MailChimp is an email marketing service.
Founded in 2001, MailChimp is also the name of the company which operates its email marketing namesake. The company was sending over 10 billion emails per month by 2014 on behalf of its users.
Initially it started out as a paid service but it ended up offering a freemium service eight years after it was founded.
In 2016 the company revealed that it was merging Mandrill transactional email services into MailChimp as an add-on feature. The Mandrill merger brought widespread criticism as users were only given 60 days notice to switch to the new pricing structure. The new pricing structure meant that, effectively, users had to pay for two products in order to access Mandrill.
How does MailChimp work?
MailChimp offers a wide range of features, including flexible design, ecommerce integrations and analytics.
The service also offers automation, described by MailChimp as a way to make “sure your emails get to the right people at the right time.
“Target customers based on behavior, preferences, and previous sales. Trigger a series of emails with a single API request. Use our built-in segmentation to build custom rules. Delight your fans with a free gift. And when you’re finished, get in-depth reporting insights to make every automated series you send better than the last.”
The MailChimp logo is a chimpanzee, with the company providing numerous chimp-related gags and jokes on its site.