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(from iMedia Connections)

by G. Simms Jenkins

Ignorant and offensive tactics continue to persist in the email marketing space. Learn what they are and why you should avoid them.

Recently, I have noticed a rising trend that might be due to this rough economy or perhaps just sheer laziness. Quite a few emails are finding their way into my inbox without any direct permission being granted to the sender. I am not talking about the usual spam that inevitably clutters our lives. I am talking big brands, real marketing messages and conflicted and confused senders.

Below I provide several examples of emails my team and I have received without having provided any specific opt-in to the senders or their companies, affiliates, friends or family.

First off, a major seller of concerts tickets targeted a colleague of mine with its ongoing promotional emails without his opt-in. The company disclosed this move in small fine print at the bottom of the email, which noted that you had to opt out to stop receiving the messages.

Would it hurt so much to ask for an opt-in rather than assuming this is OK?

(see the rest of the article on iMedia Connections)

G. Simms Jenkins is founder and CEO of BrightWave Marketing, an Atlanta-based email marketing and customer relationship services firm. He is the author of “The Truth About Email Marketing,” published in August 2008

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I am a big fan of Seth Godin. I have read his book Permission Marketing many times over and I see him as one of the best Email Marketing Gurus on and off the Internet.

Before you hit send on that next email, perhaps you should run down this list, just to be sure:

1. Is it going to just one person? (If yes, jump to #10)
2. Since it’s going to a group, have I thought about who is on my list?
3. Are they blind copied?
4. Did every person on the list really and truly opt in? Not like sort of, but really ask for it?
5. So that means that if I didn’t send it to them, they’d complain about not getting it?
6. See #5. If they wouldn’t complain, take them off!
7. That means, for example, that sending bulk email to a list of bloggers just cause they have blogs is not okay.
8. Aside: the definition of permission marketing: Anticipated, personal and relevant messages delivered to people who actually want to get them. Nowhere does it say anything about you and your needs as a sender. Probably none of my business, but I’m just letting you know how I feel. (And how your prospects feel).
9. Is the email from a real person? If it is, will hitting reply get a note back to that person? (if not, change it please).
10. Have I corresponded with this person before?

To See The Full List Please Visit Seth Godin’s Blog

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Janine Popick
CEO and co-founder of VerticalResponse

eMarketer published this recent survey that Ipsos conducted for Habeas about email usage among adults. Two-thirds of adult respondents said they preferred email for communicating with businesses. Just as many said they expected to still prefer email five years from now, however, they’d like their messages more targeted to them.

Check out the VerticalResponse List Segmentation tool to help you target your messaging better, it’s free in your VR account. Get the whole study.

To see the full report please go to VerticalResponse

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Return Path’s Email Expert Roundtables where you can gather fresh new ideas and learn how some of the smartest and most adventurous email marketers tackle today’s biggest email challenges.

Time: 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM with complimentary breakfast & lunch!

Tuesday, May 27th
Grand Hyatt Hotel - Denver, CO

Thursday, May 29th
W Dallas – Victory – Dallas, TX

Partial AGENDA:

Part I: Hear from Our Experts

Why Do Bad Things Happen to My Email?
Legitimate, permissioned email still often ends up blocked from subscribers’ inboxes. How do ISPs assess email and how can you improve your reputation to get to the inbox every time?

Is My Email Inbox-Worthy?
The subscriber experience, particularly in the first 30 days, is crucial to both your sender reputation and to your response rates. So why are so many marketers getting it wrong? Get a peek at new data that suggests marketers still aren’t leveraging the email channel.

Could I Be Sending More Email?
Reputation? Check! Subscriber experience? Check! Now what? Kick your program up a notch and grow you list with new customers with a smart acquisition strategy.

Click Here to Register

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QuickBooks 2008 users now able to easily move customer contact information to Constant Contact through new integrated tool

As a part of the new relationship with Intuit, Constant Contact has also launched a new integration tool, the Constant Contact InfoTransfer Tool, that enables QuickBooks® Pro and Premier Edition 2008 users with Windows XP to transfer their existing customer contact list directly into Constant Contact from QuickBooks. This ability to instantly build a target list saves small businesses time when creating their permission-based contact lists to send email marketing communications and build targeted campaigns.

This new QuickBooks tool works similarly to the Microsoft Outlook tool QuickImport. Both are software plugins that you have to download from the Constant Contact website and install on your computer. Once they are installed you would have to go through a wizard that would walk you through the steps needed to transfer your contact information to Constant Contact.

If you are a heavy user of both QuickBooks and Microsoft Outlook I would suggest downloading and installing both tools to assist you in keeping your email marketing campaigns running more efficiently.

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I have been sending out Broadcast Emails for about 10 years now. Ever since I understood how to use the BCC in my old copy of Outlook Express. I was first introduced to sending email via a third party service like Constant Contact almost 7 years ago. We now have so many choices when it comes to sending Broadcast email. Email marketing has become more of a science then a service.

Now enter the age of RSS or really simple syndication. In a recent blog post Eric Frenchman of the Blog Pardon My French wrote on the title “RSS Feed v.s. Email - Just a Lightweight Bout Part 1“. In his post he mentioned

“Simple, it is another form of communication that makes it very easy to push out information to clients. Plus, it is very simple to create and simple for someone to opt-in to receive it. Now, the feeds themselves are not personalized so you theoretically don’t have the 1:1 communication power of email, but there is nothing simpler than signing up for a feed and then accessing the feed. ”

“I have a lot of feeds set up. They have not decreased my email usage, but what they have done is decreased my site visits. For example, I set one up for a few ebay products that I like to watch, so instead of going to ebay and searching for them, I just access the feeds. RSS is also great for getting breaking news and staying on top of your favorite sites in a matter a minutes. Again, in this case think of them as a news clipping service.”

I would have to agree with Eric. I also have a RSS reader and have an RSS Feed for all my Blogs but I still send out just as much email if not more. You really can’t replace the tracking of Open Rates and Click throughs on your links withing your html broadcast emails.

If you want the best of both worlds I would suggest an email marketing service like iContact.com. You can send out broadcast emails and send those same emails to a RSS feed all at one time. Whether you want to send an email newsletter, survey, or autoresponder or update a blog or RSS feed, iContact gives you the power to manage all your multi-channel emarketing communications in one simple, central, and on-demand web-based tool that allows you to take advantage of every possible opportunity to get your message through to your desired audience.

Feedblitz allows you to do some of the same thing but it is extremely limited in the designing of your broadcast html email. It is very good though of taking your blog entries and sending them to your email list and allow you to edit the time of delivery.

Email marketing is not dead or dying. It is evolving and continuing to meet the needs of those of us who need to communicate with our customers and prospects.

All the best

JB

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