[Last updated 19 May 2020] MailChimp is a highly recommended and world’s largest email marketing service used by thousands of bloggers and business owners that allows users to send out customized easy-to-track email campaigns and automated messages to a list of subscribers. Creating a MailChimp account is incredibly easy and remains free for a list of first 2000 subscribers, hence a perfect tool for bloggers who start building connections with their audience.
To link your MailChimp account with WordPress blog and grow your email list, you can either create signup forms right in your MailChimp account (General Forms, Embedded Forms, Subscriber Pop-Up, and Form Integrations) and add the generated codes to your blog, or you download and activate the MailChimp for WordPress plugin.
When I learned the advantage of running a minimalist blog, I started reviewing the services that all activated plugins offer, and disabling those that lately disappointed me and the page loading speed. Well, all left are the must-haves.
MailChimp for WordPress joined lately the other plugins on the junk list. On my end, it was never an effective newsletter sign-up display, but the growing opportunities, including the recent release of MailChimp automation, helped me put deactivation on hold.
MailChimp announced, “Automation allows you to create a targeted series of emails that send when triggered by a specific date, event, or subscriber’s activity. Use MailChimp’s marketing automation feature to streamline your recurring communications, and make sure your subscribers receive the right emails at the right time.”
In this article, I’ll walk you through the simplest steps on setting up an automated MailChimp newsletter that sends out your latest posts feeds automatically (not manually) to your subscribers on daily, weekly, or monthly intervals.
[1] Log In to Your MailChimp Account.
[2] Create a New Email Campaign (Click Campaigns). On the header of your MailChimp account interface, you can find a navigation menu. Click on Campaigns, the first menu item. Next, find and click on Create Campaign. A pop-up window will appear. Click on the search box and choose Automation Campaigns, then Share Blog Updates. Key in your campaign name and click Begin.
[3] Set the RSS Feed URL and Send Timing (Click RSS Feed). Enter the RSS feed url of your blog. If you don’t know it, simply provide your blog’s url for automated search. Schedule as well the sending intervals of your MailChimp newsletter (e.g., every month, last day of the month, and 12:00 AM). You might want to scan the frequently asked questions (FAQs) on the page, and this I believe is the highlight:
“For daily sends, if you haven’t posted anything within the last 24 hours, we won’t send anything out until you post something new. Likewise for the weekly sends; if you haven’t posted for over a week, we won’t send a weekly email until you make a new post. And for monthly scheduled RSS campaigns, if you haven’t posted for over a month, we won’t send a monthly email until you make a new post. So if this is your first send, we’ll only send the posts from 24 hours before your campaign was activated for daily, from the last 7 days for weekly, and the past 30 days for monthly.”
You may have noticed that a navigation bar is displayed on the footer of the page. Use this to continue with the process. Click the next item upon completing a certain step.
[4] Choose Your MailChimp Mailing List (Click Recipients).
[5] Complete Your Campaign Info (Click Setup).
[6] Choose from Available Layouts, Themes, and Templates (Click Template).
[7] Customize Your Content and Design (Click Design). You can start building your MailChimp email campaign through a simple drag and drop. Drag the RSS Items (this will send your recent blog articles) from the content toolbar on the left side to your campaign blueprint. Don’t forget to preview your MailChimp email campaign and send a test email.
[8] Review Your Campaign Before Sending (Click Confirm).
[9] Click Start RSS and You’re Done.
Disclaimer: The author is not directly affiliated with MailChimp, however satisfied with their products and services. Please take this as an article purely grounded on the beliefs and experiences of the author, and not a sponsored one. You can also share below your reviews and testimonials.
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