An honest review of a great marketing tool
Updated January 12, 2020
An honest review of a great marketing tool
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Standard
Overall Satisfaction with Mailchimp
Mailchimp is used mainly for 3 purposes. It is predominantly used for bi-weekly and monthly newsletters to different audience segments, using a pre-established template and regular A/B testing on subject lines and content. It is also used for automated customer onboarding and conversion funnels, as well as trialing new growth initiatives such as alerts and tailored content depending on audience interests.
- Simple to use newsletter templates - Particularly helpful when junior/untrained staff need to feed in content with little or no knowledge of html or email design.
- Simple to use automated email funnels - Particularly helpful again when staff members with little technical knowledge need to feed in content. Easy to implement with segments if they are set up well from the start.
- Behavioral email marketing is harder to manage on Mailchimp.
- Integration with other databases and managing unsubscribes across different mailing platforms is complicated.
- It has increased user engagement.
- It has helped identify user needs through polling and surveys.
When comparing to Vero, Mailchimp is more intuitive and easier to use (no required HTML or other technical knowledge) and allows to create prettier marketing emails through its drag-and-drop image features and layout options. While Vero is less intuitive and requires some knowledge of HTML to build fairly pretty email campaigns, it has access to more advanced behavioral campaign features and conversion analytics.
When comparing to Yesware, Mailchimp is more suited for creating pretty email campaigns. However, Yesware is great when it comes to sales marketing and prospecting with automated reminders and simple email campaigns integrated into Gmail to help manage sales pipelines and progress. Yesware also bypasses spam filters more easily than Mailchimp.
When comparing to Yesware, Mailchimp is more suited for creating pretty email campaigns. However, Yesware is great when it comes to sales marketing and prospecting with automated reminders and simple email campaigns integrated into Gmail to help manage sales pipelines and progress. Yesware also bypasses spam filters more easily than Mailchimp.
I don't think Mailchimp is an all-in-one marketing platform that allows companies to manage all their marketing activities within one platform, rather than relying on multiple tools. We ended up using a combination of different tools for transaction emails (Mandrill), marketing emails (Mailchimp), behavioral campaigns (Vero) and sales emails (Yesware). Mailchimp does integrate well with other databases which we ended up managing centrally, rather than within Mailchimp as an all-in-one marketing platform. Mailchimp is improving functionality every month, however, and I wouldn't be surprised if one day it does manage to cover all functionality.
Some of the successes we've had with Mailchimp included the development of effective and successful regular email marketing campaigns and newsletters, determining audience needs through A/B testing of subject lines, and time of sending and content. I recommend starting with a few tests before settling on a template, but once you have discovered a successful formula, just stick with it rather than ongoing testing. Instead, it is worthwhile to then explore other advanced functions such as automated campaigns, polling/surveying, etc. We also survey our users once a year which has led to amazing results and insights that shape customer product development.