How to Switch from MailChimp to ConvertKit

If you’re going to switch, you’ll need to:

• Export your email lists from MailChimp and then upload them to ConvertKit.
• Copy the text and images from your autoresponder and other campaigns to a ConvertKit sequence.
• Change all of your opt-ins and landing pages so they connect to ConvertKit and not MailChimp.

Alternatively, you can connect to the MailChimp API and sync subscribers from one email provider to the other. Now, let’s cover what I use ConvertKit for.

1. Growing An Email List

Using ConvertKit, you can gather email subscribers by either creating a landing page or a form.

You can embed these forms on blog posts or other web pages and change the look and feel of them, so they match your website design. I publish forms regularly on this site to generate new subscribers.

After creating a form, write a short welcome email for a new subscriber. ConvertKit will send this to anyone who joints the form. You can even include a content upgrade or bonus.

ConvertKit provides a piece of code to use on your site to embed the form. You can also use a variation of this code to create a clickable button (my preferred option) calling on readers to subscribe.

Alternatively, use WordPress plugin, and it will appear automatically beneath posts. It’s easy to duplicate these forms across multiple posts and pages.

If you get stuck, check out the helpful videos in the ConvertKit Knowledgebase. Their support team usually reply to emails quickly.

The ConvertKit dashboard shows information about subscribers and list growth and what people opted in for.

It highlights how each landing page and content upgrade is performing. You can tracklist growth over the past 30, 60 or 90 days.

Having this information about an email list upfront should help professional bloggers and content creators concentrate on valuable marketing activities.

2. Promoting Blog Posts

It’s not enough to publish a blog post and hope readers will find it. You need to promote your writing, and you can’t count on a single tweet or Facebook update to attract new readers.

Email marketing should form an essential part of every content creator’s marketing strategy.

Here’s what I do:

Every Thursday, I publish a new blog post about writing on my site, on Medium or elsewhere. I send a broadcast email in ConvertKit to some of my email subscribers to promote weekly blog posts. I send one of two of these broadcast emails a week.

Now, people are busy, their inboxes fill up quickly, and they often miss these emails. So, my open rates usually hover around 30 per cent.

With the click of a button inside ConvertKit, I can resend this broadcasts to people who didn’t open the first email. I can even change the subject line and amend the copy within the email.

This resend email feature is a great way of increasing open rates and sending posts to subscribers who missed the article the first time around.

Resending emails to un-opens is a clever way of getting your writing in front of more people on your list, without sending the same emails to everyone on your list. You can even use this feature when launching a book or course to increase sales.

3. Delivering Content Upgrades

Content upgrades are a great way of growing your email list faster.

What is a content upgrade? It’s a free bonus you offer readers of your articles or blog posts. To get the bonus, a reader must opt-in to your list with their email address.

Examples of content upgrades include book chapters, videos, worksheets and so on. On Become a Writer Today, I offer:

• a blogging template for Scrivener users.
• a spreadsheet for tracking a daily word-count.
• a budget-breaking down how much it costs to write a book
• a free book of writing prompts.

I upload these content upgrades to ConvertKit and then deliver them automatically to readers who opt-in. This tactic is one of my favourites for growing an email list faster.

4. Basic Email Marketing

I set up an email sequence inside of ConvertKit for readers of my book The Power of Creativity. When a reader clicks on a link to this book inside an email, ConvertKit automatically sends them follow-up several days later. This broadcast email asks if them to leave a review.

If somebody clicks on a link, they’re automatically added to a new sequence or series of emails.

Users of ConvertKit can search for cold email subscribers and send an email prompting them to engage. Users can remove non-responses from their lists. Pruning a list like this helps with deliverability.

I spend an hour setting up several automations, writing email copy and tested it all worked. After that, I only needed to check my stats once a week to see if readers were engaged.

Services like Infusionsoft offer similar automation features, but unlike ConvertKit, they cost thousands of dollars to get and running.

5. Hosting Landing Pages

ConvertKit offers over a dozen different types of landing page templates. You can customize the look and feel of these to match your branding. Using a WordPress plugin, users can publish landing pages on their site or use a version hosted by ConvertKit.

I use my landing page to attract email subscribers for book readers. At the start of the book, I offer readers a free bonus if they opt. This links to a ConvertKit landing page.

The ConvertKit landing pages aren’t as powerful as what a premium landing page software like LeadPages offers, but they cover most basic use cases.

6. Email Autoresponders

Most professional bloggers and content creators have an autoresponder series. It’s a series of emails automatically sent to new email subscribers.

What should you include in your autoresponder? Well, you could:

• Introduce yourself and your writing.
• Send a series of educational messages or tips based on your latest book.
• Send new subscribers links to your most popular blog posts.
• Send new email subscribers a short survey so you can find out more about their hopes/fears/dreams/frustrations (like a good copywriter!).
• Introduce a soft-sell wherein you talk about one of your books and ask readers to buy it.

Putting an autoresponder together for the first time can feel intimidating. ConvertKit provides an autoresponder series template that is quick and easy to build out using a drag and drop visual editor.

7. Selling Products and Services

Inside of your ConvertKit account, you can easily set up products and services and sell them directly over email. You could sell:

• A book
• A course
• Coaching
• A webinar

It tracks sales of these products or services on a dashboard and assign a monetary value to email subscribers. You’ll also receive payment via Stripe.

Another cool feature?

You can set up an automated email that targets specific subscribers. That means, customers will receive one set of emails, whereas new subscribers will get another. I use this to send out discounts for some software I’m an affiliate for, to interested subscribers only.

8. Advanced Marketing Automation

ConvertKit offers several advanced marketing automation features.

For example, I have set up a rule set up for my course Write Your Book.

When somebody buys this course on Teachable, ConvertKit automatically adds the tag ‘student’ and sends this student a series of emails related to this course.

I can even use this tag to email these subscribers directly and track the dollar value of leads.

ConvertKit integrates with services like GumRoad, SamCart, WebinarNinja, LeadPages and more. Or you can connect it to Zapier. Then you can set up automations based on how you use these services.

That said, marketing automation is complex. I’ve dozens of forms and sequences inside of ConvertKit. Although the visual automation tools are insightful, the sequences and automation rules can become overwhelming.

ConvertKit Pricing

ConvertKit offers a free trial so you can test it for yourself. After that, expect to pay about $29 per month for basic features. The creator Pro version of ConvertKit (what I use) costs $59 per month.

ConvertKit Creator Pro

I started with the basic version back in 2016, and I signed up to ConvertKit Creator Pro in 2019. It offers several useful features for people with larger lists, such as:

• Advanced reports on the ConvertKit dashboard so I can see which forms are generating the most leads
• A free Sparkloop account: essentially this enables me to reward email subscribers who refer new subscribers.
• Support for Facebook custom audiences for running ads
• An ability to change URLS after I send a broadcast email with the wrong link. I use this feature the most.
• Support for adding team members like a virtual assistant
• Priority customer support

Is ConvertKit Worth the Money?

At USD29 a month, content creators may feel put off by paying for ConvertKit. However, you can take always test the free plan before moving your list over.

If you have a modest list and are happy selling some products or services, it’s relatively easy to cover the cost of your subscription using email marketing.

ConvertKit Review: The Final Word

Nathan Barry and the of ConvertKit developed this email marketing software program with content creators, i.e. bloggers and authors, in mind. These days, most small businesses with an online presence could benefit from it.

Although slightly more expensive than MailChimp, it costs far less than the likes of Infusionsoft. ConvertKit blends power and ease of use better than other software I’ve tried.

The ConvertKit team regularly add new features to this email marketing software. ConvertKit is essential for growing my online business. I’ve been a happy customer since 2016.