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 Kit ASAP!
Here's an overview of what you'll need to do to make the switch:
Familiarize yourself with Kit '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 | Kit 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 Kit and navigate to Subscribers under the navigation's Grow tab. Click the Add Subscribers button, followed by Import a CSV.
Upload your CSV file to the importer and select the Forms, Sequences, or Tags you want to add your subscribers to.
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 → Email
Name → First name
Groups → 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 Kit .
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 Kit 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 Kit 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 Kit 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 Kit equivalent. 🎉
Learn more about creating Kit Forms and Landing Pages here:
Recreate your MailerLite email templates
Click the Send tab, followed by Email Templates, to create a new Kit 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 Kit email template's text, colors, and fonts similar to—or even more appealing than!—those for your MailerLite email template.
Recreate your MailerLite workflow emails
To recreate your MailerLite workflow emails in Kit , 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 Kit 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:
A first email immediately after signup
A second email seven days later
You can recreate these two workflow emails by creating a new Kit Sequence that sends:
The first email 0 days after the last email (i.e. it will be sent immediately)
The second email seven days after the last email
Learn more about creating and sending Kit 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 Kit Visual Automation, you'll need to:
Set up Visual Automation entry points that correspond to your MailerLite workflow's triggers
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 Kit Visual Automation in this manner:
Entry point: Subscribers join your email Form
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 Kit 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 👇