“What Just Happened?” is a series on MiloTree about the latest happenings in our industry.
If something new or crazy is going on, check in on our blog, to get a balanced perspective on what is REALLY happening in the content marketing industry right now.
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CORRECTION: ConvertKit has decided to keep its name!!
Here’s what the CEO of ConvertKit said: “After many multi-hour conversations with Hindu and Sikh people, I started to learn the full cultural and religious significance of the word seva and the deep hurt that we caused by announcing it as our name.
Our mission is to help creators earn a living – not to cause pain. To be the most true to our mission, we can’t move forward with Seva as our name.”
ConvertKit Becomes Seva: What Just Happened?
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Last week, one of the most popular newsletter services, ConvertKit announced a HUGE change. In fact, they were quick to say this is the biggest change in the history of their company.
On the surface, they are simply rebranding. Out with the old name and in with the new. However, those of us in this industry know, rebrands don’t come lightly, they usually come with huge repercussions, and affect things more than a simple name or logo change.
So let’s talk through the details.
Why did ConvertKit rebrand to Seva?
The Facts: According to the email they sent to ConvertKit users, they realized that their current name wasn’t a good reflection of their core mission and policies.
Seva seems like a random word, but it actually has a deep meaning. Seva means “selfless service” and they intend for the word to represent both how they serve their users and how their users (content creators) serve their followers. Watch the video from their CEO here for more details.
Our Opinion: As far as rebrands go, this seems to be a great reason to change a name! On the link above the folks at convertk…errr Seva, shared the 7 rules they run their company by, and those are rules we believe in, and abide by both at MiloTree and in our own blogs as well.
As long as they stick to these rules for themselves, we feel confident that they are heading in a fabulous direction.
Who owns ConvertKit/Seva now?
When a company rebrands, one of the first questions is always if the company has been sold or is under new management. Thankfully, Nathan Berry is still leading the way at Seva. He’s still the CEO, founder, and leading the way at Seva! Nothing to worry about there. In fact, here’s a full video of his talk about it at their Craft + Commerce conference this year.
What about affiliate links?
For affiliates of ConvertKit, this can make you wonder if everything is still going to work. Good news!!! Affiliate links are still functional and convertkit.com is still where newbies will go to sign up.
They are taking the transition slow enough that it will give everyone time to catch up, and thankfully that means affiliate links are still functioning.
What about my MiloTree pop-up?
No worries there either! All the integrations that worked under the name ConvertKit, still work under Seva! You won’t need to do a thing!
Our Verdict
All in all, this seems like a positive change for ConvertKit. They seem to be taking a responsibly slow and steady pace to fully transition to the new brand name. Not only does this help prevent brand confusion, but also allows affiliates the chance to adjust their strategy on their own terms.
Affiliates who rank in keywords about “ConvertKit” now have some time to create new content about Seva to start building SEO around new terms, so that income will hopefully not be negatively affected by the switch.
They seem to have thought of everything, and even hinted at some useful resources coming down the pipes soon!
While we can’t know with 100% certainty what will happen, so far things are looking very good from Seva! We can’t wait to hear more about what Seva has to offer! We think Seva landing pages are coming next…