The Marketing Tool I Can’t Live Without…
When you’re a small business owner, there are so many things to do, amiright? A constant living list of tasks to complete, emails to keep up with, employees to manage, clients to keep happy…it is never ending. Throw in all the different apps and platforms to keep up with, and entrepreneurship can feel like a true circus. When it comes to tools to help streamline your business, you can again find a never ending list. The possibilities are endless, and I don’t know about you, but to me “endless possibilities” sounds a lot like “overwhelm”. I could get lost researching all of them, landing myself in a place of decision exhaustion with time and energy depleted.
That’s why when you find something you love and that truly makes your life easier and your business run smoother, you can’t say no. You got to take that tool, shove it in your pocket and never let it go. Even better when the tool is multifaceted…like it helps you do several things all in one place? Yes, please. This is how I feel about the one marketing tool I truly can’t live without when it comes to running my own business, as well as helping my clients with theirs. Guys, I am talking about Flodesk. Are you using it? If you are, then yes, we are Flodesk twin flames…we both know how awesome this tool is, and we are lucky to know it and love it. If not, then sit back, grab yourself some tea or a spicy marg (I don’t judge, and love both equally) and read on, cause I have some reasons to share.
Here are the top 7 things I love about Flodesk, and while it will always be a part of my business.
#1: ON-BRAND CAPABILITIES
OK, you know I am a total sucker for anything that helps a brand stay consistent, and when it comes to email marketing, forms, and pop-ups, Flodesk is top-notch at allowing you to stay on-brand with the tools they provide. Much like Canva, Flodesk allows you to upload your brand kit into your account so that you can create assets that will provide visual consistency as you interface with your target audience. Visual consistency across time builds trust and shows your dream clients that you really care about everything you put out there that has your name on it. It tells them how willing you are to take extra steps, leading them to believe they will be taken care of when they sign on with you. Simply head to the drop down menu, select “branding”, and there you will find the ability to upload your logo, your brand colors, fonts, and company information as well as the icons needed to connect to other social links. Now, once you start designing your emails, forms, or pop-ups, all your brand assets are easy-to-find-options.
#2: SPEAKING OF CANVA (+ MORE)….
One of the things I really love about Flodesk is that they are constantly improving and adding features. There are more I am going talk about below, but a recent add they made (and I thought was so genius) was the ability to upload a file directly from your Canva account. As you start designing your beautiful emails (seriously, the best layouts and options), you will see that when you go to upload an image, you are given the option to do so directly from your Canva account. Such a great idea AND shows me as a customer that they are continuously striving for innovation and easy integrations at Flodesk. I am certain it’s only going to continue to get better.
Meanwhile, the list of current possible integrations is long, allowing you to even further your business streamlining. You can check all the possible integrations on the drop down menu.
#3: DESIGN EASE
Honestly, even if you have no design expertise whatsoever, Flodesk makes designing these marketing tools so incredibly easy. I already mentioned how I love the ability to add all your branding assets in here, but beyond that, they give you so many great options for email templates, or if you are like me, you can create something different each time (all while staying on-brand). Trust me, I have worked in several other email marketing platforms, and the options are SLIM AND GRIM. Not here…these emails are eye-catching, and absolutely send a message to your clients that you care deeply about how you present yourself.
#4: E-COMMERCE INTEGRATION
Up until now, all I have really talked about is design features (IYKYK how much I love design), but really the effectiveness of how Flodesk actually helps you make money is where it’s at. One of the best ways they do this is with their e-commerce integration tools. When designing an email to send out to your customer base, you can now add and directly link products from your e-commerce website into your email. Let’s say you own a boutique shop, and you are sending out an email about Mother’s Day, you can link a collection of items (all individually shown) with buttons for each product, allowing your customers to skip a step, and shop directly from your email. So awesome.
#5: WORKFLOWS FROM POP-UPS
OK, this is a good one. We’ve all visited a website where we have been greeted with an invitation to enter our email for a shopping discount. This is a pop-up, and one of the awesome things you can create with Flodesk. These pop-ups all share one mission: to grow your email list. The truth of the matter is…none of us OWN our social media platforms. We are at the mercy of huge technology, ever-changing algorithms and saturation. This is why it is SO important to grow your own email list-something that you own and control and can use at any time to speak directly to your audience.
So, the pop-up is meant to help you capture new subscribers. Sure, you can simply ask them to join your list, but an incentive to do so is definitely more effective. A pop-up that offers a shopping discount or access to a freebie download is a great way to get people to come along with you. Even better is the workflows allow you to create a series of events from the point they subscribe. Perhaps immediately after they join, you schedule a welcome email to them that highlights all of your offerings and tells them how they can work with you. You can even carry this further and schedule emails to go to them days or weeks later, reminding them of your business. I have set this workflow up for a client of mine who owns a retail shop, and so far (in just a couple of months, she has gained hundreds of subscribers with this one pop-up and workflow in place.
To do this, simply choose “workflows” at the top of your Flodesk dashboard, decide what your goal is and create a workflow that will work for you.
#6: WORKING FOR YOU WHEN YOU ARE AWAY
Imagine you are on vacation…enjoying some much deserved time off, but before you left, you created a few emails to go out to your audience while you were gone. Perhaps you decided to run a sale or launch a course while you were away. In Flodesk, once you are done creating your emails, you can schedule them to go out at future dates and times (Flodesk even tells you the best time for morning, afternoon, and evening deliveries). You get them lined up to announce, promote, and remind your list about your sale, and then you schedule, and go and get yourself a vacation. While you are away, Flodesk is sending your emails and capturing revenue with the direct links to purchase your offering. All the while, you are relaxing, adventuring, unwinding, and watching the sales roll in. Yes. Please.
#7: SOCIAL FORMS
I love the ability to do multiple things within one platform, not only because it streamlines things, but also, because it often saves you money. For a long time I was paying for an additional app to create my “link in bio” page for Instagram. You know-where you can list out several links, perhaps to your website, a link to sign up for your newsletter, another for a specific offering or product, one to enter a giveaway, what have you. I realized I was paying an additonal fee for that app when I could easily create one for FREE in Flodesk. Duh. So, off I went to “forms” under my account, and then to “link in bio” to design my on-brand social bio. Easy peasy, and saved me money.
Clearly, I am a big fan of this tool. To me, its where branding and marketing meet, which is exactly the space I love to live in with my clients. Flodesk has been an amazing asset for me and for the clients I work with on brand and marketing support. If you are ready to streamline some of your systems, all while getting directly infront of your audience more regularly, this is for you too. There is no harm in trying, as it is totally free to trial Flodesk! And if you love it, then we are now marketing twin flames!