Should you pay for an email service?

Emails are still the best ways to reach your core audience. I will say having an email list is my sure-fire way of gaining clients and keeping them. I also enjoy giving my email people exclusive things that everyone else can’t get. I have 3 email lists. One for Sweetgrass Roots, One for It’s Really Kita, and one for Kitaography. I’ll break down each one of my newsletters, what platform I was using and what I’m using now plus talk about Flodesk the new email platform that everyone is getting on. I will also answer the question should you pay for an email service.

Should you pay for an email service?

I will quickly run down my 3 newsletters and what I offer in each one and what platform I am currently using for them.

Sweetgrass Roots – This newsletter is for my T-shirt business. Since this is more of a hobby I have gone back and forth with email lists for this. I was on Mailchimp and my website is still set up for mailchimp (pop up window) but I paid for flodesk. I am on the fence with if I should continue to pay for flodesk if I plan on making this my hobby (selling shirts). I would definitely need to make that 19 bucks a month to continue on with flodesk for this email. For now, I will stick with flodesk but I may end up going back to Mailchimp because it would be free since I don’t have a large number of people on that list. This newsletter I offer exclusive shirts, not for sale to the general public and you get deals on shirts that are a steal basically you are just paying for shipping and handling.

Kitaography – I just started this one and I am on Flodesk as well. I like flodesk for this one because this is actually my moneymaker so I make that 19 bucks a month to pay for the service. In this newsletter, I offer free photoshoots and I give away some tips and tools that I use. It’s also a lot of pretty photos in this one.

It’s Really Kita – This is the biggest list I have! This is where you get the crazy side of me. I call it Talk Tuesday where I come out every other Tuesday with some funny mess that goes on. This newsletter will make you laugh, cry, and probably cuss me out but it’s the fun one. I was on Mailchimp with this one but they kicked me out. Message me on social media to find out why if you are curious. You are probably wondering why I still even deal with them for Sweetgrass…well it’s free that’s why. I went to Convertkit but I didn’t want to pay the fees and now I am wondering if I should switch to Flodesk for this. For now, I’m on Mailerlite which I like and again….FREE.

So now that I have broken down my emails let’s discuss why I like Flodesk.

1. It’s easy for even a challenged person like me. I am bad when it comes to designing emails and this makes it so easy to do a quick email in minutes. I literally did my Photography email in less than 10 min.
2. Two boss women own this…enough said
3. You can launch a lead magnet in minutes. If you need people to sign up just create a page on your website and put in the html code to get people to sign up.
4. Did I mention that it’s fancy! I love the style of it and I feel so bougie when I send out my newsletter. It doesn’t look plain and uninviting like other email platforms.

Now let’s discuss the price. It’s half off if you use this code (this is an affiliate link) and you are locked in no matter how many subscribers you have. Let’s be honest though I feel that if you don’t have at least 100 subscribers sign up for mailerlite for free unless you just have 19 bucks to give away monthly. I only have flodesk for kitaography and sweetgrass because I make money with those and I can make my 19 bucks a month to offset that cost. Since my blog doesn’t make any money I don’t feel like I need to pay 19 bucks for it although it’s my biggest list. Maybe I’m tripping so y’all let me know.

Having an email is the best way to get customers and clients that truly want what you are offering. I started with 10 then grew and each of my lists has over 150 people on it. I like that it’s small because I know mostly everyone on the list. I offered some tips on how to get people to open your email here.

Which email platform do you prefer? Do you even send out emails? I know some people avoid that and just put something on their website where people can access with a code.