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.
Looking for some done-for-you support? If you're over the DIY for now, I can just get it done for you with techy-webby support, websites created with solid foundations you can manage with ease to grow your business & just-in-time consultations for the information Google can't give you
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Posted in Featured Posts, Websites & Tools
Val Cline
Reader Interactions
Comments
-
Cami says (Edit)
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!
-
Val Cline says (Edit)
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.
-
Mansi says (Edit)
Nice…so many details for a beginner!!
-
Hi Mansi -glad you liked the details!
-
Tasha says (Edit)
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 :)
-
Gabby says (Edit)
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.
-
Rabea says (Edit)
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!
-
Kat says (Edit)
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!!
-
Tansy says (Edit)
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.
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Posted in Featured Posts, Websites & Tools
Val Cline
Reader Interactions
Comments
-
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 :)
-
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!
-
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!!
-
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.
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Posted in Featured Posts, Websites & Tools
Val Cline
Reader Interactions
Comments
-
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 :)
-
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!
-
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!!
-
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.
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Posted in Featured Posts, Websites & Tools
Val Cline
Reader Interactions
Comments
-
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 :)
-
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!
-
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!!
-
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.
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Posted in Websites & Tools
Val Cline
Reader Interactions
Comments
-
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 :)
-
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!
-
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!!
-
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.
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
445 SharesShare428Pin17Tweet Posted in Websites & Tools
Val Cline
Reader Interactions
Comments
-
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 :)
-
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!
-
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!!
-
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.
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Reader Interactions
Comments
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
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!
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!!
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.