Item: Mailchimp
Rating: 7
Author: Andrew Folts

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I used Mailchimp for several years while I was growing my audience as a blogger and YouTuber. The free tier made it easy to get started when I didn't have a large audience. It was simple enough to use but gave me more powerful features (like audience segmentation) as my email list grew.

Pros and Cons

Generous free tier
Useful audience segmentation tools
Simple interface

The automation features are inferior to ConvertKit.
The interface feels slightly clunky.
It can become expensive with audience growth.

Return on Investment

Increased leads
Email list growth
Increased sales from targeted marketing

Alternatives Considered

ConvertKit

I used to use Mailchimp because of the free tier, but now that ConvertKit has a free tier, there's no advantage. I feel like ConvertKit is better designed, more intuitive, and has more robust automation features that make it easy to set up marketing funnels. Overall, it's a joy to use, while Mailchimp feels like a chore in my opinion.

Usability

Mailchimp has improved its interface in recent years, but, in my opinion, there are still a lot of design inconsistencies and overwhelming interfaces. Personally, I think ConvertKit does a much better job of keeping the interface minimal and only showing you the most important information (while maintaining toggle options, etc. for you to dive deeper into the data).

All-in-One Marketing Platform

Mailchimp was convenient when I was just starting out. I liked having the ability to segment my audience and send targeted marketing campaigns, as well as using stored variables within email messages. However, in my opinion, ConvertKit has all these tools and more—with the added benefit of being simpler and more intuitive to use.

Lessons for Success

The biggest success was just being able to get started growing my email list on there for free and knowing that Mailchimp could scale with more advanced features as I needed them. However, ConvertKit does all this and more, but in a much simpler and more intuitive way, which, in my opinion, makes Mailchimp essentially pointless.

Key Insights

Do you think Mailchimp delivers good value for the price?

Are you happy with Mailchimp's feature set?

Did Mailchimp live up to sales and marketing promises?

Did implementation of Mailchimp go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Mailchimp again?

Likelihood to Recommend

Mailchimp is great for content creators, writers, small businesses, and entrepreneurs wanting to grow an email list. The free tier makes it easy to start with no cost, but Mailchimp has powerful segmentation and automation features that can satisfy any level of a company—all the way up to global corporate brands.

In My Opinion: A Decent, But Often Clunky and Unintuitive Tool (ConvertKit is a Better Choice)

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with Mailchimp