StreamSend Email Marketing Blog

Some Common Questions About Our Billing

2009-11-25T15:28:00.000-08:00

We often receive questions in the support department regarding basic
billing and account maintenance. Below I have created a Q and A of
the most common questions:

Q. Does StreamSend provide "Pay as you go" plans?
A. No. We are a subscription based service.

Q. What is my current billing cycle and when will it renew?
A. The start and the end dates of your Current Billing Period are
listed on the Account Settings page under the “Plan and Quota”
section. Your account will renew one day after the end date listed
under the Current Billing Period.

Q. Will my account get renewed automatically every billing cycle?
A. Yes, we will renew your subscription automatically for as long as
you keep your account open. If you need to close your account please
refer to our kb article located here.

Q. If I don't use my amount of emails in a current billing period, do
they roll over into the next billing period?
A. No. Once your current billing cycle ends the quota will reset and
any emails that were unused will not roll over to the next billing
cycle.

Q. If I do not use all my email credits in a billing cycle can I get a refund?
A. No, we do not provide refunds for the unused email credits.

For more billing and account maintenance FAQs please refer to the the full knowledge base entry located here.

How do I make Money with StreamSend?

2009-11-24T09:10:00.000-08:00

Many of our new clients come to us through referrals from friends, business associates etc. Customer referrals are one of the best avenues for marketing and to reward our users we have an Affiliate Program. You simply place a sign up link on your website or email a url for those interested in signing up with StreamSend. As an affiliate you will receive 20% per month reoccurring for the clients you refer. The affiliate program is free to join so why not start earning some extra dough for something you may already be doing! For more information or to sign up please visit the link below.

Affiliate Program:
https://affiliates.streamsend.com/

For those of you who are interested in a more hands on approach we offer a white label reseller program. You sign up for a large volume plan with Streamsend and reseller it. You are able to create user accounts under your own brand and allow your clients to log in and send emails or you can send emails on their behalf. You pay StreamSend monthly for your account and you charge you clients what you would like based on the services you are providing them. For more information on the white label reseller service please review the screen cast linked below or contact sales.

White Label Screen Cast:
http://www.streamsend.com/reseller.html

Adding an Email Signup box to your Facebook Fan Page

2009-11-23T15:37:00.000-08:00

I'm of the opinion that email marketing and social media are very synergistic. I've been noticing more and more of our customers setting up Facebook Fan Pages to promote their businesses. I was thinking about what I could write about to help our customers take better advantage of their Facebook Fan Pages. The video tutorial below will show you how to add an email signup box to your Facebook Fan Pages.

Why is my email going into the spam folder?

2009-11-19T13:24:00.000-08:00

When sending bulk emails there are several factors that may cause your email to go into the spam or junk folder. The first is of course the content of your message. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have automatic filters in place and if your message contains certain words or phrases characteristic of an unsolicited email it will be sent to spam folder. The second is the reputation of the sender’s IP address. The reputation is determined by the list(s) you are sending to and the response from your subscribers.

Streamsend has partnered with Return Path an email deliverability service and is now offering two powerful tools that will help you get your email where it belongs, in the inbox.

The first tool known as the Campaign Preview allows you to test your email design amongst the major ISPs and provides you with a preview of what your email will look. This allows you to make changes to the email before sending to make sure it looks great for all of your subscribers. The Campaign Preview also provides a spam score for your message. After rating the message it will provide you with a breakdown of what content or design may be raising your spam score. Again you have the option of making changes which will lower your spam score and help your email get to the inbox.

Next is the Mailbox Monitor, this tool allows you to check on your delivery to the different ISPs. This is done by sending an email to a seed list which tracks whether or not your email goes into the inbox, spam/junk folder or gets bounced back. If for some reason you are having delivery issues with any of the ISPs you will be provided with information on how to take care the problem.

Contact sales for more information and pricing.

Internet Summit 2009: Email, Analytics and Goggles, Oh My!

2009-11-19T13:17:00.000-08:00

StreamSend had the pleasure of sponsoring and participating in the Internet Summit 2009 in Raleigh, NC earlier this month. And it was such a great time, I wanted to share some of the highlights. And, well, to show off our new booth display a little bit too.

The event was well-attended by great people with vast Internet interests and experience, and it was the first event we’ve participated in since we launched our “We Believe” campaign a few months back. Not only was it fun to meet and mingle with great people and learn about companies and trends, it was fantastic to hear the feedback on our stance on email marketing via our campaign. Our booth (see below), highlighted some of our core beliefs about the value and integrity of good email marketing.

Dan Forootan, StreamSend’s President, was a guest speaker on a panel about analytics along with Norm Cloutier, Director of Analytics, McClatchy Interactive, Ron Garmon, CEO, VueLogic and Brooks Bell, President, Brooks Bell Interactive. The panelists all shared great insight about the value of using good analytical data from your websites and made some good points about how good, available and easy many of the tools are. Google Analytics, as a free resource, is a great tool that any and all businesses should be utilizing with regularity. If you aren’t using it already, you should check into it…and as an added bonus, you can automatically integrate your StreamSend email campaigns with Google Analytics. (If you’re interested, you can find more about it in these knowledge base articles and training videos.)

And…last but definitely not least, just for fun, we gave away StreamSend goggles, which turned out to be quite popular. We had no way of knowing how many swimmers there are in Raleigh, but every single pair of goggles disappeared before the day was half over!

If you would like a pair of StreamSend goggles, we do have a few left…just drop us a note in the comments here and we’ll figure out how to get you a pair (as long as supplies last).

New in StreamSend: Email Sharing

2009-10-27T09:44:00.000-07:00

It's good to {{{share}}}!

We just added a new feature to StreamSend. Your subscribers can now share emails to social networks as well as forward them to a friend. Here's how it works:

The Mail Merge

To allow sharing for your email, simply add the "Share" mail merge into your emails. This will add "{{{share}}}" to your content, and will later be replaced by a URL to the share page. To create a link, simply use the link feature in the editor.

The Share Page

The new share page is a replacement and improvement of the forward to a friend page. You will now have the option to copy and paste a share URL—which is a URL to the original email with private subscriber data striped out.

Your subscribers will also have the option to share directly to a social network (we currently support Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn—let us know if you'd like to see other social networks on the list). And of course the forward feature is still there at the bottom of the page.

If you are using the default form HTML for the share page, then you would have gotten this update automatically. For those who are using the custom HTML option, you'll have to "reset to default" to get the new and updated page HTML. After that you may simply switch back to custom and tailor the page to your needs.

The Updated designs

Along with the new share page look and feel, we've updated the design of all the pages (subscribe & update profile). Like the share page, you'll have to "reset to default" only if you're on custom HTML mode to use the new designs.

We hope you've enjoyed these updates. For more information regarding this feature, check out our KB article. We have some more product updates in the pipeline and are very eager to get them released. Thanks!

Email preferred for sharing information

2009-10-21T15:54:00.001-07:00

Despite recent reports (ahem, Wall Street Journal) that email is dying, several skeptics have come forward to argue quite the opposite is true.

A recent Email Insider blog post reminds us that there are many reasons that email is healthy and growing, including the increased email usage that goes along with social media engagement; the ease of access to email smartphones; and that email is the foundation for worldwide digital communications.

Marketing Sherpa also has new data that indicates email is by far the preferred method for sharing information.

The bottom line is that email is very much still alive and healthy. However, that doesn't mean that other forms of communication should be ignored completely now or in the future. Just remember to consider all the available communication channels as part of your total marketing and communications mix and you will continue to enjoy success with your audiences.

Email Marketing Tips

2009-10-19T08:03:00.000-07:00

Our latest daily email marketing tips from Twitter:

Varying the layout of your content will help to increase interest.

Repetitive “buy-it-now” messages will not get the same results as a tailored relationship message.

Ask yourself: Are the first four words of your subject compelling enough to trigger an open?

Increase opens by segmenting your list based on your customers’ buying habits.

Personalize the from address field using a name within your organization your recipients will know.

Send your messages on a regular schedule, so your audience will come to expect them.

Sending relevant content will help you stand out from the crowd, and in turn increase your open rate.

Using words and phrases associated with the 'hard sell' will land your message in the junk folder.

Email is a proven tool for improving customer relationships, building brand awareness, and generating sales.

Always have a detailed privacy policy on your subscribe form and landing pages, and then follow it.

When you receive a complaint from a list member, always respond quickly and courteously.

Never have your call to action linked to an image. It should be text-based HTML, so it is always visible.

Follow StreamSend on Twitter for our Email Marketing Tip of the Day - http://twitter.com/StreamSend

Want To Be Famous?

2009-10-18T19:32:00.000-07:00

At StreamSend, we pride ourselves on our clients and the success they have using our solutions to make their business grow. And we love to share those successes with the world! Do you have a success story with StreamSend that you'd like to see in the news?

All we need are some kind measurable results that demonstrate how using StreamSend email marketing has improved your connection with your customers and prospects. We'll want to highlight your situation, challenge, solution and results.

We'll do the rest, including interviewing you for a case study and then either preparing a press release or arranging a news story in which you will be interviewed. We will also target any publications that serve your industry so you can get prospects' attention that way.

So don't keep your success a secret, send me an email and let me know your story so we can get the word out! Here are some examples of press coverage and press releases.

Please contact neila [at] streamsend.com if this interests you.

Holiday Email - Schedule and Design

2009-10-16T14:16:00.000-07:00

The holiday season is just around the corner and already email volume has started to increase. Along with the normal email blasts many companies start sending out additional emails with information about upcoming sales or other holiday related messages. Be ready for this increase in sending and make sure you are getting the best results possible.

It is a important to have a plan of action. When do you want to start send emails, how often, what do you want to convey?

First things first, decide on a schedule. You may want to send a few additional emails each month to let users know about specials or sales but don’t overdo it. If a subscriber is used to getting an email from you once a month and then starts to get a few emails a week they may end up unsubscribing.

The next step is creating the email(s). Design is very important, within a few seconds of opening your email a subscriber will decide to read on or delete your message. Some general tips are to front load your message with the most important or intriguing information at the top to get the subscriber interested. Be careful with images, too many images or one large image may cause your email to end up in a junk or spam folder.

Lastly, if you are going to be sending more often you may need to adjust your plan with Streamsend. All of our plans offer the ability to purchase additional emails but if you are going to be sending a good deal more it may make sense to upgrade to a higher plan temporarily.

Decide how many emails you would like to send each month and then upgrade when you start sending them. If you need assistance deciding which plan will work the best please contact the sales department

Thoughts on email subject lines

2009-10-12T18:39:00.000-07:00

Looking through my inbox recently, I was thinking about which subject lines compel me to open emails. I think I respond to a straightforward subject line that sets honest expectations about the content of the email. Of course, then the email must deliver on those expectations!

Since I don't enjoy shopping at stores, the advent of e-commerce has made life a lot easier. I'm on the email lists of a few online retailers so I ignore shopping until an email brings the shopping to me. The e-commerce emails that attract my attention most seem to include offers, and I often find myself placing an order based on these emails. For example:

A Gift for You: $10 L.L. Bean Coupon Reward
Amazon.com: $20 Off Rockport New Arrivals

Another type of email I tend to respond to is newsletters. With a newsletter, the object is not necessarily an immediate sale but rather nurturing the prospect and building trust over time. I subscribe to a couple newsletters from Vanguard, the investment company. The subject lines are very straightforward, for example:

Economic Week in Review: Growth isn't a straight line
Economic Week in Review: Is the recession over?
Economic Week in Review: A mixed bag

Vanguard's "Week in Review" gives their take on the state of the economy and various economic trends. It demonstrates Vanguard's expertise, indirectly reminding me to contribute to my Roth IRA retirement account at some point during the year. Depending on the nature of your product or service, a customer may only spend money with you occasionally. A regular e-newsletter ensures you will be on their mind when the time comes to purchase.

Press Release: 10 Best Practices for Reaching New Business Prospects

2009-10-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

Streamsend: How to Get New Customers with Email

SACRAMENTO – October 12, 2009 -- StreamSend, a leading email marketing solutions solutions provider, today released guidelines for businesses looking to use email to find and reach new customers. Tested with thousands of clients, these best practices have proven effective at maximizing email’s value in driving new business.

“Email marketing is a cost efficient, effective way to identify and reach prospects – if you follow practical guidelines,” says Dan Forootan, president of StreamSend Email Marketing. “The following ten steps can help business avoid the spam filters and internet service provider blacklists and tap into the power of e-mail to create new, profitable customer relationships."

1. Buying Lists: Just Say No
Don’t use purchased lists, opt in or not. These subscribers have not requested information from your company and are more likely to mark the message as spam without even opening the email. Chances are also good that the list will contain invalid or spam trap email addresses causing problems with inbox delivery. Your bid for new customers can end up compromising the delivery of emails you want to get to your legitimate subscribers.2. Sign-Ups: Make it Easy
First, get interested parties to sign up for your messages. Make it easy, starting with a clear link to the subscribe form on your website. That link should appear in every mailing, so that forwarded messages still make it easy to subscribe. Writing blog posts or articles (online or print) that include a link to your subscribe form can also be effective in driving traffic. Offline, let people sign up at brick and mortar locations and display the URL to the subscribe form on all printed material.

3. Don’t Rush It
Rushing your new business efforts and adding addresses by the bushel from a poorly managed or purchased list will often drag down your deliverability with a high number of invalid email addresses and unwanted spam complaints. That hurts your ability to reach your smaller, engaged audience. Slowly build your core audience by sending prospective list members to a ‘subscribe form’ that highlights list member benefits.

4. Start a Conversation
The more relevant and targeted your emails, the happier your subscribers, and the more likely they are to refer your communications to new prospects. Find out what emails and content subscribers would like to receive. One great way to start that conversation is by using your campaign landing pages to grow your subscribers. Instead of linking your ads and emails to your homepage, contact page, etc., create a custom landing page with a form that entices prospects to share information.
5. Provide an IncentiveOffer an incentive to bring in new subscribers, i.e., sign up for the newsletter and receive a 10% off coupon. Include the incentive in your initial welcome email to new subscribers. But probably the best incentive is to make good on your promise of supplying relevant, interesting content that subscribers will share. Keep reinforcing that value to recipients in all messages.
6. Share ItPut a “Forward to a Friend” link in your emails, or share it among other interested communities via social networks or blogs, and include a link to the sign-up form or your website where they can sign up to receive future emails. Some of the best customers come through referrals.

7. Keep It Clean
Keep your list clean and current to maintain delivery rates to existing and new customers. Limit sending emails to subscribers out of contact for over 6 months as they are more likely to have forgotten signing up or may have closed that email account. But if you do, sprinkle their addresses among more recent addresses so if you get a few spam complaints it is less likely to cause you problems.

8. Addresses to Avoid
Many email lists contain inappropriate email addresses. Departmental and group addresses, like sales@, webmaster@ or postmaster@, or all@, everyone@, etc., are major offenders. Often pulled directly from websites, these are addresses to avoid and should be set to non-active status.

9. Make the ConnectionIf you are sending to email addresses you received from a trade show or other event, start the relationship off right by referencing that connection in the email so the subscriber knows why you are contacting them.

10. Give Them an Out
Make sure the unsubscribe link is easy to see, and that it works. If a subscriber is not interested in receiving your emails anymore, you are much better off having them unsubscribe rather than marking the message as spam, cutting off that channel to new business.About StreamSend
StreamSend offers an easy-to-use, affordable and reliable email marketing software designed to help businesses make the most of their time and money when sending an email newsletter or other email campaigns. StreamSend offers a number of industry-leading standard pricing plans and also has strong private-label and affiliate programs. Started as part of EZ Publishing, a web hosting and design company founded in 1998, StreamSend is now the company’s flagship product.

For more StreamSend press releases, see In the News.

New Mail Size Limit

2009-10-07T11:45:00.000-07:00

In an ongoing effort to help email marketers improve delivery, StreamSend is limiting all messages to 1,000,000 characters - roughly 1 MB in size. Messages over 1,000,000 characters tend to have lower delivery rates, lower engagement, and higher complaints.

Here are a couple of tips that will help trim characters from the message content:

Newsletters - instead of sending entire articles, include only a three or four sentence summary, and then link to the entire article online.

Product and Service Descriptions – highlight the major features and then include a ‘more’ link to additional details online.

Studies have shown that you will have your audience’s attention longer when they are at your website than you will when they are reading your email message, so even messages under 1,000,000 characters could benefit from a little slimming down and focused effort to direct traffic to the your website.

How to Create Email Newsletters That Work

2009-10-07T11:02:00.000-07:00

An email newsletter is a great and inexpensive tool for communicating with many different audiences, which makes it a popular method for communicating with current and prospective customers. Email newsletters and promotional emails make up about 62 percent of all emails sent, and email newsletters specifically are projected to grow another 58 percent by 2013.* Amidst this email newsletter proliferation, you want to make sure to create and maintain a solid newsletter strategy to achieve long-term results.

To create an effective and sustainable email newsletter, consider the following five key areas:

1. Clearly define the goals for your newsletter. Think about what it is you are trying to accomplish and who you are trying to reach before you get started. Is it to acquire new customers? Increase customer satisfaction? Extend your brand or image? Is your audience comprised of current customers or prospects? Identifying and keeping focus on the primary goals and audience for your newsletters will help define the development of and ultimate success for your newsletters. Don’t develop and send an e-newsletter just because you can. It can have unintended and adverse consequences if the newsletter is not valuable to recipients.

2. Find and communicate relevant and valuable content. Remember the goal and the audience you identified first and provide them the content they want and expect. This includes, in order of importance, identifying yourself clearly in the from address; crafting a concise and compelling subject line so recipients know what they are receiving and why they should open it; and then finally creating the content in the newsletter itself. The from address is the first chance you have to identify yourself to your recipients, so be clear. The subject line may be the most critical piece of the content you provide. The benefit of the information contained within should be conveyed in a concise and compelling manner. Subject lines should be on the short side, less than 50 characters (35 – 45 are ideal). However, in some cases, if truncating the subject line compromises the content significantly, it is okay to have it a little longer.

For the newsletter content, it should first pay off on the promise of the subject line. Provide content that matters to your readers. For instance, for business to business communications, help them stay informed and do their jobs better. For consumers, provide content they are interested in and can’t do without. In constructing your content, use short paragraphs, sentences and words. Break content up with plenty of subheads that are easy to scan and digest. And remember you don’t need to cram everything in.

3. Create a compelling and effective design/format. There are many details to consider in the design and formatting of your e-newsletter. First and foremost, you should take the time to develop a well-designed, professional template that features your unique brand. Not only does it serve as a reinforcement of your company’s image, recipients appreciate knowing right away who the newsletter is from and that they are able to read it in a clean and visually appealing format. Text versions should not be neglected, one should be sent along with every HTML newsletter, but it should also incorporate your brand with clear labeling and tone. For the visual element, you can provide a link to a Web page version of the newsletter. General guidelines to keep in mind when designing your email include:

Design for the preview pane. About half of all email recipients view their emails in a preview pane configuration. Typically it is horizontal, but sometimes it is vertical. With either configuration, the top left corner is the primary real estate and it is advised to identify your company (with a logo or other identifier) in this space. And don’t forget mobile. Many emails are received and viewed on various mobile devices. For this reason, designing for the “lowest common denominator” can be quite beneficial.
Remember image blocking. The majority of email clients automatically block images; only about 41 percent of online consumers regularly see them**. When images are blocked, a red “x” appears in its place. Image alt text should be used to identify what should be there, and email should be designed so that the content is not dependent on or altered by image placement.
Use more text than images. The content portion of any newsletter should be the primary focus, this also helps with image blocking. The ideal ratio is about 60 percent text to 40 percent supporting graphics.
Consider viewing patterns. Most emails are skimmed, not read. And based on heat map tests, it has been shown that the majority of viewers scan emails in an “F” pattern. Down the left rail, across the top (left to right) and then down a bit and left to right again. Make sure your most important content and messages are in these areas.
Respect your audience’s time. Even when opened, the majority of email viewers will spend less than 1 minute with your message, and of those, most still it below the fold. Deliver concise and benefit-oriented messages up top and pull the reader through the email with clear language and design. Always make sure your reader knows what is expected of them with a compelling call to action.

4. Send with intelligence. After investing the time and resources to develop a stellar email newsletter, you don’t want to negate those efforts by sending too much or too little, to a non-opted in list or even too broad of one. Even if your newsletter list is comprised of your customers, make sure they are opted in and want to hear from you. You can improve your relevance and value by segmenting the lists and providing information of most value to the various groups. Listen to your customers. If they don’t want to receive your newsletter, make sure they are unsubscribed and can easily do so. And when it comes to frequency, set an expectation as to how frequently they can expect to hear from you and stick with it.

5. Measure and track your results. The beauty of email is that it is so easy to measure. You should regularly monitor your emails, and watch for any abrupt changes in standard metrics (complaints, open rates, bounces, etc.) that can indicate a deliverability problem and make appropriate adjustments. However, you can also learn from the content that your readers click on to apply to the development of future issues. Make sure you connect your results with the initial goals for your email newsletter to determine if it is paying off.

An email newsletter can be a valuable tool for achieving a variety of business goals. However, to work well, time and thought must go into the development of a clear strategy and the development of a compelling newsletter. And, as with any marketing campaign, the success and impact of an email newsletter is going to be improved when combined with other tactics and channels as well. When done well, an email newsletter is a great investment.

By Becky Repka, Marketing Manager for StreamSend Email Marketing.

*Forrester US Email Marketing Volume Forecast, 2008 – 2013
** Marketing Sherpa, 2007

Our Newest Sales Associate

2009-10-06T14:45:00.000-07:00

Please give a warm welcome to Alex, the newest member of our sales team.

He's a little inexperienced, but we're confident he'll grow into the position quickly. Once he stops napping so much, that is.

A re-tweet of the latest email marketing tip of the day

2009-10-01T15:50:00.000-07:00

Keep the HTML portion of the content to approximately 550 pixels wide to avoid horizontal scrolling

Always Include a link to a web version of your email message

Give subscribers a reason to open your messages by including unique tips, coupons or email only specials

Keep your list of email addresses paired down to only those who truly appreciate your content

Action oriented phrases in your call to action will improve the overall response rate

People are more likely to forward messages containing interesting content than they are promotional emails

Design your content like it is going to be displayed on the side of a bus, and people are going to see it as it quickly passes by

Sending a short promotional message is an effective way to build brand awareness and promote sales

Many people consider messages as spam based solely on frequency, so do not over-send

Try to place the call to action in 3 different locations – the top, the middle, and the bottom of the email

A compelling call to action needs 5 components: Visibility, Clarity, Persuasiveness, Urgency, and Repetition

Read "Perform Your Own Deliverability Audit" http://blog.streamsend.com/2009/04/perform-your-own-deliverability-audit.html

When testing messages for delivery, change one variable at a time

To increase your open rate create action driven subject lines

To follow us on Twitter - http://twitter.com/StreamSend

Best Practices for Survey Email Invitations (provided by Zoomerang)

2009-09-30T16:15:00.000-07:00

It is important to capture the respondent’s interest in your survey immediately. If you are sending email to people within the United States, it is also important to follow the rules set forth by the CAN-SPAM Act.

To help ensure your survey experience is as successful as it can be, Zoomerang recommends the following best practices for survey email invitations:

Ensure that the targeted recipients have agreed to receive offers from your company
Confirm how the list was gathered and how it has been managed since then. For example, how are opt-out requests and bounce backs handled?
Confirm that opt-out requests from prior use have been processed appropriately
Subject line (by law) must not mislead the recipient about the subject matter or contents of the email. In addition, to avoid being filtered as SPAM, do not use the words “win”, “prize”, “sweepstakes” or have a dollar amount (i.e. “$1000”) in the subject line. Do include the topic of the survey and survey sponsor whenever possible
The From and Reply To addresses (by law) must be accurate and identify the person who sent the email

The body of the message (by law) must include the following:

Opt-out information. A valid email address or other method for recipient to be removed from mailing list. For example, ‘To be removed from future mailings of this type, please send a reply to this email and include in the subject line – ‘Remove from XYZ Study’
Sender’s physical street address

The body of the message should include all of the following:

The first sentence should be compelling, and it should communicate the reason why taking the survey is worthwhile. Be as specific as possible
Name of company or individual who is sponsoring the survey
Brief explanation of the purpose of the study
Amount of time it should take the respondent to complete the survey. Be honest; a time range is okay
Explanation of where/how the recipient’s email address was obtained
Clear instruction on how to access the survey
If there are screeners within the survey, include a statement around how the respondent must fully qualify and complete the survey. This is especially important if an incentive is offered. For example, ‘We are looking for a specific target market.’
Incentive information (if applicable). Information must be clear. Sweepstakes rules or link to the rules should be included (if applicable)

The body of the message should not:

State that it is “not SPAM” (or use the word SPAM at all)
Sound anonymous or vague
Have lengthy text explaining the way the data will be used
Use pressure language such as “must” or “hurry now”
Use “scam” type of language or offering

Reminder emails should:

NOT be sent to people who opted out of the first mailing
Have the word “Reminder” in the subject line
Be an abbreviated version of the first email

This blog post is provided compliments of Zoomerang. Visit Zoomerang for more information on online surveys.

Help, I've been blacklisted!

2009-09-29T10:43:00.000-07:00

Your recipients have all opted in to hear from you, you send regularly, and yet you find yourself on the dreaded blacklist. Even the most well-intentioned email marketers can sometimes find themselves in deliverability trouble. What do you do?

First, confirm that you are in fact blacklisted by checking your deliverability report for the bounce reason.

Then assess the situation and review your practices to figure out what went wrong. Making sure your recipients want to hear from you, and are opted-in, is very important in maintaining a good reputation. Start by asking following questions:

Are all your subscribers explicitly opted in?
How up-to-date is your list?
Are your email addresses valid?
Is it easy for recipients to unsubscribe if they no longer want to receive your emails?
Are you sending what they requested?
Is your message relevant and compelling?
How frequently are you sending to your subscribers? Is it too much? Or too little? (If you haven't emailed to your list in some time, they may have forgotten they signed up to hear from you and mark the message as spam.)

Once any problem areas are identified, put plans and policies in place to correct them immediately. And then, you are ready to get yourself off the blacklist. The next step is to contact the ISP directly. Each has a process for applying, and most start with an online form. Most ISP’s will want to know your dedicated IP address and private mailengine domain. You can get this information by clicking on your StreamSend “Account Settings” in the upper right hand corner.

Here are links to some of the more popular ISP’s whitelisting/delisting applications:

AOL / Compuserve
Follow the directions in the article below:
http://www.streamsend.com/kb2/idx.php/13/104/Improving-Delivery/article/How-to-get-unblocked-by-AOL.html

AT&T / SBC Global / Bellsouth
Include your private IP address in the body of the email.
http://www.att.net/general-info/bls_info/block_admin.html

Barracuda
http://www.barracudacentral.org/lookups

Centurytel
Send a copy of a bounce error to abuse@centurytel.net

Charter
http://www.charter.com/postmaster

Comcast
Fill out the form located at:
www.comcastsupport.com/rbl

Cox
Send a copy of the bounced email notification to unblock.requests@cox.net

EarthLink
Send an email with the complete header to openrelay@abuse.earthlink.net
Allow 12-24 hours, our server engineers will fix the issue once the email is received.

Excite
Send and email asking to be removed from email blacklist to abuse@bluetie.com

Gmail
A helpful website:
http://www.google.com/mail/help/bulk_mail.html

Go here for messages being blocked or marked as spam
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/request.py?ctx=bulksend&nomods=1

Hotmail
Follow the instructions in this article:
Answering the Sender Information Form for Hotmail Delivery

Juno / NetZero / Bluelight (United Online)
Getting onto whitelist:
http://www.unitedonline.net/postmaster/blocked.html

Outblaze
You can check if you are blocked and request whitelisting here:
http://spamblock.outblaze.com/

Roadrunner / Adelphia
Follow instructions for removal:
http://security.rr.com/mail_blocks.htm

USA.NET
Your IP address can be checked and you can request whitelisting at:
http://postmaster.usa.net/html/error.html

Verizon
http://www2.verizon.net/micro/whitelist/request_form.asp?id=isp

Yahoo
Follow the directions in this article:
Yahoo is Filtering/Blocking my Email

Find more tips on avoiding blacklists here.

For more on monitoring deliverability, see "Perform Your Own Deliverability Audit," by StreamSend's Deliverability Manager, Louis Chatoff.

Some StreamSend updates

2009-09-23T21:17:00.001-07:00

HTML editor for Forms
Forms are now equipped with the HTML editor (the one you use to edit your emails). This is great for those who wish to make small edits to their forms without knowing HTML. Head over to the Forms section and click on "Form HTML" to get started.

Export privilege for users
We've had many requests for user permissions when it comes to exporting. If you wish to prevent a user from exporting any subscriber data from your account, edit their user profile in the Users section, and uncheck the "Allow user to export data" option. Note that all users are given permission to export by default.

International Character Support
With much success from our beta testing of the new UTF-8 option (which fully enables international character support), we've decided to make this option available for everyone. If you find that you're having trouble with the international characters in your email and/or mail merges, we recommend that you enable this--and please give us your feedback. For more information on how to do this, check out our KB article.

We have some more enhancements coming soon. See you later!

The uses of mail merge in email marketing

2009-09-23T18:33:00.000-07:00

Mail merge might seem like a feature with limited usefulness. Many people think of it as just a means to personalize your emails.

Dear {{{first_name}}}

But mail merge is an email marketing tool of substantial power. For example, it can be used to move your unsubscribe link to the top of your emails with the {{{unsubscribe}}} value. No matter how good your list is and how much your subscribers love you, some people are going to click the "mark as spam" button. If you have more than one complaint for every 1,000 emails sent, it can hurt delivery. Moving your unsubscribe link to the top of your email can reduce spam complaints by more than 70%

Here are some other boilerplate mail merge values:

{{{forward}}} – This is how you implement the forward to a friend feature.
{{{subscribe}}} – This links to your email list subscription page. Why would you want to do this? If someone forwards your email to a friend, the friend might want to subscribe.
{{{browse}}} – Some people prefer to view your email in their favorite web browser. Browse enables them to click and view your email as a web page.

For more information check out our knowledge base article on mail merge.

Email Marketing as a word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing tool

2009-09-22T18:00:00.000-07:00

Most people value the recommendations of friends when making buying decisions. This is what makes word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing such an essential part of the growth of most businesses.

StreamSend is no exception, and we have even established an email marketing affiliate program to reward referrals.

Email marketing can be a powerful tool for WOM marketing. With a strong call to action you can inspire your recipients to not only take action themselves but to forward your message to others. Make it easy for your subscribers to pass on your email newsletters with our forward to a friend feature.

Consider actively encouraging referrals by offering incentives both to the referrer and the person being referred. Email is an excellent medium to test offers to find out what incentives compel action.

How to Build a Good Email Newsletter List

2009-09-18T15:05:00.000-07:00

The vast majority of people who visit your website are not going to buy anything on the spot. Most of people are going to arrive, surf around a bit, and move on to another website. They are interested, want to learn more, but are not yet ready to buy. They leave and you never learn anything about them and they soon forget about you. Some of these visitors are ready to give you permission to keep in touch.

Here are some ideas to help with your list building:

Offer something valuable to your subscribers. Having a "sign up for our email newsletter" form is not that interesting to many people. They are in it for the useful information, special offers, coupons, contests, giveaways, etc.
Be sure to put your email list subscription forms on every page of your website. Permission to build a relationship with prospective customers is valuable and worth some space on every page.
Ask for the right amount of information. If you ask for too much information, people will be intimidated. If you ask for too little information, you will not have enough information to segment your email lists well. A good approach is to start with a short form and expand it by one field at a time. By doing this you are changing just one variable and seeing how things work. If it work well you stay with the change. If the change really hurts your conversions, then revert back to the old form.
Ask for permission to keep in touch when someone becomes a customer. I have heard from a number of StreamSend customers that the majority of their repeat business comes from email marketing. We all know that keeping a current customer is less expensive than getting a new one. In addition, loyal customers are where your referrals are going to come from. Email marketing is a very powerful tool for building customer loyalty.

Forms Tip: Update the "From" address

2009-09-18T09:41:00.000-07:00

Did you know that you can change the “From:“ email address on public messages sent when someone uses one of your sign up forms?

Public messages include:

Welcome (Opt-In Confirmation) - Notifies subscribers that they have successfully signed up and will receive emails.

Thank You (Double Opt-In) - Subscribers receive this upon sign up and must click an activation link to double opt-in.

Activation Reminder - Used when reminding subscribers who have not completed the double opt-in process.

By default the “From:” email address for public messages is an admin email address with which you login into your StreamSend account but it can be easily changed:

After logging into your account, click on Forms tab

Locate your Sign Up form and click on the "Email Messages" link

Click on the "edit" link off the right of where you see the current "From:" email address.

Type in a new email address. Please note that you can also add your name by using the following format: "Your name" <user@example.com>

Click on Save Changes

Press Release: Adam Mesh Uses Email to Educate Stock Investor Membership

2009-09-17T10:24:00.000-07:00

StreamSend announced that Adam Mesh Trading Group use StreamSend email marketing software to educate its stock investor membership, while building and strengthening those relationships.

Adam Mesh Trading Group is a recognized leader in stock market investment coaching. As featured on CNN, Fortune, Forbes, CNBC, and Trading Monthly, Adam’s unique stock market system has helped thousands of beginner investors around the world transform their financial lives for more than 10 years.

Daily emails containing tips, market snapshots and new perspectives are a critical factor in creating and building relationships with Adam’s members, but his group was hampered on several fronts:

Although trying to maintain regularity by mailing at nine am every day, messages sometimes would not reach their destinations until hours later.
There was no way to learn from previous mailings.
Since staffers had to share a public IP address, they might also have to wait to use the address for mailings, not to mention risk being tainted by other users’ spam practices.
When something went really wrong, Adam Mesh staffers were basically on their own.

Turning to StreamSend Email Marketing, the Adam Mesh Trading Group found the solutions it needed.

The first step was to offer Adam Mesh its own private IP address, then helping the group get “whitelisted” with all the major ISPs that had judged them by the public IP address they shared. StreamSend supplied the resources and deliverability to let Adam’s staffers push the “send” button at precisely nine am every day, so that members knew just when to expect their emails.

With StreamSend’s expert service and Google Analytics capability, Adam’s group can now learn and improve from each mailing, dissecting each component for the most effective combination, including imagery now made possible with HTML capability.

Although Adam’s subscriber base has tripled to over 100,000 since signing on with StreamSend, complaints have plummeted and deliverability has jumped to 99%. Viewership and click-through now exceed 15% and continue rising as the Adam Mesh Trading Group builds profitable relationships by using StreamSend email marketing to effectively share expert, timely financial guidance and insights with its members.

“StreamSend has given us the ability to run precise, profitable email campaigns, successfully reaching our members with timely information they want on a reliable schedule,” said Johnathan Bezalel, managing director of Adam Mesh Trading Group.

“Since we can examine performance statistics and put that knowledge to use in continuing campaigns, we are able to boost the direct response, effectively turning metrics into money.”

International character support

2009-09-15T13:42:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we fixed problems for international characters appearing correctly in your e-mails. There is only 1 remaining issue for international character support.

When we send your e-mail, we send it encoded according to the characters you use in your message. So if you use Chinese characters, the message will be encoded in a Chinese compatible encoding (utf). If you use only english characters, the message will be encoded in the simplest encoding for english charcters (ascii).

The remaining problem that can occur is if you use english (ascii) characters, but you have mail-merges in your message. If a subscriber has international characters in their data that is used for a mail-merge, then it will be encoded incorrectly, and it may not show up correctly. Most of the time this is not an issue, because you will be using the same language as your subscribers.

We can eliminate this problem (by always encoding in utf), but we want to test it out first. If you feel this is an issue for you and want to try out the new solution, please contact support.