Mailchimp, but not for marketing

September 18, 2024 1:18 PM

I'm rebuilding an organization's PR material about an ongoing academic project. There are Mailchimp "lessons" out there, but all the ones I've found are tightly focused on marketing. I need something more fundamental.

I need a bit of guidance about using that system to communicate text and visual material in an attractive and accessible way, but all I find is nifty ways of selling more stuff.

I've used the Chimp for years, on and off, but often by replicating earlier emails and their structure, which I suspect means I'm using some outdated methods. I feel I need to understand their current templating system and the integration of graphics and imagery more than anything else.

I can't be the only person wanting to use the system for communication rather than sales, but I'm not finding any help. So, if you've got any websites or articles pushing the Chimp in that direction, please clue me in!

posted by zadcat to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

Frame it in your mind as wanting the reader to take an action. Instead of buying a product, you might want someone to click a link and read a longer article (thus showing up as some manner of impact score on a journal site, perhaps). Maybe you need folks to take a survey or sign up for a study or write letters of support for your project or collaborate with you. Figure out what your goal is and then use the marketing strategies to tailor the newsletter to that.

Even if you mostly conceive of it as informational, the newsletter will be more compelling if there’s something creating a sense of urgency and getting readers more involved. I get similar communications and they all do this.
posted by momus_window at 6:52 PM on September 18 [1 favorite]

I agree with what momus_window says. And you are selling something: your organization. Don't limit yourself to looking at Mailchimp-specific things. All the mail services work the same way and offer some variations of the same features, so unless you're looking to do something like split subject line testing specifically in Mailchimp, anything you find about e-mails will apply.

Personally, I would take a look at what other similar organizations are doing. Sign up for their lists and follow them on LinkedIn to get a feel for how often they do things and how they frame things.
posted by jonathanhughes at 7:15 PM on September 18 [1 favorite]