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7 Things To Know About Mailchimp Send Time Optimization

What is one thing to know about Mailchimp’s send time optimization?

To help you better understand Mailchimp’s send time optimization, we asked small business owners and marketing experts this question for their best insights. From understanding that automated emails are not offered to recognizing the software’s first try isn’t perfect, there are several things to be aware of before using Mailchimp’s send time optimization.

Here are seven things to know about Mailchimp’s send time optimization:

Automated Emails Are Not Offered
It is Very Timely
You Still Need to Do Your Own Research
Mailchimp Uses Data Science
You Must Choose a Plan
Send Time Optimization May Not Work The Same Day
The Software’s First Try Isn’t Perfect

Automated Emails Are Not Offered

Send time optimization is not available for automated emails. You must craft the email. Mailchimp analyzes user engagement patterns for their emails to determine the ideal time for sending an email to achieve maximum engagement. By turning on send time optimization, Mailchimp will send the email on your desired sent date at the appointed time. You can still send email campaigns, but they aren’t automated.

Bill Glaser, Outstanding Foods

It is Very Timely

Mailchimp’s send time is on point and timely. It is very difficult to stop a campaign once it is in motion and sent out. Make sure that you have proofread the material multiple times in order to see that everything is on par with messaging and it is good to go.

Shaun Price, MitoQ

You Still Need to Do Your Own Research

There has been a lot of research done about the best time to send a message to an email subscriber. Still, the answer truly lies in what works best for your audience. While Mailchimp offers time optimization as a perk, you should still do your own A-B tests to see what jives with your audience that sends messages to your subscriber count at different times. Then, use a comparative reporting feature to help identify which had the best open and conversion rates.

Stephanie Venn-Watson, fatty15

Mailchimp Uses Data Science

Send time optimization takes a lot of the guesswork out of ensuring your email campaigns are read by your email list contacts. Using data science, Mailchimp’s send time optimization figures out when your email contacts are most likely to interact with your messages. It then schedules emails to be sent at that time, increasing the chances that they will be received and read. It’s a useful tool for increasing contacts’ engagement with your emails.

Candie Guay, Envida

You Must Choose a Plan

You have to be signed up for either the Standard or Premium plan to access Mailchimp’s send time optimization features. Consider whether you are willing to afford these plans and whether this is a worthwhile investment. You could always try it for a month or so to see if your email engagement rates increase during this time.

Drew Sherman, Carvaygo

Send Time Optimization May Not Work The Same Day

Though Mailchimp’s send time optimization is a great capability, it’s not always an option if you’re sending a same day email. You can implement the optimization tool when scheduling emails that are further out, but it can only be used when there are five hours left in the day. That five hours is based on the time zone you’ve set for the Mailchimp account.

Logan Mallory, Motivosity

The Software’s First Try Isn’t Perfect

Mailchimp counts send time optimization based on the previous behavior of recipients; however, it doesn’t have all emails in the database. The software may lack data about recipients you contact for the first time, so its estimation wouldn’t be so successful. Therefore, keep in mind that your campaign will work better and better with every use of your sending list.

Karolina Zajac, PhotoAiD

Terkel creates community-driven content featuring expert insights. Sign up at terkel.io to answer questions and get published.

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A Cool Mailchimp Hack for More Opens

Here is a quick video showing you a really neat Mailchimp hack for the way your subject line and preview text line will appear in subscriber’s inboxes. It takes a small bit of code at the very top, but it’s super easy.

And below you’ll find the code to copy and paste! Enjoy and let me know if any questions. You can reach me at hello (at) westfield-creative (dot) com.

Copy and PASTE this exact code into a code block:

And that should give you a very pretty preview text line!

10 Things Sunday

Another Black Friday in the books. Ready to start planning for BF 2022? 🙂 #nevertooearly

Also, this tweet above made me laugh.

This Black Friday probably hit another record and I’m excited to see how our clients emails performed. It’s such a wild time for email marketers, but somehow I managed to collect some links for ya.

Here are some great links I loved this past week:

Email Marketing Trends for 2022 (MailNinja)
Shopify breaks Black Friday record. See how much here.
Santa’s supply chain be like.
I want this t-shirt.
The NYTimes piece on Stephen Sondheim is great (RIP to this titan of musical theatre.)
Give the gift of beer. (This is our client and their NA beer is awesome.)
The 40 best family Christmas pajamas.
A plain-text email that totally worked.
Mailchimp has new Instagram Stories GIFs and they’re so cute!
Have you seen Mailchimp Presents piece with Andre Leon Talley – You Are What You Wear?

Do you like this format or do you prefer the links right in my usual Sunday email? Let me know. Reply here.

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8 Email Marketers Share Their Biggest Email Frustrations

Email marketing isn’t always easy and many of our clients come to us because they’re frustrated with the amount of time it takes to make a great email. We wanted to hear what the experts thought too! Below you’ll hear from 8 Mailchimp Partners and email marketers (including myself) on what frustrates us the most.

Email coding is still stuck in the 90s, and I doubt that will change. The biggest frustration is also the thing that excites me the most. I find as a creative person, when you have limited resources, the challenge to create something unique and fresh each time is what drives us to keep innovating and dreaming up new ways to work around these limitations. Obviously, Outlook is a pain, but hey.

-Doug Dennison, CEO & Co-founder, MailNinja

The lack of email standards has always been a huge barrier for email marketers and the teams that prepare the messages. The fact that your email can render differently in hundreds of different email clients means that you are never 100% sure that your email looks and works the way you want it to everywhere. And additionally, the differences in the display of fonts, backgrounds, animated GIFs, etc. means you have to prepare and test for a wide range of scenarios. This also prevents progress in our industry, as certain advancements like AMP have limited client support, so it’s less attractive for brands to pursue using it.

-Adam Holden-Bache, Dir. of Email Marketing, Enventys Partners

Email can be frustrating but the misinformation and lack of understanding of how email marketing actually works is probably our biggest pain point. We spend more time breaking down email marketing strategies, ESPs platforms, training and other general questions more than anything else.

-Sequoia Mulgrave, CEO & Founder, Daily Mode Studio

Well, Outlook of course, but there’s so much that goes into a perfect email that makes it challenging. Testing takes time – checking spelling, links, image loading speed, checking you have all alt text descriptions, testing on different devices (really formatting for mobile is one of the hardest things about email), getting into the Inbox, making sure your plain text version is set, checking recipients. So much! The most frustrating part is that there really is so much that needs to be tested before you hit that big send button.

How to solve this? Have a great process for testing your email, whether that’s a checklist or a program (like Litmus) that does the testing for you.

Emily Ryan, Co-founder & Mailchimp Strategist, Westfield Creative

As I work a lot with email automation, I’m continuously experimenting in Mailchimp with old Automated Workflows and new Customer Journeys Builder. I think I know by heart the limitations of the former, and time after time I’ve learned a lot of hacks to overcome them; as for the Customer Journey Builder, sometimes it drives me crazy because it still lacks some features, and every now and then something doesn’t work properly, which I report to the patient Customer Support folks. I’m aware that advanced features are probably used by a small fraction of users, but nonetheless, I wish to see them prioritized asap.

-Alessandra Farabegoli, Digital Strategist, Co-Founder, Digital Update

I’ve always found the tech to be the easy part of the job. It’s generally predictable and reliable. It either does or it does not (with Outlook, that’s usually a “does not”). When tech does not do what you need, you work around a solution.

The most variable factor in email is the human on either side of the communications. Clients who can’t make up or continuously change their minds, subscribers who are unpredictable, customer service management for campaign responses… those are the least controllable and predictable factors in email, and there is not a single thing I can do to control that.

-MaryAnne Pfeiffer, Digital Marketing Strategist, 108 Degrees Digital Marketing

…it would be really cool if you could reliably track opens…

…it would be good if all the email systems worked the same and you could develop better-looking emails without having to test them in 100 different systems.

…it would be great if Mailchimp could update some of the things at the more advanced end of things

…it would be good if there was a better understanding and explanation of data privacy over borders

…it would be good if Gmail would be a bit more transparent (never gonna happen!) of what’s good/bad and why emails end up in promo/spam

-Robin Adams, Founder, Chimp Answers

1000% Outlook. I don’t understand why Outlook needs to “translate” the email into a Word doc and then render the Word doc in HTML.

The second is Gmail not delivering emails to the inbox and dumping them into the archive never, neverland. So frustrating!

-Amy Hall, Email Marketing Strategist and Certified Mailchimp Partner, amyhall.biz

Want to connect with a Mailchimp Pro Partner? Check out the Mailchimp Experts Directory here.

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She Who Mailchimps: 6 Takeaways

What happens when you get 6 Mailchimp Women Experts (and Mailchimp Partners) in one Zoom room for an hour? You get some awesome email marketing advice and also an hour of fun. I was thrilled to have 5 super-smart email marketing minds join me to answer some of the most asked Mailchimp and email questions we get – including “what’s the best time/day to send an email?” “what’s our favorite Mailchimp hidden egg?” and much more.

We recently asked a few Mailchimp Partners, including some from the live event about their top takeaways were from the session. Here’s a great rundown in case you missed it. Want to watch the replay? You can here.

I loved the relaxed format. The hosts were having an open conversation, which felt very honest and welcoming. There were loads of takeaways points, the honest discussion around the way these Mailchimp partners actually use Mailchimp themselves was enlightening and I made a lot of notes! You can watch the event right here: https://youtu.be/KJpAuJP-WAU

-Doug Dennison, CEO & Co-founder, MailNinja

The talent that was on display at the She Who Mailchimps event was ridiculously good. It was an interactive webinar with a live Q&A where the super-talented panel answered lots of questions about Mailchimp and email marketing in general. With their Mailchimp expertise, they were able to share a lot of great information.

Top takeaways included:

1) Use Mailchimp Partners to help you with any Mailchimp issues

2) Consider using ALL the Mailchimp features including landing pages, postcards, social posts, link-checker, and more.

3) Test, test, and test some more. Conduct subject line testing, content testing, send time optimization, etc. to learn what resonates best with your audience.

-Adam Holden-Bache, Dir. of Email Marketing, Enventys Partners

Holy moly, the brains! I didn’t add it up, but there were probably over 60 years of email marketing experience on that panel. And while for some questions, the answers were similar, everyone had their own spin and just a little different way of looking at things. It was great to get all the email philosophies together in one place and see how they’re similar and so utterly different at the same time. The nuances in the differences were the gold.

-Amy Hall, Email Marketing Strategist and Certified Mailchimp Partner, amyhall.biz

This was the very first time I did a workshop in English, and the days before I was pretty scared about it; but the other ladies were so nice and supportive that I thought oh, what the hell, I can do it! Apart from that, the idea was great and I think the whole formula worked very well: good timing, a balanced distribution of questions, and a bunch of super-expert ladies all willing to share their knowledge. Being part of this network, finding ways to collaborate and learn from each other, is one of the perks of Mailchimp & Co., and I value it immensely.

-Alessandra Farabegoli, Digital Strategist, www.alessandrafarabegoli.it

My office needs much better lighting, and Sequoia Mulgrave has a second career as a broadcaster if she ever opts for it! That said, the talent available in the Mailchimp Experts Directory is something anyone serious about their business or email marketing should tap into. I’m truly impressed with the knowledge of each of these women and would be happy to have them as part of my team, or my own marketing department! If you haven’t watched the recording, reach out to Emily Ryan to get access.

-MaryAnn Pfeiffer, Digital Marketing Strategist, 108 Degrees Digital Marketing

1. There are some very knowledgeable email experts out there… and if you don’t tap into that knowledge, you’re losing out.

2. Being a marketer, this is always at the forefront of my mind, but being clear on your who and how it impacts the best way to approach email marketing was worth reminding – anecdotally there are good times to send and bad times to send an email, but it all depends on the who – the who you are sending to.

-Robin Adams, Founder, Chimp Answers

Want to connect with a Mailchimp Pro Partner? Check out the Mailchimp Experts Directory here.

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How often should you send an email? (Advice for B2Bs and B2C’s)

This is, by far, one of the most-asked questions I hear about email marketing. And below you’ll hear some great advice from 8 Mailchimp Partners/Experts with actual, concrete answers that can really help your email strategy.

Weekly or fortnightly is a good frequency for most businesses. Some e-commerce business send more than that, and some companies we work with send every 2 months, which in my opinion is not as often. Of course, if you factor in sending to smaller segments, you could effectively be sending a few emails every week, just not to your entire audience.

-Doug Dennison, CEO & Co-founder, MailNinja

The companies reaping rewards from email marketing, email frequently. Weekly if you can (although there is no perfect answer for this). Once a month is simply not enough to move the needle. Most of our clients do at least one email per week and many e-commerce clients do 3-7 per week (to different targeted segments). If unsubscribes start increasing, pull back some and if you want to increase sales, consider emailing more. One of the biggest mistakes I see is companies not emailing enough. Many business owners worry they will bother their subscribers, but if you’re sending interesting, relevant content, people will open your emails.

Of course, it always depends on your business and your Audience. For e-commerce, weekly but for say, a lawyer, a lot less…

Emily Ryan, Co-founder & Mailchimp Strategist, Westfield Creative

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to email frequency. It will vary for senders based on many factors including their ability to create engaging content, the types of products and services they are selling, the frequency at which subscribers want to receive emails, and many other factors.

Through my experience I’ve found that recipients don’t mind receiving emails if they offer valuable, relevant content. So as long as you are sending something that subscribers WANT to receive, it seldom creates a negative experience. The problem is that many brands don’t have enough quality content to email at a high frequency.

If you do email frequently, want your metrics for a plateau or drop in positive metrics (opens, clicks, and conversions) along with a rise in negative metrics (non-opens, reduced click ratio, unsubscribes, etc). If you see that happen, dial back your frequency until you see things return to positive results

-Adam Holden-Bache, Dir. of Email Marketing, Enventys Partners

As a general rule, you should send an email whenever you’ve something interesting and useful to say; if you rarely have something relevant to say, you have a problem, and it is not an email marketing issue: you better reconsider what you’re doing and why.

This said, the key to finding the right frequency is the reasonable expectations of your audience: not exceedingly many, but also not so seldom that they forget having subscribed.

Once a month is a minimum, and it’s a risky one because if somebody misses one, they won’t hear from you for too long; a weekly newsletter with a fixed day and hour, instead, soon becomes a habit for the reader and builds expectation and loyalty.

-Alessandra Farabegoli, Digital Strategist, www.alessandrafarabegoli.it

This is a question I get asked a lot and I’ll split out B2B vs B2C below.

Email is great at two things: keeping you top of mind and prompting action. That applies to both B2B and B2C.

However, do I want to hear from my accountant every day? Probably not. Once a month is enough to use the Power of the BCC to create great content I will read. That applies to most B2B service businesses.

B2B businesses selling products, especially consumables, need to up their game and think like retailers. Sending less more often. To do that you need a Marketing Plan.

For B2C I believe the minimum is 3 times a week. That should be possible. For example, Monday send all the deals, Thursday a reminder of your top deals from Monday and Saturday last chance for the deals. This requires a good e-commerce platform, good deals and again a Marketing Plan.

-Glenn Edley, Director & Email Strategist, Spike

For an email program to be effective, your subscribers need to remember who you are and find your information relevant. Whether you have a B2B or B2C audience, the minimum number of campaigns to leverage brand recognition and relevance is once per month. As some of your audience is likely to miss some of those campaigns, anything less will render you irrelevant in just a few months.

From there, the frequency really depends on the relevance of your messaging and the responsiveness of your list. Journalistic emails and e-commerce coupons are sent daily by industry leaders, industry news and special offers can happen weekly… but some industries and lists will not tolerate more than twice per month before the unsubscribe rate starts to climb. At the end of the day, the frequency and cadence depend on what your audience will tolerate. The best way to know this is to TEST your list, and when possible, allow your subscribers to select their preferences for subscriptions, so you reach them as often as they want to hear from you.

-MaryAnne Pfeiffer, Digital Marketing Strategist, 108 Degrees Digital Marketing

Ask not how often you should send an email, rather ask, how often would my email list like to receive one! Like most of marketing, it’s never about you, and always about your customer/prospect and the nature of your relationship. It doesn’t matter if it’s B2B or B2C, every relationship is different, every product is different.

…and remember, not everyone on your list is the same, some want more emails, some less – so test, and give them the option.

-Robin Adams, Founder, Chimp Answers

I think how often you send your emails depends on your industry & business. Some businesses have so much going on in their business and industry that a daily update email works. Some businesses are slow-moving and a quarterly email is enough. My default is a once a month email.

-Amy Hall, Email Marketing Strategist and Certified Mailchimp Partner, amyhall.biz

Want to connect with a Mailchimp Pro Partner? Check out the Mailchimp Experts Directory here.

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Is there a way to ethically hack email list growth?

Below you’ll hear some of the best tips and advice from 8 Mailchimp Pro Partners (including myself) on how you can ethically grow your email list. Growing your email list should always be a priority when it comes to your email marketing, but there are creative ways to do it that are still in compliance with Mailchimp Best Practices.

One hack works above all else. Create high-value and relevant content such as a free course or an ebook to drive signups, rather than simply saying ‘signup to my newsletter’, then add multiple captures like popups on your website to do the heavy lifting for you.

-Doug Dennison, CEO & Co-founder, MailNinja

I always recommend aiming for quality over quantity when it comes to growing your email list. Capture data in as many places as possible, provide an appealing reason for someone to subscribe, and follow through on what you promise by delivering relevant content. Anything other than this can lead to less than desirable results from your email audience.

-Adam Holden-Bache, Dir. of Email Marketing, Enventys Partners

There are countless smart and ethical ways to grow your email list that don’t involve purchasing emails. Purchasing emails and then marketing to them is not only illegal but it’s simply a bad idea. As long as people are agreeing to opt-in, the sky’s the limit in terms of ways to gain subscribers.

Here are some ways you maybe haven’t thought of:

1. Contributing to a guest blog is a fantastic way to get people back to your own website and hopefully sign up (like the contributors on this post).

2. Offering a simple lead magnet/opt-in via Instagram (like a one-page PDF checklist) and asking people to click the link in your bio to sign up and get it.

As long as you’re asking for permission and people know they’re opting-in, you can dream up almost anything to get a new subscriber.

Emily Ryan, Co-founder & Mailchimp Strategist, Westfield Creative

For me, hacking means knowing very well from the inside how things work and to use this knowledge to reach your goals; there’s nothing inherently unethical in this, as long as the goals are correct and respectful. List growth happens through focusing on our target’s identity, needs and expectations, forging a message that resonates with them and putting that message in front of them, in the right place, at the right time; this requires a deep knowledge not only of email marketing but of CRO, UX, advertising and the rules of persuasion. Most importantly, I don’t believe in short term goals such as the mere quantity of new subscribers; I’d better work for quality subscribers, who not only enter the list but keep reading and maintain the engagement for a long period of time.

-Alessandra Farabegoli, Digital Strategist, Co-Founder, Digital Update and Freelancecamp Italia

List growth can definitely be hacked, by hard work. Every point of contact with your business is a marketing opportunity and an opportunity to get permission to send emails to someone. The question people should be asking before they go outside of their business is, “Are we using every single point of contact we have to get email addresses?”. They’re generally not.

Some other ways are:

1. Using google to get people to your website and asking them once they get there to sign up.

2. Using co-registration and working with other businesses to access their database.

3. Advertising on podcasts or being featured on a podcast.

There are endless ethical ways to hack list growth. They generally take more planning and work but will gain you a much higher value customer.

-Glenn Edley, Director & Email Strategist, Spike

If executed correctly and with precision, cold email campaigns can be used very effectively to build permission-based email lists. Cold email reaches out to a qualified list of potential customers or subscribers, tactfully introducing them to the brand in a way that is non-offensive. With the right lures and effective targeting, this method can provide a stream of traffic to your website or offer, which can then be converted into a permission-based email list.

-MaryAnne Pfeiffer, Digital Marketing Strategist, 108 Degrees Digital Marketing

Firstly, make sure you are ethical with your email list… please… if you’re not it’ll hurt both you AND everyone else so don’t send marketing emails to people who you shouldn’t. In terms of ethically hacking, well, if you take the fact that hacking implies some sort of shortcut or ‘easy path’, I’m not sure… Ultimately, you need to have a way of getting people onto an email list, and not just anyone, but people who want to engage with your business and brand – anyone can build an email list quickly – but is it actually worthwhile, or would you rather focus on emailing the RIGHT people? (but if you do want a short-cut, make sure it’s as easy as possible for the right people to sign up – I’ve seen too many bad forms and no automation to believe that just doing the basics is a good start for most!)

-Robin Adams, Founder, Chimp Answers

I’m not sure I would call this a hack… running ads on Facebook and LinkedIn for newsletter subscribers. Your list will grow quickly, but in my opinion, your list won’t be as engaged as organic subscribers.

-Amy Hall, Email Marketing Strategist and Certified Mailchimp Partner, amyhall.biz

Want to connect with a Mailchimp Pro Partner? Check out the Mailchimp Experts Directory here.

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The 4 Most FAQs We Get About Email and Mailchimp

When we decided to focus our agency on Mailchimp email marketing, we started getting a lot of the same questions. Many of these questions we hear several times a week from prospective and new clients. So we’re giving you the deets today.

I’m going to try to answer these for you in the easiest and shortest way possible.

But these are truly four of the most frequently asked we get OFTEN.

1. What’s the best time to send my email?

The answer: There is no perfect send time, except the time you determine after months of testing YOUR audience. Some experts will say Tues-Thurs at 10 am is the best and don’t send on Mondays, but there truly isn’t a perfect time and it’s super important to utilize A/B testing to test different send times to see which time performed better.

In this awesome Guide from Hunter on the best times to send an email, they analyzed 9 prominent case studies and came up with some interesting data – like Fridays being the best for open rates.

And with the pandemic, optimal send times have changed a ton. In the past, Saturdays used to not be so great for sending an email, but now I find that everyone is home and relaxing and this can be a great send time. So it’s important to test this over a period of weeks or months to see what works for your people. What works for an audience of realtors is going to be different than an audience of people who buy, say makeup.

2. Do I need to clean my email list?

The answer: Yes and no. “Cleaning your list” refers to removing or archiving any contacts that are no longer opening your emails or engaged. This is extremely important because it affects the deliverability of your emails. The cleaner your email list, the higher your open rates will be, which improves your sender reputation.

The good news is that Mailchimp helps you do this. Mailchimp automatically “cleans” emails that bounce. I still recommending periodically creating a segment of contacts that “have not opened” one of your last 10 or 20 emails – and then ARCHIVING them. OR creating a re-engagement email campaign to reach out to them and asking if they’re still interested in hearing from you. Anyone that does NOT open that email– archive them (don’t unsubscribe).

3. How do I grow my email list?

The answer: There are many ways, my friend. This is a long conversation, but this should always be one of your top priorities. Growing your email list is vital to having success with your email campaigns. So I always tell clients to focus on this before anything.

Here are some quick ways to start growing your email list:

Create a simple one-page PDF to use as a “freebie” or “lead magnet” and offer that people in exchange for signing up. You can offer through a popup on your website or creating a page on your site where people sign up. Create an automated email that sends to them, with the download, after they sign up.
Host a short webinar on a topic and ask people to sign up for it.
Post weekly on your social media channels about joining your list and the fun stuff they will receive if they subscribe (Ex: This Friday I am sending out the latest edition of my fun weekly email, full of the best email marketing tips…make sure you’re on the list!)
Talk about your email list in everything you do. If you’re on a podcast or speak on a webinar, remind me to subscribe to your list.
Post multiple opt-ins around your website. Your homepage should have several – a popup, a button at the top, and others weaved in.

There are many other ways, but start with these and it will grow quickly.

4. Do I need to use Tags or Groups or Segments?

The answer: Yes. Using Mailchimp’s “Tags” or “Groups” and also creating “Segments” are some of the most powerful Mailchimp features you can utilize to personalize your email marketing and create campaigns that are sent to the right people at the right time. And I promise you, they’re not as confusing as you may think.

Tags are used to simply tag your contacts internally. Think of it as a little contact note. Tags could be “local contact” or “contest entry” or “attended Feb webinar” or “Subscription-Active” and the list goes on. A tag is is powerful because you can create campaigns JUST for a specific tag of people and then send them an email campaign. Read more on getting started with Tags here.

A segment is something that you can create in Mailchimp or you can use one of Mailchimp’s pre-built segments. Segments use data already in Mailchimp. For example, “did not open the last email campaign” would be a segment you can create. Or “Purchased an item in last month.” Or “Email contains nike.com” or even “Location is United States.” There are endless possibilities for segments you can create and they’re incredibly useful when sending targeted email campaigns. More on segments here.

Lastly, “Groups.” The important thing to note about “Groups” is that the contact can view these. You can set up a Group to ask your customer/contacts something like “Are you interested in:” “Emails only, webinar info, events, don’t want any emails” Those would be 4 responses within 1 group. Groups are useful for gathering contact’s interests. More here on getting started with Groups.

So while TAGS are something you do internally to tag a contact, a Group is something you setup so your contacts can choose. And a segment is what you create based on these tags and groups.

These are some quick answers to some of our most asked questions. Hope they were helpful!

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12 Creative Ways To Market Your Business

What is one creative way you plan to market your business in 2021? What do you have planned?

We asked marketing professionals and business owners about what they have in store for the year ahead.

Here are twelve creative ways to market your business.

Instagram Reels
Prioritize Video Content
Plain Text Emails
Optimized Blog Content
Join Online Communities
TikTok
Exterior Branding
Get Personal
Hit It Old School
Highlight Success Stories
Establish Yourself as Experts
Live Shopping on Apps

Instagram Reels

Everything is virtual these days and one of the most creative things you can do is capitalize on this. I am a big fan of Instagram’s “Reels” feature which is similar to TikTok. I’ve seen a lot of business owners using Reels to teach their followers something short and fun. You could do a simple “3 Tips for…” and set it to music. It makes for fun content and it gets a lot more exposure than a traditional Instagram post. Make sure to include hashtags in your caption!

Emily Ryan, Westfield Creative

Prioritize Video Content

Video creation is one of the most creative ways to market your business in 2021. Studies show that video content performs better on social media and also increases the average time on page for web users, and it is a powerful tactic that not many people use due to the labor-intensive nature of video production. We are excited to do more in this space come 2021!

Noah Downs, American Pipeline Solutions

Plain Text Emails

Sending personalized, plain text email messages to existing and prospective customers is a simple, but underutilized marketing tactic. We receive so many emails every day, but if you can insert your business into an inbox in an unobtrusive way, then you are able to deepen customer relationships and be there when customers need you.

Carey Wilbur, Charter Capital

Optimized Blog Content

Going into 2021, we plan to create high-quality, optimized content to be featured on our blog. Our goal is to be the most trusted experts in our industry. This helps us organically rank on search engines and be the featured page when people are looking for durable device cases. We have gotten really creative with keywords and topics to appeal to potential customers and just rolled out a 3-month content strategy to aid in our marketing efforts. Content will be king in 2021.

Peter Babichenko, Sahara Case

Join Online Communities

One creative way you can market your business in 2021 is to join different online communities! I personally attend online webinars and meetups for female entrepreneurs and creatives to build my network and promote my company to potential clients. In addition to the reach these communities provide for my company, they also give me the opportunity to meet other prominent professionals in my vertical who help me get even better at my craft.

Nikitha Lokareddy, Markitors

TikTok

A tactic we have been utilizing in 2020 and will use well into 2021 is TikTok. With over 800 million monthly active users, Tik Tok is officially the hottest new social media platform. While TikTok is thought to just be for teens, we have found that a lot of our target market is active on TikTok and looking for content geared toward them. We created an account and have been making our own videos and publishing them for the world to see. With no monetary investment, we just use our free time and creativity to spread the word about our brand.

Stephanie Schull, Kegelbell

Exterior Branding

We equip all of our vehicles with visually appealing exterior graphics to help capture what it’s like to “Cruise America.” We often hear positive comments from customers and prospective customers about these graphics. With more than 4,500 vehicles on the road, the more our vehicles are in use, the more marketing benefit our company receives.

Randall Smalley, Cruise America

Get Personal

Not in a creepy way, but in a true authentic way. We are all exhausted from being online 24/7. Can you send a handwritten card just because? Can you organize a pickup/drop off spot for a joint activity or craft project? Can you organize a safe winter wonderland activity? I believe the secret sauce behind effective marketing in 2021 is going beyond the digital screen.

Audrey Hutnick, Smallwave Marketing

Hit It Old School

We’re hitting it old-school with some of our approaches this coming year to activate our wholesale network. Our plan is to resurrect the idea of “scratcher postcards,” but with actually great rewards under those silver flecks. Digital ads are becoming more expensive and are vying for subprime attention, while print advertising is seeing a resurgence in both affordability and the stronger eyes it gets.

Hana Ruzsa Alanis, Graphic Designer & Marketing Specialist

Highlight Success Stories

In 2021 we are aiming for the strategy of storytelling. We’re focusing on telling our clients’ stories. We believe storytelling, be it brand-led or customer-led, connects with audiences. We’re combining the two to show how our brand helps our customers through their success stories. It will take us some time to find the right stories, shape them for our audiences, and tell them in a way that showcases our clients’ hard work and success. Any good story has a setting, a character, character flaws, conflict, resolution, and lesson. Brand storytelling is not an exception. We plan on incorporating all those elements into our stories.

Natalya Bucuy, LiveHelpNow

Establish Yourself As Experts

When we look at 2021, it’s important to understand that we still have uncertain times ahead. Therefore, we need to not only have a Plan B, but we need to work our way a little further down the alphabet. We plan to stay innovative and ready to make a pivot whenever traditional marketing efforts aren’t paying off. So, we have targeted strategies for outreach, guest posting, and providing beneficial quotes for articles on high-traffic sites. By establishing ourselves as experts in our niche, we plan to exude trustworthiness and professionalism.

Sally Rong, Rellery

Live Shopping on Apps

In order to successfully market your business next year, the answer lies in adopting a combination of new social tools vs. tapping into just one. We’re anticipating that the next phase of retail will heavily focus on ‘Live Shopping.’ For example, our partners at Facebook and TikTok are rolling out new features that will make it extremely quick and easy for consumers to make purchases directly from interactive content—without ever leaving their respective app or site. In 2021, brands will be able to sell seamlessly through Instagram’s ‘Checkout’ feature and take advantage of TikTok’s first-ever commerce partnership with Shopify. This provides a great opportunity to work with influencers across platforms and explore new channel capabilities.

Greg Gillman, MuteSix

Terkel creates community-driven content featuring expert insights. Sign up at terkel.io to answer questions and get published.

digital marketing tips email marketing mailchimp online marketing social media marketing

What’s the biggest mistake people make in email marketing?

email marketer email marketing email tips mailchimp

6 Ways To Maximize Mailchimp To Get Results

With so many features, how can you get the most from Mailchimp’s platform and tools?

To answer this question, we asked six Mailchimp customers and experts for their best tips. Here’s what they had to say about maximizing Mailchimp to get results.

Take Advantage of the Campaign Analytics

Tapping into the analytics from a campaign on Mailchimp will better equip you for the next one and the many more after that. Using their analytics will help you have a solid idea of the success, including how many people it reached, how many opened it and how many people engaged with whatever you sent. By using these numbers, businesses can continue to improve their email campaigns and gain more and more engagement.

Daniel Cheetham, Y Scouts

Research Mailchimp Packages

Research all their offers and choose the tools that are best suited for your needs and business. While it may be tempting to use all sorts of services, if you do not understand them or how to use them, they will be of no use to you and you will blow your budget.

Vanessa Molica, The Lash Professional

Chat with Mailchimp’s Customer Service

If at any point in your Mailchimp journey you get stuck and need help to see results, don’t be afraid to reach out to their Customer Service staff. These are people that work day in and day out with Mailchimp, knowing it much better than the average user. Go to them for anything and you are guaranteed to get your answer as well as better your Mailchimp skills during the process. A win-win!

Kayla Centeno, Markitors

Set It and Forget It

In the spirit of efficiency, one of my favorite features of Mailchimp is the ability to automate your campaign. For example, you can set up triggers for when the initial intro email to your new customer should be sent or an email to be sent to a customer based on their website activity. Mailchimp’s “set it and forget it” approach truly provides you with the necessary tools and platform to provide timely and relevant information to your customers with ease.

Jennifer Leicht, Marketing and Small Business Consultant

Utilize Tags to Send Relevant Emails

My best Mailchimp tip to get the most from their platform is to use tags to send more relevant emails. For example, create a tag for email subscribers who have not opened your last 10 emails. Such subscribers are in danger of disengaging! You should talk to those disengaged subscribers differently. For example, offer a “welcome back” coupon exclusively for them. You can start the email with something like this “we noticed you haven’t opened our emails so we created a special offer just for you!”

Bruce Harpham, Technology Marketing Consultant

Back to Back Email Campaigns

On top of manual, one-off email campaigns, Mailchimp has the ability to set up back-to-back email campaigns—many paid users don’t make use of this feature. For instance, for new customers, you can set up weekly onboarding emails for the first month, to educate and inform this pool of users on your product/service. You can also set up a rule to only send out follow-up emails if a user had not previously opened the last campaign. This one—you don’t over email customers who are already actively using your service and may not enjoy the over-supplement of email-based content.

Hung Nguyen, Smallpdf

email marketing email tips mailchimp

Do you need email validation if you use Mailchimp?

We’re thrilled to share a special interview that we did with the COO of ZeroBounce, a company that specializes in email deliverability (i.e., making sure your emails actually reach the Inbox…kind of important, right?).

We came across their new Inbox Placement Tester tool recently and loved it so much that I had to reach out.

So, meet Brian Minick, the COO. I asked Brian some questions, including their integration with Mailchimp. Enjoy!

COO of ZeroBounce, Brian Minick

So, what exactly is ZeroBounce and do I need this if I use Mailchimp?

ZeroBounce is a go-to platform for anyone who sends emails and wants to make sure they reach the inbox. Whether you’re a freelancer, a small business owner, or a marketer working for a corporation – you want to connect with real people, and that’s what we help you with.

What started as an email validation service has evolved into a platform with multiple features: list cleaning, A.I. email scoring, and deliverability testing.

Do you need it if you use MailChimp? Yes! Validating your list will help achieve better deliverability and therefore should help increase your chance to inbox. Mailchimp also will block your list upload and throw an Omnivore error which we help solve.

What’s more, ZeroBounce integrates directly with MailChimp, so it’s easier to import your list, clean it, and export it back onto MailChimp.

Do you have to have a big “list” to use this?

No, it’s a percentages game. Whether your list is big or small, the percentage of bounces is the game that is played. We have customers that email only a hundred or so contacts and are finding value in our services. Alternatively, our large enterprise clients – who send millions of emails – include us into their workflows right before they send.

Why is email deliverability so important?

It’s difficult to tell people that a lesser quantity, but a higher quality list is better. They often think that if you have a million contacts, you have a better chance of getting conversions sending to all of them. This is simply untrue.

If we take your list and remove 30% of the bad contacts, it leaves with you 700k. Sending to those 700k but increasing your chance to get it into the inbox means this: 700k in inbox, vs 1m in spam. See the difference? Which has a better chance of converting?

Tell me more about your company. Are your employees remote?

Right now, everyone is remote. In normal circumstances, we have three offices and most of our team reports to them. We have a few off-site employees as well.

Where are you based?

Our headquarters is in Boca Raton FL. We also have a satellite office in Santa Barbara, and an office in Bucharest, Romania to handle our around-the-clock service.

How many people work at ZeroBounce?

About 30 in total.

How did you start your company?

It started out of a need. We were looking for email validators to help with our own marketing campaigns at our sister company. Finding a company that guaranteed accurate results and took data privacy seriously proved impossible. Our CEO saw an opportunity and decided to build the service.

Six years later, here we are, and very strong! We were built on the foundation above: security, privacy, and quality. Our customer feedback shows that we’re hitting the mark on all three.

What started as an email validation service has evolved into a platform with multiple features: list cleaning, A.I. email scoring, and deliverability testing.

What advice would you give to someone who is new to email marketing?

1) Start with a clean list, use double opt-in to confirm people who are on your list actually wanted to be there.

2) Don’t be shy to use free services to help get you started. Many companies offer them (including us) for little companies and start-ups. You have to start somewhere. We want you to be successful.

3) Measure performance, which comes in the form of inbox/spam. Try out our free inbox placement tester, which will give insight in how your campaign might perform out in the marketplace. Remember, emails that go to spam are simply a waste of your energy and resources. You need to be in people’s inboxes.

4) You will do something wrong, it’s natural. Keep track of what’s working and not, and stay flexible so you can adjust your moves.

***

Thank you so much, Brian!

More here:

ZeroBounce’s Email Server Tester

deliverability email email marketing email validation inbox tester mailchimp zerobounce

9 Tips for Awesome Cyber Monday Emails

DID YOU KNOW that Cyber Monday was the biggest online sales day of the year in 2018? In case ya didn’t know, this is probably the busiest week of the year for us email marketers, so I thought I’d give you a few important Cyber Monday email tips here. And also – I just love this photo.
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1. Send your Cyber Monday email when others AREN’T. Don’t follow the crowd. Send the day before or even the day after. Or send it today! I’m sure you’ve already seen quite a few Black Friday emails. You should also use Mailchimp’s “send time optimization” tool to determine the best send time for your particular Audience. ⁣
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2. Urgency. Make sure you explain when the deal will end so people feel a sense of urgency to buy that day. ⁣
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3. Don’t hesitate to send it late at night. One study I read shows 11pm had a high click rate (I know I shop online late at night…

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4. Keep it short and sweet. Your email should include your deal, a big image of your product, coupon code and a button to buy it. Remove any extra fluff. ⁣
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5. Use GIFs or moving images in your email to keep it fun and interesting. ⁣Check out this gorgeous email from Kidly.
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6. Keep subject lines short (under 30 characters) and use emojis. Think fun and light. ⁣
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7. Make sure you have an Abandoned Cart email setup and ready. ⁣This is a huge opportunity to increase your sales.
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8. Use all channels. Consider creating a Facebook Ad or a landing page for your Cyber Monday deal. Promote on social. This will make you way more competitive. ⁣
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9. Send your email a second time! Consider sending an “EXTENDED” email after Cyber Monday saying the sale has been extended. ⁣
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Happy Online Shopping Season! I’ll be over here getting our client’s emails ready and tested.
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(Photo via @fashionsfromhistory on Instagram)

email marketing tips

7 Ways Small Businesses Can Utilize MailChimp

Before Markitors morphed into an SEO company, we completed 100+ Mailchimp projects for companies in 8 countries on 4 continents.

We learned a thing or two along the way about how small businesses can utilize Mailchimp.

The great thing about MailChimp is that small businesses can get a great email marketing tool for free! MailChimp’s basic plan – which is used by the majority of customers – lets a company send up to 10,000 emails to 2,000 subscribers per month, which tends to be enough for most small businesses. We gathered advice from MailChimp’s experts on the best ways small businesses can leverage this tool.

Here are 7 ways small businesses can utilize MailChimp:

Build your list.

The best thing small businesses can do is to start building their list of subscribers. Even if customers bought from a physical store, ask for their email address! Being able to promote your business to people who have already bought your products is a great way to start because you know they are already interested in what you have to offer.

Do your research.

Start by studying tutorials and how-to videos. You’re already reading this article, which is a great start! Check out other small businesses to see what they’re doing right, and incorporate those elements into your own emails.

Have a sign-up form.

Having a sign-up form for visitors to join your mailing list is an absolute must for your website. The experts recommend giving an incentive like a small discount off the first order as a reward for signing up to help increase conversion rates.

Make it clear.

What are you trying to accomplish with your message? Identify the outcome you want and craft your content around it. Include a clear and compelling call to action.

Drag and drop.

MailChimp has a wonderful drag-and-drop editor that makes building mobile-optimized campaigns extremely easy. This tool is pretty intuitive and helps you design consistent, effective emails. Since it’s such a widely used platform, there are a number of integrations included. This makes it easy for small businesses using outside CRM tools like Salesforce to set up integrated automation.

Personalize it.

Personalizing your email builds a sense of trust with your consumer, and the experts agree that personalization helps increase engagement. Personalize your email’s subject line and body text to include the recipient’s name.

Track your performance.

A great perk of email marketing is the analysis that comes with it. MailChimp offers reporting tools with lots of valuable information like graphs, maps, and trends to help improve your future campaigns. Use these tools to fine-tune all aspects of your email marketing.

How will your small business utilize Mailchimp? If you need some help, Westfield Creative has got you covered.

Brett Farmiloe is the Founder & CEO of Markitors, a digital marketing company for small business. Brett is a former auditor turned marketer, and offers a free SEO audit to any small business looking to better optimize their website online.

digital marketing email marketing email newsletter markitors seo

What is one thing to know about Mailchimp’s send time optimization?

Automated Emails Are Not Offered

It is Very Timely

You Still Need to Do Your Own Research

Mailchimp Uses Data Science

You Must Choose a Plan

Send Time Optimization May Not Work The Same Day

The Software’s First Try Isn’t Perfect

Here is a quick video showing you a really neat Mailchimp hack for the way your subject line and preview text line will appear in subscriber’s inboxes. It takes a small bit of code at the very top, but it’s super easy.

Here are some great links I loved this past week:

Want to connect with a Mailchimp Pro Partner? Check out the Mailchimp Experts Directory here.

Want to connect with a Mailchimp Pro Partner? Check out the Mailchimp Experts Directory here.

Want to connect with a Mailchimp Pro Partner? Check out the Mailchimp Experts Directory here.

Want to connect with a Mailchimp Pro Partner? Check out the Mailchimp Experts Directory here.

1. What’s the best time to send my email?

2. Do I need to clean my email list?

3. How do I grow my email list?

4. Do I need to use Tags or Groups or Segments?

Instagram Reels

Prioritize Video Content

Plain Text Emails

Optimized Blog Content

Join Online Communities

TikTok

Exterior Branding

Get Personal

Hit It Old School

Highlight Success Stories

Establish Yourself As Experts

Live Shopping on Apps

Here’s what they had to say about the biggest mistakes in email marketing:

Want to learn about these Mailchimp experts and Pro Partners? Check them out in the Mailchimp Directory here.

Take Advantage of the Campaign Analytics

Research Mailchimp Packages

Chat with Mailchimp’s Customer Service

Set It and Forget It

Utilize Tags to Send Relevant Emails

Back to Back Email Campaigns

So, what exactly is ZeroBounce and do I need this if I use Mailchimp?

Do you have to have a big “list” to use this?

Why is email deliverability so important?

Tell me more about your company. Are your employees remote?

Where are you based?

How many people work at ZeroBounce?

How did you start your company?

What advice would you give to someone who is new to email marketing?

More here:

Here are 7 ways small businesses can utilize MailChimp:

Build your list.

Do your research.

Have a sign-up form.

Make it clear.

Drag and drop.

Personalize it.

Track your performance.

Contact

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