Interview with one of our first clients, MailerLite

MailerLite is an email marketing service provider known for its intuitive UI, excellent customer support, and beautiful email designs. MailerLite was also one of the first businesses we were proud to call our clients.

The affiliate program has always been a big part of MailerLite’s marketing efforts, with almost 200,000 sales made via affiliate referrals to date.

Before using Partnero, MailerLite managed their affiliate program in-house.  Rachel Guidery, Partnership manager at MailerLite, told us “The software we had was no longer meeting our requirements. Our goal was to find a solution that would allow us to easily manage the affiliate program and partners without involving our product team. Most importantly, we wanted to improve our partner experience with a modern, white-labeled partner portal and additional tools, such as link customization and reporting.”

Migration process 

MailerLite migrated thousands of affiliates to Partnero, including all of their historical data. “We worked closely with the Partnero team to ensure all data was migrated successfully. We also used this as an opportunity to remove all inactive affiliate accounts. Our goal was to make it as easy for our partners as possible. At the end of the process, they only had to change their password! The rest was ready to go.” 

With the referral link customization option,  MailerLite could ensure that referral links did not change, which meant that partners didn’t have to go through each piece of content they shared and update it.  This also meant no disruptions in tracking new referrals, making the transition smooth and seamless.

Focus on partner experience

MailerLite’s top priority was to deliver a stress-free partner experience and to ensure the whole process, from sign-up and partner portal to email notifications, aligned with their brand and communication style.

“Partnero allowed us to create a fully custom partner portal that felt like a natural extension of our company website. We were able to customize the portal domain, sign-up and login pages, portal layout, colors, and fonts. Additionally, our partners now had access to reporting, which allowed them to track their performance and evaluate their promotional efforts.” 

“We received enthusiastic comments from some of our top affiliates, who particularly like the ease of the new UI, personalizing their link and reporting, and the easy transition between platforms.”

Program management

One of the biggest challenges with MailerLite’s in-house solution was program and partner management. Any changes to the program terms, marketing materials, or partner accounts were complex and had to involve the product team.

“With Partnero, I can easily change any program settings, swap out brand assets, review partner information or update their accounts— and all changes are live immediately. Having full control made things a lot easier and faster, both in managing the program and solving any partner questions.” 

Additionally, MailerLite gained access to more in-depth reporting, which allowed tracking the program’s performance and evaluating what was working well.

“Since migrating MailerLite, we’ve launched additional programs with Partnero. The ability to manage multiple partner programs under the same roof has proven to be a real time-saver.”