Last week I used Mailchimp, a popular email service provider, to send a newsletter-type email to the Vancouver SEM Meetup group.
This idea came about while thinking a better way to communicate with the group’s members. Mailchimp offers pre-designed formatting, tracks clicks, opens, and a ton of other information I thought I could take advantage of… Here’s what happened.
Setting Up the “Email Campaign”
Unlike the typical email campaign with hundreds of email addresses, which you can track and get data from, I only had one address, the group’s email list.
Having only one email basically voids the chance of getting the typical data you’d want from an email campaign – i.e. unsubscribes, location, unopened emails, etc. It’s just one email.
So I set up my campaign to send just one email…
Creating the Email
I was happy to use Mailchimp’s pre-designed templates to create a nice looking email. I didn’t spend too much time on it, but it looked better than the typical text block we usually get.
I wanted to communicate 5 different snippet of information, that also called for the typical newsletter format.
Here’s how the email looked (or click on the image)
The Results
As soon as I sent the message I started hoping no one would click the “unsubscribe” link since there’s only one email, the group’s mailing list.
I’m sure everyone would’ve gotten the email, but email service providers are pretty strict when it comes to spamming, so I didn’t want to create a record.
As for the other data, I could only take advantage of a small percentage, thanks to the one email situation.
From these results I can only guess around 80 people opened the email, or 40 peopled opened it twice, or 20 thrice, etc.
Click performance was saddening – only 2 clicks. I know I just whipped up the email in somewhat of a rush, but common… 2 clicks? (see the report)
Having said that, it’s nice to have an idea of how many people looked at the email, regardless of how vague it is.
Here’s a JPG of the Mailchimp report (or click on the image)
Conclusion
I liked it. But ultimately, the decision to keep using it will depend on the group’s feedback. Perhaps a regular email would be best?
Feel free to comment here if you have any opinions about it.
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