Could E-Shots Lead You to the Holy Grail of Marketing?

With Christmas looming, the pressure is on to find the perfect gift.  No doubt there will be a few forays to the shops, braving the crowds to select gifts in the traditional hustle and bustle of the Christmas build up.  But for most of us the high street is only part of the Christmas shopping strategy. Instead of spending hours pounding the pavement and feeling the goods in our hands, the majority of us now do most of our shopping, or at least most of our window shopping, online. There’s a good reason for this. Not only are we more accustomed to receiving information through PCs, laptops and mobile devices, we’re also more accustomed to storing it there and viewing it at our convenience – whether that’s on the train as we travel to a meeting or on the sofa as we catch up with the news. And what applies to the way we approach our leisure time also applies to the way we do business…..and the way we should be marketing our business.

Take direct mail for instance. Once upon a time, producing something that popped out, unfolded or  stood up in an usual way was the only opportunity you had to make your mail shot stand out from the many others that arrived in your targets’ in trays every morning. Now the challenge is to make your message stand out in their inbox but - here’s the genius part – standing out is no longer about how much you have to spend; it’s about what you have to say.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that e-shots need to be any less creative in the digital age: they still have to portray the right image and communicate the right message effectively. However, the reduced cost of emailing your direct mail means that you can send out e-shots as a sustained campaign, significantly increasing your chances of converting them into leads and of building awareness amongst your target prospects.

It’s an approach that works …..and we should know. Around 80% of CME’s new business leads now come to us as a result of our e-shot campaigns, which focus on a different aspect of our service offer each week. Not every name on our database will read the e-shot every time; sometimes they’ll be too busy, too distracted or just downright disinterested.  However – here’s the other genius part – at some point one of our e-shots will arrive in a prospect’s inbox at just the time they’re looking to buy the service we’re selling. And by opting for a less expensive more frequent option you too can increase your chances of achieving that illusive Holy Grail of marketing: selling to your target market at precisely the moment they’re ready to buy!