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most cases, during a meeting people exchange business cards. Ensure that you are receiving explicit permission from
these individuals prior to adding them to your email list.
*Tip: After a networking opportunity, get in the habit of sending a quick email message (no more than 3 days
later) to all the people you spoke with. Start by recapping your conversation then ask them for permission to be
added to your email list.
Trade Shows
Trade shows are an excellent resource for good sales leads; consumers that attend trade shows tend to be some
of the most qualified buyers. After all they’re paying an entrance fee to come to a show that is of great interest to
them. To build up your database, guest books, contests, sweepstakes, or membership or discount cards work well. If
you’re in B2B sales, consider going to a trade show for the sole purpose of gathering leads. As long as the majority
of exhibitors would be part of your target market this is a wonderful resource for top quality contact information.
*Tip: Send a follow up email to everyone from the trade show. Mention that you met them at the trade show
booth, explain how you can help them and ask permission to include them on your email list.
Seminars
Seminars are a wonderful opportunity to solidify relationships and give clients a value added service. Whether you
put on a free seminar or charge an attendance fee, seminars give companies an opportunity to interact with their
customers in an entirely different environment. It’s perfectly acceptable to hand out sign -up forms at public speaking
engagements or seminars, so seminars are a perfect opportunity to have customers “opt -in” for another value added
services, such as: newsletters, training workshops, whitepapers, product trials, etc. One effective technique is to offer
advance registration, and to ask permission to send regular emails to update customers during the promotion. By
doing so, in essence you have permission to communicate with those that may not be able to attend a particular
seminar, but were interested in receiving information.
Point -of- Sale Sign-up Forms
Retailers have an ideal opportunity to interact with customers and gather information for their database. If you’re a
retailer, consider adding a point of purchase display that offers a free subscription to your newsletter. Make sure you
include the benefits of signing up for the newsletter such as product coupons, special news updates, and valuable
related content. Also include approximately how often the person will be contacted.
Events
Parties, concerts, gallery openings, or any other occasion where people gather together provide an opportunity to
build your email address list. If you’re hosting such an event, consider having your guests fill in a registration form or
go to a check- in booth to leave their contact information. Another possibility is to have an associate with a clipboard
work the room. It’s always a good idea to offer some kind of incentive to boost sign- ups, however, make sure that it’s
an incentive that can be delivered by email.
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Customer or Prospect Calls
Whenever a customer service representative has a customer or prospect on the phone, it’s a perfect opportunity
to obtain additional contact information, as well as information about specific customer preferences. Consider
instructing all customer service representatives, call center staff, as well as your sales staff to ask customers and
prospects a few vital questions that would help out your email marketing campaign. By asking good questions you
will show your customers and prospects that you care about their opinions. Studies show that when good questions
are asked, it gives the perception that the inquirer is knowledgeable, caring and courteous.
Post Cards
Post cards can be a cost effective way to approach prospects and customers and get them to opt -in or subscribe to
your email promotions. It’s especially effective for customers that have given you their mailing information but not
their email address. Consider sending a post card with your website address and an enticing opt- in sign -up offer that
would be of value to your customers and prospects.
Catalogs
Regular catalogs that inform customers and prospects about products or services are an effective way to remain in
the forefront of your customers’ minds. The downside is that they can be costly to produce and unless your catalog
can generate sales, it can be a fairly expensive marketing tool. Consider creating an electronic catalog that can be
emailed to customers in a user friendly and widely accepted format, such as a PDF.
One -to- One Email Messages
Many non -selling employees, such as accounts payable, or repair and maintenance personnel communicate regularly with
prospects or customers directly via email on a one- on- one basis. By embedding an opt -in request and enticement within
employee email signatures, you can increase your exposure and build up your database with every message you send.
Other Places to Include Information on How to Subscribe to Your Newsletter
6. On customer satisfaction surveys
7. On product shipping forms
8. In confirmation or transaction emails
9. On credit card receipts
10. On warranty and product registration cards
11. On Invoices
12. Within articles
13. Within press releases
14. On trade show lead forms
15. On sweepstakes entry forms
16. On shopping cart order forms
17. Company publications
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Tips for Creating an Effective Sign -up Form
There are many aspects that make a sign -up form effective. Follow these guidelines when including a sign -up form
within your marketing campaign.
1. Positioning - It stands to reason that the more often your prospects are exposed to your sign -up form the greater
the chance that they will notice it and actually sign up. But as with anything else, people also have a saturation
point and if they are exposed to a message too often it can backfire as well. It’s always best to strategically place
your sign -up forms and approach a prospect and customer when they are the most receptive. We have found the
best places to put a sign- up form are either on the top right of a page, on the left hand navigation bar, or at the
bottom of the page directly after the content.
2. Enticement - An effective sign -up form is only as good as its enticement. Your “enticement line” will play a key
role in attracting attention and convincing people to trust you enough to give you their contact information.
It’s best to explain the benefits of your enticement and include a few samples, testimonials and a strong call
to action. An example “enticement line” would be: Subscribe to the Garden Tips Monthly Newsletter now to
receive tips, tricks, and techniques from experts on how to better grow and care for the most beautiful garden
in your neighborhood.”
3. Offer Opt- In Incentives - There are a variety of incentives that when used properly will significantly increase conversion
rates. Added bonuses like, whitepapers, discounts and special reports have been proven to entice prospects into leaving
contact information as well as their permission to be contacted with further information. Within your welcome
message, you automatically provide a link to an extras that you promise or include coupon codes.
4. Form Design - A well- designed registration form can substantially improve conversion rates. Far too often
complex registration forms, that are not clearly explained, make a consumer skeptical. Unless you integrated
your sales lead form with your newsletter subscription form, it’s wise to keep your registration form simple and
the information you request to a minimum. Focus on the key contact information first and throughout your
relationship request additional details. To maximize subscriptions, most site owners will just ask for first name
and email address initially. On your form, make sure you clearly outline your privacy policy, as well as what
customers will receive after they sign- up.
iContact provides a sign -up form generator that allows users to easily generate professional sign -up forms for their newsletters.
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Deliverability Best Practices
The Deliverability Challenge
As the volume of spam has grown, ISPs have been forced to take extraordinary measures to protect their network
and customers. According to Deirdre Baird, President, Pivotal Veracity, an estimated 70 to 80% of all email traffic is
spam.
5
According to AOL, spam is the number one complaint among its 27 million members. And, the ISP recently
announced that it has surpassed filtering 2.7 billion spam emails per day.
The concern to legitimate permission- based mailers, of course, is the number of false positives that ISPs block. A
false positive is a legitimate permission- based email message that is blocked for having either content or sending
attributes that cause the ISP filtering software to believe the message is spam.
Regardless of whether you are using web- based email marketing software, such as iContact, or sending emails on
your own, it is important that you understand the rules of deliverability so that you can overcome certain challenges
and maximize the chances that your email messages reach their destination. Below you’ll find some information on
improving your deliverability rates.
Getting Added to Recipients’ Address Books
One of the most important things we encourage our users to do is ask their recipients to add their sending email
address to their address books. This is very important as an increasing number of ISPs are starting to block all email
from being delivered that are not approved in advance by recipients. In order to remind your customers to take the
step of adding your From Address to their address book, we recommend that companies add a single, explanatory
sentence at the top of their emails.
Here are a couple of examples:
To ensure receipt of our emails, please add something@yourcompany.com to your Address Book. Thank you!
To ensure delivery of this newsletter, please add newsletters@yourcompany.com to your email address book.
Adding this language to the top or bottom of your message can, over time, greatly improve your deliverability rates.
5
Deirdre Baird, Pivotal Veracity “Pivotal Veracity” May 2009
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Understanding Can -Spam & Relevant Legislation
Spam is the electronic equivalent of junk mail. It’s the less targeted “unwanted” email that most consumers find
annoying. The trouble is that the term “unwanted” is fairly vague. What one individual may perceive as unwanted
and annoying, another may find valuable and beneficial. As such, it is important to clearly understand anti- spamming
legislation, blacklisting, filtering and a few other key elements that are pertinent to the handling of spam.
Before doing any email marketing, to ensure complete compliance, your business should be aware of the following
legislation “The CAN -SPAM Act of 2003”, which can be read online at:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm.
We recommend following the guidelines of CAN -SPAM, whether you are in the United States or not. There are six
basic requirements that you must diligently follow so that your emails are not considered or labeled as unsolicited
commercial email:
The Six Key Provisions of CAN-SPAM
1. The email message must not have misleading of falsified header information.
2. The message must not have a misleading subject line.
3. The message must come from a functioning return email address.
4. Senders must remove all unsubscribe requests within 10 business days.
5. Commercial email must display the physical postal address of the sender.
6. Any unsolicited emails must clearly identify that it’s an advertising message, and contain a
prominent notice that gives the recipient the opportunity to decline further emails from you.
It is important to note that iContact ensures that each message you send is completely CAN -SPAM compliant.
With the introduction of the CAN -SPAM Act and other recent legislation, maintaining opt- out lists becomes
increasingly important. All emails sent must provide a return email address or another Internet based response
mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages – and you must comply. The
law states that once an opt- out request has been received, your have ten business days to stop sending emails to
the requestor’s email address. This is where email marketing software such as iContact, that can automate this
unsubscribe process, become so vital.
One thing is for sure; the more complaints received by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) the more likely the
government or major industry groups will intervene to make it harder to send permission- based email messages.
Most ISPs make reporting spam a very simple process. AOL for example, encourages its customers to simply click a
button to report spam and all complaints are analyzed carefully.
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This means that for email marketers, it’s necessary to make sure that any customers stored within your database
can be removed quickly and properly. iContact has built in subscriber management that automatically will
process unsubscribes.
As well as knowing the key points of the CAN -SPAM Act of 2003, it’s advisable that U.S. -based organizations that
send a large amounts of emails also review other aspects of compliance including:
• The TCPA of 1991 (regarding, among other items, unsolicited facsimile traffic)
• The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998
• The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
• Child Online Protection Act
• The Michigan Children’s Protection Registry Act of 2009
• The Utah Child Protection Registry Act of 2009
Understanding Blacklists
If you’re sending out emails using your own software and receiving many spam complaints, chances are you’ll
eventually get blacklisted. A blacklist is a list of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses (the numbers that operate as an
online address for your web server) that have been reported as sending unsolicited email.
If you get blacklisted, we recommend contacting the blacklist administrator and asking what the procedure to be
removed is. In most cases, if you can provide evidence that you are only sending messages to persons who have
requested them (by, for example, providing the blacklist administrator with the IP address and timestamp when
the person opted- in), your sending IP address will likely be removed within a few days. You can check whether your
sending IP addresses are on any blacklists at http://www.openrbl.org and http://www.dnsstuff.com .
If you’re using a web- based email marketing service, it is generally the responsibility of the software provider to
build relations with the Internet Service Providers and blacklist administrators so their sending IP addresses remain
off blacklists and your messages can get through to your subscribers. The largest blacklists include Brightmail,
SpamCop, Spamhaus, SURBL, and SORBS. iContact has built strong relationships with all the major ISPs and
maintains feedback loops with AOL, United Online (Netzero, Juno, Bluelight), Microsoft, — ensuring industry
leading deliverability rates for your messages.
Words to Avoid
Large ISPs, such as AOL, MSN, and Yahoo block millions of spam messages every day based on content alone. These
content -based spam filters take a close look at words with in the subject lines or message body. Here’s a list of some
of the more commonly used words and phrases that the most common spam filters tend to dislike:
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Words to Avoid Using in Your Email Message
Free
Act Now
All New
50% Off
Call Now
Subscribe Now
Earn Money
Discount
Double Your Income
You’re A Winner!
Million Dollars
Opportunity
Compare
Removes
Collect
Amazing
Cash Bonus
Promise You Credit
Loans
As Seen On
Buy Direct
Get Paid
Order Now
Please Read
Don’t Delete
Time Limited
While Supplies Last
Why Pay More
Special Promotion
Information You Requested
Stop
No Cost
No Fees
Satisfaction Guaranteed
Serious Cash
Search Engine Listings
Join Millions
Save Up To
All Natural
You’ve Been Selected
Excessive $ or !
Simply using one of these words or phrases will likely not cause your message to be blocked. If possible, however, we
would suggest using a synonym or rewording and making your best efforts not to use more than one of these phrases
in the same email message.
*Tip: Avoid putting capital letters and punctuation symbols, such as quotations, dollar signs, or exclamation
points into your subject lines, as they tend to trigger email filters.
Reducing the Risk of False Positives
Following these emailing guidelines will reduce the chance of your message being blocked or
reported as spam:
1. Use the above listed trigger words sparingly.
2. Remove content that may be offensive to others. Content, which annoys, harasses, threatens,
defames, or abuses others in any way.
3. Never post or disclose information about individuals under the age of 13, without verifiable
parental consent.
4. Avoid linking to or publishing any information about controlled substances, pyramid schemes,
gambling, illegal drugs and drug contraband, alcohol, weapons, pirated materials, foul
language, extreme violence, pornography, illegal goods, escort services, instructions on making,
assembling, or obtaining illegal goods or weapons, information used to break copyright or
trademark violations, to destroy others’ property, or to harm any people or animals.
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Reducing Bounce Rates
Managing and reducing email bounces is a crucial component of email marketing. The more emails that get through,
the lower the email delivery costs, and the higher the conversion rate and return on investment will be. Bounces are
generally caused by one of four reasons. Common bounce reasons include:
1. The recipient inbox is full.
2. The recipient email address does not exist or is spelled incorrectly.
3. The mail server at the ISP of the end recipient is temporarily down or unreachable.
4. The mail server is blocking the message due to content- based or blacklist- based filtering.
On average, bounce rates are around 10%. For the first few sends, this ratio may be higher as the initial bounces are
processed and removed from your list. iContact includes an automated bounce management system. The system
automatically removes any email address that has bounces five times. We decided on the number five as we wanted
to minimize the chance we would remove an email address that is good but was simply full for a few weeks.
Here are some tips to help you reduce the number of bounces.
1. Includes subscription management links in your emails and encourage subscribers to update their
information if it ever changes. IContact will automatically add a “Manage Your Subscription”
link at the bottom of each email. Encouraging users to use the link within the body of your email
if their information ever changes may be helpful.
2. Use an email marketing service that will automatically remove multiple hard bounces.
3. Use the mail or phone to update the email address of anyone who is repeatedly bouncing.
4. Remove any abuse@ or postmaster@ “spam flag” addresses.
5. Consider Using An Email Change of Address (ECOA) Service such as Return Path, TowerData,
or Experian if you find that many users are changing their email address but forgetting to provide
you with their updated information.
Documents you may be interested
Documents you may be interested
