Mailchimp v Squarespace Email Campaigns – The Match-Up

Why This Matters

Let’s set the scene. You’ve finally started building your email list. Maybe it’s fifty people tucked away from your first networking event, or perhaps you’re staring at a spreadsheet sent over by your cousin who swears her friends will love your stuff. Either way, you’ve promised yourself: “This is the year I actually start sending newsletters.” But now there’s a snag. Two tempting buttons glare at you: Mailchimp, the familiar gorilla in the room, and Squarespace Email Campaigns, which is already winking at you from your website dashboard.

Choosing the wrong tool can drain your time, your patience, and even a bit of money. If you fiddle around with the wrong settings, you risk blasting the same “20% OFF” to people twice, or sending beautifully formatted gobbledygook that lands in everyone’s spam folders. Most frustrating of all? You end up spending hours trying to polish a template when all you wanted was to remind people your business is still, in fact, alive.

This decision is bigger than picking technology. You need a reliable, simple way to build real relationships with your audience and gently nudge them from interested onlookers to loyal fans. When you get it right, email marketing provides long-term benefits. If you get it wrong, it becomes another half-finished project weighing down your Sunday night. So, should you stick to Mailchimp or plunge into Squarespace’s new email playground? Let’s see who comes out swinging.

Common Pitfalls

I’ve sat across the table from enough entrepreneurs, artists, and over-caffeinated freelancers to know: most people start their email marketing journeys by picking a platform because “someone else said it was good.” That’s problem number one.

Here are the classics:

• Building elaborate templates… and then never sending anything because updating them takes all day.
• Accidentally managing multiple, mismatched lists (blame goes equally to Mailchimp and every user who never watched a single how-to).
• Ignoring analytics entirely, opting for “well, my mum replied, so someone’s reading it!”
• Pouring effort into full automation (birthdays, abandoned carts, moon phases) only to realise you have precisely 17 email subscribers.
• Forgetting to check what your email looks like on a mobile. There’s nothing like a broken layout and unreadable typeface to kill enthusiasm.

At Pixelhaze, coaching beginners through this typically reveals the same pattern: enthusiasm turns to overwhelm, and before you know it, the email campaign joins the graveyard of Good Marketing Ideas. This cycle is avoidable.

Step-by-Step Fix

Let’s break down the decision, and get you sending emails that actually go somewhere.

1. Audit Your Actual Needs

Before you copy-paste anyone’s “best platforms for small business 2024” list, get honest about your situation.

• Are you already running your site on Squarespace?
• Do you need advanced automation such as drip series, A/B testing, or complex triggers?
• Do you want hands-off ease or are you ready to get your hands dirty with lists, segments, and stats?
• How tech-savvy do you feel at 8pm on a Tuesday?

Write down your honest answers. Nobody is coming to check your homework, but this exercise is the difference between loving your tool and resenting it.

2. Weigh Up Core Features Side by Side

Here are the practical details you should focus on (skip any feature you couldn’t care less about):

Mailchimp: The Old Guard

• Feature Depth: Almost endless. A/B testing, scheduling, advanced analytics, and automations galore.
• Free tier: Generous for small lists, but gets pricier as your audience grows.
• Template Design: Full control, but expect to spend a chunk of time getting your newsletters pixel-perfect.
• Segmentation: Excellent. If you want to target “Dog Owners who clicked my link about vegan recipes in the last six weeks”, you can do it.
• Integrations: Plays nicely with almost everything, including Squarespace, Shopify, Eventbrite… you name it.

Squarespace Email Campaigns (SEC): The Upstart Contender

• Feature Set: Streamlined. You get basic automations (e.g. thank-you emails after sign-up), but not the deep triggers or split-tests of Mailchimp.
• Pricing: Clean, pay-as-you-grow structure; low-tier starts at about the price of a few posh coffees per month.
• Template Design: Fast. Your existing branding, pages, posts, and events can be pulled in instantly.
• Segmentation: Mailing lists are simple but effective for most new businesses.
• Integrations: Built in. No clunky plug-ins, no “please reconnect API” error messages.

3. Sketch a Real Campaign Scenario

Theory is nice, but a practical walkthrough is better.

Mailchimp Example:
You’re launching a three-week course. Module sign-ups, reminder emails, follow-up for anyone who dropped off—all scheduled, all triggered automatically by student behaviour. Mailchimp lets you build the whole system, see exactly who clicks what, and nudge non-openers with a different subject line. Granular control, but expect to spend an afternoon learning the ropes.

Squarespace Email Campaigns Example:
You’re running a local event, and you need to invite your subscribers, share a blog update, or run a discount code. With SEC, you click ‘New Campaign’, pull in your most recent blog post (with images and formatting intact), and hit send. Start to finish, it’s less time than it takes to do your weekly admin.

4. Test, Don’t Guess

Whichever tool you pick, send yourself (and a trusted friend) a few test campaigns.

• Open on your phone, tablet, and desktop. Watch out for squashed logos, broken links, or mystery fonts.
• Make sure personalisation (“Hi, Elwyn”) works as expected.
• Double-check the unsubscribe button and footer details. You don’t want to land in hot water with privacy regulators.

5. Grow Your List and Keep It Tidy

Set up proper sign-up forms on your website. Don’t bury them several pages deep. Both Mailchimp and Squarespace let you add these to your homepage, your blog, and even your checkout.

• Connect as many forms as you like to a master list.
• Segment your subscribers early, even if it’s just “People who bought before” and “People who haven’t”.
• If you import addresses (from events, a local fair, etc), always get permission first. Nobody enjoys spam.

6. Track Results, But Stick to the Basics

You don’t need a PhD in data science to benefit from analytics. Mailchimp will show you who opened and clicked. Squarespace reports are simpler but tell you what matters: opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes.

• Watch the days and times people engage.
• Tweak your subject lines if open rates are low.
• Don’t panic if you only get a handful of clicks—the people who engage are your gold.

What Most People Miss

A certain kind of fear of missing out creeps into email marketing: the sense that you should be “doing it properly,” with glossy automation, pixel-perfect design, and a reporting dashboard that would make NASA jealous. This belief has led to more abandoned campaigns than any technical hurdle.

The most successful small businesses I’ve worked with share one key lesson: consistency and clarity are more important than complexity. Regular, sincere updates outperform the occasional perfect masterpiece.

When you choose a tool, ask yourself if it helps you send helpful emails on a regular basis. If your answer is yes, you’ve found the right one. Spending hours learning features you never use is time better spent meeting customers, writing new content, or even taking a break from your screen.

Resist being dazzled by big numbers or celebrity endorsements. Know your own habits, and position yourself for success.

The Bigger Picture

Building a simple, integrated email system can have a lasting impact. The right approach allows you to:

• Grow an email list that’s independent of social media algorithms.
• Stay front-of-mind without nagging or spamming.
• Experiment with offers and content, directly learning what appeals to your audience.
• Save money and hours each month by moving from panic and indecision to scheduled, low-stress campaigns.

If and when your business needs more complex automations or you’re managing a very large list, Mailchimp and other advanced platforms remain available. For the first several years, however, most businesses thrive using tools they actually put to work.

If you’d appreciate clear support or step-by-step guidance, we’ve got you covered at Pixelhaze. You don’t have to figure it all out alone.

Wrap-Up

Here’s a quick summary for your fridge:

• Choose Squarespace Email Campaigns if you want simplicity, speed, and a tool that works smoothly with your site and branding.
• Stick with Mailchimp if you’re ready for deeper automation, segmentation, and analytics, and you’re comfortable with a bit more complexity.
• Above all, keep it regular and keep it real. Sending a decent email every month beats a dazzling campaign that never makes it out the door.

If you want hands-on help, practical templates, and support from people with real experience, remember: we offer the most comprehensive Squarespace Email Campaigns training available to our Academy members, free of charge.

Want more systems and resources like this? Join Pixelhaze Academy for free at https://www.pixelhaze.academy/membership.

Squarespace Email Campaigns FAQs

Can I use emojis in my emails?
Yes, you can. Just remember they appear differently on various devices. What’s a cheery grin on your iPhone might show as a cryptic square on someone’s work PC. Use sparingly.

Can I connect multiple forms to one mailing list?
Absolutely. There’s no hard limit, so add those sign-up boxes wherever your customers appear.

How do I remove the “Powered by Squarespace” badge?
If you’re on the Starter plan, you’re stuck with it. Upgrade your plan, and you’ll see a toggle in the footer settings to hide the badge. (Unsubtle hint from Squarespace for you to pay up.)

How do I copy a draft campaign?
Open your Email Campaigns dashboard, click on Drafts, select the draft you want, and you’ll see a ‘Duplicate’ option. Handy for quick monthly edits.

Jargon Buster

Mass email marketing tool: A system that lets you send big batches of emails to your list at once, perfect for newsletters or announcements.

Split testing (A/B testing): Sending out two versions of an email to see which performs best. Useful for subject line experimentation (but only if your list is large enough to provide reliable data).

Click-through rate: The percentage of people who clicked a link in your email. It’s a way to measure engagement with your content.

Conversion rate: The number of people who took your desired action after opening the email—bought something, registered, or gave you a virtual high five.

Automated email system: Emails sent based on user actions, such as welcoming a new subscriber or saying thanks after a sale. It’s like having a polite robot do your admin work.

Related Pixelhaze Resources

• Why It’s Still Important to Fact-Check AI Tools Like ChatGPT
• What Does a UX/UI Designer Do in Web Design?
• Mastering YouTube Thumbnails with Canva: A Practical Guide
• Photoshop Tutorial: Transforming AI-Generated Images into Retro-Futurism Artwork
• Announcing the Squarespace Designer Power Pack
• Image Compression in Web Design: Why It Still Matters in 2024
• Pixelhaze Coaching Community: Hands-On Help for Designers and Business Owners

Pick a link or two, explore a tutorial, and share your toughest email marketing challenge with us. Chances are, we can help you solve it.

P.S. If you want access to a practical, start-to-finish Squarespace Email Campaigns course on Udemy—covering template design, list management, and more—it’s free for all Pixelhaze Academy members. Don’t let email anxiety hold you back. Start sending email campaigns you’re proud of.