Zip, an online retailer of Corvette restoration parts, is using a bunch of MailChimp features to help boost their business and stay in touch with customers.

When you place an order online, Zip asks you to set up an account. At the start of this process, when you set up your email address and user password, there is a check box where users can opt-in to receive emails with special promotions and information.

On the right frame of every page, Zip has a “Subscribe to e-newsletter” icon, which serves as a constant reminder to their customers and casual browsers to sign up.

When you click the “Subscribe to e-newsletter” icon, you are taken to Zip Parts’ sign up form which they created using MailChimp.  They are using segmentation in an interesting way as well, by asking subscribers to give the generation of their Corvette (or you can select “all years”). This allows Zip to send out more relevant promotional emails to their newsletter subscribers.

Zip Parts also has a blog that they update multiple times a week.  This constantly updated content stream works beautifully with MailChimp’s RSS-to-Email feature, which Zip is also taking advantage of.  Note to all you business owners and entrepreneurs out there: a blog is one of the easiest and best ways to begin building a repository of content and information that you will be able to draw on down the road! Whether or not you’re looking to start an email newsletter, a blog is an essential element of both personal and professional branding. Don’t overlook it!

Finally, Zip is using MailChimp’s Mini Signup Box in the right-hand column of their blog to help further boost newsletter subscriptions. (The above link will take you to a short video tutorial on how easy it is to create your own Mini Signup Box, for your blog or website, using MailChimp.)