Sound familiar?
- You have three or four Mailchimp audiences with the same people in each, and you pay for every copy.
- Your emails go out on Mailchimp's default sending domain because yours has never been authenticated.
- The free plan limits now block you from sending to your whole list.
- Your sign-up form does not say clearly what people are agreeing to.
- Nobody in the business knows how to build a campaign without breaking the template.
- Automations were set up years ago and nobody knows if they still work.
Key facts
- Monthly Mailchimp management starts from £95 a month + VAT; one-off set-up is £45 an hour + VAT on a fixed quote.
- Mailchimp's UK pricing page (checked October 2026) caps the free plan at 250 contacts and 500 sends a month or 250 a day.
- Automation flows are not included on Mailchimp's free plan; Essentials allows up to 4 flow steps, Standard up to 200 flows.
- Mailchimp's paid plans bill on contacts, so a tidy audience keeps the cost down.
- We authenticate your domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC so emails come from your brand, not a shared Mailchimp domain.
- Everything is built in your account and stays yours.
Why Mailchimp accounts get messy
Mailchimp is often the first email tool a business tries, and it shows. We regularly see accounts with separate audiences for the newsletter, the shop and an old event, each holding many of the same people. Because Mailchimp's paid plans bill by contact, each duplicate costs money, and the same person can get the same campaign twice.
Mailchimp recommends one main audience organised with tags, groups and segments. We merge the duplicates, carry over consent records and unsubscribes, and rebuild the structure so you can target 'customers who bought in the last six months' without a separate list.
What Mailchimp's plans include in 2026
Mailchimp tightened its free plan this year. According to Mailchimp's UK pricing page, checked in October 2026:
- Free: up to 250 contacts, a maximum of 500 sends a month or 250 a day, and no automation flows.
- Essentials: automations up to 4 flow steps, plus testing and scheduling features.
- Standard: up to 200 automation flows.
- Premium: up to 200 flows plus multivariate and A/B testing.
Plan prices change with contact count and currency, so we check the live pricing with you rather than quote it here. If a free account has outgrown its limits, we will tell you whether a paid Mailchimp plan or a different platform, such as Klaviyo for online shops, is the better value.
Domain authentication and deliverability
Out of the box, Mailchimp can send on your behalf from its own domain. That works, but inbox providers increasingly expect the sending domain to match the From address. Google's Email sender guidelines require bulk senders to pass DMARC alignment, and Yahoo's Sender Hub says the same.
During set-up we add Mailchimp's DKIM and domain verification records to your DNS, check your existing SPF record stays within the ten DNS lookup limit set by the SPF standard (RFC 7208), and publish or review a DMARC record. If your DNS is hosted with a provider you cannot reach, we will write the exact records for whoever manages it.
Forms, consent and GDPR fields
Mailchimp offers embedded forms, pop-ups and hosted sign-up pages, plus optional GDPR fields that ask people to choose how they want to be contacted. We set these up so each form clearly says what people are signing up for, records the source as a tag, and sends a confirmation where you need double opt-in.
The ICO's PECR guidance requires specific consent for marketing emails to individuals unless the soft opt-in applies. If your shop or booking system adds customers to Mailchimp automatically, we check that the integration only marks people as subscribed when they actually opted in.
Integrations: shops, CRMs and booking systems
Mailchimp connects to Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace, Xero and a long list of other tools, either directly or through Zapier. Those connections are useful but are often the source of a messy audience. A shop integration might add every customer as a contact, including people who never ticked a marketing box, and then you pay for them all.
We review each connected app, check which fields and tags it writes, and confirm that marketing status is only set to subscribed where there is consent or a valid soft opt-in. Purchase data from a shop integration is worth keeping because it lets you segment by what people bought. We also map any merge fields you rely on, such as first name or membership type, so personalisation does not break and show a blank where a name should be.
Done for you, or done with you
Some clients want us to run Mailchimp completely. Monthly management, from £95 a month + VAT, covers planning, writing, building, testing and sending campaigns, with a short report on clicks, unsubscribes and list growth.
Others want a clean set-up and then to send in-house. In that case we quote the set-up at £45 an hour + VAT, agree a fixed price first, and finish with a recorded training session on building and sending a campaign from your saved templates. Our marketing training page covers longer courses for staff.
What you get
- Audit of your current Mailchimp account, audiences, tags, forms and automations
- Audience consolidation into one main audience using tags and groups
- Domain authentication and a check of SPF, DKIM and DMARC records
- Branded, mobile-friendly email templates saved for reuse
- Embedded and pop-up sign-up forms with PECR-compliant wording
- Automations such as welcome and post-purchase on a plan that supports them
- Monthly campaigns and a short report, or training so your team can send in-house
How it works and what it costs
Google Ads management from £150 a month, social media management from £125 a month and email marketing from £95 a month, all + VAT. Ad spend is separate and paid to the platform. No long contracts.
Free review
We look at your current ads, social, email and analytics, or your plans if you are starting out, and tell you plainly what we would change.
Plan and price
You get a written plan with targets, budgets and a fixed monthly fee before anything starts.
Set up properly
Tracking and consent first, then campaigns, audiences, content calendars or email flows, all in accounts you own.
Run and improve
We manage it every week: search terms, bids, creative, posts and tests, cutting what does not pay and doing more of what does.
Report in plain English
A monthly report on leads, sales and cost per result, not vanity numbers, with what we will do next.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Mailchimp set-up cost?
dijitul marketing charges one-off Mailchimp set-up at £45 an hour + VAT and agrees a fixed quote before starting. Ongoing campaign management starts from £95 a month + VAT. Your Mailchimp plan is paid directly to Mailchimp.
Is the Mailchimp free plan still worth using?
For a very small list, perhaps. Mailchimp's UK pricing page (October 2026) caps the free plan at 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with no automation flows. Most businesses with a real customer list will need a paid plan or another platform.
Can you merge our duplicate audiences?
Yes. We export each audience, keep unsubscribes and consent records intact, merge into one main audience and tag contacts by source. That usually reduces your billable contact count as well.
Should we move from Mailchimp to Klaviyo?
If you run an online shop and want flows based on browsing and orders, Klaviyo is often a better fit. For newsletters and service businesses, Mailchimp is usually fine. We will give you an honest view and the migration cost before you decide.
Do you set up double opt-in?
We can. Double opt-in sends a confirmation email before someone is added as subscribed. It is not legally required in the UK, but it reduces fake sign-ups and gives you a clearer record of consent.
Can you train our team to use Mailchimp?
Yes. Training is charged at £45 an hour + VAT. We cover building a campaign from your saved templates, choosing segments and tags, testing on mobile, scheduling, and reading the report so you know what to change next time.
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Get a free marketing review
We'll look at your ads, social, email and tracking, and tell you plainly what we'd change. No obligation.