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In this article we will be talking about the email marketing GIANT. The platform that has been dominating the email marketing niche for years. The platform that grew to over 12 million users! We are talking about none other than MailChimp.
Did you know that people google “Mailchimp” more than they google email marketing? Interesting.It makes sense then why they dominate 60% of the email marketing industry right?
In this Mailchimp review we will be going through the story behind the email marketing legend as well as everything else about the platform, from their pricing to the pros and cons to their best overall features.
So without further ado, let’s dive straight into the goodies.
Table of Contents
What is Mailchimp ?
In a nutshell Mailchimp is an all-in-one Marketing Platform may for the small business owner.
However, before we break down this humongous email marketing platform let’s first take a look at its history. The company was founded by Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius in 2001, that’s close to 20 years ago. In just the space of one year its user base grew from 85,000 to 450,000 ! Mailchimp was literally sending out over 10 billion emails per month on behalf of its users.
As Mailchimp grew they continued to break records including being ranked number 7 on the Forbes Cloud 100 list. MailChimp believes in creating a culture that consists of the right balance of a creative, humble and independent workforce while still encouraging a healthy work-life balance.
I like to call Mailchimp the small business hero. Ben and Dan built their entire company around making life easier for the little guy. They both had parents who owned small businesses and they found that working for small businesses gave them the freedom to have unlimited creativity and adapt quickly to their needs.
Mailchimp allows you to send marketing emails, build landing pages, create ad campaigns and even send postcards! Needless to say it allows you to keep track of your campaigns and evaluate the progress through reports and analytics.
Related Article : The Number 1 Marketing Tool Of 2020.
What are Mailchimp’s Best Features?
Mailchimp has received positive attention for years but what are MailChimp’s best features?
Market Your Product Before You Go To Market
Mailchimp provides you with the opportunity to see what your potential customers think about your business before you scale. This feedback is beyond crucial in the early stages of any business so it makes sense why MailChimp is 100% behind this. How does it work? Well all you have to do is create a landing page and promote it through social ads in an effort to get sign ups. This allows you to test your message through your potential customers to determine what sits best with them.
Here’s what Grow Fragrance had to say about this feature :
“ Mailchimp was vital in helping us establish a product feedback loop. We received feedback from 98% of our testers which allowed us to iterate faster and launch sooner than originally planned.”
Integrations with your favorite platforms
Mailchimp offers integrations with some of the most powerful platforms outline making it easier than ever to connect your whole business model in one central hub. Some of these integrations include SalesForce, BigCommerce, WooCommerce and even Canva.
Mind Blowing Audience Tools
With Mailchimp you gain access incredible audience insights. This gives you the opportunity to learn more about your contacts so you can have conversations with them that matter. These audience insights include:
- Marketing Customer Relationship Management Tools
- Extensive Audience Dashboard
- Contact Profiles – Allows you to gain an in-depth view of every single person that is in your audience.
In addition you can also track every single piece of your data so you can become extremely confident in your marketing. From signup forms to predicted demographics Mailchimp has made it fairly simple to improve how you manage and market to your audience.
Fantastic Design Tools
You don’t have to be an expert graphic designer much less a graphic designer at all to begin utilizing the design tools on Mailchimp. With the all in one marketing platform you will be given access to custom domains to templates and even websites. Everything you need to bring your ideas to life.
The various design tools include:
- Content Studio – This comes with built-in editing tools that are beginner friendly.
- Templates – They have a full library of templates that you can pick and choose from.
- Custom Domains – If you already have a domain you would like to use with Mailchimp then you can connect it in a few simple steps if not you can simply buy one!
Expert Reports & Analytics
Mailchimp does an incredible job of analyzing your audience’s engagement which helps you become even more incredible with each campaign. You will be given access to real-time reports and built-in analytics tools.
Mailchimp’s customer relationship tools allow you to gain a bird’s-eye view of your entire audience. These features allow you to pin-point what’s working in your business so you can adjust and make it better! In addition analyzing your data is made incredibly simple, making it extremely easy to track trends and performance.
For example, you are able to monitor your R.O.I with Mailchimp’s detailed revenue reports. This gives you the ability to track sales from the simple click of a button. This gives you crucial data such as which customers made a purchase after opening your campaign.
What is Mailchimp’s Pricing?
If I’m being 110% honest with you Mailchimp’s pricing can get a bit tricky. Making it simple, their prices grow as your business grows.
The marketing platform offers a FREE package but you’re limited to 2000 contacts and 10,000 emails per month. Which isn’t bad for the small business owner. The Essentials package begins at $9.99 per month and with that you get 500 contacts and 500K emails. The Standard package starts at $14.99 and you get advanced automations and other cool features. The Premium package gives you access to all the advanced features starting at $299 per month.
Note well that the monthly pricing for MailChimp’s plans are determined based on how large your list size is.
A cool feature MailChimp offers is the Pay As You Go plan which was made for the person who doesn’t send regular emails. All you have to do is buy email credits as needed.
MailChimp also offers a 15% discount to nonprofit organizations and charities!
The Pros and Cons of MailChimp
Like every other newsletter platform out there MailChimp is not all sunshine and rainbows. Although it has its fair share of advantages it does come with a few disadvantages. So what are the pros and cons of MailChimp?
Pros
- Great free plan – MailChimp offers a free plan which is quite extensive. You are allowed 10,000 emails to up to 2000 subscribers!
- Easy to Setup – The MailChimp platform was made with the beginner in mind. It’s very easy to setup and can be done in less than half of an hour.
- Flexible – The flexibility comes with a wide range of templates and other various customizable options.
- Great Reports and Analytics – Everything from geo-tracking to Google Analytics integration is made available through MailChimp
Cons
- No Annual Plans – Now this can be seen as a pro more so than as a con for most people since MailChimp doesn’t force you to pay a gazillion dollars before you gain access to the platform. However, quite a few people prefer to pay one time and not have to worry about their subscription running out after a year.
- Can Become Very Costly – Personally I have been on the bad end of the stick as I wanted to get access to more features so I paid for the next plan and this drove my subscription through the roof! Needless to say they automatically increase your bill as soon as you go over your subscriber limit.
All in all, the pros of MailChimp far outshine the cons making it one of the safest options out there!
MailChimp Customer Support
Having a strong customer support team is crucial for success in any business model! This can literally make or break your entire business, so how is the customer support at MailChimp?
The overall support at MailChimp is pretty good, however it varies depending on what type of payment package you chose. If you have any paid plan you get self-service (An extensive FAQ page and informative articles aka a knowledge base), 24/7 support email and the support chat which is active from Monday to Friday. On the other hand if you have the premium plan you can have phone support from Monday to Friday!
All in all, MailChimp’s customer support deserves a solid 5/5.
Final Thoughts
MailChimp was made for the small business owner who is truly passionate about their niche and wants to take their brand to a whole new level. Even if you don’t own a small business but you are in the process of beginning one then MailChimp can still work for you by letting you test your market before you put your product in the market.
“Whether you need to validate your business idea, find your first few customers or build your brand’s online presence, MailChimp gives you the tools to launch faster”
In my opinion MailChimp has proven itself to be worth the investment and can really make the difference in the growth of your business. So who is this marketing platform really for ? I would recommend MailChimp to anyone who is now starting out in business but wants to start strong.
