Review: MailerLite — Easy & Affordable Email Marketing Service

Getting a new business off the ground on a tight budget can be challenging. To be successful, it is necessary to have an awesome marketing strategy in place. Big businesses can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars per year marketing products and services. For new companies and small businesses though, this can be difficult.

Challenges can pop up when trying to compete with the big fish. In order to stay competitive, it is necessary to use some of the same tools that the big companies use. However, most small businesses do not employ an entire marketing team to help with this process. In many cases, there is no marketing team at all. Thus, when looking for software to help with the marketing aspect of the business, the easier it is to use, the better.

Below we review one such service: MailerLite.

What is MailerLite?

MailerLite is a new email marketing service developed by a UK company with an aim to allow small businesses to compete with bigger counterparts in a user-friendly manner, minus the massive investments of time and money.

Although this email marketing service does not have all the bells and whistles that some of the bigger systems have, it has been tailored to adequately meet the needs of small businesses, without the large cost that goes with some of the other products on the market.

Features at a Glance

MailerLite provides a user friendly tool that is perfect for new companies and small businesses. Its inherent features make this product pretty easy to use:

1. The drag and drop content editor offers several styles and colors to personalize your emails and newsletters. I like how easy it was to design an email with my colors and header.
   
2. MailerLite displays well on computers, tablets, and phones. It looks great in any e-mail system and on all mobile devices. I pulled the email I designed up on my Android and it looked the same as it did on my laptop. This is a neat little feature.
3. Anybody can use this system. You do not need to know HTML to design a professional looking email.
4. MailerLite makes it simple to manage subscriber lists. Duplicates, unsubscribes, and bounces are handled automatically. And, it is easy to manage multiple lists. The system offers a subscribe form for your website and allows you to manage subscribers with API.
   
5. MailerLite is fast. The system is capable of sending out over 1000 emails per minute and it automatically handles delivery issues.
6. There are several analysis tools built in so businesses are able to track views, clicks, opens, bounces, spam reports, and unsubscribe reports. These tools are in place to help businesses provide effective emails to subscribers.
7. MailerLite caters to small businesses with the goal of making email marketing easy. The system allows personalization of emails that uses the registered name in the email, which is much more appealing than “Hello Subscriber.”
   

Affordability

The program provides an affordable option for small businesses. Let’s face it, small businesses have a limited budget for marketing tools. The other difference between big and small businesses is that the latter do not necessarily need all the tools that are built into products designed for their bigger counterparts.

The good news is that this product is affordable at$99 per year; pretty cost-effective as compared to some of its bigger competitors. MailerLite allows you to manage up to 10,000 contacts with unlimited emails.

MailerLite is in the process of increasing subscribers and services over the next several weeks. The cost for an additional 10,000 subscribers will be $100 per year. An additional 20,000 subscribers will cost $199 per year. This will include unlimited email capability, as it does now.

You can try the service for 30 days free of charge. They do not require credit card information during the trial period. Thus, you are able to use the product for an entire month before making the decision of whether or not it is for you. Oh, and signing up for the free trial period was extremely quick and simple.

Room for Improvement

MailerLite is a functional tool for smaller businesses that is easy to use. However, as the name states, this product is in the light weight arena. It does not compete with some of the heavy weights in the email marketing arena. This program does not offer all of the automation that some other systems offer. Let’s take a look at the cons.

1. There is no auto-responder option in place at this time.  However, they are in the process of developing a system that fits in with the simplicity of this product.
2. MailerLite does not offer automated list switching based on specified criteria. In other words, if you have somebody who has subscribed to your email list and has not purchased anything they are on the “free list”. When they purchase something, you might want them on the “customer list”. Some email systems do this for you automatically. MailerLite does not have that capability at this time.
3. You cannot send plain text emails with this product. It is necessary to use the automated system to design an email. Thus, if you are looking for a system that will allow you to send out plain text emails, MailerLite is not the right system for you.

Is MailerLite Right For You?

If you are looking for an email marketing service that is easy to use and is affordable, you might want to give it a try. This system has been designed for small businesses looking to get into the email marketing arena quickly and easily, without hiring a professional to do so. MailerLite is a one-stop-shop for designing eye-catching emails quickly and easily with a simple drag and drop system. There are nice analysis and tracking tools built in as well.

However, if you are searching for a system with all the bells and whistles that will automate and track absolutely everything for you, this is not the right product. It is important to remember that this system is capable of handling up to 10,000 contacts. If you have more number of contacts than that, you might want to consider another program.

The 30 day trial period gives you an opportunity to give the system a try for free to see if it works for you. The simplicity of the system is a great feature and it allows small businesses to compete with larger businesses in the email marketing service arena.

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