MailChimp vs ConvertKit: Which is the Best Email Service for a Blogger/Small Business?

An email subscription service is really important for your website. Not just your blog, but for any site: your online art gallery, poetry blog, whatever it is that you are doing online, your own subscription piece is really important.

It’s important because it’s your own list of people who are interested in what YOU do. Used well, it can set up the chains of interaction with your audience that will strengthen your connection to each other.

No-one can take your email list from you: it’s not owned by Facebook (like your pages and groups are), it’s not owned by Google (like plus or your email). This list, once you cultivate it and build it up, is yours alone. It’s something to treasure.

Having said, that, there are a plethora of services out there and it can be tough to choose.

This article is going to focus on two of the most popular services for bloggers, comparing and contrasting them to give the reader a clearer sense of what a good option for them might be.

MailChimp

About:

MailChimp is a popular email service for websites. It’s used by bloggers and small businesses, and is readily integrated with website plugins.

Pros:

• MailChimp is free for a long time.
• It’s fun, quirky with the fun monkey and thumbs up feedback.
• Drag-and-drop visuals and newsletter set ups make creating really good-looking newsletters and emails easy.
• Fantastic visual options for the newsletters
• Support is swift, friendly and polite

Cons

• It is complicated to set up and understand the sequence options (- like, when a reader clicks X link, they can get sent Z email, etc)
• The language is not intuitive (“campaigns”, “lists”, “forms” – ugh)
• It has funky pricing – it counts your readers by the list, not the email address, so you can get charged more than once for the same reader

ConvertKit

About:

ConvertKit is arguably the most popular email service used by professional bloggers.

Pros:

• Nothing could be easier to set up and integrate with your site
• Support is unbelievable: ConvertKit will hold your hand the entire way, and make you feel like they are your very best friend in the whole wide world
• It charges you once per email address, so you can splice and dice your lists however you want and pay no more

Cons

• It’s more expensive than MailChimp
• It does not allow for photos or visual campaigns. It’s all text only

A Personal Note: MailChimp vs. ConvertKit

I’ve done both.

I used ConvertKit for a while and loved them for their amazing support and easy integrations. I’m deaf though, and super-visual: I ended up missing the visual component of MailChimp terribly.

I found out about Paul Jarvis’ course, Chimp Essentials. The course taught me how to save money using MailChimp, how to integrate it properly with google analytics and set up all the sequences. This course is why I’m back with MailChimp – I just learned how to make it do all the things that ConvertKit does, but still have access to the visuals and great layouts.

If visuals were not such a big deal for me though, I’d go back to ConvertKit in a heartbeat.

MailChimp vs. ConvertKit

I really hope this post makes it easier for anyone reading to figure out what service might be best for them and their uses. Feedback is appreciated.

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