I'm currently using MailChimp for my e-mail newsletter. The subscribe form on my WordPress website is powered by Gravity Forms (as opposed to using MailChimp's forms). Gravity Forms + MailChimp Add-On = feeds all GF submissions into MailChimp.
Goal: Auto-tag my MailChimp subscribers based on their source. So for example, if they came from a Reddit ad or Google ad.
Solution: Leverage GravityForm's ability to dynamically populate fields. Details below.
- Create a GravityForm with e-mail, first name, last name fields (or just e-mail if that's all you collect)
- Add a Text Field and call it “Tags”, then Hide the field, then go to Advanced and check “Allow field to be dynamically populated” and set the parameter name as “tags”
- Install the MailChimp Add-On
- Connect your MailChimp Account in the GravityForms –> Settings –> MailChimp
- Create a GF / MC feed in the Form –> Settings –> MailChimp –. Create Feed. Assign the E-mail to E-mail / First Name to First Name / etc. Then at the bottom where it says “Tags”, click on the Merge Fields icon and insert the “Tags” value you just created. It'll look something like {Tags:2}. Then hit Save.
- Now when you link to your publication from Reddit ads or Google ads, create a special URL that leverages GravityForm's Query Strings. So for example, your link could look like “https://www.mynewsletter.com/?tag=reddit” and it'll automatically input “reddit” into your hidden Tags field in GF, which will then automatically assign a Tag called “reddit” to your MailChimp user.
- You can create as many tags as you want via that URL above. So you could have:
–https://www.mynewsletter.com/?tag=google
–https://www.mynewsletter.com/?tag=facebook
–https://www.mynewsletter.com/?tag=reddit-ad-1 - It doesn't just have to be for ads either. You can set your LinkedIn profile website as https://www.mynewsletter.com/?tag=linkedin for example and see which users subscribed from that link. You get the gist. Sky is the limit.
- You can also combine the above with UTM parameters to track sign-ups through your Google Analytics, but this solution will also tag them in your MailChimp too.