Small businesses can now work on email marketing campaigns in the same place as their Facebook Ad campaigns thanks to Mailchimp’s newest feature.
Mailchimp’s newest addition makes it possible for users to quickly and simply create Facebook Advertisements and retargeting campaigns all within their platform. This is a huge opportunity for small businesses who may not have the time or resources to devote to multiple marketing avenues, let alone going from website to website to monitor campaigns.
An Email Company Is Going to Provide Facebook Advertising?
Yes! Since 2001, Mailchimp has helped over 15 million people and businesses send marketing emails, automated messages, and targeted campaigns. They claim to be the world’s leading email marketing platform, but that’s not all.
“Our customers tell us that MailChimp helps them look pro and grow,” said Mailchimp’s CEO, Ben Chestnut. “It’s not an email platform, it’s not a newsletter tool—it’s the thing that helps them look more professional. That insight gave us a feeling of liberation. We don’t just have to do email. So we began talking to customers with that in mind.”
Mailchimp then took it upon themselves to reach out to business owners to see how the company can better it’s program, and offer more of a suite of add-ons. Facebook Ads is their first, of hopefully many, add-ons for businesses to take advantage of.
“We listened, and that’s why we chose Facebook as our next marketing channel. After email, Facebook ads are the next most popular choice with our customers for acquiring customers and generating revenue,” says Tom Klein, CMO. “We created an ad buying experience that feels like MailChimp, so customers can create beautiful ads quickly and get back to building their business.”
Having Mailchimp offer the ability to create Facebook Ads within their database is going to be a huge time saver for businesses. Beta testers described the ad creation process in Mailchimp as, “ridiculously fast,” and “really simple”. Not only is it a time saver, but Mailchimp is going above and beyond to provide resources to advertisers to help them succeed.
The interface will look and feel the same inside of Mailchimp for Facebook Ads, and allow advertisers to create single-image or carousel ads. You’ll even be able to edit photos with Mailchimp’s in-app photo editing tools. All of these features are included without paying any additional fees to Mailchimp – just pay Facebook like you normally would.
E-commerce Companies – Be Thankful
Having Facebook Ads integrated into Mailchimp isn’t just a benefit for small business owners. The E-commerce industry is a huge customer base for Mailchimp. Almost half of the $400 million in revenue Mailchimp brings in is from E-commerce companies.
Online retail companies can store their product photos inside of Mailchimp and use the same imagery in both their email newsletters as they do in Facebook Ads. Having the same imagery across multiple campaigns, like newsletters and social ads, triggers customer’s to act and is a reminder of offers, events, and promotions.
Create Lookalike Audiences in Mailchimp, Just Like Facebook
Lookalike Audiences is a great feature of Facebook Advertising. Facebook is able to identify common qualities of your imported list and match them to like-minded people based on the location and trait preferences designated. This type of audience resembles an audience you’ve already designated, your demographic. By having your already imported contacts inside of Mailchimp, the app can now create a similar group of people, a lookalike audience, based off of their email address and information to target with on Facebook.
Smaller Lookalike audiences can be more effective in the sense that they’re going to have more similar traits to your original audience. The original audience, the audience you’re creating a lookalike for, needs to be a minimum of 100 people. Trying to create a large group of lookalikes will certainly increase the ad’s exposure, but can reduce the amount of similar and exact traits between the audiences.
Gather Ad Reports in Mailchimp, Just Like Facebook
Not only does Mailchimp let you press the send button and automate newsletter campaigns, but they’re reporting features have helped businesses A/B test email marketing campaigns and make pivotal decisions on send time, list structure, and email design.
This reporting feature continues with their new Facebook Ads add-on. See which ads are generating the most new customers, clicks, and revenues without ever having to log into Facebook. For businesses with limited resources, and frankly just don’t have the time, this could be a viable social advertising solution. See which ads are producing a real ROI with E-commerce reports that show how many items have sold and have many customers have been acquired.
What Else is in Mailchimp’s Back Pocket?
This is the first of many additions we can hope to see from Mailchimp. The Atlanta-based company is recreating it’s email marketing platform to become a more valuable one-stop-shop for small businesses and agencies.
According to a discussion with Adweek, Mailchimp’s CEO said they are testing integration with other platforms like Instagram, Google Adwords, and direct-mail campaigns.
