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to special one-off pages, Nash adds. Email marketing services usually have an upfront fee then levy a cost per email. CWT’s ClickMail, for instance, costs £750, including consultation, then a penny per email, or less over a negotiated threshold. Holiday Experts’ home- worker Gaynor Chao- rainak (see right) uses a provider which lets her send 2,500 emails for £25 a month. “I think that’s a drop in the ocean compared with the £1,000 a month I’ll pay for my Google advertis- ing costs,” she says.
Style and content Email shots usually consist of offers or newsletters or a mix- ture of both.
Chaorainak sends out offers themed by destina- tion as it’s the format she prefers to receive herself, while Barrhead Travel usually sends a range of offers reflecting the spectrum of its products and sometimes targets customers with a particular interest.
agents will buy a specific tool. Typically, such products will provide templates for you to insert your text and photos into and will interface with your mailing list when you send it out. They should also track the re- sponses to your mailshot – who deleted it, who unsubscribed, who clicked on what. “Choose a solution that gives you proper reporting to make sure you can use and seg- ment the data. It’s worth paying a fraction more to get the right provider to analyse that data properly,” advises CSI Media’s Nash. If a potentially high surge of traffic to your website from people clicking on links in the email is likely to cause problems, or if you want only email recipients to access a particular offer, you may also want to select a system that allows you to send your clients
“Content really does depend on your client,” says Nash. “However, there’s a bit of a debate over whether visual outweighs details so I’d suggest that an offer-based email should have attractive visual images and prices. It also has to be relevant. For instance, if you have a database full of families you don’t want to send them a load of city breaks aimed at couples or adult-only Sandals resorts.”
Ray says newsletters can fulfil a more subtle purpose. “Generally, we find that if you want to build a brand you’ve got to send out something that is useful to the reader- ship – top tips, how the business is per- forming, things going on.” Personalisation, with the client’s name at the top and a wel- coming message, is also important, he says, as is a call to action.
Ray also recommends that agents match the design of the mailshots to their website.
■Don’t miss next week’sTTGfor more tips 29.10.2010 29 First mailshot Netting ‘big’ bookings
Gaynor Chaorainak, Holiday Experts Gaynor was recently spurred to try email marketing when she realised she’d collected around 1,000 email addresses from regular clients and one-off enquiries to her Google Ads. Following a web search, she settled on US-
based Constant Contact’s service because it was affordable and she recognised the name from some operators’ newsletters. Using templates, she designs her own emails adding a welcome message, large photos and offers. “The first one I did was on Egypt because I’d found some really good deals. The next focused on Dubai offering a mix of the expensive Burj Al Arab, Atlantis The Palm for families and the all-inclusive Jumeirah Beach. Next time I will probably put one together on new hotels. “Overnight I get a lot of replies including
many enquiries that may not be necessarily about the deals. From the first mailshot, I received maybe 10 big bookings. I’m still getting people replying to it now and I sent it out in June. People will save the email when they’re planning a holiday there later on.” Her regulars also congratulated her on the newsletter, urging her to “keep them coming”.
TIPS
Consider running a competition online or at a show to help capture new email addresses.
When buying a mailing list, ask your email marketing company to suggest a reputable company and trial a small list first.
Having a separate email marketing address can protect your website from being blacklisted should you accidentally fall foul of multiple spam filters.
Likely triggers for spam filters include multiple links to a domain name (limit your click throughs) and high-tech content such as videos (provide a link to watch it online instead).
Test your email looks clear on different email and webmail programmes and give recipients a “text only” option.
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clickwt.com ■
constantcontact.com ■
csimedia.net
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