Help! I need to make a newsletter.
Look no further, OIT has created this post and quarterly webinar on Mailchimp to help you do just that.
What is Mailchimp?
Mailchimp is a marketing automation platform to help keep you reach and grow your target audience. While Mailchimp’s target audience is business-centric, UGA CAES and Extension utilizes its newsletter or campaign functionality to inform its audiences of events and general information on many topics and to keep track of those audiences.
This post will cover the following:
Current Mailchimp plans
Please visit the Mailchimp marketing webpage to evaluate and sign up for a specific plan. We recommend starting with a free plan and working your way up to their paid plans.
- When creating a Mailchimp account please sign up using a personal email address
- Your UGA MyID or alias email will work great
- County emails that begin with ugeXXXX@uga.edu should be avoided as Mailchimp is more likely to recognize these accounts as spam and may block them
Start with a free plan
We do not recommend signing up for any service higher than the “Essentials” plan.
You should also apply for Non-profit status if you qualify.
How does OIT support Mailchimp?
Once you have signed up, let us know which email you used for your Mailchimp account by emailing caesweb@uga.edu. We will ask for permission to become a manager of your Mailchimp account to help you in the following ways:
- Account Security
- After creating a Mailchimp account please reach out to caesweb@uga.edu and let us know which email you signed up with. We will reach out through our own Mailchimp account asking to become a “manager” of yours. This allows us to better serve you by helping with the creation and automation of newsletter campaigns, and act as additional account security.
- Account Inheritance
- It is our goal to help with the smooth transition of account owners, for example, if you are promoted and will no longer be in a position that will manage your account.
- Campaign creation and set-up
- We will also assist with the more technical details such as adding a newsletter sign-up form to your website.
How to grow your audience
Audience growth can be achieved through many avenues, some of the main ways to get new audience members will be through in-person events and website visitors. You can segment your audiences using groups and tags to make sure you are reaching their interests. For example, you can create groups for 4-H, ANR, and FACS and then send out newsletters to just one or a combination of those groups.
It is vital to have a newsletter sign-up form ready to go for each of these happenings.
Use the Mailchimp form builder to create a sign-up form for your audience to join your newsletter recipient list. You can add these forms as code to your website, create a QR code that can be scanned in person that takes folks straight to your sign-up form, and even add a sign-up form to your Facebook or X (the company formerly known as Twitter).
Feeling Tech Savvy?
You can follow the steps in this article to add a Mailchimp sign-up form to your WordPress site.
Do you need a sign-up form on your county website?
Instructional video on how to add the Mailchimp sign-up form component to your county website.
We are here to help, email caesweb@uga.edu if you need assistance!
Mailchimp Campaigns
Campaigns are where you create manual and automatic (RSS) newsletters emailed to your Mailchimp audience.
We have created the following templates to help you get started with your newsletter:
- CAES – RSS Template
- CAES – Manual Template
- Extension/4-H – RSS Template
- Extension/4-H – Manual Template
What makes a good campaign?
- Good subject line: the subject line is the first impression. Make it simple and catchy.
- Easy to read: Long newsletters can be a bore so try to keep them to a few key articles.
- Relevant: Make sure your newsletters are going to the correct groups of audience members. Learn more about Mailchimp groups and how to use them.
- Provide Value: Your newsletter should be providing value to your audience members so let them know what it is they will gain from signing up for the event you are advertising or how this article on natural pest control can make their garden flourish.
Be sure to sign up for our next Mailchimp 101 training to learn more!
Digital Delivery Training
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Mailchimp Help
Use our Mailchimp help articles to learn more about newsletters.
