‘Splain it to me like I’m five…
If you have found your way to this blog post BEFORE checking out: FG Funnels Setup Instructions Demystified. Stop what you are doing.
No. Seriously. Stop. And go read that post first. Trust us.
Let’s talk email and FG Funnels. I see so many questions around this and so if you aren’t clear after reading this post, then I will personally call you on the phone to help you decide.
We’ll start with what we all know: Services like ConvertKit and Active Campaign are actually selling TWO features in one package.
The Email Interface – The dashboard where you draft emails, campaigns, newsletters, etc.
The SMTP Engine – This is the techy stuff that actually sends and delivers your messages.
When you explore services like:
All of these give you BOTH those services in one. In exchange for the ease of it all, you are sacrificing three things (didn’t know that did you?!).
These are all in one marketing automation solutions that provide the SAME two services as the ones listed above (email interface and SMTP) but they add additional features like funnelbuilding and CRM functionality.
You pay for this obviously. All these services are more expensive and far more complex. And just like we stated above, your price is not fixed and your deliverability may in fact suck because you are not in control of your neighbors.
Some of the WORST deliverability I’ve ever seen has been through these super expensive marketing automation tools.
Now we come to FG Funnels. The email feature functions fundamentally differently than anything we’ve mentioned above. For those wondering, ClickFunnels Actionetics also functions this way (but sorely lacks in several key areas).
Whereas all those services COMBINE the email interface and SMTP, we separate it.
We provide the following in FG Funnels:
What we separate out is the powered sending – the SMTP. <– This is what is variable and causes price changes because providers have hard costs associated with it.
By separating it out, we give YOU more control over your most valuable asset in online business – your email list. We also can offer you an unlimited account (no limits on list size, etc.) because we’re not going to go bankrupt offering that.
You can build out a CRM and automation machine in FG Funnels that is a sight to behold! You can do all this while you have zero email addresses or 1,000,000. The work you put in, the data you collect, it all stays organized in FG Funnels and will simply “plug” into what SMTP you choose to enable sending.
Best of all, if one SMTP doesn’t do well, you can unplug it and plug another one in. This means you NEVER have to move your email list, your data, or your automations anywhere again.
I’m not sure people at the beginning of their online journey understand how valuable this is just on its own because we’ve all come to accept something different. But this is KEY for your email list.
ClickFunnels knows this as well because it’s how their email functions as well. The difference between ClickFunnels and FG Funnels is painfully obvious however:
FG Funnels has robust multi-messaging integrations (text, FB message, voicemail drops, etc.) and an advanced CRM. Actionetics has none of this (they did try to compete in the CRM space but didn’t deliver… ask me how I know).
Hopefully everyone is tracking now on how these services compare and differ. As you can see, it’s very hard to “price shop” when you’re not comparing Apples to Apples.
What you can do in FG Funnels in an automated sequence:
…is more powerful than any of the popular ESP’s on the market. The more robust tools that do offer that (Infusionsoft, etc.) are SO MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE and don’t separate out the SMTP, removing your control.
In other words, FG Funnels is the best and most FLEXIBLE marketing automation tool you can buy, period.
Here’s where people get so confused…. they start price shopping for SMTP’s when they realize they need one and get annoyed that they have to pay for yet another service outside of FG Funnels.
Hard truth alert – no 7 figure business owner got to their first million by haggling over small price differences on smtp’s.
But if you want to go there, we can. This is the math.
OPTION #1: Ontraport Pro is $297/m. You get 10,000 contacts and unlimited sending on a SHARED IP.
OPTION #2: FG Funnels is $119/m. You get those same 10,000 contacts and we don’t provide any limits on what you do. You are also paying $80/m for Mailgun. That’s $199/m.
Here you’re saving $100/m.
Then you blow up. Things get INCREDIBLE!
You shoot up to 30,000 contacts. Nothing changes in FG Funnels world. You’re still paying $119/m.
Your Mailgun will go up – let’s say you’re an email MACHINE and send 1M emails in a month (that’s 1 email a day and three days with 2 emails in a day). You’ll be paying $400/m for your Mailgun.
$519/m total for MG and FG Funnels. Now that’s if you’re an email machine. If you only email once a week for example, you’re going to probably only pay $90-100 a month on Mailgun. You’re PAYING for what you use. Not to just keep people on your list.
So you’re either $219 – $519 depending on your email sending.**
Now if you’re on Ontraport, things are getting a little dicey. Their enterprise plan is at $497/m but only allows for 20,000 contacts. So you need to call their sales team because you are 10k over. Not only that, but it appears as if they now limit the number of emails you can send to 200,000/m as well. That’s enough for 1 email a week-ish.
So you’re going to pay well above $497/m because they don’t even include it on their pricing page so you have to call the sales team.
See? You can repeat this math game with all the other software but I’ll save you the trouble. FG Funnels with full control over your SMTP is BETTER.
**By the way, did you know you can get FG Funnels for $83/m when you sign up for the annual plan!?!?!
Here are the SMTP providers you can hook up to FG Funnels:
If you are new to this game, chances are you at LEAST have a professional business email address through Gsuite yes? Awesome!
You can hook up FG Funnels to your Gsuite and start building your automation and CRM machine. You can send up to 4500 emails a month (150 a day) and this works perfectly for most service providers, coaches, and others who do high touch 1:1 services.
When you start growing, you can “unplug” Gsuite and “plug” in something else, and NONE of your work is lost.
This is MORE control. MORE flexibility. And ultimately MORE affordable because you buy what you need instead of having to pay for something more advanced than where you are at the moment.
Mailgun does have a free plan as well, but it has limitations (like you can’t do a reply to for example).
The $35/m plan is not based on list size, but based on how many emails you send. You also get the reply to (called inbound rerouting) as well as a dedicated IP (no scammy neighbors destroying your deliverability).
Then it goes to $80/m for the next level. What people don’t realize is that when you get to the point in business that you’re sending THAT many emails, you’re MAKING $$.
You don’t care about the $80/m because you’re making a lot more than that.
I don’t have much to say except that reports in the field suggest that they aren’t as great as Mailgun.
Mailgun is the best service right now, and if there’s ANYTHING I’m going to spend good money on, it’s marketing automation. It’s the way you make money. There’s nothing more important in an online business.
Hopefully by the end of this post, you’re feeling more educated and empowered about your options. Be sure to check out our Getting Started with FG Funnels post!
Setting up SMTP is no fun. That’s what most email service providers bank on. They know it’s a pain so they roll it up into a nice smooth service so you don’t have to worry about it but you do make sacrifices for the “big guy” to control it.
We’re not doing that. We’re keeping the power in your hands. The bad news is, that means you have to grind through the setup, but we promise, it’s worth it.
The good news is, we have people who will HAPPILY and AFFORDABLY do it for you. Simply go to HireAMarketer.com and reach out!
You can also go into our USERS only Facebook group and browse the threads.
And, last but not least… we have a whole blog post on how to get started. Literally, step by step!
So we’ve come to the end of this post. If you still don’t understand SMTP, I think I owe you a phone call!
xx
