Should you’re on the lookout for your subsequent electronic mail advertising and marketing platform, and also you’re curious if Package is best for you, properly, you’re in the appropriate place! Right here’s our complete Package evaluation for 2024, which can cowl:
- What Is Package?
- Why do I want an electronic mail service supplier (ESP)?
- The rebrand from ConvertKit to Package
- Package Options
- Package Pricing
- Key Advantages of Package
- Drawbacks of Package
- Package & Electronic mail Advertising: Extra Assets to Learn, Pay attention & Be taught
What's Package?
Package is an electronic mail service supplier (ESP). Primarily, it’s a know-how service that permits you to ship electronic mail campaigns to an inventory of subscribers. Package is one among actually lots of of ESPs on the market, and—full disclosure—it occurs to be the one we desire and use at SPI.
Though we’re biased, we are able to nonetheless be goal! On this put up, we’ll cowl the options, advantages, and drawbacks of Package as we see them, that can assist you determine if it’s the appropriate ESP for your online business.
Electronic mail advertising and marketing 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 know-how to assist your electronic mail advertising and marketing technique.
Electronic mail advertising and marketing is among the strongest strategies to construct relationships and market your services and products to your viewers. Let’s discuss why that's.
In its most elementary kind, electronic mail advertising and marketing entails you sending emails to a gaggle of people that’ve chosen to listen to from you by “subscribing” to obtain emails from you. You may technically use a easy electronic mail program like Gmail to perform this—however we don’t advocate it, since you’ll rapidly discover it inadequate (and since your private electronic mail account will get flagged as spam when you ship too many emails from it!).
As your online business 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 and marketing, like customizing the emails individuals get in response to their pursuits, and utilizing reviews and analytics to find out what’s working properly or not.
You additionally must be sure to’re respecting individuals’s privateness and never spamming anybody. An electronic mail service supplier additionally lets you keep in compliance with authorities laws world wide, such because the CAN-SPAM act in the USA, the Normal Knowledge Safety Regulation within the European Union (GDPR), and the Canada Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).
Issues can rapidly get out of hand with out the assistance of a devoted electronic mail advertising and marketing platform. That’s the place an ESP like Package is available in.
Okay, let’s get into the nitty gritty of Package’s options!
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Package options
These are the important thing options of Package, organized by the way you’ll use them.
Sending emails
- Autoresponders/drip campaigns (sequences): Ship a sequence of pre-written emails mechanically to a selected phase of subscribers in your checklist, triggered by a selected occasion or motion, with the purpose of guiding them to take a selected motion.
- Broadcast emails: Ship customary bulletins or one-time emails to your subscribers on a selected date.
- CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and CASL compliance: CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and CASL are legal guidelines that set the principles and necessities for industrial electronic mail messages, and provides recipients the appropriate 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 photos, in response to your buyer segmentation.
- Responsive electronic mail templates: Prepared-to-go electronic mail designs, in addition to the flexibility to create your individual customized templates. Package mechanically codecs your touchdown pages for numerous units, reminiscent of 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 device to rapidly create a touchdown web page to gather electronic mail addresses. Package mechanically codecs your touchdown pages for numerous units, reminiscent of desktop computer systems and cell phones.
- Embeddable types: Accumulate electronic mail subscribers anyplace in your web site by dropping in a Javascript or HTML kind, or by utilizing the WordPress plugin.
- Web site builder: Create an internet site straight on Package to publish newsletters, host a digital storefront to gather cost for one-time or subscription merchandise, and construct customized pages. Arrange a touchdown web page and accumulate cost for one-time or subscription merchandise proper inside Package.
- Visible automations: Package permits you to create rule-based paths utilizing if-then logic, in order that when a subscriber takes a selected motion, you may ship them pre-defined emails or add them to a phase.
Studying about your subscribers
- A/B testing: Package permits you to check completely different topic traces to your emails, and mechanically determines the winner primarily based on their respective open charges.
- Reporting/analytics/ROI monitoring: Learn the way usually your subscribers open your emails, click on on hyperlinks, and full numerous actions.
- Segmentation/tagging: Segmenting your subscribers into completely different classes (just like however extra highly effective than different packages’ “lists”) permits you to ship them emails which might be higher tailor-made to their wants and pursuits.
- Polls. Add polls on to emails to have interaction with and accumulate details about subscribers, which you'll then use to construct segments.
Rising your revenue
- In 2022, Package Commerce was added to the platform, permitting customers to attempt 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 Package additionally encompasses a website builder. You'll be able to create an internet site straight on Package to publish newsletters, host a digital storefront to gather cost for one-time or subscription merchandise, and construct customized pages.
Connecting with and supporting different creators: The Creator Community
- In 2023, Package launched the Creator Community, which helps customers information their viewers members to find different creators and get found in flip.
- You too can receives a commission for Creator Community suggestions you make by way of the aptly named Paid Suggestions.
Increasing the platform’s capabilities: App retailer
- As a part of the 2024 rebrand, additionally they launched an app retailer, the place you will discover customized apps to do extra with Package. 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 neighborhood and content material with Package), and SegMetrics (find out about the way you achieve, have interaction, and convert subscribers).
- Package additionally provides a self-service app builder to create your individual add-ons. (As of this writing, the service is presently in beta.)
Begin your Package account — free to your first 10,000 subscribers!
That is an affiliate hyperlink
From “ConvertKit” to “Package”: Behind the rebrand
In summer season 2024, the corporate beforehand often known as ConvertKit formally grew to become Package. The brand new title was introduced in July in the course of the Craft + Commerce Creator Convention and went reside in October. (They'd beforehand rebranded to Seva in 2018, however appreciable detrimental suggestions to the brand new title induced them to revert to ConvertKit till this 12 months.)
The change to Package was greater than a reputation change, although, as a result of the corporate launched a number of large new capabilities to their platform as properly. We lined a few of the new options within the part above, however listed below are the highlights:
- An app retailer the place builders can create add-ons to reinforce Package’s capabilities
- A central knowledge hub with enhanced reporting
- An expanded Creator Community to assist customers discover new collaboration companions
Package additionally made a degree of rebranding in public by sharing details about the rebranding course of via weblog updates, live-streamed design classes, and a four-part YouTube mini-documentary. This transparency provides an attention-grabbing perception into the corporate’s considering. And we predict it’s a wise transfer given how their earlier rebrand went.
With that out of the way in which, let’s discuss pricing.
Package pricing
For a very long time, Package solely provided paid plans. However in December 2019, the corporate introduced a brand new free tier when you've got fewer than 1,000 subscribers. They lately expanded the free tier to incorporate creators with as much as 10,000 subscribers.
Listed below are Package’s pricing choices as of October 2024:
Package 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 suggestion slot to develop your checklist by cross-promoting with different creators)
- Good Suggestions (auto-recommendation of comparable creators that can assist you develop your checklist)
- 24/7 assist
Package 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 device
- Free Suggestions
- Paid Suggestions
- Take away Package branding
- Third-party integrations
- RSS campaigns
- Polls
Package 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 assist
Each the Creator and Creator Professional plans provide a 14-day free trial so you may see if it’s best for you earlier than committing.
We’ll preserve this put up up to date with the newest Package pricing, however you may as well go to the pricing web page on the Package web site.
Let’s get into the explanations we like Package subsequent!
Advantages of Package
We’ve used Package to energy Good Passive Revenue’s electronic mail advertising and marketing for a number of years. In that point, we’ve discovered it to be the best ESP for our wants. We additionally suppose it’s an ideal answer for a variety of entrepreneurs and digital creators on the lookout for a strong, feature-rich electronic mail advertising and marketing platform.
The very best electronic mail service supplier for brand spanking new entrepreneurs.
Simple to be taught, highly effective whenever you want it.
That is an affiliate hyperlink
From the place we sit, the facility of Package falls into two primary classes: person advantages, and viewers advantages.
Package advantages from the person’s standpoint
First, Package has the whole lot a enterprise proprietor wants to rise up and operating rapidly:
- You'll be able to accumulate emails.
- You'll be able to arrange a easy touchdown web page to gather emails.
- You'll be able to promote merchandise (one-time buy or subscription).
These options permit somebody to begin promoting even whereas they're within the means of organising an internet site some place else. It additionally makes it simple to execute on one of many primary classes in our Good From Scratch course: utilizing promoting as a key step within the idea-validation course of.
Second, the Package staff designed their platform to develop with the sophistication of the person. If you begin, you in all probability simply wish to accumulate electronic mail addresses and ship emails. However as you develop, you’ll wish to begin tailoring your message and segmenting your viewers. At that time you may make the most of issues like automations and dynamic content material. As you and your online business change into extra superior, the Creator Professional Plan is the next step—you received’t have to modify to a special electronic mail service supplier 5 years down the highway. This units Package aside from another ESPs, notably Mailchimp.
Some individuals discover Package a bit daunting (see Drawbacks under), however when you’re considerably tech-savvy we predict it’s fairly approachable. Particularly, we just like the accessibility of Package’s automation builder, which helps you to create automations in an easy, linear method.
We tried Infusionsoft for a 12 months and located its automation builder modern however overwhelming. You needed to already perceive how automations work, in addition to the assorted symbols widespread in automation builders. We discover Package’s automation builder, then again, makes it simple to string automations collectively in a sophisticated method. With a number of templates to select from, organising an automation for the primary time is straightforward for any person.
We additionally like Package’s method to subscriber administration. With Package, all of your subscribers go into one large pool; there aren't any lists. As an alternative, subscribers may 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 good thing about the way in which Package treats subscribers? You’re solely charged as soon as for every distinctive subscriber, in contrast to another ESPs.
Package’s lately launched Creator Community can also be a giant plus in our eyes, from each a business-building and community-building perspective. It permits you to develop your subscriber base whereas additionally fostering connections with different entrepreneurs and creators.
Final however not least, when you’re shifting from one other ESP like Mailchimp or AWeber, Package provides a free migration service that may take a few of the headache out of switching.
Package advantages to your viewers
Package provides you the chance to tailor your messaging to your viewers. You'll be able to have as many types and touchdown pages as you need. You'll be able to have as many tags, customized fields, and segments as you need. You may be as particular in speaking to your viewers as you wish to be.
As you accumulate details about your viewers, you can begin to phase subscribers so that you don’t trouble individuals with issues they aren’t curious about. Package makes it simple to gather particulars about your viewers alongside the way in which, and also you aren’t penalized for that via increased prices, as you'll be with a list-based electronic mail platform.
Drawbacks of Package
No answer is ideal, in fact. Listed below are a few of the drawbacks we and different Package customers have seen.
- Reasonably steep studying curve. The interface generally is a little overwhelming for a newbie. Taking full benefit of all of Package’s options—like segmentation, tagging, and automations—requires some studying (and doubtlessly coding). You'll be able to shorten this studying curve by following their Getting Began video collection, in addition to the remainder of the content material on their well-organized assist website
- No list-based group. Though we like the way in which Package permits you to set up subscribers utilizing tags (and doesn’t cost you for duplicate subscribers, as we talked about above), the dearth of a list-based group system may be complicated when you’re coming from different platforms. Over time, although, we predict you’ll discover this method extra versatile than managing lists.
- Barebones electronic mail and touchdown web page templates. Package 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 device may be buggy.
- Analytics might be extra sturdy. 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 smart however could also be a hassle to some customers.
Fortunately, one of many earlier drawbacks of Package, that there was no free possibility, hasn’t been the case since 2019. This free tier makes Package comparable on the entry stage to different widespread ESP choices like Mailchimp.
Lastly, that is certainly not a disadvantage, however as Package continues to increase its choices to incorporate issues just like the Creator Community and Package Commerce to its core electronic mail advertising and marketing capabilities, there’s an opportunity that the platform’s worth may get unfold skinny. To be clear, we don’t suppose that is going to occur and have a variety of confidence in Nathan and the Package staff, nevertheless it’s price conserving in thoughts.
Our large takeaway on Package
With the latest updates, Package is coming nearer to being a one-stop store for creators who wish 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 and marketing platform, we predict it’s an ideal answer for rising your viewers and growing your revenue whereas retaining inventive management over what you set out into the world!
Package & electronic mail advertising and marketing: Extra assets to learn, hear & be taught
So there you might have it—our evaluation of Package’s electronic mail advertising and marketing platform! We’ll go away you with just a few extra assets when you’re inquisitive about Package, or wish to dig additional into electronic mail advertising and marketing.
Package [Full Disclosure: As an affiliate, we receive compensation if you purchase through this link.]
SPI 825: Behind the Scenes of a Main Rebrand & Classes Realized After a Exhausting Fail—my dialog with Package CEO Nathan Barry about setting his firm’s sights on extra bold objectives with the rebrand.
What Is Electronic mail Advertising? + Finest Practices: An SPI How-to Information
Electronic mail Advertising Magic Course
AP 0712: How Do I Migrate an Electronic mail Listing from AWeber to Package? – Good Passive Revenue
Why I Switched from Aweber to Infusionsoft to ConvertKitI hope this put up has been useful in deciding whether or not Package is the appropriate ESP for your online business. No matter electronic mail advertising and marketing platform you select, nothing is extra essential than having the appropriate electronic mail advertising and marketing technique, so make sure you try our important information to electronic mail advertising and marketing and think about the Electronic mail Advertising Magic course if you'd like extra hands-on assist along with your electronic mail advertising and marketing, out there contained in the SPI Neighborhood. Good luck!
