If you sell stuff on Etsy, Amazon, iTunes, or eBay, or if you have an account on Yelp, Facebook or Twitter, we created a new template category in MailChimp that makes it super easy to send your followers email campaigns that match your profile.

They’re called “AutoConnect Templates” and all you have to do is connect MailChimp to your account, and we’ll pull in your graphics and design a template for you automagically…

Let’s say you’re an Etsy artist.

An Etsy artist named Chet, who specializes in simian illustrations, to be specific. You’ve got a nice header graphic already setup on your Etsy profile, plus some “about me” information setup on your Etsy profile page:

You’ve done a bunch of work already making that page spiffy. Why reinvent the wheel in MailChimp?

Just go to our new autoconnect templates (available in step 3 of the campaign builder process):

Select the “Etsy” template:

Then MailChimp will prompt you to enter your store name.

You can find that in your browser’s address bar when you visit your store:

Just plug that into MailChimp like this:

and then we’ll ask you which one of your store listings you want to sync up with:

After you select your store, click the “Connect” button, and booyah — MailChimp will automatically build your HTML email for you:

Notice that the top paragraph is pulling in your profile info. You can (and should) edit that portion to talk to your fans. Tell them about your new stuff, and what inspired you to create it: “Howdy folks, I’ve just posted some new artwork to my Etsy store. I came up with the idea while I was on a trip with my wife to…” People love a good back story.

Okay, so all those “connection” steps I mentioned above for the Etsy Autoconnect template are basically the same for:

iTunes Template:

If you’re a musician, you can update your fans when your latest album gets listed on iTunes. The template pulls in your album cover, includes a “buy” button, and lists all your songs. Write a custom note asking for a review, or just thanking your fans for making it possible.

Yelp Template:

Especially good for announcing upcoming events at your restaurant, and want to showcase recent reviews (and maybe get more reviews). The content blocks are editable, so you can replace them with whatever you want.

Amazon Books Template:

It’s pretty exciting to finish writing a book and see it listed on Amazon (um, not that I’d ever know that). Nowadays, authors blog and tweet and build up a fan base to help them with grassroots and word-of-mouth marketing well before the book gets published. When your book finally “goes live,”  announce it to your closest fans with a beautiful template. It’ll include your book cover, a big fat “buy” button, plus some customizable edit blocks.

eBay Template:

And there’s even an eBay email template in the works (it’s available in a “beta” version now) that’ll sync up to your account and pull in your latest listings:

Built-in Facebook Like Button

You’ll notice that all of the AutoConnect templates have our new integrated Facebook Like buttons baked right in (see why the Like button is so important now). So your fans can share your email with their friends, who can share it with their friends, and on and on.

Plus, we track all that likey-likey for you in your campaign stats:

Be sure to check out all the other social integrations we launched in MailChimp v5.2.

Promoting Your Creativity

We think if you’re an artist, musician, or author, it’s hard enough creating your stuff,  let alone selling it. You certainly don’t need to spend more time learning the ancient art of HTML email coding.

We wanted to make it one-click easy to just build a beautiful email, then send it to all your fans.

– legalese –

So uh, now’s a good time to mention that MailChimp has absolutely no affiliation with any of these companies whatsoever (Etsy, iTunes, Apple, Yelp, Amazon, or eBay). No strategic partnerships, no implied relationships, or yadda yadda. We’re just accessing them through their very handy APIs.