Are Your Partners Receiving Your MailChimp Emails?

Are you using MailChimp to send eNewsletters and prayer letters to your financial partners? Like me, you may like several things about MailChimp:

• it’s helpful for sorting out priority people to contact during support-raising
• it gives you insight to the type of content your donors find most engaging
• it sends merged-name personalized emails that are mobile-friendly

However, have you noticed low “open rates” for some of your financial partners and wonder whether they are reading your MailChimp letters?

How MailChimp Knows What’s Opened

MailChimp has an invisible “graphic beacon” in your email, so if people are reading your MailChimp letter with their emails set to not display images, MailChimp will not “know” if your email has been opened. If your friend clicks on something in your email, this click-through will count as an “open” even if the images are not displayed.

Your friend may be reading your letters in a preview pane, never downloading the images, and never clicking on any links. MailChimp will not record this email as “open” even if your friend reads your email. So, you can assume your open rate is actually a little higher than MailChimp will show.

How to Encourage Engagement

First, be sure that you have clicked “authenticate campaign” under “more options” when you create your campaign.

Start with a good subject line, especially the first two words. Also, be sure the first thing visible in your email is some interesting text; this helps if their images are turned off. Include at least an attractive photo and some interesting links to click on. For instance, I like to have one new family photo and a link to a photo album for more pictures.

The Special Case of Gmail

Your partners who have a Gmail eAddress may not even see your email because Gmail sends MailChimp letters to their promotions tab.

Here’s what you’ll do. In most cases this affects a very small number of people from your list. Just email these people directly (not from MailChimp) and ask them to follow a few steps to ensure your email is always delivered to their inbox.

• Ask them to look for your email in the Promotions tab.
• Left-click and hold on the email and drag it over to the Primary tab.
• Releasing the mouse drops the email into the newly selected tab.
• Once dropped, Gmail displays a yellow box asking if you want to make this change permanent.
• Click “Yes” to ensure that all messages with the same “from address” will appear in the Primary tab.

This is the easiest way, but check out How do I get my emails to the Primary tab in Gmail? from MailChimp support if you need other options.

MailChimp isn’t perfect, but it gives you a window into your email communications that you wouldn’t have otherwise.

NOTES:

• This post was inspired by a discussion in a Facebook group, MPD Sharing of Ideas. If you’re on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ, ask me for an invitation to the group.
• Read more about MailChimp.
• Check out 3 worthwhile ways to boost your email newsletter open rates (Moove)