What Is MailChimp? How to Use MailChimp: A Simple Guide
Most people have multiple email addresses, and they are probably signed up to dozens of different email lists that send out a few emails a week. When you’re marketing a product or working on connecting with your audience in another way, you need to find the best ways to keep up with this type of volume.
Figuring out how to do that without becoming overwhelmed with work can be difficult. Those who have been through this before might suggest MailChimp.
You may wonder what MailChimp is and how to use it, as well as where can you learn how to use MailChimp. Don't worry since our guide, plus the tips we will provide will help you figure out this incredible tool!
What is MailChimp?
MailChimp is a type of email software that can be used to do the following, and more:
- Create mailing lists
- Manage mailing lists
- Create and send out newsletters
- Create automated email campaigns
These are the most common things that people use MailChimp for, but they are not the only things that you can do with the software, especially once you have it fully set up. Many businesses and people choose to use MailChimp for their email marketing because it provides a great blend of guided support and personal control.
You can also control the entire emailing process from beginning to end. Additionally, the tools that MailChimp provides make it easy to do just that.
Once you create your first list on MailChimp, you can immediately set up emails without knowing any type of coding, programming, or other detailed email knowledge. The site has templates that you can easily customize to suit your campaign.
After which, you can get your own custom template added to deliver your needs further. The software is relatively simple, but it will still take some time to learn how to use MailChimp.
How to Use MailChimp
Figuring out how to use MailChimp at first can seem complicated, but this tool has many free and easy-to-understand features that you can put to work for you and your business in no time at all.
How to Create a MailChimp Account
- Go to MailChimp.com
- Click ‘Sign Up For Free’
- Fill in all of your details
- Check your email for the activation email
- Confirm that you’re not a robot, and then fill in more of your details
- Connect any relevant social media accounts
That’s it! As you can see, setting up an account on MailChimp is as quick and easy as it is to set up accounts on nearly any website.
From here, there are a few more things that you might want to do to help your account work better as you dive into the world of email marketing:
- Turn on two-factor authorization to secure your account
- Authenticate your domain to prove that it is yours and get better delivery results
Other than these two things, all other customization can wait to be completed until you are more experienced with MailChimp.
How to Set Up Your First List
MailChimp automatically creates your first list, so you will just be editing it:
- Click ‘stats’ next to the list, which is named after your business name
- Change the name on the state's page; confirm if you want a single opt-in or not, and then turn on campaign URL
- If you want, you can turn on reCAPTCHA to prevent spam, but avoid doing this if spam isn’t an issue for your business at this time
And that’s it! Since the first list was made for you automatically, there isn’t much that you need to do. If you want to make an additional list, you can click ‘Create List’ on the list's main page.
How to Set Up Your Signup Page
- Click ‘Signup Forms’
- Click ‘General Forms’
- Click ‘Design It’
- Customize how the signup page looks until you are happy with how it looks
- Once you finish the signup page, you can create a welcome message by clicking ‘Final welcome message’ on the Forms and Response menu
- Customize this page
That’s it! Everyone who signs up on your page will be curated to your list, and then you can use the list to send out your emails.
How to Send Your First Email
- Click ‘Campaigns’
- Click ‘Create an Email’
- Give it a name
- Add ‘Recipients’ and ‘From’ information by clicking the relevant buttons
- Add subject text line and preview text
- Design email using the templates; try to keep it as simple as possible
- Click on the elements that you want to edit to make changes
- Click ‘Preview’ and ‘Test’ to preview your email
- Make adjustments as needed
- Click ‘Save’ and ‘Continue’
- Schedule or Send your email
MailChimp makes it easy to send out your first email. As you move through this process, you’ll see that the software walks you through the entire process.
Get Going with MailChimp
Now that you know what MailChimp is and how to use it, and what it can do for your business emails, what are you waiting for? The free version of this software is straightforward to use, and you can run very successful email campaigns using the tools that it provides. So, it’s time to get going with MailChimp!