Mail Mule POST

You will hear the word “relevancy” used frequently in the email world as it relates to email deliverability. Relevancy is key to delivering email to the Inbox. But what really is relevancy and how do you achieve this holy grail?

mail notice with white letter and red sheet

What is Relevancy?

A relevant email is one that matters to the recipient. Relevancy means “sending the right person the right message at the right time”.

Email marketing is effective when customers respond. Customers respond when they receive targeted messages from companies they care about. They like when they’re emailed about things they have already shown an interest in.

So, what is the key to relevancy in the email? The answer is to think like your customer. Find out what they are interested in and why. Then you can use what you know about your subscribers so you can send them exactly what they want when they want it. A key to increasing relevancy is through segmentation.

Now, what is Segmentation?

Knowing that relevancy and segmentation are so important, how do you segment to increase relevancy and engagement rates? Let’s discuss

1. Choosing the Right People

You can break down the remaining subscribers into 5 categories:

• Inactive – No opens or clicks in the last 6 months to 1 year: Use win-back (reactivation) campaigns to wake up lapsed subscribers or direct them to other channels to receive your messages.
• Fading – No opens or clicks for 3-6 months – You may want to decrease the frequency of emailing these recipients or use a strong special offer.
• Active – Have opened or clicked a message in the last 3 months but have not purchased in the last 60 days.
• VIP – Have purchased in the last 60 days – Treat your very best customers as VIPs with exclusive offers and content.
• New subscribers – consider an auto-responder sequence to deliver a sequence of your best-performing messages to new subscribers before adding them to the Active group.
• Track the click and open rates for each of the above categories, and use that data to improve your messages.

2. Sending the Right Message

• Use a preference page to allow your recipients to tell you exactly what categories they are interested in when they sign-up. For example: “Special Offers” and/or “Industry News” and/or “Tips”.
• Your content and design should be short and sweet, and your offer clear and straight-forward. Use personalization and “dynamic-content” based off of tracked data such as first name, location data, past purchases, etc.

3. Choosing the Right Time to Send the Message

• A plethora of statistics has claimed that the emails which have sent between Tuesday to Thursday have been shown to receive the highest open and click-through rate, as the mindset towards emails tends to drift Friday through Monday, with emails getting lost or ignored.
• Automate your behavioral
• Send an email that is triggered by real-time events such as a welcome email immediately after subscribing or other relevant messages based on the subscriber’s activity on your website.
• Don’t numb the reader. Subscribers who have been on your list longer will tend to respond less frequently, specially if they are inundated with too many emails. They may even unsubscribe because it all looks the same. Decrease the frequency to these readers or pause for a while.

4. Test

• A/B testing: Track what worked and what didn’t work particular to each segment.
• Test for reaction (open rate, click through, and conversion) as well as Inbox delivery, complaint rates and unsubscribe rates.

With attention to relevancy in your messaging and timing, mailing list segmentation and the results of your testing, you will see the better delivery of your messages, and greater success with your email campaigns.

If you use the Internet in any manner and are in possession of an email address you have more than likely come across junk email. What is a junk email you may be wondering? A junk email is an email that finds its way to your inbox with promises of making money easily by doing nothing at all or informing you that you need to log in right now to protect the security of a financial account. Another tactic implemented to send out junk email is to include something like reuse your overdue account or something similar to lure in people to open the email.

As those that are junk email spammers need to be able to send out identical emails to thousands, if not millions, of email users they tend to employ several types of collection practices. One is a harvesting email through methods such as running through published email lists from providers such as MSN and Yahoo. Using this method, they can locate as many combinations of a valid email address as possible in order to send them junk email. Other times spammers that are looking to send junk emails just simply guess as to what an email address could be. Some senders of junk mail even go as far as spoofing which is making an email appears to be from a legitimate source such as eBay in order to collect important information from unsuspecting victims.

There are several ways in which an Internet surfer can combat the nuisance that is junk email and keep your inbox spam free.

Should you get an email that appears to be offering something that seems too good to be true, it is more than likely a spam email. Millions upon millions of Internet users receive sent junk emails each and every day with promises of teaching them how to earn thousands of dollars doing little to no work. Other junk emails like this promise their recipient’s things like the home of their dreams for no money down, a new car for just pennies or a $10,000 spending limit on a credit card even if you have very bad credit. Save yourself a lot of time when you see junk emails like these by simply hitting the delete button.

If you are considering giving out any information to the websites that you visit while using the World Wide Web you always need to make sure that you read and understand the privacy policy of each and every website. You need to be made aware of what your information is being collected for and if it is being used for something other than what you had originally signed up for. How long is the information you provide the company with going to be held? Should you want to have your information removed from their database, is there someone you can readily contact to resolve this. Does the website collect your information set cookies or keep weblogs? Making sure that you are one hundred per cent positive that you understand the privacy policy of a website will help your email inbox junk free.

There are several tools that email users can utilize in order to combat junk emails. Many email providers offer these tools for free or sometimes at a minimal cost. The first tool you can use is the report spam button. By reporting junk emails you can help the proper authorities end junk emails sent by a specific user. Email users that report all incoming junk emails are not only going to be helping themselves but the entire online community as well. It is also possible to set your email to filter unwanted junk emails into a folder separate from your other email. This will also, however, result in emails that you do not consider junk being processed into the junk email folder so keep a close watch so you don’t end up deleting something you wanted to keep. There is also a toll provided to email users that will require a response from the sending of all incoming emails. Generally, if no one responds that email is treated as junk email.

These are just a small sample of the ideas you can take advantage of in order to combat junk email. While you might not be able to completely get rid of the problem of spam emails you can certainly take steps in limiting the amount of junk email being sent to you.

If you use the Internet in any manner and are in possession of an email address you have more than likely come across junk email. What is a junk email you may be wondering? A junk email is an email that finds its way to your inbox with promises of making money easily by doing nothing at all or informing you that you need to log in right now to protect the security of a financial account. Another tactic implemented to send out junk email is to include something like reuse your overdue account or something similar to lure in people to open the email.

As those that are junk email spammers need to be able to send out identical emails to thousands, if not millions, of email users they tend to employ several types of collection practices. One is a harvesting email through methods such as running through published email lists from providers such as MSN and Yahoo. Using this method, they can locate as many combinations of a valid email address as possible in order to send them junk email. Other times spammers that are looking to send junk emails just simply guess as to what an email address could be. Some senders of junk mail even go as far as spoofing which is making an email appears to be from a legitimate source such as eBay in order to collect important information from unsuspecting victims.

There are several ways in which an Internet surfer can combat the nuisance that is junk email and keep your inbox spam free.

Should you get an email that appears to be offering something that seems too good to be true, it is more than likely a spam email. Millions upon millions of Internet users receive sent junk emails each and every day with promises of teaching them how to earn thousands of dollars doing little to no work. Other junk emails like this promise their recipient’s things like the home of their dreams for no money down, a new car for just pennies or a $10,000 spending limit on a credit card even if you have very bad credit. Save yourself a lot of time when you see junk emails like these by simply hitting the delete button.

If you are considering giving out any information to the websites that you visit while using the World Wide Web you always need to make sure that you read and understand the privacy policy of each and every website. You need to be made aware of what your information is being collected for and if it is being used for something other than what you had originally signed up for. How long is the information you provide the company with going to be held? Should you want to have your information removed from their database, is there someone you can readily contact to resolve this. Does the website collect your information set cookies or keep weblogs? Making sure that you are one hundred per cent positive that you understand the privacy policy of a website will help your email inbox junk free.

There are several tools that email users can utilize in order to combat junk emails. Many email providers offer these tools for free or sometimes at a minimal cost. The first tool you can use is the report spam button. By reporting junk emails you can help the proper authorities end junk emails sent by a specific user. Email users that report all incoming junk emails are not only going to be helping themselves but the entire online community as well. It is also possible to set your email to filter unwanted junk emails into a folder separate from your other email. This will also, however, result in emails that you do not consider junk being processed into the junk email folder so keep a close watch so you don’t end up deleting something you wanted to keep. There is also a toll provided to email users that will require a response from the sending of all incoming emails. Generally, if no one responds that email is treated as junk email.

These are just a small sample of the ideas you can take advantage of in order to combat junk email. While you might not be able to completely get rid of the problem of spam emails you can certainly take steps in limiting the amount of junk email being sent to you.

In this fast developing techno space, there is a vast demand to run in parallel with the developments. Marketing campaigns are developing on a personalized level, and companies are mapping their campaigns to suit the demands and needs of their target customers’. With that said and done, if personalization is the key to everything, why is email verification still an alien subject, when it comes to driving marketing campaigns?

If you think email verification is a one trick game, then you could not have been further from the truth. There are a series of Email verification services available in the market these days; it’s imperative to choose the one which best suits your campaign requirements. If you are still are not convinced on why your company needs a good email verification tool, then read on for more details:

Here are 4 top reasons why you should verify your email address, no matter the nature of the campaign:

• Personalization: Making the user feel a part of the marketing campaign has become a necessity more than a luxury. The end customers are wary of the potential spam attacks happening in the cyberspace and every email you send out is treated with utmost caution and suspicion. For this very reason, when you personalize an email and involve the customer/end user, they feel a sense of involvement, which will give your campaign better grades as compared to a non- validated email.
• Reduced bounce rates: Unverified emails can be a bouncer, especially if you are trying to drive a successful marketing campaign. Imagine a situation, wherein, you send out 1000 emails automatically, and more than 700 or 800 emails are returned. This way, not only do you end up losing out on a large customer base but also end up losing out on your reputation with Google. The higher the bounce rate, the more the chances of your email address being tagged as spam.

• Avoidance of spam traps: Many people often end up trapping repetitive email addresses as spam, which means your hard work is literally going into the trash, instead of the recipient’s inbox. If all your emails end up in the spam or the junk box, chances are your marketing campaign will be rendered ineffective in the long run. In order to keep your emails from being blacklisted in this manner, it’s imperative to have an Email Validation Service to check your recipient’s details beforehand itself.
• Better usable leads: Once all your recipient email addresses have been verified, the chances of converting a potential customer into a valuable, permanent customer become higher. This would translate into a better opportunity for your campaign, as your services can cater to a wider audience in the long run.

Email is popular as a method of communication between people living far. But it often creates major problems if the underlying tone or syntax of the mail is misinterpreted at either end. During email, hindrance occurs if the parties involved are in a different state of mind. Thus, even the slightest dissimilarity can create a communication gap between the sender and the receiver, and things could get out of control leading to a full-blown argument.

Here, we are going to discuss few of the most common problems that prevent your organization’s associates from getting your messages, and how you can take corrective measures.

1. Emails never get opened: This is the topmost problem that leads to communication gap. You might be consistently sending information to your customers but the email might not be read every time. And if this problem occurs on a frequent basis, your organization needs to change the mode of communication. If you want your mission to successfully reach out to people, find out the most preferable mode to get in touch with your customers.
2. Getting caught in spam filters: It is absolutely possible for newsletters and emails to get into the email spam filter. These filters are designed with a view to reducing the amount of junk a person receives in the mail inbox. And to know how not to land in the spam filter you must understand how these filters identify what is spam and what not. To get your email directly into the inbox, you need to create high-quality content without many links and images, which should be professionally formatted and proofread.

3. Bounced emails: There are several reasons why your emails may bounce back, such as non-existent email addresses, old deactivated email addresses, unavailable servers, and full mailboxes. In such cases, the intended recipient doesn’t even know you tried to reach out to them. Undelivered emails mean you need to try it again later when the server is back up or the inbox of the recipient is clear. An auto response will provide you with instructions, as to when can you reach the targeted person again later.

4. Email blocked by ISP: In order to protect PCs from viruses and malicious software, people usually keep antivirus tools installed. Likewise, Internet Service Provider block emails from certain addresses if they resemble a spam or are send to too many invalid addresses. Therefore, this results in disadvantage for your organization. There are certain tools available which allow you to track the delivery status of an email, letting you know whether your email was opened or not, and provides you with the ability to track emails and control the overall email procedure, which includes sending, reading and responses.

5. You are sending to many messages too frequently: Nobody likes to get distracted from their daily routine or feel as if they are being spammed. So if you are sending them daily emails, they would either unsubscribe or drag your emails directly to the trash box. It is obvious that you would like to engage your subscribers enough so that they remember you and your work, but that doesn’t mean you blast them with so many emails that you piss them off.  So, it is advisable to stick to once a week.

6. Subject line is important: Your email’s subject line plays an important role. It gives the first impression of your email and hence needs to be good. Make sure that your subject line is relevant to the email and is clear and precise.

These are some problems which can make your email communication feeble. The above, we also mentioned how can you overcome these problems.

Running an online business is simply complicated. There are a lot of things that ought to be considered in order to achieve the best results from it. One of the sensitive aspects of the online business that requires careful consideration is email address validation; which has proven to be one of the many problems online entrepreneurs face today. Validation is important to keep track of any malformed IP addresses and to determine if the email address is valid before they are entered into your database.

There is a good number of different software options that are accessible for email validation. Most of the software can be found with the use of the internet.

• Validation software is very capable of helping thousands of companies run and manage the data quality of their addresses. By making use of this software, a company is able to verify names, authenticate addresses, perform email validation, phone validation, and much more.
• You will find a lot of benefits when you make use of validation software. A company can save a lot more time and cash. This benefit is not only seen by the company but also by the clients. This software would also be able to enhance the data’s overall quality.
• Other benefits of this software are the ability to increase the reliability of the contact data. As well as maintain the data’s quality located in the database of the company. In addition to that, the software is also capable of ensuring a particular and suitable shipment to your respected clients.
• You will also find the software is capable of finding inaccuracies and discrepancies instantly. Since the company would be able to detect the data problem, they would not have the risk of sending the shipment to the wrong address or making a long distance call to a wrong number.
• Validation software is also very competent in modifying which emails could get into their systems. They could just easily set the system to only accept the emails that are valid.

Some popular validation software are,

DNS validation: Domain Name System (DNS) validation checks whether the domain actually exists. This is a major step for you to take to make sure that emails won’t go unused and that there’s a mail server that is waiting for them. Checking for the domain existence works in most cases and is an effective technique in address validation.

SMTP: But in some cases, there are still some email addresses that can still pass through DNS validation. This leaves SMTP validation for the most sophisticated email address validation. In this method, SMTP protocol is used to reach the domain mail server to undergo manual address validation. Using this method ensures you that no invalid email addresses are left unnoticed.

QAS: QAS email is one perfect example of a web service that provides the most efficient method. The software itself runs through a genuine software that effectively validates, cleanses, captures, and enriches addresses and all other important details for contact information. Through QAS email it provides the most sophisticated software of today. Validation through the aid of QAS email emphasizes several business benefits like highly improved customer service, heightened reliability of contact information, and the relative increase of completion rates.

In an online business, email addresses are highly valued as they are considered leads which serve as the backbone of every business. It is therefore extremely vital to conduct email address validation to avoid any future inconveniences.

The purpose of all emails is to get the readers to click on the call to action and visit the web pages. Hence, it’s not sufficient to measure the email message’s success by how many sales ultimately end up making as it is very likely a highly effective email can result in a dismal sales response. It is important to be able to measure the effectiveness of the email message’s ability to drive readers to your sales letter in addition to being able to measure how many sales that sales letter produced.

People are checking their emails more frequently than ever before which imply you have more opportunities to have your emails seen and responded to than ever before.

The four email marketing metrics are:

1. Delivery Rates: SPAM filters, the subscriber’s white-list preferences, ISP inbound email rules and other conditions that are beyond your control can affect the actual delivery of your email message. It is important for you to be able to track your “bounce rates” every time you conduct a mailing. Your web server management console should provide access to your email logs as well as log reading tools.

 Tips for reducing blocked emails:
 Ask your list members to add your “From” email address to their SPAM management system’s          white-list. Always send your email from that same address every time. Perform regular list hygiene by examining your bounced mail log and removing bad addresses. Some ISPs have software that will automatically block anyone who sends too many undeliverable email messages to their mail server. Removing bounced names reduces your visibility amongst these ISPs. Investigate and immediately respond to all SPAM complaints. You may want to avoid ending up on known spammer’s block lists and responding to any SPAM complaint in a timely and professional manner.

2. Open Rates: It’s a good thing to know the percentage of people who are actually opening your email. Open rate is calculated by dividing the number of times that the image was viewed or loaded into the recipient’s email program by the number of email messages sent. In most cases, your email message will be opened within the first 72 hours after it is sent. A good open rate depends upon the particular market segment you are targeting, the quality of your list and the effectiveness of your subject line.
3. Click-Through Rates: The next important metric is the click-through rate from your email message to your sales letter/landing page or the number of people who open your email compared to the number of them that actually click the link to go to your website. A good target to try to hit is 12% or better. The best way to hit these figures is to make sure that your email message is targeted and relevant to your intended audience. Make sure your email message is focused on getting the reader to the landing page and not focused on actually making the sale!

4. Un-subscribe Rates: Your un-subscribe rate is an important metric because it reflects the overall customer dissatisfaction rate. A high unsubscribe rate usually indicates that your readers are not interested in your offers. This usually means that you have failed to properly analyze your readers’ needs or you have built an un-targeted email list. The unsubscribe rate is as simple as dividing the number of unsubscribe requests by the open rate.

Keeping an eye on all four metrics of email marketing enable you to continually improve the response of your messages and resulting sales.

Getting your subscribers to open your emails should really not be any different to getting your readers to click on your article title to open your article to read it. The importance of both is very tangible because if your articles or emails do not get opened initially then you really need to be looking at your titles. Are they attractive enough or do they convey a benefit to your reader or subscriber?

Let’s now look at some major areas to help get your emails opened by your subscribers so they can take action.

Write content that stands alone: When your email is opened, the content must immediately deliver the message. Your graphics may not display when your prospect or customer opens the email. If the content and graphics display immediately that’s great. Your design features and great graphics can really support what you’re saying. Just don’t count on it. Three paragraphs of content with bullet points to highlight the emotional impact…what the purchase of, use of, or change to…will do for the recipient.

 Avoid using overemphasized subject lines: We have all received spammy messages at one time or the other and have become a little better at spotting them from the email subject lines. If your headline looks hyped up or spammy in any way then your subscriber is more likely to consign your email to their spam box than click on it to read it. A couple of these sort of subject lines to your list could result in them unsubscribing or they just ignore your emails. You really don’t want that to happen to you. Make your email subject headline appropriate to your subscriber list. If they joined your list to learn how to ski then it makes sense to include the relevant keywords they expect to receive in messages you send to them. Always answer the question ‘what’s in it for me’ and this will get you more opens.

Test your emails before you send them out: Most email marketing services have a facility on their autoresponder that allows you to check your email before you send it to your subscribers. It is very good practice for you to send your emails to yourself so that you can see what your email would look like to your subscriber. You can now ask yourself, would my subscriber want to click on the subject line to read my email?

Have a clear call to action: “If you want to see results within six weeks, order this now.” It is also true that not every message needs a call to action. Sharing information without a call to action builds a relationship with your customers. The email messages that do ask the recipient to take action, however, should have clear, actionable links and convincingly demonstrate the benefits they will get by taking action.

Plan a solo mailing campaign: If you have got something that you really want your readers to read, then plan a series of solo emailing’s to draw their attention to it. This is specially great for new product and services. But don’t go overboard with your solo mailing campaign otherwise your subscribers will likely assume all you do is sell, and will very quickly unsubscribe.

So, next time, when you are planning to send emails to your subscribers, please keep these points in your mind.