Category: marketing

marketing, newsletter

The one where I share what I learned about tags and journeys for newsletter subscribers on Mailchimp…

Elodie

…Yes, I know it’s a long title. 🙂

Long story short…

This is what I learned:

  • In Mailchimp, you can assign tags to new subscribers who subscribe from a landing page. The advantage? You know exactly where subscribers signed up from and you can tailor some of the emails based on that tag. In addition, you can then keep only one list with different automations.
  • You can then create a “journey” for them based on that tag.
  • At the end of the journey (since I have an essentials plan and not a standard plan), I add an additional tag to those subscribers.
  • They then start on the “regular” journey I have created for people who sign up through my website.
  • Let’s say, reader A finished reading FEAR ME, FEAR ME NOT and would like to read a bonus scene, he/she/they click on the link at the end of the ebook, subscribe(s) through the landing page (example here of said landing page) and then get(s) assigned the tag “FMFMN Bonus scene”.
  • Reader A then receives:
  1. The exclusive bonus epilogue.
  2. Then, an hour later, an other tag is added to Reader A through the “journey” called “Welcome emails”. Reader A then starts the “Welcome Emails” journey.
  3. Reader A receives about one to two hours later a Welcome Email with a password to access more bonus content.
  4. A week later, reader A receives another email with more info on the newsletter, info about free books, audiobook promo codes and pictures of Plato The Dog and Bobbie Voltaire The Cat.
  5. So reader A receives a total of 3 emails within a week.

Here you can read much more about tags, journey, landing pages:

Long story long:

Authors are usually told that newsletters are very important because, unlike social media, one keeps the contact info of people who subscribe and is not subjected to the whim of the ever-changing algorithm of social media.

What does this mean? It means that you can reach people without relying on them using social media. You also can reach people without boosting your posts, because you land directly in their mailbox. When algorithms change on Facebook or Instagram, it can affect how often your audience sees your posts…and then your audience may leave social media, but might keep their email address.

It doesn’t mean that it’s free. Hosting a newsletter can get costly, depending on which provider you decide to use.

The ones I hear most about are Mailerlite and Mailchimp. I personally still use Mailchimp. But it’s mainly for convenience, and I still have a plan from years ago with them, and I haven’t reached the number of subscribers that would make Mailchimp very expensive.

Because it can get expensive. Did I mention that?

If you’re interested in the different platform and their pros/cons, here are a few articles.

I used to have different mailing lists, depending on where I was getting my susbcribers. This made sending newsletters a bit cumbersome, and then I had some duplicate subscribers. So, I’ve been consolidating my newsletters into one. And that’s when I started looking more closely at tags, and journey, and automation, and …. and …. and…

I chatted with Mailchimp employees several times to understand fully what the best solution for my needs was and decided on creating different landing pages, depending on where subscribers signed up. That way, I can attach a tag to said subscribers and they can have personalized “welcome” emails.

I’m still working on some landing pages but here are two of them if you’re interested in taking a look:

FEAR ME, FEAR ME NOT exclusive epilogue (link is at the end of FEAR ME, FEAR ME NOT encouraging readers to leave a review, but they don’t have to leave a review to receive the epilogue…): https://mailchi.mp/elodienowodazkij/fearmefearmenot

Website subscribers landing page: https://mailchi.mp/elodienowodazkij/website

  1. Website subscribers receive a password to a bonus content page which has all the bonus content as their first welcome email.
  2. FEAR ME, FEAR ME NOT subscribers first receive the exclusive FMFMN epilogue and then another tag is added to their profile and they go on the same “journey” as website subscribers. Their second email is the password to the bonus content page.
  3. The last email both sets of subscribers receive as part of their “welcome journey” is more info about the newsletter, as well as pictures of Plato The Dog and Bobbie Voltaire The Cat, and info about free books and audiobook promo codes.
  4. FEAR ME, FEAR ME NOT subscribers receive three emails within a week. Website subscribers receive two emails within a week.

And this is it, today, for “The one where I share what I learned about tags and journeys for newsletter subscribers on Mailchimp…”

Don’t forget that if you’d like to receive my blog posts directly into your mailbox, you can sign up here (I blog more often than I send newsletters).

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