VerticalResponse Email Marketing Blog for Small Business

Introducing Webinar Wednesdays!

Happy New Year, everybody! In the same calendar-turning tradition of "starting fresh," we're starting 2012 with our new "Webinar Wednesdays" series, offering plenty of informative and free webinars to help quench your mid-week thirst for knowledge (marketing knowledge, at least).

Plus, as an added bonus, if you attend any of these webinars, you'll receive a follow-up email with a super-exclusive special offer from VR!

So check out our full list of webinars for January and register for one or more today!

Email Delivery Changes in the New Year

Wednesday, January 11, 2012 - 10 AM PST
Join delivery and marketing team members to learn more about email delivery, including changes that the top 4 ISPs have implemented and how that will impact your emails in 2012. 

Go Local! - Location-Based Marketing for Your Business

Wednesday, January 11, 2012 - 1 PM PST
Location-based marketing couldn't be hotter right now. Whether you're a brick-and-mortar retail business or a national brand, geo-location tools can help you build buzz and drum up new business. Join Marketing team members as we cover:

• Which geo-location apps you need to know
• How to leverage them to build social buzz and drive foot traffic
• Innovative geo-location campaigns to inspire your planning

Maintaining Your Mailing List

Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - 10 AM PST
It's a new year and time to do a little housekeeping to start things off right. This webinar will go over:

• Good list practices
• How to clean up your list
• Using segmentation, opt-in forms, plus more

Creating a Successful Email

Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - 1 PM PST
Your email is a tool that helps you stay engaged with your customers and prospects and helps you grow your business. Join us as we discuss how you can strengthen your relationships and customer loyalty with an effective email.



Using Surveys For Your Business

Wednesday, January 25, 2012 10 AM PST
Learn how surveys can help build relationships with your customers and grow your business. We'll also go over how to use the VR Survey tool to choose a template, create and edit questions, and analyze the statistics collected.

Related Posts:

• Holidays You Don't Want to Forget to Remember
• How to Win Back Old Customers via Email
  

Posted by Brendan Hill.

Brendan Hill is a Lifecycle Marketing Coordinator at VerticalResponse. Connect with him on Twitter at @BrendanHill

CAN-SPAM, Canadian-style!

Last October, the Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Bill (aka Bill C-28), the Canadian equivalent of the US CAN-SPAM act of 2003, came under fire as it faced strong lobbying from local businesses, who are looking to add amendments to the law and delay its formal implementation. This is part of an ongoing legal battle as the Bill, formerly known as the Electronic Commerce Protection Act (or Bill C-27) before its prorogation in 2009, had already faced similar criticism and debate before finally being passed by Parliament in December 2010.

You would think anti-spam legislation shouldn’t be a cause for such controversy, so to help understand the situation better and avoid having to sift through all the legalese involved, here’s a quick snapshot of the email dos and don’ts north of the border.

CAN-SPAM (US)	Bill C-28 (Canada)
Similarities
No false headers or subject lines Valid postal address Unsubscribe requirement Cannot alter transmission data Cannot perform address harvesting or send to harvested addresses Liability for brands who knowingly allow spam to be sent on their behalf
Differences
Applies to email only. Addresses Spam only. Opt-out; you can technically mail any person at least once. Private Right of Action (PRA) available only to ISPs.	Covers "Commercial Electronic Messages" (CEM) including Email, SMS, Instant Messages and Social Media postings. Addresses broad range of Internet issues including spam, spyware, phishing, etc. Primarily Opt-In; Permission Based in writing, valid for two years only. Private Right of Action (PRA) available to anyone such as individuals, businesses, etc. Replies must go to an address that is monitored. May not use “no-reply” addresses.

Chief among concerns for the lobbyists is the current Bill’s requirement to obtain consent “in writing,” which they argue isn’t necessary as electronic or verbal consents should be enough, like in most countries. Also, the form requirements on commercial emails ask for a website address, even though many businesses are not yet online. Additionally, each group has their own concerns that apply only to their own business types (financial, industrial…), so this could take some time before all parties agree on a compromise and the law finally goes into effect. Final regulations and interpretations of the bill are currently slated for early 2012, when there will be further definition about the need to the date and source of opt-in information. 

So, while we wait for all the legal wrangling to subside, here are some guidelines to preemptively avoid being flagged by the cyber-mounties:

• Establish a baseline policy for all digital communications with subscribers.
• Review the latest email policies to ensure compliance, as Bill C-28 regulations are more aggressive than the US-based CAN-SPAM ones.
• Know that penalties can be as high as 1 million CAD per violation for individuals, and 10 million CAD per violation for organizations.
• Move away from an opt-out (pre-checked) to an opt-in (not pre-checked) box on subscription forms.
• Segment your subscribers based on expressed preferences, observed behaviors, and demographics.
• Use preference centers so that subscribers can choose the timing and frequency with which they receive emails.
• Capture when and where your subscribers signed up, especially if you are collecting sign ups by hand.
• Never purchase or rent lists, or do email appends.

VerticalResponse has a strict anti-spam policy. All customers are required to adhere to the CAN-SPAM regulations. By adhering to VR’s strict Opt-In requirement for all email sent from our application this ensures compliance with nearly all global email marketing laws and guidelines. 

Are you aware of any other international email regulations? Do they make sense to you? Do you believe these types of laws help companies such as yours run their business or, on the contrary, hinder them? Share away in the comments!

Resources: 

• Michael Geist’s blog, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law
• Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation
• Email Spam Legislation by Country

Related posts:

• Was the White House Spamming?
• Is It Spam?
• UK Spam Law - Attention all UK-Based Companies

 

Posted by My Truong.

My Truong, is the Marketing Programs Manager at VerticalResponse. Connect with him on Twitter @PtitMy.

December Webinars: End the Year with a Bang!

There's only one month left on the 2011 (and Q4) calendar! With just 31 more days to "wrap up" your marketing strategies/campaigns and put a "bow" on the year, you might be feeling excitement, panic, or some whirlwind combination of both.

No matter how you're feeling, you want to make sure you (and your business/organization) are fully prepared to take on this last month (and beyond). And what better way to prepare yourself than by checking out the final phase of our Fall Webinar Series? So mark your calendars for one (or all) of VerticalResponse's informative, and free, holiday webinars and end your 2011 with a successful bang!

Oops! Common Email Mistakes

Thursday, December 1, 2011 – 10:00 AM PST
Join marketing team members as they cover some of the most common email mistakes and how to fix them.

Understanding Email Bounces

Thursday, December 1, 2011 – 1:00 PM PST
VerticalResponse’s Delivery Manager, Kiersti Esparza, discusses bounces, how VR handles them and what you can do.

Social Media Tools: Facebook Apps

Thursday, December 8, 2011 – 1:00 PM PST 
Looking to expand the reach of your Facebook Page? Want to jazz up your wall or add a new tab? This webinar will take you through tools and suggestions for getting more out of your Facebook Pages.

Creating a Successful Email

Thursday, December 15, 2011 – 1:00 PM PST
Your email is a tool that helps you stay engaged with your customers and prospects and helps you grow your business. Join VerticalResponse marketing experts as they discuss how you can strengthen your relationships and customer loyalty with an effective email.

And as always, here's a Time Zone Converter, in case you need to double-check the time in your area.

Posted by Brendan Hill.

Brendan Hill is a Lifecycle Marketing Coordinator at VerticalResponse. Connect with him on Twitter at @BrendanHill.

November Webinars: Prepare Your Email Marketing Feast

OK pilgrim, let’s talk turkey: the holidays are coming and it’s time to set the table for the "feast" that is the busiest shopping, and marketing, time of the year.

To help you prepare, VerticalResponse is continuing our Fall Webinar Series with a cornucopia of free and informative Webinars and Demos (and November-themed puns), which are stuffed full of best practices and tips for managing all aspects of your email marketing this holiday season.

Testing Your Email and Lists For Success

Thursday, November 17, 2011 - 10:00 AM PST
VerticalResponse's marketing team will show you how to get the most from your lists using the free Segment tool, which allows you to create more targeted lists, run exclusions, and setup split tests using any data in your account.

Once you have learned how this powerful tool works, learn how to put it to the test! We’ll cover how to test your subject lines and emails to get the best results from your email marketing.

Creating a Successful Email

Thursday, November 17, 2011 - 1:00 PM PST
Your newsletter is a tool that helps you stay engaged with your customers and prospects and helps you grow your business. Join VerticalResponse marketing experts as they discuss how you can strengthen your relationships and customer loyalty with an effective email.

Oops! Common Email Mistakes

Thursday, December 1, 2011 – 10:00 AM PST
Join marketing team members as they cover some of the most common email mistakes and how to fix them!

Understanding Email Bounces

Thursday, December 1, 2011 – 1:00 PM PST
VerticalResponse’s Delivery Manager, Kiersti Esparza, discusses bounces, how VR handles them and what you can do.

Finally, here's a nifty Time Zone Converter, in case you need to double-check the time in your lovely region. Oh, and don't forget, Daylight Savings ends this Sunday, 11/6.

Related Posts:

• Essential Fall Holidays to Recall
• Setting Expectations with Your Customers this Holiday Season

Brendan Hill is the new Lifecycle Marketing Coordinator at VerticalResponse.  Connect with him on Twitter at @BrendanHill

Email Marketing for this Holiday Season

It's nearly that time of year: frosty mornings, football on the weekends and the holiday frenzy we all love. If that last statement is difficult to take, or you suddenly gulped when you realized it's near, don't worry; we have some helpful tips to make your holiday email delivery easier.

Grow Your (Nice) List: Add opt-in links to your email marketing messages. It may seem like overkill since you already have an opted-in mailing list, but you'll capture new names and get up-to-date email addresses in time for the holidays. Also, encourage your subscribers to forward the message to friends or social networks to help gain new email subscribers.

Give Thanks: The weeks before Thanksgiving is the ideal time to send a brief message to build your customer relationships and keep your reputation strong.  Instead of a sales-minded offer or promotion, send a personal note of thanks to your customers for their support. This is a great way to keep your mailing lists fresh, and to re-engage more dormant list members before sending big holiday promotions later on.

Ask and You Shall Receive: Before holiday email traffic heats up, ask email recipients to add you to their address book, priority mailing or "approved senders" list. Then they'll be less likely to miss you're super-duper holiday offers and messages.

Provide an Email Weather Forecast: If you plan to add more emails to your current marketing plan, give your recipients a heads up first. Let them know what your holiday mailing frequency will be so they know what to expect (and when you will return to the original mailing plan). Also, if you do plan to increase your mailing schedule, start with your most engaged customers and then move on to the less engaged to see if you can get some of that list to respond.

There you are - a few tips to help you breeze through the holidays. Now if only we could help whittle down your holiday shopping list!

Posted by Jill Bastian

Jill Bastian is the Training and Education Manager at VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter @Jillieb3.

11 Spam Words to Avoid in Your Subject Line

An ever-popular question we get here at VR is "What words should I avoid in an email to ensure inbox delivery?" If only there was a straightforward answer to that question! As with many things email marketing related, the answer is: it depends. Sure, you know not to use pharmaceuticals like Cialis or Viagra in your subject line or email, but what about the word Free?

Before I give you a list of words to avoid there are some things to keep in mind when writing your email. First, always have someone proofread your email! A typo in a benign word can suddenly create a delivery nightmare when it transforms into the hottest new spam word. If a word in your subject line gets truncated or broken it could go to a spam folder, or even worse, cause unsubscribes.

An example I saw was the phrase "Buttons and Bows" in a long subject line. Because the subject was too long the word Button was broken in the middle and caused delivery and unsubcribe problems. In addition, a subject line is not the place to use the short words for texting, like 4U, U or even #1 .

Sometimes unsavory types want to use known spam words and try to get around delivery issues by breaking them up with spaces or disguising them. Spam filters know these tricks, so C r e d i t, C*r*e*d*i*t or CREDIT can still put your email in a spam folder. Using all caps for a word or a whole subject line can flag the email as being spam. Plus, all caps in the internet world means you're yelling, and you don't want to do that to your readers.

And now the list you were looking for:

1. Affordable
2. Apply Now
3. Additional Income/ Extra Income
4. Dear Friend
5. Free
6. Home Based/Work from Home
7. Mortgage Rates
8. Opportunity
9. Remove
10. Save $
11. Weight Loss

There are more of course, but you want to try to keep these 11 out of your subject line. Which brings up the question, "Free shipping is the number one subject line, how is Free on the spam word list?" Ah, great question! The word Free in your subject line won't put your email in a spam folder all on its own. Most spam filters use a rating system so while Free can be a trigger, if the rest of your email is good (content clean, clean HTML, good links, and good delivery system) you can expect your email to be delivered to the inbox.

To see more words to avoid, check out this list. And if you like things a bit more technical SpamAssassin has some great info, too.

We have a recorded webinar and guide, Savvy Subject Line Writing for Success, to help you create successful subject lines.

Posted by Jill Bastian

Jill Bastian is the Training and Education Manager at VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter @Jillieb3.

Facebook Messages - What You Need To Know!

There’s been a lot of hubbub about Facebook’s recent announcement of their new messaging system, "Facebook Messages." Some thought it would be a new email service, and some even called it an “email killer.” Well we’ve dug into it and had some time to digest it, so I thought it would be a great opportunity for us to break it down for you and give you ideas on how to use it to your advantage.

New Short, Concise, Seamless Messaging – According to the words of Facebook CEO Mark Zukerberg, “This is not an email killer. This is a messaging experience that includes email as one part of it.” This new system was designed to be more of a conversation between friends, or friends of friends (like a chat or text). There is not yet a concept of a subject line, a “cc” or a “bcc”. If someone outside a user’s network of friends messages them, these messages are put into a folder named “other” and right now it’s not known if “likes” are going to be given any inbox preferential treatment. Essentially it can be looked at as an uber whitelist where the end recipients have more control than ever about who can message them and how.

What you can do: This is where being more relevant and valuable than ever comes into play. Just like your email marketing recipients expect the value you provide, so will those using Facebook Messages. So keep it up! You may consider segmenting your lists by domain, and doing some special offers and tracking on Facebook recipients.

Messaging History – All users will have communications history since the beginning of time, grouped by friend.

What you can do: As of now, I’m not really sure how this is relevant to marketers but stay tuned…

Social Inbox – All users will have the ability to have an @facebook.com address. If your recipients want to start using an @facebook.com email address you may still send to that address; however, it may not get automatic priority since you may not be a Facebook friend. If this is the case, it’s directed to an “other” folder until your recipient engages with it and moves it to priority. Conversely, if you are a friend and your content is getting into the priority inbox but your content isn’t engaging, your recipient will have the ability to move it to the “other” folder and subsequent messages will be delivered there.

What you can do: First and foremost, if you don’t have a Facebook page, you need to set one up now. It takes just minutes. Then encourage all of your recipients to become friends, since friends get priority in the inbox. You’ll also want to make special offers for @facebook.com users and post them to your wall. You’ll get some new list members who will interact with your email, giving it priority status in the inbox. Lastly, you’ll want to analyze how many people from the @facebook.com domain are joining your list and watch to see if their behavior (opens and clicks) is different than the other domains. Most Email Service Providers (including VerticalResponse) provide this.

This isn’t unlike the Gmail Priority Inbox where a higher “engagement” rate (clicks, opens) gets you priority inbox placement.

New technologies and innovations happen all the time. It shouldn’t be scary. Instead, look at it as an opportunity to reach out to your customers in different ways...ways they want to be reached.

So remember, it’s more important than ever for you to have great personality, amazing content, total value, and trustworthiness in your marketing above all else. Let’s face it, email was the Facebook of my generation…

Stay tuned for more updates on the topic!

Email Delivery: Understanding Response Rates

Our Email Delivery Manager Kiersti Esparza, recently contributed to our blog with Part 1 & 2 of our ongoing email deliverability information. Today she’ll be talking email response rates and what they all mean.

Even with the most engaged audience it would be nearly impossible to ever see a 100% open rate. A 70% rate would be incredible and a 20% open rate might not be bad at all! Maybe your recipient doesn't have time in a particular day, or maybe they weren't compelled by your subject line. Perhaps they filter personal email by businesses they frequent and wait until a weekend to look at it. Either way don't despair, every business goes through this.

To top it all off if your recipient is viewing your email on a mobile device that only accepts text-based emails in most cases they will read the text version that won’t render an open. Remember, in order for the email to count as open, the images must have appeared and in the text version, they don't.

If you are feeling that your open and click rates aren’t as high as they could be and your bounce rates don’t indicate any specific delivery issues, the issue is the engagement of your audience.  You have to ask yourself a few questions:

• Is your content relevant to your subscribers? 
• Did they sign up for mail from your balloon shop but are getting newsletters about your  new florist business?  
• Should you be segmenting your audience based on regional differences, gender, job title and messaging different parts of your audience with different content? 

After a few campaigns you may want to email a follow up message the nonresponders differently, testing different offers to engage them. It's pretty easy to target Responders (openers and clickers) or NonResponders (those who have done nothing) specifically.

• Are you sending too frequently? 
• Are you not sending frequently enough?

Remember if you start sending too many emails for the relationship you set up with them, your recipients may unsubscribe. Conversely, if you send less than monthly, you may want to increase your frequency to ensure your audience doesn’t forget they subscribed. Older lists will generate higher bounces and generally lower engagement rates because your recipient is less likely to open and click an email from a sender they don’t remember subscribing to.

• If your audience is primarily B2B where content filtering be more of an issue? 
• Are you seeing open and click rates in some domains and not others? 

Maybe some of the content recommendations above could be applied to your content. See Six Tips for Delivering B2B Email.

We suggest mailing to your new subscribers as soon as possible. Specifically send a Welcome message to set their expectations on content and the frequency of your mailings. This is a best practice for all email senders. Then the frequency of your newsletters should be just as you promised them when they signed up.

See also:

6 Tips for Delivering B2B Email
How Your Email Looks in Different Email Clients
Authentication, Reputation and Feeback Loops; What it All Means

Email Delivery: 6 Tips for Delivering B2B Email

Our Email Delivery Manager Kiersti Esparza, recently contributed to our blog with Part 2 of our  ongoing email deliverability information which focused on Email Delivery: How Your Email Looks in Different Email Clients. Today she’ll be talking about delivering email to businesses. 

Businesses that sell their products or services to other businesses could have it a bit more tricky when it comes to delivering email. Most Email Service Providers have good reputations with the ISPs where a lot of consumer mail is delivered, and most have good reputations with businesses. But businesses can add another gate for your email to get past.

Breaking It Up Can Help

Some businesses, usually larger ones, might begin to get suspicious about email getting through their doors when they see multiple messages that contain the same content. They're likely to think it's bulk marketing email and perhaps block it or use some sort of filtering mechanism. One way to test this is to segment your list into a smaller campaign and see if sending smaller chunks of email gets you a better response.

Getting Rid of "Dear"

Another big impact to B2B delivery is starting your email with “Dear” as a salutation.  You might try forgoing your salutation altogether because while they are polite, they aren’t really necessary in email.  The biggest problem with using “Dear” is that it can be flagged specifically in SpamAssassin and other filters as well and businesses may be using that tool.

Calm It Down

Be tempered in your content design.  Avoid using font sizes that are too big for your headlines.  Be conservative and only bump a headline up a font size or two, and highlight it with bold.  Don’t use unusual background or font colors.  Filters also flag this fancy formatting as a trait associated with bulk marketing email.  

Clean Code

Make sure the HTML coding is clean since poorly formatted HTML could result in emails being bulk foldered or blocked.  Never use MS Word to design your email because when you copy and paste from MS Word there are additional characters that get automatically inserted. As a result it's flagged as sloppy code and can get filtered.

Don’t code your emails using Cascading Style Sheets or CSS. MS Outlook 2007 does not render CSS and neither will the newer version of Outlook 2010. Your email will look messy and unprofessional not to mention get filtered.

Active Links

Make sure your links are active since broken or improperly entered links could cause filtering.  Also, make sure your links don’t end with .php – this has been shown to cause message filtering.  Just designate a new link for that page that doesn’t have that .php and you will be fine.

A Healthy Balance

Balance Text and Images. Filters look for image-only email messages. If you embed your text and graphics into a single image, you risk your message going straight to the junk folder.  And since most email clients suppress images by default – if your email is one big image it will like open as a blank email with no call to action. Even worse, the first thing your recipients might see is your unsubscribe message. Ouch.

If you intend on sending a text-only message, design it as a text only message from the start. If you design your message as text in an HTML document, this could also cause issues since filters will see the email unevenly weighted between html content and text content causing potential filtering.

Even if you're not building your email for business to business, these are all good ideas for consumer driven emails as well.

Related Post: Email Delivery: Authentication, Reputation and Feedback Loops, What It All Means.

Email Delivery: How Your Email Looks in Different Email Clients

Our Email Delivery Manager Kiersti Esparza, recently contributed to our blog with Part 1 which focused on Authentication, Reputation, Feedback Loops and Bounced Email. Today she’ll be talking about Email Rendering. 

It's important to know that your email is going to look the way you think it will in most of the email clients your recipients use, after all your email marketing campaign has to give you the response you need to be successful. At VerticalResponse, we test all of our templates in a variety of email clients, however we always recommend that you to test your email marketing campaigns in a few clients (Gmail, Outlook, AOL, etc.) as well.  

HTML and Text...Delivered

Most Email Service Providers send emails as multipart messages which means that when your email sent, it's sent with both the graphical HTML version that has images and clickable links AND a separate text version. The email client your email is delivered to then renders the most appropriate version; if it’s an email client that accepts an HTML message then that is the version that will be delivered – a huge majority of email clients accept and render the html version. If the recipient has specified that they only want to see text emails, then this is how the message will be delivered.  

Rendering on Mobile Device

Text versions of your email come into play when recipients check email on their mobile devices.  Some mobile devices only render text, so the email will always appear as the text version if viewed on most mobile clients.  When drafting your text version, if you know a high percentage of your recipients will likely be viewing the email on their mobile device it would be wise to pay attention to the width of your text version.  Most mobile devices will show 20 to 40 characters in 12 to 15 lines per screen.  But this will vary by phone type, screen width and type style. We've written about Creating Your Email for Mobile Devices.

Images Not Displayed

Another factor to keep in mind as you test your content and view it in different email clients is that most do not render images anymore by default.  They leave this action up to the recipient’s discretion.  When you test your campaigns make sure there is a way to view your email with both the images on and off.  Some recipients will choose not to view images for whatever reason and will receive the email – without opening the images or activating the links. We've written about this here: 5 Things to Know About Using Images In Your Email.

ALT Text - What It Is and Why You Need It

Remember to design your campaign to be readable with the images on or off.  Some email clients display an image's ALT text when images are suppressed.  ALT text is the text that is displayed instead of your image. So ensure the ALT text is properly entered when you upload a picture and include a description of the image. For more on ALT text: Creating Your Email For "Images Off".

Hope this helps. Any questions, comment!