Snail mail may quaint, charming and attention getting, yet e-mail is still a tried and true measurable method to reach your clients! Here are some easy and effective ways for you to reach deeper and build stronger relationships with your clients.
E-blasts
Inspire your e-blast readers to get more connected to you by providing them with highlights of your company’s social posts. In addition to letting e-mail readers know about your upcoming group tours and events, provide them with compelling related content from your recent blog or social posts. I like to think of this as a “round-up” or “mash-up” of what’s happening.
Here’s how to optimize your e-blasts:
#1 Link to a blog post
In your next e-blast include a synopsis and link to a blog post about the featured blog topic. Simply write a brief 1 sentence recap of the post and invite readers to ‘click here and read more’. When readers accept your invitation and click, you will have successfully directed them to your related blog post. The value comes from attracting new blog readers and increasing your website/blog SEO.
Tip: Write your recap with powerful, tantalizing text that begs to be clicked.
Travel agents and Tour Operators: find success here by highlighting new destinations, top selling resorts and hotels or upcoming events. Include a call to action in your blog and e-newsletter.
#2 Embed media
Embed a video, a slideshow or engaging Facebook posts and tweets to provide your readers with a well-rounded, multi-media overview.
Destinations: the power of video that’s produced by your company or by individual visitors is immeasurable. The trend is toward authentic, genuine user produced video.
Travel agents and Tour Operators: using your own video or that of your top suppliers makes it easy to boost your click-thru rates on your e-blasts. Consider choosing videos that shout ‘share me’.
#3 Hyperlink
While many e-blast providers don’t offer the capability of embedding Facebook posts, tweets or video directly you can easily work around this short-coming. Simply capture a screen shot of the post, tweet or video then create a hyperlink of this screen shot. Direct readers, via this hyperlink, to a blog post where you feature the Facebook post, tweet or video you’d like to showcase.
Tip: hyperlinking a screen shot or graphic is the same as creating a hyperlink for text.
Here’s a sample of a hyperlinked graphic that leads you to a blog post.
Or choose a version that looks just like the tweet. Note: this may be confusing if the reader attempts to click the ‘reply’, ‘retweet’ or ‘favorite’ buttons in your e-blast.
In this Facebook example the hyperlink leads directly to the post. You can do this by clicking on the post and capturing the really long link for the specific post.
#4 – The Power of Photos
While a photo in your e-blast can speak 1000 words, consider what a well-crafted board on Pinterest can do for you. Feature well placed photos in your next e-blast and hyperlink to a related Pinterest board.
Tip: hyperlinking a screen shot or graphic is the same as creating a hyperlink for text.
Here’s how it works:
In this example below we hyperlink directly to a specific pin by clicking on the pin and capturing the really long link for the specific graphic. Check it out when you click on the image.
In this example below we hyperlink directly to a board on Pinterest. To do this click on your intended board and you’ll see a link appear in the top navigation bar. Copy this link to the board and create your hyperlink. Check it out when you click on the image.
Expand your marketing footprint by focusing on creating unique content and then marketing it across your existing social and traditional platforms. Innovative strategies breed passionate brand advocates.
Can you afford not to allocate the time and marketing talent to your social sites?
Which of these creative e-blast tactics will you implement? What can you add to this list?
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