Email marketing is not an easy feat, though from research email marketing has an average ROI of 4400%. If there is any business strategy that we must deploy it should be email marketing. In this article as we look into the importance of email marketing we are going to be exploring one of the software designed for this purpose.
Importance of email marketing
Email marketing can never be ruled out in business because it’s what allows the following to occur in our businesses:
- Reach your audience with your sales message
- Build a relationship between you and your buyers
- Make sales
- Build brand awareness and trust
- Be one step ahead of your competitors
What is MailChimp?
MailChimp is a Software as a service, aka SaaS Company that provides email marketing services for large, small, individual business owners. Their main function is to help these businesses distribute their newsletters in periodic manner. Mailchimp is an easy to use, functional, and reliable software with a freemium package. A freemium package allows you to use a certain service for free but with limited features for a given period or until you decide to go for a paid plan.
History of MailChimp
To Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius, all they had in mind two decades ago, was just to create a software that could meet the email marketing needs of small businesses, however, little did they know that what they designed, would become the delight of all businesses.
Mailchimp as an email marketing service provider, was founded in Atlanta in 2001, and it quickly became an alternative to the oversized, expensive email software of the early 2000s. This gap that they took care of, gave them a marketing advantage over their much larger competitors, powering their success and enabling them to grow.
MailChimp’s feature/services
There is never a dull moment or second guessing when making use of MailChimp to send out emails to your audience and here are some of the very popular features that you need to know:
1. Customer Journey Builder: Customer journey builder is a MailChimp automation tool that helps you design customized and automated experience for your customers.
2. Landing pages: With MailChimp’s landing page you can promote your products or services and gain immediate subscribers.
3. Email templates: MailChimp provides you with email templates that are visually appealing, with easy drag and drop Editors, responsive layout and customizable features. With this you can craft letters that your customers would be glad to receive.
4. A/B testing: The A/B testing is one of the best strategy you can apply in email marketing or anything in relation to it like running ads. With it, it helps you to determine which campaign is doing better thereby helping you make an informed decision.
5. Segmentation: Segmentation is allows you to segment those in your email list into targeted groups using specific criteria like their demography, behavior, or preferences. Segmenting your email list, enables you to send out personalized emails.
7. Sign up forms: Sign up forms are forms you embed, in your website, or social media handles to capture you customer’s details. Mailchimp’s sign up forms you to easily design customized forms that allows you to get your subscriber’s information and grow your email list.
8. Subject Line Writer: The importance of subject lines, in increasing email’s click through rate can never be over emphasized. I believe this is why, Mailchimp must have added this to their features, because they know that with a compelling subject line, you will get your reader to open your emails.
9. Tags: Tags are what allow you to create a distinction between your subscribers. With MailChimp’s Tags you can categorize your subscribers, contacts and campaigns. This will make it easier for you to manage, filter and target specific customers within your subscribers.
10. Integration: Mailchimp’s integration allows you to connect your account with third parties like e-commerce sites, social media tools or CRM systems enabling you to streamline your marketing workflows and automate your task.
MailChimp Pricing Plans – Choose the Best Fit for Your Business
Mailchimp divided their plans into four categories, and like every other email marketing service providers out there, their plans and they are; free plan, essential plan, standard plan and the premium plan.
Free plan: Mailchimp’s free plan, allows you to use access some features for free, however, this plan is very limited and it will never allow you to carry the following action:
- Automation
- Schedule emails sends
- Have more than 500 subscribers
- Send more than 1000 letters per month
- MailChimp branding on your emails
- No schedule features.
Essential plan: This plan is an updated version of the free plan, offering additional features:
- Support for up to 50,000 subscribers
- Unlimited email sends
- Basic automation features
- Scheduled email sends
- A/B testing and analytics
- Customizable templates
- 24/7 email and chat support
- Mailchimp branding removed
PRICING
Mailchimp’s basic subscription costs $9.99 a month and is invoiced annually.
Standard plan: You can do the following without any limitations while using Mailchimp’s standard plan:
- Up to 100,000 subscribers are supported.
- Unlimited email sends
- Advanced automation features
- Scheduled email sends
- A/B testing and analytics
- Customizable templates
- 24/7 email and chat support
- Mailchimp branding removed
- Multivariate testing
- Retargeting ads
- Custom domains
The premium: Mailchimp’s premium plan is designed for large scale businesses and enterprises. It offers, advanced features to carry out complex marketing campaigns. Here are its basic features:
Premium Plan Features
- Support for unlimited subscribers
- Unlimited email sends
- Advanced automation features
- Scheduled email sends
- A/B testing and analytics
- Customizable templates
- 24/7 email and chat support
- Mailchimp branding removed
- Multivariate testing
- Retargeting ads
- Custom domains
- Advanced analytics and reporting
- Role-based access and permissions
- SSO (Single Sign-On) integration
How to get started on Mailchimp
There are 7 basic steps to take if you want to create a Mailchimp account and these steps are:
- Enter the Mailchimp website through your browser
- Click on the sign up button
- Input your details such as your email address, username and password.
- Provide your company name where needed.
- Go to your email and verify your account.
- Upgrade to a paid plan if necessary.
Setting up and customizing your email list
Follow these quick processes to set up and customize your first email list in Mailchimp:
1. Click on “Lists” and then “Create List” after logging into your MailChimp account.
2. Give your list a unique name, such as “Inkwrit Subscribers”.
3. Import contacts from spreadsheets, address books, and other sources.
4. To keep more data about your subscribers, create custom fields.
Customizing Your Email List
1. Segment your list: Select “Lists” and then “Segments” to break your list up into more manageable categories according to shared traits.
2. Create groups or tags: To classify subscribers and facilitate the sending of targeted emails, use groups or tags.
3. Establish automation rules: Select “Automation” to establish rules that update or delete subscribers from particular groups or segments automatically.
4. Customize your emails: To increase interaction, customize your emails using subscriber data.
Managing Your List
1. Keep your list healthy and productive by routinely eliminating subscribers who are not active or involved.
2. Track and evaluate performance: Track your email stats to see what is effective and ineffective.
Best Practices
These instructions and best practices will help you create and modify a productive email list in MailChimp therefore do the following.
1. Ensure subscribers have expressly chosen to receive emails from you by obtaining their explicit approval.
2. Make unsubscribing from your list simple for subscribers by offering clear unsubscribe options.
3. Provide valuable and pertinent content: Send your subscribers emails that are interesting, useful, and pertinent.
Common MailChimp Mistakes to Avoid
1. Spam filters and deliverability problems: Use a clear “From” name, steer clear of spammy keywords, and authenticate your domain to make sure your emails don’t wind up in spam folders.
2. Mistakes in list management and audience segmentation: Manage your list effectively by eliminating inactive subscribers, dividing up your audience, and personalizing your emails with groups and tags.
3. Excessive emailing and weariness: Steer clear of sending too many emails to your subscribers. Use automation to customize the frequency of your emails and space them apart.
4. Poor subject line and email content: Write attention-grabbing subject lines and email content that appeals to your readers. Make use of captivating headlines, succinct text, and pertinent graphics.
5. Insufficient mobile optimization: Use responsive themes, brief phrases, and obvious calls-to-action to make sure your emails display well on mobile devices.
You may enhance your email marketing campaigns, raise engagement, and increase conversions by avoiding these typical blunders.
Wrapping up
Make sure your emails look fantastic on mobile devices, organize your email list, and produce interesting content if you want to get the most out of MailChimp. You’ll have no trouble reaching your email marketing objectives if you adhere to these easy procedures.
Anyone searching for a dependable and user-friendly email marketing tool should consider MailChimp. It’s a great choice for both individuals and organizations because of its many features and free plan.
Related terms
Commercial offer — an oral or written offer of cooperation. It contains both elements of advertising and commercial information, conditions of future partnership.
Lead generation — formation of a contact database (leads) for further use of this data.
Conversion — the percentage of site visitors who perform the actions you need (for example, a purchase or order a service) relative to the total number of visitors. Conversion can be calculated not only for the site but also for its specific page.
Copywriting — writing various advertising texts.
Lead — a user’s action on a website when they leave their contact information (name, email, etc.). Also, the visitor who performs this action can be called a “lead”.
Examples of companies using Mailchimp
Spotify uses Mailchimp for email marketing, including:
- Targeted Emails: Spotify segments its audience by music genre, interests, and other factors to send personalized emails.
- User reactivation: emails to users who have not logged into the app for some time.
- Promotions: letters about new releases, concerts and other events.
Airbnb uses Mailchimp to:
- Booking confirmations: Airbnb sends emails to confirm your booking and remind you of upcoming trips.
- Recommendations: Letters containing recommendations for accommodations, activities, and attractions in the destinations where guests are traveling.
- Surveys: Survey emails to get users’ opinions about your products and services.
Evernote uses Mailchimp to:
- Welcome emails: Evernote welcomes new users and helps them get started with the app.
- Tips and Tricks: Emails with tips and tricks on how to use the app.
- News: emails containing news about the company, products, and services.
The New York Times uses Mailchimp to:
- Newsletters: daily and weekly newsletters with news.
- Paid subscriptions: emails with information about paid subscriptions.
- Special offers: letters with special offers, and discounts.
Nike uses Mailchimp to:
- Personalized recommendations: Emails with cutomized product recommendations.
- Motivations: letters with encouragement and inspiration for sports activities.
- Exclusive offers: emails with exclusive offers and discounts.
Become an inkwrit author today here! Thanks for joining us!
