As a Mailchimp expert: How I grow my audience
I’m always dabbling and trying things that impact my own Mailchimp account. My subscribers get to experience aspects of Mailchimp that others just don’t.
Where are your subscribers coming from?
A lot of clients I first start working with have no idea aside from the very basics - from somewhere on the website but no idea where, maybe their online shop or CRM. After that it gets a bit vague.
If you just have a single subscribe form running, it can be impossible to know where your subscribers originate from and at what stage in your interactions with them.
And that’s incredibly useful information because then you know exactly:
Where to focus your efforts in growing your audience with the right sort of people
What calls to action in your subscribe forms are more successful in converting views to subscribes.
As a Mailchimp expert, here’s how I do it for my own business
Techniques and approaches vary - it depends on different factors and what you’re tying to achieve, but there’s almost always scope to make it MUCH clearer. Here’s a feel for how I do it for my own business:
[1] Every single entry point (form) adds a different tag into Mailchimp. This means I know if someone comes from one of my pop-ups (and which version - more later), LinkedIn, X, my email footer, a certain page on my website, my booking calendar, a webinar, my enquiry form etc etc.
[2] Those tags allow me to build up a picture of a single contact and identify trends e.g.
Lisa first subscribed through LinkedIn, then went on to book a Power Hour shortly after.
Bob first subscribed through my enquiry form, initially didn’t want to subscribe at all but changed his mind after seeing some back issues of my weekly emails (which I sent him through an automation giving him an opportunity to change his mind and subscribe). He then attended a webinar, then booked a discovery call and ultimately became a client.
Maud signed up via pop-up version B and has never opened an email since subscribing. Why? That needs some digging.
[3] Aside from my obvious “subscribe” forms and landing pages, I offer different low-commitment options for other interactions such as enquiries and appointment bookings:
No thanks - which sends someone back issues to see what they’ll miss out on. About 25% of people who initially say no then change their mind immediately after seeing the back issues. If they don’t change their mind they are archived.
I’ll give it a go - low commitment
I’d love to.
[4] My welcome automations vary depending on the selection on those forms (no thanks, I’ll give it a go, I’d love to), recognising their response and setting the tone accordingly.
[5] Although people are often not keen on subscribing at the point of first enquiry, I give them opportunities to change their mind easily as we progress through our connection - it almost always results in a subscribe once we have more of a connection.
[6] I run multivariate testing for my pop-ups and footer subscribe forms - this means that different site visitors see different calls to action / colours / wording etc on forms and I can measure which ones convert subscribers more successfully.
So how do you do this for YOUR business?
Key to this is that not all form builders and integrations are equal.
Some have the capability of adding a tag and sending extra data into Mailchimp, while others just can’t handle the pace and might need to either be replaced with something better, or you might need to use “middleware” to supplement the info sent (e.g. Zapier or Make).
If you need help figuring out or setting up the best ways for your own business, give me a shout.