Mailchimp is a popular email marketing platform that has gained a significant following among businesses and marketers.
Its range of features has become a go-to tool for creating and managing email campaigns. However, like any tool, Mailchimp has limitations and drawbacks that are often overlooked or not discussed enough.
In this blog post, we will explore the cons of Mailchimp that are not commonly discussed and provide insights to help you decide whether Mailchimp is the right tool for your email marketing needs or to consider other Mailchimp alternatives in the market.
So, let’s dive in and explore the cons of Mailchimp that no one tells you about!
The Cons of Mailchimp You Need To Consider Before Using The Service!
1. No autonomy over the design of email
Mailchimp is the email marketing tool of choice for over a million users worldwide. However, one of the drawbacks of Mailchimp is that it doesn’t offer much flexibility in design or templates.
While you can customize their templates, there isn’t much room for creativity. However, with basic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript skills, you can create your custom-made template and import it into Mailchimp for future email marketing campaigns.
So if you want to make an email that stands out and looks different than everyone else’s, Mailchimp might not suit you.
2. Customer service could be better
While Mailchimp provides various resources such as documentation and video tutorials to assist users, their customer support can sometimes be slow to respond and may not always provide the level of support users need.
It’s worth noting that Mailchimp offers different customer support levels depending on your chosen plan. However, Mailchimp’s customer service is only available via email or chat; no phone support is available.
This can be frustrating for users who need immediate assistance or have complex issues that may be difficult to communicate through email or chat.
Source: apps.shopify.com
3. User experience can be improved to make workflow more accessible and faster
The bad user experience of Mailchimp is another drawback of the service. The users have to do a lot of clicks to reach the goal, open new windows, and scroll from one page to another. It takes time to get things done in Mailchimp.
The user interface is not user-friendly and requires much effort for a new user to get familiar with it. So, Mailchimp users have grown tired of Mailchimp’s lackluster and unappealing user experience.
It is especially problematic for novice users who might not be familiar with the basic concepts that Mailchimp uses. Some users have reported difficulty navigating the platform and complaints about slow loading times and a cluttered interface.
Source: G2
4. Possibly a bit better contact organization
The other main drawback of Mailchimp is its organization of contacts. Mailchimp doesn’t allow you to organize your contacts in any way except by category or tags. You can’t sort by last name, first name, etc.
If your contacts come from different sources (like your website, social media, and newsletter signups), you may end up with a mishmash of very similar names that are difficult to keep track of. The only way to solve this problem is to manually sort through your contacts list.
5. More free templates to choose from would be great
Mailchimp lacks some basic email templates that other competitors provide. This is not a problem for professional marketers but can annoy new users.
The lack of simple email templates makes it difficult for new users to create emails quickly and easily. It forces them to use third-party tools or basic text editors to create an email template, which is time-consuming and frustrating.
Also, their templates are not very appealing, and options are pretty limited. Moreover, it’s not easy to find free email templates that you can use for all of your emails in Mailchimp. You can only find some free templates that you can use for newsletters, but if you want something more personalized, you will have to pay for it.
Source: G2
6. Inability to do much with the Mailchimp smartphone application
Another prominent drawback of Mailchimp is its inability to do much with the smartphone application. One cannot create and edit campaigns from the Mailchimp mobile app but must use the Mailchimp web interface instead.
And the Mailchimp app is not very useful for someone who wants to do more than check their campaign statistics. For example, you cannot send out an email campaign through the Mailchimp app or create an A/B split test with their app.
Source: apps.shopify.com
7. Mailchimp emails going to spam
One of the most common issues Mailchimp users face is their emails going to the spam folder. This can happen if your email content triggers spam filters or if your subscribers mark your emails as spam. And this is a big problem for any business that invests time and money into creating email campaigns for their business.
The most common reasons why Mailchimp emails going to spam include:
- Many recipients per email
- Bulk content
- A large number of emails go to a specific domain.
It’s also important to note that Mailchimp has a spam filter built into its system, which checks your email content for spam triggers before sending it out. However, this filter may not catch everything, so reviewing your email content thoroughly before sending it out to your subscribers is important.
So, make sure you follow our best practices for sending emails to ensure your emails don’t end up in spam. While Mailchimp can help you improve your email deliverability, it’s not a magic solution. You’ll still need to put in the effort to ensure your emails land in your subscribers’ inboxes.
Source: apps.shopify.com
8. Tagging contacts across various buckets can be managed better
The drawback of Mailchimp is that it can’t tag contacts based on their actions in an email. For example, if someone opens an email you sent via Mailchimp, it can’t tag that person as “opened” or “unsubscribed.”
Mailchimp tracks click and open, but these are only reported at the campaign level. So, Mailchimp is still an excellent tool for email list management and email marketing, but if your goal is to reach out to all of your contacts personally, you might need Mailchimp alternatives.
Source: apps.shopify.com
9. Paying only for active subscribers would make it the best
Mailchimp offers different pricing plans based on your number of subscribers. They do not offer a “pay only for active subscribers” pricing model. Instead, they charge you based on the number of subscribers you have on your list, regardless of whether they are active or inactive.
While it may be ideal for some users to only pay for active subscribers, it’s important to remember that its pricing structure is also difficult to understand if you don’t want to spend much money on your email marketing campaign. This makes Mailchimp users look for an affordable alternative to Mailchimp.
10. An in-built library for stock images could be significant
Another potential downside of Mailchimp is that it does not offer an in-built library of stock images.
While Mailchimp offers some basic ability to upload your own images, users must source their stock images from other websites or services like Canva. This can be time-consuming and may add additional costs if users need to purchase images from a stock image provider.
While an in-built library of stock images could be a convenient feature, it may not be a critical factor for all users when choosing an email marketing service for B2B. This makes users difficult to create stunning emails for their campaigns. However, it’s worth noting that many other email marketing services also provide an in-built library of stock images.
11. Mailchimp data breach.
One of the crucial reasons users might want to consider using alternatives to Mailchimp is to protect their information from being accidentally shared with unauthorized parties. Unfortunately, Mailchimp has had some security issues in the past, including a second breach that occurred on January 11th of this year.
In this incident, it was reported that someone could access Mailchimp accounts using employee login credentials. This breach affected 133 companies, including well-known names like Woocommerce, Fan Duel, The Solana Foundation, and Yuga Labs.
One of the ways this breach impacted customers was by leaking encrypted data, and in the case of Woocommerce, their customers’ names, store URLs, and email addresses were exposed. Woocommerce was proactive in addressing the issue by sending an email to its customers warning them of the breach.
In fact, one of their customers even tweeted out as below:
Source: Twitter
To Wrap Up This!
Mailchimp is undoubtedly an excellent email marketing tool offering many features to help businesses connect with customers.
However, it’s essential to consider the cons of using Mailchimp before deciding whether it’s the right choice for your business. Moreover, there are plenty of Mailchimp alternatives in the market to consider.
If you’re tired of using Mailchimp, try a better alternative to Mailchimp, BayEngage. Sign up for a 14-day free trial and unlock all the essential features.
