Which three MailerLite automations for inquiries?

Build one automation each for your Hot, Warm, and Cool inquiries, and none for Cold or Not a fit. Hot gets an email asking them to book a time now, Warm gets the next step, and Cool gets something useful with no push.

The limit you hit first is not the three automations. It is the 250 subscribers, and it is the reason Cold gets nothing.

Why give Hot, Warm, and Cool one automation each?#

MailerLite's free plan allows 3 active automations. MailerLite lists more than one trigger in an automation as a Power plan feature, so on the free plan each automation starts from one trigger. The trigger that fits inquiries is Joins a group. It starts when a subscriber joins the group you pick.

So three automations means three groups. Give them to the three priorities closest to booking: Hot, Warm, and Cool. Those are the people an email can still move. Each group gets one email with one job.

The guide to a MailerLite automation when an inquiry joins a group has the steps to build each one.

What should each email do?#

Each priority is a person at a different point, so each email asks for a different thing. Ask for one thing per email.

Keep the Hot email short, with one link: your scheduling page. A Hot inquiry is the closest fit by your own rules. Anything else in the email gets in the way of booking.

The Warm email names the next step and what you need from them for it. Think of Warm as a fit with one gap, such as a date not set yet or a budget still being worked out. The email helps them close that gap.

The Cool email gives something and asks for nothing. A price guide, a checklist, or a page of past work is enough. A booking button here feels like pressure on someone who is not ready.

Why do Cold and Not a fit get no automation?#

There is no fourth automation on the free plan. There is also no good email to send them.

Not a fit is the priority your rules use to turn people away, politely. A marketing email after that reads as if nobody listened.

Cold is the furthest from booking. They still get the ending you chose for their rule, at the close of the conversation. A follow-up email adds little for them, and each Cold subscriber takes one of your 250 places.

In Qualiform, only people who say yes to OK to email them are added, and each priority picks one of your MailerLite groups or Not sent, which is the default. Leave Cold and Not a fit on Not sent, and Qualiform never adds them to MailerLite. They take none of your 250 places.

Why is 250 subscribers the limit that bites first?#

MailerLite's free plan allows up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. With one email per inquiry and at most 250 subscribers, you will not come near 2,500 emails. The 250 is the problem.

Here is an example. Say 30 people a month say yes to emails and land in Hot, Warm, or Cool. After nine months that is 270, past the limit. Add Cold, and you get there sooner.

Going over matters more than it sounds. MailerLite says that above 250 subscribers, a free account's automations are paused. Adding subscribers by hand, through the API, or through an integration is paused too. That is how a connected form adds new inquiries. So your Hot email stops for the people you most want to hear from.

That is why the 250 places should go to the people most likely to book.

When is a different choice right?#

This split suits a business where most work comes from inquiries that are ready within weeks. It is not right for everyone.

• Your sales take months. If this year's Cold inquiry often becomes next year's job, Cold deserves a slow, friendly email. Swap Cool for Cold, or move to MailerLite's Comfort plan. As of October 29, 2026, MailerLite's pricing page lists Comfort from $12 a month, with 50 automations.
• You call every Hot inquiry yourself. If a call from you beats any email, Hot does not need an automation. Give that slot to Cold instead, and watch the 250.
• You get only a few inquiries a month. Then 250 subscribers lasts a long time, and the trade-off above matters less. Build the three emails you would send by hand anyway.

One thing does not change: Not a fit never gets a marketing email.

How do you know it is working?#

MailerLite's help does not say outright that a subscriber added through the API starts a Joins a group automation. So test it yourself before you trust it.

1. Turn all three automations on.
2. Send one real inquiry through your own form. Answer as a Hot visitor would, and say yes to emails.
3. In MailerLite, check that the subscriber is in your Hot group and that the Hot email went out.
4. Repeat once as a Warm visitor and once as a Cool one. Use a new email address each time, because a subscriber cannot rejoin a group they are already in.

Then check your subscriber count once a month. When it nears 250, decide whether to upgrade or to change which groups get emails, before MailerLite pauses them for you.