Posts filed under 'Best Practices'
Compliance 101 – Deliverability best practices
Here at SimplyCast, deliverability is a main concern.
We have mentioned it before on this blog but we want to remind everyone again. Deliverability is way too important to overlook and our Compliance and Deliverability team wants to help you get as many emails to the inbox as you can.
Below are a few things that we do to help increase the deliverability of each mailing sent through SimplyCast:
- SimplyCast’s Deliverability Team communicates with ISPs to build strong relationships, and resolve issues quickly and efficiently when they arise.
- We abide by a strict Anti-Spam Policy.
- Our team continuously monitors our IPs reputations, contacting clients who fail to comply with our Terms and Conditions.
- SimplyCast’s Marketing Team actively updates this blog and adds FAQ’s to help clients improve sending practices and increasing deliverability rates. For example: Key words which could be interpreted as spam, tips to creating good subject lines and how to maintain good list hygiene.
- SimplyCast’s Deliverability Team also implements a three strike policy. If a client receives “three strikes” we unfortunately have to terminate them, protecting deliverability rates for all our clients.
Here are some things you can do to help:
1. To ensure good deliverability you must have double-opt in email lists.
2. Have your clients re-opt-in to your lists at least twice a year to remove unused addresses, or addresses that may have turned into spam traps.
3. Have good “list hygiene” – Low number of complaints, removing soft bounces.
4. Include an easy-to-find unsubscribe link, so you do not receive unwanted complaints.
5. Create good subject lines, do not use profanity or have content that doesn’t match the subject line.
6. Inform your recipients how often you will be sending and be consistent.
7. When creating HTML campaigns include both text and HTML. Campaigns with large amounts of HTML are likely to be observed as spam, thus not being delivered to the recipient’s inbox.
8. Ensure your “from address” is consistent and does not misrepresent you.
For more tips on deliverability please email our team at deliverability@simplycast.com.
Add comment February 12, 2010
Complying with Can-Spam – A must read!
An important reminder direct from SimplyCast’s Compliance department!
The Can-Spam Act of 2003 is a law which applies to “commercial electronic mail message(s)”. As an email marketer it is important to comply with this act to avoid penalties and fines.
How does SimplyCast ensure compliance?
1. Ensures an “opt-out” option is included and functional.
2. Ensures there is a physical address included.
3. Processes unsubscribed recipients.
4. Investigates suspicious accounts which may be sending to non opt-in lists, and immediately terminates accounts if they violate our anti-spam privacy.
How can the client ensure compliance?
1. Include a valid physical address.
2. Do not use purchased or harvested lists.
3. Keep your mailing lists clean.
4. Only send to recipients which have “opted-in”.
5. Include a good subject line. Do not mislead the recipient.
6. Have a valid “from address” – do not use donotreply@ addresses, or email addresses that misrepresent you.
By complying with the Can-Spam Act, ISPs, ESPs and recipients will be exceptionally happy. This will please you as well because there will no longer be frightening messages from recipients or ISPs blocking your mail. That all adds up to a more positive return on deliverability.
If you would like to learn more about compliance and the Can-Spam Act, feel free to email deliverability@simplycast.com.
Add comment February 2, 2010
FAQ review – Copy and pasting from Microsoft Word
At SimplyCast we have one of the best customer care teams in the industry and they do a great job of answering all your questions on a daily basis.
To help them out and allow them a chance to have lunch and sleep at night, we also have a powerful Frequently Asked Questions page (FAQ) that holds over 400 of the most asked questions from you.
From time-to-time we want to highlight a common problem users have when using SimplyCast’s email marketing service, while highlighting the strengths of the FAQ.
This week’s question is:
Can I copy and paste content from Microsoft Word into SimplyCast?
If you copy and paste content from Microsoft Word into SimplyCast, formatting may be lost because Microsoft Word uses a different format than the HTML format used in the SimplyCast message editor. The copied content may also render incorrectly when displayed in the SimplyCast message editor.
There are two ways you can approach this problem – remove the Word formatting before you paste the content into SimplyCast or convert the Word document to HTML format:
How to clean the content before you paste it into SimplyCast:
1. Copy the content from Word and paste it into Windows Notepad or any other plain text editor, which will remove the Word formatting.
2. Copy the content from your plain text editor to SimplyCast. You will need to format the text through the SimplyCast.
How to convert the document to HTML format:
In newer versions of Microsoft Word, there is more than one option for saving HTML files. To choose one of these options, start by going to the file menu within Word and choose to “”Save as Web Page”". A new window will open up. You will see a drop-down box at the bottom of the window that says “”Save as Type:”". You can choose two formats: The first option is the standard “”Web Page”" option. This should be avoided, as it adds the extra code that is not compatible with most HTML editors.
The second option is called “”Web Page, Filtered”". This will remove all the extra coding that is added by Microsoft Word to keep the web page as clean as possible.
Here are the steps once again to properly copy and paste from Microsoft Word.
1. Choose the Web Page, Filtered option to save the file in HTML format.
2. Open the HTML file using Notepad or a text editor.
3. Copy the HTML code from the editor.
4. Go the SimplyCast Message Editor and click on the HTML button in the bottom left corner of the editor in the Compose Body area.
5. Paste the html code into the html view.
6. Save the message or click on the “”normal”" button to edit it further.
For more helpful answers remember to bookmark SimplyCast’s FAQ page and if you still need to talk to a live person, our team will help you out by phone, email or live chat.
Add comment January 21, 2010
Go organic with email marketing
The trend of eating organic food and buying organic home products has grown tremendously over the past few years, being both beneficial to your health and the environment.
Did you know you can also go organic with email marketing? This will also be beneficial to you because it will increase deliverability rates, increase click through rates, lower complaint rates and much more. So how can you be organic with email marketing?
To start, create lists by using opt-in (preferably double-opt in) to make sure the recipient wishes to receive your email. Then they will likely do their part and whitelist you in their address book allowing your mail to go directly to their inbox.
Next, it is a good practice throughout the year to keep your lists clean of soft bounced emails. Check out this link for helpful tools to show you how to clean your lists.
Finally, once a year send an email to have your recipients confirm that they still want to be on your mailing list or to be able to change the frequency of emails. For example only sending one newsletter per month rather than two or three per month so that you do not end up receiving unwanted complaints.
Start 2010 by going organic with these three simple steps and experience a great year of increased deliverability!
Add comment January 13, 2010
How to choose the right Email Service Provider
Once you have decided to add email marketing to your business plan, how do you go about choosing the right email service provider (ESP)?
An ESP is a service that hosts email marketing services on their servers, which are specifically optimized for that purpose. While you control your email marketing account, create the content and send out emails using a Web browser interface, the ESP’s servers and Internet connections do all the technical work.
A good ESP will also provide detailed reporting on the results of your email campaign, which includes delivery success rates, email open-rates, and link click-through rates. You should even be able to see which of your subscribers performed these actions. Having access to detailed reporting is an invaluable feature as it helps you measure the effectiveness of your overall email marketing campaigns.
Most ESPs also make it very easy for you to comply with the CAN-SPAM Act regulations. What that means is, an ESP should automatically include an unsubscribe link in every email sent through their service as well as verify that all emails are sent from a valid, working email address. Most ESPs also require you to send only to lists of subscribers that have opted-in to receive emails from you. Remember, don’t buy or rent lists.
Here are some features to consider when choosing the right ESP for you and your business.
Private IP vs. Shared IP
If your ESP makes you share an IP address with other customers, too many spam complaints against another customer could get your shared IP address blacklisted by a major ISP. This would prevent your emails from being delivered and it can take time for your ESP to get the IP off the blacklist (if ever). SimplyCast offers the option to upgrade to a free dedicated IP address when you sign-up. To learn more about the differences between shared and dedicated IPs, click here.
Customer support and tutorials
Your ESP should offer both online and phone support and tutorials on how to use the service. SimplyCast’s customer care team is always at your service and you can reach them via online chat, email or by phone.
Detailed reporting
The ESP should offer a variety of user-friendly reports including deliverability success, open-rates, and click-through rates.
CAN SPAM compliance
As mentioned above, any ESP that you choose should require customers to comply with the CAN-SPAM Act and make it very easy to do so.
Email storage space
An ESP in most cases will limit the amount of space you can use to store your emails and any attachments. The amount of space varies throughout the many providers and some even charge extra when you go over your limit. Know what you have to work with before joining.
Robust infrastructure
Make sure your ESP has multiple, high-speed connections to the Internet through more than one source and hardware redundancy. This ensures reliability if one of the Internet connections fails or there is a hardware failure. Go ahead and ask prospective ESPs about their infrastructure before signing up. There would be nothing worse than sending email campaigns to your list and having the ESPs servers go down.
List Segmenting
Your ESP should enable you to segment lists by several different criteria. By targeting subsets of your list with content relevant to them leads to more successful email marketing campaigns.
Free trial with no long-term contract
Do not sign up for a service that requires anything beyond a month commitment. If you are unhappy with your service, you should be able to cancel and switch services as much as you want.
Pricing Plans
ESPs host your email list on their servers. Some charge a monthly fee based on the number of emails on your list, while others charge a monthly fee based on the maximum number of emails you think you will send per month. Be sure to choose a pricing structure that fits your needs.
Ease of Use
Finally and most importantly, how easy is the service to use? Do you need to contact technical support a lot to figure things out? If you don’t enjoy using an ESP, there is a good chance it will influence the result of your email campaigns in a negative way. Remember it is okay to try before you buy.
Now that you are ready to shop around for an ESP, we invite you to take a look at everything SimplyCast has to offer.
1 comment January 7, 2010
The 10 most popular SimplyCast posts of 2009
Before shifting our focus to 2010, it is time to look back at the hot topics of 2009. The SimplyCast blog grew quite a bit over the past 12 months and we hope you have learned a lot from us. Your comments and feedback has been great and we look forward to informing and entertaining you in the new year.
Here are SimplyCast’s top ten most read posts in 2009.
1. Checklist: Planning your first email marketing campaign – The team at SimplyCast wants to make life a little easier by providing a handy checklist to use when creating your first email marketing campaign.
2. Integrating Facebook into your email marketing campaigns – Here are a few ways you can start to integrate Facebook into your email marketing campaigns.
3. Is a dedicated IP address the way to go for email marketers – To help you decide whether a dedicated IP address is right for your company’s needs, here is a comparison of what a dedicated IP address offers as opposed to a shared IP address.
4. How effective is your Call-To-Action? – The Call-to-Action is arguably one of the most important elements of your email and needs to be evaluated and tweaked just like every other part of a campaign.
5. The scoop on using images in HTML emails – Here are some tips to help ensure the best results when adding images to your HTML messages.
6. Optimize email subject line for better results – When sending out email marketing campaigns, your subject line needs to stand out in the inbox.
7. Twitter and email marketing: A killer combo – Once you have created a Twitter account and a profile page, try these four easy ways to combine Twitter and your email marketing efforts.
8. 20 ways to avoid email spam filters - How do you avoid spam filters when sending out your latest email marketing campaign? Here are 20 important ways to dodge those pesky spam filters.
9. Free Email-Marketing-4-Life Program – SimplyCast, a leading on-demand email marketing solutions company, is offering users worldwide access to send 300 FREE emails for life through the new Free-Email-Marketing-4-Life program.
10. STOP! Validate your HTML code before you send – If you are still not sure why should validate your HTML code, you should also know that invalid code is rendered across a wide variety of browsers and the outcome is unpredictable.
We invite you to subscribe to our blog’s RSS feed so you never miss a post or a valuable email marketing tip.
Add comment December 31, 2009
