Let’s accept it! Email marketing is mighty helpful for all businesses, including lifestyle bloggers.
Unfortunately, spending hundreds of dollars a month for sending automated emails isn’t a smart business decision, especially not for new bloggers with limited resources.
If you are searching for a reliable and low-cost email service provider this review of Flodesk email marketing software will tell you everything you need to know.
Quick Takeaways:
- Flat Rate Pricing Model: Flodesk offers a unique flat rate pricing, allowing unlimited emails, subscribers, and access to all features, making it a budget-friendly option for small business owners and bloggers.
- Intuitive Email Builder & Stunning Templates: The platform provides an easy-to-use email builder with drag-and-drop functionality and a variety of beautiful, responsive templates, ensuring emails look great on all devices.
- Effective Email Automation & Segmentation: While Flodesk’s email automation isn’t as advanced as some competitors, it still offers efficient automated workflows and subscriber segmentation, enabling personalized and targeted email campaigns.
- Landing Pages & Opt-In Forms: Flodesk allows the creation of attractive opt-in forms and landing pages, which are essential for growing subscriber lists and can be seamlessly integrated into websites.
- Simple Analytics & Essential Integrations: The platform provides essential email analytics to track performance and has limited but useful integrations, including Shopify and Instagram, with additional options through Zapier.
What is Flodesk?
Flodesk is an email marketing platform, which, unlike other email service providers, offers a flat rate pricing model for unrestricted access. Both beginner and expert-friendly, Flodesk is a perfect choice for small business owners with a limited budget.
It offers stunning templates and allows you to send unlimited emails. Using the platform, you can even automate the workflow. There is no limit on how many subscribers you can have or how many emails you send per month.
Flodesk Review: TL;DR
- Powerful email marketing platform with an intuitive email builder.
- Offers beautiful email templates that you can use to design emails.
- You can connect Flodesk with multiple third-party services.
- Pricing is independent of the email list size or the number of emails you send.
- You can use a landing page from its collection to collect email addresses on your website.
- Offers a 30-day free trial without a credit card.
- Allows unlimited usage against a flat fee per month.
Who is Flodesk for?
Anyone who needs email marketing software can use Flodesk. Bloggers, affiliate marketers, e-commerce store owners, authors (selling books through their websites), etc., can all use this platform.
As long as your business requires communicating with your readers and customers, you can use Flodesk.
Flodesk Pros & Cons
Flodesk Pros:
- Unlimited everything for a fixed monthly price.
- Easy setup.
- Full email workflow automations.
- Allows you to create beautiful emails.
- Customer support is excellent.
- Allows easy list migration from other platforms.
- Offers third-party integrations. You can even connect with Zapier.
Flodesk Cons:
- Workflow tags are a bit difficult to use.
- Email automation is not very advanced.
Flodesk Review: Features
Flodesk offers many features offered by other famous email service providers. Let’s look into some of the most important features.
Intuitive Email Builder
The Flodesk email marketing software offers an intuitive email builder. Its drag-and-drop interface will allow you to design emails people love to read. You can always start with a premade template.
You can quickly customize the template using the drag-and-drop feature. There are various elements available that you can add to your email. There are options for changing colors, fonts, images, etc.
With this flexibility, you can design stunning emails in just minutes and also ensure that they match your brand’s look and feel.
Stunning Templates
If you don’t want to create emails from scratch, Flodesk offers a wide range of templates that you can use to design emails people love to read.
You just need to select a template and start customizing its design to ensure that it reflects the design language of your business.
There are different categories of templates available such as:
- Welcome
- Share news
- Say thanks
- Make money
- Inspire, etc.
All templates have responsive designs so that you can send beautiful emails to both desktop and mobile users. You can preview your emails for both desktop and mobile devices before sending them to your subscribers.
Beautiful Forms & Landing Pages
How many subscribers you get will depend on how well you attract them to sign up. This is where you will need a well-designed opt-in form or a landing page. These are tools to capture email ids.
You can use Flodesk to create beautiful opt-in forms and landing pages that you can easily embed on your website. There are templates available for these tools that you can edit any template with a custom message, font, color, etc., to create a stunning form to grow your subscribers or contact list.
Flodesk allows different types of forms such as inline, popup, and full-page forms. You can even decide when and who to show these forms. You can decide to get notified when a subscriber opts in.
These forms and landing pages are all responsive, and hence, they look fabulous on any device.
Email Automation
To ensure that more people are subscribing and your business earns more profits, you must automate your email marketing efforts. Unfortunately, the email automation features of Flodesk are not as robust as its major competitors.
Email automation can be used to send welcome emails or other emails based on various actions taken by subscribers. These actions are called triggers. For example, every time there is a new subscriber, you don’t need to manually send a welcome email or perhaps a video guide for your courses or products.
You can use Flodesk to decide when to shoot an automated email workflow. There are four available workflow templates. You can create a custom workflow if you want.
Creating workflows is simple. You start by selecting a trigger and a subscriber segment and then build a workflow using conditions and actions.
For subscribers and potential customers who need a lot of nurturing, you can create lengthy workflows. However, remember not to send too many automated emails in quick succession because those who join your email list can consider that spam.
Subscriber Segmentation
For any small business, subscriber segmentation is important to send hyper-personalized emails. With the Flodesk email marketing platform, you can segment your subscribers in various ways.
Flodesk will even allow you to color-code each segment. You can segment your email list based on factors like the link they clicked on, the channel through which they subscribed, and more.
However, if you want to segment your subscribers based on the links they click, you can do so only during a workflow. There are options available for adding new subscribers to an existing segment, removing subscribers from a segment, and even merging segments.
Segmentation helps you to manage your email list way more effectively and ensure that highly targeted emails land in their inboxes. This ensures that your subscribers find you relevant and also feel as if you are talking directly to them.
Organizing Folders
You may build hundreds of beautiful emails, workflows, and forms that perform well. But keeping them organized is necessary. This is where Flodesk folders come in. You can organize your emails, workflows, and forms in different folders.
For example, you may send out a specific type of newsletter every Friday or once every week. So, you can organize all those newsletters in an aptly named folder.
Creating folders is simple. You start by navigating to your email or workflow or form listing page, click on the large ‘Folder’ button and then create a folder and fill in a name for your folder. Finally, you can easily move your content to a folder either during the folder creation or later.
Flodesk Analytics
Flodesk doesn’t have advanced analytics features, but whatever they provide is enough to help you develop a more effective email marketing strategy.
It provides various important data points such as:
- How many emails were sent and delivered?
- How many people opened your emails?
- How many times a particular email has been opened?
- How many clicks were made?
There are more options like open rate, click rate, opens by device, bounces, unsubscribes, spam, etc. You can get an overview, but you can drill down further and find details like time of delivery, opened, clicked, etc.
Based on the details, you can adjust email delivery timings, create different email designs and write more engaging emails.
To check your email analytics, log in to your Flodesk account from any browser and visit your ‘Emails’ dashboard. Hover your mouse cursor on any sent email and then click on view results.
You can also see analytics data for individual subscribers including lifetime open & click rates, the total number of emails they opened, and so on.
Integrations
This is where Flodesk needs to improve. They have direct integrations available for Shopify and Instagram, but that’s all! However, they do have Zapier integration available, which allows you to connect to additional third-party apps like Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, WebinarJam, and more.
If you are interested or if you need, you can see the full list of integrations here.
Flodesk Pricing
Flodesk has simple pricing. There is only one plan that costs $38 a month. If you select annual payment, you need to pay $418 (one month free).
For that price you get:
- Unlimited emails
- Unlimited subscribers
- Unlimited landing pages
- Unlimited automations
However, if you purchase through the link below you’ll get 50% OFF your first year.
Flodesk Alternatives
Flodesk vs Mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of the oldest email marketing apps. It can get incredibly pricey as your email list grows. Though Mailchimp offers templates for forms and emails, the options are quite limited.
Unfortunately, their forms aren’t very intuitive and visually appealing. But unlike Flodesk, Mailchimp has more integrations and powerful automation options that are suitable for professional email marketers.
Flodesk vs Convertkit
Similar to Mailchimp, Convertkit is also very pricey and you can end up paying up to $2,166 a month. That’s insane when compared to $418 a year for Flodesk.
Though Convertkit offers more advanced workflows and a greater number of templates & integrations, it has a very steep learning curve, making it unsuitable for rookies.
Flodesk vs ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is a highly advanced email marketing suite that offers CRM integration, SMS marketing, contact scoring, split automations, and more. It comes with a very steep learning curve and is perfect for advanced marketers and medium to big companies.
Flodesk, on the other hand, is much simpler and focuses on email marketing, making it suitable for individuals, like travel bloggers and small business owners. Also, it is much cheaper considering that they charge only $38 no matter the size of your email list.
Flodesk Review: Summary
Flodesk is a powerful email service provider that is perfect for small businesses on a tight budget.
It allows you to be creative and design beautiful emails, opt-in forms, and landing pages, all of which have responsive design and look great on every device.
Its single flat-rate model is perfect for lifestyle bloggers who cannot afford to pay a hefty price for growing email lists. It offers a decent amount of analytics data and automation capabilities that are sufficient for most users.
Flodesk Review: FAQ
What is Flodesk used for?
Flodesk is an email marketing program that you can use to send promotional emails, newsletters, offers, and much more to your email list. It can even help you to create email lists using opt-in forms and landing pages. You can use email automations to supercharge your email marketing efforts.
Is Flodesk a landing page?
Flodesk is a SaaS application for email marketing. It has options to create landing pages that you can use for capturing emails. You can either be creative and build landing pages from scratch or you can use one of their many templates and customize them as per your needs. You can share the landing pages on your website, Facebook, or Twitter account.
Can I use Flodesk for free?
No, Flodesk does not have a free version, but they have a free trial that you can use for 30 days without giving up your credit card details. You can sign up to join Flodesk and test all its tools and functions for 30 days before giving them a dime.
What are the downsides of Flodesk?
Before investing on the tool, it is cirtical to ensure that you conduct a thorough Flodesk review. While Flodesk offers a range of benefits, some users have noted a few downsides. The platform’s advanced features may not be as extensive as some other email marketing services, potentially limiting more sophisticated email campaigns. Additionally, while the email editor is user-friendly, there might be limitations in fully customizable templates for users with very specific brand colors or design needs. Lastly, while the Flodesk support team is helpful, response times can vary.
Is Flodesk good for email marketing?
Absolutely! Flodesk is a highly effective email marketing tool, especially favored by lifestyle bloggers for its ease of use and aesthetic appeal. The platform allows you to send emails with attractive emails and well-designed signup forms that can enhance your subscriber list engagement. Its ability to schedule emails and track click-through rates makes it a robust choice for executing strategic email sequences.
What are the benefits of Flodesk?
Flodesk shines in several areas, making it a great choice for email marketing. Key benefits include its user-friendly email platform, which allows the creation of beautiful and attractive emails with ease. It offers fully customizable templates that can be tailored to your brand colors, enhancing your brand identity. Additionally, the Flodesk form feature is ideal for growing your subscriber list, and the platform’s affordable Flodesk cost structure makes it accessible for businesses of all sizes.
How does Flodesk support lifestyle bloggers in their marketing efforts?
Flodesk is uniquely positioned to support lifestyle bloggers with its visually appealing templates and intuitive email editor. The platform makes it easy to create email campaigns that resonate with a blogger’s audience. From attractive emails that reflect a blogger’s style to the ease of managing a subscriber list, Flodesk helps maintain a consistent and engaging presence in their audience’s inbox.
Can Flodesk help in improving my email campaign’s performance metrics?
Yes, Flodesk provides valuable insights into your email campaign’s performance. It tracks metrics such as click-through rate and bounce rate, offering data that can help refine your strategies and improve engagement. By analyzing these metrics, you can tailor your email sequences for better performance and higher engagement.
Is Flodesk cost-effective for small businesses and solopreneurs?
Flodesk is particularly cost-effective for small businesses and solopreneurs. Its pricing model is simple and affordable, making it a great email marketing tool for those on a budget. The value it provides in terms of the quality of email campaigns and the ability to effectively manage a subscriber list makes it a smart investment for growing businesses.
How does Flodesk integrate with other platforms and services?
Flodesk seamlessly integrates with a variety of other platforms and services, making it a versatile email marketing tool. This integration capability allows users to easily import their subscriber list, connect with e-commerce platforms, and use third-party services to enhance their email campaigns.
What type of support does Flodesk offer its users?
Flodesk’s support team is known for being responsive and helpful. They offer support through various channels, including email and an extensive knowledge base. This ensures that users can get timely assistance with any aspect of using the Flodesk platform, from setting up email sequences to customizing templates.