Mailchimp Reviews

Mailchimp knows what it takes for small businesses to grow online – and it provides all the marketing tools you’ll need to do it. Its user-friendly interface gives you access to all things email marketing from subscriber management and segmentation to newsletter design, email automation, and comprehensive A/B testing. Where Mailchimp really shines though is in its capacity to become your all-in-one marketing platform. In addition to its extensive email marketing tools, Mailchimp offers everything you need to grow your business online – allowing you to create social media ads, design shoppable landing pages, and even build your own website straight from its platform.

If you still can’t find what you’re looking for directly on Mailchimp, you’ll be happy to know the email marketing service integrates with over 300 third-party applications across a variety of categories such as design, ecommerce, booking and scheduling, accounting and finance, just to name a few.

And if this wasn’t already enough, Mailchimp takes it one step further with a mobile app that enables you to manage your entire marketing strategy on the go. The app, which is available on iOS and Android for all subscription tiers (including the free version), gives you access to your detailed contact list, ongoing campaigns, and analytics reports. This means you can add and manage your subscribers, design newsletters, send out campaigns, and even create social media ads wherever you are.

A successful email marketing strategy will be seamlessly incorporated into your overall business brand with matching visuals and messaging. Mailchimp’s collection of over 100 templates for all types of campaigns (including email newsletters, landing pages, ads, surveys, and more) makes it easy for you to find the perfect fit.

For your newsletters, you can select a pre-built layout to start from scratch or select a template based on a theme (‘ecommerce’, ‘holidays’, ‘events’, ‘notifications’, etc.). From there, Mailchimp’s user-friendly drag-and-drop email builder makes it easy to customize each template to your liking. If you’re not happy with what you see, you can easily switch templates – without losing any of your written content – or custom-code your own email newsletter from scratch.

It’s no secret that correctly segmenting your email list and running different tests to see which newsletter performs best is a sure way to consistently improve your email marketing strategy. Luckily, Mailchimp makes this process incredibly easy with many different options to ensure that all types of businesses can make the most of their email marketing efforts.

Right off the bat, Mailchimp offers several pre-built segmentation options, automatically splitting up your list into different groups based on useful demographic and behavioral data. Additionally, you can customize your own segments – layering up to five filters – based on a thorough set of data such as age, email campaign engagement, website engagement, type of email provider, and more. If you still can’t find what you’re looking for, Mailchimp allows you to add personalized labels – ‘tags’ – to your contacts so you can filter them according to your company’s needs.

Once you have your list segmented into optimized groups, you can test out your newsletters with Mailchimp’s A/B testing feature. This allows you to send out up to three different versions of your email newsletter and test your subject line, content, from name, and send time. You can tweak your test further by selecting a group of contacts to email and then define your success metrics (clicks, opens, etc.) – Mailchimp will then automatically send out the winning version for you.

At the end of the day, you can access all of this information from your ‘reports’ dashboard. And although Mailchimp calls it ‘basic reports’, they are anything but. The user-friendly platform offers growth, engagement, and revenue reports that make it easy to quickly identify your email marketing strategy’s strongest and weakest points. Furthermore, you can even compare your analytics to your competition as Mailchimp provides access to email marketing benchmarks in your industry.

Like most email marketing service providers, Mailchimp offers several third-party integrations to help users focus all their marketing efforts in one platform. In addition to the most popular apps (such as WordPress, ecommerce platforms, and social media channels), Mailchimp offers integrations with over 300 third-party applications of all types from customer service, to accounting, scheduling, and design and developer tools.

If you can’t find your app of choice on this comprehensive list, you can access Mailchimp’s API 3.0 to add your own – or hire an expert at Mailchimp to do it for you.

Mailchimp offers plans for all types of users from budding email marketers to full-fledged businesses with hundreds of thousands of email subscribers. Everyone can start with a free plan and use their account with no monthly subscription until you reach your first 2,000 subscribers. While it comes with some limitations – such as a monthly cap of 10,000 email sends and limited access to pre-built newsletter templates – it’s a great place to start when you’re beginning to build your email list.

Those wanting to use Mailchimp’s features in full will have to upgrade to paid plans, and Mailchimp offers three monthly subscription options: Essentials, Standard, and Premium. These paid plans “grow as you do”, unlocking a larger number of features for a starting monthly price that increases as your email list grows. The Essentials plan, for example, gives you access to all pre-built newsletter templates, 24/7 email and chat support, as well as A/B testing. Here, your monthly subscription starts at $9.99 per month for 500 contacts but you can grow your email list up to 50,000 subscribers which will cost you a whopping $259 per month.

The Standard plan, which starts at $14.99 per month for lists with 500 contacts, gives you access to a few more features such as custom-coded templates as well as more complex subscriber segmentation and email automation series. Users with larger email needs can check out the Premium subscription or get in touch with Mailchimp directly for a custom plan.

In addition to these direct customer service channels, Mailchimp provides a host of different resources to help its users go from newbie email marketers to total pros with thorough guides and tutorials, a marketing blog, case studies, and even a ‘Mailchimp 101′ guide to walk you through the service’s main features and tools. The most unique resource, however, is Mailchimp’s very own library of original content created for entrepreneurs. This collection of series, documentaries, and podcasts features over 20 shows covering all kinds of topics from interviews with musicians to an in-depth look at the life of two professional acrobats.