Can Mailchimp be used as a CRM?
We’ve been a Mailchimp Partner for years, having first used the platform over a decade ago. They even had me present a case study on an international call. But can you—and should you—use Mailchimp as a CRM?
Let’s find out!
What is Mailchimp?
Mailchimp is an email marketing platform. It’s pretty simple to use and relatively inexpensive, making it one of the most popular email marketing platforms. It also has marketing automation capabilities, e-commerce integration, and you can even build a website using the platform.
What is a CRM?
CRM stands for customer relationship management. A CRM is a software tool that helps businesses manage their customer relationships. A CRM can help you track your customers’ contact information, purchase history, and interactions with your company.
How can Mailchimp be used as a CRM?
You can use Mailchimp as a CRM in a few ways. First, you can use Mailchimp to collect basic customer contact information. You can also use Mailchimp to send marketing communications to your customers and track some of their interactions with your company. You can organize your contacts using Audiences and Tags. There’s even a place to enter internal notes for each contact.
A better option for a CRM
Time for a confession. In addition to being a Mailchimp Partner, we’re also a HubSpot Partner. And while Mailchimp is an excellent option for email marketing for many of our clients, it was not initially created as a CRM.
HubSpot’s paid plans are pricier than Mailchimp’s paid plans, so let’s ignore those for a second. Mailchimp’s free plan limits you to 500 contacts. HubSpot’s free plan limits you to 15 million contacts in their CRM.
15 million!
HubSpot’s CRM capabilities blow away those of Mailchimp. And their marketing capabilities are great as well, with email marketing capabilities available with the free plan.
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do something. And that’s how I feel about using Mailchimp as a CRM. You don’t have to use HubSpot, but use something built to be a CRM, not a platform where CRM capabilities were tacked on as an afterthought.