Mailchimp is an email autoresponder designed to help you create effective marketing campaigns. However, it is the proverbial black sheep in the affiliate marketing world because it does not permit proper affiliate marketing on its platform.
If you want to run an affiliate marketing campaign on Mailchimp, it is best you first learn the rules so you don’t get your account blocked for breaking them. The platform, however, supports the use of affiliate links in your campaigns.
The real question is “how can I use Mailchimp for affiliate marketing so I don’t get banned.” Read on to discover this trick.
Can You Use Mailchimp For Affiliate Marketing?
The sad reality is that you cannot use Mailchimp for affiliate marketing because the platform prohibits it. While you can use affiliate links in your marketing campaigns, you aren’t allowed to use them to market on behalf of third parties.
The email autoresponder believes that affiliates are just middlemen only interested in creating business for a third party.
Because of how the affiliate marketing industry operates, affiliates have no obligation to keep relationships with contacts on the platform. Mailchimp dislikes such practices.
Does Mailchimp Allow Affiliate Links?
MailChimp is anti-affiliate marketing but at the same time allows affiliate links. You can use affiliate links in your marketing campaigns as long as you don’t link to banned URLs. And your main message doesn’t revolve around the links.
Mailchimp is only obligated to promote your affiliate links when you agree with its conditions.
They include:
- Uploading links should be done under your brand and in your voice.
- What you offer must be appealing to the needs of your target audience.
- If the domain/IP of the company is not delisted or blacklisted.
In summary, affiliate links will still fly with Mailchimp but the platform is not willing to permit affiliate marketing.
What Types of Affiliate Offers Can I Not Promote with Mailchimp?
Mailchimp has a strict policy against affiliate marketing. The details of this policy are clearly stated in their terms of use. Affiliate links that have their origin in a blacklisted website are an abomination to the platform.
If your offers are not from a blacklisted website, then you should have no problem uploading your link.
Here are some examples of prohibited affiliate offers on Mailchimp:
- Contents that Violate the Law: Content that is not law-abiding is sternly frowned upon by Mailchimp.
- Marketing Illegal Products: You cannot use Mailchimp as a font to market illegal products. As long as what you are selling is flagged illegal it is prohibited.
- Sexually Explicit Products or Content: These items may be viewed as offensive by certain users who are likely to complain and report your email.
Best Alternatives to Mailchimp for Affiliate Marketers
Since Mailchimp is anti-affiliate marketing, it’s wise to consider other alternatives which offer similar services and support affiliate marketing.
Here are the best alternatives to Mailchimp for affiliate marketing.
GetResponse
As an affiliate marketer, you will find GetResponse to be a more reasonable and elaborate marketing tool for affiliate marketing than Mailchimp.
With this platform, you are at liberty to carry out more detailed affiliate marketing activities without the risk of your account being suspended.
Here are some of its outstanding features:
- Landing Page Builder: This unique feature makes GetResponse of the best landing page builders for affiliate marketing. With this feature, affiliate marketers can host webinars enabling them to properly market their products.
- Autofunnel Feature: Also called conversion funnel, this feature helps affiliate marketers to build different funnel types such as simple opt-in, sales, lead magnet, and webinar funnels.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit is a good autoresponder for affiliate marketers. This platform allows you to carry out your affiliate marketing-related activities hitch-free, unlike Mailchimp.
Some of its mouthwatering features include:
- Visual Automation Builder: ConvertKit visual automation builder is second to know and it is well appreciated by various affiliate marketers that use the platform.
- A/B testing for Emails: This feature helps you test different emails to know which one converts best. You don’t have to test the whole email, you can test elements such as the subject line.
How to Use Mailchimp for Affiliate Marketing Without Getting Banned?
This question can be considered a million-dollar question. MailChimp has zero tolerance for affiliate marketing.
However, the question on most people’s minds is if there is a way to elude the system and still get affiliate marketing done without getting banned. As long as your affiliate link is not blacklisted, then you shouldn’t have any trouble.
On the other hand, if you use affiliate links for blacklisted websites, your account could be suspended.
Wrapping Up on Mailchimp for Affiliate Marketing
As an affiliate marketer, Mailchimp is not the best tool for you. There are many other autoresponders for affiliate marketing such as GetResponse and ConvertKit that offer you even more features than Mailchimp.
The best part about using these alternatives? You won’t get your account suspended because you are carrying out your affiliate marketing business.
However, if you want to use Mailchimp for affiliate marketing, ensure you pay attention to its rules around using affiliate links.
