MailChimp Tags Enable You To Manage Your Email Marketing Contacts

Learn How To Use MailChimp Tags 

Targeted email marketing can help you to grow your business. MailChimp’s new tags feature helps you better understand who is in your list of contacts and more importantly tags allow you to create emails to specific prospects that are categorized. Let’s say your a home remodeler and you have prospects that are interested in a kitchen remodel and other group of prospects that are considering a bathroom remodel. Tagging prospects in your contact list with kitchen or bathroom allows you to send emails that are specific to the interest of each category. After all, if a potential client is considering a new master suite bathroom remodel wouldn’t you want to send them information that demonstrates your capabilities in bath remodeling? Tags is a first step away from generalized e-newsletters and towards more personalized email marketing campaigns.

Creating a lead funnel using calls to actions, lead magnet white papers and landing pages on your website can help you capture contact information. Once converted, you can tag and email prospects using content that is specific to their interest and nurture them until they become a client. 

By reaching out to your prospects through targeted email and tailoring your message to meet their needs, you can guide them through their process.  A significant part of automating your marketing is the functionality of your email platform. Here at Means of Production we use and love MailChimp. It's a flexible platform that allows us to automate our emails, create groups using tags, and target the right message to the right prospect at the right time. 

Let's take a look at MailChimp and how by using tags, you can manage your email marketing lists to better target your message to prospects.

Getting Started With MailChimp Tags

Tags are merely a way to label and organize your contacts based on the data you have available. Tags are highly customizable, and you can create and assign them to meet your needs. Here is some information you should know about tags:

• In MailChimp, Tags, groups, and segments are the main list management tools available to you.

• Tags are built for internal list organization. Your contacts do not see them. MailChimp also offers you the ability to let your contacts self-select an interest or category for themselves through the groups function, then you can use that information to apply tags.

The primary function of tags is to help you keep your contacts organized.

If you've ever worked with a CRM or blog platform, you're most likely familiar with tagging as a way to organize people or content. MailChimp tags allow you to label, or categorize contacts based on the information you have about them. As an example, if you're a residential home builder, tags in your contact list might be, Client, Lead, Realtor, Vendor, Subcontractor, or Media. Tags do not have to be overly complex to provide value. The messaging you are emailing to Sales leads (Leads) will be quite different and more frequent than your outreach to your subcontractors. The ability to craft communications to resonate with specific segments of your audience is the magic behind email marketing campaigns that actually work. 

Creating, Adding and Removing MailChimp Tags

MailChimp tags can be used to target contacts based on your tag data. You can do this from within your contact list, or when you create an email campaign. Some basic things to keep in mind about the tagging process on MailChimp.

• You need to have at least one tag assigned to contacts in your list.
• You can target tagged contacts with emails or social ads.
• You can target up to five tags at a time.
• To target tags when using a social ad, you must have at least 100 contacts on your list.

There are several options for creating and adding tags in your list. You can create or add them from the list view, individually from a contacts profile, or from the tags page in your list. You can also add tags when importing contacts, add a tag to the entire import, or when you add a single subscriber. 

How you tags and the method you use depends upon what you're doing and how many contacts you're working with. For example, if you only want to tag a couple of contacts, you can do it from the list view, or in their contact profile. However, if you have a large number of contacts to tag you can go to the Tag page where you can bulk tag. If you have new contacts, you can import them directly to a tag list.

Sometimes, tags will no longer be applicable for a contact or may change. Removing tags is an easy process. It can be done from the list view or when viewing a segment.  Here's the process:

Go to the Lists page in your account

1. click the name of your list. If you're working with a saved segment, click the View Segment drop-down menu and choose the segment you want to work with
2. check the box next to the contact you want to work with
3. click the Add or Remove drop-down menu. You'll see the tags assigned to a particular contact or contacts with checkmarks next to them
4. click the tag you want to remove

And you're done! 

Want To Outsource Your Email Marketing? View Pricing!

Managing Tags

Tags allow you to manage your contacts more efficiently. The Tags page lets you manage your tag structure, add or delete tags, and much more. 

By going to the Tags page and navigating to the lists page in your account then clicking on the name of your list, you can scroll down the drop-down menu, choose the Manage contacts tab and choose tags. This takes you to the Tags page where you can view, sort and manage your tags and contacts. 

Tags appear on the page automatically sorted to show the most recent additions. To change the order, and sort by the oldest tags, click on the Arrow icon. Clicking on the View option allows you to see only the contacts that have been assigned a particular tag. 

You then have some options to choose from including:

Send: You can create and send an email campaign directly to contacts assigned to a tag. 
Rename: Here you can change the tag name. This does not affect the contact the tag is assigned to.
Delete: Choose this to delete a tag from your list. This is permanent, so you'll be asked to confirm your request. Deleting doesn't remove contacts, just the tag.
Export as CVS: This option downloads a CSV file of the contacts assigned to a particular tag. The tag name will be the report title.

Using this functionality can help you to manage your contact list and keep your tags current. Managing your tags allows you to better schedule and target your message and is a considerable benefit when automating responses.

Sending Email to Tagged Contacts

One of the most potent benefits of tags is the ability to send targeted email using tags as the identifier for your message. For example, if you want to send an email blast to clients interested in a particular product, and you have tagged a list by the product name, just navigate to the Lists pages in your account, click the name of your list, click the Filter by Tags drop-down menu and choose the tag you want to send to. 

Once you targeted your list, click the Send Campaign drop-down menu and chose the type of campaign you want to send. It can be an email campaign, an ad, or ad to similar contacts. Continue to build your campaign using the Campaign or Ad Builder to create an distribute it to your targeted list.

MailChimp tags can help you to quickly and effectively organize your email lists, target content and automate your marketing so that the right person receives the right message at the right time. That's why we use it here at Means of Production and recommend it to our clients. 

The key to effective email marketing is organizing your data to better target and time your message. With MailChimp tags, you can get the job done, quickly and efficiently and get better results.

Additional Articles on Email Marketing

• 7 Time-Saving Interior Design Marketing Automation Tips

• Email Marketing | Send Home Remodeling Blog Articles With Almost No Effort

• The Pros and Cons of The Squarespace Email Campaigns System

---

About Michael Conway and Means-of-Production

My firm builds Squarespace websites, email marketing campaigns, and advertising solutions for architects, interior designers, design-build contractors and landscape design firms. Our all-in-one approach will help you attract better clients to your website, gather contact information and keep in touch with them over the long run.