Is Your Mailchimp Account Actually Working? A Reality Check

“Everything’s running perfectly!” – Famous last words before discovering your email open rates are lower than your motivation on Monday mornings.

You know that friend who insists their ancient laptop is “working fine” while it takes 10 minutes to load a webpage? Don’t be that friend with your Mailchimp account.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most people treat their email marketing like a houseplant—they set it up with good intentions, water it occasionally, and hope it doesn’t die while they’re not looking.

But unlike your long-suffering succulent, your Mailchimp account won’t quietly wither away. It’ll loudly fail, taking your email deliverability, subscriber engagement, and marketing ROI down with it.

The good news? An email marketing audit is way less painful than explaining to your boss why your campaign went to spam folders instead of inboxes.

Your Audit Options (Choose Your Own Adventure)

Before we dive into the nitty-gritty, here’s how you can tackle this:

The Professional Route: Get experts to audit your account with our Mailchimp Health Check—a comprehensive review based on analyzing hundreds of accounts over a decade.

The DIY Method: Use this guide to audit your account yourself (perfect for control freaks and people who enjoy spreadsheets).

9 Critical Areas to Audit

1. Account Foundation

Is your setup held together with digital duct tape?

Your account settings are like your car’s registration—boring but essential. Check that your:

• Billing information is current (not your college roommate’s credit card)
• Plan matches your actual subscriber count
• Contact details won’t send Mailchimp messages into the void
• Admin settings reflect your current business needs

Quick Win: Review your billing settings today and ensure you’re on the right plan tier for your contact volume.

2. Campaign Analytics

Flying blind is only fun in Top Gun movies

Sending emails without analyzing performance is like throwing darts in the dark—you might hit something, but you’ll never know what.

Track your key metrics:

• Open rates and click-through rates over time
• Bounce rates and unsubscribe patterns
• Engagement trends and seasonal variations

Quick Win: Compare your last two campaigns side-by-side. What improved? What declined? What patterns emerge?

3. List Management

Clean data = happy campaigns

Your subscriber list is your engine. If it’s clogged with inactive contacts and duplicates, your performance will suffer.

Audit for:

• Ghost subscribers who never engage
• Duplicate contacts costing you money
• Proper use of segments, tags, and groups
• List hygiene and regular cleaning practices

Quick Win: If you’re managing multiple audiences without a compelling reason, consolidate them. It’s cheaper and more privacy-compliant.

4. Data Collection Strategy

Quality over quantity, always

Your signup forms should work harder than a coffee shop barista during morning rush.

Evaluate:

• What information you’re actually capturing
• Whether your merge fields serve a purpose
• How different signup sources affect subscriber behavior
• Your overall customer data journey

Quick Win: Examine your audience data sources and consider how you could personalize messages based on where people joined your list.

5. Automation Workflows

Set it, test it, optimize it—never just forget it

Automations should guide subscribers smoothly through your customer journey, not trap them in digital purgatory.

Review:

• Whether you have automations beyond a basic welcome email
• If your triggers are actually working
• How subscribers flow through your sequences
• Performance of each automated touchpoint

Quick Win: Check your automations section right now. If you don’t have any (and you’re paying for Mailchimp), create a welcome sequence immediately.

6. Email Deliverability

Getting to the inbox is half the battle

The best email in the world is worthless if it lands in spam folders.

Verify:

• Domain authentication and DMARC setup
• Sender reputation maintenance
• Regular removal of disengaged contacts
• Compliance with email best practices

Quick Win: Navigate to your domains section and confirm all sending domains are properly authenticated.

7. Subject Line Performance

Your first impression is your only impression

Subject lines are the bouncer at the inbox nightclub—they decide who gets in.

Assess:

• Whether you test different subject line approaches
• Use of preview text as prime real estate
• Sender name consistency and trustworthiness
• Subject line performance patterns

Quick Win: Experiment with a completely different subject line style for your next campaign and compare results.

8. Content Quality and Design

Make it worth their time

Opened emails need to deliver value, not disappointment.

Evaluate:

• Visual appeal and mobile responsiveness
• Content relevance and brand consistency
• Readability and scannable structure
• Value proposition clarity

Quick Win: Read your last email as if you received it from someone else. Is it actually engaging, or just corporate noise?

9. Call-to-Action Effectiveness

The whole point is getting people to do something

If your calls-to-action are harder to find than matching socks, you’re doing it wrong.

Check:

• Button visibility and mobile-friendliness
• Clarity of desired actions
• Design elements that support or hinder engagement
• Focus on single, clear objectives per email

Quick Win: Review recent emails and ask: “Can someone instantly understand what I want them to do next?”

The Bottom Line

Email marketing audits aren’t glamorous, but neither is explaining why your last campaign had a 2% open rate.

If this process feels like trying to perform brain surgery with gardening tools, consider getting professional help. Our Mailchimp Health Check provides a comprehensive analysis of your account, complete with actionable recommendations and the occasional dad joke.

Because life’s too short for ineffective email marketing—and your subscribers deserve better than digital spam.