We’ve all been there.

Seriously, there’s nothing worse than spending an insane amount of time rifling through a pile of your campaigns looking for ‘that’ particular one.

Especially if you want to send a campaign to subscribers who didn’t open it…

…and, of course, the more campaigns you create the harder it is to find what you need.

Which is why, it’s really important to use a good naming convention for everything you create in Mailchimp to stay organised (not just campaigns, tags need them too).

Where should I use naming conventions?

Naming conventions should be used for any form of email communication – we’re talking about your campaigns, your templates, automations, forms, landing pages and tags.

They should be thought out prior to starting a campaign and we recommend that once you have agreed on a naming convention, document it and stick to it.

It will save you a LOT of time in the future – trust me when I say I speak from experience!

The names need to be as descriptive yet accurate as possible.

Here’s some examples of how you could name things to make your life easier.

Naming Conventions for Emails 

It doesn’t matter if you’re naming an email you use as part of an automation/customer journey or if it’s just a standard campaign, you need to ideally have the same structure (as when you search campaigns, they get bundled together).

Which is why we suggest the following naming convention for ALL email campaigns:

Type of Campaign | Date of Campaign | Campaign Content | Any other info

So for example a standard campaign you send could be:

BC | 20Jun22 | New Product Launch | Resend

BC = Broadcast Campaign (i.e. one you send)
20Jun22 = Date (it helps to use a named month to avoid US/Non US date format issues)
New Product Launch = Campaign Name/Objective
Resend = Type of campaign

Here’s another example

BC | 22Nov22 | Core Webinar Reminder | Previous Attendees

BC = Broadcast Campaign (i.e. one you send)
22Nov22 = Date
Core Webinar Reminder = Campaign Name/Objective
Previous Attendees = Type of campaign – targeted

…and if your email is part of a Customer Journey/Automation

CJ | Welcome | Email #1 | Welcome to Us

CJ = Email is part of a Customer Journey
Welcome= As this is a CJ there isn’t a date, so use something to identify the specific automation/customer journey
Email #1 = Which email in the sequence is it?
Welcome to us = Detail on campaign

Naming Conventions for Tags

Start the name with something generic such as the category the tag belongs to, then add details to the name to be more specific for example:

Status: New

Or

EP: Course – Course Name (EP = Entry Point:)

Naming Conventions for Email templates

Standard templates are core so name them as such!

So in the example below, a landing page template would be named:
Core – LP template

Tips to remember

Keep the naming standard consistent for the same type of email. So, if you use “Newsletter” in the name, then use the same format every time, this means no space, no underscore etc.

• Be sure to put the most important information at the beginning to allow for easier searching
• Use the same format for dates every time
• If using capitalisation, spacing etc make sure it is consistent
• Use underscores to separate different functions or names.