by Robert Carnes
Email is an effective way your church can communicate with married couples. That’s why we created MP Monthly—a ready-made monthly email newsletter. It’s full of wise advice, dating tips, and conversation starters.
One option for sending out MP Monthly is to upload the pre-made template into MailChimp and send as is. But what if you want to customize the template specifically for couples in your church? We’re so glad you asked.
Upload the Images
One way to customize the MP Monthly Ezine is by recreating the template within MailChimp. This starts by uploading the image files.
- Download the MP Monthly zip file from your Strategy Pack.
- Inside the folder is a subfolder labeled Images
- In MailChimp, navigate to Templates from the main menu
- Click on the Content Manager button in the top right
- Drag and drop all of the image files from the MP Monthly folder into the MailChimp window
- This will automatically upload these images into your media library
Start a Campaign
With the images successfully uploaded to the library, it’s time to create a new email campaign.
- Navigate to Campaigns in the MailChimp menu
- Click the Create Campaign button in the top right
- Name the campaign and select Regular as the campaign type
- Select your audience and write a compelling subject line
- Read this for full details on setting up a new campaign
Recreate the Content
Now it’s time to recreate the content of the email from the template provided. This will allow you to fully customize the email you create.
- Select a Basic One Column template
- Click Next to Design the content
- Return to your MP Monthly zip folder and locate the HTML file
- Open this in a web browser (eg. Chrome) to preview the email template
- Using MailChimp’s content blocks, recreate the structure of the sample email
- Copy and paste the text from the HTML email into the text blocks
- Add image blocks and browse your media library for the files you previously uploaded
- Recreating the email in this way allows you to customize the content to fit your needs
- Feel free to edit the text, add your own images or change up the layout
The Advanced Method
There is another way to customize the MP Monthly email, but it requires knowing how to read and edit HTML. This way is quicker, but much more technically complex.
- Follow the instructions for uploading the zip folder as a template
- This automatically creates the content of the email for you
- However, the only way to customize is by editing the HTML code in the right panel
- Pro tip: use the find text feature to locate the code that corresponds to the template; then edit like you would normal text
Congratulations! You’ve successfully customized a MP Monthly email using MailChimp. You’re one step closer to improving marriages in your church.
Robert Carnes is an editor/writer on the MarriedPeople Team.
Robert Carnes is the editor on the MarriedPeople team. He’s worked in marketing and communications for a number of churches and nonprofits. Robert lives in Atlanta with his wife, Victoria.
