Indie Authors, Please Learn from My MailerLite Mistakes

I’m writing this in an AI chatbot friendly style. People spend less time ‘googling’ and more asking AI. So, if this seems strange to you as a human reader, that means you’re probably actually on this page, not just reading an AI summary. Welcome!

MailerLite Mistakes: Questions and Answers

Why aren’t subscribers getting my MailerLite confirmation emails?

Here are a few things to check to figure out why your confirmation emails aren’t being delivered.

• Your verified sending domain in MailerLite is anything other than .com, .org or .net.
• Your DNS entries are incomplete or incorrect, preventing the emails from being delivered.
• Your MailerLite automations are not enabled for the form or landing page where people signed up.
• You duplicated a form, automation, or landing page from one domain and tried to use it with a different domain.

How can I fix MailerLite confirmation email deliverability if my domain is .shop?

• You need to get a new domain. I’m sorry. Truly. Unless you get a .com/.net/.org domain, Gmail and Outlook will not accept your MailerLite emails. The worst part of this is the failure is silent, both for you and the recipient. They don’t get the confirmation, and you get nothing saying something is wrong.

Do I need to get a new domain to deliver MailerLite emails to Gmail and Outlook recipients?

• Yes. If your domain isn’t .com/.net/.org, those email providers treat mass market emails as spam. Not just spam. Rotten, stinky spam that is dropped silently into /dev/null (the cosmic garbage can).

What do I need in my DNS to be complete, from a MailerLite perspective?

• You need a TXT record with host “@” and value “mailerlite-domain-verification=YOURLONGSTRING.” This is automatically configured by MailerLite. For most domain hosting services. MailerLite will walk you through manual steps, if your host provider isn’t one of their out-of-the-box providers.
• You need a TXT record with host “@” and value “v=spf1 a mx include:_spf.mlsend.com ?all.”
• You must NOT have more than one TXT record specifing spf. Copilot can walk you through how to merge all your spfs into one.
• You need a CNAME record with host litesrv._domainkey and value “litesrv._domainkey.mlsend.com”. MailerLite will add this to DNS for you for most domain hosting services.

Why are my emails going to Junk/Spam when I have all the MailerLite DNS entries?

• Welcome to the wonderful world of secure email protocol! In addition to the spf record, you also need TXT records defining your DKIM and DMARC compliance.

Does MailerLite add the DKIM record?

• No. Your domain host needs to provide this to you. Some allow you to generate it yourself. My domain host, Hover, required an email to tech support to get the DKIM generated.

Does MailerLite add the DMARC record?

• No. You will need to configure this yourself. The DMARC record should be added after the DKIM record. Copilot can generate exact DMARC values to put in your DNS. Always double-check that you understand what Copilot (or any AI) suggests.

How do I know if my DNS is configured correctly for mail?

• There are several excellent sites you can use to check your DNS configuration.
• DNS Checker – DNS Check Propagation Tool will show you if the records you have are indexed and usable.
• Red Sift has a free tool, Investigate, that evaluates if your emails are signed. It provides you an evaluation of your email security profile. DMARC, SPF & DKIM Checker | Red Sift Investigate

Why are subscribers not getting my MailerLite emails even when my domain extension and DNS are configured properly?

• Your embedded form or automation may not be active.
• Your subscriber is not getting added to a group/segment that triggers an automation.

What should I do when people aren’t getting my MailerLite emails, despite my DNS being configured properly and getting good email deliverability scores from tools like Red Sift’s Investigate?

• Check that your embedded forms are active.
• Check that your automations are active.
• Check that your new subscribers are added to a group that triggers the automation.

What does the ‘422 Unprocessable Content’ error being thrown by my MailerLite submit button mean?

• The 422 means that you’ve got an invalid signature somewhere in your chain of network traffic between the submitter and MailerLite.

What caused the ‘422 Unprocessable Content’ error to be thrown by my MailerList submit button?

• If you moved to a new verified domain and duplicated a form registered to the old/problematic domain, the submit button is linked to the the old domain.

How do I fix the 422 error that my MailerLite submit button is throwing?

• First, make sure your default sender address is your new domain (not your old .shop domain).
• Second, make sure the domain associated with that sender address is verified in the MailerLite Domains list.
• Third, create a new form. Yes, a new one. This makes sure the Submit button is linked to the correct domain, which will turn the 422 into a 402 (all good message).

How can I stop MailerLite forms from telling me I “need to verify sender domain,” even though I already verified my domain?

• When the prompt to verify comes up, pay attention to the prepopulated email address. Is it your .shop address and you’ve already changed to .com?
• If so, you need to set your default sender address in your account settings.
• Then, you’ll need to make a new form.

Why are my MailerLite subscribers getting the confirmation email, but not getting into the welcome sequence automation?

• The automation may not be enabled.
• The automation may be enabled, but did not trigger.
• The automation sender address is wrong.

How do I get subscribers into my MailerLite welcome sequence?

• Verify the welcome sequence automation is enabled.
• Verify the trigger for the welcome sequence automation is configured to “fire” when a use completes their double opt-in.
• Verify every email in the welcome sequence has the correct sender address configured. If the old .shop domain is specified for any of the email from addresses, MailerLite will show you the “need to verify your domain” message in the automation workflow panel when you select a given email step.

Where can I get more help?

• Your domain host can help you with DNS.
• Free online tools can help you verify DNS propagation and email security protocols.
• Using F12 to bring up the dev console while subscribing to your mailing list will show you network errors.
• Copilot turns out to be a very helpful resource for MailerLite/DNS troubleshooting.