Digital Marketing Resources
MailChimp
Hang on, this isn’t a Social Media platform! Is it? You’re right, it isn’t. MailChimp is a web-based email marketing service. It helps you design email newsletters, share them on your social networks, integrate with services you already use, and track your results. What does it do? Of course, you can send a newsletter or announcements about your upcoming shows via your personal email. However e-mail providers like Gmail, Hotmail, and Outlook are designed for one person to send one email to just a couple people at once, not a whole list of subscribers. That’s a different kind of task achieved more efficiently, effectively, and professionally with MailChimp.
Here’s why Mailchimp works: Approved bulk mailer Most email services and Internet service providers (ISP) limit the number of emails you can send at one time. This is to prevent spamming. With a tool like MailChimp, you can send an email to an unlimited number of recipients at one time. Greater deliverability Services like MailChimp work with ISPs and corporate domains to ensure your emails are recognized as safe and approved. If there is a problem with delivery, MailChimp will attempt to re-send the email and tell you why an email might be bouncing. Adherence to privacy laws Bulk mailers are required by law to include an unsubscribe link in every email. MailChimp and other email marketing services include this automatically and ask recipients why they are removing themselves from your list. Professional styling MailChimp offers a wide variety of customizable templates for designing polished emails. You can also build a template from scratch to use with MailChimp. Compatible with various email readers and devices MailChimp gives your recipients the option to read your emails in fullystyled HTML or text only. They can also click a link to read the email in a web browser instead of their email. Also, did you know that over 50% of emails are now opened up on mobile devices, and this number is only growing? MailChimp provides you with tools to see how your email campaign looks on a smart phone and other mobile devices. Know if people are reading your emails If you send an email through your personal email, you have no idea who opened it. Email marketing tools give you all sorts of fun analytics on successful deliveries and open rates so you know your fans are listening.
Convinced?
After you have signed up to MailChimp, for free with up to 2,000 subscribers, you can create sign up forms to make signing up to your e-zines simple and manageable and embed them onto your website or link them to your Facebook page. Here are some things to know before you begin this process. • Use the Form Builder to modify your signup form and response emails before you generate the embedded form code. • There are four embedded signup form design options: Classic, Super Slim, Horizontal, and Naked. To match your form’s visual elements to the exact design of your website, you’ll need to modify the form code after you add it to your site. • Embedded forms inherit your website’s style sheet, so the form may look different in MailChimp than it does on your website. • If your site is secure, our forms support HTTPS. • This is an advanced feature and is recommended for users familiar with custom coding. Contact your developer, or hire a MailChimp Expert if you need assistance. After you’ve created your signup form in the Form Builder, you can choose a form option, customize settings, and generate the form code to add to your site. To get the form code to add to your site, follow these steps: • Navigate to the Lists page. • Click the drop-down menu next to the list you want to work with, and choose Signup forms. • Select Embedded forms. • Choose a form type— Classic, Super Slim, Horizontal, or Naked— and customize the Form Options. • Highlight all the code in the Copy/paste onto your site field and copy it to your clipboard.
Then simply paste the embed form code into your website’s HTML where you want the form to appear. Alternatively you can select to just have it as a separate webpage which will look like this:
Useful Tips
And finally for something completely…relevant. Tips for designing your first e-zine:
This will be accessible through a URL address. You can link it quite easily to the Call-to-Action button just under your Facebook cover image, titled Sign Up:
FOCUS YOUR MESSAGE BE CONCISE
CREATE A HIERARCHY OF INFORMATION NCLUDE LINKS
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