Mailchimp Review: Features and Pricing 2021

Mailchimp in a NutShell

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What is MailChimp? 

MailChimp is a market-leading email marketing software that can be a good option for beginners and tech-savvy users. This tool features a clean and intuitive interface, advanced reporting and analytics, and reliable automation. It also provides useful in-app tips and numerous educational and training resources.

MailChimp Pros & Cons 

PROS

• Great reporting tools: MailChimp offers a wide array of reports on subscribers, campaign metrics, geo-tracking, Google Analytics report, social media stats, and plenty more. 
• Good selection of templates: you can pick from hundreds of themes and dozens of professional templates. 
• User-friendly email builder: the drag-and-drop editor helps you easily create emails by adding text blocks, images, videos, or buttons. 
• Comprehensive free plan: you can send up to 10,000 emails to less than 2,000 contacts and access the email and landing page builder with this plan.
• Guided user experience: custom in-app tips are available as soon as you start accessing the platform’s features and build your first email campaign.

CONS 

• Limited split testing: You can’t split test full automated workflows with this platform and the A/B tests are generally more limited than what you get with other platforms. 
• Basic automation builder: MailChimp’s automation tool allows you to build simple, linear workflows, but you can’t easily branch them according to users’ actions.  

Who is MailChimp good for? 

• You’re looking for a generous free plan: You can send 10,000 emails per month and access the intuitive email builder for free.  
• You need a wide variety of templates: MailChimp features dozens of beautiful email templates you can easily customize based on your goals. 
• You’ve got little time to learn the ins and outs of a complex platform: MailChimp is one of the most intuitive email marketing tools. The straightforward drag-and-drop editor allows you to build emails and landing pages in minutes. The automation is also easy to set up.
• You need in-depth analysis: Every type of report you need on your campaigns is available, ranging from email performance metrics such as open rates to complex reports on social media or subscribers’ behavior.
• You’re looking for a clear ROI analysis: MailChimp’s ROI reports allow you to compare your ROI across all the channels you’ve integrated with your account and get a comprehensive analysis. This feature is useful, especially for eCommerce companies. 
• You’re an experienced marketer: this platform is great both for newbies and veterans. The latter can greatly benefit from MailChimp's advanced reporting, email design options, wide integrations array, and extra features such as their appointment scheduling tool or online store builder.  

MailChimp isn’t recommended if: 

• You’re on a limited budget and need support:  MailChimp offers reliable customer support by email or live chat but only if you’re using the paid plans. For the free plan, you’ll only benefit from the free educational resources.  
• You want multiple list management options: This platform is slightly limiting in terms of list management. You can only create a limited number of lists and you’ll get charged for duplicates, so you have to be very careful when you add contacts on a list to avoid extra costs. 
• You’re looking for advanced automations: MailChimp is not able to support you if you want to create complex automation using numerous triggers and actions to branch off your sequences. 

Mailchimp Deliverability (Rated: 4/5)

MailChimp’s deliverability rates are around the industry norm. The rates are decent, but they are not the highest on offer, and so they earn a score of 4.

MailChimp’s deliverability rate is 85%, around the industry average. The paid versions do include time zone scheduling, and geographic segmentation, all of which help to improve the chances of your email landing in the inbox rather than the junk folder.

Mailchimp Pricing (Rated: 4/5)

MailChimp offers an excellent free account, as well as affordable options should you wish to access more complex functionality. Overall, I give them a score of 4.

MailChimp pricing plans differ based on the distinct features they include. The free plan which offers a 10,000-email limit can be great for beginners or small companies. The Essential plan is ideal for small businesses that have up to 50,000 contacts. The Premium plan targets larger companies with 200,000+ contacts that require advanced testing and list segmentation features. 

Cancellation/refund policy 

You can easily cancel your MailChimp account subscription with no support by navigating to the Account section and selecting the Pause or delete account option from the drop-down menu and clicking on Delete this account. 

When it comes to its refund policy, MailChimp states that it doesn’t offer a refund unless there is a clear system malfunction that caused a problem, or an account is terminated without a specific cause. Refunds are not available for accounts that are closed due to compliance issues. To get a refund, you can contact the platform’s billing team.

MailChimp Key Features and Workflows

And what about the key features and workflows for Mailchimp? Here is an overview.

1. Creating Email Campaigns
2. Reporting and analysis
3. Integrations
4. Automation 
5. Design and Ease of use

Creating Emails and Campaigns

One of the things that stood out to me about the provider is the way it’s geared toward easily creating campaigns. This section houses most of the tools you’ll need to create emails, schedule them, and send them out as well as monitor your success.

I found that it was surprisingly easy to go from zero to ready-to-send email thanks to MailChimp’s creation wizard. You can create individual emails, set up full cycles, and plan longer-term campaigns all from one location. 

• Emails Sent/Opened and Links Clicked – While they offer one of the simpler reporting features, it covers the essentials you need to succeed. This includes emails sent, emails opened, and the number of link clicks. You can also filter out based on date/time, device used, and can even offer tracking heatmaps to show the hottest links.  
• Deliverability Rates and Delivery by Time Zone –MailChimp deliverability clocks in roughly around 84% which is near the industry average. One thing to keep in mind is that sometimes emails sent via the app may wind up in your customers’ Promotions tab on Gmail. The paid versions include delivery by time zone for more specific scheduling. 
• Creating and Importing Email Lists – When you’re ready to populate your mailing list, MailChimp lets you either upload an Excel or CSV file or import them from your CRM and marketing tools or create a brand-new list. You can also create brand new sign-up forms for new email lists to expand your marketing reach. 
• Split Tests and A/B Testing – I was pleased to see that they offer a functional and easy-to-use A/B testing feature, although it is reserved for the paid plans. Additionally, you can use the platform’s multivariate testing to ensure every component of your email is perfect for the task at hand.
• Personalization – The provider gives you customization at both the macro and micro levels. You can personalize emails and flows based on deep segmentation and customizable conditions. Although it can take a little bit to get used to the system’s internal logic for segmenting, I was able to create complex campaigns in little time once I was familiar with the tools. 

MailChimp Reporting and Analytics (Rated: 5/5)

Every kind of report you might need is offered by MailChimp, from the basis offerings like open and click rates to more complex insights like customer behavior, earning a score of 5.

MailChimp’s deliverability rate is 85%, around the industry average. The paid versions do include time zone scheduling, and geographic segmentation, all of which help to improve the chances of your email landing in the inbox rather than the junk folder.

If you can’t see your campaigns’ progress, you’re not likely to get much out of them or see any improvements in your business.

MailChimp offers both A/B testing and multivariate testing, as well as many of the standard features to track an email marketing campaign’s success and progress over time. 

Engagement Reports – I was happy to find that MailChimp offers many of the most common engagement metrics, including recipients, number delivered, open rates, click rates, audience averages, number opened and clicked, and more. You can see each in the main dashboard or dive deeper into specifics. 

Heat Maps – One of the features I was impressed with is MailChimp’s click map and click performance. This feature lets you see your emails as your readers do, showing the links that are clicked most often to give you an idea of what is working and the best placements for future links. 

Campaign Comparison Reports – The provider lets you build custom comparative reports to track the performance of multiple campaigns over time. The feature is available starting with the Pro plan and lets you track campaigns sent out in the previous 18 months. 

Segmentation – This was one of my favorite features in MailChimp’s reporting, which includes a variety of preset operators and parameters to create a wide range of segments based on incredibly specific triggers. This lets you better understand each group and tailor messages to encourage engagement. 

Social Media Tracking – Because MailChimp lets you easily publish your mail campaigns on social media, it also offers tools to better track them. The data can be filtered and combined with mail campaign data for a much better overall picture. 

ROI Analysis – I was surprised to see that MailChimp’s ROI reports take a much broader view. You can compare ROI across all your connected channels, including your e-store and social media accounts, and compare it to your mail campaigns to see what’s truly effective. 

MailChimp Integrations (Rated: 5/5)

MailChimp’s integration offerings are broad, offering over 200 different apps for you to customize the system regardless of the plan you choose, earning them a score of 5.

Email marketing software doesn’t work in a vacuum; it has to connect to and receive data from a variety of sources including your CRM, your analytics tools, and more.

I was impressed to see that MailChimp doesn’t hold back when it comes to offering third-party connectivity.

Regardless of the plan you choose, you’ll be able to integrate MailChimp with over 200 different apps. 

• Google Analytics – I was pleased with MailChimp’s integration, which lets you use data from Google Analytics to supplement the reporting you’re receiving about your existing campaigns. You can use conversion tracking to see your success rate, and track visits to campaign pages to see how emails are working. 
  
• API Integrations – MailChimp’s API can connect to a variety of RESTful APIs, and it allows you to integrate many of the tools you need directly into your app manually, or even automatically in some cases. 
  
• Ecommerce Tools – No matter which of the major eCommerce tools you use, they have a connection. The platform includes one-click integrations for major eCommerce services including Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and more. 
  
• CRM Integrations – As they are highly interconnected, being able to connect your CRM tools to collect and send data to your email marketing software is essential. MailChimp offers integrations for tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, and Zapier, though some may require third-party connections. 
  
• Social Media Integrations – To quickly connect your social media accounts with MailChimp, you can use the company’s social integration collection, which includes add-ons for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. You also have access to social sharing so you can update your accounts with newsletter updates and sign-up pages for new users. 
  
• Apps - The platform truly shines here, with one-click connectivity for over 200 App integrations that include popular tools like Xero for contact syncing, Canva for graphics, and a variety of analytics tools to give you a better view of your campaigns.
  
• Plugins – One of the things MailChimp prides itself on is ease of use to connect the tools you need for everyday operations. This includes basic integrations such as project and task management but can include deeper connections to programs that are vital to your business. 

MailChimp Automation (Rated: 3/5)

The automation offered by MailChimp is excellent, but it does tend to be more complicated than intuitive, which means that you might have to do some research before being able to use the features available. I give MailChimp a score of 3.

An important thing I discovered about MailChimp is that it is geared to help you start your first email campaign as a small business, so it focuses on making it as easy as possible for you.

When you first create a campaign, it lets you select from one of 15 pre-made automation workflows by clicking on the “Automated” tab.

These automations include useful email flows such as welcome messages (which can be single or multiple email chains for onboarding or education), abandoned cart flows for eCommerce sites, and post-purchase emails to keep users engaged. 

You can also create your own email triggers using some logic conditions (if/then/etc.), although this is more recommendable for advanced users or at least those more comfortable with MailChimp.

One aspect I felt could be improved is that they don't offer a workflow view, so it can be tricky when you have more complex flows to plan. 

Design and Ease of Use (Rated: 5/5)

MailChimp is a great entry point to email software and is designed with a view to being user friendly. They offer some great templates to get you started, and a straightforward drag-and-drop function, which earns them a perfect score.

For me, one of the most vital aspects of any email marketing software is how well designed it is, and how easy it is to use.

The job of any email marketing platform is to make your life easier, not harder, and I’m happy to report that MailChimp largely succeeds with a straightforward design and intuitive tools. 

Drag-and-Drop Interface – You can start to build your emails easily thanks to MailChimp’s straightforward drag-and-drop editor for any email template you choose. You can start from any preset template, and take advantage of basic photo editing tools, as well as built-in mobile optimization. 

Landing Page Creator – I was surprised to see that not only does MailChimp let you create landing pages, but it gives you an unlimited amount. You can quickly build pages to support your campaign using the company’s Content Studio, which features a variety of templates and drag-and-drop functionality. 

Email Templates – One feature that I found useful—especially for users who are not design experts—is the wide variety of email templates MailChimp offers. While there are 23 base templates to choose from initially, you also have access to hundreds of themed templates, including specific industries, occasions, and other needs you may have. 

Sign-Up Forms Within Newsletters Tool – if you’re using email marketing to expand your contacts list, MailChimp helps with its easy to construct sign-up forms The company operates on a strictly “Opt-In” model, so your users will have to accede to receive emails. However, you can easily build sign-up forms and include them in your social media, websites, and landing pages.

Mailchimp Customer Service (Rated: 3/5)

MailChimp has limited support which is only offered for 30-days for the free version. In order to access the more extensive support services, you would need to subscribe to a paid plan. As a result, I give MailChimp a score of 3.

The free service gives you access to 30 days of email support, but not much else. Once you sign up for a paid plan, you’ll have access to the company’s around-the-clock email and live chat support, as well as unlimited email access.

The premium plan comes with phone support on weekdays and queue priority.

All users can access the company’s extensive knowledge base as well as its informative FAQ section.

Mailchimp Contact Information: 
The Rocket Science Group, LLC 
675 Ponce de Leon Ave NE 
Suite 5000 
Atlanta, GA 30308 USA

MailChimp alternatives 

ActiveCampaign is a good alternative to MailChimp because it offers better, more complex automation features that are also pretty easy to access and understand. This platform also features numerous beautiful templates and design options and allows you to create campaigns quite fast with an intuitive editor. 

GetResponse is a good option for those who need easy and effective list segmentation capabilities. Unlike MailChimp, this platform offers multiple A/B testing possibilities, and it also provides ROI tracking options and good integration with Google Analytics and other third-party tools.  

Sendinblue is a great option for small companies too. Besides an intuitive email building process and different design options, this platform also boasts extra features such as transactional emails, SMS marketing, ads, and plenty more. Its cloud-based automation is straightforward and reliable. This is an affordable software that offers customer support in multiple languages. 

What I Liked About MailChimp

Overall, it is an excellent entry point to email marketing software if you’ve never had experience with the tools.

The platform’s easy signup, excellent free account, and a multitude of features make it worth a look even if you’re more established but need an affordable email solution.

The company’s email templates also make it easier to get started, and I liked the simplicity and intuitiveness of the drag-and-drop designer.

Finally, the ease with which I could create landing pages, signup forms, and new email workflows made it a useful tool to get on track quickly. 

What I Didn’t Like About MailChimp

Even so, there are a few areas where the company could offer some improvements.

Mainly, I would love to see the ability to create fully new templates for every account level (currently customizable templates are only available for Premium users).

Additionally, while the automation tools are excellent, they are a little complex to use and require some digging and trial-and-error to get working where you want them to.

Finally, I would like to see the company offer more extensive customer support to all its plans. Currently, free and Basic users have access to email support, which can take some time. 

My Verdict 

I had never used MailChimp before, so I was intrigued by the countless reviews and articles I read about it. After trying it out, I discovered a service that gives you excellent pre-made templates, excellent free plans, and a great suite of tools for small businesses.

With a great variety of features and pricing plans, They have earned its reputation for a reason.