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Building a brand with Mailchimp

What we’ll explore today:
- MailChimp’s background
- Our marketing evolution
- How we craft and use email
- Brands that are email rockstars
- Free tools of the trade

MailChimp
- RSG clients requested email marketing
- MailChimp built as an app they could use
- Originally designed for programmers
- Users bought credits, paid with checks
- Upload a list of recipients, paste in HTML
- Bon voyage!

Tough Decisions
What is the future of the Rocket Science Group?
Web design/consulting or MailChimp?

A Dedicated App
- MailChimp team gets focused
- Bring in devs and UI designer
- Focus on single core product
- Build easy, powerful app folks want to use

Blossoming Brand
- Originally wanted to remove the
monkey
- Freddie gets a makeover
- Introduce Freemium Plan: 500 → 3,000

Swag Strategy
- Think of swag as a gift rather than a
promo
- By giving users quality swag, we could
convey the quality of the app
- Give folks things they’ll want and be
delighted in vs “here’s some stuff”
- Reward users for engaging and ask them
for
help to improve the app...

APIE Awards:
Awesome Performance In Email

Traditional Marketing
- Begin to sponsor events
- Focused on design and content events
- Don’t push MailChimp on people
- Built trust with attendees
- Still maintain philosophy and will be silent
sponsors to help be supportive of events

Billboards
Designed for existing users. Winking Freddie for folks that know him.

MailChimp’s Emails
“The only way to figure out what works for your list is to keep testing.”
-Bradley Gula
- Simple and clear doesn’t have to come at the
expense
of comprehensive content
- Always experiment with content, design, language,
and
images→ use images from website for consistency
- Switch up the creation process with voice & tone
- DoSomething’s 20 subject lines per email
- Use click map in reporting to see where folks
respond
- Success judged in different ways
- If new feature, maybe look at opens?
- If specific segment, maybe clicks best?
- What’s driving the engagement or

MailChimp’s Email Philosophy
“I think the overriding philosophy I follow is to ‘be
human.’ With each email, we’re asking people to
commit to a measure of their time, and we try to be
respectful of that.”
- Fabio Carneiro, MailChimp Email Designer

Design Within Constraints
- Know what you can and cannot do within email and
various email clients
- Design for the lowest common denominator
- Experiment to learn how each email client handles
emails
- Create email accounts with Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail,
and
Outlook
- Create test list with them, send throwaway
campaigns to test new features
- Think outside the box: videos → gifs

Design For Distraction
- Emails are designed to be easily used and usable
regardless of the email client
- Should NOT have a disruptive impact on a
subscriber’s
workflow or life
- Keep it short and sweet
- Use links to drive traffic to your site for more info
- List metrics help you know which clients people use
- Desktop vs Mobile?

Design With A Purpose
- Can’t please all your subscribers with a massive,
all-inclusive, generic email
- Segment your audience and build emails
accordingly
- Know who you’re sending to and why you’re sending
- Relevant content lets your subscribers know you
care
- Spotify music recommendation emails
- Irrelevant content is a huge turn off for subscribers
- Think iOS vs Android app updates
- Concert ticket emails

Really Good Email
- Use your inbox as a research tool
- “I pay attention to how the emails are designed and
built, and what sort of content each message
carries.” - Fabio
- Sign up for lists of companies, people, or brands you
admire
- Look at what works well for some but poorly for
others
- What reactions do you have as the reader of an
email?
- “What works for one customer might be
disastrous for another. The only way to figure
out
what works for your list is to keep testing.” - Brad

Cards Against Humanity
“CAH is at it’s strongest when we can point to hypocrisies and absurdities in the
culture around us, while also obviously being apart of that culture.”
- Max Temkin, Founder
- Extend brand’s humor into emails, rewarding
subscribers with email only content
- Philosophy: only send when you have something to
say
- 15 sent within 3 years, 75% open rate
- “If your job is to write emails, you should always be
fighting to send fewer things and make sure each email
you send is so incredible that it’s a rare treat to hear
from you.” - Max

CAH’s Black Friday Sale
- Never believed in
cutting
the price of the game
- How do you separate
yourself from other
emails?
- Poke fun at Black
Friday
- Language within
image
- Campaign went viral
for
being so ridiculous
- Increased seasonal
“Your entire life changes,
starting today.”

Robocat
- Only send a few times a year
- Want to reward folks for their time and
subscription
- “When we send a message to someone, we are
essentially asking them for a bit of their time, a bit of
their privacy. It’s important that our readers are
rewarded for that investment.” - Robocat
- Used negative appstore review to launch
their most successful Kickstarter campaign
to date: $35,000 Goal with $336,018 Pledged

ElevationLab
- Design Apple
iPhone docks and
iMac stands
- Send sparingly,
test frequently
-
- Design Apple iPhone
docks and iMac stands
- Use imagery to
display
quality and design of
their products
- Send sparingly, test
frequently
- Several iterations of
each email to whittle
down content

Always Be Experimenting
“There’s a lot of room for experimentation in the
development, design, and content arenas, and that’s my
advice to anyone starting out:
always experiment.
Develop the emails using different techniques, be open to
departure from your established design language, and play
with the voice and tone of your emails.”
-Fabio Carneiro, MailChimp Email Designer

Reduce Irrelevance:
Send Relevant, Concise Content
“But, in general, if we have to think too hard
about if something should be included, it’ll
probably fit better in a future email to a better
audience.”
-Bradley Gula, MailChimp’s Email Dude

Be Human
“I think the overriding philosophy I follow is to ‘be human.’
With each email, we’re asking people to commit to a
measure of their time, and we try to be respectful of that.”
- Fabio Carneiro, MailChimp Email Designer
“Email marketing is your chance to connect with your
customers in a human way. Be human!”
- Ben Chestnut, MailChimp CEO

Resources
Email Design
www.reallygoodemail.com
inspiration.mailchimp.com
Website Design
wix.com/sample/website
Additional Help
arena.wix.com
experts.mailchimp.com
Free Tools
www.wix.com
www.mailchimp.com
www.canva.com
www.pixlr.com
www.image-maps.com

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Building a brand with Mailchimp

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