7 Reasons I Switched My Email Marketing To ConvertKit

I’ve been blogging for several years but it wasn’t until I was about 3 or so years in that I started to pay some attention to email marketing. Even then I was only half-heartedly doing it. I tried a few different email marketing programs and found them too difficult, time-consuming, or difficult to use.

I eventually found an email marketing program, Mailerlite, that met my needs, and used it for a while. Eventually, I found it was time for a change. I needed something even simpler and I decided to try ConvertKit.

(This post includes some affiliate links. Should you click an affiliate link and make a purchase I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.)

What is ConvertKit?

Before I go into why I’m now using ConvertKit, let me share with you what it is. ConvertKit is a web-based email marketing software that was designed specifically for online creators. ConvertKit describes an online creator as someone who makes their living online being a “blogger, author, maker, YouTuber, poet, painter, musician, podcaster, chef, designer, or teacher.”

ConvertKit’s mission is “to help creators earn a living online.” This is kinda evident in the features they have for their email software. Some of which you don’t see in other providers.


With ConvertKit you can

• Create custom landing pages to showcase your work or projects
• Offer your readers a free automatic download when they opt-in to your subscriber list
• Personalize your content for subscribers
• Create automated funnels to customize the content journey for your subscribers
• Create email templates
• Sell digital products

When it comes to how much ConvertKit costs there are three pricing levels and only the higher pricing level includes all of the above features.

Related read: How To Select The Right Email Marketing Tool For Your Blog

Why I switched to ConverKit

I’ve known about ConvertKit for a while but didn’t consider it as an option because I thought they were too expensive and would be too difficult to use.

I was compelled to take another look at them because I had moved and wouldn’t be able to get a P.O. box for a while to use it for CAN-SPAM compliance. So I stopped sending emails for a couple of months while I figured out what to do. After a while, I remembered that ConverKit lets its users use its mailing address in their emails.

I went to the ConverKit site and did some digging to see what they offered. What I found were several more reasons to shift my email marketing to ConverKit

• There is finally a free plan! It’s only for those with 1,000 subscribers or less. If you have more subscribers you’ll need to switch to a paid plan.
• Email deliverability tends to be higher than for MailerLite
• Click-throughs tend to be higher than with MailerLite
• The interface isn’t that difficult to use
• There is a feature to easily send digital products via email
• You can monetize your newsletter with a paid newsletter option and e-commerce subscriptions

There are also a few downsides as well

• As your subscriber list grows so does the cost of ConvertKit which can be cost-prohibitive depending on budget
• There are no ready-to-use templates so you have to create all of your emails from scratch unless you create your own template
• The emails are a lot less visual than other tools and more text-based
• The free plan doesn’t include any of the automated features so you can’t send any automated emails

Conclusion

While I’m all in on ConvertKit right now I would still recommend MailerLite in certain circumstances. I think it’s a good email service if

• You have grown your subscriber list past 1,000 and can’t afford to pay a lot for an email marketing service
• Need automated emails

If you have less than 1,000 subscribers and don’t need a lot of features I would recommend ConvertKit because of the reasons I noted above.

I plan to continue to use ConvertKit until I outgrow the free plan. Then I will decide whether I'll stay with ConverKit or switch to another email marketing service.

Which provider do you use for your email marketing? Have you ever used ConverKit or MailerLite?