Determining when it's best to cut losses on certain segments of an email list can be a complicated process. Ben Isaacson takes readers through the process, dealing with metrics like open rates and creating thresholds below which list members should be dropped or deliberately stirred up with a different type of email content.

When is an active e-mail address no longer worth the time and resources it takes to send messages to it? I have seven active e-mail addresses (not including my SMS account). Some I've had since 1996 and they receive more than 50 messages (mostly spam) per day. It's a daunting task to keep up with (without getting into why I have so many accounts). For a marketer, it's a gamble whether or not they'll connect with me when I check my accounts.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 8:45 AM  |  Permalink

America Online is extending the availability of its personalized antispam software to people who use older versions of its online services.

The software for blocking unwanted e-mail previously had been accessible only to AOL customers who use the latest versions of the company's online services, AOL 9.0 Optimized and AOL for Broadband. The personalized antispam controls are now available to users of AOL 8.0 Plus and will be extended to versions 8.0, 7.0 and 6.0 and to AOL for Mac OS X later this year, the company announced Tuesday. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 8:44 AM  |  Permalink

Three Web sites that provide spam-blocking lists have been forced offline as a result of crippling Internet attacks in what experts say is an escalation in the war between spammers and opponents of unsolicited e-mails.

Antispam experts said Thursday that they believe spammers are behind the attacks, although they have no way of proving it. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 4:16 PM  |  Permalink

Consumers could be key to stopping unwanted e-mail

With an arsenal of new laws, campaigns and technologies failing to stop spammers from sending a seemingly endless flow of unsolicited commercial e-mail, the Internet industry is finally turning to a little-acknowledged culprit to stem the tide: consumers.

"Stop responding to spam" is the message behind a new consumer awareness campaign being launched today by Australia's Internet Industry Association (IIA). The campaign is being supported by leading Internet players, including Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc., America Online Inc. and a number of international consumer and privacy organizations. Read rticle >> Posted by: DTB at 4:14 PM  |  Permalink

Today we depart a bit from the typical Ezine-Tip format to pass along some news stories you might have missed in recent days.

To help you find what you want to read faster, here's a quick table of contents:

Outlook Woes: Microsoft Outlook's spam rules list has some interesting triggers in it. Call up the list to see if you're committing any potential violations.


Colorado email consulting company Quris has published an eye-opening survey on subscriber behavior and preferences.


MarketingProfs.com, another reliable source, is surveying email marketers on their beliefs and practices. (Check it out even if you don't think you're a typical e-marketer.) Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 4:12 PM  |  Permalink

The Junk and Adult Content filters work by looking for key words. This file is a description of exactly which words the filter looks for and where the filter looks for them. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 4:09 PM  |  Permalink

The new Junk E-mail Filter replaces the rules used in previous versions of Microsoft Outlook to filter e-mail messages. The Junk E-mail Filter feature is on by default, and the protection level is set to Low, which is designed to catch the most obvious junk e-mail messages. Any message that is caught by the Junk E-mail Filter is moved to a special Junk E-mail folder, where you can retrieve or review it at a later time. You can make the filter more aggressive, which may mistakenly catch legitimate messages, or you can even set Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 to permanently delete junk e-mail messages. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 4:08 PM  |  Permalink

Advertising.com, Inc. released its ACE Direct automated online advertising platform. The ACE Direct system is a self-serve platform enabling advertisers to create web and email marketing campaigns for distribution across a network of over 1,900 websites and 500 email publishers. New clients for the ACE Direct system include JetBlue Airways and OfficeMax. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 3:58 PM  |  Permalink

On the heels of Gov. Gray Davis and the California spam law, the Massachusetts Senate yesterday unanimously approved legislation that would fine companies up to $500 for every unsolicited message they send.

The bill, which state Sen. David Magnani, D-Framingham, helped create, would require marketers to include the letters "ADV" in the heading of e-mail advertisements or the letters "ADLT" for sexually explicit, adult-oriented messages. Magnani said Internet service providers could use the headings in subject lines to filter out unwanted spam. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 3:57 PM  |  Permalink

Recent events in the marketing world are dizzying. Between Do-Not-Call happenings, signing of California spam laws, and the growth of the shopping/search nexus, it's difficult to keep track of the basics, much less determine the implications. There is a theme unifying many of the latest developments -- a theme marketers ought to give some good, hard thought to. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 3:54 PM  |  Permalink

Because several states - like Delaware - have already passed laws banning unsolicited email, to no real effect, many netizens have written off state legislation as a means of squelching spam. But Delaware's attorney general office never attempted to enforce its paper law. A California measure, signed yesterday by Governor Gray Davis, is different both in that the administration intends to prosecute the matter and that the law allows for civil suits to blossom directly from spam victims to spammers.

Californians are the senders or receivers of about 20 percent of U.S. emails, so it would be almost impossible for spammers to cleanse their lists of state residents, effectively making this an national policy. But first, it must pass muster in federal court, where the pesky Commerce Clause might force the court to rule the law an inappropriate interference with interstate commerce.

This impending legal battle will cast the characters of the issue in a stark light, and mainstream marketers may find themselves painted with the broad brush of spammers if they become prominent spokespeople against the measure.

Posted by: DTB at 3:57 PM  |  Permalink

Absolutely worth reading if you want more offline retail sales (especially with holiday shopping coming up.) Includes data and details on a new feature on REI's site that's increased brick-and-mortar shopping by 15-30%.

Plus, if you only measure search marketing effectiveness by direct sales from clicks, read on:
Read Article >>
[Open Access until 10/03] Posted by: DTB at 3:55 PM  |  Permalink

AOL's version 9.0 launched recently, and our estimates are that 22 million email accounts at minimum will be using 9.0 by the end of the year. Unfortunately this is *not* good news for permission emailers. Our solutions article explains:

New shared filters
New personal filters
What you need to know about "buddy lists"
Disabled HTML and hotlinks

Open Access till 10/03
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 3:54 PM  |  Permalink

According to a recent study authored by email solution provider Quris, consumers are approaching a zero sum game when committing to maintaining email relationships with companies. These findings are the first part of a series of white papers from The View from the Inbox, based upon survey responses from 1,684 email users in the United States. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 1:33 PM  |  Permalink

After school drop-off on a recent morning, Karen was walking with one of her mom friends, Jennifer Praeger, in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. She was talking about our back-to-school series on e-mail to the educational market.

Jennifer chimed in with a case study of her own -- about how Metropolitan College of New York (MCNY), where she's the Web editor, uses a unique combination of subway/bus ads and e-mail to attract attention and create a dialog with prospective students.

While not a B2B story, this one was too good to pass up. We think there's a lot B2B marketers can learn about how to make print and subway ads truly interactive from this case study. So, here goes. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 1:33 PM  |  Permalink

California is trying a deceptively simple approach to the problem of junk e-mail: It is about to ban spam.

Gov. Gray Davis of California signed a bill Tuesday that outlaws sending most commercial e-mail to or from the state that the recipient did not explicitly request. That is a far more wide-reaching law than any of the 35 other state laws meant to regulate spam or any of the proposed bills in Congress.

"We are saying that unsolicited e-mail cannot be sent and there are no loopholes," said Kevin Murray, the Democratic state senator from Los Angeles who sponsored the bill.

The law would fine spammers $1,000 for each unsolicited message sent up to $1 million for each campaign. The law will take effect Jan. 1, 2004. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 1:32 PM  |  Permalink

California Gov. Gray Davis today signed the state’s tough anti-spam bill, a measure outlawing commercial e-mail unless the advertiser has direct consent or a pre-existing business relationship with the recipient.
Importantly for direct marketers, SB 186 takes aim at advertisers whose wares are pitched in unsolicited e-mail, rather than just senders of unsolicited e-mail.

“Advertisers are well aware of the disruption, waste and cost of these e-mails and should be held as accountable as those sending the e-mails. Companies will no longer ignore consumers’ unsubscribe requests without severe penalty,” the bill’s author, Sen. Kevin Murray, D-Los Angeles, said in a statement. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 1:30 PM  |  Permalink

Ever wondered if all of those emails "friends" and "family" send to you for fear of bad luck or not helping some poor kid in England are true. Well this is a good look at the whole scenario. Watch the Flash Movie >> Posted by: DTB at 1:06 PM  |  Permalink

What's the single most important asset in a successful e-mail advertising arsenal? For a moment, forget money, bandwidth and conversion percentages. Concentrate on selecting and linking powerful words together to change emotions and create strong reactions -- words that impel the recipient to respond and to buy.

Powerful words create emotions: humor, anger, sympathy, trust, and many others. Used wisely, they can actually make people to throw money at you. Notice I said "throw money at you," not "buy from you." That's a hint of things to come!
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 8:58 AM  |  Permalink

Every piece of written communication has a "sound" or tone. Most direct mail letters are written with a "hard-sell" style -- pound away at the offer, the benefits, the call-to-action. And in direct mail, that style works.

Not so in email marketing. People feel differently about their email boxes than their post office boxes. The email inbox is much, much more a personal space. So the approach in your email marketing communications has to be more personal, friendly, low-key. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 2:27 PM  |  Permalink

I get many inquiries from business people who are looking for email lists to rent. Frankly, renting email lists is not always the best way to use email for marketing. Here's what really works ....

The most common question I get as an email marketing consultant is along the lines of, "Can you get me a list of email addresses of real estate agencies in the Cleveland area?"

In almost every case, this is the wrong question to ask. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 2:26 PM  |  Permalink

Watch out for these common misconceptions that can torpedo your email effort ....

As primary contact person for the EmailResults.com Marketers' Market (http://market.emailresults.com), I come in contact with dozens of business people every month who are trying to use email as a marketing tool. In many cases, these marketers are preventing themselves from being successful by harboring unrealistic expectations.

Granted this is not necessarily their fault. For one thing, suppliers within the email marketing industry are sometimes guilty of hyperbole creating the impression that this marketing medium is magic. Here are some common misconceptions and some ways people set themselves up for disappointment in the realm of email: Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 2:25 PM  |  Permalink

Conventional wisdom holds the Internet is an ideal medium for selling small ticket items. I've covered many case studies that demonstrate this. But, as the theory goes, it isn't necessarily the best place to sell high-priced goods. E-mail marketing convinces consumers to make impulse buys. These tend to be books, software, flowers, etc.

Today's case study shows the conventional wisdom is all wet. The featured company successfully employed e-mail marketing to sell swimming pools. The company's online efforts, a mix of search engine advertising, an e-commerce Web site and e-mail marketing campaigns, were so successful the company is now dropping most of its print campaigns. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 5:00 PM  |  Permalink

[Friday, September 19, 2003]
Short Copy: Understanding Its Purpose Can Increase Sales

by Karon Thackston

I believe it was Mark Twain that once said, "If I would have had time, I would have written a shorter letter." His point being... it takes much more thought and time to write a short, concise piece than a long one. It's true, too!

Think about it. How hard is it to get your point across in a very limited amount of time or space? Ever tried to write copy for a postcard mailing? How about a 30-second radio commercial? How do you tell customers everything you want them to know in just a few words? Truth is... you don't.

Short copy has some special considerations. The first (and most important) is that it isn't meant to make the sale. Then why do you write it? *To spark interest!* Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 4:56 PM  |  Permalink

Opt-in News today released their latest email marketing research. The 2003 research brief, titled " Email Acquisition", provides the latest statistical data regarding industry co-registration practices. The 2003 data reflects a decrease in rates for advertisers seeking to gain opt-out registrations for their marketing efforts. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 4:54 PM  |  Permalink

As California seeks a new governor the states permission advocates are hard at work fighting spam. Last week Gov. Davis was presented with an anti-spam bill some consider to be the toughest in the nation. The bill bans unsolicited commercial e-mail unless the sender has a pre-existing business relationship with the recipient and gives recipients the right to sue.

In addition to the spammers, the bill calls for ramifications against advertisers for whom spam is broadcast.

"I suspect this will cause Congress to reconsider the watered-down anti-spam legislation that they are currently considering," said David Kramer, a partner with high-tech law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Palo Alto, CA. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 4:53 PM  |  Permalink

New antispam legislation introduced into Australia's House of Representatives carries tough financial penalties for sending spam--and one lawmaker has called on the United States to follow suit.

The spam bill would apply to spam that originates in Australia and contains a flexible sanctions regime that includes warnings, infringement notices and court-awarded penalties. Senator Richard Alston, Australia's minister for communications, information technology and the arts, said the legislation is part of a "multilayered" approach and is meant to complement the use of e-mail filtering software.

The bill would allow for fines of up to $733,000 ($1.1 million Australian dollars) per day for sending spam. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 8:37 AM  |  Permalink

The British government introduced legislation on Thursday that aims to protect Internet and mobile phone users from unsolicited commercial e-mail.

The new law, which is Britain's implementation of the EU Privacy and Electronics Communication Directive, comes into force on Dec. 11. The law makes it an offense for a U.K. company to send junk e-mail or text messages, unless the recipient is an existing customer or has given their permission to receive such material. Companies that flout the law could face a fine of roughly $8,136 (5,000 British pounds) for each breach.

However, the measure only covers personal e-mail. It will still be legal for a company to send unsolicited commercial messages to corporate e-mail addresses. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 8:36 AM  |  Permalink

Network operators, anti-spam campaigners, security experts and engineers have hit out at VeriSign over the changes it made to the top level domain system.

On Monday, VeriSign began to redirect domain lookups for misspelled or nonexistent names to its own site, a process that has confused Internet e-mail utilities and drawn angry denunciations of the company's business practices from frustrated network administrators. The Mountain View, California-based company enjoys a government-granted monopoly as the master database administrator for .com and .net. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 10:37 AM  |  Permalink

Learn how to improve your newsletter by seeing what other readers do with theirs. In coming weeks, I'll present a brief analysis of newsletters you submit, using the evaluation criteria I outlined last time. I promise to be kind as I share your newsletters with the world, and to provide concrete advice you and other readers can immediately integrate into future editions.

First up is a B2C newsletter from Ohio's Chapel Hill Mall. This newsletter receives 19.5 stars on rating of 20. Marti, the creative director, and her team at MC2 Mall Communications who produce the newsletter, have done a great job. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 10:34 AM  |  Permalink

Like many e-mail users, Greg Netzer realized this spring that he'd received way more unwanted commercial solicitations than he had in the preceding months.

"There was an obscene amount; I'd say it started in late March," said Netzer, communications director of the Oregon Entrepreneurs Forum. "And every day, there was more."

Netzer contacted EasyStreet Online Services, the forum's Internet service provider, and began beta-testing the company's new antispam systems. To his relief, the systems excelled. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 4:23 PM  |  Permalink

You sent many responses to my column on the definitions of confirmed and double opt-in. Many readers seem to view this as a black-and-white issue: E-mailers are either closed loop, double opt-in, or spammers.

In truth, every e-mailer is different. Each has a unique set of circumstances surrounding the way she acquires e-mail addresses. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 4:22 PM  |  Permalink

Hoping to wipe out the spam epidemic, ISPs, anti-spammers, and e-mail marketers are scheduled to descend on Silicon Valley next week as part of the Email Deliverability Summit II.

Sponsored by the Institute for Spam and Internet Public Policy (ISIPP), spam-fighting software company Habeas and direct marketing agency Rapp Digital Innovyx, the idea behind the summit is to bring together two (usually opposing) sides of the spam debate.

Similar to the first summit held back in July, the groups hope to work out some common standards for how to deal with everyday issues, such as establishing a Web site with the proper contacts at an ISP in case an e-mail marketer has a campaign blocked. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 4:21 PM  |  Permalink

After speaking to most of the so called "industry professionals", I feel as if they are going to start the next sentence with "Can I tend to the rabbits George?" No Lenny...and you can't sell me on renting your super targeted, completely opt-in, ultimate response-generating list either. How is it that in such a short time the email industry has been flooded with idiots?

Recently the Association of National Advertisers informed us that advertisers, although increasing their spending to online channels, are not leveraging email marketing. According to the ANA U.S. businesses will continue to abstain from opt-in email until Spam is controlled. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 5:17 PM  |  Permalink

Some of us still hold on to the old email method of text copy. I prefer to call those of us “texty”, which I consider a good thing. The dilemma faced with publishing in text is if the message is not read immediately it may appear to be similar to millions of text-based messages including spam.

Can this be resolved? By dressing up your text ad copy, publication or other content, a publisher can separate themselves from the all too familiar text messages distributed each day. Of course this entails one to leverage their creative side or reaching out to others for assistance. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 5:16 PM  |  Permalink

With business-to-business emailings, marketers need to be aware of the subtle differences from consumer campaigns, says Charlotte Goddard.

Email marketing is just as effective in targeting a business market as a consumer one, but there are some crucial differences. To start with, b2b marketers require a much greater degree of sophistication from their email lists and as a minimum they'll want to know the names, job titles and company names of their targets, as well as their email address. However, while a lot of companies offer direct-mail lists for b2b, email lists are developing more slowly. "List owners are reluctant to market their data due to fear of loss of control," says Richard Gibson, head of list development at Mardev, a division of Reed Business Information. "People want to try b2b email, but the options are limited due to lack of data." Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 5:10 PM  |  Permalink

Marketing corporate training sessions used to be a paper-intensive business with long promotion cycles -- which involved creating course catalogs, brochures, and direct mail. E-mail accelerates all that, as you'll see in this third column of our back-to-school series.

Today's case study takes a look at Productivity Point International, one of the largest IT training companies in North America. The company provides IT training in its own classrooms, at client sites, and through distance learning.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 4:34 PM  |  Permalink

If you're like me, every morning you arrive at work and find yourself wading through dozens, even hundreds, of e-mail messages. You must determine which to read and which to delete. Until someone invents software that does this automatically, I have an inbox routine. Going through it the other day got me thinking about e-mail arrival time and its impact on how recipients responds to e-mail marketing.

I did a quick analysis on one day's worth of nonpersonal e-mail (senders were not people I know): spam, newsletters, legitimate opt-in offers, alerts, and so forth.
Here's what I found: Posted by: DTB at 4:33 PM  |  Permalink

I recently set out to answer the question: What is the current state of e-mail? We've all been bombarded with an endless stream of articles bemoaning the effects of spam and how it's going to kill the e-mail golden goose. I've even written numerous columns talking about this very issue and have suggested ways to deal with it. So you can appreciate my surprise when I came across three recent statistics.

First, in a July 2003 Harris Poll survey, people were asked how many e-mails they receive each day.
The results: Posted by: DTB at 4:31 PM  |  Permalink

We don't want to see one more media mention or discussion group
query about the so-called "death of email advertising." Because,
guess what?

According to 2,327 marketers in-the-field who reported their data
in last week's MarketingSherpa Email Metrics Survey, email is not
dead yet. Not even close to dying. (Not even coughing a
little.) In fact,

o Only 6% of marketers say their open rates for house lists
have "decreased significantly", while 15% say they've actually
"increased significantly".

o Just 5% of marketers say their click rates for links sent to
house lists have decreased, while 18% say clicks have increased.

o The majority of marketers who track rented list performance
say that they have seen "not a big change" in both opens and
clicks over the past 12 months.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 3:43 PM  |  Permalink

As focus on the spam problem continues to increase, many Nucleus Research clients have asked what strategy they should pursue to reduce the impact of spam on their employee productivity without overinvesting in technology.

To analyze the impact of spam on employee productivity, Nucleus analysts conducted in-depth interviews with 117 employees at 76 different U.S. companies to learn about their experience with spam. Nucleus analysts also conducted extensive interviews with 28 IT administrators responsible for managing e-mail and other corporate applications to understand the impact of spam on IT infrastructure and resources. Key findings included the following: Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 5:24 PM  |  Permalink

After spending hours battling Blaster worm variants and setting e-mail filters to block Sobig.F, I surrender. The e-mail spammers, hackers and miscreants win. I no longer expect e-mail to function consistently. It acts more like a vintage automobile that takes constant tinkering. For essential communication, it's time to look elsewhere.

A promising alterative is a one-to-one communications channel that bypasses e-mail entirely. (No, I'm not talking about the telephone.) Ironically, this solution comes from the same group blamed for lots of spam: marketers. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 5:23 PM  |  Permalink

Show me a marketer that hasn’t been screwed on an email campaign, and I’ll show you a marketer that has never rented an email list. Unfortunately marketers today are playing Russian roulette when they pay for renting opt-in email lists because they have no proof of the subscriber interest, method of collection, active email addresses, or the true list size. Would a new pricing model help?

With the introduction of permission-based email marketing the CPM (cost-per-thousand) became the standard choice of pricing. The model was adopted due to the use in direct mail and the similarities shared with its interactive email counterpart. Since then email marketing has incorporated the use of other models such as the CPC (cost-per-click), the CPA (cost-per-acquisition or action) and the CPS (cost-per-sale). These models are geared more towards the performance of the direct email campaign, and not the list used. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 5:21 PM  |  Permalink

China has woken up to the problem of spam e-mail and blocked 127 servers identified as sources of high volumes of unsolicited e-mail.

The move is likely to send shockwaves through the international community of spammers who previously had regarded China as a safe haven in which to base their operations. An estimated 100 of North America's most prolific spammers are based in the suburbs of Beijing, according to Steve Linford, president of the London-based Spamhaus Project, which runs a spam-blocking service. Read Articles >> Posted by: DTB at 1:29 PM  |  Permalink

"Everyone talks in general about text vs HTML, but hardly anyone has specific test data they can share on it," Joanne Blatte, the editor of our upcoming Email Metrics Guide 2nd Edition, complained to me last week.

I was about to email about 50,000 of our readers a survey to gather data for our media kit, so I figured, why not toss a test cell into it? Heck, why not toss in two?

Here's how the test worked and what I learned:

We randomly generated three cells (I prefer this to slicing the list into parts so there's less chance of skewing results.)

Group A were sent a text-only note with a link to the survey form online.

Group B were sent an identical note with link, except a graphic of our logo was at the very top which meant the message was HTML.

Group C were sent a virtually identical note with our logo at the top, but they also received the actual survey form in the body of their email. If the form worked in their email system (Lotus Notes, some versions of Eudora and others can't use forms), they could submit their answers immediately instead of clicking anyway to reach a survey.

If the form didn't work, they also had a link to click to get to the survey online.

Every test cell received the same "from" and "subject" line, however the size of messages were obviously different. They surveys were also all identical. (And to my shame, rather badly written -- my fault, never copywrite a survey when you are tired late at night.)

My expectations were: A low 20% or so open rate due to the fact that it was the week before Labor Day (and also a bank holiday in the UK). I also expected the HTML "lite" to win overall for no good reason beyond gut. Actual results were:

Group A text-only:
Opens - can't tell with text
% click on link - 8.5%
% of sent completed survey - 7.5%

Group B HTML lite:
Opens - 35%
% click on link - 8%
% of sent completed survey - 7%

Group C HTML form:
Opens - 35.4%
% clicked link to use form online - 1%
% of sent completed survey - 7.2%

Visit emailSherpa.com and subscribe to their GREAT articles. Posted by: DTB at 5:03 PM  |  Permalink

[Open access until 9/10]

If you think email is dying, guess again. eDiets mails daily to most prospects on its lists and response rates have not dropped over the past year - despite everything. Our exclusive in-depth interview with eDiets' VP Marketing includes:
a. Gathering high-quality names
b. (Very) frequent newsletters prospects love
c. Promotions to convert email readers to buyers
d. Policing affiliates' campaigns
e. Samples of campaigns and newsletters that work
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 4:53 PM  |  Permalink

[Open access until 9/13]

If you've noticed that more names on your list have "bad addresses" than usual these days, you're not alone. We found that about 5% of names on our lists are sending back false bounce reports. In effect, due to overzealous filters, thousands of people are being removed from lists without their knowledge or permission.

Share this article with your email broadcast techies and make sure they take it seriously. You work hard to grow your list - don't lose good names for bad reasons.
Read Story >> Posted by: DTB at 4:52 PM  |  Permalink

4As and ANA Favor 'Opt Out' System for Consumers

CINCINNATI (AdAge.com) -- Fearing spam erodes consumer acceptance of other ad forms, the Association of National Advertisers and American Association of Advertising Agencies are preparing a joint policy against unsolicited e-mail. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 4:41 PM  |  Permalink

Mailings that customers opt to receive are being blocked or going unread

A New York-based online jewelry retailer blasted an e-mail to customers with the subject line "Hot Summer Styles." Even though the intended recipients had asked to receive mailings from the company, some 300,000 of them never saw it.
The word hot apparently triggered filters that blocked the message from being delivered, said Pinny Gniwisch, a founder of Ice.com. "The filters are not smart," he lamented.

Many electronic retailers at last week's eTail 2003 conference here complained that they're suffering from an antispam backlash even though they said they have opt-in mail policies and don't spam anyone. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 10:49 AM  |  Permalink

My heart skittered with alarm last week when I saw our headline "Electronic Retailers Hurt by Spam Flood" [QuickLink 40655], and the avid online shopper in me snapped to attention. The latest nefarious side effect of the junk e-mail flood is that many legitimate marketing messages -- updates that people actually want -- are being filtered out and forever lost.
It's one thing to misplace work-related messages or accidentally block beloved family members, but to be denied a great online bargain? Add another circle to the hell that is spam. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 10:46 AM  |  Permalink

Kicking back suspected spam dramatically reduces unwanted e-mails, but not before creating an endless loop of confusing messages.

We've been trying to control the problem of spam, and at long last, we can see light at the end of the tunnel.

My security team and I already use an outsourced service that identifies spam and labels each message accordingly. It does a surprisingly good job, but most users still read every spam-labeled message, even though only one in 10,000 e-mails is incorrectly marked. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 10:45 AM  |  Permalink

Answer:
Starting an e-mail program is one of the easiest ways to increase sales, customer satisfaction and brand recognition. A program is a regularly scheduled, reoccurring e-mail campaign, such as an e-newsletter or a weekly sale announcement. Program marketing differs from campaign marketing because campaign marketing occurs sporadically, on any topic that happens to arise. E-mail programs are effective in building a brand and sales because they establish constant, expected communications with recipients.

Important areas to reseach are:

Understand what your audience wants to receive from you or your company? Can you take some time to engage your audience with a survey?

How often do they want to hear from you? Is your information time sensitive or can it be a monthly summary?

What is your call to action? In a pure campaign driven marketing email, you will only have one call to action with a specific landing page. With a newsletter you can have between 7-15 calls to action based upon the information you are sharing.

Will you be able to test your campaign to a smaller list and find what works before sending to the entire list? Testing is paramount as it allows you to tweak the creative and copy to better appeal to your targeted list.

Click on the emailROI.com home page if you would like some additional help with your campaign, or download our 5 part e-marketing guide here > Posted by: DTB at 9:54 AM  |  Permalink

As the spam flood has drowned more and more of us, Dana has seen many people ignoring legitimate messages, bouncing them or throwing them angrily into spam folders. What are companies doing wrong? Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 9:45 AM  |  Permalink

Response to last week's column on making intelligent e-newsletter buys indicates this market is still going strong. Despite the spam epidemic, media buyers still seem to be very interested in this form of Internet advertising. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 9:44 AM  |  Permalink

Cyberattackers disabling services that cull unwanted e-mail

Internet gangsters with a grudge against anti-spam “block lists” used to stave off unwanted e-mail have unleashed a plague of data packets against some of the leading providers of the services. The onslaughts have intermittently blocked access to several of the spam fighters’ Internet sites in recent weeks and have succeeded in shutting down the oft-maligned SPEWS list. Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 9:43 AM  |  Permalink