Item: Mailchimp
Rating: 8
Author: Katalin Sankowich

Overall Satisfaction with MailChimp

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use MailChimp for all of our e-newsletters, e-appeals and event mass communication. It allows us to really track our successes, challenges and real-time impact.

Pros and Cons

Pros

MailChimp's templates make sending regular updates as easy as dragging and dropping new content.
You can schedule emails and not worry about whether or not it was actually sent.
The reporting functionality is great - we can see how campaigns perform in real-time.

Cons

I would love to see MailChimp explore CRM integration without having to go to a third party vendor (ie: Chimpegration)

Return on Investment

It's simple to use - I've rotated several employees through MailChimp responsibility and none of them have had issues with managing it.
It's reasonably priced. Like other folks have said, it's free up to a certain point and unless your list size is ridiculous, you're likely not going to spend "too much"
MailChimp has allowed us to clean our data quite a bit. Granted, it's time consuming because there's no interface with our CRM, but we're slowly ending up with a cleaner list.

Alternatives Considered

We've looked at several other options, but haven't been impressed with features vs. pricing that we've seen.

Number of Contacts (List Size)

25,000 to 100,000

Using Mailchimp for B2C or B2B marketing

B2C

It's a great tool for organizations or individuals with a limited budget and lists on the smaller side. Once you start importing tens of thousands of contacts, the price point becomes less attractive for what you get.

Mailchimp Feature Ratings

Evaluating MailChimp and Competitors

Products Replaced

Not Sure

Key Differentiators

Price
Product Features
Product Usability
Product Reputation

As a smaller non-profit with a relatively small marketing budget, we were pleasantly surprised with the cost of MailChimp. We get literally everything we need for a very reasonable price.

MailChimp Implementation

Implementation Rating

It was simple. We spent a limited amount of time implementing and there wasn't a huge need for extra training to get up and running.

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Implemented in-house

Implementation Phases

Change Management Lessons

Change management was minimal

MailChimp Support

Support Rating

Like support anywhere else, it truly depends on the day and the person handling your issue.

Mailchimp Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Quick Resolution Good followup Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response	None

Exceptional Examples of Mailchimp Support

We've had SEVERAL temporary "holds" put on our account because of the file depth we were targeting. We consistently have answers, inquiries and the hold lifted in a matter of hours.

Using MailChimp

Usability

MailChimp is simple to use. Granted, it doesn't allow for incredibly complex segmentation, list analysis, etc., but what it DOES have is very simply navigated and used by even a novice user.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar	None

Easy Tasks

I don't consider myself to be more tech savvy than the typical user of MailChimp, but I have had zero issues with any feature they provide.

Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions

Yes

Comments

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Quit monkeying around - MailChimp is a solid choice for growing non-profits