We’ve created a new merge tag that you can insert into your email campaigns that basically displays links to your 5 most recent newsletters (sent to that list). Here’s an example of what you can do with it:

If you code this into your email content:

It’ll look like this when you actually send the campaign:

It’s a great way to give your most recent subscribers access to your past content. Note that it pulls the subject lines from your 5 previous campaigns. Also, you can change it to any number, like: *|LIST:RECENT3|*, *|LIST:RECENT10|*, *|LIST:RECENT20|*, etc., if you’d like to change it from the default 5.

Speaking of past campaigns, learn how to embed our free campaign archive module onto your own website

Our goal is to eventually have full integration between MailChimp and all the major CRMs. It’s why we’ve invested so much into building a robust API.

Our first “baby step” in that direction is our recent integration with Salesforce.com and Highrise (37signals’ CRM product). If you’re a MailChimp user, you can now give us your Salesforce or Highrise information, and we’ll import your customers into a list, so you can send an email campaign to them (and track opens, clicks, etc).

We call this a “baby step” because for now, it’s a one-way conversation. In future releases, we’ll introduce functionality to sync data “both ways.” Stay tuned.

Batchbook is an exception to all this. Their CRM is MailChimp-ready right out of the box, so the integration is easy and seamless (check out their demo video here). You can quickly build segments within Batchbook by searching your customer “tags” and “super tags.” Then, you pass the list over to MailChimp with the click of a button. MailChimp gives them two opposable thumbs up!

After you send an email campaign, sometimes you want to post a link on Twitter, so your friends (and their friends) can see it too.

We just made that easy. Go to the Campaigns Tab, and look for this sharing icon:

Click that link, and we’ll take you to a page where you can directly post a link to Twitter (we’ll even shorten the URL for you with our own MailChimpy “eepurl.com”). It’s a nice time saver, so you don’t have to go find the Campaign-Archive link for your campaign, shorten it in TinyURL, login to Twitter, etc.

If you’re logged in to Facebook, MySpace, StumbleUpon, Digg, Magnolia or Delicious, you can also easily post a link to your campaign there.

In your MailChimp campaign stats, you can now see exactly where people are clicking in your email campaigns. Just hit the “View Email Clickmap” link in your stats page, and you’ll see your email campaign with an overlay that shows you where the clicks were.

Here’s an example from super-awesome MailChimp user The Secret Chocolatier:

It’s a great way to see where people click. Mostly near the top? Do they like pictures of products, or text links? Do different types of pictures get more clicks?

By the way, you should totally try The Secret Chocolatier’s Brownie Bites. Oh. Maggod.

It’s super easy now to customize your signup forms in MailChimp. You can add dropdown boxes, dates (as in birthdays, anniversaries, etc), phone number fields, and more — without having to code a single line of HTML!

Just look for the “add-a-field” buttons on the right side of the List Form Designer (here’s a demo video):

Update: And if our new visual form designer still doesn’t quite do it for you, go build a beautiful form in Wufoo, then link it to your MailChimp list.