Mail Chimp is a relative newcomer to the autoresponder market that has quickly taken the market by storm, surpassing many established names.
One of Mail Chimp’s most unique features is its “Forever Free” price plan. On this plan, anyone with an email list of fewer than 2,000 people can sign up for free – Forever. (Note: There’s also a 12,000 email per month limit on the free account.)
It’s thanks to this free plan that Mail Chimp exploded in popularity. They quickly took market share from other autoresponder services. At one point, iContact had to change their pricing and offer a free package just to keep up with Mail Chimp. They later rescinded their free package.
Today Mail Chimp is the leading autoresponder service that offers a free basic level.
What other unique features does Mail Chimp bring to the table?
#1 – Segmentation
Mail Chimp makes it very easy to segment your list into different parts. Instead of having to mail messages to your entire list, you can choose to message only people who fall under certain criteria.
For example, if you’re hosting a local event, you can send an invitation out to only people who’re near your geographical area.
You can also segment your list based on activity level. For people who regularly open your emails, you might want to use a content-based approach to you emails to continue building a relationship. However, if you have people who haven’t opened your emails in a while, you might want to use a much more dramatic hook to try and catch their attention.
#2: Auto-Posting to Social Media
If you use social media in conjunction with email marketing, this feature can save you a lot of time.
Instead of having to log into your social media platforms and post a copy of your emails, Mail Chimp can do it all for you.
Just link you social media profiles to Mail Chimp and Mail Chimp will do all the hard work.
#3: Tracking and Google Analytics
By default, Mail Chimp has quite a few email tracking metrics in place. They’re able to track both open rates and clicks in house.
One unique feature that Mail Chimp brings to the table is Google Analytics tracking. You can track your clicks not only with Mail Chimp’s software, but within your own Google Analytics system.
#4: Save Edits to Templates
Mail Chimp has a wide variety of custom made templates for you to choose from.
Unlike other services that require you to use templates as-is however, Mail Chimp allows you to edit these templates however you want.
Once you’re done editing, you can then save the templates to your account. From then on, you can apply this template to your emails with a click of a button.
#5: Extra Security
If you’re worried about your list getting hijacked, you can add an extra layer of security. You can have Mail Chimp ask one of your security questions if you ever log in from a different location.
If you want to take things even a step further, you can opt for two-factor authentication. If you enable this feature, you’ll have to type in a PIN code that’s sent to your phone in order to log into your account.
In other words, even if someone manages to steal your password, they still won’t be able to log in to you account, because they won’t be able to get a PIN from you phone.
#6: Form Translation
If you’re working with international markets, getting the form right can be tricky. Fortunately, Mail Chimp makes this a piece of cake with their form translation feature.
How does it work?
Just create your form, then select the language you want your form to be in. All the text on the form will automatically be translated into your language of choice.
This can make breaking into new markets quite a bit easier. It can also help if you want to put up a bare-bones version of an alternate language page.
#7: Subscriber Chiclets
Want to brag about the number of subscribers you have? Want to create some social proof to increase your opt in rates?
With Mail Chimp’s chiclets, you can. It’s quite easy: All you need to do is pick one of the many existing designs. Then install the code on your website and the well-designed subscriber counter will be installed on your page.
If you run a small business that has less than 2,000 subscribers, why pay $20 a month to other companies? Use Mail Chimp instead and use it for free until you reach the 2,000 subscriber mark.