love that they are always bettering the platform without boosting my billing.
No Surprises With Their Flat Monthly Fee
One of my favourite things about this email marketing platform is its flat rate billing. Regardless of how many emails you send or subscribers you add to your list, your billing stays the same. You also get access to all features as a paying customer (aside from their checkout platform which is a different tier).
Other email marketing softwares out there will let you start for free but limit the amount of sends, subscribers and features you can access until you hit a higher tier of billing, and once you do start paying monthly, it’s often much higher than the flat-fee offered by Flodesk.
Now that we’ve gone through the thing that I love about Flodesk, let’s touch on the things that I’m not a fan of, or stuff I’ve seen become a barrier for others.
Overall these things haven’t swayed me away from Flodesk, but you know that transparency is important to me, so of course we’re going to cover it from all angles.
Their Billing Is In USD
As a Canadian, it seems like everything is in USD these days, and it can be kind of irritating to always have to do a conversion calculation before buying to get a true sense of what you’ll be paying.
From a budgeting standpoint, I like to know the exact amount of money leaving my account every month and dealing with an exchange rate that is always in flux can be annoying. Although, over time I’ve learned the average cost so it’s not a big deal. However, knowing that a lot of my audience is Canadian, I felt like that was important to mention as you decide if Flodesk is the right email marketing platform for you.
Analytics & Integrations Aren’t As In-Depth As Other Platforms
Flodesk is fairly basic when it comes to integrations and automation, which can be both a pro and a con.
While I feel that they lack some out-of-the-box integrations, they do have some exciting ones in the works (like ThriveCart), but in the meantime, you can use software like Zapier and Pabbly Connect to set up integrations with your favourite platforms.
Whether or not you see this as a downside will totally depend on the level of complexity in your marketing strategy and the additional platforms that you use to execute. IMO most small businesses don’t need or come close to using the depth of features available in other email marketing platforms.
There Is No Free Option Beyond The 30 Day Trial
Many business owners choose email marketing options with free plans when they’re starting out, and then their billing grows as they move into new subscriber tiers. Flodesk doesn’t have that which again is both a positive and a negative.
I get that it can be scary to pay for an email marketing software when you’re just dipping your toes in the water. At this point you’re not really sure the level of impact and ROI that is going to come from your email list so going for a free option can be a no brainer.
Yes and no…
When you opt for the free version, you don’t often get access to all of the features, have to keep the platform’s branding on your emails and have limits around the number of contacts and sends in any given time period. Plus as you grow, your billing will start to jump exponentially even though you still might not be making decent money from your list.
Personally after using numerous other platforms and not loving them, I opted to jump into Flodesk. Getting my first month free let me get a feel for the platform and test out whether or not it was the right fit for me before diving into a paid subscription.
Want an even better bonus?
When you sign up for Flodesk using this link to get 50% off your first YEAR. Yeah, you read that right. To me that is more than fair, especially if you have lofty goals to grow your email list fast!
Choosing the email marketing platform that is best for your business will entirely depend on your own unique goals and objectives. However, with years of industry experience and a love for keeping things as simple and lean as possible, Flodesk checks all the boxes for me.