We here at MailChimp really love to make life easier for our customers. Helping you manage your lists is something we're really passionate about. We know you don't want to be labeled an "evil spammer" or send anything out to people who don't want your emails so we do what we can to help you keep your lists clean and your content relevant to the recipients on your list.

  1. If you're coming over from another system, you might be used to a different type of database than we use. With MailChimp you can setup as many lists as you need (instead of having one General list), but if you're not an agency or if you're just looking to do some targeted marketing with segmenting, you may not need that many separate lists. It's almost always best to keep one list and use Groups and segmenting as much as possible. That link will help you decide if that's the case for you.
  2. This leads us to deleting lists...try not to get into the habit of deleting and uploading the same list of subscribers over and over when you just want to update some information. Because all lists in MailChimp are independent of each other and share no information, there is no overall account suppression list. When you delete a list the entire list history is lost (including unsubscribes, abuse complaints and bounces) and people who already asked to be removed can be added back to your list. Our automated review process can note frequent deletes and abuse complaints based on deletes and we unfortunately sometimes have to suspend the account. Again using multiple lists is better, for example, if you have multiple clients you're working for in the same account, otherwise stick with targeting using Groups.
  3. Your list database will store up to 30 fields (like email, first name, last name, company, title, etc.) plus a "Groups" field for further segmenting based on your recipient's interests. Groups fields can have up to 60 different subcategories, or responses. You can also use the list segmentation feature to send campaigns to small parts of your list. These segments would not be permanent, but are an easy way to target a particular group.
  4. We handle all the processing for you. We automatically remove unsubscribes and abuse complaints so people don't accidentally get emails they don't want, and we clean bounces after each campaign. Hard bounces will be removed immediately while soft bounces will get a few tries before they are removed. We also store all this data in your list area so you can see who is leaving your list.
  5. We also generate the necessary unsubscribe link that we will automatically place in your emails (this is required, after all).
  6. Even if you don't know HTML, you can customize your forms the way you want (like the "opt-in form," the "thank you pages" and the "welcome emails."). We'll provide you with the tools to design the whole signup form and process. If you're a designer you can match your forms to your branding (and we'll show you how to get the code or host it for you - either way you need it!). If you don't want to worry with the look and feel you can use our lovely and simple "embed code" form to link to our subscribe form from your website.
  7. Heck, if you're into it you can even host your own forms on your website, and have them link to MailChimp for a "seamless experience". If you want a truly seamless experience, you can link your own database to ours, using our Subscriber API.
  8. We use the "double opt-in" method for all our provided forms to minimize worthless signups to your list and to help you comply with anti-spam laws. While we can't force double opt-in for forms you develop outside of MailChimp all of MailChimp's forms are without exception double opt-in.
  9. You can download your active lists, unsubscribes, and bounced emails in Microsoft Excel format at any time.
  10. If you DO know HTML you can use our advanced mode to customize the forms any way you want. (Note because we can't allow access to certain parts of the code some of the forms are not fully accessible in the advanced mode.)
  11. Your recipients can update their profile when you add the *|UPDATE_PROFILE|* tag to your campaigns.

Happy Emailing!

Related Articles