When you have generated the email list from your website, the next thing that comes to your mind is newsletters. A newsletter is one of the primary methods of promoting your business to your audience. And when it comes to using a Mailchimp account for sending out the newsletter, it can be the best combination ever. Here you will learn everything about How to use Mailchimp for creating newsletter for free.
The best thing about using a Mailchimp account is that tons of customisation features are available completely free of cost. If you have subscribers up to 2000, then you can use a Mailchimp account for sending newsletters without any additional expense. You also get almost all the features that are required for email marketing. This makes it more desirable for beginners who want to use Mailchimp for sending the newsletter.
The newsletter helps in many ways. This can act as a customer acquisition strategy and customer retention method. Defining goals is a must required approach for every business to adapt before sending a newsletter.
Page Contents
How to use Mailchimp for creating Newsletter?
Email newsletter comes in many forms. It can be used for promotional purposes and even providing important information to your audience. It all depends on the business objective that you want to achieve from your audience. Here we get you the step by step guide to creating an email newsletter using Mailchimp for free.
1. Create a Mailchimp account
You need to visit the official website of Mailchimp and click the button termed as a sign up free. Then you need to proceed by using your email address, username and integrate it with the strong password for the account. Make a note of all the credentials that you used in registering the account so that accessibility will be convenient.
You need to agree to all the terms and conditions that have been set by Mailchimp. There will be captcha verification and email-based verification. Post the verification phase, you have successfully created a Mailchimp account for your business.
2. Add the email list to your account
When you have successfully created a Mailchimp account for your company, now it’s time to add the audience email list to your account. Ensure that you avoid purchasing third party email databases from vendors. Because Mailchimp and other email marketing providers are maintaining strict laws around it.
You need to generate a fresh database from whichever source that is applicable. Mailchimp account will ask for all the details regarding where you obtained the email list. If failing to provide relevant details, the account can get blocked.
3. Create or use a pre-developed newsletter template
The best thing about using Mailchimp for sending out newsletters is that you get intuitive pre-developed newsletter templates. These templates are so engaging and can be customisable easily without any technical expertise. You can customise it as per the requirement and the design guidelines of your business.
You can find the newsletter templates in the layouts section. For this, you need to visit templates and then proceed to create templates. There you will find a library of layouts where you can use it for the newsletter. When you select the desired email newsletter layout, you can now start building your campaign.
4. Start designing your newsletter
Now we arrived at the most important section of designing the newsletter for your business. This is one of the most important steps in how to use Mailchimp for creating newsletter. Here you need to design the structure for your email newsletter campaign that you want to send to your audience list. All the factors mentioned below are crucial when you set out to develop a newsletter.
Integrate logo
When you start to create a newsletter, the first thing that you need to do is upload the logo for the email. It is important because it helps in developing credibility from your audience towards your business.
On the top section of your email newsletter, you will find the option to add an image block. Within the image block, you need to upload the logo of your business. Ensure that you use a good quality image and embed it with alternate text so that the audience can know if in case the images are broken.
Customize the colour of the newsletter
In this section, you need to customise the colour of your newsletter with respect to the design guideline of your business. There are sections where you can change the colour of the border layout, call to action buttons, background and the heading section.
Style it as per your desire and refrain from cluttering the email newsletter layout. Give primary attention to the call to action button colour, as this is the only way you will be able to engage your audience. Try to use two to three colours (max) for customising the newsletter design.
Use Visual elements wherever required
The importance of integrating visual elements into your email newsletter is highly beneficial. Because the audience to which you are going to send the email newsletter if they find that the email has creative visual elements. It makes it a more engaging experience for your audience to explore more about your email.
Ensure that you don’t use images that consume large sizes. Because this tends to decrease the experience of images getting loaded slower and sometimes it doesn’t appear at all. Also, look forward to attaching the images that are highly relevant to the newsletter campaign.
5. Insert the newsletter content
In this step, you need to add content for your email newsletter. Based on the expertise and solutions that your business offers, you need to develop the content with respect to that. Ensure that you don’t use the content that makes your audience feel bored and opt-out from your newsletter campaign.
The content is very important because it helps in understanding the audience about what the email is all about. You can start the email newsletter content with a brief intro, welcome the audience and reach the conclusion part. The content needs to be precise and talking to the point.
You can use inspiration from various newsletter content that is available online. The key essence to make great newsletter content is that the message should be clear for your audience. It can be only done when you have a specific objective that you want to achieve from email newsletter campaigns.
6. Embed call to action button
This is the most important part of how to use Mailchimp for creating newsletter. Mailchimp offers you pre-developed call to action buttons that you can integrate within the email. These buttons come in various forms of shapes and sizes that the text on the buttons can be easily customised.
The call to action button is one of the ways where you can track the success of your newsletter campaign. It will be ideal if you link the call to action button to one of your solutions pages or it can be to the contact page. You can also link to one of the recently published blog posts that you think will be resourceful for your audience.
7. Introduce footer section
The Footer section helps in increasing the brand credibility of your business. This can be successfully represented with elements such as social buttons, privacy policy, email opt-out section and contact details of your company.
Social buttons
Social buttons help in improving the brand credibility of your company. You can introduce the social buttons found in the email design layout section. Select the size and shape of the social button that you wish to integrate. After this, you need to link it with your official social media accounts to this button. It helps in improving trust and as well as gain followers for your brand.
Privacy policy
The privacy policy can come in various formats that can be anti-spam policy act or it can be copyright information. The intention to use this option is to ensure your audience that the newsletter follows all the guidelines. It also helps Mailchimp to understand that you don’t follow any unethical practices using a newsletter.
Email opt-out
This is one of the most important factors before you send out newsletters to your audience. Without integrating the email opt-out option from the newsletter, the Mailchimp account will not allow you to proceed with the campaign. This has been made mandatory so that you create opportunities for the audience to opt out from the newsletter list if they find your email irrelevant.
Contact details
Contact details are beneficial if your audience wants to reach out to you. It allows you to create two-way conversational opportunities that help the audience to get to know about your business better. And this has been made mandatory for Mailchimp to use contact details in the footer section. This also helps in building a strong connection with your target audience.
8. Come up with the subject line
The subject line is the first thing that your audience is going to see when they receive the email to their inbox. When they see the subject headline, they decide whether to open your email or skip it. That’s the reason, you need to brainstorm for multiple ideas and come up with unique subject lines that are desirable and engaging.
Based on the nature of your business and the newsletter campaign theme, you need to come up with a variety of keywords that will facilitate the subject line. And when you combine these keywords, you need to make multiple subject lines and ask opinions from your fellow colleagues which would be the most desirable ones.
9. Review and test the campaign
After successfully creating the email newsletter, now it’s your turn to review the campaign for the final step. You can do this by sending out the newsletter campaign to a specific email ID. And check how it is appearing in your inbox and open the newsletter to check further.
Test the email call to action buttons, links, and check responsiveness on desktop and mobile versions. If you find any discrepancies, you can optimize them and test them again. This is the best way for maintaining quality assurance so that you don’t mess up with newsletter campaigns.
10. Send the newsletter and check Analytics
The final phase of creating an email newsletter using Mailchimp is here. When you have thoroughly checked and tested your newsletter, it’s time to send it across your audience list. Double-check the audience list that you have uploaded before you proceed to send the newsletter.
After sending the email newsletter, you need to proceed by checking the insights of the campaign. Checking the analytics is an ideal way to get insights into your newsletter campaign. This allows you to get more ideas on how you can optimise the campaign further.
Related: How to use Mailchimp for sending emails?
Conclusion
There are no second thoughts that a newsletter is one of the best email marketing strategies that a marketer can implement for their business. And when it comes to using a Mailchimp account for sending the newsletter, the campaign will go to a whole new level.
There are many benefits of using a Mailchimp account to send out newsletters. Starting from using the customizable newsletter templates to analyzing the insights that you generate from the campaign. You will find everything that is required for measuring the performance of the newsletter campaign. And the best part is that you can do it at completely free of cost.
What do you think about using Mailchimp for your next newsletter campaign?