Full disclosure: I spent 12k on a program to implement advanced email funnels. First-year zero results. Second-year 215k in revenue.

I spend more time on emails than any other part of my business for two reasons: first- emails are the most fun for me, and second- it’s where the money gets made.

In a recent interview Jerry Seinfeld was asked "Where do you like to work most?" and he didn't answer a particular venue in Vegas or Los Angeles, he said "Between my ears". He works in his head, trying to reach another head. The venues are then, later the testing of the work. Work, Test, Improve. That is Jerry's cycle. And the cycle of every venture.

Emails are my numero uno favorite part of running my business for a lot of reasons. It’s where I get to show up as “me”, it’s where I get to have genuine conversations with you guys, it’s where I see the most proof that things are landing well (or not) with you. Like Jerry.

And yeah, Emails are also where the money gets made. Don’t believe me? Here are some nerdy statistics:

🌴 For every 1$ spent on email marketing, you get an estimated $44 return

🌴 Every name in your email list is equal to about $1 of revenue per month

🌴 LESS THAN 6% of the people who follow you on social media see your posts at any given time

🌴 A message is 5X's more likely to be seen in email than via Facebook

🌴 72% of people PREFER to be sent promotional content via email

Sales don’t happen on your website. They happen IN YOUR INBOX.

For all these reasons, it’s super important to me to have an awesome email provider that allows me to stay organized and informed about what’s working (and what isn’t) in my email campaigns.

By the way, if you’re reading this and going, “damn, maybe I should put more effort into starting or growing my email list” I’ve got you covered. Definitely try our Tuesday Session for free for 7 days.

In the Tuesday Sessions we teach and implement with you our proven growth formulas, like the "Value Staircase" that generates value at every interaction with your users.

Image: The Strategy Sprints® Method - The Value Staircase

Why I switched from Mailchimp to Kajabi for emails (and which one is better for you & your business)

First thing’s first: I used, and loved, Mailchimp for 3 years. It’s the perfect platform to start if you’re (relatively) new to having an email list. It’s simple, it’s got way more free features than “the other guys”, and it’s easy to see your reports.

So if Mailchimp was so great, why did I switch? Because my business model switched.

I went from being a solo business consultant to becoming the CEO of a global team of consultants. I fired myself from fulfilment with the help of a business coach, and got two levels above fulfilment. This freed up around 45 hours per week for me. Time that I now could spend ON the business, not IN it.

So I had time to improve the business of my business. The model itself.

🌴 I improved form, fit and function of my sales system.

🌴 I improved form, fit and function of my operations.

🌴 I improved form, fit and function of my marketing system.

While I work ON the business, Certified Strategy Sprints® Coaches around the globe coach business owners until they double their revenue in 90 days.

I now make 100% of my income from working ON the business, and 0% from working IN the business.

This is only possible with a reliable and automated sales system: Emails, Tags, CRM Pipeline, Integrations.

Cool, but can’t you just connect your Kajabi account with Mailchimp?

In theory, Kajabi has an integration with Mailchimp, but when you auto-import your Kajabi contacts into Mailchimp, you can’t automatically tag those contacts. And the tagging system is the foundation of a solid marketing system.

Without it, you can never move hundreds of people per day from level 1 (Aware) to level 2 (Interested) to level 3 (Engaged) to level 4 (Ready to buy) and hand them over to your closer.

(If you go "What is a closer?" Definitely try our Tuesday Session for free for 7 days. )

What I miss about Mailchimp: The analytics

Full transparency: I really miss the analytics and reporting features in MailChimp. I loved being able to see my overall open rates (47%🌴), click-through rates, how my stats compared to others in my field, what sign up page a contact had come through on, when their status last changed, how often a contact engaged with email campaigns, etc.

Kajabi does offer analytics, but only on a per-campaign basis. You can see the info you need inside each email report, but you can’t see an overall report of how your campaigns are doing on the whole.

Which platform is right for you?

If you are starting out, Mailchimp is great. If you got traction and are ready to scale, Kajabi is the better option.

Asses your marketing maturity level using this checklist:

Even though I really miss the analytics of Mailchimp, I’m already SO happy I switched to Kajabi for the simple reason of being able to target my audience by which products they own and which events they attended. It’s not relevant to send emails about product A if the person is only interested in product C.

Kajabi’s email platform also lets you do more in the way of live promotions, announcements, webinars, countdown, etc. where Mailchimp kept it pretty simple with its widgets.

So here’s my final thought:

New to business, or have a business that doesn’t involve Kajabi? Start with MailChimp. It’s an amazing platform for building your list and learning how that list likes to be communicated with. It’s the easiest email platform to use for integrations on website builders as well; Squarespace, Wordpress, and Shopify all have MailChimp integrations built-in and ready to go. It’s also easy to see your analytics and trim your subscriber list of inactive subscribers.

However: if you’re getting traction and ready to scale up, I recommend going with Kajabi’s built-in email service. It will make your life so much simpler, and your subscribers so much happier! A huge part of being successful with your email list is the ability to send your subscribers content that’s relevant to them.

Keep Rolling

Simon