audience growth Archives

The Essential Guide to a Mailchimp Audit

June 19, 2026 / Mailchimp How-To, Marketing Strategy / Alex Gallagher

Email marketing remains one of the most effective ways to drive conversions and build brand loyalty. However, if your Mailchimp open rates are stalling or your monthly bill is climbing, your strategy might be held back by technical debt or disorganized data. A comprehensive Mailchimp Audit can uncovers issues with account configuration and marketing strategy, plus solutions to maximize your email marketing success.

What is a Mailchimp Audit?

A Mailchimp audit is a holistic, in-depth review of your entire account, ranging from high-level campaign strategy to granular technical configurations. Rather than just looking at your latest open rate, an audit examines how your audience is structured, how your emails are being delivered, and whether your designs are truly optimized for today’s mobile-first readers. This makes it a great fit for nonprofits and higher education institutions looking to improve their email marketing results.

Think of it as a wellness check for your email marketing ecosystem. We identify the “red flags” that might be sending your emails to spam and uncover hidden opportunities to save money and boost engagement.

What’s Included in a Pure Firefly Mailchimp Audit?

Our team takes a multi-layered approach to ensure every corner of your account is performing at its peak. Every audit includes:

1. Deliverability & Technical Security

We verify that your domain is fully authenticated and check your DMARC policies to protect your sender reputation. We also run your campaigns through spam checkers to test against common B2B and B2C filters, ensuring your messages actually reach the inbox.

2. Audience Organization & Hygiene

A messy list leads to high costs and low engagement. We analyze your use of Mailchimp tags, groups, and segments to streamline how you target your subscribers. Our team provides recommendations for list consolidation and contact management to lower your Mailchimp bill and improve sender reputation. Each audit report also includes a 45-minute training call covering segmentation, design, and marketing best practices.

3. Design & Accessibility Review

We review your templates for design best practices like mobile responsiveness, skimmability, and clear calls to action (CTAs). We also check for accessibility standards, such as alt text for images and high-contrast color palettes, to ensure your message is readable for all subscribers.

4. Legal Compliance

Email regulations like CAN-SPAM and GDPR are non-negotiable. We ensure your footers, signup forms, and opt-in processes are fully compliant to avoid account blocks or legal issues.

5. Automation Strategy

Are you missing out on “evergreen” engagement? We review your current Mailchimp automations and identify opportunities for automated welcome series, re-engagement campaigns, or date-triggered messages that keep your brand top-of-mind without manual effort.

Who is a Good Candidate for a Mailchimp Audit?

Not sure if you need a professional review? You are an ideal candidate for a Mailchimp audit if:

You’ve noticed a sudden drop in engagement: If your open rates have recently tanked, it may be due to new spam guidelines from major providers like Gmail and Yahoo.
Your monthly bill is higher than expected: Many accounts pay for “ghost” contacts—unsubscribed or disengaged users who are still being counted toward your billing tier.
Your list has grown organically for years without a cleanup: Older lists often contain “spam traps” or invalid addresses that can damage your deliverability.
You are rebranding or launching new services: An audit ensures your account structure can support your new goals and that your design reflects your updated brand.
You feel overwhelmed with your account: If you’re not sure how to effectively categorize your subscribers or move forward with an old account, an expert review can provide the roadmap you need.

Start Optimizing with Pure Firefly

Don’t let technical hurdles or outdated lists stand in the way of your marketing goals. A Mailchimp audit provides the clarity and actionable steps needed to turn your email list back into a high-performing asset. If you’re ready to level up, contact Pure Firefly today to schedule a free intro call. We’ll get your Mailchimp account in good shape.

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How to Use Mailchimp’s New Popup Builder

June 16, 2025 / Mailchimp How-To, Marketing Strategy / Alex Gallagher

Popup forms are one of the best ways to maximize email signups from your website. This month, Pure Firefly launched a new popup with Mailchimp’s brand new form builder. So far, it’s been a hit! Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you make the most of the new popup tool.

Mailchimp’s New Popup Builder

In 2025, Mailchimp launched a brand new popup builder available on the standard plan and above. While their existing popup forms are still available, this new builder includes a wide range of improvements. The new popup builder features:

Over 80 free templates for various industries
Completely customizable layouts on mobile and desktop
Advanced logic and visibility settings
Detailed analytics like impressions and opt-in rate

With all the improvements, the new builder is worlds ahead of the previous one.

Developing a Lead Magnet Strategy

When you plan to launch a new popup, start by developing your lead magnet. In marketing, the lead magnet is the “lure” that gets new website visitors to sign up. It should be relevant to potential subscribers and ideally lead them towards purchasing or donating later on.

To develop your lead magnet, begin by thinking about what existing supporters enjoy and expect from you. Whether you deliver products, build tech solutions, or serve your community, make sure your lead magnet aligns with those core activities and values.

For businesses, a simple discount code is an easy way to get subscribers in the door. You can also consider providing a free whitepaper, introductory call, or video lesson for those who subscribe.
For non-profit organizations, consider sharing a report, a story from your founder, or a case study that demonstrates why your organization matters.

As an email marketing agency, Pure Firefly made our lead magnet a guide to email automations, which may be useful for our potential customers.

Starting a New Popup in Mailchimp

Mailchimp’s new popup builder is a little more complex than the original. Here’s how to get started:

Navigate to “Forms” within Mailchimp and click on “Create popup form”
Choose your incentive (AKA lead magnet), or click on “View all templates”
Click Preview on any templates that interest you. Once you’ve chosen a favorite, hit “Apply.”
Give the form an internal name you can easily remember, choose your Mailchimp audience, and select email, SMS, or both. Then, hit create form.

Once you create your draft form, you’ll be ready to start designing!

How to Design Your Mailchimp Pop-up

Mailchimp’s new pop-up builder is split into 3 columns.

a screenshot of mailchimp's new popup builder with steps on the left, preview at the top, and style on the right

Steps: On the left side, you can develop the form’s logic. Each Step can be thought of as a new version of the form design, which will show up if a user takes a certain action. For example…

Offer entices website visitors with your lead magnet.
Email capture displays your form fields.
Confirmation grants access to your lead magnet

Preview: The wide center column shows previews of your Mailchimp signup form at every step. Each step will have both a desktop and mobile preview available. You can click on any one of the previews to edit that step and section.

Style: The rightmost column is where you can edit the appearance of your Mailchimp popup. Here you can change colors, fonts, images, and text sizes. It’s split into two main sections:

Typography displays the fonts used throughout your form design.
Colors shows colors used throughout the popup.

To streamline the process, consider setting your default styles as soon as you create the pop-up. That way, you don’t have to change the styles at every step.

If you’re a less tech-savvy Mailchimp user, you may benefit from a quick training call before you build your first form. Pure Firefly’s Mailchimp experts are here to help!

Connecting a New Mailchimp Popup to Your Website

Once you’ve created your new popup form, select or add your website URL under “Where should it show?” Click to connect manually or via the Shopify integration.

To connect manually: Mailchimp will ask to confirm the URL and connected audience, then generate a snippet of code. Embed this code on your site to enable the new pop-up.

If you’re using a platform like WordPress, Squarespace, or Wix, look for settings that let you inject code into the header. You can also use a custom code block, which is often available in your site’s page builder.

Be sure to test the popup on both desktop and mobile to confirm it’s appearing correctly.

Setting Up a Welcome Journey

After someone subscribes via your popup, you’ll want to welcome them right away. Mailchimp makes this easy with Customer Journeys.

Navigate to “Automations” and choose “Build from Scratch.”
Create a new journey in the same audience your pop-up is mapped to.
Choose the starting point “Signs up for email” and click on “Filter who can enter this journey.”
Create the following filter: Signup Source – Was – Popup Form
Hit “Use segment” and “Save Starting Point.”
Click on “Add a journey step” and choose “Send email.”

Building emails in customer journeys is very similar to building standard scheduled campaigns. In the email, thank them for joining and include a clear link to download or view your lead magnet. To start new subscribers off on the right foot, make sure your welcome email follows best practices for email design.

How to Read Your Pop-Up Report

Mailchimp’s reporting tools make it easy to understand how your popup is performing. When you view your popup report, you’ll see several key metrics:

Site Visitors: The total number of people who visited your site during the reporting period.
Unique Impressions: How many individual visitors saw the popup. This filters out multiple views from the same person.
Email Opt-In Rate: The percentage of popup viewers who subscribed with their email. This is a key metric to evaluate how compelling your form and offer are.
SMS Opt-In Rate: If your form includes phone number fields for SMS marketing, this shows the percentage of people who also opted in to receive texts.

Review these numbers regularly to identify areas for improvement. Keep an eye on your welcome email’s standard engagement analytics too!

Need Help? Contact Pure Firefly

If you want help designing a high-converting popup, crafting an automated welcome email, or setting up your Mailchimp account, Pure Firefly is here for you. We offer custom popup designs, done-for-you automation builds, and one-on-one training calls to empower you to manage your own email marketing. Contact us to get started!

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What Does “Cleaned” Mean in Mailchimp? Understanding Contact Statuses

February 11, 2024 / Mailchimp How-To / Alex Gallagher

If you use Mailchimp for email marketing, you’ve probably seen contacts being marked as cleaned. Cleaned is a contact status that impacts how you can store and market to a contact. Let’s dig into what Mailchimp’s cleaned contact status means and what you can do about it.

What is a “Cleaned” Contact?

In Mailchimp, a Cleaned contact is any contact that has been determined as invalid. In other words, this email address is unable to receive any emails.

Typically, contacts are marked as cleaned after emails sent to that contact from your Mailchimp account have hard-bounced or repeatedly soft-bounced. Emails need to soft bounce at least 15 times for Mailchimp to clean a contact.

Because you are prevented from sending emails to a cleaned contact, it can be frustrating to see them on your account. Thankfully, cleaned contacts do not count towards your monthly plan limit.

You can export cleaned contacts and archive them, as of 2025. Combined with audience consolidation, this is a great way to maintain list hygiene.

When Does Mailchimp Mark a Contact as Cleaned?

Mailchimp may clean a contact at any point in their lifecycle in your audience. Here are a few of the most common times when you’ll see a subscriber become cleaned:

After you send a campaign: When you send out a new email, Mailchimp will record the contacts that bounce. Addresses that hard bounce or soft bounce repeatedly will be marked as cleaned.
When you import contacts: If you import a misspelled or invalid email address, Mailchimp may automatically mark them as cleaned. Some emails will even be blocked from importing at all.
During an automated series: Sometimes contacts that initially appear valid will bounce back repeatedly, leading to them being marked as cleaned.

If you find that many of your new contacts are being blocked from import or immediately marked as cleaned, it may be time to brush up on list hygiene. Consider using a list cleaner like Zerobounce to remove invalid addresses.

What Do I Do With Cleaned Contacts?

Cleaned contacts are removed from your billing but remain in your audience. However, you can archive them to keep your list looking clean.

To avoid cluttering your list with cleaned contacts, make sure invalid addresses are not allowed into your audience. Consider enabling double opt-in or reCAPTCHA to prevent spam on your signup forms.

Double opt-in can also root out any real website visitors using fake email addresses – Some people will do anything for that 10% discount.

Can I Send Anything to a Cleaned Contact?

Contact statuses in Mailchimp impact what you can send. For example, users cannot send marketing emails to non-subscribed contacts. However, non-subscribed contacts can still receive postcards.

Cleaned contacts are unable to receive any communications from Mailchimp.

Why is Mailchimp Strict About Cleaned Contacts?

Mailchimp maintains strict deliverability standards to protect the sender reputation of all its users. If a handful of Mailchimp users send to many invalid addresses, this can impact the delivery of all emails on Mailchimp’s platform.

To keep everyone out of spam, Mailchimp constantly cleans contacts and monitors compliance with laws like CAN-SPAM & GDPR.

Optimize Your List Hygiene with Pure Firefly

If you’re struggling with managing cleaned contacts in Mailchimp, consider working with a Pro Partner like Pure Firefly. A qualified email marketing expert can help identify the source of cleaned contacts and develop a list hygiene strategy. Just send us a message for a quote on audience work.

30 & 60 Minute Training Calls are also available to answer all your email questions!

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Mailchimp Campaign Analytics: Matching Metrics to Your Goals

September 21, 2023 / Mailchimp How-To, Marketing Strategy / Alex Gallagher

Wondering how to measure your Mailchimp campaign performance? Start with analytics! For every email sent, Mailchimp provides in-depth analytics, including open rates, click rates, revenue, and more. This post will help you leverage campaign analytics in order to match Mailchimp’s Metrics with your goals.

Understanding Mailchimp Campaign Analytics

Mailchimp is a leader in email marketing analytics. As such, their campaign reports equip marketers with plenty of metrics to guide strategic marketing decisions. Here are some of the most valuable metrics Mailchimp provides to analyze your campaigns:

Open Rate: The % of recipients who opened your email
Click Rate: The % of recipients who clicked on any link in your email
Clicks Per Unique Opens: The % of openers who clicked on any link in your email
Bounces: The number of campaigns that were unable to deliver
Unsubscribers: The number of recipients who unsubscribed
Revenue: The total value of purchases made using links in your campaign

Each of the analytics above can reflect successes and failures in your strategy, leading to smarter marketing decisions.

How to Match Metrics to Campaign Objectives

Different campaigns have distinct objectives and thus require different metrics for evaluation. In order to make the best use of Mailchimp’s campaign analytics, begin by setting a clear goal. For example, you may want to boost sales on a particular product or win back subscribers who have become disengaged.

When you start with a goal in mind, it is easier to see what metric will most clearly reflect your success. Then, you can combine this primary metric with other campaign analytics in order to gain a more well-rounded view of your email’s performance.

Examples of Goal Alignment with Mailchimp Analytics

Wondering where to start with Mailchimp’s analytics? Here are some common campaign types, the goals they tend to target, and the metrics that will be most useful for measuring their success.

Welcome Email: Most welcome emails are intended to build a strong relationship with subscribers, and may direct recipients to an organization’s website. Focus on open rates, click rates, and unsubscribes.
Black Friday Promo: This promotion is aimed at boosting sales, so you can measure success with revenue.
Event Promotions: When your goal is gathering registrations for an event, connecting Mailchimp to your event platform is key. Not sure how to set it up? Consider working with an email marketing agency like Pure Firefly to develop an API integration.
Blog Update/General Newsletters: Many educational emails are intended to drive traffic to a particular website or article. On the Mailchimp side, that means tracking clicks is the way to go!

Maximize Your Metrics with Pure Firefly

Reaching your marketing goals is made even easier when you have a trusted partner in email marketing. Pure Firefly offers 1-on-1 training sessions on the nuances of Mailchimp strategy, template design, and campaign analytics. Or, contact us to kick off ongoing marketing work including account set-up, Mailchimp audits, template creation, and more.

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nonprofit volunteer with an email list icon

Nonprofit List Building: Do’s & Dont’s

September 8, 2023 / Mailchimp How-To, Marketing Strategy / Alex Gallagher

Growing your email list is essential for spreading the word about your mission and connecting with your supporters. We’re here to help you expand your email list while avoiding common pitfalls. Let’s explore the list-building best practices that will help your nonprofit flourish in the email marketing world.

In need of more help? Contact Pure Firefly for training, strategy, and more.

Do Provide an Incentive

Whether you’re building a pop-up or collecting emails in person, providing incentives can significantly boost your opt-in rates. Offering a valuable lead magnet, like a free report or an informative video, encourages visitors to share their email addresses willingly. This tactic not only grows your subscriber list but also creates a positive impression of your brand. As a nonprofit, consider what drives website visitors to be interested in your work, and fuel that interest with a free resource or offer.

Don’t forget to follow up on the incentive with a well-crafted welcome email!

Don’t Spawn Too Many Popups

While popups are one of the most effective ways to get website visitors’ attention, excessive popups can lead to frustration and a negative user experience. At Pure Firefly email marketing, we recommend using only one strategically timed popup that matches your overall website design.

Asjust settings to prevent users from seeing the popup after they’ve already subscribed, or after visiting the site more than once.

Do Build Your Nonprofit List with Social Media

Social media platforms are powerful tools for nonprofit list building. Marketing experts agree that multichannel is the future, beginning with email and social media. Promote your email signup through engaging posts, stories, or even contests. Encourage your social media followers to join your email list and highlight all that your newsletter has to offer.

This integrated approach not only maximizes your reach, but also ensures that your most enthusiastic followers are connected with updates across platforms.

Don’t Gather Emails for No Reason

Collecting email addresses without a clear purpose can lead to disengaged subscribers and even legal issues. Plus, many email marketing platforms will charge based on the number of contacts you store, so there is little benefit to keeping contacts on file without emailing them.

Make it clear to every subscriber what they’re signing up for. Consider working with an email marketing expert like Pure Firefly to develop a welcome email that describes what kind of content subscribers can expect, and how often they will receive it. By setting clear expectations, you attract subscribers who genuinely want to hear from you. This will lead to higher engagement rates, lower unsubscribe rates, and a cleaner email list overall.

Do Import Contacts via API

Using API to import contacts is one of the best ways to keep your email marketing strategy cost-effective. API integrations can connect Mailchimp to your CRM, online store, or other online platforms. Integrations allow you to update your contact list automatically and ensure consistency across all your marketing streams.

Here are some tips to make your next Mailchimp integration a breeze:

Work with an Expert: If you’re not tech-savvy, work with a professional to help you set up your integration. Custom API development can be a complicated process, so don’t be afraid to reach out to an email expert like the ones at Pure Firefly.
Get Permission: When you use integrations to import new contacts, make sure they’ve all opted in to email marketing. Add an opt-out option or disclaimer to any service you’ll integrate with Mailchimp.
Check Your Fields: Make sure the information you’re collecting from your subscribers matches the fields in Mailchimp. For example, if you collect mailing addresses on your website, add an address field in Mailchimp.
Stay Updated: If you ever notice anything strange, like emails not going through or wrong information, reach out to someone who can help you troubleshoot. Keeping things updated and working smoothly is key.
Tag Contacts: If possible, it’s always ideal to tag contacts based on their signup source.

Don’t Buy a List, Build a List

Nonprofits looking to grow their Mailchimp audience should never be tempted by offers to buy an email list. Purchased lists often contain disengaged, uninterested, and invalid recipients, which can harm your deliverability and result in low open and click rates. It’s also against the terms of service for most email marketing platforms like Mailchimp.

Instead, invest in building a genuine, quality subscriber base that willingly opts in to receive your emails. If you’re having trouble with cultivating organic growth, try booking a strategy call with an email specialist to improve your subscription flow.

Build Your Nonprofit Email List with Pure Firefly

Pure Firefly is a full-service email marketing agency with years of experience in IT & design. Our dedicated specialists can help you develop your first lead magnet, welcome automation, or next year’s email program. Try a one-on-one strategy call to get familiar with Mailchimp, Klaviyo, or email marketing in general. Plus, we are one of the only Mailchimp Pro Partners who offer API development. Don’t wait – Contact us to start building your list like a pro!

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nonprofit team members in a circle around a red cartoon heart

Nonprofit Email Marketing: Where to Start

March 17, 2023 / Marketing Strategy / Alex Gallagher

Nonprofits on a tight budget should never overlook the potential of email marketing for their work. By harnessing the particularities of email marketing for nonprofits, you can effectively boost engagement, attendance, and donations.

The possibilities are vast, and starting is simple. Here’s our beginner’s guide in 5 simple steps.

1. Curate Your Email Marketing Audience

Before you start sending, you need an audience! The good news is that nonprofit organizations often have a head start on audience building through in-person events and volunteer connections. You may grow your audience through any of the following tactics:

Have people sign up using pen & paper at your next in-person event
Invite past volunteers to subscribe to your list
Include an opt-in form wherever you collect donations
Share a signup form with your social media network
Add signup forms to your website using popups or landing pages

To start email marketing on the right foot, focus on organic growth. Start with your most loyal community members, and make opting in and out simple. Be sure to clean any large audience list before importing.

Above all else, never buy, rent, or “scrape” an audience. If you send to contacts who haven’t agreed to receive your emails, you may see a spike in unsubscribes and spam reports and run the risk of sending to spam traps. Spam traps are false email addresses that service providers use to keep spammers at bay.

If Mailchimp detects spam traps in your audience or sees a spike in abuse reports, your account will be put under investigation and may be terminated. It’s better to start small than to lose your progress altogether because of poor audience acquisition practices.

2. Plan Out Your Email Marketing Strategy

Once you have an email marketing audience, it’s time to brainstorm about what email updates you’d like to send. For nonprofits, a smart marketing strategy makes all the difference. Take a moment to think over the following questions as they relate to your nonprofit:

What’s one key action I want subscribers to take?
What does my organization offer to subscribers & the world at large?
How does my organization serve the present moment? (day, year, or decade)

Your organization’s core goals and values should drive any email marketing campaign. They make up the “why” of your email strategy: Why am I sending this email?

Once you know why you’re sending, consider what you’re sending. Monthly newsletters are a common place to start for nonprofits. A monthly newsletter provides space to share the latest updates on your work, as well as a calendar of events, relevant news articles, and more.

Consider how you can use segmentation in your email marketing strategy. Many organizations now are leaning towards targeted emails over longer general updates. Consider creating different kinds of emails for different portions of your audience. For example, event invitations could be a great fit for local community members, but less relevant to donors overseas.

Most email marketers send a mix of segmented & unsegmented emails to engage their full audience effectively. Try starting with one general newsletter and one targeted campaign to build your experience in both areas.

3. Build Your First Email Marketing Campaign

Designing your first email campaign doesn’t have to be daunting. Email marketing services like Mailchimp provide no-code options for building any email. You may even contract an agency or designer to create mobile responsive templates you can customize with updated content.

Whether you work with a designer or build your first template yourself, always keep in mind that people tend to skim emails, and over 40% of subscribers now open emails on mobile devices. This makes concise text, large headers, and relevant images essential. Use a hierarchy of information to plan your first email design, and direct subscribers toward a specific call to action.

For your first email design, consider creating a welcome email. Welcome automations are essential for any organization with an email list, as they provide an opportunity to connect with subscribers as soon as they sign up. Some other options for your first email could be a simple “hello” letting your audience know what you’ll be sending or a first newsletter with your most important updates from the past year.

4. Test, Test, Test

Once your first campaign has been sent, set aside some time to review its performance. For Mailchimp users, a report is generated on every campaign and updated in real-time. Consider these key metrics to analyze the success of your email campaigns:

Open Rate: Shows % of subscribers who opened an email. This can measure subject line & preview text efficacy, as well as send date & time.
Click Rate & Clicks per Unique Open: Click rate shows the % of subscribers who clicked on any link in an email, while clicks per unique open (also known as click-to-open rate) shows the % of openers who went on to click on an email’s links. These metrics are helpful for measuring the effectiveness of an email’s content and design.
Bounces & Unsubscribes: Track the health of your audience by following trends in your bounces and unsubscribes. A sudden spike in either of these metrics indicates that your audience needs to be cleaned.

5. Develop Your Nonprofit’s Email Marketing with Pure Firefly

If you’d like a hand with starting an effective email marketing strategy, consider working with Pure Firefly. We offer one-on-one strategy calls, copywriting & design, and in-depth audits to ensure you’re making the most of your Mailchimp account. Check out our services to learn more, and contact us anytime for a quote!

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