Did you know I started writing and sending my newsletter via Mailchimp back in early 2016?
That's almost 5 years strong and more than 100 emails sent so far. The only time I’ve missed a send was when my husband and I went to Europe a few years ago (and even then, it was only delayed by a week.)
So, yes, I’m super committed to writing and sending these.
But it’s time for a change.
I’ll still be sending my newsletter every other week. The lessons aren’t going anywhere.
But I’ve decided to leave Mailchimp and switch to a new platform: ConvertKit.
About a month ago, I migrated over and have been watching my reports to see how performance varied. More on that in a sec, but first...here's why I decided to switch.
What made me decide to switch to ConvertKit?
ConvertKit is better suited to my needs. It’s specifically geared toward online creators (that’s me!) and has some functionality that I’ve been missing out on with Mailchimp (like more in-depth reporting, better UX, and deliverability insights.)
I’ve started writing content for the ConvertKit blog beginning in 2020, and with each post, I’ve learned more and more about what it can do (and what I was missing out on.) Plus: they’re a great team with amazing and helpful people. I saw the founder Nathan Barry speak at a conference session in 2016 and have been watching them grow ever since, and I super appreciate their transparency.
Pricing. Mailchimp was more expensive than ConvertKit based on my subscriber count. This made switching kind of a no-brainer.
Migrating to a new email platform is no easy task (especially when you want to be sure to protect your subscribers and are learning the ins and outs of a new tool.)
BUT! I loved that ConvertKit does offer done-for-you migrations where they’ll move your subscribers over (which is really handy.)
I was also fortunate to get linked up with Jason Resnick who is a PRO at all things ConvertKit and helped make sure I optimized my setup there.
I hate when people send these type of hyped up email platform migration announcement emails because really...like, who cares?
So I wanted to add a bit of context so you know why I'm sharing this. It's alllll about the difference I've noticed in sending from Mailchimp vs. Convertkit.
Mailchimp vs. ConvertKit
This is my report from Mailchimp showing my historical average email campaign performance:
On Mailchimp, my open rates averaged about 40% for the last year and click rate about 7%.
This, in contrast, is my report from Convertkit, showing the performance of my welcome email series from the past month.
Notice the ~75% open rate and ~34% click rate.
Pretty remarkable, right? I think it has a whole lot to do with deliverability, a report on which you can see below from my ConvertKit Pro account.
It’s still fairly early to report back on the big-picture performance of my newsletter broadcasts as I only send them out every other week, but I can share some of the cumulative reporting insights from the first few I’ve sent so far:
65.1% Open Rate, 13.3% Clicks
45.9% Open Rate, 6.1% Clicks
65.9% Open Rate, 26.8% Clicks
50.4% Open Rate, 5.0% Click Rate
Again, you’ll notice that both of these engagement metrics are significantly higher since switching to ConvertKit (which makes me very, very happy.)
You can expect business as usual from my newsletter moving forward, and my hope is that from now on, my updates will be even more relevant to your interests.
P.S. If you’re thinking about starting a newsletter or switching to ConvertKit from another email platform, be sure to take advantage of their free trial and test it out to see if it’s a good fit for you.
