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Goodmail Confirms Yahoo Split

Monday, March 8, 2010 by Al Iverson
As I mentioned before, Yahoo is ending support for Goodmail CertifiedEmail.

Today, Goodmail confirmed this via an email notice to Goodmail clients and Goodmail partner ESPs. In the email, Goodmail says that "Goodmail and Yahoo failed to renew their service agreement. As a result, effective 3/24/10, Yahoo will no longer accept CertifiedEmail messages. We hope to restore the CertifiedEmail service at Yahoo in the not too distant future, but for now our customers are advised to plan on sending plain (non-CertifiedEmail) messages to Yahoo as of March 24."

We're already working with Yahoo to ensure a smooth transition off of Goodmail CertifiedEmail at Yahoo for any affected Goodmail-utilizing clients.  I don't anticipate this being a painful process. Stay tuned; we'll be sure to post any updates as they become available.

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ESPC Call: Cloudmark and Best/Worst Practices

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 by Al Iverson
As part of Cloudmark's ongoing ESP outreach program, where they work to help spread knowledge and understanding of best practices and bad practices, Jamie Tomasello of Cloudmark spoke to the ESPC (Email Sender and Provider Coalition) group on March 2nd, 2010. ExactTarget is an ESPC member, so I listened in.

Cloudmark is a really big spam filterer, protecting over one billion mailboxes across 190 countries. Successful delivery of email to the inbox depends on passing successfully through Cloudmark filters at a lot of different receiving sites that matter, both B2C and B2B. That makes it important to understand what Cloudmark considers to be good practices and bad practices, as these perceptions are likely to drive their filtering decisions and affect your ability to get mail delivered (or not).

Jamie explained that in the eyes of end recipients of email, the definition of spam is changing. It's not so much just "do you have permission or not" as much as it is now "is the mail desired and wanted." The underlying statement there is that unclear permission, third-party permission, co-registration, etc. are not best practices, and are likely to cause deliverablity woes. As she indicated, these are mailing practices that have been defended in the past, but they're no longer defensible. ISPs and end recipients only want to let desired mail through. Is your mail desired?

Here are just a few of the Cloudmark-preferred best practices that Jamie mentioned on the call.
  • At a minimum, compliance with CAN-SPAM. (Keeping in mind that CAN-SPAM is a starting point, not the finish line.)
  • Following MAAWG Senders Best Communication Practices document.
  • Implementing confirmed opt-in, also known as double opt-in, obtaining explicit permission confirming that every recipient really wants to be on your email list.
  • Segmenting or segregating marketing mail from transactional mail. Making sure you're not trying to dilute stats or get away with something by mixing mail streams. (Spam filterers are smart and will figure you out.)
  • Using consistent branding in content, sending domains, call to action domains, and reverse DNS.
  • Sending from dedicated IP addresses.
  • Utilizing feedback loop data to identify and solve problems. (What intelligence can you gather from the recipient response to the campaign? Don't just listwash.)
On the bad side of the practices spectrum, a few of the things that she mentioned that can damage your reputation include things like third party co-registration, email append (which consumers hate), list purchasing and mailing to inactive subscribers. She also pointed out that you're very likely to look like one of the bad guys if you're doing things like gaming reputation systems, distributing mail volume over a large number of IP addresses (also called snowshoeing), sending your mail via multiple ESPs or affiliates, or mixing non-relevant third-party mail in with relevant, permissioned messages-- a practice termed "spamouflage."

A lot of what was discussed is stuff that savvy ESPs (and savvy marketers) should know already. But, it's never a bad idea to remind folks of what the rules are, as new people and new companies enter the email space every day. I'm very glad that Jamie and Cloudmark are helping to raise the level of understanding of best practices among email marketers and their email service providers.
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Distributed Email Marketing (Build vs. Partner series)

Wednesday, February 24, 2010 by Dennis Hall
The process of implementing or replacing an email marketing module that will be distrbuted to your customers (and even your customer's customers) can be a daunting exercise, not only due to the complexity of developing functions like list management, content editing and tracking, but also because of the importance of factors outside the bits and bytes.

For example, deliverability (the rate at which emails make it to the subscriber’s inbox) is affected by the reputation of the sender not the quality of the code. Without the right policies and people to work with the major ISPs, the value of email (no matter how beautiful) is diminished.

To help you assess the magnitude of becoming your own Email Service Provider on behalf of your customers, we’ve put together a "top-ten" list of high-level requirements that our Partners have shared with us along with a bit of color.

1.    Reliability System availability and uptime are critical issues for email. As email volume grows, so must the system behind it. System failures will occur whether the system is in-house or 3rd party so management and recovery processes are constants.
2.    Deliverability Reputation and remediation capabilities are critical to ensure consistent, timely email delivery. Managing this process is one of the most expensive elements of email. To maximize delivery, the system must support a permission based, strong opt-in model as well as private (dedicated) IPs or domains.
3.    Security In addition to data protection standards (e.g. encryption/SMTP) to keep customer data safely behind the firewall, the system must maintain data integrity across multiple hierarchies and parent-child relationships.
4.    Transactional, operational sending Many ESPs do not support this capability within the framework or API. These types of emails, from loyalty programs to notifications, have become as effective as mass marketing emails in terms of driving consumer behavior.
5.    Relevance The ability to use subscriber attributes and external data tables to deliver tailored messages, including HTML, text, hyperlinks and images, has grown as a key differentiator for email marketing systems. Dynamic content is an example of innovation in this area.
6.    Performance List processing, send execution and tracking response are key metrics to be optimized. In today’s world of social media and instant buzz, customers want to know that there emails will be delivered in near real-time.
7.    User experience This category includes usability, look and feel as well as integration with external systems. The extent of control desired often dictates the go to market approach. An open, flexible framework will allow for a phased deployment.
8.    Tracking  Access to opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes, and conversion statistics are vital to measuring the impact of email programs. If this data is not available, it will become more difficult to justify cost from the user’s perspective.
9.    Unsubscribe options Support for campaign based or publication based management of unsubscribes is essential to building and sustaining subscriber lists. 
10.    Multi-channel Though Email remains a red-hot market and will continue to be a major channel of communication (despite the NY Times opinion, marketers expect to utilize other established and emerging channels, such as SMS (Text), Voice, Landing Pages and Social networks. Supporting such channels within a single platform will enable you to satisfy demand as it grows.

Your list will no doubt be unique - containing more granular requirements on what is needed to satisfy customer demand in your market. We'd love your feedback on what features, functions and/or factors are most important to you and why...

Stay tuned for the next part of the series...The Partner Paradox.

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Twitterview: Engagement. Delivered.

Monday, February 22, 2010 by Dawn DeVirgilio
Our own Chip House, VP of Industry & Relationship Marketing virtually sat down with me for our latest Twitterview on 2010 Resolutions. We talked deliverability and how marketers should be more engaging in 2010: 

ExactTarget: @cehouse Your resolution is Engage Your Subscribers. What’s the easiest thing a marketer can do to engage? #ET2010

Chip House: The answer seems almost too easy. Treat them like you know them and you care about "what they think" as individuals. #ET2010

Chip House: the same things marketers do to drive high ROI (opt-in, branding, relevance, frequency) also drive engagement 
ExactTarget: How does engagement affect email deliverability?
Chip House: Positive and negative engagement are monitored by ISPs. Complaints are "negative" engagement, and clicks are positive
Chip House: Engagement also comes in "implicit" ways -- meaning, if your emails aren't ever opened, that will lower inbox rate
ExactTarget: Explain why quality always trumps quantity in deliverability.
Chip House: Marketers know of the 80/20 rule. The 20% drives your sales, but the bad apples in the 80% kill your deliverability

Chip House: So most from the print space think "email is cheap, I'll send a lot" - but, the cost of mailing deep is poor engagment
ExactTarget: The whitepaper mentions reducing sending frequency can actually help re-engage. What other factors play a part? 

Chip House: Regular list hygiene to re-engage or dump unengaged subs is needed. But, just reducing frequncy has shown to work too

Chip House: The balance of engaged and active customers has to heavily outweigh the unengaged & complaints to avoid the spam folder


ExactTarget: Where should folks go if they want more information on email deliverability?

Chip House: visit the deliverability blog at ExactTarget.com for starters... other good resources are the EEC, Sherpa and more



How are you engaging your subscribers in 2010? Want more expert advice on email design, deliverability, subscriber engagement? Download 5 Resolutions Every Marketer Must Make in 2010.
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Distributed Email Marketing (Build vs. Partner series)

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 by Dennis Hall
“It’s not a problem until it’s a problem.” A great quote from a Product Manager at a leading SaaS provider who I met on the road last week. His company had invested significant man years of development to build their own email infrastructure back in 2006.

He pointed out, “At the time there weren’t any other viable options for us so we didn’t have a choice.” As their customer base expanded, the volume of email followed in an exponential way. Their email system had shifted from a competitive advantage to a liability with issues from system failures, constant maintenance, delivery problems and limited visibility to tracking data.

More and more technology driven companies are experiencing these kinds of pains with their in-house email systems. And the question rises once again, “should we build version 2.0 or leverage a 3rd party?” Working with hundreds of technology companies over the years, I’ve heard all sides of the debate. Underneath the market research, the gap analysis and financial models, the decision ultimately rests on time, money, resources and strategy.

Next week, I'll share a list of top level requirements we've gleaned over the years from our Partners. If you are thinking of becoming an email service provider on behalf of your customers, you'll want to stay tuned!

Maybe you’ve “been there done that” or perhaps you are just beginning your journey. Either way, we are interested in your perspective so please feel free to share your comments or contact me directly anytime.

Dennis - dhall@exacttarget.com (512) 423-0876 (24 x 7!)

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Email Design Tip of the Week: Email + Video: Take 2: Connections ’09 Panel Recap, Part 1 (of 3)

Thursday, January 14, 2010 by Chris Studabaker
Video in email is one of the most intriguing hot topics regarding email's technological growth and audience engagement capacity. Current support for the combined use of these mediums is low, but audience interest and advertiser investment in online video—and this type of media convergence—continues to grow. This blog recaps the major points I discussed in the "Email + Video: Take 2" panel at Connections '09. Please note that this blog centers on the technological considerations around email + video—the strategy around sending video in email (or not) is another discussion!

Online video
Online video, itself, is young—it only began to take root in 2005—but it's quickly become an integral part of our online lives. Discussed in conjunction with email, it's imperative to note that online video has already seen rough standards emerge (formats such as .mpg, .mov, .wmv, and .avi). Email, unfortunately, continues its history of little to no standards, and the emergence of video in email has created a new set of compatibility issues.

Current support for video in email
Today, there's a near complete lack of support for video across the major email clients. Sporadic support exists for some formats but the animated .gif is the only format reliably supported. Gif is a standard web image format and supports animation, though it's limited to 256 colors, does not support sound, and inconsistent frame rates are possible. It's hardly a true video format—which has given rise to some innovative, albeit workaround, solutions—but animated .gif images remain the best all-around option for including motion graphics in email.

There are also a few companies in the marketplace offering paid solutions to include video in email. These companies offer two main services: first, the technology to send video; and second, relationships with consumer email services (such as AOL and others) to allow the successful receipt of that video. However, the list of ISPs supporting these services is limited and should be researched. Lastly, HTML5 is around the corner and there are indications that it might open more options for including video in email.

Delivery methods
  • Streaming – video downloaded as it plays
  • Linking – click through to externally hosted video
  • Embedding – video data included in sent message
To avoid confusion, it's important to set a few definitions regarding the three methods of video delivery. Streaming video refers to a hosted video beginning to play as soon as enough data has loaded, and then continuing to load as it plays (as on YouTube, for example). Ultimately, this is the experience that marketers hope to deliver with video in email. However, the current standard practice is to use a static image with a "play" button, linking to a page on which subscribers can watch the externally hosted video—your website, a landing page, even your company's YouTube channel. Linking to video poses no technical challenges and will work in all browsers and email clients.

Embedding is occasionally mentioned and refers to actually inserting the video file or video code into the email itself, almost like attaching the video to the email. This is a workaround, represents a negative user experience in many ways, and is not recommended.

Part 2 of this topic will contain a look at benefits & concerns of email + video and give a few concluding thoughts. Part 3 will share some interesting customer experiences and discuss ExactTarget's animated and static .gif testing using Connections '09 emails.
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Yahoo Closed the Last Week of the Year

Tuesday, December 22, 2009 by Al Iverson
As reported on the local news in the bay area on Monday night, Yahoo will be closed from December 25th through January 1st.

"Yahoo is shutting down from December 25th to January 1st and if employees are out of vacation time, it will be an unpaid week off.

"Yahoo told their employees this summer, most of the 13,200 employees around the world will be forced to take the time off.

"They are ending the year the way they started it -- trying to cut costs. Yahoo executives laid off about 700 people earlier this year and got rid of some products. Now, the Sunnyvale company is shutting down operations for a week, but this move doesn't shock technology analyst Rob Enderle." -- KGO TV, San Francisco

I'm passing this along as a heads up to ExactTarget clients. Our deliverability services will be around in the week between the two holidays, but keep in mind, we likely will not receive any response from Yahoo on any outstanding issues during this time. Also keep in mind that other ISPs are probably also understaffed due to holiday vacations.

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Improve Your Email Subject Line

Friday, December 18, 2009 by Kristeen Hudson
One of the first things that a subscriber sees before opening an email is the subject line. This is a critical moment where your subscribers have the choice to delete or open (or dare we say it – hit this Spam button). If you want your subscribers to read your email, it’s important to have an effective subject line.

Here are some tips:

Length - Most ISPs show about 60 characters in a subject line. If your subject line is longer than 60 characters make sure it makes sense when trimmed around 60 characters. It’s also a good idea to list the most important information first.

Entice - The subject line should intrigue the subscriber to know more.  With that being said, also make sure the subject line doesn’t over deliver. The subject line should re-enforce what is in the email.

Separation - There should be something separating your subject line from the 100s of others in the subscriber’s inbox. One interesting way to do this is by adding Unicode characters.

Spell Check - This sounds like an obvious one, but it needs to be done.

Don’t Sell - Don’t sell in your subject line. Instead, tell the reader what is inside the email. On that same note, you should also avoid using spam trigger words. These are phrases like Free!, Click Here, Call Now, You’re a Winner, Collect, and Cash Bonus. This will also help improve your email deliverability.

Make it Personal - Making emails personal is the foundation for 1 to 1 Email Marketing. Not only should the email content be personalized, but so should the subject line. Consider adding things beyond the basics, like the subscribers name, to your subject line. For example use pervious purchase information, preferences, and other data you have about the subscriber.

Be Quite - DON’T SHOUT! All caps can be a Spam trigger. Regardless of that fact, no one wants their inbox shouting at them. It’s also a good etiquette to avoid using unnecessary exclamation points.

Name Tag - Research by Jupiter has shown that "including the company name in the subject line can increase open rates by up to 32 percent over a subject line without branding."

Compare - See what subject lines other people in your industry are using. This is a great way to get new ideas for your emails. There are many blogs out there that track the subject lines in marketing emails.

From Name & Pre-Header Text - The subject line is not the only thing the users see before deciding to open your email. Make sure you have an effective and consistent from name and pre-header text that complements your subject line.

Test, Test, Test - Something as simple as an A/B split test can identify the effectiveness of new subject lines. Try something new, but don’t forget to test it.
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Ending the Spam

Thursday, December 17, 2009 by Al Iverson
A reader named Don posted a comment containing the following question: “I'd really like to end your spam. I do not trust the link on your spam because, just like all the other spam merchants out there, your e-mail appears to be poised to cause more problems than clicking is worth. How do I make you go away and stay out of my in box?”

Don, I'm sorry you're receiving spam from a client of ours. Our clients are only allowed to send mail to people that signed up for their lists. We don't buy or sell email lists, nor do we allow clients to do so. If you want us to investigate, and make the mail stop, feel free to send us a spam report at abuse AT exacttarget.com. Note in your email that the message is unwanted spam and be sure to include a copy of the message, including full headers, if possible. We will immediately investigate, and take action against our client if they are indeed out of compliance with our opt-in permission requirements and anti-spam policy.

Policy compliance (making sure our clients don't send spam) is occasionally a challenge for anybody providing email-related services to a large number of clients. We've got the tools and expertise to be able to nip a lot of these issues in the bud, before you ever see them. But, one of the many components to taking action against spammers is based on reports we receive from the outside world: ISPs, anti-spam groups, and end recipients like yourself.

As far as trusting the link in the email message -- all the unsubscribe link does is mark you as unsubscribed in that client's account. Nothing more, nothing less. It doesn't secretly sign you up for somebody else's email lists. It doesn't give the client permission to email you later (and if they do, they're breaking our rules). However, it doesn't tell us that you thought the message was spam. So if it was spam, feel free to report it to our abuse address, as well, as noted above.

As far as trusting us, the company, ExactTarget, I'm not sure what I can tell you to convince you that we're a legitimate email service provider and not spammers. But here's what I know. ET is a real company, based in Indianapolis (though I work from Chicago), and I've worked for them, helping to oversee and continually improve our anti-spam efforts, for more than three years now. (I have a long history of spam fighting, going back more than ten years.) As you can see here, we have a lot of legitimate, well-known companies as clients. Also, if we knowingly let our clients send spam, ISPs would get fed up with us and block all mail from all of our clients. So that's why it's in our best interest to prevent our clients from sending spam -- it's necessary for us to be able to succeed in the email industry. So it would be extremely unwise of us to do anything other than immediately respect your click on the unsubscribe link, and ensure that our client stops sending you mail.
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Does Authentication Improve Deliverability?

Tuesday, December 15, 2009 by Al Iverson
There's been a lot of talk about email authentication and related things like domain reputation out in the deliverability blog-o-sphere of late. I'm not linking to anyone in particular, as I don't want to single anyone out, and a lot of people have made a lot of different points, both good and bad.

But if there is one meme that I keep stumbling across, one that I think is (perhaps) technically accurate, but missing the point, it is this: Email authentication doesn't improve your deliverability. That's not what it's for. It doesn't positively impact your ability to deliver mail.

Just for the record, let me point out that email authentication improves deliverability. A couple of rather large ISPs utilize authentication in a way where, directly or indirectly, it improves your sending reputation. Consider:

Hotmail: The 2007 Microsoft Whitepaper "Sender ID Framework: Protecting Brands and Enhancing Detection of Spam, Phishing, and Zero-Day Exploits" explains (among other things) how Hotmail uses Sender ID, one specific type of email authentication. They include a "hypothetical" chart on page 20 showing how Sender ID can add to results from content filtering and other reputation results. The "hypothetical" boils down to, in my opinion, that they don't want to tell you the exact impact any of these measures has on the ability to get mail delivered, but I do believe that this demonstrates that Sender ID is indeed one of the factors used as far as whether or not mail is delivered to the inbox at Hotmail, or if indeed it will be delivered anywhere at all. Hotmail has been known on occasion to discard mail, and also, Hotmail will very clearly decline to assist a sender or email service provider writing in about a delivery issue, if the from domain in use in the problematic sends lacks a Sender ID record.

Consider all of this, and I think you would agree with me: I very strongly believe that authentication has a significant, non-zero impact on the ability to deliver mail to the inbox of Hotmail users. Is it the only measure they use? No, not by a long shot. Does it mean you can send spam, as long as you authenticate? No, and that instance, you can hypothesize (based on the chart on page 20 of the whitepaper) that whatever modest positive reputational boost you may receive from authentication is going to be overwhelmed by the much stronger negative reputational hit you'll take due to other factors, such as high numbers of invalid users, spamtrap hits, and spam complaints. In other words, email authentication + spam = you get blocked.

Yahoo: If you're a list-based sender (like an ESP, ESP client, or self-sender managing your own marketing lists), it is necessary to authenticate your mail with DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) if you wish to participate in the Yahoo Feedback Loop (FBL). Feedback loop participation is important, and does have a significant, if indirect, connection to your sending reputation. Senders who don't participate in an ISP's feedback loop tend to have higher complaints than senders who do, if all other variables are equal. Why? Because if you have an FBL, when somebody complains about your mail, you are told about it. You receive a report back. You're able to unsubscribe the recipient. You're able to compile aggregate data that tells you which list segments are most problematic. Both the ability to unsubscribe those who complain, and the ability to adjust your marketing efforts based on aggregate FBL complaint data, have a positive impact on your ability to deliver email to the inbox successfully.

Maybe that's not why authentication was invented. Maybe that's not even its intended purpose. But as I stand here today, I see a very clear connection between email authentication and improved email deliverability. It's that simple.
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Design Tip of the Week: Email Rendering in Yahoo!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 by Tana Babcock

Continuing with our Email Rendering series, let’s take a quick look at a few quirks that Yahoo! is known for. Much like Gmail, Yahoo provides two web based clients, Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Classic Mail. To change versions of Yahoo!, select from the “Options” drop down on the far right side of the screen.  

Below are some great tips to consider when building your email campaign in order to create the best experience possible for Yahoo! subscribers.



Image Blocking - Alt Tags
Images are blocked by default in Yahoo!. However, Yahoo! does display stylized “alt” tags, so add those to your design when it makes sense to help create brand synergy.
 You can always edit this image-blocking feature in your Mail Options. There are a few choices, “Always show images…”, “Show images only from my contacts”, or “Initially block images”. Personally, I have them turned on by default – but many of your subscribers may not, or may not even know they can edit this feature.

While no Email Service Provider can enable your images to display in an email client that blocks display, services such as Goodmail or CertifiedEmail™ allow email marketers to pay a per-message fee to deliver emails with “images on” to AOL, BT and Yahoo!.

Avoid Paragraph Tags

Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Mail Classic do not support the use of HTML paragraph tags <p>. Paragraph tags are used primarily to create space between sections of text. If two sections of text are each contained within paragraph tags the space that normally appear between the paragraphs will not be seen. In order to avoid this, break tags <br> can be used. Two break tags in a row will create the same amount of space between text sections as a paragraph tag.  

Make sure to keep checking back for more useful rendering tips regarding other major email clients!

Related Posts:
Design Tip of the Week: Email Rendering in Gmail
Design Tip of the Week: Email Rendering in Outlook 2007
Design Tip of the Week: Email Rendering in Hotmail

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The Nightmare Before Christmas

Friday, October 23, 2009 by Karen Balle

When my nephew was much younger, we watched The Nightmare Before Christmas together on VHS until the tape broke.  He even thought his name was Jack the Pumpkin King!  The soundtrack will be stuck in my head for the rest of my life. 

Not only is this one of the best movies of all time, but it's a wonderful commentary on the state of email marketing during the holiday season.  I don't just mean that trying to get email delivered is a nightmare starting around Halloween or that marketers find themselves in somewhat different situations than they're used to during the rest of the year.  The flow of the movie and the soundtrack fit with how email marketing happens during the holiday season.  It happens every year. 

There's a dramatic uptick in all email marketing, be it legitimate email marketing or spam, that starts when the weather gets cold.  Some years, it triples or quadruples normal email volume.  And that means slower mail servers, more filters, more complaints, and slower response times.  It also means overworked, cranky mail and abuse admins.  I know.  I've been one of those cranky abuse admins.

The rules surrounding email deliverability, which are confusing enough, get more complicated during this time of year.  It feels like every company you have ever driven past and every partner of theirs is vying for your attention.  There are a lot of little things that you can do, from holiday ramp-up strategies to promoting special holiday-only marketing campaigns that draw customers in.


I'll leave you for now with this very important thought.

Engagement is more important than ever.  If you don't get the attention of your recipients, you'll find your email in the spam folder or blocked during your most crucial sales period.

As I've been writing this, the song "Making Christmas" has been running through my head.  It makes me want to ask which mindset do you have for your email campaigns, going into this holiday season?

"Snakes and mice get wrapped up so nice with spider legs and pretty bows. 
It's ours this time."
(Your focus is on your ideas of what your recipients should want.  You reach years back into your subscriber database.  You send out email to people who didn't give you permission.)

Or
"This thing will never make a present.  It's been dead now for much too long.
Try something fresher, something pleasant."
(Your focus is on what your customers are really interested in.  You're interested in actively engaged subscribers rather than the number of subscribers on your list.  You use dynamic content to create a one-to-one experience for your customers.)
 

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Sending SMS Messages? Make Sure You are in Compliance with New SMS Regulations.

Friday, October 2, 2009 by Phil Schott

If you're an ExactTarget client using SMS to enable targeted 1 to 1 communications you should have received an email on October 1, 2009, informing you of a change to industry regulations.

Here's what the email stated:

Beginning October 1, 2009, industry regulations state that the phrase "Standard Message charges apply" is no longer acceptable as standard messaging in SMS communications. For all digital advertising formats and message flows, one of the following phrases must be used in its place:

Message and Data Rates May Apply
Msg&Data Rates May Apply
Msg&data rates may apply
Msg&data rates may aply

View the ExactTarget SMS Regulation resource page for more information and helpful links to ensure that your Text Messaging campaign and communication programs are compliant.

If you have any questions about this change, please contact Deliverability Services at deliverability@exacttarget.com.
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The Power of the ExactTarget Platform

Thursday, October 1, 2009 by Amanda Cross
ExactTarget Integrated PartnersIntegrations with partner products is one of the things that makes ExactTarget so dynamic and powerful. Centralizing your electronic marketing software to work with your CRM, CMS, analytics, or other packages lets you accomplish more with less time, energy, and money.

Here's just a few of the new integrations available:

SeeWhy
SeeWhy, creator of the Abandonment Tracker Pro web analytics service, is now offering an integration with ExactTarget. This integration intends to optimize real-time email follow-up campaigns that can convert up to 50% of website abandoners to customers.

XMPie
XMPie, who offers "One-to-One-in-One" is now incorporating ExactTarget email service into its PersonalEffect Cross-Media and e-Media products.

Printable Technologies
Printable Technologies Inc., provider of web-to-print and marketing personalization solutions, has integrated ExactTarget email capabilities into their product MarcomCentral.

You can see many more available integrations on the Integrated Partners page on our website. Categories of integration include, but are not limited to:
  • Content Management System Partners
  • CRM Partners
  • Deliverability Partners
  • Survey Partners
  • Web Analytics Partners
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Marketers Moving More Budget to Email Marketing

Friday, September 25, 2009 by Joel Book
Two recent studies provide compelling evidence that marketers are turning to digital marketing – and specifically email marketing – to improve marketing effectiveness.

According to the “2009 ANA/MMA Marketing Accountability Survey” from the Association of National Advertisers and Marketing Management Analytics, “The No. 1 strategy for marketers who wanted to improve effectiveness without spending more, according to the June 2009 poll, was shifting from traditional to digital media. More than one-half of respondents also reported shifting spending away from brand-building initiatives, and 38% were putting more spending into lower-cost media.”

Tactics Used by US Marketers to Improve Marketing Effectiveness

Change in Marketing Spending for Select Media in 2009

And as more marketers shift to digital media, the tactic that is seeing the largest increase in spending is email.

According to the “2009 Media Survey Results & Analysis” study conducted by Round2, “40% of US Marketers reported that they had increased spending on email marketing in 2009.

What This Means for Marketers

Increased dependency on email marketing means three things:

1. Email is no longer optional. It has firmly established itself as the #1 tactic for 1to1 marketing. And email has become the “go to” tactic for word-of-mouth marketing as brands empower email subscribers to “share” email messages and offers with their friends on Facebook, their followers on Twitter, and their connections on LinkedIn.

2. Email marketing will become more sophisticated as marketers move aggressively to integrate email with other tactics and technologies – like CRM, SMS, POS, Websites, and Social Networks -- that are used to keep customers connected to the brand. The cornerstones of effective email marketing will be Integration, Automation and Optimization.

3. ESP (Email Service Provider) selection will become a more strategic decision. Marketers must evaluate and select an ESP by their ability to provide “industrial strength” application functionality plus consulting services including 1to1 marketing strategy, email and landing page design, email deliverability, and application integration.
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Recurring Comcast Delivery Problems Don't Have to be a Problem

Tuesday, September 15, 2009 by Phil Schott

One of the most frequent questions that we in Deliverability Services get asked is how to keep Comcast blocking from recurring.

Comcast aggressively blocks mail they deem their users don't want--even more so than other receivers.  Right or wrong, they have filtering in place that they believe is effective and offers their users maximum protection from spam and unwanted mail.  Ultimately, their obligation is to meet the needs of their users and not necessarily to meet the needs of senders.

The two biggest reasons Comcast blocks mail is because a sender's mail earns too many complaints or because a sender is sending to too many invalid Comcast addresses.

Senders are understandably upset when their mail gets blocked at Comcast, but by and large blocks are avoidable and are the result of less-than-great sending practices.

To avoid blocking by Comcast, or any receiver, ensure that you're sending mail to subscribers who have explicitly opted-in, are expecting to receive your mail, and will find the mail relevant.

If your sends keep getting blocked, it's time to review your sending practices.  Is your opt-in clear and explicit?  Do subscribers understand what you'll be sending to them and how often you're going to send?  Are you meeting those content and frequency expectations or are you sending more frequently than you said you would or different content than you said you would?  If a subscriber opted-in for your mail six months ago, are they still going to find the mail relevant and look forward to receiving it or has your mail now become just another of dozens they receive daily?

If you answered "no" to any of the questions above, it's time to change your practices to meet your subscribers needs and expectations.  That may include less frequent sending, changing your opt-in, making your content more relevant and more of a one-to-one communication, or simply asking your subscribers if they still want to hear from you, which is known as re-engagement.

ExactTarget is excellent at helping clients get wanted and expected mail delivered and helping to maximize delivery and return on investment.  However, if you're not meeting your subscribers' needs and expectations or continuing to send to addresses that are no longer valid you're going to continue to experience delivery issues at Comcast and possibly other receivers.

For more email deliverability tips and Best Practices, check out our free whitepaper, "Email Marketing CAN-SPAM Compliance."
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What do you mean my tracking is phishing?

Monday, September 14, 2009 by Karen Balle

Click tracking.  We all do it.  It's a best email practice.  We all want to see who is following our links, what draws our subscribers in.  Was this targeted email marketing campaign effective?  What was the most interesting part of the email?  Where are my readers engaged?  Was this email campaign better targeted than last week's? 

But how you do it makes a huge difference with spam and virus filters.  What do I mean?  I'll tell you a secret.  Phishers and spammers like to use IP addresses and URIs of popular websites in the text of their emails and then put in HTML that makes it look like the recipient is clicking on http://www.bank.com.  But you don't do that, right?  What you might do is use http://www.partnercompany.com or even http://www.yourbusinesssite.com in the email that you're sending out through your favorite ESP, ExactTarget.

That's a no-no.  Definitely not an email deliverability best practice.  Why not?  Because you want us to track email clicks in those targeted emails.  You have a domain set aside just for us and that's the domain that we use for your email campaigns.  Your subscribers see http://www.yourbusinesssite.com, but they click on a link to http://email-yourbusinesssite.com. 

And that, my friends, looks like you're trying to be tricksy.
"So what do we do, email guru?" you cry in despair.  Let me give you a little email design tip that will make a huge difference with filters like Postini and MessageLabs (both of which are used frequently in B2B email), or email providers like Gmail and Hotmail. 

Use your words.  Wow your targeted opt-in audience with your awesome descriptive powers. 

What's more appealing to you anyway?  I know which one I'd click on.

Look how we've grown! or http://www.exacttarget.co.uk/
Come party with us! or http://www.connections09.com
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Email is Still Communication King, but Social Media is No Jester

Thursday, September 3, 2009 by Blaine Cooper-Surma

 

In 2003, with the introduction of MySpace, the way we communicate with one another drastically changed. 

 

Last year, MarketingSherpa ran a survey to help it better understand society’s perception of social media regarding its role in marketing communications. What did these marketing experts discover, you ask?  They found that 97 percent of respondents use social media platforms, like MySpace, Linkedin, Twitter, and Facebook as complimentary marketing mediums to the current communication king – email. 
 


 

So why are email service providers like ExactTarget not threatened with the rise in social media usage?  The answer is simple.  Email, as a means of communication, allows social networking sites to send relevant information to its users.  Social media enterprises have realized the convenience and effectiveness of email – hence the reason you receive an automated email when someone posts on you Facebook wall or sends you a Linkedin connection request.  Essentially, your personal email account funnels all activity that occurs throughout your numerous social media accounts into one location.  For this reason, email isn't going anywhere – at least anytime soon.

So where does ExactTarget fit in this picture?  We fully understand the importance of social media and its ability to expand the reach of your email marketing campaign.  For example, another resource that should be added to your marketing arsenal, as a means of facilitating subscriber list growth, is the social forward feature. 

In the past few years social media has emerged as an effective tool in the marketing world, however, we agree with the 97 percent that still find email is the primary means of marketing communication.

Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed.  – Irene Peter
 


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Truly a One-to-One Marketing Company, Not Just an Email Service Provider

Wednesday, August 26, 2009 by Kyle Schroeder

As I am looking back over the 14 weeks that I have been here this summer, one of the biggest things that has hit me is that ExactTarget is not just an email marketing company. They are not just an email service provider. They are truly a one to one marketing company that has a full line of products to help increase the marketing ROI for a company.

Yes, we do email. We actually send some of the most intelligent and customer-driven email through our dynamic content capabilities.

But what else is in our product line?

SMS: We have the ability to develop and execute powerful SMS text message campaigns to engage customers on the spot.

Voice: We have a product that can send targeted and specific messages to consumers by telephone. Adding this personal touch moves a company way beyond simple TV advertisements.

Landing Pages: These microsites enable users of ExactTarget’s already powerful email software platform the chance to call customers to action through a targeted website, designed specifically for the particular action.

When a company uses all four of these tools together, they have the ability to become a very sophisticated marketer that engages consumers in a relevant way.

Kyle Schroeder
Slingshot Summer Intern

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Email Marketing Software Integration Tool: Embedded

Friday, August 21, 2009 by Kyle Schroeder

One question I find that comes up all the time is: what is embedded?

ExactTarget Embedded PartnerTo begin to answer that question, you have to first know what ExactTarget’s software does. ExactTarget is not simply an email service provider, but a One-to-One Marketing software that services permission based email marketing, SMS marketing, and voice campaigns for companies throughout the world.

So what is embedded?

In the simplest form, ExactTarget Embedded is a product integration of the power of ExactTarget’s one-to-one marketing software with an external application. Companies then build their own tools and software on top of the platform ET has created.

Both independent software vendors (ISV) and web-based applications are prime candidates for embedding this platform into their list of tools.

Let’s say I sell a CRM tool and want an email component as well, ExactTarget can be embedded into that software and is then powered by ExactTarget.

If I am an eCommerce site that offers web-based services and want to offer email marketing in my product mix, then ExactTarget can be embedded into the platform I am already using.

In both of these examples, the end customer never knows that they are using ExactTarget because the company provides its own look and user interface on top of the ExactTarget software.

Kyle Schroeder

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