Last Fall, I created a video that showed how to use the Mailchimp landing page as a lead magnet. Once someone completes the form, a tag is added to their contact information. The tag then triggers 1-step automation that sends the giveaway. Since then, I’ve received lots of comments on Mailchimp in general and customer journeys. Those comments inspired me to create another video – a Mailchimp landing page that leads into a Customer Journey.
Prefer to Watch the Video?
Create a Landing Page
Rather than creating a new landing page, I replicated the one from the previous video. To find the previous landing page, go to the campaigns tab. Next, click on all campaigns, then view by type and select landing page. Here is the landing page I did last year. Since the page is unpublished, click the down arrow to the far right of the page name and select replicate.
On the replicated copy, change the name to something you’ll recognize internally. Next, change the title of the landing page because it is viewable in the browser.
With the title all set, the next option is the URL of the landing page. If you have a domain associated with your Mailchimp account you can select it as part of your URL instead of generated random numbers. The last piece of the URL is the extension or page file name.
After the URL is set, select the appropriate audience list, if you have more than one, and set the tag(s) for the page. The tag(s) is the key to “trigger” the customer journey.
Last but not least, you create the content for the landing page. In my example, since it is a duplicate I changed very little. However, you want to spend some time here, crafting your message, using copywriting skills and marketing skills here. You want to engage the person to sign up for your lead giveaway.
In the landing page sign-up form Send Options there are two options – Confirmation message or send to a web address. In my example I selected the confirmation message.
With our landing page all set, click on Publish.
Start the Customer Journey
From the Automations tab, click the green Create button, then click Customer Journey and give it an internal name. Click the green button to add a starting point. There are many starting points to choose from. In my example, a chose Tag Added.
In the tag option box that appears, select the tag you added to your landing page. At the starting point, you have the option to add filters to narrow the scope of entries into the journey. The filtering option is an “and” option not an “or”. In my example, I chose not to have filters because I wanted everybody that went to that landing page to start the customer journey.
Send the Email
Next, add the action Send Email to the journey. Clicking on the action, add a distinct name to this step in the journey as it does come in handy when adding if/else options. Next set up the email – add a subject line, a preview text (optional), and the same audience associated with the landing page.
In the content of the email add a button or link to the giveaway/lead magnet. Once you are satisfied with the email, click Save and Return to Journey.
Set up an If/Else
Rather than just having a linear journey you may want to add conditions with an if/else option. For instance, in my example, I added an if/else to test whether or not the contact opened the lead giveaway. If a contact did open the giveaway email – great! Send an email to them. If the contact didn’t open the email – not so good! Send a different email. Remember, your goal here is to obtain a customer through the journey. If someone is not interested push them in another direction. You will want to set these conditions along your customer journey.
If you have any questions about Mailchimp or the customer journey, leave them in the comments below, happy to answer them the best I can.