MailChimp "expert" - need one question answered!

[Landlord]

Hello,

After many, many minutes of frustratingly fruitless Google searching I've turned to PistonHeads in the hope that someone will either be able to answer my question or point me to a resource where I can have it answered.

Basically, I currently use mailchimp to send any mailshots to my single group of subscribers. This worked for us as we were just sending one email out. We now, however, want to start sending out a number of emails but we'd like our existing subscribers (and new ones) to be able to opt-in on each of the mails based on whether they're interested in the content.

For example; we currently send a weekly "Mid-week set menu" email and then a VERY occasional email about some event or other. We'd now like to keep that mid-week email, send a monthly "what's coming up" email, send a weekly "this week's guest ale" email and perhaps a couple more topics that we've yet to decide on.

Now, we'd like to send a one-off email to all of our subscribers asking them to (in concept atm) tick all topics you'd like to hear about. For example, I suspect quite a few of our current subscribers won't be interested in the weekly guest ale email. I'd rather not just blanket email everyone with two or three or more emails per week and risk them subscribing altogether.

So - does anyone know if I can allow a subscriber to express their interest in each topic/group via a single, multiple choice mailshot? Or does anyone know of a support forum I could use? MailChimp offer email support only to their paid members but I only have this one question (which I'd happily pay them to answer for me. I just don't want to go on a regular payment plan).

Thanks in advance,
Phil

[WTD]

You're talking about something called segmentation.

Seems they do offer it http://mailchimp.com/features/segmentation-and-gro...

Not used them myself, but having the right word to search for might help you on your way mate!

[Landlord]

WTD said:

You're talking about something called segmentation.

Seems they do offer it http://mailchimp.com/features/segmentation-and-gro...

Not used them myself, but having the right word to search for might help you on your way mate!

Thanks for that. However, I knew that it was called segmentation, it was whether I can send an email to my all existing subscribers asking them to actively opt-in for each email (or therefore segment) I plan to send.

I guess the other option is send each segment email to everyone anyway but (assuming I can) give a very visible option to unsubscribe from that particular email "topic". I'd rather go with the former if I can though.

[WTD]

This seems to be what you need:
http://kb.mailchimp.com/lists/signup-forms/signup-...

Create a signup form with tick boxes for your separate lists and send everyone on your main list a link to the form.

You should even be able to embed that form in an email you send out to your current list, technically it's do-able!

[Landlord]

WTD said:

This seems to be what you need:
http://kb.mailchimp.com/lists/signup-forms/signup-...

Create a signup form with tick boxes for your separate lists and send everyone on your main list a link to the form.

You should even be able to embed that form in an email you send out to your current list, technically it's do-able!

Hmmm... that's not quite what I was after but certainly seems like a good starting point. Thanks!

[trowelhead]

Landlord said:

Hmmm... that's not quite what I was after but certainly seems like a good starting point. Thanks!

As above - that form is the way to do it on the way in... It's called groups in mailchimp (http://blog.mailchimp.com/using-groups-to-manage-your-lists/)

Inside mailchimp, you can set it up so you give an "update my info" link rather than a straight unsubscribe link. (at the bottom of your campaigns)
(http://kb.mailchimp.com/campaigns/design/add-an-update-profile-link)

You could send a one off campaign to all, making that "update info" link very prominent and explaining you only want to send stuff they will be interested, kindly asking them to untick anything they don't want to get...

If you are on the free plan, i'm assuming you don't have many thousands of contacts. Personally i would keep sending everything to everyone.

"ask forgiveness not permission"

• (ok the DMA may take issue with that stance...)

[Cyberprog]

trowelhead said:

As above - that form is the way to do it on the way in... It's called groups in mailchimp (http://blog.mailchimp.com/using-groups-to-manage-your-lists/)

Inside mailchimp, you can set it up so you give an "update my info" link rather than a straight unsubscribe link. (at the bottom of your campaigns)
(http://kb.mailchimp.com/campaigns/design/add-an-update-profile-link)

You could send a one off campaign to all, making that "update info" link very prominent and explaining you only want to send stuff they will be interested, kindly asking them to untick anything they don't want to get...

If you are on the free plan, i'm assuming you don't have many thousands of contacts. Personally i would keep sending everything to everyone.

"ask forgiveness not permission"

• (ok the DMA may take issue with that stance...)

PECR/ICO would say they need to *tick* not *untick* for consent to be clear. John Lewis/Waitrose came unstuck on this.