MailChimp Integrations, the Saga Continues
MailChimp is integrating their service into so many other apps it is almost time to ask: “Which service does not have MailChimp integration?” The latest apps to join the list are: Pinterest, Instagram, and Hootsuite.
Put a Pin in it
Pinterest has a sharp inclining user base to say the least. With over 100 million (yes I said million) unique site visits in one month it is easy to see why it has MailChimp's attention.
“Pinterest ‘lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web' with anyone. This popular pioneer in the new trend of visual bookmarking is a free service for everyone.”
So Pinterest is wildly popular attracting more and more users because of its easy to share pinboard style interface. Do you want to have a fun way to “bookmark” your interests? Done. Do you want to share these “pinboards” with whomever you wish? Done. But why is this integration between MailChimp and Pinterest attractive to businesses already using MailChimp for email newsletters?
For years a challenge for a typical company was connecting to their customers. It seems that the larger the company the easier it is for a communication gap to develop between said company and the end customer. What are our typical customers interested in? How do they communicate everyday? These questions beg answers and marketing departments need to tailor campaigns to the customer demographic and easily track the success or lack of success of a particular campaign. “Oh what ever can be done?” (southern ‘damsel in distress' voice)
Aha, now we see why this app integration and others like it are so meaningful for a company. If company “A” is submitting traffic on networks that potential customers frequent, company “A” stands a much better chance of engaging these individuals perhaps becoming part of their “circle” if you will.
Now you may think that it would be difficult to work with this “merging” of two different apps. MailChimp does not do “difficult”.
“To use this integration, head over to the Pinterest Chimplet. We’re always trying to find new ways to accomodate the needs of our users, and this integration is no exception. Type in your Pinterest username and you will instantly see a drop-down menu of your individual boards to choose from. You can create your campaign using all of your pins, or your pins from just one board!”
Make your Pinterest “pinboards”, add them to a MailChimp campaign, and share share share.
Another MailChimp integration is with Instagram. Like Pinterest, Instagram has grown tremendously. Over 27 million users in a little over 2 years. Simple and easy photo sharing, “Instagram is a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your life with friends.”
Now MailChimp can pull in your instagram photo stream and share via an RSS campaign. ‘Hang on, maybe I do not want all photos going out over to a MailChimp list.” They thought of that.
“You will find that not only can you choose to create your RSS campaign from your Instagram username, but you can also create a campaign from a common hashtag, like #pugs.”
“Now let’s say you’re managing your company’s Instagram account. You’d like to send a campaign using not only your company’s images, but also all of the images taken by other users who have tagged your company’s account. You can do that, too! Just select “Include photos uploaded by or tagged as this hashtag” and enter your company’s Instagram username.”
Pictures are so engaging it only makes sense to share!
Hootsuite
With all these social media outlets it could be a full time job just keeping them all up to date. You could use some type of social media management dashboard or something right? Well fortunately there are services like Hootsuite.
Social media management is powerful alone, but now you can link to MailChimp campaigns and push them out to your social networks. Hootsuite's stats are an added benefit to using this integration of social media and email campaigning.
“The link to your campaign will be shortened with HootSuite’s link shortener, ow.ly, instead of our link shortener, eepurl. The ow.ly link shortener allows HootSuite to track how the campaigns are shared across your social networks. Now you can see stats on your email campaigns’ social reach in context with the rest of your social-media metrics, from within HootSuite.”
These latest integrations can bring businesses closer to their audience. These add-ons make it easier to communicate effectively across not only email, but social media as well.