Mailchimp Remarketing – a Guide

Remarketing is incredibly simple to do in Mailchimp. It takes seconds and, oddly enough, few people know the capability even exists. Many people in my Mailchimp classes ask if there is an extra cost for remarketing (also called re-targeting and re-engagement); the great news is that even free Mailchimp accounts have the ability for remarketing.

What is remarketing?

Remarketing is simply reinforcing our brand (or message) to those that have viewed our media. A common Web scenario is where someone visits a Website which has code that tracks the visitor. When that visitor then visits other websites, adverts show promoting the Website with the tracking code. Remarketing is well known to those that are familiar with Google AdWords or Facebook Ads (Facebook pixel tracking specifically).

Remarketing in relation to email marketing usually refers to sending people that have opened a campaign, or have clicked in a campaign, a follow-up email message. If you use Mailchimp E-Commerce (using Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento or Bigcommerce) then you may also send remarketing campaigns based on purchase activity.

How to use remarketing in Mailchimp

Creating a remarketing audience is the first step in creating a remarketing campaign. Once this has been done we then create a campaign to send to our audience (recipients). In the instructions below I describe remarketing to people that have clicked a link in a previous campaign.

It’s as simple as creating a segment and then sending a campaign to that segment.

1. Log in to Mailchimp.
2. Click Lists
3. Click your list name (or the name of your list from which you sent your campaign if you have multiple campaigns).
4. Click Create A Segment.
5. Click where it states Email Marketing Status and select Campaign Activity.
6. Change opened to clicked.
7. Change Any of the Last 5 Campaigns or leave as is (your choice).
8. Click Preview and then save the segment.
9. Create a campaign and use the segment you’ve just created as the recipients.

When should you use email campaign remarketing?

In the above instructions we have created a campaign that will be sent to anyone that clicked a link in any of our past five campaigns. A few commonly used scenarios for email campaign remarketing include:

• Send a prompt to all those that didn’t open a campaign to reinforce that there is benefit in them opening the campaign.
• Those that clicked a link are engaged with your communication; a follow-up email promoting your brand or product to all those that click is a great way to reinforce your brand or product.
• Remarketing to those people that opened but didn’t clicked can prompt additional action by recipients.

Ultimately, email marketing is about sales and brand reinforcement. Email campaign remarketing in Mailchimp is simple and effective.