In Mailchimp, your contacts are stored in something called an Audience (also known as a list). Mailchimp requires you to have at least one audience and, depending on your Mailchimp plan, you can have more than one. However, the fact that you can have multiple audiences doesn’t necessarily mean that you should.
The number of audiences you can store in your account depends on your plan. As a best practice, we recommend you maintain only one primary audience in Mailchimp, and use tags and segments to organize and target your contacts. If you absolutely need to maintain separate audiences, you can repeat this process to create them.
Your Mailchimp audience is designed to help you collect and manage subscribed, non-subscribed, and unsubscribed contacts. Here are some definitions for each. Someone who has opted in to receive your email marketing campaigns. Someone who was opted in to receive your email marketing campaigns, but isn’t currently.
How do I manage multiple audiences in Mailchimp?
As a best practice, we recommend you maintain only one primary audience in Mailchimp, and use tags and segments to organize and target your contacts. If you have multiple audiences, you can use our combine audiences tool to merge them together.
Mailchimp treats all the audiences in your account separately, and billing is based on the total number of contacts across all your audiences (with the exception of archived and cleaned contacts). If you have duplicate contacts across audiences, having one audience could save you money. One audience is also easier to manage and keep clean.
How do I get Started with MailChimp?
A critical first step to getting started with Mailchimp is setting up your audience. Whether you’re starting from scratch, or bringing existing contacts into Mailchimp, your audience is where you’ll store and manage all your contact data.
Although most people who use Mailchimp are on the “ free” level, if you’ve an audience of over 2,000 you’re probably paying for it… but if you have multiple audiences and the same people in more than one audience, you’re definitely paying over the odds.
Mailchimp charges based on contacts (which if you started your account after June 2019 includes both subscribers and those who are unsubscribed), and doesn’t account for the same email appearing in more than one audience. So avoid paying over the odds and consolidate your data into one single audience.
What is a contact count in Mailchimp?
An individual member of your audience who can receive or view your marketing. Subscribed, unsubscribed, and non-subscribed contacts all make up your contact count. The number of contacts you store across all of your audiences in Mailchimp. Your maximum contact count affects the price of your plan.
How do segments work in Mailchimp?
Your audience contains a lot of information about your contacts, like when they were added, where they live, and how they interact with your marketing. You can use this information to filter contacts into segments, and then target them with email, postcard, or ad campaigns. In this article, you’ll learn how segments work in Mailchimp.