The Best Email Marketing Software for Creative Professionals
Most of you know by now that I am not using social media for my business. Over the past several years, I’ve shifted away from instagram and toward a more sustainable model: Pinterest + Email Marketing. Email marketing has become a cornerstone of my evergreen business model… and as a brand designer, I know that any email my audience receives must feel on-brand, beautiful, and engaging.
I believe email marketing works—but so does everyone else. Inboxes are getting more and more crowded… people are becoming more selective about subscribing to yet another list. There is already a flood of emails landing in front of your audience every day. So if you want to use email marketing effectively, you have to create emails that people genuinely want to read.
Your subscribers should be looking forward to your emails (not just deleting them or filing them away). Email marketing is only effective when it cultivates brand awareness and converts subscribers into clients. That means your emails should be interesting, beautifully designed, and instantly recognizable as part of your brand.
How to design beautifully branded marketing emails
Flodesk Templates
If you want to send thoughtfully designed emails, use Flodesk. Flodesk is hands-down the best email marketing software for brand designers and creative professionals. I’ve been using Flodesk for my email marketing since my business started, and it is truly the only email marketing platform that allows full control over the visual style of your emails.
Flodesk uses an intuitive in-platform design software, so you can easily create emails that reflect your brand. With custom fonts and brand colors, you can personalize any block of text or images to look like it’s part of your own visual identity. Other design platforms are super limited in design functionality—they don’t allow you to tailor your email to your brand. Without personalizing your email design, you’re losing out on brand recognition: your audience will see an email in their inbox, but they won’t even know it’s yours.
A Flodesk subscription includes stunning email templates at the ready. Their templates are designer-approved: professional, elevated, visually impactful. These email designs are so polished and style-forward I can’t even believe they’re templates.
Keep it simple: choose one of the existing email marketing templates, and apply your brand fonts and colors to make it feel like your own. Your email will become instantly recognizable as part of your brand—and your marketing messages will immediately feel more elevated, polished, and professional.
Flodesk + Canva Integration
If you want to take it a step further, you can explore Flodesk’s Canva integration for complete creative freedom. This feature was released earlier this year, and it’s a game-changer for creative professionals who want to take their email marketing design to the next level:
“The Canva integration works seamlessly: Click “Edit in Canva” on the image preview in Flodesk to instantly open Canva. Once you’re done, click “Return to Flodesk” to see your updated design embedded in your content.”Watch the Step-by-Step Tutorial Here!
This integration gives you full creative control down to the last pixel. But it also streamlines your design process: with the Flodesk + Canva integration, you can bring any designs you already have in your Canva account into Flodesk.
That means you can re-purpose any branded content you’ve already made in Canva by syncing your designs to Flodesk.
If you think outside the box a little bit, this integration can save you endless hours of design work. Before you start designing an email in Flodesk, take a quick peek at your Canva homepage. What can you borrow from your existing designs? Steal a layout from your client welcome guide, use a design from your latest presentation, or turn your latest social media post into a Flodesk block.
*Note: for our past clients… feel free to use your social media templates for exactly this purpose! You can import the social media templates we designed for your brand into Flodesk, giving you an on-brand email marketing design in seconds.
This integration saves you from ever looking at a blank email design and wondering where to start. When you import designs from Canva, you gain full creative freedom—and you make it easy to implement a visually cohesive brand experience.
Flodesk + Canva is my personal favorite integration, but Flodesk works seamlessly with other popular software as well:
Of course, I wouldn’t be talking about the design features if Flodesk’s functionality wasn’t solid. Beautiful design is always grounded in intuitive function. Flodesk makes email marketing easy—even if words like opt-in or workflow sound confusing to you.
My Flodesk account is totally automated: my workflows run in the background of my business without requiring time and attention from me. I have about 8 email workflows running at any given time, which means subscribers are continually joining my list, receiving content, and engaging with my brand (even when I’m not actively monitoring email activity). I’m able to segment my audience into lists, so I can create tailored content for each segment depending on their interests.
I do write an email to my audience about once a quarter (sometimes more, sometimes less… usually just when I feel inspired and actually have something to say). This approach has made email marketing feel effortless. It’s a critical part of my evergreen business model, but it doesn’t require much time or energy from me after the initial setup. I’m grateful for an email marketing platform that lets me create thoughtful messages for my audience, all while looking polished and true to my brand.
Start designing beautifully branded emails today
Get started with the best email marketing platform for creative professionals
I want to be totally transparent: I am affiliate for Flodesk, which means I receive a small commission when you sign up for Flodesk using my link. I only share affiliate content I truly recommend from my own personal experience… and Flodesk has absolutely been a critical part of my evergreen business model since I left instagram many years ago. Without a doubt, I consider it to be the best email marketing software for creative professionals.
If you’re ready to start crafting beautiful emails for your own business, use this link to sign up with my discount code. I recommend the Pro Plan, which will give you access to unlimited workflows. If you’re looking for a low-cost introduction to email marketing, the Lite Plan would still be a great way to get started with this software!
To learn exactly how I use Flodesk in my own business, take a look at these posts:
*This page may contain affiliate links to trusted products and services. Sarah Ann Design may earn a small commission if you choose to make a purchase from one of our partners. We partner with brands we trust, and share our honest opinions.
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