Email Marketing Services
There is more to email marketing than most people seem to think. I receive many questions from clients who want to send messages to groups of people and want to know if I will do it for them. Orangetree Internet Service does not send out email to groups of people for any reason, unless they have signed up specifically to be notified about our own products or services.
Sending out email messages, either in the form of plain text email, HTML email, or building complex email marketing campaigns, is a complicated issue because there are laws governing the sending of unsolicited email (sending email to people who have not specifically requested the email). I'm not referring to sending out a few emails to unsuspecting friends, but, rather, sending out many email messages to a targeted or untargeted list of email addresses. For more information about the CAN SPAM Act, please refer to 15 U.S.C. 7701.
I'm sure you've heard the phrase, "the money is in the list", referring to the marketing of products and services through email campaigns. There is a lot of money to be made through email lists and there are services available that insure all the applicable laws are followed. If your business has the potential for marketing to email lists, or you would like to explore the option of selling to email lists, you would be well advised to investigate some of the well-known and respected web based email marketing services in more detail. If you choose to manage your lists yourself, then it is your responsibility to understand and follow the laws and regulations. Failure to do so will get your website and IP banned from the ISP's and any further email sent will be rejected.
Choosing a Hosting Account Suitable for Email Marketing
When you signup for a hosting account through Orangetree Internet Service, you have the option of purchasing a dedicated IP address under the Business Hosting Plans, or simply sharing an IP address under the Personal Hosting Plans and the Custom Hosting Plans. If you are managing your own email lists through the PHPList (a feature packed open source mailing list manager with support for attachments, double opt-in, and automatic bounce processing) application (available through your site manager) then you should signup for a Business Hosting Plan to get your own dedicated IP address. Occasionally, a shared IP will get banned because of the actions of someone who is careless or uninformed, and it is best that your business not be subjected to the actions of others.
Managing Your Email List
In addition to following applicable laws related to sending unsolicited email, there are features necessary for managing your email list. Here are a few of the features worth mentioning:
- Send an automatic series of messages to effortlessly build relationships
- Broadcast newsletters, coupons, and special offers by email
- Web form tool to easily publish sign up forms to your website
- Create autoresponders
- Stop sending prospects pre-sales messages after they buy
- Automatically remove unsubscribes and undeliverable addresses
- Track who opens your messages and who doesn't
- Track who clicks your links and who doesn't
- Split test messages and forms to see what works and what doesn't
- See which ad campaigns or signup forms bring you the most subscribers
- Send subscribers to any page of your site after they fill out your form
Unless the intention is to implement these features manually (which is really not a good idea), signing up for a web based email marketing service is your best option. The reason we consider it your best option is because a web based email marketing service manages all the details for you, from complying with applicable laws to providing analytics about your campaigns, all for a small and very reasonable monthly fee.
Setting up an email marketing campaign can be complex. ISP's use spam lists to reject email based on many different factors. For example, content filters scan for a variety of red flags. They can even learn new patterns in spam email, such as inserting periods in words that would normally trigger a block, or using invalid HTML in your messages.
Here are some things you can do to insure a successful delivery:
- validate your HTML before sending
- run your message through a spam content checker
- top the page with a line about where recipients signed up or how you got their email address
- top the page with your unsubscribe link
- don't send more often than a subscriber opted in for
- keep the conversation on topic
- choose your words carefully because multiple uses of single words in quotes, multiple blank lines, words like free and express, words in all capital letters, multiple exclamation points, and the use of any of these seemingly innocent phrases: millions of dollars; lowest price; as seen; dollar amount; your bills; your family; and — the email standard — click here.
- avoid subject lines starting with buy, buying or test
- avoid recipient lists sorted by address rather than name
There are around 160 email blacklists actively tracking recent offenders. Widely checked ones are Spamhaus, SpamCop and MAPS. Some ISP's make their decisions about who to block based on spam lists and subscriber complaints.
It makes sense for someone who wants to actively pursue the use of an email marketing campaign to invest the time necessary to learn how to increase chances that your email will be accepted. Unless you can invest the time necessary, it would be highly recommended to not only signup with an online marketing service to increase your success rate but to protect your business reputation.