Writing is my passion, but loving what I do wasn’t enough to generate income from my blog.
Learning how to do keyword research or create a blog content strategy are some steps I had to take while building my blog portfolio.
I wouldn’t be where I am now without the email automation and lead generation tools that allowed me to extend my list of subscribers and keep an open line of communication with my followers.
ConvertKit was one of the first email marketing automation and lead gen tools I’ve ever used.
Initially, I tried the platform for free since my subscriber list had less than 1,000 contacts. I upgraded to the Creator Pro plan once it became clear that I needed a more comprehensive range of tools to manage communication with my subscribers.
Years later, I think ConvertKit is an excellent solution for content creators who run a YouTube channel or a blog because it allows them to develop their email marketing strategies as their businesses grow.
My ConvertKit review will give you an overview of the platform’s features and cover why I consider it the top email marketing and lead gen solution.
What is ConvertKit?
Communication is at the core of everything content creators do.
Besides communicating with the audience through the content they produce, artists, bloggers, photographers, or YouTubers also need a way to keep their subscribers informed about the latest posts, news and offers.
That’s where ConvertKit comes into conversion.
The platform provides a set of tools creatives need to automate their email communication, grow their follower base and sell their digital goods.
In addition to helping its users promote their blogs, ConvertKit also offers a variety of ways to sell products and capture leads.
Even though platforms like Mailchimp and Sendinblue have more versatile toolsets, ConvertKit offers everything most content creators need to launch and manage successful email marketing campaigns.
Here’s what you can do with ConvertKit:
- Create and manage a subscriber list
- Build signup forms and landing pages
- Customize email templates
- Send email sequences
- Save content snippets
- Set up automation rules
- Sell subscriptions and digital products
The platform doesn’t limit the number of emails you can send to your clients every month, but the maximum number of subscribers you can have depends on your chosen pricing.
Visual automation builder and automated email sequences aren’t included in the platform’s free plan.
ConvertKit has a 98% delivery rate, meaning that most emails you send will end up in your subscribers’ inboxes.
Moreover, the platform gives users access to metrics like open rates or click rates and allows them to monitor the performance of each email they send.
Who Should Use ConvertKit?
You don’t have to be a digital marketing professional to start using ConvertKit.
You don’t need any previous experience to launch an email marketing campaign or build a landing page with this platform.
Completing ConvertKit’s open courses will better understand its features and how to use them to develop your online business and increase your income.
The platform’s live and on-demand workshops can help you build subscriber lists with more than 1,000 contacts or write emails that drive sales.
I think ConvertKit is an excellent option for photographers, filmmakers, online educators, or owners of small e-commerce stores.
Still, its email marketing and lead generation options are tailored to meet the needs of content creators, and they’re not powerful enough for large companies or advertising agencies.
It’s also worth adding that the cost of ConvertKit’s services increases with the size of your contact list.
ConvertKit Key Features
One of the first things about ConvertKit that caught my attention was how user-friendly it is since adding a new contact or designing an email takes just a few clicks.
All tools are located in the following drop-down menus:
- Grow
- Send
- Automate
- Earn
The range of options you’ll have at your disposal will depend on the subscription models you select. However, you’ll have access to the features included in the Creator plan during the free trial period, and you can downgrade to the Free plan after the two-week trial expires.
Audience Growth
This menu contains the tools you’ll need to import and manage your contacts or generate leads by creating landing pages and signup forms.
Let’s look at ConvertKit’s tools to help you grow your audience.
Subscribers
Migrating a contact list from a different email marketing platform is quick and easy. You have to choose the platform you’re migrating from, paste your API key, and the platform will populate your subscriber list automatically.
Optionally, you can import an existing contact list as a CVS file, but you’ll have to ensure all automation rules you don’t want to use are disabled.
ConvertKit’s users can create new contacts manually from the Add Subscriber menu. Besides the subscriber’s name and email address, the menu also contains Forms, Sequences, and Tags features that let you choose the location to which the contact will be added.
Once you’ve uploaded your contact list, you can sort it based on one of the parameters below:
- Confirmed subscribers
- Unconfirmed subscribers
- Canceled subscribers
- Complained subscribers
- Bounced subscribers
- Blocked subscribers
- Cold subscribers
The platform allows you to add tags to a contact or segment the subscriber list based on their location, subscription date, and other parameters.
Moreover, the software lets you create different email topics in the Update Preferences emails you send to your contacts. Activating this option will enable your subscribers to choose the topics of emails they receive from you.
Landing Pages and Forms
ConvertKit’s lead generation tools are located in the Grow menu’s Form Signups and Landing Pages submenu. You can use these tools to invite potential clients to join a hosting webinar or subscribe to your mailing list.
In addition, you can embed signup forms on your website to offer free content updates, create opt-in forms for different content categories or make pop-up forms that provide products and services to your website’s visitors.
Creating a landing page is straightforward because ConvertKit offers hundreds of templates you can quickly customize. You can choose a template for one of the categories below:
- Podcast
- Event
- Waitlist
- eBook
- Product
- Links
- Video
- Webinar
- Newsletter
- Profile
The platform’s landing page builder lets you upload background images and choose the header and body text font. Also, you can change the text’s color and adjust the transparency of the content container element.
Clicking on the Publish button will enable you to choose if you want to host the landing page you created on ConvertKit or your domain.
The platform offers four form display formats, and you can choose from Inline, Modal, Sticky Bar, or Slide-In options. However, its selection of format templates is limited because users can choose from just nine template designs.
Users can adjust form settings and decide if they want to display success messages after a visitor subscribes to the form or choose how often the form should be shown to the website’s visitors.
The platform displays the number of subscribers, visitors, and conversion rate next to each landing page or form you create, making it easy to keep track of their performance.
Email Communication
ConvertKit’s email customization and personalization help its users create targeted marketing campaigns that ensure all subscriber receives the promotional message that matches their interests.
Templates and Email Builder
Defining the visual style of the emails you send to your contacts can significantly impact your conversion rates. The platform lets its users customize an existing template or create a new one using HTML and CSS code.
The feature-rich email builder makes template customization easy, so adjusting the background color or changing the header image doesn’t require much effort.
In addition, the email builder offers a variety of personalization options that enable you to add the contact’s first name or a personalized greeting to the templates.
All templates you customize will be displayed on the Email Templates page, so you can easily adjust them whenever you want to launch a campaign that targets a different segment of your subscriber list.
Broadcasts and Sequences
ConvertKit users can send two types of emails to their contacts. Broadcasts are one-time emails you can send to a segment or the entire contact list, while sequences are a series of emails sent over several days or weeks.
The platform lets you schedule when you want to send broadcasts and gives you access to a broad spectrum of tools that enable you to choose which contacts on your list are going to receive the email.
Setting the number of emails a sequence should contain, adjusting the frequency at which the emails will be sent, defining its behavior, or deciding which subscribers to exclude are some options you’ll have to adjust before publishing a sequence.
ConvertKit displays the number of subscribers, open rate, click rate, and unsubscribes under each sequence you create so that you can tweak the settings if a sequence isn’t producing the results you expected.
Content Snippets
This feature can help you create broadcasts or sequences faster because it allows you to save the text you frequently include in your email
Besides text, you can also include files, images, buttons, dividers, personalized messages, or HTML blocks you create.
After customizing a snippet, you can add it to a broadcast or a sequence from the platform’s email editor.
The snippet will be displayed as a tag in the email editor, and you have to send a test email or click on the preview button to see it.
Automation Options
ConvertKit eliminates the need to send thousands of emails manually and allows you to control when and how often your contacts receive emails from you.
Rules
Defining the automation rules involves choosing several triggers and actions that tell the software what to do when it detects a specific behavior.
So, for instance, you can add a tag to a contact when they subscribe to a form or remove a tag from the contact’s info after they perform a specific action.
The platform’s list of triggers includes these options
- A user subscribes to a sequence
- A user subscribes to a form
- A user completes a sequence
- A user clicks a link
- A user is tagged
- A tag is removed from a user
You can connect each of these triggers with these preset actions:
- Subscribe user to a sequence
- Unsubscribe the user from a sequence
- Subscribe user to a form
- Unsubscribe user from a form
- Tag a user
- Remove a tag from a user
You can also set custom field values for a subscriber, but extending the platform’s list of triggers and actions isn’t possible.
Visual Automation
Platform’s automated email funnels enable you to achieve a certain marketing goal without spending too much time working on it.
So, you can use visual automation to send content to contacts from a specific segment of your subscriber list or use the customer’s actions to design their journey.
ConvertKit offers a wide range of visual automation templates you can import to your account and use to promote the release of your new book, send free chapters from a book to your subscribers, or promote any other digital product.
You can assign a variety of triggers and actions to each step of the visual automation template you selected.
Moreover, you can insert additional events, actions, or conditions between steps to customize the customer journey further.
RSS and Integrations
This option lets you send notifications to your subscribers every time you share a new post by connecting your blog’s or website’s RSS feed to ConvertKit.
The feature can help bloggers send weekly updates about their latest blog posts or inform their subscribers whenever a new post becomes available on their blog’s feed.
ConvertKit supports integrations with Shopify, WordPress, Patreon, OptinMonster, and countless other third-party applications, enabling you to streamline all your workflows.
Selling Digital Goods
Content creators can use their ConvertKit accounts to sell digital products, so you don’t have to rely on the platform’s integration options to make an income.
Digital Products
You can add a digital product to your ConvertKit account in just a few steps. Clicking on the New Product icon in the Products menu will enable you to name your product and choose the type of product you want to create.
You’ll also have to provide payment, fulfillment, and domain details to complete the product creation process.
Remember that changing the pricing method or currency after creating a product isn’t possible. Also, you can choose to receive payments from ConvertKit as an individual or a company.
Content creators can use the platform to set up virtual tip jars they can use on their social media accounts or websites.
Tip jars offer artists, streamers, and vloggers an easy way to monetize their content by allowing their followers to donate preset or custom amounts.
How Much Does ConvertKit Cost?
Creating a ConvertKit account doesn’t cost anything. Moreover, you can continue using the platform for free after the two-week trial expires.
The Free plan is only available to content creators with fewer than 1,000 subscribers and doesn’t include visual automation templates or customer support.
The cost of Creator and Creator Pro plans depends on the number of email subscribers you have.
The price difference between monthly and annual payment models is minuscule, and you won’t be able to save a lot of money by paying your ConvertKit subscription yearly.
Let’s take a look at the features each plan includes:
| PRODUCT NAME | PRODUCT DESCRIPTION | PRODUCT PRICE |
| Free | Unlimited landing pages Unlimited link pages Unlimited email opt-in forms Unlimited broadcasts Contact list tagging and segmentation List growth reporting | Not available to users with more than 1,000 subscribers |
| Creator | Live chat and email support Visual automation templates One account team member No ConvertKit branding Automated email sequences RSS campaigns Free migration from other platforms | $29 per month or $25 per month billed annually for up to 1,000 subscribers |
| Creator Pro | Subscriber engagement scoring Newsletter referral system Advanced deliverability reporting Facebook custom audiences Edit links sent in broadcasts | $59 per month or $50 billed annually for up to 1,000 subscribers. |
Is ConvertKit Difficult to Use?
I didn’t consider myself an email marketing expert when I opened the ConvertKit account.
Still, I had no problems importing subscribers, building landing pages, or sending broadcast emails.
Mastering the software’s automation options was the most challenging part of using ConvertKit because it took me a while to understand how to define rules or set up an email funnel.
Creators without email marketing and lead generation experience can join the Creator University course and read tutorials or blog posts to learn how to use each platform’s tool.
Marketing professionals promoting innovative industry products won’t need much time to get used to ConvertKit’s interface.
ConvertKit Tutorial: Creating an Account and Getting Started
1. Click the Sign up free button in the upper right corner of ConvertKit’s homepage.
2. Enter your email and choose a password before agreeing to the terms and conditions and clicking on the Get started button.
3. Specify if you want to migrate to ConvertKit from another platform and then choose the Audience Size option that matches the size of your contact list.
4. Select the content you’d like to promote with ConvertKit and add your website to help the software acquire more information about your products.
5. Define the goal you want to achieve with ConvertKit, and click on the Continue button to complete the account setup process.
6. Go to the platform’s dashboard after you verify your account and start organizing your contact list or building your first landing page.
Does ConvertKit Have a Good Customer Service?
Users of the platform’s free plan must rely on ConvertKit’s community’s support whenever they encounter a problem.
This was one of the reasons why I upgraded the Creator plan shortly after I joined the platform. The plan includes a live chat feature that lets me quickly get answers to my questions.
In addition, you can contact customer service via email, but the response time might vary from a few hours to several days.
My experiences with ConvertKit’s customer services have always been positive, and the agents I’ve encountered were friendly and helpful. However, online reviews often mention customer support as one of the platform’s biggest weaknesses.
What Are People Saying About ConvertKit?
ConvertKit has a 2.7 Trustpilot score, but the software has just 18 reviews.
39% of those reviews are bad, while 11% of reviewers rated ConvertKit as poor. On the other hand, 50% of reviewers rated ConvertKit as excellent or outstanding.
Most bad reviews are written by novice users who managed to get their accounts locked a few days after opening them, which brings the credibility of their claims into question. Most reviewers who rated ConvertKit as excellent seem credible.
ConvertKit – Pros and Cons
[elementor-template id=”17688″]Frequently Asked Questions about ConvertKit
How many Emails Can I Send With ConvertKit?
The software doesn’t limit the number of emails you can send to your subscribers monthly, but it prevents you from sending more than ten emails per hour.
What is the ConvertKit’s Average Email Open Rate?
The platform’s average email open rate is around 20%.
Do ConvertKit Charge Transaction Fees for Sales of Digital Products?
Yes, the platform charges a fixed 3.5%+30c fee for each product you sell.
My Verdict: What Makes ConvertKit the Best Lead Gen and Email Service Provider?
Most content creators I’ve ever met struggled to find time to manage their contacts and send regular updates to subscribers, which made it difficult to monetize their content.
ConvertKit provides solutions to these problems by allowing content creators to automatically send emails or add new contacts.
I think ConvertKit is the best email service for artists, bloggers, YouTubers, vloggers, or gamers can choose.
However, marketers that manage multiple contact lists for their clients should explore other email marketing and lead gen platforms because they can’t email marketing campaigns for different clients with ConvertKit.