Quick answer: A Mailchimp automation is a set of emails that send automatically when someone does something, such as joining your audience, getting a tag, buying a product or reaching a date. To set up your first one, pick a single goal (a welcome series is the best place to start), choose the trigger, write two to four emails, set the delay between them, test with your own address, and start sending. Then check opens, clicks and conversions after a few weeks and improve the weakest email.
What Mailchimp automation does
Most businesses use Mailchimp for one off campaigns: a newsletter, a promotion, an announcement. Automations are different. You build them once and they run in the background for every new person who meets the trigger.
Common uses include:
- Welcoming new subscribers and introducing your business
- Following up after a first purchase
- Reminding shoppers about items left in their cart
- Sending birthday or anniversary messages
- Sharing new blog posts automatically from your RSS feed
- Onboarding new customers to a product or service
Because they reach people at a relevant moment, automated emails usually get more attention than general newsletters. Our article on email autoresponders covers the general idea, and drip campaigns explains longer sequences.
Before you build: plan on paper
Spend ten minutes planning before opening Mailchimp. Answer these questions:
- Who is this for? For example, people who sign up for the newsletter on the website.
- What starts it? Joining the audience, a tag being added, a purchase, a date.
- What should they do by the end? Book a call, make a first purchase, read key guides, reply.
- How many emails, and how far apart? Two to four emails over one to two weeks is plenty for a first workflow.
- When should someone stop getting it? For example, once they buy.
Write a one line purpose for each email. If you cannot, that email probably is not needed.
Step 1: make sure your audience is set up properly
Your audience is the list of contacts in Mailchimp. Before automating, check:
- Your signup form collects what you need, such as first name, without asking for too much
- Double opt in is set the way you want. It reduces fake signups but adds a step.
- You have tags or groups for the main ways people join, such as “Website signup” or “Event attendee”
- Your physical address and sender details are correct, as they appear in every email
If you collect leads somewhere else, such as a website form or CRM, connect it so new contacts arrive in Mailchimp automatically. Our guide to Mailchimp API integration explains the options.
Step 2: choose the automation type
In Mailchimp, go to Create, choose Email, then the Automated tab. You will see ready made options grouped by goal. For a first workflow, choose Welcome new subscribers.
Other common starting points:
- Tags: start the automation when a specific tag is added to a contact. Useful when your CRM or form tool applies tags.
- Date based: send on a birthday or a date stored in a contact field.
- Abandoned cart and product follow up: need a connected online store.
- Share blog updates: send new posts from an RSS feed on a schedule.
Name the automation clearly, choose the audience and continue.
Step 3: set the trigger
The trigger decides who enters the workflow and when. For a welcome series, the trigger is usually “subscribes to audience”. Check the settings:
- Whether contacts imported in bulk should trigger it. Usually not, as you do not want to send a welcome to people who joined years ago.
- Whether it should apply to everyone or only a segment, such as people who joined through a specific form
For the first email, a delay of “immediately” or one hour works well. People expect a welcome straight after signing up.
Step 4: write the emails
A simple three email welcome series:
Email 1, sent immediately: welcome and deliver what you promised. Thank them, deliver any lead magnet or discount you offered, and say what kind of emails to expect and how often.
Email 2, sent after two or three days: show what you do best. Share your most useful guide, a short explanation of your main service, or your best selling product. One clear link.
Email 3, sent after five to seven days: invite the next step. Ask them to book a call, make a first purchase, reply with a question or follow you elsewhere. Keep it short.
Tips for writing:
- Write like a person, not a brochure. Plain text style emails often do well.
- Use one main call to action per email
- Keep subject lines clear and specific
- Use the first name merge tag only if most contacts have a first name, and set a default
Step 5: set delays and send times
For each email after the first, set the delay, for example “2 days after the previous email”. You can also limit sending to certain days of the week and set a time of day. For business audiences, weekday mornings in the recipient’s time zone are a sensible default.
Step 6: add conditions where needed
You can add segment conditions to individual emails. For example, skip the “make your first purchase” email for anyone who has already bought, or send a different email to contacts in a particular group.
Keep the first workflow simple. Add conditions once you know the basic version works.
Step 7: test before starting
- Send test emails to yourself and a colleague
- Check on a phone as well as a desktop
- Click every link
- Check the merge tags show correctly, including the fallback
- Subscribe through your real signup form with a fresh email address and confirm the first email arrives
When you are happy, start the automation. Mailchimp will begin sending to new subscribers who match the trigger.
Step 8: measure and improve
After a few weeks, look at each email’s report:
- Open rate: if one email is much lower than the others, test a new subject line
- Click rate: if people open but do not click, the content or link needs work
- Unsubscribes: a spike on one email suggests it is too pushy or not what people expected
- Conversions: link Mailchimp to your store or track goals in Google Analytics using UTM tags, so you can see which emails lead to sales or enquiries
Change one thing at a time. Pause the automation before editing an email, then resume it.
Tags, groups and segments: a quick explanation
- Tags are labels you or your tools add to contacts, such as “Customer” or “Webinar 2019”. They are internal and contacts do not see them.
- Groups are categories contacts choose themselves on a signup form, such as interests.
- Segments are saved filters that combine conditions, such as “tagged Customer and opened in the last 90 days”.
Automations use all three to decide who gets what. Our article on email segmentation covers how to plan them.
Common mistakes
- Sending a welcome series to an old imported list
- Building ten emails before checking whether three work
- Forgetting to stop sales emails after someone has bought
- Using a no reply sender address so people cannot respond
- Never checking the automation again after launch
Some automation types and features depend on your Mailchimp plan, so check what your account includes before planning a complex workflow.
FAQ
Can I add existing subscribers to an automation?
Yes. Many automations let you include existing contacts when starting, or you can add a tag to a segment of contacts to trigger a tag based workflow. Be careful not to send a “welcome” to long time subscribers.
How many emails should a welcome series have?
Three is a good starting point. Add more only if each one has a clear purpose and the first three perform well.
Will automations send to people who unsubscribe?
No. Unsubscribed contacts stop receiving all emails, including automations.
Can Mailchimp automations connect to my CRM?
Yes, through built in integrations, tools such as Zapier, or the Mailchimp API. That lets actions in your CRM add tags that start workflows.
Let email do the repetitive work
A single well planned Mailchimp automation can welcome every new subscriber, follow up with every new customer and never forget. Start with one workflow, measure it and build from there. If you want help connecting your forms, CRM and email so this runs on its own, see our Automate the busywork service.
