MailerLite is an affordable, easy-to-use newsletter and email marketing platform

For the longest time I used MailChimp. I was drawn to the 2,000 free subscribers.

But when MailChimp changed how they defined subscribers and made some other not so user friendly changes, I started looking for alternatives.  Not just for the free tier, but for my paid subscriber lists (I have clients that send out newsletters and they need more bang for the buck than what many free tier offers).  

The one that I keep coming back to is MailerLite.  Even my Divi Dude Newsletter is now being sent out on MailerLite.  Previously, my go to newsletter (or email aggregator) programs for me and my clients were Constant Contact and MailChimp.  Don’t get me wrong, Constant Contact is definitely a solid choice. (you can see all its features here.)

One of the things that really sets MailerLite apart from some of the competition is that the pricing is based on subscribers, not features. This includes the free tier.  There are a few things turned off or different in the free plan (nothing that is too concerning for me).  For instance, the free plan has the MailerLite logo at the bottom of the emails, and it is limited to 12,000 emails per month (which if you have a list of 100 people, doesn’t seem like much of a limitation at all).  Also, the free plan is good for up to 1,000 subscribers.

There are a few more differences too.  I recommend you visit MailerLite’s pricing page to see a comparison between all their plans.  My goal in this review is not to regurgitate what you can already read on their website, but to discuss why I use it for, not only my own email campaigns, but for my clients’ as well.

I use both the free tiers and the paid tiers to send out newsletters.  Some of my lists only have a few people on it, while others have thousands of subscribers.

To sum up, if you are just starting out, and your list is small, then you can use Mailer Lite with some features turned off for free. Or for a small fee, you can receive the same features that a mega user gets.

As of the writing of this article, the MalerLite’s pricing breakdown is as follows:

So, what does that get you? 

A lot.

Mailer Lite offers Drag & Drop design, Email automation, Popups (a feature not as important if you are a Divi user and incorporating Bloom into your website), and Landing Pages.  And moreover, it can easily be integrated into other WordPress products you may use, like WooCommerce.  Maybe I should’ve mentioned this earlier in the article, but the newsletters are also responsive, which in layman’s terms means they can be viewed properly on a mobile device.  And if you have less than 1,000 subscribers and want to check it out to see how it works for you, it’s free. And as you can see from the price list above, the other pricing plans are relatively inexpensive as well.

Spammers Not Allowed

One of the things that is especially important when using MailerLite is to have a clean, updated mailing list.  They do not abide spammers. Which means, when you sign up, they will limit how many people you can email at first.  They want to ensure the list you have is a good one and not full of outdated or spammy email accounts.  When the list is deemed safe, they will open it up so you can email up to your plan’s limit.

And they are strict about it too.  I had a client who gave me a list and they assured me it was good.  I signed up for the 2,000-5,000 plan.  I was put on a probationary period where I could only email up to 500 addresses.  So, while I uploaded my client’s entire list, I only sent out their first newsletter to a handful of handpicked email addresses and everything seemed to be good.  I asked MailerLite to increase the limit of who I could email, so they bumped it up to 1,000 (I was still in the probation period) and that’s when I discovered the list the client gave me was bad.  Asking my client who I should send it to, he said just pick a bunch at random. They all should be good.  Well, he was wrong. In fact, more than 12% of the emails bounced (meaning they were no longer valid).  MailerLite flags anything above 5%.

Because MailerLite doesn’t want to be a spammer’s resource, my client’s account was suspended.  When I emailed them to see how I could fix the problem, they gave me a number of websites I could use to ensure my list was a good list.  Meaning, these websites could validate whether the emails in my list were valid.  I signed up for one, paid the small fee, got a clean list back.

Here’s an email validation site I recommend.

After showing proof to MailerLite that my client’s list had been cleaned, they lifted all restrictions.  I still have the occasional bounce and spam complaint, but nothing worth worrying about.  And everything has gone off without a hitch since.

If you’re currently using Constant Contact, Mailchimp or another mailing platform, then your list is probably clean.  Otherwise, you may want to use a resource to ensure the list is good before signing up.

Signing up is easy.

Drag & Drop

Regardless of whether you are an expert web designer, or someone who barely knows how to turn on your computer, the drag & drop features will allow you to design a newsletter like you’ve been a professional designer all your life. All you need to do is drag blocks across the screen – whether a pre-built design block, video, social media or dynamic content – to where you want them and then fill in the content. Pretty easy.

In addition, you can also easily duplicate content by clicking on the copy button inside the module. I find this to be a real time saver when I have set up a particular module with the correct font and color settings and want to reuse it. I just duplicate the module and change the text out. Simple.

For instance, one of my clients sends out a tri-weekly email, where the first few paragraphs of the articles he writes are displayed, with a read more button after the text.  Underneath is the previous email’s first few paragraphs, and then a list of the 10 most recent articles.  So, every newsletter, looks exactly the same, but I have to duplicate the content, so the preceding newsletter’s article is displayed.  All I have to do is copy the previous newsletter, edit the content, duplicate the modules with the last newsletter’s content, and then add the new stuff while keeping last week’s stuff. Takes me less than 5 minutes (but if my client asks, then I was working on it for an hour).

Email Automation

One of the things I recommend doing is setting up email automation. An example of this would be when someone signs up for your list, they receive an automatic response from you thanking them, or whatever message you want to include. Also, things like anniversaries and subscriber updates can be set up ahead of time.

Email automation is more than just sending out an email when someone signs up. It’s so much more. With email automation, you can increase conversions of sales and increase dialogue with customers. You can take your lists and build segments from that list to send personalized content to customers, reward loyal customers and send out information based on your customer’s behavior.

Every email that was been sent is tracked with its activity and history.  And the list is there for you to see.  So, you’ll know if your customer opened an email, when it was opened and if they clicked on any of the links.

The thing I use automation for the most is scheduling emails. Other than the welcome email, this is probably what most people use it for.  I can write a series of emails and then schedule them to go out on a certain schedule.

But it’s also great if you’re selling a product, then it’s easy to set up an automation for when someone signs up they get the welcome message, then at a set certain interval (let’s say a day), they get another email from you with an offer, and then the next day they get another email from you with what’s new.  And then a couple days later they get another email from you … And if they click a certain link they get moved to a new segment; if they didn’t click on a link, they get another email in another couple days with another offer.  Of course, this is just an example of what can be done with MailerLite.  All of this is automated, with the settings you’ve already established.  And it happens for every subscriber to your list.

If you want to see how it works, sign up for the free tier, or jump all the way in and get started.

Sign Up Forms

So maybe you’re not using Bloom or another email aggregator program. Then MailerLite has you covered. You can easily add sign up forms that are embedded or that pop-up on the page, which means you can turn your website visitors into newsletter subscribers in a breeze. I recommend the pop-up variant, as it gets more attention and is seen more easily.

You can design the forms to look like your website, so it blends it seamlessly with your site’s design. Or you can go for something that is distinctive that really attracts attention. It’s up to you. And designing is easy, as MailerLite integrates the Drag & Drop builder into the sign up forms as well. So you needn’t have any coding experience to create a form.

And like the email programs, the forms are also mobile responsive.

Landing Pages

There are things I don’t use MailerLite for: landing pages are one of them. Not because I don’t trust them, but because I use Divi for my website creation and can build landing pages easily using that WordPress Theme builder.

But if you are inclined to build landing pages, maybe it’s something you’re already doing in Constant Contact or Mailchimp, then MailerLite has you covered. Just like building the newsletter, you can use a pre-built template to create your landing page, or you can use the drag & drop method for building the page.

Integration

It also includes an extensive support system, with videos (watch Divi Dude videos first, of course, then you can watch theirs) and a knowledge database, plus actual human beings who can help.