So far this year we’ve rolled out a couple of big changes to help you organically build your email lists. Following the introduction of our subscribe form app for the iPad, the subscribe button and the subscribe page, we’ve turned our attention back to the original website subscription form builder.

After we spruced up the “Grow your audience” pages in “Lists & Subscribers,” it became quite evident that the trusty option to generate your own subscription form code within “Copy/paste a form to your site” was well due for an update. While the old website subscription form builder did the job, it was well, looking a bit tired and not at all consistent with the rest of the eConnect Email platform.

After a large amount of work, we’re happy to announce that we’ve overhauled the “Add a subscribe form to our site” section of your account, to make it easier to create a form, get the code and preview the results. It’s also a lot more intuitive and user-friendly.

Flexible forms with and real-time previews

While many of our clients have no trouble customizing our website subscription form code to their heart’s delight, we’ve gone the next step with our form builder. For one, it’s now easy to re-order the display of form fields – for example, if you want the “Email address” field to display before “Name”, you can now drag-and-drop it into place. As you make changes to the forms, the preview alongside it will update automatically.

An improved workflow

Once you’ve tailored your website subscription form to taste, you can simply copy the code, or move on to other popular tasks, like customizing your subscribe confirmation page, confirmation email or setting up an auto-responder. All it takes is a few minutes to build a form, and then customize what your subscribers see, before and after signing up for your lists.

While these changes are all fairly subtle, we hope that they make the process of creating subscription forms for your website a touch easier. Of course, if there’s anything we can improve to make it even easier to build your website subscription forms, please sound off by posting a comment below.

Hot on the heels of the new Subscribe Button, today we’re happy to announce another simple tool that makes it easy to grow your audience with eConnect Email. As of today, every list in your account now has its very own Subscribe Page, a simple, customizable page that lets anyone join your list – no coding required.

Unlike the Subscribe button, or our copy/paste forms, which you need to integrate into your site and touch code, the Subscribe Page is just a simple, webpage/URL that you can easily share with anyone. Check out a real-world example of it in action.

Customize everything

We’ve made it easy to tweak everything on this page so you can keep it consistent with your own brand. Change the background color, choose from a range of font styles, or add your own logo.

Just like the subscribe button, you can also choose which fields you’d like to show, in what order, and even set certain fields as required. You can also customize the confirmation message when a new person joins your list.

Looks great on mobile

Just like our Subscribe Buttons, we made sure every Subscribe Page looks great on any mobile device but still stays true to any customizations you’ve made.

Easily track signups

Just like we do for the Subscribe Button, we’ll keep track of how many subscribers have joined your list via the subscribe page so you can see at a glance how it’s been working for you.

Subscribe Pages are live and available in all accounts now. You can find them in the Grow your audience section in the sidebar for each of your lists. We can’t wait to see how you guys start using them.

Hot on the heels of Subscriber Notifications, we’re excited to announce the all new Subscribe Button. The easiest way to add an elegant, unobtrusive subscribe form to any page on your site.

The Subscribe Button is perfect for your sidebar, footer or any page with limited screen real-estate. Slot the button in where you like, and once it’s pressed a simple subscribe form instantly appears through a modal window.

Customize Everything

The button itself is available in two colors and sizes. You can use your own button text, and also choose to show or hide the number of subscribers in that list.

We’ve also given you lots of control over the subscribe form. Choose which fields you’d like to show and in what order, set the important stuff as required and add your own intro copy.

You’ll find the feature under a simplified sidebar for each subscriber list in your account. Just click on Grow your audience option to get started.

This update is one of a number of nice improvements we have planned around making it easy as possible for people to join your lists. As always, feel free to give us a call if you have any questions!

It’s easy to focus exclusively on the content of your messages when it comes to creating engaging emails. But all too often, it’s the interactions at a more fundamental level that will make the most difference. If you’re not considering these four engagement opportunities, you could be missing out on the chance to earn or keep the attention of your subscribers.

The Sign-Up Process

Because it’s your initial point of interaction with future subscribers, the sign-up process gives you the chance to make memorable first impression. Prepare for a long and happy relationship with new subscribers by:

• Using Double Opt-Ins

Verify new subscriber requests by sending a confirmation e-mail that must be clicked for final activation. This ensures that the right person signed up using the right e-mail address and that they’ll be expecting your messages.

• Creating Expectations

Let the subscriber know how often to expect messages and what kind of content they can expect to see. No surprises.

Continue…

Here’s the rundown: you are like one of the many companies out there with a facebook fanpage…as you should, especially if you have a product or service that lends itself to the world of social media, which is pretty much anyone these days.   You also have an email marketing database that you would like to grow and you have an idea of  “how can I get my Facebook fans to join my email list”.

Lucky for you, this process is easy and soon your facebook fan page and eConnect Email database will have a complimentary relationship.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Navigate to your fan page and select Edit Page (under your main image on the left hand side).
• Scroll down to Static FMBL under Applications. Click ‘Add To My Page’ when the pop-up window appears.
• Go back to your page, hit ‘Edit Page’ again and look for FMBL. Click the editing icon at right and click ‘Edit’.
• Cut and paste the code from your Subscription form which you’ve already created in your eConnect Email account.
• You’re good to go. Just like that. Simply rearrange everything how you’d like and you’re off to growing your mailing list.

Now when your boss complains about your Facebook usage, let em’ know you’re working. The crew @eConnectEmail will vouch for you!