Zoho is a comprehensive business platform with contact management, accounting, email marketing, and document collaboration, among many other solutions. We will provide further insight on all of their tools in future trainings, however, now, we want to hone in on one of their sales and marketing solutions: Zoho Campaigns.
It is important to note that Zoho has two main email functions: Mail and Campaigns. Zoho Mail functions like a mail group such as Gmail, while Zoho Campaigns functions like an email marketing platform such as Constant Contact. With Zoho Campaigns, you can easily bulk email your contacts, brand your emails, and track your performance. Here's how to get started with your first email campaign.
1. Create an Account.
Visit Zoho and click "Free Sign Up" in the upper left-hand corner.
Then follow the instruction to fill out your information to create your account.
2. Create and name your campaign.
Once you are into your account, from the top of your campaign menu, hit the orange plus button and then select "Regular Email Campaign."
Next, give your campaign a name by hitting the pencil button next to "Untitled Campaign."
For titles we recommend putting the the theme of the email such as "Product Update," "Monthly Newsletter," or Client Check-In," followed by the month and year.
3. Input your subject line, pre-header text, sender and recipients.
You will then be asked for your subject line, pre-header text, sender and recipients. For this tutorial, we are inputting our free rental loan email template and will provide future tutorials on subject line and pre-header text. We will also have future tutorials on managing your contacts, so for now, just know that this is where you select which contacts will receive your email.
4. Select Your Template.
On the same page as your subject line and recipient information, there will be a button that says "Create Your Content." This will take you to a new page where you can pick from "Saved Templates," "Pre-designed Templates," or "Basic Templates."
Since this is your first email, you will not have any saved template yet. Depending on the purpose of your email, you will pick pre-designed or basic. For your typical marketing email, we like basic, yet for your holiday, birthday or thank you email, you may prefer pre-designed templates. The basic email templates vary based on text placement and images. For the purposes of our rental loan email , we want to select one image on top of text.
5. Add an Image(s).
Depending on the template you select, you will have one or multiple images to add. In our template, we have one main image. To edit it, you simply click on the image and the blank placeholder and then click the "Change" button. You will have the option to include an existing file saved to your account, upload a new file or browse free stock photos. Since we don't have any images yet, we looked at stock photos of houses.
Some image features worth noting are that you can edit your image and link it to your website.
6. Complete the email body and include a CTA.
Now you are ready for the actual body of the email. Start with the header by clicking on the cursor. Your header should be the main highlights from your email. See ours:
Then click on the text box to input your text. Once again, we pulled text from our rental loan email:
The last part of the email body is the CTA, or call-to-action, which provides your audience with guidance on what to do next. It could be, "Learn More," "Contact Us," "Visit Our Website," etc. To edit, simply click on it and then a "Button Properties" column will appear on your left:
You can then input your button label and website link, as well as change the button design.
7. Update Your Social Widgets.
The last step is to add links to your social accounts. Click the icons on the bottom to be taken to the "Social Widgets" editor. Put in your links to multiple accounts including your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram. If you don't have an account or don't want to link to it, just un-check the box on your right.
Ready to send your first email with Zoho Campaigns? Get Started for FREE. For additional marketing tools, see our Marketing Solutions Resource Page.
Related: 7 Components of a Social Media Marketing Strategy, Why Small Businesses Need Email Marketing Platforms
