Create a form

You can use your free Mailerlite plan to create multiple forms, these can be used to invite people to sign up to receive your emails, or even to collect information for an event or an initial consultation.

First you need to create a Group, you can find those instructions here. It would be good to have an Automation that flows from the Form, though you might be using the form for some other purpose.

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Now you have a form that is ready to go, and if you combine it with automation then you can use it as an onboarding sequence or a welcome for new clients.

If you would like to receive more information about using Mailerlite to more effectively set up your email marketing then sign up for my email marketing mailing list below.

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Create an Automated Workflow

These are some instructions for creating an automated workflow in Mailerlite. Once you get going with your email marketing this will be one of your most used tools, but also it is great for setting up some enquiry forms on your website or on your socials.

In this case we are going to set up a workflow that sends an automated email to every person who joins the group titled “Website sign up form - for Wills”. If you need instructions for creating a group you can find those here.

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In this case we are choosing “When a subscriber joins a group” but obviously there are other possible triggers.

In this case we are choosing “When a subscriber joins a group” but obviously there are other possible triggers.

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If your account is not brand new then you could use a recent email as a template. I am going to do a separate set of instructions for designing an email, this is not those.

If your account is not brand new then you could use a recent email as a template. I am going to do a separate set of instructions for designing an email, this is not those.

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You have created a workflow and turned it on, congratulations!

You have created a workflow and turned it on, congratulations!

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You should do yourself a favour at this stage and either start a spreadsheet that records all of your workflows and forms, or if you have already started one then put this information into that spreadsheet. The spreadsheet should have the name of the Group, the name of any Form it is connected to, and the name of any Automation it is connected to. You should also then record where you have embedded that Form, so that later if there is some problem with the Form you can remember where you put it.

If you would like to join my email automation list to get more emails about running your email marketing list then you can join below.

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Using the Mailerlite filters to find subscribers

Using the Mailerlite filters is a great way to find people who aren’t necessarily in a group, you can find people who aren’t in a group, people who haven’t opened emails in a certain amount of time, or people who did not receive a certain campaign.

In this example we created a group of subscribers who had opened an email, and so now we want to find all of those subscribers who are not in that group. If you need instructions for creating a group you can find those here, if you need help finding subscribers who have opened an email and putting them into a group then you can find that here.

For now though we are using filters to find people who are not in the group “Subscribers - opened email 2020.12.02”

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You might want to use filters for all sorts of reasons. In this case I had created three groups, A, B & C for those who had not opened their emails. As I had selected only the subscribers who were not in that group, I now had 150 subscribers to distribute between the three groups.

Importing contacts into Mailerlite

This is not difficult and there are videos covering it, but I personally hate trying to follow videos so I put these slides together. There are actually a few different ways to add subscribers, first you need to create a group. If you haven’t already created a group, there are instructions for how to do that here.

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There are four choices for importing contacts into Mailerlite, they are:

  • Import from a CSV or TXT file

  • Copy/paste from Excel

  • Add single subscriber

  • Import from Mailchimp

We are going to look at importing a CSV (or Excel) file.

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Now you have to help the program understand where to put the information.

Now you have to help the program understand where to put the information.

The data in this example is not needed so I would leave it at ‘Skip this column’ but normally what you need to do is tell the program whether it is a Name or a Last name.

The data in this example is not needed so I would leave it at ‘Skip this column’ but normally what you need to do is tell the program whether it is a Name or a Last name.

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You have imported your contacts into Mailerlite. Now you need to start sending them information, so my pro tip is to start a list somewhere that you keep ideas for content, things that you can send your mailing list. Not everything on your mailing list has to be ‘original’ content from your blog, you can share information from other sources, the most important thing is that the information is relevant and interesting to the people who are receiving your emails. You want them opening and reading your emails so that you can tell them about services that you offer or get them to book an appointment or a discovery call.

If you want more information about setting up an email list then join the email list blog by signing up below.

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Create a group in Mailerlite

This is how you create a group in Mailerlite. It is simple but the most important thing I want you to understand is this, give it a specific name. You will have many groups, in order to get better open and click rates, don’t call it ‘clients’ or ‘family law’.

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Website sign up from - for Wills

Website sign up from - for Wills

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One group that I recommend that you create, right at the start, is a group called “Me” and it will just have your email address in it. Mailerlite doesn’t let you mail to individuals, just groups, and this can be handy if you want to email something to yourself.

You can always email yourself a test email but it will have Draft in the subject title, and it won’t save itself as a template in your recent emails. You will dive into your recent emails a lot to find something to use, so if you are unsure about which look to go for then send it to yourself (using the Me group), then Create another Campaign, use recent emails to find the one you just created, make the changes you want to make, send it to yourself again. Now you have both versions saved in recent emails.

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Starting from scratch - how many subscribers do I need?

One of the big myths about email lists is that you have to have a large email list in order to get any benefit from it. That isn’t true. To prove the point I am going to use a case study, Novus Law Group, and their email list. To this point most of the advertising has been done by social media (mainly Facebook) so the email list has been left to languish.

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Ouch, right? Now normally those open rates would upset me (though I 20% is considered to be a good or average open rate).

Who should be on it?

Look your email list is not about numbers, it is about having a relevant and engaged audience. So I went through our client list and added some people today, not everyone mind you, I left out the tyre kickers and non payers, and the people who were otherwise not ideal clients. I also left out the family members who we had done legal work for, mostly to make a point, which is that this list is supposed to grow new leads not simply send updates to your Mum. So as of today the email list has gone from 41 (in our last email) to 199 people.

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We are on a free Mailerlite account, and we are starting with a small list which is mostly comprised of our previous clients.

If you want to follow this email list creation journey you can do that by joining my mailing list.

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