Claire Witz | Chimpology

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Futureproof your Mailchimp

If I could have a pound…

…for every time I’ve started working with an organisation’s Mailchimp and they’ve said:

  1. “I wish we’d started collecting that data sooner”…; OR

  2. “Someone else used to look after our Mailchimp but they’ve left and we don’t understand what’s going on.”

I’d be sitting here typing this on a gold keyboard.

Why?

A few years of building up seemingly insignificant bad practices often ends up equalling an inconvenient and potentially costly mess. So here are a few ways to start futureproofing your Mailchimp now before it builds up…

1. Think ahead with what data you’re capturing for subscribers

Just because the website developer says “only ask for an email address otherwise it will put people off”, doesn’t mean it’s right.

If someone is genuinely interested in what you do, they’re not going to be put off by you asking for their first and last name, and it doesn’t usually take any longer for them to submit the form as their device will pre-populate it anyway.

And if it’s helpful to know a bit more than that so that you can send them relevant information from the outset, e.g. their company name, or what they’re interested in, or if they’re a e.g. school, a parent or a governor, ask them up front on the subscribe form:

  • It is SO much easier to get that data from the offing than try and fill in the gaps later

  • They’ll get a better picture of what sort of things you offer

  • They’ll like the fact they can select which emails they get, and that they won’t get things that aren’t relevant to them.

Although having said that, asking for a phone number or their knicker size (unless you’re a knicker shop) might put them off so I wouldn’t ask them quite everything.

2. Use meaningful names within Mailchimp

Think about a naming convention for audiences, tags, campaigns, form fields, segments, customer journeys and anything else you can think of that will mean something to a person who has never looked at your account before.

Trust me when I say it will make EVERYONE’s lives a lot easier at some point because not only is everything self explanatory, but starting with a common term means they can be sorted alphabetically, and in the case of campaigns, searched, too.

Here are some examples:

  • Engagement: low (no clicks in last 10 campaigns)

  • Engagement: high (clicked in last 5 campaigns)

  • Location: Europe

  • Location: US

  • Newsletter: 2024 01 - Launch of x, 5 tips on y, video on z, Feb webinar

3. Don’t just create ANOTHER audience

Trust me, there’s a fair chance that a segment in your main audience will be a better way to go. There are exceptions, but not many. Adding to your existing audience and creating a segment will avoid duplicate contacts, unnecessary Mailchimp costs and make most things much easier to manage going forwards.

But if you do create another audience, again, use a meaningful naming convention because in 5 years time no one will know what it was for.

4. Do your housekeeping regularly

Archive your unsubscribers (there are a few exceptions but not many). Tidy up your subscriber names and data. Keep an eye on your engagement and act accordingly. Check your automations once in a while. Back up regularly. You, or someone else, will thank you one day.

5. The golden rule

Look into your crystal ball and try and think 5 years ahead with everything you do:

  • Collecting interests/locations/profiling? What might you be offering then that you want to sound out the appetite for now?

  • Assume you might have left the organisation and don’t want your name to be mud.

  • Assume you don’t want to be wasting money.

Questions? Need help? Don’t know where to start?

Give me a shout. And subscribe below to get useful tips and feature demos by email (they’re not very often, a classic case of cobbler’s shoes going on here).