Migrating from MailerLite to ConvertKit

An overview of how you can migrate your MailerLite email setup to ConvertKit.

Updated over a week ago

Your checklist for a smooth migration from MailerLite

If you're coming over from MailerLite, we'd love to help you start sending emails from ConvertKit ASAP!

Here's an overview of what you'll need to do to make the switch:

Familiarize yourself with ConvertKit's terminology

We call certain email marketing features differently from what you may be used to calling them in MailerLite. Check out what's different (and what's the same) in the table below.

Familiarize yourself with our terminology as you'll be using them often from now on!

Definition / Feature

MailerLite terminology

ConvertKit terminology

A person who joins your email list

Subscriber

Subscriber

Your collection of email addresses

List

List

Collecting subscribers

Signup form

Design the look and contents of your emails

Template

Send a one-off email

Campaign

Send an automated email (or a series of them)

Workflow email

Trigger actions based on subscriber behavior

Automation workflow

Group subscribers with shared characteristics

Group (also known as interest group)

Group subscribers who match certain conditions

Segment

Import your MailerLite subscribers

Go to the Subscribers tab in MailerLite and toggle all the columns of subscriber info you want to export. We suggest toggling these columns at the very minimum:

  • Name

  • Groups

Select all the subscribers you want to export, then export their data in CSV file format (not CSV for Excel).

Delete all the columns in your CSV file except for these ones:

  • Subscriber

  • Name

  • Groups

Next, replace all the semicolons separating your MailerLite subscribers' group names with commas. (This is because our importer uses commas to distinguish between different tag names.)

To make this replacement quickly, you can select your CSV file's "Groups" column, then use your CSV program's Find and Replace feature to find and replace all instances of semicolons in that column with commas.

Your CSV file should look something like this:

Next, log into ConvertKit and navigate to Subscribers under the navigation's Grow tab. Click the Add Subscribers button, followed by Import a CSV.

You'll need to add your contacts to at least one of these for the import to proceed. If you don't have any Forms, Sequences, or Tags to add your contacts to, we suggest:

  • creating a temporary Tag (give it any name you want),

  • adding your contacts to this Tag, then

  • deleting the temporary Tag after the import has completed.

After selecting the Forms, Sequences, or Tags to add your contacts to, map your CSV columns to these fields:

  • Subscriber β†’ Email

  • Name β†’ First name

  • Groups β†’ Comma-separated list of tags

Click the Import Subscribers button to import your contacts.

NOTE: If your MailerLite subscribers have custom fields, such as a custom field for their last name, follow the steps here for importing these custom fields into ConvertKit.

Recreate your MailerLite forms and landing pages

Under the Grow tab in the navigation, click Landing Pages & Forms to load the Landing Page & Form Signups screen.

Click the + Create new button to create a new ConvertKit Form or Landing Page.

Select the Form or Landing Page template that best resembles your MailerLite form or landing page, then use our Form or Landing Page builder (as relevant) to customize the template's look.

Due to the differences in features between our and MailerLite's builders, you may not be able to get your ConvertKit Form or Landing Page to look exactly like your MailerLite one. But take this chance to make your Form or Landing Page design even better!

Publish your ConvertKit Form or Landing Page when you're happy with it. You can now hunt down its MailerLite counterpart on your website, social media bio, and so on, and replace that with your new ConvertKit equivalent. πŸŽ‰

Learn more about creating ConvertKit Forms and Landing Pages here:

Recreate your MailerLite email templates

Click the Send tab, followed by Email Templates, to create a new ConvertKit email template.

Choose an email template that most closely resembles your MailerLite email template, then customize it using our visual email template editor.

Try to make your ConvertKit email template's text, colors, and fonts similar toβ€”or even more appealing than!β€”those for your MailerLite email template.

Recreate your MailerLite workflow emails

To recreate your MailerLite workflow emails in ConvertKit, you'll set up a series of one or more automated emails that we call a "Sequence."

You'll then add the Sequence to our version of MailerLite's automation workflows (called "Visual Automations") to have your Sequence emails automatically sent when certain events occur.

(More on recreating your MailerLite automation workflows as ConvertKit Visual Automations below.)

Start a new Sequence by clicking the Send tab in the navigation, then Sequences, and finally the + New sequence button.

Select a default email template for your Sequence. (You'll be able to change your email template for specific Sequence emails afterward.)

Copy/paste your MailerLite workflow emails' contents into the Sequence, adding more emails to the same Sequence as you may need.

In addition, set up the Sequence emails' Send Days to match those for your MailerLite workflow emails.

Let's say your MailerLite workflow involves sending:

  1. A first email immediately after signup

  2. A second email seven days later

You can recreate these two workflow emails by creating a new ConvertKit Sequence that sends:

  1. The first email 0 days after the last email (i.e. it will be sent immediately)

  2. The second email seven days after the last email

Learn more about creating and sending ConvertKit Sequences in our other guide.

Recreate your MailerLite automation workflows

Select the Automate tab in the navigation, followed by Visual Automations. Click + New automation and then Start from scratch to create a blank new Visual Automation.

Our Visual Automation builder looks similar to MailerLite's, so you may find yourself getting the hang of it quickly.

You'll add:

  • Entry points (called "workflow triggers" in MailerLite) to trigger your Visual Automation, and

  • Steps (also called "steps" in MailerLite!) to set up how subscribers progress through your Visual Automation. Such steps can be automation Events, Actions, or Conditions.

So to recreate a MailerLite automation workflow as a ConvertKit Visual Automation, you'll need to:

  1. Set up Visual Automation entry points that correspond to your MailerLite workflow's triggers

  2. Add Visual Automation steps that correspond to those in your MailerLite automation workflow

For example, if your MailerLite automation workflow sends subscribers one email per week for three weeks after they've subscribed via your email form, you could set up your ConvertKit Visual Automation in this manner:

  1. Entry point: Subscribers join your email Form

  2. Step: Add subscriber to email Sequence (where you've set up this Sequence as a set of three emails, with the first email being sent immediately and the next two being sent seven days after the previous email)

Test your migrated MailerLite setup

When you've finished importing your MailerLite subscribers, and recreated all components of your MailerLite setup as discussed above, test your migrated MailerLite setup to check that it works.

You can do so by:

  • Previewing your Forms and Landing Pages (on your website, if possible) to confirm that they look good.

  • Previewing your Sequence emails from the ConvertKit Sequence editor or by sending yourself a test email.

  • Testing your Visual Automations. Enter your Visual Automations from one of their entry points (such as subscribing to your own Form) and check what happens when you do so.

If you're feeling stuck with your MailerLite migration, drop our migrations team a message and they'll be right with you.

Otherwise, you could send your subscribers a one-off email to announce that you've switched to an awesome new email platform!

We call such one-off emails "Broadcasts," and you can get the lowdown on sending them here πŸ‘‡

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