Item: Mailchimp
Rating: 8
Author: Jacqueline Sinex

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Mailchimp for a monthly newsletter to current customers and subscribers. It provides tools to organize our mailing list contacts, create attractive email messages, manage unsubscribed users, and see activity reports about the open rates. We have very small and targeted audience lists and need to ensure the right people receive our messages successfully without spam filter issues or email server problems.

Pros and Cons

The email designing wizard comes with decent templates and drag and drop sections.
Adding a subscriber opt-in form to the website is easy to do.
Viewing the campaign reports about the open and engagement rates is nice.

The UI design of the admin interface is confusing. The information on the dashboard is not what I would expect to see.
When viewing campaign reports, the interface often defaults to old information instead of the most recent.

Return on Investment

Allowing us to keep in touch easily each month with our clients has kept us top of mind and resulted in new inquiries.

Usability

It is fairly easy to use and can be powerful for even small businesses with little tech knowledge. Overall, the value of this tool is positive, and I continue to recommend it to clients when they are seeking a new e-newletter solution that will be quick to onboard. Using Mailchimp has been a good part of our marketing and communications plan.

All-in-One Marketing Platform

No, we do not use any of the other offerings from Mailchimp and do not plan to at this time.

Lessons for Success

We have received occasional leads for repeat business from customers who read our Mailchimp driven newsletter. We have stayed top-of-mind to the subscribers who follow our newsletter, and kept them informed about our presence in the community easily. We have gained a few new subscribers by using the Mailchimp website embedded forms. There are some simple customizing tools for the To field and Subject Line in Mailchimp that have been helpful to further tailor our messaging. This has proved to be helpful, as we noticed a slightly better open rate when the customizations are in place.

Key Insights

Do you think Mailchimp delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Mailchimp's feature set?

Yes

Did Mailchimp live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Mailchimp go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Mailchimp again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

Mailchimp is a good choice for small businesses who need a simple e-newsletter solution. Most small businesses cannot afford fancy solutions or mail servers, and they need affordable options to maintain subscriber lists and create and send out email newsletters. Creating a basic subscriber form or opt-in link is fairly easy to do, and our web developers do not have issues adding them to a website.

Mailchimp is a Solid Choice for Small Businesses Needing Easy Email Newsletter Onboarding

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with Mailchimp