If you’ve ever dipped your toes into the water of email marketing, you’ve almost certainly heard of Mailchimp. Mailchimp is one of the most popular platforms for managing email marketing campaigns, thanks in part to its intuitive tools, its optimization possibilities, and the fact that you can start using it for free.
But simply having access to a tool like this doesn't guarantee success. In fact, many Mailchimp users end up frustrated that their open rates and conversion rates never improve.
So what steps can you take to use Mailchimp to stimulate your email marketing figures?
The Impact of Mailchimp
Mailchimp is popular because it’s highly effective for most individuals and businesses. That doesn’t mean it’s a perfect tool.
But if you desire to make the most of this platform, you need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of Mailchimp better so you can emphasize the former and compensate for the latter.
How to Improve Email Marketing Results on Mailchimp
What steps should you take to improve your email marketing results when you use Mailchimp?
- Select the right account tier. First, be prepared to select the appropriate account tier. Many newcomers to the email marketing arena understand that Mailchimp is potentially a free platform, so they tend to assume the free one will be adequate to address their business needs. But the higher-tier paid accounts provide access to broader reach, expanded features, and more effective tools to flesh out your promotional campaigns. If you’re just getting started, or have a small user base, you may not require a paid tier. But if you’re hoping to make a big impact, you’re more likely to require one of the higher subscriptions. Paid account tier features change somewhat regularly, so make sure you review the perks that come with each tier before you make a decision.
- Import and consolidate subscribers. Email campaigns are strongest when you have a strong list of subscribers to begin with. That’s why one of your first moves after you sign up for Mailchimp should be to import and consolidate all your subscribers. If you have multiple sources of customer information, make sure you tap into all of them. Mailchimp’s useful import feature makes it simple to create new lists, combine information, and scrub your records of any duplicate entries.
- Use Mailchimp’s existing templates. Mailchimp has dozens of awesome templates you can use as the basis for your email campaigns. Some users avoid these, apparently hoping to come up with a more original design, but these are regarded as effective templates for a reason: They’ve proven themselves historically. Just be sure to make enough changes that your campaign has a reasonably distinctive design.
- Use embedded videos. With Viewed, it's easy to send videos that play automatically within your email and send them through Mailchimp. All you have to do is follow the steps in this tutorial. Videos have been proven to be more attractive and engaging for most audiences, allowing you to create emails that improve your conversion rate by up to 170% and increase your sales. Because this tool is so easy to use, your biggest challenge is going to be creating videos that resonate with your target audience.
- Always preview and test. Mailchimp makes it easy to preview and test your email. After you’re finished with writing and design, you can immediately request a preview to see what your finished email will look like. This is your first chance to spot any mistakes you’ve made and correct them. When you’re finished with that step, you can move to testing your email, and ensure it can hit recipient mailboxes as intended. You should be 100 percent confident in the performance of your email before you hit send.
- AB test your subject lines. With the higher tiers of Mailchimp subscriptions, you’ll gain access to many interactive tools that can help you coordinate and execute a campaign. Among these, you’ll enjoy access to split testing tools, so be sure to take advantage of them. One of the most important parts of your emails is going to be their subject line; without an effective one, many recipients may not even open your message. Use multiple and differing subject lines in your campaigns so you can measure and analyze the differences in performance between them. Once you have that information, you can craft even better subject lines in the future.
- Practice effective send time optimization. With a paid subscription, you’ll also get access to send time optimization tools within Mailchimp. The program keeps track of when and how users engage with your emails, and can distribute email blasts across multiple time slots so you can pinpoint the ideal time and day of the week to message your audience.
- Automate everything you can. One of the best features of Mailchimp is its automation function. Once you’ve set up your account, you can create intricate drip email campaigns that deploy automatically, with no manual intervention necessary. These have many advantages: they can save time, improve consistency, and reduce the potential for errors. Try to automate as much of your campaign as you can, and only expend manual effort when you review data, create new campaigns, or resolve specific issues that come up.
- Take advantage of customer service. Mailchimp has an excellent reputation for its customer service. They want to keep all their users, especially paid subscribers, so if you’re ever confused about a feature, or can’t find the tool you need within the platform, don’t hesitate to reach out to support.
- Report regularly. The secret to becoming an effective email marketer is learning how to read your data. The more information you have, and the better you understand that intelligence, the better you’ll be able to plan and execute subsequent campaigns. Mailchimp’s reporting tools make it easy to generate reports and review them, so there’s no excuse for skipping the measurement and analysis phase of development.
Create high-impact email marketing campaigns using Mailchimp and Viewed. Don’t wait and miss out on the benefits – start your 30-day free trial now!