[Editors] integrating Mailman lists and Mail Chimp

[Stephanie Hatch]

Hi all, 

I thought I'd offer my two cents on this subject. Let me know if you have any questions. 

First cent: Responsibility
Second cent: Analytics and formatting

1 - Best practices in email marketing include allowing members of your list to unsubscribe. I understand that with students it may be different; they must receive the emails whether they like it or not. However, a large amount of students use Gmail and use filter rules or other methods to avoid reading emails they do not want to receive. 

Also, there are emails that are administrative, and then there are emails that are informational and may not apply to all students. I think about internship alerts, etc. - this may not apply to all students. 

2 - You may think, "ugh this causes more work" because you have to enter the new addresses into Mailchimp at the same time as into MIT's mailman service. However, you gain a lot of intelligence when you take this step. 

If you forward a sent mail from Mailchimp or "send as an email" from Safari, you lose access to information: how many people actually opened the email and what links actually got clicks, among other stats (like time of day opened). It would be great to know what content is getting clicks so you can produce more of it. It would also be great to know what content is not clicked so you can figure out if you need to title it better or remove it completely. Maybe all the links in the last half of the email get no clicks, meaning perhaps the email is too long. 

Also, when you send from Safari, you run the risk of losing formatting. The email may not appear to your recipients as it does for you. For example, I interview students all the time about their experience with email at MIT. Some senders don't render in OWA at all, which is where a lot of students read their email (in addition to Gmail). 

I want you all to get the most out of your efforts. Let me know if you'd like a consultation about your email marketing. I'm here to help! :-)

Best, 

Stephanie


On Mar 1, 2013, at 2:06 PM, Jennifer Donovan wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> We're looking to convert to Mail Chimp in order to format very nice looking emails announcing the Lab's Seminars and other events.
> 
> However, all of our list memberships are currently very well managed via Mailman. 
> 
> Mail Chimp requires that we use their Unsubscribe link in the emails we send as part of their Terms of Service, which is very messy since we manage our subscribers through Mailman.
> 
> Is there a 3rd party software we can use to integrate the two?
> 
> Thanks in advance!
> 
> Jennifer
> 
> -- 
> Jennifer Donovan
> Assistant to Professor Alan Willsky, Director
> Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems
> MIT, 32-D610
> 
> jdonovan at mit.edu
> p 617.253.2142
> f 617.253.3578
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Editors mailing list
> Editors at mit.edu
> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/editors