Unlock the Power of MailChimp Campaigns: Best Practices

According to HubSpot, there are 4 billion daily email users, with Statista projecting that this will reach almost 4.9 billion by 2027; this presents marketers with the opportunity to leverage this highly popular platform and this can be done through outlets such as a MailChimp campaign. 

In 2023, the global e-mail marketing market was valued at 8.3 billion U.S. dollars, with this figure set to increase to 18.9 billion by 2028. In an era of exponential growth, it is essential that you create an optimised email marketing strategy that will capatilise on such a powerful asset.

Personalizing and distributing your email to a complete subscriber list, along with monitoring the outcomes, can be quite time-consuming and labor-intensive. That’s why we suggest setting up a MailChimp campaign. This well-known platform allows businesses to develop targeted email campaigns effortlessly. With its ready-made templates, automation capabilities, analytics, and easy broadcasting options, MailChimp handles all the technical aspects, letting you concentrate on crafting content and engaging with your audience.

In this post, we’ll be going through a step-by -step guide on how to set up a MailChimp campaign for your business from setting up your account and defining your audience to crafting a compelling campaign and tracking the results, it’ll all be covered here. Whether you want to promote a sale, drive traffic to your website, welcome new subscribers, or keep customers engaged, MailChimp has everything you need. This comprehensive guide will ensure your MailChimp campaign is effective and efficient.

Let’s show you how to set up a MailChimp campaign!

Creating Your MailChimp Account

Here’s a guide on how to set up a MailChimp account:

1. Go to MailChimp.com
2. Click on “Sign Up Free”
3. Select which plan you’d like to set up.
4. Provide the information required e.g. your name, email address, create a password, and set up the correct timezone.
5. Answer any questions related to your goals; type of business you have/industry you’re in; and your experience level with email marketing.
6. Connect your MailChimp to your website.
7. Set up business details e.g. name, address
8. Establish your administrator user roles and permissions.

It’s a very easy process and you’re ready to set your first MailChimp campaign!

Defining Your Target Audience

Now that your account is established, it’s time to create your mailing lists and subscriber groups. You can set up various lists from this point, such as a comprehensive list of all your subscribers or categorize them into distinct segments.

You might segment your subscribers based on criteria like whether they are existing customers or potential ones, their geographical location, their purchase history on your website, and the types of content they engage with online.

So how do you create a list? It’s easy, here’s the steps:

1. Head over to your MailChimp dashboard.
2. Hit the “Create List” button.
3. Add your subscribers manually or via third-party apps.
4. Ensure that subscriber details include name, email address, and location.

By segmenting your subscriber list, it means you can customise emails tailored specifically to different groups and enhance the relevancy of your campaign messages to a certain group. This will lead to better deliverability, open rates, and subscriber satisfaction.

Selecting the Right Email Template

MailChimp has a wide array of email templates for your MailChimp campaign. There’s templates with different layouts, designs and styles so it’s up to you to choose the one that you feel will resonate most with your audience whilst upholding your brand’s identity.

You can look for the perfect template based on a certain keyword, or you can filter by formats and colours, or simply have a scroll through. Here’s our top tips on choosing the perfect email template for your MailChimp campaign:

• Your brand’s visual style: Pick a template that reflects your brand’s overall style and appearance. For instance, is your brand characterized by a minimalist and sleek vibe, or is it more playful and lively?
• Type of campaign: Various templates are available based on the nature of your campaign. Is it a promotional email or a newsletter, for example?
• Intended audience: As mentioned earlier, it’s important to select a template that appeals to your target audience.
• Responsive design: Opt for a template that is mobile-friendly, as 65% of emails are accessed on mobile devices.

Crafting Compelling Email Content

Now that you’ve got the perfect template that matches your brand aesthetic while also appealing to your audience, you’ll want to customise it to make it your own! Let’s talk through the features you should add to your template:

• Captivating Subject Line: Craft an intriguing, powerful opener to boost reader engagement (caution: avoid misleading clickbait – it erodes trust and harms future outreach efforts).
• Streamlined Content: Keep your message focused and easy to skim. Incorporate visual elements like images and videos to enhance readability.
• Tailored Approach: Leverage MailChimp’s impressive customization features to address subscribers by name, reference their buying patterns, or appeal to their specific interests.
• Call to Action: Like social media captions, you’ll want a clear, strong, call to action to guide the subscriber to where you want them to go from your email or what you want them to do next.
• Branding: Make the template your own by incorporating your brand colours, font styles, and logos. This will help increase brand awareness and recognition.
• Proofread, proofread, proofread: To look credible and professional, you’ll want to make sure to avoid any SPG mistakes.

Schedule Your Email Delivery

Your MailChimp campaign is ready to be dispatched to your subscribers! In the Campaign Builder interface, navigate to the “Send” tab. From there, you can choose to send it immediately or schedule a specific date and time for distribution. We strongly advise against sending emails on weekends and during evenings, as these periods are generally less active for email engagement. MailChimp also includes a Send Time Optimization feature that identifies the best times to send your emails, which can enhance open and engagement rates. It’s also advisable to send a test email to yourself to confirm that your email appears as you intended.

This section allows for A/B testing your MailChimp campaign, where the platform sends slightly modified versions to distinct audience segments, helping you determine which approach yields the most effective results for your marketing efforts.

Analyzing Your Campaign Performance

Once your MailChimp campaign has reached its subscribers, it’s time to review your campaign performance. You’ll want to analyse stats such as:

• Open Rate: % of recipients who opened your email.
• Click-through-rate: % of recipients who clicked on a link within the email.
• Unsubscribe Rate: % of recipients who unsubscribed from your list after receiving email.
• Bounce Rate: % of emails that were returned as undeliverable due to invalid email addresses or spam filters.
• Conversion Rate: % of recipients who took the desired action e.g. purchased a product.

As you continue to create email campaigns, you’ll want to make a note of those that perform well against those that don’t as this will enable you to continually optimise your MailChimp campaign and boost open rates, engagement, and ultimately, conversions.

Key Takeaways on Setting Up a MailChimp Campaign

By now, you should know the basics on how to get started with your MailChimp campaign. We went through the process of setting up your account; choosing your audience; picking the perfect template; customising elements to fit your brand; sending out your campaign; and finally, reviewing campaign analytics. Let’s cover some of the key points to remember:

• Organise your subscriber list by segmenting them; this gives you the ability to send highly targeted and relevant emails to each group. Segmented email campaigns are attributed to 30% of revenue streams, so it is essential to optimise this fully.
• Ensure the template you choose is mobile-friendly.
• Customise the template by adding your own branding, images, and calls-to-action.
• Review vital post-send analytics like open, click through and unsubscribe rates to continually improve your MailChimp campaigns.

By leveraging the many features that Mailchimp offers, you can create high-quality, effective email campaigns tailored to your business goals and audience needs. Be sure to continually test and optimise based on past performance data as well.

Learn more about email marketing in the video below: