Email Marketing Reviews – Questions & Answers

9/8/2010 09:54 AM

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Welcome to Email Marketing Reviews

Q&A

This section has been included for the lay person in email marketing. These are common industry buzz words about email marketing, and things that you as the consumer SHOULD ask and KNOW:

What is Email Authentication?
These are various bits of information that identify the sender to the ISPs; It s a kind of accountability for the messages that you are sending out. The most up-to-date email authentication methods are DKIM, Reverse DNS, and SPF records.

What are Domain Keys (DK)?
Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM): Are signatures that are added to your emails to verify the sender (or domain) and the content within the message. This helps get your messages into your subscribers' in box as it is information that spam bots/filters can identify. Email marketing organizations have this in place so that your emails have the best possible chances of landing in your subscribers in boxes.

What is Spam?
Is the common term for unsolicited bulk-email. When an email is sent to an address that did not opt-in (or give direct permission) to receive the email, or is sent several times to the same address, it can be considered SPAM. The most respected email marketing companies will not allow the use of third party or purchased lists. Even if a seller tells you the subscribers on the list have opted in to receive information on a particular service or topic, they have not done so from you or your company. Therefore the highly reputable email marketing organizations will not be able to send out to that list.

What is Tracking?
Opens, clicks, forwards, and bounces: Email marketing companies will have a comprehensive tracking beacon allowing you to see which of your subscribers have opened clicked and forwarded your emails. You will also be able to take this information and use it for future campaigns. It will provide you with a better understanding of your subscribers and therefore allow you to develop a proper strategy to market to them accordingly. "Opens" relates to which of your subscribers have actually seen the content of your email, by clicking on it in their in box. "Clicks" are a list of subscribers that have pressed on one of the links in the email that you have set up. "Forwards" lists the subscribers that have passed your message on to other interested parties. "Bounces" are the emails that didn't arrive to the in box OR the spam box because either the subscriber's mail box was full, the address no longer exists, their server has timed out (meaning the end computer was not responding to the original computer's message) or because the security features on the subscribers account are set extremely high so as to not allow the email through.

What does 'Deliverability' mean?
This is a term that refers to the success of your campaigns being delivered to your subscribers. The deliverability of a system is dependent upon the relationship that the email marketing solutions service provider has with the Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Email marketing solutions will have set up communications with all the ISPs, which enhances the deliverability of your emails.

What's an I.P. Address?
This is an identification number that gets associated to your computer. When accessing web-pages and browsers, or sending out email, the device that you are sending from has an IP address associated to it. It can be likened to your "passport" to the Internet. For email marketing solutions, an IP address gets assigned a reputation based on the content of your emails and the previous times you have sent out. By receiving many spam complaints, or a large percentage of bounce-back numbers, this has an effect on the reputation of the IP address (similar to the effect that bringing drugs over the border and getting caught would have on your passport). The ISPs have the authority to shut off your internet service or disallow you to send email en-masse (blacklisting) if your IP address has received too much negative feedback.

What does 'Whitelisitng' mean?
This is a status that email marketing solutions companies have attributed to them by ISPs around the world. They have to have a long standing relationship of proven performance. However it is important to note that once this relationship is attained there is no real difference in the relationship with the ISP from one company to the next.

What does it mean if someone is 'Blacklisted'?
An IP address can get blacklisted by the spam bots used by the ISP providers. These robots determine whether or not you are sending out spam. They do this by analyzing: your content, the response from people who receive the email, and the bounces that are associated to the account. Blacklisting means that the ISP blocks you from being able to send out, which means that your emails will not be delivered (Bounced) or land in people's junk mail box.

What are Feedback Loops?
Email marketing solutions companies have this in place in order to increase the reputation of their IP addresses. This is a communication that occurs between the IP address and the ISP detailing how a spam complaint has been dealt with, or removed from the mailing list from the person that has reported the complaint.

If you have any other questions feel free to contact us at anytime with any query:

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