Mailchimp Lists And Groups Hints and Tips - Combine

I've known for some time that Mailchimp has Groups, so I can create multiple groups under a list. Meaning that I can partition the people who join my mailing lists, but still send out to large groups without duplication.

Since Mailchimp only lets you send to a list, and not to avoid duplication between lists, this means that people don't receive the same email twice.
But some forms that link in to Mailchimp don't let you subscribe to a group, they let you subscribe to a list.

I had to sort this out so that I could easily partition people on sending, but still have easy sign up.

What I've done:

• Have a 'master' list which multiple groups
• Have people 'sign up' to individual lists
• When it comes time to mailshot, I "Combine Lists"
• Combine the 'sign up' list to the 'master' list, and add people to a group in that list

This:

• keeps my sign up situation nice and simple
• still allows people to unsubscribe easily if they need to
• avoids people receiving duplicate emails
• allows me to target more people with some mailshots than others

I have found Mailchimp to be the best service I've used for managing my mailing lists. And since I'm fairly low frequency with my lists, I use the "Pay As You Go" service, where I block buy a bunch of credits, and use them over the year, rather than worrying about maximising the value of a monthly subscription.