EmailDirect Admin Blog tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-1586204 2009-11-19T13:40:59-08:00 Sometimes boring, sometimes funny but usually informative email marketing commentary from the EmailDirect.com team. TypePad 38.605355-121.282472 Back to the Basics: Images in Email tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5505bf46088330120a6b78381970b 2009-11-19T13:40:59-08:00 2009-11-19T13:40:59-08:00 Too many marketers struggle with images when designing email creatives; the image(s) are too large, too small, too many, not enough, don’t render, aren’t aligned with copy and the list goes on! Images are a central point of most creatives,... ED Email Marketing Consultants

Too many marketers struggle with images when designing email creatives; the image(s) are too large, too small, too many, not enough, don’t render, aren’t aligned with copy and the list goes on!  Images are a central point of most creatives, so here are a few tips to help create a polished look.

  • Make sure your image's are properly formatted so the image will load when the campaign is deployed.  If you're an EmailDirect client, use the Validate Image tool to ensure your images load.
  • Images should be no larger than 200 KB in size, but between 20-50 KB is optimal (keep in mind…the larger your images, the longer your email will take to load).
  • Avoid cookie-cutter clip art. If you don't have stock art, we recommend Dreamstime.com which provides a huge catelog of reasonably priced, royalty-free artwork (as low as $0.20 per image).
  • For the pixel dimensions of graphics, make sure the width and/or height do not exceed the area you are placing them in. This is a simple step that many skip, but important because oversized images will cause your creative to render improperly.  See Example If you are ever unsure about the dimensions of a content section, do some sleuthing! Take a look at images included in a previous campaign and use them as a point of reference. Keep in mind…having an image that is 5 pixels too wide can throw off the rendering of your entire campaign!
  • Crop out any extra white space.
  • Align the image with regards to your copy (as we have with the Photoshop.com image below, which is aligned to the right).
  • Add padding around the image so your copy is not smooshed up against it.
  • Images should always be edited (cropped, resized, etc), outside the HTML editor, before incorporated into a creative. This will ensure uniformity and consistency across all desktop and mail clients. Some editors do provide a re-size option; but, desktop clients (like Outlook) may not recognize the code written by the editor. Using a program, like Photoshop, to re-size or crop images will ensure all subscribers are seeing the same finished product.


 

 http://blog.emaildirect.com/index/2009/11/too-many-marketers-struggle-with-images-when-designing-email-creatives-the-images-are-too-large-too-small-too-many-not.html Guy Walks Into a Bar… tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5505bf46088330120a676646b970b 2009-11-10T16:47:55-08:00 2009-11-10T17:33:52-08:00 Imagine you’re in a bar and you notice a girl across the room. She strolls over, asks for your phone number and gives you a $5 off coupon to buy a round of drinks. The next day you wake up... ED Email Marketing Consultants

Imagine you’re in a bar and you notice a girl across the room. She strolls over, asks for your phone number and gives you a $5 off coupon to buy a round of drinks. The next day you wake up on top of the world; but, a week goes by… nothing. Two weeks go by… nothing. Suddenly, it strikes you, “Did Dreamstime_4515283she use me? Was it a practical joke?” Weeks later you receive a voicemail, “Hi, this is that girl you gave your phone number to a while ago. I would like you to buy me dinner and then take me on a trip to Europe. Call me.”

What a terrible situation, right?! Unfortunately, many companies treat their new email subscribers exactly as this girl just treated the theoretical “you”. Upon receiving your subscription, they send you a coupon and then lose touch until they have something they want you to buy. Maybe you were just interested in the coupon she had that night. But, what if you were actually in it for a meaningful relationship? Sure, the coupon was nice, but you really wanted companionship.

The most important time period to reach a new subscriber is within the first couple weeks of their subscription. If you can show a new subscriber that you care by welcoming them to your program properly, you will turn that subscriber into a buying customer. Your ability to bring something meaningful to the relationship in its early stages will make or break the success of your email marketing program.

For more information on utilizing EmailDirect’s Workflow technology to create an introductory string of emails, click here. 

Click here to see 45 Welcome Emails from Top Retailers.

Remember: Reach out to your subscribers when they sign up and continue to provide value with each email you send them.

 http://blog.emaildirect.com/index/2009/11/guy-walks-into-a-bar.html Benefits of Using aTemplate tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5505bf46088330120a6a670bf970c 2009-11-04T09:30:00-08:00 2009-11-04T09:30:00-08:00 Using a template for email campaigns is beneficial in many ways. On the surface, it streamlines the creative building process, and makes it possible for those without HTML knowledge to create customized campaign’s without having to worry about writing code.... ED Email Marketing Consultants

Using a template for email campaigns is beneficial in many ways.  On the surface, it streamlines the creative building process, and makes it possible for those without HTML knowledge to create customized campaign’s without having to worry about writing code.  On the same note, optimal HTML structure can mean the difference between inbox or junk delivery.  So why not use a custom template that has been tested for optimal HTML structure?

Blog_template Additionally, using a custom template (versus a general cookie cutter template that you adopt) allows you to synergize your companies brand from website to email. 

Along the same train of thought is the importance of consistency, and using a custom template will give your emails a familiar look and feel each time you send, with minimal effort on your part!Using a custom template with a built in navigational bar made for your company and brand is a great way to direct traffic back to your website.  By providing links to key landing pages, you are making your products and services easily accessible to subscribers. 

In short, custom designed email templates at minimum improve delivery, promote brand exposure and increase traffic to website/landing pages.  Are you using a custom template for email?  If not, why?

View Examples of Custom Templates

 

 http://blog.emaildirect.com/index/2009/11/benefits-of-using-atemplate.html 10 Ways Spam Can Effect Your Email Marketing Program tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5505bf46088330120a6223d58970b 2009-11-02T10:00:00-08:00 2009-11-02T10:00:00-08:00 There’s no question, people hate Spam. Chris Morris provides a little humor, and quality information ,while advising 10 ways to identify a Scam in email. Unfortunately, it’s the Spammers who make a legitimate Email Marketers job harder. Reviewing the Spam... Kristine Dobson

There’s no question, people hate Spam.  Chris Morris provides a little humor, and quality information ,while advising 10 ways to identify a Scam in email.   Unfortunately, it’s the Spammers who make a legitimate Email Marketers job harder.  Reviewing the Spam Chris found, learn how to avoid your email from being misinterpreted as a Scam, by Spam filters and/or recipients.

1. & 4. Requests for Personal Information

If you’re a marketer sending out an email inviting your Subscribers to take a survey, pay close attention to the copy in your email creative.   Words like survey, contest, reward, feedback, invited, credited and account are highly sensitive to Spam filters.

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2. Watch for typos or spelling mistakes

Not only will spelling and poor grammar cause a recipient to miss-identify you as a Spammer, miss-spellings also trigger Spam filters. When testing creatives prior to deployment, we evaluate the number of Spelling errors found:

Spelling
 


3. Clickable Web links in e-mails

When using a 3rd party Email Service Provider, like EmailDirect, links are masked for a number of purposes.   Masked links come with benefits and drawbacks; benefiting from the tracking capabilities while suffering from the very small percentage of users who won’t click on the unrecognizable link.  EmailDirect users have the choice to enable tracking, and in turn mask links, or not.  Never should a raw URL be displayed in an email creative, as shown below.

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5. Stock Tips from Random People

It’s hard for businesses in the financial and real estate sector to get email into an inbox because Spammers have saturated mailboxes with get rich quick Spam.  For those businesses, the importance of User Engagement is critical. 

5

6. Attachments in e-mails from anyone you don't know

Email marketers shouldn’t be sending bulk email with attachments.    Instead, provide a clickable link to the PDF file.  EmailDirect clients can upload a PDF as an image and link directly to that hosted image.

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7.Wordless e-mails

It is for this reason that optimized email creatives require a 1:1 image to text ratio.  Email creatives composed of one solid image are likely to be caught by Spam filters.  If you have restrictions forcing you to send image only email, splice your image into parts placed within individual cells.

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8.Outdated Information

Make sure all information is up to date in your emails. If you have a footer referencing the year (EX: ©2009 EmailDirect.com. All Rights Reserved.), update the year in January to 2010!

EmailDirectFooter


9. Red-flag phrases

In addition to the triggers set off by the Spam words/phrases (account verification), yellow highlighted text acts as a double whammy!  Highlighting doesn’t draw attention the way a marketer intends, instead it triggers Spam filters and causes more email to go unread.

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10. Generic Greetings

Email marketers should only be using generic greetings as a default, in place of an absent First Name.  Perhaps you have a name for 90% of your list; rather than not greeting anyone, use a generic greeting in absence of a First Name for that small group of subscribers.  If you have few, or no, First Names don’t use a greeting at all.  Additionally, if you are using a greeting, don't use the word "Dear", which can cause a well optimized email to go to Junk.
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~Kristine

http://blog.emaildirect.com/index/2009/11/10-ways-spam-can-effect-your-email-marketing-program.html Laugh with Us, Laugh at Us! tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5505bf46088330120a69086d2970c 2009-10-29T17:39:19-07:00 2009-10-29T17:39:45-07:00 Clients having fun with our T-Shirts around their office! The Original ~Kristine Kristine Dobson

Clients having fun with our T-Shirts around their office!

The Original

Original 

Are

AreWe

WeAre
  WeWork 

~Kristine

http://blog.emaildirect.com/index/2009/10/having-fun-with-marketing.html ReturnPath's Cool Email Idea: Secrets to Email that Gets Opened & Read tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5505bf46088330120a621c8e7970b 2009-10-28T09:30:00-07:00 2009-10-26T16:26:09-07:00 Great ReturnPath blog on BLR’s secret to email marketing success. Highlight: “Following the best practice that even a little bit of content exponentially increases the value of an e-newsletter, HR Strange But True is grew super-fast - from 278 to... Kristine Dobson

Great ReturnPath blog on BLR’s secret to email marketing success.  Highlight: “Following the best practice that even a little bit of content exponentially increases the value of an e-newsletter, HR Strange But True is grew super-fast - from 278 to more than 7,000 subscribers in just under a year - with a less than 0.2% unsubscribe rate. Additionally, the e-zine follows best practices for content, calls-to-action and interactivity.”  Read More

BLR

 

~Kristine

http://blog.emaildirect.com/index/2009/10/returnpaths-cool-email-idea-secrets-to-email-that-gets-opened-read.html Users Increase ROI using Workflows tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5505bf46088330120a6783049970c 2009-10-26T11:17:59-07:00 2009-10-27T13:37:03-07:00 As many EmailDirect customers are learning, our Workflow technology provides the ability to streamline everyday tasks into automated strings of emails, triggered by their subscribers’ actions and/or characteristics. Here’s what a few of our clients had to say about their... ED Email Marketing Consultants

As many EmailDirect customers are learning, our Workflow technology provides the ability to streamline everyday tasks into automated strings of emails, triggered by their subscribers’ actions and/or characteristics.  Here’s what a few of our clients had to say about their experience using the Workflow tool.

Blogpic1“I love this Workflow tool. It has enabled me to automate our multi-stage renewal notices plus the expiration notice process that I previously had to do manually. The manual method, because it was so much work, was very simple and un-timely. By automating the multi-stage renewal notices I have been able to implement a much more focused and compelling renewal message to subscribers as they approach their expiration date. This should result in a higher retention rate for my paid subscribers…”

Doug Le Du
Del Mar Services

For clients like Doug, the functionality of the automated Workflow has freed up time to spend developing more effective content and improve client retention. For others, the Workflow automation has provided additional benefits…

“Using Workflows is like having a silent army of your best sales staff working around the clock to help you grow your business. We use Workflows to send automated, personalized emails that engage our prospects, build relationships with them and convert them into paying customers. We also use them to respond to customer inquiries faster, keeping our customers happy and loyal. Thanks to Workflows, we’ve been able to capitalize on marketing opportunities that we may otherwise miss and grow our revenues with record speed.”

Dean Gagnon, CEO
CityMax.com Easy Website Builder

CityMax.com provides businesses with the tools to build complex websites themselves, enabling them to save thousands of dollars a  web-designer would typically charge. Using EmailDirect’sWorkflow tool, they recently launched a fully integrated program that automatically triggers an introductory string of emails welcoming new clients to their program upon signing up. In a string of 10 emails, they provide tips, tricks and tools to assist their new clients in the construction of the websites.

If you would like more information about setting up your own automated Workflow, contact your dedicated Email Marketing Consultant, or Sales if you’re not already working with EmailDirect, for a detailed orientation.

Happy Sending!

 http://blog.emaildirect.com/index/2009/10/users-increase-roi-using-workflows.html User Engagement & Email Delivery tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5505bf46088330120a6086016970b 2009-10-20T14:33:18-07:00 2009-10-20T14:35:10-07:00 More and more email marketing insiders are talking about User Engagement as the next big development in email deliverability. But what is User Engagement, what does it mean to mailers and is it really new? To catch you up, it's... Chris Bryan

More and more email marketing insiders are talking about User Engagement as the next big development in email deliverability. But what is User Engagement, what does it mean to mailers and is it really new?

To catch you up, it's really quite simple: instead of simply measuring the usual metrics associated with reputation (complaints, bounces, spam traps), ISP's are paying attention to their frequent users AND positive user actions.

For example, when a subscriber moves your email out of the spam folder or clicks on the "This is not spam" button, popular email providers like AOL, and microsoft take notice and reward you with positive reputation. Also, some ISP's have begun calculating reputation from frequent users rather than all of the users you send email to. This means that while your complaint rate may appear to be low, the complaint rate the ISP is calculating could be much higher if your list contains alot of inactive subscribers.

George Bilbrey explains these concepts well in his recent post on Email Insider:

  • This Is Not Spam: This has been an important reputation metric for over three years. It's the primary way that many ISPs get a feel for whether they are making a mistake in placing a message in a junk/bulk folder. Most of the large ISPs that have built their own reputation systems are looking at this metric.

  • "This is Spam" and "This Is Not Spam Data" from Trusted Reporters: Certain senders try to game reputation systems. They mail to a large number of inactive accounts to bulk the denominator in the complaint rate metric since inactive accounts don't hit the report spam button. Some senders will take this a step further and set up accounts at an ISP to register "this is not spam" votes for their messages. Mailbox providers have responded by reviewing only reporting from active, engaged accounts that don't look dormant or look like they have been set up for the purpose of gaming. AOL has publically stated that they are including trusted reporter data in their filtering algorithms, but we know a number of other top-tier ISPs that are doing this also.

  • Panel Data from Trusted Users: Another technique to measure engagement is to create a large panel of trusted users to vote on messages that were sent to each user and placed in the inbox or junk mail folder. The users are given a sample of their messages and asked to vote each as spam or not spam. This technique is most notably used by Microsoft.

In the end, this doesn't change much. Putting yourself in the shoes of your subscribers has always been good advice. If the emails you send out don't contain valuable/relevant content, your subscribers are going to respond in a negative way. On the other hand, if your emails drive recognition and relevance you will not have delivery issues.

Chris

 http://blog.emaildirect.com/index/2009/10/user-engagement-email-delivery.html Mail.com domains subject to new filters tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5505bf46088330120a57b6a1e970b 2009-09-17T16:25:12-07:00 2009-09-17T16:28:20-07:00 Prior to today, Outblaze known as the world largest online service platform, providing white label email and collaboration systems hosted mail.com and all of thier other vanity email domains. Domains such as mail.com, usa.com and email.com to name a few... Richard King

Prior to today, Outblaze known as the world largest online service platform, providing white label email and collaboration systems hosted mail.com and all of thier other vanity email domains.  Domains such as mail.com, usa.com and email.com to name a few were of their largest email accounts.  It's just now been confirmed that AOL will now start "MXing" all of mail.com email accounts as well as all of their vanity domains.  This means Outblaze anti-spam filters will no longer be filtering those email accounts.  So if you're not in good standings with AOL, now is the time.  The worlds largest GI (General Internet) email account platform is moving to the mighty mail exchange gateways of AOL.

EmailDirect.com can assist you in insuring your mail gets white listed with AOL so if you have any questions or if you're current ESP does not provide this service please contact our sales department for more information or just shoot me an email.

Here are some of the many domains that will now be filtered by AOL filters and subject to AOL white list user database:

mail.com
email.com
usa.com
consultant.com
myself.com
europe.com
london.com
post.com
engineer.com
iname.com
cheerful.com
writeme.com
lawyer.com
dr.com
asia.com
techie.com
themound.com

For a complete list go to www.mail.com and click the title link named "View all addresses"


-Richard King

 http://blog.emaildirect.com/index/2009/09/all-mailcom-email-domains-will-be-subject-to-aolcom-filters.html AT&T sending mail to bulk due to Yahoo! issues tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5505bf46088330120a5217cec970b 2009-08-26T12:31:54-07:00 2009-08-26T12:31:54-07:00 We have learned from our contacts and the Pivotal Veracity team that AT&T servers that are being maintained by Yahoo! are on the frits and erroneously being sent to the junk folder and sometimes the inbox simultaneously. Here is an... Richard King

We have learned from our contacts and the Pivotal Veracity team that AT&T servers that are being maintained by Yahoo! are on the frits and erroneously being sent to the junk folder and sometimes the inbox simultaneously.  Here is an excerpt from an email from PV:


Implications


Clients should potentially expect to see a portion of their email, for AT&T, land in the spam folder because of the out of date filtering rules on those mail servers. Normal email delivery will be restored once the filtering rules are updated on those servers...


The effected domains from the family of ATT domains are:

  1. ATT.NET
  2. WIRELESS.ATT.COM
  3. SBCGLOBAL.COM
  4. BELLSOUTH.NET

The problem is expected to last throughout the week while Yahoo! updates the rest of ATT's servers to Yahoo!'s current infrastructure.

A work around for EmailDirect clients could be to creating filters to segregate the above domains and hold off until the issue is resolved.  We will keep you guys posted.


-Richard King

 http://blog.emaildirect.com/index/2009/08/att-sending-mail-to-bulk-due-to-yahoo-issues.html