The NSI Partners Blog » Email Marketing

Downloaded Xobni, a Very Promising Outlook Plugin

Tom — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 18:36:38 +0000

(Photo credit: Xobni)

Thanks to Jeff Price at BOC International, who sent me a LinkedIn connection invitation via a new Outlook plugin called Xobni, I have hope of “taking back my inbox.” This is according to both Xobni’s literature and reviews like CNet‘s.

I had never heard of Xobni. I can tell from the spelling that our high-technology age is quickly running out of pithy utterances available from the Roman alphabet, and Norton warns me that apparently “fewer than 10 people” have downloaded this plugin. Norton can’t mean that for all of Xobni, though. What about Jeff Price and all his LinkedIn friends? We’ve only spoken a few times, but I’m guessing he has more than nine. (Come to think of it, Norton is the one that sometimes can’t count many friends, although their latest version has indeed really solved most of the problems that plagued previous ones.) I’m guessing then that that’s what its warning is about: this particular build of Xobni or something — otherwise, if I were really among the first ten users, I would have won a prize by now, right?

Nevertheless, Xobni captured my attention immediately with its seductive promise of being able to cross-reference email and social media contacts and, even better, leverage the social networking of email itself. As social-media grows there’s an increasing dichotomy between people that effective leverage twitter and all and those of us who “still use email.” If Xobni can help bridge that gap, as both social networks and email platforms are incredibly useful, then I immediately wanted to watch the video. And I hardly ever make time for that. I still need to explore it, but between an easy presentation and a clear website, to say nothing of the inherent recommendation via LinkedIn, I downloaded and installed immediately.

Then, while I was waiting for Xobni to index my PST files, I went to send an email. Outlook once again could neither auto-fill nor suggest an address that’s somewhere in my database. At that moment Xobni Plus closed the sale. A clever bit of script was able to hint the precise email address I needed: a grayed-out drop-down that I couldn’t quite select without upgrading for $30. Worth it, I thought, and now it’s telling me in a shiny new, colorful panel that has appeared in Outlook that “we’re ready to rock.” We’ll see, but so far, so great.

Am I a Spammer? Take Action to Protect Your Online Reputation

Lisa — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 12:30:11 +0000

Some email marketers might be surprised to find that their actions (or inactions) might get them classified as spammers. Vigilance and perseverance can help keep your email address off of block lists and ensure that you can get your messages to your target audience.

One important action you can take is to attend to unsubscribes quickly. If you get unsubscribe requests for newsletters or email campaigns, ensure that the email addresses are removed from your list immediately. People do get annoyed if they unsubscribe from a list only to find that they still receive messages from you. Keeping your databases and lists up to date can help reduce spam complaints against you.

Post an anti-spam policy on your site. List what you are doing to reduce spam related to your marketing activities. Show your site visitors that you genuinely are concerned that they receive only the messages they want and that you take spam issues very seriously.

Another way to protect yourself from being labeled a spammer is to not reuse your email lists for multiple campaigns. If a customer signs up for one newsletter, and you send several unrelated newsletters and messages to that address, this may be perceived as spam by users. Allow users to manually select the messages they want to receive. Providing clear ways to opt in and out and easy ways to unsubscribe can help you keep spam complaints down.

Unsubscribes Are Good For You? That’s the title of a blog post by Justin Premick at AWeber Communications. He makes the good point that an “unsubscriber” used to be interested in your messages, and they have changed their mind for a reason. By inquiring on your unsubscribe page the reason for the unsubscribe, you may glean useful data to help you improve your email marketing messages.

The War on Spam Requires Military Discipline

Tom — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 15:09:15 +0000

I was at a meeting the other day with legitimate marketers struggling to sell a legitimate product. Suddenly we were shocked by the news that a once carefully maintained list had nearly completely failed a confirmation test, a sort of third opt-in that’s a good idea if a list is old or neglected for a while, and this list was both. Suddenly 1400 prospects were whittled down to only the 20 loyalists who confirmed that, yes, several years later, they were still as interested as ever in the product.

At some point the inevitable suggestion was made that maybe the confirmation test itself was the problem. Could the confirmation email have been somehow unclear? Maybe a few ISPs were down that day? Maybe blindly following the rules today could needlessly condemn 1380 eager prospects out there to wait at their computers for an offer that tragically will never come. Bending the rules just once to sell a good product may be the right thing to do since our list members’ quality of life is at stake–after all, we’re not the spammers!

Ok, I’m exaggerating a bit, but while attributions have been altered to protect the drama, the sentiments behind them were very real and spreading. In the end, wisdom prevailed, and the group agreed to delete this unsolicited e-invitation from the Dark Side. The problem was the list, not the confirmation email. Had the group broken the rules, the resulting sales, if any, would have been negligible and the cost substantially more.

At times like this, it’s important to remember the problems spammers cause, who spammers are and how to avoid becoming one. Central to that is reminding your client, your boss, your colleage or any other decision-maker of the definition of spam. I prefer Paul Graham’s “unsolicited automated email” over “unsolicited commerical email” from his seminal 2002 article, “A Plan for Spam”:

If someone in my neighborhood heard that I was looking for an old Raleigh three-speed in good condition, and sent me an email offering to sell me one, I’d be delighted, and yet this email would be both commercial and unsolicited. The defining feature of spam (in fact, its raison d’etre) is not that it is unsolicited, but that it is automated.

It is merely incidental, too, that spam is usually commercial. If someone started sending mass email to support some political cause, for example, it would be just as much spam as email promoting a porn site.

I propose we define spam as unsolicited automated email. This definition thus includes some email that many legal definitions of spam don’t. Legal definitions of spam, influenced presumably by lobbyists, tend to exclude mail sent by companies that have an “existing relationship” with the recipient. But buying something from a company, for example, does not imply that you have solicited ongoing email from them. If I order something from an online store, and they then send me a stream of spam, it’s still spam.

Companies sending spam often give you a way to “unsubscribe,” or ask you to go to their site and change your “account preferences” if you want to stop getting spam. This is not enough to stop the mail from being spam. Not opting out is not the same as opting in. Unless the recipient explicitly checked a clearly labelled box (whose default was no) asking to receive the email, then it is spam.

Spam costs us all more in time, money and trust than we can count, and we long for the day when our goverment will enforce strict penalties on those who profit from such great losses. In the meantime, it’s better to rebuild a neglected list, slowly and carefully, from the ground up: better for your branding, your long-term sales and our global online health. And, therefore it’s better to maintain discipline in our ranks.

Sometimes all we need is a reminder of why we fight — even one from those wistful days of 2002, on the eve of the spam war.

A New Breed of Autoresponder, Auto Message Setup

James — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 15:41:28 +0000

The concept of the follow up autoresponder revolutionized Internet Marketing. Now, “Auto Message Setup” promises to bring the field an even greater degree of efficiency.

This recent innovation lets experienced marketers painlessly transfer marketing know-how to their entire downlines. A marketer can now provide each of his downline representatives with a follow up autoresponse system that is already packaged with the marketer’s pre-written messages.

The result? Just a few minutes of work on the part of an experienced marketer, and each of his reps is set up with the same tried and true marketing messages.

Case Study: Marketer Matt and the New Breed

For example, take a look at the case of a fictional network marketer named Matt M:

For years, Matt has been successfully marketing All Natural Pharmaceuticals using a follow up autoresponder. In fact, much of his success can be attributed to the set of seven messages e-mailed to all of his potential customers. Matt has carefully crafted those messages over the years, and they’re really great.

Recently, Matt has been trying to pass what he’s learned along to his downline representatives. He explains his marketing principles over the phone, and he knows that several of his reps pass his follow up messages around amongst themselves.

However, Matt finds that his pearls of wisdom rarely survive this ‘telling and retelling’ intact. He knows his reps aren’t getting anywhere near what they could out of his knowledge. He wishes there were a way to harness today’s technology, and put it to use for the greater good of his downline…

Enter Auto Message Setup

Using an Auto Message Setup system, Matt’s downline reps can order their own follow up autoresponse accounts that are already packaged with Matt’s pre-written messages. They can reap the fruits of Matt’s experience with ease.

Each rep will customize Matt’s messages for himself by logging in to his new follow up autoresponder account, and entering his own contact information.

Here is Matt’s original autoresponse message:

Notice that the message greeting uses a variable, (LEAD NAME). The variable ensures that each of Matt’s leads will receive a message personalized with his or her own name. Notice, also, that Matt’s name and address are at the end of the message.

Case Study: Downline Dan and the New Breed

Dan is one of Matt’s downline representatives. He’s ordered his own follow up autoresponder through Matt. Since Matt is using Auto Message Setup, Dan’s account came pre-packaged with Matt’s marketing messages. Dan personalized those messages to himself by answering a few questions in his Online Control Panel. Now Dan is sending his own personalized version of Matt’s messages to his customers! All of the basic content is Matt’s, but Dan’s contact information is on the letters. Here is the autoresponse that Dan sends to his potential customers:

Notice that the contact name and address at the end of the e-mail are Dan’s, but that the greeting at the beginning of the message still includes the name of Dan’s lead.

Mission Accomplished

With Matt’s experience in hand, Dan is now marketing more successfully than ever before. And he isn’t the only one – Matt’s entire downline is now using his marketing messages! Matt’s commissions are growing exponentially.

Matt and Dan’s situation is not unique. Any network marketer with an established downline can take advantage of the opportunities available in an auto message setup system. There’s no better way to put more auto in your autoresponder.

Beka Ruse fights spam as the Business Development Manager at AWeber Communications. Ad tracking, live stats, and a strict anti-spam policy. Automated E-Mail Follow Up From AWeber.

Spam: Where it Came From, and How to Escape It

James — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 20:47:50 +0000

In 1936, long before the rise of the personal computer, Hormel Foods created SPAM. In 2002, the company will produce it’s six billionth can of the processed food product. But that mark was passed long ago in the world of Internet spam.

Who Cooked This!? (How did it all start?)

The modern meaning of the word “spam” has nothing to do with spiced ham. In the early 1990′s, a skit by British comedy group Monty Python led to the word’s common usage. “The SPAM Skit” follows a couple struggling to order dinner from a menu consisting entirely of Hormel’s canned ham.

Repetition is key to the skit’s hilarity. The actors cram the word “SPAM” into the 2.5 minute skit more than 104 times! This flood prompted Usenet readers to call unwanted newsgroup postings “spam.” The name stuck.

Spammers soon focused on e-mail, and the terminology moved with them. Today, the word has come out of technical obscurity. Now, “spam” is the common term for “Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail”, or “UCE.”

Why Does Bad Spam Happen to Good People?

Chances are, you’ve been spammed before. Somehow, your e-mail address has found it’s way into the hands of a spammer, and your inbox is suffering the consequences. How does this happen? There are several possibilities.

Backstabbing Businesses

Businesses often keep lists of their customers’ e-mail addresses. This is a completely legitimate practice and, usually, nothing bad comes of it. Sometimes though, the temptation to make a quick buck is too great, and these lists are sold or rented to outside advertisers. The result? A lot of unsolicited e-mail, and a serious breach of trust.

Random Address Generation

Computer programs called random address generators simply “guess” e-mail addresses. Over 100 million hotmail addresses exist – howhard could it be to guess some of them? Unfortunately for many unsuspecting netizens – not too hard. Many spammers also guess at “standard” addresses, like “support@yourdomain.com”, “info@yourdomain.com”, and “billing@yourdomain.com.”

Web Spiders

Today’s most insidious list-gathering tools are web spiders. All of the major search engines spider the web, saving information about each page. Spammers use tools that also spider the web, but save any e-mail address they come across. Your personal web page lists your e-mail address? Prepare for an onslaught!

Chat Room Harvesting

ISP’s offer vastly popular chat rooms where users are known only by their screen names. Of course, spammers know that your screen name is the first part of your e-mail address. Why waste time guessing e-mail addresses when a few hours of lurking in a chat room can net a list of actively-used addresses?

The Poor Man’s Bad Marketing Idea

It didn’t work for the phone companies, and it won’t work for e-mail marketers. But, some spammers still keep their own friends-and-family-style e-mail lists. Compiled from the addresses of other known spammers, and people or businesses that the owner has come across in the past, these lists are still illegitimate. Why? Only you can give someone permission to send you e-mail. A friend-of-a-friend’s permission won’t cut it.

Stop The Flood to Your Inbox

Already drowning in spam? Try using your e-mail client’s filters – many provide a way to block specific e-mail addresses. Each time you’re spammed, block the sender’s address. Spammers skip from address to address, and you may be on many lists, but this method will at least slow the flow.Also, use more than one e-mail address, and keep one “clean.” Many netizens find that this technique turns the spam flood into a trickle. Use one address for only spam-safe activities like e-mailing your friends, or signing on with trustworthy businesses. Never use your clean address on the web! Get a free address to use on the web and in chat rooms.

If nothing else helps, consider changing screen names, or opening an entirely new e-mail account. When you do, you’ll start with a clean, spam-free slate. This time, protect your e-mail address!

Stay Off Spammed Lists in the Future

Want to surf the web without getting sucked into the spam-flood? Prevention is your best policy. Don’t use an easy-to-guess e-mail address. Keep your address clean by not using it for spam-centric activities. Don’t post it on any web pages, and don’t use it in chat rooms or newsgroups.Before giving your clean e-mail address to a business, check the company out. Are sections of its user agreement dedicated to anti-spam rules? Does a privacy policy explain exactly what will be done with your address? The most considerate companies also post an anti-spam policy written in plain English, so you can be absolutely sure of what you’re getting into.

Think You’re Not a Spammer? Be Sure.

Many a first-time marketer has inadvertently spammed his audience. The first several hundred complaints and some nasty phone messages usually stop him in his tracks. But by then, the spammer may be faced with cleanup bills from his ISP, and a bad reputation that it’s not easy to overcome.The best way to avoid this situation is to have a clear understanding of what spam is: If anyone who receives your mass e-mails did not specifically ask to hear from you, then you are spamming them.

Stick with your gut. Don’t buy a million addresses for $10, no matter how much the seller swears by them! If something sounds fishy, just say no. You’ll save yourself a lot in the end.

The Final Blow

The online world is turning the tide on spam. In the end, people will stop sending spam because it stops working. Do your part: never buy from a spammer. When your business seeks out technology companies with which to work, only choose those with a staunch anti-spam stance.Spam has a long history in both the food and e-mail sectors. This year, Hormel Foods opened a real-world museum dedicated to SPAM. While the museum does feature the Monty Python SPAM Skit, there’s no word yet on an unsolicited commercial e-mail exhibit. But, if all upstanding netizens work together, Hormel’s ham in a can will far outlive the Internet plague that is UCE.

Beka Ruse fights spam as the Business Development Manager at AWeber Communications. Ad tracking, live stats, and a strict anti-spam policy: Automated E-Mail Follow Up From AWeber.

References:
Hormel Foods, Virtual Press Kit, www.hormelfoods.com
Microsoft Corporation, MSN Hotmail Fun Facts, www.microsoft.com