sales-mailchimp

What this skill does

# Mailchimp Platform Help

Help the user with Mailchimp platform questions — from email campaign setup and Customer Journey Builder automations through SMS marketing, audience management, landing pages, A/B testing, transactional email (Mandrill), Content Studio, retargeting ads, and integrations.

## Step 1 — Gather context


If `references/learnings.md` exists, read it first for accumulated knowledge.

Ask the user:

1. **What area of Mailchimp do you need help with?**
   - A) Email campaigns — creating, scheduling, templates, send time optimization
   - B) Automations / Journeys — Customer Journey Builder, classic automations, triggers
   - C) SMS marketing — setup, credits, MMS, compliance
   - D) Audience / Contacts — segments, tags, custom fields, imports, signup forms
   - E) Landing pages / Forms — building pages, pop-ups, embedded forms
   - F) Transactional email — Mandrill API, triggered messages (receipts, resets, notifications)
   - G) Analytics / Reporting — campaign reports, comparative reporting, smart recommendations
   - H) Integrations / API — connecting to e-commerce, CRM, Zapier, Marketing API
   - I) Account / Billing — plans, pricing, contact limits, add-ons
   - J) Something else — describe it

2. **What's your role?**
   - A) Marketing manager / email marketer
   - B) E-commerce store owner
   - C) Admin / account owner
   - D) Developer / technical
   - E) Agency / freelancer
   - F) Founder / solo operator
   - G) Other

3. **What are you trying to accomplish?** (describe your specific goal or question)

**If the user's request already provides most of this context, skip directly to the relevant step.** Lead with your best-effort answer using reasonable assumptions (stated explicitly), then ask only the most critical 1-2 clarifying questions at the end — don't gate your response behind gathering complete context.

Note: If the user needs a specialized skill, route them there with a brief explanation of why that skill is a better fit.

## Step 2 — Route or answer directly

If the request maps to a specialized skill, route:
- General email marketing strategy / best practices -> `/sales-email-marketing`
- Cross-platform email deliverability -> `/sales-deliverability`
- Funnel strategy / conversion optimization -> `/sales-funnel`
- Connecting Mailchimp to other tools via Zapier or middleware -> `/sales-integration`
- Checkout / payment page strategy -> `/sales-checkout`

Otherwise, answer directly from platform knowledge using the reference below.

## Step 3 — Mailchimp platform reference

**Read `references/platform-guide.md`** for detailed module documentation, pricing, integrations, and data model.

*You no longer need the platform guide details — focus on the user's specific situation.*

## Step 4 — Actionable guidance

Based on the user's specific question:

1. **Setting up an email campaign**:
   1. Navigate to Campaigns > Create Campaign > Email
   2. Select your audience or segment
   3. Choose a template or start from scratch in the drag-and-drop editor
   4. Add personalization with merge tags (e.g., `*|FNAME|*`)
   5. Configure subject line — use the subject line helper for AI suggestions
   6. Preview and test with a test send to yourself
   7. Schedule or send immediately — enable send time optimization on Standard+ for best results

2. **Building a Customer Journey automation** (Standard+ required):
   1. Navigate to Automations > Customer Journeys > Create Journey
   2. Choose a starting trigger (signup, purchase, tag added, date, API event, abandoned cart)
   3. Add journey steps: send email, send SMS, wait, if/else branch, add tag, webhook
   4. Configure if/else conditions to branch based on contact data or behavior
   5. Set wait steps between actions (time delay or wait-until-condition)
   6. Test the journey with a test contact before activating
   7. Activate and monitor the journey analytics dashboard

3. **Setting up SMS marketing**:
   1. Verify you are on a paid plan (SMS is not available on Free)
   2. Navigate to SMS > Set Up SMS Marketing
   3. Register your business for SMS compliance (required for sending)
   4. Purchase SMS credits ($20/1,000 credits)
   5. Create an SMS campaign or add SMS steps to a Customer Journey
   6. Build your SMS subscriber list with compliant opt-in forms
   7. Monitor credit usage — credits expire monthly and do not roll over

4. **Creating a landing page with form**:
   1. Navigate to Campaigns > Create Campaign > Landing Page
   2. Choose a template or start from scratch
   3. Add a signup form block to capture leads
   4. Map form fields to audience fields (email, name, custom fields)
   5. Configure the confirmation action (thank-you page or redirect URL)
   6. Publish — landing pages are free on all plans including Free

5. **Connecting to Shopify/WooCommerce**:
   1. Navigate to Integrations and search for your e-commerce platform
   2. Follow the connection flow to authorize Mailchimp access to your store
   3. Configure sync settings — products, customers, orders
   4. Set up abandoned cart automation using Customer Journey Builder (Standard+) or classic automation (Essentials)
   5. Enable purchase-based segments and revenue tracking in campaign reports
   6. Verify the integration is syncing by checking the audience for imported customers

## Gotchas

> Best-effort from research — verify details against current Mailchimp documentation.

1. **Mailchimp bills for ALL contacts including unsubscribed and non-subscribed.** Unlike most ESPs, unsubscribed contacts still count toward your contact limit and billing tier. Archive or permanently delete contacts you are not mailing to control costs. Audit your audience regularly.
2. **Free plan has Mailchimp branding on every email and only 500 sends/mo.** The Free plan is essentially a trial — it includes mandatory Mailchimp branding in the footer and a 250/day send limit. Not viable for production email marketing at any real scale.
3. **Customer Journey Builder (the good automation tool) requires Standard plan.** Essentials only gets basic single-step classic automations. If you need if/else branching, multi-step workflows, or advanced triggers, you must upgrade to Standard ($20/mo+).
4. **Transactional email (Mandrill) is a separate add-on with its own API and pricing.** It is not included in any marketing plan by default. You must be on Standard+ to even add it, and it has its own volume-based billing. Do not confuse Mandrill with Mailchimp's marketing email.
5. **SMS credits expire monthly and do not roll over.** Budget carefully and only purchase the credits you will actually use each month. Unused credits at the end of the billing cycle are lost.

- **Self-improving**: If you discover something not covered here, append it to `references/learnings.md` with today's date.

## Step 5 — Related skills

- `/sales-email-marketing` — Email marketing strategy and best practices (platform-agnostic)
- `/sales-deliverability` — Cross-platform email deliverability — SPF/DKIM/DMARC, warmup, inbox placement
- `/sales-funnel` — Funnel strategy and conversion optimization
- `/sales-integration` — Connect Mailchimp to other tools via Zapier, Make, or API
- `/sales-checkout` — Checkout and payment page optimization (pairs with Mailchimp e-commerce integrations)
- `/sales-do` — Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill. Install: `npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-do`

## Examples

### Example 1: Setting up a welcome automation for new Shopify customers
**User says**: "How do I set up a welcome email series for new customers from my Shopify store in Mailchimp?"
**Skill does**:
1. Confirms the Shopify integration is connected and syncing customers to the Mailchimp audience
2. Walks through creating a Customer Journey with a "purchase" or "signup from integration" trigger filtered to Shopify
3. Builds a 3-email welcome series: thank-you email (immediate), product tips (day 3),