A few months ago I hit the limit on my free Mailchimp email list. I knew I’d get to this point sooner or later and simply started paying for their upgrade without much thought. A few weeks later a gorgeous email from a fellow artist landed in my inbox. It was an art-filled experience and a conversation and I loved it. That email got me thinking about how I would like to send emails in 2020.

Enter, my deep dive into the pros and cons of 3 email marketing platforms and which one I chose to go with.

Here is my breakdown of the pros and cons that I found with each platform. It’s not an exhaustive list, and I’m sure you’ll have things that to you are perhaps more important (I don’t use A/B testing for example) but I hope it provides some insights into what these three have to offer.

Mailchimp

I’ve been using their services for years without issue. They’re easy to set up and I love that they have an in-person app that I can use for signups at shows. Since I have a Squarespace website they also integrate seamlessly with this platform.

pros

• Free account up to a certain minimum subscriber list of 2,000 contacts

• Easy to set up and use

• Other features like Ads and e-commerce

• Integration into Squarespace for easy signups

• App for in-person signups

• Auto senders

Cons

• Price jumps to $30/m once you go past the 2,000 contacts and need to start paying

• A lot going on on the backend and can be a bit overwhelming

• Emails take a bit more work to feel clean and “artistic” when formatting

• Auto senders can feel a bit complicated to set up

Recommendation

I would still recommend this platform for anyone starting out that needs somewhere to begin their email list. It’s free and gives you everything you need to create a wonderful experience for your readers.

Squarespace

I’ve had a Squarespace website for a very long time and am really happy with their service and was thrilled to hear that they offered an email marketing service.

Diving down the research hole I decided to sign up for their 2nd basic plan ($14/m) to see how automation worked and how it felt setting up emails. Since it’s already connected to my store I loved the feature to be able to integrate linked items seamlessly as well as the smooth drag-and-drop features. Overall a really good experience.

Pros

• Easy setup

• Integration with products in your Squarespace shop

• Clean design with templates that keep the look and feel of your emails readable yet up-to-date looking

• Some automation

• Easy drag and drop creation and consistent design features for typography and branding

Cons

• Lacking some automation features (eg. emails sent based on links clicked)

• Missing a lot of analytics that you might be used to in other platforms

• Email templates can feel a little “corporate” or too clean and can take a bit of extra work to stylize to your brand

• You have to pay for a higher tier to get email automations

Recommendation

Anyone that already has a Squarespace site and is looking to upgrade to a paid subscription this is a viable option. It’s much easier to use than MailChimp and I feel is a much more pleasant experience to design email in with the drag and drop features. You will have to pay for the $14/m plan in order to get automations however which is unfortunate.

Flodesk

I’d never heard of this platform until about 4 months ago when I started seeing it pop up in my inbox from artist and entrepreneurs from time to time. Their emails were beautiful! After having use this platform for a month I admittedly had a few concerns but was won over in the end by how easy it was to create and send something beautiful to my email list.

Overall I decided to go with Flodesk because of how well it fits with my brand as an artist.

Emails are image first and focus on beautiful typography options as well and plenty of options to add artwork throughout an email. I also could not be happier with how easy it is to create email signup forms as well as automations. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what their analytics pages look like after seeing their workflows page.

Since this is still in beta I decided to join now because the ease of sending emails for me far outweighs the cons of not easily being able to see a few missing analytics trends, data I don’t really have a ton of use for right now.

Pros

• Easy to setup and send your first email

• Drag and drop features

• Branding customization

• Easy, intuitive and very customizable email automation workflows

• Image focused

• One monthly price with unlimited subscribers

cons

• Missing a lot of the analytics I am used to in MailChimp (I contacted their team and this is a feature that is coming, just not out yet as the time of this post). Not a deal killer - open rates are easily accessible for each email but it’s lacking a page for broader trends you might be used to seeing elsewhere.

• Email templates can feel cluttery and overwhelming. Use these with moderation!

Recommendation

I would recommend signing up if you’re where I am at and interested in a way to connect deeper with your audience. Flodesk is the perfect addition for any entrepreneur or artist that is interested in sending visually appealing emails. They make creating the email process feel simpler through the drag and drop system too. All the features combined with the price and unlimited subscribers got me!

As I mentioned above, right now they are in beta with more features released regularly. Since they are right now they’re offering a generous 50% off if you sign up with this link!

Not sure if it’s for you? Give check out their free trial which is what I used and gives you access to all the features to experiment and play.

Enjoy!

*links in this post are affiliate links and if you use them to make a purchase I will earn a commission. I’m only interested in sharing companies I love working with and think you will too!