In the event you’re on the lookout for your subsequent e mail advertising platform, and also you’re curious if Package is best for you, effectively, you’re in the fitting place! Right here’s our complete Package assessment for 2024, which can cowl:
- What Is Package?
- Why do I want an e 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 and marketing: Extra Assets to Learn, Pay attention & Study
What’s Package?
Package is an e mail service supplier (ESP). Primarily, it’s a know-how service that allows you to ship e mail campaigns to an inventory of subscribers. Package is one in every of actually a whole lot of ESPs on the market, and—full disclosure—it occurs to be the one we want and use at SPI.
Though we’re biased, we are able to nonetheless be goal! On this submit, we’ll cowl the options, advantages, and drawbacks of Package as we see them, that will help you determine if it’s the fitting ESP for your small business.
Electronic mail advertising technique: Why you want an ESP
In the event 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 an important piece of know-how to assist your e mail advertising technique.
Electronic mail advertising is likely one of the strongest strategies to construct relationships and market your services to your viewers. Let’s speak about why that’s.
In its most elementary type, e mail advertising includes you sending emails to a gaggle of people that’ve chosen to listen to from you by “subscribing” to obtain emails from you. You possibly can technically use a easy e mail program like Gmail to perform this—however we don’t advocate it, since you’ll shortly discover it inadequate (and since your private e mail account will get flagged as spam in the event you ship too many emails from it!).
As your small business grows and extra individuals subscribe to get your emails, you’ll need the power to do extra refined issues along with your e mail advertising, like customizing the emails individuals get in line with their pursuits, and utilizing experiences and analytics to find out what’s working effectively or not.
You additionally have to be sure to’re respecting individuals’s privateness and never spamming anybody. An e mail service supplier additionally lets you keep in compliance with authorities rules world wide, such because the CAN-SPAM act in america, the Common Information 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 e mail advertising platform. That’s the place an ESP like Package is available in.
Okay, let’s get into the nitty gritty of Package’s options!
Psst… Need to develop your e mail checklist and be taught highly effective segmentation and automation methods that permit your small business to run by itself? Take a look at the Electronic mail Advertising and marketing Magic course.
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 routinely to a particular phase of subscribers in your checklist, triggered by a particular occasion or motion, with the intention of guiding them to take a particular motion.
- Broadcast emails: Ship customary 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 e mail messages, and provides recipients the fitting to have you ever cease emailing them—so compliance is essential!
- Dynamic (personalised) e mail content material: Your e mail content material can show completely different textual content or photos, in line with your buyer segmentation.
- Responsive e mail templates: Prepared-to-go e mail designs, in addition to the power to create your individual customized templates. Package routinely codecs your touchdown pages for varied gadgets, reminiscent of desktop computer systems and cell phones.
- WYSIWYG e mail editor: The built-in e mail editor helps you to see how your e mail will look along with your template’s styling utilized whilst you’re composing it.
Gathering new subscribers
- Customized responsive touchdown pages: Use the included device to shortly create a touchdown web page to gather e mail addresses. Package routinely codecs your touchdown pages for varied gadgets, reminiscent of desktop computer systems and cell phones.
- Embeddable types: Gather e mail subscribers wherever in your web site by dropping in a Javascript or HTML type, or through the use of the WordPress plugin.
- Website builder: Create a web site immediately 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 acquire cost for one-time or subscription merchandise proper inside Package.
- Visible automations: Package means that you can create rule-based paths utilizing if-then logic, in order that when a subscriber takes a specific motion, you possibly can ship them pre-defined emails or add them to a phase.
Studying about your subscribers
- A/B testing: Package helps you to take a look at completely different topic traces to your emails, and routinely determines the winner based mostly on their respective open charges.
- Reporting/analytics/ROI monitoring: Find out how 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 applications’ “lists”) means that you can ship them emails which can be higher tailor-made to their wants and pursuits.
- Polls. Add polls on to emails to have interaction with and acquire details about subscribers, which you’ll be able to 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 incorporates a web site builder. You’ll be able to create a web site immediately 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 may also 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, in addition they launched an app retailer, the place yow 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 acquire, interact, 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 turned Package. The brand new identify was introduced in July throughout the Craft + Commerce Creator Convention and went stay in October. (That they had beforehand rebranded to Seva in 2018, however appreciable unfavourable suggestions to the brand new identify precipitated them to revert to ConvertKit till this yr.)
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 effectively. We lined among the new options within the part above, however listed below are the highlights:
- An app retailer the place builders can create add-ons to enhance Package’s capabilities
- A central information hub with enhanced reporting
- An expanded Creator Community to assist customers discover new collaboration companions
Package additionally made some extent of rebranding in public by sharing details about the rebranding course of by weblog updates, live-streamed design classes, and a four-part YouTube mini-documentary. This transparency offers an fascinating perception into the corporate’s considering. And we predict it’s a sensible transfer given how their earlier rebrand went.
With that out of the way in which, let’s speak about 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 just 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 consists of:
- 1 fundamental Visible Automation
- 1 e mail Sequence
- 1 person
- Limitless touchdown pages, opt-in types, and e mail broadcasts
- Viewers tagging & segmentation
- Promote digital merchandise
- Run paid newsletters & subscriptions
- Publication feed & web site
- API Entry
- Free Suggestions (required—at the least one suggestion slot to develop your checklist by cross-promoting with different creators)
- Good Suggestions (auto-recommendation of comparable creators that will help 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 consists of:
- All of the options of the Publication plan
- Limitless Visible Automations
- Limitless e 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 consists of:
- All of the options of the Creator plan
- Limitless Visible Automations
- Limitless e 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 supply a 14-day free trial so you possibly can see if it’s best for you earlier than committing.
We’ll preserve this submit up to date with the newest Package pricing, however you may also 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 e 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 awesome resolution for a variety of entrepreneurs and digital creators on the lookout for a sturdy, feature-rich e mail advertising platform.
The perfect e 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 ability of Package falls into two predominant classes: person advantages, and viewers advantages.
Package advantages from the person’s standpoint
First, Package has every part a enterprise proprietor wants to rise up and operating shortly:
- You’ll be able to acquire 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 start out promoting even whereas they’re within the means of organising a web site someplace else. It additionally makes it straightforward to execute on one of many predominant classes in our Good From Scratch course: utilizing promoting as a key step within the idea-validation course of.
Second, the Package crew designed their platform to develop with the sophistication of the person. Once you begin, you in all probability simply wish to acquire e 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 possibly can reap the benefits of issues like automations and dynamic content material. As you and your small business turn out to be extra superior, the Creator Professional Plan is the next step—you received’t have to modify to a unique e mail service supplier 5 years down the street. This units Package other than another ESPs, notably Mailchimp.
Some individuals discover Package a bit daunting (see Drawbacks under), however in the event you’re considerably tech-savvy we predict it’s fairly approachable. Specifically, we just like the accessibility of Package’s automation builder, which helps you to create automations in a simple, linear approach.
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 varied symbols frequent in automation builders. We discover Package’s automation builder, however, makes it straightforward to string automations collectively in a sophisticated approach. 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 strategy 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, not like another ESPs.
Package’s just lately launched Creator Community can be an enormous plus in our eyes, from each a business-building and community-building perspective. It means that you can develop your subscriber base whereas additionally fostering connections with different entrepreneurs and creators.
Final however not least, in the event you’re transferring from one other ESP like Mailchimp or AWeber, Package provides a free migration service that may take among the headache out of switching.
Package advantages to your viewers
Package offers 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 acquire details about your viewers, you can begin to phase subscribers so that you don’t hassle individuals with issues they aren’t involved in. Package makes it straightforward to gather particulars about your viewers alongside the way in which, and also you aren’t penalized for that by greater prices, as you’d be with a list-based e mail platform.
Drawbacks of Package
No resolution is ideal, in fact. Listed below are among the drawbacks we and different Package customers have observed.
- Reasonably steep studying curve. The interface is usually a little overwhelming for a newbie. Taking full benefit of all of Package’s options—like segmentation, tagging, and automations—requires some studying (and probably coding). You’ll be able to shorten this studying curve by following their Getting Began video sequence, in addition to the remainder of the content material on their well-organized assist web site
- No list-based group. Though we like the way in which Package helps you to set up subscribers utilizing tags (and doesn’t cost you for duplicate subscribers, as we talked about above), the shortage of a list-based group system may be complicated in the event you’re coming from different platforms. Over time, although, we predict you’ll discover this technique extra versatile than managing lists.
- Barebones e mail and touchdown web page templates. Package requires CSS coding to create customized superior e mail templates and touchdown pages past the included choices. Some customers report that the e-mail design device may be buggy.
- Analytics could possibly be extra sturdy. The free and Creator plans don’t supply 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 trouble 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 degree to different standard 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 e 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 numerous confidence in Nathan and the Package crew, but it surely’s price conserving in thoughts.
Our large takeaway on Package
With the current 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. In the event you’re on the lookout for your first or subsequent e mail advertising platform, we predict it’s an awesome resolution for rising your viewers and rising your revenue whereas retaining artistic management over what you set out into the world!
Package & e mail advertising: Extra sources to learn, hear & be taught
So there you have got it—our assessment of Package’s e mail advertising platform! We’ll depart you with a number of extra sources in the event you’re inquisitive about Package, or wish to dig additional into e mail advertising.
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 Discovered After a Exhausting Fail—my dialog with Package CEO Nathan Barry about setting his firm’s sights on extra formidable targets with the rebrand.
What Is Electronic mail Advertising and marketing? + Greatest Practices: An SPI How-to Information
Electronic mail Advertising and marketing Magic Course
Why I Switched from Aweber to Infusionsoft to ConvertKitI hope this submit has been useful in deciding whether or not Package is the fitting ESP for your small business. No matter e mail advertising platform you select, nothing is extra vital than having the fitting e mail advertising technique, so be sure you try our important information to e mail advertising and think about the Electronic mail Advertising and marketing Magic course if you need extra hands-on assist along with your e mail advertising, accessible contained in the SPI Neighborhood. Good luck!
