Item: Mailchimp
Rating: 9
Author: Maria Clara Daly

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Mailchimp alongside CRMs for everything from automated email series (drip campaigns) to one off emails to prospect and targeted lists, event invitations both for our own agency and for all our clients. It's a relatively easy to use system that we also design templates in and train our clients on how to use. Wherever possible we also utilize groups and tag segmentation.

Pros and Cons

Segmentation, including dynamic lists
Robust drag and drop template interfaces

Server time is sometimes a problem
New validation email required every time you log in or security questions answered is tedious

Return on Investment

The click reports have been amazing for helping target digital leads that may not have yet taken a next step but are quietly, actively engaging with content.
The ability to quickly A/B test subject lines and get detailed reports on the campaign have really helped drill down what language to use in campaigns moving forward.

Alternatives Considered

The automation features in Mailchimp vastly outrank any other mail service I've tried so far, and seeing as we often try and teach our clients how to utilize it, I also really appreciate their deep and constantly updated tutorials and documentation. Whenever I've had an issue or problem their support staff, whether over chat or phone have been really helpful and invested in helping solve the issue.

Usability

I'd rank it even higher if the interface was faster, and if there didn't seem to be more server and internal errors than I would be comfortable with. I utilize Mailchimp in various capacities across two dozen plus clients so, when I hit that server error screen and have campaigns scheduled to go out or multiple client edits to make, it can be frustrating. And it's probably a small complaint but the load time flipping between screens when you need to do reporting on just as many clients can be aggravating, but I may just be particularly impatient with that, which is a really small complaint in the grand scheme of things.

All-in-One Marketing Platform

We aren't using Mailchimp for some of its new features like landing pages and such. I have test driven them and for groups that don't have a full web team or deep knowledge of how to utilize Google Ads, remarketing, etc I could see this being a great tool. We stick with independent spaces because I have even more control over them and how they work but for those who don't need to be hyper granular, what I've seen of the new suite of tools they offer (and seem to be continuing to roll out) they're a great solution for a lot of small businesses without needing to sign in or track data in multiple platforms.

Lessons for Success

Test test test. Test everything. Test your categories, test your segmentation, test your language, test your layouts, test your buttons. I do hope for even more robust ability to A/B test aspects of emails in the future (right now the primary focus seems to be around send time and subject line) but really- don't ever get too comfortable because one email was successful because it can be hard to pinpoint exactly what it was that caused that to resonate with your audience. Create robust content and always be stretching and testing aspects against each other. Mailchimp has some good tools for this but I'm hoping to see even more rolled out in the future.

Likelihood to Recommend

Mailchimp is great for pretty much any sort of communication you need with your list, so long as you're building your list effectively. You can generate API keys that help feed into multiple applications (we primarily plug it into Gravity Forms) as well as generate and style your own forms from within the site if you'd prefer that. You don't want to overwhelm a prospect with self selection options but if you create hidden fields to better tag and categorize people if possible you can grow your list effectively. I find many clients however just endlessly dump emails in with no categorization or segmentation (and sometimes questionable opt in status) so - keep your data clean, and ensure your prospects know what they're signing up for.

Great email platform for communications, testing and segmentation

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with Mailchimp