Should you’re on the lookout for your subsequent electronic mail advertising platform, and also you’re curious if Equipment is best for you, nicely, you’re in the best place! Right here’s our complete Equipment overview for 2024, which is able to cowl:
What Is Equipment?
Why do I want an electronic mail service supplier (ESP)?
The rebrand from ConvertKit to Equipment
Equipment Options
Equipment Pricing
Key Advantages of Equipment
Drawbacks of Equipment
Equipment & E-mail Advertising and marketing: Extra Assets to Learn, Pay attention & Study
What’s Equipment?
Equipment is an electronic mail service supplier (ESP). Primarily, it’s a expertise service that permits you to ship electronic mail campaigns to a listing of subscribers. Equipment is one among actually a whole bunch of ESPs on the market, and—full disclosure—it occurs to be the one we favor and use at SPI.
Though we’re biased, we will nonetheless be goal! On this submit, we’ll cowl the options, advantages, and downsides of Equipment as we see them, that can assist you determine if it’s the best ESP for your enterprise.
E-mail advertising technique: Why you want an ESP
Should you’re studying this, you would possibly already know what an ESP is and why you want one. However in case you don’t, an ESP is crucial piece of expertise to help your electronic mail advertising technique.
E-mail advertising is likely one of the strongest strategies to construct relationships and market your services and products to your viewers. Let’s discuss why that’s.
In its most simple type, electronic mail advertising includes you sending emails to a bunch of people that’ve chosen to listen to from you by “subscribing” to obtain emails from you. You possibly can technically use a easy electronic mail program like Gmail to perform this—however we don’t suggest it, since you’ll shortly discover it inadequate (and since your private electronic mail account will get flagged as spam if you happen to ship too many emails from it!).
As your enterprise grows and extra individuals subscribe to get your emails, you’ll need the flexibility to do extra subtle issues along with your electronic mail advertising, like customizing the emails individuals get in line with their pursuits, and utilizing reviews and analytics to find out what’s working nicely or not.
You additionally have to ensure you’re respecting individuals’s privateness and never spamming anybody. An electronic mail service supplier additionally lets you keep in compliance with authorities laws all over the world, such because the CAN-SPAM act in the US, the Common Knowledge Safety Regulation within the European Union (GDPR), and the Canada Anti-Spam Regulation (CASL).
Issues can shortly get out of hand with out the assistance of a devoted electronic mail advertising platform. That’s the place an ESP like Equipment is available in.
Okay, let’s get into the nitty gritty of Equipment’s options!
Psst… Need to develop your electronic mail listing and be taught highly effective segmentation and automation methods that enable your enterprise to run by itself? Try the E-mail Advertising and marketing Magic course.
Equipment options
These are the important thing options of Equipment, organized by the way you’ll use them.
Sending emails
Autoresponders/drip campaigns (sequences): Ship a sequence of pre-written emails mechanically to a particular section of subscribers in your listing, triggered by a particular occasion or motion, with the intention of guiding them to take a particular motion.
Broadcast emails: Ship commonplace bulletins or one-time emails to your subscribers on a particular date.
CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and CASL compliance: CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and CASL are legal guidelines that set the foundations and necessities for business electronic mail messages, and provides recipients the best to have you ever cease emailing them—so compliance is essential!
Dynamic (personalised) electronic mail content material: Your electronic mail content material can show completely different textual content or photographs, in line with your buyer segmentation.
Responsive electronic mail templates: Prepared-to-go electronic mail designs, in addition to the flexibility to create your individual customized templates. Equipment mechanically codecs your touchdown pages for varied units, equivalent to desktop computer systems and cell phones.
WYSIWYG electronic mail editor: The built-in electronic mail editor permits you to see how your electronic mail will look along with your template’s styling utilized when you’re composing it.
Gathering new subscribers
Customized responsive touchdown pages: Use the included software to shortly create a touchdown web page to gather electronic mail addresses. Equipment mechanically codecs your touchdown pages for varied units, equivalent to desktop computer systems and cell phones.
Embeddable types: Gather electronic mail subscribers anyplace in your web site by dropping in a Javascript or HTML type, or by utilizing the WordPress plugin.
Web site builder: Create an internet site instantly on Equipment to publish newsletters, host a digital storefront to gather fee for one-time or subscription merchandise, and construct customized pages. Arrange a touchdown web page and accumulate fee for one-time or subscription merchandise proper inside Equipment.
Visible automations: Equipment lets you create rule-based paths utilizing if-then logic, in order that when a subscriber takes a specific motion, you’ll be able to ship them pre-defined emails or add them to a section.
Studying about your subscribers
A/B testing: Equipment permits you to take a look at completely different topic strains to your emails, and mechanically determines the winner primarily based on their respective open charges.
Reporting/analytics/ROI monitoring: Learn the way typically your subscribers open your emails, click on on hyperlinks, and full varied actions.
Segmentation/tagging: Segmenting your subscribers into completely different classes (just like however extra highly effective than different packages’ “lists”) lets you ship them emails which can be higher tailor-made to their wants and pursuits.
Polls. Add polls on to emails to interact with and accumulate details about subscribers, which you’ll then use to construct segments.
Rising your earnings
In 2022, Equipment Commerce was added to the platform, permitting customers to strive promoting digital merchandise to their subscribers by creating custom-made product pages that may be embedded in your emails, together with automated gross sales funnels.
The present iteration of Equipment additionally contains a web site builder. You may create an internet site instantly on Equipment to publish newsletters, host a digital storefront to gather fee for one-time or subscription merchandise, and construct customized pages.
Connecting with and supporting different creators: The Creator Community
In 2023, Equipment launched the Creator Community, which helps customers information their viewers members to find different creators and get found in flip.
You can even receives a commission for Creator Community suggestions you make through the aptly named Paid Suggestions.
Increasing the platform’s capabilities: App retailer
As a part of the 2024 rebrand, in addition they launched an app retailer, the place you could find customized apps to do extra with Equipment. The app retailer will launch with 5 apps: KitBoard (add CRM to your account), Wordsmith (flip YouTube movies into newsletters, SavvyCal (add reserving widgets to emails), Mighty (join your Mighty group and content material with Equipment), and SegMetrics (find out about the way you acquire, have interaction, and convert subscribers).
Equipment additionally provides a self-service app builder to create your individual add-ons. (As of this writing, the service is at the moment in beta.)
Begin your Equipment account — free to your first 10,000 subscribers!
That is an affiliate hyperlink
From “ConvertKit” to “Equipment”: Behind the rebrand
In summer time 2024, the corporate beforehand often called ConvertKit formally turned Equipment. The brand new title was introduced in July in the course of the Craft + Commerce Creator Convention and went dwell in October. (That they had beforehand rebranded to Seva in 2018, however appreciable adverse suggestions to the brand new title induced them to revert to ConvertKit till this yr.)
The change to Equipment was greater than a reputation change, although, as a result of the corporate launched a number of large new capabilities to their platform as nicely. We lined a number of the new options within the part above, however listed here are the highlights:
An app retailer the place builders can create add-ons to enhance Equipment’s capabilities
A central information hub with enhanced reporting
An expanded Creator Community to assist customers discover new collaboration companions
Equipment additionally made a degree of rebranding in public by sharing details about the rebranding course of by weblog updates, live-streamed design periods, and a four-part YouTube mini-documentary. This transparency offers an attention-grabbing perception into the corporate’s pondering. And we expect it’s a sensible transfer given how their earlier rebrand went.
With that out of the best way, let’s discuss pricing.
Equipment pricing
For a very long time, Equipment solely provided paid plans. However in December 2019, the corporate introduced a brand new free tier in case you have fewer than 1,000 subscribers. They not too long ago expanded the free tier to incorporate creators with as much as 10,000 subscribers.
Listed here are Equipment’s pricing choices as of October 2024:
Equipment Publication Plan
$0/month for as much as 10,000 subscribers
The Publication plan contains:
1 fundamental Visible Automation
1 electronic mail Sequence
1 person
Limitless touchdown pages, opt-in types, and electronic mail broadcasts
Viewers tagging & segmentation
Promote digital merchandise
Run paid newsletters & subscriptions
Publication feed & web site
API Entry
Free Suggestions (required—no less than one advice slot to develop your listing by cross-promoting with different creators)
Good Suggestions (auto-recommendation of comparable creators that can assist you develop your listing)
24/7 help
Equipment Creator Plan
$9/month for as much as 300 subscribers (paid yearly; $15 if paid month-to-month)
$25/month for as much as 1,000 subscribers (paid yearly; $29 if paid month-to-month)
Tiered pricing as much as $1,916/month (paid yearly; $1,916 if paid month-to-month) for as much as 400,000 subscribers
The Creator plan contains:
All of the options of the Publication plan
Limitless Visible Automations
Limitless electronic mail Sequences
2 customers
Free migration from one other software
Free Suggestions
Paid Suggestions
Take away Equipment branding
Third-party integrations
RSS campaigns
Polls
Equipment Creator Professional Plan
$25/month for as much as 300 subscribers (paid yearly; $29 if paid month-to-month)
$50/month for as much as 1,000 subscribers (paid yearly; $59 if paid month-to-month)
Tiered pricing as much as $2,166/month (paid yearly; $2,599 paid month-to-month) for as much as 400,000 subscribers
The Creator Professional plan contains:
All of the options of the Creator plan
Limitless Visible Automations
Limitless electronic mail Sequences
Limitless customers
Fb customized audiences
Publication referral system
Edit hyperlinks in despatched broadcasts
Subscriber engagement scoring
Superior deliverability reporting
Insights dashboard
24/7 Precedence help
Each the Creator and Creator Professional plans provide a 14-day free trial so you’ll be able to see if it’s best for you earlier than committing.
We’ll preserve this submit up to date with the newest Equipment pricing, however you may as well go to the pricing web page on the Equipment web site.
Let’s get into the explanations we like Equipment subsequent!
Advantages of Equipment
We’ve used Equipment to energy Good Passive Earnings’s electronic mail advertising for a number of years. In that point, we’ve discovered it to be the best ESP for our wants. We additionally assume it’s an excellent answer for a variety of entrepreneurs and digital creators on the lookout for a sturdy, feature-rich electronic mail advertising platform.
The most effective electronic mail service supplier for brand spanking new entrepreneurs.
Straightforward to be taught, highly effective once you want it.
That is an affiliate hyperlink
From the place we sit, the facility of Equipment falls into two foremost classes: person advantages, and viewers advantages.
Equipment advantages from the person’s standpoint
First, Equipment has every part a enterprise proprietor must rise up and working shortly:
You may accumulate emails.
You may arrange a easy touchdown web page to gather emails.
You may promote merchandise (one-time buy or subscription).
These options enable somebody to begin promoting even whereas they’re within the strategy of organising an internet site elsewhere. It additionally makes it straightforward to execute on one of many foremost classes in our Good From Scratch course: utilizing promoting as a key step within the idea-validation course of.
Second, the Equipment staff designed their platform to develop with the sophistication of the person. If you begin, you most likely simply need to accumulate electronic mail addresses and ship emails. However as you develop, you’ll need to begin tailoring your message and segmenting your viewers. At that time you’ll be able to benefit from issues like automations and dynamic content material. As you and your enterprise turn out to be extra superior, the Creator Professional Plan is the next move—you received’t have to change to a special electronic mail service supplier 5 years down the highway. This units Equipment aside from another ESPs, notably Mailchimp.
Some individuals discover Equipment a bit daunting (see Drawbacks under), however if you happen to’re considerably tech-savvy we expect it’s fairly approachable. Specifically, we just like the accessibility of Equipment’s automation builder, which helps you to create automations in an easy, linear means.
We tried Infusionsoft for a yr and located its automation builder progressive however overwhelming. You needed to already perceive how automations work, in addition to the assorted symbols frequent in automation builders. We discover Equipment’s automation builder, however, makes it straightforward to string automations collectively in a complicated means. With a number of templates to select from, organising an automation for the primary time is straightforward for any person.
We additionally like Equipment’s strategy to subscriber administration. With Equipment, all of your subscribers go into one large pool; there aren’t any lists. As a substitute, subscribers could be put into segments by assigning them attributes utilizing tags and customized fields. These allow you to deal with your subscribers as distinctive people with completely different wants; not all subscribers are created equal. The opposite advantage of the best way Equipment treats subscribers? You’re solely charged as soon as for every distinctive subscriber, not like another ESPs.
Equipment’s not too long ago launched Creator Community can also be an enormous plus in our eyes, from each a business-building and community-building perspective. It lets you develop your subscriber base whereas additionally fostering connections with different entrepreneurs and creators.
Final however not least, if you happen to’re transferring from one other ESP like Mailchimp or AWeber, Equipment provides a free migration service that may take a number of the headache out of switching.
Equipment advantages to your viewers
Equipment offers you the chance to tailor your messaging to your viewers. You may have as many types and touchdown pages as you need. You may have as many tags, customized fields, and segments as you need. You could be as particular in speaking to your viewers as you need to be.
As you accumulate details about your viewers, you can begin to section subscribers so that you don’t trouble individuals with issues they aren’t fascinated by. Equipment makes it straightforward to gather particulars about your viewers alongside the best way, and also you aren’t penalized for that by greater prices, as you’d be with a list-based electronic mail platform.
Drawbacks of Equipment
No answer is ideal, in fact. Listed here are a number of the drawbacks we and different Equipment customers have observed.
Reasonably steep studying curve. The interface generally is a little overwhelming for a newbie. Taking full benefit of all of Equipment’s options—like segmentation, tagging, and automations—requires some studying (and probably coding). You may shorten this studying curve by following their Getting Began video collection, in addition to the remainder of the content material on their well-organized help web site
No list-based group. Though we like the best way Equipment permits you to manage subscribers utilizing tags (and doesn’t cost you for duplicate subscribers, as we talked about above), the dearth of a list-based group system could be complicated if you happen to’re coming from different platforms. Over time, although, we expect you’ll discover this technique extra versatile than managing lists.
Barebones electronic mail and touchdown web page templates. Equipment requires CSS coding to create customized superior electronic mail templates and touchdown pages past the included choices. Some customers report that the e-mail design software could be buggy.
Analytics may very well be extra strong. The free and Creator plans don’t provide the identical superior deliverability reporting, subscriber scoring, and analytics options of the Perception function that the Creator Professional plan provides, which is sensible however could also be a hassle to some customers.
Fortunately, one of many earlier drawbacks of Equipment, that there was no free possibility, hasn’t been the case since 2019. This free tier makes Equipment comparable on the entry degree to different standard ESP choices like Mailchimp.
Lastly, that is not at all a disadvantage, however as Equipment continues to develop its choices to incorporate issues just like the Creator Community and Equipment Commerce to its core electronic mail advertising capabilities, there’s an opportunity that the platform’s worth might get unfold skinny. To be clear, we don’t assume that is going to occur and have lots of confidence in Nathan and the Equipment staff, but it surely’s value holding in thoughts.
Our large takeaway on Equipment
With the current updates, Equipment is coming nearer to being a one-stop store for creators who need to develop, nurture, and promote to their audiences with a platform that’s largely prepared to make use of and automatable. Should you’re on the lookout for your first or subsequent electronic mail advertising platform, we expect it’s an excellent answer for rising your viewers and rising your earnings whereas retaining inventive management over what you place out into the world!
Equipment & electronic mail advertising: Extra sources to learn, pay attention & be taught
So there you may have it—our overview of Equipment’s electronic mail advertising platform! We’ll go away you with just a few extra sources if you happen to’re interested by Equipment, or need to dig additional into electronic mail advertising.
Equipment [Full Disclosure: As an affiliate, we receive compensation if you purchase through this link.]
SPI 825: Behind the Scenes of a Main Rebrand & Classes Discovered After a Laborious Fail—my dialog with Equipment CEO Nathan Barry about setting his firm’s sights on extra formidable objectives with the rebrand.
What Is E-mail Advertising and marketing? + Finest Practices: An SPI How-to Information
E-mail Advertising and marketing Magic Course
AP 0712: How Do I Migrate an E-mail Checklist from AWeber to Equipment? – Good Passive Earnings
Why I Switched from Aweber to Infusionsoft to ConvertKitI hope this submit has been useful in deciding whether or not Equipment is the best ESP for your enterprise. No matter electronic mail advertising platform you select, nothing is extra vital than having the best electronic mail advertising technique, so be sure you try our important information to electronic mail advertising and think about the E-mail Advertising and marketing Magic course in order for you extra hands-on help along with your electronic mail advertising, obtainable contained in the SPI Neighborhood. Good luck!