Mailchimp Review – In the world of email marketing, Mailchimp has established itself as the dominant player for years. But now, the company has expanded its offerings beyond just email marketing and transformed into a comprehensive marketing hub. With the addition of turnkey e-commerce, enhanced automation, and embedded customer relationship management (CRM) features, Mailchimp has truly evolved to cater to the needs of small businesses and merchants. In this Mailchimp review, we will explore the platform’s new features, pricing, and overall capabilities.
Mailchimp’s new direction revolves around catering to merchants and small business owners. The platform now offers separate Website and Commerce plans, specifically designed for creating online stores and service booking. The best part is that these plans come with a free tier, allowing customers to build their presence without any upfront costs. Users only get charged when they make a sale, with a nominal transaction fee of 2% per order for the free tier.
To strengthen its position in the market, Mailchimp has made strategic acquisitions in recent years. By integrating automated design platform Sawa, survey platform BigTeam, and AI content platform Inspector 6 into its core platform, Mailchimp has set itself apart from competitors who simply rebrand acquired software without seamless integration. For instance, Mailchimp acquired Chatitive, a two-way SMS marketing platform, which it is working to integrate into its email marketing plans.
Moreover, Mailchimp now offers a comprehensive digital marketing experience. The platform supports multi-channel campaigns, including postcards, landing pages, integration with popular social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, Google Ads, social posting, and even a customizable marketing calendar.
Despite the significant expansion of its features, Mailchimp has managed to maintain a straightforward pricing structure. The free plan is incredibly enticing, granting access to seven marketing channels, basic templates, CRM, surveys, websites, and custom domains. It’s an exceptional strategy that allows users to explore most of Mailchimp’s offerings without any financial commitment.
The pricing is based on the number of contacts, which aligns well with the scalability needs of businesses. The free tier supports up to 2,000 contacts and a maximum of 10,000 monthly email sends, making it suitable for initial campaigns or trial runs. For larger capacities, businesses can input their estimated number of subscribers into Mailchimp’s online calculator to get an exact price. For instance, a monthly plan for 5,000 subscribers costs $74.99 per month.
While the pricing has increased slightly due to the addition of new features, Mailchimp remains competitive. The Essentials Package starts at $9.99 per month, accommodating up to 50,000 contacts and offering A/B testing. The Standard Package, priced at $14.99 per month, provides custom-coded templates and automation for businesses with up to 100,000 contacts. Finally, the Premium package, costing $299.99 per month, offers advanced features like multivariate testing, custom domains, and support for over 200,000 contacts. It also includes direct phone support.
When compared to its competitors, Mailchimp’s Standard Plan stands out for its generous inclusion of up to 50,000 contacts at a lower price point than similar offerings from other providers. Moreover, Mailchimp’s paid plans have no sending cap, although users may need to purchase email credits based on their sending volume. This flexibility is a distinct advantage over many competitors in the market. However, it’s essential to note that pay-as-you-go plans do not offer refunds for unused email credits if the account is canceled or suspended due to spamming.
Mailchimp has successfully transformed itself from a specialized email marketing tool into a full-fledged marketing hub. The company now offers a suite of services, encompassing various channels and integrating data from social media platforms. By adding artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, Mailchimp assists users with audience analytics and provides context-sensitive recommendations to optimize marketing campaigns. These recommendations draw from user activities, data from other Mailchimp customers, and industry best practices.
Mailchimp’s mobile apps, available for iOS and Android, empower users to create and send campaigns directly from their smartphones and tablets. This mobile functionality sets Mailchimp apart from competitors like Campaigner, which lacks an Android app. Furthermore, Mailchimp allows the inclusion of promo codes in emails, landing pages, and facilitates re-marketing via Google Ads. The platform also offers Alerts to notify users when they are approaching pricing thresholds and provides the convenience of automatically reloading credits. Users can leverage subscriber data to create custom ads on Facebook and Instagram.
In terms of web app functionality, Mailchimp’s Inbox Preview feature enables users to preview their emails across more than 40 desktop, web, and mobile email clients. It’s worth noting that this feature comes at an additional cost, requiring the use of “tokens.” While the base membership includes 25 tokens, Mailchimp Standard customers enjoy 1,000 free tokens per month. After exhausting the allotted tokens, users can purchase bundles of 25 tokens for $3 each. This pricing structure is important to consider, especially for those who extensively customize templates, as it adds an extra cost to the overall subscription.
Mailchimp’s evolution into a comprehensive marketing hub, coupled with its user-friendly interface, makes it an attractive choice for small businesses and merchants. The platform’s new features, such as turnkey e-commerce, enhanced automation, CRM capabilities, and integration with popular social media platforms, enable users to create multi-channel campaigns effortlessly. Additionally, Mailchimp’s pricing structure, including the free tier, offers great value and flexibility for businesses of all sizes.
As Mailchimp continues to innovate and expand its offerings, it remains a top contender in the digital marketing landscape. Whether you are a small business owner or a marketing professional, Mailchimp’s suite of tools and services can help you streamline your marketing efforts and drive meaningful results.
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