What is Mailchimp Used for: Can It Grow Your Potential?
Imagine reaching thousands of clients directly, one-on-one, without relying on algorithms. This is the promise of email marketing, a rapidly growing industry valued at over $17 billion. With email, you send highly personalized email messages to each customer based on their specific needs, preferences, or past interactions.
Unlike paid advertising, where you’re competing for attention, email marketing gives you direct access to your own list of customers. However, to achieve that, you need a powerful tool. One of the most popular platforms is Mailchimp.
Founded in 2001 as simple email marketing software for small businesses, Mailchimp was acquired by Intuit in 2021. Despite its growth and expansion, it remains a user-friendly choice for those new to digital marketing.
In this article, you can learn the following:
- What is Mailchimp used for?
- What features does it provide?
- What are the advantages?
- What are the limitations?
What is Mailchimp Used For: What It Can Do
Mailchimp is a versatile marketing platform that excels at building email lists.
Its core functions include email lead generation, mass email marketing, and social media email marketing. Beyond these essential features, Mailchimp also offers tools for creating websites and managing e-commerce stores.
Here is the list of Mailchimp’s main features:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Email Campaigns | Create professional and engaging email newsletters, promotional campaigns, etc. |
| Contact Management | Build and organize email lists, develop a segmentation strategy based on various criteria. |
| Design Templates | Choose from a variety of customizable email campaign templates to create visually appealing emails. |
| Automation | Set up automated workflows (like welcome emails, abandoned cart email reminders) to nurture leads and increase conversions. |
| Analytics | Track email performance metrics, including open rates, click-through rates, and email conversions. |
| Landing Pages | Create landing pages to capture leads and drive traffic to your website. |
| Social Media Integration | Connect your social media accounts to Mailchimp and coordinate your marketing efforts across channels. |
In essence, Mailchimp aids companies in managing and corresponding with their clients, consumers, and other relevant stakeholders. Let us examine these Mailchimp features in more detail.
1. Audience Segmentation
Mailchimp allows you to manage your mailing list and segment subscribers effectively. This audience segmentation enables you to send highly targeted emails that resonate with your audience based on behavior, psychographics, and demographics.
The main advantages of segmentation:
- Targeted Campaigns: Deliver relevant content to specific segments.
- Personalized Messages: Create subject lines and email copy that resonates with each recipient.
- Increased Conversions: Promote the right products at the right time to drive more sales.
2. Build Email Campaigns
Mailchimp enables businesses to create, send, and manage email marketing campaigns. From newsletters to promotional emails and product updates, Mailchimp provides the tools to nurture your audience.
Mailchimp highlights the following email-building features::
- Intuitive Builder: Easily design stunning emails with our drag-and-drop editor.
- Pre-Designed Templates: Choose from a variety of professionally designed templates to get started quickly.
- Customization: Personalize your emails with images, colors, and links to social media.
Mailchimp is great for sending mass emails, according to users, but it is not the best choice for highly personalized, one-to-one emails. It’s designed for sending lots of emails at once and might not have all the features you need for individual campaigns.
3. Email Automation
Email automation is a powerful tool for e-commerce businesses.
Mailchimp’s automation features let you set up:
- Triggered emails: Set up emails to be sent automatically based on specific triggers, such as sign-ups, purchases, or abandoned carts.
- Workflows: Create complex automation email sequences to guide customers through the sales funnel.
- A/B testing: Experiment with different email designs and content to optimize your campaigns.
- Segmentation: Target specific customer segments with tailored messages.
- Analytics: Track the performance of your email campaigns and make data-driven decisions..
By automating these Mailchimp features, you can deliver timely, personalized messages to your customers, boosting email engagement and driving sales.
4. Track and Optimize Your Email Campaigns
Mailchimp’s comprehensive analytics tools provide valuable insights into your email campaign performance. Track email campaign metrics like open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and revenue generated to optimize your campaigns and make data-driven decisions that maximize your ROI.
By leveraging Mailchimp’s analytics features, you can gain insights into your email marketing efforts, identify areas for improvement.
5. A/B Testing for Optimal Results
With Mailchimp’s A/B testing feature, you can test out various subject lines, content arrangements, and calls to action for your email campaigns. You can determine which version most appeals to your audience and adjust your campaigns to increase engagement and conversions by testing and comparing different iterations.
6. Capture Leads with Mailchimp’s Signup Forms
Grow your email list and capture leads by adding Mailchimp’s opt-in email forms to your website or landing pages.
Mailchimp signup form options you can create:
| Form Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Pop-Ups | Capture attention before visitors leave your page. |
| Embedded Forms | Integrate seamlessly into your website’s design. |
| Contact Forms | Capture inquiries from website visitors. |
| Custom Fields | Choose from a variety of form fields to gather the data you need. |
| GDPR Compliance | Add a checkbox to ensure compliance with GDPR and obtain explicit consent from subscribers. |
What is the Advantage of Using Mailchimp?
For those who are unfamiliar with email marketing platforms, Mailchimp is a good begginer’s option because of its user-friendly interface and numerous integrations.
Besides that, Mailchimp offers several advantages for businesses:
- Additional Features: This all-in-one marketing platform offers a wide range of features, such as email marketing, landing pages, automation, and analytics.
- Acceptable Cost: Mailchimp offers a variety of pricing plans to suit different business needs and budgets.
- Integration Capabilities: It integrates with other well-known platforms and tools, including CRM systems and e-commerce platforms.
- Excellent Support: Mailchimp provides decent customer support resources, including documentation, tutorials, and a dedicated support team.
Overall, Mailchimp’s combination of ease of use, comprehensive features, affordability, integration capabilities, and good support makes it a popular choice for businesses of all sizes.
Mailchimp’s Disadvantages: What It Can’t Do
While Mailchimp is a popular email marketing platform, it has certain limitations that may not meet the needs of all businesses. Let’s evaluate them before you choose Mailchimp.
Let’s discuss Mailchimp’s disadvantages:
- Individual Email Sending: Mailchimp is primarily designed for sending mass email campaigns and may not be suitable for sending individual emails. You can send an individual email campaign but that is a complex process.
- Limited CRM email marketing functionality: Mailchimp can store contacts and segment them into audiences, but its CRM capabilities are basic.
- No SMS integration: Mailchimp doesn’t currently offer SMS text messaging capabilities. For SMS marketing, you’ll need to integrate with a separate provider or use an all-in-one solution.
- Marketing and Sales Automation: Mailchimp offers basic email automation but lacks the comprehensive sales and marketing automation capabilities.
- Sales Funnel Creation: While Mailchimp allows you to create basic email marketing funnels and email drip campaigns, the features of Mailchimp are more appropriate for content- and e-commerce companies than for B2B and service-based companies.
- Scalability: As your business grows, you may need to consider other platforms with more advanced features or scalability options.
- Limited Free Plan: There are many restrictions on a free plan. Upgrades or switching to a different provider are required for businesses that need to send more than 10,000 emails a month, use automation, or select from more than seven email templates.
If you require more advanced features or have specific demands, you may want to explore other, more flexible or focused marketing platforms. You can always refer to our in-depth guide on Mailchimp alteratives if you are not sure where to begin.
Who Should Use Mailchimp?
Mailchimp is best suited for businesses that need a user-friendly and affordable email marketing platform without complex sending requirements.
It’s particularly well-suited for:
- Small businesses: Mailchimp’s free plan offers a good starting point for businesses with limited budgets. It can be an excellent option for startup email marketing.
- E-commerce businesses: Mailchimp integrates seamlessly with popular e-commerce platforms, making it easy to manage email marketing for online stores.
- Non-profit organizations: Mailchimp offers discounted pricing for non-profits, making it an affordable option for fundraising and communication.
- Individuals and freelancers: Mailchimp is a great tool for individuals and freelancers who need to build and manage email lists for their clients or personal projects.
- Businesses looking for an all-in-one marketing platform: Mailchimp offers a range of features beyond email marketing, including landing pages, automation, and social media integration.
While Mailchimp is a versatile platform, it may not be the best choice for businesses with extremely complex marketing needs or those requiring highly specialized features. In such cases, more advanced platforms might be better suited – more on that later.
Why Businesses Should Use Mailchimp Instead of Gmail?
When email first became popular, personal correspondence took precedence over actual marketing use. This is the time when email providers like Outlook, Yahoo, or Gmail were in their prime time.
While Gmail is still a popular email service, it lacks many of the advanced features needed for effective business email marketing, as it’s best suited for individuals. Mailchimp offers features like segmentation, automation, analytics, landing pages, and e-commerce integration.
These features are essential for effective email marketing and cannot be achieved with Gmail alone.
Is Gmail Enough for Email Marketing?
Although Gmail’s primary purpose is personal email, you can use it for simple email marketing thanks to integrations with Google Analytics, GMass, and Zapier. But once your email list gets large, Gmail can not help with campaign creation, automation, and tracking, so you should only use it for small-scale email marketing.
You can also send bulk emails from Gmail using Google Sheets!
Dive Deep into Mailchimp’s Pricing Plans
Mailchimp offers a range of pricing plans to cater to different business needs and budgets.
Here’s a breakdown of the key features and benefits included in each plan:
| Plan | Good for | Contact Limits | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free Plan | Small businesses or individuals starting with email marketing. | 2,000 contacts and 10,000 emails per month. | Basic email templates, landing pages, audience management, and limited automation. |
| Essentials Plan | Growing businesses with moderate email marketing needs. | N/A | Everything in the Free plan, plus A/B testing, custom branding, spam filter, and advanced automation. |
| Standard Plan | Businesses with more complex email marketing requirements. | N/A | Everything in the Essentials plan, plus multivariate testing, predictive content, and dedicated customer support. |
| Premium Plan | Large businesses or those with highly demanding email marketing needs. | N/A | Everything in the Standard plan, plus advanced segmentation, custom reporting, and priority support. |
By carefully evaluating your business requirements and comparing the features offered in each plan, you can choose the most suitable Mailchimp plan for your specific needs and budget.
Choose the Campaign Refinery Instead
Campaign Refinery is a superior alternative to Mailchimp if you want to focus on email marketing. Our platform offers advanced features, highest email deliverability, and robust automation capabilities.
Our unique features are:
- Integrated Email List Cleaning: Our powerful tool removes harmful and inactive email addresses, ensuring a clean and healthy list.
- Engagement Rewards: Motivate subscribers with rewards and incentives and boost your engagement rate significantly.
- Evergreen Flash Sales: Create a sense of urgency and drive conversions with evergreen flash sales, and automate it.
- Audience Groups: Combine segments of your audience with our exclusive Audience Groups feature for highly targeted campaigns.
- Credit System: Our flexible pricing system is transparent and based on credits. You can purchase credits for email list cleaning, sending emails, and other actions and you pay for what you spend only
Our dedicated 24/7 expert customer support is always ready to assist you.
Maximize Your Email Deliverability
Campaign Refinery offers a superior email marketing solution compared to Mailchimp, providing a cleaner, more user-friendly interface and unparalleled email deliverability.
While Mailchimp is a suitable option for beginners, Campaign Refinery is designed for experienced email senders seeking top-tier results.
At Campaign Refinery, we prioritize inbox placement rates. Our rigorous email security protocols and mandatory domain authentication ensure the highest possible deliverability on the market. We work closely with each email client to understand their unique goals and provide customized solutions.
Clients often experience a 6x increase in inbox placement rates after partnering with us.
Apply to join Campaign Refinery today and unlock the power of premium email marketing tools.
