The Difference Between Bulk SMS, Email to SMS, And an SMS Gateway
Are you in a place where you want to bring more traffic to your website, or are you just looking to make sure that you can get the attention that you need? If so, you’ll find that it is time for you to start looking into bulk SMS advertising. With bulk SMS advertising, you are going to be able to send an email straight from your computer to other people’s cell phones in the form of a text message. Texting is one important way that new businesses need to learn to communicate, and if you are in a place where you want to get the word out, an SMS gateway is something that you need to think about.
The truth of the matter is that almost no one is without their cell phone these days, and it is often listed as their first and most direct method of communication, short of being there in person and flagging them down. With the ability to email to SMS, you will be one step ahead of the game. You will find that there are a number of programs that can get you started with your own SMS gateway, but first think about what it is used for and what your options are going to be, first.
With Office SMS from red oxygen, you will be able to create email to SMS from your Microsoft Outlook. This is immediate, it takes you zero effective time after you have composed the message, and you’ll find that there is a good chance that you are going to get the right responses immediately. No matter where they are or what they are doing, people tend to notice when their cell phones go off, and in this way, they are going to be able to get your message directly; as you can see, email to SMS is quite powerful! Consider what your options are going to be and what kind of message that you are looking to send out. With red oxygen’s Web SMS, on the other hand, you are going to be getting all the benefits of Office SMS, but with global accessibility.
What can you use Bulk SMS to do? The first thing that you will discover is that you can contact people who are already on your list. They are going to be interested in what you have to say and they may very well appreciate advance notice of interesting things that are going on in your business. In the first place, you can make them aware of new sales and of new products that you have going on, but don’t forget that you should also use it to give them special deals and rewards for being on your list. This is a great way to give them coupons and news that might be of additional importance. An SMS gateway can make all the difference when you are trying to get your message out.
Take some time to consider how having a bulk SMS gateway can help you. There’s more advertising online than just getting an Adsense account or working with search engine optimization. Take it to the next level and make sure that you are including email to SMS to your interface in a way that will help you. This is something that can make a huge difference, so consider what your business needs and how working with bulk SMS can help you accomplish your goals.
Test out the Red Oxygen Bulk SMS Service (Free Demo Available). Or try out the Microsoft Outlook Email to SMS (Free Demo Available). Or try out the web based SMS Gateway (Free Demo Available).
How Email Needs To Grow Up To Be Treated Like A Trusted Adult
As email is low cost to produce and deliver it’s often considered low value. Wrong, email has and continues to have immense value as a communications and marketing channel. But how do you get it right?
For emails to be treated seriously and valued they need to grow up. Email is still a comparatively new channel and faces challenges, much like a teenager – bags of potential but a bit spotty and lacking in finesse.
So what turns a teenager into an adult?
1. Adults tend to think before they do something and weigh up the consequences. In email terms, that means never sending a bulk mailing without careful consideration of its impact. Thinking ‘but it’s cheap to send lots of them’ isn’t careful consideration, by the way.
2. Adults generally respect personal space. An email Inbox is a very personal space (more personal than your door mat), so people can take great exception if you climb in there without a good reason.
3. Teenagers can appear rude because they tend to grunt instead of talking to you. Some emails can be very grunt-like. For example, all those automated emails that your business sends but which nobody inside your company has ever read properly. They can be very cold and short tempered (not to mention a bit spotty).
4. Adults become very adept at using the right tone of voice for the right situation – persuasive, expert, confident, helpful… Matching the right tone to the right situation is a skill. How do your emails sound?
The challenges in email will be overcome and like teenagers it will mature, it is for us to help ensure it’s the type of adult we want to hang around with.
Consider the emails that you value and read and don’t think that your own email’s are special, your recipients will treat your emails in the same brutal way you purge your own Inbox.
The reason that you read in your Inbox will certainly be a combination of factors:
- That know or can identify with the sender – what is in the ‘from’ line.
- The information in the subject line was highly relevant to you.
- Previous experience of content from the sender.
- The content helps you in some way; in your business life, personal life or its topical. In your business life does the content give you tips to help you do your job better? Does it keep you ahead of industry trends? In your personal life does it give the gossip that everyone else is talking about? Does it provide relevant offers and ideas for your leisure time?
A straight sales language offer based email, “10% off product X this week”, will only appeal to people interested in product X and then only if they were in the market to buy product X, this will always be a small percentage. The rest will delete and forget about you. A balance between interesting, useful content and sales offer will build a relationship and develop trust with you and your company.
Tim Watson is the Operations Director of Email Reaction. A UK based professional email marketing technology solution provider.
Could it be possible that you are addicted to e-mail? Do you get withdrawal symptoms if you haven’t received an e-mail within 15 or 20 minutes? Do you constantly feel the need to look at your Blackberry or iPhone? If you have answered yes, you might be addicted to e-mail overload. Wasn’t the world less complicated before e-mail arrived? Well, whether you like it or not, it is a reality. E-mail is here to stay and it is only going to increase in the weeks, months and years ahead. That’s why I have put together my new book called “The E-mail Manual“. It is the book you should have received when you first started using e-mail. I think if everybody had a copy of this book on their desks and read it before they started using e-mail, there would be a fewer problems and issues with using and managing e-mail. Please enjoy these 5 email strategies. Be on the lookout for my other articles on how to better manage your e-mail and reduce the size of your inbox.
31. Learn to tell urgent email from unimportant messages
The problem with having a very active Inbox is that it won’t take too long before you starts overlooking Email. So learn how to flag the important Emails and give them priority attention.
Those other lower priority Emails can usually wait to be reviewed and answered after lunch. Seriously, unless you have nothing else to do, don’t waste huge amounts of your valuable time with low priority Email; especially before midday.
32. The value of using a ‘‘Read Receipt’’
A powerful companion to setting an email to high priority is to request a read receipt once the recipient of your email has read it. In this way you can confirm that your message got to your recipient and that they have read it (or at least seen it).
While people get annoyed with seeing too many read receipts in their Inbox, they do serve a useful function. Because you ask the reader to take the step of sending you an acknowledgement, they will probably consider that your email has some importance to you.
WARNING! You should use read receipt with some care and discretion. You should not use it if you feel there is any chance it might offend or be considered a bit too pushy.
Never use this function for trivial Emails.
By the way, consider the fact that you are probably not going to get an email back on every read receipt that you send out, so use it only when the issue under consideration needs fairly urgent attention or confirmation.
33. Don’t rely only on a ‘’Read Receipt’’
While using read receipt can be useful, remember that getting a read receipt doesn’t mean the recipient read or even understood your Email.
If your reader didn’t have preview on, they may not have understood what was in your message. If you need someone to read, understand and then action your Email, it’s best to follow it up with a phone call.
34. Clean out your ‘’Sent Items’ folder often
A Sent Items box with thousand of Emails is of no value and just makes your email system slower. Once every couple of weeks review your Sent Items folder and if there are any messages that you want to keep, move them to a folder.
Any other Emails in your Sent Items folder that do not need saving can be deleted.
35. Learn what you should do if you lose an important email
Outlook (and most other email programs) can help find lost or misplaced Email. For example, all sent Emails go to your Sent Items folder.
Even if you delete an Email, it doesn’t leave your computer, it goes to your Deleted Items folder. So before you panic, look there first.
If you believe the email you are looking for is gone from your email program, you can first of all check with your IT department or internet service provider. Sometimes there is a backup service which means that the IT department or ISP might have a copy. This request will be time consuming and not 100% guaranteed, so why not call the person who sent you the message, explain your situation and ask if they could resend the Email. This option is usually faster.
If you would like to learn how to better manage your e-mail or inbox, why not consider my Zero Inbox training program? This e-mail management course is available in Australia and will soon be available online. You can visit, http://www.success.net.au/seminars/zero-inbox.html to learn more about how to better manage your e-mail and reduce your inbox. Alternatively, you can visit: http://www.zero-inbox.com/
Paul is an author, teacher and speaker on leadership, innovation and worksmarts. He is the Training Director of The Success Institute – Australia and for the past 15 years has written over 30 professional development programs, 10 books and other career development material.
Effective email policies: Why enforcing proper use is critical to security
Effective email policies: why enforcing proper use is critical to security
Effective email policies:
Why enforcing proper use is critical to security
Acceptable use policy and IT security
While banning staff from sending or receiving personal emails is unrealistic, organizations can
set boundaries that define reasonable, excessive or inappropriate use, through a comprehensive, updated and enforced email acceptable use policy (AUP). A well-articulated email AUP addresses four core security and operational areas:
Compliance
Safe working environment
Data leakage
Asset abuse.
A framework for corporate governance
According to IDC Research 97 billion emails are sent worldwide each day1, and it is estimated
that 80 percent of an organization’s operational records are stored within the email infrastructure.
Governments around the world have responded to email’s growing use as a business-critical tool by introducing increasing levels of legislation governing the security, storage and retrieval of email. Falling foul of such legislation not only damages an organization’s reputation, but can lead to fines, market de-listings and, in extreme cases, prosecutions and prison sentences for senior management.
Keeping abreast of such legislation is challenging, and an AUP can help by providing a formal framework that is easily reviewed, audited and enforced to ensure compliance.
Increasing compliance
Email is now central to the day-to-day operation of practically all organizations, regardless of size
or sector. Yet, while it is far too important to lock down, email poses a large enough risk where it cannot be left unregulated, especially as nearly all employees expect a certain level of personal email use while at work. According to employers, however, it is their own workforces that pose the greatest threat to security (figure 1).
Effective email policies: why enforcing proper use is critical to security
Creating a safe working environment
An email AUP will promote a safe, productive working environment where employees can operate without fear of exposure to illegal, abusive, inappropriate or malicious material, such as pornography, jokes, harassment or threats. By removing ambiguity and ensuring all employees work to the same rules, the policy sets clear expectations on what constitutes acceptable email content.
Preventing leakage of confidential information
According to IDC email is the number one source of leaked business information2. Additional research confirms that most organizations are concerned about the loss of sensitive data via email.
Most of the time this can be accidental (thanks to functions like Autofill) with research showing
that half of employees have sent a message containing sensitive or potentially embarrassing information by mistake3. In addition, analysts The Radicati Group found that 77 percent of users have forwarded business emails to their personal accounts in order to complete work when away from the office4. Even this most innocent of practices can leave an organization in breach of compliance regulations and can place commercial information in unauthorized hands.
Preventing asset abuse
Excessive and/or inappropriate personal use of email wastes bandwidth and places
storage archives under strain, impacting on an organization’s ability to use its email infrastructure.
This is particularly problematic when employees circulate non-critical attachments, such as family photos or videos. Prohibiting or restricting this practice preserves the integrity of the email system and can extend the life of storage solutions. It also ensures that IT staff remain focused on their core responsibilities and do not spend time clearing personal emails from the system.
What an AUP should cover
An AUP should set out exactly how an employee is expected to use an organization’s email system, containing prescriptive advice on best practice and clearly defining prohibited behavior.
It is essential that regulations are explicitly stated and easily understood. The content of an
AUP will vary between organizations, reflecting their regulatory environment, email quantity, IT resources and culture. Some may choose to incorporate rules governing email use into a wider AUP that covers all technology use, from telephones to web browsing to photocopying.
use is critical to security
However, in general, an email AUP covers three
main elements:
Appropriate and inappropriate email use
Policy enforcement
Policy sanctions.
Areas that should always be covered include:
Inbox management
In response to the continued growth in email use, organizations should attempt to limit the volume of messages stored in employee mailboxes. The number of emails held in archiving systems that capture both internal and external mail should also be limited, ensuring resources are not overloaded and allowing for easy message retrieval.
Circulation of attachments
Users commonly view email as a quick method of sharing content with colleagues. However, this practice needlessly uses up bandwidth and archive space. Instead, all attachments should be removed before an email is stored and saved on an appropriate server. Additionally, employees should be instructed on how to use shared network folders to circulate files internally, rather than attaching them to emails. Consider that one person sending a 5 MB attachment to five other employees results in more than 25 MB of email server storage requirements. Placing this file on a shared server and circulating a link to its location not only greatly reduces the size of the email, it prevents unnecessary duplication of files across multiple locations.
Remote access of email services
Rules should be set governing remote access to the corporate email network, both from employees’ own computers and over the internet/public Wi-Fi networks. Some organizations ban this practice altogether, while others permit it only if the computer accessing the network is certified as secure by, for example, a network access control (NAC) solution.
Personal/non-business critical use of email
File types categorized as non-business critical (for example, JPEGs, MP3s, executables and anything considered potentially malicious) should not be received or sent. The dissemination of illegal, offensive or other inappropriate content should also be prohibited. Employees should understand that companies are obliged to report any unlawful behavior to the authorities, and that inappropriate activity can invoke disciplinary proceedings. Some organizations may also choose to block access to web-based email services, such as Hotmail and Gmail.
AUP enforcement
The email AUP must be enforced if employees are to adhere to its rules. If they realize that
their messages are reviewed and stored – and then retrieved if needed – employees might think
twice before misusing the email system. An AUP should provide total transparency about how an organization intends to police its email system, ensuring that there are no surprises in the event of disciplinary action being invoked.
Enforcement through technology
The key to enforcement is the deployment of IT security solutions capable of auditing everyday
email use, spotting and tracking potential or confirmed violations and notifying the appropriate managers if a violation has occurred. Although it is not necessary to inform staff about the actual technology behind the solutions deployed, it is worth explaining their top-level capabilities.
*This is an example only. You should seek formal legal guidance when developing your own AUP.
Effective email policies: why enforcing proper use is critical to security
Gateway email protection. Commonly deployed to block spam and malicious emails from entering networks, gateway protection is highly effective at stopping suspicious or unwanted file attachments, offensive content and sensitive corporate information. The leading solutions scan outbound and inbound messages and
attachments, ensuring that no unauthorized content leaves the network. Organizations can choose either to block or quarantine these emails, and administrators are automatically
notified of attempted violations.
Email server protection. Security solutions at the email server level protect against the internal circulation of unwanted content. By scanning inter-departmental emails for jokes, photos, chain letters, malware and confidential information which the recipient has no authority to access, organizations can further bolster their email security. As with gateway protection, any violation will be flagged up to the relevant managers.
Endpoint protection. Organizations that permit access to web-based mail over the corporate network should ensure that all endpoint computers – desktops, laptops and mobile devices – are running up-todate security software. Emails from webmail accounts bypass corporate gateway defences, and so have an unobstructed route into an organization. Endpoint protection closes this loophole by picking up any malicious or unwanted content that employees attempt to download from this source.
Procedures for reporting misuse
Employees should be encouraged to report the alleged misuse of email resources and a clear and
anonymous procedure must be put in place to facilitate this.
Sanctions for breaching AUP regulations
All users must understand the potential consequences of not complying with the email
AUP. These consequences will depend on several factors, including whether the abuser is a first or repeat offender, whether the breach represents illegal, offensive or merely wasteful behavior, the regulatory environment in which the company operates and the firm’s cultural outlook. The sanctions will relate to the severity of the offense, ranging from verbal and written warnings, and on to dismissals.
Who is responsible for the AUP?
The HR IT, and legal departments are all stakeholders in the creation and enforcement of an email AUP. Employees should also contribute to an AUP, enabling greater transparency and buy-in and ensuring that everyone is aware of its existence. At some organizations, the CEO or other board members may take an active involvement,
as they can be held personally liable for email misuse by any employee. Typically, staff from all three departments should work together to develop the policy, with specific responsibilities divided as follows.
HR role
The HR department owns the overall process of developing an email AUP, taking responsibility for awareness, distribution and training. Using data provided by the IT department, and by responding to reports of alleged misuse, HR conducts audits to ensure that rules are observed, investigates suspected policy contraventions, and implements disciplinary procedures.
Effective email policies: why enforcing proper use is critical to security
IT role
By using the security solution’s reporting features, the IT team generates the forensic evidence
needed to identify and log email abuse. The data gathered represents the company’s principal source of security intelligence, and can be pieced together to analyze each breach and pinpoint the staff responsible. This information can then escalated to HR.
The IT department also advises HR on the changing capabilities of the organization’s IT defenses. For example, if a new solution is deployed to scan outbound messages for sensitive material (e.g. credit card or social security numbers), the AUP might need to be amended and email users might require additional training.
Legal role
The in-house or external legal department ensures that the AUP is in line with legal and compliance requirements, and will advise HR to amend it if regulations change.
Summary
While the threat of spam and malware is usually linked to inbound emails, an organization’s own users can often cause just as much or more damage through the emails they send or share.
Employees can be responsible for data leakage,
the dissemination of inappropriate or offensive content, and consuming bandwidth through the unnecessary sharing of files, each of which represent a considerable threat to the email network. To ensure that employees recognize these risks, organizations should implement a comprehensive email acceptable use policy which, to be effective, requires enterprise-grade security solutions for the gateway, the email server and all endpoint computers.
Effective email policies: why enforcing proper use is critical to security
This article was provided by Sophos and is reproduced here with their full permission. Sophos provides full data protection services including: security software, encryption software, antivirus, and malware.
The Difference Between Bulk SMS, Email to SMS, And an SMS Gateway
Are you in alocationthe placeyou want tocarrymoretrafficfor your website, or have you been just aiming tomake certainthat you simply can get the considerationthat yourequire? If that’s the case, you willlocate that it is time for you personallyto start outseeking into bulk SMS marketing. With bulk SMS marketing, you are going tohave the ability to send an electronic maildirectlyout of yourcomputer to other people’s cell phones in thekind of a text message. Texting is a personessential way that new businesses mustfind out to communicate, and when you arein thespotexactly whereyou ought to get the phrase out, an SMS gateway is somethingyoureally need tocontemplate.
The realityfrom thematterispracticallynobody is with no their cellular phonenowadays, and it’snormally listed as their first and most directapproach of communication, short of being there in man or woman and flagging them down. With thecapacity to electronic mail to SMS, you can be a person step aheadof thesport. You mayfind that you will findmanyprogramsthat may get you started together with yourvery own SMS gateway, but 1sttake into consideration what it really isutilized for and what your possibilities are headingto be, first.
With Workplace SMS from red oxygen, you willbe ableto createe mail to SMS out of your Microsoft Outlook. This isinstant, it takes you zero powerful time afteryou have composed the message, and you willfindthat there’san excellentprospectthat you simply are headingto acquirethe appropriate responses right away. Irrespective ofwherethey may be or what they’reundertaking, men and womenare inclined toobserve when their cell phones go off, and on this way, they areheadingto bereadyto obtain your message instantly; as you can see, e mail to SMS is quitehighly effective! Consider what your options are headingto be and what kind of message youwant todeliver out. With red oxygen’s Net SMS, however, you are going to be havingeach of thebenefits ofWorkplace SMS, but with worldwide accessibility.
What can you use Bulk SMS to accomplish? The primarythingyou will discoverisyou’ll be able tocontactmen and womenwho arecurrentlyon yourrecord. They may beheadingto beinterested in what you need to say and theymayveryproperlyenjoy advance recognize of interesting things which have beengoing on in your ownbusiness. To begin with, you may make them informed of new revenue and of new solutionswhich you have heading on, but don’toverlookyoureally should also use it to provide them specificspecials and rewards for currently beingon yourlist. This is agood wayto present them coupons and news that could be of supplementalvalue. An SMS gateway could makeall thedifferencewhenever you are attempting to get your message out.
Getsome timeto think about how having a bulk SMS gateway may also help you. There isa lot moremarketingon line than just getting an Adsense account or operating with seo. Take it to theup comingstage and be certainthat you are likeelectronic mail to SMS for your interface within a way that mayallow you to. This isanythingthat will make a largedistinction, so take into consideration what your enterprise needs and howfunctioning with bulk SMS may help you accomplish your targets.
6 Critical Steps To Earn Extra Income Doing Email Marketing
To earn extra income doing email marketing it makes sense to include these 7 steps in your internet routine as very effecient ways to reach potential customers.
Email has definitely become a top means of communication in our personal and work lives. If you don’t believe it watch people emailing each other from just one cubicle away!
Mentioned below are just a handful of ways to improve upon the email marketing process to make it more effective.
One big reason many unsolicited email ads never see the light of day is because they are considered spam. Emails are ranked by spam filters to determine whether they’re spam or not.
You may not have received a legitimate email from someone you know because it didn’t pass the spam filters. If words such as Discount,FREE, or SAVE are placed in the subject line or email text it may not get through.
Make sure those looking at the email can find your links to the promotions. The simpler you make your links the easier they are to find. It’s best to keep them underlined and in bold and blue. It’s also a good idea to place it more than once within the email content.
There are auto responders available that will enable you to personalize your emails. It’s a known fact that people respond better if their name is used. Kind of like a pet when their ears perk up upon hearing their name spoken. It works that same way with people in print.
You build relationships with your readers much quicker this way and research has shown that you can increase the click thru rate by 500% in using this technique.
Since you absolutely don’t want to get accused of spamming you need to use a double opt in confirmation process. What this does is enable the visitor to in effect subscribe twice to your list.
Once they are all signed up send them a follow up email. The link in this email will take them back to your webpage where they will then verify they have opted in to receive emails from you. This should eliminate any chance of you being flagged for spamming.
You must also offer a way for people to unsubscribe in addition to the double opt in subscription. This is good business and will actually make people feel better about you. Yes you may lose some this way but it’s necessary. In fact in some countries it’s a law that this must be offered.
Have you ever thought about when the best days are to send out advertising emails? Monday? Too much going on after the weekend. Friday? Too much planning going on for the weekend!
It’s actually been determined that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the best days for people to read what you’ve sent and click on your links. Plan your advertising campaign with your auto responder around these days for sure.
Paul Jesse is an author and Professional Internet Marketer providing free and low cost ways to earn extra income. He invites you to visit his website here for more free information on email marketing: http://www.sheamarketing.com
Thousands of companies already leveraged the power of email marketing to promote their business to a wide range of customers. For those businesses that haven’t yet introduced email marketing into their advertising efforts—and even for some of those who have—the strategy does reveal some challenges. Companies struggling to get the most out of their email marketing efforts should consider using a managed email marketing service. Let’s take a look at the challenges of email marketing and how an outside firm can tackle those issues.
Design and Editorial
Problem: Email marketing is a very effective way to stay in contact with your current and prospective customers, but you need to have effective design and editorial to gain the best response to your emails. While large corporations have the funding to hire a design and editorial team to work in-house, many small and medium sized businesses simply don’t have the resources necessary to manage their email campaigns. Web-based email marketing programs typically allow you to design emails with a template, but the designs are limited and you still need to put in the time and effort to create the images and text to drop into the template. Simply put, without a team of designers and writers on staff your email campaigns could suffer.
Solution: Managed Email Marketing firms handle all of the design and editorial for other companies. These firms have teams of experienced designers and writers to quickly produce compelling email design and informative newsletters. Every design is customized to provide companies with a unique look to match their brand. More importantly, Managed Email Marketing companies have a wealth of experience in email advertising and know the best design practices to produce results. Deciding where to place images, how to align text, and even what fonts will display in a browser can make all the difference in an email campaign. If the medium is the message, then having the best understanding of how emails work will deliver the best results.
HTML Coding
Problem: In order for an email to deliver an effective message it must render properly in a variety of browsers. The best design in the world is meaningless if no one can view it! When working with a web-based email deployment system you can enter your information into templates, but the designs can become stale and unoriginal. Plus, you might not find a template with the look and feel you’re looking for in a blast. When it comes to incorporating more advanced features
like linking multiple buttons and using information forms, a simple template just won’t cut it. Even when you’re just looking to import a few pictures you need to know the correct image dimensions to have the image render properly without stretching. No matter how simple the template, without an experienced web coder your emails could still be a guessing game.
Solution: Managed Email Marketing firms have web coders on staff to create perfect email campaigns that will render in any browser. These firms check every email deployment with inbox snapshots to test the campaign before it goes out. Each email is checked to verify the HTML, minimize content blocked by spam filters, and ensure proper deliverability rates. Best of all, with professional designers on staff Managed Email Marketing firms create completely custom email blasts and newsletters with intricate features to provide a unique email catered to any industry, any business, and any customer. Managed Email Marketing assures that every email has a great design and will show up in the customer’s inbox with that same design.
Deliverability, Opens, and Click-Throughs
Problem: Email marketing is an ever-changing game. You need to know what messages and content to use to attract your customers to your website. Knowing what images and text drives your customers to click through to your website is vital when creating your next campaign. Before your customers click through, they need to actually open your email. You need to write a compelling Subject Line to entice recipients to view the email and provide a familiar From Address so they’ll feel comfortable opening it. But even before that, you’ll need to make sure your emails don’t include content flagged by spam filters in both the subject line and body. If you don’t take the right precautions, you’re emails could never even reach their intended recipients! Staying up on the latest trends in email marketing and analyzing your results is a must.
Solution: Managed Email Marketing companies have the knowledge and experience in email marketing to create emails with compelling messages to drive customers to action. By working with a large number of clients in a wide variety of industries, these firms know best practices to help emails achieve better performance. Managed Email Marketing firms constantly research the latest trends in email marketing to stay current on SPAM regulations and what messages work or don’t work. A Managed Email Marketing company will analyze the results of every email to measure deliverability, open, and click-thru rates. The firm applies analysis of where customers clicked and the open rate of first
and second deployments to test content and subject lines. With A/B testing and re-mailing, Managed Email Marketing firms fine-tune their clients’ campaigns for optimal success for future deployments.
Website Integration
Problem: Email Marketing develops customer loyalty and drives traffic to your website. To take full advantage of the latter, your emails should direct visitors to the appropriate place on your website. While driving customers your homepage gets them on your site, it may not always be the right location for your customers. You need to provide information directly related to your customers’ interests and your promotions. Using multiple landing pages and one-way pages can improve your conversion rates on your website. Getting customers to your website is one step in the process. Getting them to make a purchase or sign up for a service is the final goal.
Solution: Managed Email Marketing companies direct emails to specific landing points on websites. These firms can link emails to existing webpages or create completely new landing pages with imagery and text directly related to the email campaign. By streamlining navigation from emails to websites, Managed Email Marketing companies help their clients’ close leads and retain customer loyalty.
Consistent Deployment
Problem: Email marketing works by creating ongoing communication with your customers. You need to send out consistent deployments to stay in the face of your customers and keep your company in their minds. They might not make a purchase on the first email, but with regular emails you’ll keep their attention for a future purchase. In addition to maintaining your customers’ interest, consistent deployment allows you to measure the results and test different scenarios. Sending emails on different days, at different times, and with different promotions will find the best solution to market your company. The day-to-day tasks of running a business can be difficult to keep up with on their own, and your email marketing campaigns can suffer as a result.
Solution: With a Managed Email Marketing firm, companies are assured regular deployment on a set schedule. Managed Email Marketing companies determine a deployment calendar based on a company’s industry, specific business, and customer base. These firms work to keep companies on a set schedule to achieve the best results out of their campaigns.
At the end of the day, email marketing is about much more than simply sending messages to your customers. Knowing the best practices, creating compelling designs, and properly directing website traffic is crucial to the success of your email campaigns. Consider what resources you have in-house to create an effective email marketing campaign and decide if using a Managed Email Marketing company could better suit your needs.
Bill Cobb is the Creative Director of DATAbuddy, a full-service Interactive Marketing company. DATAbuddy provides in-depth consulting and creative services to manage companies’ online identity across the realms of email marketing, website development, search engine marketing, social networking, and other online areas.
Email Newsletters: A Guide For New Email Marketers
New to the email marketing scene? Trying to create a newsletter and not sure where to start? Don’t be intimidated by the task that awaits you! With the handy newsletter templates that are available, free online, making newsletters is a cinch.
The first step is to identify what you want the goal of your newsletter to be. Your personal goal should be clear, so that the message comes across strongly. Make sure the crux of your message is somehow summarized in the subject line of your e-mail. This is a very critical thing to remember – many people don’t even open an e-mail if the subject line is not specific enough to catch their attention. Also, be sure not to use excessive punctuation or abnormal capitalization in your subject line. These are immediate flags for Spam and will be therefore be a waste of your efforts.
Solid and catchy copy is a first priority. Because certain design features can get lost in certain email services, be sure that your copy is to the point, and easily accessible upon a quick viewing of the email. Keep your sentences short, casual yet professional. Don’t underestimate the importance of the Subject line of the email: often this one phrase will deter your reader from opening the email. On the contrary, it could be what sparks them to open the email and read the contents with a newfound interest. These are sure ways to provoke a response from the reader.
The design of the newsletter is another important element as it it’s the first thing that hits the eyes of your reader. It’s easy to get carried away in design that might be aesthetically beautiful but not necessarily effective as far as deliverability in all email services. Try to find that delicate balance between practicality and design. Use colors that match the mood of your newsletter – if it is festive, make the newsletter have a lively tone. Send test emails of your newsletter to various e-mails accounts and open it on different computers as well. Images and colors appear differently between desktops, laptops, Macs and PCs, and so on. Check all of these to make sure that its appearance has consistency. Try not to rely too much on fonts and formatting such as bold or italics to create an impact. Many times, these will get lost if your message is viewed as text-only. Take advantage of the features that are more likely to get viewed.
Finally, you’re ready to send off your newsletter! It’s important to find that delicate balance of how many times it is appropriate to send your message, and at what intervals. If you inundate your clients’ inbox with your messages, they will likely get turned off and delete them in the future even if it something that may be relevant to them. Send a friendly reminder a bit in advance and then again send the message on the day of your offer or event.
E-mail is a part of your professional image, just like the clothes you wear, the letters you write and the handshake your offer. Are you overwhelmed with the e-mail messages in your in-box?
According to the e-mail usage forecast, the average number of mails will double in the next four years, as it has become the number one communication method. To keep yourself floating in this e-mail flood, you have to follow some simple and easy rules.
Clean your in-box: – The e-mail which has come to you can be read once, then it should be immediately deleted, which means you will have less e-mail clutter to wade through. The best way would be to clean up your email box once a month. Make folders for each client, project or subject area, rather then leave them in your inbox. Once response and action is taken, delete the e-mail or file it immediately, as this will bring in lot of clarity in your work.
By 2006, customers are expected to receive 1,400 junk mails every year. So scan the e-mail and immediately delete the Spam mails that are not required. Activate the rules in your e-mail software program, so that your unwanted mail is discarded before you even see it. Rules functions automatically on incoming messages and you can ask for this service to be applicable to all messages containing a certain subject heading. Junk mail and Spam is going to stay, so the best way to cope with this problem is to minimize it as much as possible.
Make time and prioritize your mail: – Create a fixed time slot to deal with e-mail. By quickly scanning e-mail, you can deal with it immediately and not pile it up. Decide on what is important and respond immediately and leave the forwarded or joke mail to be handled later. Most e-mail software programs have an option called flag that allows you to identify the high priority e-mail messages.
Checking time: – Check your e-mail twice or thrice daily. Reading and replying to the e-mail messages can take up the whole day and it can cause major interruption in your work. Deal with the e-mail only during certain intervals, so that you are able to concentrate on important business.
E-mail folders: -Save your e-mail in your e-mail software, by creating folders. Once e-mail is read, you can transfer the message to an appropriate folder. Consider setting your e-mail folders similar to your files in your filing cabinet. Having a similar filing system can help you remember where the information is stored. Dont create many folders, so that you dont have many options to choose from and you dont have to scroll much to see the other e-mail files. In that case, consider sub-filing under the general topics. To make your work easy, you can create a folder called clients and then create subfiles.
Action file folders: – You can create e-mail folders such as follow-up, action and pending. This key can help you check the e-mail folders daily, weekly or urgently.
Avoid printing: – Avoid paper pile-up by not printing useless e-mail. Take time to deal with e-mail on your computer, rather than printing a hard copy.
Formulate templates for your regular and routine replies and last but not the least, use the telephone whenever necessary, unless you want to send the same e-mail message to a group or you want to keep a record.
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Why Spam Filters and Blockers May Not Be The Solution To Unsolicited Email
One huge advantage of email marketing is that it is free. But one major disadvantage is spam. Would spam be so popular if it were not so cheap? I do not think so.
There are some simple steps that you can take to help reduce the number of messages that get blocked by spam filters. Of course, this may result in more people actually getting your email messages, thus making your marketing efforts more profitable.
1. Word selection. The words you use in an email are analyzed by spam filters. There are many obvious spam trigger words that you should avoid while remembering to keep your messages as professional as possible.
2. Formatting. Just keep it simple. Avoid using different fonts, sizes, images, colors. Keep it clean and stick to normal size fonts while avoiding large fonts which will flag your message as spam.
3. Be consistent. If you send out a newsletter then make sure to use a template. This will help to brand your newsletter and also will enable your readers to pick out your newsletter and not report it as spam.
4. Use double opt in. When someone subscribes to your newsletter or list they will then be sent an email with a link that they must click on for confirmation. This actually can help you build a valid mailing list since some people may accidentally enter a wrong address.
5. Unsubscribe. You should always include a way for your readers to unsubscribe.
6. Test. One of easiest ways to avoid spam filters is by testing. Send your newsletters to different email accounts and see if they end up in the junk folder. If they do, then you have some work to do.
7. If you are sending out a newsletter use marketing software or a service that allows you to send out both an HTML and text only version of your newsletter. There are many email clients that only accept text only messages.
8. Avoid using to many caps in the subject line and make sure you do not have to many blank lines in your message.
By using the above techniques you could keep your newsletters and messages out of the spam folders while building your mailing list and thus benefiting from the time spent actually getting your email messages to your recipients.
One way that providers are using to combat spam is through the use of volume filters. This may seem like an easy way to fight spam, but it could be a big problem for affiliate marketers.
What is an average volume of email? This varies from provider to provider, but depending on the amount of email you send an hour, you may not know whether your email has ever arrived at its intended destination.
Once your provider sets a volume per sender, anything over that gets set aside. There are ways around these volume filters, but they are mostly illegal.
When a volume filter blocks your email, there is no way to know that it happened. Most of the time the email is not bounced back and you think it went through, but there is just no way to know for sure.
What can you do?
- The obvious solution is to send fewer emails. If you have a big list then find out who really is opening your emails and remove the people who are not. Most marketers get 10 percent open rates, so that means 90 percent of your list may be ignoring your messages.
- Separate your list into smaller groups. You could have one list for prospects, one for buyers and one for multiple buyers.
- Make sure your list does not contain addresses from only one provider. It should contain different providers or you will increase your chances of your email getting blocked.
- Put your own free email addresses on your email list and then verify that your message got through or if they are filtered.
Just like search engine positioning, getting your messages to your recipients and having them opened is a game that can change monthly. Successful email marketers learn to adapt and be vigilant.
Be aware of the impact these filter are having on your efforts. Think of it as part of the normal process of online marketing.
Having a targeted email list can be much more valuable then a list of 10 million useless names.
In the end, less can be more and this will make your email marketing better and more profitable.
Copyright 2007 by Joe Rispoli
Joe Rispoli has written many articles about free advertising resources. They can be found at his website UcanTo.com. You can also subscribe to his Free Advertising Resources Ezine, which includes Free Email Marketing Software with subscription.
