Background Contact Email Marketing
When I asked you to name an email Marketing instrument, what would you say? Contact Email Marketing
MailChimp? Aweber? ActiveCampaign?
Like many online businesses now, email marketing has been Dominated by the identical large players for the last ten years. Which means they get encouraged very deeply and accomplish a great deal of mindshare.
Now and then, however, an Underdog disrupts the market, causing long-time customers to question their loyalties.
MailerLite has done precisely that.
So today, in this review, I will be ripping MailerLite from limb To limb to see if it stands its own ground against the big boys…
…and, more importantly, whether youshould consider making the change.
MailerLite Advantages
– Uses tag-based system (called Groups)
– Powerful Segmentation using rules
– Custom Fields for innovative email personalization
– Advanced Campaign types (auto-resend, A/B, etc.)
– Simple to Use email builder/template editor
– Practical Email components for example countdowns and product boxes
– Intuitive Type, popup and landing page builder
– Supports Automations using visual workflows
– Offers Both readable and comprehensive reporting
– A Fraction of the cost compared to most other solutions
Click here to begin your free account of Mailerlite.
MailerLite Disadvantages
– Strict Approval procedure
– Few email Templates accessible
– Very few Form templates accessible
– Can’t Create emails without leaving the visual workflow builder
– No Support for site tracking Contact Email Marketing
Sign-up Procedure
Like most email advertising providers these days, You’ll Need to Go through a review process before being able to properly 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, list size and also the kind of material you plan to send.
Then, you need to confirm your Site (or domain ).
This is still part of this approval process, and MailerLite will Simply ask which email is associated to that domain in order that they can email you a verification link.
Once you’ve completed those Measures, you’ll need to wait it out.
The MailerLite team will review your application, check your Site, and determine whether you are a good fit for their services.
(In other words, they are making sure you are not a spammer/scammer)
As shown above, you’ll still be Able to use the software to make campaigns and play with the features, but you will not have the ability to send anything before approved.
I had been”partially” approved within a few hours, which gave me a Temporary limit of 500 subscribers.
Here Is What the email said:
Annoying, certain.
However, while these steps are not ideal for getting started, it Does help prevent unscrupulous users from hurting everybody’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 soon, do not worry.)
But whether it is a new blog article, podcast, or timely Announcement, there is always some excuse to send a more immediate email.
That is where’Campaigns’ come in.
Clicking the brand new’Create Campaign’ will give you several options.
– Regular campaign: A traditional broadcast email.
– A/B split effort: Multiple email Variations, such as subject line, from title and, yes, even content. (Woop!)
– Auto resend: Resend to subscribers who Do not open your broadcast email, with the choice of altering the subject line and email articles.
– RSS campaign: Create a recurring campaign That sends new content to subscribers using your site’s RSS feed.
Aside from a few added options, the Majority of these will follow Exactly the same step-by-step process of a normal effort.
So let’s walk you through it.
Once you click on to create your campaign, you’ll be asked to Pick a favorite editor, whether that’s the dragn’ drop, rich text or HTML.
You can switch to the Templates tab and choose from among the pre-designed email templates — which will move you to the dragn’ drop editor by default.
In the time of writing, you’ll find 21 email templates to choose From which is a little on the low side, however, the layouts are super contemporary.
And, of course, if you’d just Prefer to reuse a previous email, you can click on the’Recent Emails’ tab.
For this example, I will choose the first template from the library.
The editor is easy to use, Making viewing these templates a 5-minute job.
You can also utilize the cubes in the sidebar to add different Kinds of content to your email, including videos, merchandise columns, and social connections.
After making your changes, just click’Done Editing’ and you’ll Be carried to the recipients’ options where you can select your classes or sections.
The advanced tab also allows you To build segment-like rules , in the event your targeting isn’t quite perfect.
Finally, right before sending, you’ll get to the’Program’ screen.
This is where you control when your broadcast email should go Out, whether that is immediately, at a set time/date, or according to your subscribers time zones.
Impressive, right? Contact Email Marketing
Click here to begin your free account of Mailerlite.
Handling Your Clients
Having granular control over your subscribers is arguably among The most important facets of any email marketing software now.
Why?
Because highly personalized efforts are necessary if You are looking to increase opens, clicks, and, most importantly, your conversions.
And while most providers Permit You to”tag” subscribers in order To target them effectively, MailerLite utilizes a slightly different approach.
When you open up your subscriber dashboard, you’ll see two Choices; Segments and Groups.
Segments are essentially principles.
Your readers belong to a section only when they meet the Specified principles, and are automatically inserted or removed accordingly.
Here is what setting up a rule looks like:
Notice the way you can even blend Principles, as well as another rule if the first does not exist.
Pretty smart, eh?
The next tab is for groups, and also the difference in title, These behave much like your usual”tagging” system.
(MailerLite even debated Changing the name to’Tags’, but finally decided against it)
Unlike Segments, Groups are upgraded manually or through an Automation rule — that we will get to in a moment — and they don’t have any value besides what you actually call them.
As you Begin to use this platform, you’ll Start to understand Where Segments and Groups are generally used, however, MailerLite offers a hand in the event you’re unsure:
Fundamentally, groups are more of a Deliberate activity on a per-subscriber basis, whereas Segments permit you to bulge multiple subscribers collectively according to a frequent denominator.
A tad confusing, I’ll admit… but I believe it is a fair trade-off For the added flexibility. In any case, they’re discretionary.
Last, the’Fields’ tab is used to customize your email copy.
You’ll notice that MailerLite has Already populated this region with their particular areas, such as title, business, and nation.
If You Would like to create your own custom fields, you can do this by Clicking the’Add new field’ button.
So how do they actually work?
You can either upload a CSV file of your readers together with Your custom field information in separate columns… or can simply add these fields to your forms which will only apply to future subscribers.
Here’s a screenshot of a test field I made and added to a form:
I won’t go too much into the shape Stuff here since I have a whole section on this below, but this is the strategy I would recommend if you wished to use this attribute.
Again, once you’ve collected your custom field data from fresh Readers, you can pull them into your email content and subject line.
Just click on the’Personalization’ drop down and select your Custom field.
I am barely scraping the surface Of what’s possible with custom fields, but it is important that you understand that this is a feature you can use.
Overall, it is reasonable to say MailerLite has their contributor Direction and personalization features on point. Contact Email Marketing
Landing pages.
If you’re not impressed with what you’ve seen so far, then maybe The webpage builder will tickle your fancy.
After selecting’Landing Pages’ in the forms page, then you will be Able to pick from 8 pre-designed templates.
Again, while the template choice Isn’t winning any awards, it will offer a great foundation to work from if, for example the majority people, you do not have that pure 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 give you 17 building blocks to Further construct or change your landing page.
Now, I’ve used my fair share of Visual site builders, and this is better than some dedicated alternatives *Infection * WPBakery.
Along with the fundamental building blocks, you can use components like Hero segments, popup buttons, testimonials and countdown timers.
No, it won’t be replacing landing Page builders like Thrive Architect or even LeadPagesanytime shortly, but credit where credit due, this thing over-delivers on all 3 kind types.
Form Builder Tool
Unlike some email advertising tools, MailerLite really offers a Decent set of form building tools.
Also, but you can also create popups and landing pages Through this same interface, so there is a lot to cover here.
Let’s begin with your Bog-standard embedded type.
These forms are first created inside MailerLite so as to get An embed code, which you can then put on your site to show it on particular pages.
Despite beginning super basic, the form designer allows you To customize everything from the kind style, fields, background, title, input fields and, clearly, the button.
Form text can also be edited directly, which Provides you a chance To envision your own backup in real-time.
It would’ve been nice to have Some templates, but as you know, there’s more to some form than simply its physical appearance.
Clicking the’Settings’ tab will Make It Possible for you to configure how the Form works, including adding additional fields and establishing a custom success page.
(There’s a GDPR compliance option. Sweet.)
And speaking of the success page…
…MailerLite also lets you customize the default message, That will replace the embedded form also prevents users .
Last but certainly not least, you Can check the way your form screens on mobile by switching the toggle to responsive mode.
You won’t be able to make any layout changes here, but it makes Sense to check, nevertheless.
So that’s an overview of the Embedded form but like I said before, you can also create popup forms in MailerLite.
While the majority of this installation Procedure is identical, you will find A few differences I’d love to point out.
Unlike embedded forms, you can choose between a set of Templates:
While this isn’t the most Comprehensive selection, they do offer a good foundation to work from and the editor is at least as easy to use with this form kind.
Clicking on the’E-commerce’ template takes me to a preview Before moving to the editor.
Here, you’ll notice there are some 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 amount of control over popup forms.
And, as before, you can play the styling options to get it Matched with your branding.
Last, you can Select the close Behaviour of your type under the’Settings’ tab.
The default option is the X icon, but you can swap out this for A”No thanks” text option, or have both.
This is really where most email Marketing platforms will render you, but MailerLite has yet another trick up its sleeve.
Click here to sign up your free account of Mailerlite.
Reporting & Analytics
Like most tools, you’ll find a summary of your effort Data in the dashboard.
Here you’ll see everything from campaign open and click data, Subscriber development, automation analytics, and kind signups.
Clicking into any campaign will Give you special reporting for this campaign.
This is where you’ll discover some more advanced 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 in Case You really want To dig into the numbers, you can click into individual areas of this report for a more comprehensive breakdown.
You can find some real gems under These reports.
For example, the’View Email’ tab also shows a click map, so You can see precisely how your subscribers interacted to another.
Reports for automations are also Accessible under the’Automations’ tab, even although I found to be less insightful than effort reports.
Here’s a quick 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’s email marketing with no dash of automation?
For many reading this, MailerLite’s automation capabilities Could simply make or break this particular review.
The great news? If you’ve ever used a visual workflow builder, then You will immediately feel at home here…
Much like the rest of MailerLite, That the automations interface is simple, clean and simple to navigate — something which certainly can not be said for each and every email advertising software.
After setting your trigger, you can begin adding steps to your workflow.
These measures could be anything from sending an email, adding a Postpone, a bubble break, or an action, like transferring a contributor or upgrading their records.
Here’s a straightforward workflow I put together, where readers Are unsubscribed if they do not open my email within seven days.
There are countless Possibilities when it comes to workflow automations like this, and MailerLite should have no trouble with the vast majority of use cases.
Granted, it’s not quite as Feature-rich as something like ActiveCampaign since it lacks some of the conditional elements. (Split, Visit, Goal, etc.. )
For example, there’s now no automation for transferring Subscribers directly into a different automation.
That being said, most of these actions can Nevertheless Be achieved by moving Subscribers into various classes that activate new automation workflows. It is just not as efficient…. yet.
Another question of efficiency here is when generating new mails From the automation workflow builder.
After adding an email cube to The workflow, you will be asked to add your topic line that then appears on the block itself.
From there, clicking on the’Design email’ button will fire up the Editor:
Now, you’ll be temporarily Redirected to the typical campaign creation wizard, which I covered earlier in the critique.
This time, however, 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 address will be Loaded into your automation.
A nice touch here is having a thumbnail preview of your Email within your automation block, so you can get an idea of what it contains at a glance.
While this process may seem like A grind on paper, it is actually much faster than what I’m used to with other email advertising tools — ActiveCampaign being a fantastic example.
On the other hand, if you’ve come over from something like ConvertKit where The editor is loaded inside the automations builder, so you’ll likely find that this downgrade in functionality.
It’s quick enough for me, Personally, but I guess it is all relative.
Before I wrap up this segment, there’s one type of automation You won’t find in MailerLite, and I think that it’s important to highlight.
Website tracking.
The ability to trigger an automation (or step) based on the way Subscribers interact with all the pages 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 use, you might want to skip this one. Contact Email Marketing
r}
Click here to sign up your free account of Mailerlite.
Pricing
The cost of MailerLite is among those tools biggest Selling things, and let us face it, we all love a fantastic deal.
For starters, they offer an infinite free plan that includes All features (including premium) for as many as 1,000 subscribers.
While there is some subtle Branding on your emails using this plan, it’s still an amazing option for anyone starting out.
And what about the top programs?
It ends up, at around half the Price of this rivalry generally, MailerLite is by far among the cheapest options available on the market. Additionally, if you’re willing to pay yearly, you can also get a much better discount.
In fact, I have not been able to locate anything that does the same job, cheaper.
Conclusion
MailerLite is among those very few advertising tools The (very crowded) industry in recent decades, which is no easy feat.
While it is 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.
All in all, I find MailerLite strikes the best balance Between flexibility, simplicity and speed, and all at a price point you’ll seriously struggle to beat.
Thinking about giving it a spin? Let us know how it works for you In the remarks. Contact Email Marketing
Click here to begin your free account of Mailerlite.