The Savvy Seller with Kristen Doyle

BONUS. Should You Switch Email Marketing Platforms Right Now?

• Kristen Doyle, web designer and business coach

Share episode

Send us a text! (Your number stays private)

I've been watching everyone panic about switching email platforms lately - Flodesk ending flat rate pricing, Kit raising prices, Mailerlite making changes. But here's what's making me cringe: almost every post I see is driven by one thing - price. And as someone who's switched platforms 5+ times (embarrassing, I know), I had to share why not the way you should be making this decision. 

Your email platform is one of the most important pieces of your business. Before you jump ship to save a few bucks, there are hidden costs and better alternatives you need to consider. Instead of chasing the cheapest option, I'm sharing what actually matters and how to invest that switching energy into better email marketing results. 

02:00 - The email platform price increase drama everyone's talking about 

03:15 - Hidden costs of switching that no one mentions

04:30 - My embarrassing platform-switching confession 

05:15 - What actually matters when choosing an email platform 

06:30 - Smart alternatives to switching platforms 

08:00 - My 90-day cold subscriber automation that saves money

Links & Resources:

Check out my Everything Page at https://kristendoyle.co/everything

[00:00:00] If you have gotten an email from your email marketing platform lately about pricing changes, or you've just been watching all the conversation on Facebook lately, then this episode is for you. There are lots of big changes going on in pricing around Flodesk, Kit and Mailer Lite right now. So if you have been thinking about switching email marketing platforms, then I have some thoughts to share with you today.
 
This actually started out as what I thought was going to be a quick Instagram story this morning before I headed out to the gym, but it ended up being way longer than I expected. So I thought I would share it as a bonus episode here on the podcast instead. So here is my take on all the email platform switching conversation that's been going on, and I'm sharing some of my own experiences with switching email platforms Way too many times.
 
Are you a digital product or course [00:01:00] creator? Selling on platforms like Teachers Pay Teachers Etsy, or your own website ready to grow your business, but not into the kind of constant hustle that leads straight to burnout. Then you're in the right place. Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I'm Kristen Doyle, and I'm here to give you no fluff tools and strategies that move the needle for your business without burning you out in the process.
 
Things like SEO, no stress marketing, email list, building automations, and so much more. Let's get started. Y'all. Hello y'all. Good morning. I am about to head out to the gym, but I wanted to just share a little something, um, really quick before I do. I have seen so much about potentially switching email platforms in the last week or so, and I know Flodesk announced that they are ending their flat rate pricing in November.
 
Kit announced that their [00:02:00] prices are going up, um, in October November, depending on when your renewal is. Um, Mailer Lite has in, has announced price increases and I think ended their lowest tier plan. So lots of changes going on in the email marketing world. Um, and I just wanted to, I just wanted to share a little, little of my own experience because almost every post I icy about email marketing and maybe I'm gonna switch platform, it all is driven by price.
 
Every single post I've seen, no one said I'm gonna switch platforms 'cause this one has better features, or because I'm not getting what I need out of my current one. It's always I feel like I'm paying too much and I can switch to something cheaper. And I would just encourage you to not let price be the number one factor in how you choose an email marketing platform.
 
Yes, price is important. Yes, we can let price drive our decisions for a lot of things. Ultimately, your email marketing platform [00:03:00] is one of the most important pieces of your business. This is where you have direct lines of communication to your subscribers, to your people. This is where you can and should be selling your products to them and serving and helping them, and establishing yourself as the go-to expert that they are going to follow.
 
So I would just encourage you not to let price be that number one deciding factor. Um. That's coming from someone who has moved platforms, I want to say five times. It may be more than that, honestly, that's embarrassing. Hold. Um, I have been on Mailer Lite, MailChimp, Flodesk Active Campaign Kit actually was on Kit somewhere in the middle of those other four.
 
Um, left tried Flodesk and Active Campaign came back to Kit. Um. Kit may not be perfect for everyone. I love it. I know a lot of people do. I will share. The reasons I love it are it's hands down. They have some of the best [00:04:00] deliverability out there. Um, their customer service is amazing at helping you when you make big mistakes.
 
We all know, you know, sometimes you make a big mistake on your list and you need help fixing it. They are amazing, that kind of thing. Their deliverability is great. They integrate with everything that I use, um, including my WooCommerce store. And their sequences and automations are just a lot more advanced and better than some of the others, especially.
 
Um, Flodesk specifically. Um, probably Mailer Lite and Mailchimp both. Well, I took Campaign Act Light has really great, really in-depth sequences. They have more in their sequences than I would be using. Uh, so I would just encourage everybody, make that decision based on features and functions that you need and not just based on price.
 
When we make a move like that just to get to something cheaper, chances are you're gonna lose some features you've been using or maybe you should have been using. Um, but you're also gonna incur some cost to moving and I think it's [00:05:00] important to keep that in mind as well. Um, costs light your, uh, actual money that it may cost you to pay someone else to move or your own time.
 
But also things like having to rebuild your email sender reputation so that your deliverability goes back up. Um, those forms that might be floating around out there in the recesses of Pinterest, you guys, I was on MailChimp and Mailer Lite probably eight to 10 years ago at this point. Um, I left both of them and I am still occasionally, and when I pay occasionally, I mean like once every three or four months getting an email.
 
That says you've gotten new matchup subscribers and I can't even figure out where they're coming from. I can't even find the form, but it's still floating around out there because it's just almost impossible to find all of those old links and get them all redirected. Uh, so you will have some things like that.
 
You'll have hiccups, you'll have to [00:06:00] rebuild lots of stuff. And honestly, your time if you spent that same amount of either time or money. On improving the list you currently have, you would probably get so much more return on your investment than spending that time and money just moving your platform. I would encourage you to think about what emails you're sending, um, making sure you're using your list to its full potential.
 
Invest in some courses, I don't have one, but invest in some courses or some coaching or memberships on email marketing. Um. I have learned so, so much from Liz Wilcots. I'm in her $9 a month email marketing membership, and I have learned so, so much from her and my emails are converting so much better now that I've really implemented what she teaches.
 
So, um, if you're looking for something to learn from, I would highly recommend that you look into her, um, scrubber lists. I know, I know. It's fun when you're hitting those milestone numbers. Maybe you've got 25,000 or 50,000 [00:07:00] people on your list. That's fun and exciting, but. It is causing you to pay more, or if, if, especially if it's causing you to feel like you need to go to a less, less full featured provider, just so you don't have to pay more, clean your list, get rid of those people who aren't regularly opening and clicking on things.
 
Um, my most recent cold subscriber scrub, I didn't even just clean out people who don't open. I also cleaned out people who never would click because those people aren't engaging with my content. I am on Kit where my number of subscribers matters. That's I'm paying for subscribers. And so I cleaned out people who open but never click on anything.
 
And I didn't just delete them. I sent them the call subscriber emails to see if they wanted to stay on my list. Um, so the people who were like, oh, I really do wanna be on your list, they get to stay. Uh, but people who just aren't clicking things, I got rid of. And that also helps get rid of those people whose maybe their school or their office email filters are.
 
Opening the emails, but [00:08:00] they aren't actually looking at none, and that helps you get rid of those people as well. So highly recommend clean your cold subscribers on a regular basis. I actually have an email automation in Kit that does that for me. Every single subscriber goes through every 90 days and gets checked.
 
Has this subscriber opened an email in the last 90 days? If they have, they stay on the list. If they haven't, they get cleaned out. That's something I shared with my membership, but if you guys would be interested in that, I maybe could put it together as something that I could share with the wider community.
 
So just let me know if that's something you're interested in. Um, claim your cold subscribers. Look at what you're emailing. If you're just sending out a newsletter that doesn't really connect with people, engage them and point to your products, then reevaluate what you're sending and spend the time that you would've spent moving platforms.
 
On making your email marketing better, because if you just move platforms and you're still doing the same stuff that wasn't converting on [00:09:00] Kit or Mailer Lite or whoever, then you're gonna get the same, not so great results from your email marketing on a new platform, and you're spending this time and energy moving and you have to rebuild your sender reputation and maybe you're losing out on features and things as loss.
 
That is just my, um, my thoughts this morning as I'm thinking through. Looking at lots of people's, uh, Facebook posts and things, trying to figure out what they're going to do. I have made the mistake of moving. I have moved for good reasons, uh, but I've also made the mistake of moving when I shouldn't have.
 
And so I just wanted to share my thoughts and kind of where I am on that. If you have questions about any of it, if you would like that cold subscriber automation, anything like that, just reach out and let me know. I'm happy to check with you.