Intro How To Improve Email Marketing Campaigns
If I asked you to name an email Marketing instrument, what would you say? How To Improve Email Marketing Campaigns
MailChimp? Aweber? ActiveCampaign?
Like many online businesses now, email marketing has been Dominated by the same big players for the previous decade. Which means that they get encouraged very deeply and accomplish a great deal of mindshare.
Now and then, however, an Underdog disrupts the marketplace, causing long-time customers to question their loyalties.
MailerLite has done precisely that.
So now, in this review, I will be ripping MailerLite from limb To limb to see if it really stands its ground against the big boys…
…and, what’s more, 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 kinds (auto-resend, A/B, etc.. )
– Simple to Utilize email builder/template editor
– Practical Email elements such as countdowns and merchandise boxes
– Intuitive Form, popup and landing page builder
– Supports Automations employing visual workflows
– Offers Both digestible and in-depth reporting
– A Fraction of the cost compared to most other solutions
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MailerLite Disadvantages
– Strict Approval process
– Few email Templates available
– Very few Form templates available
– Can’t Create emails without leaving the visual workflow builder
– No Support for site tracking How To Improve Email Marketing Campaigns
Sign-up Process
Like most email marketing providers Nowadays, You’ll Need to Go through a review process before being able to correctly use the program.
When you first sign up, you’ll be asked to complete your profile.
This includes information like your organization name, website, Business, address, company size, list size and also the type of content you plan to send.
Then, You Have to confirm your Site (or domain ).
This is still part of the acceptance process, and MailerLite will Simply ask which email is associated to that domain so they could email you a verification link.
As Soon as You’ve completed those Measures, you ought to wait it out.
The MailerLite team will review your application, check your Website, and ascertain whether you’re a fantastic match for their services.
(In other words, they are making sure you’re not a spammer/scammer)
As revealed above, you’ll still be Able to utilize the software to create campaigns and perform with the features, but you won’t have the ability to send anything until accepted.
I had been”partially” approved within a few hours, which gave me a Temporary limit of 500 subscribers.
Here’s what the email said:
Annoying, sure.
However, while these steps aren’t ideal for getting started, it Does help prevent unscrupulous users from damaging everybody’s deliverability.
Campaigning
If you are anything like me, you’ll rely upon automations to Deal with The majority of your email marketing.
(We will get to automations soon, do not worry.)
But whether it’s a new blog post, podcast, or timely Announcement, there’s always some excuse to send a more immediate email.
That’s 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 Versions, including subject line, from title and, yes, even content. (Woop!)
– Auto resend: Resend to subscribers who Don’t open your broadcast email, together with the choice of changing the subject line and email content.
– RSS effort: Produce a recurring campaign That sends new content to readers using your site’s RSS feed.
Apart from a few additional options, the Majority of these will follow The exact same step-by-step process of a normal campaign.
So let’s walk you through it.
As Soon as You click on to create your effort, you’ll be requested to Pick a preferred editor, whether that be the dragn’ drop, rich text or HTML.
Otherwise, you can switch to the Templates tab and select from one of their pre-designed email templates — which will move you to the dragn’ drop editor by default.
At the time of writing, you’ll find 21 email templates to choose From which is somewhat on the low side, but the designs are super contemporary.
And, of course, if you’d just Like to reuse a previous email, you can click the’Recent Emails’ tab.
For this instance, I will choose the first template from the library.
The editor is easy to use, Which makes customizing these templates a 5-minute job.
You can also use the blocks in the sidebar to include different Kinds of articles to your email, such as videos, merchandise columns, and social connections.
After making your adjustments, just click’Done Editing’ and you’ll Be taken to the recipients’ options where you are able to select your groups or segments.
The advanced tab also allows you To build segment-like rules on-the-fly, in case your targeting isn’t quite right.
Finally, before sending, then you’ll get to the’Program’ screen.
This is where you control when your broadcast email should go Out, whether that’s instantly, at a set time/date, or according to your readers time zones.
Impressive, right? How To Improve Email Marketing Campaigns
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Handling Your Subscribers
Having granular control over your subscribers is arguably among The most essential facets of any email marketing program today.
Why?
Because highly personalized campaigns are necessary if You are looking to increase clicks, opens, and, most importantly, your own conversions.
And while many providers allow you to”tag” readers in order To target them effectively, MailerLite utilizes a slightly different approach.
When you start up your subscriber dash, you’ll notice two Options; Segments and Groups.
Segments are essentially principles.
Your readers belong to a segment only when they meet the Specified rules, and will be automatically inserted or removed accordingly.
Here’s what setting up a rule looks like:
Notice how you can also combine Principles, in addition to another rule if the first does not exist.
Pretty smart, eh?
The following tab is for classes, and despite the difference in name, These behave much like your usual”tagging” system.
(MailerLite even debated Changing the title to’Tags’, but ultimately decided against it.)
Contrary to Segments, Groups are upgraded manually or through an Automation principle — which we will get into in a moment — and they don’t have any value aside from what you actually call them.
As you start to use this stage, you’ll begin to understand Where Segments and Groups are generally used, but MailerLite offers a hand in case you’re unsure:
Basically, groups are much more of a Deliberate action on a per-subscriber foundation, whereas Segments permit you to lump multiple contributors collectively according to a common denominator.
A tad confusing, I will admit… but I believe it is a fair trade-off For the additional flexibility. In any case, they are optional.
Finally, the’Fields’ tab is used to personalize your email copy.
You will notice that MailerLite has Already populated this region with their particular fields, such as name, company, and country.
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 file of your subscribers along with Your custom field data in distinct columns… or may easily add these fields to your types which will only apply to future subscribers.
Here’s a screenshot of a test area I created and added to a form:
I won’t go too much to the shape Stuff here since I have a whole section on that below, but this is the approach I would recommend if you wished to use this feature.
Again, once you’ve gathered your custom field data from fresh Subscribers, you are able to pull them in to your email content and subject line.
Just click 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 to know that this is a feature you can use.
Overall, it is reasonable to say MailerLite has their contributor Direction and personalization features on stage. How To Improve Email Marketing Campaigns
Landing pages.
If you’re not impressed by what you have seen so far, then maybe The page builder will tickle your fancy.
After selecting’Landing Pages’ in the forms page, you will be Able to pick from 8 pre-designed templates.
Again, while the template selection Isn’t winning any awards, it does offer a great base to work from if, like most people, you don’t have that natural eye for design.
I went ahead and selected the’Lead Generation’ template, however They ultimately do the identical task; collect an email address.
This time, the editor will give you 17 building blocks to Further construct or alter your landing page.
Now, I’ve used my fair share of Visual page builders, and this is already better than a few dedicated solutions *cough* WPBakery.
Along with the basic building blocks, you can use components like Hero sections, 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 three kind types.
Form Builder Tool
Unlike some email advertising tools, MailerLite actually offers a Decent set of form building tools.
Also, but you can also create popups and landing pages Through this same interface, so there’s a whole lot to cover .
Let’s begin with your Bog-standard embedded type.
These forms are created inside MailerLite in order to get An embed code, which you can then place on your site to show it on particular pages.
Despite beginning super basic, the form designer allows you To customize everything in the kind style, subjects, background, name, enter fields and, of course, the button.
Form text may also be edited directly, which gives you a Opportunity To visualize your backup 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 physical appearance.
Clicking on the’Settings’ tab will allow you to configure how the Form functions, such as adding additional fields and establishing a custom success page.
(There is a GDPR compliance alternative. Sweet.)
And talking of the success page…
…MailerLite also enables you to customize the default message, That will replace the embedded form also prevents users from redirecting.
Last but surely not least, you Can assess the way your form displays on cellular by shifting the toggle to responsive mode.
You won’t Have the Ability to make any layout changes here, but it makes Sense to check, nevertheless.
So that is an Summary of the Embedded form but as I said before, you can even create popup forms in MailerLite.
While the Vast Majority of this installation Procedure is identical, there are Still a few differences I’d like 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 fantastic base to work from and the editor is just as simple to use with this form type.
Clicking on the’E-commerce’ template requires me to a preview Before moving into the editor.
Here, you’ll notice there are some new choices under form types This time around:
Considering paid programs such as Thrive Leads exist for both ribbons and slide-in forms, it is pretty impressive to observe this level of control over popup forms.
And, as before, you can play with the styling options to get it Matched up with your own branding.
Last, you can choose the close Behaviour of your form under the’Settings’ tab.
The default option is that the X icon, but you can swap out this for A”No thanks” text choice, or have both.
This is where most email Marketing platforms will leave you, but MailerLite has yet another trick up its sleeve.
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Reporting & Analytics
Like many tools, you’ll find a summary of your effort Data in the dashboard.
Here you’ll see everything from effort open and click info, Subscriber development, automation stats, and form signups.
Clicking into any campaign will Give you special reporting for this effort.
This is where you’ll find some more advanced statistics such as Unsubscribes, spam complaints, bounces, reading environment, email client and much more.
This should be plenty of Information for the average user…
…but if you really want To dig into the numbers, you can click into individual areas of the report to get a more detailed breakdown.
You can find some real gems under These reports.
By Way of Example, the’View Email’ tab also shows a click map, so You can see your readers interacted to one another.
Reports for automations will also be Available under the’Automations’ tab, even though I found these to be less insightful than effort reports.
Here’s a Fast example:
Overall, MailerLite does a Stellar job with their reporting interface, and many will find the available data more than sufficient to fulfill their needs.
Email Automation
What is email advertising without a dashboard of automation?
For most reading this, MailerLite’s automation capabilities Could easily make or break this review.
The great news? If you’ve ever used a visual workflow builder, then You will instantly feel at home here…
Much like the rest of MailerLite, The automations interface is simple, clean and simple to navigate — something that certainly can not be said for each and every email advertising program.
After setting your trigger, you can begin adding measures to your workflow.
These steps can be anything from sending an email, adding a Delay, a conditional split, or an action, like transferring a subscriber or upgrading their records.
Here’s a straightforward workflow I put together, where subscribers Are unsubscribed when they do not open my email within 7 days.
There are countless Possibilities in regards to workflow automations like this, and MailerLite ought to have no trouble with the huge majority of use cases.
Granted, it is not quite as Feature-rich as something like ActiveCampaign because it lacks a number of the conditional elements. (Split, Go To, Goal, etc.. )
For example, there’s now no automation for transferring Readers directly into a different automation.
That being said, most of these activities can Nevertheless Be achieved by moving Subscribers into different classes that activate new automation workflows. It’s simply much less efficient…. yet.
Another matter of efficiency here is when creating new mails In the automation workflow builder.
After adding an email cube to The workflow, you will be asked to add your subject line which then appears on the block itself.
From there, clicking the’Design email’ button will automatically fire up the Editor:
Now, you’ll be temporarily Redirected to the standard campaign creation wizard, which I covered earlier in the critique.
This time, however, as Soon as You’ve established your email, clicking on the ‘Done editing’ button will direct you straight back to the automations workflow rather than the usual sending alternatives.
Ultimately, your email will be Loaded into your automation.
A nice touch here is using a thumbnail preview of your Email inside your automation cube, which means it’s possible to find an concept of what it contains at a glimpse.
While this procedure may seem like A grind on paper, it is actually much quicker than what I’m utilized to with other email advertising tools — ActiveCampaign being a great example.
On the other hand, if you have 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 is quick enough for me, Personally, however I guess it’s all relative.
Before I wrap up this segment, there’s one Kind of automation You won’t find in MailerLite, and I think that it’s important to highlight.
Site tracking.
The ability to activate an automation (or measure ) based on the way Subscribers interact with the pages on your site.
This Sort of behavioral targeting just isn’t available in MailerLite at this time, so if it’s something you use or plan to use, you might want to skip this one. How To Improve Email Marketing Campaigns
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Pricing
The Price of MailerLite is one of the tools largest Selling things, and let us face it, most of us love a fantastic bargain.
For starters, they offer an infinite free plan that includes All attributes (including premium) for up to 1,000 subscribers.
While there is some subtle Branding on your emails using this program, it is still an wonderful alternative for those starting out.
And what about the premium programs?
It turns out, at around half of the Cost of the competition generally, MailerLite is undoubtedly one of the cheapest options available on the industry. Additionally, if you’re ready to pay annually, you can also get a much greater discount.
In Reality, I haven’t been able to locate anything that does the same job, cheaper.
Wrap-up
MailerLite is among those email advertising tools to disrupt The (very crowded) sector in recent years, which is no simple 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.
I find MailerLite strikes the perfect balance Between flexibility, speed and simplicity, and all at a price point you’ll seriously struggle to beat.
Thinking of giving it a spin? Let us know how it works for you In the remarks. How To Improve Email Marketing Campaigns
Click here to begin your free account of Mailerlite.