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You need an email list. End of story.
We all know that you need an email list to have a successful side hustle. In fact, I wrote all about it last week. In case you missed it, you can read about the 7 Reasons An Email List Is Critical To Side Hustle Success by clicking here.
At the end of that post, I also alluded to the fact that I recently switched my email service provider from Mailchimp to Convertkit. And also that I am totally loving life ever since I switched. Since I mentioned that, I figured that it’s important to explain to all of you just why I made the switch, and also why I can’t really recommend Mailchimp, even though it’s free for your first 2,000 subscribers, which sounds like an amazing deal.
More on that soon.
Mailchimp vs. Convertkit: Better Deliverability
Deliverability is critical. What is deliverability? It’s basically the assurance that if you send an email, it will end up your recipient’s inbox, rather than the spam folder. Because no one checks their spam folder.
Convertkit boasts industry-leading deliverability rates. That was one of the main reasons why I switched to Convertkit, compared to the other options. It didn’t occur to me that my open rates were so low on Mailchimp because of deliverability. But as soon as I moved over, I noticed that my emails were getting significantly more opens than they were whenever I sent out an email through Mailchimp. If your audience isn’t seeing your emails when you send them, then they’re forgetting who you are, and aren’t actually your audience.
Now, Convertkit can’t do everything to ensure that your emails land where they’re supposed to (if your subject lines look spammy or you’re buying lists or any other naughty things, email services will still catch you), but it’s a clear leg up over most of the competition.
Mailchimp vs. Convertkit: Unlimited Emails
One of the biggest draws people have for choosing Mailchimp, especially when starting out, is that you get your first 2,000 subscribers for free. That’s really awesome, and is pretty much the reason why I chose Mailchimp over Mailerlite (which gives you your first 1,000 subscribers for free).
But the drawback is that on this free plan, you can only send 12,000 emails per month. And that’s total emails. Meaning, if you have a list of 1,000 emails, you can only send 12 emails to them. Makes things tricky when it comes to launching, or if you want to email your list more than a couple times a week, or even to have a quality nurture sequence.
But with Convertkit, you get unlimited emails at all levels, which means you don’t have to worry about how many email you can send. Send emails to your heart’s content! Well, don’t do that, because too many emails will mean people will flee your list, but you know what I mean. It’s one less thing to think about.
Mailchimp vs. Convertkit: Easier Opt-In Creation & Integration
I have to admit, that even after going through the tutorials for Mailchimp, I still struggled with creating an opt-in that would fit in seamlessly within my blog posts. Sure, it’s easy enough to create a simple form, and Mailchimp offers a WordPress plugin that makes it really easy to insert into your sidebar, but when it comes to actually including it in the body of the blog post, it just didn’t work out as well.
There are other plugins that you can download to turn your link into a form, but quite frankly, I don’t have time for all the hoop jumping.
On the other hand, with Convertkit, not only is it SO easy to create a completely customized opt-in form (including colors and images and custom thank-you page redirects), but it’s so easy to get them inserted into your blog posts. Instead of jumping through a ton of hoops, all I had to do was download the Convertkit plugin for WordPress, and insert the code for my form into my blog post. It’s seamless.
Mailchimp vs. Convertkit: Landing Pages
I love Convertkit’s landing pages. Yes, I know Mailchimp has them too, but I’m just saying that I managed to create my landing page in about 10 minutes. It was SO easy, and now all I have to do is share that link with my audience, and even to people outside my audience. Once they’re in, they’re into my welcome sequence and that’s that!.
Mailchimp vs. Convertkit: Easier Access To Personalized Templates
Whether it’s the same list of content you have in every email, or even just how you start your emails off, having an easy access to your template format is SO important. In Mailchimp, I would just copy an old email and plug in the new content, but with Convertkit you can go one step further and save the template formatting for easiest access.
That way, you only have to adjust your headers, your bolding, and your formatting once, and you’re done.
Mailchimp vs. Convertkit: Tags
Tags are extremely important to email marketing. Sometimes you don’t want to target every single person on your list. Sometimes you only want to target the people who come to you from one opt-in or another. Other times you want to target someone who has purchased from you, or someone who hasn’t. Or, you want to make sure that you are only targeting people who have gone through certain sequences.
With Convertkit’s seamless automations, all you have to do is create your automation, which includes the ability to tag your subscribers at any point in the funnel. Automations can be as short or as long as you need them to be. Most of mine are just three steps. The opt-in, the funnel, and then it ends with a tag.
That way, you don’t have to worry about digging through your list for certain people, or go back to tag people after the fact and they’ve already been on your list for a while.
Mailchimp vs. Convertkit: Copying Emails To Other Lists
And that brings me to something critical. Because Convertkit offers tags and other segmenting that I have not touched yet, I can tag one email address with multiple tags, all depending on what funnels they have gone through. That way, if I want to target just the people who have purchased one of my products, I can do that.
But in Mailchimp, in order to do that, I would have to make a whole other list and copy those email address over. And if I have the same email in two separate lists, then that counts as TWO separate emails toward that free 2,000. This is one of the ways that Mailchimp really does not offer a lot of flexibility when you’re trying to target certain portions of your audience.
Mailchimp vs. Convertkit: Better Reports
Convertkit comes with an TON of reports, and for a numbers nerd like me (remember, one of my hobbies is doing sports stats), it’s a huge bonus.
Not only do you get the standard, “this is how many email subscribers you have” report, but you also have reports on your all-time average open and click rates. When you go into your forms, you see how many sign-ups you get per day, broken down by which form your audience opts into. You also get info on how these forms are converting, which is huge.
When you send an email (aka a Broadcast), you also get a breakdown of your open rate, click rate, unsubscribes. Not only that, but you also can pull up which links were clicked, in case you send out an email with a lot.
Conversely, with Mailchimp, you just get a few standard reports, including how many people are on your list, your open rate and your click rate.
Mailchimp vs. Convertkit: Better Value
One of the other reasons why I love Convertkit is that the only tiers you have to worry about are how many subscribers you have. Meaning, you don’t have to pay more to get more out of Convertkit’s robust features. Whether you have 100 subscribers or 7,500, you get it all. The only thing you don’t get is free concierge migration, which you don’t need unless you’re taking an email list with over 7,500 subscribers from another service over to ConvertKit. So basically, it’s not something you’re going to miss.
Conversely, Mailchimp offers two different tiers outside of the free option, Grow and Pro. Pro, as you can imagine, is a lot more expensive than Grow (depending on how many subscribers you have, as well)l, and also comes with a number of more robust features that Grow doesn’t have. Those features include Advanced Segmentation, Comparative reports, and Multivariate Testing.
All of those things? Yeah, you can get them from Convertkit at any level.
Mailchimp vs. Convertkit: A Couple Final Takeaways
I wanted to end this by acknowledging that there are costs involved with a program like Convertkit, and that may not always be in a new side hustler’s budget. And that’s totally okay.
But what I AM saying, is that when you can afford the investment (and remember, if you pay for a full year, you pay for 12 months for the price of 10), make the move. Your life will be so much easier and you will be able to make forms, landing pages, sequences and other automations in more than half the time.
So, if it’s not in the cards right now, then this post is all the things that you can look forward to, and motivate you toward getting your side hustle to the point where a service like Convertkit IS in the cards.
Get Started With Convertkit Today
Ready to make the dive into Convertkit? You can get started with a 14-day free trial by clicking my affiliate link. When you sign up, you’ll be introduced to the handy introductory checklist, which walks you through everything from setting up your forms, your sequences, your automations, and migrating any current list that you may have into the system.
And did I mention it’s fast? I got my email list moved over in minutes. Now, it may take longer depending on how big your list is, but the ease of it is what matters to me. All I had todo was click a few buttons and I was done.
Also, you get a free t-shirt. And they’re really cute too! (Fun fact, I didn’t know about that bonus until after I signed up and completed the full checklist. You have to admit, it’s a pretty awesome marketing ploy!)
Start your 14-day free trial with Convertkit today.
Mailchimp vs. Convertkit: Ready To Start Your Side Hustle?
Have a lot to talk about, but don’t have the website to guide your readers to? Now is the perfect time to get started.
Now is the perfect time to take my free email course, where I teach you how to plan a year’s worth of blog content in just one day. This training takes away all the mystery behind figuring out what you’re going to write from week to week and helps you plan the ultimate in blogging content that your audience will absolutely love.
Don’t forget to get hosting (plus a free domain) for as little as $3.95/month through Siteground. You can read why I choose Siteground to host my websites in my post, 6 Reasons I Host My Side Hustle On Siteground (And You Should Too).
Pin It For Later!
Love Convert Kit! Great breakdown.
It’s been amazing since I moved over! Thanks!
People either love or hate their email service provider. Thank you for the info!
I think if you’re running into a program that doesn’t work for you, then that means it’s time to find an alternative. Happy to share what I know!
I use mail chimp but you’re right, it has its limitations. I will check out convert kit for sure. Thanks a lot for the reco.
Chad
http://www.mosaicslab.com
Happy to share!
Sounds like you found a great fix to problems you were having! Thank you for the info!
Yeah, it really does!
I was just looking at mail chimp and thinking of going to them so this is good info. Thanks for sharing
Happy to share!
I only knew very interesting mailchimp to discover this other platform and its features.
Yeah, there are a ton of different platforms. This is the one that I picked and works for me!
I use constant contact and have been happy. is there a reason you didn’t choose it?
Yeah, from a cost-per-subscriber standpoint, I feel that I get a better value out of Convertkit. Also, Constant Contact has 2 tiers, and the automations are only available on the higher-priced tier, whereas Convertkit doesn’t have a tiered system other than how many subscribers you have.
Hmmmm I use MailChimp and this was some interesting information to think about.
Happy to share. Mailchimp serves a good purpose, but if you can afford to make the jump to one of the paid versions like Convertkit, I highly recommend it.
Great review and comparison! I’m pinning for future reference when I’m looking to switch from MC myself! Thanks for sharing!
Happy to share! I know you’re going to be ready to make the switch soon!
Great side by side comparison. Thank you.
Happy to share!
I recently jumped ship from MailChimp to ConvertKit. So glad I did! You’re spot on with your reasons to switch over.
Glad I’m not the only one! I’m so happy with Convertkit!
I started using mail chimp a few weeks ago, and I still feel that I have so much more to learn!
It’s a great place to start, but when you can move to another platform, I highly recommend it!
I started with mailchimp and switched to mailerlite. I was planning on looking into constant contact when my following was much larger, but now I will check out convertkit as well!
I highly recommend looking into Convertkit, because it offers things like automations, which are crucial, at all levels, whereas Constant Contact only offers it for the more expensive pro tier. Mailerlite is a great place to start, and I’d definitely recommend that over Mailchimp for brand new side hustlers! Keep it up!
I am totally agree you on this from last two years I am using mailchimp and trust me after completing 2000 subscribers we are unable to send mailers to subscribers. And when we checked the packages its too high. Looks like covertkit is the solution. Will definitely going to check this. Thanks for the suggestion
Yeah, it’s really interesting, because 2,000 subscribers is a lot, but the monthly email limits make it very difficult to engage with your list the way you need to. Enjoy your research!
I am so glad that I found this post. I am going to make the switch today.
Happy to share! Convertkit makes the switch SO easy! Enjoy!
Great breakdown of the two e-mail services. I currently use MailChimp but will most likely switch in the future! I will definitely keep convertkit in mind.
Happy to share my honest thoughts! You’ll get to the position where you’re ready to switch very soon!
Email services stress me out! LOL. I am with Constant Contact, but I only use it to collect names. I have never started a campaign. I need to get to it.
Definitely need to start engaging with that audience! I highly recommend having at least some kind of welcome sequence that you send to these new subscribers, or you run the risk of them forgetting who you are and why they signed up!
Thanks for the comparison! I still have much to learn about email lists.
Email lists can be one of your business’ greatest assets! Happy to share what I know!
I have heard of both of those and heard great things!
Yeah, I am a big fan of Convertkit!
I’m currently using mail chimp but you definitely have some great reasons to make the switch. Thanks for sharing!
Happy to share! Whenever you’re ready to make the jump, I highly recommend Convertkit!
This is great info! I currently use constant contact but now i want to check out Convertkit.
Happy to share!
I went with Constant Contact as recommended and signed up for a year. I only have 31 subscribers, so it hardly matters at this point, but I will keep Convertkit in mind for the future. Thank you for the detailed review.
Happy to share! Remember to provide a TON of value to those 31 subscribers. They’re still people who are excited for the content that you have to share with them, and even though it’s not 31,000, they still super duper matter!
Great breakdown on Convertkit vs. Chimp, I will likely switch over to them in the future. The deliverability issue is really interesting! Thank you 🙂
Yeah, the deliverability thing was one of the major factors in my decision to switch!
Wait…I want to switch! I am working on my email marketing. This is a great review post on ConvertKit
Happy to share!
I’ve never heard of ConvertKit. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it!!
I’ve been contemplating a switch but I hadn’t really done any research. This seems like a great place to start.
Happy to share what I know!
I will have to check out more about Convert Kit after this. I am not sure I have the extra expenditure money, but it’s certainly something to think about.
When you do have the money to invest into it, I highly recommend it!
I have really struggled with my email list. I’ll have to look into convert kit.
I highly recommend it! Growing a list is challenging itself, but getting your email system set up shouldn’t be!
I’m currently using Mailchimp, but have not had a lot of issues as of yet. I will definitely keep this info at hand, though. Thanks!
I’m glad it’s working for you!
I too am on Mailchimp. I will look into convertkit though!
Convertkit has a TON of amazing resources! Whenever you’re ready to make the switch, it’ll be a great boost for you.
I use Mailchimp now and have been happy with it but I’m going to look into Convertkit. Thanks!
Happy to share what I know!
I am so glad that I found this post. Thank you for the detailed review.
Happy to share!
Interesting post – some great tips and advice here! I will definitely have to take some of this on board x
Happy to share what I know!
This is a great breakdown! It can be hard to know the difference between all these email list providers.
For sure! There are SO many great options out there. Definitely one to fit your needs!
Nice breakdown. Great information on these services. Must look into them myself.
Happy to share! Your email list is one of the biggest keys to the growth of your side hustle!