Bounces – What Are They and Can They Hurt My Email Marketing Program?

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Chris Arrendale

Bounce management is very important for those email marketers trying to achieve inbox success.  You should have methods in place to automatically capture bounce data and should review that data on a regular basis to keep your lists clean.  I often get many questions relating to bounce management and deliverability.  Here are few of those:

What is the difference between a hard bounce and a soft bounce?

A hard bounce means that the recipient’s mail server indicates a permanent delivery failure and retried delivery attempts will not be successful.  An example of a hard bounce would be a bad mailbox.  You should strive for a hard bounce rate of no more than 5%.  Hard bounce rates that exceed 7% are cause for concern and should be immediately addressed.

A soft bounce is a valid email address that has been returned as temporarily undeliverable due to many different circumstances such as mailbox full or swamped mail servers.  A good rule is to scrub from your list any address that has consistently soft bounced at least three times over a certain period of time.

Can having too many hard or soft bounces hurt my deliverability?

The short answer is yes.  Too many hard bounces in your list could indicate an old list and too many soft bounces could indicate that you are being rate limited at an ISP due to complaints or traffic.  ISPs monitor and track those senders that send to large amounts of bad mailboxes, as well as those who get soft bounced due to complaints.  This could also affect your reputation on the IP and the domain that you are sending from.

When you don’t confirm your opt-in subscribers or clean your list often, you run the risk of piling up many undeliverable email addresses.  Here are some ways to help:

  • Confirm opt-ins.  Single opt-in is better than nothing, but confirmation, in which the subscriber has to verify their request, is the best way to try and remove typing mistakes.
  • Practice regular list hygiene.  Before your email campaign, run a program to find all malformed e-mail addresses (e.g., aol.cm; hyahoo.com, homtail.com, etc.).  Your email software should also try to pull out any other invalid email addresses, such as nonexistent mailboxes.

Are bounced emails removed from my list automatically?

At Easy To Send, hard bounces are removed automatically.  Soft bounces will be retried once every 24 hours for 4 days.  After 3 campaigns (a total of 9 retries), if an email is still undeliverable, it is then considered a hard bounce and added to the local account’s suppression list.

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Back To School Email Marketing Resolutions

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Kelly Reynolds

For me, September has always been my New Year. Of course I love New Year’s Eve, but somehow I’ve never been inclined to make resolutions on December 31st. It was always the school year – new clothes, new books, new classrooms, new teachers – that was the time to make my resolutions. So this year, we encourage you to make some email marketing resolutions. To start this year on the best foot possible, read our tips below.

Engage your subscribers
Opens don’t always equal engagement. To really test the response of your readers, it’s important to have a call to action button. Every few months hold a contest or trivia question, directing readers to post their answers to a link or email a certain address. This occassional test of engagement will keep subscribers on their toes and give you a good barometer of who is really reading your newsletters.

Get feedback from your customers
Our most valuable resource at Easy To Send is our customers – we are in constant communication with our customers to obtain feedback. Encourage your customers to let you know what they think of your newsletters format and content. Create a dedicated help email address, or ask them to reply to the email with suggestions. Finding out what your customers like will lead to improved retention rates, and happier subscribers!

Try new things
This is the perfect time to test out some changes – introduce a new section to your column, a new color scheme, or seasonal templates. Not sure how to proceed? Start by testing the new format with only half your subscribers, with the rest of your subscribers receiving the old version, and compare data.

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Do you have an email marketing preparedness plan?

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Kelly Reynolds

Between our first earthquake and hurricane Irene, it was an exciting week at ETS headquarters in NYC. All the unexpected surprises from mother nature has had us thinking quite a bit about planning and preparedness.

Having a plan is always important for your business, and that includes email marketing. So how can you be sure that your email marketing plan is ready for anything that comes your way?

1. Have a plan:
Sometimes the unexpected happens, but do your best to plan out your next 6 months of newsletters. Send one every day? Tackle your plan one month at a time, or come up with overarching themes to follow. Take into account seasonal changes (back to school, summer vacations) as well as holidays that would affect your customers.

2. Have supplies in storage:
Write a few general newsletters to keep as drafts for a hectic day or when your email marketing guru is out sick. Your store doesn’t shut down during a busy day, and neither should your online marketing.
3. Save for a rainy day:
You never know what surprises may come your way (or what mother nature has in store). Your best bet? Save a few emails for extenuating circumstances such as rainy days or blizzards. This can be done for things that aren’t weather related as well. Example – when a big sporting event such as the Superbowl is ahead, draft emails for both possible wins ahead of time. That way, as soon as the game ends, you’ll be ahead of the curve with relevant contact to engage your subscribers.

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Why We Don’t Like Purchased Lists

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Kelly Reynolds

We get many questions about our list policy. Do we allow purchased or rented lists? Do we sell lists? Will we buy lists?

The answer to all of the above is: No.

While mailing to purchased or rented lists is not illegal, it goes against our Terms of Use. We believe in providing our customers with the highest deliverability rates possible. Allowing purchased or rented lists often leads to higher abuse complaints and bounces and could ruin our reputation – therefore, negatively affecting all of our customers.

It’s true that many people on legitimate purchased or rented lists have agreed to receive third-party mailings, but that doesn’t mean you’re in the clear. The list could be old and have invalid email addresses or people on this list who might receive an email from you, have no idea how you got their name, and report it as abuse.

The best way to collect emails is to do it organically. Why? It means you have a healthy list and engaged subscribers. Your marketing emails are for your subscribers to read them. If someone has signed up with you to receive emails, they’ll recognize your name and be more inclined to open, read, and act on your emails.

We understand that for a business without a list, building a list from scratch can be a daunting task – here are some suggestions:

• Start with your existing relationships – Send an email to family, friends, and existing clients explaining that you will be starting a newsletter. Explain how frequently you plan on sending, and what the content will be. Then ask them to sign up by replying, or by signing up via other methods you’ve set up.

• If you have a storefront: Set a sheet out for customers to sign up. Be sure to place a sign disclosing how frequently you plan on sending and the content of the emails.

• If you have an online presence: Create a form for your site. Click here to see directions on how to create a form.

• Use social media such as Facebook and Twitter to encourage followers to sign up for your newsletter.

Whatever your preferred method of collecting your list, the most important thing to remember is that your list needs to be permission based. So before uploading your list, be sure to ask yourself:

Did every subscriber on this list give me explicit permission to email them?

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What are you forgetting?

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Kelly Reynolds

At Easy To Send, one of our favorite things is getting feedback and assisting customers. Having worked with our customers daily, I’ve compiled a few items that people tend to forget:

-Have a plain text version
Whether uploading your own HTML or using one of our templates, always remember to hit the “convert to plaint text” button and look over your text. Oftentimes people forget, resulting in blank plain text emails.

-Test your links
When embedding a link to copy or an image, make sure to test it afterwards. Double-click the link while in the editor to make sure you have the proper address – be sure that the FULL address is on there (ex: http://www.easytosend.com not just easytosend.com). Once you’re finished, send a test email and click on every link to make sure it directs to the correct location.

-Keep a 60:40 text to image ratio
I know it’s tempting to just turn that flier you created into a jpeg and use that as your email campaign, but one large image means a higher chance of getting caught in a spam filter, and the chance that people with certain display settings won’t see it at all.

-Send a test email
Test your email in different webmail providers – sending it to people with your company address? Make sure corporate settings don’t block certain images or links by sending a test email. Create a variety of email addresses (yahoo, gmail, hotmail, etc.) to test with since different webmail providers have different spam filter settings.

What do you forget to do? Let us know and we might just add a reminder on the site!

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Scheduling your campaign

Posted on July 15, 2011 by Kelly Reynolds

Life is all about timing – even your email marketing. There has been much debate about what the “best” time to send your emails are. Unfortunately you probably won’t like our answer – there is no universal “best” time.

Day of the week

Traditionally, Tuesday is thought as the best day – it gives subscribers time to weed through their inbox from the weekend but still gets them at the beginning of the week.

A few reasons this may not always hold true:

Quantity of emails – if Tuesday is thought of as the best day, it means most email marketing campaigns are sent on Tuesdays. If you’re a consumer, that means a whole lot of Tuesday emails.

Holidays – If it’s a three-day weekend, the Tuesday rule no longer applies.

Sales/Special Promotions – If the email is about a sale that starts on Saturday, it’s best to wait until later in the week to ensure it’s fresh in people’s minds.

Time of day

Again, logic prevails here.

Usually, earlier is better – people tend to check their email when they first get in, and again during lunch. Most people won’t open commercial emails at 5pm – they are rushing to finish work and get out the door.

So when should you send your email?

The answer to this is test, test, test. Every group of subscribers is different, and there is no catchall rule. So don’t settle on a day and time – try it out and see what works for you. A little testing can lead to a dramatic increase it open rates!

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Weekend Scheduled Maintenance

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Chris Arrendale

Please be aware that easytosend.com will be undergoing scheduled maintenance this weekend:

Saturday July 9, 2011 12am EST through Sunday July 10, 2011 11:59pm EST.

During this time, you will be able access the site, work on drafts of your campaign, and access reporting. However, you will not be able to send any campaigns during this time. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at help@easytosend.com.

Sincerely,
The Easy To Send Team

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Getting Started Checklist

Posted on July 1, 2011 by Kelly Reynolds

Want to send out your 4th of July campaign but having trouble knowing where to start? See below for our Getting Started Checklist and soon you’ll be an Easy To Send pro.

Lists

  • If you have a list: Make sure that it is up to date and that everyone on your list has given you permission to contact them. Never buy a list. Purchasing lists can cause damage to your reputation and could get you blacklisted. Easy To Send has a strict policy against mailing purchased list – Don’t do it!
  • If you don’t have a list: Start building! Create a List on our List Page, and hit the “Form” button. Input the snippet of HTML code into your website and it will automatically feed sign ups from your website to your Easy To Send list.

Email Content and Design

  • Make sure that you have a relevant subject line. Relevant subject lines will grab your subscriber’s attention and have a better chance of higher email opens.
  • Have a valid from and reply email address. Best practice is to also be consistent with the from and reply so that your subscribers know that the email is coming from you. Also, you want your subscribers to be able to get in touch with you via replies. You must verify your from and reply to addresses in order to use the Easy To Send system.
  • Keep your content relevant. Give your readers a reason to want to receive your emails.
  • HTML Email templates: You can easily upload an existing email template to our site, but Easy To Send has over 100 free, fully customizable templates at your disposal. Want it designed? Soon you’ll be able to get templates created by designers in our Creative Marketplace.

Sending

  • Right before you send, be sure to test, test, test. Not all mail clients render HTML emails the same way. Use our test tool to send your campaign to different webmail and email clients. Check for design differences and see if your email is landing in the inbox or the junk folder.
  • You can easily schedule your campaign for your preferred time, or send right away. For tips on the best times to send, check out our Resources Page.

After Your Send

  • Check reporting for bounces, abuse complaints, opens, and clicks.
  • Respond to any email replies that you receive after sending your email out.
  • Make sure that you honor unsubscribes, remove hard bounces, and come up with a strategy for dealing with soft bounces. Easy To Send will automatically remove any unsubscribes and hard bounces from your list.

Staying Spam-Free

  • Make sure that your email doesn’t end up in the spam filter by avoiding URL shorteners and having a good image to text ratio. An email consisting only of one large image could get you in the spam folder.

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Your Newsletter and Third-Party Content

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Kelly Reynolds

We’ve had a lot of questions about what kind of third-party content we allow. The most important thing to remember is that your subscribers signed up to receive emails containing relevant content about your business.

That being said, as a business you are often approached with opportunities for sponsorships, advertising, and partnerships with others. To help you sift through what’s okay and not, I’ve put a few examples below.

I’m having a co-sponsored event with another store and want to mention it and put a link to their store in my website.

Verdict? Okay.

As long as it’s your event, with an email being sent from your company, and the content is about your company, you are safe. The event is one you have a part in throwing, it just happens that other companies are involved.

I’m having a co-sponsored event with another store and want to send out an email on their behalf.

Verdict? Not Okay

If the other store wants to send an email to your customers, they need to acquire them themselves. What you can do on their behalf is to include something in your newsletter that directs your subscribers to sign up for the other store’s emails. Just be careful and know your customer base. You don’t want to offend or turn off your customers by “over-selling”.

I’m starting a new business and want to send a new newsletter for this business to my existing customers.

Verdict? Not okay.

Your subscribers signed up to receive newsletters from a specific store/company, not to receive newsletters on every endeavor or adventure you go on. To safely transition your subscribers, send them an email alerting them to the business and asking them to opt-in to receive newsletters from the new company.

Bottom Line: While you can certainly include relevant sponsorships and partnerships in your email – don’t replace your content with information on another business.

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Optimizing Your Email Campaigns for Mobile

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Chris Arrendale

Let’s face it, our mobile devices are our lifeline to what is happening back at the office.  This also includes creating, responding, and reading email.  Chances are your customers are also reading your email marketing campaigns on their mobile devices.  Your next thought should be – “Are my email marketing campaigns optimized to read on mobile devices?”.  Let’s analyze this question together.

There are all kinds of stats out in the marketplace about how many people view their emails on mobile platforms:

  • Over 31% of people view their personal email on a mobile device.
  • There will be 5.8 billion mobile subscribers worldwide by 2013.  Out of those subscribers, 30% will have smartphones.
  • Many people think that by 2012, smartphones will surpass PCs as the method of choice for reading their email.

So what do all these numbers mean to you and your email campaigns?  The simple answer is, they mean to start considering a mobile email marketing campaign.  There are many ideas and tips on how to do this and I am going to list them below:

  • Be relevant and keep it above the fold!  Mobile design is very important.  Make sure that your call to action is within the first 230-250 pixels and set your width to around 320 pixels.  You don’t want to make your subscriber keep scrolling to find out what the point of your campaign is.
  • Create two newsletter templates.  Having a separate mobile template will aid in getting your email displayed properly on the mobile device.  Add an additional link to the top of your email newsletter that reads – “Display on Mobile Device” and link that to your mobile template version.
  • Keep your From and Subject lines short and to the point.  This will be the first point at capturing the interest of the mobile reader.  Use terms that will excite your audience and will make them open your email, even on their mobile device.
  • Image size in your email template are very important here too.  Make sure that your images are small in size and inclue an “ALT” tag that includes a description of your image.  This is in case images are disabled, the mobile reader can still determine what image would be included in that spot.  Images on a mobile device should be kept to a minimum to help speed the loading of the email.
  • After you’ve designed a mobile friendly email template and saved it, you want to then test, test, test.  There are plenty of websites out there that let you see what your email campaign will look like on an iPhone, Android, etc.

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