Archive for October, 2007
Comment Spotlight: Postal Addresses In Your Emails
Justin Premick - October 10th, 2007From time to time comments on the blog are worth discussing with everyone in a new post.
During a recent critique of a post-purchase marketing email, Phyllis asked:
As a home-based business, I am hesitant to automatically include my physical address in all emails. I have had several experiences with fraudulent emails from people claiming to want to buy one or more of my paintings[…] I would not have been happy to have these people automatically know my address because it was in my signature block.
Do you feel that even with a home-based business, there should always be an address included in the signature block and that I’m jeopardizing my business otherwise?
She’s certainly not alone in asking this. Many other small business owners have voiced the same concern to me over the years. So let’s talk about it…
Posted in : Articles & Tips | 28 Comments »How Blogging Benefits Email Campaigns
Marc Kline - October 9th, 2007Most of the important questions about running an email marketing campaign are not technical by nature. The occasional question like “How do I know what a good open rate is?” is often complemented by the more fundamental ones like:
- How do I build a list of subscribers?
- Where do I find content for my messages?
If we don’t have sufficient answers to these two particular questions, our campaigns will never be successful.
And so I’d like to point out something you may be doing well, poorly, or not at all that can potentially be of tremendous benefit to your email marketing.
Posted in : Articles & Tips | 20 Comments »Email Authentication Bites Into Phishing Problem
Justin Premick - October 5th, 2007“Awesome!”
Not especially eloquent, but the first word that leapt from my mouth when I read about Yahoo! blocking PayPal & eBay phishers using DomainKeys.
Just the other day we blogged about phishing and a great game from CMU that teaches people how to recognize phishing sites.
Now. according to Yahoo’s Yodel Anecdotal blog, whenever you get an email that looks like it’s coming from eBay or PayPal:
Posted in : Email Deliverability | 5 Comments »Six Ways To Screw Up A Customer Email
Justin Premick - October 4th, 2007
Working with email as much as I do, I’m encouraged to see so many people doing the right things:
- Getting explicit permission
- Providing valuable, relevant communications
- Building trust; treating subscribers like people (and not like numbers)
- (the list goes on)
So when I get a marketing email from someone who isn’t doing these things, someone who’s doing all sorts of harm to their brand by breaking some of the “rules” (intentionally or not) of good email marketing, it hurts. As an email marketer, I find messages like this frustrating and offensive.
But rather than fume or shake my head about it, I figured it’d be helpful to show what they’ve done wrong, and how you can do better.
Posted in : Email Marketing | 66 Comments »Fun And Easy Way To Learn About Phishing
Justin Premick - October 3rd, 2007
Heard the term “phishing” but unsure what it means or how to tell if someone is doing it?
Or maybe you’re up to speed on it, but you have family members and friends who might not recognize a phishing site?
Either way, take a look at Carnegie Mellon’s Anti-Phishing Phil, a game that teaches people to identify (and avoid being tricked by) phishing websites.
More on Phishing… And What It Means To Email Marketers
Learn more about how phishing can affect your email deliverability at our Knowledge Base.
Posted in : Email Deliverability | 1 Comment »Power User Tips: New Search Email Feature
Marc Kline - October 2nd, 2007Even though we put an unsubscribe link at the bottom of every message we send for customers, inevitably they get messages from subscribers asking to be removed from a campaign.
Up until this point, it has been easy enough to do in an account. But easy enough is not the same as optimal, and as the size of your campaign grows, so too does the number of times you get these requests.
Enter the new Email Subscribers Search feature.
Posted in : New Features | 2 Comments »What Do You Want To Know?
Justin Premick - October 1st, 2007In the past year and change since we started this blog, we’ve written a lot about getting more subscribers, improving your email deliverability and a lot of other email marketing-related topics.
While we’ll always have plenty to say, we want to make sure this blog is both useful and interesting for you.
So… what would help you the most on this blog? Is there a topic we’ve covered that you want to learn more about? Do you have an idea for something we haven’t discussed yet?
Send your suggestions to blogideas@aweber.com!
Posted in : New Features | 5 Comments »Next Entries »
