The goal behind email marketing is simple: build solid customer relationships and convert interested leads into paying customers through engaging, persuasive content. But a lot of folks fail to realize the amount of work it takes to build and maintain a robust email list. And tying those marketing efforts into other parts of your business? It's a lot of work.
If you use an app like Mailchimp, then you'll know it's easy to create beautiful email marketing campaigns—whether you're a newbie or a seasoned email marketing pro. But when you pair it with Zapier and create automatic workflows (what we call Zaps), you can take your email marketing efforts even further. From automatically subscribing new leads your business generates to updating your CRM, you can easily connect Mailchimp to your other business critical tools. Here are some of the best ways to automate Mailchimp.
You'll need a Zapier account to use the workflows in this piece. If you don't have an account yet, it's free to get started.
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To get started with a Zap template—what we call our pre-made workflows—just click on the button. It only takes a few minutes to set up. You can read more about setting up Zaps here.
Turn your campaigns into content
Repurposing content is a content marketer's dream. You spend all of that time crafting the perfect email, so why not repurpose it on your website or social media?
The Zaps below will automatically create a new post on LinkedIn or your WordPress site when you send a new campaign. If you want to maintain a sense of exclusivity for your newsletter subscribers, add a delay step—available on our paid plans—so your new LinkedIn or WordPress posts will publish a certain amount of time after the initial campaign is sent.
Share new Mailchimp campaigns on your company LinkedIn profile
Create new Webflow items from new Mailchimp campaigns
Subscribe leads to your newsletter
When people are interested in learning about your product or service, you want to capitalize on that interest right away. With a simple Zap, you can eliminate the time it takes to export CSV files or copy-and-pasting contact information altogether.
Try any of the below workflows, which will automatically add a new lead—from emails to form submissions—as a subscriber in Mailchimp.
Parse email addresses from an email and add to a Mailchimp list
Subscribe new Facebook Lead Ad leads to a Mailchimp list
Add subscribers to Mailchimp for new Google Sheets rows
Add or update Mailchimp subscribers from new form submissions in Squarespace
Create or update Mailchimp subscribers from new Google Forms submissions
Surface ads to new subscribers
It's great when someone subscribes to your newsletter; it means they're already interested in what you have to offer. But you can make sure your business stays top of mind by automatically adding them to your advertising lists.
With these Zaps, you can surface targeted ads to already-interested leads—and ensure that the right people are seeing your ad content.
Add new Mailchimp subscribers to Google Ads customer lists
Add new Mailchimp subscribers to a segment on LinkedIn Matched Audiences
Add new Mailchimp subscribers to Facebook Custom Audiences
Engage event attendees with your newsletter
Events are expensive, but a great way to engage potential and existing customers. Even webinars, while cost-effective, are labor-intensive.
You'll want to make that effort worth it by keeping your attendees engaged with your business, long after your event or webinar is over. Your newsletter is the perfect way to do just that.
Use a Zap to automatically add attendees to your email list. You won't have to worry about managing your email signups and can instead focus on putting on a successful event.
Add new Zoom registrants to Mailchimp as subscribers
Create Mailchimp subscribers from new Calendly invitees
Learn more: 7 ways to automate common newsletter tasks
Keep paying customers coming back
If you're running an online shop, you want to build a group of loyal customers. While the quality of the product is what drew them in the first place, email marketing will keep customers coming back for more.
If you have a specific marketing effort for returning customers—think shop updates, product drops, or special discount codes—you can use an automatic workflow to ensure you're getting your loyal customers subscribed to the right email list.
Add new WooCommerce customers to Mailchimp as subscribers
Keep your CRM updated with new subscribers
Customer relationship manager (CRM) apps are often the source of truth for businesses. If something is incorrect in the CRM, it can throw your operation out of whack. When you have a lot of changes coming in at once, it can be difficult to capture every single update in your CRM.
Rather than waiting for a one-time download of subscribers and importing the data into your CRM, you use a Zap to automatically update your contacts' information whenever you have a new subscriber in Mailchimp.
Create or update HubSpot CRM contacts for new subscribers on Mailchimp
Add or update Mailchimp subscribers from new activity in ClickFunnels Classic contacts
Add new Pipedrive people to Mailchimp as subscribers
Learn more: The ultimate guide to CRM automation
Take your email marketing to the next level
This is just the start of all that you can do with Mailchimp and Zapier. Zapier supports thousands of apps, so you automate almost any task at work. Start building your Zap now and see what you can create.
Zapier is the leader in workflow automation—integrating with thousands of apps from partners like Google, Salesforce, and Microsoft. Use interfaces, data tables, and logic to build secure, automated systems for your business-critical workflows across your organization's technology stack. Learn more.
This article was published in September 2020, written by Krystina Martinez. It was most recently updated in January 2024 by Elena Alston.
