NetSpeak

Tracking is key! In the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” Stephen  Covey used an analogy of a woodcutter who was sawing for several days straight but was becoming less and less productive. The process of cutting dulls the blade. So the solution is to periodically sharpen the saw. That same line of reasoning can apply to both brick and mortar and online stores.

Many companies will launch different campaigns when it comes to marketing. They will try sending out emails to their current customer base, They will advertise in different places, both  online or in local areas,  some companies will cold call to generate leads, and others will launch PPC (pay per click) campaigns. All of these methods are effective “tools” for the job done. “Tools” however can lose their edge.

Tracking tools a very important to any website in any spaces. When using tracking tools also known as web analytics you can find out information such as where your customers are coming from, or how they are finding you in the first place. You can find out how long they stay on your web page and what they do when they’re there. You can also find out how many people visit your site versus how many people actually make purchases on your website.

With all this knowledge any business owner or marketing director can find out exactly where your customers are coming from and can focus on making that aspect more effective. In effect “sharpening that saw”.

Marketing also takes time, money, energy, and resources.  With these tracking tools companies also find out what just plain doesn’t work for you business and therefore know what is mot worth the extra time and effort.

I urge everyone to go online and try out Google analytics. Google Analytics is a free service with some tracking ability that all companies can benefit from. It is great for basic stats.After using a low end tool like Google analytics you should have an idea of what statistics are most important and from there you can step into a better solution.

In this industry knowledge is power and the know a company knows about their customers the better they will be able to serve them. Never forget to sharper your saw. It never hurts to have an edge.

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Previously I touched on a few common things that SPAM filters look for in all  incoming messages. Understanding how these filters work is the first step in learning how to reach your customers and avoid having your good emails deleted along with the bad. One of he big things that can get an email marked as SPAM is content filtering.

Content filtering is when emails can be named as spam based on the words that are in either the email or the subject line. Check your own personal email junk box and see how many of those emails have the word “viagra” in them. That’s content filtering at its finest.

What about spammers who try using clever ways of spelling things. Luckily these filters over time become smarter and smarter. In the past words like “mortgage” and “refinance” would automatically get you filtered. Now these filters will monitor the emails you send to your junk box and adjust themselve to filter out similar content.

How does this affect someone sending emails? Once you are aware of the pitfalls that go into email marketing you will know exactly what to do to reach your loyal customer base. With YourHost.com on your side you can have succesful email marketing campaigns.

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The more email address you have to send out to the greater your ROI right? WRONG!

A large part of what helps your company make it into a customer’s inbox is what’s known as list hygiene. An accurate list will not stay active forever. The SureSend feature in the Bluehornet email marketing system allows you scrub your list. Doing so removes any and all unknown users which will greatly improve deliverability as well as effectiveness of your sending’s.

There are two main types of unknown users. They are those that were on your list who may have changed email service providers or just cancelled their service all together and those who gave out a fake email address to begin with.

Whats the danger? Sometimes an ISP will take an old unused account and turn it into a spam trap. Consistently mailing to such an account can negatively affect your digital reputation.

At times websites will require an email address in order to use a certain feature. To protect their information people will at times put down fake email addresses. This can be avoided but using a double opt-in system but having bounced emails negatively affects your deliverability.
BlueHornet’s suresend tools can scrub your list and remove these harmful elements. Doing this not only helps keep your deliverable high but bear in mind that your list will become more effective. If you have any questions about how you can streamline you email list be sure to ask one of the knowledgeable email specialist at YourHost.com.

Happy Sending!

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The Internet is one of the greatest tools that any business could possible have. It allows a company to get their name out, automate the shopping process, keep in touch with your loyal customer base, reach new people and, keep their markets fresh.

Like any tool, if not used at the right time and the right way, its can be useless and counter productive,

Shopping Carts, Email Marketing, Web Design, and Streaming Media are just a few of the topics that I will be writing about to inform and spurr conversations.

Technology moves fast and is in a constant state of change so be cautious about jumping with both feet when learning about new Technologies. Keeping up is not an option and the process can at times seem like a full time job.

I have good news. It’s one of my passions, so let’s start learning together. We will be sharing all the knowledge we collectively gained and push it to you. Let us know if there is any topics you wish to discuss.
Eric Kirkhuff

Technical Sales & Business Development

Discussions commerce, Ecommerce, hosting, internet, Marketing, welcome