Mailchimp will get your contacts data for you. Automatically.

We know that segmentation and personalisation in email marketing leads to better conversions (i.e. higher open and click rates).

A problem that most organisations have is that they don’t have the information needed to be able to personalise and target their marketing. Asking people at the point of subscription to provide all necessary information will mean they are less likely to subscribe. In addition, requesting more information from contacts once they are subscribed has a low success rate. So how can we get the balance right between asking for as little information as possible from our contacts but yet have enough data to be able to segment and personalise?

Use Mailchimp to fill contact data

Getting even basic information about your contacts can be extremely time consuming and expensive. Fortunately, although few people know it, Mailchimp will find and fill various data for you. Mailchimp call this automated data collection and filling for your contacts Social Profiles.

With Social Profiles, Mailchimp fills various data that your subscribers have shared on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. First name, last name, location, gender and age-range are all added to your contacts. This is powerful data for segmentation and personalisation purposes! For example, if you just have the email address for contacts, by enabling Social Profiles you’ll be able to greet contacts by first name as well as target your email marketing at people in specific locations or even by gender.

How to enable Mailchimp Social Profiles

Automating the collection of this data in Mailchimp is easy and inexpensive.

How much Mailchimp Social Profiles costs

You need to be paying for a Mailchimp account to enable Social Profiles. The cost of Social Profiles is 10% of your monthly Mailchimp plan or 10% of your pay-as-you go plan.

Instructions to enable Mailchimp Social Profiles

Activating this automated contact data filling is as simple as:

1. Click your profile name (to the top of your screen when logged-in to Mailchimp) to open the Account Panel and choose Account.
2. Click Billing then Monthly plans or credits.
3. In the Social Profiles section click Add next to your list.
4. In the sidebar, review or edit your choices, and input your credit card’s CVV.
5. Click Complete Purchase.

It can take a few days for the various data to fill for all your contacts.

Something to keep in mind is that the data are extracted from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn using the email address that the contact has subscribed to your list with. If the contact has subscribed to your list with a different email address than that with which he or she logs in to social media then there won’t be a match (and data won’t fill for that person in Mailchimp).