Every once in a while a client will ask me, ‘What’s up with the text-only version? Do I have to do it?’

The short answer is no, it’s optional, but why wouldn’t you?

A ‘text-only’ version of your mail helps insure that you’re reaching as much of your audience as possible. While it’s true that the great majority of email programs display HTML messages with no problems here are two great reasons to create a text-only version of your message: BlackBerries and Recipient Preference.

How many people do you know using BlackBerries (or other smart phones)? The standard mail program on a BlackBerry only displays text emails, no HTML. It will process the HTML email you send but the display will be way, way off. However, if you provide the text only version the BlackBerry will use that instead, making your message much easier to read for your recipient. Most BlackBerries can enhance the text mail by turning any URLs it finds into active links.

Did you know that recipient’s can change their email format preference? It’s true. They can choose from HTML, Text-Only or HTML/Text by visiting their preference center. Of course, if a recipient sets their format preference to “Text” and you don’t create a text only version of your mails, they get nothing.

In short, the ‘text-only’ version of your mail, while optional, is a great way to insure that you’re reaching as much of your audience as you can.

Text Only FAQs

If I make a text-only version of my email do my recipients get two mails?
NO. The text-only version of the mail and the HTML portion are bundled together as a multi-part message. If a recipient has requested only text messages they will receive the text version. If the recipient has indicated no preference the multi-part message will be delivered and their email program will determine the best version to display.

Can I add personalization to the text-only mails?
YES. You can add list personalization when composing the text only version.

Can I track links in the text version?
YES. Link tracking is handled in much the same way as in the HTML version. The only catch is that you have to include the full URL in the text version for proper tracking to occur. For example, if I want to track a link to reachmail.net, the text http://www.reachmail.net has to appear in the text version, www.reachmail.net will not be tracked.

Where do I setup the text version?
The text version of a mail is added in the edit mailing process just like the HTML version. The text step comes immediately after the HTML link tracking screen.

Questions? As always I can be reached at dnielsen@reachmail.com

Demographic Filtering is one of those cool features of ReachMail that I think people don’t take full advantage of. It’s a great way to focus your marketing efforts and I’ve heard a number of stories about the payoffs of taking the time to explore list data with demographic filters.

If you’re not clear about what the filters do here’s the short answer: Demographic filters select a segment of a list based on values that you select.

For example, let’s say you want to run a special promotion to only your customers in Chicago. You can use the demographic filters to select only those people with zip codes in Chicago or who have their city listed as “Chicago.”

Keep in mind that when you’re running the filters you must have a column in your list that represents the values you would like to filter (i.e. if you want to filter by zip code you must have a zip code column in your list).

Demographic filters can be used in two ways, you can use them to create a new list of recipients who match your filter criteria or you can use them to creat a mail filter that can be applied during the sending process.

Click the following links to see the different methods in action. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at dnielsen@reachmail.com

Demographic Filters – New List

Demographic Filters – Mail Filters

Welcome to another edition of ReachMail Piece by Piece, a weekly series that explores the functions and tools of ReachMail. You can take a look back at some of the previous topics here.

This week we’re talking about Contents and Assets. C&A is a ReachMail tool that you can use to store any type of file and deliver it to your recipients. Since there are no limits to the size or number of files that you store in the C&A section it’s a great way to deliver content to your recipients without the burden of attachments.

Why are attachments a bad idea? Glad you asked. Attachments cause problems for large email deliveries on a number of levels. Attachments must be encoded as part of the message which dramatically increases the message size, which creates a bottleneck in the servers, which slows the delivery rate for the email and any other email that might be leaving from the same server. Once the mail arrives at the recipient’s server there’s a good chance it will be rejected just based on message size alone. Added to that concern, many firewalls remove and quarantine attachments or the entire email making it that much harder for your audience to view the mail.

The C&A section stores your files as hosted resources so they’re accessible to your audience through links in your email. All you have to do is upload the file and insert a link to it in the mail editor. There’s even a function in the mail editor that handles the link insertion for you. And of course the links to your files are tracked so you’ll be able to see who accessed the files.

Click here to watch a short demo of the C&A process in action.

If you have any questions go ahead and get in touch at dnielsen@reachmail.com

Welcome to the latest edition of ReachMail Piece by Piece, a weekly series that explains some of the basic ReachMail tools to help you get the most out of your email marketing campaigns. You can check out the previous Piece by Piece topics here.

This week we’re talking sign-up forms and new users. One of the most effective ways to get new users to sign up for your mailings is through a form on your website. The FormWizard tool makes it easy to create sign up forms that add new users directly to your ReachMail lists.

So before we go on to the nuts and bolts of the FormWizard let’s talk a little from theory first. I know, I know…theory? form theory? boring! You’re right, forms are boring and frustrating. But it’s a good idea to understand more about them before you start making them.

Forms are great and can generate a lot of new sign-ups for your list but they need to be thoughtfully designed and planned to get the most out of them. It’s easy to just toss a form on a webpage and see what turns up but with a little planning and creativity you can greatly increase the response rate of your form.

The most important point I can make about form theory is to keep the form simple. The fewer fields you ask people to fill out the more responses you will get. Make a list of all the data that you would like from potential customers (e.g. Name, Email, Phone Number, Address, etc). Now count it up. How many items do you have? 8? 10? 4? Now try to cut it in half and keep going until you get the top 2 or 3 items that you really NEED to keep in touch with new users.

Also, the smaller you make a form the easier it is to place it on your website in multiple places. Remember that a form doesn’t need only be on the contact page. If you made a form that just has some introductory text, inputs for Name and Email and a Submit button, it’s probably small enough to stick on just about any page.

Keep the form informative, add some introductory text to the form. Don’t just say “Subscribe!” or “Join our mailing list!” Say “Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest industry news!” or “Join our mailing list to get our hottest product offers!”

Another good idea is a special offer. Say “Join our mailing list and get 10% off your next order!” or “Join now for a special gift!” The FormWizard lets you set auto-responders which will automatically email the new sign-ups with a mailing of your choice, put your coupon in the mailing and voila, more customer interaction.

OK, I could go on and on about theory but that’s enough for now. Here’s how to put it all together.

Keep in mind that the FormWizard needs a list to write to, so if you don’t have a list that you’d like to use make sure to create on first that contains all the elements that you would like to capture with the form. For example, if you want Name, Email and Phone Number your list will need to have at least those columns. Also note that if you are making a double opt-in form (see the double opt-in explanation below).

Once you’ve got the list in place head on over to the Libraries and Tools tab, look for the FormWizard section and click the Create New Form link.

In step one you will pick the list that you want to add to and choose the opt-in type. Single opt-in adds users directly to the form, double opt-in asks users to confirm their opt-in by clicking a link that is delivered via email, and third-party opt-ins need to be approved by the account admin (you).

In step two you will choose which list elements will be captured by the form.

In step three you will set up where users are directed after sign-up and customize the confirmation email for double opt-in forms.

In the final step you’ll get the code for the form which can then be styled for use on your website.

Head on over to ReachMailTV to see the video demo.

As always, if you have any questions please feel free to contact me at dnielsen@reachmail.com

I see a lot of emails every day. A lot. Most are good, some are great and few have some mistakes. Most of the issues are relatively minor and may not affect display or perception of the email at all.

But every once in a while I see something that makes me stop and say “Really?”

Here’s some of those “Really?” mistakes and some tips on how to avoid them.

Not designing for the preview pane.

Seriously, who actually opens an email anymore? Most people just look email in the preview pane without ever double-clicking to open it. So why would you design your email like they would? That 1000+ pixel wide email might look great in your maximized browser window, but what happens when the recipient looks at it in their 700pixel wide Outlook preview window? A deleted email, that’s what. There’s really two big factors in at play here, the size of the preview pane and the fact that the inbox is a terribly busy place. You don’t have much time to make an impression and not a lot of space either. So what to do?

• Don’t design too wide. Try to keep the total email width between 600 and 700 pixels. That range will most always display within the preview pane. Sure there might be a few recipients out there with even smaller preview panes but most recipients should have no problems with 600 – 700 pixels.
• Get your company logo in the upper-left corner of your email.
• Try to keep your call to action above the scroll in the top third of the email. Typically you’ve got about 400 pixels of vertical area to work with.
• Consider adding a table of contents to the top of your mail so that users can at a glance see what you’ve got in the mail.

Assuming images will work

Most email programs turn off images by default. Users have to click a button or right click on a image to load the images in a mail. It’s a privacy thing. So always assume that images will be turned off when the mail is delivered and don’t count on recipients turning them on. Send a test of your mail and look at it with the images off. Does it still make sense?
What to do about “images off”

• Add alt-text to your images. Alt-text is an attribute that is added to the image tag in the HTML, it includes a short description of the image. You might add something like “Our latest sprocket. Right-click here to view the image.” Much more compelling than the little red broken image box, eh?
• Don’t put important content into images. The good stuff goes in text, the images support it.

Too many images, not enough text

Yep, we’ve seen it too many times. the email that’s just one (or two, or three) gigantic images all displayed in a line. Sure, it looks magnificent but it’s empty on the inside. Send out an all image email or an email in which the only text is a link or two and you’re bound to be dismissed as spam. Like we said in item one, the inbox is a busy, busy place. People make gut decisions about what gets sent to the junk folder and marked as spam and emails made of one big image are the first to go.

No plain text version

Why would you pass up the text version of your email? It’s a simple way to make sure that your email is accessible across the widest possible audience. I know that the great majority of users have the capability to view HTML email but the are some who don’t and some who choose not to receive HTML email. Emails delivered through ReachMail are sent as a two-part message, one part HTML, one part text. These multi-part messages allow the correct content to display for each user. If they’ve set their preferences to not display HTML email then the text only version will show up. Of course if you didn’t fill out the plain text copy of the mail then they get nothing.

Too fancy

Like I’ve said before, the inbox is a very busy place, you don’t have much time to make an impression. Simplify, man, simplify. If you’re sending a promotional mail don’t jam all your fancy graphics and words into the mail. Consider a short, compelling message that gets people to click a link. Once they click the link they’re engaged and on their way to your landing page where you will blow their mind with lovely graphics and spellbinding copy. Bonus, you can look at the link tracking and see exactly who clicked a link and then follow up with them.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with me at dnielsen@reachmail.com

Designing emails is always a tricky process. If you’ve ever talked to me about a design you’ve probably heard me say “neutral” so many times you think I have a Swiss flag tattooed over my heart. What I’m actually referring to is creating a neutral display document, one that displays the same way in all major email programs.

Neutral display is important to an effective email campaign, if you’re mail looks great when viewed in Yahoo! webmail but not so great in other mail programs and Yahoo! addresses are only 10% of your list… Well, you do the math, that adds up to a whole lot of people who aren’t getting the full effect of your mail campaign.

Before we go on let’s have some background on emails. Most emails sent today use HTML (HyperText Markup Language) markup to make the email more useful. HTML is the language that web pages are coded in and enables emails and web pages to do things like display images and embed links. HTML is an interpreted language, meaning that it’s display is subject to the program that is accessing the file. That’s the effect that you see when a mail that looks nice in a Yahoo! inbox but looks terrible in an Outlook 2007 inbox; different programs are interpreting the same code in a slightly different manner. When we speak of making an email neutral we’re talking about normalizing the code so that all programs display the mail accurately.

But wait, there’s more. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) enters the scene and adds another wrinkle. CSS is the presentational layer of the web. It changes fonts, colors, etc. You name it, CSS can change it. Over the past few years CSS has been gaining ground as a way to layout and organize web pages. Without spending too much time on the concept, the new standard in the web-design community is to use CSS positioning to arrange the elements of a web page rather than the older practice of using tables to layout the web page.

So how does this effect your emails? Well, most mail programs do not support all of the CSS rules which style and position elements. Also, CSS rules are typically referenced in the head of an HTML document, which is often stripped off in some mail clients (GMail and Outlook notably). If all the CSS was in the head, then nothing will display as planned when the head is cut off. The rule-of-thumb is to keep your CSS styles inline with the element that they are modifying.

So can I use CSS to position elements in my emails?

No. Though it’s not the current web standard tabled design is the only way to created horizontally positioned elements (i.e. Side by side columns).

Well, then what CSS rules can I use?

CSS rules for fonts (colors, sizes, face, etc.), padding, borders, and background colors work well in all mail programs. Outside of those, you’re risking display inconsistencies.

I want to use an HTML file to create my mail, what should I watch out for?

Make sure that all CSS in inline and not in the head in the document or external stylesheets. Check to make sure that all the images have absolute paths. Most importantly make sure that it is a static HTML page. URLs with dynamically generated content (e.g. php or asp pages) will not work.

I made an email in Microsoft Word saved it as an HTML file. Can I upload it to ReachMail?

Not likely. MSWord was never designed to produce HTML documents and does not do a good job of creating well formed, valid HTML documents. Your document might work on the web because browsers are more forgiving of imperfect code than mail programs, but odds are that it won’t work well at all if you try to mail it.

Can I use Dreamweaver or another desktop HTML authoring program to create my mail?

You can get satisfactory results with Dreamweaver provided you follow the guidelines mentioned above.

The best advice I can give is to test, test and test some more to make sure that your email looks it’s best in all different mail programs.

If you have any questions about design or have an HTML problem that you can’t solve, feel free to get in touch with me at dnielsen@reachmail.com

Welcome to the third installment of ReachMail Piece by Piece. I hope that our first two editions were helpful. If you haven’t read them yet, you can brush up on you’re reporting skills here and your list management skills here.

This week we’re discussing control.

Did you know that you can create multiple ReachMail users and set the areas of your ReachMail account that they have access to? You didn’t? Well you can, and you should. Seriously, if you have multiple users logging in with one ID I strongly recommend that after you read this post you go create individual logins for each of them.

User access controls feature a high degree of customization. Just about any configuration you can think of is possible in the user controls. Want a user who can only run reports? No problem. How about one who can only access the image library and upload lists? Can do. A user who can only access specific list? Absolutely. You can even remove mail approval access for a user. They can schedule a mail but it needs your approval to be delivered. And of course you can also designate a user as another account administrator.

You can find the user management tools in the Account Manager tab and you can watch a short video here.

And as always, if you have any questions or concerns that you’d like to discuss with me directly, you can find me at dnielsen@reachmail.com

Welcome to the second edition of ReachMail Piece by Piece. If you missed the first installment click here to take a look back (it’s a handy tip about generating follow-up lists for your campaigns).

This week we’re going to talk about List Sweeper. This topic always brings up some best-practices questions so I’ll try to answer some of those today.

A common question the support staff gets is “How do I remove opt-outs or hard bounces from a list?”

Before we get to the answer, a little background on hard bounces and opt-outs. Hard bounces and opt-outs are the inactive records in the list. Either the users have made themselves inactive (opt-out) or the address was determined to be invalid (hard bounce). For the more detailed description of hard bounces, soft bounces, opt-outs and how ReachMail handles them please read this post.

So, to get back to the original question about how to remove hard bounces and opt-outs from a list my answer is usually this: Why do you want to remove them?

I know it’s not polite to answer a question with a question but in this case I think it’s useful to discuss exactly what goal we’re trying to accomplish by culling these records from the list.

As an aside, keep in mind that inactive records are NOT delivered and therefore have no bearing on the volume which is used to calculate your bill.

We always encourage people to leave the inactive records in the list because they provide valuable historical records. When you upload new records to a list the uploaded records are automatically checked against the existing list, any hard bounces and opt-outs will not be added to the list. If the inactive records had been removed that history is lost and any hard-bounces would have to run through the entire bounce process again before they would be marked as inactive.

That said, if you do want to clean your list of any or all inactive records, there’s a tool for that. It’s called List Sweeper and you can find it in the Action menu of any list. Just select List Sweeper, choose what type of inactive records you would like to remove and click the Sweep List button.

If you have any questions or if you’re wondering if List Sweeper is right for you, feel free to contact me a dnielsen@reachmail.com

Next in Piece by Piece: Controlling User Access

Did you know that you can add custom column headings for use in the list upload process? It’s true!

All you have to do is email support@reachmail.com with a list of the headings that you would like to add. The support staff will create them and you can use them anytime you upload a new list.

Turn-around for custom headings is one business day.

Bounces and Opt-Outs can seem confusing and to some users they’re always a mystery. But they don’t have to be. ReachMail has very simple ways of handling the bounces and opt-outs from your list.

Lets review.

Bounces

There are two different types of bounces, soft and hard. Hard bounces are the simplest type of undeliverable so lets start with those.

Hard Bounces

A hard bounce occurs when you try to delivery to an email address that doesn’t exist. It’s like the Post Office returning a letter to you because of an unknown address. For example, say you sent an email to bsmith@reachmail.com. Well there’s no bsmith here so that would be a hard bounce. There are two sub-categories to hard bounces, pending and full. Hard bounces with the “pending” status have not yet been mailed to three times. It means that we consider them a likely hard bounce but we will wait for the server to confirm twice more that user indeed does not exist. A full hard bounce has had three consecutive user not found notifications from the recipients’ server and is now an inactive record. It remains in the list for reference purposes but will not be mailed to again.

Soft Bounces

Soft bounces are more ambiguous than hard bounces. There can be a variety of reasons that a recipient soft-bounced. Could be a full in-box. Could be a mail block. Could be a DNS failure. We won’t get into all the possible causes for a soft bounce, the short answer is that ReachMail considers a soft bounce a temporary failure. The record will never become inactive and we will continue to attempt delivery on all subsequent mailings.

Opt-Outs

An opt-out is a recipient who has chosen to no longer receive your mailings.
Recipients can opt-out using any one of three methods. They can click the link appended to your email, they can call a ReachMail phone number or they can email rem@reachmail.com.

Opt-outs are not removed from your list. They are flagged as an opt-out and are never mailed to.

There are two levels at which a user can opt-out, the list level and the account level.

Users who opt-out at the list level are flagged in the list and are not mailed to on any subsequent mailings to that list.

Users who opt-out at the account level are added to the Global Opt-Out list and will not receive any subsequent mailings regardless of their status on any delivery list.

Global Opt Out

jsmith@acme.com is on List A and List B. He receives a mailing delivered to List A and elects to opt out at the account level. He will not receive any mailings from your account at all regardless of whatever lists he is added to.

List Level Opt Out

jsmith@acme.com is on List A and List B. He receives a mailing delivered to List A and elects to opt out at the list level. He will never receive subsequent mails to List A (regardless of mail content) but will receive mails delivered to List B or any other list his name may appear on in the future.

Since mails and lists exist independently of each other the content of a mailing has no bearing on whether or not a user will receive that mailing. Delivery is entirely subject to opt-out status in the list and the global opt-out list.

Questions? Concerns? Feel free to email me at dnielsen@reachmail.com