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How to Create an Email Newsletter Campaign Using Mailchimp

Hello Again!  How was your weekend?  I hope it went well.

Today, we are given so many ways and platforms to reach out to all our target audiences and gain their loyalty. However, one of the best ways to really get up-close and personal with each of our prospective customers is via an email newsletter. In todays blog post, I am sharing 9 steps that you can use to create an email newsletter campaign using the FREE and fabulous email service known as Mailchimp.

8 Steps to Create and Distribute a Newsletter Campaign with MailChimp

As email newsletters are delivered straight to our prospective reader’s and customer’s inboxes, we get a sort of priority and are allowed to develop a deeper relationship with them of course.  Here are 8 easy steps that you can use to create a newsletter with Mailchimp:

1. Create a MailChimp account.

You can easily create an account for free and use most of MailChimp’s awesome features.

mailchimp.com

 

2. Create a mailing list.

If you have a list of individuals, current clients etc., that you would like to send your email newsletters to, this is the time to add them to your mailing list.  you After verifying your MailChimp account, you can start creating your mailing list. Here are some of the things you need to do at this stage:

Mailchimp Mailing List Icon

Mailchimp Mailing List Icon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.  Create and name your campaign.

You can create campaigns for each website you have or use any sort of title you like. Just be sure to create different titles for different campaigns to avoid confusion.  For example, if you are sending out a Newsletter Campaign to your existing customers in the month of June, you can name your campaign – “June Newsletter Campaign”

Mailchimp Create a Campaign

Mailchimp New Campaign Menu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  •  Create a catchy email subject. – Some examples of catchy email subjects that will increase your open rates are: 

            Announcing! <A New Product> 

           Reminder: <Our Upcoming Seminar> 

Double Your Savings – If you purchase by Midnight – Source

  • Personalize the “To:” field. This is automatically done by MailChimp for you, but you can always change it to a more generic opening and show only the recipient’s email.
  • Connect with social media. By connecting your campaign with either or both your Facebook and Twitter pages, your followers and fans will easily get notified of newly distributed email newsletters.
  • Choose what parts of the email newsletter to track. You can track how many opens, plain text click, and clicks you got. You can also set up Google Analytics for all the URLs found on your newsletter.

4. Design your newsletter.

This is without a doubt the most fun part of creating an email newsletter with MailChimp.

  • Choose your design template. You can choose from Basic (simple layouts), Predesigned (there are 25 categories and a total of 435 designer templates), and My Templates (this include your previously chosen and edited templates).
  • Code your own or import. If you don’t find any of the given templates appealing, you can always choose to code or import your own design template.

 

5. Edit your template.

Once your template is ready, you can start changing the headers, footers, titles, and links. You can also add new content and images. If you wish to use the same template with the modified parts (e.g., header, footer, and links), you can easily save it to My Templates.

6. Create a plain-text version (If Necessary).

Some mailers don’t have the capability to show HTML content. To make sure that all your readers will be able to enjoy your newsletter, regardless of what mailer they use, then it’s a must to create a plain-text version. The plain-text version is automatically generated by MailChimp after you have finished editing your newsletter, but you can still rearrange parts to ensure better flow and easier browsing.

7. Confirm your newsletter campaign.

With both your HTML and plain text newsletter versions ready, it’s time to recheck the following:

  •  Mailing list
  • Subject line
  • Reply email (where reply emails will be sent to)
  • Tracking options 
  • HTML email
  • Plain-text email
  • Email authentication
  • MonkeyRewards (this is basically the MailChimp logo shown on free accounts)

 

 

8. Preview and test your Email Newsletter Campaign.

You don’t want to send a messy newsletter to your readers and clients, right? If yes, then you should preview your newsletter and see how it actually looks by sending it to your own email. If you have addresses with different mailers, then do send to all of them to see if there are variations and errors that must be corrected.

9. Schedule or immediately send your MailChimp newsletter.

Once you confirm that your email newsletter is fully ready for distribution, you can either hit the “Schedule” or “Send” button. Even better, if you take one of their plans, you can also use the following features:

  • Batch delivery. This allows you to deliver your newsletter in batches to prevent your website from getting flooded and crashing.
  • Time warp. This allows you to deliver your newsletter at your recipient’s local time
  • HTML email

Creating an email newsletter with MailChimp can be a little time-consuming in the beginning. However, once you get a grip of the process, creating new campaigns, adding content, and distributing newsletter to all your subscribers will certainly be a piece of cake.

Annika Bansal
 

Annika "The Chick Geek" is the founder of AnnikaBansal.com. Small Business Sense shares small business ideas, tips and resources for independent Entrepreneurs and Small Business owners.

Click Here to Leave a Comment Below 2 comments
kelvin miller

Great blog News letter campaign is used to reflect companies unique style and brand image know more at optinlists group

Reply
    Kim George

    Thanks for sharing Kelvin

    Reply

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