Most of my conversations about Infusionsoft end up sounding exactly the same. And it's not the fault of InfusionSoft.
Have you ever talked to someone about Infusionsoft?
If you're anything like me, you now know that there are only two kinds of people in the world – people who haven't tried Infusionsoft yet, or people who feel like they suck at Infusionsoft.
This isn't a post where I give you ten reasons to leave Infusionsoft, or ten reasons why I don't think you need Infusionsoft. But I could give you the ten conversations I have had about Infusionsoft—because they all sound the same.
- Me: What are you doing about email, audience building, marketing automation and all that?
- Them: We have Infusionsoft. But we don't know how to use it, really.
- Me: That's ok, I take it you're sending email out thru it, and tagging people.
- Them: Kind of. We're probably not using it to its full capacity. I'm sure of it.
- Me: Have you tried getting help?
- Them: I have my hands full running my own business. I don't really want to learn Infusionsoft well.
It's that last statement that gets me. Because it's so true. So accurate.
I know some people exist somewhere that are loving Infusionsoft and are making the most out of it. But I don't know them. All I ever meet are the people who are frustrated because the software is too complicated for them to master.
Here's the truth: Software is tough. It's complex. And making it easy to navigate and use isn't something that comes naturally.
Infusionsoft is the king of tagging
If you've worked with Infusionsoft, or started to, or tried to, you know that one of the chief concepts of using the platform is the use of tags.
- Tag a person when they visit a page and fill out a form.
- Tag a person when they purchase something.
- Tag a person when they read and click a link on your email.
- Tag a person when they create a support ticket.
Tag, tag, tag.
This is where Infusionsoft often dominates over other email service providers (ESPs) like MailChimp who have grouping and segmentations but nothing as versatile as tagging.
So people feel like they are ready to graduate from MailChimp or AWeber and they go to Infusionsoft, only to find out that the software is complex and the steps to really leveraging tags is more work than they imagined.
Infusionsoft understands Automation
One of the other reasons people “graduate” to Infusionsoft is that they want more automation in their life. They want things to happen automatically. Not just the auto-tagging based on activities of readers and buyers, but the automatic sending of key emails at the right times. And the automation related to moving people from one group to another.
You've likely experienced something like this:
- Person signs up for your free email course (5 parts)
- After the five weeks of email, you want to move them to your main list
- You want to have it happen automatically
So you try MailChimp and it won't do it unless you write custom code. Your next logical step was to ask if Infusionsoft could do it, and people said yes. So you jumped.
And that's when you found out it was tough and not as easy as you hoped. Not code, but it felt equally challenging.
ConvertKit is the easy-to-use, tag-based, automation-oriented ESP you've been looking for
What about Rainmaker?
There is a ton of great things I have to say about ConvertKit, but some folks will likely start by asking me, do you need ConvertKit if you're using Rainmaker (like I'm doing on this site), because they just announced their own email service.
I love Rainmaker and all it provides. But not all my sites are on Rainmaker. I have several that aren't. And so I use ConvertKit because it works across all my sites (and allows me to tag people who are active on more than one).
ConvertKit supports Tags
ConvertKit understands tags. They're a primary part of the system, and as you can see, I use them for all sorts of stuff.
I have two new sites (one for headphone reviews and another that is focused on leadership) and you can see that I've already hooked up the headphones site.
I also use tags for interests, when people download free files, and with forms when people express interest (like for my upcoming content marketing ebook).
ConvertKit makes it easy to apply tags using Automation
We talked about automation already—and I know it's critical to people, regardless of where your business is at. We're all busy.
But you can see how easy and how awesome ConvertKit makes automation routines.
You can do things like:
- When a person finishes a set of emails (like from a course), add a tag and remove them from that sequence, and add them to another.
- When a person fills out a form, automatically tag them, and put them into a sequence for them to get a set of emails.
- When a person fills out a form, email them a special gift (file download), and tag them, plus route them to a special page.
And none of these require a consultant or any upfront fees to get started.
ConvertKit works with WooCommerce
Now I know not everyone is building their online stores with WooCommerce. Only 37% of the online stores use it. But that's a lot.
And the good news is that ConvertKit has created a free plugin that integrates with WooCommerce so that you can automatically do all that cool stuff with people who are buying things from your store.
How badly do you want ConvertKit now? Don't answer yet…
The final cool thing I'll tell you about ConvertKit is that it has a WordPress plugin that lets you put a custom call to action forms at the bottom of every single post and change it for each post.
So if you want to put a “sign up to get more posts like these” form at the bottom of each post, you can change the form so that posts about one topic (memberships) tag people with that tag, and posts about another topic (presentations) tag people with a different one.
That plugin is also free and available to download (but requires your ConvertKit subscription).
You can get started right away
Here's the good news if you've been burned by using software that is too complex for your skill or interest. There are no upfront fees beyond your monthly subscription – which can start as low as $29. That's ten times cheaper than some people's first month with Infusionsoft. And there's no setup fee or starter-kit fee.
And they offer a 30-day refund policy—which I didn't use. Because I fell in love with ConvertKit and I think you will too.