Let’s take a walk through this email marketing tool and take a tour of its features. We’ll see what is in the box and what is missing. Buckle up and grab some snacks.
There is no need to sign up to a new account if you already had one with the Wix website builder. You can simply log in with your previous Wix account credentials and access the ShoutOut.
After logging in to your Wix account (ShoutOut), you will be shown a screen giving you quick instructions on how to use the email builder like as shown above.
After completing it, you will be allowed to lay your hands on the WYSIWYG email editor where you can drag and drop elements, change themes and colors as you want.
Creating a neat email
Clicking on ‘Add’ will give an option to insert the elements like text, image, button, logo, video, link, signup form and mix up of these elements in a layout.
All the other elements can be dragged into the email in the workspace and be positioned. But, the ‘mix’ element is a quite interesting feature that inserts a section with a layout mix-up of multiple types of elements in it.
Clicking on the ‘Style’ will give a list of email themes to choose from. All the themes are elegant and graphic-rich as I observed. This feature impresses me, with its good and professional looks. You can take look at the ‘music’ theme applied to the sample email in my editor from the screenshot below.
Wix email editor allows you to choose a background of your choice. You not only can choose an existing background but also can upload your own.
If you want to select a background from the preset list, choose one from it and click on it to apply. If you wanted to add your custom background, click on ‘+’ sign and upload your own background for the email.
Hint: Custom background will help you in branding the email in a much better way that a random image.
[Forget the above demonstration of custom image. Well, it's just a demonstration.]
Before proceeding to add the recipients, you can preview how the email looks on a computer screen and on a mobile screen as well.
You can test the email in your inbox by using the option ‘Send a Test Email’ on the preview screen.
Adding recipients
Clicking on the ‘Next’ on the email creation screen will bring you to the ‘Add Recipients’ screen. You can add email addresses one by one separated by commas or you can import the email IDs from your Gmail account or from CSV files on your computer.
Sending ShoutOut
You will be brought to this screen after clicking on the ‘Next’ button on the ‘Add Recipients’ screen. This screen will allow you to set the subject line, first name and reply email ID to your shoutout.We will have two options here ‘Send Test Email’ and ‘Send Email’. The test email works as same as it works previously at the phase of email creation but with more customized details at this phase.
If you are sure about everything and ready to send your ShoutOut, just click ‘Send’ to get it delivered to your recipient’s email.
Full features of Wix ShoutOut Email Marketing Tool
I have used a free account of Wix ShoutOut to demonstrate the walkthrough process of email creation. All the features I have shown here will not come in limits with premium subscriptions. Let’s take a look at the features a glance:Intuitive Editor – The Wix email editor is similar to the website builders. You can design an email beautifully as you want just like you used to build a website with Wix. The simple drag and drop tools, background and color customization option need no technical assistance in creating an email.
Custom Signup Form – As we have seen in the walkthrough, we can add a signup to capture leads and subscribers to your business and website.
Easy Contact Integration – You can import all your contacts from your Gmail and CSV files which is a most expected feature of any email marketing tool.
Social Media Tools – Wix ShoutOut allows users to share the email link onto social media profiles for better reach. This can even be used to notify your subscribers about the sent newsletter on social media.
Stats Tracker – You can track your sent emails and see how many of them are opening and clicking on them. This stats information can help you make correct decisions in building future strategies.
Responsive Design – The most wanted feature of now-a-day email marketing tool is the responsive designer. Over 70% of the user check their emails on mobile phones first. Isn’t it enough to talk about the importance of responsiveness here?
Free Templates – Wix ShoutOut offers free responsive email templates for its users. One can simply apply the theme and customize it as wanted.
What should have included?
According to my experience with some of the top email marketing tools, I feel Wix ShoutOut is missing some features which might be added with time in future. The following are the features that this email marketing tool lacks.Auto-responders – An average digital marketer will look out for this feature. Because responding to every email would be a hectic task for any company with a large customer base.
Smart Reports – The email stats cannot be distilled with more customization. Reporting intelligence should have been much better in Wix ShoutOut.
A/B Testing – If we talk about smart reports, we should also consider A/B testing for such an email marketing tool. A/B testing helps to work on different marketing goals and reports results.
I expect to see these features coming to Wix ShoutOut very soon.
Whom Wix ShoutOut Email Marketing Tool is for?
Wix ShoutOut is yet a wonderful email marketing tool which is simple, easy and fast. It would need no technical knowledge at all. Unlike other complex email marketing tools with advanced options that are not understandable by most of the marketing people, Wix offers a better way to send newsletters with beautiful design and simple reporting stats.If you are a marketing person with less technical knowledge and if you are looking out for an email marketing tool that serves your purpose flawlessly, Wix ShoutOut is your plate of a dish.
Feel free to share your thoughts about this new email marketing tool in comments below.
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