Mailchimp

Mailchimp is primarily a marketing platform focused on email and SMS. As such, its built-in CRM functionality doesn’t offer features like pipeline management that traditional CRMs might, especially those intended for B2B deals. However, it offers helpful features such as customer profiles, segmentation, and behavioral insights.

The platform is cloud-based and accessible via the web from anywhere. It also offers mobile apps for connecting with customers on the go.

Audience Segmentation

Segmentation lets you filter your contact list into smaller groups based on shared characteristics such as location, engagement level, or purchase history. You can use up to five criteria (or unlimited with a Standard/Premium plan) to create dynamic lists that update automatically. Mailchimp also provides predictive segmentation, highlighting customers who are more likely to convert or spend more.

Behavioral Targeting

This feature tracks how customers interact with your business, for example, clicking a specific link, making a purchase, or abandoning a cart, and uses that data to trigger automated responses. It moves beyond “who” the customer is to “what” they do. You can then use email marketing to target specific customers based on where they are in their journey with your business. This can come in handy for timely incentives and converting customers based on their recent activity.

Predictive Insights

Mailchimp uses AI and machine learning to analyze historical data and forecast future customer behavior, including Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and Purchase Likelihood. These insights help you identify your most loyal customers so you can reward them, while also spotting “at-risk” customers who might need a special offer to prevent churn.

Since Mailchimp is primarily for small- to medium-sized businesses, the software is beginner-friendly. The platform’s centerpiece is its intuitive drag-and-drop editor, which simplifies the creation of professional-looking newsletters and landing pages through a “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” (WYSIWYG) interface. Also, users highlight the dashboard’s clean, modern layout and the helpful guided onboarding process that walks newcomers through their first campaign.

As for CRM-related features, ease of use is enabled by the unified dashboard. It may take some time to learn how to use those features, but the company’s guides are helpful. Businesses and their marketers or sales staff can easily use features like segmentation, targeting, and CLV.

Even though the software has grown more complex as it evolved into an all-in-one marketing hub, it maintains a reputation for making sophisticated tasks feel manageable through visual builders and clear labeling. With use over time and tutorials, marketers can learn how to use the various features offered.

Every individual in your audience has a dedicated profile page that serves as a central repository for their entire history with your brand. From this dashboard, you can view their marketing status, see a chronological feed of their opens and clicks, and even check their predicted gender and age based on their digital behavior if that information isn’t readily available. The number of contacts you can interact with may be limited by the plan you’re but can be increased with a higher charge.

As for users, they are also limited by the plans they have subscribed to. The software offers from a few to unlimited seats. Those seats can be classified by role (ranging from 2 in Essentials to 5 in Premium), and each role has its own access and classification within the app.

Mailchimp provides a comprehensive suite of reporting tools that transform raw data into actionable insights. For every email or SMS campaign, users can access detailed metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, bounces, and unsubscribes, as well as unique “campaign benchmarking” that compares your performance against industry peers. In terms of CRM/audience reporting, it provides customer profiles and behavioral insights to help pivot marketing strategy and materials. It may not be as detailed as other CRMs, but for basic interactions and customer purchase history, the reporting is sufficient.

To ensure it fits seamlessly into any business workflow, Mailchimp offers a vast ecosystem of over 300 integrations across categories such as e-commerce, social media, and productivity. It can even be integrated with existing CRM or ecommerce platforms as an add-on, supplying data related to email marketing campaigns into the broader CRM system you rely on. For instance, major platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and Salesforce can be linked directly to automatically sync contact data and purchase history.