I love Mailchimp.

I’m an avid user of Mailchimp and throughout my career It’s always been my ‘go-to’ software of choice for Email Marketing. What’s not to like? it’s intuitive, powerful, and packed with a shedload of features. 

So it was great to join Chimp Answers who speak fluent Mailchimp!

When I joined the team just over 3 months ago, one of the first things Robin, (the main man behind it all) asked me to do was get my Mailchimp Foundations Certification. This was pretty much expected (and hoped for on my side..wink..wink) considering Chimp Answers are one of the first 10 Mailchimp Partners to achieve Pro status with Mailchimp and have achieved all available Mailchimp certifications.

So, I jumped at the chance. I was also curious to know just what Mailchimp Certification entailed and  whether it was worthwhile? 

Now you may be reading this because you’re wondering if Mailchimp Certification is right for you, perhaps you’re an agency or a business, perhaps you’re a freelancer, maybe you’re just getting started in your career. Wherever you are on this journey called life I hope my insights help. (In fact if they do, it would be really great if you could let me know in the comments below.)

So what exactly is the Mailchimp Certification?

The Mailchimp Foundations Certification gives you training in all aspects of Mailchimp which ensures you have a comprehensive understanding of Mailchimp’s best practices. The structure of the course matches an integrated strategy and is organised into journeys called Collect, Organise, Personalise, Market, and Optimise.

Each of these journeys takes around 20-30 minutes to finish with the more advanced journeys taking a little bit longer. There’s an assessment at the end of each course culminating in a final exam. You need to pass all 6 assessments to become officially certified in Mailchimp.

So here’s the Lowdown on each.

Collect

Want to discover how Mailchimp’s all-in-one Marketing Platform gives you a strong foundation for your marketing? This is where to start.

The Collect journey shows you how to build an audience, such as collecting and organising your contacts as well as covering the basics of connecting your store, integrations, and the Mailchimp API.

Organise

So you’ve got your audience, but how do you set it up and use your audience in the right way? You can start off with being relevant.  The best way to be relevant is to make use of Tags, Groups, and Segments as well as Advanced Segmentation. The Organise journey covers this all and is one of the most comprehensive journeys of them all.

Personalise

The Personalise journey teaches you the fundamentals of personalisation and how to tailor your audience’s experience with the introduction of Automation, Insights and  Analytics.

Here’s a breakdown, direct from Mailchimp of what’s covered:

• Define merge tags and understand how they help you personalise your marketing
• Use conditional merge tag blocks to create unique content experiences based on audience profile data
• Use multiple personalisation tools together to help you better reach a specific group of people

The course finishes off with an intro on insights and analytics.

• How analytics help to make informed business decisions
• The 4 types of analytics in Mailchimp’s marketing cycle

Market

What’s the best way to reach your contacts? The Market Journey breaks down all the different ways to do this through multiple channels such as landing pages, social media posts, digital ads, and postcards.

Once you’ve got the basics on how to implement different types of campaigns in Mailchimp, the course covers how multichannel campaigns work together to help you form a fully integrated marketing strategy as well as give best practices and ideas.

Optimise

Finally, the Optimise Journey shows you how to – well, Optimise- the contact’s experience with the usage of more advanced tools, like A/B testing, smart recommendations, and prescriptive and predictive analytics. It also explains how you can analyse what you see to form actionable marketing strategies that help you accomplish your goals.

The final exam ties together all these journeys with a plethora of case study-style questions, which requires a fair amount of thought and research. I learned this the hard way when I arrogantly took the exam for the first time without referring back to my notes – and immediately failed.

Let me just point out that to pass the final exam you’ll need to get at least 90% (yes 90%) correct answers. In round two I passed with flying colours – 96% to be exact! And I can safely say that I’m now officially certified in Mailchimp…Yay!

So back to the original question I posed at the start of this article, is Mailchimp Certification worthwhile?

The reality is that a certification in Mailchimp foundations really is worth it, especially if like me, you’re using it on a daily basis. So should you do it?  Absolutely.

The Mailchimp Foundations Certification is ‘chimply’ (groan!)  fantastic.  Not only does it demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of Mailchimp, being certified allows you to showcase your valuable skills to current and prospective clients. It also helps you keep up with the latest trends in digital and email marketing, a good forte to have for a new user or a seasoned pro.

I’m still smiling after receiving my shiny new certification toolkit and would wholeheartedly recommend the course to anyone, whether you’re new to Mailchimp or have been a partner for years.

The completion of the Mailchimp Foundations Course has not only left me empowered and inspired, but it’s also deepened my knowledge of Mailchimp and given me the confidence to utilise this newfound expertise in all aspects of my Marketing.

Mailchimp, I think I love you even more.

If you’re interested in taking the Mailchimp Foundations Certification, you need to join Mailchimp & Co (for free) and then complete the course.

Learn all about it here from Mailchimp.