Introduction App Mailerlite
If I asked you to name an email Marketing tool, what would you say? App Mailerlite
MailChimp? Aweber? ActiveCampaign?
Like most online businesses now, email advertising continues to be Dominated by the identical big players for the last ten years. Which means that they get encouraged very deeply and achieve a lot of mindshare.
Now and then, however, an Underdog disrupts the marketplace, causing long-time customers to question their loyalties.
MailerLite has done exactly that.
So now, in this review, I will be ripping MailerLite from limb To limb to find out if it stands its ground against the big boys…
…and, more importantly, whether youshould consider making the switch.
MailerLite Advantages
– Uses tag-based system (called Groups)
– Powerful Segmentation using rules
– Custom Fields for advanced email personalization
– Advanced Campaign types (auto-resend, A/B, etc.)
– Easy to Utilize email builder/template editor
– Practical Email components for example countdowns and merchandise boxes
– Intuitive Form, popup and landing page builder
– Supports Automations using visual workflows
– Offers Both digestible and in-depth reporting
– A Fraction of the cost compared to most other options
Click here to sign up your free account of Mailerlite.
MailerLite Cons
– Strict Approval procedure
– Few email Templates available
– Very few Form templates available
– Can’t Create mails without leaving the visual workflow builder
– No Support for website monitoring App Mailerlite
Sign-up Process
Like most email advertising providers Nowadays, You’ll Need to Go through a review process before being able to correctly use the program.
When you first register, you’ll be asked to finish your profile.
This includes information such as your company name, site, Business, address, business size, record size and also the kind of material you plan to send.
Then, You Have to verify your Website (or domain name).
This remains part of this approval process, and MailerLite will Simply inquire which email is related to this domain in order that they can email you a confirmation link.
Once you’ve completed these Steps, you’ll need to wait it out.
The MailerLite team will review your application, assess your Site, and ascertain whether you’re a fantastic match for their services.
(Quite simply, they’re making sure you are not a spammer/scammer)
As shown above, you’ll still be Able to utilize the software to create campaigns and play with the attributes, but you will not be able to send anything until accepted.
I had been”partially” approved within a few hours, which gave me a Temporary limitation of 500 subscribers.
Here Is What the email said:
Annoying, certain.
But while these measures aren’t ideal for getting started, it Does help prevent malicious users from damaging everyone else’s deliverability.
Campaigning
If you’re anything like me, you’ll rely upon automations to Deal with Nearly all your email marketing.
(We’ll get to automations shortly, don’t worry.)
But if it is a new blog article, podcast, or timely Announcement, there is always a reason to send a more immediate email.
That is where’Campaigns’ come in.
Clicking the new’Produce Campaign’ will give you several choices.
– Regular campaign: A traditional broadcast email.
– A/B split campaign: Multiple email Versions, such as subject line, from name and, yes, even email content. (Woop!)
– Auto resend: Resend to readers who Do not open your broadcast email, with the option of changing the subject line and email content.
– RSS campaign: Produce a recurring campaign That sends new content to subscribers using your website’s RSS feed.
Apart from a few added options, most of these will follow Exactly the same step-by-step procedure of a standard effort.
So let us walk you through it.
Once you click to create your effort, you’ll be asked to Pick a preferred editor, whether that’s the dragn’ drop, rich text or HTML.
Otherwise, you can change to the Templates tab and choose from one of the pre-designed email templates — which will move you to the dragn’ drop editor .
In the time of writing, you’ll find 21 email templates to choose From which is somewhat on the low side, but the layouts are super contemporary.
And, of course, if you would just Prefer to reuse a previous email, you can click the’Recent Emails’ tab.
For this instance, I will select the first template in the library.
The editor is easy to use, Which makes customizing these templates a 5-minute job.
You can also use the cubes in the sidebar to add different Types of articles to your email, such as videos, product columns, and social links.
After making your changes, just click’Done Editing’ and you will Be taken to the recipients’ choices where you can choose your groups or sections.
The advanced tab also allows one To develop segment-like rules on-the-fly, in the event your targeting isn’t quite perfect.
Finally, right before sending, you’ll get into the’Schedule’ screen.
This is where you control if your broadcast email should go Out, whether that is instantly, at a set time/date, or in accordance with your readers time zones.
Impressive, right? App Mailerlite
Click here to sign up your free account of Mailerlite.
Handling Your Subscribers
Having granular control over your readers is arguably one of The most important aspects of any email advertising software today.
Why?
Because highly personalized campaigns are necessary if You are looking to increase opens, clicks, and, above all, your conversions.
And while most providers allow you to”tag” subscribers in order To target them effectively, MailerLite uses a slightly different approach.
When you start up your subscriber dash, you’ll notice two Options; Segments and Groups.
Segments are basically rules.
Your readers belong to a segment only when they fulfill the Specified principles, and are automatically added or removed accordingly.
Here’s what setting up a rule looks like:
Notice how you can also combine Rules, in addition to an alternate rule when the first doesn’t exist.
Pretty smart, eh?
The next tab is for groups, and despite the difference in title, These act much like your usual”tagging” system.
(MailerLite even debated Changing the name to’Tags’, but ultimately decided against it)
Contrary to Segments, Groups are upgraded manually or via an Automation rule — that we’ll get into in a minute — and they don’t have any value besides what you call them.
As you start to use this stage, you’ll begin to understand Where Segments and Groups are typically used, but MailerLite offers a hand in case you’re uncertain:
Basically, groups are more of a Deliberate action on a per-subscriber foundation, whereas Segments permit you to lump multiple contributors collectively based on a frequent denominator.
A tad confusing, I’ll admit… but I feel it is a fair trade-off For the added flexibility. In any case, they’re discretionary.
Finally, the’Fields’ tab is used to personalize your email copy.
You’ll notice that MailerLite has Already populated this region with their particular areas, such as name, business, and nation.
If you want to create your own custom fields, you can do so by Clicking the’Add new field’ button.
So how do they really work?
You can either upload a CSV record of your subscribers together with Your custom field data in separate columns… or may simply add these fields to a forms which will only apply to prospective readers.
Here’s a screenshot of a test area I created and added to a form:
I won’t go too much to the shape Things here since I have a whole section on this below, but this is the approach I’d recommend if you wished to use this feature.
Again, once you’ve gathered your custom field information from new Subscribers, you are able to pull them in to your email content and subject line.
Just click on the’Personalization’ drop down and select your Customized field.
I am barely scratching the surface Of what is possible with custom fields, but it’s important to know this is a feature you can use.
Overall, it is reasonable to state MailerLite has their subscriber Management and personalization features on stage. App Mailerlite
Landing pages.
If you’re not impressed by what you have seen up to Now, then perhaps The webpage builder will tickle your fancy.
After selecting’Landing Pages’ from the forms page, you’ll be Able to select from 8 pre-designed templates.
Again, while the template choice Isn’t winning any awards, but it does offer a fantastic base to work from if, for example most people, you do not have that natural eye for layout.
I went ahead and chosen the’Lead Generation’ template, however They ultimately do the same job; accumulate an email address.
This time, the editor will Provide you 17 building blocks to Further construct or change your landing page.
Now, I have used my fair share of Visual page builders, and it is already better than some dedicated solutions *cough* WPBakery.
Together with the fundamental building blocks, you can use elements like Hero segments, popup buttons, reviews and countdown timers.
It won’t be replacing landing Page builders like Thrive Architect or LeadPagesanytime soon, but credit where credit due, this item over-delivers on all 3 form types.
Form Builder Tool
Unlike some email advertising tools, MailerLite actually Provides a Decent pair of type building tools.
Also, but you can also create popups and landing pages Through this exact same interface, so there is a lot to cover .
Let us start with your Bog-standard embedded form.
These forms are first created inside MailerLite in order to get An embed code, which you can then put on your site to show it on particular pages.
Despite starting off super fundamental, the form designer allows you To customize everything in the kind style, fields, background, name, input fields and, of course, the button.
Form text may also be edited directly, which gives you a chance To envision your own copy in real-time.
It would have been nice to have Some templates, but as you know, there’s more to a form than simply its appearance.
Clicking the’Settings’ tab will allow you to configure the way the Form functions, such as adding extra fields and establishing a custom success page.
(There is even a GDPR compliance alternative. Sweet.)
And speaking of the success webpage…
…MailerLite also enables you to customize the default message, That will replace the embedded form and prevents users from redirecting.
Last but certainly not least, you Can assess how your form screens on mobile by shifting the toggle to reactive mode.
You won’t be able to make any layout changes , but it makes Sense to test, nevertheless.
So that’s an overview of this Embedded form but like I said before, you may even create popup forms in MailerLite.
While the majority of this setup Procedure is identical, you will find Still a few differences I’d like to point out.
Unlike embedded kinds, you can choose between a set of Templates:
While this isn’t the most Comprehensive choice, they do offer a fantastic base to work from and the editor is just as simple to use with this form kind.
Clicking the’E-commerce’ template requires me into a preview Before moving to the editor.
Here, you’ll notice there are a few new choices under form types This time around:
Contemplating paid tools such as Thrive Leads exist for both ribbons and slide-in forms, it’s pretty impressive to see this level of control over popup forms.
And, as before, you can play the styling options to get it Matched up with your branding.
Finally, you can choose the close Behavior of your form under the’Settings’ tab.
The default option is the X icon, but you can swap this out for A”No thanks” text choice, or have .
That is where most email Marketing platforms will render you, but MailerLite has yet another trick up its sleeve.
Click here to begin your free account of Mailerlite.
Reporting & Analytics
Like most tools, you’ll find a summary of your campaign Statistics in the main dashboard.
Here you’ll see everything from effort open and click data, Subscriber development, automation stats, and kind signups.
Clicking into any effort will Give you specific coverage for that campaign.
This is where you’ll find some statistics such as Unsubscribes, spam complaints, bounces, studying surroundings, email client and much more.
This should be plenty of Information for the average consumer…
…but if you really want To dig into the numbers, it is possible to click into different areas of this report for a more detailed breakdown.
You can find some real gems under These reports.
For example, the’View Mail’ tab also displays a click map, so You can see your subscribers interacted with your mails in relation to one another.
Reports for automations are Accessible under the’Automations’ tab, although I found to be less insightful than campaign reports.
Here’s a Fast example:
Total, MailerLite does a Stellar job with their reporting port, and many will find the available data more than sufficient to fulfill their demands.
Email Automation
What is email advertising with no dashboard of automation?
For most reading this, MailerLite’s automation capabilities Could easily make or break this review.
The good news? If you’ve ever used a visual workflow builder, then You’ll immediately feel at home here…
Much like the rest of MailerLite, That the automations interface is simple, clean and easy to navigate — something which certainly can not be said for each and every email advertising software.
After setting your trigger, you can Start adding measures to your workflow.
These steps can be anything from sending an email, including a Delay, a bubble break, or an act, such as moving a subscriber or upgrading their records.
Here’s a straightforward workflow I put together, where subscribers Are unsubscribed if they do not open my email within seven days.
There are innumerable Possibilities in regards to workflow automations similar to this, and MailerLite should not have any trouble with the huge majority of use cases.
Granted, it is not quite as Feature-rich as something like ActiveCampaign since it lacks some of the conditional elements. (Split, Go To, Goal, etc.)
For example, there’s currently no automation for transferring Subscribers directly into a different automation.
That being said, most of these activities can Nevertheless Be achieved by moving Subscribers into different classes that trigger new automation workflows. It’s simply much less efficient…. yet.
Another matter of efficacy here is when creating new emails From the automation workflow builder.
After adding an email block to The workflow, you’ll be asked to put in your subject line which appears on the block itself.
From there, clicking on the’Design email’ button will fire up the Writer:
Now, you’ll be briefly Redirected to the typical campaign creation wizard, which I covered previously in the review.
This time, but as Soon as You’ve created your email, clicking on the ‘Done editing’ button will direct you straight back to the automations workflow instead of the usual sending options.
Ultimately, your email will probably be Loaded into your automation.
A nice touch here is using a thumbnail preview of your Email within your automation cube, so it’s possible to find an idea of what it contains at a glimpse.
While this process may seem like A grind on paper, it’s really much faster than what I am used to with other email marketing tools — ActiveCampaign being a fantastic example.
On the other hand, if you’ve come over from something such as ConvertKit where The editor is loaded inside the automations builder, you’ll likely find that this downgrade in performance.
It is fast enough for me, Personally, however I guess it’s all relative.
Before I wrap up this section, there is 1 Kind of automation You will not find in MailerLite, also I think that it’s important to highlight.
Site tracking.
The ability to activate an automation (or measure ) based on how Readers interact with the webpages on your website.
This Sort of behavioral targeting just isn’t available in MailerLite right now, so if it’s something you use or plan to utilize, you might want to skip this one. App Mailerlite
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Click here to begin your free account of Mailerlite.
Pricing
The cost of MailerLite is undoubtedly among those tools largest Selling things, and let us face it, we all love a fantastic bargain.
For starters, they offer an infinite free plan that includes All features (including premium) to get as many as 1,000 subscribers.
While There’s some subtle Branding on your emails using this plan, it’s still an amazing alternative for those starting out.
And what about the premium plans?
It ends up, at around half of the Price of the rivalry on average, MailerLite is by far among the cheapest options on the market. Additionally, if you are willing to pay yearly, you can also get an even better discount.
In fact, I haven’t been able to locate anything that does exactly the same job, cheaper.
Summary
MailerLite is among those email marketing tools to interrupt The (very crowded) industry in recent decades, which is no easy feat.
While it’s not as fast as ConvertKit, or as feature-rich As ActiveCampaign, or as template-heavy as MailChimp, it works exceptionally well at virtually anything you can throw at it.
Overall, I find MailerLite strikes the perfect balance Between flexibility, simplicity and speed, and all at a price point you’ll seriously struggle to beat.
Thinking about giving it a twist? Let us know how it works for you From the remarks. App Mailerlite
Click here to sign up your free account of Mailerlite.