The Problem with Email Marketing and the Creative Professional
I’ve gone through many email list iterations in my career, from the traditional “legacy” email service providers to platforms that were groovy but didn’t last long (RIP Tiny Letter). You see, I come from a land before time; My career pre-dates social media. In today’s makeup landscape that’s unfathomable but back then we had websites, email, and later Blogs to share our work, and Email marketing for makeup artists was actually innovative!
Nowadays email marketing is the “redheaded stepchild” with social media, of course, being the marketing darling. We’re a good two generations deep nowadays of artists whose entire makeup existence has been founded and shaped by social media. I know for many the thought of doing something other than social for marketing seems straight out of left field. Then there’s the issue of “what the heck do I even say”, analysis paralysis, staring at a blank page. Let me show you how Flodesk changed all of that for me, and how my emails went from searching for the perfect words, to being able to showcase my work in the perfect format.
How I Discovered Flodesk (And Stopped Fighting Email Marketing)
When I first started playing around with the idea of maintaining a mailing list, all that was available were the legacy email service providers. You know the ones, I don’t need to get into that. Technically they did work, but suffice to say they were created for more… traditional corporate communications. Translation: those emails were ugly and rather cumbersome. The layouts were basic, customizing a template was challenging (those old school blue links! 😵), inserting a picture was near impossible, and font selection? Forget about it. I felt like Bones from original Star Trek; Dammit, I’m a makeup artist, not an email marketer! That’s why I used to like Tiny Letter so much: even though it had super basic functionality and I would have eventually out grown it, it was super easy to use and just send the damn email. Worst of all – as a visual creative – unattractive emails left me uninspired to use my email list. And again, since you’ve gotta actually email people in order for an email list to be effective, what’s a creative professional to do?
TGIF – Thank Goodness It’s Flodesk – What Makes Flodesk Different And Why It Works for Makeup Artists
As we all know, as visual creatives everything we do is a reflection of our Brand. And as makeup artists, our brand is our work, and we must show it to people regularly. The better your work becomes in both caliber of work and the presentation of your work, the easier it becomes to land better projects/clients at better rates.
Social media is obviously great for this, however, social media is also ephemeral. Not only do we have no direct means to stay in contact with people who may see our work aside from hoping they continue to follow us, the posts we make in social just don’t live for very long. New content is posted literally all day every day meaning the life cycle is short and if someone doesn’t happen to see your post within that short window, the moment is over. With emails, I quickly realized that what I sent out had much more longevity. In fact I’ve had clients find me after many years because of an email of mine they’d saved. Email marketing really can be the gift that keeps on giving.
Design That Actually Lets You Showcase Your Work
I first became aware of Flodesk because I started receiving emails from people that were using Flodesk and I couldn’t help but be drawn in by how beautiful the emails were. I was taught that emails had to be wordy in order to be deliverable, yet here I was receiving these gorgeous, image based emails. How was this possible?!
Well, as it turns out, one of Flodesk’s main innovations is their patented layout technology that solves the old “image vs text” deliverability problem. By creating templates that have both visuals and text plus whatever special sauce Flodesk has running in the background, creatives can send visually stunning emails that actually land in inboxes. #winning
With Flodesk the templates aren’t just good looking, they’re also fully customizable. Once you’ve set up your account technologically – which isn’t difficult to do – you can set your Brand and have your fonts and colors saved and ready to go for all of your designs, instead of having to re-add them every time you go to create an email. So now, with customized templates and my Brand colors, not only do my emails look so much better, they don’t look like everyone else’s emails, not even other Flodesk users. I can send emails that represent me and my brand as an artist. Huzzah!
Automations That Don’t Require a Computer Science Degree
As my career has evolved, so have my email needs and Flodesk has evolved with me. When I started email marketing I was just sharing what I was working on as a Makeup Artist – and I still think it’s highly worthwhile for artists to do that to nurture their business connections and relationships. But nowadays – as a makeup educator as well as a working makeup artist – I have all types of different content for different audiences that I need to send out on the regular.
I don’t mind saying: When I started Flodesk I didn’t know anything about nurture sequences, welcome sequences, opt-in forms, workflows, none of this. I knew “sit down, type email, press send”. The easy-peasy visually based user interface made it not only simple but fun to learn all of these automations and incorporate them into my workflow.
Forms and Segmentation That Make Sense
I did come to Flodesk with a bit of a mailing list already, but using the visual tools – specifically the forms – made it easy to continue to grow my list. This is where social media and email list marketing come together in harmony. And if you saw the Great TikTok Panic of 2025 when all of those creators were facing losing their hard-built audiences forever because we thought TikTok was going away for good, you know firsthand how important it is to not rely solely on a social media following that can evaporate at any time.
When someone discovers me on social media, the conversation doesn’t have to end with a post “Like”. My Link-in-Bio on Instagram is actually a Flodesk form. So instead of having to say “go here to join my mailing list”, folks who like my content can join my list right then and there. From there I can add them to a specific segment so I know how they joined my list, and even add Link Actions for targeted follow-up. And with unlimited workflows I can setup as many different opt-ins as I need for anything from audience engagement, to list building, to setting up pre-launch waitlists.
Integrations That Work With Your Other Business Tools
When I first started my educational offerings, my setup was as bootleg and boot-strapped as could be. Nowadays I can pretty much use Flodesk – along with my website – as my main hub as Flodesk integrates with so many other tools that I’m already using. As of right now Flodesk has built in integrations with
- HoneyBook
- BookFunnel
- Canva (!!!)
- Shopify
- Squarespace
- ThriveCart
- Wix
- Meta Pixel
- ManyChat (!!!)
and more are always coming. This is great not only for functionality, but also ease of use. Flodesk is very feature rich, without having this tremendous learning curve to conquer before you can start using it. This is because Flodesk’s focus is on being best-in-class email marketing, and not a massive über tool. Instead of trying to have everything built in, they just integrate with other best tools in the biz. For example now, when I need a graphic from Canva to use in a Flodesk design, I don’t have to open Canva, download the graphic, upload it into Flodesk, etc. I can just get it from Canva directly in one click.
Checkout Features for Selling (If You Teach or Sell Products – which you probably should be)
The biggest game changer for me in my Flodesk experience has without a doubt been Checkout. Remember when I said my early offerings were bootleg? Yeah we’re talking someone had to email me, and then when I saw the email I emailed them back the information, and then if they were interested I’d email a payment link, and then once I got payment I’d email whatever information I was sending, or an appointment confirmation, etc. It’s astonishing that I ever made one sale. I think it’s safe to say that no-one has time for all of that nowadays, and when I see artists doing promotions and saying “email for info”, I shed a small tear inside.
Fam – you need Checkout. With Checkout you can make sales directly via your email and forms with no break in your funnel. Because if people have to do too much in order to spend with you, they generally won’t. If it’s too much work they’ll just bounce. With Checkout – available in the Plus plan and unlimited in the Everything plan – you can offer your clients a smooth and integrated shopping experience from email to delivery.
I’ve used Checkout to sell digital products and my coaching services. You could use it to sell workshops and private lessons (in person or virtual) directly from a beautiful email showcasing what your students will learn, integrate it with your HoneyBook so your calendar and contracts are sent without a hitch, all in a seamless experience for both you and your client. Are you seeing the vision here?
And if you don’t have a website or aren’t using Honeybook or the like? That’s ok. The Checkout features stand-alone sales pages that are again, visually gorgeous and customizable, and you can have a full-featured sale up and running in minutes. AND the Checkout has recently gotten its own glow-up and there are more payment options available. You can offer Pay in 4 options for larger ticket items, AND the Checkout can now process Recurring payments so you can offer things like Memberships.
Flodesk Pricing: Which Plan Makes Sense for Your Makeup Business
Let’s talk numbers: As most makeup artists nowadays aren’t using email marketing, your list is small if not nonexistent, and that’s OK! Flodesk’s tools are meant to help you grow, and the pricing is meant to help you get started. The pricing is tiered, meaning your price is determined by how many people you have on your list. And there are different plans you can access depending on your specific needs. This makes it very affordable to join and grow your list.
The Lite plan might be the ticket if you just want to step a toe into email marketing and see how it goes. OR if you want the Checkout right out the gate for a limited time you can get one included at the Plus tier – which honestly is the tier I would recommend starting with. Both Lite and Plus offer unlimited email functionality, and with Plus you get all the unlimited workflow functionality you need to engage and grow your list. And for a limited time you get to try out a Checkout and see if it’s right for you before committing to it full time.
The Everything plan includes, well, everything so you can do all the emails, workflows, checkouts your heart desires. Needless to say, I’m an Everything Plan kinda gal.
Is Flodesk Right for You?
So who really needs Flodesk anyway? Well, I honestly believe that anyone running a business – from a freelancer, to a small business owner, etc. etc. – should incorporate some level of email marketing into their business. It’s just a matter of picking the right platform for you. I have friends who are email marketing professionals for enterprise level businesses, who need complex analytic data, and complex CRM features, etc., so of course they don’t find Flodesk to be useful. However that’s not who Flodesk was built for.
It was built for creative entrepreneurs and for me Flodesk has the clear advantage for makeup artists just from its visual appeal alone, since visuals are the name of the game for us. When you combine that with the solid analytic tools and the high-end integrations and features, it’s a near-perfect match.
Ready to Make Your Emails Look as Good as Your Work?
If you’re excited and wondering how you can be down, I’m here to help. Try Flodesk for free at the button below, and get 25% off your first year with my code MAKEUPTOGO. Now, I am a Flodesk Partner, and I do get a lil sumthin sumthin when you sign up, but as you can see, Flodesk really is one of my main main tools in my business. I like and use social media just as much as the next person, but I’m a firm believer in gaining ownership of your artistry business, and not being dependent on tools you don’t own and can’t control. For me, Flodesk is the tool that finally made email marketing feel not just manageable, but actually enjoyable.
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