On Friday April 27th, Prefects, Natalie, Katie and Becca, welcomed students from a range of industries to The Forum in Darlington for Hugoversity’s Mastering MailChimp seminar.
The session covered the basics of how to set up an account, mailing lists and sign up forms, and offered some insightful tips to help pupils stay one step ahead of their competitors.
If you missed the seminar, detention for you! But fear not, we’ve written up a summary of the presentation in this blog for you.
Creating a MailChimp account
It’s really simple to do. Head to www.mailchimp.com, create a username and password and follow the instructions.
Top tip – Consider signing up for the e-newsletters and emails from MailChimp, they contain helpful tips and tricks.
Build your mailing list
On the dashboard, click on lists, and fill in the relevant fields listed, easy!
Note – You can import lists from excel docs or manually add subscribers into lists.
Now it’s time to create a sign up form
This form is really handy as you can embed it onto your website, so visitors can sign up to your list from there.
Select ‘Embedded forms for a website’, go to form builder and, you’ve guessed it, fill in the relevant information.
Let’s create a campaign!
Go to dashboard and click ‘create campaign’. Fill in the information requested, choose the list that you want to send the e-newsletter to and change ‘send from’ details if necessary.
Then have fun designing your email. There are lots of themes to pick from and you can also select different fonts, colours, insert images and videos so you can make sure it matches your brand.
Top tips to note:
- Try to avoid using spam words in the copy of the e-newsletter such as free, order now or prize
- There are free and paid for options within MailChimp so make sure you’re aware of the pros and cons of each level of membership
- Make sure images are 60 to 100 kb, if not, your email might end up in recipients’ clutter or junk boxes
- Don’t forget about advertising tools
- An ad built with a MailChimp email list has a 29% better ROI than interest targeting alone
- Facebook and Instagram Ad Campaigns are a smart way to sell more stuff and reach new audiences in just a few steps
Once you’ve distributed your campaign, remember to check the reports. MailChimp can provide a lot of detailed analysis of your campaigns which can help you to develop them in the future.
As we’re sure you’re aware, GDPR comes into force this month so it’s very important that you are aware that you need to have consent from those on your mailing list. GDPR says you must obtain freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous consent from your contacts. You also must clearly explain how you plan to use their personal data. MailChimp signup forms have been updated to help you stay compliant with this law, so they are worth looking into.
Remember, our prefects are here to help you should you, or other members of the team need bespoke training in MailChimp. So, throw us a bone on 01325 486666 or study@hugoversity.com to find out more.
