You should advise your design agency to come up with a few different versions so you can see various design ideas, but all should tie in with your existing marketing activity and brand guidelines. Keep everything consistent as it’ll reinforce your brand.


I also recommend choosing a design and sticking with it. That way, if you have standard links on the design, regular receivers will get used to where each item is.


3. The content Along with the database, this is the most important part of your e-shot campaign. Please don’t expect people to read your e-shot unless it’s relevant to them or adding some benefit. Lets pretend I run a plumbing company, which e-shot would you read?


• An e-shot trying to sell the latest plumbing tools


• An e-shot giving me a step by step guide on how to check my kitchen sink u-bend to avoid blockages


It will be the second option.


So, make the content useful, beneficial and give the reader a reason to keep the email. Add links to your website, links to your blog, social media and any other online marketing you’re doing. The e-shot is then working for you – improving your brand recognition, offering helpful tips and driving readers to business.


4. The heading As with any copywriting, the headline is the most important - it should be attention grabbing. I would avoid any words that would be associated with spam as many email


filters will automatically bounce the email. Some of the most popular are ‘Click here’, ‘Call now’, You’re a winner’, ‘Increase your income’, or ‘One time offer’.


5. Test Different email programs will render your e-shot differently so it needs to be tested on the main programs to ensure a consistent look: Gmail, Outlook, Entourage, Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo, BT, Mail.


6. Unsubscribe You need to make it easy and clear for people to unsubscribe from your e-shots. All software should automatically add this at the bottom of your e-shot for you and automatically remove people if they opt out.


7. Look at the results After you have sent the e-shot your software, if setup properly, will track anyone who opens the email, clicks a link within the email, unsubscribes, forwards to other email addresses and much more. This information is incredibly useful as it allows you to follow up. For example, if you link to a turning page magazine in your e-shot and see it’s been clicked by someone, why not email them asking what they thought?


Overall, e-shots are a low cost addition to your current marketing plan. It’s a process that should be used, and if done correctly can really help your business.


Don’t be worried that you’re spamming people. As I suggested earlier, offer some hints, tips and guidance and they’ll look forward to your e-shots every time they come through.


boost jan / feb 12 05


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24