Mail Chimp: An Easy How To Guide!

Recently I said to myself “God damn it, I need a better way to email my subscribers!” I had been using the in built service that my web-builder site had provided (not WordPress or Blogger I may add) and it was ridiculous and would only allow me to send 5 (!!!!!!) emails out before charging me… no, no, no something had to be done. Now, I was reading one of those really helpful ‘How To’ posts with suggestions of websites and services to use and ‘Mail Chimp kept cropping up and I began to think “Okay, what’s the harm? Let’s give it a go! I now not only use this for my own blog, even better now I have hopped over to WordPress, but also use it for client emails and mailing lists too. Here is my easy guide on getting started and how to use Mail Chimp for your subscribers and newsletters.

Oh my goodness – you are looking at (reading at??) one happy little camper!! Not only did it allow me to send 2000 before I had to pay, a huge (like 1995 huge) difference from before but I also found it really really easy to use. So, I started sending out newsletters, and blog post emails straight away and some of my lovely tribal friends instantly commented on how nice they thought they looked and how on earth had I done it as they found mail chimp quite complicated at times. So, I find myself here – writing my first blog related ‘How to’ post of my very own… eek!! Now, let me start by saying that I am in no way an expert on Mail Chimp, however I have grasped the basics and so I am here to give a little (and very simple) step by step guide on how to send out a newsletter/email “Campaign” from the wonderful place that is ‘Mail Chimp!’

 Step 1: Okay, sign up! See that was reallllllyyy easy wasn’t it? You’re a pro already!

Step 2: Okay, so the first thing you want to do when registered is to create a List of all the contacts you want to send to. At the top of the screen you will see lots of different menu options, click List and then click Create List. Here you are able to name your list and input all the names and addresses. I copied and pasted mine in but for those who are tech savvy you can import them over in a document!

If you have subscribers and professional contacts that you will send different things to don’t worry – you can make more than one List and then choose who you send to with each different newsletter/email/campaign!

 Step 3: Next you want to click on the Campaigns menu on the top bar and click the Create Campaign button on the right of the screen… here we go!

 Step 4: You need to choose what kind of campaign you want to send. Generally I would suggest you only use the top two unless you are a real techno pro. The plain-text campaign is really good for sending out a mass email to everyone and is pretty self explanatory so what we are going to look at is the ‘Regular Campaign’ (Something you should note is that in the bottom right hand corner throughout this process there is a Next button and in the bottom left there is a Back button so you can flip between pages as needed!)

 Step 5: First things first is to fill out all the information for your post – this is pretty self explanatory and there are helpful notes from Mail Chimp for each box there! As you can see there are also tracking options and I generally keep the first 4 on the left turned on at all times.

 Step 6: Choose the layout that best fits what you have in mind – don’t worry if it doesn’t exactly match what you want because you can odd more or less in at the next stage!

 Step 7: You now arrive at the main editing page – don’t freak out it’s not as scary as it might seem at first. If you click that ‘Browse’ Button on the image box, you can upload or use previously uploaded images and insert them right there!

 Step 8: When you hover over one of the boxes on the left hand side of the screen you will see one icon that has several little dots and if you hold that icon down you can move your sections around. The icon that is a little pen allows you to edit the contents of the box you currently have selected!

 Step 9: As you can see from the image above, I have added my blog banner at the top of the page and I have done this by simply dragging and dropping the image box from the right hand side of the page, over to the left where I want it placed, then browsing and uploading the image… simple!

Step 10: Don’t forget, you want readers to engage with your site so you need to include a way of them easily reaching it via your newsletter. From the right hand menu, grab the button icon, drag and drop and click edit. You will then be given the options to rename the button (I always like ‘Read More’) and then you can add the URL of the page you want them to connect to!

Step 11: As a blogger, I want my readers to be able to interact with me on all my social media platforms, so I also drag and drop the social media bar down to the bottom of my newsletter. Again, click edit and you are able to pop in all your account details where people can visit you on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and many more! You start out with three and then underneath the editing page on the right have a button that says Add more!

Step 12: Once you have finished playing around with the design click next and you are given a check list to make sure you have completed everything and then all you have to do is click SEND!

Step 13: Once you have sent, you can monitor the progress of your campaign by clicking on ‘Reports’ and entering the appropriate one. It’s great for seeing what works and what doesn’t – it allows you to see what makes people click and what holds them back!

There you have it folks – if you just followed all those steps then you have just successfully sent your first Mail Chimp campaign…. GO YOU!! I am sure you will be a pro and telling me what to do in no time.

Any questions? Anything I can help you with? Please feel free to ask and I’ll do what I can to help!