Flodesk Webinar Q&A

Question 1

What if I already have a professional website collaborate with a startup that helps me set up subscription-based programs with Stripe? Is it still a good idea to upgrade to Flodesk? I'm in the middle of these changes, so lots to consider.

Here's my humble opinion on who’s a good fit for Flodesk Checkout: what it’s going to do is for the person who is first of all, not well-versed in writing copy for a sales page, it's going to be very beneficial for you because the sales page templates are already built to convert. So it's going to show you the breakdown of the information that will be vital to help somebody to get from a website visitor to a website customer. So if you struggle with website copy, if you struggle with promoting your sales, the sales page templates are going to be very beneficial for you. It's also going to help reduce some of that friction that people have. I don't know if you've been to certain websites, but sometimes they ask you to create accounts, they ask you to put it in the cart, they ask for all this information, and Flodesk Checkout is a very seamless process to get you from you popping on the page to checking out. You guys actually used Flodesk Checkout to sign up for this webinar. So if you remember how easy that was, you were using Checkout to sign up so that's a really good example. Also, I am a firm believer in testing out services and having them overlap, right? So not completely leaving what you have to hop over to something new. So you may want to have that in-between time where you test it out on a small scale to see if it's a good fit. And then you know make the leap, so that's something else that you can do.

Question 2

How it can work for your existing website? So if you don't need to Flodesk Checkout in its own container.

Use the Checkout only page. We have Checkout only templates, you can link right to it on your existing sales page. If you already have a beautiful website that you've gotten branded and have all set up and you don't want to use our sales page you can use our Checkout only template and link to that so you can bring people right through the checkout process with Flodesk. And then on the delivery page, once they checkout, you can link them back to your website or wherever your products are hosted. 

Question 3

How can schedulers be integrated with Flodesk Checkout?

We actually recommend linking to that on your delivery page. So you can sell a session if you're offering a service and once they go through the checkout portion, and pay then on your delivery page you can link them and the instructions right to your online scheduler so they can pick their spot and schedule right from there. So essentially, your delivery page allows you to redirect traffic wherever you want. I did get this question on Instagram. If you've got a resource that's too big to attach to a Flodesk email, you can redirect to a Dropbox link or Google Drive link or however you want. So there is that option to customize where you send people once they complete the checkout.

Question 4

What about things like subscriptions? What if I have a subscription-based service and want to incorporate payment plans?

That is one of our most requested features for Checkouts. We don't have it yet. But I do want to let you know that we are working really hard on making that a possibility for you very soon. So it's definitely coming.

Question 5

Can you have more than one checkout for different offers?

I actually strongly encourage you do that because that segmenting is what's going to help you to grow your business. So for every free offer you have, go ahead and make that a separate segment and make it a separate Checkout. There's also a whole analytics panel. So you guys are gonna get data about how is your Checkout performing. So again, even with this webinar, we were able to see how many people visited the Checkout page and then how many people actually opted in and signed up for the webinar. So you get all that data per Checkout. So it behooves you not to link everything together. You want to separate it out. So you can see what offers are performing well.

Question 6

I love Flodesk. I tinkered with Checkout but got stuck on the delivery web page. I found a section in a template I wasn't able to turn off. Can you speak more about the delivery page?

I got so many questions about that. That's covered in the Flodesk FAQ video I did today. You can toggle off so many different things on the delivery page, but you’ve got to click on the background. That's the part that wasn't as intuitive I didn't know you can click on it and change things. So if you see all the sections on the delivery page, and you're like girl, I don't need five sections. I need three. You can click on the background and toggle it off so you can decide how long your delivery page is. The one thing that will not go away is the receipt for what you're doing. Your receipt’s always going to be at the top but everything else, your instructions, your bonus offer, all of that can be toggled off if you click on the background on your delivery page.. 

Question 7

Should I use Checkout for freebies instead of forms now? 

I think that's a really great question. And it really just depends on what you want to do with it. So I think that Checkout is really great to build your customer base and subscriber base. But if you don't have a huge subscriber base to buy from you yet, using Flodesk email with our forms is a really great way to start building your lists to sell to.

Question 8

How do you use Flodesk with Squarespace?  

Yes, that's the embed code that I was talking to you about. I do you have a video, there's a picture of me with the Flodesk logo and Squarespace logo. So that video will actually walk you through the steps of how to do that and where to put your header codes so that your forms appear. So if you're using Squarespace watch that video, because you can pause, rewind, and all that. You can do it, all you need to do is copy the codes into a code block on Squarespace. That's how you make it happen.

Question 9

Is there a promo code for trying Canva Pro for 45 days?

Friends, Canva Pro is going to help you make a freebie you can sell on Flodesk so if you need it, lashondabrown.com/canva45. I got links for days friends so make sure you join the club. It’s all there. But yes, I would definitely encourage you guys to make a new resource. Okay, so many of you guys have been promoting the same tired freebies for a hot minute. So make something fresh that you can promote in Q4 and then think about how can I drive traffic to an impulse buy for less than 100 bucks for Q4. That's what you need to do in order to set yourself up for all those end-of-the-year expenses. Y'all know it your insurances, your taxes, and such. So think about what's a new freebie that I can make and what’s a paid offer that I can create that’s 100 bucks or less and that's going to help you grow your business and you can use Flodesk Checkout to do all of that so you’re not using ten thousand websites.

Question 10

Can Flodesk Checkout be used for photographers when they need a client to sign an agreement prior to their session?

That's something that you can also link to on your delivery page or you can send them an email with that agreement so they’ll pay first then they can book their session right from your delivery page but you can also direct them to where to sign their agreement. You can send that via email as well.

Question 11

Are there photos of Checkout email examples on Flodesk University or on the blog? 

There is that blog post The Ultimate Guide to Flodesk Checkout on the Flodesk Blog. There are also the templates themselves. They’re examples of what a sales page would look that is designed to convert. You can actually take that and plug and play whatever works for your business because it's something that our designers and product team have worked really hard to make sure that all of the pieces of Checkout are designed for you and your business to convert. The flow that you went through to get into this webinar was built with Checkout. So if you think about, the page that you landed on, where you input your information, emails you received, that’s all done through Checkout and Flodesk email. 

Question 12

What is the Flodesk Blog?

You can go to the Flodesk website and click on blog at the top, that's what I was referring to. So the Flodesk blog has tons of resources. One of the things, I went digging out of curiosity the other day, they even have suggestions for email subject lines and all sorts of really helpful resources. So if you're on the email marketing struggle bus and you need some help, that is a really helpful tool that not many people are utilizing. So make sure that when you go to the Flodesk website, you look at the top and just click on blog and it's going to give you all that info.

Question 13

Can I use Flodesk Checkout for physical products?

Flodesk Checkout is optimized for digital products, services and courses so not physical products. We don't have inventory management or fulfillment services with Checkout. It’s something that we're exploring, but it may be a while before we're able to implement that. A workaround that we've been sharing is if you're able to link to your own fulfillment tools that may be a way that you can utilize Checkout with your physical products. But right now, it's just not the functionality that’s built directly into it.

Question 14

Can clients sign agreements before their session using Checkout?

I'm going to tell you guys, technically, this is not going to be public until like next week, but friends. If you are using Checkout to have someone pay for a session but you also want them to sign an agreement and you can redirect them on that delivery page and I'm just gonna say a little birdie told me, if you are a JotForm user, they might have a way for you to capture legally binding signatures without paying extra if you have a JotForm subscription. So that's just one way you can do it but no matter what tool you're using to capture signatures, you can have them pay using Flodesk Checkout and you can redirect them to sign your agreement. You can also again, leverage that workflow so they check out, you could send an email saying super excited for your upcoming session, here are three things that you need to do before we meet together. So it could be pick your outfit, sign your agreement, and grab a cup of coffee and you could send them a free cup of coffee. So remember, that workflow is how you can deliver more information. Most people when they pay for something, think about it when you go and you put something in your cart after you bought it on Amazon or New York & Company or wherever you shop. You don't typically linger on that page right so if you also create a workflow, they'll see cool I paid, I checked out, you got my money but then they’re going to go look in their email and so that's where you can continue to nurture that relationship and give them more information. Everything does not need to be on your delivery page because no one is going to scroll that far. So make sure that workflow is set up.

Question 15

I do not use email yet, I do it all on Facebook. Why is an email list so important? 

The conversion rate on emails is literally insanely high. I'm not going to give you the exact conversion rate. I feel like people have said $34 for every dollar you spend on email marketing, I don’t know. The point is, email marketing converts at a higher rate. And what's so great about email, right? Half the time if you follow someone on Facebook or Instagram, even if you subscribe to me on YouTube, you're not getting the notifications. Even if you want the information, you're not being notified. But I'm telling you the quickest path to someone's wallet is through their email. So you’ve got to have that in place, I will tell you when I started my business I made up an email list before I even knew what I could sell people because I understood the importance. So the best day to set up your email list is right now, you can use Flodesk for free for 30 days. Use it free for 30 days and honestly I would challenge myself, I would really take a step back and say okay, how much will Flodesk cost me for a year? I got 30 days, can I make enough money in that 30 days to pay for an annual subscription of Flodesk? If I can do it, I’m going to keep it. If I can’t don’t worry about it. Okay, but I'm telling you in my business, email marketing has been the number one, when Instagram goes down, how do I contact my customers - email. You do not own Facebook, you do not own Instagram you do not own YouTube, somebody could hack your account tomorrow and I hate to say it but it's true. But if you have an email list, you have a point of contact with those people who want a deeper relationship with you. They have parted ways with their email address and so we have got to get on the bus. You’ve got to get an email list even if it's something simple. Like I'm going to email you once a month or frankly, I have friends who only email when they have something good to say. There's no rule about how often you email your list but you need to start capturing those emails.

Question 16

Can I become a Flodesk affiliate?

That is incorporated in your Flodesk account. There's a whole affiliate tab in your account where you can get the link and share it with your audience. Share it with your friends, fellow business owners and you'll get a $19 kickback for everyone that joins using that link. $19 directly to your PayPal account. Everybody gets the link. You just need to click on Share Flodesk and your link is in there. Also, if you leave on the made-in-love with Flodesk thing at the bottom of your email that links directly to your affiliate. So if people are like, “this is a cute email, how she do that?”, it goes directly to Flodesk.