Email marketing includes anything that's sent to a customer or prospect via email. This can include newsletters, 1-2-1 emails and E-Shots. In particular, E-Shots help to attract new customers to your business. They also help to maintain effective, regular communications with your existing audience.
Why should I send an E-Shot?
Many people can be skeptical doing an E-Shot as they don’t want to tarnish their brand with spam emails. But, if you use your own company database of prospects and customers, that won’t be the case. Many customers often prefer correspondence from a brand or company they use on a regular basis.
How to send an E-Shot
Here are some simple tips on how to create a perfect E-Shot:
1. Create an E-Shot database
An E-Shot database should consist of current customers, past customers, prospects and enquirers. You can decide to target these groups individually or as a whole. For example, if you have an E-Shot aimed at customers, ensures that all enquirers are excluded.
To help build your database, you can add a subscription form on your website or ask all enquirers to provide an email address. You must make sure that all your data collection is GDPR compliant though!
2. Design the perfect E-Shot
All E-Shots need to be appealing and should tie in with your existing marketing materials and brand guidelines. Keeping everything consistent will also help as it’ll reinforce your brand identity.
It’s important to remember people won’t read your E-Shot if it’s not relevant, so make sure the content is useful and beneficial to the reader. Adding links to your website, such as to a blog or product page, can help improve your brand recognition and drive business.
3. The Subject Line
The subject line is one of the most important aspects of any campaign. It should be attention grabbing and informative.
Make sure you avoid any words that are associated with spam as these can cause the email to bounce. Some of the top phrases to avoid are ‘Click here’, ‘Call now’ and ‘One time offer’. It’s fine to use these in the actual email content, but keep them out of the headline.
4. Testing
All email providers will view your E-Shot differently, so it's important to test the campaign to ensure a consistent look is achieved. The main providers include Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook and Yahoo.
5. Allow for unsubscribing
Make it easy for people to unsubscribe from your E-Shots. All software should add this at the bottom of your email, making it easy to remove people if they decide to opt out.
6. Monitor your results
After sending an E-Shot, you’ll be able to track the key events. This can vary depending on your template and what’s important to you. However, they often include: if the email was opened, if a link within the email was clicked and how many users unsubscribe. This information will allow you to do follow up marketing if necessary.
What are the benefits of an E-Shot?
Regular E-Shots help to increase overall website traffic. Adding links that direct users to your website helps increase brand awareness and product visibility.
E-Shots are also cost effective and help to maintain regular communication with customers. If used correctly this can increase existing customers sales and drive new traffic to your site.
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