Cash Award: 5 Feedback/Reviews Awarded $5 Each. No Awards Remaining.
MailerLite is the simplest email marketing tool for small and medium business.
Target Audience: Marketing People, Small Businesses, Designers.
Website URL: https://www.mailerlite.com/
Feedback sought:
Please go through the following and provide detailed feedback on your experience with each step:
- Visit https://www.mailerlite.com/ – Signup.
- Try to create a newsletter.
- Add a group of subscribers
- Send a newsletter.
- Check the report.
- Any additional thoughts or comments?
About MailerLite:
Forget complex settings and unnecessary features. MailerLite is so easy, that anyone can create a good looking email newsletter just in a few minutes – no HTML or other special skills are required. Moreover, with MailerLite you can manage your subscribers and track sent campaign results.
MailerLite pricing is also very simple, there are no setup costs or monthly fees – you only pay when you send. Customers can buy email credits and use them any time they want. Email credit price starts from 0,01 EUR and discounts are offered for buying in larger quantities.
Cash Award: 5 Feedback/Reviews Awarded $5 Each. No Awards Remaining.
Feedback sought:
Please go through the following and provide detailed feedback on your experience with each step:
Visit https://www.mailerlite.com/ – Signup.
Done.
Try to create a newsletter.
Created one.
Add a group of subscribers.
Done.
Send a newsletter.
Done.
Check the report.
I received the newsletter that I sent out without any issues.
Any additional thoughts or comments?
Yes. First, I like what your service offers. It is a free alternative to Microsoft Publishing and Outlook. Your service allows a user to create a newsletter and send it out to a list of subscribers.Â
I do not understand the email credit system. I am guessing you have a limited number of free sendouts and then when that runs out, you have to purchase more. When I click on “buy credits†it takes me to a screen to enter my company name and address and country and registration and VAT code. I do not understand all of this. I was expecting a straightforward way to just purchase more email credits. I think this would be very confusing to prospective clients.
However, when I go back to the homepage, there is an explanation of the pricing system.Â
Actionable suggestion:Â With that said, I think you should make the buy credits screen more understandable to use.
Drawbacks:Â I personally have used Microsoft Publisher, and find it easier to use, and can produce a high-quality newsletter from it.
I do not understand how your site has a competitive advantage over using Microsoft Publisher to create a high-quality newsletter. From what I see, what you can do on your newsletter is pretty basic compared to MS Publisher. I would not want to pay to use your service, knowing that there is a better alternative out there.Â
However, your video tab on your homepage shows how you can create and send a newsletter in 4 minutes. So I see that your selling point would be that it is quick and easy to do.
Now, I checked out the gallery. I am actually impressed by what I see. My level of skepticism is decreasing and I see that you can make high-quality newsletters with your product. I think I would need a tutorial or crash course on how to make it look that good. I like how you have this gallery. I definitely builds credibility for your brand.
Downside: Once logged in, the User Interface seems pretty “blah†and not very visually appealing. It seems basic. It seems like you have a lot of open space and could give more options or something.
Actionable suggestion: It appears that you wish to monetize this site from a pay-per-email revenue plan. I just don’t see myself paying for this, at this point. I would want more. Have you considered offering your service for free and using the empty space within the login screen to place ads and banners (without cheapening the experience), to offset the cost of a pay-per-email revenue system?
Visit https://www.mailerlite.com/ – Signup.
Sign up was rather easy. Just fill in the information and you set up your account.
Try to create a newsletter.
I like how you can create an email by scratch but I also think it is time consuming. I think there should be features where you can use a template. When I send out newletters or anything I use the templates on publisher or word. I find them much easier to use.
But I do like how you can make the newsletter your own. The drag boxes I think is a good idea. I like how you can drag them where you want and continue.
Add a group of subscribers
Adding a group was simple as well. Just fill out the emails and you are set.
Send a newsletter.
Sending the newsletter was simple was well.
Check the report.
Any additional thoughts or comments?
I like the idea that you can create the newsletter yourself and make it your own but I think it is time consuming. I think having pre made templates will make it easier to use. Unless a company has a person that is just for newsletters, it is time consuming to make a newsletter and create it from scratch. You have to design it and make sure you bold and underline the headings and everything else that goes with making a newsletter.
Visit https://www.mailerlite.com/ – Signup.
The sign up process was quit easy and quick to do. I think you should have the option of putting “n/a” in the website tab if a person does not have one. I just wound up putting “https://none” in the slot just move on. Again it was quick and painless to do.
Try to create a newsletter
I was a little confused when it came to this step. No where on the web page does it say newsletter. All it says is emails and subscribers. I had to guess and just fill out the emails tab and then it took me to the newsletter creating section. The only hit I got as to what I was to look at the webpage header on my brower and that said email newsletter. Now this part was simple and you could get very creative with the process. I liked how I could easily delete something by pressing the garbage can. It was nice having the ability to go back and edit if I didn’t liked something on the preveiw page.Â
Add a group of subscribers
Adding the subscribers was quick and easy. It’s nice to be able to do them manually or to import them. Another quick and easy step. The graph sort of through me off until I moved the mouse over it. May you could put a title on the graph or just change it to make it more understanadble.
Send a newsletter.
Great idea to have the ability to send the email at your convience.
Check the report.
I went to my email, I sent a test newsletter to myself, and it looked exactly how it was created.
Any additional thoughts or comments?
I didn’t quit understand the e-mail credits. I can only assume automatically get 500 e-mail credits and then you have to purchase more. How are we supposed to know how much they cost? What are the increments of e-mails we can purchase? That should be clarified somewhere on your page. Also if I’m in the middle of creating a newsletter and want to stop and finish, I didn’t see anywhere that stated that I could save and finish later. Lastly, when you go to the home page I don’t like the newsletter box in the middle of the page. It really takes awway from the background designs. Those designs highlight the possibilities of what can be created with your website.
Visit https://www.mailerlite.com/ – Signup. This process was very easy. It was all handled very promptly, and without any issues.
Try to create a newsletter. I stared to create a newsletter. This process is quite easy. Immediately I was taken to a screen which appears to be a very easy process of creating a newsletter. I tried to change the background color and was unable to get the color to appear.  It took me a very seconds to be able to maneuver things around and figure out how to change the color.  I then started to arrange the items on the content blocks, which was very easy.. very similar to creating a webpage.
Add a group of subscribers This was a very easy process, it took a matter of a few seconds.
Send a newsletter. I sent the newsletter after checking the report.  It has been saying “Your campaign has been queued for Delivery” for over two minutes now.  After a three minute wait, my newsletter was delivered.
Check the report. Report has been checked and noted as correct.
Any additional thoughts or comments? I was never really clear on why I should use the site. I did not understand what the purpose of the credits were and feel that I could have actually created a quicker form myself.
Visit https://www.mailerlite.com/ – Signup.
Signup process was rather easy. However you might want to make the website optional. Not everyone is going to have a website and it will not let you go forward unless you put something in after the http. I tried to erase the http and put in none or n/a, but it would not let me continue
Try to create a newsletter.
The process was easy and I was able to create the newsletter and send it to myself. I just followed the prompts and then drag and what you want to do. I also like some of the newsletters that have been created by others under the gallery tab to give someone who is not creative an idea on making a nice looking newsletter
Add a group of subscribers
Again, a very easy process. I just copy and pasted my emails over and I was ready to go.Â
Send a newsletter.
You just follow all the prompts and you are good to go. I just looked at it was in my email within 5 minutes of sending it.Â
Any additional thoughts or comments?
Maybe have some of the samples within Design area so you can get ideas as you are creating them. Right now, the gallery section is at the home page and you don’t want to go out and look to get ideas.Â
Â
Visit https://www.mailerlite.com/ – Signup.
Done. The site’s front page is clean and attractive, and seems pretty well organized.
Try to create a newsletter.
Done. I like the design aspect of these pages. What I don’t like is the lack of any significant amoutn of instruction on how to do it. While a lot of is is somewhat self explanatory, there are lots of little details that really could stand to be improved upon. For example, it’s not completely clear that the background of the entire page will be used in the newsletter. My initial assumption was that the white window was the layout of the newsletter and the rest was just working area. I was rather surprised to find out that wasn’t the case. In terms of function, everything seems to work well, and it’s easy enough to use.
I also didn’t like the copy/paste overlay. It seemed excessively complicated for what’s a regular design feature in pretty much any browser or program. I may be missing something, but I don’t see why copying and pasting a block of text necessitates a popover window to slow the process down.
Add a group of subscribers
Done. I added the default subscriber list, which is just myself. I wasn’t crazy about the fact that there’s no way to look over subscribers (that I could immediately find anyway) without leaving the newsletter design setup. Fortunately, the system saves the process as a draft, but that really shouldn’t be necessary. Subscription management seems to work well enough.
Send a newsletter.
Done. This seems to work well. I received the email right when scheduled.
Check the report.
Although there wasn’t much information to display, it did update immediately, and it appears to have useful information.
Any additional thoughts or comments?
First off, I really don’t like how being logged in denies me access to many of the other features of the main site. I shouldn’t have to leave my login page or open another window/tab to see things like terms and conditions, contact, or pricing.
I’m also concerned that the site isn’t secured. Considering the amount of potential private information that moves across the site, it’s more than a bit unnerving seeing that the entire site, even after login, is unsecured.
Finally, logging out still doesn’t even take me back to the main page…I’m just stuck at a login screen, still unable to see any of the details of the business. There are also no links from within the back office at all going back to the main page, so I have to manually return there. It’s an unnecessary hassle, especially for a new user of your service.
Visit https://www.mailerlite.com/ – Signup.
sign up was a very simple and fast process.
Try to create a newsletter.
I was able to create the newsletter however I believe it would be very beneficial to contain basic instructions for people new to working with these formats. Those wishing to make a simple newsletter may not be familar with how to do so and if it is not simple enough to do you will likely loose their business. Anyone that has used similar programs would find the format easy to meanuver.
Add a group of subscribers
Very easy to add subscribers. I like the various methods available to do this but ‘other ways to add subscribers’ seems a little out of place to me. I found myself searching for the initial ways to add subscribers and went to the groups buttons. It appears to lack some uniformity. Some options in bottons, some in links, some with thumbnail images. The pages are simple in nature, but seem somewhat all over the place.
Send a newsletter.
Newsletter was easily sent.Â
Check the report.
I am not sure what your are referring to as ‘the report’. If you are referring to the information on the ’emails’ page about emails opened and clicked, that is a nice feature but I think a ‘report’ link to a simple page would have a more impressive and professional feel.
Any additional thoughts or comments?
I still feel the site needs a little more uniformity. There are various words used for the same item. Emails meaning the same as newsletters and subscribers being used at timess as groups. To many different items leading to a bit of chaos. I do think it would take a very short time to understand everything, but clients do nto want to have to work any harder then they have to.
There needs to be a little more information about various aspects of the site. Maybe a FAQ area or something. There are many things that seem left unanswered. How does payment work is one that that is confusing. From searching the site I get the impression we have 500 free emails and then buy credits, but more direct information is needed.
Lastly, I feel like the site needs an area to routinely go to access specific pages. For example, to get back to the main page, email page, subcribers, buying credits, etc… Somewhere a client would always go to instinctly to be able to easily get to any page on your site.
I think you are providing a great product and just need a little fine tuning to become very appealing. Good luck.
Visit https://www.mailerlite.com/ – Signup. Completed
Try to create a newsletter. Created basic newsletter
Add a group of subscribers small test group added
Send a newsletter. sent
Check the report. Reviewed the report
Any additional thoughts or comments? This is a wonderful idea for small businesses. User friendly and with great potential. I have a small online business and will definitely be making use of my account. I would like to see a wider selection of templates however basically a great start.
Visit https://www.mailerlite.com/ – Signup.
Signup is easy enough, limited amount of info needed. Maybe the website box could be optional as not everyone has a site and you cannot create the account without having it in there.
Try to create a newsletter.
The process is ok, maybe a little confusing to someone who has never done this type of thing. I would like better explanations of all the things you can do and how to do it. Templates would be a good idea.
Add a group of subscribers
Added a small group, options are good, I thought this was simple enough.
Send a newsletter.
Sent a newsletter, arrived in mailbox quick and accurately.
Check the report.
This seemed confusing to me. By report, I’m assuming your graph, which I moused over and info displayed.
Any additional thoughts or comments?
Overall, the concept is strong. I have some concerns. The home page and links are done well. Some confusing items are: 1. I see interchangeable terms such as newsletter/email, subscribers/groups, this will only confuse people.
2. The home page is very attractive with useful tabs and links, however when you move to actually use the program, there is no way to get back to the home page or any of the other links. I found this very annoying, especially as someone with limited experience with this. I could have really used immediate access to the home page and all of the info on it.
3. The cost table is very confusing. This needs to be explained in simple terms. Exactly how many newsletters you can send for a specific price and also how to pay for your credits.
Overall, the concept is great especially for small business. The idea of only paying for what you send and no monthly fee is good. It seems that you can create a very attractive newsletter and send easily which is a plus. The site just needs some polishing. Good luck
Visit https://www.mailerlite.com/ – Signup.
I tried to sign up but it would accept my e-mail address. It also did not state why. It took me about 5 minutes in order for me to figure out why my e-mail address was not working. Come to find out you have to use lower case letters when submitting your e-mail address.
Try to create a newsletter.
I had the hardest time in the beginning figuring out how to do this. I spent 20 minutes just trying to figure it out.Â
Add a group of subscribers
I was able to do this easly. I had no problems with this step.Â
Send a newsletter
I had no problem doing this step. It was easy to understand and easy to do. I recieved an e-mail soon after.
Check the report
I’m not sure what you mean by report. Everything that I did and recieved, I liked.
Any additional thoughts or comments?
I think it would help if you state that in the “sign up” process, the person must use only lower case letters in the e-mail address. I think it would also help to have information pop up on the side of the screen detailing why the information submitted cannot go through. I had to spend a number of minutes trying to figure it out on my own about the e-mail address since the site did not notify me to why. If the possible client cannot understand nor use the “sign up” process the first time, most will click out and not come back.
When making the “newsletter”, you should have a help button or instructions on the screen for people who don’t understand exactly how it works or are having problems doing it.Â
Visit https://www.mailerlite.com/ – Signup.
Complete. This would be completely painless,except the Company field and website field are required. I would recommend making these optional.
Try to create a newsletter.
Pretty easy,but I have a little experience with editors like this so I was able to figure it out by just tinkering a round. I think a help button or even better,a short tutorial would be awesome for new users.
Add a group of subscribers
Very easy and painless
Send a newsletter.
Once again,very easy and I received the mail within a few seconds.
Check the report.
Not so easy and painless. The report is awesome…once you find it. I think a report button should be added next the e-mail name,otherwise I fear most people might not even know it’s there unless they stumble upon it. Or at the very least,have something that at least lets the user know that they can view a report and how to get to it. If I wasn’t testing this site and was brand new to newsletters,I wouldn’t even know that a report was available or that I should look for one. In my opinion this is a critical flaw that needs to be addressed. But like I said,the report itself is awesome,works,and shows all the information one could want.
Any additional thoughts or comments?
I think the site has a sound base to it and could be be a very useful tool,but it definitely needs some refining. It needs to be much more “newbie” friendly,I consider myself almost midway between beginner and advanced in this kind of technology,and I was scratching my head a couple times. At the very least,some tutorials should be added. Also simple ? help links next to possibly unknown terms could be useful (Ex. I finally get my newsletter finished and click send and I see ” Use Google Analytics tags” checked. It would be amazing if all I had to do was click a little button next to the term for an explanation instead of tabbing out and googling it to find out if I want this checked). As for the creation of the newsletter,it wasn’t to bad,but somewhat time consuming,I found myself wanting templates.
One other thing-I’m a fan of lightweight backends,it usually makes your progress much smoother and drops load time tremendously,but I think it’s to dumbed down here. If I want any real info on anything (Ex.Pricing,want to look at the gallery for ideas ect ect) I need to go out to the main page. I think having at least some of the information available within the backend would be great,if you don’t want to clutter up the backend anymore at least put links to the actual content on the topbar that load in a new tab/page. Personally as it sits,I would consider this program for use,since it has some nice features,but I would more than likely use programs I’m used to and watch this site to see where it goes in the near future. thanks for letting me review your site.
Dustin
$5 awarded to starvingsquirrel.
$5 awarded to ChuckChuck.
$5 awarded to Latasha.
$5 awarded to Tricia.
$5 awarded to zeke2100.
Visit https://www.mailerlite.com/ – Signup. Yes done that!
Try to create a newsletter. – Was able to do this without any issue.
Add a group of subscribers – It was quite simple to this job too!
Send a newsletter. – It was reasonable easy!
Check the report. – Things seems to be working here as well
Any additional thoughts or comments? – Overall, excellent piece of software, although it is quite simple and lacks some of the advanced features like use of DKIM and SPF which other providers like Email Now! Marketing seems to have. You can have a look at their service http://www.emailnow.co.nz and see what you think. There is still room for improvement as Email Now, an all-in-one Web-based Email Marketing software that is easy to use seems to be the way to go. You can send beautiful emails, track the results and manage your customers all at one go….