Our Take
The bottom line:
Mailchimp’s marketing platform is one of our top picks for businesses that want help with marketing efforts related to email, social media, digital ads, content and direct mail. It has a variety of plan options designed for the needs of both small and large businesses.
Mailchimp Marketing Platform
Starting at
$0 Additional plans starting at $13, $20 and $350 (per month).
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Free plan with limited features for up to 500 contacts.
- Switch plans or cancel any time.
- Assisted onboarding (paid plans).
- A/B testing for emails.
- Customer journey email builder.
- Social posting tools in all plans, including free.
- 24/7 email and chat support (paid plans).
Cons
- Text marketing requires external integration.
- Account can be canceled at any time, but no reimbursement or refund.
Full Review
Mailchimp offers a comprehensive marketing platform to assist businesses in implementing their marketing strategy through email marketing, digital ads, social media engagement and content marketing. Mailchimp also has tools that can help you build a website and launch an online store. Originating in 2001, Mailchimp is currently owned by Intuit, which offers other business software products including TurboTax and QuickBooks.
In this Mailchimp review, we’ll focus on its marketing features. Mailchimp offers a variety of plan options suited to small-business owners who may have a limited marketing budget or who are venturing into marketing automation for the first time. Users can choose from a free plan, three paid plans billed monthly, plus a pay-as-you-go plan. Higher-tier plans include additional features and functionality.
Deciding factors | |
|---|---|
Plans and price |
|
Email marketing | Customizable email templates, drag-and-drop features as well as A/B testing of subject lines, content and design. Pre-built customer journeys and personalization available at Standard and Premium plan levels. |
Content creation | Customizable landing pages and forms. Content recommendations at Standard and Premium plan levels. |
Text marketing | Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) tools through integrations with SimpleTexting (starting at $29/month) or EZ Texting (starting at $25/month). |
Social media posts | Create, publish and manage posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at all plan levels. Scheduling option available with Standard and Premium plans. |
Digital ads | Facebook and Instagram ads with all plans; ad retargeting for Google, Facebook and Instagram with Standard and Premium plans. |
CRM features | Pop-up and sign-up forms to collect contact info, along with customer relationship management tools. Contact profiles and basic segmentation available with all plans. Advanced segmentation options with Standard and higher plans. |
Reports and analytics | Basic reporting to track performance with Free and Essential plans. Custom reports and audience dashboards included at higher plan levels. |
Integrations | Over 300 app integrations. |
Live support | 24/7 email and chat support for paid plans. Phone support for Premium plan. Additional resources such as guides, videos and webinars available through a help center. |
Mailchimp pricing
Mailchimp offers three monthly paid options:
- Essentials: Starts at $13/month for up to 500 contacts.
- Standard: Starts at $20/month for up to 500 contacts.
- Premium: Starts at $350/month for up to 10,000 contacts.
The Essentials and Standard plans’ initial base price includes up to 500 contacts. The more contacts your business has, the greater the monthly fee. The same is true of the Premium plan, except you start with 10,000 contacts. The Standard and Essential plans offer a free one-month trial.
You can also cancel or switch plans at any time, but the change won’t be effective until the end of the monthly billing period and you won’t receive a refund for that time period.
Mailchimp offers add-on features for an additional fee. These include advanced scheduling ($8 per month), custom domain names (fees vary) and transactional emails (available at Standard plan and up; fees vary).
Pay As You Go plan
As an alternative to a monthly base price, Mailchimp offers a Pay As You Go plan for businesses that send mailings infrequently, such as quarterly or at certain times of the year. Credits are good for 12 months, can’t be used with other plans and can be purchased in blocks ranging from 5,000 to 25 million. Each email sent to one contact costs one credit. To opt for this plan, you’ll first need to create a Mailchimp account and you’ll then be able to see Pay As You Go pricing based on your location.
The Pay As You Go plan has the same features as the Essential plan, such as email templates, A/B testing, automated customer journeys and basic reporting.
Free plan
Mailchimp has a free plan with some solid features, including pop-up forms, landing pages, basic email templates, and analytics and reporting. Automated tools such as a subject line helper and a creative assistant are also available to help you with content and designs. The free plan also allows you to create and publish to social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. However, if you want to market to more than 500 contacts or send out more than 1,000 emails a month, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.
How Mailchimp works
When you make a plan selection, you’ll be asked to create an account and agree to Mailchimp’s terms of use. The first month is free when you select the Essentials or Standard plan, though you will need to provide your payment information. You can cancel or switch your plan at any time, but you won’t be issued a refund.
Because the platform is web-based, it’s not necessary to download anything to your computer, and you can access your Mailchimp account from any device that’s connected to the internet. After you log in to your account, you’ll be walked through the steps to import your contacts, create sign-up forms for your website, develop an email campaign and view performance reports.
When you purchase a monthly paid plan, you’re also entitled to personalized onboarding. Essentials and Standard plans include one personalized consultation with a Mailchimp expert to help you set up automation and send your first email. Four weekly consultations are included with the Premium plan to provide detailed walkthroughs and personalized marketing plans.
Benefits
Strong email marketing features
True to its origins, Mailchimp software includes robust email marketing features, such as email templates, email scheduling, A/B testing, automated customer journeys and list segmentation in all its paid plans. Of note is Mailchimp's inclusion of A/B testing in its lowest-tier plan, something not every marketing software does. Having the ability to test variations of subject lines, email content, designs and even the time you send emails can allow a business to optimize their campaigns and improve their open rates.
» MORE: Best email marketing software
A variety of plan options
Mailchimp offers a variety of options to make marketing accessible to small businesses with limited budgets. The free plan, with up to 500 contacts and a total of 1,000 email sends a month, can allow a small business to engage its customers at least twice a month. The Essentials and Standard plans — starting at $13 and $20 a month, respectively — offer additional email features and larger monthly sends. And the Pay As You Go plan allows businesses to avoid a recurring monthly fee and only pay for email services when they are needed.
Postcard mailers
For businesses interested in direct mail efforts, Mailchimp offers the option to use postcard mailers starting at 75 cents per card — not a common feature in today's digital world. This is available at all plan levels, including the free plan. Mailchimp handles the printing, postage and mailing after you upload your design. Businesses can use postcards to announce events and sales or deliver promotional codes and thank-you messages. Also, Mailchimp's address finder tool can match email addresses to mailing addresses to help you reach additional contacts in your database.
Drawbacks
Slim on content creation features
While Mailchimp does have a Content Optimizer tool to suggest improvements for future email campaign content, some of its competitors offer even more robust creation tools for content marketing. For example, Constant Contact and HubSpot have artificial intelligence tools that can help create content for emails, social media marketing, blogs and text messages.
Additional cost for text messaging
If text messaging is part of your marketing strategy, it will cost you an additional monthly fee. Mailchimp doesn’t offer texting features directly through its platform but does integrate with two external products: SimpleTexting (starting at $29 per month) and EZ Texting (starting at $25 per month). The monthly cost of these products can increase based on the number of texts you send. Both texting products offer a free trial to allow you to explore their features.
» MORE: Best SMS marketing software
Alternatives to Mailchimp
Constant Contact
If you prefer to thoroughly test a product before committing to anything, Constant Contact offers you that opportunity. It has a similar marketing platform to Mailchimp and also a low starting price of $12 per month for 500 contacts. Its generous 60-day free trial lets you explore all the features offered by the platform, but you are limited to 100 email sends during this period. You can’t pause or cancel the trial once it begins, but you can send emails to a small list of people to get their feedback. Also, you’ll have access to your emails and campaigns after the trial ends. In addition to email features, Constant Contact offers social media tools, landing pages, forms, event management and surveys.
MailerLite
Another Mailchimp alternative for businesses that want to focus their efforts on email marketing is MailerLite. The free plan allows for up to 1,000 contacts and a sizable 12,000 monthly email sends. Paid plans start at $10 a month for up to 1,000 contacts with unlimited monthly email sends. Other features available with all MailerLite plans include website building, landing pages, pop-up forms, a drag-and-drop editor and a free image library.
» MORE: Best content marketing software
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