Why I made the switch to Mailerlite

Alright alright alright, today we are going to take a look at one of the most important aspects of running a successful website and that’s your email list! I’ve written before about why every website needs an email list and how important they are if you want to grow your website so if you haven’t checked out that post already, hop on over and catch up with us again in a minute. Email lists are a must have for any business and website, and I totally geek out over them!

Knowing how important it is to have an email list is one thing but getting started with it is the next step. I’m here to tell you that despite your best efforts and hours of research, you might not choose the right platform and email service provider on the first round. Whomp whompppp.

I’ve played around with MailChimp and ConvertKit and now I’ve moved my email list over to Mailerlite. Let me tell you why:

Note: this blog post contains affiliate links for a product I use and love. More about that in my affiliates disclaimer. If you take action (i.e., subscribe or set up an account), I may earn some money to cover my green juice addiction, which I promise to drink while creating more helpful content like this. Thank you for supporting the companies that keep my website up and running!

Charlotte's email newsletter : a story in three parts

I started out with MailChimp when I launched my business and realized I wanted to grow an audience beyond my friends and family. It’s a super popular platform and many people I admire have huge and massively successful lists on MailChimp (I’m looking at you, Paul). I didn’t think twice about starting out with MailChimp, especially since their integration with Squarespace is so easy that even a monkey could do it (see what I did there?). Starting out on Mailchimp taught me a lot about email marketing and it was a platform to learn on.

But it wasn’t long before my list started growing and things got complicated. I had many opt-ins around my website and that often led to duplicate subscribers. Someone might opt into my free 7 day email course AND a freebie in one of my blog posts, and MailChimp would log it as two separate emails.

I also knew I needed to segment my list but this process was way more confusing than it needed to be. Not to mention that automations and landing pages were only available with upgraded accounts, it was all starting to be a lot to manage. And this is coming from a techie!

MailChimp is really wonderful for beginners and people using their email lists in basic ways, but once you start taking email marketing seriously, things get a little tough on that platform.

After countless hours of frustration where I tried my best to make Mailchimp work for me (“just one more month, I’ll deal with it later”), I knew the time had come to jump ship. I did my research on several other platforms and ended up attending a webinar put on by a well-known online business owner that was all about how to grow and monetize your email list. It turned out that the webinar and education was in partnership with Convertkit, which is where I first got to see the platform in action and get a first hand look at all the features. It was clear right away that Convertkit had the solution to so many of my problems AND they were offering a 1 month free trial, which I signed up for on the spot. Talk about an easy sale!

Also, this is a little embarrassing to admit (but we’re all friends, right?) but I was definitely drinking the Convertkit kool-aid because I saw that so many super successful online entrepreneurs that I followed (think: Mariah from Femtrepreneur, Pat from Smart Passive Income, Michelle from Making Sense of Cents, Nathan Barry, etc.) used that platform. I obviously wanted similar results from my newsletter and thought that Convertkit would help me get there faster.

Fast forward to me happily using Convertkit for a long time. Yes, I was paying quite a bit it (way more than MailChimp) but I kept telling myself that it was a business expense that I shouldn’t skimp out on and it was worth it.

Getting set up with Convertkit was pretty simple because the platform is fairly user friendly and they have lots of content to make it easy for you to learn how to use it properly. I dabbled with tagging but mostly used Convertkit to create different opt-ins across my website and in blog posts, set up funnels and creep the analytics. #realtalk

A quick note on pricing with Convertkit: Whether you have 5 subscribers or 50,000 subscribers, you’ll still be paying for it, which is definitely something to consider if you’re just starting your email list.

Anyways, while things were mostly good and working well, I kept having a nagging feeling that Convertkit wasn’t the right fit for me and my email list. There were a few things about the platform that weren’t perfect (although no email service provider truly is) and I started researching other options. I got in touch with other online business owner friends to see what they used and even created a poll in a Facebook group I’m a member of, and one platform kept coming up.

You guessed it - Mailerlite!

The more I looked into it, the better it seemed and I decided to test it out. Ultimately, I made the switch and am very happy with my decision.

My thoughts on switching to Mailerlite

Now that you know that I moved my email list over to Mailerlite, I want to share my honest thoughts on switch.

Signing up for and setting up an account with Mailerlite is easy and quick to do. However, transferring everything over is a lot of work! It’s not hard to do but you will need to put aside several hours (at least) to transfer over all your funnels, create new opt-ins for your web pages and blog posts, and set up the landing pages. Personally, I had several dozen freebies/opt-ins to get up and running and this wasn’t something that happened over night!

I’d like to share 2 suggestions with you to make this as efficient as possible:

Focus on opt-ins on pages/blog posts that receive the highest traffic (you can easily find this information out by taking a look at your Squarespace analytics)
Update your most recent blog posts first so that there is less impact on new visitors to your website

Importing your list from Convertkit to Mailerlite can be done in a matter of minutes. All you do is export your list to an excel file from Convertkit, head over Mailerlite and upload that info into the Subscribers tab using the orange Add Subscribers button. There are a few customizations you can select here but this part is totally painless and quick.

Mailerlite : the pros and cons

Now that I’ve been using Mailerlite for awhile, I want to share my honest thoughts in a good ol' fashioned pros & cons list.

Pros:

Everything is customizable, especially the design
Free automation tool
Completely free to use until you reach 1000 subscribers and you can send as many emails/month as you’d like
Only $10/month until you reach 2500 subscribers and then only $20/month until you reach 5000 (unlike Mailchimp which will set you back $50/month when you reach 5000 subscribers)
You can send as many email campaigns as you want (yay for unlimited!)
Create integrated forms (like I have on my website and in my blog posts), pop-ups and landing pages. The interface is super easy to use, no joke you can learn how to use everything in a matter of hours
Easily segment subscribers into different groups and send out emails only to select groups for personalized and relevant content
A/B testing (split campaign), custom workflows, etc. to send the most powerful emails to your list. Yay for higher conversion rates!
Send emails twice if they weren’t opened the first time
Send different email sequences based on subscriber activity (e.g., if they click a link or move to a different list)
Wonderful customer service. It's quick, cheerful and exactly what you need.

Cons:

The only thing that is a little annoying to do with Mailerlite is to deliver digital downloads to people who opt-in on your website or in blog posts. For example, if someone signs up to receive a PDF or another file type (guide, checklist, worksheet, whatever), there isn’t a way to directly upload that file into the email deliver. Not a huge deal and there are workarounds but it’s something to mention. From what I’ve read online, Mailerlite is always evolving and upgrading their product so fingers crossed this feature will be available soon!

Final Thoughts

I’ve happily made the switch to Mailerlite and definitely recommend it! It has already made a huge difference in my email marketing strategy and I love all the features I’ve set up and how it all came together. It was easy to integrate with my Squarespace website and all the functionality that I was looking for is available in a platform that is incredibly user friendly and easy to use. #winning

Mailerlite is amazing for many reasons but what I love most is that you can try it out and use it for free! You will only start paying for it once you reach 1000 subscribers, which is pretty impressive.

If you're looking for a powerful email service provider that is just as good for people who are starting out their email list AND for websites and business that already have robust lists that they want to nurture, Mailerlite might be the right choice for you!. No matter how you use it, Mailerlite has something for everyone.

Click the button below to try out Mailerlite for FREE today!

Try Mailerlite for Free!

Now it’s your turn to tell me, what email service provider do you use? Do you like it or is it a major headache? Have you ever switched platforms? How did that work out for you? I’d love to know so leave me a note in the comments below!