I’ve often shared how participating in Visibility challenges hosted by Denise Wakeman has helped tremendously in my quest to become more visible online. Each challenge has encouraged me to continue looking at more and more ways to gain more visibility for my blog, social media, website, and overall content. One consistent quest has been to find more effective ways to grow my newsletter list, which most of you know, can be tricky at times.
In a previous post I wrote about Social Warfare, a fabulous plugin with lighting fast social sharing buttons to make it easy for my readers to share my blog posts.
Well what about my weekly tips newsletter? How can I get people to share that? Ta da … MailChimp!
The more I use MailChimp, the more I love it – especially the drag and drop newsletter builder. Imagine my delight to find there were not only built in social media buttons so people can follow you on your various social media platforms, but there are built-in sharing buttons as well! Now I’m sure most of your other email marketing platforms have similar options, but because I use MailChimp, that’s the one I’m writing about.
No, it’s not the Social Warfare plugin with all of the built-in bells and whistles designed to encourage more people to share your blog posts. However, adding social media sharing icons to your newsletter template is an excellent way to get your readers to share even more of your content, and hopefully get more subscribers.
Add Social Media Sharing icons to your ezine template to make it easy for your readers to share!You have the option to add share buttons for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Forward to a Friend, Google+ and Read Later. You also have the option to customize them a bit by adding borders, changing icons and changing colors. Here are just two of the options for size, shape and color.
Just remember social sharing buttons need an image to share, so you’ll need to make sure you have at least one graphic big enough to meet social media sharing standards or the buttons will pick up the next best thing. In my case, it was my newsletter header. Not good! The header for my newsletter didn’t fit any of the social media standards because it is long and thin, and didn’t look good at all, so I had to add an image that would always override the header. If you typically include graphics in your newsletter, you should be fine. Since I don’t, I had to add a graphic to the template that would override the banner. Just make sure you test the buttons to see how it looks when sharing on each platform.
If you are using MailChimp and haven’t added any social sharing buttons to your newsletter yet … try it, you might like it! If you’re using something other than MailChimp to send out your newsletters, you might want to check with them and see if they have a similar option.
In business since 1991, Terry Green is the founder/CEO/President of BizEase Support Solutions, an American-based, online marketing support company comprised of a team of talented professionals from around North America. BizEase excels at providing speakers and business coaches worldwide with seamless online marketing solutions, from setting up shopping carts and editing video, to writing blog posts and managing Social Media and PR campaigns. BizEase clients (who span five continents) take great joy in allowing the BizEase team to take care of the details so they can get back to doing what they do best! Click here to get our weekly tips ezine delivered to your inbox every other Friday, with tips on plugins, apps, and tools to make you more productive today!
Social Media will only increase your newsletters subscribers base if you “give them something in return.”. I.e., Sign up to receive our newsletter and receive one of our ebooks for FREE!”
Hi Jessica, thanks for your comment. This is true … for the most part, which is why I also talk so much about the importance of clear calls to action, opt-in forms, and giving your audience the content they want and need in order for them to part with their email addresses and let you into the inner sanctum of their inbox. However … encouraging people to share your newsletter on social media, will get your content out in front of more eyes, and encourage them to click through to your website … where they will find your opt-in boxes, landing pages, and the opportunity to sign up for your free offer.