If I could have a pound for every time I’ve started working with an organisation’s Mailchimp and they’ve said:

1. “I wish we’d started collecting that data sooner”…; OR

2. “Someone else used to look after our Mailchimp but they’ve left and we don’t understand what’s going on.”

Here’s how to future proof your Mailchimp. Trust me, you’ll be really glad you did this.

What would happen if your Mailchimp account got hacked tomorrow? Or you inadvertently breached a rule and your account was suspended (hopefully temporarily)? Or someone working on your account did something they shouldn't have? Or you deleted a box in your sign-up form and lost all the individual data sitting behind it?

Probably a disaster? Here’s how to protect your data just in case…

A while back Mailchimp asked if I’d be on their global Customer Advisory Board (CAB) this year - a small panel of Partners (Mailchimp experts) and 6 of their most innovative customers from around the world. Needless to say I said “Yes”. And then I went to Atlanta…!

Updated version. You know when you receive emails from big companies that look like a web-page with their website menu on the top? Not only do they look good, but they're also a brilliant way to showcase what you do in a glance and drive people to your website.

The best way to do it depends on whether you’re using Mailchimp’s Classic or New Builder as they both display differently for the recipient. Here’s are two quick and easy ways to DIY it on your own Mailchimp emails and newsletters without any programming skills.

Spam folders an be a pain in the bum if you send "bulk emails” or a newsletter using a tool like Mailchimp. It’s almost inevitable that some of your emails will end up in junk folders, but there are lots of things you can do to minimise the risk. Here’s tip 1

I’m lucky to live right opposite a church with a wood behind it. In fact, I can see it right now if I look up from my desk. It’s a cloudy day and the trees are still bare but you get the idea.

Much to my delight but to the consternation of others and exclamations of delivery men, the church bells ring every 15 minutes. And it’s very interesting what I’ve come to notice coincides with those dongs. My phone often buzzes as a little flurry of email marketing comes through on quarters and particularly on the hour while the church bell is counting them out. At certain times of the day there’s a big swoosh of them together and my inbox suddenly fills up. Here’s what you can learn from those patterns and how to apply them in your own email marketing…

It doesn’t matter how fabulous your email marketing and newsletters are if no one ever opens them. So what’s normal? Where do you stand in that range? How do you improve it? And why it’s about more than open rates.

I had an enquiry recently for help with Mailchimp. Early on in our conversation, the man (let's call him Bob) said that their website sign-up was all working fine but they needed help with templates and automations.

However, I like to try things out for myself and make sure anyway so I subscribed to their mailing list via their website.

When I signed up I very quickly discovered something that he had completely missed because he hadn't recently gone through the front end sign-up process "wearing the eyes" of a website visitor. And that error was a big one.

Once your website is up and running and you're busy working in your business, it's very easy to move on and assume those processes are still doing their job. However sometimes they break, the app/plugin integration gets glitchy or things simply get outdated. When was the last time you checked yours? It’s crucial you do this from time to time. Here’s how…

In the course of helping businesses with Mailchimp and email marketing and what pops into my inbox, I see a LOT of scope for improvement when it comes to e-newsletters.

Here’s my guide to 7 things that every email newsletter should contain regardless of your business type or customer base.

A bit like social media, the success of your email campaigns is in part due when they land in someone’s inbox. The trick is to have it arrive at a time when it’s relevant to them and they’re checking emails, and before their inbox fills up with other mail that could take their attention away from yours. All that depends on:

1. Who your audience is and their lifestyle

2. Whether you’re selling business to business, business to entrepreneur, or business to consumer

3. What sort of things you’re emailing about?

Read on for some tips and food for thought.

I speak to a lot of business owners who don’t collect email addresses because they don’t plan to do email marketing.

However, that it NOT a reason not to collect email addresses. Even if you don’t plan on doing anything with them for the foreesable future, here’s why every single business out there should be collecting them…

Firstly, I’ll start by saying this… S I Z E. I S. N O T. E V E R Y T H I N G. It’s better to have a small Mailchimp audience of 100 people who hang on your every word than 100,000 who don’t care, especially when you have to pay for them.

But despite that, we all want more people to sign up because we want more of those people. And let’s face it, a big list feels like a mark of success just like our social media followings. I get that. The key is making sure that they are the right people.

So here are my top tips on how to grow your list in the right way.

Life threw something awful at my family recently and sent a big fat reminder that none of us know what is around the corner.

The chances are that if something awful happened tomorrow, your loved ones would be able to sort out your personal affairs if you couldn’t. But if you’re a business owner too would they know how to sort them out? Who your clients are and how to contact them? How to access your website? Who your accountant is? Etc etc etc?

No, neither would mine.

So join me in taking these steps right NOW, because we don’t know what’s around the corner.