MailerLite's sneaky upsell strategy is genius (and you should steal it)

All right, guys, welcome to another tear down.

so if you're finding users aren't completing core tasks within your product or feature stickiness is a problem, then this one's going to be for you.

So what we're going to do is we're going to go through and tear down Mailer Light, but specifically we're going to take a look at the process of creating an email newsletter campaign.

So if you're not aware, Mailerlite is a email marketing platform.

been around for a while now.

So I've already signed up for the product.

already gone through the onboarding and my plan is to go through and create a email campaign.

And then as I go through this process, I'm just going to share my thoughts.

So I'm going to give you my honest feedback on the ux, the ui, what's working, what isn't, what I think you can apply to your product as well.

All right, so let's dive in then.

We are already on the dashboard here and you can see up here we've got this create button.

So let's start by hitting that and then we've got a modal window that pops up here.

and we're asked a really simple question.

So we got the ability to create a campaign, we got, the option to create a form, we create a site, or we can create automation here as well.

So it's really clear, really easy to understand.

so they just do a really good job of breaking down the different options here.

And the design is nice and clean as well.

So I'm going to click, create create campaign for now.

And now it looks like we've been taken into the experience for creating our campaign.

So there's obviously multiple options here, presented in a similar fashion.

The main ones are, obviously you've got a regular campaign here and we've got an A B split test.

Now, I like the way they've added a really short description on each of these.

So if you weren't clear what the difference is, you can read it.

But I also like the fact that we're being exposed to other potential campaigns as well.

So we've got RSS campaign, we've got an auto resend campaign over here and then we've got a multivariate campaign as well.

so this does a really good job of exposing us to other potential campaign types that are obviously premium, hence the badge the top there.

for the purpose of this teardown.

I'm just going to click regular campaign for this one.

Okay, so you can see as we're going through the floor we have the breadcrumb that sits at the top here, which just tells us where we are.

So I'm going to start by designing the email.

We're going to enter any specific details and then we're going to schedule email as well.

now what I like about this, if we're starting from scratch, there are three different options for us.

So in most cases I'm sure the drag and drop editor is fine for new users.

the richer text editor is also another choice.

And then if you're a developer or an expert, as it says here, you've also got the custom HTML option.

You can see as I'm hovering over each of these we are exposed to what those tools would look like when we get in there.

So I think that does a really good job of just managing users expectations here.

The other options I can see we've got is the template gallery up here on the left.

Now again that looks like a premium feature, but it's an alternative entry point.

So rather than starting from scratch, we can start from a template, which I always think is a really good idea.

It can be quite intimidating starting from scratch if you're starting from a blank page.

So having the ability to select a Template, So I definitely think the template galleries will help the task success rate here and it's likely they're able to see the end result much faster as well.

so you can see there's a search option over here on the left which is always handy if you've got a large number of templates.

As you can see they've got 109, so plenty of choice here.

And then they've gone to the effort of categorizing them as well over here on the left which is really nice.

So if I'm thinking about a deal or offer then we have some pre made templates we can start with.

And you can see the design of the templates are also really nice.

It's not like they've just thrown them together in five minutes.

These high quality designs.

And then the last option up here is recent emails.

So you can see I've just got a couple in here so if I wanted to reference anything I'd sent previously, any drafts or any automations I've created, I can do that here which again just makes the whole thing much more efficient.

Anyway, so for the purpose of this teardown, I'm just going to start by creating an email from scratch with a drag and drop editor.

Okay.

So it took a little bit of time to load there and I'm sure you saw the skeleton loading as well, which is normally used just to improve the perceived speed of the web app.

Now first impressions of the editor itself, I think it looks really good.

we have obviously the content in the center here on the left we have various different content blocks.

So as I'm hovering over they slide out.

And then over here on the right, it looks like we've got some settings for the template and then some brand setting as well.

I think if I'm a new user coming in, trying Mailerlite out for the first time going through this flow of creating the email campaign, Mailerlite strike a really nice balance between something that's simple and easy to use but still offer the flexibility and the advanced functionality that I think some power users would want to benefit from.

So at the top here, we have an option to find Helpful tutorials so we can learn more about how to use the builder.

I mean to be honest I think most of it is self explanatory.

There is also the ability here to undo so if users are worried making changes or doing something wrong, they can always click that and undo some of their recent changes We've obviously got the ability to preview and test over here as well.

So we can send a test email.

Super useful.

think it's unlikely that you're going to go through this process, design an email and send it out to a large email list if you've not had a chance to test it yet.

So that's a really nice option and I think it just helps reduce any anxiety users might have.

Obviously we've got preview mode as well and then we've got editing which presumably takes us to the next step.

Now the other thing I wanted to mention here really quickly is it looks like in terms of the template and the layout, we can choose specific options over here on the right to show how it will be presented and down here and I presume these options around fonts and backgrounds and content style and any other settings you can see below, I presume they are like a style guide.

So you set these at once and then you apply them across the full newsletter.

So for example if we change the font, we come over here, we click on Arial, you can see the font changes everywhere in the newsletter and I think it's the same with the content style as well.

So if we come in here we can see we've changed the font, let's change it back to something else and then we can change the color and we can hit save.

And now effectively what we've done is create a style for heading one which is really easy for me to edit and apply elsewhere should I need to.

I think that's a really efficient way of approaching this.

Rather than selecting individual elements on your newsletter, you set up your content style, your button style, any of the settings and fonts and then you reuse and repurpose those across the design of the newsletter.

I think it makes it much easier, quicker and more consistent for users.

It still offers them the flexibility they need to create something that feels like their own.

Anyway, I'm just going to stick with what we've got here for now and then I'm going to click Done.

click, done editing up here on the right.

Okay, so we've got another model that's popped up here now, and it tells us that we have missing URLs in our buttons within the newsletter itself.

So I think this is really clever of Mailerlite.

You're much better off warning users about this now rather than after they've sent the email, because there's nothing worse than sending an email to your list and then having broken links.

So I think that's super clever.

Anyway, for the purpose of this, I'm just going to click continue anyway and we'll go through to the next step.

Okay, so now we've got to enter some of the campaign details.

So it's pulled through a campaign name by default based on the date.

And, there's no subject line in here.

but it looks like there's the ability for it to suggest a subject line with their AI.

So let's try that.

Uh-huh.

Okay, so, I don't have enough credits to use the AI generator, so I need to upgrade to my advanced plan.

So, as we've spoken about before, I think this is something, Mailerlite do really well.

They expose you to other premium features naturally within the product as and when they are meaningful to users.

They're not pushing these upgrades hard, and I think their approach is actually going, to work really well here.

So I don't have any credits, so I can't use this and test it out.

But it looks great.

it's given me the option to decide on the tone of voice, the campaign email type, And then presumably, I'd be able to hit generate and it would give me some options.

Anyway, I'm going to close this out and we're going to come up with our own.

So I've just put a really quick subject line in there, added an emoji.

I was obviously pre filled in the sender, as well.

It's got my email address in there.

So I think this was pulled through from when I set the account up.

And then we've got the option to add a pre header as well.

And then we've got some placeholder text here which just tells us what the pre header is.

It Just gives us an opportunity to a short preview of the email content before recipients open it.

So I'm just going to put in some text in there and then we got recipients as well.

So I've just selected a group that, that I had set up previously.

and then I think what we have over here on the right is really interesting.

So we've got a preview of the email.

We can send the test from here if we need to, we can hover over it.

And then we've got a larger preview as well which works really well.

we can see what that looks like on desktop and on mobile and then we can save it as a PDF if we need to.

I guess these are some of the last minute checks we want to do before we want to send the email now as we've been going through this, I don't know if you'd notice but top right we have a status.

So as I'm making changes and adding subject lines and pre headers, we can see the work has been saved up over here in the top right.

Then at the bottom.

This is obviously a three step process now.

So we've got this progress bar at the bottom which lets us know that we've only got one more step to go basically.

So let's click continue.

So I think we're all set.

We could basically either send this now or we can schedule the email out at a time in the future.

And the transition between that second step and this third step is very subtle.

So if you weren't paying attention it might feel like you've not gone to the next step at all.

Now we have another preview over here on the right now which gives us a summary of everything we're going to see when we receive the email.

So we've got the option to send it now, send it later, send it based on a specific time zone or another premium feature called Smart sending.

So that allows us to deliver campaign, based on when they are most likely to engage.

So another subtle nod towards a premium feature, but it makes sense at this point.

then let's click Send now.

So you make the selection over here on the left and then we come back down here and we click send and we should be done.

All right, so the campaign sat in our outbox, tells us it will be sending shortly, so looks like we're done.

pretty straightforward, to be fair.

I think this is a really good example of how making small and deliberate design choices can make sure users reach some success.

Alright, guys, I'm gonna leave it there.

Let me know what you think of Mailerlite.