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F A Q S
What is Email Marketing?
Email
marketing uses the Internet to communicate information about
promotions, company offerings, product updates and more. It is a
valuable dialogue between a prospective or current customer and a
company. Email marketing is most effective when the recipients are
targeted and the information is relevant and timely.
Why would I use Email Marketing?
Email
marketing is more cost effective, and achieves results faster than
traditional direct mail marketing. Most importantly, email marketing
is twice as effective as traditional direct mail in getting a
response from the targeted audience. This may be because of its
immediate call-to-action, through "buy now" or "sign up now" links
that can be directly embedded in the message. It is ideal for anyone
looking to increase revenue, boost sales, generate leads, build
brand awareness or shorten sale cycles.
Can my business benefit from online newsletters and special promos?
eMarketer
estimates there are millions of Internet users in the world, spending
92% of their online time sending and receiving emails. Given the low
cost and high impact value of email marketing, there are no
businesses that would not benefit from tapping this market.
How do I start?
Start your
email campaign with existing customers and grow your contact list by
encouraging recipients to forward your message to others. Include a
subscribe button on your Website and ask prospective customers if
you can send your newsletter to them. Make sure your collateral
includes a reference to your newsletter and consider running a
promotion or give away to generate interest. Your list will grow
faster than you would have believed.
Will I
know when there are new subscribers (and unsubscriptions)?
Yes. In
the Mail media reports, the number of unsubscribes are available per
week, month and year, as well as per campaign sent.
How do subscribers unsubscribe?
Each email
you send using Mail media has an unsubscribe link appended to it. If
you have only one general subscriber list it will say 'Unsubscribe
from this mailing list'. If you have several categories of
subscriptions active on your subscribe form, the link will be
'Manage my subscription'.
How do I get new subscribers?
The Mail
media subscription form builder (available under the Manage Mailing
Lists section) enables you to collect new subscriptions from a
subscribe link on your website. The website link enables users to
subscribe to specific mailing lists (which you can set up to
correspond to your newsletter categories). You can design your
subscription form with logos, fonts and colors. After you have set
up the subscription form, Mail media generates the HTML code for you
(or your webmaster) to insert into your existing website code.
Will I receive bounced return emails from (newly) invalid addresses?
No! This
is where Mail media saves you time and removes the headache of
hundreds of undelivered emails bouncing back and clogging your
inbox. Mail media automatically flags invalid email addresses ('hard
bounces') so that they are excluded from future campaigns. 'Soft
bounces' (addresses that are temporarily unavailable), go through a
series of checks before they become a 'hard bounce'. Email addresses
are being checked for validity on a continual basis, even when you
are not logged in.
Can I use a 3rd party list, or list that I
purchased/rented/aggregated from websites?
No, Mail
media is for permission marketing only, so you can only send email
to your own customers, and to subscribers who have opted in to your
list.
How do I get my list imported in to my Mail media account?
Mail media
will accept your email addresses in 3 file formats; .txt (text
file), .csv (Comma Separated Values) and .xls (MS Excel
Spreadsheet).
What if I don't have an email list?
Not a
problem. There are several ways you can collect email addresses.
Mail media provides a list building tool in the form of a sign up
box to be put on your website. Your site visitors can sign up for
your email list and their addresses are automatically imported in to
your database. Other ways to collect would be to set up a guest
register and have customers provide you with their email addresses
through your website. Trade shows, conferences, etc - any time you
touch your customer, invite them to join your list.
Why can't my recipients see my images?
Images are
not embedded in the email. Newsletters have code that points to the
images, which either reside in your pictures folder or on another
website, according to your preference. When a recipient opens the
email, the newsletter calls the image externally, and it is
downloaded to the recipient's computer. If the recipient is not
online, they will see a broken link.
Why are people not getting my emails?
Unfortunately, no email service can guarantee 100% delivery. People
change email addresses when they move or leave jobs, auto responders
are set up when people are on vacation and spam filters trap
messages before they arrive based on key words and phrases in the
content. Industry averages for delivery rates are 30-40% for
business to business newsletters and 10-15% for consumer newsletters
according to eMarketer. Your message content and your relationship
with your list (whether or not they white listed you in their email
client) also have a lot to do with successful delivery. With Mail
media, you are able to see exactly who has opened which email over
time and work on improving your open rates. Without a similar tool,
you never have any idea who is receiving the email.
Sending Newsletters
How do I know if emails that I sent out were actually opened?
Mail media
provides statistics of sent newsletters and reports the percentage
of emails opened per mailshot, how many were sent, how many website
click throughs were generated, and who clicked on what links and who
actually opened the email. We even enable you to generate or export
these addresses as a separate list so that you can target your users
based on their click behaviour.
What is a hardbounce?
A hard
bounce is an email message that has been returned to you because the
recipient's address is invalid. A hard bounce might occur because
the domain name does not exist, the recipient is unknown, or there
is a network problem on the recipient's end.
What is a softbounce?
A soft
bounce is an email message that gets as far as the recipient's mail
server, but is bounced back before it reaches the recipient. One of
the most common causes for a soft bounce is a full mailbox. This
will happen A LOT with your subscribers who use free email services
like Yahoo and Hotmail, because they allow for very little email
storage.
Can Mail media be used for unsolicited bulk email (spamming)?
Mail media
was not designed as a SPAM tool, and it would be illogical for it to
be used as such. Mail media is designed to give online value added
service for a range of functions, including personalized opt in
marketing to clients and inhouse communication with colleagues, as
well as private use.
What is Mail media used for?
The Mail
media tool is mostly used by corporations, associations, clubs,
small businesses and private individuals. The uses are endless, but
most people use Mail media to communicate with clients, staff,
members, colleagues and relatives or friends. Private use would
include invites, announcements, travelogues and family albums. Small
businesses might use Mail media for press releases, newsletters,
product launches, quotes, letters, proposals and more. Corporations,
on the other hand, might have an in house communications department
that wants to send out internal newsletters, reports, memos and
directives to other offices, as well as a range of opt in or other
marketing functions.
Does Mail media CC (carbon copy) or BCC (blind carbon copy) emails
sent to multiple recipients?
No, when
sending, each newsletter is addressed and sent individually. This is
much more effective. When people see a single stock phrase in the
"To" field of the received email, they usually associate it with
SPAM.
Can I personalize the emails or use different subject lines?
Yes, we
offer a range of personalization functions. You can also personalize
the subject with a data field representing each individual
recipient, such as their name.
Can the recipient's name appear in the 'To' field?
The TO
field has to contain an email address.
Can I send out personalized emails?
Yes, Mail
media allows you to personalize your emails and set up subscribe
forms where your users fill in their details to populate sets of
data that you can set up, with a choice in the type of information
you wish to get from them.
Can you cancel an email once it is sitting in the queue to be sent?
No, only
scheduled emails can be cancelled. If an email is sent immediately
then the sending cannot be cancelled. Make sure your email is
correct before sending it.
Can I add attachments to my email newsletters?
Yes, a
download link to the file from your email will be almost the same
thing as an attachment. It is also much more likely to get through
corporate firewalls.
Does Mail media automatically send the correct version (HTML or
text) to recipients?
Yes, Mail
media is reverse MIME compliant and will automatically determine
whether an email client can read HTML. If it cannot, Mail media will
deliver the text version
My newsletter was sent successfully, but no one has received it?
This could
mean that either our servers are busy, or you have a big file, and
downloading could take longer.
Does Mail media provide sample newsletters?
Yes, but
you are not limited to these. You can design your own or have a Mail
media designer create one for you. Mail media provides a growing
range of templates for different audiences: press releases,
invitations, product launches, newsletters, quotes, memos, letters,
travelogues, announcements and a series of e-cards relating to
holidays or religious holidays.
What kind of universal settings can I get for my newsletters in Mail
media?
We provide
a range of useful features, including "Create text version with HTML
version", "Display 'Subscribe' link on all emails", "Display
'Forward to friend' link on all emails", and "Append the address (in
Profile) to the footer of all emails sent out."
Can I add (Flash) animations to a newsletter?
Yes, you
can place a range of visual objects, such as Flash files and
animated GIFs, as well as the usual range of pictures.
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