Mailpost

I have a problem. Perhaps you do too.

Ever since the major virus attacks of recent months, I’ve had difficulty getting Getting Attention through to readers’ email boxes. Overeager spam (unsolicited bulk email) filters are now drop kicking legitimate email that includes elements that the filter thinks signal spam.

My e-news service provider reports more bounces (readers’ email addresses returned to me after five delivery attempts) than ever before. Even worse, subscribers have complained that they aren’t receiving my e-newsletter and wonder if I’m still publishing. Now that’s a problem.

You use your e-news and email campaigns to spearhead fundraising campaigns or drive recipients to register for an upcoming program, and you count on reaching those readers. But beware. Filters are having an adverse impact on your organization’s e-newsletter and email campaign distribution, whether you know it or not. Since your use of e-news and email plays a key role in your fundraising, advocacy and other campaigns, getting email delivery right is critical.

HOW MUCH GOOD EMAIL IS FILTERED AND WHY?

Recent research by EmailSherpa concludes that at least 4% of opt-in permission email (to readers who have consented to receive that e-newsletter) is filtered, even if it’s in relatively trouble-free text format. Assurance Systems reports that 17% of all opt-in email is not delivered — that’s one out of six emails. My own experience is that 13% of Getting Attention readers were bounced in the last year.

Moreover, Assurance Systems claims that up to 75% of emailers identified as spammers are incorrectly targeted as such. Every spam filter company, as well as AOL, acknowledges that some of the email they block as junk is actually legitimate email that’s been stopped by mistake.

Particularly challenging is the fact that a filter can be put into place in any or all of three places in your e-newsletter’s or email campaign’s path to readers’ in-boxes — by the ISP (Internet Service Provider), the reader’s organization or company, or the reader himself. In many cases, the reader is unaware of the filter. If you don’t take the steps below, filters may block your organization’s emails from reaching a huge portion of your list.

Despite these challenges, e-newsletters and email campaigns remain essential tools for nonprofit communicators. These tools enable you to reach your audiences (or selected segments) in a timely and cost-effective way. You can also track results to some degree. Although filtering is a hurdle at the moment, I am hopeful that this problem will subside. In the interim, take the steps outlined below to increase your delivery success rate.

11 TIPS TO AVOID EMAIL FILTERS

DO:

1. Choose the most highly-recommended email service provider that your organization can afford. More on the benefits of outsourcing and what to look for in a service provider in a follow-up issue.

2. Make sure that you send your e-newsletter to readers who have “opted-in” (given you permission to do so). If you want to alert current donors, volunteers or other audiences to your e-newsletter, you can send an email invitation — that may include a sample issue of your e-newsletter — to register for your e-newsletter. But do not continue to distribute your e-news to those who choose not to opt-in.

Mailpost Franchise

Scheduling deliveries can often be difficult and if not done correctly can often lead to a loss of time, money and business. In sales, the salesperson often has the responsibility of scheduling deliveries. That doesn’t necessarily mean they have the ability. Many times a salesperson will make a delivery promise to seal the deal allowing the customer to take control and set the delivery to a time convenient for them, such as “If you can deliver that first thing in the morning I’ll take it.” That is all well and good, closing the deal is their job right? “If I didn’t do it he would have walked.” I’ve heard this a million times no biggie right? Unfortunately this statement usually is accompanied by a very frustrated customer wondering when their delivery will arrive.

I don’t usually allow the customer this much leeway when it comes to deliveries. I route my deliveries for maximum efficiency, or at least I try. I take into account where each address is and load them according to a specific order. Most times this is what I refer to as “Circling” I try to set it up so I start with the closest and work my way out from the store or warehouse and “Circle” out to the farthest and then work my way back. Promising a customer first delivery can lead to back tracking, and most times it does. This can lead to lost time not to mention increased fuel cost. Another side effect can be a longer work day for delivery drivers, and overtime pay.

Making a policy of scheduling delivery for a specific day with an eight hour window is much more efficient. Drivers can route deliveries according to proximity rather than time constraints and give customers a morning of delivery courtesy call to provide a two to four hour window. This allows for a more cost and time effective way of getting deliveries done.

Most large companies operate this way and it works. Here are a few examples, utility, phone, and cable companies all try to work this way. Trucking companies also work this way. Try telling the Post Office when to deliver your mail!

Remember everyone wants to be first. They want it and they want it now! My daughter tells me the same thing almost daily. Just explain to the customer your position and most will understand. From a business stand point it only makes sense to be as productive as possible. Taking control of the delivery process is just good business!

Mailpost Leadership

With the increasing number of people turning to e-mail marketing, the competition is getting tougher every minute. To succeed in this mad scramble, it is not just enough to widen your reach or get the maximum number of hits. It is also about turning the interests into results. To beginners as well as to those who are already into the business, e-mail marketing can be a highly effective way of promotion and marketing if you know how to pitch your campaign just at the right spot while avoiding some basic mistakes, which can render your campaign invalid.

Sending e-mails without permission: The first and foremost rule of effective e-mail marketing is that before starting to send business e-mails to people, obtain their permission. Sending e-mails to those who have not given you permission will not yield any result. On the contrary, your message will be labeled as spam. Don’t cheat or copy mailing lists from other websites. Rather, obtain permission for commercial communication personally.

Good e-mail marketing requires fairly easy subscription and unsubscription option. Give your audience an opt-in option. A double opt-in option, where you use check boxes and ask people to check them if they want to receive newsletters along with an e-mail subscription confirmation, is a much better way of having people on board, as you will have double permission for sending e-mails.

Over ambition: E-mail marketing requires reaching out to a large number of people, but it is of utmost importance to convince those people to do business with you. Creating an extra large mailing list that does not match with your budget and mailing each one of them will seldom yield positive results. Instead, have a genuine mailing list, even if such a list is small, and work on convincing those people by sending specific number of mails over a period of time about your product or service, which will yield much better results.

Bad campaign plan: A bad campaign plan is certain to doom your e-mail marketing plans. Like other forms of marketing, e-mail marketing requires extensive research and proper planning. Here, it is not only about individual e-mails, but also about the whole campaign, which needs to be planned properly. Right from deciding your target audience to creating the right copy and settling on the frequency of e-mails, every step must be properly planned.

Irrelevant and uninteresting copy: In case of e-mail marketing, your copy is your main weapon. Stuffing your copy with irrelevant information and complicating it unnecessarily will not make any impact on the reader. Your copy must be accurate so that the reader gets your message clearly. Your reader does not have the whole day to waste on a single e-mail. If it is incoherent and uninteresting, it will surely reach trash. A creative sense is also highly important in such a case. Your copy must stand out. It should be innovative, attractive, and have the ability to arrest the reader’s attention at the first glance.

Bad timing: Effective e-mail marketing requires you to hold on to your readers. Bombarding your audience with similar messages is bound to irritate them. Your messages must be timed properly. You must give your prospective buyers the time to get used to the idea that you want to convey. A number of messages over a period of time will yield better results.

Wrong subject line: Sending a subject line with all the letters in capitals will render it as spam as will the use of too many special characters. Also, the subject line must state in a brief manner the objective of the e-mail. Your reader must know what the e-mail is all about.

Weak call to action: E-mail marketing needs fast action. For this, you need to give strong calls to action. Your newsletter must contain appropriate links, which the readers can use in case they need more information or when they decide to visit your website.

Mailpost Organisation

Why did I entitle this “Successful E-Mail Marketing?”

Simply because there are so many ways to be unsuccessful at e-mail marketing. This is why so many involved in the online marketing industry moved away from this form of marketing.

So does that mean people should not use e-mail marketing at all?

Quite on the contrary; what it means for you is there is an existing marketing method seldom used, that can be exploited and re-opened just like the gold fields were in the mid 1900’s.

You see the trouble was people were going about it the wrong way in most cases. As a result of the unscrupulous methods some greedy people employed to illicit money, ant-spamming laws where introduced such as the CANSPAM Act of 2003.

Also people have firewalls protecting them, along with e-mail filtering, anti pop-up, etc.

So again – is e-mail marketing dead?

No way. In fact this advice is as much for those beginning in e-mail marketing as any who have been in the industry for years. Remember the tile is “Successful E-Mail Marketing”.

There are some key factors in being successful at e-mail marketing; one is having a TARGETED List. Clearly sending out e-mail to people who don’t what the information is really a form a spam – wouldn’t you agree?

For example if you are sending out an e-mail to a list of people who have signed up for a course on Horse Care, an e-mail about Dog Grooming – I mean please! Wouldn’t you be annoyed? I would unsubscribe for that list immediately and maybe report them for spam.

A second, and primary factor, is ensuring the source of that list. Where did it come from, and what EXACTLY did they sign up for in the first place?

Personally I don’t believe in buying lists, you can always ensure the list is sound when you have built it yourself. Although it is fair to say a Joint Venture with a partner in the same Niche is a sure bet and in this case you would have their permission to send their list an e-mail regarding a product or service that they had subscribed for.

A third and important factor is called the double opt-in. Now this has been around for a while and I know a great deal of people have suggested it is a killer on e-mail marketing. I say this to them – rubbish.

If you have a product or information that is well worth their time, the Right kind of customers will not mind at all clicking on an e-mail to verify their subscription in order to get that product or information. In most cases REAL customers like that added level protection.

Now I use the term “Real” and “Right” kind of customers to highlight the fact you only want those people on your list that are specifically interested in your products and services and no one else.

Why?

Because the size of an e-mail list is not relevant, however the quality of an e-mail list is very relevant. You could have a list of 2000 people and only sell a few people on that list, yet a very targeted and responsive list of 100 will have a buy rate of up to 50% or more…

So we have seen how important it is to have a targeted list. What about being responsive?

This comes down to trust. Trust comes with time and a relationship. Building these two are critical for any e-mail list you build.

So how does one build trust?

One very famous marketer once told me “breath between e-mails”. In other words don’t constantly pitch to them every e-mail with your latest product or service. Give them some valuable information for free. Yep – FREE.

Now your probably think to yourself “that will cost me money”. Am I right?

I will tell you something truthfully, it will cost you far more money by people unsubscribing from your list you have worked so hard to build.

Let’s take an example to show you how to do what I am suggesting here.

Peter Kritas Mailpost

Call me a dunce, but I can’t write a single line of copy until I write my opening paragraph.

Unlike many successful copywriters, I can’t follow the advice of the many direct mail copywriting gurus who suggest I write the reply device first because that’s the tool that closes the sale. I can’t start there. That’s the last thing I write.

So writing for me is agony. I can’t begin anywhere else but at the beginning. Which, for me, is the opening line of the letter.

So I write “Dear [blank].” Then I hit the return key twice. Then I wait for inspiration. Or hunt for inspiration, depending on how close my deadline is.

I get an idea. I craft the opening as a question. Too pompous. Hit delete.

I start with an anecdote. Too long in getting to the point. Backspace through that one.

I quote Aristotle. Too obscure.

I quote Mark Twain instead. Funny. But irrelevant. Delete.

I head in another direction. A statistic. A real grabber. But I sound like I’m preaching, not starting a letter written by me to a real, living prospect. So I delete again.

I hunt through 3,500 Good Jokes for Speakers. Nothing.

Maybe I should try a colloquial approach. I hunt through Yiddish Wisdom, Yiddish Chochma. “The husband is the boss–if his wife allows,” I read. Now there’s a great quote. But not for this letter.

A search through The Forbes Book of Business Quotations lasts over an hour because I get sidetracked by a great line from Henry Ford and end up reading every quotable thing he said, none of them germane to my topic.

And so it goes until I finish my start. Only when I am confident that I have hooked my reader do I have the courage to write the copy that will keep the reader hooked to the end of the letter. I can’t enjoy my trip until I know where I’m headed.

Now if only I knew how to end this article with a bang I’d have it finished by now.

Mailpost Peter Kritas

The number-one advantage of dimensional mailers is that they get noticed. Amidst the #10 envelopes, postcards and other traditional mail that your prospects receive daily, boxes, cylinders and lumpy oversize envelopes stand out.

The number-two advantage of dimensional mailers is that they get opened. Usually.

Most of us, when we receive a box in the mail, addressed to us, from someone we don’t know, simply have to find out what is inside. But you cannot depend entirely on the odd shape or size of your dimensional mailer to do all your work for you. You must still tease your prospect into opening the box.

One organization that knows how to use lumpy mail to good effect is the city of Memphis, Tennessee. A while back, the nice folks down at the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau realized that they needed to attract more meetings and conventions to the city. So they sent a promotional mailer to meeting and convention planners across the United States.

The mailer consisted of a small box wrapped in wrinkled brown paper. Handwritten on the top of the box was this message: “We found your wallet in Memphis.” Inside was a wallet, and this message: “Next time, why not come with it?”

The wallet contained faux credit cards for accommodations and dining, with Memphis hotels and restaurants listed on the back of each card. Along with the wallet was a sales letter explaining why Memphis was the most cost-effective place to host the prospect’s next meeting or convention.

You’ll agree that this mailer works for a number of reasons. The packaging, complete with wrinkled paper, is unique. The teaser copy on the box is irresistible. And the message inside, along with the wallet, is light-hearted and sure to put a smile on a prospect’s face.

The box alone was probably not enough to tease a prospect into opening it. It might have been mistaken for a home-made bomb. But the line about having found the prospect’s wallet in Memphis was inspired, and sure to make the recipient reach for the scissors and cut open the package.

As you can see, your goal with dimensional mail is three-fold. You must get noticed. You must get opened. And you must get read. Naturally, you also want your prospects to respond. But if you’ve managed to get them to open your package and start reading your sales pitch, your toughest challenge is behind you.

Mailpost Business Franchise Opportunities

Direct mail is a cost-effective way to market your business to a specifically targeted audience. Direct mail can be personalized to fit your market’s interests and needs, for the highest return on investment, or ROI.

While it continues to grow in use and popularity, not all marketing departments are equipped to handle direct mail fulfillment and must outsource this often times mammoth task. The time required to create and distribute direct mail advertisements to your market while trying to maximizing your ROI, can be cumbersome for many companies. Not only can the stock required to mail out 10,000 direct mail pieces be hard to keep on hand, but the design work, addressing, labeling, sorting and printing, not to mention tracking of direct mail ads is often beyond the scope of your marketing department. It is often more profitable to outsource these tasks to a direct mail fulfillment company.

Direct mail fulfillment companies come in all sizes and capabilities. Direct mail printing has advanced technologically in the last few years, resulting in higher quality and more customized pieces with a faster turn around time. Marketing services have evolved as well. Variable Thinking, a full-service marketing firm in Tinley Park, Illinois offers everything from direct mail design and targeted mailing list, to printing and tracking personalized direct mail all at one facility, meaning your marketing department only deals with one business partner. This is a trend that is expected to grow. The easiest way to begin your decision-making process when choosing a direct mail fulfillment company is to decide exactly what your marketing staff can handle for the direct mail campaign and what needs to be outsourced.

This is a good time to take an assessment of your marketing staff and printing equipment to determine what they are capable of. Can your graphics department handle the design portion of the direct mail piece? Do they have the necessary software programs to create a truly eye-catching advertisement? Does your network support a commercial-grade printer with high quality graphics options? If you want customized direct mail, does your printer support variable data printing software? Do you have a warehouse to store the stock of paper or postcards you’ll need for the direct mail campaign? Do you have enough support staff to address and stamp each ad? If you’ve answered no to any of these options, then a direct mail fulfillment company may be an answer for you.

When choosing a direct mail fulfillment company, it is imperative that you know which functions you will outsource and which will be done in-house. Keep in mind the previous questions when assessing.

Many direct mail fulfillment companies have preset specifications regarding job size and outsourcing. It’s important to find out if the printer has a minimum volume requirement. For example, can you print 500 direct mail pieces, or is the minimum order 5,000 or more? It is also necessary to find out how much room the direct mail fulfillment company is willing to allot you in their warehouse for storage and material, both for your current order and any potential future orders you may place with them.

Visit the company’s direct mail fulfillment facility and request a tour. Check out the printing area and warehouse first-hand.

Ask each direct mail fulfillment company on your list, what their error rate is. The error rate is the percentage of printed direct mail pieces that come out wrong, either from a printer, human, or other error. When researching direct mail fulfillment companies, it’s important to know what their average error rate is and how it is handled. Does the company charge for errors made on their end? What percentage do they cover before the client is charged?

Although many companies will charge automatically for changes to an in-progress ad, some offer changes up to a particular stage in development. Find out if your potential direct mail firm offers such an option and what the ultimate deadline is.

Does the direct mail fulfillment company use a third-party mailer for distribution? If so, you may lose the ability to brand your envelope with your logo. Depending on the nature of your ad and how personalized you want it, this could also be a deciding factor, not to mention devastating to the success of your campaign. Typically, the more vendors involved in a project, the more finger pointing there is when a mistake or delay occurs.

Also, does the direct mail company have a tracking system for the distribution as well as your existing inventory in their warehouse? In order to get the most benefit of a direct mail campaign, it is necessary to know which ads do not reach their destinations and to have the ability to research why. How does the direct mail fulfillment company handle returned mail? How are you, as the actual sender, notified? And how do you know what stock is still in their warehouse for future use? Some companies, such as Variable Thinking, track your mail so closely they can tell you when it arrives in post offices across the country, and on what day it is delivered, so you know exactly when to expect responses.

Ask for a list of referrals from a potential direct mail fulfillment company to see what other customers have to say about their service. If they have a website, read any customer testimonials. Contact the local Better Business Bureau and do some Internet research. Do they meet deadlines? Was the job done to the specifications requested? Were there any creative differences between the customer and the direct mail company?

Direct mail, especially personalized direct mail, is the preferred direct marketing contact by consumers. Even in a lagging economy, direct mail still yields results. Take the time to do the research and you can find a direct mail fulfillment that can handle your advertising needs.

Mailpost direct marketing

The purpose of any email is to convey the intended message to the desired audience, be it an individual, a group or a wide spread audience. The successful delivery of an email can be curtailed by several technical factors. This can sabotage your communication efforts, marketing campaign and critical time in getting a response or feedback.

The use of email as a communication tool has increased over the years. It is a tool of delivering message that allows certain degree of customization and personalization while being fast and non intrusive. As a result, more and more marketers are using it as their most significant marketing tool.

According to a recent study, more than 90% of the marketers employ emails as their main communication channel, followed up by phone and other traditional forms of communication. The great advantage of email is that it easy to draft and send messages and it almost costs you nothing. However, in recent times the emails system has also been abused a lot in the form of spam mails and other uninvited marketing mails. This has resulted in small and large businesses adapting anti spam technology to combat such spam mails and thereby curtail the unsolicited emails reaching their mailing systems.

To this end, even internet service providers and other non-profit organizations have created a repository of blacklisted email IDs that send spam mails. Their database is constantly updated and shared among the members of anti email spam communities and organizations. Although such actions taken by these organizations are necessary to counter unsolicited emails, they do pose a significant threat to email marketing campaigns.

Several marketers and businesses find that their legitimate email messages seldom reach their targeted recipients as they are blocked or blacklisted. This has resulted in marketers being very careful in crafting their emails.

It is often observed that email abusers are far ahead of the anti email spam camp. Marketers and businesses are constantly working to be compliant with the rules and norms set up by spam regulators. Following the best practices of the spam regulator will ensure that emails are not blocked and not blacklisted. Exercising this will drastically increase the changes of emails reaching the desired destination on time.

The challenge to successful delivery of emails include authentication of email IDs, reputation of the email host, being mislabeled as email spammers by anti spam applications, server configuration, and by email recipients. Identifying these fundamental challenges to successful email delivery will go a long way in ensuring that your emails are sought out by others. It will also help you to foresee any potential challenges ahead.

Mailpost opportunities

The Pro’s of E-mail:

PRO # 1: E-mail is cheap. Which is why spammers love it. They don’t care whether response rates are low because their costs are negligible. If you want to reach a large number of people and if you have access to a solid, opt-in list, go for it. A test sure won’t cost you an arm and a leg.

PRO # 2: E-mail is fast. In two senses. First, your production time is minimal. As soon as you get an idea to test, you can write a motivating e-mail, and hit the send button. Second, your prospect gets your e-mail instantly so responses can start pouring in within minutes. Speed, from start to finish, means you can be a super-agile marketer.

PRO # 3: E-mail is a fabulous testing medium. As a result of the speed mentioned above, you can get virtually instant answers to your marketing questions. Is a cross-sell offer going to be a winner? Send a group of prospects an e-mail and you’ll have an answer. Have you written two great headlines but can’t decide which one to go with? Do some e-mail testing and get your answer fast!

PRO # 4: Downloadable fulfillment pieces are instantly accessible. For example, if you’re offering prospects a White Paper filled with valuable information, they can click through to your landing page, fill in a little qualifying information, and download your White Paper in under two minutes. The fact that they don’t have to wait long to get their free fulfillment piece boosts response rates.

The Cons of E-mail:

CON # 1: The e-mail “environment” is poor. Thanks to the spam avalanche, sorting through e-mail messages is a real drag. That means your prospects are looking for messages from colleagues, family, and friends, and everything else is out. And fast.

CON # 2: E-mail messages have to be (relatively) short. When prospects are going through their e-mail, they want information quickly. So long copy is out. Complex offers are out. Supporting facts and arguments are out.

CON # 3: E-mails limit your creativity. An all-text e-mail is obviously visually quite boring. The message is the whole ball game. Even in an HTML e-mail, you can throw in some color and photography, but the look is never great. Let’s face it. With e-mail, your graphic designer is fighting with one hand tied behind her back.

CON # 4: Great e-mail lists are hard to find. Yeah. List brokers promise you a high-quality “opt-in” list but you’re often playing with fire. The simple fact is that the direct mail list business is a LOT more mature.

The Pro’s of Direct Mail:

PRO # 1: The direct mail environment is a good one. Sure, people call direct mail “junk mail.” But they use the term with a lot less anger than they do when they speak of “spam.” When you read through your e-mail, you’re sitting at a desk staring at a monitor and you’re busy. When you sort through your postal mail, you’re probably much more relaxed and feel less put upon. This difference in receptivity is, in my judgment, incalculably important.

PRO # 2: Direct mail gives you the space you need to tell the whole story. If you write a compelling letter, readers will stay with you. They will NOT stick with you in an e-mail.

PRO # 3: In direct mail, you can use emotion. In your letter or flyer you can inspire, frighten, cajole, convince, make cogent arguments, and motivate. Readers just don’t want that in an e-mail. They want you to tell them the facts and get out.

PRO # 4: In direct mail you can include different pieces you can hold in your hand. I’m talking about a colorful flyer, a testimonial sheet filled with raves, objective product reviews, you name it. You never know what’s going to capture a reader’s interest or attention. With an e-mail you get pixels on the screen and nothing more.

The Cons of Direct Mail:

CON #1 : Direct mail can be expensive. Postage is sky high and heading higher. Printing often costs a ton of money and there’s list rental and letter-shop costs to consider. Not to mention creative development. The bottom line? Direct mail can be very cost effective but there’s no question that your front end costs are going to be higher. That’s the only big “con” you have to worry about.

Final Thoughts

As you can see from the pros and cons listed above, e-mail and direct postal mail both have their advantages. Lately, direct mail has been in a bit of a decline, partly because of the economy and partly because e-mail marketing has made inroads.

One could argue that direct mail will be making a HUGE comeback as spammers continue to destroy a legitimate marketing channel. So keep on testing e-mail but don’t neglect the proven, money-making power of a letter package or self-mailer!