May

16

Using GroupMail Filters to Target Email Campaigns

Filed Under GroupMail, Infacta, Marketing, email, email marketing, emarketing, newsletters | 2 Comments 

It is nice to think that we all have strategically segmented lists of recipients, organized into perfect groups to send targeted messages to. But list management takes time and effort; and the reality is that many email marketers work with one monster list of contacts. Luckily, you can still target mailings even when your groups aren’t organized into neatly packed segments. Using GroupMail’s filters, you can send messages to particular recipients from a large group based on database attributes.

groupmail-filters.gif

In the image above, I am targeting AOL recipients in Bellingham, Washington who subscribed after September 25th. So only recipients who meet that criteria will receive my message. If you are having a promotion in several major cities, you could set your GroupMail filter to send a message only to recipients from those cities where the promotion is being offered.

So don’t fret if you don’t have carefully segmented lists. Just filter it!

By the way, you can save your filter settings each time that you create one so that you can use it again for future campaigns. You can also preview the results to get a quick glimpse into what the filtered list looks like, how many contacts it includes, etc.

For more information about how filters and other GroupMail features can make your email marketing campaigns a bit easier to manage, visit GroupMail online.

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May

15

Email Marketing: Understanding Bounces

Filed Under GroupMail, Infacta, Marketing, email, email marketing, emarketing, newsletters | Leave a Comment 

One of the most important tasks of an effective email marketing strategy is keeping your list well maintained. As Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other email gatekeepers shift their focus from content to delivery and reputation issues, it becomes more important than ever before.

Resolving bounced messages is one of the important elements of good list management. But for those who don’t understand Enhanced Mail System Status Codes, this can be a daunting task. Understanding why messages are returned is critical.

There are basically two types of bounced emails:

  1. A Hard Bounce is returned when there is a permanent problem with the address or server that the message is being sent to. For example, if you send a message to @messagingtimes.cim, it will be returned as a hard bounce because the domain doesn’t exist.
  2. A Soft Bounce is returned for a variety of reasons when there is a temporary problem with the delivery of a message. For example, a recipient’s mailbox might be full at the moment of delivery.

Deliverability.com shares some insights into how bounces work. Toward the bottom of the article, they provide a link that explains what the different codes that you will see associated with bounced messages.

If senders simply ignore bounced messages and keep bad addresses on their list, then over time they risk having their IP or domain blocked.

GroupMail users can configure their Subscriber Add-on to automatically remove invalid or troublesome email addresses from their list. For more information about this feature, read Managing Bounces with GroupMail.

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May

13

CAN-Spam Act Updated (2008)

Filed Under Marketing, email, email marketing, emarketing, newsletters, spam | Leave a Comment 

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has provided some clarification to the CAN-Spam Act, adding four rule provisions to existing requirements.

  1. An e-mail recipient cannot be required to pay a fee, provide information other than his or her e-mail address and opt-out preferences, or take any steps other than sending a reply e-mail message or visiting a single Internet Web page to opt out of receiving future e-mail from a sender.
  2. A “sender” of commercial e-mail can include an accurately-registered post office box or private mailbox established under United States Postal Service regulations to satisfy the Act’s requirement that a commercial e-mail display a “valid physical postal address.”
  3. A definition of the term “person” was added to clarify that CAN-SPAM’s obligations are not limited to natural persons.
  4. The definition of “sender” was modified to make it easier to determine which of multiple parties advertising in a single e-mail message is responsible for complying with the Act’s opt-out requirements.

The question remains - Will the CAN-Spam Act (even with these clarifications) prevent those 100 spam gangs who send 80 percent of the world’s spam from continuing to fill inboxes with spam?

Probably not.

For more information, please read FTC updates CAN-SPAM (DMNews)

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May

12

Leveraging Your Email Subscription Process

Filed Under Marketing, design, email, email marketing, emarketing, newsletters | Leave a Comment 

Normally, the email subscription process is pretty standard. A visitor comes to a site, they see a link to opt-in to a newsletter, fill out a short form and leave. What would happen, I wonder, if you asked each subscriber if they wanted to tell a friend about your website, blog or newsletter before leaving though? Something tells me that it might very well increase the number of visitors and, ultimately, subscribers.

The most effective marketing is word of mouth. Referrals from friends work because those who receive the invitation trust the person sending it. So they are more likely to visit the link and consider it to be relevant to them. Their friend sent them after all.

The problem is, Send-to-a-Friend (STAF) forms aren’t easy to create unless you know some code.

Well, that used to be the case anyway.

Now, yourtellafriend.com makes adding a referral mechanism to your subscription process easy. In only a few minutes, I was able to create a form ready to use in a subscription process. Of course, not every subscriber will refer a friend, and not every friend invited will become a subscriber. But the odds are that your subscription rates will increase if each subscriber tells others about your site or offer.

For more information, watch a short introductory video about Your Tell a Friend

* I have no affiliation with yourtellafriend.com. Just happened to find their site last week.

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May

9

Backing Up Your Email Marketing Campaigns (and preventing a nightmare)

Filed Under GroupMail, Marketing, email, email marketing, emarketing, newsletters | Leave a Comment 

In email marketing, the ultimate nightmare scenario involves the sudden disappearance of your recipient lists (groups), templates and archive of sent campaigns. Luckily, it is easy to prevent this nightmare from becoming a horrible reality.

GroupMail customers can backp their data easily at anytime (now is a good time by the way.) For instructions on how to backup your GroupMail settings, groups and sent messages, read the instructions below:

Backup GroupMail and Save to a CD

Restoring a Backup

Whatever you do, don’t procrastinate.

Those who lose their data have usually thought about backing up their data before the crash, but put it off for the same reasons that we all do.

It’s like buying a life insurance policy. It never seems like something that we have to do now. There’s no urgency when all appears well with the world. We convince ourselves:

“I’m not going to die tomorrow.”

“My computer is working fine, I’ll do it tomorrow.”

But people do die tomorrow and computers do crash. And some day, it will be your life and your computer. Or my life and my computer.

You’ll sleep better at night knowing that your hard work is safeguarded. Perform a backup this weekend. You’ll thank me when your computer crashes later. And even if it doesn’t crash, the peace of mind that backing up data offers is priceless.

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