Mailchimp

We use Mailchimp to send emails directly to our members. Mailchimp is a powerful tool that allows us to manage our members' information and campaign data.

How members are added to the list

Marketing laws have established that we must receive permission from contacts before we send them promotional emails (e.g. a consent tick box giving us permission to send them emails). Read The Importance of Permission.

To join our email list, members must first be a DVS member at any level. One of the questions in the sign up form asks if they want to subscribe to our emails. When a member wants to be part of our email list, a Zapier automation begins and their information is imported into Mailchimp.

Something to note is that many members who are on our email list are not signed up as a DVS member, i.e. they are not registered in Memberspace. This is because DVS Memberships launched in June 2021, and DVS was founded in 2019.

Sending emails to our members

Be mindful of the audience you select when sending emails. We have several. The main one, which is also the largest, is called "DVS members". Check the Content Calendar to see when emails will go out.

There are 4 emails that are regularly sent out.

1. Monthly newsletter
   • Audience: DVS members, segment "Preference - General"
     • This email is sent out at the end of each month. One week prior to when it goes out, an email is sent out to the entire DVS team calling for updates and content to include in the email. We provide our members news about upcoming programs and events. This is the Google Drive folder where content is collected.
     • Use the "DVS Monthly" email template
2. The 'Gale
   • Audience: The "Gale
     • This email is sent out by the Nightingale Team. They send emails to the "The 'Gale" audience.
3. Learning & Career
   • Audience: DVS members, segment "Preference - Learning & Career"
     • This email is sent out each month
     • Use the "DVS Learning & Career" email template
4. Events
   • Audience: DVS members, segment "Preference - Events"3
     • This email is sent out each month
     • Use the "DVS Events" email template

We also send out the following emails:

• IIB Awards
  • Use the "IIB Awards" email template
  • There are two audiences to consider for the Awards.
    1. "Information is Beautiful Awards": 6,642 contacts. This list is from David McCandless. We are not growing this list by soliciting email signups.
    2. "DVS Audience" (segment: 'IIB Awards Updates"). Any member in the DVS Audience list has been crosschecked with the "Information is Beautiful Awards" list from David and tagged with "IIBA". New members added to DVS Audience is checked through a Zapier automation if they are on David's list. If they are, they are automatically tagged a "IIBA". The segment "IIB Awards Updates" selects everyone EXCEPT those tagged with "IIBA". This ensures that we do not send duplicate emails to the same contacts.
  • When we send out emails, we must send two separate email campaigns. The first is with everyone on the list "Information is Beautiful Awards". The second is to "DVS Audience", select the segment "IIB Awards Updates".

Miscellaneous

• We have a segment called "Memberspace Members" in the "DVS Audience" list. This segment is created by identifying if they have been tagged with "Basic", "General", "General (Income-Conscious)", "General + Print", or "Patron". These are all the membership tiers established with the membership launch, and contacts are tagged this through Zapier if they signed up as a DVS Member. We don't use this segment much, but it's available if needed. Keep in mind that there are some members who are signed up in Memberspace, but did not opt-in to sign up to our email list. If you ever need to send out mass emails to Memberspace members, use Zapier.
• We have a segment called "Nightingale Magazine Print Subscribers" in the "DVS Audience" list. They are in this segment if they are tagged with "Patron", "General + Print", "Nightingale Print (Add-on)", or "Nightingale Print Magazine". This segment is a list of members who purchased the Nightingale Magazine in 2022, so it may have members who do not purchase future issues.
• We have a segment called "Paid Members [General + Patron]" in the "DVS Audience" list. This segment is created by identifying if they have been tagged with "General", "General (Income-Conscious)", "General + Print", or "Patron" We have previously sent emails to this group when asking them to vote for new slate of Board Members, and about new discounts with partners.

Regular routine cleanups

We are on a Mailchimp legacy plan called Pay As You Go. This plan lets us have unlimited Audience lists and it is billed by the number of contacts we have per audience. Duplicate contacts count more than once. Say if we have contact x in the DVS Audience list and The 'Gale audience, we are billed for 2 contacts, even if they're email is the same. Whenever you are setting up a new audience, keep this in mind because it affects how we get billed.

If we are ever done with an audience and do not need to use it anymore, you can Archive the contacts. Archived contacts do not count towards our plan and we will retain all their data. You can unarchive contacts at any time.