# Mailerlite for geeks (my new obsession)



## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

As expected from years and years and years... ad infinitum of publishing, I had a BIG Mailchimp bill, and a BIG number of people who never clicked but complained if I unsubbed them. We all have those, right? Oh... only me then? Damn. But seriously, those are probably lurking authors. Probably.

Anyway, the point is I had backmatter links, website links, instafreebie links, facebook links, all funneling into 6 lists at MC, and as we all know MC charges for duplicates. As far as MC is concerned, there's no such thing as duplicates. So I could send a Christmas mail to all lists (like you do) and have 2553 people get SIX FLAMING EMAILS!

<cough cough> But that's cool. There's a fix. Finally bite the bullet and move everything to the much leaner, cleaner, and prettier Mailerlite... well yes, anyway. I did that a few months ago for free and set up the automation by copying my old MC emails, still free, and switched them on for my new single list (smaller by 2553) STILL FREE, and linked it all up (glad I always use redirects for backmatter links aren't you? Yes, we all do that, right?) and all is right with the world!

Savings? $130 a month, lots of spam complaints, and generally upset authors... I mean readers.

First email to new single Mailerlite list... ML say, whoa boy! Lets think about this a minute. New list. 10k plus? NO!!! Try half, and if it works out (regarding b*tching and spam complaints) you're good to go. I'm all bah, OF COURSE it's fine. These guys are my homeys! Of course, I forgot to tell my guys the new service is me, and the new design is me and well...

It was great! No problems.

Mailerlite are like okay <wiping sweat from brows> you're okay kid. Good to go. Send up to 15k if you like, we've got your back! I'm only itty bitty 10243 nowadays sir... IT'S FINE, you'll grow. We'll make sure of it. 

FAST FORWARD a few months, and Mailerlite drop the new automation workflows on us, and ML users go to heaven. It's so good, I go to Kboards and try to wax poetic... oh right, we're doing it now! So what did we learn? We learned that Mailerlite doesn't charge for duplicates. It charges PER EMAIL ADDRESS so that address can be in as many lists (ML calls them groups) as you like at no extra charge. Who cares you might say? You should, because it means sending an email to all groups will send ONE mail to each address not SIX like MC would do. We learned automation is FREE from the start, not like MC, and it's great because learning is a b*tch if you're paying for it! Also, it means the new automation workflows are FLAMING AWESOME because the rules can be set up to copy (or move) people into new groups.

Why is that good? BECAUSE let's say someone does NOT open your welcome emails and download those lovely books. Wouldn't you like to do SOMETHING to that person? Wouldn't you like to spam them... I mean send a reminder email? And wouldn't you like to send them to a new group called Naughty Step if they don't open the reminder? Of course you would! Then you could send a polite requests to f*ck off... I mean unsub if they don't want more emails. Out of those, wouldn't you like to move BACK those who answer and unsub those who don't? AUTOMATICALLY?

Yes. You. Would!

Anyway... I'm at the following point (see? SEE following) as of time of writing. Still learning.. okay playing. Hey, ex-engineer and full-time geek here. What's that? Okay yes, full-time writer-geek then!

I have 3 groups (groups is what Mailerlite calls lists)
1... Veterans
2... Audiobooks
3... Mark's Newsletter (new people since Mailerlite set up, linked to every form everywhere in the universe)

My veterans are the people I moved from Mailchimp roughly 10k now. All my groups have the exact same custom columns that Instafreebie use

1... Genre
2... Book
3... Giveaway Name
4... Source

I did that on purpose so that moving from Mailchimp would be seamless. Instafreebie still goes to Mailchimp. I stopped using zap, because it takes people every 15mins. In that time a reader could have unsubbed, but then complain when my mailerlite send them welcome emails AFTER THEY UNSUBBED FROM MC!! Eeeep!

So I download when I reach 100 at MC, and import to Mailerlite now

I have quite a few sources:

1... Website (mixed readers, no book or genre setting)
2... Backmatter (Genre is sci-fi, or paranormal, or Teen&YA)
3... Instafreebie (uses genre, giveaway, book as well)
4... Mailerlite question (a question in my audio campaign mail)

Then I set up my new automation flow like the following based upon new people joining Mark's Newsletter:


















































EDIT because I can:
BTW: If you have old automation emails, you can't add new ones but you CAN copy them into your new workflow. How did I do that? I opened the old automation in a new window on my second monitor, then I clicked an old mail to preview it. At the top of the preview it says copy url. I do that. Then in the new workflow, I add an email, type in a subject line, click design email, THEN I CHOOSE HTML>import from URL. In the box, click paste. THEN SAVE. The old mail is now a new one in the work flow.


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## Cxxxxxxx (May 30, 2015)

Holy cow, is that their new automation workflow? Though I'm a huge MailerLite fan girl I found the old one a bit cumbersome, and of course all my autoresponders are set up that way. Looks like I'll be doing a bit of fun tweaking soon. I have so much fun with ML, it's amazing I get any writing done at all. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Adair Hart (Jun 12, 2015)

Looking good Mark!  

I've been going back and forth what to do with the naughty group, and where they get put in. I checked out those who got to my fifth email in my old automation welcome AR, and noticed that some of them didn't open the introduction, yet opened the 2nd or 3rd. Others opened the introduction, but didn't open the 4th or 5th, and yet others didn't open any, but opened my most recent campaign. Looking at your pictures, it looks like you have one email for your welcome AR. That may be where I end up. I'll need to think on this some. 

On a side note, the cofounder of the Mailerlite looked into an issue for me a while back, and I just saw that he was still subscribed to my new subscribers group. He opened my 4th welcome AR email and my campaign sent out a few days ago  I'm sure he loved reading about what I write


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Adair Hart said:


> Looking good Mark!


Bearing in mind I haven't done this yet, I'm thinking my Naughty Step group should have a list of 5 emails linked with 5day delays. The emails would ALL be the same email (the welcome email) but the logic gate would be set like this:


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## Kate. (Oct 7, 2014)

I'm drooling at those automation workflows.

Mark (and anyone else who uses Mailerlite) how are your open/engagement rates compared to your old newsletter? Any issues with Mailerlite emails getting filtered into spam?


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Kate. said:


> I'm drooling at those automation workflows.
> 
> Mark (and anyone else who uses Mailerlite) how are your open/engagement rates compared to your old newsletter? Any issues with Mailerlite emails getting filtered into spam?


It's about 12 hours old, and mine says 88% BUT only 12 people have joined since I switched the workflow on.

BTW: If you have old automation emails, you can't add new ones but you CAN copy them into your new workflow. How did I do that? I opened the old automation in a new window on my second monitor, then I clicked an old mail to preview it. At the top of the preview it says copy url. I do that. THen in the new workflow, I add an email, type in a subject line, click design email, THEN I CHOOSE HTML>import from URL. In the box, click paste. THEN SAVE. The old mail is now a new one in the work flow.


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## Adair Hart (Jun 12, 2015)

Hmm, that's one advantage of having one email for your welcome AR, it makes automation a lot easier.   I think I can probably incorporate some of my welcome AR into my main AR and go with one email. The resend would give multiple opprtunities for them to open, unless it's not registering as being opened when they actually are. I think the only thing I would change in your layout is in the unsub. I am thinking maybe move it to a group that is setup to just hold emails I need to move to Sendy where I host my new releases only list. At least in that scenario, they would still get new release emails.


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## Adair Hart (Jun 12, 2015)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> BTW: If you have old automation emails, you can't add new ones but you CAN copy them into your new workflow. How did I do that? I opened the old automation in a new window on my second monitor, then I clicked an old mail to preview it. At the top of the preview it says copy url. I do that. THen in the new workflow, I add an email, type in a subject line, click design email, THEN I CHOOSE HTML>import from URL. In the box, click paste. THEN SAVE. The old mail is now a new one in the work flow.


I found that you can also click on the design email, then on the select templates page, click recent emails and select automation in the "show" dropdown. That will bring up all your emails that have been sent out via automation and you can select any of those. It will then copy it out.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Adair Hart said:


> Hmm, that's one advantage of having one email for your welcome AR, it makes automation a lot easier.  I think I can probably incorporate some of my welcome AR into my main AR and go with one email. The resend would give multiple opprtunities for them to open, unless it's not registering as being opened when they actually are. I think the only thing I would change in your layout is in the unsub. I am thinking maybe move it to a group that is setup to just hold emails I need to move to Sendy where I host my new releases only list. At least in that scenario, they would still get new release emails.


I was going to use the logic gate and resend idea in my AR, but when you do that it means adding 2 new downstream strings of emails EVERY SINGLE TIME. I like my move to Naughty Step group better.

I think the multiple welcome mails idea should be modified. Instead of resending, create short and to the point emails like:

Hi, my mailing system indicates you haven't opened or clicked any emails. Here is your Free Starter Library (put a link to the webversion of the welcome email/book downloads) please click to remain subscribed to this list.

Brutal, but more likely to get a click you think?


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Adair Hart said:


> I found that you can also click on the design email, then on the select templates page, click recent emails and select automation in the "show" dropdown. That will bring up all your emails that have been sent out via automation and you can select any of those. It will then copy it out.


Are you sure this works with old automation emails?


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## Adair Hart (Jun 12, 2015)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> Are you sure this works with old automation emails?


I switched to MailerLite last month, so it shows an instance of every automation email I have ever sent. For instance, I have my old introduction email in two ARs, one for new subscribers, the other for existing Mailchimp users that I moved over. Both showed up on the recent emails page. I'm not sure what the cutoff date is for recent.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Adair Hart said:


> I switched to MailerLite last month, so it shows an instance of every automation email I have ever sent. For instance, I have my old introduction email in two ARs, one for new subscribers, the other for existing Mailchimp users that I moved over. Both showed up on the recent emails page. I'm not sure what the cutoff date is for recent.


Excellent. I heard the old ones didn't appear there. So, that's good news!


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## Adair Hart (Jun 12, 2015)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> I was going to use the logic gate and resend idea in my AR, but when you do that it means adding 2 new downstream strings of emails EVERY SINGLE TIME. I like my move to Naughty Step group better.
> 
> I think the multiple welcome mails idea should be modified. Instead of resending, create short and to the point emails like:
> 
> ...


Yeah, that was what I was running into initially. Creating a ton of downstream emails and logic. I like the naughty group idea as well. I think I'm going to go with a hybrid of the workflow you posted for the naughty group. Resend the introducton, and if they don't open, maybe a short and brutal one like what you have. That way they get gentle Adair, then outlaw Adair


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Adair Hart said:


> Yeah, that was what I was running into initially. Creating a ton of downstream emails and logic. I like the naughty group idea as well. I think I'm going to go with a hybrid of the workflow you posted for the naughty group. Resend the introducton, and if they don't open, maybe a short and brutal one like what you have. That way they get gentle Adair, then outlaw Adair


Me likey


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## Abalone (Jan 31, 2014)

Got a heads up of them a few weeks ago while talking to a fellow author. Very groovy setup they've got.


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## D-C (Jan 13, 2014)

I admit to loving ML. It still has its glitches, but the savings over MC are worth it, imo. Also, Mark, your OP had me laughing out loud. Awesome, buddy.


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## DuncanMH (Apr 24, 2013)

As well as being informative on a move I've been considering making myself lately, this post gave me a good chuckle. Thanks for brightening up my morning in a useful way!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

I've just moved to MailerLite from MailChimp, mainly because I just couldn't work out what on earth my signups were actually seeing - I had to signup myself in order to see the sequence, and then discovered I had a chirpy 'Watch out for your welcome email' message and no welcome email was ever sent! 

MailerLite is much easier to use, although the blending of lists confused me at first. It's good to see the advanatages of that spelled out. I haven't tried the automation yet but this thread gives me hope that it will at least be easy to set up. Thanks!


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> Bearing in mind I haven't done this yet, I'm thinking my Naughty Step group should have a list of 5 emails linked with 5day delays. The emails would ALL be the same email (the welcome email) but the logic gate would be set like this:
> 
> Welcome Email
> |
> ...


This idea has now been translated into real life. The Naughty Step is a group called Didn't open Starter Library (because it's obvious, and I'd forget why I made it) and instead of 5 chances I'm giving them the old 3 strikes and out (because I'm mean and grumpy). I used a copy of my welcome email for the first mail, then the second is chummy and like "Hey there, my mailing software is saying you aren't opening mails. If you are then great! Did you like the books? If you're not or are ignoring them on purpose, could you use the unsubscribe link at the top of this mail? Cheers!"

The last one is shorter and is more direct "Hey mate, I guess you don't want to be here. That's okay, I get it. We're all busy. Please unsub, or ignore this mail and you will be removed. Keep the books. I hope you liked them."

Like that.


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## P.A. Woodburn (May 22, 2010)

I think you should give them at least 5 chances. I delete mail that I'm interested in because I feel overburdened. I can't deal with all of it. There is so much mail that we have to go thru everyday.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

P.A. Woodburn said:


> I think you should give them at least 5 chances. I delete mail that I'm interested in because I feel overburdened. I can't deal with all of it. There is so much mail that we have to go thru everyday.


Okay, I added 2 more chances (look at me, big softy).


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## Chinese Writer (Mar 25, 2014)

Adair Hart said:


> I switched to MailerLite last month, so it shows an instance of every automation email I have ever sent. For instance, I have my old introduction email in two ARs, one for new subscribers, the other for existing Mailchimp users that I moved over. Both showed up on the recent emails page. I'm not sure what the cutoff date is for recent.


Mine only show for old campaigns but not old automation.


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## Chinese Writer (Mar 25, 2014)

I love the new workflow. When I got the email yesterday, I spent the morning setting mine up too. I got the welcome sequence done but need to work on the naught list. I probably wouldn't unsubscribe people, just move them to a holding list if they don't unsubscribe themselves after I buy them to several times.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Anne R. Tan said:


> Mine only show for old campaigns but not old automation.


Yes, me as well. My way works though.


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## Pizzazz (Dec 14, 2016)

I love Mailchimp and I love that I can whip out newsletters and not have to think about much of anything.  My automations are set up.  I'm hooked up to InstaFreebie.  Newsletter life is good.  ~~~  I'm at $50 a month with Mailchimp.  What I'm doing is paying for the convenience and ease of use.  If I decide that the convenience and ease of use is no longer worth it, I'll switch to Mailerlite.


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## AliceS (Dec 28, 2014)

Looking into Mailerlite is on my to-do list for this weekend. What a great post! You've done most of my research for me!


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## RinG (Mar 12, 2013)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> Yes, me as well. My way works though.


They're not in with the campaigns. There's a drop down list, and under that you can choose automation. Makes it way easier!


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## Anarchist (Apr 22, 2015)

Apparently, tagging will be added as a feature in Q1 2017.

That's huge.


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## Talbot (Jul 14, 2015)

Prawn Perspective: This is befuddlin' my dumb cracker mind. I'm glad I have the uber-simple Tiny Letter to move to when I leave Mad Mimi. (She's about to start charging me.) I think automation is either far in my future or not gonna happen at all. Now, if you'll all excuse me, these rocks aren't going to bang themselves together.


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## alex dire (Mar 19, 2016)

Wait. Just wait.

I use Aweber and have a very short list as I will be formally launching my list growing strategy very soon. They charge $20/month for up to 500 subs. Then $29 for up to 2500. Mailerlite is free up to 1000 and $10/month for up to $2500. That is staggeringly cheaper!  There must be some down side!  What is it?

-Alex


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## Steve Voelker (Feb 27, 2014)

I have been planning to switch to Mailerlite for MONTHS. 

My issue is that I actually have direct links to MailChimp in all of my books.  

So I keep sitting down and looking at how much work it would be to change the back matter on dozens of books, for every vendor, and just giving up before I even begin!

And then there's the fact that even after I change them all, anyone who has an older version will still have the MC links, so I will need to find a way to keep using MC, but redirect them to ML. 

Not to mention setting up a whole new automation series in ML, to replace my current one in MC.  

Even writing this much about it makes me feel exhausted!


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Steve Voelker said:


> I have been planning to switch to Mailerlite for MONTHS.
> 
> My issue is that I actually have direct links to MailChimp in all of my books.
> 
> ...


Depends. I use a redirect like smarturl, but you can do it with html meta redirects. Of course, if you have used the Mailchimp short code (where your form is hosted by MC) you're screwed. It might be best to simply bite the bullet and make redirects in smarturl now to send people to your current MC forms, THEN put those in the books over time to ease the burden. Set up your Mailerlite and automation with no subscribers (so no pressure to hurry)

Then when you're ready, you go to smarturl change the MC form to the location of your ML form, and let some people go through the process. If that works, ONLY THEN move everyone over from MC


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Rinelle Grey said:


> They're not in with the campaigns. There's a drop down list, and under that you can choose automation. Makes it way easier!


Yes, but only new mails not my original old automation. I DID look after it was mentioned here.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

> And then there's the fact that even after I change them all, anyone who has an older version will still have the MC links, so I will need to find a way to keep using MC, but redirect them to ML.


Drop to the free version of MC and keep your account. Then use Zapier to automatically get them across. They start the ML automation once they arrive on that list. Works a treat. I've been doing this for about a month now.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Or you could switch to Send In Blue instead and not worry about unsubscribing anyone, because you get an unlimited number of subscribers and automation and stats for less than $8 a month. They charge by how many emails you send out, and the $8 plan includes up to 40,000 per month.


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## Steve Voelker (Feb 27, 2014)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> Depends. I use a redirect like smarturl, but you can do it with html meta redirects. Of course, if you have used the Mailchimp short code (where your form is hosted by MC) you're screwed. It might be best to simply bite the bullet and make redirects in smarturl now to send people to your current MC forms, THEN put those in the books over time to ease the burden. Set up your Mailerlite and automation with no subscribers (so no pressure to hurry)
> 
> Then when you're ready, you go to smarturl change the MC form to the location of your ML form, and let some people go through the process. If that works, ONLY THEN move everyone over from MC


That's not a bad plan. And I can just plan to fix the links in one or two books a day.

Thanks!



> Drop to the free version of MC and keep your account. Then use Zapier to automatically get them across. They start the ML automation once they arrive on that list. Works a treat. I've been doing this for about a month now.


That's what I was thinking. But I'm worried about what Mark mentioned - having folks who sign up (just to get the free books) and then unsub right away. I don't want to have them get auto added to ML.



> Or you could switch to Send In Blue instead and not worry about unsubscribing anyone, because you get an unlimited number of subscribers and automation and stats for less than $8 a month. They charge by how many emails you send out, and the $8 plan includes up to 40,000 per month.


But that wouldn't really solve the problem. If you have extra, uninterested people on your list, you still get charged for sending emails to them. No matter who you use, that is still going to be an issue. 
On a separate note, I send out a LOT of emails per month, so i would rather be on a plan that charges by subscriber, but allows unlimited emails. But that's just me!


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## Silvestras (Jan 14, 2017)

Hi Mark!

Silvestras from MailerLite here 

We noticed your post and I just wanna say it was so exciting and fun to read it for our whole team! 

Just wanna clarify some questions you might have.

When moving from the old automation to a new workflow, you actually don't need to copy the URL and use HTML editor to paste it. When creating a new email in workflow, you will see a tab called "Recent emails" upon clicking "Design email". You'll find all your created newsletters there - http://prntscr.com/dveun9

Next week we will launch an automatic switch script which will transfer the old automation sequence into the new workflow, including active recipient queues.

It will save from the headache of doing it manually 

Best regards,
Silvestras
Customer Support Manager


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## Melanie Tomlin (Nov 9, 2015)

Silvestras said:


> Next week we will launch an automatic switch script which will transfer the old automation sequence into the new workflow, including active recipient queues.
> 
> It will save from the headache of doing it manually
> 
> ...


Woohoo! I can't wait for this little feature!


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## Silly Writer (Jul 15, 2013)

Silvestras said:


> Hi Mark!
> 
> Silvestras from MailerLite here
> 
> ...


Hi. Welcome to Kboards! I have two questions:

Does MailerLite work around the whole Gmail/Spam box issue, or is changing our email addy still required (I haven't done this yet)...

and,

I have a MailChimp account with a few lists for different genres. My main list is small (but completely organic) at just over 1000. I don't use an automation sequence yet, or have a workflow. Basically I have a link in the back of 3 books and they click and join. And that's it. I rarely send a newsletter. But all that will be changing soon, so I'm glad I happened to see this thread (thanks, Mark!). How hard is the process of getting those 1000 email addy's over to MailerLite?

also,

I'd suggest you start your own thread here like Vellum did. People (this is true for me) are more apt to sign on to your service if we know you're here to ask questions. It makes it much easier for us, and I think Brad and Brad can probably assure you that a very responsive thread here will behoove your business, as many writers buy it based on that thread and their quick response/customer service here (I did.)


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Silvestras said:


> Hi Mark!
> 
> Silvestras from MailerLite here
> 
> ...


Hi Silvestras thanks for joining in. I did find the template section with the drop down. The recent emails in mine are my campaigns, and if I use the dropdown to "automation" I see all my workflow emails. My old AR mails (about 20) aren't there.

I'm glad to hear my headache (only a small one) wouldn't have been necessary next week <not really, the kids won't know they're born> Any chance of grabbing the people in the old automation queue (perhaps make them into a temporary segment) and then drop them into the new workflow at the right point? OR, maybe make them skip emails they might already have seen (if we are using the same mails, which I am, copied from the old system).


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

If you want to add an email to the automation, you need to stop it. Any subscribers that come in while it's halted won't be added to the queue. I really hope the fix will have a handy way of solving that issue.


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## Adair Hart (Jun 12, 2015)

Silvestras said:


> Hi Mark!
> 
> Silvestras from MailerLite here
> 
> ...


Welcome Silvestras! As SillyWriter mentioned, having your own thread here would be awesome and another outlet for your social media outreach efforts.


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## Silvestras (Jan 14, 2017)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> Hi Silvestras thanks for joining in. I did find the template section with the drop down. The recent emails in mine are my campaigns, and if I use the dropdown to "automation" I see all my workflow emails. My old AR mails (about 20) aren't there.
> 
> I'm glad to hear my headache (only a small one) wouldn't have been necessary next week <not really, the kids won't know they're born> Any chance of grabbing the people in the old automation queue (perhaps make them into a temporary segment) and then drop them into the new workflow at the right point? OR, maybe make them skip emails they might already have seen (if we are using the same mails, which I am, copied from the old system).


Hi Mark!

The new switch script will automatically move the old automations to the new workflow along with the queued subscribers, so there will be no duplicates or unsent emails.

If you have recreated the sequence manually in the new workflow, the best option would be to wait until the subscribers is the old automation finish the sequence and then turn on the workflow while disabling the old automation at the same time. You might think of an alternative as well, the new workflow opens many different possibilities.

If you'll experience any issues, please drop us a message in MailerLite live chat support. I can only answer general questions here as I don't have access to account details from the forum.

Best regards,
Silvestras
Customer Support Manager


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

I just activated my old Zapier account for direct connection between Facebook Adverts and Mailerlite. I like the way I can add all my tags within the ZAP


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

So my use of the new workflows has shown a new stat regarding those nasty non-openers! 15% have begun responding.










EDIT: Photobucket just went to paid. Changed link to my own S3 bucket


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## RinG (Mar 12, 2013)

So what does that stat mean Mark? Is that after you send them another email?

Do we have the ability to switch automations over yet? I'm waiting on that to set up the rest of my automations.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Rinelle Grey said:


> So what does that stat mean Mark? Is that after you send them another email?
> 
> Do we have the ability to switch automations over yet? I'm waiting on that to set up the rest of my automations.


In my welcome workflow I have a logic gate. "IF welcome mail opened THEN send automation mail" sort of thing. The mail they are supposed to open is my welcome email with the ebook links in it. If the subscriber doesn't open, that person is moved to a group I created from the "never opened" subscribers that Mailerlite gives us. Everyone in there has NEVER opened an email. They get a set of 5 welcome mails 5 days apart (see up thread) If they open a mail, they get sent back to the main list. If they don't, 5 days later they get another email and another chance. If they miss all 5 chances they are auto unsubbed.

It's auto list hygiene basically. The point of my stat was that 15% of never opened people WILL (so far) open if sent mails aimed at explaining they'll be auto unsubbed if there is no response.

MC stats often have like 50% not opened. My system is supposed to check that.


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## BWFoster78 (Jun 18, 2015)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> BTW: If you have old automation emails, you can't add new ones but you CAN copy them into your new workflow. How did I do that? I opened the old automation in a new window on my second monitor, then I clicked an old mail to preview it. At the top of the preview it says copy url. I do that. THen in the new workflow, I add an email, type in a subject line, click design email, THEN I CHOOSE HTML>import from URL. In the box, click paste. THEN SAVE. The old mail is now a new one in the work flow.


I'm being sucked down the rabbit hole of automation design. This information helped a bunch. Thanks!

Brian


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## Brian Olsen (Jan 13, 2013)

This all sounds really intriguing - my MailChimp list is tiny, but I'm writing a short story for giveaway now that I hope will beef it up. Two questions for the MailerLite gurus:

1) When you move people from MailChimp to MailerLite, do they go through the opt-in process again?

2) I've seen people talk about having subscribers go from Instafreebie to MailChimp to MailerLite. Can you not go directly from Instafreebie to MailerLite? Is there a reason MailChimp has to be a buffer between them? (I haven't used Instafreebie yet.)


----------



## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Brian Olsen said:


> This all sounds really intriguing - my MailChimp list is tiny, but I'm writing a short story for giveaway now that I hope will beef it up. Two questions for the MailerLite gurus:
> 
> 1) When you move people from MailChimp to MailerLite, do they go through the opt-in process again?
> 
> 2) I've seen people talk about having subscribers go from Instafreebie to MailChimp to MailerLite. Can you not go directly from Instafreebie to MailerLite? Is there a reason MailChimp has to be a buffer between them? (I haven't used Instafreebie yet.)


1, No they don't opt in again, but that's why when you send your first mail out Mailerlite do an extra safety check. If the list is huge, they tell you to send the campaign to a smaller 5000 group. If you don't get thousands of people with pitchforks coming after you, they then take off the restriction.

2, They are working on Instafreebie integration. Use Zapier, or just get in the habit of downloading new Insta people from MC every third day and upload manually.

3, I use zapier with my facebook lead gen adverts, but I handle Mailchimp manually. I prefer to let instafreebie people unub from MC if they want before uploading to ML and maybe annoying them.


----------



## S.L. (Jun 6, 2016)

Not to hijack the thread, but could you tell me who you use for your redirect links?  I've been thinking of making the switch as my catalog grows.


----------



## Brian Olsen (Jan 13, 2013)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> 1, No they don't opt in again, but that's why when you send your first mail out Mailerlite do an extra safety check. If the list is huge, they tell you to send the campaign to a smaller 5000 group. If you don't get thousands of people with pitchforks coming after you, they then take off the restriction.
> 
> 2, They are working on Instafreebie integration. Use Zapier, or just get in the habit of downloading new Insta people from MC every third day and upload manually.
> 
> 3, I use zapier with my facebook lead gen adverts, but I handle Mailchimp manually. I prefer to let instafreebie people unub from MC if they want before uploading to ML and maybe annoying them.


Thanks! Those automations are so tempting - I have a lot of trouble just getting MailChimp's basic responses the way I want them. I'll check MailerLite out.


----------



## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

Thanks for the info, Mark. Experimenting with Mailerlite is on my to do list for later in the year.


----------



## 31842 (Jan 11, 2011)

May I ask a total N00b question in the hopes there is a ridiculously easy answer I've missed?  

When I receive people's newsletters from MailChimp, the graphics and pictures show up and everything is lovely.  When I open up a newsletter from MailerLite, the images aren't there and I have to click on the little button that says, "Can't see images?"  Anyone else had this issue?  Anyone figured out a work around?  Am I a dunderhead that missed ticking a box and now I look like the village idiot for asking?


----------



## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Lee Sutherland said:


> Not to hijack the thread, but could you tell me who you use for your redirect links? I've been thinking of making the switch as my catalog grows.


I've used https://manage.smarturl.it/ for years.


----------



## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

KateDanley said:


> May I ask a total N00b question in the hopes there is a ridiculously easy answer I've missed?
> 
> When I receive people's newsletters from MailChimp, the graphics and pictures show up and everything is lovely. When I open up a newsletter from MailerLite, the images aren't there and I have to click on the little button that says, "Can't see images?" Anyone else had this issue? Anyone figured out a work around? Am I a dunderhead that missed ticking a box and now I look like the village idiot for asking?


I don't know why, but it MIGHT be because Mailchimp stores images on its server while Mailerlte doesn't. My wordpress website is connected to my S3 account. I upload images to my wordpress media section, copy the s3 url and use that in my newsletters. I think that is why mine work as the MC ones do (because MC also use Amazon S3 servers)


----------



## My Dog&#039;s Servant (Jun 2, 2013)

These kinds of threads are so discouraging  ....they just keep pointing out how far behind I am, and how fast I'm falling behinder! I appreciated Kate's question about images, then read Mark's and had to go look up what S3 is....and then I had to spend a couple minutes  slowly working my head around what it does.

Sigh.

Mark, I love you and really appreciate all you share (I always learn a ton), but.....could you at least pretend like you break a bit of a mental sweat on this every now and then?  

Anyway...seriously....Thank You! This has been really helpful!


----------



## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

My Dog's Servant said:


> These kinds of threads are so discouraging ....they just keep pointing out how far behind I am, and how fast I'm falling behinder! I appreciated Kate's question about images, then read Mark's and had to go look up what S3 is....and then I had to spend a couple minutes slowly working my head around what it does.
> 
> Sigh.
> 
> ...


You don't need S3, but it's handy. Basically I use it for a location for my website backups. The other location is my dropbox. Both are cloud services. As for the newsletter images, as long as you have a location for them with good bandwidth you're okay.


----------



## lincolnjcole (Mar 15, 2016)

I'm using mailerlite but still primitive. I have a single email automation on signup lol.


----------



## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Thanks for posting this Mark. I've been re-evaluating my _extremely_ basic MC setup and was looking into how to set up some automation. You've convinced me now that MailerLite is the way to go. Now it's jut a question of finding the time to do it


----------



## Marie Long (Jan 11, 2014)

This is such an awesome thread. I've been tinkering with Mailerlite and will soon switch over my mailing list to this system. I have a few questions about autoresponders:

1. How many autoresponders do you use for first-time sign-ups before they start receiving your regular newsletter emails?

2. What sort of content do you put in all those autoresponders?

3. How far apart do you space the autoresponders so it doesn’t seem spammy?

4. If you send out a 'regular newsletter' when someone just subscribed and they are part of your autoresponders, will they get both autoresponder email AND regular newsletter email?


----------



## Sapphire (Apr 24, 2012)

True confession time: I've never set-up a mail list.   I know, I know, I'm long overdue. Here's my question. Since I'll be starting from scratch, should I use Mailerlite or MailChimp. (Keep in mind I'm technologically challenged...big time technologically challenged!)


----------



## 31842 (Jan 11, 2011)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> You don't need S3, but it's handy. Basically I use it for a location for my website backups. The other location is my dropbox. Both are cloud services. As for the newsletter images, as long as you have a location for them with good bandwidth you're okay.


Brilliant! That makes total sense and is such an easy fix! Thank you!


----------



## 69959 (May 14, 2013)

I don't know how I missed this post until now! I've been using workflows ALL wrong. Bookmarking this thread. Thanks, Mark!


----------



## RinG (Mar 12, 2013)

I upload my pics to mailerlite. Guess you can go either way.

I suspect that the images don't show up because your mail program is blocking them. At some stage, you probably allowed pics from mailchimp to display, but haven't done the same for mailerlite emails. (Or it may even be specific to the actually newsletters.)


----------



## VayneLine (Mar 3, 2017)

Ok major newbie here to all this, I got my mailerlite set up, and TRYING to figure out instafreebie this is where I am confused.  I have my ML landing page/signup link and all that...but where do I put it on IF?  Do I start a 'giveaway' even if I am only going to be part of others?


----------



## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

VayneLine said:


> Ok major newbie here to all this, I got my mailerlite set up, and TRYING to figure out instafreebie this is where I am confused. I have my ML landing page/signup link and all that...but where do I put it on IF? Do I start a 'giveaway' even if I am only going to be part of others?


You don't. IF and Instafreebie are not linked. That's Mailchimp. You can either use a free mailchimp account to collect instafreebie subs and send them to Mailerlite with a free zapier account, or you can download the subs for IF as a spreadsheet, and import them to mailerlite each morning.

ML is working on Instafreebie integration.


----------



## Jean Paul Zogby (Feb 28, 2017)

Hi,
Not sure if this was discussed before. I just started using Mailer Automation, and have one question.

After sending a welcome e-mail, I created a condition for those who opened it.  For the Yes (thumb Up) step, I send them an email with a free mini ebook. For the No (thumb down) condition, I send them a reminder email. But in both emails, there is no option to segregate the respondents and send those 2 emails to the people who opened the welcome and those who did not.

Does the workflow condition, automatically segment the original list and send the relevant email based on the condition?

It looks to me like they all receive both emails regardless of the condition. I am concerned that those who opened the welcome email, would again receive it one more time and as a result might unsubscribe.

The only place I could find to segment the group is in the initial trigger at the beginning of the automation workflow. I could not find any options to segment during the workflow, other than create an action to move the subscribers to a new list. The option there would be to create a completely new automation for that new list. but it would be nice to be able to do all that within the same workflow.
Any ideas?


----------



## BWFoster78 (Jun 18, 2015)

Jean Paul Zogby said:


> Hi,
> Not sure if this was discussed before. I just started using Mailer Automation, and have one question.
> 
> After sending a welcome e-mail, I created a condition for those who opened it. For the Yes (thumb Up) step, I send them an email with a free mini ebook. For the No (thumb down) condition, I send them a reminder email. But in both emails, there is no option to segregate the respondents and send those 2 emails to the people who opened the welcome and those who did not.
> ...


I'm having a really hard time deciphering the question, so I'm going to answer what I think you're asking.

Welcome Email
|
Condition - Was Welcome Email Opened
| |
Yes No
| |
Email A Email B

This condition splits your workflow into two sections. The subscribers who opened will follow whatever path you have set under "Yes." The subscribers who didn't open will follow the "No" path.

"No" subscribers will never see Email A. "Yes" subscribers will never see Email B. All subscribers will see the Welcome Email.

Did that help?

EDIT:

Generally, what you'd do next is something like this:

Email B
|
Condition: opened Email B
| |
Yes No
| |
Email A Unsubscribe


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## Jean Paul Zogby (Feb 28, 2017)

BWFoster78 said:


> Welcome Email
> |
> Condition - Was Welcome Email Opened
> | |
> ...


Thanks a lot BFoster. Spot on! I was just concerned that the "Yes" subscribers would keep seeing the reminder email (Email B in your example). But you answered my question by confirming that they are segregated/ segmented automatically by the condition.
So what I have done now is as follows:

Welcome Email
|
Condition - Was Welcome Email Opened?
| |
Yes No
| |
Lead Magnet Email A Email B (reminder) + follow what you described.
| 
Was the Link clicked?
| |
Yes No
| |
move to Warm group Email C (Ld Mag reminder)

Thanks a lot for your help. It makes sense now.


----------



## Marie Long (Jan 11, 2014)

Be careful, though. Didn't someone mentioned that not all opens are counted as opens? So someone could very well have opened your email or read it in the email previewer, and it wouldn't count as an open (or something like that).

I was trying to do something similar. In my 'I see you haven't opened any of my emails lately. Do you still want to be on the list?' email, I have it so that the person will need to click a link. If the link isn't clicked, then they are automatically unsubscribed. I'm not sure how else to handle this. I was hoping to have something like, if the person replies to the email with a 'yes I want to be on the list' then don't unsubscribe them, but I guess that's too complicated...


----------



## Jean Paul Zogby (Feb 28, 2017)

Marie Long said:


> Be careful, though. Didn't someone mentioned that not all opens are counted as opens? So someone could very well have opened your email or read it in the email previewer, and it wouldn't count as an open (or something like that).


Not sure if that is true. If an email is opened, it would count as such. Why wouldn't it? the whole automation workflow is based on the re-targeting concept.


----------



## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

I've given up worrying about people who preview. If the system says they haven't opened after 5 reminders, they're out. Harsh but I'm adding 70 odd people a day. YOu can imagine the bill and the bloat if I keep them.


----------



## Marie Long (Jan 11, 2014)

Is there a way to set up the custom Segment to move people who did not open 3 or more consecutive newsletters to a different group?
I see the 'never opened' condition, but what if they just subscribed to your newsletter and you send one out but they don't open it until a week later? I'm just trying to figure out how Mailerlite determines who goes in the 'Never opened' segment. I want to be able to give subscribers up to 3 newsletters to open before I move them to an automation sequence.


----------



## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Marie Long said:


> Is there a way to set up the custom Segment to move people who did not open 3 or more consecutive newsletters to a different group?
> I see the 'never opened' condition, but what if they just subscribed to your newsletter and you send one out but they don't open it until a week later? I'm just trying to figure out how Mailerlite determines who goes in the 'Never opened' segment. I want to be able to give subscribers up to 3 newsletters to open before I move them to an automation sequence.


You can move, or copy, or unsub. You can change the data in columns you've set up like genre, source, etc. You can set conditions as open, or clicked, or clicked a certain link. You can set delays between reminders using hours, days weeks etc. Pretty much anything is possible with a little thought.


----------



## Alan Petersen (May 20, 2011)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> You don't need S3, but it's handy. Basically I use it for a location for my website backups. The other location is my dropbox. Both are cloud services. As for the newsletter images, as long as you have a location for them with good bandwidth you're okay.


 Completely unrelated but another big plus of using S3 or something like that for the images to your websites is that if you get hacked and you restore your site you won't have a ton of broken images.

My WordPress site was hacked last year. At first, I was uploading an image to my host's shared server then I switched to S3 (an awesome plug-in does it automatically). When my site was hacked the entire database was deleted including all the images on that server. When I restored my site from my back-up everything went back to normal, except for the images I had uploaded to the shared server since those images were all deleted. But the images uploaded to S3 were all there, looking pretty. So yeah S3 rocks!

Sorry, for the derail, just wanted to share that tidbit.


----------



## Marie Long (Jan 11, 2014)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> You can move, or copy, or unsub. You can change the data in columns you've set up like genre, source, etc. You can set conditions as open, or clicked, or clicked a certain link. You can set delays between reminders using hours, days weeks etc. Pretty much anything is possible with a little thought.


I don't mean doing this via the autoresponder conditions. I am talking about your main subscriber list. I want to prune the main subscriber list and put anyone who hasn't opened the last 3 campaigns I sent into a new segment/group. However, the conditions that I'm given don't seem to be able to do this. I was wondering if you were able to find a workaround to this. I attached screenshots.


----------



## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Marie Long said:


> I don't mean doing this via the autoresponder conditions. I am talking about your main subscriber list. I want to prune the main subscriber list and put anyone who hasn't opened the last 3 campaigns I sent into a new segment/group. However, the conditions that I'm given don't seem to be able to do this. I was wondering if you were able to find a workaround to this. I attached screenshots.


I have no idea basically, but because I send a welcome sequence with 5 chances, then move people into the correct lists where everyone gets 2 automated emails per month plus a campaign mail, i Can have tests within the automated sequence. I don't bother as I do the sorting at the start, but I could.

You can create a segment for never opened or never clicked, but that's all outside of AR tests


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## Jean Paul Zogby (Feb 28, 2017)

Mailerlite automation is great, but I am having some glitches recently. 
I have 1 automation that I recently created for an old subscriber list. Once I turned it on and added the subscribers to the queue, the first email was not sent. 
I contacted online support and they tried to replicate the issue. After a few tries, they informed me that it must be a glitch in the system, and that they will contact the developers to fix it.

Anyone experiencing similar glitches?
and if yes, what did you do about it?
thanks


----------



## Mari Oliver (Feb 12, 2016)

I just want to say that I'm grateful for this thread. Mailerlite is also my new obsession. SO much better than Mailchimp, which is confusing and frustrating. Mailerlite creates beautiful emails and I love love love its simplicity. Ah!


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## dorihoxa (Feb 12, 2016)

When do you guys think the Instafreebie integration feature will go live? Their product updates pages says MAY since forever.


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## Marie Long (Jan 11, 2014)

dorihoxa said:


> When do you guys think the Instafreebie integration feature will go live? Their product updates pages says MAY since forever.


I'm not sure. I've been using Mailchimp to just capture the addresses from Instafreebie, then importing them to Mailerlite.


----------



## Mari Oliver (Feb 12, 2016)

Marie Long said:


> I'm not sure. I've been using Mailchimp to just capture the addresses from Instafreebie, then importing them to Mailerlite.


I turned off the Mailchimp integration since I.F. captures the emails anyway, then I put them in Mailerlite. Also crossing my fingers for the day to come, since Mailerlite is so wonderful and seems to be gaining popularity.


----------



## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Are you able to edit the size of images (book cover) directly in the Mailerlite email?  I no longer seem able to do so. I have to edit the size on my PC and then upload to Mailerlite.

Did something change?  I am still able to do that directly in the Mailchimp email.

Philip


----------



## Guest (May 23, 2017)

Philip Gibson said:


> Are you able to edit the size of images (book cover) directly in the Mailerlite email? I no longer seem able to do so. I have to edit the size on my PC and then upload to Mailerlite.
> 
> Did something change? I am still able to do that directly in the Mailchimp email.
> 
> Philip


I can, but I have to insert it first, then click Edit to get to the resize functions. Pretty sure before I could do it while selecting it.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Mailerlite and Instafreebie are now FULLY integrated as of today. If you link them up you get 30% off your Mailerlite subscription.


----------



## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

This is great stuff in the thread, Mark! I just set up my initial automation and there's one thing I'm trying to figure out. When I send a normal campaign, I want the recipients to be done with the automation sequence. But I haven't quite figured out how to do that. I don't see a way to define a segment for a specific automation sequence being complete, or even for x days after being added to the group. I guess every time I send a campaign, I could update a segment in each of my three groups where the date added to the group is older than a certain calendar date which would ensure they were out of automation. But that really doesn't make sense to me as being the best way to go.

I could set up a new group and move the subscribers there when they get done with automation. Is that what folks are doing, or is there some other way to accomplish this?


----------



## RinG (Mar 12, 2013)

Yep, I move subscribers to a new group once they're done with the automation sequence.


----------



## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

edwardgtalbot said:


> This is great stuff in the thread, Mark! I just set up my initial automation and there's one thing I'm trying to figure out. When I send a normal campaign, I want the recipients to be done with the automation sequence. But I haven't quite figured out how to do that. I don't see a way to define a segment for a specific automation sequence being complete, or even for x days after being added to the group. I guess every time I send a campaign, I could update a segment in each of my three groups where the date added to the group is older than a certain calendar date which would ensure they were out of automation. But that really doesn't make sense to me as being the best way to go.
> 
> I could set up a new group and move the subscribers there when they get done with automation. Is that what folks are doing, or is there some other way to accomplish this?


The last step of the automation should be "move to group X"

Then you only send campaigns to group X


----------



## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> The last step of the automation should be "move to group X"
> 
> Then you only send campaigns to group X


Great, that's what I figured it had to be  Thanks for confirming.


----------



## Crystal_ (Aug 13, 2014)

I'm used to MailChimp and I have half a dozen automations set up, but I'd love to switch to ML and save. Are they still having issues with their automations? Last I heard, pausing and editing an automating causes all sorts of problems.


----------



## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Crystal_ said:


> I'm used to MailChimp and I have half a dozen automations set up, but I'd love to switch to ML and save. Are they still having issues with their automations? Last I heard, pausing and editing an automating causes all sorts of problems.


I've had no problems, but when I pause and edit, I make sure to click "add subscribers to automation" if it's offered after turning it back on. It's only offered if people have subscribed while the automation was off.


----------



## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

I'm loving mailerlite. It's like someone analyzed mailchimp and figured what needed improving and then put it in place. Ran into one interesting thing I thought I'd share. I'm testing various different things and I found that even though I have double opt-in select, it was getting into my automation before I clicked the opt-in button in the email. I was still getting the confirmation email to opt in, but I was added to the list even if I didn't click that.

I was worried the double opt-in setting wasn't working. Turns out, this is because I was using my own email addresses which were already members of another of my groups which I had tested previously. So don't be concerned if double opt-in isn't required when you're doing testing.


----------



## Crystal_ (Aug 13, 2014)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> You don't need S3, but it's handy. Basically I use it for a location for my website backups. The other location is my dropbox. Both are cloud services. As for the newsletter images, as long as you have a location for them with good bandwidth you're okay.


I totally understand how I could do this on the Dropbox side.

How do I do it on the MailerLite side? I've tried uploading images from Amazon and Wordpress (not yet from Dropbox), and they still aren't showing in the email. Images not loading automatically is a dealbreaker for me.


----------



## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Crystal_ said:


> I totally understand how I could do this on the Dropbox side.
> 
> How do I do it on the MailerLite side? I've tried uploading images from Amazon and Wordpress (not yet from Dropbox), and they still aren't showing in the email. Images not loading automatically is a dealbreaker for me.


With Mailerlite you can add images the same way you upload them at MC and they'll be served automatically from there. I prefer to upload my images to my wordpress website. It uses an S3 plugin to copy any images I use to my Amazon S3 account. I mainly do it that way to make my wordpress backup restores seamless. So my media files all have an S3 url. I use THAT url in my newsletters. I don't have to. I could upload to Mailerlite, but I prefer my way just in case I ever switch provider again in future.


----------



## RinG (Mar 12, 2013)

Crystal_ said:


> I'm used to MailChimp and I have half a dozen automations set up, but I'd love to switch to ML and save. Are they still having issues with their automations? Last I heard, pausing and editing an automating causes all sorts of problems.


You can edit an individual email in the sequence without pausing or affecting existing subscribers, but if you want to add or delete an entire email, or change the order, you need to pause it. Not sure how else they could do it, because it could be hard to tell where people are up to if you're changing the sequence.


----------



## Janeal Falor (Oct 25, 2014)

Hey everyone! I've been trying to move from MC to ML, would really love to save some money, but I'm having a hard time finding a functionality. I was wondering if one of you knew the answer.

In mailchimp, my sign up form currently has a radio button that let's subscribers choose if they want to be on my VIP list that's emailed at least twice a month or if they want just new releases and sales. Here's my sign up form so you can see what I'm talking about: http://janealfalor.us5.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=ae688ad165354ac87679530f8&id=515aecfd05

In mailerlite, all I can find when I add custom fields for subscribers to pick from, they only have the choice of text, number, and date.

Am I missing something? Is there a way to have subscribers pick themselves when they sign up what group they want to be a part of?

TIA!


----------



## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Janeal Falor said:


> Hey everyone! I've been trying to move from MC to ML, would really love to save some money, but I'm having a hard time finding a functionality. I was wondering if one of you knew the answer.
> 
> In mailchimp, my sign up form currently has a radio button that let's subscribers choose if they want to be on my VIP list that's emailed at least twice a month or if they want just new releases and sales. Here's my sign up form so you can see what I'm talking about: http://janealfalor.us5.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=ae688ad165354ac87679530f8&id=515aecfd05
> 
> ...


You can add hidden fields (or public ones) with your own custom form code. I do this sort of thing with hidden fields to tag subscribers:

```
<input type="hidden" name="fields[giveaway]" class="form-control" placeholder="GIVEAWAY" value="">
<input type="hidden" name="fields[booktitle]" class="form-control" placeholder="BOOKTITLE" value="">
<input type="hidden" name="fields[genre]" class="form-control" placeholder="GENRE" value="">
<input type="hidden" name="fields[source]" class="form-control" placeholder="SOURCE" value="Website">
```
If you want to add a radio button (black dot) use:


```
<input type="radio" name="gender" value="male" checked> Male

<input type="radio" name="gender" value="female"> Female
```


----------



## RinG (Mar 12, 2013)

I just use two buttons, one for new releases, one for all emails, and link them to a thank you page. Then I send them to one list or another depending on which button/link they click.


----------



## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

Janeal. The short answer is that mailerlite does not offer a custom field which is a dropdown or radio button. However, you can do what Mark mentioned. That is, create a text custom field and then when you embed the form in your site, replace the single text field with two radio buttons. Mark has posted what the code looks like, you just have to make sure the "name" property matches the one generated by mailerlite -something like "fields[VIP]" or whatever you called your custom field. And the value property matches what the value you want to go in the custom field when they subscribe.

Obviously this approach requires that you embed the mailerlite form as opposed to link to it directly on mailerlite's page (at least I think it requires that). It also requires that you feel comfortable enough messing with the code to make it work. Although I am a web programmer, I'm not quite clear on what Rinelle's solution entails. Having two buttons in and of itself will not result in mailerlite knowing what they selected. I can think of two or three ways I could make it work as she describes, but all of those would be more complicated than Mark's solution. Maybe Rinelle can give us more technical details on what she does.

If you don't feel comfortable mucking about with the code just a little then unfortunately there is no way to duplicate the mailchimp functionality. Probably closest thing would be use the textbox and have the caption read "Type YES to be on my VIP list" or something like that.


----------



## Janeal Falor (Oct 25, 2014)

Well bummer there's not one automatically. I hope they change that in the future. I guess in the meantime I'll have to think about how much I want to muck around with stuff.

Thank you all!


----------



## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

This new feature is AWESOME! The link trigger is just what it sounds like. Like a logic gate (if this, do that) we can now implement actions based upon a certain link within an automation email.

So, for example we could offer alternatives in the email like this:

Please click your preferred store... Amazon, Nook, Kobo, iBooks, Google Play, Audible.

Then depending upon which store is clicked, we could move the subscriber to a list designed for them. Or we could ask which genre they prefer, or which book series.

Here's the announcement: Link Trigger


----------



## Athena Grayson (Apr 4, 2011)

Sticking my head in here for two questions:
1.) How are you using the new logic gate/link trigger in your automations?

and 
2.) I get "repeat offenders" on more than one occasion--folks who sign up for the freebie via BookFunnel (and probably will when I open up Instafreebie again) who are already in my subscriber lists. The way I set things up is that everyone coming from BF gets put in the "new recruits/giveaway" onboarding list, which has two different conditionals to sort the n00bz into the right list. MailerLite sets it up so that different lists don't get duplicate emails, but that's only if you send a campaign to multiple lists at the same time. So if someone on my regular list signs up for the Bookfunnel freebie, I get their email address exported into ML, where they're put on the New Recruits list and get the onboarding sequence again. How do I keep this from happening, or should I not worry about it because if you're downloading my book more than once, you're probably due a refresher in who I am and all?


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Athena Grayson said:


> Sticking my head in here for two questions:
> 1.) How are you using the new logic gate/link trigger in your automations?
> 
> and
> 2.) I get "repeat offenders" on more than one occasion--folks who sign up for the freebie via BookFunnel (and probably will when I open up Instafreebie again) who are already in my subscriber lists. The way I set things up is that everyone coming from BF gets put in the "new recruits/giveaway" onboarding list, which has two different conditionals to sort the n00bz into the right list. MailerLite sets it up so that different lists don't get duplicate emails, but that's only if you send a campaign to multiple lists at the same time. So if someone on my regular list signs up for the Bookfunnel freebie, I get their email address exported into ML, where they're put on the New Recruits list and get the onboarding sequence again. How do I keep this from happening, or should I not worry about it because if you're downloading my book more than once, you're probably due a refresher in who I am and all?


"Repeat offenders" can't join. If someone is already a member or has unsubscribed, Mailerlite will reject them automatically.

This is actually a problem in some ways. I get multiple instances of unsubbed people trying to sign up again every day. All I can do is ignore the error warning from Zapier (Facebook Ads>Zapier>Mailerlite). Mailerlite hasn't implemented a way for people to sign up again after leaving.

They also haven't allowed for editing email addresses. This is a PITA because all I can do is unsub old addresses, and resub new ones manually for them (they have to start from scratch) as if they are a new person.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> "Repeat offenders" can't join. If someone is already a member or has unsubscribed, Mailerlite will reject them automatically.
> 
> This is actually a problem in some ways. I get multiple instances of unsubbed people trying to sign up again every day. All I can do is ignore the error warning from Zapier (Facebook Ads>Zapier>Mailerlite). Mailerlite hasn't implemented a way for people to sign up again after leaving.


This may only be a problem with the Zapier connection? I have had no problem having a second signup from the same email. There's even a setting in the automation I recall where you can indicate if you want people coming in again to do the automation again - which is not just for repeat joiners since automation can be used in a variety of ways but can obviously apply to them.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

edwardgtalbot said:


> This may only be a problem with the Zapier connection? I have had no problem having a second signup from the same email. There's even a setting in the automation I recall where you can indicate if you want people coming in again to do the automation again - which is not just for repeat joiners since automation can be used in a variety of ways but can obviously apply to them.


No. I've asked about this before. Once unsubbed from a mailerlite list, the same address cannot resubscribe unless the owner of the list does so manually.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> No. I've asked about this before. Once unsubbed from a mailerlite list, the same address cannot resubscribe unless the owner of the list does so manually.


"unsubbed" perhaps (I haven't tested that), but definitely someone who is already a member of a list does not create a failure if they try to join again. I have done this several times testing during setup. If they try to join a different group, say via a form on my web site, it adds them to that group and triggers any automation for that group. If they try to join the same group, it does not fail or show them a second time, and automation behavior depends on the setting you have chosen in automation.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

edwardgtalbot said:


> "unsubbed" perhaps (I haven't tested that), but definitely someone who is already a member of a list does not create a failure if they try to join again. I have done this several times testing during setup. If they try to join a different group, say via a form on my web site, it adds them to that group and triggers any automation for that group. If they try to join the same group, it does not fail or show them a second time, and automation behavior depends on the setting you have chosen in automation.


According to Mailerlite support, resubbing should work. I have a ticket in, because I have lost 100s of people (maybe 1000s over 6 months) when Zapier returns an error about people marked as unsubbed.


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## Athena Grayson (Apr 4, 2011)

I've gotten the same deal when I import people and ML spits back that they've already unsubbed. Maybe they have to manually sub and can't be imported via CSV, "zapped" or imported through integration? Try subbing and unsubbing with one of your addresses, then try resubbing manually through a form or landing page and see if that gets you past the Unsubscribe gate.



edwardgtalbot said:


> There's even a setting in the automation I recall where you can indicate if you want people coming in again to do the automation again - which is not just for repeat joiners since automation can be used in a variety of ways but can obviously apply to them.


This is the issue I'm talking about. I've indicated that I didn't want people to get the automation if they're re-subbing, but my autoresponders are set up so that new subs go to an onboarding list, then are moved at the end of the sequence depending on their behavior. So Suzy Reader may have subbed to The PRG two years ago, comes across my freebie, and subs again, because Suzy has a lot of authors crowding her inbox. Suzy's now a member of The PRG AND New Recruits. I don't mind so much if Suzy gets the New Recruits sequence because she joined up before I had a sequence in place and this could be her first time seeing it.

But Phil Makindle signed up two months ago and collected a freebie he forgot about, but got a welcome sequence. In the middle of the sequence, I do a pulse-check and Phil chose "only the new release announcements" and was moved to the Announce Only list. Now, he spots my freebie again and signs up again, so he's in the Announce Only AND the New Recruits lists. And all of a sudden, he's seeing those same emails he already had enough of.

Basically, I need a way I can guarantee that if you are in the Announce only list, I can exclude you from further sequences.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

I contacted Zapier support. It was my own fault. OMG. I missed a setting in each of my zaps to set resubscibe to YES. So a few 100 leads lost there. Luckily it's not 1000s as I can replay a lot of the errors to clear them.

Lesson learned


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## RinG (Mar 12, 2013)

edwardgtalbot said:


> Although I am a web programmer, I'm not quite clear on what Rinelle's solution entails. Having two buttons in and of itself will not result in mailerlite knowing what they selected. I can think of two or three ways I could make it work as she describes, but all of those would be more complicated than Mark's solution. Maybe Rinelle can give us more technical details on what she does.


No coding in my solution. Each button leads to a different link (just pages on my webpage where I basically thank them for telling me which option they prefer), then I set automation actions based on them clicking on a link.


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## kathrynoh (Oct 17, 2012)

Okay, I hope I can explain this properly.

When I'm setting up an automation in Mailerlite and put in a condition, say opens email #1, then I can do an action like send another email. If I then put in a condition that is opens email #2 and the result is 'yes', can I then send those subscribers back to the main automation flow?

At the moment, I'm copying the same automation flow - that is if the answer is yes to opening email #1 then I had the on-going automation, if it's yes to opening email #2 then I copy the automation for email #1. What I don't like about this is that I'm creating multiple instances of the same email, which means if I want to change those emails, it's going to be a huge PITA. Actually it's already been, since I had to update a link to one of my freebies.


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## BWFoster78 (Jun 18, 2015)

kathrynoh said:


> Okay, I hope I can explain this properly.
> 
> When I'm setting up an automation in Mailerlite and put in a condition, say opens email #1, then I can do an action like send another email. If I then put in a condition that is opens email #2 and the result is 'yes', can I then send those subscribers back to the main automation flow?
> 
> At the moment, I'm copying the same automation flow - that is if the answer is yes to opening email #1 then I had the on-going automation, if it's yes to opening email #2 then I copy the automation for email #1. What I don't like about this is that I'm creating multiple instances of the same email, which means if I want to change those emails, it's going to be a huge PITA. Actually it's already been, since I had to update a link to one of my freebies.


Hmm. If I understand the question correctly, I think you could:

- Create a group called Temp Auto X
- Create an Automation called Auto X that does the sequence you want.
- Create a group called Temp Auto Y
- If yes at the end of Auto X, move subscribers to Temp Auto Y
- When a member joins Temp Auto Y, have an Auto Y start running.

I hadn't thought to try something like that until reading your question, but it might work ...


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## kathrynoh (Oct 17, 2012)

Thanks


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## BWFoster78 (Jun 18, 2015)

kathrynoh said:


> Thanks


Let me know if that actually works in practice


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## kathrynoh (Oct 17, 2012)

It might be a while before I get around to trying it but it should work. Basically putting all incoming subscribers into a prescreening list and once they open something, send them to another list with its own automation


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Because, why the hell not, I browsed my Mailerlite dashboard today and clicked stuff. Now it might seem obvious, but that "stuff" is meant to be clicked, but I never bothered before. Here is what I did:

[list type=decimal]
[*]Went to Mailerlite dashboard
[*]Scrolled to the bottom and clicked the circled item
[*]Clicked the subscriber number of 1 form
[*]Geeked out on the number of people subscribing on my generic website form (not the backmatter)
[*]Sat back pleased I bought a new website, because hell yes! It worked.
[/list]


























To clarify, my backmatter subscriber links go to my website, but all 4 series have their own separate (and hidden from menus etc) pages. So colour me surprised when I noticed just how many "drive-by" subscribers I get from people just browsing my website. That percentage has gone way up since I had a pro rebuild my website.

Huh. Who knew I wasn't just doing a tax write off after all?


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## mhermannsen (Apr 14, 2016)

Wow, what an informative thread! After working my way through the suggestions (i.e. lurking), I've learned something today that was really helpful--btw, the ML support staff is amazing. They respond within minutes and always have great suggestions. Love it 

Anyway, to weed out non-openers, I've implemented the following: 

- I use the pre-existing segment "Never Opened". I then sort the selection by "Emails Sent", in descending order;
- I then manually copy all the subscribers that have received more than 5 emails from me (highlight 100 visible users at a time), and move them to a new group "Never Opened";
- The minute they hit that group, the following automation starts:

                    Send email 
"It's okay to not open all the emails"
                        |
                        |
                  wait 5 days
                        |
                        |
      opened              not opened
          |                          |
  move back to          unsubscribe
    master list                                
                              

This works really well and is fairly quick. My reader engagement is quite high, and as long as I do it regularly, I only have to weed out a few hundred at a time.

Maybe this will help someone


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## Linsey Lanier (Aug 31, 2012)

I have just switched from MC to ML, but have not yet shut down my MC lists. What about the historical data in the old MC lists (when people joined, open rates, all the newsletters you've sent)? Don't you want to keep that for reference?

Thanks for any insight.

UPDATE: I just figured out I can downgrade MC to forever free. That will solve my problem! I originally upgraded to free to get chat support for help with DNS authentication. I know. Dumb. 

Just hoping nothing happens to my Automations when I do downgrade. Has anyone had any experience with downgrading to Forever Free with MC after being a paid customer? (I know you can only do it ONCE).

Thanks for this very informative thread! I've read some of it. Will have to study it more later. I have a book deadline.


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## RBC (Feb 24, 2013)

Following this. Starting to use ML too.


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## RBC (Feb 24, 2013)

Lauriejoyeltahs said:


> Ok so I have spent way too long searching for answers to my dumb butt questions and got nowhere.
> 
> 1. Do you have to upgrade to wordpress business to access the mailerlite plugin? the only thing I can get is the pop up for mailchimp.
> 
> 2. Sometimes I get warning emails from authors who use mailerlite that say I have not opened their emails even though I have. Something about icloud not automatically showing the images. If i click show all images at the top of each newsletter it sends it back as being opened. If I don't it doesn't. Is there a work around for this or are the number of users using icloud.com email not enough to worry about?


1. If you use wordpress.com account then you might need to switch to wordpress.org. Wordpress.com does have limits when it comes to plug ins.
2. That happens with every email newsetter service provider, they all use the same way to judge if email was opened. And this happens not only with iCloud users, some others too. I've purged my email lists and I think it cost me some active subscribers due to this thing but I don't know if there is a solution for this...


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## Skip Knox (May 12, 2013)

This has become a great Mailerlite advice thread! I'm going to ask my own question.

I'm new into mailing lists (currently have MailChimp) and I want to send out a newsletter, say at the first of every other month. I can find tools to send on a specific date--a one-time send--and on a recurring date (e.g., a birthday). And, in MailChimp at least, I don't see a way to send Issue #1 on November 5, then send Issue #2 on January 5, and so on. That is, all the tools seem designed to send a unique email such as a welcome, or to re-send the same email. 

I know people do this all the time, but I can't seem to figure it out. I looked at the Mailerlite tutorials and did not see anything there either. Does someone have experience with sending a monthly (or so) newsletter?


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