April 23, 2025 • 36 mins
If you’d like to check out Flodesk + get my 4-Part Email Welcome Series Workflow sign up with my link!
What if your email marketing platform actually made you feel smarter instead of overwhelmed? Dawn Richardson, Product Education Manager at Flodesk, is here to help you redefine what’s possible in nonprofit email marketing (with ALL the segmenting and automations too!)
Email personalization in 2025 is going way beyond just inserting a supporter’s name. Dawn introduces link actions, form preferences, and how to segment donors based on their actual behaviors and interests.
Did we mention Flodesk can also support seamless integrations (hello, Canva and Zapier!) and unlimited subscribers and emails - all at a flat-rate price?! I’ve been using this platform for years and I have never wavered or wanted to make a switch.
FIVE nonprofits in my Monthly Giving Mastermind even made the switch to Flodesk on the spot and now have a much easier time sending eye-catching emails, boosting their email performance and donor loyalty.
Resources & Links
Learn more about Flodesk and get 50% off your first year. You can also learn more on their YouTube channel and by joining the Flodesk Insiders Facebook Group.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
personalization goes beyond including a first name in
an email.
It's all about thatsegmentation that you talked
about right, Creating dynamiccontent based on a subscriber's
behavior.
So what did they click on?
Can you segment them into adifferent audience?
What can we collect about themthat helps us make better
decisions about what we'resending them?
(00:20):
Because here's the thing herelike, take a step back.
The big goal is to send theright message to the right
person at the right time.
Everything we do in emailmarketing is about accomplishing
that.
So how do we do that?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I'm Dana Snyder, your host of the Missions to
Movements podcast, and my pathto philanthropy has been
anything but traditional.
This show is your weeklymastermind, designed to give you
the ideas, insights and supportyou need to push the boundaries
of what's been done before innonprofit marketing and
fundraising.
Whether you're looking to builda magnetic monthly giving
(00:55):
program, elevate your personalbrand or create partnerships
that amplify your impact, thisspace is for you.
I'll bring you solo episodesand conversations with industry
leaders offering actionablestrategies and fresh
perspectives that will move youand your mission forward.
Let's turn your mission into amovement.
(01:19):
Okay, I know I say that I startevery episode saying this is
going to be exciting and I'mreally thrilled about the guests
that we have on, but you guys,today, friends, I am actually
very excited, extra excited,about this conversation, because
I am introducing you to someonewho works for the email
platform I've been using since2020 and they came out in 2019.
(01:41):
So let's just say I'm a superfan of the platform, never
changed, never wavered, neverchanged the pricing which we're
going to talk about, and she's atotal rock star when it comes
to email marketing and usereducation.
Dawn Richardson is the producteducation manager at Flowdesk.
She helps entrepreneurs,creatives, nonprofits like
yourself really getting the mostout of their marketing tools
(02:02):
without tech overwhelm, which Iknow is a really big deal for
all of us, and I think what Ilove so much about you and
Flowdesk is the simplicity andthe beautiful ease of use of the
platform.
So you are in charge of allthings education, and so I am
selfishly using this podcastepisode to pick your brain and
to share knowledge withnonprofits who, I think, a lot
(02:26):
of times, honestly, I've heardfrustrations with email
platforms and so, listener, ifthat is you, this is going to be
a really really good one.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
So, dawn, welcome to Missions, to Movements.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm so excited to be here andto geek out about all of the
things.
Yes, we can talk about this allday, so let's see if we can
keep this in a good time frame.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, Okay, so Flowdash started in 2019.
And I think I've heard it mostcommonly referred to as like
it's refreshing, it's beautifulemails, it's easy to use.
It's all the things that theother ones aren't Like
Mailchchimp, constant Contact,just to name a few most commonly
utilized in our space.
What inspired the founders,from all the internal meetings
(03:11):
that you've had, to reallycreate Flowdesk, and what do you
think uniquely makes it standapart from everybody else?
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yeah.
So this is a great question andI am not the founder, so this
is all stories and understandingthe business and being a
business owner myself, so I comefrom that perspective as well.
But there was the realizationthat email marketing was just
clunky, it was difficult, it waseasy to understand, it was
important for businesses, but itwas really hard for them to
(03:41):
grasp, especially theentrepreneur space, the
nonprofits, the creators.
This was something they wantedto take advantage of, but they
couldn't because it was justreally inaccessible to them.
So our founders set out on amission to create beautiful
software that is easy to use andalso allows these small
business owners to show up inthe inbox in an authentic way.
(04:04):
They want to be themselves,right, but they also want to
show up in the inbox in anauthentic way.
They want to be themselvesright, but they also want to
show up in a really beautifulway that catches attention right
.
When we're in our inboxes, we'reoften competing with a lot of
other important information andyou want to stand out.
You want that design experiencethat these big, big companies
like Starbucks and Anthropologiehave, right.
(04:25):
So they set out to create apiece of software that was
intuitive, easy to use andreally enabled you to create
that beautiful standoutappearance in the inbox and make
that accessible to anybody.
And one thing that I reallylove about the Flowdesk team and
being on the Flowdesk team ismany of us that work here at
Flowdesk are our own businessowners.
(04:47):
We are running our own business.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah Well, you told me that I had no idea.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, no, I run a business called Tech Savvy
Creative and before that I ran awedding photography business
for eight years in the TexasHill Country.
Both of those businesses I usedFlowdesk.
I use Flowdesk actively withTech Savvy but the studio.
I made an additional 60 to 70grand a year from my email
marketing and it was all thanksto Flowdesk.
(05:10):
So there's a lot of us on theteam that are also running our
side hustles or other businessesthat are utilizing this tool.
So we are coming at it from theperspective of, like we
understand what it's like to bein your shoes, because we are in
your shoes actively andcurrently so, and that just
brings a different dynamic to atool and how we're using it, and
it's just a really specialplace to be for entrepreneurs
(05:34):
and I mean for me as a teammember like I can sing praises
all day, like it's so great.
But it's also really importantfor our members to know that we
understand what it's like to bein their shoes.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yes, and it honestly makes me feel smarter about
email marketing, and what I meanby that is our conversation is
going to talk about emailmarketing trends and things that
we're seeing andproduct-specific updates.
Listener, and when it comes toemail marketing, there's a lot
out there about.
We talk about segmentation, alot in the sector and workflows
(06:04):
and automatic email sequencesand a lot of times that can feel
daunting and you're watchingendless how-to videos or on
YouTube and I, for the firsttime, felt so equipped and like,
yeah, this is easy.
And I show so many peoplethey're like this, that's it.
And I was like, yeah, like youmake it not rocket science for
(06:25):
something that shouldn're likethis, that's it.
And I was like, yeah, you makeit not rocket science for
something that shouldn't beright.
It's clear, simple functionalityto utilize, and so you can sing
their praises.
I can sing their praises and Ithink, listener, if you're on my
email list, you are literallyreceiving what it is we're going
to be talking about.
So maybe now you'll look at myemails a little bit differently
and be like, oh, okay, I can seehow that all works.
And it's not just emails.
(06:47):
I want to be specific.
It's also the forms on websites, so forms on my website,
pop-ups, full landing pages,instagram, linkedin bios there's
like a lot of differentfunctionality to it.
That all comes together comestogether.
Dawn, I know you've seen a lotof evolution of the product as a
(07:08):
user and then now behind thescenes, what do you think
overall in email marketing, haveyou seen trending well right
now and how specifically maybenonprofits should be adapting?
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, oh, I love this question.
So one of the big trends thatwe're seeing and this is
something like when I'm lookingat my education I'm really
leaning into.
But personalization goes beyondincluding a first name in an
email.
It's all about thatsegmentation that you talked
about, right, creating dynamiccontent based on a subscriber's
behavior.
So what did they click on?
(07:39):
Can you segment them into adifferent audience?
What can we collect about themthat helps us make better
decisions about what we'resending them?
Because here's the thing here,like, take a step back.
The big goal is to send theright message to the right
person at the right time.
Everything we do in emailmarketing is about accomplishing
that.
So how do we do that?
That's with automations, that'swith segmentation, and getting
(08:02):
that message in front of theright audience is what makes it
so powerful, because people feellike you're talking to them.
You feel like that youunderstand them.
They are getting more emailsabout something that they
might've clicked on becauseyou've segmented them
appropriately.
So this is such a huge piece.
It's not just including theirfirst name in the beginning
although that is important.
Please do that but it goesbeyond that and really creates
(08:25):
that experience.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Can I give an example on that?
I just want to dive in.
So two examples listeners, ifyou're on my email list,
recently I did an SMS webinar,so I promoted it to my email
list.
And if you clicked on the linkto register for the webinar but
you did not register, so I hadthe list of registrants and then
(08:47):
what I did was, if you clickedon the link, I labeled you as a
separate segment calledinterested in webinar, so I was
able to send an email.
I excluded the registrants andI just sent an email to the
interest base, so that shrunkthe list down to a few hundred
people.
And then I'm just able to say,hey, I saw you were interested
in this webinar.
So that shrunk the list down toa few hundred people.
(09:08):
And then I'm just able to say,hey, I saw you were interested
in this webinar.
So I'm not blasting my wholeemail list again, I'm just
segmenting the group of peoplethat I knew were interested and
nonprofit.
This could be you sharing aspecific newsletter or a topic
that somebody might beinterested in.
Be like hey, I noticed you werereally interested in this
specific program we offer andyou're just sending them
(09:32):
information on that.
Another one just talking aboutexcluding to give
personalization is I have mymonthly giving summit.
Now, not everyone on my emaillist wants to necessarily learn
about the monthly giving summitagain or get podcast updates.
So at the very bottom I had doyou only want monthly giving
summit updates?
Like that might be the onlyreason you're on my list.
If so, you clicked on that link, I marked you as like only send
MGS updates and you redirectedto this like really beautiful,
(09:56):
simple page on my website thatsays I see you.
Thanks so much for letting meknow.
I'll make sure you only getemails you love.
Right, super simple, but itallows me to make sure that
you're having the best possibleemail experience.
So I just wanted to share inpracticality what that can look
like.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yes, oh, I love that Again.
Right message to the rightperson at the right time.
That's what it's all about.
One of my most successful waysthat I segment in my own
business because at Tech SavvyCreative, I teach people how to
use tech tools, but I have a lotof different entrepreneurs.
I have photographers, graphicdesigners, I have videographers,
but I have a lot of differententrepreneurs.
I have photographers, graphicdesigners, I have videographers,
I have wedding professionalsand I use like form preferences
(10:32):
or I use different types ofsegmentation to learn about who
they are, because if I havesomething that's particular to
photographers, I have anaudience that's ready to go just
for the photographers, right?
So, like I don't want to sendsomebody who's a venue owner
information about a photographywebinar, so that allows me to do
the exact same thing again,because I don't want to send
(10:53):
irrelevant content to the wrongperson.
That's going to lead to loweropen rates, fewer clicks and,
ultimately, a poor experience,which leads to lower reputation
in the inbox.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
That's right, so good .
This is a huge one.
I would like stop, rewind,repeat and you can break down
the segmentation.
But this is again.
It might sound like complex, usexplaining it, but it's so
simple when you're in the toolto do these things, and we'll do
.
I would love to do later onlike a webinar, LinkedIn live
(11:23):
visual thing with you.
I know we're brainstorming.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Let's do it.
Let's do it, like the visualside of this.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
But again, one of the standout features is the ease
of use.
Can you walk us through maybe acouple of the most powerful
features that maybe people arenot expecting for an email
platform to have but should beusing?
Well, sure.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Well, sure, let me.
Let me do one that I kind oflike we talked about before we
jumped on here.
One of them is justintegrations.
So, flowdesk, we're diving deepinto the integration space.
We're creating integrationswith tools that you might be
working with.
We just released a Canvaintegration this last week,
which is super exciting.
So you don't even have to leaveyour Flowdesk email builder to
(12:05):
access your Canva designs.
You can even edit them.
It'll take you back to Canva,you edit them, you come back to
Flowdesk.
It had the edited design inyour Flowdesk email Beautiful.
So that's like really powerfuland it just kind of simplifies
the process.
You can get more done faster.
But the other ones that I loveto touch on are things that
we've already talked about,which is one link actions.
Link actions is probably mymost used feature personally,
(12:28):
and the link action is theability to trigger some type of
automation based off ofsomebody's click, so you can say
, like, if they click on thisblog post or if they click on
this webinar, or if they clickon whatever it may be, you can
add them to a segment or removethem from a segment, or add them
to a workflow or update acustom field.
You have these differentoptions that just really turn
(12:50):
something very simple andbeautiful into a absolute
powerhouse and those, once youkind of figure out those link
actions like exactly how youexplained it, dana, like those
are link actions.
They're powerful, they'resegmenting your audience so you
can send relevant information tothem.
You can say hey, I saw, you didthis.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
You know, and that like really kind of makes you
show up in a different way.
That is also very professionaland very like intimate, right?
Yeah, email marketing is sopowerful because you have the
flexibility to do that Somethingthat people don't use very
often that I'm always surprisedby our form preferences, which
is very simple and probably oneof the more basic features.
But when you have a form, so aform is an easy way to collect
(13:30):
your subscriber data.
So, like, hey, I'm giving youthis guide in exchange for your
email address.
Join my list or join mynewsletter or get this workflow
template, whatever that might be.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
User.
If you want an example, go topositiveecclationcom on any page
of my website and you'll see abunch of different forms of what
she's talking about.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Yes, yes, yeah, because you want to show up
wherever your subscribers are,right, you want to give them an
offer, meet them where they are,and that's part of successful
email marketing.
But those forms you can askthem additional questions.
You can say what are youinterested in, or tell me about
you, or are you in the nonprofitsector, or maybe it's somebody
that's just lurking?
You can take that informationand each of those form
(14:10):
preferences you can segment aswell so they join whatever
segment the form is attached to,as well as any of the options
that they have selected.
So that allows people toself-segment and that's really
powerful.
They feel in control, they'regetting information that they
find valuable and you can justreally enhance your email
marketing strategy that way.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
So good In practicality how I've done this
and user, you can start to thinkabout this and mind map it for
you specifically.
User, user, listener is I'malready thinking about you being
a user of the platform.
I'm like this is how you'regoing to do it For me is I'll
put like first name, last name,of course, like email Actually,
I do first name email and Ithink I'm adding phone number
(14:51):
because I'm going to betinkering in SMS and for
preferences, I'll list, likewhat are you most interested in?
What do you want to hear aboutPodcast, monthly giving.
So, like my core things, I talkabout upcoming webinars,
trainings, all of the above, andthen, as she's saying, each of
those preferences become its ownpersonal segment.
So if I have something reallyspecific, how I use them
(15:11):
sometimes too, is a test of anemail, like if you've told me
you're really interested inmonthly giving, I might send
like A-B tests and a subjectline and an email to that
smaller group first and if theyreally enjoyed it, then send it
out to the bigger group.
So it gives you just thisability to get to know the
people on your list more so thanif they were just a standard
(15:32):
subscriber.
So I love that.
I love that.
That's so great.
Another thing that I want to askyou about that is relatively I
mean, maybe it's in the pastyear was the update of your
analytics.
Ooh, analytics Analytics arefun, data analytics I know
Everyone's like, oh, sexynumbers, no, but for real.
But really, but really.
Looking at your numbers andespecially how they're presented
(15:54):
on the platform, is rare.
I've talked to lots ofcompanies nonprofits that do not
have the unique ability tosurface individual subscriber
data as far as, like, open rates, click through, their
engagement, their active, howmany emails they've opened if
(16:14):
they came from a form this, this, that.
How do you think you've seendata really improve the results
of email performance over timefor your clients?
Speaker 1 (16:25):
I love this question because analytics are so
important.
That's how we make decisionsright.
We're business owners.
We need to make data-drivendecisions, so having these
powerful analytics at your tipsone is very satisfying and
beautiful.
You go over to the analyticstab in Flowdesk and you're
presented with these beautifulgraphs and you're like, oh, I
love this so much, but havingthat information like your open
rates and click rates, those arethe basic email marketing
(16:48):
metrics that everybody's lookingat.
But there's also other thingslike, okay, when are they
opening emails?
When are they most likely to bein their inboxes?
That helps me frame what time Iwant to send my emails, or what
segments have the mostinteraction or maybe the least
interaction.
Maybe those segments that arethe worst performing segments
maybe need a little bit moremost interaction, or maybe the
least interaction.
Maybe those segments that arethe worst performing segments
(17:10):
maybe need a little bit morenurturing, or maybe you're
sending them too many emails.
You can experiment with that alittle bit.
One of my favorite ways toutilize my own analytics is by
looking at what forms areperforming the best for me.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I was just going to bring that up.
Yes, okay.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
And you have forms all over your website too, right
?
Yes, but it pinpoints wherepeople are because that's where
they're signing up via the form.
So if my blog post forms areperforming really well, maybe
that's a signal to me that Ineed to create more blog content
that funnels into my email listso I can make these business
decisions based off thoseanalytics, and it's going to
(17:49):
really drive where my people are.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
But then drive my strategy even further.
Yes, it gives the number ofvisitors that are coming across
that form, your total number ofopt-ins and then your conversion
rate, and then you canliterally see this beautiful
graph showcasing all of yourforms and which ones stack up to
be the most successful.
And so, for instance so justrecently, a few months ago, for
my birthday in March I did thisfour-part email welcome series,
(18:13):
literally using Flowdesk,because we're going to talk
about this, you can sharetemplates and workflows, and I
had a big surge in opt-insspecifically on that form, and
it's like ooh, okay, a form likethis, where I am sharing a
template of something, seemed towork really well.
Maybe I should do that again.
I'm just blown away.
These are the things that arenot normal, dawn, and I'm kind
(18:35):
of skipping to the punchline ofthe platform and I don't want to
wait until the end.
Can you please surface how thepricing model works on Flowdesk,
because this is super unique.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yeah, so Flowdesk is a flat rate model, so we don't
punish you based off of yoursubscriber count.
Can you say that again one moretime?
Yes, so we are flat rate andhave been since day one, so we
have a flat rate model.
It's a monthly subscriptionprice and that price includes
unlimited emails, unlimitedsubscribers, unlimited sends.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
It's amazing, pretty cool, I'm just going to like mic
drop.
Yeah, I cannot tell you.
This is like mind blowing.
I think it's hard fororganizations to comprehend, and
I think what I love about it islike you want people to grow
and excel and not be penalizedor charged more when you're
growing.
And so, listener, when I tellyou from me starting the use of
(19:28):
little platform, five yearslater, it's the same, and so the
link that I will share witheveryone that's listening, that
is in the show notes.
You can click on it.
You will get 50% off your firstyear if you use my specific
link.
So that's a total.
I'm just going to break it down.
It's $210.
Use that link, guys.
Use that link.
It's $210 a year.
(19:50):
A year, and even the normal is$420 a year.
I'm speechless because there'sno better case.
It's not only and I thinkwhat's interesting too about
this is, hopefully, listeneracross the mic, you can tell how
excited I am about thisplatform.
Why are you ever excited aboutthe tech platforms you use?
Most of the time, we'recringing at the online tools we
(20:12):
use and wishing they did morethings and wishing they listened
to us better, and arefrustrated by how much we're
paying for them, and so this isa really.
I mean, the team's reallykilled it, and so I hope you can
just radiate that energy andbring it back to them.
Yes, yeah, because that's ararity For me too.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
This is so relevant to me and my businesses because
so I'm a Flowdesk user from dayone.
The day they launched theirbeta, I was like oh, shiny new
tool, I got to check it out.
I review tools for a living.
That's what I do at Tech Savvy.
Creative is check out tools andstuff.
But I was using other platformsand I hadn't used a couple of
other platforms and I just kindof felt like I just didn't get
email marketing.
Maybe I just wasn't experiencedenough or like what do these
(20:51):
things mean?
And I was trying but I wasn'tdoing well and I also wasn't
motivated to do it.
And it wasn't until Flowdeskwhere I actually experienced
like actually having anenjoyable time creating emails
and I was really proud of how Ishowed up.
That was when I finally startedusing email marketing.
And I have this saying at TechSavvy like the best tool for you
(21:14):
is the one that you will use.
I don't care what tool it is,but if you will use it, it is
great for you and your business.
It doesn't matter what we use,what they use.
If you will use it, that is allthat matters.
And for me and for many otherbusiness owners out there, the
email marketing tool of choiceis Flowdesk, because that was
the first tool that theyactually stuck with.
That was the one that theyunderstood, that they were
(21:35):
excited about, that they weremotivated about.
And here's the thing, guys Evenin today's market, email
marketing has the highest ROI ofall of the marketing channels.
It's estimated at $42 for everydollar spent.
You don't get that kind of ROIon social media or on other
platforms.
It's email marketing.
It is still the top dog here,and that is so important to
(21:58):
remember.
So when you're not sure, iflike, oh, maybe I don't need
email, give it a try, and wemake it easy and affordable for
you to do that.
And I think you will be sopleasantly surprised, because
there are so many people outthere that pay attention to
their inboxes.
Like, even if you're somebodythat might might be in inbox
jail or whatever, you're like oh, I don't want to email people
(22:19):
For me anytime I get an emailfrom certain big brand companies
like Starbucks.
I will always open that emailjust because it's beautiful.
I just want to see what itlooks like.
That's not going to change mydecision if I'm going to buy.
Starbucks or not, such acreative, but I just want to see
what it looks like, becausethey're always so beautiful and
they stand out and they make youfeel something.
And it's so cool because I cando that in my own emails right
(22:44):
as a small business owner, andhaving that capability is so
powerful and that's just likereally where float us, because
just completely changed the gameyes, yes, and for sector
specific, you've also done areally great job with your
Zapier integrations, sononprofit.
Love me some Zapier.
Love some Zapier.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
They interact beautifully with your give
butters of the world, yourfundraise ups of the world.
Think about your CRM and itwill connect, and so you can
automatically.
I do this all the time with myclients is help set up the
somebody gives a gift a monthlygift, a one-time gift it
automatically syncs and addsthem to a segment.
So if you're worried about thatautomation taking place, it's
(23:25):
totally doable and so simple toset up.
I do it where, kind of likebefore you were talking about,
they can get added to a segmentand then you can set up a zap to
remove them from a segment.
So if they unfortunately canceltheir monthly giving plan, then
you can move them into acanceled segment and then you
can have a workflow thattriggers that they've left when
you get into the backend.
It's so beautiful to use andwhy I created on my birthday
(23:51):
that email workflow template isbecause I feel like you guys
listen to us all the time on thethings that we want to be built
in the platform.
In this space, we all likesharing resources and I'm going
to steal a little bit of yourthunder then you can dive into
the details, but they've createdthe ability for you to share
email templates and now workflowtemplates, so I was able to
(24:14):
share with nonprofits Also.
By the way, if you haven'tdownloaded this listener, you
can download this still.
I will put the link in the shownotes.
I have a four-part monthlygiving email welcome series.
So once somebody gives monthly,they automatically get dropped
into this workflow.
It's four emails sent over thecourse of 30 days.
The timing's all built outLiterally.
The emails are written, youjust have to customize them.
(24:36):
I put sample subject lines inthere.
It's basically done for you.
You just have to customize itto your organization and they
allow this to be possible.
It's a link and it literallylike.
You click on it and it opensthe workflow already built out
in your Flowdesk account.
What was the genesis of doingthat?
Because I think it's so cool.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Shared workflows actually rounds out our shared
suite.
So you can now share emailtemplates.
You can share form templates.
You can share checkouttemplates and then workflows was
our final frontier Did not knowall those.
So, yes, you have the wholeenterprise.
You can share all those things.
Now, we wanted a way for ourmembers, because a lot of them
are educators.
They're like you they'reteaching other people how to run
(25:18):
successful businesses.
But it was really hard for themto like translate email
templates into something thatthey could offer or sell, or
like do they put it in a Googledoc and send you a Google doc
and good luck designing it, likehere's some canvas, like I
don't know.
There was like a reallycomplicated way to doing it.
So by creating this sharedsystem right, where you can
(25:39):
share these templates, theseworkflows, it made it really
easy for our educators, for thepeople that are using flow desk,
to offer these to theiraudience, because everybody's
audience is a little different,but we have so many amazing
educators out there that areteaching other people about
email marketing and, at the endof the day, we just want people
in our world to be successful.
We want them to learn thatemail marketing is great and we
(26:00):
want to make it the barrier toentry really low.
And by offering these templates, by leaning on these educators
like you to create this content,you are spreading the word
about email marketing and howeasy it can be to do it in their
own business.
And that has been so powerful.
(26:21):
And not only that it helps ussupport our members, because
that essentially gives youanother stream of revenue.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
We want you to be successful too.
We want you to earn money, sothey come in, they buy your
templates and it just overallcreates that ripple effect of
why email marketing is powerfuland how you can do it in an easy
way with Flowdesk, and that'swhat it's all about so good.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
We didn't even talk about checkouts, but that's
another feature that they have.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Oh yeah, you can actually like check out using
their software.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
So, yes, is there anything you can share like that
the team is in developmentthat's working on in 2025?
Any exciting things that arecoming down the pipeline working
on?
Speaker 1 (26:55):
in 2025?
Any exciting things that arecoming down the pipeline.
You know, if I could just likeread a roadmap out to you, I
would, but I have a feelingsomebody I know would listen to
this podcast episode.
But anyway, there are so manyexciting things coming Like I
cannot contain my excitement asa user and as somebody who works
here, but some expecting likethings to be ready for there's a
lot of exciting improvements toworkflows coming.
(27:17):
Workflows are powerful, butjust wait, it's going to get
even more powerful.
And we had mentioned checkouthere a little bit, but some big
checkout features are coming,including subscription payments.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
So that's something that's really big.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
That's on our radar, and then more integrations with
big tools out there.
So that's something that we'rereally leaning into Now.
Something that we launchedearly last year is a public
roadmap, so if you go toupdatesflowdeskcom, you can add
different feature requests andpeople can vote on it and
comment on it.
Now that is something that Iwant to tell you from internally
.
Like we look at that all thetime.
(27:51):
Our product team is evaluatingit.
We're seeing it.
We're seeing your comments.
So if you ever have feedback forus, please go there and share
it.
We love to hear it.
We love to hear your use casesof why you want this and how you
can use it.
So it helps us prioritize it.
So check that out,updatestoploadoscom, and if you
have any ideas, please sharethem, because we'd love to hear
(28:12):
them and we're always buildingthis for you guys.
We're building it to have againemail marketing accessible so
you can get the right message tothe right person at the right
time, and we want to make iteasy and we want to make it the
tool that you enjoy using.
We don't want to make.
You want to rip your hair outor pay a bazillion dollars.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
We want you to really lean into this, take advantage
of the ROI that email marketingbrings and make it part of your
business.
So good, and I just have toshare a quick case study point.
So optimizing email marketingplatforms for my monthly giving
mastermind group has never beensomething I've really focused on
.
We more optimize their donationplatforms.
However, retention is reallyimportant and I've always shared
, kind of to your point, thetemplate in a Google doc of the
email workflow as we weretalking.
(29:00):
So my monthly giving mastermindlistener is in this past round
in the spring was fiveorganizations that were all
refreshing or building fromscratch their monthly giving
programs.
The next round starts in Julyand we had a call where we
started to review and I askedabout their tools and their
platforms and I always ask likedo you like that platform?
(29:21):
Is it working for you?
Do you know how to build outthis email workflow for this
automation series?
And there was a lot offrustrations and I was like,
okay, I wasn't planning on doingthis during this call, but can
I show you what Flowdesk lookslike?
And so I shared my screen and Ishowed them my backend and all
five orgs switched to Flowdesk.
(29:43):
Oh, I love it.
So, if that's not case in point, A for multiple reasons the
usability, the ease, the pricepoint, the growth opportunities,
honestly, like all of the above.
And so I just want to say, likelistener, if you are curious,
if you're frustrated by yourcurrent email tool, there are
(30:03):
better options there andtypically the greatest tools
sometimes aren't marketed to oursector yet and Flowdesk is
still like in its young phaseand that's why we're doing this
together.
I was like I need to get you onthe podcast.
They have to know about theproduct and what you're doing.
It's F-L-O-D-E-S-K and I willhave all the beautiful links in
the show notes for you guys toget the templates, for you to
(30:25):
get the 50% off partnership link.
But at least explore it, Checkit out.
There's a free trial you canaccess.
Like, take a peek behind thescenes, see what's possible.
It's really easy to domigrations over from the
existing platform that you mightbe on.
But, Dawn, before we wrap today, because I've taken up so much
of your time already, is thereone thing that you would ask for
(30:48):
help or support on from thelisteners today?
Yeah, so we've already talkedabout this a little bit, but I
want to lean in on the listenershere.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Yeah, so we've already talked about this a
little bit, but I wanna lean inon the listeners here.
If you are a Flowdesk user andsomething is working really well
for you whether it's an emailtemplate or a workflow or a
checkout sales page or whateverthat is simply click on those
three dots on that card andclick share as a template.
Yes, the world needs whatyou've got.
That's one of our mottos here.
(31:13):
Yes, the world needs whatyou've got.
That's one of our mottos here.
You guys are so brilliant atwhat you do Sell the template,
share the template, offer it asa freebie.
We would love to spread theword about email marketing and
how powerful it can be for yourbusiness and how easy Flowdesk
makes that, but that also startswith you, and you have a really
easy way of doing that bysharing your templates.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
So good Dawn.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
If you have questions like isthere a part on the site they
should go to or message you onLinkedIn?
What's the best spot to go to?
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Yeah, so we're kind of all over.
You can find us on Instagram,at Flowdesk.
We're also on TikTok onFlowdesk and part of my efforts
here is really building out theYouTube channel with tutorials,
so I am often in those comments.
I don't run social media here,but I do have my hand in the
YouTube, so if you ask aquestion there.
But we also have a wonderfulhelp center, a wonderful support
(32:05):
team, so don't hesitate toreach out to helpfloatuscom to
get started, and we also have aFloatusk Insiders Facebook group
and it's really active we dohave employees that do monitor
that Facebook group and answerquestions.
Petra is just our queen of ourFacebook.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
I was going to say I know her by name.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
We love Petra.
She is incredible and she'sbeen with Flowdesk for so long,
but if you have a question or ifyou need help from the
community, that's a really greatplace to start as well.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Awesome.
I mean, if you can't feel thelove for this brand y'all for
real, well, we love you back.
Thank you so much for joiningme on the discussion today, and
I can't wait to hear all thestories from all of you that
decide to check out Flowdesk.
So more to come.
Thanks, dawn.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for tuninginto today's episode of Missions
(32:58):
to Movements.
If you enjoyed our conversationand found it helpful, I would
love for you to take a moment toleave a review.
Wherever you're listening.
Your feedback helps us reachmore changemakers like you and
continue bringing impactfulstories and strategies to the
show.
Don't forget to hit thatsubscribe button too, so you'll
never miss an episode, and untilnext time, keep turning your
(33:20):
mission into a movement.
personalization goes beyond including a first name in
an email.
It's all about thatsegmentation that you talked
about right, Creating dynamiccontent based on a subscriber's
behavior.
So what did they click on?
Can you segment them into adifferent audience?
What can we collect about themthat helps us make better
decisions about what we'resending them?
(00:20):
Because here's the thing herelike, take a step back.
The big goal is to send theright message to the right
person at the right time.
Everything we do in emailmarketing is about accomplishing
that.
So how do we do that?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I'm Dana Snyder, your host of the Missions to
Movements podcast, and my pathto philanthropy has been
anything but traditional.
This show is your weeklymastermind, designed to give you
the ideas, insights and supportyou need to push the boundaries
of what's been done before innonprofit marketing and
fundraising.
Whether you're looking to builda magnetic monthly giving
(00:55):
program, elevate your personalbrand or create partnerships
that amplify your impact, thisspace is for you.
I'll bring you solo episodesand conversations with industry
leaders offering actionablestrategies and fresh
perspectives that will move youand your mission forward.
Let's turn your mission into amovement.
(01:19):
Okay, I know I say that I startevery episode saying this is
going to be exciting and I'mreally thrilled about the guests
that we have on, but you guys,today, friends, I am actually
very excited, extra excited,about this conversation, because
I am introducing you to someonewho works for the email
platform I've been using since2020 and they came out in 2019.
(01:41):
So let's just say I'm a superfan of the platform, never
changed, never wavered, neverchanged the pricing which we're
going to talk about, and she's atotal rock star when it comes
to email marketing and usereducation.
Dawn Richardson is the producteducation manager at Flowdesk.
She helps entrepreneurs,creatives, nonprofits like
yourself really getting the mostout of their marketing tools
(02:02):
without tech overwhelm, which Iknow is a really big deal for
all of us, and I think what Ilove so much about you and
Flowdesk is the simplicity andthe beautiful ease of use of the
platform.
So you are in charge of allthings education, and so I am
selfishly using this podcastepisode to pick your brain and
to share knowledge withnonprofits who, I think, a lot
(02:26):
of times, honestly, I've heardfrustrations with email
platforms and so, listener, ifthat is you, this is going to be
a really really good one.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
So, dawn, welcome to Missions, to Movements.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm so excited to be here andto geek out about all of the
things.
Yes, we can talk about this allday, so let's see if we can
keep this in a good time frame.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, Okay, so Flowdash started in 2019.
And I think I've heard it mostcommonly referred to as like
it's refreshing, it's beautifulemails, it's easy to use.
It's all the things that theother ones aren't Like
Mailchchimp, constant Contact,just to name a few most commonly
utilized in our space.
What inspired the founders,from all the internal meetings
(03:11):
that you've had, to reallycreate Flowdesk, and what do you
think uniquely makes it standapart from everybody else?
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yeah.
So this is a great question andI am not the founder, so this
is all stories and understandingthe business and being a
business owner myself, so I comefrom that perspective as well.
But there was the realizationthat email marketing was just
clunky, it was difficult, it waseasy to understand, it was
important for businesses, but itwas really hard for them to
(03:41):
grasp, especially theentrepreneur space, the
nonprofits, the creators.
This was something they wantedto take advantage of, but they
couldn't because it was justreally inaccessible to them.
So our founders set out on amission to create beautiful
software that is easy to use andalso allows these small
business owners to show up inthe inbox in an authentic way.
(04:04):
They want to be themselves,right, but they also want to
show up in the inbox in anauthentic way.
They want to be themselvesright, but they also want to
show up in a really beautifulway that catches attention right
.
When we're in our inboxes, we'reoften competing with a lot of
other important information andyou want to stand out.
You want that design experiencethat these big, big companies
like Starbucks and Anthropologiehave, right.
(04:25):
So they set out to create apiece of software that was
intuitive, easy to use andreally enabled you to create
that beautiful standoutappearance in the inbox and make
that accessible to anybody.
And one thing that I reallylove about the Flowdesk team and
being on the Flowdesk team ismany of us that work here at
Flowdesk are our own businessowners.
(04:47):
We are running our own business.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah Well, you told me that I had no idea.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, no, I run a business called Tech Savvy
Creative and before that I ran awedding photography business
for eight years in the TexasHill Country.
Both of those businesses I usedFlowdesk.
I use Flowdesk actively withTech Savvy but the studio.
I made an additional 60 to 70grand a year from my email
marketing and it was all thanksto Flowdesk.
(05:10):
So there's a lot of us on theteam that are also running our
side hustles or other businessesthat are utilizing this tool.
So we are coming at it from theperspective of, like we
understand what it's like to bein your shoes, because we are in
your shoes actively andcurrently so, and that just
brings a different dynamic to atool and how we're using it, and
it's just a really specialplace to be for entrepreneurs
(05:34):
and I mean for me as a teammember like I can sing praises
all day, like it's so great.
But it's also really importantfor our members to know that we
understand what it's like to bein their shoes.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yes, and it honestly makes me feel smarter about
email marketing, and what I meanby that is our conversation is
going to talk about emailmarketing trends and things that
we're seeing andproduct-specific updates.
Listener, and when it comes toemail marketing, there's a lot
out there about.
We talk about segmentation, alot in the sector and workflows
(06:04):
and automatic email sequencesand a lot of times that can feel
daunting and you're watchingendless how-to videos or on
YouTube and I, for the firsttime, felt so equipped and like,
yeah, this is easy.
And I show so many peoplethey're like this, that's it.
And I was like, yeah, like youmake it not rocket science for
(06:25):
something that shouldn're likethis, that's it.
And I was like, yeah, you makeit not rocket science for
something that shouldn't beright.
It's clear, simple functionalityto utilize, and so you can sing
their praises.
I can sing their praises and Ithink, listener, if you're on my
email list, you are literallyreceiving what it is we're going
to be talking about.
So maybe now you'll look at myemails a little bit differently
and be like, oh, okay, I can seehow that all works.
And it's not just emails.
(06:47):
I want to be specific.
It's also the forms on websites, so forms on my website,
pop-ups, full landing pages,instagram, linkedin bios there's
like a lot of differentfunctionality to it.
That all comes together comestogether.
Dawn, I know you've seen a lotof evolution of the product as a
(07:08):
user and then now behind thescenes, what do you think
overall in email marketing, haveyou seen trending well right
now and how specifically maybenonprofits should be adapting?
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, oh, I love this question.
So one of the big trends thatwe're seeing and this is
something like when I'm lookingat my education I'm really
leaning into.
But personalization goes beyondincluding a first name in an
email.
It's all about thatsegmentation that you talked
about, right, creating dynamiccontent based on a subscriber's
behavior.
So what did they click on?
(07:39):
Can you segment them into adifferent audience?
What can we collect about themthat helps us make better
decisions about what we'resending them?
Because here's the thing here,like, take a step back.
The big goal is to send theright message to the right
person at the right time.
Everything we do in emailmarketing is about accomplishing
that.
So how do we do that?
That's with automations, that'swith segmentation, and getting
(08:02):
that message in front of theright audience is what makes it
so powerful, because people feellike you're talking to them.
You feel like that youunderstand them.
They are getting more emailsabout something that they
might've clicked on becauseyou've segmented them
appropriately.
So this is such a huge piece.
It's not just including theirfirst name in the beginning
although that is important.
Please do that but it goesbeyond that and really creates
(08:25):
that experience.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Can I give an example on that?
I just want to dive in.
So two examples listeners, ifyou're on my email list,
recently I did an SMS webinar,so I promoted it to my email
list.
And if you clicked on the linkto register for the webinar but
you did not register, so I hadthe list of registrants and then
(08:47):
what I did was, if you clickedon the link, I labeled you as a
separate segment calledinterested in webinar, so I was
able to send an email.
I excluded the registrants andI just sent an email to the
interest base, so that shrunkthe list down to a few hundred
people.
And then I'm just able to say,hey, I saw you were interested
in this webinar.
So that shrunk the list down toa few hundred people.
(09:08):
And then I'm just able to say,hey, I saw you were interested
in this webinar.
So I'm not blasting my wholeemail list again, I'm just
segmenting the group of peoplethat I knew were interested and
nonprofit.
This could be you sharing aspecific newsletter or a topic
that somebody might beinterested in.
Be like hey, I noticed you werereally interested in this
specific program we offer andyou're just sending them
(09:32):
information on that.
Another one just talking aboutexcluding to give
personalization is I have mymonthly giving summit.
Now, not everyone on my emaillist wants to necessarily learn
about the monthly giving summitagain or get podcast updates.
So at the very bottom I had doyou only want monthly giving
summit updates?
Like that might be the onlyreason you're on my list.
If so, you clicked on that link, I marked you as like only send
MGS updates and you redirectedto this like really beautiful,
(09:56):
simple page on my website thatsays I see you.
Thanks so much for letting meknow.
I'll make sure you only getemails you love.
Right, super simple, but itallows me to make sure that
you're having the best possibleemail experience.
So I just wanted to share inpracticality what that can look
like.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yes, oh, I love that Again.
Right message to the rightperson at the right time.
That's what it's all about.
One of my most successful waysthat I segment in my own
business because at Tech SavvyCreative, I teach people how to
use tech tools, but I have a lotof different entrepreneurs.
I have photographers, graphicdesigners, I have videographers,
but I have a lot of differententrepreneurs.
I have photographers, graphicdesigners, I have videographers,
I have wedding professionalsand I use like form preferences
(10:32):
or I use different types ofsegmentation to learn about who
they are, because if I havesomething that's particular to
photographers, I have anaudience that's ready to go just
for the photographers, right?
So, like I don't want to sendsomebody who's a venue owner
information about a photographywebinar, so that allows me to do
the exact same thing again,because I don't want to send
(10:53):
irrelevant content to the wrongperson.
That's going to lead to loweropen rates, fewer clicks and,
ultimately, a poor experience,which leads to lower reputation
in the inbox.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
That's right, so good .
This is a huge one.
I would like stop, rewind,repeat and you can break down
the segmentation.
But this is again.
It might sound like complex, usexplaining it, but it's so
simple when you're in the toolto do these things, and we'll do
.
I would love to do later onlike a webinar, LinkedIn live
(11:23):
visual thing with you.
I know we're brainstorming.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Let's do it.
Let's do it, like the visualside of this.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
But again, one of the standout features is the ease
of use.
Can you walk us through maybe acouple of the most powerful
features that maybe people arenot expecting for an email
platform to have but should beusing?
Well, sure.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Well, sure, let me.
Let me do one that I kind oflike we talked about before we
jumped on here.
One of them is justintegrations.
So, flowdesk, we're diving deepinto the integration space.
We're creating integrationswith tools that you might be
working with.
We just released a Canvaintegration this last week,
which is super exciting.
So you don't even have to leaveyour Flowdesk email builder to
(12:05):
access your Canva designs.
You can even edit them.
It'll take you back to Canva,you edit them, you come back to
Flowdesk.
It had the edited design inyour Flowdesk email Beautiful.
So that's like really powerfuland it just kind of simplifies
the process.
You can get more done faster.
But the other ones that I loveto touch on are things that
we've already talked about,which is one link actions.
Link actions is probably mymost used feature personally,
(12:28):
and the link action is theability to trigger some type of
automation based off ofsomebody's click, so you can say
, like, if they click on thisblog post or if they click on
this webinar, or if they clickon whatever it may be, you can
add them to a segment or removethem from a segment, or add them
to a workflow or update acustom field.
You have these differentoptions that just really turn
(12:50):
something very simple andbeautiful into a absolute
powerhouse and those, once youkind of figure out those link
actions like exactly how youexplained it, dana, like those
are link actions.
They're powerful, they'resegmenting your audience so you
can send relevant information tothem.
You can say hey, I saw, you didthis.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
You know, and that like really kind of makes you
show up in a different way.
That is also very professionaland very like intimate, right?
Yeah, email marketing is sopowerful because you have the
flexibility to do that Somethingthat people don't use very
often that I'm always surprisedby our form preferences, which
is very simple and probably oneof the more basic features.
But when you have a form, so aform is an easy way to collect
(13:30):
your subscriber data.
So, like, hey, I'm giving youthis guide in exchange for your
email address.
Join my list or join mynewsletter or get this workflow
template, whatever that might be.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
User.
If you want an example, go topositiveecclationcom on any page
of my website and you'll see abunch of different forms of what
she's talking about.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Yes, yes, yeah, because you want to show up
wherever your subscribers are,right, you want to give them an
offer, meet them where they are,and that's part of successful
email marketing.
But those forms you can askthem additional questions.
You can say what are youinterested in, or tell me about
you, or are you in the nonprofitsector, or maybe it's somebody
that's just lurking?
You can take that informationand each of those form
(14:10):
preferences you can segment aswell so they join whatever
segment the form is attached to,as well as any of the options
that they have selected.
So that allows people toself-segment and that's really
powerful.
They feel in control, they'regetting information that they
find valuable and you can justreally enhance your email
marketing strategy that way.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
So good In practicality how I've done this
and user, you can start to thinkabout this and mind map it for
you specifically.
User, user, listener is I'malready thinking about you being
a user of the platform.
I'm like this is how you'regoing to do it For me is I'll
put like first name, last name,of course, like email Actually,
I do first name email and Ithink I'm adding phone number
(14:51):
because I'm going to betinkering in SMS and for
preferences, I'll list, likewhat are you most interested in?
What do you want to hear aboutPodcast, monthly giving.
So, like my core things, I talkabout upcoming webinars,
trainings, all of the above, andthen, as she's saying, each of
those preferences become its ownpersonal segment.
So if I have something reallyspecific, how I use them
(15:11):
sometimes too, is a test of anemail, like if you've told me
you're really interested inmonthly giving, I might send
like A-B tests and a subjectline and an email to that
smaller group first and if theyreally enjoyed it, then send it
out to the bigger group.
So it gives you just thisability to get to know the
people on your list more so thanif they were just a standard
(15:32):
subscriber.
So I love that.
I love that.
That's so great.
Another thing that I want to askyou about that is relatively I
mean, maybe it's in the pastyear was the update of your
analytics.
Ooh, analytics Analytics arefun, data analytics I know
Everyone's like, oh, sexynumbers, no, but for real.
But really, but really.
Looking at your numbers andespecially how they're presented
(15:54):
on the platform, is rare.
I've talked to lots ofcompanies nonprofits that do not
have the unique ability tosurface individual subscriber
data as far as, like, open rates, click through, their
engagement, their active, howmany emails they've opened if
(16:14):
they came from a form this, this, that.
How do you think you've seendata really improve the results
of email performance over timefor your clients?
Speaker 1 (16:25):
I love this question because analytics are so
important.
That's how we make decisionsright.
We're business owners.
We need to make data-drivendecisions, so having these
powerful analytics at your tipsone is very satisfying and
beautiful.
You go over to the analyticstab in Flowdesk and you're
presented with these beautifulgraphs and you're like, oh, I
love this so much, but havingthat information like your open
rates and click rates, those arethe basic email marketing
(16:48):
metrics that everybody's lookingat.
But there's also other thingslike, okay, when are they
opening emails?
When are they most likely to bein their inboxes?
That helps me frame what time Iwant to send my emails, or what
segments have the mostinteraction or maybe the least
interaction.
Maybe those segments that arethe worst performing segments
maybe need a little bit moremost interaction, or maybe the
least interaction.
Maybe those segments that arethe worst performing segments
(17:10):
maybe need a little bit morenurturing, or maybe you're
sending them too many emails.
You can experiment with that alittle bit.
One of my favorite ways toutilize my own analytics is by
looking at what forms areperforming the best for me.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I was just going to bring that up.
Yes, okay.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
And you have forms all over your website too, right
?
Yes, but it pinpoints wherepeople are because that's where
they're signing up via the form.
So if my blog post forms areperforming really well, maybe
that's a signal to me that Ineed to create more blog content
that funnels into my email listso I can make these business
decisions based off thoseanalytics, and it's going to
(17:49):
really drive where my people are.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
But then drive my strategy even further.
Yes, it gives the number ofvisitors that are coming across
that form, your total number ofopt-ins and then your conversion
rate, and then you canliterally see this beautiful
graph showcasing all of yourforms and which ones stack up to
be the most successful.
And so, for instance so justrecently, a few months ago, for
my birthday in March I did thisfour-part email welcome series,
(18:13):
literally using Flowdesk,because we're going to talk
about this, you can sharetemplates and workflows, and I
had a big surge in opt-insspecifically on that form, and
it's like ooh, okay, a form likethis, where I am sharing a
template of something, seemed towork really well.
Maybe I should do that again.
I'm just blown away.
These are the things that arenot normal, dawn, and I'm kind
(18:35):
of skipping to the punchline ofthe platform and I don't want to
wait until the end.
Can you please surface how thepricing model works on Flowdesk,
because this is super unique.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yeah, so Flowdesk is a flat rate model, so we don't
punish you based off of yoursubscriber count.
Can you say that again one moretime?
Yes, so we are flat rate andhave been since day one, so we
have a flat rate model.
It's a monthly subscriptionprice and that price includes
unlimited emails, unlimitedsubscribers, unlimited sends.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
It's amazing, pretty cool, I'm just going to like mic
drop.
Yeah, I cannot tell you.
This is like mind blowing.
I think it's hard fororganizations to comprehend, and
I think what I love about it islike you want people to grow
and excel and not be penalizedor charged more when you're
growing.
And so, listener, when I tellyou from me starting the use of
(19:28):
little platform, five yearslater, it's the same, and so the
link that I will share witheveryone that's listening, that
is in the show notes.
You can click on it.
You will get 50% off your firstyear if you use my specific
link.
So that's a total.
I'm just going to break it down.
It's $210.
Use that link, guys.
Use that link.
It's $210 a year.
(19:50):
A year, and even the normal is$420 a year.
I'm speechless because there'sno better case.
It's not only and I thinkwhat's interesting too about
this is, hopefully, listeneracross the mic, you can tell how
excited I am about thisplatform.
Why are you ever excited aboutthe tech platforms you use?
Most of the time, we'recringing at the online tools we
(20:12):
use and wishing they did morethings and wishing they listened
to us better, and arefrustrated by how much we're
paying for them, and so this isa really.
I mean, the team's reallykilled it, and so I hope you can
just radiate that energy andbring it back to them.
Yes, yeah, because that's ararity For me too.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
This is so relevant to me and my businesses because
so I'm a Flowdesk user from dayone.
The day they launched theirbeta, I was like oh, shiny new
tool, I got to check it out.
I review tools for a living.
That's what I do at Tech Savvy.
Creative is check out tools andstuff.
But I was using other platformsand I hadn't used a couple of
other platforms and I just kindof felt like I just didn't get
email marketing.
Maybe I just wasn't experiencedenough or like what do these
(20:51):
things mean?
And I was trying but I wasn'tdoing well and I also wasn't
motivated to do it.
And it wasn't until Flowdeskwhere I actually experienced
like actually having anenjoyable time creating emails
and I was really proud of how Ishowed up.
That was when I finally startedusing email marketing.
And I have this saying at TechSavvy like the best tool for you
(21:14):
is the one that you will use.
I don't care what tool it is,but if you will use it, it is
great for you and your business.
It doesn't matter what we use,what they use.
If you will use it, that is allthat matters.
And for me and for many otherbusiness owners out there, the
email marketing tool of choiceis Flowdesk, because that was
the first tool that theyactually stuck with.
That was the one that theyunderstood, that they were
(21:35):
excited about, that they weremotivated about.
And here's the thing, guys Evenin today's market, email
marketing has the highest ROI ofall of the marketing channels.
It's estimated at $42 for everydollar spent.
You don't get that kind of ROIon social media or on other
platforms.
It's email marketing.
It is still the top dog here,and that is so important to
(21:58):
remember.
So when you're not sure, iflike, oh, maybe I don't need
email, give it a try, and wemake it easy and affordable for
you to do that.
And I think you will be sopleasantly surprised, because
there are so many people outthere that pay attention to
their inboxes.
Like, even if you're somebodythat might might be in inbox
jail or whatever, you're like oh, I don't want to email people
(22:19):
For me anytime I get an emailfrom certain big brand companies
like Starbucks.
I will always open that emailjust because it's beautiful.
I just want to see what itlooks like.
That's not going to change mydecision if I'm going to buy.
Starbucks or not, such acreative, but I just want to see
what it looks like, becausethey're always so beautiful and
they stand out and they make youfeel something.
And it's so cool because I cando that in my own emails right
(22:44):
as a small business owner, andhaving that capability is so
powerful and that's just likereally where float us, because
just completely changed the gameyes, yes, and for sector
specific, you've also done areally great job with your
Zapier integrations, sononprofit.
Love me some Zapier.
Love some Zapier.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
They interact beautifully with your give
butters of the world, yourfundraise ups of the world.
Think about your CRM and itwill connect, and so you can
automatically.
I do this all the time with myclients is help set up the
somebody gives a gift a monthlygift, a one-time gift it
automatically syncs and addsthem to a segment.
So if you're worried about thatautomation taking place, it's
(23:25):
totally doable and so simple toset up.
I do it where, kind of likebefore you were talking about,
they can get added to a segmentand then you can set up a zap to
remove them from a segment.
So if they unfortunately canceltheir monthly giving plan, then
you can move them into acanceled segment and then you
can have a workflow thattriggers that they've left when
you get into the backend.
It's so beautiful to use andwhy I created on my birthday
(23:51):
that email workflow template isbecause I feel like you guys
listen to us all the time on thethings that we want to be built
in the platform.
In this space, we all likesharing resources and I'm going
to steal a little bit of yourthunder then you can dive into
the details, but they've createdthe ability for you to share
email templates and now workflowtemplates, so I was able to
(24:14):
share with nonprofits Also.
By the way, if you haven'tdownloaded this listener, you
can download this still.
I will put the link in the shownotes.
I have a four-part monthlygiving email welcome series.
So once somebody gives monthly,they automatically get dropped
into this workflow.
It's four emails sent over thecourse of 30 days.
The timing's all built outLiterally.
The emails are written, youjust have to customize them.
(24:36):
I put sample subject lines inthere.
It's basically done for you.
You just have to customize itto your organization and they
allow this to be possible.
It's a link and it literallylike.
You click on it and it opensthe workflow already built out
in your Flowdesk account.
What was the genesis of doingthat?
Because I think it's so cool.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Shared workflows actually rounds out our shared
suite.
So you can now share emailtemplates.
You can share form templates.
You can share checkouttemplates and then workflows was
our final frontier Did not knowall those.
So, yes, you have the wholeenterprise.
You can share all those things.
Now, we wanted a way for ourmembers, because a lot of them
are educators.
They're like you they'reteaching other people how to run
(25:18):
successful businesses.
But it was really hard for themto like translate email
templates into something thatthey could offer or sell, or
like do they put it in a Googledoc and send you a Google doc
and good luck designing it, likehere's some canvas, like I
don't know.
There was like a reallycomplicated way to doing it.
So by creating this sharedsystem right, where you can
(25:39):
share these templates, theseworkflows, it made it really
easy for our educators, for thepeople that are using flow desk,
to offer these to theiraudience, because everybody's
audience is a little different,but we have so many amazing
educators out there that areteaching other people about
email marketing and, at the endof the day, we just want people
in our world to be successful.
We want them to learn thatemail marketing is great and we
(26:00):
want to make it the barrier toentry really low.
And by offering these templates, by leaning on these educators
like you to create this content,you are spreading the word
about email marketing and howeasy it can be to do it in their
own business.
And that has been so powerful.
(26:21):
And not only that it helps ussupport our members, because
that essentially gives youanother stream of revenue.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
We want you to be successful too.
We want you to earn money, sothey come in, they buy your
templates and it just overallcreates that ripple effect of
why email marketing is powerfuland how you can do it in an easy
way with Flowdesk, and that'swhat it's all about so good.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
We didn't even talk about checkouts, but that's
another feature that they have.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Oh yeah, you can actually like check out using
their software.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
So, yes, is there anything you can share like that
the team is in developmentthat's working on in 2025?
Any exciting things that arecoming down the pipeline working
on?
Speaker 1 (26:55):
in 2025?
Any exciting things that arecoming down the pipeline.
You know, if I could just likeread a roadmap out to you, I
would, but I have a feelingsomebody I know would listen to
this podcast episode.
But anyway, there are so manyexciting things coming Like I
cannot contain my excitement asa user and as somebody who works
here, but some expecting likethings to be ready for there's a
lot of exciting improvements toworkflows coming.
(27:17):
Workflows are powerful, butjust wait, it's going to get
even more powerful.
And we had mentioned checkouthere a little bit, but some big
checkout features are coming,including subscription payments.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
So that's something that's really big.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
That's on our radar, and then more integrations with
big tools out there.
So that's something that we'rereally leaning into Now.
Something that we launchedearly last year is a public
roadmap, so if you go toupdatesflowdeskcom, you can add
different feature requests andpeople can vote on it and
comment on it.
Now that is something that Iwant to tell you from internally
.
Like we look at that all thetime.
(27:51):
Our product team is evaluatingit.
We're seeing it.
We're seeing your comments.
So if you ever have feedback forus, please go there and share
it.
We love to hear it.
We love to hear your use casesof why you want this and how you
can use it.
So it helps us prioritize it.
So check that out,updatestoploadoscom, and if you
have any ideas, please sharethem, because we'd love to hear
(28:12):
them and we're always buildingthis for you guys.
We're building it to have againemail marketing accessible so
you can get the right message tothe right person at the right
time, and we want to make iteasy and we want to make it the
tool that you enjoy using.
We don't want to make.
You want to rip your hair outor pay a bazillion dollars.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
We want you to really lean into this, take advantage
of the ROI that email marketingbrings and make it part of your
business.
So good, and I just have toshare a quick case study point.
So optimizing email marketingplatforms for my monthly giving
mastermind group has never beensomething I've really focused on
.
We more optimize their donationplatforms.
However, retention is reallyimportant and I've always shared
, kind of to your point, thetemplate in a Google doc of the
email workflow as we weretalking.
(29:00):
So my monthly giving mastermindlistener is in this past round
in the spring was fiveorganizations that were all
refreshing or building fromscratch their monthly giving
programs.
The next round starts in Julyand we had a call where we
started to review and I askedabout their tools and their
platforms and I always ask likedo you like that platform?
(29:21):
Is it working for you?
Do you know how to build outthis email workflow for this
automation series?
And there was a lot offrustrations and I was like,
okay, I wasn't planning on doingthis during this call, but can
I show you what Flowdesk lookslike?
And so I shared my screen and Ishowed them my backend and all
five orgs switched to Flowdesk.
(29:43):
Oh, I love it.
So, if that's not case in point, A for multiple reasons the
usability, the ease, the pricepoint, the growth opportunities,
honestly, like all of the above.
And so I just want to say, likelistener, if you are curious,
if you're frustrated by yourcurrent email tool, there are
(30:03):
better options there andtypically the greatest tools
sometimes aren't marketed to oursector yet and Flowdesk is
still like in its young phaseand that's why we're doing this
together.
I was like I need to get you onthe podcast.
They have to know about theproduct and what you're doing.
It's F-L-O-D-E-S-K and I willhave all the beautiful links in
the show notes for you guys toget the templates, for you to
(30:25):
get the 50% off partnership link.
But at least explore it, Checkit out.
There's a free trial you canaccess.
Like, take a peek behind thescenes, see what's possible.
It's really easy to domigrations over from the
existing platform that you mightbe on.
But, Dawn, before we wrap today, because I've taken up so much
of your time already, is thereone thing that you would ask for
(30:48):
help or support on from thelisteners today?
Yeah, so we've already talkedabout this a little bit, but I
want to lean in on the listenershere.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Yeah, so we've already talked about this a
little bit, but I wanna lean inon the listeners here.
If you are a Flowdesk user andsomething is working really well
for you whether it's an emailtemplate or a workflow or a
checkout sales page or whateverthat is simply click on those
three dots on that card andclick share as a template.
Yes, the world needs whatyou've got.
That's one of our mottos here.
(31:13):
Yes, the world needs whatyou've got.
That's one of our mottos here.
You guys are so brilliant atwhat you do Sell the template,
share the template, offer it asa freebie.
We would love to spread theword about email marketing and
how powerful it can be for yourbusiness and how easy Flowdesk
makes that, but that also startswith you, and you have a really
easy way of doing that bysharing your templates.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
So good Dawn.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
If you have questions like isthere a part on the site they
should go to or message you onLinkedIn?
What's the best spot to go to?
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Yeah, so we're kind of all over.
You can find us on Instagram,at Flowdesk.
We're also on TikTok onFlowdesk and part of my efforts
here is really building out theYouTube channel with tutorials,
so I am often in those comments.
I don't run social media here,but I do have my hand in the
YouTube, so if you ask aquestion there.
But we also have a wonderfulhelp center, a wonderful support
(32:05):
team, so don't hesitate toreach out to helpfloatuscom to
get started, and we also have aFloatusk Insiders Facebook group
and it's really active we dohave employees that do monitor
that Facebook group and answerquestions.
Petra is just our queen of ourFacebook.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
I was going to say I know her by name.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
We love Petra.
She is incredible and she'sbeen with Flowdesk for so long,
but if you have a question or ifyou need help from the
community, that's a really greatplace to start as well.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Awesome.
I mean, if you can't feel thelove for this brand y'all for
real, well, we love you back.
Thank you so much for joiningme on the discussion today, and
I can't wait to hear all thestories from all of you that
decide to check out Flowdesk.
So more to come.
Thanks, dawn.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for tuninginto today's episode of Missions
(32:58):
to Movements.
If you enjoyed our conversationand found it helpful, I would
love for you to take a moment toleave a review.
Wherever you're listening.
Your feedback helps us reachmore changemakers like you and
continue bringing impactfulstories and strategies to the
show.
Don't forget to hit thatsubscribe button too, so you'll
never miss an episode, and untilnext time, keep turning your
(33:20):
mission into a movement.
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