Getting Started with MailChimp​ and Building Your First Email Campaigns

Mailchimp is turning out to be one of the indispensable tools we rely on to run this site effectively.

Read More: Eight Essential Tools & Services for New Blogs

Before settling on Mailchimp, we experimented with both Zoho and Constant Contact. Zoho was pretty good, largely because of their “Zoho Campaigns” feature, but even Zoho Campaigns seems underpowered compared to the breadth of flexibility and customizable options in Mailchimp.

Constant Contact might be a better comparison since it’s aimed at some of the same functionality that MailChimp provides. Still, Constant Contact doesn’t offer the same type of fine control and extensibility that Mailchimp provides via the MailChimp API (you’ll need a MailChimp API key to take full advantage).

Read More: How to Find Your Mailchimp API Key (And Use it for Cool Stuff)

But, enough. This isn’t a review article, it’s a neato video guide.

Like all good tools, MailChimp is not a static resource – it evolves and grows as the developers respond to user feedback and add more cool stuff to increase the value proposition for users.

Over the past year or so, MailChimp has rolled out a number of new features, spruced up its user interface, and made the tool both more powerful and more easy to use.

If you’ve used MailChimp in the past, but have been away for a while, some options and functions may be unfamiliar. And if you’re a new user, obviously everything will be unfamiliar.

Enter our secret buddy Ferdy, stage left. Ferdy is at it again with a great video that walks us through the setup of Mailchimp, explains some basic options, and does some hand holding as it leads us through the process of creating an active campaign.

We link to Ferdy pretty often, because his characteristic video style is direct, simple, and does a good job laying things out in a click-by-click way. As a disclaimer, we’re not affiliates or business partners, we just find his stuff useful and easy to understand.

Video: Integrating Mailchimp with WordPress

If you’ve been thinking about getting your feet wet with MailChimp, or are contemplating a move from Zoho, Constant Contact, or another similar service, check out Ferdy’s video.

You’ll get a good feeling for how MailChimp handles common operations, what to expect from the interface, and some of the cool, advanced options it enables.

Happy viewing