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Mailchimp is one of the biggest email marketing providers in the world.
If you’ve wondered how to get started with Mailchimp, or even if Mailchimp is the best email marketing platform for your business, you’re in the right place.
This extensive Mailchimp guide shows you all you need to know about using the Mailchimp email marketing service to grow your business.
Below is a quick Mailchimp overview to get you acquainted with the platform before we lead you through the Mailchimp review we have specially put together for you.
What’s in This Guide?
- What is Mailchimp?
- Mailchimp Overall Review
- Company History
- Mailchimp Pricing
- Mailchimp Billing Options
- Mailchimp Features
- Mailchimp Landing Pages
- Mailchimp Email Templates
- How Mailchimp Templates Work
- Where You Can Get Free Mailchimp Email Templates
- Tutorial of How to Customize a Mailchimp Email Template
- Before Sending Your First Email Marketing Campaign
- Mailchimp Segmentation
- Mailchimp Deliverability
- Mailchimp Pop-ups
- Mailchimp Free Offer
- Mailchimp Reports, Stats & Analytics
- How Do You Log Into Mailchimp?
- Using Mailchimp for Business
- How Bloggers and Content Creators Would Use Mailchimp
- How to Use Mailchimp with E-Commerce
- How to Use Mailchimp for a Service Business
- 25 Mailchimp Tips / Secrets / Hacks / Tricks
- Mailchimp Alternatives
- Mailchimp and Zapier
- Full List of Mailchimp Integrations
- Migration to Mailchimp – How Easy / Hard Is It?
Feel free to use the links above to skip straight to any of the sections.
I hope you’ll find this massive Mailchimp overview useful. Let’s dive in!
What is Mailchimp?
Mailchimp is an email marketing service provider that provides you with different features so you can send emails to your prospects, customers, and returning buyers.
Mailchimp Overall Review
Mailchimp is one of the best known newsletter service providers on the Internet because of how long it has been in business. Additionally, it has one of the largest arrays of email marketing templates and other tools you need to run a successful email marketing campaign.
It provides you with a free or trial version that you can use to send up to 10,000 emails to 2,000 contacts.
Company History
Mailchimp is an Atlanta-based email marketing service and marketing automation platform.
Founded in 2001, it later extended its services by opening offices in Vancouver, Brooklyn, and Oakland.
Mailchimp is under the parent company, The Rocket Science Group LLC, which is a web design agency that the founders ran before they founded Mailchimp.
The current Mailchimp team is headed by the two major founders, Ben Chestnut (CEO), Mark Armstrong, and Dan Kurzius.
Mailchimp Pricing
Mailchimp has a trial version if you’re just getting started as well as affordable monthly plans.
You can also opt for the pay-as-you-go package that allows you to only pay for the emails you send.
Below are screenshots of the pricing plan of the Mailchimp email marketing service:
RELATED: Mailchimp Pricing explained
Mailchimp Billing Options
If you are wondering how Mailchimp will bill or charge you for payments, the screenshots below show some of the billing options available on the platform.
Mailchimp Main Pricing Plan
Mailchimp Transactional Pricing Plan
Mailchimp Features
Here are some of the features that will help you send out emails and market your products and services using Mailchimp:
Campaigns
The Campaign feature is the first and the most used. It allows you to send out different types of email marketing campaigns to your target audience.
- The Campaigns feature helps you to send emails manually or in automation
- You can get to customize the emails using images, embedded videos, and product lists.
- It is easy to track the conversion rate and engagement activity of the recipients
Landing Pages
You don’t necessarily need to have a website builder to create and design landing pages. That is one feature that makes Mailchimp unique.
- Variety of landing page templates ranging from products to music launch.
- Includes Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons to help the recipients to take the desired action.
- Has an option for embedding countdown timers to accelerate the conversion rates by prompting the email recipients to take action immediately.
Pop-Ups
If you have a website and you want to generate leads, the pop-up registration forms can be used to do that. You also have the option of embedding the same to your website or e-commerce store.
- Helps you generate leads faster
- Empowers you to have insights into the subscribers’ details, including IP Address, Telephone Number, and Full Name.
- Easy integration/embedding to your website or e-commerce store.
Here is a video that shows you how to add a Mailchimp Pop-Up Form to Your WordPress Site:
Mailchimp Landing Pages
Landing pages are designed to detail or explain the features of specific products and services and then invite the reader to subscribe to a mailing list or purchase a product.
What the Mailchimp Landing Page does for you is that it allows you to design your landing page without necessarily being a programmer. With the drag and drop functionality, you can conveniently customize the landing page in a few minutes.
How They Work
Mailchimp landing pages work by allowing you to create product pages or sign-up pages using the tools therein.
You can also customize the landing page with a custom domain name provided by Mailchimp or integrating your domain name for a fee.
How to Use the Mailchimp Landing Pages
It is quite easy to use the landing pages provided by Mailchimp. The nice thing is that you don’t necessarily need to start from scratch except if you want to bring your creativity to work.
Otherwise, the varieties of out-of-the-box templates available can help you create the right landing page for your product or service.
Watch the video in this link to learn how to use the Mailchimp Landing Pages.
Most Popular Templates
Mailchimp provides you with dozens of landing page templates. All you need do is to check if the service or product you want to market is listed on the available templates.
The templates have been customized in the lines of popular niches, including products and music album launch.
To inspire you, here are some of the screenshots showing the available Mailchimp landing page templates at the time of writing:
Mailchimp Email Templates
Let’s look at the Mailchimp guide on how to use the email marketing templates.
Pros
Here are some of the pros of the Mailchimp email marketing templates:
- The templates make it easier for you to send emails without having to rack your brain to come up with the appropriate structures.
- Automatic saves so you don’t lose your design.
- Features “merge tags” so 05you can add a bit of branding to your emails.
- Provides you with tons of options ranging from video embedding, images, and Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons.
Cons
Some of the downsides that the Mailchimp templates include:
- Some users may find the interface a bit clunky
- Most of the Mailchimp templates are branded
How Mailchimp Templates Work
When it comes to using the email marketing templates that Mailchimp provides, you have to understand how they are designed to work.
The major thing you must have in mind is that there are different ways to use the templates. There are three options to these templates and we have explained them below:
1. Basic/Layouts
The Basic Mailchimp template allows you to create and customize your email templates from scratch. Empowered with the array of tools and designs from Mailchimp, it will be easier for you to design the type of template you want to use for your emails.
2. Themes
This is where the actual email marketing templates from Mailchimp come into the picture. The idea here is for you to select from the available and already-customized templates and themes.
Have in mind that there are two variants to using the Themes templates.
The first variety is that you can opt to use the Classic Themes that allow you to change the content and colors of the templates.
The other is the Drag and Drop Themes, which allow you to customize the templates using the different content structure you have in mind.
In addition, the available themes on the Mailchimp templates are many. Some of them are categorized as:
- Products/E-Commerce
- Fitness
- Birthdays
3. Code Your Own
Last but not the least is the Code Your Own Mailchimp template. This is the best for programmers who are itching to code their email templates.
If that is the case, you can bring your HTML and coding mastery to create codes for your email newsletter.
The Code Your Own Mailchimp template also allows you to import your custom codes in the form of a zip file or HTML. Also, you can simply copy and paste the custom code to create the email marketing template you want.
Where You Can Get Free Mailchimp Email Templates
If the 3 options above aren’t what you are interested in, what then can you do? Are there some other ways that you can get email templates usable on the Mailchimp email marketing platform?
It appears to be so! You can get free Mailchimp email templates from:
Tutorial of How to Customize a Mailchimp Email Template
Before sending out your first emails using Mailchimp, it is pertinent that you customize the email.
No matter the email template you are using (Basic, Themes, or Code Your Own), you don’t want the existing and pre-built content there to appear in the emails you send out.
To that end, here’s a tutorial on how to use the Basic/Layouts Mailchimp Template to create your emails.
Are you ready?
Let’s send that email…
Step #1: Select a Basic Layout
The first thing you must do is to select a layout under the Basic Template. There are many of them there, including:
- One column
- Integrated RSS Feed
- 1 column-banded
- Two columns
- Three columns
No matter the layout you select, have in mind that you might not be able to change it. So, be sure you are selecting the layout that will help you create a good email marketing template.
Step #2: Edit the Template
Once you select the Basic Layout you want, you will be taken to the Template Editor where the customization starts.
The page is divided into two. On the left side, you will see the preview of the template. So, as you are editing, the edits will be shown live on the preview on the left-hand side of the screen.
On the right-hand side, you have the tools that will help you customize the template. A quick explanation of those tools is given below:
- Text: The text toolbox is what you need to enter text content. So, you have to drag and drop it on the position in the preview page (the left-hand side of the screen) so you can enter the text where you want to appear in your email.
- Boxed Text: This is a special type of text box that allows you to enter text that will be boxed or close to each other. That way, there wouldn’t be much space between the text sections.
- Divider: To prevent the other content in the mail from overlapping or being closer, you can use the Divider toolbox to add some space.
- Image: If you want to add images or pictures to the email, you can use the Image toolbox to do that by dragging and dropping where you want the image to appear. When you do that, click on the image icon to open up the tab on the right-hand side. You can then upload a new image or enter the URL of an existing image so it can be attached to the content of the email.
- Image Group: This allows you to enter multiple images to appear as a group. It is more of a slideshow.
- Image Card: Allows you to enter an image in the form of a card.
- Image + Caption: Do you have something to say about the image? This drag and drop tool allows the images to appear on the left side and the caption or description of the image on the right.
- Social Share: You can drag and drop this button into the preview page so the recipients of the email can share the email on their social media pages, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
- Social Follow: Would you like your email recipients to follow you on your social media handles? This feature allows you to customize and add your social media pages into the email.
Step #3: Editing the Template
Now that you understand some of the tools and elements that make up the templates, let’s now look at how to edit them.
Editing any of the elements you dragged and dropped on the preview page is easy. All you need do is to click on the element (located on the left-hand side of the page) so it opens up on the right-hand side. You can use the tools therein to customize the template.
Note: There is more to customizing your Mailchimp templates. Keep in mind that the major concentration is on the “Blocks” section, which you can see in the screenshot below. However, the “Style” section also comes in handy.
So, when you are through with customizing the content of the email, click on “Save & Close” so you will edit the other (Design) section.
The Style section has different elements that will help your Mailchimp template look well. Some of them are:
- Page: Allows you to edit the structure of the entire page
- Preheader: You can use this to edit the placeholder on the top of the preview page into any other content you want to be there.
- Header: Change the header of the email template
- Body: Change or adjust the body of the email template using elements like Background, Text Align, Height, Fonts, Text Colors.
- Footer: What content do you want to appear in the footer? The footer is the last content in your Mailchimp template. That is where your business name, address and contact details are included. You can customize those details using the Footer element.
- Mobile Styles: Have in mind that the Mailchimp template is designed with desktop and PC interfaces in mind. So, you have to use the Mobile Styles element to customize how the content of the email appears when accessed from mobile devices.
- Referral Badge: This element is usually there if you are using a free or trial Mailchimp account. In this case, you can choose the size and type of Mailchimp logo (called MonkeyRewards/Referral Badge) that appears after the footer.
Before Sending Your First Email Marketing Campaign
The next step is to be sure that everything you customized is working as it ought. The essence of this test is to avoid hiccups and higher bounce rates on your sent emails because the recipients might not be pleased with the outlook.
There are two ways to test the Mailchimp template you just customized. You can do that by using the Preview Mode that shows you how the email you send will appear on desktop and mobile devices, as well as an email inbox.
Desktop View:
Mobile View:
Inbox View:
The second option is to trigger a Test Email to your email address so you can see how the email appears when accessed from a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet.
Mailchimp Segmentation
The success of every email marketing campaign must be measured so you can be sure that the desired outcome is attained. That informs the reason for adding segmentation as a tool in email marketing software.
The Mailchimp segmentation tool allows you to create segments of your email recipients depending on their activities.
Mailchimp Deliverability
When measuring the success of an email marketing campaign, one important element to consider is the Deliverability. It has to do with the receipt of the email by the target audience.
Sadly, many subscribers do not get emails because of some reason. It could be that the email sent to them contained some words that are promotional, such as “Buy,” “Sell” and “Discount.”
In some other cases, the lower deliverability rate of emails is because those emails didn’t reflect in the “Primary” or “Inbox” tab of the users. Rather, they appear in the “Promotions” tab, which is rarely checked by email users.
Mailchimp deliverability is usually higher because most of the emails are delivered to the inbox of the recipients. Also, it makes sense that the recipients of the emails should add the sender (being you) to their address book to reduce the spam/bounce rate.
Mailchimp Pop-ups
Pop-up forms are excellent methods of getting new leads and attracting new subscribers.
Mailchimp pop-ups can be used and integrated into many places. For example, you can use the Form Builder to build, design, and translate your forms for different use cases.
After designing the pop-up form, you can then copy the code for the form and embed it on your website, enter it into the emails you send, or share on your social networks to get new subscribers.
Mailchimp Free Offer
Mailchimp is one of the few providers that offers a free email marketing service.
The notable aspect of the free offer is that it allows you to build an email list of up to 2,000 contacts. You will only be required to pay per new contact or subscribe to any of the premium plans when your contacts exceed 2,000.
Also, Mailchimp’s free offer allows you to send 10,000+ emails to your 2,000 contacts.
Mailchimp Reports, Stats & Analytics
Mailchimp equips you with an array of analytical tools that you can use to track the emails you send.
The table below shows you some of the reporting tools on Mailchimp and how you can use them to track your emails:
Analytical Tools | What Can Be Tracked |
Google Analytics | Tracks the conversion rate of the emails you send. |
Social Media | Tracks the share rate of the emails you send to your subscribers. |
Conversations | This allows you to check the number of persons or subscribers that sent replies to the emails you sent to them. |
Geo-Tracking | This feature tracks the location of the email recipients. |
In addition, you might want to use the data you got from the Mailchimp reports to re-engage or retarget the audience by running ads from Mailchimp or from third-party platforms like Facebook.
How Do You Log Into Mailchimp?
You cannot use Mailchimp to run your email marketing campaigns if you don’t have an account.
So, the first step is to sign-up for a Mailchimp account so you can start using the platform.
To do that, follow the steps below:
- Visit the Mailchimp website
- Click on the signup button
- Enter your details
To Log Into Your New Mailchimp Account, Follow the Steps in the Screenshot Below:
Using Mailchimp for Business
Who Is Mailchimp Right for?
So, who will find Mailchimp the most useful and comprehensive email marketing platform?
First, Mailchimp is right for you if you are looking for an all-in-one marketing solution. That is because Mailchimp provides a variety of marketing tools ranging from landing pages to forms and retargeting campaigns.
Second, you should consider using Mailchimp if you want to integrate email marketing into other platforms. Mailchimp has seamless integration with many platforms, including WordPress and Zapier.
Who Is It Not Right for?
As much as Mailchimp is one of the most popular email marketing platforms out there, it might not be the best for you.
You shouldn’t use Mailchimp if you are an aggressive affiliate marketer. The platform (Mailchimp)’s Terms of Use prohibits using it for certain types of affiliate marketing with strict measures of canceling your account being the outcome when you do so.
If you have complicated email automation sequences, Mailchimp might not be right for you, depending on your desired workflow. Other platforms such as ConvertKit or MailerLite tend to have cleaner and simpler automation tools and triggers.
If you are very budget conscious, you might find other email providers with fewer integrations and feature sets, and subsequently a lower price, that might fit your needs. See our “Mailchimp Alternatives” section below for other options.
How Bloggers and Content Creators Can Use Mailchimp
Are you a content creator or blogger? Mailchimp can help you in engaging your readers in a variety of ways.
Here are some of the ways that Mailchimp helps bloggers and content creators:
- Create sign-up and pop-up forms for collecting subscribers.
- Share new content directly to the email box of their readers.
How to Use Mailchimp with E-Commerce
Mailchimp allows e-commerce merchants and retailers to sell their products by using its email marketing service.
Some of the e-commerce features of Mailchimp include:
- Mailchimp helps you to monitor the purchase behavior of customers
- Use Mailchimp to generate leads and nurture them to become steady buyers and customers from your e-commerce store
- Create segments and send purchase-based automated emails to customers and leads
- Use the built-in Mailchimp CRM tool to understand customer behaviors
Below are some of the e-commerce companies & integrations that are available for Mailchimp users:
How to Use Mailchimp for a Service Business
If your business offers a service, there are opportunities for you on Mailchimp.
Some of the benefits of using Mailchimp for your service business are:
- Following-up when someone clicks on a link in your emails.
- Provide value to your customers or audiences using the easy-to-use Mailchimp email templates.
- Mailchimp allows you to segment and to send emails to a targeted audience.
25 Mailchimp Tips / Secrets / Hacks / Tricks
Here are some Mailchimp to help you to maximize your use of the platform:
- Import new subscribers or email addresses in a CSV or TXT File.
- Use Mailchimp A/B Testing to see which subject line will result in the best performance.
- Automate your emails.
- Send your emails at the time when subscribers are most likely to open.
- Save your winning template so you can re-use as often as needed.
- Use the Mailchimp mobile app to facilitate your email marketing.
- Use the Mailchimp multi-user account feature to add more team members and delegate tasks to them.
- Install the Mailchimp plugin on your WordPress site so you can collect more signups.
- Run Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns from your Mailchimp dashboard using the analytical data you have from previous campaigns.
- Use Mailchimp to send shopping cart abandonment reminders
- Integrate with existing technologies, including Shopify, PayPal, and Salesforce.
- Use Mailchimp’s Experts directly to hire someone to help you with your email marketing needs.
- Send follow-up emails to reengage customers and keep them happy.
- Drive traffic to your Mailchimp landing page using Facebook Ads and follow it up with Welcome Emails.
- Integrate beautiful and attractive designs to your emails to increase the conversion rates.
- Grow your brand with Mailchimp by using the trio of Pop-Up Forms + Welcome Email + Follow-Up Email.
- Use demographic data on Mailchimp to create content targeted to specific audiences.
- Segment your audience so you will be sending the right message to the right people.
- Use Merge Tags to personalize the emails you send.
- You can use Mailchimp to retarget people that found you on social media.
- Avoid making an offer to new subscribers when you send the Welcome Email because it can cause them to unsubscribe.
- Offer discounts at intervals if you sell products or offer a service so the subscribers will be forced to get hold of the offer.
- Consider re-engaging the customers who haven’t purchased from you in a while.
- Celebrate your subscribers or buyers by sending out annual emails for anniversaries or birthdays.
- Use the past purchase behaviors of your customers to recommend new products/services they might be interested in.
Mailchimp Alternatives
Mailchimp isn’t the only email marketing platform out there. There are many others that are in strong competition with it.
Some of Mailchimp’s competitors are:
- Get Response
- Aweber
- ActiveCampaign
- MailerLite
- ConvertKit
- Sendy
- Campaign Monitor
- Constant Contact
- HubSpot
- Sendinblue
- SendFox
Mailchimp and Zapier
Zapier is a task automation platform that allows you to integrate your web apps automatically. You can integrate your account on Zapier.
You can use Mailchimp and Zapier to:
- Clean up your email lists
- Generate leads for your email lists
- Engage and re-engage your e-commerce customers
- Connect to other web applications
Full List of Mailchimp Integrations
Below, we have detailed the full list of Mailchimp integrations, as well as what those integrations will do for you and your email marketing campaigns:
Type of Integration | Purpose | Apps |
Analytics | Makes it easier to gain insights and analyze the success of email marketing campaigns. | Dasheroo Grow Adverity Datatap Just the Facts LeadsBridge Cyfe EA Pro Reports Hull |
Booking & Scheduling | These integrations make it easy for Mailchimp users to automate their tasks. | Acuity Scheduling Bookeo Jane Calendly Book Like A Boss for Mailchimp Resurva BookSteam Zoho Cliq MakePlans |
Design | Makes it flexible for graphic design apps to be usable with Mailchimp. | Canva Adobe Photoshop Postcards Stripo Drupal Mailchimp and Mandrill Integration Getsitecontrol Chamaileon |
Marketing | Take your marketing game to the next level with the seamless integration of your Mailchimp account with these marketing apps. | Behavioral Track & Trigger Suite AgencyAnalytics Burst SMS DialMyCalls Automated Product Replenishment Coupon Carrier Gleam Competitions |
Productivity | Being productive can be tasking, but with the integration of Mailchimp with your productive apps, it becomes easier. | Slack Datawise Intellinote |
Social Media | Do you want to know how your business is performing on social media? These Mailchimp integrations will help you! | Hike Tray.io AddThis for Mailchimp Mailchimp’s Hootsuite Integration Glances Reportei |
Ticketing & Event Management | Managing tickets’ distribution and events just got better with these apps that use Mailchimp. | Eventbrite Attendstar Lil Regie Sync with Mailchimp EventHQ |
Capturing Leads | Getting new customers starts with getting their details using these Mailchimp integrations. | OptinMonster Typeform Instapage Unbounce |
There are many other Mailchimp integrations that are not listed here. You can get a comprehensive list of the Mailchimp integrations here: https://mailchimp.com/integrations/
Migration to Mailchimp – How Easy / Hard Is It?
Migrating from your previous email marketing platform to Mailchimp needn’t be technical.
Mailchimp already specified the processes to do that – and they are fairly easy.
To migrate from another email marketing platform to Mailchimp, here is what to do:
- Download your contacts or email list from the Email Service Provider (ESP) you want to migrate from.
- Sign up for a Mailchimp account. You can use the free account at first and subscribe to the premium plan later.
- Create a new audience (if you are using the free version) or multiple audiences if you are using the paid plan.
- Import the contacts or email lists you downloaded to your Mailchimp account in the form of a CSV or TXT file.
- Segment the contacts (i.e. subscribed, unsubscribed, or cleaned).
- Create your first emails on Mailchimp and send them.
Wrapping Up
The biggest gorilla in the email platform space, Mailchimp provides an all-in-one email marketing solution.
I hope you’ve found this comprehensive guide of Mailchimp’s features, uses and pricing useful.
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