As a beauty entrepreneur, you want to make sure you are connecting with your customers over email and that you are sending them content that converts! Out of all the email marketing softwares out there, ConvertKit is my favorite tool to build an email list for your beauty business. I’m going to teach you how to get started!
Your primary goal as a beauty business owner is to turn followers into email subscribers …. and email subscribers into paying clients and customers.
In my experience, the process of building your email list is easier and more streamlined using ConvertKit.
One of the main things I teach in my beauty community is how to come up with content that will solve problems for your audience. You want them to come to trust you as an expert in your business niche. Social media is a wonderful tool for marketing your expertise, but remember: you don’t own that audience. You need a way to reach your customers no matter what, and having a direct line to their email inbox is the best way to do that.
In this post, I’m going to share the first four steps you need to take to get started with ConvertKit for your business email list, talk a little bit about the benefits of using ConvertKit versus Mailchimp, and share which beauty scheduling apps easily integrate with ConvertKit.
How to Get Started With a ConvertKit Email List for Your Beauty Business
- Create a Free Account
- Add a Signup Form to Your Website
- Consider Creating a Lead Magnet
- Create Custom Links for Your Instagram Bio
Create a Free ConvertKit Account
Yes, you can get started with ConvertKit for Free.99! ConvertKit offers a fully free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers, which includes:
- unlimited pages and forms
- the ability to send email broadcasts
- the ability to sell digital products and subscriptions
- email support to get help if you ever get stuck
This plan is truly free forever–in theory! You will need to upgrade to a Creator or a Creator Pro account when you grow your list to over 1,000 subscribers, which you absolutely want to do! You will then get additional features to help you best serve your growing audience.
You can get more information about using the power of ConvertKit’s free account offering when you click here.
Add an Email Signup Form to Your Website
Once your account is all set up, your next step is to create a way for people to join your new ConvertKit email list. The most common way that people will join is through a signup form on either your website or your social media pages.
Why do you need a signup form for your email list? First and foremost, you have to let people know that you even have a list for them to join! Secondly, it’s a proactive, yet passive way to be constantly growing your subscribers. It doesn’t require any direct action from you other than the initial setup.
You also want to make sure to place your ConvertKit signup form where it’s easy for visitors to your website or social media to find. Make sure it is front and center on your website, and also in your Instagram bio. (ConvertKit makes it easy to do this too; we’ll talk about that in a bit).
Consider Creating a Lead Magnet for Your Email List
A lead magnet is something of value that you offer someone in exchange for their email address. You should definitely consider creating one to increase the potential for signups to your email list.
For example, I teach content marketing, so my content planner is one of my most popular lead magnets. People also ask me all the time how they can monetize their content by working with beauty brands, so I created a free guide to help beauty influencers and content creators get started working with brands. When someone signs up for either one of these lead magnets they type in their email address, the freebie is sent to them via email, and then, they’re officially a part of my list!
You have the ability to deliver lead magnets, or what ConvertKit calls “opt-in incentives” across all of their plans, including the free plan that is for fewer than 1,000 subscribers.
Create Custom Links to your Email List for Your Instagram Bio
Have you seen those really fly, custom branded landing pages some business owners use as the link in their Instagram bio? Yup, with ConvertKit, you can create one for your business too! It is one of my favorite things about ConvertKit! You can have a professional landing page, complete with custom links, and drive your Instagram followers to your website, your special offers, or to sign up for your email list. And yes, this is yet another option included with the free ConvertKit plan.
(Want to learn step-by-step exactly how to create your own custom links landing page? You can check out my Make Over Your Page bundle here. You’ll learn how to make your Instagram page stand out, plus convert your followers into email list subscribers, clients and customers!)
Using ConvertKit for Your Email List vs Mailchimp
I switched over to ConvertKit from Mailchimp two years ago, and it was THE BEST decision ever for my business. There are 4 reasons I’m really glad I eventually got started with ConvertKit for my email list.
ONE: Ease of Email List Automation
The ease with which I can now create sequences and automation is one of the best parts about moving my email list to ConvertKit! (This is a fancy way of saying I can create a series of emails to be sent automatically to my subscribers based on guidelines I set up in advance). Mailchimp made it really difficult to send lead magnets and opt-ins. Mailchimp made it even more difficult to track the performance of those opt-ins! I want to save you from going to the trouble I did of switching later. I encourage you to start out with a ConvertKit email list for your beauty business, instead of Mailchimp.
TWO: Visual Style of Emails
I really like that the emails on ConvertKit actually look like emails. They’re not fancy, designed, highly stylized emails. Some people prefer that style of email, and find it works for them. The clean and simple email templates that ConvertKit provides have gotten better results for my business.
THREE: Email Inbox Priority
If you’re a Gmail user, you know all about the tabbed email inbox that gets sorted by Primary, Social, and Promotions messages. I have noticed that in Gmail specifically, my emails from ConvertKit are much more likely to land in the Primary inbox versus the Promotions tab. This is HUGE if you have an audience that mostly uses desktop for their emails.
The difference is not as pronounced on mobile if someone is using the native email feature on their iPhone. However, if they are using the Gmail app, emails that get sorted to the Promotions tab do not show on the main email screen. It’s a totally separate tab, and if people don’t check there often, your email might not get opened by those users. You don’t want to miss out on potential clients and customers just because your email got lost in their inbox.
FOUR: ConvertKit Product Integration
Overall, I find ConvertKit much easier to integrate with my other systems and services. I was using Mailchimp with Leadpages a few years back, and found that it was very tricky to connect the two. This feature may have been updated by now, but it was very clunky back then. Now with ConvertKit, I use SamCart for my digital products and the integration is literally flawless. That’s just one example; but ConvertKit seamlessly integrates with so many other digital services.
After being fully immersed in using ConvertKit for my email list, I highly recommend just starting out with ConvertKit from the beginning.
Ready to launch your email list with ConvertKit now? Click here to create your FREE account and start using the power of email marketing to build your beauty business.
ConvertKit Email List Integration with Beauty Booking Services
You might be wondering if ConvertKit will integrate with some of the services you already use for booking clients and customers for your beauty service. I’ve done some of the research for you! Here is a list of services, sorted by those ConvertKit does integrate with, those it can integrate with by using a 3rd party service, and those ConvertKit unfortunately does not integrate with at this time.
Yes! ConvertKit Does Integrate With:
- Acuity Scheduling
- Squarespace
- WordPress
Yes-ConvertKit Can Integrate With:
- Calendly (using 3rd party integration through Zapier)
- Dubsado (with 3rd party integration through Zapier or Leadsbridge)
- Square Scheduling (using 3rd party integration through Zapier)
- Timely (with 3rd party integration through Zapier)
No, ConvertKit Does NOT Integrate With:
- Booksy (Does not currently support any 3rd party integrations besides Facebook, Instagram and websites.)
- Gloss Genius
- Mangomint (Only integrates with Mailchimp)
- Schedulicity
- StyleSeat
- Vagaro (They have their own marketing service/email editor that they promote.)
If you use one of the services ConvertKit does not integrate with at this time, you’ll definitely want to do some more research to find out if switching to a compatible scheduling service is right for your business.
Phew, that was a lot of information! Let’s recap:
How to Get Started With ConvertKit for Your Beauty Business
- Create a Free Account
- Add a Signup Form to Your Website
- Consider Creating a Lead Magnet
- Create Custom Links for Your Instagram Bio
We also walked through some of the features and benefits of ConvertKit versus Mailchimp, and how you can integrate some of the beauty scheduling services you’re already using with your ConvertKit email list! Ready to get started? Click here to set up your FREE ConvertKit account now!
Still have questions? There are always helpful conversations like this one happening over on Facebook in the free Beauty Content Club community. Head over there now to join other beauty entrepreneurs who are working to grow their businesses, their client lists and their profits.
