Don’t Forget About Email Requirements When Choosing A Web Host
One of the factors that many people forget about when they are looking for a web host is email. The types of accounts offered along with sizes and limitations are as varied as the web hosting companies are themselves.
Every web host should provide you with the ability to have several email accounts, most will offer up to 10 with a basic low end account. Another feature to look for is a company that offers an account that will accept and hold any email sent to your domain that does not match an email address. This is due to the fact that many people misspell names and such and therefore emails get lost.
You basically have three different email services available to you. The first is probably the one that most are familiar with, the POP or post office protocol works like a normal inbox such as your Outlook Express. You will be given a certain amount of storage space you are allowed but generally can only access from one computer.
The second choice called IMAP or internet message access protocol will allow you to use your email account on many different computers so that you can access it at work and home.
The third choice you have is a web based email which is of course the most flexible, allowing you to access your email from anywhere on the planet with a computer and an internet connection though a web browser. I like having all the options.
The next consideration that you have is on the size limit of storage you have. Nearly every web hosting company will have some sort of restriction on the size of account you can have as well as on the size of messages that can be sent. This is especially crucial if you are using your email to send pictures or documents. One key thing you want to do if you are using outlook or outlook express is to select the notify option for when your email is opened so that you know it was received. Many times if a file is too large you will have no other way of knowing. If you don’t get the notification then you know they didn’t receive your message.
Now, back to actual storage space, you should pick a web host company that offers a reasonable balance between the bandwidth limits and the size of the mailbox storage. For example if you have an account that offers 500MB of bandwidth but only a 3 MB data storage for email accounts.
Another important issue to look for is outgoing email limits. If you are using your account for business you may need to send emails out to a large number of people several times a day, if the system automatically flags that as spam you will not be able to send them. Check the limitations on outgoing mail and be sure it suits your needs.
Gregg Hall is an author and internet marketing consultant living in Navarre Florida. Find more information on low cost web hosting at http://www.lowcostwebhostingpackages.com
Five E-mail Marketing Mistakes That Film Producers and Distributors Need to Avoid
Copyright (c) 2007 Daniel Lafleche
E-mail marketing is tough. A study by Forrester research shows that while 83% of companies attempt e-marketing less than 5% are successful. What’s the secret?
There’s no secret, per se, but film and video distributors targeting license buyers need to be informed about all the potential pitfalls. A good e-mail marketing campaign demands research, strategy, patience, a smooth follow-up process, and a little high-tech. It’s hard to know where to begin, and it’s natural to be afraid of making a major mistake and alienating your potential buyers.
On the other hand, a good e-mail campaign has proven time and again to be the most cost-effective way to market, and in the film and video licensing industry, it’s becoming a standard and expected practice. Take some time to analyze what needs to be done, let your creativity and passion for your material inform what you do, and you will reach the film/video license buyers who are searching for the kind of content you offer.
To help get you started, we’ve put together a list of five easy-to-make e-mail marketing mistakes, and How to Avoid Them.
MISTAKE #5: – E-mailing directly from Outlook This is a very basic mistake.
A lot of distributors use “Blind CC” to send to multiple addressesthis is the trick where you send an e-mail to yourself, and put all the other addresses BCC. This is a convenient way to reach a lot of people without revealing your whole e-mail list to every recipient (which is what happens when you CC), but these cumbersome BCC messages are red flags for mail server spam filters. Not only is your message likely going to get blocked, but your entire IP address might be blacklisted. This means that you will never be able to send ANY message to this address again, unless you contact the hostmaster who blacklisted you and beg for forgiveness.
Tools like Listrak, Campaigner, and ExacTarget solve these problems and elegantly handle lists with thousands of names. These services all charge a monthly fee. PHPList and OpenEMM are powerful OpenSource solutions, but require you to provide your own tech support.
The biggest advantage of these tools: they track the e-mails you send. Who opens it, who deletes it, who sends it to a friend, when, and where. You’ll need this data to do follow up, segment your lists, and to tweak your campaign.
MISTAKE #4: – Websites are not doing follow-up for you.
When a user clicks on your perfectly composed e-mail they need somewhere just as professional looking to go next. An ideal e-mail gets the reader to click quickly. A landing page (a specially designed webpage for e-mail campaign clickers) doesn’t need to be elaborate, but at the very least it should act as a sort of digital sell sheet, offering the extra information a potential buyer needs and makes it clear what they need to do to take the next step. Add an easy to use ‘send us a question form’ or invite buyers to sign up to a newsletter and suddenly a passive e-mail recipient has become a real prospect.
MISTAKE #3: – Not segmenting your mailing lists.
It’s tempting to blast one e-mail to a thousand names, but all marketing gurus insist on targeted delivery. ‘Segmenting’ your e-mail list means nothing more than dividing it into logical groups and sending different e-mails to the appropriate segment.
Personalizing your e-mails through segmentation can double click-through rates, and becomes more important as you move through the sales cycle. And by personalization here we’re not talking about sticking the prospect’s name at the top of the e-mail (though that is a nice touch). We’re talking about changing the content, sometimes very slightly, to help make your property immediately relevant to the prospect.
In future articles, we’ll be offering more tips on how to segment your lists.
MISTAKE #2: – Underemphasizing your categories, and overemphasizing your brand.
Film and video content license buyers receive dozens of marketing e-mails everyday. To cope, buyers have developed methods to sort and evaluate new titles very quickly.
What’s the first thing a buyer notices when they first encounter your property?
Unfortunately, it’s not your brand. A lot of distributors send out e-mails emphasizing their company logo and profile. While a good brand may help get your e-mail opened, it’s not going to help you make a sale. Buyers specialize in different categories and genres. They know how to sell that category, where to sell to that category, and who will buy it.
You need to help buyers understand your title in terms of their favourite categories.
Segment your e-mail list by preferred category and you will have accomplished the single most important thing to successfully winning a buyer’s attention. For independent producers and other rights holders without any brand recognition whatsoever, this is probably the most important marketing advice you will hear.
MISTAKE #1: – Not delivering value to your audience with your e-mail.
The best way to reach a buyer is to give them tools that will help them ‘sell’ your title to their buying team. Buyers need to understand all the opportunities your title offers. Slotting your property into a category is an essential first step, but you can do much more.
This is a big topic, but the idea is very simple: use the web to show your buyer the audience which already exists for your property. Do your homework, and find ways to position your title on the web where audiences live and breathe the category you are selling. Fan sites, social networking sites, online film festivals, and film/video sites can all take their place as virtual counterparts to tradeshows, press releases, and traditional film festivals, all working as venues to showcase your title. By creating this context, you help buyers understand how to position and make sense of your property. It is this context which you will try to communicate in your e-mail.
In conclusion, E-marketing takes time, effort, and experience. Many distributors fear that e-mail marketing is too aggressive, and that it basically amounts to spamming. If done improperly, this fear is certainly justified. The key is to be in your e-marketing campaigns what you are in the rest of your business life: a consummate professional, whose primary interest is in helping your clients succeed.
Daniel Lafleche is the COO of IPEX TV, the leading multiplatform B2B Film and Video online marketplace. Daniel has over 25 years experience in the entertainment industry, combining film and video licensing with internet media. IPEX TV specializes in helping film and video distributors take advantage of the web and reach out to international license buyers. You can learn more at http://www.ipextv.tv
Red Earth festival – 2010 Opening message & prayer. Cox Center, Oklahoma City, OK, USA Friday 18 June 2010. A pow-wow session begins with the Grand Entry and, in most cases, a prayer. The Eagle Staff leads the Grand Entry, followed by flags, then the dancers, while one of the host drums sings an opening song. This event is sacred in nature. If military veterans or active duty soldiers are present, they often carry the flags and eagle staffs. They are followed by the head dancers, then the remaining dancers usually enter the arena in a specific order: Men’s Traditional, Men’s Grass Dance, Men’s Fancy, Women’s Traditional, Women’s Jingle, and Women’s Fancy. Teens and small children then follow in the same order. Following the Grand Entry, the MC will invite a respected member of the community to give an invocation. The host drum that did not sing the Grand Entry song will then sing a Flag Song, followed by a Victory or Veterans’ Song. Video Rating: 0 / 5
Email newsletters (aka E-zines) can be regarded as one of the best business communication tools invented for a long time.
They are low cost – even no cost in comparison to paying for paper, printing, envelopes, and postage.
They are instantly deliverable directly to the desired recipient.
They are created with ease and minimal fuss.
They are environmentally friendly – no paper or transport to distant subscribers.
They allow you to stay on the radar of qualified prospects and existing customers in a low-key, non-threatening way.
They position you as an expert, authority, and credible resource in your industry.
Little wonder that so many businesses are jumping on the bandwagon with aggressive list-building tactics. The choice between right and wrong becomes paramount, and your ethics, credibility, and reputation all come in to play when you choose how to build your list.
The wrong ways, while not yet illegal, are currently under review and challenge by both the European Union and the United States of America. Some dodgy tactics include:
Buying databases and mailing lists from vendors who sell them
Adding every contact you meet at networking events
Mining other databases like Chamber of Commerce member lists and the Yellow Pages
Using ‘Opt-out’
(Please note that I am NOT talking about occasional ad hoc emails, I am specifically referring to adding these names to your regular E-zine subscriber list)
Doing so will add thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of names to your list.
What is the point of a subscriber list of thousands who never asked to receive your information, probably will never even open your messages, and certainly will never do business with you? It’s a case in point of quantity rather than quality.
How will unsolicited SPAM position you as credible? How will it draw prospects to doing business with you?
As an example, recently I received an email from a local Law Firm that I have never had any dealings with. Somehow I have landed on their subscriber list. (You’d think a law firm would lead by example!)
The email is addressed: ‘Dear Client’. Ahem – I am not, never have been, and now certainly will never be. They have completely blown their own credibility in my eyes.
At the end, they have their ‘Opt-Out’ clause: ‘This newsletter is sent in accordance with the EU Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive. If you no longer wish to receive it please send an email to **** to unsubscribe’.
Why must I have the hassle of asking them to remove me from a subscription service that I never asked to be a part of in the first place? The next one I receive will be flagged as SPAM. They will learn the hard way when the ISPs blacklist their outbound emails. (NB: If you are having problems with sending outgoing emails, and have an email newsletter with subscribers who haven’t subscribed themselves, you may want to check your ‘blacklisting’ status with your Internet Service Provider.)
Do you even trust Unsubscribe links anyway? How many times have you tried following one and then either being asked to log in (eh? With what details??) or received a ‘successfully unsubscribed’ message only to find you continue receiving the newsletters anyway?
The above tactics only serve to destroy your own credibility and reputation. Rather than being on the radar in a non-threatening way you may be pushing your prospects away.
Don’t despair: There are better ways!
There are many reputable businesses and E-zine publishers who are getting the process right. In so doing they are growing their lists with warm, qualified subscribers who have a much higher likelihood of becoming paying clients in time. Look at what they are doing so you can emulate their techniques as well as their success.
Here are some of the ethical, honest, and best-practice methods that they (and we) use:
Use verified opt-in services. It will take longer to grow a list this way, but each and every person on that list has chosen to be there. They have qualified themselves in, are expecting to hear from you, are most likely to open and read your messages, and have an even higher likelihood of doing business with you when ready. The best way to do this is to use one of the reputable list managers in the market. Get recommendations. We love Aweber (http://aweber.com/?298402).
Have a clear privacy policy. Email addresses are like gold. Let your subscribers know that they can trust you to treat theirs as such. Make is clear that you will not rent, sell, or share their information with any third parties. Also make it clear what you will do with their subscriber info. For example read Zee2A’s Privacy Policy at http://www.zee2a.com/privacy.html.
Only send relevant information. Set expectations upfront about the kind of information you send your subscribers and then keep your promises. If you offer a Tax Consulting service your subscribers will expect information relating to that. They don’t want emails from you marketing Time-Share in Spain. Here at Zee2A we help our clients grow their businesses, so our emails will always contain articles, hints, tips, and suggestions on doing just that. Not the latest Make-up and fashion trends!
Make it easy to get in touch with you. The internet can be a vast, impersonal, black hole. Show your subscribers the real ‘you’ behind the website and the E-zine. We always include a photograph to make it more personal and so that you can put our names and faces together. We also include contact information (http://www.zee2a.com/contactus.html) so that you can write, email, or call us.
Make it easy to unsubscribe. If your readers choose to no longer receive your newsletters they should not need to jump through hoops to have their wishes granted. There should be no shenanigans. Your privacy policy and use of a reputable list manager will ensure integrity in this matter.
Keep an eye out for my follow up article, coming soon, in it I will outline various tried and tested methods to grow your E-Zine list with quality subscribers who look forward to hearing from you.
Vanessa Deakin, Operations Director at Zee2A, works with Professional Service Executives frustrated and disappointed with their current growth rates, marketing efforts and business profitability. She helps them to skyrocket their results and break their own best records. To learn more or sign up for her e-zine, please visit www.zee2A.com.
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If someone you are not familiar with forwards an email to you, it is ordinary to want to know who they are, even though it is not spam or unfriendly. Knowing something like a sender’s personality can tell you whether or not you should answer their message.
Many emails include the individual’s name, and even though they may not, there are some programs that allow you to know the name which the account is documented under and possess the statistics in the same line as the address. If you cannot access this information, at times you can uncover more by looking at the email address.
Although, spam could be virtually impossible to follow for a normal person. A lot of people choose to simply eradicate these messages or flag them as spam so that no longer are forced to tolerate with them anymore. On the other hand, odd or annoying messages deserve more mindfulness, and they could be pretty irritating when you try to trace them. However, there may be an answer if this is the circumstance.
Online, there are several agencies that allow you to conduct a reverse search so that you can find the owner. These agencies generally charge a small fee for every search. You could sign up for membership and conduct as many reverse email searches you wish to. Nonethelesss, if you are able to locate an address’s owner, it might not be a good idea to attempt solving the problem on your own.
to advertise on the business and the company goods the best choice is all through email marketing. It’s a fast growing trend not only as it is a low cost method to contact your clients although also because it can be very useful if used appropriately because it is immediate, wide-reaching and motivates impulse purchases. how email marketing should be carry on in order o reach the customer?, hence here are a few rules to be followed: Rule #1: Don’t spam Always forward the advantageous information to the consumer try to avoid the spam emails because sending spam emails is against to the laws, so always follow the rule and continue a flourishing company. Email marketing always runs on belief thus by no means try to cheat the consumers by transfering spam emails to them, when send the spam emails customers will not accept then the your email marketing services will reach the blacklist of the customers, hence always be faithful towards consumers. study about how the various spam filter software’s existing function and try to avoid being flagged up and at last, don’t send too many emails. Once or twice a week will be agreeable in most environments, although if you have a high unsubscribe ratio, you might want to reduce it. Rule #2: Personalisation system In Email Marketing it is relatively unproblematic to personalise by by means of a code into your email template retrieving the data from your mailing file if you have the name of your subscriber or client – use it. nearly all of us like being addressed directly, seeing or hearing our name, made feeling appropriate and essential. If an electronic mail is precisely addressed to us, we are more likely to be interested than if it is sent to “Whom it may concern”. Rule #3: Allow the client to stay in control you must give the provision to the customers to unsubscribe your services if they will not want, if you wont offer that option then consumer will directly send it to spam. This means, that you have to give them the option to notify you to stop emailing you – either by clicking a link or by replying to your electronic message. the customers will not think regarding your reputation damage. If he wants to unsubscribe and can’t easily see how to do this, he’ll just add you to his blacklist. Or in other words, he marks you as spam. if most of the customers do that then you will come in the blacklist and no fresh customers will be interested to subscribe you by this there will be a lot of loss to your company. Rule #4: forward useful information they will unsubscribe or stop reading the messages when they get several emails at a time thus forward the mails in once in a week. the information which you are sending to the client through email must be advantageous to the buyer with which it is beneficial to them as well as it is increases your reputation. Rule #5: Get them attracted Companies regularly put a lot of attempt in the actual email, however then overlook to look at the door opener – in other words, the subject line it is the foremost thing your consumer will see and he will make a decision within an instant if the message is appropriate to him. this is the beginning stage to drag the consumer, so follow this so that the customer will always stay with you. so, think about the ways how you can make the customer to open the email, never try to misguide the customers, always win their trust which will be helpful for your business development.
LukeOfTroy explaining why such offensive videos are necessary: www.youtube.com SisyphusRedeemed’s excellent commentary: www.youtube.com Muslim responses: NOTE: Do NOT go to these pages and spread anger. Anger is not the appropriate response to their videos. Encourage them in their effort to spread their message. That is what free speech is about, is it not? Dawahfilms’ extremely positive response to draw Mohammed day: www.youtube.com MuslimYTEmirate’s positive and elegant response to draw Mohammed day: www.youtube.com Pakistan’s positive (YES, positive!) response to draw Mohammed day: They came by the thousands, not to scream and demand blood, not to burn flags, not to threaten and intimidate, but to voice their opinion and their disapproval, AS IS THEIR RIGHT. www.youtube.com This is progress, friends. It gives me hope for the future. To those who said that this day would not bring dialog, I say view the reactions to it, and you will see that it has. More excellent responses from the muslim community: SamiZaatari has an important message: www.youtube.com falaky posted a great sermon about this. spirited? yes. angry? perhaps. appropriate? ABSOLUTELY. remember, it is his *right* to be insulted: www.youtube.com He followed it with this video of a documentary about Muhammad: www.youtube.com obaidkarki talks about pakistan ban on facebook: www.youtube.com Only time will tell if the riots, death threats, violence, and murder will return. With examples like this for muslims to … Video Rating: 4 / 5
Opt-In Email and eZine Advertising still more effective than RSS, Blogs, and PPC -article price
When you factor in all the costs related to promoting via an Opt-In Email or Ezine campaign you are still getting the best return on your advertising dollar investment than using RSS, Blogs or PPC. The measurable results are significantly faster than RSS and Blogs and less expensive than using Pay Per Click marketing. Without a doubt, Email and Newsletter advertising campaigns are still two of the best tools available to promote your product or service.
Email Marketing Campaigns There are a great many people that are still reluctant to use what is one of the best marketing tools available today. Many marketers associate email marketing with spam and have concerns about being shut down by their ISP or hosting company. The fact is, done right and by following specific guidelines you have little to fear. Follow the guidelines outlined below and you will probably kick yourself for not using this tool a lot sooner.
CAN-SPAM COMPLIANT: Just about everyone receives hundreds of spam-related emails per week and that is the main reason a lot of legitimate businesses balk at using email marketing. But if you are a legitimate business you only need to do a few things to make your email marketing efforts legal. (a) Subject Line: It should not be misleading in any way. It should relate to the body of the message and it is a very good practice that the first paragraph relate to the subject line. (b) Specific Opt-Out Instructions: You must include a way for the reader to opt-out by supplying a link that works. (c) Physical Address: If you work out of an office this is the address that should appear after your signature. If you work out of the home your home address should appear after the signature. (d) From Address: Messages should be from the same “from address”
USE OPT-IN EMAIL ADDRESSES ONLY: This is very important. Use only Opt-In email addresses for your marketing efforts. There are many legitimate email suppliers so you have a lot of options. And even using 100% Opt-In Email Addresses does not guarantee that you won’t have a few people complaining. But if you purchase addresses that include the full name, IP and date stamp you have proof of the opt-in just in case it is needed.
USE SPAM FILTER SOFTWARE: Don’t let this software intimidate you. The software is easy to setup and use. It is a good idea to use spam filter software to filter out words or phrases that tend to get flagged by ISP spam filters. Some of the suppliers listed below provide free spam filtering software.
3) USE AUTORESPONDERS: Using an autoresponder will save you a lot of time and work. You can preload messages and assign specific criteria to when they should be sent. Some of the suppliers listed below provide free autoresponder software.
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just got back from the train show and hears the new stuff. I am going to be selling alot of cars and if you are interested please send me a message. Video Rating: 4 / 5
Whether you are just launching your list building efforts, or have had a mailing list for awhile, the choice of Email Service Providers is a critical one to the success of your email marketing efforts. What to look for in an ESP can be complex but shouldn’t stop you from making the best decision for whatever stage of list development your company is currently in. Below are 10 considerations for evaluating an ESP.
1. Deliverability Deliverability stats are easy to document if the ESP is a good one. A few signs – check to see if the ESP will allow a third-party deliverability audit by a company such as PivotalVeracity or Return Path before requiring a contract. Do they consistently monitor deliverability? They should have a good data hygiene services, that scrubs against known spam traps, active complainers, and undeliverable addresses. The ESP have a team of postmasters to interact with ISPs to assure good deliverability This is an area that takes babysitting and diligence.
2. Training Some ESP platforms are very intuitive but many are not. Find out if there are costs for initial or follow-up training and if the training is available both online and live. Is training mandatory before being allowed to call customer support? You want an ESP that offers easy access to resources to ensure your ramp-up time is minimal. Spend a bit of time exploring their online training options(videos, tutorials and documentation)and see how comfortable you are.
3. Both broadcast and autoresponder options Broadcast is when you set up a message to be sent out immediately or at a certain day and time. A broadcast is going to go out to your full email list. Autoresponders, both drip and triggered, are emails that are set up to be delivered automatically at certain intervals after someone signs up to your list. As someone who uses email marketing, you want both options as they’ll be useful to you in many ways while you work to reach your market.
4.Customer service With over 100 ESPs to choose from, much of email is being viewed as commodity-based. Therefore, level and quality of service is a prime differentiator. Consider the overall account servicing. Check their website or sales people to find out if you will have online or email access to immediate customer support, or if it will it be next day with a ticketing system. Ask for references from current clients. This will be most telling.
5. Multiple email lists hosting Some programs only allow you to host one email list. You will likely want to keep separate email lists for different websites, topics or even to separate customers from potential customers.
6. HTML and Text email creation Some people prefer to send plain text emails while others like to add images and html code through an HTML email. Be sure your ESP can do both.
7 Easy and flexible sign-up form creation You will want to have the option of creating multiple sign up forms that will create multiple lists. This is crucial for better targeting as your marketing becomes more complex. Check on their form creation capabilities, if they even have one.
8. Reporting and analysis If you’re sending out emails without knowing the results then it’s very difficult to be successful. Make sure you’re clear on the metrics that matter for your business and review how well the reporting capabilities of the ESP match those needs. Standard metrics should include sends, deliveries, opens, click-throughs and forwards. Find out what level of detailed reporting is available for bounced messages (i.e. why did a message bounce).Take a look at the standard reports. This should give you a good overview.
9. Templates and design assistance If your design skills are limited or non-existent, templates can be very helpful. Some companies make it easy to get a professional email campaign started by providing templates.
10. Pricing You don’t want to choose your ESP based solely on price, but you do want to know exactly what you’re getting. Some ESPs require a 12-month usage/revenue commitment, while others have a pay as you go model scaled for volume. Determine which optional features have associated costs. Ask for contracts from potential ESPs and have them reviewed for any red flags before final vendor selection. If you are in a larger enterprise, get a copy of the agreement from ESPs that are finalists so that your legal department can review indemnity and liability language. The inability of either side to be flexible can be a deal breaker. All that work you put into finding your favorite ESPs can be wasted if you can’t come to terms.
The best way to figure out if a program is the right one for you is to do your research first, then explore the option of taking a trial of the program.Your email list is without a doubt one of the biggest assets you will ever have in your online business.Take some time to do your homework and set it up correctly and that initial investment of time and effort will pay of in multiples for years to come.
Elyse Tager is a social media strategist and founder of Elymedia. Elyse develops effective marketing strategies to help the small business grow significantly.
Want to learn more about growing your business with Social Media? Sign up for Elyse’s free introductory teleseminar available at => http://www.elymedia.com/freeclasslive_socialmedia.html
Essential Email Marketing Tips – Dos And Don’ts In Email Marketing
Emails are perhaps the most personal medium for advertising. For business-business marketing, whoever you wish to reach out to invariably has access to emails. This medium is largely inexpensive and powerful and can be easily built into marketing systems. Building a solid email marketing program will ensure repeated communication with clients who would not forget you. For this reason, your emails must sound interesting and appealing so that in the process they can successfully boost your sales. Follow these tips to build a great email subscriber family that can help your business to grow in years to come.
Email marketing tips:
Most Internet service providers use spam protection devices to pick up unsolicited emails before they can make their way into a customer’s inbox. Filters rank every mail on the basis of some criteria and when this overshoots a certain limit the mail gets flagged as spam. So when you want to use emails for marketing campaigns make sure not to use words like “free” or “save” in the subject line or in the mail body.
When you send non-newsletter emails remember to have only one message for every mail sent because the richer the information content of that mail, the more likely it is to grab the viewer’s attention.
Avoid too many images and graphics in your email message because that distracts the subscriber. Include links in blue and bold fonts to catch the viewer’s eye so that he can click on that link and visit your site to avail of any special offers.
When addressing your client, try and address him by using his first name because this gesture showing personal attention can help record better sales.
When you want to add more subscribers to your mailing list remember to give them the option to “unsubscribe” if need be. This link will allow the client to stop receiving mails from you when he no longer wishes to, and giving him the freedom to do so will actually invite him to join your site.
Have the confirmation email sent to your client once he signs up on your site to receive emails. This is beneficial because that mail will then have a link to your marketing program to verify that the user had indeed signed up.
When you run a newsletter you must ensure that its look and feel is consistent in every issue that comes out. This helps to consolidate the brand image in the client’s eyes.
Remember to send emails to your subscribers on a certain designated day of the week and at a certain prefixed time. This will ensure that your regular customers “expect” your mails to enter their inboxes at that time. This helps to ensure better responses.
Incidentally Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the best days to send out emails because people tend to be more responsive on these days as compared to others. The likelihood of reading the mail contents and clicking on given links are greater on such days as research shows.
Since you have barely less than a second to read the subject line of an email, it must be catchy enough; else the subscriber will ignore or delete that mail. Ideally advertise a benefit that the subscriber can enjoy by reading your mail to get him interested enough to visit your website.
Make sure that the preview is catchy enough for the customer to feel tempted to read on through the rest of the mail content.
Create autoresponder emails to follow up and provide your subscribers with additional information related to your goods and services. These autoresponders must be sent at regular intervals once you have new subscribers. They could contain a thank you message or a link to some special offer or any privilege that they get to enjoy on becoming a member.
Although “free” is not likely to draw customers you can definitely create a product like a discount coupon that you can gift to your subscribers for free when they sign up.
Experiment with images and text positions in the email before sending them out. This will help you attract the most clicks and automatically record higher sales.
Remember to include a signature when you end the email because this is bound to attract more traffic since it will contain all contact details and possibly a link to the website.
Always try to incorporate the newsletter subscription form on the main page itself and link it with all other pages.
Ensure that your emails can be read by the target audience from their mobile sets. Take care to see that emails look as good and as appealing on the customer’s smart phones.
Avoid sending out mails just for the sake of sending them. Make sure you have something constructive to say like tips or advice or sales promotions that are likely to interest them. Whatever it is that is of value must be explicitly mentioned upfront or at the beginning with perhaps a link given for the subscriber to get additional details.
Try to keep the tone of the email soft and persuasive intending to help customers and not forcing them to buy something you are selling!
Most significantly, proofread your email draft by checking for spelling and grammatical errors and sending it first to your colleagues and friends to get an unbiased opinion.
Customer relationships take ages to build and if you fail to communicate with your clients regularly, chances are that they will soon find other vendors for their business. Emails are meant to generate expectations amongst clients and keep them coming back to you for further business. Research suggests that the initial couple of emails are the most critical wherein the customer actually decides whether he wants to sign up for more. Emails are like narrating stories in installments and email marketing tips can help you do just that in the most effective way!
In 2006, 40% of all email sent throughout the world was considered SPAM. This begs the question, “Will my email get to my subscribers?”
Every day it gets harder to determine if an email is legitimate; users find it difficult to distinguish between legitimate emails and spam. Spammers continue to find clever ways to bypass email filters and as a result the filters increasingly block valid emails in a desperate attempt to keep up. Many marketers find filters frequently catch their commercial emails.
The sheer volume of spam people receive has also created other problems. People will often mistake valid commercial emails, from mailing lists they’ve subscribed to, as spam and thus the email never gets opened. As this trend continues, some experts predict email will no longer be a useful marketing tool.
What can you do to avoid being marked as spam?
The best thing you can do is limit as many factors that may cause your email to be flagged as spam as possible:
- If you’re not doing so already, use a double opt-in mailing list. This will ensure they do in fact want to receive emails from you, plus they will recognize your name, which prevents any emails you send from being mistaken as spam.
- Once a subscriber has signed up to the mailing list, display a message on the website that tells them to add your email address to their white list to prevent it from being flagged as spam.
- Send your email as plain text. Avoid HTML emails as those tend to get picked up by the filters a lot more than plain text.
- Avoid using high threat keywords such as ‘Free’, ‘Discount’, ‘Offer’, and ‘Money’ in your subject line as well as the email body. Most spammers these days are smart enough not to use these, but filters will still pick up on them and consider your email suspicious. If you need to use these types of keywords, you can space them out like ‘F r e e’, or include separating characters like ‘O-f-f-e-r’.
Will people abandon email for another electronic medium?
It’s difficult to tell where email marketing will be a year from now. In 2004, Bill Gates predicted there would be an end to all spam by 2006. Well, I don’t need to tell you that the exact opposite has occurred – there is more spam today than ever before, and there is no sign it will be letting up any time soon. It will only continue to get harder to find ways around the problem.
The good news is email marketing has already stood its ground. When blogs and podcasts emerged, many believed they would replace email as the dominant marketing media, but it did not happen. Yes, people embraced blogs and podcasts, but they still subscribed to mailing lists as they had before, despite the spam.
Email is still a strong marketing media and every indication shows that it will remain useful in the years to come. Unless everyone in the world suddenly decides to stop using email, there will always be a way to reach subscribers on the web this way.
About the Author:
Sean Kenaston is an Associate Editor at Ratings Hub – the first and only ad and affiliate link free site that provides 100% user-based reviews of various Internet marketing products and services. It is absolutely free and it’s the only place on the Internet offering completely unbiased feedback on products used by every type of marketer, from beginner to guru and everyone in between. Please visit http://www.ratingshub.no-nonsense-marketing.com
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Avoiding the Spam Filters and Other Email Marketing Tips
Email marketing, as many of us know, can be a powerful, inexpensive method of reaching our most active potential or existing customers. It can boost not only our direct sales, but also our credibility and referrals.
One of the major benefits of email marketing is that email is free, but obviously this is the same reason why spam has become so popular and so frustrating. With spam comes spam filters and with spam filters comes the blocking of legitimate email.
In this article I’ll try and describe the basic steps that can help reduce the number of emails you send out that get blocked by spam filters — hopefully resulting in a more rewarding marketing effort. The right selection of words Many spam filters work by analyzing the email based on its content and the words used. Many words — such as free, sex and so forth — are very heavy spam trigger keywords. Your priority should be to avoid such words while keeping your newsletter as professional as possible.
Later in this article I will show you a technique that I use to help me detect words that could trigger spam filters that I may have missed.
Pay attention to your formatting When formatting your email, keep it simple and professional. Excessive use of different colors, fonts, sizes, images and so forth will result in a higher spam filtering rate. Keep your email as clean as possible, and try to stick to a maximum of 2 or 3 different font types and sizes. Overly large sized fonts will surely add to an email being flagged as spam, as will too many images (or not enough text).
Try and use a short and simple stylesheet rather than using font tags excessively. Most spam filters don’t appreciate a multitude of font tags and inline formatting, and the more primitive filters can’t detect stylesheets so they will not penalize as easily.
Consistency is king Use a template if you plan on sending newsletters consistently. This will make sure that all your newsletters look and feel the same. It will also add a touch of professionalism and branding to your newsletters.
Whilst not directly affecting spam filters, this will enable your readers to distinguish your newsletter instantly, thus not reporting it as spam accidentally. Some spam filters work by querying a spam server, whereas others report individual emails as spam. If your email gets reported as spam, then more than likely multiple spam filters will flag your email.
Being consistent with your timing of the newsletter also helps. For example, if you send a newsletter once per month (I personally don’t recommend you send out any more than this, unless you’ve got something really interesting to say), then aim to send it out at the same time, on the same day each month.
Once again, your potential readers will learn to expect your email, adding professionalism and often improving open rates, also reducing accidental spam flagging as well.
Always use Double Opt-in Always make your mailing lists double opt-in. This means that when a user subscribes to your mailing list, they will be sent an email with a link that they must click on to confirm their subscription.
This is very important because many people can accidentally enter an incorrect email address, or even the email address of someone else on purpose. When that person receives a newsletter they did not subscribe to, they will assume they have been spammed, and your newsletter (and possibly your web server) will be reported as spam.
Unsubscribe and Contact Information Every newsletter you send out should contain a way for the reader to unsubscribe. Not doing so is illegal in some countries and is an instant sign of spamming. You should also display your contact information (Phone, Fax and Address) clearly, as this greatly increases confidence in your email and your company, as well as conforms to spam laws in the United States. Contact information also allows a potential customer to contact you if need be.
Test,Test, Test The key to avoiding spam filters is testing. The first method of testing I use is to send the newsletter to multiple email accounts with existing spam filters. For example, I have a Gmail (http://www.gmail.com) account and a Hotmail (http://www.hotmail.com) account that I make sure I send my newsletter to. If the newsletter ends up in the junk folder, then I’ve got some work to do. I also have a couple of email accounts with different web hosts that have spam filters in place. In particular, they mostly use spam assassin — a popular piece of spam filtering software. Spam assassin is useful because every email that it flags as spam is given a report and a list of why that email was considered spam.
I also have a local spam filtering application called No Spam Today! for Workstations, that runs a local copy of spam assassin on my PC. It acts as a very close replica to the same software used on thousands of servers world-wide. By sending myself copies of the newsletter No Spam Today! — using the spam assassin checking techniques — gives me feedback as to why my email may have been flagged. If I’ve used words or formatting that I shouldn’t have, or if I’ve included too many images, etc.
Conclusion Avoiding spam filters when sending out legitimate newsletters can be a time consuming effort. However, as your mailing list grows, it can also be a very beneficial exercise. I’ve watched open rates of just 2 to 3% soar to a massive 50% and over, simply by applying the techniques described in this article.
In conclusion, I hope that you’ve found the above tips useful and I wish you luck with your email marketing endeavors!
