Thank you Dani!

I’ve received some negative feedback this week, but it’s not as bad as you think.

When I say negative it means that we did something that needed correcting. I think a lot of people take any negative feedback as a personal attack but I’ve come to realise it is a HUGE BONUS when someone actually reaches out to tell you what they think – but you need to do something about it.

I love hearing from our blog subscribers and students PARTICULARLY if it helps us improve and do a better job.

Dani, if you are reading this, you made us act on our digital marketing using MailChimp!

I think Mailchimp has become a bit of a rip off to be honest. They’ve figured out exactly what people like about their email marketing software and created “upgrades” for anyone who wants to use them.

When anyone requested our free training course samples we use MailChimp for our AutoResponders – messages that are sent automatically at pre defined intervals.

Here is an example of an AutoResponder series (or what MailChimp call a Journey).

1. Person subscribes to your list (Mailchimp now limit your lists to 3)
2. Send a Confirmation message which includes details about how to access our Free samples.
3. Wait one day
4. Sent a message about our learning journeys
5. Wait one day
6. Send a message about our past students and testimonials
7. Wait 3 days
8. Sent a message about our Bookkeeping Academy

All of those 8 steps were part of ONE Journey Automation (AutoResponder) but then Mailchimp limited the number of Journey points so we got rid of the “Wait one day” steps.

Mailchimp realised that their users were creating lots of automated marketing messages (Journeys) so they included this ability in a more expensive “upgrade” plan. Anyone who used them previously were simply TRUNCATED and left to waste!

It resulted in 3 emails being sent automatically and Dani thought that was a complete overload and very SPAMMY.

There are alternative email marketing software programs and one that still enables you to create long journeys is Aweber.

Many other students probably thought the same but because you wrote it down and made us realise how bad it looks, we acted on it!

The messages come out regularly and are spaced with a day or two in between them.

The RESULT

We’ve now created many different journeys and separated the dates to make sure that the messages you receive when you request our free Xero Course samples for example are spaced out evenly.

Learn Mailchimp in our Email Marketing Course and connect with your own customers.