If you currently use Mailchimp, you’ll have noticed change is afoot; you can no longer create new lists or audiences. 

So, if like many people you’ve been uploading all your data as “new lists”, you may well be sh**ting yourself about your Mailchimp list predicament. 

For beginners, Mailchimp can be a fantastic tool, but allowing endless list creation has always seemed a bit flawed – in our opinion. The lack of limit has resulted in the creation of endless lists comprised of data which hasn’t been allocated a tag or category.

Adding tags or categories and keeping the data in one list is essential for segmentation. 

For example, if you have a list of B2B customers gathered from an event, you should upload these into ONE master list, which you should then tag or categorise so you know where they came from – e.g. a Lead Source = Event_Name_Date. 

This approach allows you to create a segment from your main list, while keeping all the data together. And, more importantly, allows you to keep one consent in one place too.

Unfortunately, this hasn’t happened for the majority of people using this tool. The natural thing to do has always been to upload new lists, but the huge problem with this is each list in Mailchimp has its own consent. 

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Mailchimp is, quite rightly, rectifying this by blocking any more lists from being created, and encouraging you to merge them. But what if each of your lists has different headers or categories? Pretty ugly, right? 

The first step to rectify this is to analyse each of your lists for the headers, creation date and consent status, before merging into one list. 

If this is something you don’t fancy doing yourself, or you’re not quite sure where to start, then you’re in luck. As a specialist marketing automation agency, this type of work is our bread and butter, and what’s more, we love fixing the chaos when it comes to data disentanglement!

In the meantime, you can find out more about Bright Dials on social media. Give us a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to stay up to date in the world of email marketing, plus much, much more. And if you like our photos then check out Female Perspective a photography agency representing the world through the eyes of women.