Understanding Email Content Filtering

Most email programs will come with some type of email filtering program. Within the email filters are options like spam characteristics allowing the consumer to filter certain content. A consumer can access the email filter and set the options to their preference.

Four techniques to keep in mind when sending email, so your not simulating spam.

* Always use a subject line with a meaning. Do not use a generic subject line. People will always delete an email that has the from line reading Anonymous. Always have your business or name in the from line.

* Do not attach a PDF document only containing advertisements. Some email programs will let you send the attachment notification without actually attaching the attachment. This will give the recipient the option to download the PDF file from the actual website. This works well for trustworthy.

* Always include plain text in any image advertisements. This looks like a real person has created this email specifically for you.

* "DO NOT" use excessive promotional phrases or words.

Most people do not alter their email filtering programs. So keeping these few things in mind when creating an email should exclude you from the most common filters.

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Establishing Your Reputation

Last week or so I have talked about ways of keeping your email off the block list and avoiding a fire wall. Today, I will talk about how to avoid being part of the 77% email delivery issues which occur by the senders reputation.

Choosing the right ESP is very important when researching for the right ESP. Most servers are not known as a respectable email server. So you need to make sure you choose the right ESP with a good reputation with deliverability.

Five key points to make sure the ESP can do before choosing the right ESP

* Always have an authentication in your emails. This will give the email servers the opportunity to identify the sender of the email.

* Eliminate customers with high spam complaints. Because to many customers with high spam complaints can end up on the block list.

* Because ESP's cannot predetermine the quality of their customers. Make sure the ESP requires the customer to adhere to strict permission policies.

* Confirm permission from the ESP's customers list subscribers when possible.

* Keep their customers from sending repeated emails to unknown users. If your ESP sends an email two or three times to an unknown address, it will stop automatically and will not continue sending them. This is done through a reputable ESP.

These are just a few ideas to keep in mind when determining the right ESP.

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Dodging Email Firewalls

Yesterday I talked about how to avoid your emails from being put on a blocked list. Today I will talk about Email firewalls. They are a piece of software used to block untrustworthy emails. An email firewall can be configured to block any level of emails.

Example: A person may configure there emails to block an email with certain content. Another person may block there email from certain senders.

To target if your email is being blocked from a firewall is pretty tough to do. Since fire walls have so many different variables there really isn't a way of detecting this. If your ESP provides a report of bounced emails you can at least see what email addresses are being blocked. This will give you the opportunity of taking action on your emails.

3 tactics you can use to keep your email from possibly getting blocked.

* Ask your subscribers if they can add your address to their address book so your emails will no longer get blocked. You can do this by adding it to your subscribers welcome letter.

* Ask your blocked subscribers if they can provide you with an alternative email.

* If your email is a business email, you can ask your IT department to please add your address to the companies contact list. Most fire walls will ignore the command if your address is in the friends contact list.

These are just a few precautions you can take to keep your emails from being blocked from the recipients.

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Avoiding Block Lists In Email

OK, I have been away for a little while talking about email marketing. So today I will continue where I left off. If you missed my last post regarding the difference between bounced email and blocked email don't be alarmed just click the link. Let's talk about why it is important to keep your email and or server off the email block list.

A block list is a data base that contains all domain names and server addresses that have been suspected of spamming. These block lists are maintained by an ISP or other companies that monitor spammers. Your address or server can only be logged to these services from the consumers who are reporting these addresses or servers.

Companies at times will use false email addresses on the internet to reduce the amount of spam they are receiving. This type of technique is called, "trap email." When Spammers send out web crawlers to try and capture email addresses to these trap emails, the domain and server address is automatically added to the block list. So if you were to send out an email to one of these trap emails then your address or server is pretty much toast.

3 ways to avoid trap e-mail addresses.

* Don't ever surf the internet to obtain email addresses. This could definitely get you into trouble. And by the way it is also illegal.

* Don't send an email to a purchased list to obtain addresses. Most of the addresses are trap e-mail.

* Send out an email to all your new list subscribers welcoming them. If you get your welcome letter returned, then most likely your email went to a trap email. At this point you will want to delete that email address.

These are just a few ways to protect yourself from being labeled as a spammer.

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Differences Between Bounced Blocked Email

I have talked about how to calculate your email bounce rate. Today I will tell you the difference between Bounced email and Blocked email.

Sometimes when you send an email it can return back to the sender. This can be sent back by either the email server or some sort of software application. These types of emails are either called bounced or blocked.

Slight differences between bounced email and a blocked email

* A bounced email happpens on a per email basis. This type of email is considered undeliverable. It happens by either the recipients email inbox is full, address misspelled or doesn't exist.

* A blocked email happens on an all inclusive basis. This occurs by certain characteristics of the email are unwanted.

Example: An ESP decides to block all emails with attachments or from certain senders. There is a code that is attached to the returned email stating why the email was returned.

Always make sure to review your bounced report to find out how many of your emails are showing bounced or blocked.

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Testing Offers Call to Action

I have talked about how effective it is to know your click view data. Today I will talk about how you should use your click view data for testing your offers and calls to action.

Knowing if your offers or calls to action has inclined or declined is important. This will tell you if they are compelling to your audience. To do so, just send your offers and call to actions to a portion of your email list and tracking your click through rate.

Four techniques you can use to create and execute your own click through tests.

* Randomly pick 10% of your email list subscribers. Then copy them to a new data base labeling them in a new category.

* Create two versions of your email. Then send one half to one part of the list and one to the other part.

* Waiting anywhere from 48 hours to 72 hours. Check your click through report and see what links were popular. Remember people do not open email's right away, so you have to have patience.

* Taking the most popular elements from your partial email and creating a final email. Send this email to your entire list.

These are just a few ideas to keep in mind so you can create the best email possible.

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Using Click Through Data to Your Advantage

Earlier I talked about the importance of Estimating the click through rate in an email. Today I will talk about understanding the importance of tracking the click through data. Using the data you have gathered from your click through rate report is very useful information. This will track anybody who has not followed through with a purchase or any commitments. You can follow up with the clicker to find out why they might quit the process.

Following up with your emails can be very effective. You always want to gather addresses and phone numbers.

For example: If you send out a pre-registration for an event. You can track all the clicks that pre-registered and the others who have not. This way you can make a call to the non registered people and find out what kept them from registering. Your clicker may had a question, and your web site did not answer their question. Some people are skeptical about entering their credit card information. You can rest assure them it is completely secured.

Six ways to do follow ups on your click through rate reports.

* Send your clicker a second chance offer. Making sure to bold or high light a Second Chance. Maybe you want to use some artistic work in your second chance offer.

* Send your clickers a post card or a product sample to thank them for considering your offers. Mention that you would like to know if you can offer them an alternative in product or service.

* Pick up the phone and call your clickers and ask if they have any questions. Believe it or not. When someone decides to leave your web site without finishing the process, there is a big chance that they may have been confused with the process. Doing a follow up call can and will clear up their confusion.

* Send out a survey to your clickers. Ask them how was the process, and what changes could be made if any. People love to respond on things that are asking for their opinions.

* Always thank your subscribers for sharing your emails. Whether it's a direct email or through social networks.

* Send a post card to the one's who unsubscribe. Let them know how valuable they are to your work and thank you for considering your products or services.

People like to be noticed. Using these ideas, will and could change how your audience responds to you.

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Targeting Your Email Offers

Lets get started by talking about how important it is to track all your clicks within an email. This gives you the opportunity to track what may be of interest to your audience. How often and what links are being clicked in an email will and can give you a great chance to increase the value and size of your email list. This is where having a great ESP or marketing program is very important to accomplish your email marketing goals.

Someone who clicks a link such as an offer or article in your email will give you some sort of interest in that person. This is where placing the clickers into some sort of email list based on their interests is very effective. It will give you a more targeted email.

Three tips to determine your audiences interests and dividing your email lists.

* Write your clicks in such ways that they attract that particular audience. You want your links to speak for you.

For example: If your business sells a variety of snacks for adults and kids. If your offer is pointed towards kids. You will want to write the link with some sort of eye catching offers that point towards kids interests. Kids like to eat chewy, crunchy products, so that maybe something to include in the link.

* Make small changes to your emails. You can do this by just rearranging the items in order of interest to your audience. Maybe even change the subject line to the targeted audience. This will keep you having to create new emails for each and every different audience.

* You may have more than one offer. Send the different offers to the appropriate audience of interest. People tend to respond to calls of action in your emails based on the strength of the offer. Keeping the call of action the same but just changing the offers according to your audience.

For example: You may want to take a survey. The one's taking the survey may receive discounts and the other's offers may receive privileges.

These are just a few tricks of the trade I have learned from others. They seam to be pretty effective.

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Importance of Tracking Email Replies

ESP's cannot track your email replies. But when you receive an email reply, in the subject line you will see "RE:" but without the quotes. This will show that the email you had sent has been replied to. If there are excessive "RE's," then you know how many times people have replied to your emails.

Keeping track of replies in your email is not really useful. But what is useful is keeping track of qualitative information in your replies. This will help you for future complaints or problems somebody may have.

Two ideas you can use in tracking email replies.

* Keeping track of the particulars in the reply.

Was the email a complaint, suggestion, or an inquiry. Make sure to reply to the source. Keeping track of this information can help you in deciding if you should set up a link pertaining to those repeating questions.

* Always keep track of your responses.

This way you can address any other person's with the same complaint. Start a FAQ in your blog or web site. This will give peoples a place to go if they have any questions that may be answered in the FAQ's.

People go online to find answers for their problems. Having the answer's to their problems will definitely increase a relationship possibility.

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Tracking Events Through Email

In my last post I talked about Tracking your phone calls in an email campaign. Today I will talk about how to track your event attendance in an email campaign. If your goal is to increase event attendance through email. You must have some type of tracking method to keep track of your progress.

Three ideas to track your event attendance and linking them to your email marketing campaign.

* If your event is held somewhere outside the internet. You can ask your audience to please bring your email invitation with them. This is an excellent way to track your email invitations.

* Ask your audience to please mention your email or have an access code to enter the event. You can even use this for an event you may be hosting on the internet. Just make sure to track the number of people who mention the email or the code when entering the event.

* One that is really popular. Ask your audience to preregister by calling or replying to an email. This is probably the easiest and most proficient way to track your success.

As your events get bigger, you want to have some type of tracking method so you know what is working and what is not. If you see that the numbers are increasing in your events due to referrals. You want to know this so you can give credit where the credit is due.

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Tracking Phone Calls Through Email

I will continue this week talking about email marketing. If you have missed any of my last posts talking about this, feel free to browse my site. I really love talking about this topic. Most marketers will rely solely on email marketing to build their network marketing business. This will not work if you are trying to build a personal relationship with your prospects. If this is how you rely on your marketing, you will see that most, or all of your emails will either not be opened or marked as spam.

If your goal is to market your phone number through email, you must have a tracking method to do this. To become a successful marketer, you must make some type of personal contact with your prospect. You cannot just rely on your email to do all the work for you.

Five ideas to track your phone calls from email.

* If your email audience were to give you a call, ask them to please mention your email when calling.

* Set up a special number for emails only, then publish this number in your emails.

I love to use Google Voice. You can have as many free numbers as you wish.

* If you are promoting a special product or service, include this special in your emails.

Make sure to keep records of all the phone calls that come through pertaining to that special.

* You can include a specific person in an email for them to ask for when calling. Make sure to keep a record of that specific request.

* You can also ask your caller how they heard about you. Keep a record of all information that is told to you.

Making communication either through a phone call or in person is very important to becoming a successful marketer.

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Estimating Click Through Rate In an Email

A unique visitor is someone who clicks more than one link in your email. This kind of process is called your click through rate. This type of tracking method is calculated on your opened emails in percentages.

Three steps used to calculate your click through rate.

* Take the total number of clicked links in each email. Then subtract any number of duplicated clicks in the same link to get your total unique clicks.

* Taking the total number of tracked opens and dividing the number of unique visits will give you your clicks per open.

For example: If 50 of your emails are tracked as opened with 5 unique clicks, then your email received 0.1 clicks per open.

* Multiply the clicks per open by 100 to get your click through rate.

So the bottom line is, if your audience clicks one link multiple times, it will not count as a click through rate. Your click through rate is only calculated on the number of unique visitors who only click one or more links.

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Understanding Your Open Email Rate

Open rate in an email consists of many actions from an email server after the email has been sent. These emails consist of all the non bounced emails. An email is not considered open until a few interactions are completed by an email server.

Two actions must happen before an email is considered an open email.

* The recipient of an email must enable the images in preview pane or in full view of an email.

* The recipient must lick a link within the email.

Because most email programs are automatically defaulted to block all images until you click allow images. Most people scan through emails without enabling this feature. So your audience is probably see more of your emails than what your email tracking report shows.

Plain or text only emails are not trackable through the email tracking report. They are only trackable if your audience replies to it. You can ask your ESP to insert a blank image to make these emails trackable.

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Calculating Email Bounce Rate

I really like talking about bounce rate. It is always good to know your bounce rate of your web site and emails. Keeping track of your bounce rate will give you an idea how your web site and email marketing campaigns are doing. I have talked about tracking your web sites bounce rate using google analytics. If you missed it, don't worry I will repost it. Tracking bounce rate using google analytics. Today I will start talking about how to calculate the bounce rate of your emails. This series will last for the next few days.

Bounce rate in an email is the number of emails that were returned as undeliverable. ESP's will calculate the total number of bounced emails by the total number of emails sent.

Two ways to calculate your own bounce rate.

Take the total number of bounced emails and divide by the total number of emails sent. This will give you the total number of bounces per email.

For example: If you send 100 emails and 20 of them bounced then your bounce ratio is 0.2 for every email sent.

* To get your bounce rate in percentage. Just take the total bounces per email and multiply by 100. This will give your total percentage of bounces within your email.

According to returnpath.com the average bounce rate for a commercial email is 19.2. So don't feel bad if your bounce rate is quite high. It's pretty normal.

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Understanding How Email Tracking Works

Choosing the right Email service provider (ESP) is very important in tracking your email campaigns. ESP's will add a special tracking code in the links you include in an email to track it's where abouts. This tracking code is very unique to each and every individual on your mailing list. These tracking codes are also tied to all your email campaigns. ESP's also have the capability of reading the codes of other email servers to determine what has happened with your email.

Six tracking reports that are included in an email campaign.

* If an email is bounced back from a receiving server you will be notified in an email.

* Normally, you will also be given a reason why your email bounced. This will give you the option to fix the bounce problem and resend the email.

* Anytime you send an email, you want to be able to track to see if that email was opened. ESP's have that feature, which makes email marketing more enjoyable.

* ESP's have the capability of tracking what links were clicked in any given email. This will give you an idea on what links are popular and which one's are not so popular.

* People who subscribe to your emails and then unsubscribe. There is a tracking for this feature as well.

* An email is sent from you to another person. It would be nice to know if that email made it any further then the one who it was intended for. Well, with a great ESP's, you have that option to track that process.

These are just a few reasons why you should be particular in choosing the right ESP.

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Facts and Research Included in Email

There are plenty of ways to market your products and services. You want to add value too any related offers you may have. Adding facts and research in an email to enhance your offers will increase the value of your products or services.

Two possibilities you can use to enhance your products or services.

* Conduct your own research by starting a poll on a particular product or service.

Example: You can conduct a poll asking people what type of flavored snacks they would prefer. This poll can be included in your marketing emails.

* Find facts and research on the internet by external resources. People publish this information daily by the millions. You can share their findings in your email that you would consider of interest to your audience. Always make sure to ask for permission from the source in which you found the facts and research.

Learn to master your email marketing campaign can and will greatly increase your sales.

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Connecting Headlines to Content

So far in the past week I have talked about the title tag, and having a great meta description tag. Today we will talk about having a descriptive heading on your site.

Having a detailed heading is very important. The headline is the first thing people see when they enter your page. Always make sure to have key phrases in your headline.

The headline is different from the title tag in such a way.

* The title tag will refer to the entire page in which the headline refers to the first few paragraphs. Refer back to Getting to the point when creating your paragraph immediately following the headline.

Writing a great headline takes time and practice. If you would like to refer to a great tutorial on writing great headlines, then go to copyblogger.com

A very detailed headline should create more traffic and readers to your site.

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Creating a Good Meta Description Tag

If you missed my last post talking about writing a good Title Tag you may want to check it out. Today I will talk about writing a great meta description tag.

Including a meta description in your tag doesn't necessarily effect your ranking. But including a well written description tag can, have a lot of effect on searchers clicking through your website.

Search engines do use the meta description tag in the snippet of the search listings. So I suggest using a meta description tag for the customers use.

If a description tag is not included in your website, then search engines will just grab anything from the page. The search engine may grab something that has no meaning to the website. You never know what search engines may do, so I suggest using a description tag.

If your not sure how to create a meta description tag, just google " how to create a meta description tag.

If you this suggestion, you should see better results in the search engines.

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Title Tags

In my last post I talked about writing scannable content. Today I will talk about writing a good Title Tag.

In a search engine results page you will see that the keyword tag is at the top of each search result.

Having good content in your title tag is very important. Keeping in mind when creating your title tag, there is more involved then just putting your keywords first.

A well written tag has a great possibility of a scanner clicking on your listing.

Looking past your brand

In the title tag do not include your brand first. After you have drawn people to your website your brand will stick out front and center. So in the meantime, work on keywords for higher ranking and clicks.

Making a title tag can be as long as you want. But search engines ignore anything longer than 65 characters. So the phrase at the beginning has more relevance than the one at the end.

3 things to keep in mind when creating your title tag.

*If at all possible don't include the keyword more than once.

*A title tag tells your story about the website.

So include anything that is of relevance set different from any other website.

* Make sure the title tag is readable.

If you are targeting a certain local area, make sure to include it in the title tag becuase search engines award relevance.

I have hit on a couple of key points when creating a title tag. In my next post I will talk about a title description.

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Getting to the Main Point

Earlier I had talked about keeping it simple when writing your content. Today I will talk about getting to the point when writing your content.

Most search engines give more power to the content at the top of the page, not at the bottom. Two things could happen if the main point of your page is at the bottom.

* Search engines will look at the text being less relevance.

If your point is part of the targeted phrase. You may consider moving the phrase up in the content page.

* Most readers will give up on the page before they reach your point. So you may want to include your point within the first 3 sentences of the paragraph.

Make it a habit when writing for search engines to make your point more to the top of the page. Your chances of the reader to continue reading are much greater.

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