Canada’s Web Shop

This is a question whose answer changes depending on who you ask. The problem is, no one ever asks the people on the lists. How often should you send email to your list? My personal experience indicates that for my company, 3 to 4 weeks in between emails is the sweet spot. It’s just long enough to keep our list from being inundated with email from us but short enough a time period so that our mailing list doesn’t forget who we are.

In this article, the answer, according to Stefan Pollard of the ClickZ Network is “What do you have to say that your recipients will want to hear?” I would further ask “Can it wait until the next scheduled send?”

If that was a rhetorical question then I couldn’t agree more, Stefan.

In the article, Stefan also suggests that an important part of establishing a good relationship with your email subscribers is to be up front about:

1. What the subscriber will receive

2. How often to expect it

He cautions that you should never stray too far from the subject and frequency you indicated when they signed up as recipients can be quick to mark you as spam if you do. Move away from the using checkboxes with “Sign Up For Our Newsletter” and “Please send me periodic information about XYZ Corp Specials”

Honestly, when was the last time you checked boxes that looked like that?

Anyway, I won’t spoil the rest of the article for you. Check it out here.

Until next time…

The Filter You Probably Didn’t Know You Tripped

Spam Filters are becoming increasingly sophisticated these days and I thought I might write a post about a “silent” spam filter you may or may not know about. It probably has an official name but for the sake of this post, I’ll call it the “Frequency Filter” and no matter how many times you test your email in a spam checker, this is one filter you won’t know you trip until it’s probably too late.

Near as I can figure, the way it works is that if you send similar copies of a commercial email from the same email address to a recipient within a specified threshold time period (I’m sure it differs from client to client, provider to provider), the email(s) after your first email could get flagged as spam or junk.

This was likely a response to emails from spammers that would use auto-responders to send dozens of automated email messages to recipients in rapid succession each one reminding the recipient of a previous email with a limited time offer. The first one might pass if it looks enough like a legitimate email but subsequent ones get tossed in the Junk Mail Folder no matter how legitimate they appear. That’s bad news for you if you have a sizeable list you’ve worked hard to build.

If you take a moment to think about it, in a list of say 1000 people, to whom you sent 2 emails a week and each time 100 people’s clients or providers on your list flag your email as spam, it would only take 5 weeks before your list is completely useless or “Burned Out”

The take-away here is that no matter how valuable or spectacular you think your offer may be, sending it multiple times to a single address could eventually reduce the effectiveness of your efforts to zero. Keep that in mind the next time you decide “remind” your recipients of an email you sent yesterday. I came across this one by accident because I was sending test copies of an email to a client for approval so no harm was done. You, on the other hand may not be so fortunate so I hope you take my advice and watch how often you send. To stay on the safe side I would recommend at the absolute MOST sending 1 email per month.

If you want some more information about email marketing for your business, have a look at our Email Marketing page here. Information on How Email Laws Affect Business.

Happy Emailing!

One the biggest flags for me when it comes to email spam is how an email addresses me in the first paragraph of the message. I got an email a few days ago from a company I know is run by a single person. The very first line I saw started with “We are pleased to announce…”

…

We?

I’m pretty sure this individual doesn’t suffer from Multiple Personality Disorder so it has to be something else. Some people believe that in order to be big you have to sound big. They’re convinced that if they speak as if their company is a large organization people will be more likely to listen. While this may work well for a well-branded company such as McDonald’s or WalMart who people instantly recognize, this may end up backfiring on you. It’s likely, if you’re reading this, your company isn’t big enough to speak to your customers from such a high podium.

When I consult with a client regarding their email newsletters or any email message sent to their customers, I absolutely insist that they address the recipient by name if possible. Just seeing one’s name in an email may give a recipient just enough incentive to read a paragraph or two more where you can start the process of getting the recipient to engage.

Which would you rather see in an email?

“XYZ Enterprises is pleased to announce that clients can now pay their invoices online using our sophisticated and secure online bill-payment system”

or…

“Hi Michael. I’m Ted from the IT department of XYZ Enterprises. Since you’re one of our valued customers, I wanted to let you know that we’ve just launched this new, convenient way to pay your invoices online…”

Try to make your messages a little more personal and less corporate. Why do you suppose blogs are so popular these days?  My bit of advice for today. I hope you take it into consideration.

Hi again!  It’s been a while since I’ve posted so I figured it was about time.  Things have been exceptionally busy around here taking on several new clients and doing preliminary work on projects.  One of the clients had expressed a desire to start collecting emails at their cash counters and this article which I wrote a little while ago came in very handy explaining the things that everyone should know when collecting emails.  The full article is on our company website.  Go check it out! 

Michael

How many times have you been to a store and been asked for your personal information and/or your email address? Have you ever filled out a small ballot form for a draw and noticed a field at the very bottom for email? Do you notice that some registration and application forms for things like credit cards and loyalty programs now have a space where you can write your email address?

[ Full Article ]