Let's face it, getting people to visit your blog is a pain in the ass. But keeping them coming back is even more of challenge. You're basically competing against all the other distractions in people's lives. So even if you have awesome content, chances are your visitors will forget about you. Don't take it personal. The best way to keep your visitors coming back is with email marketing and ConvertKit makes this easier than the likes of Aweber, Mailchimp, etc. Discover how in this convert kit review.
Product Site:
Vendor Name:
Nathan Barry
Price:
Starts at $29 Per Month for 1000 subscribers & rises depending on the number of subscribers.
Overall Rating:
Feature Rating:
Support Rating:
Ease of Use:
What Is ConvertKit?
ConvertKit located at ConvertKit.com was founded in 2013 by Nathan Barry, and David Wheeler. It’s a software company that provides web based email marketing services for bloggers and businesses.
How Does ConverKit Work?
Check out the following quick ConvertKit tutorial and walk-through.
Convertkit Features
Obviously ConvertKit can help you collect subscribers and send emails. But what else do they offer? I’m glad you asked. I’ve compiled a list below.
- Automation
You can setup automation rules that are triggered by links your subscribers click or the forms they fill out. You can be very creative with this.
- Forms
You have a lot of options when it comes to email capture forms. All their forms are mobile, responsive and fully customizable. You can create Pop up Modals, Sliders, in content forms, etc.
- Landing Pages
Most of the competition provides you basic email forms, but not many offer landing pages. You usually need to pay for a separate service or tool to do this. However, with ConvertKit you can create landing pages hosted on their server or hosted on your WordPress blog using their plugin. There is no additional cost for this service.
- Sequences
This is basically ConvertKit’s version of an auto responder. You can set it up so when someone subscribers to your list, they will automatically receive a series of emails that you have already created. You can control the time and dates they are sent. It’s a great way to share some of your best posts with your audience. It’s also a way to help your sales since you can have promotions sent automatically to anyone that signs up for your list.
- Broadcasts
Sometimes you just want to send one email to all your subscribers at the same time. Fortunately, with ConvertKit, you can do that with broadcasts. The broadcasts can be sent immediately or scheduled for a later date. Either way you have total control.
- Integrations
Although ConvertKit is still the new kid on the block they do integrate with a lot of the major players. They include the following:
Commerce
- Gumroad
- Samcart
- DPD
- SendOwl
- Shopify
- WooCommerce
- Easy Digital Downloads
Lead Capture
- SumoMe
- LeadPages
- Thrive Leads
- OptinMonster
- OptimizePress (direct integration in development)
- ClickFunnels
- Bounce Exchange
- Genesis eNews Extended
- BookLaunch
- MailMunch
- Textiful
- Bloom (in process)
- OptKit
- Landing Lion
Membership + Courses Sites
- Teachable
- ProgressAlly
- Zippy Courses
- Wishlist Member
- Member Mouse
- Paid Memberships Pro
- Teachery
- Rainmaker
- Lifter LMS
- aMember
- New Kajabi
- Restricted Content Pro
- Thinkific
- Digital Access Pass (DAP)
Webinar Services
- Webinar Jam
- Webinar Ninja
Surveys + Forms
- Gravity Forms
Website Platforms
- WordPress
- Squarespace
- Wix
Scheduling
- Acuity Scheduling
Giveaways
- Gleam
- ViralSweep
- Zapier
Additional features worth noting are:
- Subscriber Segmentation
- Personalization
- Email scheduling
- Drag and drop to reorder emails
How Much Does ConvertKit Cost?
ConvertKit.com offers a pretty unique and fair pricing model. You can send unlimited number of emails to a list of 1000 starting at $29 per month. The monthly price will vary depending on the size of your list. As I mentioned above you’re never charged multiple times for an email that you have on multiple list. Whereas services like aweber will jerk you in this way. You end up paying way more with their pricing model.
So you usually end up saving money with ConvertKit.com.
Cons
- No FREE trial but they do have a 30 day money back guarantee or you can request a demo.
- Reporting isn’t as a robust. They also need to centralize reporting in one area instead of the multiple places it’s currently buried.
- Integration with other tools isn’t as a extensive as the big boys. But it’s getting there. They have about 35 right now and it’s with some of the bigger players.
- They have a limited amount of email template options available out of the box. But you can create your own or edit the ones they do have.
- There is no split testing function for subject lines or sequences.
Pros
- It’s very easy to use and understand.
- Customer support is very responsive.
- Training and documentation are robust.
- Concierge service will transfer your existing lists if you have over 10,000 subscribers.
- You can request a demo and their customer service will walk you through one before you sign up.
- Unlike other services ConvertKit will only charge you ONCE for a subscriber even if they’re on multiple lists you own.
- You can send unlimited emails regardless of your plan.
Should You Buy ConvertKit?
If you’re new to email marketing then I would highly recommend ConvertKit because it is so user friendly. But even if you are more experienced, I would still recommend ConvertKit because it has powerful features like marketing automation. Too often the other services out there are over priced or require a PHD to use their platform. ConvertKit strikes a perfect balance of simplicity and functionality.
Because it is a new company there are still areas where they can grow. But once they do, I feel bad for the competition. Because many will jump ship as I did to use ConvertKit as their email marketing tool of choice.
Well that’s enough YAPPING from me. I would love to hear your thoughts about ConvertKit.com. If you have any comments or questions feel free to post them below. Thanks for reading!
Eddy with a y
This looks like a pretty new company, as compared to some of the more established companies that we are all too familiar with. But the functions they provide are pretty advanced.
From the photos you’ve posted, it seems like the user interface has a very simple design. This will definitely be appealing to people who are totally new to email marketing services.
Great review!
I don’t really think it’s just good for people that are new to email marketing. Even advanced people like myself will appreciate convertkit. So I think it appeals to any marketer.
I’ve only ever used Aweber personally and this ConvertKit sounds like it does everything they do and more.
So they also handle exit page pop ups too right? I’ve been trying to figure out ways to get lost customers back and though I’d have only Aweber to rely on. Is it easier with this program to handle exit pop ups?
What up Vitaliy! I was big aweber fan and user for a while. But the interface started to feel clunky. And the fact there always having some type of down issues made me look elsewhere. But yes convert kit has exit intent popups as well as scroll based pop ups. So it’s pretty damn advanced. Exit pop ups have definitely helped me build up my list. Definitely give it a look even if you request a demo. I think you’ll appreciate the service and interface.
Hi there!
Getting people to visit your blog has never been easy, I can’t agree with you more. I never try E-mail Marketing before. But after reading you article and the way you stated how the Convertkit could help to bring more visitors to the website, I think I would definitely give it a try.. Now when you purchase the Convertkits, does it come with the tutorial video?
Great comment and thank you for sharing !
Patrick
Yes it does Patrick. And they also have an onboarding process where you can schedule a call and they will walk you through using convertkit.
Convertkit looks like a great tool to consider using for my blog. I like the fact that they include a landing page as well.
You say they only have a limited choice of template options, Is it fairly simple to create your own custom email if you don’t like theirs?
Yes you can easily create and edit any of their existing templates. I personally prefer just using plain text style emails. But you can definitely create your own fancy ones.
Hey Eddy,
I love the “y” thing. Lol.
Usually, I don’t prefer services from sites that don’t offer free trials because it’s very hard to determine if the actual sites are going to benefit me the way I’d like them to.
Do you have any free trial site that you can recommend?
It’s the only way to get people to spell my name properly. LOL As I mentioned in the review you can request a demo and there is a 30 day money back guarantee. So you can actually try this without the fear of losing any money. So I would recommend taking them up on that. It’s a great tool and I’d hate to see you miss out because of the Free trial thing. It made me apprehensive as well. But I’m happy I tried it anyway because I love it now.
I am entirely new to an emailing list and I must admit it scares me a bit because I have already been thrown in at the deep end.
At my age new stuff can become a little scary. Doing my own website and posting articles was intense for me. I know I should now branch out and try and improve my traffic which is woefully low.
This particular software does look a little easier than some of the big boys which have really put me off by their jargon and learning yet another new concept.
Perhaps I will take the plunge when I get a little more confident. Thank you for the review. Ches
Hey Ches,
I can appreciate the apprehension and fear. Anytime we try something new its scary. But you have a proven history of learning new things. You weren’t born knowing how to use the internet but you learned. You weren’t born knowing how to create a website but you managed to do it. So email marketing is no different. Convertkit makes it very easy. And you can schedule an onboarding call where they literally walk you through how to use it. They also have some great guides and tutorials. So it’s very user friendly. If you decide to buy it, let me know and I’ll be happy to help you as well.
I was using GetResponse back then and switched to Aweber. Have been using Aweber ever since. I’ve heard of ConvertKit multiple times but never had the time to look closely into its services.
Having exit pop ups built in sounds like a neat feature. It took me a lot of time to test and find a suitable pop-up subscription box.
Hey Edward, I’ve tried both services as well. And I finally made the switch to convertkit and I’m happy I did.
You can pretty much replicate and subscription form you’ve already created. So it may be worth a look especially since Aweber has that shady pricing practice of charging you multiple times for one subscriber that you have on multiple list.