Oh My – Mailchimp Introduces Multi User Functionality

Mailchimp is moving into the big leagues and introducing Multi User Functionality.  What’s Multi User Functionality? I’m so glad you asked!

As a web development agency, we offer email marketing support services to our clients. One of the things that concerns me with the current Mailchimp access, is that everyone has the same level of access – so my support staff can see billing information and the like, when all they require is the ability to create and edit new email messages.  Now, it’s not that I’m worried my team members will do the ‘wrong thing’, they are all highly trained and sign NDA’s etc however, the risk of an account compromise is increased with every person who can access it.  Limiting access by role, reduces risk – which is a good thing.

So what does Multi User Functionality really mean?

This means you’ll be able to set up a MailChimp account as an “Admin,” then grant permission to “Authors” who are allowed to design templates and create campaigns, or invite people in your organizations who can only view reports, and so on.

~ Mailchimp

Cool…. but what levels are available and what do they mean? From the email received from Mailchimp tonight:

1. Admin: Highest level access to everything in MailChimp. Most importantly: account settings, billing info, the ability to shut down the account, and the ability to add other user types.
2. Manager: Most of the essential functions of a MailChimp account (creating campaigns, viewing lists and reports). Basically, managers can’t access account settings, change billing, export lists, or invite other users.
3. Author: Can create campaigns and edit templates, but cannot send them. You might give this access to an in-house designer or writer, or even to an outside design agency.
4. Viewer: Only has the ability to view campaign reports. Grant this to someone in the company who needs to see campaign results, but doesn’t need to be creating campaigns or fiddling with lists. If you used our VIP Reports feature in the past, you could invite people as Viewers instead, so you don’t have to share reports each time you send a campaign.

As part of these changes, the “account keys” functionality will be discontinued – which I don’t think is so bad.  Instead, you’ll now see this when you login:

So you can choose which of your client accounts you want to select:

Finished with one clients work and ready to do the next one?  Changing accounts is simple:

One of the really nice features is that an Author can create campaigns, but they can’t send them! In the final pre-delivery checklist, you won’t get the buttons to “Send Now” or “Schedule for Later.” Instead, you’ll get a button that says “I’m Finished,” which will allow you to send a note to Managers and Admins so that they can log in and deliver the campaign.  How great is that?

There’s still more goodness coming in Mailchimp V8 – which you can read about over on the blog… but these are the ones I think are most exciting.  The changes come into effect Feburary 18th, so make sure you check your account on that date.

Grab your Mailchimp account today!