Mailchimp, one of the leading marketing automation and email marketing platforms, can do wonders for your business in tandem with ChatGPT. Being Mailchimp email experts ourselves and having delivered tangible results for our clientele across the board, we can more than vouch for the platform’s wherewithal in relation to integration. 

In this guide, we will learn how to integrate ChatGPT into Mailchimp so that you can lubricate the cogs of email marketing and deliver frictionless customer experiences. As a bonus, we will also be exploring Mailchimp’s rendezvous with AI. So, on with the motley! 

1. Generate API Keys

To set the ball rolling, you need to first generate API keys for both ChatGPT and Mailchimp. To obtain the API key for ChatGPT, follow these steps:

• Visit the Open AI platform. Navigate to the sidebar, and select API keys as shown below.

• Click API keys and create a new secret key, as shown in the following image. (You may be asked to verify your phone number first.)

Now, follow these steps to obtain the API key for Mailchimp. 

• Log in to your Mailchimp account. Go to the Account page.
  
• Click the Extras tab and choose API keys as shown here. 

• Click Create A Key. Then copy the generated API key.

2. Set up A Dev Environment

Now, you need to set up a development environment. It’s a safe workspace for developers to make necessary changes without upsetting anything in the live environment. 

You can use any programming language of your choice. We will be using Python. So we have pip already installed. Now, we will install requests and mail_chimp packages. 

3. Create Email on ChatGPT

Now, we will generate email content using the API key for ChatGPT. Feel free to use the following Python script. Remember to replace YOUR_UNIQUE_API_KEY with your actual key. 

4. Send an Email on Mailchimp

Now, we will use Mailchimp’s API key. Take a good look at the following Python script. Once again, replace the API key and the list ID with your unique values. 

5. Tacking It Together

You are almost done. Now, you can use both functions in a single Python script, as shown below. We want to generate email content in ChatGPT and then send it in Mailchimp. 

Reinforcing The Integration

Now that you know how to apply the integration, you would need to reinforce it by importing more advanced features and functionalities, such as audience segmentation and personalization, from both ChatGPT and Mailchimp. 

For instance, in the case of personalization, you can add relevant tokens to ChatGPT prompts. The most obvious one would be {first_name}. 

You can then leverage Mailchimp’s native segmentation tools to create uber-targeted campaigns. 

For each segment, you can generate unique ChatGPT prompts and send the right message to the right people. 

Another instance could be A/B testing. You can implement it in your Python script once you create multiple campaigns with different subject lines (or any other variable you choose to test). You can then pick the winner from Mailchimp’s reports. 

Mailchimp’s Rendezvous with AI

Ever since the advent of AI, Mailchimp’s team has been quick to adopt it and leverage it to expand the potential of the platform. It all began with Mailchimp’s acquisition of the automated design platform, Sawa, in 2019. Following this, Mailchimp acquired Inspector 6 in 2020 to help brands create “more effective marketing content.”

Today, Mailchimp boasts more than 20 “AI and data science features in-app.” Mailchimp’s stated goal is to enable marketers to save time, build and deliver more effective marketing campaigns, and transfer data-driven insights to their collective decision-making. 

Of course, generative AI plays a big role in making all this possible. As Jon Fasoli, Chief Design and Product Officer at Mailchimp, puts it, “We see generative AI fundamentally changing the landscape of creative work, and we’re here to help our customers apply it to their day-to-day marketing in meaningful ways so that they get more done and reach their goals faster.”

From Send Day and Time Optimization, Content Optimization, and Alt-text Generation to Journey Builder Recommendations, Stock Image Suggestions, and Product Recommendations, Mailchimp’s AI-powered Email Content Generator is an all-in-one unraveling of the potential of email marketing combined with AI. 

To illustrate how ambitious Mailchimp is toward leveraging gen AI, in February 2023, the brand utilized ChatGPT to deliver minute-by-minute highlights of a game at the Super Bowl. 

Christened “Play by AI,” Mailchimp aimed to give fans an “AI-generated, live tweeting experience.” 

Jeremy Jones, Group Creative Director of Advertising at Mailchimp, says, “Culture is made in an instant at the Super Bowl, but for marketers who want to capitalize on it, all the noise can feel overwhelming. That’s why Mailchimp—a marketing platform that markets to marketers—created Play by AI to highlight the fun and practical ways AI can help generate compelling and effective content for email and beyond.”

The point of it all is partly to emphasize Mailchimp’s commitment to AI and partly to reassure marketers. Mailchimp has put their money where their mouth is. With time, we can expect them to announce more such fraternizing with AI – all ultimately for the benefit of businesses, small and large. 

Wrapping Up!

AI-powered digital marketing is all the rage, and not for nothing. More and more businesses are starting to realize its potential in transforming how they can traverse the customer-scape across multiple touchpoints. Speaking of AI-integrated email, it is one of the more dynamic offshoots of the industry-wide revolution. 

With Mailchimp’s well-attested integration capabilities, coupled with ChatGPT’s globally celebrated utility, your next email campaign enjoys all the necessary ingredients to succeed. 

The post A Step-by-Step Guide to Integrate ChatGPT into Mailchimp for Maximizing Engagement appeared first on Email Uplers.

With the advent of various email marketing platforms, marketers would agree that this is the best time for comprehensive email marketing. AI-powered email marketing software has been a godsend, having replaced cumbersome tasks with lightning-quick processes and superior results. 

Almost all email platforms perform list segmentation, among other things. In this post, we put HubSpot list segmentation on the slide in order to take a micro-focused look at it. Let’s begin from the beginning. 

What Is HubSpot List Segmentation, And Why May You Need It?

You may have experimented with other email automation platforms for performing list segmentation. However, what distinguishes HubSpot from the rest is its user-friendly interface, highly advanced filters, and smart lists.

HubSpot’s segmentation allows you to create a list of contacts on the basis of an almost unlimited variety of criteria, enabling granular segmentation to deliver highly personalized emails to your contacts. The result is maximum user engagement via super-relevant content. 

Because HubSpot’s segmentation tool enables you to pull contact data from HubSpot CRM, you can create multiple segments and tailor your emails to individual preferences. Note that HubSpot email lists are instantaneously updated, allowing you to act on the latest data. You can send emails at just the right time and just the way your contacts would like it. 

There is no danger of working with outdated lists since HubSpot automatically updates contact data upon a change in information. Contacts that no longer meet the criteria are automatically flushed out. 

Equally, implementing HubSpot list segmentation does not take long if you have contact data within your CRM. You just need to connect your CRM and get going. In the absence of contact data, segmentation may take a while. 

We can encapsulate why you may want to use HubSpot for email list segmentation in the following way:

• Customer-focused campaigns: List segmentation on HubSpot allows you to adopt a customer-focused approach to marketing. Because HubSpot customer segmentation is highly granular, you can have a better understanding of customer journeys and preferences.
• Better customer retention: HubSpot’s advanced filters and unlimited criteria enforce personalized marketing, which results in better customer retention. 
• Better resource optimization: Since HubSpot facilitates a one-to-one relationship with your customers at a deeper level than most email marketing solutions, you can use your resources in a better way to connect with your contacts no matter where they might be on the sales funnel. Sending relevant content to the right person has never been easier.
• Improved campaign performance: HubSpot enables you to design complex yet fluid automation workflows on the basis of your segments. Depending on where a customer is in their journey, you can use hyper-segmentation to differentiate your marketing, leading to better campaign performance.

If you are not sure about going about it on your own, consider getting help from HubSpot pros like us. Our email experts are conversant with setting up automation workflows, integrating third-party software to HubSpot, managing your email campaigns, and more. 

How To Use HubSpot’s List Segmentation? 

Before learning how to use HubSpot segmentation, let us see how to create a list on HubSpot. 

• Log in to your HubSpot account, then go to Contacts and click Lists.

• Next, select the Create List option.

• Name your list, and decide whether you want an Active List or a Static List.

• Now click Add Filter from the left sidebar.

• Depending on whether you are creating a contact list or a company list for HubSpot segmentation, select Contact properties or Company properties. For the illustration below, we chose Company properties.

• Next, select Create Date, as shown below.

• Now click on the dropdown menu and click Known in order to add all contacts or companies to the list.

• Click Save list on the upper right corner. 

Now that we know how to create a list on HubSpot, let’s see how we can use HubSpot for list segmentation.

Editing A List

You can edit the filters and criteria of an Active List, sort records on the basis of their property values, view details of a particular list, such as the list name and type, date of creation and updation, the change in the number of contacts over the last week, the List ID (for referencing the list in integrations), and the ILD List ID when you use the Exports API. 

You can also export lists, create a random sample of contacts from a particular list, move your lists to a dedicated list folder, create custom reports, view list analytics, convert an active list to a static list, and sync a list with Salesforce if you’re using the HubSpot-Salesforce integration. 

Deleting A List

You can also delete a list while doing HubSpot list segmentation without deleting your records. But if you want, you can also delete records in bulk. (Remember that users without a Write permission cannot delete lists.) 

If you want to delete a single list, glide over the chosen list,  select More to view the dropdown menu, and select Delete List. Or if you want to perform a bulk delete, just select the checkboxes next to the lists, then click Delete at the top of the list table. 

Restoring A List

It’s very simple to restore a deleted list on HubSpot. Just go to Contacts, click List, select the Recently Deleted tab, glide over the list you want to restore, and then hit the Restore button. The deleted HubSpot email list will be immediately restored. 

Remember that you cannot restore a deleted list after 90 days from when the list was first deleted.

Cloning A List 

If you want to edit or copy a list, you can do that by navigating to Contacts, clicking List, gliding over the list you wish to duplicate, and selecting Clone from the More dropdown menu. 

Now, there are three ways you can clone a HubSpot list, depending on your peculiar HubSpot segmentation needs: 

• As a new Active List: This creates a new Active List with the same filters. 
• As a new Static List: This creates a new Static List with the same filters. 
• As the existing Static List: This removes the filters and duplicates the list membership. 

Features Of HubSpot List Segmentation

The most popular features of HubSpot customer segmentation include:

• Seamless integration with your CRM to automatically extract user data
  
• Multiple criteria enabling hyper-segmentation

• Automatic contact data updating
  
• Time-based triggering 
  
• Unlimited lists

Wrapping Up

Customer segmentation has evolved. Marketers no longer count just on demographic and transactional segmentation to deliver personalized experiences. From behavioral and psychographic to need-based and attitudinal segmentation, the availability of customer data has revolutionized segmentation and made it perhaps the most attractive aspect of marketing. 

Email marketing tools like HubSpot have leveled up on segmentation so that marketers can now convert the smallest details in customer intel into an opportunity to reinforce relationships and bump up sales. 

The post A Microscopic View: The Ins And Outs Of HubSpot List Segmentation appeared first on Email Uplers.

As a brand, you would ideally want all your communications to be consistent. That is precisely what an email signature helps you achieve. In fact, bolstering branding and awareness and maintaining corporate consistency are two of the biggest objectives behind employing an email signature. And if you are a high-volume sender, this becomes all the more vital. When done right, your signature can go a long way toward searing your brand identity and mission statement in the minds of your subscribers.

So, then, HOW exactly do you get your email signature right? While it might occupy a small portion of the template, quite a lot of work goes into realizing the ideal email signature. Well, what if we told you there was a tool that would allow you to whip up pixel-perfect and compelling signatures in a breeze? Yes, you read that right! We are talking about HubSpot’s email signature generator, a powerful builder that empowers you to craft impactful email signatures from scratch with a simple drag-and-drop maneuver. In this blog, we give you a 

complete low down on this potent tool. Curious to see what lies ahead? Dive right in, then!

The Merits of Using HubSpot Email Signature Generator

Before we discuss the steps involved in creating an email signature using HubSpot’s tool, we feel it’s important to first address the “why” of it. Sure, it makes the act of crafting a signature convenient, but is there anything else beyond that? Yes, there is. The points below delineate the same.

• For all the eloquence and intelligence of the human race, we continue to draw massive blanks when asked to describe the machinations of creativity. No one knows when those wheels spur into motion and when they grind to a halt. This extends very well to your email signature development process, too. On some days, your mind would be a fountainhead of enterprising ideas, and on others, it’d be more arid than the most austere deserts out there. Dramatic analogies aside, our point in saying all this is that HubSpot’s email signature generator has got you covered for your not-so-creative days. How? With its pre-built signature templates! Though only 6 in number, they take care to accommodate all the styles befitting of a professional and absorbing email signature.
• The HubSpot email signature generator allows you to insert links and icons of your social media accounts in your signature. In a day and age when the total number of social media users globally is estimated to be a whopping 4.89 billion, the significance of this act can’t be overstated. Redirecting your contacts to your social media accounts via your emails is an excellent way to open up new avenues of engagement, and to charm them with new aspects of your brand personality, ones that might have not come across as convincingly on a medium as formal as email.
• With HubSpot’s tool, you will be able to craft email signatures that are consistent with your brand guidelines. As a result, your email templates will appear visually coherent and be able to leave a favorable impression on your subscribers. 
• Because HubSpot’s email signature generator has a drag-and-drop builder, one need not have any prior coding experience to be able to utilize it. Additionally, it also makes it possible for users to design impressive and rich email signatures within a very short span of time. As a result, if you wish, you can easily create different signatures for different categories of your emails.
• The HubSpot email signature generator enables you to infuse personality into your signature by facilitating the inclusion of your brand logo and profile picture, among other exciting visual elements. This goes a long way towards improving your brand recognition. 

The Flow of Creating an Email Signature

In this section, we will list the steps involved in designing a signature using HubSpot’s tool.

1. Navigate to the official HubSpot email signature generator page on your system.

2. The first thing you need to do here is select a template you feel aligns best with your brand guidelines.

3. After you have selected a template, you are allowed to customize it as well. To do so, go to the paintbrush icon on your window. Here, you will be able to effect changes to the theme color, text color, link color, font type, and font size of your email signature. 

4. Now, you need to populate your signature with all the relevant details. Start by entering your first and last name. Then, proceed to enter your job title, the name of your department, and the company you work for.

5. Once done with filling out the basic details, you need to mention your contact details, which include the phone numbers of both you and your company, your email address (or the company’s official email address, whichever you deem fit), and the website URL of your business (if it has one). You can also add the physical address of your company here.

6. If your company has social media accounts, you can insert their links, too. At the moment, the tool allows you to add links only to your LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts (not that it is a limitation because most businesses in the fray ply their trade across these platforms only. We just wanted to give you this clarity in the face of growing popularity of other social media platforms such as Threads and Mastodon).

7. On top of all this, should you feel like adding any other information, say your brand slogan or mission statement, you can make use of the Custom Field to do so.

8. Next, click on the photo icon in the tool. 

9. In this tab, you will be asked to upload your custom signature images. This includes your company logo, profile picture, and a CTA image. As per CTA, the tool lets you specify a CTA copy and URL via text, too (along with CTA color and CTA text color customization options). Keep in mind that in order to upload an image onto the HubSpot email signature generator, you first need to place it in a cloud storage platform.

10. Once you are satisfied with all the input fields, click “Create signature” to wrap up the process.

Adding the Signature to Your HubSpot Account

Execute the following steps to add the freshly minted email signature to your HubSpot account.

1. Login to your HubSpot account. On the top right corner of your screen, you will see the settings icon. Click on it.

2. From the menu bar that appears, select “General”. You’ll see a window with multiple tabs. Click on the one titled “Email”.

3. Now, navigate to the section named “Configure”.

4. Here, click on “Edit email signature”.

5. You will see a pop-up window. At the top right, you’ll see two buttons- Simple and HTML. Click on HTML.

6. Next, replace the existing HTML source code with that produced by the email signature generator.

7. You’ll be able to see a preview of your signature. Thoroughly scan it for inconsistencies.

8. If you are satisfied with the preview, click on the Save button. The email signature will be added to HubSpot email. 

Adding HubSpot Email Signature to Apple Mail and Gmail

Given that Apple Mail and Gmail are two of the most used email clients globally, it would be remiss of us not to mention how to add your generated email signatures to them.

Apple Mail

1. Open Apple Mail and click on Settings.

2. Select the section titled “Signatures”.

3. Towards the bottom of the window, you should be able to see a “+” symbol. Click on it.

4. Into the box that appears on your right, paste your newly created email signature.

5. Edit its name.

6. Click on the drop-down menu that appears next to “Choose Signature”. Here, select the name of the signature you just added.

Gmail

1. Login to your Gmail icon and click on the cog icon located at the top-right corner of the screen.

2. Click on the drop-down menu. From the options that appear, select “Settings”.

3. Now, scroll down till you come across the email signature editor. 

4. Here, paste the signature you have created on HubSpot. Once done, click on “Save Changes”

Wrapping It Up

By making use of HubSpot’s signature builder capabilities, one can design a thoroughly impressive email signature, all without causing a drain on time and resources. We hope the insights shared above help you navigate the tool with ease and produce an output that ticks all the right boxes!

The post Using the HubSpot Email Signature Generator- Everything You Need to Know! appeared first on Email Uplers.

“While a standard graphic design asset is static, an email is a fluid, dynamic asset that changes based on user or device settings… This means that email designers have to make sure their designs look good in dozens, if not hundreds of different configurations of color, text, margins, and more.”

Admittedly, email design is a specialist’s job. According to the same report, 35% of companies use an email design specialist.

Equally, the importance of using advanced design tools can’t be underestimated. The idea that a good designer does not need to rely on tools is bogus. No matter how advanced a tool, it still needs a vision to drive it. 

Mailchimp’s (new) email builder is one such tool that helps you design dynamic, responsive emails. It is intuitive, easy-to-use, and covers the whole gamut of email design. But let’s take it from the roots up. 

About the Mailchimp Email Builder

Mailchimp’s in-house email builder is a specialized design tool that comes equipped with pre-built and custom email templates, device-optimized (desktop and mobile) email styles, and preview and testing functionality. 

Over the years, Mailchimp’s drag-and-drop email building solution has helped a wide range of businesses transform their ways of interacting with customers. 

“The custom templates have been crucial for us to really quickly and effectively modify our messaging and the look and feel of our emails to communicate the latest to our customers and make sure that they feel connected through our branding,” says one of their clients. 

Another client notes, “The main benefit of email design with Mailchimp is that we can make our emails look a lot better than the technical expertise that we have.”

Mailchimp has two email builders, classic and new. Let’s take a look at both. 

Email Builder – Old And New

As Mailchimp notes, both email builders can be used to create dynamic marketing emails. But there are a number of specific differences between the two versions.

For instance, the new email builder allows you to integrate third-party platforms with the built-in Apps content block. It connects your personal account and business accounts with your Mailchimp account. The advantage? You can easily ask your contacts to consider engaging with your business through the applications you are using. 

The new Content Optimizer feature makes marketing suggestions according to the latest best practices. The Optimizer analyzes data from the most successful email campaigns, and makes user-specific recommendations (in relation to email copy, layout, design, imagery, etc.) to improve your email.

We know that Mailchimp surveys are an effective means of building personalized campaigns, boosting CSAT, and improving services. Luckily, the new builder also has a Survey content block that adds a link to your Mailchimp surveys in your email. 

None of these new functionalities are available in the classic builder. 

That being said, when it comes to Email Template Builders, the new email builder does not allow you to custom-code a template, or embed an RSS feed in your email. You must switch to the classic builder to do any of those. You can’t share content blocks in the new builder, either. 

Those were some of the principal differences between the classic and the new email builder on Mailchimp. Remember that the new builder is enabled by default. But you can switch builders anytime you want. 

How To Use Mailchimp’s New Email Builder?

Below, we present a step-by-step approach to using the new email builder on Mailchimp. 

1. Log in to your Mailchimp account and select Email Templates. Then, click on the Create Template button.

2. Choose a template to start with. Select a template which is the best match for your design, from the array of available templates.

For our illustration, we chose Mailchimp templates. You can also select Saved templates and the Code your own option. The Saved templates tab consists of any previous designs you might have saved for future use. The Code your own tab is ideal for those who are well-versed in custom coding.

3. After selecting the template, give a suitable name to your template, and save the template.

4. Your template is created. As you can see, the left panel has all the relevant content functionalities that can be dragged into your template.

5. After selecting any of the blocks, you can move it, duplicate it, or delete it.

6. You can select the padding for the text block from the left panel.

7. You can add text in the code section with all the links from the Code tab in the left panel.

8. You can add an image from the Add button. 

9. You can add attributes like block background color, padding, alignment, link, and alt tag from the left panel after having selected the image.

10. You can select any layout from the blank layout and pre-built layout.

11. You can see the template in preview mode to have an idea of how it would look in use. You can also save the template and exit from the editor.

12. You can send a test email from here.

Note that the new email builder has certain limitations. Let us walk you through them.

• You cannot edit the width from the editor. Which means that you have to use the width of the available templates.
  
• You cannot use custom CSS in the code.
  
• You cannot add multiple background colors into the block section.
  
• You cannot control mobile views.

Wrapping Up!

The point of using an email builder software is that it allows you to design emails more quickly and more efficiently. Mailchimp, for instance, boasts a ginormous library of prefab email templates and easy-to-use drag and drop functionality. In the hands of a seasoned email designer, Mailchimp’s email builder combined with its powerful mailchimp email automation features, can transform the way your brand uses email to reach out to customers, leading to more engagement, and triggering conversions.

The post A Guide To Mailchimp’s New Email Builder appeared first on Email Uplers.

Unlike automated campaigns, a conventional drip campaign is generic. It is not touch point-optimized. You can drip-send emails to your subscribers irrespective of their individual journeys. Which means that drip campaigns are not necessarily personalized either. 

But the good news is that drip campaigns can be automated and personalized. 

Automated drip campaigns quicken and simplify connecting with the right subscribers at the right time with the most relevant content. It is an effective way of boosting your most important metrics, including clickthrough rate, engagement rate, and conversion rate. 

In fact, as per Emma, successful drip campaigns offer a 119% spike in click rates. What’s more, brands that did lead-nurturing drip campaigns witnessed a 20% rise in sales. 

Note that there are email marketing software that don’t include drip email marketing as a functionality. Fortunately, with Mailchimp you can easily create powerful drip campaigns. 

In this post, we will talk about Mailchimp drip marketing, show you how to set up drip campaigns in Mailchimp, and offer tips to create a successful drip campaign with Mailchimp. Let’s roll! 

What Are Mailchimp Drip Campaigns?

Mailchimp drip campaigns are a chain of automated emails sent to subscribers in accordance with their individual statuses along the sales funnel. 

Let’s take a simple illustration: suppose you have a new subscriber whom you want to nurture. Accordingly, you plan to send them a welcome email, then a product/service recommendation email, followed by a make-a-purchase email. 

By learning how to create a drip campaign in Mailchimp, you can serialize the goals, and automate the emails to be sent out at the right intervals. So, you select your objectives relative to a particular segment and time your emails to be in touch with your audience regularly. 

Mailchimp offers four plans. The Free and Essentials plans offer only single email automations. The Premium and Standard plans, which are Mailchimp’s most expensive ones, enable composite, personalized workflows. Notably, you can use all the plans to build ecommerce-optimized drip campaigns.  

(While this is not yet another Mailchimp vs Drip post, it’s safe to state the obvious: Mailchimp is way more affordable.)

How To Set Up A Drip Campaign In Mailchimp?

Here’s how to set up a drip campaign in Mailchimp:

1. Select ‘Automations’

Log in to your Mailchimp account. Then select the Automations option.

If you are a Mailchimp virgin, you’ll come across some questions regarding your purpose in using the software. Make sure you have a specific goal in mind. Ensure your drip campaign with Mailchimp is laser focused. 

Next, choose the type of automation. In other words, decide what type of email you plan on automating. It could be welcome emails, abandoned cart emails, Happy Birthday emails, blog post emails, etc. 

You can also choose a custom automation email. Which means you can create your own campaigns instead of using Mailchimp’s built-in templates.

2. Choose Email Criteria

For each drip campaign with Mailchimp, you can set unique email criteria. Take a welcome email, for example. Decide when you want to send the welcome email. It could be immediately, one hour, two hours, or one day after the user has taken an action. 

The timing of the welcome email depends on whether you have enabled a double opt-in or not. If you have, send a welcome email as soon as a subscriber confirms their email address. Otherwise, send the email as soon as a user subscribes. 

Make sure to personalize your subject line. Don’t rely on generative AI to do that. You will only get a list of prosaic, patched-up outputs. Rely on human creativity to compose a truly gripping subject line. 

Remember to optimize your email design as well. Lastly, verify your domain to prevent your emails from ending up in subscribers’ spam folders. 

3. Create Your Content

Take the help of Mailchimp’s editor to create and edit your content. You can add images, videos, and relevant CTA buttons. You can also align your content to your brand identity. 

Don’t send your newly created content right away. Mailchimp drip marketing functionality allows you to send a test email first. For that, go to the All Campaigns section, select the relevant campaign, and click on the Edit button on the right-hand side of the dashboard. You will see a Preview Box below which you can select the Send A Test Email option. 

If you are using a free account, you can send a maximum of 12 test emails. For premium users, the limit is 70. 

Coming back to content, always view your content in Mailchimp’s Preview Mode — a very useful feature that shows how your email will appear on mobile and desktop, and on different ESPs. 

Remember also to use Mailchimp’s link check to check for possible broken links.

4. Add More Emails

If you are using the Premium plan, you can add more emails while creating a drip campaign in Mailchimp. Just go to the Campaigns option, click on Edit, and follow the above steps again. 

Of course, as you go on, you might feel the need to make changes in your drip campaign as per your needs. In that case, make sure to change the campaign status from Sending to Paused. 

Tips For Creating Successful Drip Campaigns

Build successful drip campaigns on Mailchimp by following these expert tips. 

1. Create Highly Targeted Messages

Even in life, you don’t talk to everyone in the same way, do you? You must adjust your tone depending on the person you’re speaking to. That’s how you create stable relationships. 

Similarly, before sending emails to a subscriber, you must know their shopping preferences, their status along the sales flow, their pain points, and their behavioral nuances. So the moment they receive your message, they know it’s meant only for them.

That’s how you forge a relationship with your customer, which gradually translates to brand loyalty. And this is the foundation of a successful drip campaign. 

2. Focus On The User Journey

Build your drip campaigns keeping the user journey in mind. This is part of personalization.

Suppose you have a list of new subscribers. You want to send everyone a welcome email that may contain just a simple welcome message, or a sign-up form, a short video introduction, the link to your website’s About page, etc. 

Because the user is yet to get acquainted with your brand, your welcome emails should help them get to know your brand better. 

On the other hand, you have a list of subscribers who are especially interested in your products/service. So your drip campaign must switch to sending product recommendation emails, promotional emails, and product launch emails. 

The point is that you must change your drip strategy according to the stage at which a subscriber presently is. 

3. Don’t Overload Drip Campaigns

Always make sure to send just the right amount of emails. Don’t overwhelm your subscribers. 

It’s only sensible your subscribers should not receive too many emails all at once. Of course, the exact number of emails you must send is determined by your industry and the type of audience you lead. 

So, there is no universal yardstick, which can be frustrating. After all, you don’t want to underwhelm your subscribers either by sending them a welcome email and then spacing out for the next three weeks. 

According to Mailchimp, create a drip campaign with 4-10 emails spread out over two days to four weeks. 

4. Create Readable Copy And Monitor Campaign

Ensure your email copy is clean, clear, and concise. Again, write the email copy keeping the subscriber in mind. Align the copy with the segment you’re writing to. 

And finally, remember that no drip campaign should be left standing. You must monitor every campaign and track important metrics. Depending on the change in user behavior, business updates, and market trends, you need to re-strategize the campaigns in order to sustain the flow. 

Wrapping Up!

Before setting out for Mailchimp drip marketing, realize that you are about to kindle a relationship, instead of a mere transactional give-and-take, which any brand can do, and does. Accordingly you set up your campaigns, making sure that every email that you send out is valuable and star-worthy. 

The post New To Mailchimp’s Drip Feature? Here’s How You Can Quickly Create A Mailchimp Drip Campaign appeared first on Email Uplers.

If you use Mailchimp to automate your marketing paths and plans, you probably might have chanced upon its customer journey feature and mulled over creating one for automating your marketing workflows. It’s a great thought, we say, and one you should consider implementing as soon as possible. 

In the blog that follows, we will walk you through the basics of customer journeys, building Mailchimp customer journey maps, setting rules and actions based on buyer personas to offer a personalized and guided journey down the sales funnel, and finally, some use cases. 

On that note, kick back on your favorite beanie, plug in your earbuds, open your Mailchimp account in another tab, and get ready to take some mindblowing marketing automation notes. But first, some coffee!

Understanding the basics of the Mailchimp customer journey, definitions associated with it, and the advantages of building customer journey maps

When you look at the words customer journey, one would probably conjure up an image of a person looking for a particular product or service either on the internet or through advocacy from friends and family, carrying out research, chancing upon your brand (if it offers relevant solutions), liking your content, engaging with it and try making a purchase, and if they like the whole customer experience, sticking around for longer. 

If that’s what you thought, too, congratulations, your basics are pretty sorted and solid!

If, in one line, I had to explain the essence of customer journeys, I’d say something to the following effect. The actions your customers take either before or after purchasing your product or service come under the purview of the customer’s unique journey with your brand

When you analyze your prospective customer’s interactions with your brand at different touchpoints, you gain a deeper understanding of what works with them and what ticks them off.  

As you delve into their patterns of interactions, you are better placed to map out customer journeys, touchpoints, rules, and actions in accordance with their unique needs and buyer personas. So to say, beginning with their initial discovery of your brand until the part where they become loyal customers and advocates of your merchandise. 

Mailchimp Customer Journey Builder allows you to create editable, automated marketing campaigns for all your contacts, personalized, if we may add, so that you don’t end up showing strawberry double sundaes to someone who loves chocolate ice cream! 

With an option to add tags, setup multiple starting points, send targetted emails, and create unique and relevant branches and actions so that you end up rendering a pleasant and personalized experience for all your contacts, Mailchimp’s Customer Journey Builder helps you realize 4X more orders and ultimately enhanced ROIs, customer retention. 

However, you might have limited access to Customer Journey Tools in Mailchimp, so it is recommended that you kindly check your current pricing plan. If you’d like to step up your plan, you can always do that on the plans page on your Mailchimp account. 

Please note that the starting points in your customer journey map only kick into action once you activate the particular journey map in your customer journey builder. Here are some simple explanations of the terminology you will encounter as we proceed toward the process of building customer journey maps in Mailchimp. 

• Customer journey: Though we have already clarified the concept in the preceding content, here’s a refresher. It refers to an automated route that is unique to each contact depending on what they do or don’t do as they interact with your brand at different touchpoints.
• Customer journey map: This refers to a visual representation of the entirety of probable paths a contact may embark upon in their journey.
• Starting point: As the name suggests, it refers to a pre-determined action or event that marks the beginning of a customer’s journey with the brand. 
• Journey point: This refers to the actions or rules that you will set up on your journey map following the starting point, depending on the guided interactions you’d like your customers to embark on as they engage with your brand. 
• Rule: A definition describing when and how a contact proceeds along a set path.
• Action: True to its name, an action refers to a specific point in the map that tells Mailchimp’s system to initiate a specific task, for instance, add a tag or shoot an email when the contact reaches that point in their journey. 

Phew! Too much to absorb? Well, not really; once we elucidate the process of creating customer journey maps in the following sections, it would probably make a lot more sense!

Before we embark on the same, let’s familiarize ourselves with the phases of a customer journey and the benefits of mapping the same. 

Phases of a customer journey

So, a customer’s journey generally passes through the following stages before they become regulars at your store,

• Awareness, wherein they discover your brand and its offerings
• Acquisition, when they liked your content and merch, signed up for a newsletter, and made their first purchase
• Onboarding, here you make them feel welcome with a nice and warm welcome and a general intimation regarding your emailer frequency, set content preferences, and showcase other products that might interest them
• Engagement: This refers to the art of creating awesome content in the form of emailers, social media posts, or newsletters that are informative, engaging, and adds value to your consumers’ lives
• Advocacy: If your customers reach this part of the marketing funnel, you should pat yourself on the back! They will now advocate your brand’s awesomeness to their nears and dears, and before you know it, you will not just have regulars coming back for more but also brand new joiners on the bandwagon!

Advantages of building a well-thought-out customer journey map

• You can delve deeper into the consumer psychology
• Identify and demarcate touchpoints
• Give your marketing efforts the boost they need and deserve
• Enhance customer experience
• Get a clear understanding of how a particular customer might interact with the brand
• Enhance customer engagement and loyalty

How to create a Customer Journey in Mailchimp

One can create and manage Customer Journey maps right from the Customer Journeys homepage. There is an option to choose from a variety of pre-built maps or create a new journey from the beginning. In this section, we will explore the latter pathway. 

Step 1: Click on the Automations icon and then select Overview

Step 2: Select the Create Journey option

Step 3: Enter your preferred Name for the journey and then proceed to choose an Audience by clicking on the drop-down menu

Step 4: Hit the Start Building Button

Now that you are all set with creating a new journey, you can now begin adding starting points, rules, and actions that will guide each contact’s path along the map. 

Step 5: Adding a Starting Point

• Click on Choose a Starting Point
• You can go with the one that appeals best to your brand
• To know more about all the different starting points in Mailchimp, click here
• You can also set up specific settings for your starting point type. For instance, if you choose to go with Sign Ups as a starting point, you might want to add imported contacts
• You can also increase the level of segmentation by clicking on “Get more specific about who can enter this map”
• Once you are done with setting up your starting point, click on Save Starting Point
• If you have a Standard MailChimp plan, you can add up to three starting points by clicking on the Add Starting Point button

Step 6: Add Journey Points

Once you are done with adding starting points, you can proceed with adding the specific rules and actions that make up a user’s journey, also referred to as journey points.

Some instances of journey points are:

• If/Else
• Wait for trigger
• Time Delay
• Percentage split
• Send email
• Send an email with a survey
• Group/Ungroup
• Webhook
• Tag/Untag
• Unsubscribe
• Archive Contact
• Update Contact

Where you spot the Plus Icon +, hover your cursor over it to add another branch to your journey, then click on Add a Journey Point.

Step 7: Activate your Customer Journey

When your customer journey map is ready, click on Continue. If you are adding a marketing objective instead, you need to click on Turn On to immediately activate your customer journey. 

Voila! You are done with building your first customer journey! 

Contacts will now begin moving along their unique journey as soon as the starting point condition is met.

You can also view stats and edit the journey points as and when the need arises. 

Use Cases of Automated Journey Maps

Depending on the type of business you own and run, your use cases of automated workflows will vary. Here are a few common scenarios wherein you can tap into the potential of creating automated workflows to realize better customer relationships, enhanced trust, and experiences.

• Welcome new customers and introduce them to your brand
• Bring back prospective shoppers to their abandoned carts
• Customer re-engagement
• Get reviews or feedback on your service/product
• Better segmentation by organizing contacts on the basis of their interests and levels of engagement

Summary

On a conclusive note, it is safe to say that building automated customer journey workflows not only ensures effective communication but also helps improve conversions. If you seek professional help in setting up customer journeys in Mailchimp for your business to realize better ROIs, then team awesome @Email Uplers is all game! Hit us up now! 

The post A Deep Dive Into Customer Journey Mapping In Mailchimp appeared first on Email Uplers.