Mailchimp: setting up email marketing that actually delivers

Mailchimp is a broad email marketing platform for sending newsletters, building signup forms, segmenting contacts and setting up straightforward automations. It started as a simple email tool for small businesses and has grown into a platform with a CRM-like contact view, SMS, a landing page builder and basic advertising features. Mailchimp works well for businesses that want one central place for newsletters, signup forms and everyday customer communication, without e-commerce data being the core of the tool.

This article shows how Mailchimp is structured, how to set it up step by step, which campaign types and automations are available, how to segment and measure, and when another platform — especially Klaviyo — makes more sense. For broader context: social media marketing and channel choice.

What Mailchimp is and who it works for

At its core, Mailchimp is a tool for sending email to a list of contacts, with a layer around it for forms, segmentation, automation and reporting. It works well for:

• Small and medium-sized businesses that want one central newsletter tool without complex data requirements.
• Service providers and local businesses that keep customers and prospects informed through a newsletter, promotion or announcement.
• Content and media businesses that send a regular newsletter as a fixed channel alongside social media.
• Early-stage online stores that want to set up email marketing without immediately moving to a heavier, e-commerce-specific platform.

Mailchimp works less well for:

• Online stores that really want to drive flows and revenue on behavior. E-commerce data (orders, product views, customer value) is too central to that job for a generic tool to serve optimally; see the comparison with Klaviyo below.
• B2B businesses with a long sales cycle and complex pipelines. A CRM such as HubSpot, with deals and lead scoring, is a better fit there.
• Teams that need heavy, conditional automations with many branches based on behavior across several channels.

The parts of Mailchimp

Mailchimp consists of a number of parts you can use separately or together:

• Audience (contacts). Your list of subscribers, with fields, tags and groups. Mailchimp traditionally works with "audiences" (formerly "lists"); nowadays you can also work with a single audience and tags instead of several separate lists.
• Campaigns. One-off or recurring sends: a newsletter, promotional email or announcement.
• Automations (Customer Journeys). Automatic email sequences that start on a trigger, such as a new signup or a tag being added.
• Forms and landing pages. Signup forms to embed on your site, pop-ups and simple standalone landing pages.
• Segments and tags. Ways to split your list based on behavior, attributes or manual labels.
• Reporting. Open and click rates per campaign, list growth figures, and, at a higher level, revenue reporting once you connect a store.
• SMS and (limited) social and advertising features. Mailchimp expanded with SMS sending and simple social and Google/Meta advertising options as an addition to email.

Setting up Mailchimp step by step

1. Set up your account and domain. Create an account and verify your sending domain (SPF/DKIM) so your mail isn't flagged as spam and appears to come from your own domain.
2. Create your audience and decide on fields. Decide in advance which data you want to capture: name, interests, postcode, purchase date. The better you define your fields now, the easier segmentation becomes later.
3. Build and place a signup form. Put a form on your site, in your footer or as a pop-up. Use a clear double opt-in (see below) so only people who genuinely want to receive email end up on your list.
4. Import existing contacts carefully. Only import people who have genuinely given you permission to email them; a purchased or outdated list damages your sender reputation immediately.
5. Build your first welcome automation. A short sequence that welcomes new subscribers and shows them what to expect is usually the highest-return automation to build first.
6. Set up your brand and templates. A logo, colors and a consistent email layout create recognition in every send.
7. Send your first campaign to a small segment before sending to the whole list, and check links, images and the unsubscribe link.
8. Build out segmentation based on behavior (opens, clicks, purchases if connected) once basic data starts coming in.

Campaign types and content formats

• Regular campaign. A one-off newsletter or promotional email to a segment or the whole list.
• A/B test campaign. Testing two or more variants of subject line, content or send time on part of the list, after which the rest receives the winning variant.
• RSS campaign. Automatically assembling an email based on new blog posts, useful for content and media sites.
• Automation / Customer Journey. A sequence of emails that starts on a trigger: new signup, tag added, birthday, or (with a connected store) an order or abandoned cart.
• Plain-text versus design templates. A simple, text-based email can feel more personal and, for some audiences, perform better than an elaborate, heavily designed template; test this before choosing.

Segmentation and targeting

Segmentation means you don't send everyone the same message, but tailor it to who someone is or what they did:

• By attributes. Location, job title, interest specified at signup.
• By behavior. Opened or not, clicked a specific link, inactive for a long time.
• By tags. Manual labels you add based on a conversation, download or event.
• By purchase behavior (with a connected store): first-time buyer, repeat buyer, highest spenders.

Start with a few simple segments — new versus existing, active versus inactive — before moving to fine-grained segmentation. A flood of segments without a clear purpose per segment creates more maintenance than results.

Budget and spend in general terms

Mailchimp typically prices based on the number of contacts in your audience and which feature tier you need (more automation capabilities, more users, more advanced reporting in higher tiers). There's usually a free or low-cost entry level for small lists. Because price scales with list size, list hygiene — cleaning up or separately segmenting inactive contacts — directly affects cost. Check current prices and limits at mailchimp.com, since tiers and limits change regularly.

For Mailchimp's advertising features, the same applies as for standalone ad platforms: determine your goal and budget per channel first, before deciding what share runs through Mailchimp versus, for example, Meta Ads or Google Ads.

Creative and content that works

• A subject line that gives a concrete reason to open, not a vague teaser. Short and specific often works better than forced enthusiasm.
• One clear call to action per email. Multiple equally weighted buttons dilute the message and lower click rates.
• Mobile-friendly layout. A large share of recipients open email on a phone; always test how a campaign looks on a small screen.
• A personal sender. A name instead of only a company name often increases open and click rates, depending on your audience.
• A consistent sender name and address. Don't keep switching senders; that damages recognition and trust.
• Alt text on images, so your message still comes across when images don't load automatically.

Measuring: what to track and how to interpret it

• Open rate. How many recipients opened the email. Privacy features in email clients (such as Apple Mail Privacy Protection) have made this metric less reliable than a few years ago; see also vanity metrics.
• Click rate. How many recipients clicked a link, a more direct measure of relevance than open rate.
• Unsubscribe rate and spam complaints. Important signals for the health of your list and your sender reputation.
• Revenue per campaign or automation, visible once you connect a store. This gives a more concrete picture than open and click rates alone.
• Attribution. Mailchimp typically reports last-click within its own platform; for a full picture of how email works together with other channels, use UTM tags on your links and review the whole in Looker Studio or Google Tag Manager alongside your site analytics.

Only cite benchmarks when you know the source; average open and click rates vary a lot by industry and list size, so a generic number without context says little about your situation.

Mailchimp versus Klaviyo

The most common question in email marketing for online stores is whether to use Mailchimp or Klaviyo. The difference lies mainly in what the tool is built around:

The rule of thumb: choose Mailchimp when email is one channel among others and you don't need heavy behavioral segmentation. Choose Klaviyo when your store needs e-commerce data at the center of every flow and campaign. Both tools connect with Shopify and WooCommerce, so the choice isn't about technical compatibility but about how deep you want to go with customer data.

Real-world examples

• Online store. A clothing store uses Mailchimp for a weekly newsletter about new collections and a simple welcome sequence for new subscribers. Once the owner wants to drive more on abandoned carts, repeat purchases and customer value, switching to Klaviyo is often the next step.
• B2B service provider. A consultancy sends a monthly newsletter with articles and case studies, segmented by industry. Automation stays limited to a welcome sequence after downloading a whitepaper; the rest of the follow-up runs through sales and a CRM.
• Local business. A local gym uses Mailchimp for announcing new classes, seasonal promotions and a simple birthday email with a discount code, without complex segmentation.

Common mistakes

• Importing a purchased or outdated list. This immediately leads to complaints and a poor sender reputation, and in practice a lot of unsubscribes.
• Not using double opt-in, which actually lowers the quality of your signups (see below).
• Sending too many campaigns without a clear purpose, driving up unsubscribes and spam complaints.
• Never segmenting and sending everything to the whole list, which lowers relevance and results.
• Skipping the welcome automation. This is often the highest-return automation, yet it's the one most often forgotten.
• Only looking at open rate while that metric has become less reliable than click rate and revenue due to privacy features in email clients.
• Not setting up domain verification (SPF/DKIM), causing mail to land in spam more often.

Consent and the rules in general terms

Email marketing falls under privacy regulations (in the EU, among others, the GDPR) and rules on unsolicited communication. In general terms this means: you collect email addresses with clear, specific consent, you explain what you'll use them for, and every commercial email includes a working unsubscribe option. Double opt-in — where someone signs up and then confirms via a link in an email — is often recommended because it confirms the entered address genuinely belongs to the person who signed up, and prevents you from emailing addresses someone else entered. This is not legal advice; consult a lawyer or your local data protection authority's current guidance for your specific situation.

Mailchimp and other tools

• Store platforms. Integrations with Shopify and WooCommerce sync customers, orders and products, though this integration is less deep than with Klaviyo.
• Social media. Mailchimp has simple options for planning social posts and ads, but for a full social strategy you're usually better off with a dedicated tool; see social media marketing.
• Analytics. For a full picture of how email contributes to your results, set up UTM tagging on your links and review email alongside your other channels in Looker Studio.
• CRM. With a longer sales cycle, you often combine Mailchimp (or Klaviyo) with a CRM such as HubSpot, keeping email marketing and sales follow-up as separate roles.

Checklist for a healthy Mailchimp setup

• Sending domain verified (SPF/DKIM).
• Double opt-in enabled on your signup forms.
• Welcome automation live.
• At least two basic segments (active/inactive, new/existing).
• Unsubscribe link and company details present in every campaign.
• Inactive contacts cleaned up or separated periodically.
• UTM tags on links for recognizable reporting outside Mailchimp.

Frequently asked questions about Mailchimp

Is Mailchimp free to use?

There's usually a free or low-cost entry level for a limited number of contacts and features. Once your list grows or you need more automation, you move to a paid tier. Check current prices and limits at mailchimp.com.

What's the difference between Mailchimp and Klaviyo?

Mailchimp is a generic email platform that's broadly applicable, while Klaviyo is built around e-commerce data and behavior-driven automation. For a newsletter or light e-commerce, Mailchimp often works fine; for a store that wants to drive heavily on customer behavior and revenue per flow, Klaviyo is usually more specific.

Do I need consent to email someone through Mailchimp?

Yes. Commercial email requires valid consent, and unsubscribing must always be possible. This applies regardless of which platform you use. Consult a lawyer or your local data protection authority's guidance if in doubt.

What is double opt-in, and should I use it?

With double opt-in, someone confirms their signup via a link in an email before actually joining your list. This prevents mistaken signups and improves the quality of your list; it's often recommended in practice, though it's not a legal requirement everywhere.

Does Mailchimp work with Shopify or WooCommerce?

Yes, Mailchimp has integrations with both platforms that sync customers, products and orders, though this integration is less deep than with an e-commerce-specific platform like Klaviyo.

Can I also run ads with Mailchimp?

Mailchimp has simple options for social and search ads, but for a full advertising strategy you're usually better served by a dedicated platform such as Meta Ads Manager or LinkedIn Campaign Manager.

Why is my open rate dropping even though my emails stay the same?

Privacy features in email clients (such as Apple Mail Privacy Protection) sometimes count emails as opened automatically, making open rate a less reliable metric. Look at click rate too, and at revenue per campaign if you've connected a store.

When should I switch from Mailchimp to Klaviyo?

Once behavior-driven flows (abandoned cart, post-purchase, win-back) and revenue attribution per flow matter more than a general newsletter, and your store data needs to become the center of your marketing.

Further reading

Want to know which channel fits your business best? Read channel choice and positioning, or compare with Klaviyo if you run an online store. Not sure which approach fits your situation? Book a free strategy call.