Get Your Small Business Online with Mailchimp’s Free Website Builder

Small business success starts online

For a small business that’s just getting started, a website is essential—now more than ever. Research shows that 29% of small businesses planned to start using websites for the first time in 2020. Even businesses that already have websites have increased how much they use them. In the same survey, 60% of small businesses reported that they planned to rely more on their sites as marketing channels.

The good news? You don’t have to spend money or be a professional web developer to create a site that works. There are plenty of free website builders that are easy to use, but they offer different features and functionality, so it’s worth investigating what’s available before you choose the one that works for you.

Is “free” truly free?

Now that websites are so crucial for businesses of all sizes, many companies are offering website builders that are free to use. But keep in mind that “free” doesn’t always apply to the whole package. Mailchimp, Wix, and Weebly all offer free website building and hosting, but not everyone does. For example, Squarespace lets you build a website at no cost, but you’ll have to pay if you want the company to host your site.

It’s like building a home—you need more than the structure, you need somewhere to put it. In this analogy, Mailchimp, Wix, and Weebly offer both for free.

Using Mailchimp, you can build your site with the free website builder, put it online with free Mailchimp-branded domain names, and keep it there with free hosting.

With Mailchimp, it’s free to sell your products or services on your website, but that’s not true across the board. Some companies, like Squarespace, charge you transaction fees on top of payment processing fees if you want people to be able to buy your stuff through your website. To sell from your Mailchimp website, simply integrate with Stripe and pay only integrated, per-transaction pricing with no hidden fees.

How to pick the best website builder for you

Consider your options carefully before you choose a website builder. If you rush into a decision only to find that your initial choice doesn’t have the functions you need, you could be forced to start over from scratch. Before you commit, consider the following questions.

Do you want the option of a custom domain?

If you’re just getting started, a free domain might be enough. Mailchimp’s free website builder includes a free Mailchimp-branded domain (like yoursitename.mailchimpsites.com), and that’s great for businesses that want to get up and running for as little cost as possible.

At some point, though, you might be ready to buy or connect a custom domain. These are domains like yourbusiness.com or yourcompany.net—addresses that don’t include builder brandings like yourbusiness.weebly.com, yourbusiness.wixsite.com, or yourbusiness.mailchimpsites.com. There’s nothing wrong with those branded domains, but custom domains can help you look more professional. Mailchimp offers custom domains starting at $12.99/year.

Keep in mind that some companies like Wix and Weebly don’t let you add a custom domain for free to a pre-built site. Mailchimp does.

How do you plan to drive traffic to your site?

Fewer than 6% of sites will rank in Google’s top 10 in their first year. You need a strong promotional strategy to get there, and if you don’t reach that point, you need marketing to close the gap.

If you have a robust marketing strategy already established, you might do fine with a site builder that doesn’t include promotional tools. But beware—it can be tough to track results when your marketing and website hosting aren’t connected. Mailchimp can solve that problem for you.

With Mailchimp, you get access to email and social media tools included with your free marketing plan. Your personalized dashboard makes it easy for you to see the results of each of your campaigns so you know instantly what’s working and what needs to change. While the free marketing plan is powerful, you might need more than 2,000 contacts and 10,000 monthly email sends. Mailchimp’s paid plans have higher contact and email send limits but the website builder and hosting are still free.

Do you need advanced analytics?

Mailchimp offers basic site view data with the Free marketing plan, but if you want to look at what specific parts of your site that people are interested in, then the Standard plan might be right for you.

With a Standard plan, you can unlock website engagement data like page views and link clicks, and advanced segmentation tools like:

• Customer lifetime value and purchase likelihood calculations
• Audience demographic predictions, including gender and age
• Lookalike audience tools to reach new followers with postcards

The Standard plan also gives you more options for structuring customer journeys and retargeting people who have gone astray. It’s ideal for many users who outgrow the Free plan.