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Choosing The Best Email Provider
If you haven’t started your email list – it’s past time my friend. If I had to say there was one type of content marketing that was more important than all of the rest? It would be email marketing.
But, the very first step – choosing which email platform to use? It can be overwhelming enough to keep you from getting started. Which is why today I want to share 3 different platforms that I think are worth considering, and help you make the best decision for yourself.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- If you want your business to grow, effective marketing is crucial. But that doesn’t mean you have to spend a ton of time on your marketing – even if you’re a solopreneur. Do you dream of business growth, but aren’t gaining traction? Does the thought of tackling your marketing feel daunting? Or, do you understand the importance of effective marketing, but simply don’t have the time to get it done? There’s good news! Marketing doesn’t have to be so overwhelming, confusing, and complicated. Say goodbye to the confusion and complexity that has held you back, and say hello to a clear, actionable roadmap for business growth. In my book, Chasing Simple Marketing, I’ll take you on a journey to demystify marketing with simplicity as your guiding principle. You’ll walk away with a clear, concise, and personalized marketing strategy designed specifically for your entrepreneurial journey. You don’t need a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) or a background in business to tackle your marketing head-on thanks to the strategies and techniques in this book that deliver real results. No longer will marketing feel like an insurmountable mountain; instead, it will become an easily manageable and integral part of your business. Take your content from non-existent or inconsistent, to a true tool to grow your business by Chasing Simple Marketing. You can grab your own copy by heading to Amazon and searching for Chasing Simple Marketing, or you can hop over to amandawarfield.com/book to learn more about buying it for yourself.
- The Community (use code LISTENER for your first month free!)
- Save 50% Off Your First Year of Flodesk and Try it Free for 30 Days
- Kartra 14 Day Free Trial
- Try MailerLite
- This week’s action step: DM me and tell me what YOUR favorite email platform is if you already use one, and if not – DM me and tell me which you picked!
- This week’s book recommendation: The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty (The Daevabad Trilogy – The City of Brass #1)
- Find me on Instagram and tell me you completed this week’s action step: @mrsamandawarfield
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Have a comment about today’s episode, or a topic you’d like to suggest for a future episode? Shoot me an email over at hello@amandawarfield.com!
Rather Read? – Here’s the Transcript!
*Just a heads up – the provided transcript is likely to not be 100% accurate
If you haven’t started your email lists, it’s past time my friend. If I had to say there was one type of content marketing that was more important than all of the rest, It would be email marketing, but the very first step choosing which email platform to use, it can be overwhelming enough to keep you from getting started, which is why today I want to share three different platforms that I think are worth considering and help you make the best decision for yourself.
You’re listening to episode 206 of the Chasing Simple Podcast, and I’m your host, Amanda Warfield. This episode was brought to you by my book, Chasing Simple Marketing, and you can grab your own at amandawarfield. com / book.
How do I find time to create content without overwhelming myself? Where should I even be showing up in my marketing? How do I come up with fresh content ideas? Where should I be focusing my marketing efforts? What is lead generation anyways, and how do I do it? Are launches still a thing? How do I put it all together to market my business strategically?
Can I really grow my business without spending all of my time marketing? These are some of the questions that float around in your head. When you think of marketing welcome friend, this is chasing simple where practical marketing strategy meets simplicity. I’m your host, Amanda Warfield, simplicity focused content marketing and launch strategist, speaker, educator, and author of Chasing Simple Marketing.
I traded in my classroom lesson plans for helping creative entrepreneurs sustainably fit marketing into their business without it taking over their business. So that they have time to grow their business, take time off, and live the life they dreamed about when they first decided to go out on their own.
When I’m working, you can find me working with one on one clients, such as The Contract Shop and Rebecca Rice Photography on their marketing strategy and copywriting, or helping my students simplify their marketing and launches. And when I’m not, you can find me spending time outside with my husband, Russell, Reading in our hammock, watching GameCock Sports, traveling, or forcing our cats to snuggle me.
If you feel overwhelmed by marketing, you aren’t alone. Many entrepreneurs find marketing frustrating, overwhelming, and simply an obligation. They know they need it, but they don’t enjoy how easily it can suck up their time when what they really want to be doing Is the thing that they started their business to do, which is why I’m here to help make marketing simple and less time consuming so that you can spend less time on your marketing and more time growing your business and doing what you love each week.
I’ll bring you transparent conversations. actionable steps, and judgment free community to encourage and equip you. So grab yourself a cup of coffee or whatever your drink of choice is and meet me here each week for love, support, practical tips, and advice on uncomplicating your marketing and business.
Let’s do this entrepreneurship thing together, shall we? If you want your business to grow, effective marketing is crucial. But that doesn’t mean that you have to spend a ton of time on your marketing, even if you’re a solopreneur. Do you dream of business growth but aren’t gaining traction? Does the thought of tackling your marketing feel daunting?
Or do you understand the importance of effective marketing but simply don’t have the time to get it done? There’s good news. Marketing doesn’t have to be so overwhelming, confusing, and complicated. Say goodbye to the confusion and complexity that has held you back and say hello to a clear actionable roadmap for business growth.
In my book, Chasing Simple Marketing, I’ll take you on a journey to demystify marketing with simplicity as your guiding principle. You’ll walk away with a clear, concise, and personalized marketing strategy designed specifically for your entrepreneurial journey. You don’t need an MBA or a background in business to tackle your marketing head on thanks to the strategies and techniques inside of this book that deliver real results.
No longer will marketing feel like an insurmountable mountain. Instead, it will become an easily manageable and integral part of your business. Take your content from non existent or inconsistent to a true tool to grow your business by chasing simple marketing. You can grab your own copy by heading to Amazon and searching for chasing simple marketing, or you can hop over to amandawarfield. com / book to learn more about how you can grab a copy for yourself. Welcome back to another episode of the private podcast for chasing simple marketing, the community. I am so glad you’re here and today We are going to be sharing all about how to choose your email platform now there are So many different email marketing platforms out there and you may already have one You may already be hooked in if you are and it’s working if you are and it’s working stick with it I am such a huge proponent of If it’s not broke, don’t fix it when it comes to platforms.
For example, last year, Thrivecart was the big thing. Everyone was moving to Thrivecart with their products, and it was really tempting. But I stuck with what I had because it wasn’t broken, there wasn’t any issues. I don’t have anything wrong with it. There wasn’t anything that I felt like I was missing.
And so, I didn’t move to Thrivecart. And now they’re having a ton of issues. Which is a whole other thing. But, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. The same thing, I started out in Trello for organizing my business. And, you know, now there’s Irritable and ClickUp. And there’s all these really great new ways to organize your business.
And if I move, I’d be happy. But also, I There’s nothing about Trello that I’m like, man, I wish it did this, if there comes a time where that’s true. That’s a different story. But for now, I don’t need a new platform so I’m not moving. So that’s just my, my soapbox. If you have a platform and you’re happy with it and there’s not a major red flag for your business, stick with where you’re at.
You probably don’t need this episode. But for those that have not yet chosen, I have three different email platforms that I can personally recommend that I’ve personally used and personally recommend. That’s not to say that there aren’t other amazing ones out there. I just haven’t used those, so I can’t personally give, you know, a recommendation in good conscience.
So the first one I want to share about is the first one that I used in my business, and that is MailerLite. Here’s the thing, MailerLite is a great starting platform. The biggest pro of MailerLite is that they have a free version. It is very simple. There are no bells and whistles. But as far as email marketing goes, you can get your emails out, you can grow your list.
It is a great platform to start with if you have no list. You are still figuring out your offers. You’re not really making money in your business yet. MailerLite is a great option because of that free version. Like I said, I used it for a really long time and I did switch to something else, which I’ll share about in a moment, but I switched because I had an active need that MailerLite wasn’t filling.
But, I didn’t make enough money in my business to switch for three years. So I, I used Manalite for three years in my business before I felt comfortable moving to another platform with my email marketing. Next is Flodesk. I personally use Flodesk when I work with email. The Rising Tide Society. The, there are two huge perks of Flodesk.
One, if you want really beautiful emails and you want to be able to put images in your emails that aren’t going to affect the bounce rate and how many people it gets sent to their main inbox versus spam, Flodesk is a really, really, really great option because it is designed to You have just these really be like the things you can do to make these emails pretty is Amazing.
I hope other marketing platforms will catch up with them eventually, but man flow desk emails are gorgeous They’re so pretty another huge perk to flow desk. Is that they have You don’t pay by the subscriber. I should say they have a couple different tiers that you can you know opt in at but You Even with their lowest tier, you get unlimited email list subscribers.
That is not the norm. Most, if not every other email platform that I have seen, yes, every other email platform I’ve personally seen. There could be another one out there. If you know of another one, drop it in the Slack channel. But every other one that I have seen, if you, as you grow, you have to increase your payment plan.
Which is why it’s so important to cull your email list. And even if you use Flowdesk and you have unlimited subscribers, I really recommend that you cull your email list frequently. But every other platform you have to pay more for more subscribers. It’s not something that we typically have to worry about until you have like thousands and thousands of subscribers.
But still, it is something to think about if you want to grow with it long term. And, um, yeah, it’s just, it’s a great platform for quite a few different reasons. Now, the third recommendation I have is Cartra. Now, Cartra is what I use currently. I switched to it in 2021 and I absolutely adore it. I switched from MailerLite to Cartra because I did not like having to set up Zaps for my email marketing.
I wanted an all in one platform and that is the biggest pro of Cartra. It is enough. all in one. I run almost my entire business out of Cartra. My one to one clients are run out of HoneyBook, but almost everything else is run out of Cartra. My courses, my, the membership, um, the, every shop item that I sell is out of Cartra.
My email list, my opt ins, my quiz. I mean, the list goes on and on. It is truly an all in one platform and that is why I switched to it. However, If you do not have an extensive shop like I do I have I think close to 15 different products If you don’t have an extensive shop, you probably don’t need an all in one.
I will say It is really nice. It has a leg up on flow desk with funnels and analytics That being said flow desk is a newer. It’s It may be the newest to the email marketing game and they are always growing. They just added checkouts, which is a new thing. So if you only have a handful of products, Flodesk is a good bet.
But I ultimately switched from MailerLite to Cartrub because I didn’t want to set up Zaps. I did a, I had my courses hosted in Teachable, which I also loved, but I was running a sale. This was probably my second time selling content batching bootcamp, I think. And I had about 30 sales and 10%, 10 people, which is, I don’t even know what percent, whatever.
There were about 10 people where the zap just didn’t run and so they didn’t get added to, they purchased the course but they didn’t get added to MailerLite. And so they didn’t get the welcome emails for the course. And that was a huge problem for me. I was like, If 10 out of 30, that’s a huge number where that ZAP failed, as I scale, that’s going to be even more of a headache.
Which is when I switched to Cardra. So, I had that need and I switched. Here’s the deal, to make this really simple, if you are just getting started with your email list in your business, and you are not making any money really at this point, go with MailerLite. I, in Slack, I will, post my affiliate links. Um, with MailerLite, if you decide to not do the free one, I do have an affiliate link that will get you 20 off your first payment.
For Flowdesk, if you are someone who does not have an extensive shop or an extensive catalog, and you’re someone that wants really beautiful emails, and you don’t really have a need for an all in one, I will put my link in Slack again, and it’ll get you 50 percent off your first year. And it’ll let you try it free for 30 days.
So, you can try it free, I think it’s a free trial with no credit card required, so then you try it and if you decide you like it, that link should also get you 50 percent off your first year. And then, if you need an all in one, if you know, I have a couple courses, or I’m going to have a couple courses, um, and you just want all of the capabilities of an all in one, I can help you save 20 percent on Cartra with the link that’s going to be in Slack.
But that’s how I would decide. Whichever category you feel like you fit there, that’s how I would choose. Um, And that’s your activity for this week. If you do not already have a platform, choose your platform. Again, my affiliate links will be in Slack to help you save some money on those. And for my VIP tiers, if you haven’t sent me your opt in confirmation email, do that this week.
That’s your goal for this week is to submit that for feedback and review. And that, my friend, was a sneak peek of my private podcast for Chasing Symbol Marketing, The Community. The Community is meant to be a place where small business owners simplify their marketing, get strategic. And also take action While I I know that education is important.
I mean That’s what I got my degree in right? I’m, so passionate about education I wanted this membership to be something that wasn’t just education. I want it to be all about action. And so we spend A single quarter on one specific topic and Q1, 2024, we spent the entire quarter working on getting set up and getting started with email list.
Q4, 2023 was all about creating our strategic lead magnets, and so they flowed together so nicely because everyone created their strategic lead magnet. One that led to an offer of theirs and then we worked on setting up the email list so that we can then share about those strategic lead magnets and put it out there into the world and know that we are growing our email list strategically.
So that’s what the behind the scenes looks like. We have weekly calls, there’s a weekly episode in the private podcast and everyone gets a ton of access to me for help and for feedback and I just absolutely adore the community. So some other episodes. for the private podcast in Q1 were legal considerations of email marketing, how to nurture your email list, making your email writing easier, how often should you email your list, how to encourage engagement in your emails, and just so many more.
Like I said, there’s an episode every single week. And if you want access to the private podcast, weekly calls, and more, you Use code LISTENER for your first month free. I will link to the community in the show notes, but if you just go to amandawarfield. com slash community, you can also find the page there where you can sign up and again, that first month totally free with the code LISTENER.
Now, your action step for this week is to DM me on Instagram and tell me what your favorite email platform is, if you already use one. And if not, DM me and tell me which one you picked. The book recommendation for this week is The Kingdom of Copper by, who I’m going to, I’m going to butcher this and I’m so sorry, S.
A. Chakraborty, I’m sorry, C H A K R A B O R T Y. This is actually the second book in a trilogy, uh, when I was looking through my Goodreads from last year and I was looking at the different, you know, what I had ranked different things, I actually gave the first book three stars, and then the second one four, which is very not normal for me.
Normally the second book is my least favorite in every trilogy, so, uh, The second book is one that I’m really recommending, but I’m recommending the entire trilogy, and the first one is called The City of Brass, and it’s the Dave Abad trilogy. Man, it is so good. If you like fantasy, but this is, it’s fantasy, but it’s also, um, kind of, it’s not really sci fi.
I’m not sure how to explain it, but it is incredible. If you are a fantasy reader, you will like this one, but it’s not your typical fantasy. Just a heads up, but man, it’s a great series I was really surprised that I hadn’t ranked the first one higher But there you go, and I will link to that in the show notes for you and until next time my friend I hope that you’ll go out uncomplicate your marketing and business.
Thank you so much for joining me here today friend You can find this episode show notes as well as all the resources you need to simplify your marketing over at amandawarfield. com If you liked what you heard here today, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode. And if you could take a moment to leave a rating and review, it would truly mean the world to me.
Ratings and reviews are the number one way that you can support a podcast and ensure that it sticks around for many more episodes to come. I’ll see you next time. Now go out and uncomplicate your marketing and business.
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