Email List Clean-Up
More than 10 percent of the average email file consists of bad email addresses, whether they be data entry errors, garbage addresses, or expired domains. Once you have spent many time and money developing an e-mail list it is important to maximize the effectiveness of the list. The problems that appear when you want to send bulk email messages are: bouncebacks, duplicates, unsubscribes. Here are some advise how to maintain your mailing list clean.
Bounce
A high bounce rate can have a negative impact on your delivery rate. If your IP address is associated with too many ?unknown user? bounces at a particular ISP, you risk being blacklisted or blocked by that ISP. So, keeping your list clean of unknown users is an important step to your e-mail delivery success.
It seem to be impossible to eliminate bounces, but it is important to reduce their number. In this context, the following activities will help you to manage and reduce bounces.
- Use a Confirm Email Addresses. Send an auto-reply confirmation when a user subscribes, registers or makes a purchase. If that message bounces, you can attempt to correct it right from the start.
- Include a Subscription/Account Management Links in Your Emails: Make easy for your clients and subscribers to update their e-mail addresses by including a link in your e-mails to your Web site account/subscription management page.
- Use an email software to identify the cause of the bounceback. That way you’ll know who to remove and who to contact for further information.
- Use a bulk email server that tries to deliver the bouncing messages more than once.
- Use the Mail or Phone to Update Information: If you have the postal addresses or phone numbers for customers/subscribers with bad email addresses, contact them via mail or telephone.
- Remove the addresses that repeatedly prove bad.
Duplicates
It is unprofessional to email your customer multiple copies of the same message. Even though many duplicate addresses are the result of double entries by your customers, these people often become so irritated by receiving multiple messages that they unsubscribe from your list altogether.So, it’s very important to remove duplicates from your email list. To delete duplicates, sort your database. If the same e-mail address appears for different names, delete them automatically using your email software functions.
Unsubscribes
If your customers subscribed themselves to your email list, they should be able to go out without big efforts. In this context you need to make it easy to unsubscribe. You can do this using an email software that, when receiving an unsubscribing option, operates it automatically. The best way to send confirmation is via email. You can include there a short inquiry form (not required) about the reasons of the unsubscription. It’s important to have unsubscribing requests before you send out your next newsletter.
Email Newsletter Software
An e-mail newsletter campaigns is an effective way for your businesses to generate increased sales and increase company loyalty. It allows to stay in touch with your current customers and bring in new clients. An e-newsletter lets you:
- advertise new products and services to existing customers
- promote brand knowledge and keep your company top-of-mind
- engage potential sales leads that sign up
- get suggestions and feedback about potential new offerings
- distribute updates on the latest events at your organization
- invite people to upcoming events.
Newsletter Software features include:
- Full graphical HTML editor for graphical emails.
- Text alternative for recipients with HTML turned off.
- Full tracking facility to record respondents that:
- Open the email
- Click through to a website
- Click on different links
- The ability to create new lists depending upon what link a recipient clicked on.
- Double opt-in to meet best practice and full legal compliance.
- Number of different templates.
- Full campaign personalization and segmentation.
- Automated subscribe and unsubscribe management.
- Full bounce-back management.
- Ability to port data from other sources to build email list.
Send HTML and Plain Text E-Mail Simultaneously
In our days, this two-faced plain text/HTML trick is the standard used in most newer e-mail programs. The e-mail message includes both plain text for old programs and HTML for the newer programs. Of course, the message is more than twice as long as a result, but both recipients can read the message.
Do not abuse your customer
Too frequent emails is not a good strategy, it’s better to limit yourself to regular high quality unique content emails (once a month). In this way, your customers will expect your email newsletter (decreasing the chances you’ll get marked as spam) and if you’re doing a good job even look foreword to it. Give them a new content every time, don’t just change some words around and expect them to be interested.
Don’t Look Like a Spammer
Be careful with what you write in the To:, From:, and Subject: fields. A big mistake is to hide or change your identity in the From: field. That could confuse your subscribers, believing that they are spammed. The Subject: field should be correctly spelled, there you have to remind the user who you are.
Be attentive with the personalization
It is possible that your customer feel more motivated receiving a personalized email. But the newsletter should not become too personal. People that haven’t heard much about you could feel you violate their intimacy. Also, you can spell the name of your client wrong, in this way they’ll feel discomforted.
Automatic Responder Email Software
What Is the Autoresponder
Autoresponder is an utility that automatically replies to e-mail messages with a pre-written response when that e-mail comes into a specific e-mail address. The Autoresponders can be used by individual persons and also by Web sites that need to respond to user e-mails automatically. An individual may use an autoresponder to inform the sender that he is out of the office and will reply in one week; an enterprise may use an autoresponder in response to a newsletter subscription request or subscription cancellation, to thank for posting a comment, voting.
How to Use Autoresponders
- Autoresponders can be used at your technical support email address to tell to your customer that you have received their message and will get back to them soon. These messages are very important because it assures your customers that their support request arrived at the destination.
- Autoresponders can be used to send forthcoming customers information like the price list of your products, your FAQ and other fixed information. People emailing that address will automatically receive that message in reply.
- Offering multi-part courses is one of several methods to attract visitors to your site. The autoresponder sends 2-3 chapters from the course or book to the customers, after that the message asks the customer to sign up for the rest of the paid course or book if they wish to continue. If the course is good, the autoresponder segments can be considered as an effective advertising of the product.
- For an online business to survive, it’s important for the owner to build an email list of the people who have readily given their names, expecting that they will be advised about things they are interested in. You can built this Opt- in-Mail list in several ways. So having an opt-in email list started you can follow up with them about your product offerings.
- Studied have shown that you need to present your product many times, before a potential customer decide to make a sale. Usually the people are not interested simply to ask for more information about your product, so you have to offer some incentives, like a free gift or service. Whatever the method, you have to get the potential customer into your autoresponder message sequence, then, in those messages, send your customer to your web site to make the sale.
The Autoresponder in a Bulk Email Marketing Campaign
An email software can use an autoresponder to allow users to get more information on a certain product, that you don’t want to detail in the newsletter body. The little secret about autoresponders is that you should let your subscribers understand that they receive an automatic generated message. A phrase like please do not reply to this message will help to do this.
The autoresponders should be friendly and personalized messages. You know, how the people like to see and hear your their names. But don’t exaggerate use the name sparingly in your emails. Make it naturally by placing it in sentences that are more personal in nature.
How To Build Your Bulk Email Lists
Many people are intrigued to obtain a ready-made list of email addresses. Why wait months to slowly build up your own list of email addresses when you can rent or buy it?
Bulk Email Lists for Rent
The email list rental is a recognized and accepted practice in email marketing. Owners of address lists will send an email to their list on your behalf. In this case, the owner send the emails, so you never will see the list. The prices are among $20 and $40 per thousand unique email receivers. You pay the list owners per every emailing campaign. The list owners will not reveal the recipients to you.
But if you want to buy this list you can to talk directly to the list manager that works for the list owner. The problem is that the manager can try to sell you a bad list. Choosing an email list manager take into consideration his reputation, experience. Your list manager should be experienced in the email space. Five years’ email experience is a minimum. Be sure that your list meets all requirements before your data card hits the market.
If you want a targeted list, you should speak with a list broker. He will intermediate the transaction. The advantages are that:
- The broker knows more the list owners.
- The broker knows more about the list owners.
- The broker defend your interests.
- The broker is paid by the list owners.
- Choosing an email list manager.
Your email list broker have to be an experienced multi-channel list broker because the most productive marketing programs combine email, direct mail and telemarketing. Only an email list broker who knows the space inside and outside by arranging rentals every day can give you the guarantee to avoid low-quality lists and compliance violations.
Opt-in email lists
You can always buy or rent email lists, but this isn’t always the best strategy. Opt-in email lists (people who ask you to send them information) are the safest, the most effective, way for marketing purposes, and you have a guaranteed target audience.
Tricks to Build an Opt-in List
- Offer something in return. People don’t like to give their e-mail addresses. But if you offer them something in return (an informative newsletter, a free e-book, a free software) they will give you their email address easier.
- Make subscription easy for them. Be sure to have a link on each and every web page on your web site, offering visitors the chance to subscribe. Place your subscription box in the left top side of a web site. This is the area that a visitor looks at first.
- Don’t ask for too much information. Simply ask for their e-mail address, and nothing more, and you’ll see more subscribers.
- Give them a gift. This free gift could be a free e-book, a special screen saver, or information that they can use.
- Assure their privacy. One way to overpass the hesitation to give out information is to place a notice near your subscription fields “private”.
- Give more choices. Offer visitors different options: some maybe want to subscribe to a newsletter, others want to read your special articles, while others only want to hear about special product updates.
Opt In Bulk Email
Sending regular newsletters to your customers via Email is an effective way of promoting your web site and marketing your company. People like to receive news updates and special offers from their favorite companies.
“Opt-In” Direct Email is the practice to send commercial email to recipients that have approved of commercial email. If you really want to try bulk email marketing but do not want to send unsolicited bulk email, consult a company that specializes in direct email.
These opt-in lists are targeted email lists which offer marketers a “politically correct” way to reach their target audience on the net. Not only will your offer be sent to a targeted list, you won’t have to worry about flames and ISP cancellation.
Although this targeted direct email marketing is more costly than unsolicited bulk email, it is considered to be more effective. It is quickly becoming one of the most powerful Internet marketing methods available.
Sending “Opt-in” Bulk Email
The term “Opt-in” means that the recipients have signed up to receive emails voluntarily, and implies that the Bulk Email is not Spam. This restriction does not allow when sending mail to Client’s mailboxes hosted on the Service Provider Network. Service Provider has measures to prevent Bulk Email from being sent out from its servers, and any attempt to send such Bulk Email will be prevented and may result in interruption and/or termination of Client’s Email Services. Attempts to circumvent this Bulk Email restriction by breaking up bulk mailings over a period of time or by sending from multiple email accounts will itself be considered a violation of this policy.
Moreover, the Service Provider Network is not set up to process bounce messages for Bulk Email. Therefore, Client may not send Bulk Email from third-party networks using a return address that is hosted on the Service Provider Network, unless Client takes extreme care to prevent more than 100 bounce emails from arriving to the Service Provider Network as the result of sending Bulk Email from a third-party network.
Principles of Opt In Bulk Email
- People in your email list have agreed in a way to receive your newsletter.
- Your subscribers must be able to unsubscribe any time they want.
- Your subscribers need to be reminded how they got on your list.
- The email addresses and personal data of your subscribers are confidential.