Email newsletter subscription with Facebook

February 14th, 2012

Womsend has a new feature: the subscription forms are now integrated with Facebook.

When someone that is already authenticated on Facebook visits your website, he will have the possibility to subscribe to your newsletter without having to fill in their name and email address. The users that are not authenticated on Facebook will see your forms as they usually look.

See below how will your subscription form look like. You need to be authenticated on Facebook to see how it will look for your users that will be connected with their Facebook accounts:

What are the advantages of having a Facebook integrated subscription form?

  • Easier the subscription – the users logged on Facebook will be able to subscribe with only a click, without being necessary to fill in any information.
  • Real data and better delivery – Because users don’t have to write their email address, there will be no mistakes and you will have fewer invalid addresses in your list. And also their email address is already confirmed since they made their Facebook account and most probably is active. All these reasons can help you to have a better delivery rate of your newsletters and a greater interaction with your subscribers.
  • Higher Facebook awareness – Now you can find out if your subscribers are active on Facebook and you can create special campaigns that will encourage interactivity and Facebook message awareness will be higher.

How to use it

If you want to activate the Facebook integration of a subscription form go to the section Configuration -> Forms, select a form and you will find a checkbox “Facebook integration”, activate it, then save and use the generated code to post the form on your website. When a user subscribes to your newsletter, Facebook will send the name and email address of the subscriber, but if you want the complete name of the users you need have in your account a range with “Name”.

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How to avoid spam filters

February 7th, 2012

1. The importance of the html code
When you send an email newsletter don’t send only an image with text on it. The email has to be in html code. If the percent image/text is too low your email can get to the junk folder.
The message editor of Womsend verifies your number of characters and warns you if you have less than 200.

2. IP configuration
It is necessary to make sure that the IP-s you send from are correctly configurated. In the following situation the spam filter could give you a higher spam score:
a. There are registrations named Reverse DNS (PTR) at the IP provider (hosting). These registrations are in fact domain names associated with the IP. For example, if we interrogate the DNS system to find out the IP name (registration PTR) 74.53.68.211 we will find out that the name is dsb.womsend.com, and if we interrogate the DNS system to find out the IP of the domain dsb.womsend.com (registration type A) we will find it is 74.53.68.211. This configuration is correct, the two are matching.
A mistake that you have to be careful about is filling in numbers in the name of the IP. This may raise your spam score because spam filters could consider the IP dynamic.
b. There are SPF and SenderID registrations for the want to send email newsletters. These registrations are used by the receiving servers to verify if your IP is authorized to send newsletters from that domain.

3. Signing the messages with DomainKeys and/or DKIM
Domain Keys Identified Mail was conceived to eradicate phising and it is used to identify the senders and help build a reputation for a domain. The system uses a digital signature in the emails sent and matches it with a key of the sender published on the server.

4. Exclusive access to an IP
If you have a website hosted on a shared server (the hosting company has there the site of other clients) you have to make sure that only you can send from an IP.
Require this from your hosting company. If it’s not possible, rent a VPS (Virtual Private Server) or a dedicated server. If not, sending messages and not having a dedicated server, along with others that might be spamming, will affect your reputation too.

5. System security
This aspect is very important. Weak password, software is not updated and with security problems can allow unauthorized access to spammers that will use your system to send unsolicited messages.

6. Blacklist monitoring
It’s good to make a blacklist monitoring. Even the ones that send emails based on permission can get to the blacklist. It’s good to keep an eye on these lists to see if your domain or IP is on one of them in order to take the needed measures to be taken off them.

7. Monitoring through test email addresses
You can do this monitoring by having an email address on the most used email clients by the users on your list. You send your messages to those addresses to see where your messages are delivered. This way you will see if you email get to spam and you can take the required measures to get to the inbox.

How to stay in the inbox of your subscribers

If your emails are delivered in the Inbox, you still need to take the right measures to stay there.

1. Constant system monitoring
This one is necessary to prevent and repair any technical or security problem mentioned before.

2. Avoid spam reporting
In order to have a low spam rate you have to keep into account the most important rule in email marketing: be relevant. Send to your subscribers messages that you said you would on your subscription form, also you have to include in your messages the unsubscribe link, to stop users from using the Report spam button when they want to stop receiving your emails. More details about how to avoid reports you find here.

3. Automatic processing of unsubscribe requests
This is an aspect that you should not neglect. Also is important the cleaning of the database for expired or not valid email addresses and registering in feedback loop to know who is reporting your email as spam.

These are the most important recommendations to keep the spam rate at lower values. For a higher efficiency of the sent newsletters it’s important to keep them into account.
Womsend system has implemented solutions for all of the problems above to assure you a high delivery rate and a low spam rate.
For further information you can contact us.

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How to prepare your newsletters for Christmas campaigns

December 9th, 2011

On Christmas everybody shops and the shopping season is about to start and the email is one of the most efficient ways to reach the prospects. The closer to the holidays we get, all inboxes are filling up with promotional offers so the most important thing to do is to differentiate and personalize the message. Everybody is busy and everybody wants to shop, providers are many and the offers as well.

Shopping is going online

Every year online store gain more clients during the holiday season. The value of online purchasing is bigger every year, especially on holidays. For example, in 2010 online sales have tripled compared to the ones in  2010. That’s why is very important to attract the online public to your offers. Consumers start to abandon crowded offline shopping to shop online with the effort of only a few clicks.

Test the email and the landing page

If you have a message and a design suitable for your subscribers and your are about to send the newsletters, do not neglect the technical aspects. Test the email for the most used email clients: Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, Thunderbird, Hotmail etc. Also check on the display of your online version on the most used internet browsers.

Also keep in mind that you need to optimize your landing page in order to get conversions. If you managed to convince the subscribers with your email newsletters you need to convince them once again when  you got them to visit your landing page. So, too many steps required to make purchase or if the users are not able to find the purchase button, these may be reasons for them to leave your site.

Ideas for holiday newsletters

1. Themed design
In December send emails that say something about the upcoming holidays through their design. A design template or just a header with that reminds people about gifts and holidays is better than the regular one. It will help you stand out, a different design and a holiday themed message will help you break the monotony.

2. Recommended gifts
The email newsletter sent during this period is not really necessary to contain only promotional offers. You can include in you emails recommendations of your products for gifts. Use the reviews of other consumers or the lists of the best selling products to make this recommendations.

3. Last minute offers
One type of subscribers you should not forget about about the people that don’t have any time or they leave Christmas shopping for the last minute. You can make some “last minute” offers and it is recommended to contain digital product that will not require any delivery.

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Mistakes that get you reported as a spammer

November 28th, 2011
Email clients make very accessible reporting unsolicited emails. To avoid black spots on your reputation and keep your delivery rate high you need to understand what may get your emails reported as spam and how to keep a lower spam rate.

What to avoid

1. Single opt-in subscription: collect the email addresses using a subscription with confirmation. This you will avoid sending emails to people that were subscribed by someone else and receiving your messages will determine them to report you as spam.

2. Using a “From” address of freemail or any other domain that isn’t yours it’s not a good idea. Your subscribers will be unable to identify you, you will have no credibility and they will report you. Another possibility is that your emails will get directly to Junk email folder. If you have a freemail address at “From”, for example user@yahoo.com and Yahoo servers don’t allow sending emails with their addresses, spam filters will give you a higher spam score and it’s most likely for your emails to get delivered in junk email.

3. Using a generic subject that doesn’t say anything about the content this message does not bring any reason for the subscriber to receive your information. Example: “Email newsletter November”

4. Using repeateadly the same message or a very similar one – if your newsletters have similar subject or even the same, you will not be able to convince anyone to open them more than once. After being repeteadly ignored, your newsletters are likely to go directly to Junk.

5. Misleading subject – using a misleading subject to bring more opens is a tactic that will not work on a long term. You will lose your credibility and if you don’t get a lot of spam complaints for misleading content, you will get less opens in your next newsletters.

6. Hidden unsubscription link – do not hide the unsubscription link or button, it will not help you at all. Subscribers have two ways to get rid of your newsletters: unsubscription or spam button. Give them the easy way to the first one.

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Newsletter subscription: single opt-in or double opt-in

November 21st, 2011

The list is an important part of email marketing. Many may think that the bigger, the better, but the quality must not be neglected. When you are building your list one of the most important things is how you collect your email addresses.

1. Single opt-in: consist in including the email addresses in the list only be submitting it in a subscription form. The subscription to the newsletter it’s made without receiving any confirmation link in your email. Giving the email address when purchasing a product and giving the consent to receive commercial information is considered subscription to the email newsletter as well.
The advantage of single opt-in is that you can build o bigger list in short time, but it’s efficient when it comes to quality, not quantity.
The disadvantage of this subscription method is that users can give fake or non-existent addresses and even if they are valid, they may belong to other persons and this will lead to spam.

2. Double opt-in: the subscription is completed in two steps. The user is not directly added to the list when he submitted his address in the form. He will receive a confirmation email to activate a link if he wants to be added to the list.
The advantage of this method is the fact that you can build a list based on quality, with confirmed email addresses, avoiding the possibility to spam unwillingly.
The disadvantage of this kind of subscription is the fact that requires an extra step from the user, and some may get lost in the process. The confirmation email may not get in time, it may get in the Junk mail folder or it may not get to the user’s inbox at all and he is not able to complete the subscription process. The solution to make sure that the subscription process can be completed is to send the confirmation emails from an IP and domain with very good reputation – used only for sending this kind of messages. This how Womsend service send these emails to make sure that they will be delivered.

So the single opt-in is efficient if you want to have a big list, the double opt-in is the most recommended in order to have a good and qualitative list with confirmed email addresses.

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Permission in email marketing

November 14th, 2011

In email marketing permission is defined as the consent to receive commercial information through electronic mail. Permission cannot be assumed, it has to be given explicitly. Having a permission is the first step that needs to be done to build a list. Getting the consent for the prospects before sending anything is mandatory.

It takes time and investments to build a list based on permission and prospects really interested in your information and that are looking forward to receive your emails, but the success of an email marketing campaign is not directly proportional with the size of the list or the number of emails sent. Permission brings better results and the possibility to build a relationship with the prospects.

Advantages of a list based on permission:

  • Higher delivery rate
  • Higher opening rate
  • Lower spam rate

Without permission, sending email newsletters is called spam. This definition includes two requirements: sending bulk emails and having no permission for it.

The unsubscribe link

The permission given can be revoked at any time, that’s why subscribers should be able to unsubscribe to your newsletters whenever they want to. The unsubscribe link must be in every email sent. It is not a good ideea to make it less visible, with a smaller font or a less visible color. If your subscribers want to unsubscribe, give them the possibility to do it without hitting the spam button.

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Email marketing is profitable

October 31st, 2011

Email is one the most powerful marketing tools. Many wonder if email is being replaced nowadays where the possibilities of online technology are every day more competitive, if email has not been replaced by blogs or social media.

According to a study by Direct Marketing Association, email is at the top of marketing tools as being the most profitable. An email makes over 40$ for every dollar invested, comparing to catalogue – 7.3$ and online advertising 19.72$.

Why is email an efficient marketing tool

  • Allows precise targeting
  • Generates direct sales
  • Builds relationships and loyalty
  • It is measurable

Offers and promotions in email generate sales or subscriptions. Informative newsletters help offline sales by sending people to the stores, building awareness and a relationship and setting the basis of customer loyalty.

Email is a very profitable marketing tool, and using it in communication can be done with little costs and great benefits. With email marketing you can obtain remarkable results with little time and even fewer money.

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How to monitor subscriber activity

October 7th, 2011

If you are using Womsend,  it’s very easy to keep track of your subscribers activity. You can see which are the active subscribers and which are the inactive ones. This way you have the possibility to reactivate the inactive ones. They are an important resource and you don’t have to neglect them.

Our system calculates a score for every subscriber depending on his activity. When opens a message the subscriber receives some points, for a click he will receive more and for a purchase even more points. The subscriber will have more points if his activity in your newsletter is recent. The more time it passes since his last action, the fewer points he has.

Subscribers will have activity scores from 0 to 100. The most active subscriber will have the highest score (100) and the others will have scores according to his. For example, a subscriber with the score 100 is twice more active then a subscriber with the score 50.

If you have a Womsend account, you will be able to see the quality score of your subscribers entering the section Subscribers ->All subscribers and at every contact you will see a value named “Quality score”.

Segmenting list according to subscriber activity

You can use this feature to segment subscribers according to activity criteria.
You can create a segment based on a higher and lower limit of the quality score. This way you can have a segment with the most active subscribers to repay them and you can have a segment of your least active subscribers to you can come up with ways to reactivate them.

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The difference between lists and segments

September 29th, 2011

Relevance is one of the most important things that you have to keep in mind to optimize the results of your email marketing campaigns. To raise the relevance of your sent emails you have to do an efficient segmentation of your list.
In email marketing you need segmentation because your list of subscribers is not an homogeneous group, and sending one kind of message will not meet the expectations of the majority. Still you don’t have to confuse lists with segments.

Lists and segments

The list is a group of contacts that changes only when you add or remove some of them or when someone subscribes or unsubscribes for your newsletter. Lists are useful to organize the subscribers.
And also, a list can be made with confirmation from the subscriber or not. This means that when someone subscribes to a newsletter will not receive it until he will confirm his subscription by clicking on a link in the email received right after he subscribed.

With Womsend you can create and edit lists by going to the section Subscribers->Lists.
When you create a subscribe form, you have to associate where the people that subscribe to your newsletter to be registered.

The segment is a group of contacts based on a specific criteria. For example, you can make a segment with all the male subscribers, age segments (between 25 and 35 years) or subscribers from a specific city, according to want you want to communicate. A segment can be static or dynamic, you can set the segments to update automatically. For example, if you segment by age, when a subscriber no longer meets the criteria he will be eliminated from the segment.
To create segments using Womsend go to the section Subscribers->All subscribers. First you create a filter (the criteria by which you wish to sort subscribers), the you will be able to see all the subscribers that meet that criteria. Then you need to save all of them as a segment.
To edit the name, description or “Update automatically” option go to the section Subscribers->Segments.

The lists are group of contacts in which users are registered when they fill in the subscribe form and the segment is a group that you can set as an administrator of the lists, according to some filters. The subscribers does not have the chance to see or choose in which segment he is.

Preference page

Through the preference page your subscribers will tell you alone which information they want to receive from you. On this page you will put the lists and they can choose which is the list they want to be included in. Be careful: on the preference page they will not see the segments of your list, they will only see the lists and a short description. Subscribers aren’t able to see the segment they are included and neither have the possibility to choose between segments. To find out more about adding the preference page to your emails read this article.

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