UPDATE: How To Send Multiple Freebies Using Just One List in Mailchimp - Using Groups & a Free WordPress Plugin called Easy Forms
Mailchimp has updated its platform several times since this original post. Here is a quick review of how to do this today, the simplest way I know.
SUMMARY:
Create a GROUP-CATEGORY for each Freebie you have & name the GROUP in each category "Download" then use a free WordPress Plugin called Easy Forms, to add the code.
Here are the UPDATED details for how to add multiple freebies using Mailchimp and just one list
Here are some screenshots to help you with the steps below
What you have to do in Mailchimp to create multiple freebies
1) Create a GROUP CATEGORY for EACH Freebie you have. For example, create a Group Category called "How To Automate Your Coaching Workflow". You can find Groups in Audience -> Manage Contacts -> Groups
2) Create a GROUP within that category and just call it "Download" and set that to be represented as a checkbox (See above image). In Image 2 above, "How to set up your coaching p.." is the GROUP CATEGORY. You can ignore the other group category above, that one called "Journaling Prompts..." that is just another Freebie I have. When you click to expand your group category, you can use the "GROUP" space within your Group Category and call it "Download". I called mine "Click To Download". I know it's weird but follow along and hopefully, this will make more sense as we go :)
3) This is where you create the e-mail with the freebie download link within, that will deliver your freebie! Choose an automation trigger to send your freebie automatically. You will choose a trigger called "Joins group". This will send your freebie every time someone joins the Download "GROUP" within your Freebie "GROUP CATEGORY". In the following steps, you will create a form on your website, that already has your freebie selected in a hidden form field. When someone fills out that form, it will tell Mailchimp that someone joined your freebie group. Notice how I have many GROUP CATEGORIES named for each Freebie I have. Within each GROUP CATEGORY, I have created a group called "download".
What you have to do on your Website to create multiple freebies
4) Use a free plugin called Easy Forms and set it up to link to your Mailchimp account. Install it. Connect it to your Mailchimp account, and it will find your lists, groups and all you need.
5) Create a form that connects to your freebie group (the download group in your freebie group category). Make sure your form has the checkbox for that group automatically "checked" and invisible. See image 5 above for more detail. Test your form to be sure your freebie delivers, make sure you've turned on your automation in Mailchimp.
I know this is a fairly basic tutorial, but my hope is that it gives enough info to help some of you make this happen. Good luck!
-Val
Please Note:
The post and video below are outdated, however, the concepts remain the same, and you may still find them useful. Mailchimp has changed its user interface since I posted below, but the methods will still work. You may find the update above more helpful. Both may help you get where you want to go in the end :).
3-Steps To Send Multiple Freebies Using Just One List In MailChimp – For Free.
For all of you in the early stages of business, saving the moula is pretty important.
MailChimp has a lot to offer you for free, but I know many of you aren't quite sure how to get the most out of it so here's how I hope I can help. Many people believe that you must create a separate list for every email opt-in you create when using MailChimp, but this is not true.
Here's how most people create a freebie using MailChimp
- Create a cool freebie like a helpful excel template!
- Go into MailChimp and create a list for this freebie and call it Excel template freebie
- Create a welcome email with the freebie download so anyone who joins that list gets the download with their welcome email
And this is totally okay! But once you have more than two or three freebies under your belt you soon find having so many lists a pain. It's not easy to email everyone on all your email lists when you send newsletters and it becomes more difficult to manage than it has to be. Fortunately, there is another way.
Input form fields in MailChimp
The internet is full of forms! We've all used them and likely your humble email opt-in form could be working a lot harder for you than it currently is if you're using MailChimp.
HTML Forms are made up of fields & buttons.
Form “fields” collect information like Email, Name, Address, Phone Number and “buttons” are responsible for confirming you entered in all the information requested and sending that info to your email system like MailChimp.
I have two freebies below that each deliver their own freebie. With MailChimp, I can track which page you downloaded my freebie from. You can already be on my list and download all my freebies and I don't have to create a new list for every freebie I offer.
Fields and buttons
Website forms are used to collect all kinds of information for us. We use them as Opt-In forms that collect names and email addresses, we see them in survey tools, they are used whenever we are asked for information online. They are little powerhouses! Your Opt-In Form can do more for you than you think.
In the example below, we have 2-fields and a button. Fields come in various flavors. Most of us use text fields.
Text fields are INPUT fields in forms and this just means that people can “input” information into them in a text format. Your name and email form fields collect text so they are text type input fields :)
Most freebie opt-in forms have 2-3 things max:
- A Name
- An Email
- A way to submit the info (A Button)
Let's see how code looks for the example below:
This is the name field
<label for=”mce-name”>**this was left blank in the example below**</label>
<input type=”text” value=”Name” name=”name” id=”mce-name”>
This is the email field
<label for=”mce-name”>**this was left blank in the example below**</label>
<input type=”text” value=”Email Address” name=”email” id=”mce-email”>
Notice how there is nothing in the label space in this example. If this form had labels, you would see that info outside the form box. This form is using the form values as labels helping us know what info to put where. When we enter in our own Name and Email Address, our values will replace the default values put into the form code as placeholders.
This basic understanding of what your opt-in form input field code is doing will help you understand what I'm going to ask you to do next!
Step One: Create your freebie opt-in form in MailChimp
Follow these steps in MailChimp to create your form, and add a new text field.
→ Go to: Signup forms then Form Builder to create your new freebie form code
→ Create a new TEXT field: Add a filed -> then choose text
→ Field Label = OPTIN
→ Field Tag = OPTIN
→ Make that field VISIBLE (and change it later)
→ Default Merge Tag Value = Name-Of-Optin (I used “testfreebie” in my example below, this is where you put a name for each opt-in with no spaces)
Step Two: Grab the code MailChimp gives you & pop this into your website to edit it
→ This time head back to SignUp Forms and click EMBEDDED FORMS
→ Copy the code 
:)
→ Now paste this code into your website where you want your opt-in form
–FIND YOUR NEW TEXT FIELD IN THE CODE YOU PASTED INTO YOUR WEBSITE. IT SHOULD LOOK LIKE THIS–
<div>
<label for=”mce-OPTIN”>OPTIN</label>
<input type=”text” value=”” name=”OPTIN” id=”mce-OPTIN”>
</div>
–CHANGE IT TO THIS—
<div>
<label for=”mce-OPTIN”>***leave a space here***</label>
<input type=”hidden” value=”testfreebie” name=”OPTIN” id=”mce-OPTIN”>
</div>
→ Save this page as a draft until you have created your opt-in download email ;-)
Step Three: Create the automation in MailChimp that delivers your new freebie!
{Check-out the video below that shows you how this looks}
→ Go to Campaigns then click on Campaign over on the right
→ Choose Email then Automated
→ Then Subscriber Activity, Welcome New Subscribers
→ Name your campaign and then **choose your main email list** & click “begin”
→ Now click “Change Trigger” top left next screen
→ Then click on List Management
→ Click on “Changed list field to value” – then on the next screen under “settings” select the “Opt-In” field you created
→Still on the same page, In the “value changes to” box put the name you used for your freebie when you created your form (needs to be exactly the same, no spaces)
❤︎ And that's it! Do this once and you can repeat these 3-Steps easily.
Any Q's always happy to help.
31 thoughts on “How To Send Multiple Freebies Using Just One List In Mailchimp For Free”
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Thank you so much for this!!!! It was SUPER helpful! One question, when I enter an email to the form that is already on the list, it says that it is already subscribed and is not working. Do you know how to get around that? Thanks!
Hi Cami -thanks for the comment and YES you are so right. I've contacted MailChimp and there specifically said that subscribers cannot sign up more than once to your list, but they did say their new landing pages could make this possible. You'd have to use that as your signup form and I didn't get any more detail for how that would work. I will be looking into that soon and will post what I discover. Alternatively, you could offer a freebie password protected area for subscribers or put a small note with all your freebie sign-up forms letting current subscribers know to just email you for a direct link. Just ideas. Hope this helps.
Nice…so many details for a beginner!!
Hi Mansi -glad you liked the details!
Hey there! Since this blog was written have you figured out how to do it with landing pages? I have a weebly website also and found another blog post showing how with landing pages but WordPress. Trick is that landing pages in mailchimp don’t accept HTML code so you can’t change anything :( confused gal over here
YES!! Stay tuned for an new tutorial :)
This is exactly what I've been looking for! Thanks so much for sharing!
I do have a question though … when people optin for the freebie, will they automatically get added to the automated sequence I've set up for general newsletter signups (custom event workflow)?
Hi Gabby -thanks for the comment!
I'd have to have a peek at how you have your systems setup to be sure but, yes I believe they should get a welcome sequence if you have one setup.
Finally a way to do this without creating tons of lists! And you can even create another welcome email sequence that starts 1-3 hours later, but the new subscriber still gets the right freebie first. Thank you soooo much, I'm 100% gonna try this!
will this work using mailchimp landing pages instead of your website?
Is there a way to change the wording when they click the button to download? Right now it just says “thank you for subscribing!” and I would love if I could give them the download there as well, or at least say the download is on it's way so they don't feel like they may have just gotten tricked.
Also, when I put this into my WordPress site the formatting is terrible- is there a way to do this with the MailChimp landing pages?
Hey Val!
This was so helpful, thank you!
I'm now having some trouble with mobile access to my website's landing page with the sign up form. It displays the form twice?! I added a link on instagram to encourage people to sign up to my list, but it's now asking for the sign up info twice, and on the second page the ‘OPTIN' option appears.
Any advice would be greatly received!
I'm so glad I found this! Been searching on how to do this! As for people who've already subscribed, I just send them the direct link in another email to my subscribers! Thank you!!
Hi – Did you ever figure out the solve for people already on your list not being able to get more than one freebie?
Hi Val,
Wondering if you did upload a tutorial on how to do this via landing page in mailchimp as I'm using one to collect subscribers. I don't have a website yet! I've searched high and low for answers and I'm stumped!
Thanks
Short, sweet and simple instructions.
I've got the problem that the email that is sent to confirm sign up continues to have another download that I created for my list (the generic one I have for website signups).
Do I have to remove this for this to work? That is create all my downloads this way?
Thanks.
Hi! Thanks so much for this great tutorial. For some reason, the email isnt triggering. I did everything exactly as you did and even deleted it all and started over, but no dice. Any ideas for troubleshooting?
Hi Laura –
Mailchimp has changed many things since I created this tutorial, and it is possible that is why you aren't having success.
You can create Groups and use their landing pages. Combined you can then offer multiple freebies -while adding everyone to the same list. They will just be in different groups.
You will then be sending people off your website to the MC landing page to join your list and get your freebie, other than that it works very well and will be even simpler than the custom code I have in this tutorial.
I hope this helps Laura!
Hi Laura,
I know things have changed since you posted this but I have done mostly everything. I think there may be something wrong with my code since the sig up form isn't popping up correctly. I have WordPress premium. No plug ins. I'm really struggling with this. Is there any way you could do a quick video on how to do this currently? Thank you so much!!
Hi Laura,
Is there any way you can do a quick review on how to do it using groups? I'm struggling a lot with this and I can't find a solution anywhere. Thank you!
Hi Natalia –
I will do a quick update -hope it helps!
Hi Val,
I actually figured it out by trying to decipher your last comment about using Groups. I first used groups but I found using tags was so much easier and cleaner for the landing page.
Thank you!! This is literally the only post/video that I could find on the internet regarding this.
Hi Natalia -the tutorials I have only work with WordPress.org. Sounds like you are using WordPress.com which is quite different. Tags won't do what I am teaching here, but they do help organize contacts and help you direct emails. Using the Mailchimp landing pages out is definitely the code-free way to go and can be much easier. You can use groups with them. You can't create multiple freebies that people can sign up for -that will automatically be tagged and then delivered based on that tag, but you can do this with groups and with Mailchimp landing pages. So if you ever want to do that -this is how to do it :)
Good luck and glad you are happy with the Mailchimp landing page!
Hi sorry, this reply is late -I noticed that you are not using WordPress.org and that is why the original tutorial may not have worked for you. I updated the tutorial but I do not think it will work for you. Groups and Mailchimp landing pages will. Tags won't do the same thing.
Hi Tania -have a peek at my update. I am not talking about how to use groups with the Mailchimp landing page, but the same premise will work. The first half should help point you in the right direction. Add the correct group and download checkbox to your Mailchimp landing page, and make that checkbox a “required” field, and you've got it! Good luck!
Yes! The thinking is the same -just add your group with the download checkbox and make that a required field :) That will work. Please see my update as it might help a bit. Good luck.
Hi this is a fix :) This is a way to provide more than one freebie using just one list. Someone can be on your list, and download multiple freebies. They just can't keep downloading the same freebie over and over. So YES if they are already on your list, they can still download a new freebie with this method.
Hi -sorry I know you left this comment a while ago. I'd not be able to help as there are so many reasons this could be happening. Hopefully you've sorted it out now :)
Yes, in the code there is a place where you can change the button name. And yes you can do this with MailChimp landing pages -check out my blog update about using Groups. If you use groups, you can follow the same basic premise using MailChimp landing pages. Follow the same process to set up your freebie and the groups as I suggest in the blog update. Make the checkbox for the freebie group you created “required” and you can do this with the MC landing pages :). Hope this helps.
Thanks so much! I just successfully used this technique to offer a free ring size guide on my jewelry website and it works great! I really appreciated that you had updated info here on your blog as a fellow maker, Ashley Keller, had provided me with the link to your YouTube video. I just happened to click on the link you provided in your description to read your full blog post and was happily surprised to find the updated notes before I had attempted to use the groups for multiple opt-ins.
That’s great Jennifer so happy I could help!