Once upon a migration

It's here! Why and how I switched to ConvertKit from ActiveCampaign  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ Once upon a time Once upon a time, when I first started my email list, I debated between ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign. ConvertKit was a serious contender, but ActiveCampaign won. ActiveCampaign was just so so robust. I felt like there was nothing I couldn’t do in ActiveCampaign. And since the thought of migrating down the line sounded awful, I wanted to choose something that had capabilities that could handle me forever. (No, the irony is not lost on me.) ​ But the clincher that sold me on ActiveCampaign? A feature. In ActiveCampaign, you can A/B test within automations. In ConvertKit, you couldn’t. And I love testing stuff. Half the reason I even have an email list is to use you as a lab rat for things I’m considering trying on clients. (Makes you feel loved, eh?) Plus, not being able to test something evergreen seemed like something I couldn’t manage without. Evergreen results are more significant – and what you do with the results can be so much more impactful too. ​ So, into ActiveCampaign I dove, head over heels in love with the platform. (And, yes, I proceeded to build out a bajillion A/B tests into all of my automations.) I was in TOTAL honeymoon phase. I gushed about ActiveCampaign to anyone who asked. I filled out every NPS they sent me (and um.. they send a LOT!). Never mind that they never paid any attention to my polite request that they make the subject line and preview text editable with the body instead of having to click a stupid gear button and load a whole page to edit something so critical to an email. It was alllll good. ​ ​Until Strike One We tried to redo our re-engagement flow, using their recipe for the technical set up. And… It didn’t work. Disengaged subscribers weren’t getting the re-engagement emails. But muuuuch worse, engaged subscribers were! It was a mess. We turned off the automation and contacted support. Chat didn’t prove very helpful. Hmmm. I booked a 1:1 call – something it seems like they offer once per non-enterprise customer (don’t quote me on this, that’s what it seemed like). That would do the trick, right? Nope… she had no clue what was wrong with the flow and… suggested I use their recipe. 🤦‍♀️ Ok, fine, no re-engagement flow. Not great – especially since I was kinda [preaching about re-engagement flows](=) at the time. Looking good, Nikki, looking good. ​ That’s when honeymoon phase ended. When I realized that ActiveCampaign is a giant conglomerate and couldn’t give me the support I needed. Fine, it’s okay, I could reach out to an ActiveCampaign specialist to see if we can figure it out instead, right? Well, turns out, there aren’t a lot of ActiveCampaign specialists. All the ActiveCampaign specialists I knew aren’t ActiveCampaign specialists per se – they’re tech ppl, who also have a decent handle on ActiveCampaign. Given that I knew 4 ConvertKit specialists off the top of my head, this felt kind of meh. But okay, tech people can do the job too. Until I got a quote: 3000 buckaroos to fix my re-engagement flow (and a few other things I threw in that were NOT big fixes). Um… I’d rather just not have a re-engagement flow. I’m not an e-comm store or giant brand that needs super duper deliverability. ​ ​The lightbulb moment Having to pull together a list of small fixes that I wanted this 3K specialist to implement made me realize something: Each of the fixes was something that I could actually do myself – or assign to Pesi – but for some reason… I didn’t. Why? The thought was always in the background, but now it was brought to the forefront: while ActiveCampaign is super robust, it’s also super unintuitive. I started realizing that I hated going into ActiveCampaign. I always thought it was just that it was so so sloooooooooooooooowwwwwwwww, but no, it was also because everything took a thousand clicks and zoom-ins and things were labeled very similarly but unintuitively. And because of this, I never went in to view results. Never updated automations. Never built new ones. I half heartedly tried assigning these things to Pesi but 1) it’s not like she was raring to do it either and 2) I’d never get around to properly assigning exactly what I wanted because it meant going into the platform to get clarity on what I wanted. So all those A/B tests that I was so excited about? They were doing nothing except exciting those of you who sign up with two email addresses to spy on my testing. (Who’s the lab rat here after all?) The feature that won me over was basically useless. ​ Enter: the competition Then I read [a year in review]( from Nathan Barry, founder of ConvertKit. And this line jumped out: “We’re now the only mainstream email provider to allow video to play natively in emails.” Cool. But more than the actual feature (don’t worry, I’d learned my lesson by now: 1) most single features aren’t as valuable as you expect them to be and 2) competitors can copy features anytime!) – I was reassured by the direction that ConvertKit is continuing to take. Since that first bout of research when I was first choosing a platform, they’ve been serving “Creators.” That hasn’t changed over time – and they’ve really been giving it their all, in very creative ways. ​ My favorite example of this is their address feature: CAN-SPAM requires every marketing email to include a physical mailing address. But most Creators work from home. And it’s a bit icky to share your home address on every email you send. So ConvertKit maintains a [mailing address that all their customers can use]() – and they’ll scan in any mail you receive and send it your way. (No packages though, bummer.) That’s the kind of “in the shoes of their target audience” kind of direction that has really been defining their direction. ​ Meanwhile, every new feature that ActiveCampaign was putting out was either for the CRM or for their ecommerce customers. Neither of which is relevant to me. It was frustrating to be ignored – especially when I felt their UX needed serious improvement. ​ My churn journey In short: The why was because that account was a mess and that I was too scared to go in and look at it. The push was seeing how ConvertKit’s direction has stayed throughout the years – and how their product has evolved to serve that direction. And the trigger was the upcoming renewal of my ActiveCampaign annual plan. In long: Churn doesn’t happen in a vacuum. ActiveCampaign should have noticed that I stopped filling out NPS surveys. That alone should have been enough to trigger a retention campaign. (Wait till you see what happened when I canceled.) And forget NPS, anytime you hope to keep customers with you for a long time (um, all of us?), periodic reach outs and nurtures can mitigate surprise churns that have actually been percolating under the surface for a while. ​ The migration process I knew migration would be a big deal, so I went to my calendar to block out the month of October for us to tackle it. And saw that both Pesi and I were taking vacation throughout the entire month. Umm… guess we’ll tackle it in September? I didn’t love the idea of dedicating one month to non-client stuff and then also taking off a lot of time the next month, but what can you do? And then I saw a Tweet from [Jason Resnick](=) promoting a half-rate day rate sale. Cool, it’d be great to have some help to ease up the work at a very inconvenient time. And also, I figured he could give everything a look through, clean up the messy bits, and make sure we weren’t making any crazy mistakes. So I reached out: ​ ​ ​ ​ This is something I’ve gotten very passionate about – ever since buying a high ticket course to take "next year" and then not needing it the next year. As my sister says: If it’s gotta be now, it’s gotta be no. ​ ​ And then, in July, I saw that ConvertKit was running a promotion: switch by July 31st and you get a free audit. Plus, if you have 3,000 subscribers, they’ll migrate everything for you. Wowwwww. The only problem? I don’t have 3,000 subscribers. I reached out to support and asked if I could pay for the 3K plan, despite not having 3,000 actual subscribers. No siree I couldn’t. The wowwww turned into a wahhhhh. ​ And then I got thinking… I thought I’d hire Jason for a day rate, thinking we’d handle the migration and he’d apply some band aids… but what if we had him do the migration completely? So, I sent a query and… decided to hand it off completely. I paid 4x what I would have if I’d jumped on the half-rate day rate. But I don’t regret the decision not to buy something I might not use. (And tbh, I’m not sure if he would have done a migration in one day. The whole process was very white glove.) ​ ​So easy ​ ​ Before starting, I had to clarify a little strategy stuff. Organize which automations were important, which weren’t. Stuff like that. We had a kickoff call to hammer that out, along with timing and technical stuff. And Jason did the rest. Blisssssss. I even went off the grid for 10 days while he did his magic. And I came back to a wonderfully, beautiful migrated account. ​ Exposing the underside………. It was a little vulnerable giving Jason access to everything – how many subscribers I have, how many products I’ve sold, all the numbers that quantify our “success.” It was uncomfortable because I think I should have “more.” Cuz the big bro internet ppl say I should. But also because I think I definitely have more opportunity that I’m not tapping into. And when I told him that, he actually outlined some strategies of how I could do that. Wouldn’t it be great if I could have told him without feeling guilty or “not good enough” about it? So, little pep talk to self: just cuz the gurus say you should doesn’t mean you should. And even if you think you should, doesn’t mean you have to beat yourself up about it. ​ Saying goodbye to ActiveCampaign It was definitely kinda crazy to cancel ActiveCampaign. There’s so much in there that I felt like I was leaving behind – but that was just emotional. Logically, I knew I had everything I needed in ConvertKit or in CSV files. ​ The cancellation process wasn’t very impressive. First, it took Pesi several minutes to find where to cancel. Not cool AC. Not cool. Second, before processing the cancellation, they offered a 1:1 consult 🙄 ​ ​ Too little too late. A customer shouldn’t have to wait till they’re frustrated – or jump through hoops – to get good support, sorry. But, I will say that filling out the feedback survey was oddly satisfying. 😈 ​ And they all lived happily ever after I knew when I hired Jason that he’d set things up more strategically than we could – but he completely exceeded my expectations. He implemented so many little things that I wasn’t expecting – things like naming conventions, suppression triggers, hidden fields – just the little stuff that you know makes a big difference when you’re deep in email tech for years. Honestly, my takeaway from seeing how he set everything up is that anyone starting an email list should hire someone to set it up properly. It’s not a fun opinion – most everyone I know wants to start when they’re scrappy. But it saves sooooo much headache down the line. But even more importantly: when you start with strategy, you can start monetizing faster, and better. Case in point: I have so many products that are just not linked to each other. I’m sure you don’t know half the products that I sell because you’ve never been pitched on them. Starting with a strategy would have given you a proper customer journey. Now I have the bare bones in place to make that happen. Prepare for a zillion pitches. JUST KIDDING. The other side of switch Honestly, I’m not in love with the ConvertKit support – we had one tiny snag and Jason offered a better workaround than they did. I’m also still a little huffy about them not letting me up to the 3K plan to get the free migration. But I still think they’re more responsive than the ActiveCampaign support – and they’re also more invested in making sure you’re happy and that we reach a satisfactory conclusion. ​ I also know that there will definitely be a learning curve with ConvertKit. The last email I sent had super wide margins and the wrong sender name. (The margins took a day of support back and forth, still working on the sender name.) I have to get used to the whole template editor thing – instead of just being able to edit the design directly while writing. Things like that. No tool is perfect, I’m not in la la land. But so far so good. ​ And that, dear friend, is the end of the story. Or maybe…… it’s just the beginning. Yes, you may now cue the violins and sunsets. Or vomit. Depends how much you hate cliches. ​ – Nikki 🎻 ​ P.S. A month or two before migrating, the ConvertKit affiliate team reached out and asked if I wanted to be an affiliate. I jumped aboard and have been really impressed with how they treat their affiliates – they had a whole training course and sequence to greet me. And why, yes, of course you can [use my affiliate link]( to switch, my pleasure. :P I might even be able to finagle some sort of fun bonus... still thinking about exactly what, I welcome your suggestions. ​ P.P.S. I also recently became an affiliate for Intercom because I think they’re the best platform for SaaS brands. Just like ConvertKit, they’re focused on their niche and that makes them do a really good job. I always knew that ESP recommendations depend on the industry, but now – after doing this switch and also going through the Intercom materials – I’m really seeing it. ​ P.P.P.S. I totally forgot about the fuzzy socks!!!! ​ While I was writing the pre-migration email, ActiveCampaign was being so slow that I found and bought my daughters fuzzy socks in the time it took for the designer to load. (And there were a lot of patterns to choose from, okay?) ​ Now that I’m writing up the whole migration story, I’m seeing that the slowness wasn’t the real reason I switched – more the clunkiness – but it was definitely a point of contention and I’m really happy to be leaving it behind. ​ ​[Unsubscribe]( | [Update your profile]( | 113 Cherry St #92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2205 ​