What is MailChimp?
Founded in 2001, MailChimp is an email service provider (ESP), a popular email marketing platform. It was built to help businesses with email and online marketing. It has grown into one of the top email newsletter services today.
Sending automated emails and newsletters is easy using MailChimp. MailChimp provides pre-designed email templates and a drag-and-drop email builder.
MailChimp also has built-in analytics, making it an attractive software for businesses who want to go into email marketing.
Do you need email marketing?
After all this time, you have been steadily growing your email list using your lead magnet such as your WordPress blogs. We already know the importance of growing an email list to turn subscribers into potential customers.
So, how do you use this list to launch an online campaign for your business? For one thing, email marketing involves engaging your audience through the use of email. This entails sending a regular email newsletter with updates, information, advice, and special offers.
If you have blogs, these emails would also include links to your latest blog posts. These links can be an RSS feed, or as manual links that you insert yourself.
Through one of these emails, you can inform your readers about an event, urgent news, or a special offer. Items that you want your followers to know about before your next scheduled newsletter.
Even though it has been around for quite a while, email has evolved into much more. It is now a key ingredient in the marketing strategy of most businesses, especially small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Coincidently, this is where most MailChimp users fall under.
Why use MailChimp?
When it comes to email marketing providers, we are probably not the only ones who love MailChimp. In the past year alone, MailChimp welcomed 3.5 million new users, and they are still growing.
So what makes MailChimp great? Here are 5 reasons why you should love MailChimp too:
1. It’s Free… Forever.
For new businesses, MailChimp’s “Forever Free” account is a perfect venue for those just beginning their email marketing journey.
With a free account, you get a subscriber list of about 2,000 and an email send limit of 12,000 monthly. It’s a great incentive for anyone just beginning in the world of email marketing.
If in the course of your daily business, your email list grows beyond the free limit. You can easily upgrade to one of their paid accounts.
2. MailChimp is User-Friendly.
MailChimp has been designed with non-technical users in mind. Apart from being user-friendly, it is also flexible, so anyone can send out professional-looking emails even if that someone has no marketing degree.
MailChimp is continually improving its design to make its already user-friendly user interface simpler and cleaner than it can be. You simply choose a template, and set your layout and text employing their simple drag-and-drop design feature.
3. Filled with features.
MailChimp’s feature-rich operation makes your email marketing life easier. Here are some of MailChimp’s features worth taking notice of:
● Scheduling: this feature allows for the preparation of emails in advance and creates schedules for them to be sent out on particular days at particular times. This would provide fewer hassles and free time to handle other marketing chores.
● List segmentation: being able to segment your list ensures that your emails reach the right audience. MailChimp’s free account allows you to create groups within your list. Doing so would make your readers select relevant topics when they sign up. This in turn allows you to target them efficiently and receive the information they want.
● Reporting: Even with its free account, MailChimp has an extensive reporting tool. This allows you to see who and how many times your emails have been opened. You also see which of your links gets clicked the most, and at what times of the day are most popular. Additionally, you can also tell which part of the world your readers are located. This feature can easily tell you how your email marketing is performing, and you can adjust to where you can improve.
● Integration: Yes, MailChimp can work with other apps and services seamlessly. This feature allows you to get the most out of your marketing. MailChimp works well with Customer Relationship Management software (CRMs), WordPress and its Gravity Forms plugin, e-commerce sign-up forms, and social media networks, just to name a few.
4. Superb Support.
We’re not going to lie. Mailchimp’s customer service used to be unsurpassed. It used to be that any query could have a speedy and friendly response. MailChimp has made “freemium” a key part of its business model.
As earlier stated, this was the way it used to be. Unfortunately, with its exponential growth, it can no longer offer unlimited email support for its Forever Free accounts.
But this should not deter you from using MailChimp for it is simply a testament of how great their product is. And there is good news. They do still offer 30 days of free email support after you’ve set up your account.
5. The Chimp.
What’s not to love about Freddie von Chimpenheimer, or The Chimp?
He’s always there helping you along your email marketing journey, giving you tips and hilarious messages. Freddie gives you High Fives and Chimp Chatter. There’s even a Paper Buddy you can download and cut out, keeping you company.
But is it relevant? Well, yes. It gives MailChimp its brand personality. As you may already know, branding is important to digital marketing. MailChimp has done a brilliant job creating brand loyalty around Freddie.
Freddie and the MailChimp logo have gone through various design improvements through the years. But, Freddie remains friendly, funny, and most important of all, he’s memorable.
If you are considering the right email marketing program for your business, MailChimp is almost always a recommended choice. Perhaps, if you get the chance to decide to use MailChimp for your business, you might also be one of the millions of people who love MailChimp.
