Optimize Email Marketing with Mailchimp: A Complete Guide for Effective Campaigns

Email marketing uses email to maintain relationships with clients. Many businesses maximize the usefulness of email marketing. At the inception of email marketing, it was cumbersome to manage hundreds of emails. Now, several platforms optimize Email marketing.

Mailchimp is one such platform. To make the best of MailChimp, you need to understand how it operates. In this guide, you will learn effective email marketing with MailChimp. This guide covers the following topics: 

Let's get right in.

What is Mailchimp?

what is mailchimp?

Mailchimp is a web based platform with various marketing tools for email marketing. It has been serving clients since 2001. Web designers Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius 2001 created this tool as a side project to build email lists. Six years later, they ditched web design to focus on making MailChimp better for Email.

Users around the world use Mailchimp to create eye-catching email campaigns for their businesses. Over 11 million businesses use MailChimp to move to the next level. This platform is popular for many reasons including intuitive tools and optimization. 

It is designed for both beginners and advanced users. MailChimp is safe to use as it ensures emails are compliant with regulations. Other features include automation workflows, detailed analytics to track performance, and integration with e-commerce platforms.

How Does Mailchimp Work for Email Marketing?

Initially, MailChimp simply gathers a list of emails into an email marketing database. Then, it sends a mail broadcast to every user on the list. Now, tools go beyond broadcast to e-commerce, metrics, and many more functions. It sends mail, measures performance, and integrates with other marketing tools to improve client relationships and conversion.

Benefits of Using Mailchimp for Email Marketing

benefits of using mailchimp for email marketing

Take a look at the specific email marketing advantages when using MailChimp. 

High Return on Investment 

A notable benefit of MailChimp is the high ROI. Businesses require little to no cost to use MailChimp. A business with less than 1,000 email subscribers can begin with the free basic plan.

When a brand invests in MailChimp, the brand grows to generate high revenue. MailChimp is particularly beneficial to small growing businesses with budget constraints.

User-Friendly Interface 

MailChimp is optimized for both desktop and mobile devices. Beginners and experts can have a great user experience with MailChimp. It is intuitive and easy to operate. Small businesses do not need experts to create and manage email campaigns on MailChimp.

Integration

Another reason why a lot of B2B businesses use MailChimp is that it allows for seamless integration. If a business uses other marketing tools, MailChimp works well with other email warm up tools. Also, it can be integrated with various e-commerce platforms. 

Brands on ecommerce sites like Shopify or eBay can integrate these sites with Mailchimp. This way, brands can drive more sales via email campaigns. 

Pre-designed Templates

Mailchimp comes with templates that simplify email design. There are dozens of awesome templates brands can use to create email campaigns. Brands can customize the subject line, text, layout, and other elements to make it intuitive for people. 

These templates increase conversion for the millions of brands that have used them. So maximize this benefit of pre-designed templates that come with MailChimp. 

Create personalized content

Email marketing is more effective when an email is directed to the reader. MailChimp helps to achieve this as it helps marketers personalize content for better results. 

Brands can use the merge tag and email finder tool on MailChimp to craft personal content. Regular personalized content using the merge tags assures a brand of trust with clients.  

Running A/B testing

The paid MailChimp section makes it easy to A/B test campaign variations. A/B testing occurs when a brand sends two versions of the same campaign to half the audience each to observe the response.

During an email campaign, brands may wonder what clients resonate with. They try to figure out which email appeals to which audience. With Mailchimp, brands can carry out A/B testing to test email marketing campaigns. 

Detailed Analytics

Another advantage of using MailChimp is detailed analytics. MailChimp has a dashboard that displays real-time metrics. This metric analyses elements that give insights into open and click-through rates to determine campaign success. Use Mailchimp’s data reporting to enhance email marketing knowledge.

Landing Pages

MailChimp supports the creation of landing pages. Not only that, it offers tools to embed sign-up forms on websites. When visitors fill out the forms, their information is placed in your mailing list automatically. This makes it easy for brands to send welcome emails, follow up, or personalized emails.

Signing Up to Mailchimp

signing up to mailchimp

To start with MailChimp, you need no download or installation. It is a web-based application. All accounts start on a Free plan, so you do not need a credit card at the signup stage.

Creating an Account

The first step is to visit the Mailchimp website and click on ‘sign up.’ Next, choose a plan from the free, essentials, standard and premium plans. The Standard or Essential plan goes with one month of free trial. Then, enter your business email address, username and passcode.

Verifying Your Email Address

The next step is to verify your business email address. Head to your inbox for the account activation email. Click Activate Account to activate your account. MailChimp verifies email addresses to prevent spam sign ups. 

Setting Up Your Profile

Log in with your newly created username and password to continue your setup. You can create your profile which includes the business’s name, physical mailing address, brand logo, and other brand details.

Connecting Other Accounts 

After setting up your profile, you can connect with other people. You can have multiple logins for different users in your company. At this stage, you can integrate google, social media accounts, e-commerce stores, or marketing tools like email lookup tools

Building Your Email List

The next stage after signing up with MailChimp is building your email list.

Reach prospects who are ready to buy

Importing Subscribers from an Existing List

Mailchimp facilitates the import and export of contact lists or previous subscribers. The number of subscribers depends on your plan. 

Here is how to go about it.

Click on ‘Audience’

Click ‘Audience dashboard dropdown’

Click 'Current Audience' and select the audience you want to work with

Click ‘Manage Audience’

Select ‘Import contact', then click Continue.

Integration tiles will now pop up — you can choose the platform you wish to use to import your existing B2B contact list

Brands can upload a file, import from another tool, or simply copy and paste. You could buy an email list. Companies like BookYourData provide pre-built, high-quality lists to enhance marketing efforts.

[CTA1]

Creating a Signup Form to Collect Subscribers

Mailchimp allows brands to generate a code to embed the opt-in form on their website or to share it on other fields. You can draft a series of opt-in forms with Mailchimp’s form builder. 

Follow these steps to create a sign in form:

Click on ‘Audience’

Click on ‘Signup Forms’ 

Select the Form Builder tile, then click Manage Forms.

You can build a form from scratch, design using templates, and translate your form. Translate allows you to set a default language and turn on auto-translate.

Managing User Permissions and Access Levels

If you have multiple team members, manage the access level of team members. 

Go to the Profile and click Account and Billing

Click ‘Users.’

Click 'Edit' to choose the level of access for each user. 

Managers have the right to revoke a user's access.

Designing and Customizing Emails

designing and customizing emails

MailChimp is an email marketing tool that enables users to design eye-catching campaigns. Here is how you can design and customize mail. 

Choosing a Template or Starting From Scratch

MailChimp provides users with two email design options. Brands can either create their emails from scratch or choose from an existing template. 

Choosing Pre-Designed Templates

Mailchimp comes with already-created templates. These template designs are optimized for audience engagement. To create a regular email, 

Click Content menu

Click Email Templates

Click Create a Template

Select any pre designed Templates OR

Click Start from scratch to Create a new Template

Edit your content in the selected Template 

Click Save and Exit.

Your marketing plan determines how many template images you can access.

Starting from Scratch

Designers can choose to create templates from scratch. Click on the Code your own tab to import or paste in HTML for the new template layout.

Customizing Content, Color, and Layout of Emails

After selecting a template, select a custom color and layout. Brands can adjust a template design to fit their identity. You can build the email content by adding content blocks. It is at this point that you can modify content to suit laptop and mobile device interfaces. 

Email Marketing Tips to Get You Started

Create an Email Marketing Plan

Before you begin with MailChimp, have a clear brand vision. The common goals for email marketing are generating leads, creating awareness, and increasing sales. Next, know your audience. Have a subscriber list and divide this list into common segments.

Select the idea behind each mail. MailChimp works for any kind of mail, from promotional emails to newsletters. 

Design Your Emails

After setting a plan, open the Mailchimp website to design your email. When drafting, ensure your design carries a clear and concise message. MailChimp focuses on creating eye-catching campaigns.

So, select easy-to-read templates, and lay out campaign elements in a hierarchy with the main point at the top. You can make changes at any point in your design. Lastly, including a clear call to action (CTA) in each email. 

Test Your Emails

It is important to have a view of an email campaign from the receiver's end. After creating your content, send these test emails to co-workers and receive feedback. This test email gives you an idea of your email in different designs. It also confirms that the links within an email are not broken.

A/B testing is also important during the preparation phase. With A/B testing, you can test different versions of a campaign, to see which version will yield more results. 

Marketing Automation 

MailChimp features options to automate email sequences. Brands can set their email content to go out at a later date. Automation should be triggered by a client's action. You can select from schedule update emails to the existing subscribers in the B2B database. For example, welcome messages for new subscribers and abandoned cart reminders to update customers on purchases they made from the store. Automation is useful in many ways, including scheduled for follow-up emails, cross-sell and upsell campaigns.

Measure Your Performance

Measuring your performance is another useful tip in email marketing. Brands can measure performance using the following metrics:

  • Open rate
  • Click-through rates
  • Bounce rate 
  • Unsubscribe rate 
  • Spam score

These key performance indicators (KPIs) are available with MailChimp.  

You can compare email campaign performance over time and against industry email marketing statistics.

How to Use MailChimp Mid-Funnel to Nurture Leads

The mid-funnel is the part of the marketing funnel where warm leads sit. They are past the awareness stage and will make a purchase soon. MailChimp helps to nurture these sets of leads to the final sale. 

Segment and Target: With MailChimp, businesses can divide subscribers based on interests and engagement levels. Then create email marketing campaigns to target each subscriber group. 

Personalize: Now that you have target subscribers, draft personalized content for subscribers in each group. Ensure to include the lead’s name or refer to a recent action they took. This passes a message of the intentionality of your brand.

Drip Campaigns: The mid-funnel leads have a high level of interest. So introduce them to products or services with automated drip campaigns on MailChimp. 

How to Use MailChimp to Nurture Existing Customers

While businesses try to generate new leads, do not neglect existing customers. Use MailChimp's marketing automation features to nurture existing customers. MailChimp is optimized for anything that relates to audience engagement.

You can schedule emails to send updates and inform clients about exclusive offers, discounts, coupons, and promotions. Also, you can send in periodic surveys to hear from your clients.

Using Mailchimp for Email Marketing

Mailchimp is a widely used email marketing platform. It comes with numerous tools that simplify the process of creating and sending out email campaigns. With MailChimp it’s easy to manage your contacts and email addresses.

The features of MailChimp include pre-design templates, which take much of the work out of creating marketing emails, A/B testing, segmentation, analytics, and marketing automation. MailChimp also allows for seamless integrations with ecommerce and other marketing platforms. 

These settings are easy to navigate. MailChimp is a cost-effective solution that helps businesses save time and money. Brands also experienced an overall increase in conversion with MailChimp. 

If you want to expand your email marketing capacity do so with BookYourData. Bookyourdata is a top provider that offers a massive database that allows you to buy email list from up to 250M B2B contacts. You can integrate BookYourData with MailChimp at no extra cost. 

FAQs

Is Mailchimp Hard to Learn?

No, MailChimp is not hard to learn. It has a user-friendly interface and an intuitive design. It is suitable for beginners and experts.

What Is the Best Alternative to Mailchimp?

MailChimp offers numerous opportunities. However, if you need more features, BookYourData stands out as an excellent alternative. 

Is Mailchimp Free?

Mailchimp has a free plan with basic features. To access advanced features, you can subscribe to the essential, standard, or premium plans.

[CTA1]

[CTA2]

Share with the community.
Back to Top