Although MailerLite is an excellent email marketing tool, for the most part, there are a few disadvantages to it.
Like any marketing tool, there are always going to be drawbacks and limitations no matter what. However, if you are researching marketing tools, it is important to know if those drawbacks outweigh the benefits.
After reading dozens of customer reviews and complaints about MailerLite on sites such as capterra.com and g2.com, I decided to expand upon some of the most common complaints people have about the tool.
This post discusses 5 of the biggest disadvantages of MailerLite according to various customers’ experience and my personal experience with the tool as well.
1. MailerLite is too simple for some
MailerLite is known for its intuitive, and easy to use interface. The tool is designed so that you can get the hang of it relatively quickly even if you don’t have technical experience. However, simplicity can be a double-edged sword. Yes, simple features can be easy to use, however the lack of advanced features can be limiting for those who want more flexibility.
For instance, MailerLite’s automation feature is only capable of building basic workflows. You set up your workflows for email automation based on a handful of triggers such as
- When subscriber joins a group
- When subscriber completes a form
- When subscriber clicks a link
- Updated field
- The anniversary of a date
- The exact match of a date
These triggers are great to have, however, MailerLite doesn’t have advanced triggers. For instance, there is no inactive contacts trigger that can be used to send out workflows to reengage contacts that haven’t viewed your website or clicked your emails for a certain period of time. MailerLite also doesn’t have a trigger available for when a subscriber visits a specific page on your website.
Triggers like these might not necessarily be super important for small businesses or startups. However for large businesses that have large websites that collect thousands of subscribers a month, having more flexibility in creating workflows might be advantageous.
Related: Is MailerLite Safe?
2. Rigorous approval process
MailerLite happens to be a bit more selective in approving accounts compared to other email marketing tools. In getting approved with MailerLite you have to provide a fair amount of information on your email marketing practices. For instance, MailerLite asks
- How did you collect your emails?
- What does your business do?
- What do you plan on sending to your subscribers?
MailerLite mainly does this to prevent scammers from using its service. The last thing MailerLite wants is to allow businesses with questionable marketing practices to be taking advantage of MailerLite’s service.
Theoretically, as long as your methods for collecting and marketing to emails comply with MailerLite’s policies, you should have no problem getting approved. However, according to some accounts, MailerLite has denied various applicants who claim that their marketing practices are above the board. It’s tough to say how common this problem really is, but its good to be aware of it regardless.
Related: Is MailerLite Legit Or A Scam?
3. Not ideal for affiliate marketing
Of all the email marketing platforms out there, MailerLite is not the best for affiliate marketing.
MailerLite’s terms of use state that affiliate links are acceptable but affiliate marketing isn’t with MailerLite. This may sound a bit ambiguous and confusing but MailerLite basically implies that you can use affiliate links every once in a while to recommend a product that is related to your content.
However, if all you do is affiliate marketing, MailerLite probably won’t approve your account. As far as MailerLite is concerned, businesses or people that just do affiliate marketing don’t have their subscriber’s best interest in mind. Affiliate marketers have no need to build lasting relationships with their subscribers according to MailerLite.
There are a few other email marketing platforms that are more affiliate marketing-friendly, so if affiliate marketing is an important part of your business strategy, you might want to use those tools instead.
For more information on MailerLite and affiliate marketing click here!
4. Not a huge variety of templates
Although MailerLite’s templates are well designed, there isn’t a huge selection of templates to choose from. Fortunately, MailerLite has some of the more important templates to have access to for blog updates, promoting products, and showcasing events for instance. However, MailerLite doesn’t have too many industry-specific templates. There are a few templates that cater to certain business owners like photographers, authors but that’s about it.
Given templates are supposed to be edited anyway, you can easily customize your template for your business and marketing goals. However, it would be nice if there was just a broader selection of industry-specific templates to choose from to save you time.
5. Drag-and-drop editor isn’t super flexible
The drag-and-drop editor can be used to customize your newsletters, landing pages, and popups. It can be used to create great-looking designs but it doesn’t give you too much freedom to customize the way you might want to.
There are designated spots for images and text so you don’t have the freedom to move your blocks around absolutely wherever you want. For instance, if you wanted to put an image in the bottom left corner of a certain template, you might not be able to. You may only be able to put your image centered on the template. That being said, MailerLite makes building templates easy but on the other hand, you are a bit restricted in how you can go about building your templates.
If you are interested in creating landing pages with a more robust and flexible drag-and-drop builder, I would recommend you check out Landingi.
Final words
MailerLite is a highly effective email marketing tool. However, many of its drawbacks stem from the fact that it isn’t as advanced as some other email marketing tools. That being said, if you are interested in simple, dependable, and easy to use email marketing tool that doesn’t have super-advanced features, MailerLite is an excellent choice. If you are looking for something with more sophisticated features, another email marketing tool might suit you better.
