Used wisely mailshots can improve customer loyalty, brand awareness and sales as well as directing traffic back to your website. However, it is not just a matter of tapping out an email, or cobbling together a newsletter or special offer. Not only do people receive more email marketing material than previously they are wary of spam, viruses and other nasties. The good news is Mailshot provides you with everything you need to create professional looking, cost effective e-marketing material that puts you, and your business, right in front of the very people that want to hear from you.
Create
- Get professional – it’s all about creating a sharp, attractive and professional mailshot that is consistent with your existing branding and logos. Included within your set-up fee is one custom designed template. Further templates can be designed for your business for an additional fee which will depend upon your particular needs. We have clients who have different templates for different purposes, for example one template for newsletters and one for one-off promotions.
- Put your best bit forward – place your most valuable information in the top portion of your email. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and really assess the value of the information or offer you are making to them.
- Be brief – if all the nitty gritty information is already on your website do not repeat it in the email; simply provide a link back to your site.
- Give value – only send valuable and interesting information. People will respond best if you impart useful knowledge, interesting material or make them a good offer. These customers have been good enough to give you permission to contact them; it’s up to you to use that permission wisely.
Deliver
- Get personal - so your client knows who the email is from. Send your mailshots from an email address that makes them think “I know who sent this email”. Knowing and trusting the sender is the primary reason for opening an email.
- Get them interested early – many people decide if an email is worth opening simply from the subject line, so be sure to make it interesting. Subject lines that contain your company name or briefly tell your customers what is inside are more likely to be opened. Be careful using subject lines that contain words or styles that are popular on spam messages, such as “free” or “money”. Do not write subject lines with CAPS LOCK ON.
- Manage your customer information carefully – ensure you have a good, accurate database of customer details and utilise Mailshot’s system for reviewing bouncebacks. The last thing you want to do is fail to make contact with a valued customer because of a simple spelling error in an email address.
- Spam compliance – We do everything we can to keep you on the right side of Spam laws; every email you send with Mailshot includes a single click unsubscribe function. We can also run your campaign through popular spam filters at the desktop, server and firewall level before you send it.
- Check, check, check – the appearance of your material before sending so you know what it will look like in all email browsers. You can send free tests to any address you like, or for a small fee (and a single click) see your email as it appears in over 20 different email clients (hotmail/gmail/outlook etc).
- Be optimistic – include a “tell a friend” link in your mailshot. Afterall you have just put together a slick and professional email packed with interesting information and offers which showcases your business and products – who wouldn’t want to share that with a friend?
- Talk to us and we’ll place a single click “sign up” function on your existing website so your database can grow on its own.
Analyse
- When, where, what and who – what days of the week and times of day are most your customers most likely to open your email? How many people clicked the links in your email? Did they click on product link or research links? Did the demographics of your customer base show an interest in different links? This information will help you create better and more relevant contact in the future.
- Segment – if you identify clear trends or patterns in your data you should consider segmenting your customer base into groups and sending more focused emails to those groups. It’s all about being relevant to your customers and meeting their individual needs. Take every opportunity you can to get to know more about your client base and store relevant information (for free) in your database.
- What is your read-rate – 20-30% is fairly average but a lot depends on where and how you have built your customer base as well as how frequently you contact them. A well updated and maintained database is more likely to want to know what you’re up to.
- What is your unsubscribe rate – If you send very infrequently or it is your first campaign it will likely be higher than usual. If it spikes after certain campaigns you may need to revisit your content. A good, fresh list of interested, existing customers will have a lower unsubscribe rate.
As long as you can point and click, cut and paste Mailshot can do the rest to help you craft highly targeted and relevant marketing material. When done well mailshots should become one of your most effective and low cost marketing tools.
