Mailchimp

Alex Garcia
November 29, 2022

It's Tuesday, but post Holidays where I don't know what day it is or what day of the month it is.

In this week's newsletter, I'm sharing a case study on how Mailchimp grew from 85k users to 450k users in one year.

Specifically, the three tactics led to this insane growth.

Let it roll...

Sponsored by Marketing Against The Grain

How To Build A Podcast To 70k Monthly Downloads In One Month

One of the unknowns of this world?

Growing a podcast.

So, how do you grow a podcast from 0-70k monthly downloads in 6 months?

In this episode of Marketing Against The Grian, co-hosts Kipp Bodnar and Kieran Flanagan (HubSpot’s CMO and SVP of Marketing) take you behind the scenes of what works and what doesn’t when growing a podcast.

You’ll learn:

How they found an unfair advantage to grow
What you need to do to launch your own podcast
How they’re improving their next strategy

But not only how they grew to 70k downloads but how they plan on getting to 200k monthly downloads next.

It’s a 10/10 episode.

And gives you a step-by-step playbook for growing your podcast from the ground up.

I highly recommend it, and you can listen to it here.

How Mailchimp Grew Its Userbase From 85K Users To 450K Users In One Year

Mailchimp was acquired by Intuit for $12B.

But first, it was a side hustle for 7 years.

Then in 2009, Mailchimp's userbase exploded from 85k to 450k users in one year.

These 3 tactics led to Mailchimp's growth:

1. Adding A Freemium Plan

In 2009 Mailchimp introduced their “Free Forever Plan” where users could use Mailchimp for free, forever, until they reached 2000 subscribers on their email list.

So, how did they convert free users into paid users?

Mailchimp capped how many subscribers a user could have at 2000.
Mailchimp capped how many emails a user could send every month at 12k.
Mailchimp offered free features like automation to help users grow faster (accelerating the above metrics).
Mailchimp created a resource center for users to succeed.

With these four tactics, Mailchimp created the ceiling for users but then gave them the ladder to reach it.

2. Mailchimp's Digital Billboard

The brilliance of their Forever Free Plan was the addition of the digital billboard Mailchimp added at the footer of each email sent until a user upgraded.

This made each email an ad for Mailchimp, creating a viral effect by turning Mailchimp into an automated machine continuously feeding itself new users through its customers' email lists.

And if you want to remove it?

Then upgrade.

3. Monkey Rewards

And for those who upgraded to a paid plan and have the choice to remove the Mailchimp logo?

Mailchimp incentivized them not to remove it through their MonkeyRewards program.

How? If someone clicked the Mailchimp badge in your email and signed up, then Mailchimp awards you $30.

And the person who signed up also receives $30.

The Results After Year One?

MailChimp Co-founder and CEO, Ben Chestnut said:

MailChimp grew from 85k users to 450k users
MailChimp's paying customers grew by 150%
MailChimp's profit grew 650% in one year

So, putting it all together:

Offer a "Freemium" option to help users experience the value
Create a ceiling where the transition from freemium to premium is a no brainer
Give users the resources to breakthrough the ceiling
Inject "digital billboards" into your content or product where applicable
Use a 2-way referral program to incentivize current users to share and future users to sign up