I have been shouting about FloDesk and it’s awesomeness for a few weeks.
I want to make you aware of something before you sign up.
And yes, I know that all newsletter services can have issues. I was at MailChimp for years and years without a single issue, but I know of many people who’ve had problems there. This post is specifically about my experience with FloDesk as an author and sharing what I’ve learned so that other authors can make informed choices.
Two weeks ago I spent several days perfecting my welcome sequence at FloDesk.
I published it, which means it is live and it will begin sending email when the parameters are met.
This particular segment and welcome sequence were for BookFunnel subscribers.
Note: There is no integration as of right now between these two services. I download a CSV file from Bookfunnel and import it into my mailing list. I did email Bookfunnel about integrating with FloDesk and heard back in about 20 minutes. FloDesk does not have an API but if they ever do, BookFunnel will gladly integrate.
Please keep in mind that I ONLY download the file from BookFunnel that contains users who have confirmed that they want to be added to my list.
I wanted to warm up that cold list with a welcome sequence tailored to BookFunnel subscribers. For instance, the subject line is something along the lines of Welcome BookFunnel Subscriber.
So Thursday, August 27th, I publish the welcome sequence (FloDesk calls this a workflow.) And then I imported the CSV file of confirmed subscribers from BookFunnel.
Shortly after, the first email in the welcome sequence was sent out to the segment, just as is supposed to happen. *happy dance*
Imagine my surprise when I got a lot of email the next day from readers in this segment.
You see, the first email in this segment is a free book offer.
And I stupidly forgot to include the link to it. *cease happy dancing*
Yeah. Boneheaded move on my part. And I’m actually impressed that I messed that up because I had sent so many tests to myself and always click links.
But I messed up.
I immediately went to FloDesk and drafted my “oops” email to send to that segment.
I send the email and go on about my business.
A while later I come back to make sure it’s sent and to see how many folks have opened the email. Because I’m a stats junkie, okay?
A notification below the email indicated “failed to send.”
Perplexed, I duplicated the email and tried to send it.
This time, a notice popped up saying something along the lines of “do you want to activate your account?”
Now I was really confused. I was pretty sure I’d already activated my account.
I mean, I’d paid Flodesk.
I’d moved several of my mailing lists to their service.
I’d created multiple welcome sequences/workflows.
I’d even sent email campaigns.
My welcome sequences were sending as far as I knew.
In short, I was fully using this service.
But, I clicked the “yes, I want to activate my account button.”
At which point I was notified that it will take 48 hours to activate my account. It was 10:30 on a Friday night and their hours indicate they are in the office 8am-8pm M-F.
At that point, given everything I knew and all the emailing I’d already done with FloDesk, I assumed this was a massive bug and that their developers were getting emails left and right about it.
It seemed that random.
But there was an email address at the top of the screen that said if I had any questions or concerns to email them.
So I did.
And then I replied to each reader who’d emailed me about the issue. I went to sleep at 2am Saturday morning fully expecting to hear back soon about the problem.
I didn’t hear back until Monday.
The tech support person wanted to know the source of the list and asked if I could send the original CSV file.
I told her that the list was created through a BookFunnel promotion and sent her the CSV which has a ton of information in it, including the day the person subscribed and that YES they clicked a checkbox asking to be subscribed to my newsletter. That is listed under Confirmed.
On Tuesday I got another reply asking for a link to my sign up form.
This is where I made a mistake.
I sent the link to the promotion/sign-up form. Here it is.
For those who don’t want to click, it’s a page on BookFunnel’s site with a copy of my cover, my blurb and a giant DOWNLOAD MY BOOK button.
When you click the button, a pop-up, well, pops up. I don’t know of a way to link to this pop-up. The pop-up gathers a name, email address and asks if you’d like to subscribe to my newsletter. The pop-up is the sign-up form.
But the tech support person did not click the DOWNLOAD MY BOOK button. And therefore, she did not see this:
If you can’t read the highlighted text next to the checkbox, it reads: I would also like to join Selena Blake’s email newsletter and receive special offers and updates. I understand that I can unsubscribe at any time.
So that was my mistake. I should have expressly stated: to see the sign-up form, click the giant button.
Because from her point of view, I didn’t do my due diligence. And they require you to at FloDesk. Or they shut your account down.
Why they chose to wait until after the welcome sequence had already sent its first email, I’ll never know.
Why none of my other lists were verified in this manner, I don’t know.
Once I sent a screenshot of this form, I was told that we were all good…except…
They asked me to verify my domain name. This is an extra step to keep their service whitelisted. Which is a good thing. It’s also something that is built into their system.
However, I thought it was optional so I didn’t do it when I was setting up my account.
When they asked this time, I verified my domain. I was told to let them know, via email, when their system indicated my domain is verified.
That happened over a holiday weekend so I waited until Tuesday (yesterday) morning to email them.
But anyway, here we are at Wednesday. Twelve days after all this started.
I currently do not have a resolution to this issue but I will update this post.
I’ll be honest with you. This is the first time I’ve had such a problem with a mailing list provider and I’ve been using all sorts of services and products for the last 20 years.
My patience is incredibly thin. I have a massive promotion that MUST go out tomorrow. And quite possibly, I will be scrambling at the last minute to use an old or different provider because the service I am paying for has locked me out.
So here is what I’ve learned about FloDesk and what you, as an author, need to know so you can go into this with your eyes wide open.
- When your account is in this ‘needs activation’ mode, NONE of your email, welcome sequences, workflows, and autoresponders will be sent.
- Make sure you have a sign-up form tied to each segment. I don’t know this for 100% fact but the segment that got my account shut down did not have a FloDesk sign-up form associated with it, whereas the other ones did. It’s my guess that there is something in their system that flags this sort of activity.
- If you are going to upload a list, don’t do it on Thursday or Friday. If your account gets shut down, they will likely not get to you until the following Monday as per their 48-hour note. It is no fun to sit around all weekend knowing there are issues that you can do nothing about.
- Verify your domain name in your settings.
- Have good records for all lists you import. Be ready to provide clear, concise instructions and links to sign up forms and provide original CSV files.
- Understand that this is a small company and many processes that you would assume are automated are not.
Honestly, #1 is the biggest issue. It makes zero sense to me that this one segment is shut down and so the rest of my account is basically bricked.
And yes, I confirmed this is in fact the case. I began to worry that my welcome sequences are not being sent since my account is not active.
So I sent another email asking for clarification. “Can you tell me if the deactivation is halting my whole account? Are workflow emails still going out as scheduled?”
Yes. The deactivation is affecting my WHOLE account. My Selena Mail. Gillian’s Mailing List and this new segment for BookFunnel Friends.
NO. My workflow emails/welcome sequences are NOT being sent to ANY segment. This means the people who’ve subscribed (since August 28th) have NOT gotten their welcome email with their free book in it. So I look like a jerk.
That, more than anything else, bugs me.
I look like a GRADE A Jerk because I was an idiot and forgot to include the download link to the free book I was offering. Which would have been fixable and manageable if my account was working as it should.
But that mistake was compounded by a company’s confusing practices so now my account is halted and no new subscribers are getting their links to a free book.
That burns me up.
My readers are so incredibly important to me and this is not the level of service I want to give them. This is why I moved away from my previous mailing list provider.
As an author, you need to know the truth about the services you’re doing business with. I have personally recommended FloDesk to several authors, some of whom have used my referral code and signed up!
Now I feel bad because I don’t want them to experience this hassle.
I 100% hate spam. I completely understand that FloDesk is a small, new, startup and they are doing their job to keep their service whitelisted. I even appreciate that.
But the lack of timeliness and the randomness of all this has been stressful.
Which is incredibly ironic because switching to FloDesk was such a stressless experience. I was coming from a place of stress. FloDesk was peaceful and I was so excited about my newsletter again and the results I was seeing.
Now I’m not sure I can recommend a service that seems to audit accounts at random. But more importantly, a service that HALTS the service that I have paid for. Like, I am literally unable to send emails through their service right now. And the latest email from tech support did not make it clear when I will be able to use this service again.
So, if you only have sign-ups through your website, excellent. You’ll likely love FloDesk and have little issue.
But for those of us who do builders via BookFunnel and sites like that… Strap in. It could be a bumpy ride.
Update: FloDesk reactivated my account the day after this post originally went live. I get the feeling they’re having growing pains and that this may be an ongoing problem. At the moment, I’m using them, but admittedly, I’m looking around for other options because newsletters are important to my business. Account freezing is not something I want to worry about on a weekly basis.
