VerticalResponse Email Marketing Blog for Small Business

How & Why You Need to be Added to Your Recipient's Address Book

United did something great, for once. Just kidding. But seriously, they sent out a clever email marketing campaign. Simply put, it was an email asking the recipients to add United's From Address to their address books. Why? Because if they do add you, your recipients will not only get your email in their inboxes (avoiding the junk folder), but all of your images will appear and not be stripped out of your email. Some might say "Well Janine, if the email IS going into the junk folder then how would my recipients know"?

Great point. The point is that for all of your recipients that periodically check their junk folders, they might see this and wonder why they have not been getting your emails, and take actions to make sure they do.

How can you help? Just send an email to your recipients with some simple instructions that make it easy for them to add you into their address books.  Here's how to do it using VerticalResponse:

First you need to know what email address to send and the one you'll want to give them is the "From Address" for your VerticalResponse email campaign. The From Address is automatically constructed for you based on the text you put into the "From Label" of your email campaign. The text you enter will be added to the left of the @ sign and to the right will be the VerticalResponse sending domain: "mail.vresp.com."

So let's stop here and give an example.  Let's say I'm creating a new email and my company name is Widgets, Inc.  Well I simply enter my company name into the From Label for the campaign like normal. Now when I send a test email or live email the From Address will be Widgets_Inc@mail.vresp.com. Notice characters such as commas are removed since they cannot be included in a valid email address.

Since the From Address is what you want to get added in your recipient's address book and since the From Address is tied to the text you use for your From Label, we recommend using a consistent From Label for all the campaigns you send.

Here is the email, cheers.

Questionable Expert Advice in a DM News Article

I was reading DM News, and was perplexed at an article that was published 2 weeks ago.

This particular expert had chosen a particular Nordstrom email to feature and then talked about how wonderful it was.

• She liked that it gave her shopping options.
• She loved the way the global navigation was shown.
• The main body content had a Nordstrom experience.
  
• The fonts were elegant.
• The upsell potentials were good and targeted.

While I agree with almost everything this expert says, she left out a very critical issue. The email appears to be made up of either one large image or a series of images. We know what happens if a recipient receives this and has their images turned off...the first thing they may see is the unsubscribe link.

Make sure for the holidays you use a mix of both text and graphics in your email marketing campaign.

I like the new printed format of DM News btw. Good job guys.

5 Things to Know About Using Images In Your Email

We've recently been asked a bunch of questions about using images in email so I thought this would be a good time to talk about 5 quickies to help you out.

Beware of a “good” image to text ratio - We recommend a 30/70 image to text ratio as a healthy mix for maximum deliverability. Why? If your email is image heavy you run the risk of winding up in the junk folder. I've recently been looking at a few junk folders and I'm finding that one key across multiple junk folders is image heavy emails.

Use “Alt Tags” - What is an alt tag? It's the alternative text you give your image that pops up when your image is either moused over or not displayed. Alt tags can also contain key words for some search engine results. For example, our alt tag for our VerticalResponse logo might be "VerticalResponse - Email Marketing for Small Business" so that our recipients know when they open the email and see that alt tag they know that it's us.

When you use our Media Library you can give all of your images Alt Tags.

Don’t use one large image as the sole content of your email -  If your email is made up of either only one large image or multiple images and your recipient's reader has images turned off, the first thing they'll see is your unsubscribe link.

Don’t use heavy images - Try to keep your images under 25k because if they take too long to load, your impatient recipients will likely move on to their next email. If your images are too large, use a tool like spinwave to make them “lighter” without sacrificing too much quality.

Don't forget to link your images – Make sure if you include an image you link off from it. Everyone expects to be able to get somewhere by clicking on an image.

I hope this helps, if anyone has any other ideas please share!

Creating Your Email For "Images Off"

It's tough to think about all of the things you need to do when you create your email. You want your offer to be seen but you also want your email to look great. And with those nasty email readers turning off graphics and messing around with the content of your email, you need to take care when creating them.

I was creating some emails the past few weeks here at VerticalResponse for some new pre-designed layouts (stay tuned for industry layouts BTW). I noticed there are a few things you can think about when you design your email that would be optimal for reading in many email readers when your images turned off.

Here are some tips:

• Use tables and color 
  I know using tables for your website is so 90s, but using them for email is a must if you want to preserve the layout in any of the umpteen email readers your recipients are using.  If you look at many of our pre-designed layouts in the VR Email Canvas, we use tables and have columns in colors, and with the images turned off, the formatting stays and look great.
• Name Your Images Appropriately
  Make sure your images are named correctly. If you've got your logo, name it something like "your_company_logo.gif" and remember to give it an alt tag (e.g alt="Your Company") so in the event the email reader strips out the images, your recipient may still recognize your name and know it's legit. If you've got product images, name them "my_product.jpg".
• Your Company Name and Contact Information...In Text
  Make sure when you're typing your copy, you include your company name or the name of who the email is coming from. If you've only got it in the image and you don't follow steps from above, recipients might think it's spam and unsubscribe.

Some Examples:

In this example, each area of the email is created in its own table so that if the images are turned off, it won't effect the entire layout. Even though it may not be obvious at first glance in the email below, the "In this Issue" in the far right column is in a table as well. I used color to make it blend in with the rest of the design. I also included the company name in the headline text, making it instantly recognizable even with images turned off (see below).

Email in an HTML Editor

Images Displayed

Images Off

In this next email example, you see one table with three rows. The first row contained 2 images on a black background. How? Just look at the "Images Off" example below it. The 2nd row only contained the important text about the event with one image, aligned right. The third row has the important contact information displayed prominently in text.

Email in an HTML Editor

Images Displayed

Images Off

In this final email example you can see that the company name has been repeated in the first line, just to make sure the recipient knows who this email is coming from. The far right column has interesting use of background highlight colors to delineate the different sections, but it's all part of the same table.

Email in an HTML Editor

Images Displayed

Images Off

So there you have it. Even though your email won't always display the graphics, there are still ways you can preserve the layout of it. If you've got some ideas of your own, feel free to comment and share.

I'm Fired UP About Unsubscribes!

I just got an iPhone (thanks to our Marketing Manager Patricia who texted me to tell me SF had them in stock finally, funny story) so I decided it was time to delete the uber-illions of messages I have received over the course of a long time. For those of you who don't know, I've had my "retro" phone (see pic on right) now for years. No camera, no email, nuthin' fancy. But the iPhone has pushed me over to the evil PDA side. So now that I'm going PDA, I had to clean up my act. I had over 8000 messages sitting in my inbox...yikes. I also decided to go through the hundreds of newsletters I've subscribed to over the years (or have BEEN subscribed to over the years :-() and unsubscribe from those I don't read or never signed up for.

A huge undertaking? More than I thought it would be. In total there were over 200 newsletter subscriptions, no lie. Of around 200 I was AMAZED at how many I didn't sign up for. Roughly 140 of them. Even the DMA had wh0#*d my email address out. I was even more amazed at which Email Service Providers housed these emailers. There were a few GLARING ESPs that stood out as massive harborers of spammers, I'm happy to say that of the 200, VerticalResponse only had one that I didn't sign up for. There was one serious ESP offender, I won't say their name (email me if you want it) then a host of smaller offenders. THEN there were many that, well, just went to an error page. OUCH.

Here are some bad unsubscribe practices I uncovered:

Whoever this ESP is, they house a number of companies and sent me to the unsubscribe page and having me check a box again, to unsubscribe. -->

Many made me "sign in" to my account to unsubscribe - Ouch. I don't remember a password I set 4 years ago! Just unsubscribe me!

At least 20 companies had the only option be - "Please reply to this email with the word Remove in the subject line".  Even worse, they made me then type Remove. It should already be there.

Over 30 companies directed me to a page that read: "Please fill in this information, including your email address to unsubscribe." Yeah right! This came from an email not a static web page. They should know who I am and pre-fill my info. -->

One company tried to be tricky and send me to a page that has a "Yes, send me email" or "No I don't want to receive email" with the "Yes" radio button checked!

Also can someone tell Doubleclick that yes, even though I am a customer, it would be really nice to have an unsub link in the email? You'd think they know better. I get about 3 emails a week from them.

OK, I'm fired UP! ARE YOU?? At least my new iPhone will have a shiny new inbox!

VerticalResponse Releases Q1 Email Trends Report

Here at VerticalResponse, we’re always trying to help make sense of the email marketing world. It’s a rapidly changing landscape, to be sure, which is why we’re introducing a new quarterly feature – the VerticalResponse Email Marketing Trends Report. The first installment of this series, now available in the Resources section of our website, examines open, click-through, bounce and unsubscribe rates for the first quarter of 2006.

While a number of studies track average response rates on a per-industry basis, we thought it would be useful to provide a little extra context and report on industry results according to list size as well. The end product is a report that offers data for companies in 30 different industries, segmented according to mailing campaign sizes ranging from 100 members to 1 million recipients. What’s more, we roped in our creative team to translate all those cold, hard numbers into attractive, easily digestible graphs that make processing the information a snap. To see their good work, check out the VerticalResponse Q1 2006 Email Marketing Trends Watch.

5 Quick Ways to Improve Your Delivery Rates

The number one question I get here at VerticalResponse: “How can I ensure my email reaches the inbox?”.

Here are 5 quick things you can do today to increase delivery rates and avoid nasty spam filters:

1. Get into the address book - Try adding "white-listing" instructions near the top of your email such as:
   
   To view all images and links, please add Widgets_Inc@mail.vresp.com to your address book.
    
   Of course where you see “Widgets_Inc” simply replace it with your From Label (or else you'll really confuse your readers!). Once accepted into your recipient's address book, future emails should arrive in their inbox immediately. See below how WorkZ does it.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Be wary of punctuation in your subject line – No matter how exciting your offer or announcement may be, try to keep your punctuation in check to avoid activating sensitive spam filters. Overuse of exclamation marks asterisks and dashes may lead to your email getting blocked or dumped into the junk folder. Ouch.
   
   
3. Use web-friendly fonts and colors - The bottom line is use simple and clean HTML when designing email campaigns. Using obscure fonts or intense colors might seem like a great way to set your email apart from other messages, but spammers also use that same logic. And when you're up against spam filters your outcome won't be good.  Try sticking with standard fonts such as Times, Arial and Verdana and stay away from colors like red, magenta, yellow and green. These tend to score higher than black or blue on many spam filters.
   
   
4. Beware of image-heavy emails - Many email readers have an option to hide images from  being displayed.  So when you're creating your email marketing campaign always ask yourself "how will this look if images are turned off?"  Make sure to have enough text copy above the fold so it's clear right from the start that this is an email your recipients are expecting. In addition, and very important, if the recipient has their images turned off and your entire email is one large graphic, the first thing they’ll see is your unsubscribe text and link -- ouch again. I’ve mentioned this in my previous blog here.
   
   
5. “Click here”...in moderation - Yes, I know, we all want LOTS of clicks but I'm referring to the actual text of "click here" which is also commonly seen in spam emails.  Encourage your recipients to click by mixing "Click Here" with other terms like "Read More" or "Visit Our Site".

There you have it, five quickies to help you get into the inbox. If you have more ideas please comment on this!

The Heat is On...AOL That Is

You may have read the Breaking Down The AOL/Goodmail Stir post. Well the pot has been heated up even more this week. Just a quick post on what's happening.

Organizations from MoveOn.org to Gun Owners of America, over 50 in total, are banning together in protest of what they're calling the AOL Email Tax. The protest, organized by the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) is called DearAOL.com and has garnered over 1500 registrants in just a week. They are protesting the quarter of a penny charge that mailers will spend to get email into the inbox, bypassing AOL's filters.

What's the real issue here? Well the organizations opposed to the Goodmail/AOL program feel large businesses stand to benefit the most as they have the budgets to cover the costs thereby making it "pay for play" situation.  It is likely that AOL will refute these claims and issue some response outlining how their relationship with Goodmail will benefit companies of all sizes (and budgets).  We'll of course update you should this information surface.

What do we say? VerticalResponse remains on the AOL Standard Whitelist as usual and your email continues to be delivered.

Breaking Down the AOL/GoodMail Stir

So, you may have read in a recent press release, AOL announced that it would be phasing out its "Enhanced Whitelist" program and replacing it with a third party service called Goodmail CertifiedEmail.  Goodmail offers a program for mailers looking to get a higher delivery rate by ponying up dollars to have their emails tagged with a unique "token."  So when AOL screens incoming mail, messages containing the Goodmail token are routed directly to the recipient's inbox with all images and links enabled.  But, just a few days later, AOL issued a correction to clarify one specific point: they were *not* getting rid of their "Enhanced Whitelist" but rather they would begin supporting Goodmail's service and thus it would augment, rather than replace, any of their existing whitelist programs.

Feeling a bit confused? Well you're not alone.  The mass media pounced on the initial press release, as they normally do when any major ISP comes out with such a bold statement.  As a result many of the real facts got lost in the "hype", leaving legitimate mailers like you and Email Service Providers, like us, scratching our heads. 

"What is this Goodmail thing and how will it really impact the emails I send?" Today I want to help clarify some of the misconceptions flying around so let's dive right in.

Before going any further, it's important to explain the entire AOL "whitelist" system.  AOL currently has two whitelists in effect: the Standard Whitelist and the Enhanced Whitelist.  Qualified companies with a strong mailing history and a low percentage of spam complaints can request to have their IP addresses (i.e. the servers used to send their mail) added to the Standard Whitelist.  It has been proven that acceptance into the Standard Whitelist provides a significant increase for delivery to AOL users however, this does not guarantee automatic delivery into the recipient's inbox. 

The Enhanced Whitelist (EWL from now on) is a program that AOL uses in conjunction with the Standard Whitelist to provide additional benefits for select mailers.  Companies consistently receiving low spam complaints from AOL users (almost zero by the way) have the potential to be "automatically" added to the EWL so that images and links are enabled by default.  It is important to note that there is no application process or manual way to be added into the EWL.  Entry into this list is systematic based on AOL's internal mailing/complaint metrics and acceptance into the EWL is not permanent. 

Realistically speaking, getting on to the EWL is nearly impossible and AOL has publicly stated that even the highest quality mailers will find it difficult to gain entry into the EWL, let alone stay there for good.  Yes, it's really that hard to get in to the EWL!  For more information on AOL's whitelist programs, please click here.

So where does Goodmail fit in?  Well carefully screened mailers can reap the benefits of the EWL using dollars rather than beating lottery-like odds.  Recent reports say that pricing might be around $2.00 to $3.00 per thousand and while this may seem cheap, larger mailers can expect to see their overall campaign costs increase, in some cases significantly, based on the sheer volume of mail they are sending.  Although this may seem like a "pay to play" system, both AOL and Goodmail have repeatedly stated that only the most qualified and responsible mailers will be accepted into the program -- no real surprise there.

Rest assured, VerticalResponse is a long-time member of the AOL Standard Whitelist and this actually may be one of the reasons you've signed on with us in the first place.  That said, it's fairly safe to assume that most of our users have never achieved "EWL Status."  Don't feel bad, even the best mailers in the world get spam complaints from time to time so as long as you're following best practices you should continue to see strong delivery results into AOL. 

"So does this then mean that if you don't use GoodMail your email will not be received by AOL users?" Absolutely not. As mentioned above, AOL is still relying on both their Standard and Enhanced Whitelists so as a VerticalResponse client you'll remain in a prime position for continued stellar email delivery.

So why did the Goodmail announcement cause such a stir? Well anytime a major ISP comes out in favor of one specific third party solution, it tends to creates some ripples (or Maverick-like waves) across the industry "pond."  VerticalResponse, like most players in this space, is looking to better understand exactly how AOL plans to implement Goodmail and specifically, the types of solutions that will be available for the small and mid-size customers that we support. As far as timelines go, Goodmail does not expect to formally implement its solution until later in 2006.

At this time we are also in discussions with Goodmail regarding their partnership programs so we'll be in a position to streamline the application/certification process if necessary.  We hope that this information helped to "clear the air" in regards to the recent AOL/Goodmail press release(s) and we'll be sure to update you as things progress.

Got any comments on this? Bring them on!

Case Study: How WorkZ.com Increased Response Rates

Back in August 2004 my company VerticalResponse bought a small business content site called WorkZ. The site was made up of about 1500 articles and various categories about how to grow your business. Roughly 40,000 people had signed up to recieve the WorkZ newsletter.

What we did for WorkZ

Alf, our Creative Director redid the look of the site and I spent hours and hours weeding out old articles recategorizing the artices to enable visitors to get to the content quickly and easily. For instance instead of "Make Money" we categorized by "Marketing>Email>Copywriting".

Then we launched and sent our first email newsletter. What happened next is startling.

ALL of our AOL addresses bounced. How could this happen, i wondered? ALL email marketing campaign sent through VerticalResponse is on the AOL whitelist! So i talked to the kind folks in the AOL Postmaster group myself and told them my horrifying news.

"Oh, WorkZ was blocked years ago because of complaints and lack of a feedback loop," they uttered. "But we'll give them one more shot if you are taking over the emailing of it."

So we got WorkZ unblocked. STEP 1 in increased response.

Then we looked at our overall bounce rate, and a significant portion of the list bounced. Why? Because the list hadn't been mailed in 4 months. Ouch.

So we cleaned out a portion of bad email addresses and now mail each week, like we told members we would. STEP 2 in increased response.

Now it was time to start to grow the list and get a better click and open rate. Our open rates were pretty low because people hadn't been used to getting and reading our content. Alf's idea to Tracy, our Marketing Specialist was to test the "from label" from "Weekly WorkZ" to just "WorkZ".

Testing the "from label"  increased response by a few %. STEP 3 in increased response.

The next thing we knew we had to do was to get NEW names on our list of business owners. So Alf asked Robert, our Marketing Manager to help him acquire new members. Robert works with various companies to include us in their registration process so Robert started to send Alf hundreds of leads per week who had legitimately given us permission to email them.

We also advertised the WorkZ newsletter to our VerticalResponse customers telling them that WorkZ was the place to go for informational articles on how to grow your business. This garnered thousands more new leads.

The response went up by 20% by getting new email addresses. STEP 4 in increased response.

And finally, Alf had the idea that perhaps some people deleted our email or passed it by, so maybe we could just email those people that never responded at all, a few days later.

Mailing the same content the 2nd time around gave us 30% more of a response. STEP 5 in increased response.

So here are 5 ideas that might help you to increase your response rate and clean your lists! Oh, and check out WorkZ, it's got tons of great information.