Mastering Mailchimp: Key Tips, Shortcuts, and Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses

As a small business owner, keeping your marketing simple yet effective is vital. Mailchimp offers a great platform to manage your email marketing, but are you leveraging its full potential? In this blog, we’ll cover some key tips, shortcuts, and marketing strategies to help you get more out of Mailchimp without over-complicating your processes.

1. Utilise Mailchimp Tags for Better Segmentation

Tags are a powerful feature that allows you to segment your audience for more targeted communication. Instead of sending out generic messages to your entire email list, segment by customer behaviour, purchase history, or location. Here’s how:

? Go to Audience > Tags and create relevant tags like “First-time buyer” or “Frequent shopper.”

? Apply these tags in campaigns to tailor your message to different groups.

2. Use Merge Tags to Personalise Emails

One of the easiest ways to increase engagement is to personalise your emails. Merge tags help insert individual subscriber data into your emails automatically. For instance, instead of starting an email with “Dear Customer,” use a merge tag to address them by their first name:

? Use *|FNAME|* for the first name of the recipient.

? If you want to get more detailed, you can add custom fields such as *|CITY|* for their location.

3. Leverage Mailchimp Shortcuts for Quick Navigation

Mailchimp has built-in keyboard shortcuts to save you time. Here are a few to keep handy:

? Press G then A to jump to your Audience dashboard.

? Press G then C to quickly create a new campaign.

? Press G then S to go straight to your templates section.

4. Optimise for Mobile

With most users checking emails on their phones, it’s important to ensure your emails are mobile-optimised. Here’s what you can do:

? Use Mailchimp’s Preview Mode to see how your emails look on both desktop and mobile.

? Keep subject lines short (under 50 characters) to ensure they display fully on small screens.

5. Set Up Automation for Repeat Business

One of the most underutilised Mailchimp features is automation. These allow you to send emails based on triggers such as a new sign-up, a purchase, or an abandoned cart. For example:

? Set up a welcome email series to engage new subscribers.

? Send out automated discount codes to customers who haven’t purchased in a while.

6. A/B Testing for Better Campaign Results

Mailchimp makes it easy to test different aspects of your email campaigns. You can A/B test subject lines, images, and content to see what resonates best with your audience. To get started:

? In your campaign setup, select A/B Testing Campaign and choose the element you want to test.

7. Use Creative Templates to Stay on Brand

Mailchimp provides hundreds of templates, but make sure you’re using one that aligns with your brand. Save a template you’ve customised, so you can easily reuse it:

? Head to Campaigns and select Save as Template for quick access next time.

8. Take Advantage of the Mailchimp Calendar

Small business owners are often juggling many tasks at once. Mailchimp’s built-in calendar helps you plan your campaigns:

? Go to Campaigns and view your upcoming emails on the calendar to keep track of what’s going out and when.

9. SMS Marketing with Mailchimp

Did you know Mailchimp has SMS capabilities? It’s a great way to reach customers directly on their phones for time-sensitive offers or alerts. To use SMS marketing:

? Sync your contacts with an SMS provider via Mailchimp’s integrations.

? Send timely, personal SMS messages that encourage action like limited-time offers or event reminders.

10. Analyse and Optimise Your Campaigns

Finally, no email campaign is complete without understanding its impact. Use Mailchimp’s analytics tools to assess your campaign performance:

? Track metrics such as open rates, click rates, and conversion rates.

? Experiment with different send times and days to determine what works best for your audience.

By using these key tips and shortcuts, you can streamline your Mailchimp efforts and improve your marketing campaigns without spending hours on them. Remember, the goal is to work smarter, not harder.