1. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Austin WordPress Meetup - July 17, 2017
How to Create and
Manage Newsletters
from Your WordPress
Site
Nick Batik
Senior WordPress Back-end
Developer /Information Architect
Pleiades Publishing Services

2. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
What Is eMail Marketing
❖ Email marketing is an efficient
way to stay connected with
your clients while also
promoting your business
❖ eMail Marketing is
❖ Cost Effective
❖ Relatively Simple To Do
❖ Results Can Be Easily
Tracked

3. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Why Building Your eMail List is
Critical
❖ An email list is a list of names and email addresses of
people who gave you permission to send them updates
and promotions from your business via email
❖ When a site visitor signs up giving you 'permission' to
contact them by email, that user has taken the first step
in building an ongoing businesses relationship

4. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Permission Marketing
❖ In 1999, Seth Godin,
published Permission
Marketing: Turning Strangers
into Friends and Friends into
Customers
❖ This book changed how we
viewed and approached
marketing
❖ How to Use Permission
Marketing to Build Your
WordPress Business

5. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Permission Marketing
❖ Offers the site visitor an incentive to voluntarily share
their email (giving you permission to contact them)
❖ Makes sure that in exchange for the site visitor's trust,
your offer delivers value beyond expectation and
familiarizes your prospect with your product or service
❖ Continues to enhance the bonus offerings to assure
that the prospect maintains and even extends their level
of permission based on the perceived value you offer

6. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Permission Marketing
❖ Over time, your communications offering further
incentives, build a trusted source relationship with the
consumer who continues to grant access
❖ As your potential client becomes more familiar with your
product or service, and you have made a favorable
impression they are willing to become paying customers

7. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Why eMail Marketing Works
❖ eMail is Personal
❖ eMail is Purposeful
❖ eMail is Targeted
❖ You Own your eMail List
❖ eMail is One-On-One

8. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
What is MailChimp?
❖ MailChimp is an easy to use eMail
marketing software (EMS) that
has several great WordPress
plugins for designing, sending and
saving templates of your emails.
❖ Provides a quick and easy way of
creating, sending, tracking email
campaigns
❖ Shows who opened your emails,
and whether they clicked your links

9. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
MailChimp for WordPress
❖ The MailChimp for WordPress
plugin is a great solution for
subscribing visitors to your
MailChimp List.
❖ The Featured Images in RSS &
MailChimp Email plugin
outputs images in your RSS
feed to MailChimp, and other
services that use RSS feed
data for content marketing

10. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
MailChimp Helps You
❖ Design email newsletters
❖ Nurture relationships by
keeping in touch
❖ Stay on top of mind with your
prospects
❖ Provide valuable information to
build a relationship of Trust
❖ Automate the process of
sending emails

11. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
You’re Ready, almost set — but before you go…
Before You Push the
Button on your first
MailChip eMail
campaign
There Is Some Stuff
You Need To
Know…

12. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Making sure your newsletters get to the right
inboxes
❖ Acceptable
❖ Clear email / newsletter signup form
❖ Manual entry of recent customers

13. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Making sure your newsletters get to the right
inboxes
❖ Not Acceptable
❖ “Contact Us,” “Apply For A Quote,” or “More
Information” forms
❖ Informally collected email addresses
❖ Any kind of third party list (publicly available,
purchased, rented, or partner)
❖ MailChimp Compliance Team
http://mailchimp.com/contact/?department=complianc
e

14. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Structuring Your eMail List
❖ You have the option to create multiple lists, but…
❖ MailChimp determines monthly rates by total
subscriber count
❖ duplicate subscribers across multiple lists count
toward that total

15. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Structuring Your eMail List
❖ Keep your list clean and your billing rate low:
❖ by maintaining a single list
❖ segmenting data
❖ interest groups

16. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Creating Your List
❖ Choose Lists from your MailChimp dashboard
❖ Click the Create List button in the upper righthand corner.
❖ On the List details page, you can choose a name
❖ Set the default From name and email address
❖ Write a short subscribers remind – how and why they’re
receiving email from you.
❖ When you’re finished, click Save.

17. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
No Subscribers Yet? No
Problem!
❖ MailChimp can automatically generate a signup form for
your list, which you can easily:
❖ customize
❖ share
❖ post on your website

18. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Subscription Forms
❖ MailChimp offers the ability to easily customize
subscription form options
❖ Gather to segment your list
❖ Forms require double opt-in
❖ For more information about the double opt-in

19. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Importing Your eMail List
❖ Importing a list of contacts or subscribers who have
opted-in to receiving email:
❖ Uploading a CSV or tab delimited text file
❖ Copying and pasting your list from Excel
❖ Importing contacts from your Mac Address Book
❖ Import directly from a third-party application or
program—like Salesforce, Google Docs, or Highrise

20. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Building and Customizing Signup
Forms
❖ MailChimp automatically generates a series of signup
forms and response emails
❖ The Create forms page has tools to customize:
❖ Unsubscribe sequence,
❖ Update profile sequence
❖ Double opt-in process

21. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Signup forms
❖ Steps for creating and designing forms in MailChimp:
❖ Embedded forms - Generate code that can be embedded on your
website
❖ Subscriber popup form - a signup form in a popup on your website
❖ Form integrations - integrations with Wufoo, CoffeeCup, Twitter,
WordPress, and Squarespace
❖ Facebook form - Add a signup form to your Facebook page.
❖ Tablet form - Collect signups in store or at events with
Chimpadeedoo for iPad or Android tablets

22. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Build It
❖ To build your signup form and begin customizing:
❖ Navigate to the Lists page
❖ Select the appropriate list
❖ click Signup forms, then General forms
❖ Click the Build it tab

23. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Build It
❖ Default fields: Email address, First name, and Last
name. Imported lists cab containing additional fields
❖ Add a field tab on the right side of the page
❖ Customize field text and set default merge field values
❖ Click Save & Exit to save all changes to your form

24. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Adding an Extra Security to
Form
❖ Preventing spambots from adding email addresses to
your list:
❖ Check the Protect your signup form with reCAPTCHA
❖ A Google reCAPTCHA box that says "I'm not a robot."
will be included on your signup form

25. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Design It
❖ Choose the colors, styles, and fonts
❖ Style changes are made universally and not form by
form
❖ MailChimp applies changes to each of the other forms
and response emails for your list
❖ Use the MailChip Knowledge Base for tips on
customizing the look and feel of your list forms and
response emails.

26. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Translate It
❖ Translate it tab enables or customized translations in
any of MailChimp's 40+ supported languages

27. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Creating Templates and
Campaigns
❖ Once your list and forms are set up, you’re ready to start
building an email message to send out to your
subscribers
❖ MailChimp refers eMail messages you design and send
to your subscribers a “Campaign”
❖ Each campaign is built using a preset layout called a
“template”

28. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Creating or Importing a Custom
Templates
❖ You can import your own templates or create custom
coded templates for design or branding needs
❖ Templates you create are found under the Saved
Templates tab
❖ To customize templates you will need to use the
MailChimp Template Language

29. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Creating a MailChip
Campaign
❖ Variety of basic email layouts you can customize easily
❖ Many layouts use a drag and drop editor
❖ You can save your design as a template for future
campaigns

30. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Creating Campaigns
❖ Regular Campaigns
❖ Plain-Text Campaigns
❖ A/B Testing Campaigns
❖ RSS-Driven Campaigns
❖ You can create a series of automated emails with
MailChimp's Automation features

31. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Regular Campaigns
❖ Recipients:
❖ Determine which subscribers will receive the campaign.
❖ You can choose to send it to the entire list
❖ Segmentation tool targets list
❖ subscriber data, campaign or e-commerce activity,
group membership, manual selection, other

32. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Campaign Setup
❖ Choose a name (not visible to the recipient)
❖ Email subject
❖ From name
❖ From email address

33. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Tracking Options
❖ Add Google Analytics tracking to track clicks from your
campaigns all the way to purchases on your website
❖ If you want to track purchases, you'll want to be sure
Google Analytics is set up to track conversions

34. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Merge tags
❖ Merge tags personalize response emails, automation workflows, and
regular campaigns.
❖ Merge tags pull personalized or dynamic data from your list to:
❖ Greet each subscriber by their first name in the email
❖ Populate RSS or social media information
❖ Translate content in a campaign
❖ Populate unique coupon codes / links for each subscriber
❖ Include/exclude content within each email based on a subscriber’s
profile information

35. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Merge tag Resources
❖ Getting Started with Merge Tags
❖ All the Merge Tags Cheat Sheet
❖ How Conditional (or Smart) Merge Tags Work
❖ Smart Merge Tags and Groups
❖ Troubleshooting Merge Tags

36. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Preview and Test Your
Campaign
❖ Use Preview Mode to see how your campaign will render
on desktop and mobile environments.
❖ If you're using merge tags in your campaign — they're
replaced with placeholder text
❖ Placeholders let you know that the merge tags will be
replaced with subscriber-specific information when you
send the campaign
❖ You can preview subscriber-specific information before a
campaign is sent

37. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Preview and Test Your
Campaign
❖ Send test emails to any email address
❖ Preview the mobile version of your campaign directly
from your mobile device
❖ Use the Link Checker to make sure that all links in your
campaign are valid
❖ Set up Social Cards* for your campaign.

38. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Preview and Test Your
Campaign
❖ Inbox Inspector
❖ Automates the testing and renders campaign as they will
appear across multiple email clients
❖ Can also run spam filter checks on the content to help
identify potential red flags in your campaign
❖ Is free for all users with monthly paid accounts—up to 25
inspections can be run each week at no cost.
❖ Users with free and pay-as-you-go plans can purchase a
single Inbox Inspection for $3

39. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Sending Your Campaign
❖ Confirm is the final the step of the campaign building process
❖ Scan the campaign to verify that all previous steps properly
completed
❖ Confirm will alert you to anything that might need your
attention before sending
❖ You can preview both the HTML and plain-text version
❖ Run a final Inbox Inspection, or send one last test email to
make sure everything is just right

40. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Pushing SEND
❖ Send the campaign immediately or to schedule it for a
specific date and time
❖ Paid accounts have 3 additional scheduling options:
❖ Send Time Optimization
❖ Timewarp
❖ Batch Delivery

41. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Avoiding Spam Filters / Junk
Files
❖ Learn how spam filters think
❖ Spam filters look at a long list of criteria to decide
whether or not your email is junk
❖ SPAM criteria grows/adapts as spam filters learn
more every time someone clicks the Mark as spam in
their email client
❖ MailChimp has a dedicated guide - How to Avoid Spam
Filters

42. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Common Mistakes
❖ Lists: Sending to inactive, stale, or non-permission-based
lists
❖ Formatting: ALL CAPS, crazy colors, and too !!! many
!!!exclamation !!! points !!!!
❖ Content: Anything about getting money, paying less money,
or money-back guarantees
❖ Code: Sloppy code, extra tags, code pulled in from Microsoft
Word
❖ Images: Too many images, or one single image with no text

43. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Mail Chimp Reports
❖ Help you analyze the performance of your campaign
❖ Provide insights for future campaigns
❖ MailChimp Mobile give you access from your mobile
device
❖ manage lists, add subscribers, send campaigns, view
your reports

44. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Understanding MailChimp
Reports
❖ Overview gives you at-a-glance information about your
campaign
❖ opens, clicks, social engagement, unsubscribes, and
bounces

45. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Understanding MailChimp
Reports
❖ Activity menu
❖ View or export recipients that interacted with your
campaign in a specific way
❖ View all subscribers who received, opened, didn’t
open, or clicked a link in your campaign
❖ See which addresses bounced, unsubscribed, or
even filed an abuse complaint

46. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Understanding MailChimp
Reports
❖ Links gives you a better idea of how well each tracked
link within a campaign performed
❖ Find a list of all tracked URLs from the campaign
❖ The number of total and unique clicks for each one
❖ Populate a click map to give you a visual
representation of how each link performed

47. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Understanding MailChimp
Reports
❖ Social reveals who has:
❖ liked your campaign on Facebook
❖ provides a list of the top influencers and referrers
❖ displays a map of clicks from around the globe
❖ Keep in mind you’ll need integrate your account with
Facebook — which is a moving target…

48. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Questions?

49. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik @sandi_batik
Presenters
Sandi Batik - Event Host & Organizer
WordPress evangelist, consultant, trainer, curricula
developer, author, unapologetic geek, unrepentant
capitalist, lucky enough to do what I love everyday. I’ve
served as Austin WordPress Meetup co-organizer since
2010. With my husband Nick Batik, co-founded Pleiades
Publishing Services in 1992 and Hands-On WordPress
Training in 2010.
Follow me @sandi_batik / @WPATX
Contact me at: handsonwp.com
Nick Batik
Started in web development in 1994 and have been a
WordPress consultant, and web developer since 2007.
A WordPress evangelist, I’ve served as Austin
WordPress Meetup co-organizer since 2010. With my
partner, co-founded Pleiades Publishing Services in 1992
and Hands-On WordPress Training in 2010.
Follow me @nick_batik / @WPATX
Contact me at: handsonwp.com