NetSpeak Technologies

Every time we turn around the cost of sending a letter has gone up. 41…42….44 cents. Bulk mailing has also increased in price.

More and more people have email on their phones and PDA’s, which helps you to keep your customer’s informed about the products and services you are offering. Email can cost as little as 1/2 cent  per email to send, which is far less than postal fees.

How do you write a good email or newsletter? There are many factors that go into continuous successful email campaigns. It all starts with the email system that you use. ISP’s are keeping close track on who is sending junk and abusing the way they get mail. You want to find a host that uses a system that has a good solid ISP reputation.

Bounced emails? Most people gauge the quality of your sending email system by how counting many get successfully opened and how many get bounced. Now days most ISP’s , Corporate systems are filtering email that have bad reputations into a type of "Black Hole" that does not show up as a bounced email. They also build their own database of who does not play well in the sandbox, and make sure they are penalized for it.

So, how do you make sure your system is working properly? Test it. There is only one true way to test it how effective and safe your system is and that is by letting your hosting company send emails from different seed email boxes. Sounds complicated? It is not but it really opens your eyes to how successful your campaigns can be.

So, Don’t Go Postal on your Customers, use a good solid email system that uses best practices and has a good reputation.

We will talk more about Reputation, and sending.

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Trivia -

Question: How long does it take to make a solid email campaign from start to finish, not including testing?

Answer: 6-12 hours!! Really? Yep it does.

Email blasts, Email, email filtering, Marketing, sending, traffic

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.

Analytics, Marketing Analytics, google, information, internet, Marketing, statistics, tool, tracking, traffic, web

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.

Email content, Email, email marketing, filtering, internet, Marketing, sending, spam

Keeping in communication with both your potential and current customers has been and still is a vital aspect of business. Sending newsletters, notifications, and general letters just to let customers know you care, should be a general practice for all companies.

However those SPAM filters that protectour inboxes from day to day can at times act like a duel edged sword, filtering out some good mail with the bad. “How do I show the ISP’s that I am not a spammer?” you may ask.  The answer is by using best practices to protect your Digital Reputation.

What is a digital reputation?

Your company is represented by what you send. Reputation has more importance on it than content filtering did in the past. Just like you own credit rating can affect your ability to make certain purchases your online reputation will follow you around for a long time and affect what you can and can’t do.

How is reputation built?

Your digital reputation is built and changed each and every time you send and are based on a number of factors such as; Your email system, the server it’s being sent from, links and text within both the email and the header, the ISP’s gateway server, bad email addresses, span complaints, spam traps, the mailing volume, unknown users, blacklists, list management practice, IP authentication and reputation, co-registration, unconfirmed opt-in, unsubscribe rate, and 3rd party redirects.

In Order to be a low risk sender with a good reputation you must continually assess the changing standards and your email marketing standards. A few ISP’s will now actually allow you to access information about how your sending look to them.

In a shared environment you share a reputation with everyone you’re sending with. Would you let someone share you social security number? Of course not! When picking a service to email from I would be wise to take in consideration the standards the company sending company upholds.

About now most people would be thinking “Wow is there anything I can’t do to positively affect my digital reputation?” It does take some time but you can build up a good reputation. All of these standards must be looked at as a protection and not a restriction. With out them each of us would receive so much email each day that you wouldn’t be able to easily find anything of interest to you.

Integrity should be a big part of every business. If that integrity carries over into collecting and sending emails, then with a little help from YourHost.com you can have high deliverability and successful email campaigns.

Happy Sending

Brandon McKinney

Email best practices, digital, Email, Marketing, reputation, sending

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