Email Marketing

I’m Subscribed to a Cat Lover’s List but All I Get Is Dog Food.

Email Marketing /

I’m Subscribed to a Cat Lover’s List but All I Get Is Dog Food.

The numbers are typically against you. According to most online sources, each year you will only keep 70% of your subscriber base, while the other 30% will change their email address or just stop checking it altogether. Welcome to List Churn, notorious for list devastation and one of the many causes of:

  1. Lower Deliverability
  2. Decreased Click-Throughs
  3. Open Rate Shrinkage
  4. And general bad overall performance rates.

List Churn is expensive.  Because, you’ll want to replace those lost (30%) email addresses. And normally, you do that with acquisition campaigns, which costs time and money.

Can you stop List Churn in its tracks?  Probably not, because;

  1. People like to move, travel and experience. They may change their Hotmail for a Gmail email address or change jobs that offer a company email. Whatever the case may be at some point the email address you have for these estimated 30% of subscribers becomes invalid.
  2. It’s not them, but maybe it’s you. You’re sending too many emails or you have lost the initial focus of your email messages causing list fatigue.  Or you’re not sending enough email to your subscribers’ and they have forgotten you.
  3. You’re renting lists or borrowing your friends list. You are just plain practicing poor list hygiene by adding unsubscribes back into the fold because you just can’t let go.
  4. You are sending catCat food campaigns to the people who opted into the Dog Food List on your Pet Food Site.                                        

As annoying as List Churn is it’s a fact of life. Everyone has it.  But there are a few things you can do to lessen it:

  1. Make it easy to subscribe to your list. Don’t ask a million questions upfront, just get the basic information with a link to a preference page that your new member can fill out at their leisure.
  2. Always confirm each address before they are added to your list database.
  3. Inform your new list member what type of information they can expect from your list and how often they should expect to hear from you with a Welcome Letter.
  4. Present a clear, easy to find opted out method for your current subscribes. And say goodbye when they do opt-out; never re add them to the database.
  5. Run a few test emails before each campaign to make sure everything is A-Okay. You want to make sure all the links you have included actually work, the pictures aren’t too big and the formatting looks great from phone to PC.

Your efforts will not go unrewarded, but note you will always have invalid addresses and non-responsive list members.  You can’t do anything when an address becomes invalid, except remove it when it’s discovered.  You can, however resuscitate non-responsive list members with well-planned out re-engagement campaigns. When successful with these campaigns, make sure you recognize your revitalized members; Send a Welcome Home letter with coupons and contests.

Don’t forget to ask your revived list members why they lost interest in the first place.  Useful information for any list owner.  Offer a link to a preference page, so they can tell you what they are interested in to how often they want to hear from you.  You may find your newly responsive list members are more active with your emails once they realize that you really do care about them.

Contact the specialists at Dundee Internet: we will help you with email list problem even if you use a competitor.*

 

*excludes competitors tools i.e. HTML formatting editor.

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Can You Really Trust a noreply@____.com Address?

Email Marketing /

Can You Really Trust a noreply@____.com Address?

You are a subscriber to many mailing lists; in fact, your company requires you to be a member of one list in particular; that subscription is important. But you cannot read everything all the time. Most likely some of the lists you receive, you delete as soon as they hit your inbox because the Subject Line does not interest you. One or two lists you mark to read later and a few you open, scan through and make a quick determination if the information is relevant then file as necessary. Can you relate to that scenario? I can.

Most mailing lists that you and I are subscribed too are as varied as you can get, but most seem to have something in common. If we have questions for the list author and hit reply, our reply is addressed to a donotreply@___.com email address. I know this isn’t true in all cases, but it is for most.

Sometimes newsletters contain a title, person or general email address to send your comment or inquiry, very helpful and appreciated. Nevertheless, the donotreply@ address remains popular. In fact, the list you’re required to be on uses one of these noncommittal reply addresses with no alternative contact information. And sometimes for this newsletter, you do have questions. It’s annoying.

That’s the consumer side, but you’re a list owner too.

From the list owners’ point of view, considering the volume of email being sent, the no reply address is a reasonable way to eliminate the need to monitor emails coming back as a reply. It’s a way to keep costs down, as no one is required to read and take action (if needed).

You as the email marketer know that it is wise to, always, have a way for your reader to get in touch with you. You know first-hand; giving your list members an avenue of contact is less frustrating and more considerate of your readers. You’ve been there.

For your list readers, give them a way to connect with the sender, if you are using a donotreply@___.com email address. Include phone numbers, calls to action, and alternative email address in the body of your message. Inform your readers that the person to contact about the newsletter is not the person who sent it (if that’s the case) or just don’t use a donotreply@___.com email address.

However, in those cases when you are working for a manager who insists on a no reply address, citing costs and labor, put the internet to work for you. Impress your boss by making replies more manageable; remove the SPAM (use filters), auto replies (Sorry I’m out of the office) bounces and manual unsubscribes to narrow your focus on the real replies.  He may reconsider.

But if the manager domaindoesn’t, tell them with a donotreply@___.com

  1. The list may lose Subscribers as not many will not whitelist a noreply@ address
  2. You can’t track auto replies
  3. Recipients may mistake the messages as SPAM
  4. Unable to respond or track certain errors like Request Timeout or Internal Server Error.
  5. Ruin your reputation

Although you can’t reply to this message you can leave a comment. I’d appreciate the feedback.  If you want to more contact me.

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5 Simple Ways to Grow Your Email List, Easier Than Riding a Motorcycle.

Email Marketing /

5 Simple Ways to Grow Your Email List, Easier Than Riding a Motorcycle.

Email marketing is atypical from most marketing channels.  In an ideal world email does not invade a person’s universe unless invited.  (Exclude the Spammers ) 🙂  Email is unique, with its best feature being the ability to send “information” to people who are actually interested in that “information”, at a time they are interested in it.  Not true for those others advertising avenues known as mass media.

Mass media advertisers want everybody as an audience with the goal to increase consumption of their products and services.  Mass media, (TV, radio and other innocuous vehicles such as newspapers, magazines and some social media) doesn’t care who their messages reach as long as they do. Email is so much different, it’s based on an audience that is opt-in to the message of the list.

An email group solely interested in motorcycles maybe more receptive to an ad from Progressive Insurance (as a list sponsor) then contacting Progressive after watching a Progressive ad unfold on TV.  Alternately a list authored by an insurance company seeking motorcyclists may do well explaining the ins and outs of

motorcycle

Motorcycle list members

insurance (education) and offer monthly incentives and discounts for referrals.  List membership is so flexible anyone with a product or service can do it and do it well with a reliable hosting company like Dundee Internet Services.

But how do you get people to join your list willingly?

  1. Elicit help from your current members; by offering information that is so valuable or discounts that are too good to pass up, they will want to share your email with a friend.
  2. Invite your online guests to get more out of your website when they subscribe to your email list.  Place email opted in invites in conspicuous places such as, above the fold, in your blog or on the side of all your web pages.  Offer a free guide, coupon or other incentive when they become list subscribers.  And (also let them know they can unsubscribe at any time too)
  3. If you have a Social Media Page, then, you probably have fans; potential dedicated list members.  Hold a contest to lead them back to your website where, when they enter your contest they can opt into your mailing list for future contests and announcements.
    Email address: subscribe to my list
    for future contests
    (optional) Your name:
  4. Pop up boxes know as a Leadbox works well too.   Experiment with placement for optimal results.  For example, people coming from Facebook to your landing page will more likely sign up to your list if you use a pop up box or Leadbox.
  5. Website content can bring in more subscribers.  When you offer a sexy detailed list, 3 easy steps to The Best Grilled Cheese People Will Rave About, include a Leadbox that encourages the reader to join your list to get more information like this.

I know there’s a lot more on this subject so add your comments and join my blog list today!  (The join box is on the right)

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Spring Cleaning, Its Time to Clean the Email Spam Filter

Email Marketing /

Spring Cleaning, Its Time to Clean the Email Spam Filter

The Holidays are over.  In most parts of the world, the winter doldrums have set in.  People go to work daydreaming of warmth and vacations.  The weather seems to be a tossup of sunny and cold or dreary and cold with no change in sight.  Snowstorm predictions this time of year is as common as email marking. Did I say Common?  Is your email as common as snowstorms in the month of February?

February, normally cold, not much to do,  you would think everyone has more time to read your marketing emails. But the truth is, Email, like Snowflakes, are falling into our mail boxes in record numbers, so much is being sent all the time, including tons of SPAM; so, how do you make sure your subscribers continue to open and click on your messages and not shovel them away with the rest of the unwanted emails?  There’s a lot of blocking going on out there, reaching your goal of getting your messages to the inbox and bypassing all those attempts to block it, may be hindered by something as common  as a Spam Filter.

Why should you be concerned about Spam Filters?  Because they are being used everywhere, and can affect your success as an email marketer.  For example, when a list subscriber for whatever reason, stops opening your emails, their (non) action may signify to the Spam Filter, that this subscriber is not interested in what you have to say.  Their (non) action effects your subscriber engagement percentage.  As you probably know subscriber engagement, (the measurement of email recipients that are engaged with your email), is a significant measurement for email marketers. If your subscriber engagement is low compared to the number of subscribers you email, your deliverability rate may suffer.  It’s all connected – and worse yet – low subscriber engagement  may be your own fault.

Low subscriber engagement may be a symptom of  “Identity Crises Syndrome” or ICS.   You can find indications of  ICS  in the  sporadic email marketer.  When your mailings are infrequent, therefore unexpected, your subscriber may genuinely have  forgot they signed up for your list. They have no idea who you are, therefore, in their eyes you could be a spammer and filtered as such. (if they don’t unsubscribe)  To overcome ICS, mail regularly, on a schedule and give your recipients the opportunity to tell you how often they would like to hear from you with a preference page.  Your goal is to always keep your subscribers engaged on some level.

Not a sporadic emailer and still find yourself fighting Spam Filters and Spam complaints, plus paying for email that’s never read, then, be proactive; prune your list of inactive addresses.

Spring Clean

Spring Cleaning

Pruning your list comes with  benefits.  It will save money on list hosting fees, you will have a rise in subscriber engagements (more opens using an engaged list) which in turn will improve your deliverability with the ISPs who, by the way,  monitor for positive subscriber engagement. As stated, its all connected.

Positive signs of engagement maybe:

  • Clicking links
  • Whitelist your address
  • Downloading  images
  • Reading the message
  • Opening the message and scrolling though it
  • Flagging the message
  • Move the message from Spam box to your inbox
  • Forwarding the message

Signs of Negative engagement maybe:

  • Reporting you as spammer
  • Deleting your email
  • Trashing your email
  • Not engaging with multiple messages over long periods of time

Always review your email campaigns to identify your inactive subscribers, analyze them and decide who to delete and who you think you can keep (based on whatever criteria you are using).  You do this by creating a re-engagement campaign that is simple, with the purpose of regaining your recipients interest in your emails.  Monitor your response rate and activity in each mailing.  Based on those results,  you can permanently delete them from your list or identify them as a  fully re-engaged subscriber.

In the meantime no re-engagement action means more Spam Filtering.

Even using a fully engaged list you will find that Spam Filters are not perfect. They can trap good emails just by the way they are configured.   For example, most Spam Filters work on a number system or point system, where a value is assigned to certain factors in an email header.  Phrases and words that are considered “spammy,” such as “Free or “Free Only Today” or content that appears with subjects like a mortgage pitch or get rich quick email, will be assigned higher numbers or points.  If your emails or your total campaigns exceed a certain point threshold – your email doesn’t get to the inbox.

By the way, Spam Filters are used universally, configured by the individual, company or organization who use them.  There isn’t a standard  list of “spammy”criteria because it’s frequently growing and adapting, based on, what people identify as spam. Consider this: when your inactive email subscriber receives (your) unwanted email, with a click of their mouse they mark your message as spam” or Junk Mail , your now on the Spam Filter list.  And strange as it may seem these innocuous filters synchronize with one another and share what they learn.

You may avoid the SPAM FILTER:

  • Avoid the cliché of the spammy subject lines
  • Keep  punctuation   @#*^$@_$*@_()  out of your subject
  • Use both lower and UPPERCASE  letters, not just UPPERCASE in the Subject Line
  • Create readable content
  • Careful with that HTML – code correctly, and if you use Microsoft Office and Dundee List hosting , follow the steps we outlined
  • Do not send email to your inactive lists – avoid ICS
  • Verify your links, make sure they are active and link only to legitimate trustworthy websites
  • Ask your recipient to add your email address to their ‘safe’  list

What are some Indicators your Email is being routed to a SPAM FILTER?

  • Decrease open rates
  • Higher bounce rates

So the bottom line – do some Spring Cleaning – Prune your list, keep it up to date, do re-engagement campaigns, and you may not get trapped in the Spam Filter.

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EXTRA – EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT “Email Service Provider Just Fired Their Number 1 Customer”

Email Marketing /

EXTRA – EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT “Email Service Provider Just Fired Their Number 1 Customer”

As email became the marketing tool of this century, I often thought my fellow ESP’s (Email Service Providers) would benefit from a customer Black List.  Most  ESP’s, including Dundee Internet,  vett prospects before we put our reputation on the line, so to speak; a customer Black List would make that process a whole lot easier.

With an industry specific Black List, we could know all about our new potential customers:those that didn’t pay their bills, reversed credit card payments or worst yet are SPAMMERS.  But the SPAMMER of yesterday, with proper education and mailing experience, could become the exemplary mailer of today, so a Black List might not have been a good idea after all – but vetting prospects, it seems, will never go away.

While we all take care of whom we let use our list hosting services, on occasion we actually find ourselves firing customers, even customers who passed the vetting process.

paying customers

These customers, unfortunately, are usually good paying customers,  always pay on time, never need too much support and have longevity with our company: but these customers for one reason or another have forgot the rules for the best practices for email.   And this takes us by surprise, how can someone forget the simple rules of good email marketing especially when they’ve been doing it for so long?

With a little investigation we have found this 90 degree turn around happens when a customer:

  1. Rents a list – just to try it out.
  2. For the first time, purchased a list, because it was too good to pass up the opportunity that boasts guaranteed opt in members – with testimonials!
  3. Decided to trade lists with their friend, just this once, and not mention this “trade” to any of the list subscribers.
  4. Decides to dig out their old list (from 2 years ago) just to see if they stirrup renewed interest instead of trying a re engagement campaign.
  5. Hires a new marketing person who want results and believes the more emails sent the bigger the response, opted-in, opted-out or not.

All of the above causes a host of problems for any sending ESP. Just look at the customer who decides to buy or rent a list, depending on how the addresses were obtained, the list may be peppered with role accounts such as billing@, info@, president@ , support@), noreply@, addresses that normally have no business being on a mailing list.

Role accounts are not consider good addresses because, for one, they are clearly not permission based addresses. Role accounts typically have several people behind them, such as an entire billing department for billing@. It would be very unlikely that everyone in the billing department would confirm their list membership, but it’s very likely using this role account is vulnerable to Spam complaints.

ESP don’t like SPAM complaints , it’s bad for business and it’s bad for all our customers Most Email Service Providers have published Terms Of Service, Acceptable Use Policy and some, a SPAM policy to make it clear to prospects and customers what they can and cannot do. Contracts, if required, further clarifies what each party can expect from one another by adding clauses such as a section on Prohibited Content and Activity.

Aside from contracts and written rules our job as an Email Service Provider, is to make an email marketer successful, by:

  1. Keeping Spammers off their service.
  2. Making it easy to comply with the CAN SPAM Act regulations. (i.e. automatically include an unsubscribe link, require opted in addresses only and so forth)
  3. Keep the customer data secure.
  4. Allow customers full control of their marketing lists.
  5. Offering a Private IP address.
  6. Extend Customer support and training beyond the manual.
  7. House our severs in a robust infrastructure with redundant Internet connections.

With software that:

  1. Has advanced scripting functionality.
  2. Provides ability to compose rich dynamic content.
  3. Allows users to create triggered email messages.
  4. Has built in Web analytics.
  5. Offers extensive reports on mailings and memberships.
  6. Gives customers the ability to send highly relevant, targeted, and timely digital marketing messages – and – offers Enterprise Connectors for integrating with any data source and application.

Sounds good doesn’t it. Feature rich list hosting software at your command. But while it sounds good, there are rules to play the game. So, when the next ESP asks questions about your mailing practices, don’t take offense. They are protecting their customers, themselves and you. So keep in mind we do fire customers, not often, only when necessary to keep the mail flowing

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The Holiday Season Email Marketing Challenge Is Here*

Email Marketing /

The Holiday Season Email Marketing Challenge Is Here*

What type of challenges will you face this season?Bell

  • Delivering the right message at the right time?
  • Will unsubscribes be your top concern?
  • Are your subscribers even reading your newsletters?

Divert the challenges of the season using Lifecycle emails. Start by classifying the subscribers of your current email campaigns into different Lifecycle categories:

  1. Engaged customers – they love your emails’
  2. Potential or interested customers – they’re promising but not on board yet
  3. Disinterested or lethargic customers – For the most part, they have lost interest in you.

Using specific categories will give you a better understanding of the mindset of your customers and allow you to tailor your campaigns accordingly.  It’s a known fact that Lifecycle emails outdo traditional group email marketing, because Lifecycle emails allows the marketer to send the right message at the right time, increasing the probability of recipient engagement.

Subscriber engagement is effected by industry diversity, which demands variety in email type. What type of email works well for one company may not work so well for the next. Likewise, what type of email works for an engaged customer may not work for an interested one. The key is to identify the type of subscriber you’re dealing with and address their concerns, needs or wants –  and remember, before you release any of your email campaigns test and test again.

There are many kinds of Lifecycle emails; triggered emails for example, are those that are sent automatically to your subscribers because of:

  1. An Action Activated when a subscriber performs a specific act; the list member makes a purchase on your website, she receives a confirmation email. Someone signed up for your email list he receives a welcome letter.
  2. An Event   In this case, emails are sent in response to an occurrence which maybe in your calendar, or from data you have about your subscribers. Emails are triggered by date to automatically send Birthday Greetings, send a reminder that their coupon will expire soon or announce your 10-year anniversary sale.
  3. An Announcement Emails are automatically sent out when there’s an important announcement to make such as a reminder to renew before the expiration date.
  4. Time Base Drip Campaigns Emails that are sent over a set period of time in planned intervals in a progressive sequence. They are used to build and maintain customer awareness and systemically move the customer into an active sales cycle. Dundee Internet Services use drip campaigns when someone signs up for a list demo.

Lifecycle email marketing is ideal for assisting users to engage with your product or service.

Lifecycle email marketing may influence subscribers’ who had considered unsubscribing to stay, move interested customers to engaged customers and renew disinterested ones. But, there will always be unsubscribes.

It’s been shown that the highest number of unsubscribes from any list are from those sending too many of the wrong type of emails.  If your subscriber’s inbox is inundated with seasonal solicitations from everywhere, response rate to your email (even with the right content) maybe lower than you expect.   Your subscribers may even be one of the many using a secondary rarely checked email address for newsletters, including yours, or they might simply unsubscribe. What should you do then?

Offer your subscribers email options; from receiving fewer emails to the type of emails, they want to receive. Capture their preferences on topics, products and desired email frequency – no more unwanted Christmas in July email ads.

And more importantly consider where your subscribers are in the Lifecycle channel and capitalize on this by considering what type of emails you could optimize or add; create email segments to increase the relevancy of your messages.

But in the end if someone wants off your list, be a gracious host and say goodbye. You can always offer alternative way for your customer to keep in touch, such as a link to your business’s social media page and invite them back to join your list when they are ready.

What type of challenges will you face this season? World Peace and email delivery what else is there?

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The Technicalities of Email Marketing

Email Marketing /

The Technicalities of Email Marketing

On a scale of 1 to 10, how do you rank your email campaigns? Do you believe they are in the top ten and should have an excellent rating or do you rank them on the bottom of the scale, poorly rated with only a sometime average ranking? It’s interesting to note that according to online sources only %5 of email marketers give themselves an excellent rating while most fall in the average or poor category.

EMAIL

Mail is complicated.

If you’re in the majority (average or poor) do you rate your campaigns lower because of the responses you get are not what you expected. Even if you use all the information available on how to compose and send a killer email campaign, a low response rate could be caused by something as simple as overlooking the technicalities’ of email marketing.

The technicalities of email marketing are just a matter of paying attention to detail with some common sense added in.

For example, you may think a campaign needs to be colorful, with additional (but meaningful) graphics and maybe a little music to set the buying mood.  Sounds good but in reality most recipients have several online connected devices at their disposal. A well-executed email with additional graphics may suffer from Law of Diminishing Returns, especially when your recipient decides to open your email with their cell phone.  Even with the best responsive design, there are going to be issues on some devices.

And what about those who disable images (email provider to the discriminating recipient) as a default setting, which only results in a broken looking email from you. Too many broken looking images may translate into SPAM, and you don’t want that. Bottom- line, limit the use of graphics.

And just as it is important to limit the amount of graphics contained in your email message, you should limit the amount of words you use: most recipients will not even attempt to read your message if it appears too lengthy.

Create messages for your email campaigns that are short enough to read or at least scan quickly, concise enough to bring value and interesting enough to prompt a call to action (click on the link). Keep it simple.

How often should you be sending out these email campaigns? As with most email marketing, there are no set rules, continue to perform due diligence for each mailing by checking the opens, opted-outs, and clickthrough rates. Adjust your mailing frequency by your findings, eventually you may achieve the optimal numbers you’re looking for. Adjustments never stop so keep examining your results.

And what is the point for your email campaigns: to engage your recipients. Do this by offering useful information they can pass on and act on. Once your recipients realize there is value reading your email your relationship with them will flourish: your open rates should increase and your click-through rates will climb.

Speaking of click-through rates resist the urge to include too many links that you believe are applicable to your marketing message, too many links may set off SPAM filters and it has been our experience, on rare occasions that an outside link you included in your message may be associated with a blacklist. So not only verify what you’re linking too, limit the amount you include.

While I’m on the subject of SPAM, to avoid your email campaigns triggering warnings like this (for some)“Links and other functionality has been disabled in this message . . . the message was marked as SPAM … This message was converted to plain text.”

Follow the lead of most email marketers who typically remind their recipients to add their address to their whitelist, thereby avoiding the spam filters and/or junk folder. Simply include a statement in the beginning of your email message such as:

“To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders); please add
dundee.list@mailinglistservices.com to your address book.” Easy to do, with good results.

To summarize, limit:

Graphics (keep it reasonable)
Words (don’t write a book)
Links (are they relevant to your message)
Frequency (don’t send too often but enough to keep them engaged)

Just a few technicalities to get your email delivered where it’s meant to be and you’ll move up on the rating scale in no time.

Needs help with technicalities or other email marketing issues?  Contact Dundee Internet Services today!

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What Route Does My Email Travel?

Email Marketing /

What Route Does My Email Travel?

Email authentication procedures are designed to provide email senders a way to take responsibility for the email they send.  These procedures give the email recipients (receiving ISPs) ways to authenticate any senders email, such as email coming from an  Email Service Provider, as it provides a clear sender identity.  When such procedures are in place an email may take the following route before it is read.

travel
Travel
  1. Compose your email campaign
  2. Send your campaign

The sending entity

  1. Identifies the recipient
  2. Processes the message
  3. Constructs the headers
  4. Sends your email to the recipients’, receiving mail serve

The receiving Mail Server

  1. Processes the messages
  2. Authenticates the sender’s DNS entry using procedures such as DKIM
  3. Validates the incoming message that sender is authorized to send the message
  4. Processes the email using sender reputation, authentication and content filtering
  5. Delivers messages in the recipients in- box, junk mail, or just block it

Access the message

  1. The recipient can now read the message.

“I tried a couple of other hosting services and always had difficulty getting live help. I rarely need to speak to them but when I do, there’s always a live person to speak to when I call. Dundee has helped me grow my business and my customers now receive updated info about my products on a predetermined schedule. And I customize my newsletters to mirror my website. I’m very happy and their prices fit right into my budget.”

Deborah, Animal Rescue

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