Automated MailChimp Email Campaigns aka Workflows

An automated MailChimp email campaign delivers emails to 'audience' lists or a part of a list based on triggers and timelines. It is different to a 'regular campaign' because an automated campaign is triggered by a qualification event and can be sent out repeatedly once members of the audience list qualifies (ie versus a one-off message that 'Mary gave birth to a baby boy this morning' which is spent and can not be triggered after being sent the first time). This post illustrates how to create an automated MailChimp email campaign that involves a trigger. 

Scenario for onboarding new customers or onboarding new employees 
This example will be for the latter (ie onboarding new employees). After reviewing the 'Data' department qualification job interview (via live chat such as Tawk.to), you wish to begin onboarding the candidate. Before running the campaign, you have already collected her email address (in the pre-chat form). You use this email address to create her MailChimp account. Additionally, to trigger the auto response email campaign aka 'workflow' in MailChimp, within her account, you will append a tag '2a data - pending' (an internally designed code to tell you that this person will go into the Data department and must be served the campaign that aligns with the talent pipeline stage numbered 2a). In the 1st email, you congratulate the qualified candidate for being selected and invite her to update her profile by clicking the link to the update profile webpage. If she clicks on the link, she will set off another trigger, specifically a post-email action that removes the 'pending' tag from her account. Additionally, by clicking the link to complete her profile, her account will automatically receive the 'Data' department tag (to show that she is now a member of that segment). Her having clicked the link to complete the profile also triggers an email that will be sent within an hour to inform her of the next step (orientation), reminding her that it is contingent upon her completing the profile.

Step 0 - Preparatory Steps (Create a list)

• See steps to create a MailChimp list. NB once you have attached a list to the workflow, you can not change it.
• Create a signup form
• Get the link to the signup form

Step 1 - Create the campaign tag(s) and attach them to relevant contacts

Let's say you will attach a tag with the suffix 'PENDING' for a campaign example 'Talent pipeline Stage 2 for DATA' for onboarding personnel. When the want that tag to be automatically removed when the campaign has been sent, do the following.

a - Create the tag

• Lists
• Select the list (example athletes)
• Manage contacts. A dropdown menu should appear
• Tags
• Create tag. I like descriptive names like 'X Pipeline Stage 2a - DATA - PENDING' 
  
• Create
• Repeat the steps above for the tag which will be automatically appended to contacts after the campaign. Example 'DATA'.

b - Attach the tag to relevant contacts

• Lists
• Select the list (example 'athletes')
• Check the box in the left column next to the relevant contact(s). The heading should change to reveal new options, among which include 'add or remove tags'
• Select 'add or remove tags'
• click once on the tag(s) to be added and twice on any to be removed. 
  
• Verify that the tag(s) have been attached successfully. Do this by looking at the 'tags' column for the contact(s). If the tag(s) were attached, they will appear in this 'tags' column.

Step 2. Create the campaign

• Campaigns
• Email
• Automated
• Subscriber Activity
• Welcome new subscribers
• Onboarding series (as pictured immediately below)

• Name the campaign, preferably something descriptive, like 'Workflow trigger: 2a Data segment pending tag - Profile request'
• Select a list, etc
• Click 'Begin'
• From this point forward, it will be a matter of completing a checklist that appears within the Campaign creation interface. Each email is preceded by a trigger. You have the option to add another email, which will automatically add a new preceding trigger field. 
• Select the trigger
• Click 'Edit' next to the default 'Trigger' setting. 
  
• Change trigger (in the Edit trigger' section)
• Select 'List Manager'
• Select 'Added Trigger'
• Select the time frame, whether immediate or delayed and, in the 'settings' field, the tag that will be the trigger, in this example the tag with the 'Pending' suffix.
  
• Edit the email details. Consider descriptive names like 'Email 1 of 2 in Pipeline Stage 2 workflow - Profile request - trig: DATA pending tag'
• NB. Since your recipient already has a MailChimp account, do NOT send her a link to the new profile setup form. Rather, send the update profile form with the use of the *|UPDATE_PROFILE|* merge tag. You can add this merge tag as you would any other hyperlink. 
• In the Content section of the Campaign Builder, click Edit Design. 
• On the Design step, click the text content block you want to edit. 
• Type the text you want to link, like 'Update Profile', into the editing pane.
• Highlight the text, and click the Link icon in the toolbar. 
• Type or paste *|UPDATE_PROFILE|* into the Web Address (URL) field, and click Insert. 
• Click Save & Close.

Step 3. Test the Campaign

Even if you send tests to list members, the experience is slightly different in some ways. For instance, test subjects will not be allowed to update profile preferences and their names will not appear where the merge tags exist for inserting names. 

• Campaigns
• Click 'Design Email' to see the email content. Either read your email(s) aloud or listen to it while an audio reader reads the content aloud. If necessary, make changes.  
• To send the test, click the arrow for the dropdown menu in the top level campaign. Then select 'send a test email'
  
• Open and review test emails not only on your desktop but also on a mobile device. This is extremely important given the fact that people open emails on their mobile devices at an ever growing rate. Ensure the experience is good. For instance, recipients should not need to scroll from left to right to read the content of the email. 

Step 4. Run the Campaign
If you already have details regarding your market's login times, schedule your campaign accordingly to enhance the open and response rates.

CONTENT RELATED TO AUTOMATED MAILCHIMP EMAIL CAMPAIGNS / WORKFLOWS

• MailChimp Lists
• Introduction to Drip Email Marketing Campaigns
• Plan content for a drip email marketing campaign / an autoresponder email campaign

MailChimp Campaigns

MailChimp offers different types of email campaigns; 1) automated email campaigns and 2) regular email campaigns. This post relates to the latter, ie non-automated, regular email campaigns. They relate to one-off bulk emails, ie emails that are sent to large groups at once. This post discusses the 1) uses of regular email MailChimp campaigns, 2) how to create email MailChimp campaigns, 3) campaign reports and 4) resending campaigns.

Uses of Regular Email Campaign - Content

Campaign content usually relates to a newsletter for which you wish to announce the following to either an entire list or a segment. 

• one-off tentpole promotions
• a one-off ad
• a one-off email within a sales pipeline aka deal stage
• DIY instructions for a product
• case studies related to a particular product or segment
• contest results announcement
• early-bird coupon for an upcoming sale
• (more newsletter content ideas)

The uses can even involve any stage of the sales funnel. As illustrated below (in the 'to create a regular MailChimp campaign' section), MailChimp provides campaign types that include.

• emails
• ad
• landing pages
• post cards
• signup forms

Also see how using Twitter hashtags (#) can extend your reach beyond only those people whose email addresses you have. 

Furthermore, MailChimp gives the option to either send email campaigns immediately or to schedule campaigns for a time in the future. This is ideal for many of the aforementioned applications (like tentpole marketing).

To Create a Regular MailChimp Campaign

Fortunately, once you find the correct page, MailChimp makes the process of creating a campaign a checklist (pictured below in this section). To find the correct page, use the following steps.

• Log in. You will arrive on the 'Dashboard' where you will see the main top menu with options like 'Campaigns', 'Lists' and so on. 
• Click 'Campaigns'. When you have campaigns already, they will appear here. Either way, there will be a 'Create Campaign' button in the top right portion of the screen
• Create Campaign
• Select the type of campaign you wish to create. Campaign types include emails, ads, landing pages, post cards and signup forms.
  
   
• Ensure that, by default, the 'regular' type of campaign is selected (as pictured immediately below). 
  
• Enter the campaign name. NB, this name will not shown to your campaign recipients. Ideally, include descriptive details like the following.
• Product Name - Pipeline stage # - List name - Segment - Campaign type (ex email)
• Proceed through each step within the checklist.

  

  Checklist for Making a MailChimp Email Campaign

• Noteworthy considerations
• Select a target-appropriate template. When doing the 'Content' step, you will be given the option of using a template. Consider your target and your objectives. So if you want to be seen as having great customer service, consider the simplest possible template 'simple text' that appears as manually typed and human as possible. When was the last time your close friend sent you a header with perfectly aligned images to say 'hello'? Conversely, broadcast emails may be considered differently. 
• Wherever possible, personalize emails. For instance, incorporate merge tags from each subscriber's account into the subject line and body of the email.  

MailChimp allows automatic email personalization features. When creating lists, you will have had the opportunity to create various fields (email, first name, last name and so on). Each field will be given a code. In this case, the code name for first name is 'fname'. Consequently, if the recipient's first name is 'Tom', he will see 'Hi Tom, ... ' when he opens this email.

Email Campaign Reports

Mailchimp's campaign reports analyze clicks (of links within your email), click maps, opens, subscribers' social activity, e-commerce data, and more.

• Campaigns (from the top level menu). You will see your current list of campaigns
• Hover your mouse over your campaign of interest. This will reveal an option 'View report'
• View report

To Resend a Regular MailChimp Campaign
Since regular email campaigns are a one-off affair, they can not be reused once sent. However, as pictured immediately below, you can replicate them so that you can recycle them.

RELATED CONTENT

• How to Create a MailChimp Mailing List
• Before creating a MailChimp mailing campaign, use this Autoresponder Email Sequence template to create a campaign plan
• Landing page wisdom

Integrate Email into HubSpot CRM

Every email sent or received by any registered sales team member can be automatically logged in the HubSpot CRM.

To log incoming messages in the CRM

If a lead sends an email requesting information to one of your email addresses that is not already automatically linked to your CRM, you can log that email by forwarding it to your HubSpot CRM account. To forward this email, you must use a HubSpot account-specific CRM 'forwarding address' which is essentially a special email address. Within a few seconds, a newly logged message will occur as follows. 1) If the contact is new, a new contact account will be created within your CRM. You will be able to verify this in the 'Contacts' list. Otherwise, for pre-existing accounts, the email will be logged as a new event against the preexisting contact. 2) The email will appear on the 'activity' timeline of the contact's account. In fact, anyone with access to the CRM account can click an 'expand' link to read the entire email directly within the CRM.

You may ask sales team members who are not yet linked to your CRM ac to forward emails this way.

To register a team member.

Emails will be logged only if a team member is registered beforehand. In order to ensure their emails are automatically logged into the CRM, set them up as users in your HubSpot account. Rest assured that you may customize their permissions.

• In your HubSpot account, click the settings icon in the main navigation bar.
• Click 'Users & Teams' in the left sidebar menu. 
• Click 'Create user'. 
• Enter your team member's email address.
• Select the type of access you wish to grant the new user

To find the CRM forwarding address, make the following selections

• Settings (in the top menu)
  
• Sales
• Log emails in CRM
• Copy the forwarding CRM address. The ending is always as highlighted here. Your unique account number will appear as the prefix, like a 7-digit number. 1234567@forward.hubspot.com
• Without yet sending, create a forward email from the lead's original email. Paste the forwarding CRM address into the 'to' field and then send.
• To check the email was logged, select the following. 'Contacts'; click the name of the contact within the list; if not yet activated, click the 'activity' tab. Scroll through the activities. The email should appear at the time you (not the lead) sent it.

To log outgoing emails in the CRM (if you are sending from your email server's platform, like Gmail)

There are 2 options; 1) you can automate the process by sending leads emails directly from within CRM. However, you will need to link your email account (like gmail, Office 360 or other IMAP) account with the HubSpot. 2) Without linking the sending email account with HubSpot, you can send the email as normal but also include a BCC to the CRM account. NB, the BCC must be sent at the moment you are sending an email to your customer (and not after the fact). The contact record that is created is the one in the 'to' field of your email.

To find the CRM BCC address

• Settings (in the top menu)
• Sales
• Log emails in CRM

To log outgoing emails in the CRM (if you want to send messages directly from within HubSpot)

To be able to send emails through your HubSpot CRM, you must connect your email inbox. This will also allow your HubSpot CRM to automatically log and assign all your incoming and outcoming emails against the appropriate contact account within the CRM. Let us assume that the account is in Gmail. Do not worry about emails appearing in only one of the platforms (Google or HubSpot) because when you send an email in either of the platforms, the email will appear in both.

Make the following selections

• Settings (in the top menu)
• Integrations
• Email integrations
• Connect an inbox
• Select 'Google' (and follow the instructions)
• Complete the integration steps
• Start to compose an email. If the integration occurred correctly, you will see some new options appear within the email template. For instance, below the subject line, you will see a check box to 'log' and 'track' the email.

CONTENT RELATED TO INTEGRATING EMAIL INTO HUBSPOT CRM

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) 101
• MailChimp basics
• Broadcast email marketing
• Autoresponse email marketing
• Integrating Tawk.to messages into HubSpot CRM

MailChimp VS GetResponse: Your Business Type

MailChimp and GetResponse are both email marketing and automation platforms with attractive offers for many businesses. This post is a quick glance at which may be best for your business based only on your size, rate of growth in number of subscribers and even financial performance.

• GetResponse is likely to be a better choice for businesses that are larger, has a faster growth in the number of email subscribers and already generates a profit to pay when your business exceeds the limits of the free version.
• MailChimp is likely to be better for your business if it is smaller, has a slower rate of growth in the number of email subscribers and may be unable to justify the cost if your business exceeds the limits of the free version.

The two reasons for this choice are as follows.

1. The service is free until

• GetResponse: 1,000 subscribers
• MailChimp: 2,000 subscribers 

2. Lowest available monthly paid plan after the free version

• GetResponse: USD 15 monthly, ie after a limited trial period of 30 days
• MailChimp: USD 10 monthly, ie after exceeding the 500-subscriber limit within the free-forever free version below

CONTENT RELATED TO CHOOSING BETWEEN MAILCHIMP AND GETRESPONSE EMAIL MARKETING PLATFORMS

• MailChimp Basics - An Introduction

MailChimp Basics: Email Marketing Tool

MailChimp is an email service provider  ESP. It is a very useful marketing tool in light of the continued strategic value of email marketing. Since MailChimp offers many packages, including a free one, it is attractive to a wide range of businesses. This post serves as a quick overview of MailChimp for the complete beginner. 

Immediately below is an image of the MailChimp top menu functions. It is always best to start with 'lists'. However, below is a quick rundown of some MailChimp functions.

• Lists (ie mailing lists). Start by creating a list. A list is simply a collection of recipients to whom you may broadcast correspondence. Members of a list have the same data fields. For instance, a school may place teachers and students into 2 separate lists. After all, the 2 groups are likely to have different data fields. Students may have fields for student grades, form teacher and so on which are unsuitable for teachers. In this example, it would therefore be best to have 2 separate lists for each group. However, you may create a segment within a list like 'final year students', 'junior year students' and so on. 
• Create lists. In addition to the segments options (mentioned below), you may also create segments within lists by creating and adding 'tags' to the relevant contact. Another alternative involves creating filters based on field values. 
• Add subscribers through manual entry or automatic entry (from other email collection apps)
• Integration with email collection apps (like Welcome Screen)
• Create segments. 
• Create signup forms (embedded, pop-ups and so on). You can create multiple types of form for a single mailing list. 

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• Email campaigns. This involves one-off emails with content related to anything like a newsletter (to announce one-off tentpole promotions, DIY instructions for a product, case studies related to a particular product or segment, contest results announcement, early-bird coupon for an upcoming sale and so on). See more newsletter content ideas. Also see how using Twitter hashtags (#) can extend your reach beyond only those people whose email addresses you have.
  

  

  Basic MailChimp Email Campaign. In addition to sending the campaign right away, you may schedule the campaign, a feature that is great for tentpoling and other time-sensitive events.
• Automation email marketing. This is a more complex type of campaign. It involves a timed sequence of emails that may be triggered when the lead completes an action like submitting a form, abandoning a shopping cart and so on. 

Your ideal starting point is to create a mailing list. Let's say that you have created and entered into a list (named 'Veg Gardening List'), the image below displays the dashboard for that list.

Once you have a list, start with 'General forms' to create a new subscription signup form for the 'Veg Gardening List'. This option allows you to enter all of the possible fields for which you wish to collect information, even if some fields are initially hidden during the initial signup. NB Most lists ask for nothing more than the email address and, in some cases, the first name. Subscribers will be automatically prompted to complete the other fields. If you subsequently choose other options like 'embedded', 'popup', etc, they will still relate to the same 'veg gardening list' with the full list of fields that relate to the list with the default setting the same regarding which fields will appear and which hidden.  

When you click on 'General forms', the following 'create forms' will appear. Start with just the basic 'subscribe' form pictured below in the drop down menu  of what may seem an intimidating set of list options. However, in reality, all those many options appearing below 'subscribe' are actually part of an automatically generated sequence of emails. They enable the subscription process. You can actually ignore them since the default templates are acceptable in most cases. However, when you have extra time, click on each to customize the wording of each email and element of the sequence.
  

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RELATED CONTENT TO USING MAILCHIMP FOR EMAIL MARKETING

• How to Create a MailChimp Mailing List
• Before creating a MailChimp campaign, use this Autoresponder Email Sequence template to create a campaign plan
• See how to use Twitter hashtags to extend market reach beyond those interested people whose email addresses you have.
• MailChimp VS GetResponse. Which should you choose? Your business type may determine the answer.

Broadcast Email Marketing: Amazon's 12 Days of Christmas Deals

This post illustrates how Amazon uses Christmas-themed pre-buzz tent poling to broadcast emails over 12 consecutive days of deals from December 4th to 15th in 2016. On Dec 2, Amazon announced its upcoming 12 days of deals to its associates under the Amazon affiliate program. They use the catchy email tagline 'Get inspired for holiday gift ideas during Amazon's 12 Days of Deals even'.

Inside that email, they allow associates to see the full list of product types and corresponding sale date. This allows Amazon associates to plan their own sales according to their product interests.

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As promised, on the 2nd day after the initial announcement, the broadcast email sequence begins; delivering daily early-morning emails into inboxes of associates. This continues for duration of the 12-day event. The tagline change according to the deals of the day.

Each daily broadcast email offers 1) a list of the day's deals and even 2) the theme of the upcoming 3 days. Below is an example from day 5 on December 8.  

 

When Amazon associates click the landing page link (provided in the email), this is what they see. As highlighted below, Amazon applied the technique of urgency / scarcity by placing a countdown next to each reduced price.

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Anyone clicking on the 'All 12 Days' button (as seen on the top of the landing page) sees the following on day 5. The landing pages for the previous days are not live links.

RELATED CONTENT

• AutoResponse Email Marketing (How to plan an email sequence from start to finish)
• Tent pole Marketing
• Google Product Listing Ads / PLAs
• Craigslist advertising

Webinar Sales Funnel

Previously, we discussed sales funnels and autoresponder email marketing. This post focuses on Webinar Sales Funnels.

Uses & Benefits

• Webinar sales funnels are ideal for inactive leads that have gone through your primary product funnel (via autoresponder email marketing) without converting into customers
• To add 2-way live interaction along with value that directly relates to the main product --
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• To promote the main product, often with a discount for attendees
• To capture additional revenue (that could not be captured in earlier sales funnels) because it is effective in closing sales. 
• To be part of your Retention Marketing strategy aka the hour glass sales funnel. This is a matter of not leaving money on the table.
• To position your company as an expert, expert positioning  

Email 1 - Promote the webinar

• At the end of your usual email sequence, use email (along with other inactive leads via Facebook) to invite inactive leads to sign up for the webinar. Send within roughly 5 days before the webinar
• Explain the benefits which often include the following
• special offer on the main product, usually with a discount, only for attendees (to generate the sense of scarcity)
• Ask any question in live interaction with an expert
• Link to a webinar registration page. Install a Facebook pixel on the registration page to follow non-registrants around Facebook to continue marketing
• Remove emails of people who sign up from the webinar email sequence

Email 2 - Promote the webinar, Reminder

• Remind people of the webinar
• Send within roughly 2 to 3 days before the webinar (or whenever makes most sense for your particular niche)
• Install a Facebook pixel on the registration

Email 3 - Promote the webinar Reminder

• Remind people of the webinar
• Send within roughly 1 before the webinar.(or whenever makes most sense for your particular niche)

Email 4 - Final Reminders / Last Chance

• Send final reminder only a few hours in advance
• Log in instructions
• Send to attendees (to remind them of the logistics) and the unconverted to take advantage of the limited time to grab a spot

Email 5 - Segmentation (attendees, non-attendees, attendees of part of the webinar)

Some webinar platforms allow you to track attendees, non-attendees and people who attended only part of the webinar from among people who signed up and essentially splits the group into segments to be targeted differently.

• Attendees:
• Email within 1 to 2 hours after the event 
• Thanks for attendance, hope you got value from the webinar
• The [primary webinar funnel] offer is still open to until __ (roughly 4 days after. Provide date and time for urgency and scarcity)
• Non-Attendees
• Email within 1 to 2 hours after the event
• Link to review the webinar
• What happened? (Use the response as a learning point to attract more attendees in the future)

• Attendees of only part (below 50%, roughly) of the webinar
• Email within 1 to 2 hours after the event
• We noticed that you left us early.
• What happened? (Use responses as a learning point to attract more attendees in the future)
• Link to review the webinar

• Attendees of only part (roughly over 50%) of the webinar
• Email within 1 to 2 hours after the event
• We notice that you left us before we ended. What happened? (Use responses as a learning point to attract more attendees in the future)
• We have included something we think you would appreciate at your leisure. Link to a video that deals with only the content that this segment did not see

Email 6 & Beyond - Post Webinar

The following applies to people who still have not bought

• Non-Attendees and part attendees
• Daily emails until the end of the special offer
• Email 1: Benefits (preferably in video format)
• Email 2: Benefits (preferably in video format)
• etc ...

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RELATED CONTENT

• Sales Funnel: An Introduction 
• Autoresponse Email Sequence Marketing: From Start to Finish
• Hour Glass Sales Funnel for Retention Marketing. Do not leave money on the table.