I check a LOT of Mailchimp accounts and here’s something crucial I’ve found…

I wish I’d kept track of the numbers, but I’d say that perhaps 30% of Mailchimp accounts I check are paying more than they need to. Is this you too? Here’s how to check:

Mailchimp charges are based on a combination of two elements:

1. Your chosen plan and the features it includes. You might be on Essentials, Standard, Premium or an old legacy Marketing Plan which is no longer offered.

2. The number of contacts in your account - these are billed for in tiers e.g. 0-500, 501-1500 etc, and sometimes extra blocks if you have more contacts than the tier you’re paying for.

What’s super important to note is that Mailchimp won’t usually automatically adjust your contact tier in their bill, when your contact numbers go up and down across your combined audiences, except to add “extra contact blocks” onto your invoice.

These extra contact blocks may be more cost effective than moving up to the next contact tier if you’re only a few emails over the tier below, but it’s not long before they’re a much more expensive way to pay.

If you gain more subscribers and don’t manually increase your contact tier, you may well be paying excessively for those extra blocks.

Similarly, if you have a tidy up and reduce your contacts by e.g. archiving them, removing duplicates or merging audiences, it won’t review and reduce your bill automatically.

You need to do this yourself regularly, especially when you’re close to bridging tiers.

So your 5 minute job of the week is as follows:

1. Do any tidying up and back up (hopefully you’re already doing that!)

2. Go into your Mailchimp account settings and check the number of contacts in your account

3. Go into your billing and take a look at the contact tier you’re paying for and take note of the plan name while you’re there (e.g. Essentials/Standard)*. Does it accurately reflect the number of contacts you actually have?

4. If not - adjust your tier by clicking on the “shop new plans” in the menu

*PRO-TIP #1 - if you’re on Essentials plan and that’s sufficient for your needs, take care not to be guided to move to Standard when you do this - it comes up as the default option whereas you need to adjust your number of contacts in the dropdown at the top of the page, which is less obvious. The button typically says “Downgrade” even if you’re already on Essentials and are simply reducing your contact tier - that’s fine and it’s what you need to do (screenshot below).

PRO-TIP #2 - If you have multiple audiences and/or there is a sizeable difference between your number of contacts and number of subscribers - there’s probably more you can do to reduce your costs - let’s have a chat.

PRO-TIP #3 - If you are a non-profit check if you have a non-profit discount applied.

Questions? Not sure? Need help with this or any other aspect of Mailchimp or email marketing?

Get in touch - I have over 14 years’ experience with Mailchimp and can help you use it and shape it to your specific needs.

Was this helpful? Did you save any money?

I’d genuinely love to know - please pop me an email to claire@chimpology.co.uk with your experiences.