ActiveCampaign vs. Mailerlite: Which One is Best for Infopreneurs

As an infopreneur, you need to establish long-term relationships with your audience. Effective email marketing can help you do just that. However, choosing the right email marketing platform is key.

ActiveCampaign and Mailerlite are two of the most popular options. But, if you’re reading this, you’re probably not sure which one to pick. In this article, we'll compare ActiveCampaign and Mailerlite to help you decide which one is better suited to your needs. 

Let’s get started. 

Who’s an Infopreneur?

Before getting to the comparison, let’s first see who’s an infopreneur. Simply put, an infopreneur is someone who sells information products. These products can include, but are not limited to:

ActiveCampaign vs. Mailerlite: Which One is Best for Infopreneurs?

One of the most powerful ways to promote info products is by using email marketing. But, if you’ve landed on this article, you probably aren’t sure which email marketing tool to go with. Should it be ActiveCampaign or Mailerlite?

In the following sections, we’ll walk you through the features of both tools. By the end, you’ll know which one can help you promote and sell your info products better. Let’s dive in. 

Interface and Ease of Use

One of the first things a solopreneur looks at while selecting a marketing tool is its interface. Here’s how the two tools compare in terms of ease of use. 

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign’s dashboard is fairly user-friendly. It shows your:

So, you can manage virtually everything from a single dashboard. However, we did feel that it has a small learning curve, so you might have to watch a video or two to get the hang of it.

Mailerlite

Mailerlite’s dashboard is super simple to use; the tool has virtually no learning curve. As soon as you log into your Mailerlite account, you’ll see everything at a glance. For instance, you can create a form, website, campaign, and automation right from your dashboard. As you scroll down, you can see the important data related to:

Winner: Mailerlite is super simple to use and has almost zero learning curve. 

Segmentation and Listing Management

Now, as an infopreneur, you want to deliver the right kind of content to the right people. Here’s an example: Let’s say you’re selling an e-book on a weight loss topic. You want to promote it to the section of your audience that’s looking to lose weight. 

How do you deliver the right type of email content to that particular set of audience? By using segmentation and personalization!

So, addressing a contact with their first name is just a part of the process; Email personalization is much more than that. Here’s how ActiveCampaign and Mailerlite compare when it comes to segmentation. 

ActiveCampaign

Impressively, you get plenty of in-built segments in ActiveCampaign. This means you can segment your subscribers’ list by:

And, to use more segmentation options, you can go to “Contacts” and then “Advanced search”.

You’ll then be able to create segments in different categories.

You can also access the segmentation feature in “Lists” while creating a campaign. Here’s how you can use segmentation while creating a campaign. 

Moreover, the tool’s lead scoring feature adds automatic tags to your top leads. So, as soon as someone takes a certain action, the system tags them. This enables you to send targeted content automatically. All in all, ActiveCampaign offers everything you need to personalize your emails for maximum impact. 

Mailerlite

In Mailerlite, you can manage your lists in two ways: Segments and Groups. Click on the Subscribers tab from the menu that will take you to the page where you can manage your subscribers through various tools.

You can choose from multiple filters to find the type of segment you are looking for. By clicking on the Segments tab, you can view the analytics of the segments you have already created in the form of:

If you want to create a new segment, just click on the “Create Segment” option in the top right corner and create a name for the new segment.

The segmentation helps you understand how your audience is behaving in response to your emails.

Winner: With ActiveCampaign, you’re in full control of your email list. And, the tool comes with everything you need to personalize your emails. 

Automation Features (Drip Campaigns)

You can’t expect to sell anything the first time, especially when you’re using the content marketing route. Before trying to sell your info products, you need to provide enough value with your email content. It’ll not only improve your conversion rates but also build your authority. Plus, every segment of your audience receives different content, depending on where they are in their buyer’s journey. 

Email marketing tools like ActiveCampaign and Mailerlite send automated drip campaigns on the basis of pre-defined triggers. But, which one is better? Let’s see.  

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign comes with over 270 automation workflows that are categorized by:

You can choose this option while creating automation.

On the right, you can choose the workflow of your choice. For instance, it lets you retarget cart abandoners with the “Abandoned cart reminder” workflow. Next, you’ll be able to edit your funnel inside ActiveCampaign’s visual editor. 

As you can see, there are quite a few conditions and workflows you can use to automate your campaign. You can easily drag and drop these triggers wherever you want in your drip campaign. 

Here’s what it’d look like for the “If/Else” trigger:

Alternatively, you can add these triggers by clicking on the “+” icon between two workflows. On the next pop-up window, go to “Conditions and workflows” to add your triggers. 

Mailerlite

The Automation tool in Mailerlite is simple to use and you have to just set it up once only. It is a simple workflow builder that can:

When you click on Automations from the Menu, it will take you to this page from where you can set up your email. First, you will have to select the Trigger which is basically selecting the audience you want to send this automated email to.

You can then define the Group from which you want to select the audience or create a new Group. What is great is that you can add multiple triggers which gives you more control over your automation.

You can then carry on creating your workflow automation however you want:

You can move subscribers to another group but you can not move them to another automation.

Forms and Landing Pages

Both Mailerlite and ActiveCampaign help you capture leads with landing pages and forms. 

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign’s easy-to-use drag-and-drop email builder lets you customize your emails to your heart’s content. You’ll need to go to “Sites” to start building a form or landing page. 

You can customize your forms by using a variety of elements from the right panel.

ActiveCampaign’s drag-and-drop landing page builder is intuitive and easy to use. You can start building your landing page after selecting “Sites” and then “Pages”. But, before that, ActiveCampaign gives you an option to:

Impressively, the software comes with a generous number of landing page templates to give you a jump-start.

Once you pick a template, here’s how the landing page builder will look.

However, know that you can’t use the landing page builder on plans that are less than $129.

Mailerlite

In Mailerlite, you can create both forms and landing pages very easily. Just click on the Forms tab from the menu and it will take you right there. Here, you can create and then select how you want it to be shown:

You can then choose from multiple templates to create your perfect form.

Mailerlite also gives you the option to create a landing page or a website which is very easy to create. Just click on the Sites Tab from the Menu and start making your landing page.

What’s more, you can choose from various templates or make your own and create your perfect landing page.

You’ll be redirected to Mailerlite’s landing page builder as soon as you pick an option. Here’s how it looks:

The builder is super easy to use, so you don’t need any design experience to build your landing pages.

Winner: Mailerlite’s landing page builder stands out because it is very user-friendly, and it comes with a free trial.

Integrations

You’re probably already using some other apps to promote or even create your info products. And, you might want to integrate those apps with your new email marketing software. So, let’s take a quick look at the integration capabilities of ActiveCampaign and Mailerlite.

ActiveCampaign

The first thing you need to know is that ActiveCampaign has its own powerful CRM (content management system. So, if you’re not using one right now, you can count on it. Even if you have a CRM, chances are it’ll be compatible with ActiveCampaign. 

Here are the most popular apps that you can integrate seamlessly with your ActiveCampaign account:

But, that’s just the tip of the iceberg; ActiveCampaign supports a long list of apps. You can check them here.

Mailerlite

Mailerlite comes with an amazing feature of Integrations that allow you to integrate your emails with other applications like:

Winner: Clearly, the winner, when it comes to built-in integrations, is ActiveCampaign. However, both tools work with Zapier, allowing you to integrate thousands of apps with no coding knowledge. 

A/B Testing

A/B testing helps you identify the right variation of your marketing KPIs.

Here’s how it works: You send the same email to two different audience segments, with just a single KPI changed. This could be anything from the age of your subscribers to their online activity. 

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign lets you split test different email marketing KPIs easily. All you’ll need to do is select the “Spit testing” option at the start of the campaign. 

Next, you’ll have to select the split-test type.

And as soon as you’re done with designing your email, ActiveCampaign lets you set your test variables.

Mailerlite

Mailerlite gives you multiple options for creating your email campaigns including the A/B Testing feature. This will allow you to send variations of emails to two different groups to see which email group responds better.

You can then select:

Winner: ActiveCampaign lets you test 5 emails at a time, and you can test a lot of variables. 

Reporting and Analytics

As an entrepreneur, you want to understand how your email campaigns are performing. So, it’s important for your email marketing tool to offer enough analytics features. Here’s a quick ActiveCampaign vs. Mailerlite comparison in the analytics department. 

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign’s “Reports” tab offers everything you need to analyze your campaigns’ performance.

However, there’s a learning curve to this feature.

Mailerlite

The reporting feature on Mailerlite is very simple to use and is brilliant in terms of the data it provides you to work with and improve your emails.

What is even better is that you can view the engagement as well of your emails:

You can also view in-depth analytics for your automated emails, forms, and landing page. It is all right there!

Winner: It’s hard to pick a winner here, but if you’re looking for ease of use, Mailerlite showcases everything on the dashboard. 

Final Words

Both of these programs are excellent. My own personally used program is ActiveCampaign because it can simply do more and I don’t like to be restricted. Of course that comes at a price. That said, if you’re just getting started with email marketing, Mailerlite is the best solution to get set up quickly and start sending.  

Activecampaign does offer a 14 day Free Trial with up to 100 contacts, and Mailerlite has an entirely free plan. If you’re still undecided, you can get your hands on both of them and see for yourself for literally no money out of pocket! (Related: ActiveCampaign vs. MailChimp: Which One Is Best for Real Estate Agents)

Use ActiveCampaign if you:

Use Mailerlite if you: