Posts Tagged ‘Email’
We like MailChimp a lot at P1wired, Photography Studio Management Software, because they have a great product and are very creative.
A recent blog post titled “Using Facebook To Keep The Conversation Going” had some interesting ideas about using Facebook for marketing.
MailChimp sent out an email to a certain set of their customer base to let them know they were going to receive the same service for a better price.
They were going to attach SWYN icons but didn’t think it would get much traction. They thought about using Twitter but didn’t think asking their customer base to tweet about the cost savings matched their culture. They thought the twitter email template was overkill for the task at hand.
They ultimately decided to use Facebook. They added a simple line of text linked to their Facebook fan (like) page and asked their customer base to leave a note about what they would do with the cost savings. “It’s basically just an old-fashioned invitation to reply (but on Facebook instead of via email), and continue the conversation with us.” There were many tangible benefits which Ben outlines in his post. Take a quick look at his approach and the results.
Simple and Easy. What an effective way to keep the dialogue going.
Here at PhotoOne Software we’ve just moved our email promotion tracking over to P1Wired Photography Studio Management. We had been using PhotoOne’s internal email feature for our promotional campaigns. We used PhotoOne’s internal email because it was tightly integrated with our prospect list. The one shortcoming was that we didn’t get any feedback on our promotions. We had no idea who opened it.
We then started using Constant Contact because it captured this valuable information. The downside of using Constant Contact was that there was no easy way to get our prospect list out of PhotoOne and into Constant Contact.
So here’s the solution for campaign management. First run a simple query in P1Wired Photography Studio Management. The query will tag the prospect and then you can click on the button “Send to MailChimp.” P1Wired pops up a prospect list set up in MailChimp and you can then select the desired list and the prospects are transferred. At this point you are ready to send out an email marketing campaign — it couldn’t be easier. P1Wired will be further enhanced with the “bounce” and “opt out” information sent back to P1Wired so that you can measure your email marketing effectiveness over time.
If you are a photographer that is new to the business, check out the FREE email marketing level in MailChimp. It is a great way to get started with email marketing!
MailChimp
Do you ever get an email from a client and forget to follow-up on it because you have moved on to something else? P1Wired Photography Studio Management has the solution for you. The new follow-up window keeps track of all the communications that need your attention.
When an email is sent to your inbox, provide a follow-up date and the person who is responsible for it. It will remain on your follow-up sheet until it is marked done — no need to search through your email. This also works well with any communication you might have with your client. All communications are easily accessible through the follow-up option.
P1Wired developers have been busy since WPPI 2010 and will have a new release April 1st of P1Wired Photography Studio Management. We had new features “in the works” before the show and the feedback from WPPI helped prioritize development.
What’s New:
1. P1Wired wants you to own your data. You can export your data to a CSV file with a click of a button.
2. “How-To” videos embedded in P1Wired. You can open a video right in the program to review the feature you are looking to use — there is no need to go somewhere else in the program or on a website to review. This is a big time saver and allows you to quickly review the task at hand.
3. Client Access is now LIVE. This new feature allows a prospect or client to generate a Proposal, e-sign a Contract, make a Payment and auto-generate a confirmation E-Mail.
4. You can now add attachments to e-mails.
5. There are Interest and Activity tabs in the client page. You can now mark a prospect or client to an Interest or Activity which will allow you to refine your marketing with MailChimp.
These new features were developed with “Simple and Easy” as a primary goal. This is important constant as we develop a studio management software for photographers that adds value to your daily work flow. Please keep the comments and feedback coming.
In the last blog post we took you through the steps to integrate P1Wired Photography Studio Management with MailChimp. Now that you have the integration set up, you are ready to begin email marketing.
1. Create a list in MailChimp
> Login to MailChimp (you can login directly from P1Wired Marketing using the MailChimp button)
> Click on Create a List
> Fill out the the form
> Be sure to check “people unsubscribe” under “email me at youremail@yourserver.com …”
> Click Save and remain on this page2. In P1Wired you’ll export customers to the list you created in MailChimp
> Click the Marketing button
> Manually tag the customers or run a query
> Click the Query button
>> Select based on your criterion (i.e., customer, order, or by relationship)
>> Choose the value you are looking for (i.e., customer/prospect, category, order date/amount, relationship birthday, etc.)
> Click Query
> Click “Send to MailChimp”
> From the drop down menu you’ll select the list you created in step 1
> Click send
> Go back to MailChimp and click the button at the top of the page, “Import my List”.3. In MailChimp, click the Campaign Tab
> Click the Create Campaign tab
> Select Regular ol’ Campaign
> Select the list your sending to and click Next in the upper right corner
> Fill out the campaign info and click Next
> You can use one of their templates or create your own
> Customize and click Next (towards the bottom)
> In the Plain Text box (for recipients who only view plain text emails) fill out
> Send a test of the plain text to yourself just to be sure it’s perfect
> Confirm your settings one last time
> You can send right now, or schedule for a later date, or at a different time.