Getting Started with Campaigns

Mailchimp is an all-in-one marketing platform that helps you share emails, ads, and other messages with your audience. We call these messages "campaigns." When you create a campaign in Mailchimp, we give you lots of flexible settings and design options, as well as builder tools that walk you through every step of the process.

In this article, you'll learn the basics of campaigns in Mailchimp.

Things to know

Here are some things to know.

• Some features are included only with paid plans. Others, like email sends and landing pages, are available for all plans. To find out what features are included in each plan, check out our pricing page.
• If you don't have any subscribed contacts yet, create and share a signup form to build your audience.
• Connect an online store to sync products and customer data, and to tailor your campaigns to the right people. To learn more, read Sell More Stuff with Mailchimp.
• If you need help creating and designing a certain type of campaign, use our guides and tutorials.

Definitions

Campaign
Any distributed content, that's created and measured in Mailchimp, including regular emails, text messages, automations, landing pages, and ads.

Audience
A place for you to collect and manage your contacts in Mailchimp.

Contact
Someone whose email or mobile number is stored in your account. A contact's email marketing status determines what kind of content you can share with them. Statuses include subscribed, unsubscribed, non-subscribed, cleaned, and archived.

Choose a campaign type

We've got campaigns for all of your business goals. You'll find options to send an email to all of the subscribed contacts in your audience, target repeat customers, and more.

Here are the different types of campaigns you can create in Mailchimp.

Email campaigns

There are 4 types of email campaigns in Mailchimp.

• Regular
  This is the most common type of email. Design and customize your content, and choose whether to send immediately or schedule your email for later.

• Plain-text
  The simplest form of mass email you can send. These emails contain only text and have no formatting options.

• A/B or Multivariate testing
  Send more than one version of the same email and see which one comes out on top. Test subject lines, From names, content, and send times. Test up to eight different versions with a multivariate test, included with a Standard plan or higher.
• Automated
  Automated emails are triggered by a specific date, event, or a subscribed contact's activity. Use Automation Flow emails to add tags, send targeted emails, and accomplish other important tasks for you. Create an automation flow custom from scratch, or use one of our many flow template emails.

Best Practices for Mailchimp Emails
Create a Plain-Text Email
Create an A/B Test
About Marketing Automation Flows

SMS Marketing campaigns

Mailchimp’s SMS Marketing is a powerful service that helps you create and manage a text messaging program. Grow your SMS audience, purchase SMS credits, send marketing text messages, and reach your subscribed SMS contacts with a new marketing channel.

About SMS Marketing with Mailchimp

Ad campaigns

Use Mailchimp to buy and run ads on Google’s Ad Display Network. Target your Mailchimp subscribed contacts, people similar to your Mailchimp contacts, people whose interests align with your brand, or people who visited your landing page or website.

Getting Started with Google Remarketing Ads

Social posts

Create a social post to reach your social media followers with Mailchimp. To combine your marketing efforts, you can auto-post to Instagram, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter) when you send an email.

Create a Social Post
Publish a Social Post When You Send an Email
Connect or Disconnect X (formerly Twitter)

Landing Pages

Create standalone webpages to collect email addresses or promote a product or service. Design a landing page in Mailchimp, then share the URL on the web or in another Mailchimp campaign.

About Landing Pages

Create a campaign

The way you build your campaign depends on which type of campaign you choose. Each campaign has specific steps you'll follow to target your audience, add tracking options, design your content, and make other changes.

Create a Regular Email
Send a Regular Email
Create a Landing Page
Create a Marketing Automation Flow
Create a Social Post

About campaign templates

Templates are the HTML files that serve as the starting point for any email campaign. The template you use determines the layout of your images and text.

We have many predesigned templates for you to choose from, so if you aren't an HTML whiz, you'll still be able to create and send great-looking email campaigns. Drag-and-drop templates make the process even easier.

If you are an experienced coder, you can also edit our templates, code your own, or create an editable template with our Template Language.

Types of Email Templates
Create an Email Template
Getting Started With Mailchimp's Email Template Language

View campaign reports

After you send or publish a campaign, you can monitor its performance in your campaign report. These reports include important metrics such as email opens and clicks, order revenue for connected stores, and social post shares.

About Email Reports
About Audience Analytics
About SMS Reports
Landing Page Reports
About Social Post Reports