You want to create your own audience in Mailchimp? Perfect! In this guide, I will show you step by step how to create an audience that will help you optimize your marketing strategies and effectively reach your target audience. Whether you are running a small business or are a marketing professional, having the right understanding of creating an audience is crucial for the success of your campaigns.
Key Insights
- An audience can be viewed as an empty box that you can fill with contacts.
- The process of creating an audience involves defining names, email addresses, and privacy settings.
- Utilizing Double Opt-In and GDPR fields is important to obtain user consent and comply with legal requirements.
Step-by-Step Guide to Creating an Audience
First, you should log in to your Mailchimp account. Once you are logged in, you can begin creating your audience.
Click on Audience in the menu at the top. Here you may already see some contact details that are possibly saved. An audience is meant to organize your contacts so that later you can target your marketing campaigns to the right people. To create a new audience, go to "Manage Audience" and select "View Audiences".

If you want to create new audiences, click on the "Create Audience" button. At this point, you will receive some suggestions and hints on how to name the audience. Let's proceed directly to "Create Audience" to start the actual process.

Now you can start entering the required information. Give a meaningful name to your audience that will help you identify it easily later on. An example could be "Company XYZ Newsletter".

Next, enter the default email address from which the emails to the audience will be sent. This address will be displayed to the recipients as the sender. You could use "example@example.com" here, but remember to choose a professional address.
Then enter the sender's name. This is the name that will be shown to the recipients when they receive an email. Here, you could use your company name or another easily recognizable name.
Below that, you will find the Campaign URL Settings. Here, you can generate a campaign URL or have one generated randomly. I personally prefer the random option as it is less specific and takes certain security aspects into account.

Under "Remind people how they signed up to your audience", you can add a text that explains to subscribers how they signed up for your newsletter or audience. For example, you could say, "Thank you for signing up for the Company XYZ Newsletter." This provides clarity on why they are receiving emails from you.
Now comes the most important part. You need to enter your company information. Here, you specify which company is behind the audience, such as "Company XYZ". This information is important so that recipients know where the emails are coming from and who is sending them.
Don't forget to configure the Form Settings for your audience. Here, you can choose whether to activate Double Opt-In. This means that anyone who signs up will receive a confirmation email to confirm their interest. This is important for compliance with data protection regulations.
Additionally, you should include the GDPR fields so that your subscribers can give or withdraw their consents for marketing purposes. This information is crucial in today's world to prevent legal issues and protect the privacy of your subscribers.
Remember to also specify how often you want to be notified about new entries in your audience. You can choose to be informed daily or be notified by email with each new registration.
After filling out all the necessary fields, simply click on Save to save your audience. This way, you have captured all the required information and your audience is now created. Make sure to provide a correct email address, as the system will alert you if anything is missing.

If you have entered all the information correctly, your audience will now be saved in your Mailchimp account. And that’s it! This is how easy it is to create an audience that helps you implement your marketing strategies efficiently.

Summary
Creating an audience in Mailchimp is a simple but important task for anyone working in online marketing. By creating an audience and configuring the right settings, you can ensure that you effectively target your audience while following all data protection regulations.