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July 31, 2006
It is OKAY to spam if you Just add this like Richard Does
Did you know that if you just add this (bolded below) it makes you exempt from Federal Law? Hell if I only knew this and I could just spam people all day.
This gentlemen took a list from a government official through the Freedom of Information Act and spams residents of Portland on issues he feels is right. I have asked to be removed many times, called his home (spoke to his wife) called his business multiple times and still get spam from him.
Time to take the WAR back to him. Oh Richard, come out and playaaaa.
From the Email:
Richard Ellmyer
3-6-9 Resolution author and project champion
Writer/Publisher - HAP Watcher commentary - Published on the Internet and distributed to 13,000 readers interested in public housing policy in Multnomah County.
http://www.goodgrowthnw.org
President, MacSolutions Inc. - A Macintosh computer consulting business providing web hosting for artists and very small businesses. Located in Portsmouth, the neighborhood with the second highest concentration of public housing clients, 15% and rising, within HAP's Multnomah county jurisdiction of 117 neighborhoods.
Note to readers: HAP Watchers is written, distributed and published with the intent of changing government policy on public housing. It follows the path laid out in the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America which guarantees both free speech and the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. HAP Watchers is political free speech with no commercial interest in product or service. Political free speech is at the heart of our democracy. Without it we have no democracy. Technology gatekeepers beware that you do not become censors and spies as your counterparts in China. Commentaries seeking a change in government practices, such as HAP Watchers, are specifically exempt from the federal regulatory legislation called the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 also known as the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.
It is counter productive to the goal of changing government actions to send HAP Watchers to those who are not interested. Any recipient of a HAP Watchers email, with the exception of public officials and their personal staffs, who does not want to receive HAP Watchers need only ask to be removed by replying to any HAP Watcher email and writing Remove or Unsubscribe in the subject or at the top of the reply body. Requests for removal must be made from or include the same email address to which HAP Watchers was sent in order to be found and deleted.
Occasionally new lists of names are acquired and added to the email database. This may cause some email addresses that have previously been removed to reappear. I apologize for any inconvenience. Please follow the removal procedure to be taken off the list.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 8:41 PM | Permalink
97% of Sending IP's Reputions are Bad Enough to Block
Ninety seven percent of sending IP addresses’ reputations are so bad that e-mail box providers are likely to block their messages, according to a study by e-mail deliverability concern Return Path.
Moreover just 0.9% of sending IP addresses scored well enough that their e-mail is likely to be delivered, the company determined.
Return Path's George Bilbrey: "when it comes to email deliverability, reputation is the most important element for marketers to work on. It matters more than content, subject lines, and the typical cosmetic fixes that marketers gravitate toward. Sure, content matters for driving response. But it does not make much difference when it comes to blocking and filtering."
Download the white paper here.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:08 AM | Permalink
July 28, 2006
I'd Rather Go Late then Go Wrong
Good Tips from David Baker at Agency.com. Actually words to live by in email marketing.
In the e-mail industry, quality assurance has been difficult to maintain consistently. How does QA survive in a world of multiple iterations and last-minute demands? Same as it has in other areas of business. Just because we have a new medium to syndicate en masse doesn’t mean we sacrifice the principles of quality assurance and redundancy in checking our work before it goes out.
With e-mail, the discipline of QA requires exactitude and a reliance on checklists. In order to minimize the risk of things that can go wrong, you want to make sure that:
The database is set up and mapped for personalization (content and data).
Content is properly coded and optimized.
All links and redirects are accurate and inclusive of proper link-naming conventions for tracking purposes.
The text is accurate and the typographic treatment is maintained.
Any custom code (passing variables to a site) are applied or tags are inserted.
The site and tracking system is properly tracking.
Responses are routed properly.
All forms pages are active and posting data properly.
Subject lines and “from” names are consistent and spelled correctly.
The spelling is checked throughout.
The image is validated.
SPAM scoring and HTML validation is complete.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 9:04 AM | Permalink
July 27, 2006
Testing: Increase Your E-Mail Batting Average
Stephanie Miller at ReturnPath puts out some great studies. They are very helpful to many of us in this industry.
E-mail testing can be measured like a batting average--if you're a .300 hitter, you are in the big leagues.
I've always been amazed that even really good baseball players can miss more than half the time and still be considered great. (I'd sure like those odds on my work projects, please!) E-mail house program testing is similar. You won't get a home run every time, but every hit is solid progress and really important.
Since there are literally an infinite number of elements to test, and only a few of them will result in dramatic findings, it can feel like your testing program is striking out. Maintain your emotional and professional fortitude--and stick with the testing program even when you don't see big results every time. Even incremental results can turn into real revenue.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:04 AM | Permalink
July 26, 2006
Click-Throughs Increase 30% With Live Links
It is nice to see some new data on the Goodmail system. I would assume that they are only going to release studies that show good results for now as it would be suicide to not do so. I would hope that in the coming months they can roll up multiple clients and data points over multiple brands, days of week, times of day and transactional vs retention emails and show us a complete view. This will allow many marketers to make up their own minds around this pay to deliver system.
By Wendy Davis of Mediapost.com
E-MAILS DELIVERED TO AOL ADDRESSES saw click-through rates rise by 30 percent when the messages had been "certified"--meaning they were delivered with intact links--than when delivered without the certification, according to a study released Tuesday by e-mail certification company Goodmail Systems.
For the study, Goodmail sent messages on behalf of Time Inc. to more than four million magazine subscribers who had accounts with AOL--a corporate sibling of Time Inc., and the only major Internet Service Provider so far to start using Goodmail's certified e-mail delivery program. Half of the e-mails had been certified by Goodmail, so they arrived with a Goodmail icon and with all images and links enabled, while the other half were sent absent certification.
Goodmail intends to eventually charge marketers a per-message fee to certify e-mail, but did not charge Time Inc. for the e-mails sent as part of the study.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:02 AM | Permalink
July 25, 2006
Is E-Mail Losing Its Clout?
I can tell you that I have mixed feelings about this article. I know the value of email and as a brand, retention and traffic driver. I know that we all use IM on a daily basis at eROI, but on the same note everyone still uses email. Everyone.
I have not yet met a Tween, Gen Y or Adult that does not still rely on email. Every medium has its spot, and we are all ADD today. Take this with a grain of salt, but consider the impact on messaging and the vehicle you use.
Here are some stats to counter the below article:
>> Email is the #1 online activity for Americans! (Pew Internet Survey)
>> Out of 1,000,000,000 (1 Billion) Internet users worldwide, 90% use email! (PostFuture)
>> 82% of online consumers have made at least one purchase as a result of an email! (PostFuture)
>> People now use email to communicate MORE than the telephone! (Marketing Sherpa)
>> 90% of consumers use email multiple times per day! (DoubleClick)
>> 30.1% of people use email for gift ideas! (ReturnPath Survey)
>> 40.9% of people comparison shop with email! (ReturnPath Survey)
>> 59% of people have redeemed an email coupon at online OR offline store! (PostFuture)
E-mail is so last millennium. Young people see it as a good way to reach an elder _ a parent, teacher or a boss _ or to receive an attached file. But increasingly, the former darling of high-tech communication is losing favor to instant and text messaging, and to the chatter generated on blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.The shift is starting to creep into workplace communication, too.
"In this world of instant gratification, e-mail has become the new snail mail," says 25-year-old Rachel Quizon from Norwalk, Calif. She became addicted to instant messaging in college, where many students are logged on 24/7.
Much like home postal boxes have become receptacles for junk mail, bills and the occasional greeting card, electronic mailboxes have become cluttered with spam. That makes them a pain to weed through, and the problem is only expected to worsen as some e-mail providers allow online marketers to bypass spam filters for a fee.
Beyond that, e-mail has become most associated with school and work.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:57 AM | Permalink
July 24, 2006
Please Take Our Email Client/Platform Survey
In an effort to expand our latest study we are currently working on, we would like to invite you to participate in this survey. This survey will help us to combine some key data points we analyze over our emailROI network and provide you with the combined results in August.
Sign Up for our Study Release and download past studies.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 9:35 AM | Permalink
Managing Incoming E-mail: What Every User Needs to Know
I found this older study that hit home with me, as I process about 400 emails a day. I have a personal rule not to EVER let my inbox exceed 50 emails by the end of every day. I would prefer 35 or less, but I know what is possible. I wonder if other people are like this as well. The amusing thing to me about this report was that it cites 20-30 emails a day. So 2003, right.
I know just in my sent items that I have not filed or deleted that I have over 20K emails for search reference in the past year alone. Sick, I know, but it is the easiest way to communicate in a busy world and across oceans and time zones.
Take a read if you are wondering about your own inbox as well as what trauma your own customers and prospects might be facing as well.
Description: This report, available as a PDF download, describes a simple method that will allow any user to cope with increasing amounts of incoming e-mail. This includes a simple method to solve the hassle of incoming spam.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:24 AM | Permalink
Email Council promotes best practices, trends, and strategies
I could not help but whare this article on the Email Experience Council. The council has grow even more in the past week and it is amazing how many companies have already joined the membership. If you have not yet joined and email marketing is truly important to your business take the time today.
Annual memberships are not expensive and the collective research, data, and conversations you will get out of this group is amazing.
E-mail is a great marketing tool, but despite the movement over the last few years toward centralized databases and integrated marketing programs, some agencies and e-mail solutions providers remain at odds with the siloed approach most companies continue to take with the medium.E-mail services providers such as Gather.com and Pivotal Veracity, along with agencies like MRM Worldwide, OgilvyOne Worldwide, and Agency.com, have banded together to form the Email Experience Council to focus more awareness on the strategic value of e-mail marketing.
Read More
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 3:49 AM | Permalink
July 21, 2006
Tips on Tackling E-Mail Issues
From DM News today:
I agree with most of this data and will be interested to see how our next study matches up with this article. We have seen that everyone has a different "Best Day to send email" and picking sweet spots on Fridays as a whole might not work for everyone out there. Every industry and consumer segment performs differently. There is not a magic bullet. If there was, we would all be hammering the end users at the same days and times.
E-mail is a growing space for sales and marketing but consumers and Internet service providers are getting more discriminating.In a presentation June 21 at the DM Days New York show, Worldata corporate vice president Jay Schwedelson advised attendees on how to navigate the tough, sophisticated e-mail world. One recent Return Path study found that 20 percent of permission-based e-mails were not delivered, he said.
He suggested a few tactics to bolster e-mail campaigns.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 12:25 PM | Permalink
July 20, 2006
You've Got 51 Seconds
Great study from Stephanie Miller, VP Strategic Services, at ReturnPath.
I was personally surprised to see 51 seconds. I think about my own reading habits and I think about 15-20 most times. But then again I read for headlines and then skim content and click through or trash it.
Readers spend an average of 51 seconds with email newsletters, typically skimming the contents. Only 19% of newsletters are read fully. (Nielsen Norman, 2006) That's good news and bad news for B2B email marketers, who are most likely to produce content newsletters rather than tips or pure promotions.Good news is that 51 seconds is a long time in the email world, as promotional emails get about 15 seconds (Marketing Sherpa, 2005). The average person reads about 200 words a minute, which means, I'm loosely figuring, you'd get about 100-150 words after headlines and images to communicate and engage - or about 5-7 headlines if the reader is skimming.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 12:20 PM | Permalink
July 19, 2006
IRS Spam and Phishing
It was funny, but not really, that I got this email from the "IRS". Now the IRS has spent some money on educating people through TV and Radio that they will NEVER email you. EVER. But there is a rash of low hanging fruit out there that will fall for this scam. It is sad and does anger me about how many people are abusing email as a communication tool each and every day.
But the real amusing part of this email is that they told me I have a refund of $3.80. Really that would cover my AM Starbucks stop. Come on now. Does this really work on people. I mean if it had said $380 I might have seen it as a good con, but this goes in my highlight reel on stupid phishers.
Comments (2) | Posted by dylan at 5:57 AM | Permalink
July 18, 2006
E-mail Experiments Pay Off
Liz Tascio, at Mediapost wrote this article and I think if you have not read it yet it is worth the read today. We are BIG believers in testing and trying new things. It always comes down to resources and time with many clients. I would bang the drum that you need to make time and you need to set aside the staff and financial resources to start testing. Stop doing the same old thing each and every campaign and look at what is happening not only with the email statistics, but with the overall sales, lead, brand and conversion goals.
When it comes to online marketing, does an e-mail's subject line really matter? How to revive a failing pay-per-click campaign? What's the best way to distribute a digital press release? And how much more money could you be making if you knew all this?The people at MarketingExperi-ments.com test online marketing tools, then publish the results for free. MarketingExperiments partners with companies to test and analyze online marketing techniques, then publishes briefs on its Web site and in a twice-monthly online journal. Audio clinics discuss topics such as a/b split testing, marketing intuition, click fraud, and how to use search to boost site traffic.
The site's 70,000 subscribers range from new business owners to CEOs to marketers. "We don't target a specific group, we just are trying to figure out what works and what doesn't ," says Jalali Hartman, senior analyst, strategy.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:12 AM | Permalink
July 17, 2006
Time to Join the EEC
If you have not yet taken a moment to either subscribe to the Email Experience Council's Newsletter or downloaded the new case studies, get on it. This group have a little over 1000 active subscribers in the past few weeks and they are represntative of some of the major brands, agencies and marketers in the email marketing space. The EEC will be bringing you some great resources, events, interactive online Ask the Experts chats on Gather.com and much more.
They have just opened up real membership (annual and not expensive) to all. If you are serious about email marketing, this is going to be one of the main resources you will come to count on from here on out.
Learn About the EEC and join today.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 12:17 PM | Permalink
Is E-mail Truly Reliable?
I found this from John Ouren, Goodmail Systems. I understand the value proposition that they are selling in thier marketing and PR efforts, but I am still having a problem with the basic idea shift. I assume that we will see a change in mentality from larger brands that can afford this cost and I am still waiting for some first hand testimonial from some marketers in this space that tell me that this concept has changed the ROI on thier email campaigns.
Everyone understands e-mail's economic advantages over physical mail. Aside from cost, e-mail has a richness and interactivity that makes it more than a simple one-directional communication vehicle.But can we really rely on e-mail? When a marketer pays 39 cents to send a piece of First Class Mail through the U.S. Postal Service, he doesn't worry about the final disposition of that message or wonder how it will be regarded by the recipient. What about with e-mail?
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:00 AM | Permalink
July 13, 2006
Chinas New Anti-Spam Laws
Anti-spam bill sends stark message to junk e-mailers
The government will introduce a sweeping anti-spam bill in the Legislative Council Wednesday in an attempt to clamp down on the flood of unsolicited messages plaguing Hong Kong's fax machines, mobile phones and e-mail inboxes.
The law will allow the Telecommunications Authority to maintain three "do-not-call registers" - one each for pre-recorded voice phone calls, faxes and short mobile-phone text messages.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:53 AM | Permalink
July 12, 2006
Spammers increase pump-and-dump scams
I am not sure if you have seen a flood of these emails lately, I have. I am amazed the the frequency and subject lines they use. They are quite good, in a bad way. I have to admit that I have been coaxed to open a few as the sender and subject line are so good. Lately I have seen a change to even coming from a somewhat familair sounding name (as I get a few hundred emails a day from new people all the time) and the subject line often uses RE: - meaning a reply from a note I sent.
July 06, 2006 (Computerworld Australia) -- Spammers are profiting from share manipulation by coaxing victims into investing in junk bonds.The spammers purchase cheap shares (which artificially raises the stock price) and sell them off as victim investment raises their value further.
Internet security analyst firm Sophoslabs calls the spam technique a "stock, pump and dump campaign" and said it accounts for about 15%of all spam, up 5% from last year.
Sophoslabs' head of technology for Asia Pacific, Paul Ducklin, said the campaign is effective because it uses the stock exchange as a legal forum, rather than offering malicious attachments or links, or attempting to gain personal details.
"The call to action is that you go away and invest in legitimate, legal companies which are totally disconnected from the malicious spamming," Ducklin said. "There are no malicious links or applications in the e-mails, so the user feels safe."
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 6:48 AM | Permalink
July 11, 2006
Microsoft may use old Hotmail accounts as spam traps
I love this one .Looks like Microsoft is going to start using old cancelled email accounts as honeypots. To me this is pure trickery as these might all be email accounts that were valid opt in resords, but since they have been tossed aside by people, MS thinks that they can use them to find spammers. Problem is that this is going to hurt legitamate marketers. I think this is fairly crazy. No really crazy.
Why penalize legitimate companies that just have not taken the time to delete email addresses from Hotmail and MSN accounts (and maybe passport.com accounts) that are valid? Maybe this will be a call to action for marketers to perform better list hygeine and remove email addresses (as unsubscribes - not removals) resulting in better lists. A good practice, but a bad carrot to dangle out there.
Legitimate email marketing firms that do not remove out-of-date Hotmail addresses face being added to Microsoft's spam filter lists, according to an industry analyst.Richi Jennings, an analyst at Ferris Research, claimed that, after a year of disuse, Microsoft may use old Hotmail accounts as spam traps.
"This means that email sent to old Hotmail addresses may be used as samples to help train spam filters for Hotmail, MSN, FrontBridge, the Outlook Junk filter and other services," he said.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:38 AM | Permalink
July 8, 2006
Google settlement challenged due to notification
Although this is a little off subject, the interesting point of this is that Google is requiring Kinney to notify all "unnamed class members" in the case by email. This is a blatant spamming issue to force someone to email a list of people of which they do not have an opt in relationship.
Interesting twist in a legal suit.
“If Kinney is allowed to proceed, any unnamed class member is free to disregard the court’s own calendar and schedule his own fairness hearing, about which the other unnamed class members receive no notice and to which they have no opportunity to respond. To allow such procedure would be both inefficient and unfair,” according to Google.Kinney also argues that four other actions in the settlement procedure are unfair:
E-mail notice is inadequate because of spam filters and there is no means of officially notifying the class.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 12:56 PM | Permalink
Spam = Porn in the Inbox - It's Ecomonics Stupid
New York Times has published an article that explores the economics that control what type of spam shows up in your inbox. The study was done by CipherTrust and shows that porn spam is 280 times more effective than spam advertising pharmacy drugs. Paul Judge offered the following towards an explanation: 'If you look at some of the oldest and most successful forms of business on earth, they revolve around sex.'
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:34 AM | Permalink
July 7, 2006
Don't be fooled by new variety of spam in inbox
Charles Bermant writing for The Seattle Times has a good article on the many ploys in the Inbox.
Spam may change, but our reaction needs to stay consistent. And something that appears to be a new variety of fauna should be ignored, deleted or reported.
Recently, I received dozens of letters from different people, all offering the same irresistible deal. My life experiences can translate into academic credit, and I can use what I've learned throughout my professional years as enhancements to prestige and marketability.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 8:57 AM | Permalink
July 6, 2006
Making Transactional E-Mail Better Marketing Tools
Here is part One from Jeanne Jennings posted at ClickZ. Interesting Read on howyou might be able to run campaigns in transactional emails. Read this and see if you feel that you could walk the fine line that she paints around using the transactional email (which boasts a higher open/read/click rate) in your marketing mix.
How many e-mail messages does your company send each month? I mean all messages, not just those sent with the express purpose of e-mail marketing. If you tally the numbers, you may get a surprise. For many companies, their commercial or marketing e-mail quantities pale in comparison to another type of e-mail: transactional messages.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 10:31 AM | Permalink
July 5, 2006
Spam with a Social Conscious
So I found this interesting.... if you associate a star with a brand and spam the heck out of people in other countries, but you give a percentage of the sales to a charity, it is okay(?). This has to be one for the record books. Really is bizzare.
Moreover, the actor believes that stars’ credibility is damaged by taking part in advertising campaigns: “In Japan, for example, it’s quite normal to see Robert De Niro advertising Spam, but in America it’s frowned upon, unless it’s done for charity”, he explained. “It’s seen as a way of exploiting your fame to earn even more money,” he added.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 8:44 PM | Permalink
July 3, 2006
Spam Email Marketing Not Endorsed by SC Johnson
Just goes to show you that no matter the brand, people will use phishing scams to harm you and harm others. I mean a cleaning product? Come on now. I see tons of Coke Vs Pepsi, gift Cert, claim your prize etc each and every week. When will it stop?
If you have a brand that could be used to leverage customer data, be careful to guard it.
Unauthorized Offer of Scrubbing Bubbles(R) Automatic Shower Cleaner Appears to Be a Ploy to Gather Personal Information
RACINE, Wis., June 23 /PRNewswire/ -- SC Johnson today issued a cease-and-desist letter to the creators of Web site www.FreeShowerCleaner.com, after learning that consumers were being directed to the site with the promise of a free Scrubbing Bubbles® Automatic Shower Cleaner. The site is not affiliated with SC Johnson and the creators are not authorized by SC Johnson to use the Scrubbing Bubbles® Automatic Shower Cleaner product, brand name, logo or imagery.
Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 5:54 AM | Permalink
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