Gravytrain-ltd Email Marketing

Step by Step - by Gravytrain Limited

2008-07-31T02:07:00.000-07:00

Gravytrain Limited are top specialists in Email Marketing, we've provided a few tips for you, to get in control of your email marketing solutions, we sometimes do this at Gravytrain Limited; If you’re a web developer, consultant, or project manager that’s just been put in charge of your first email marketing campaign, you may feel overwhelmed. There are a lot of topics to research:

Email design & coding
Spam laws
Spam filters
List management best practices
ISPs
We just posted a free guide covering all the basics to help you get started (and not look like an idiot): Your First Email Marketing Project by Gravytrain Limited

It also covers stuff that most people (ahem, me) learned the hard way, or way after-the-fact. Like “Gosh, I guess we should have setup some separate email accounts before we sent this,” and “gosh, I suppose I could have planned this out more….” and “gosh, I guess we should have updated our privacy policy with…” and “Gosh, I could have totally billed for that…”

At Gravytrain Limited we look to try help others in email marketing techniques and tips, we hope this has helped you!

Useful Links:
Gravytrain Gravytrain Limited Email Marketing

Tips and Tricks

2008-05-12T02:28:00.000-07:00

Here at Gravytrain Limited we always look to find the best information and service on email marketing for our clients, Gravytrain limited found this interesting article and thought it held key information on dealing with email marketing.

If you plan to do some Internet marketing to promote your business endeavor, you should seriously consider email marketing as at least one tier of your Internet marketing campaign, like company's such as Gravytrain Limited do. Many business owners shy away from email marketing because they believe all email marketing campaigns are purely spam. However, this is not true and not partaking in this type of marketing can cause your business to lose out on a great deal of business. By not appealing to potential customers via email, your business may lose a great deal of business to competitors who are using email marketing campaigns to reach customers around the world. However, the first step of an email marketing campaign should be creating an email distribution list. This article will discuss some popular options for doing this and should help to the reader to learn more about what is acceptable and what is not when it comes to email marketing, this method is used highly at Gravytrain Limited.

Once you have made the decision to start using email marketing to promote your business you are likely facing the dilemma of compiling an email distribution list. This is essentially a list of email addresses to which you will email your advertising and promotional materials. One common way to gain a list of email addresses is to purchase a list from distributors. However, this method is not very effective at all and we do not recommend it. The problem with purchasing an email list if you have no way of knowing whether or not the members of the list would have any interest at all in your products or services. This is very important because while you want to reach a large audience with your email marketing you also want this audience to be members of your overall target audience.

When you purchase an email list you may be sending your email messages to some users who might be interested but this is largely coincidental and is not likely to be well received because the message was not solicited.

Internet users are very quick to delete materials they believe to be spam without even opening or reading the emails. In fact some Internet service providers include spam filters which may automatically delete your emails if your messages are deemed to be spam. These filters run complex algorithms on the subject heading and content of the message to determine whether or not it is spam and are quite adept at weeding out spam. Therefore you run the risk of having your email marketing effort turn out to be a complete waste if the majority of recipients never even read or receive the message.

A far better way to create an email distribution list for your email marketing campaign is to ask current customers as well as interested potential customers to register with your website to receive additional information and periodic updates about your products and services as well as other information which might be of interest to them. This provides you with a database of email addresses from current customers as well as potential customers who have a genuine interest in your products and services and who are interested in learning more about these products and services.

Once you have a list of interested customers or potential customers you can send emails or create e-newsletter for distribution to the members of your email list.One main thing is not to over email you list, otherwise they will get fed up and block you the sender. These documents should contain a wealth of valuable information as well as a soft sell pitch for your products and services. This information will be valued by the readers and may help to persuade them to try your products and services.

You might also want to include useful links to either your website as well as other websites which may be of interest to your readers. Your content should also contain a portion which urges the reader to take a specific action such as making a purchase or at least investigating a product further. For example:

Useful Links:

Gravytrain Limited
Gravytrain
Email Marketing

The best statement for email marketing

2008-04-14T06:34:00.000-07:00

Gravytrain Limited run on email marketing not to Spam users, but help out business's with sales and traffic, Gravytrain Limited found this statement and though it sum'd up email marketing in its purist form:

"Email is a very powerful marketing tool. In spite of spammers abusing the medium, email can still be used and is still valued by users for timely, rich and enticing information and advertisements. Find the right tools and the right tips for your email marketing efforts here."

Useful Links: Gravytrain Limited, Email Marketing, Gravytrain

Why does it seam that email marketing dieing down?

2008-04-10T05:33:00.000-07:00

Gravytrain Limited have been doing abit of research when it comes to traffic sources, and tracking the ways in which traffic comes into a website, and which method is most effective.

Gravytrain Limited specialise in all methods of gaining traffic to a website. After testing out each method, they analysed results and compared.

The only reason email marketing is seen to be dieing down, is due to Spam filtering features on recent User email software.

Whereas Gravytrain Limited only uses email marketing on subscribers from clients, so these emails are normally safely recieved, noticed and have great effect on sales and traffic to a website.

The key to keeping web marketing alive, is to concentrate on users who actually read the email like gravytrain limited do, other than emailing random people.

Useful links: Gravytrain, Gravytrain Limited, Email Marketing

Gravytrain Limited - Clients and causes

2008-04-09T05:44:00.001-07:00

At Gravytrain Limited, they specialise on the sides of lots of different web based help.

Graphic Design
SEO Help
PPC Marketing
Email Marketing
and other useful products to kick start, or even improve an existant companies website and business.

Gravytrain Limited do various work for lots of top named clients, one of the main Email marketing companies Gravytrain Limited works with, is Rosebys Furnishing and bedding. Gravytrain Limited provide Rosebys with a monthly supply of top quality email marketing to all subscribers.

Alot of Business is tracked and brought in via the newsletters, Gravytrain Limited are respected by all clients as the work they provide is outstanding, Testimonials prove a factor of what Gravytrain Limited, as a company, show.

Email marketing Consists of...

2008-04-07T03:01:00.000-07:00

Gravytrain Limited have produced an image, which we feel represents how about creating a marketing email goes about, Gravytrain Limited look to follow these steps.

All these are very important, they are what make Gravytrain Limited a succesful email marketing company, and it could very well help you!

Permission Based Email Marketing

2008-04-04T05:06:00.000-07:00

This is a description taken from the Gravytrain Limited website; With Gravytrain limited's Permission Based Email Marketing you reach out to a listening audience. More than 88% of online consumers have made a purchase as a result of receiving permission based email. Successful email and newsletter marketing gives exactly what current customers and customers-in-waiting are looking for. This means your customers don't need to look anywhere else for your products and offers.

With our Gravytrain Limited's Email Marketing, you get ...

Email and newsletter design- We design your email according to your specifications.

HTML and text template development- We create templates which provides consistency and efficiency to your mail-outs.

Contact collection audits and subscription function optimisation- We offer a consistent analytics service, from small to large businesses we deliver.

Scheduling for target demographics- The emails are scheduled and targeted to ensure the right message reaches the right person at the right time.

Database cleansing and management- We deal with your sucribe/ unsubsribe management, physical and automated respnse and cleanse the database of imperfections.

Transmission- We use unparalleled technology to ensure the acurate delivery of your email to the customer’s inbox, which confirms the email does not remain unread in their spam folder.

If proffesional service, support and finalizastion is what you are looking for, gravytrain limited is for you!

Email Image blocking

2008-04-03T07:20:00.000-07:00

Gravytrain Limited has been study Email image blocking and how it is now almost universal, with many email clients automatically blocking any external image.
This means that many users won't see your graphically-rich email as intended and, if you track open rates, you won't know if the recipient has read your message which is abit of a pain! Gravytrain Limited found that hotmail was the common email client to reject images in emails.

Here are my 3 top tips:

1. Get whitelisted

If you are added to the recipients address book, your images will automatically be displayed in most email clients.

2. Send text & HTML emails together

If your email programme automatically sends a text version with your HTML email (ie. multi-part MIME format), recipients that can't handle HTML will still get a readable message.

3. Focus on response rate (click-throughs) & conversions, not opens.

With image blocking rapidly becoming the default setting, open rates are unreliable says Gravytrain Limited.

Useful Links : Gravytrain Limited, Gravytrain, Email marketing

SPAM Filters

2008-04-02T07:28:00.000-07:00

Gravytrain Limited are users of outlook express, but constantly some email does get filtered into the junk mail.

Here at Gravytrain Limited, we decided to take a look at what exactly it is which SPAMS our Gravytrain Limited email boxes

To contains "friend@"
To contains "public@"
To contains "success@"
First 8 characters of From are digits
From contains "sales@"
From contains "success."
From contains "success@"
From contains "mail@"
From contains "@public"
From contains "@savvy"
From contains "profits@"
From contains "hello@"
Subject contains "advertisement"
Subject contains "$$"
Subject contains "!" AND "$"
Subject contains "!" AND "free"
Body contains "Dear friend"
Body contains "for free?"
Body contains "for free!"
Body contains "money back "
Body contains "cards accepted"
Body contains "removal instructions"
Body contains "extra income"
Body contains "Guarantee" AND "satisfaction"
Body contains "Guarantee" AND "absolute"
Body contains "more info" AND "visit" AND "$"
Body contains "SPECIAL PROMOTION"
Body contains "one-time mail"
Body contains "order today"
Body contains "order now!"
Body contains "money-back guarantee"
Body contains "100% satisfied"
Body contains " mlm"
Body contains "@mlm"
Body contains "///////////////"
Body contains "check or money order"
Body contains ",000" AND "!!" AND "$"

Microsoft Outlook Adult Content Filter

Subject contains " xxx"
Subject contains "over 18"
Subject contains "over 21"
Subject contains "adult s"
Subject contains "adults only"
Subject contains "be 18"
Subject contains "18+"
Subject contains "erotic"
Subject contains "adult en"
Subject contains " sex"
Subject contains "free" AND "adult"
Subject contains "free" AND "sex"
Body contains "over 18"
Body contains "over 21"
Body contains "must be 18"
Body contains "adults only"
Body contains "adult web"
Body contains "must be 21"
Body contains "adult en"
Body contains "18+"
Body contains " xxx "
Body contains " xxx!"

Useful Links:
Gravytrain Limited, Gravytrain, Email Marketing

Common Errors

2008-04-01T08:10:00.001-07:00

Here at Gravytrain Limited we have put together a list of common errors which are normally featured in email marketing, which even we at Gravytrain Limited can make!

-Not adding a greeting or salutation

-Not adding a signature file

-Using html only

-Sending large attachments

-Not including previous messages

-Expecting an immediate reply

-Replying to the wrong person

-Not using a spell checker

-Using capitals - SHOUTING

-Using CC: rather than BCC:

-Marking the email as "urgent" when it is not

-Not using http:// in url links

-Mistakes in Signatures - eg. Gravytrain Limited may not appear in all signatures (which it should)

Useful Links:
Gravytrain, Gravytrain Limited, Email Marketing

Formatting

2008-03-31T02:02:00.000-07:00

Here at Gravytrain Limited, we concentrate on getting the best for our clients, one of the best points of email marketing is knowing how to set out your email, Gravytrain Limited look to keep clients under safe hands and reasure them that they are so!

Heres Gravytrain Limited email formatting tips

From:

- send email from a person
- keep it consistent
- don't use a free email account

Subject:

- grab attention
- appeal to your target audience
- keep it short
- avoid spam filters

To:

- use a persons own email address

Body:

- html or text?
- limit your line length to 60 characters
- in most cases, short length is best
- call to action
- always use the full url
- place links 2-3 times in your email
- use specific landing pages for each offer
- limit the use of capitals
- limit the use of punctuation (?!!!)
- write as if you are speaking to them
- keep the offer clear
- only use one offer/promotion per email
- clear, easy unsubscribe instructions
- signature file
- use a fixed-width font

Attachments

- try to avoid attachments unless the recipients expect them
- they increase download time
- there is a risk of virus transmission

Useful Links:

Gravytrain, Gravytrain Limited, Email Marketing

2008-01-09T01:58:00.000-08:00

Gravytrain Limited Laws overview

If the person you are sending to has had no contact with you previously - you need to ask for permission first.
If you have already had a business relationship then you can email them until they ask you to no longer send emails BUT see 3!
For 2 to apply, you must be offering SIMILAR products and services to those previously offered.
Make sure your email makes it clear who it is from.
Include a valid reply address.
Include an 'unsubscribe' link in your emails.

Gravytrain limited analysis

Well it's arrived and we now know what the initial UK law looks like. However, because of the way the English legal system works, we will not really now how the law is to be interpreted until there is some case law and actions have been brought to court. Best to avoid that of course!

The key thing is that you now need permission for 'cold' emailing - but note that 'opt-out' still applies for fax and telephone - so you could use those techniques to request permission - provided that you check the 'block' lists before you fax or phone.

Our advice is to focus your resources initially on your web site and search engine marketing. Attract relevant potential customers to your site, get them interested in your products and services - and take the opportunity to ask them to sign up for your email newsletters, special offers and information. This gives you the permission you need.

Gravytrain Limited will give you an email address account to begin capturing and profiling your potential customers. You only begin to pay once we start to produce and send emails to them.

key links:
Gravytrain Limited
Gravytrain
Gravytrain.co.uk

Spam.. What is it? Is it edible?

2007-12-27T02:08:00.000-08:00

Gravytrain Limited specialises in Web Email Marketing, Gravytrain Limited frowns on spam, but what exaclty is it?

Spam is flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message, in an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive it. Most spam is commercial advertising, often for dubious products, get-rich-quick schemes, or quasi-legal services. Spam costs the sender very little to send -- most of the costs are paid for by the recipient or the carriers rather than by the sender.

There are two main types of spam, and they have different effects on Internet users. Cancellable Usenet spam is a single message sent to 20 or more Usenet newsgroups. (Through long experience, Usenet users have found that any message posted to so many newsgroups is often not relevant to most or all of them.) Usenet spam is aimed at "lurkers", people who read newsgroups but rarely or never post and give their address away. Usenet spam robs users of the utility of the newsgroups by overwhelming them with a barrage of advertising or other irrelevant posts. Furthermore, Usenet spam subverts the ability of system administrators and owners to manage the topics they accept on their systems.

Email spam targets individual users with direct mail messages. Email spam lists are often created by scanning Usenet postings, stealing Internet mailing lists, or searching the Web for addresses. Email spams typically cost users money out-of-pocket to receive. Many people - anyone with measured phone service - read or receive their mail while the meter is running, so to speak. Spam costs them additional money. On top of that, it costs money for ISPs and online services to transmit spam, and these costs are transmitted directly to subscribers.

One particularly nasty variant of email spam is sending spam to mailing lists (public or private email discussion forums.) Because many mailing lists limit activity to their subscribers, spammers will use automated tools to subscribe to as many mailing lists as possible, so that they can grab the lists of addresses, or use the mailing list as a direct target for their attacks.

Email marketing Useful links :
Gravytrain Limited
Gravytrain

Email marketing is better than blog marketing

2007-12-21T07:32:00.000-08:00

Gravytrain limited:discuss The above quote is a popular internet marketing saying. I’m glad in Vittorio’s guest article two days ago, he talked about the importance of building an email subscriber list.

There is so much to keep track of in online business. Gravytrain Limited had forgotten about the list. I think it’s easy to forget about building a list because it’s a strategy that doesn’t provide profits quickly. However, in the long term, nothing can beat the earnings that come from having a big list.

Gravytrain Limited found out Blogs have gotten a lot of press in the last couple of years, but I still think email marketing trumps blog marketing. Here are 5 reasons why.

Email is much more familiar than RSS. Gravytrain limited found out that The general public still doesn’t know what RSS is. There is a learning curve with using RSS and RSS readers. However, everyone (even my 80 year old grandma) knows what email is.

Email is checked more often than RSS readers. Most people go through their email religiously. They open every email message. But many people don’t read every single post on their RSS reader. I know I don’t. It’s not a big deal for me to skip my RSS reading for the day. However, I have to check email everyday because I could be receiving important information for my work.

Email lists are easier to maintain than blogs. Anyone who’s written for more than one blog knows that blogs can be difficult to maintain. However, with email lists, there is less pressure to send your email subscribers regular content. If you do, great. If you don’t, not many people will complain. But with a blog, if you don’t update consistently, your blog will look old and you won’t have a good rep in the blogosphere.

Targeting different parts of your audience is much easier with email than with blogs. This is similar to the previous reason. You can communicate to different segments of your readership through different email lists. For example, let’s say you have a magic trick site. You can have your readers sign up for different lists depending on their skill level. Sure, you can do the same thing by setting up multiple blogs, but it’s a lot easier to maintain email lists see Gravytrain limited for help.

Email uses your older content more effectively than blogs. It’s hard to highlight old content on blogs, because blog visitors are always looking for new content. However, through autoresponders, email lists can reuse your old content over and over. Your old but quality content doesn’t have to be lost in the blog archives. Build a list and each new email subscriber will be exposed to your old content.

Conclusion

If you don’t have a list, start building one today. Here are two reputable autoresponders that can help you get started: Gravytrain Gravytrain Limited Gravytrain ltd

2007-12-19T03:00:00.000-08:00

There are plenty of websites and blogs ready to dish out written advice on email marketing. But where do you go if you want a more intense or involved educational experience?Here's a work-in-progress review of the possibilities that Gravytrain Limited have put up, depending on your existing expertise. Gravytrain Limited know of any other opportunities:
Just starting out?
John Arnold recently published the E-Mail Marketing For Dummies guide, as part of the famous yellow and black Dummies book series, Gravytrain Limited found this on amazon.
Jeanne Jennings' Email Marketing Kit is my personal favorite book for those new to email. It's the definitive overview, though pricey at $197, Gravytrain Limited could only find this published in the US.
Several vendors offer introductory webinars for newcomers. See Gravytrain Limited website for a list.
Still learning?
Most email marketing conferences and vendor webinars are geared to your needs. You'll find a regularly-updated list here.
The MarketingSherpa Email Summit is less high-brow than the Insider Summit (see below) so better suited to those still refining and developing their programs. The 2008 event includes the opportunity to take an Email Marketing Professional Certification Course from MarketingExperiments. Consider also the new Gravytrain Limited website.
Look out for formal training opportunities. An example in the UK is the Gravytrain regular local seminar on email marketing strategies. UK marketers have, for example, the e-consultancy training days or the course offered by Academy Internet, check Gravytrain Limited.
Already an expert?Most industry insiders recommend the Gravytrain Limited as the place for the email marketing pros to gather and chew the interactive cud. The latest summit just ended in Utah, USA. Here some bloggers that were at the event, so you can get a flavor of proceedings:
Gravytrain
Gravy train Limited
Gravytrain ltd

Is your email marketing ready for 2008?

2007-12-19T02:53:00.000-08:00

Now that it's getting a little late to plan your holiday email marketing approach, it's time to turn attention to the promise of 2008 and all it might bring, so read on as Gravytrain Limited helps you get ready for the run.

So let's begin an ongoing blog post collating all those articles reviewing 2007 and/or suggesting how you might plan or review your efforts for next year...

Gravytrain limited take some typical New Year's resolutions and put them in an email marketing context. What should you change in 2008?

Gravytrain Limited summarizes a year's worth of tips in an overview article listing numerous areas to focus attention on next year.

And Gravytrain employee Ryan Copeland suggests we need to ask the right questions before coming up with answers. And starts off by raising the issue of Web 2.0 and its likely impact.

Common email marketing errors?

2007-12-04T03:28:00.000-08:00

Are you making one of these common email design mistakes? Many people do and they could really improve their email marketing skills by fixing them this is where Gravytrain Limited could help you.

1. Sending your email as an image. Many email marketers find that it is easier to simply design the newsletter as an image to avoid the hassles of HTML. Plus, images look the same, no matter which email server your subscribers use. But there are some major flaws in this method, the main one being that more and more servers are actually blocking emails that only consist of images. So, think twice before taking the easy way out.

2. Not including a text based link back to your website. Having the URL in plain sight means people are more likely to click on it than a cloaked link, but many email designs don´t include this vital factor. If your email newsletter is one that lacks a text based link, add it in today.

3. Forgetting to include Alt-text. If your images don´t load, the alt-text is what tells your reader what the content of the photo or illustration is. Without it, they will just be looking at big blank spots in the email design.
If you are making any of these mistakes, it is time to reevaluate your email design and try to improve it. It´s never too late to fix your email design. - Gravytrain Limited

Recent Legal Changes to email and websites.

2007-12-04T02:26:00.000-08:00

Gravytrain Limited has found out Some recent changes to the law that you should be aware of came into effect on the 1st of January, 2007:

Your website should now clearly display the following:
• The name of the company operating the website

• Registered office (for limited companies)

• Company registration number and place of registration

• A postal and email address• VAT number, if VAT registered (even if not an e-commerce site)

• The name and membership details of any trade or professional bodies the company is a member of.
It’s also good practice to have contact and company details as it reassures users like to know that the site they are visiting is legitimate.
Showing any trade, accrediting or professional bodies like the BCS or your ISO 9000 assessor is just common sense – It is worth linking back to any such bodies and if possible getting a link from them to your site from their directory of members, if they have one.
This information doesn’t have to be visible on every page of your website, though it is recommended that you put the information on the contact us page of your site, as a minimum.
If you are unsure if your site meets the new standards Go to Gravytrain Limited for help.

What Gravytrain does in email marketing

2007-11-29T02:36:00.001-08:00

With Gravytrain Limited uses Permission Based Email Marketing you reach out to a listening audience. More than 88% of online consumers have made a purchase as a result of receiving permission based email. Successful email and newsletter marketing gives exactly what current customers and customers-in-waiting are looking for. This means your customers don't need to look anywhere else for your products and offers.
“Gravytrain Limited helped us reach and convert more customers with a permission based email campaign.” Ric Barnes- Director, LifeSure
With our PermissionBased Email Marketing, you get ...
Email and newsletter design- We design your email according to your specifications.
HTML and text template development- We create templates which provides consistency and efficiency to your mail-outs.
Contact collection audits and subscription function optimisation- We offer a consistent analytics service, from small to large businesses we deliver.
Scheduling for target demographics- The emails are scheduled and targeted to ensure the right message reaches the right person at the right time.
Database cleansing and management- We deal with your sucribe/ unsubsribe management, physical and automated respnse and cleanse the database of imperfections.
Transmission- We use unparalleled technology to ensure the acurate delivery of your email to the customer’s inbox, which confirms the email does not remain unread in their spam folder.
Gravytrain Limited Permission Based Email Marketing campaigns can provide your customers with details they need to get them back on your site.

The email marketing glossary

2007-11-21T05:31:00.001-08:00

Gravytrain Limited shows you its very own email marketing glossary.
A/B Split
When a list is divided into two equal segments, each of which can be tested with different variables as part an effort to determine which is more effective
Above the fold
When you launch your internet browser or while viewing your email in your email reader, the bottom of the window is commonly referred to as the “fold”. The viewable areas before one has to start scrolling are “above the fold”.
API (or Application Programming Interface)
An application programming interface (API) allows a software’s functionality to be extended to ‘the outside world’. Examples of APIs include Google’s Gmaps pedometer, where users can map out their running routes.
ASP (or Application Service Provider)
An application service provider (ASP) is a company that provides access to software applications via the Internet that otherwise would have to be installed on a user’s personal computer. Current buzzterm for this is Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). See also: Gravytrain Limited as a service
Auto Reply
When an email recipient is “Out of the Office” or “Away on Vacation” they often set up an automated reply message alerting the sender to this fact.
B2B
B2B (business-to-business) companies that primarily sell products or provide services to other businesses.
B2C
B2C (business-to-consumer) companies are those firms that sell products or provide services primarily to end-user consumers.
Bandwidth
The amount of information that can be transmitted over a network such as the Internet in a specific amount of time.
Blacklists
Blacklists are made up of lists of IP addresses belonging to organizations that have been identified as senders of SPAM (unsolicited commercial email). Blacklists are often used by ISPs and corporations as part of the filtering process that determines which IP addresses they prohibit from sending mail to their members.
Blocking
When emails are prevented from reaching their intended destination, typically due to action taken on the part of the Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Blog
A user-generated website where entries are made in an informal journal style and displayed in date order with the most recent entries first. Readers may or may not be able to comment on specific posts within the blog.
Bonded Sender Program
Sponsored by IronPort Systems, the Bonded Sender program identifies legitimate email traffic. Originators of legitimate email can now post a financial bond to ensure the integrity of their email campaign. Receivers who feel they have received an unsolicited email from a Bonded Sender can complain to their ISP, enterprise, or IronPort and a financial charge is debited from the bond. This market-based mechanism allows email senders to ensure their message gets to the end user, and provides corporate IT managers and ISPs with an objective way to ensure only unwanted messages get blocked.
Bounce
A “Bounced” email indicates that an attempt to deliver an email to a particular address has failed. This may occur if the email address is no longer valid or the intended recipient's ISP and/or email servers were not functioning over a period of 3 consecutive days. See also: Gravytrain Limited
Bounce - Hard
An email address that is rejected for a permanent reason that cannot be resolved, such as: "the address does not exist". See also: Gravytrain Limited
Bounce - Soft
An email address that is rejected for what is most likely a temporary reason, such as an overfilled inbox. See also: Gravytrain Limited
Call-to-Action
Phrasing that encourages a reader to take action. For example, "Click here to register for the VerticalResponse newsletter." or "Get started with your free trial of VerticalResponse today!"
CAN-SPAM Act
The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) is a federal law that establishes requirements for those who send commercial email. It spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them. Among other measures, the law:
Bans false or misleading header information. Your email's "From," "To," and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.
Prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject line cannot mislead the recipient about the contents or subject matter of the message.
Requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method. You must provide a return email address or another Internet-based response mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages to that email address, and you must honor the requests. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your commercial email.
It requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender's valid physical postal address. Your message must contain clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation and that the recipient can opt out of receiving more commercial email from you. It also must include your valid physical postal address.
The CAN-SPAM Act also provides for penalties for a number of other offenses, which can be reviewed here: Gravytrain Limited
CAPTCHA
A Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart is used to determine whether or not the user is human. Users are asked to type in a series of distorted images to prove that they are not a machine.
Challenge Response
A challenge-response system is a program that replies to an email message from an unknown sender by subjecting the sender to a test designed to differentiate humans from automated senders, also known as “bots”.
Click-through Rate (CTR), Click Rate
An indicator of response to a given email message, as measured by the percentage of recipients that click on a link enclosed in the email. To determine the click-through rate, divide the number of responses by the number of emails sent (multiply this number by 100 to express the result as a percentage).
Co-registration or Co-Reg
Co-registration is the process of using other websites to generate opt-in email leads that you can add to your mailing list for marketing purposes. When you reach a co-registration agreement with a site or a network of sites, they will ask new registrants if they would like to receive information from your company as well. If the registrants opt-in (choose to receive mailings), they will be added to your mailing list so you can market to them directly.
Confirmed Opt-in
“Confirmed opt-in”, also known as “double opt-in” or “closed loop” in some circles, provides an additional layer of security by requiring that an email account be both subscribed and then verified by a confirmation email before it is added to the list. As a result, only those people with access to the account can respond to the confirmation message, greatly reducing the chance of abuse. For this reason, confirmed opt-in is regarded as the gold standard for secure email marketing.
Content
The copy, graphics and images that comprise your email, website or marketing materials.
Conversion Rate
A metric which measures the percentage of people converted into subscribers or buyers out of the total population exposed to a particular campaign.
Copy
The text of the campaign, distinct from the graphics.
CPA (or Cost per acquisition)
A payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying actions such as sales or registrations.
CPM (or Cost per thousand)
In marketing, CPM commonly refers to the cost per 1,000 names on a given list or impressions served. For example, a list using VerticalResponse priced at $10 CPM would mean that the list owner charges $.01 per email address.
CRM (or Customer relationship management)
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a broad term that refers to concepts businesses use to maintain and improve relationships with customers. CRM involves collecting, storing and analyzing customer information. CRM enables businesses to provide personalized services to meet their customers’ needs and retain their business.
Database
A database is a collection of information stored in a computer in a systematic way, such that a computer program can consult it to answer questions. For email marketing purposes, a database is the software that stores your records or lists. Your database may be in the following forms: ACT!, Filemaker, GoldMine, MS Excel, Access, Netscape, Outlook, Outlook Express, Oracle, Salesforce, Saleslogix, Sybase or many other forms.
Dedupe
Deduplication refers to a data cleansing technique where duplicate data is removed from a set.
Deliverability
The ability of the email sender to consistently deliver an email to a recipient’s inbox with HTML and text intact. Marketers operating permission-based email schemes need to carefully consider deliverability due to aggressive SPAM filters.
Domain
Generally refers to internet addresses, the memorable form of a website’s numerical IP address. VerticalResponse’s domain name is verticalresponse.com.
DomainKeys
Or DKIM: Domain Keys Identified Mail. An anti-spam software application that uses a combination of public and private keys to authenticate the sender's domain (A name by which a computer connected to the Internet is identified) and reduce the chance that a spammer or hacker will fake the domain sending address.
Double Opt-in
"Double opt-in", also known as "confirmed opt-in" or "closed-loop" in some circles, provides an additional layer of security by requiring that email accounts be both subscribed and then verified by a confirmation email before they are added to the list. As a result, only those people with access to the account can respond to the confirmation message, greatly reducing the chance of abuse. For this reason, double opt-in is regarded as the gold standard for secure email marketing. See also: Gravytrain Limited

Email Campaign
When you build an email and send it to your recipients using VerticalResponse this is an example of an email campaign. Your campaign may be a newsletter or may consist of offers. Some marketers may define a campaign as a series of email messages using a common theme, but in the VerticalResponse system, any email sent – even one at a time as opposed to a series of emails - is classified as a campaign.
Email Client
An application used to send, receive, store and view email like Outlook, Mac Mail, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, etc.
ESP (or Email Service Provider)
Email Service Providers (ESPs) are companies like VerticalResponse that provide a service of enabling a user to send permission-based email campaigns to designated users. They are usually Software-as-a-Service Providers (SaaS) who offer their services in an online fashion. There are also software ESPs.
ESPC
The Email Sender & Provider Coalition (ESPC) was formed to fight spam while protecting the delivery of legitimate email. The ESPC members have recognized the need for strong spam solutions that ensure the delivery of legitimate email and have been very active in the war against spam. VerticalResponse is an active member of this organization. For more information on the ESPC, visit Gravytrain Limited.
Font
A specific size and style of type within a type family.
Footer
Some emails include a “footer”. This is the area at the bottom of an email where you might find unsubscribe information.
Frequency
The intervals at which email marketing efforts are repeated: weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, etc.
From Line
The information that appears in the “From” line at the top of the email and typically indicates the identity of the sender.
Hard Bounced Email
A hard bounce is an e-mail message that has been returned to the sender because the recipient's address is not valid. A hard bounce might occur because the domain name doesn't exist or because the recipient is unknown.
Harvesting
The illegal process of obtaining lists of email addresses to send bulk emails, or spam. Harvesting can include list purchase and spam ‘bots’ scanning web pages for email addresses.
Header
The header in an email is the part of the email that is not transparent to the recipient unless they have their “View Headers” turned on. This tells the recipient what servers the email is coming from and what programs are being used to generate this email. Headers contain information on the email itself and the route it's taken across the Internet. Recipients can normally see the "to" (identity of recipient), "from" (identity of sender) and "subject" (information in the subject line) headers in their inbox. You can modify these to influence their decision to open or delete an email.
Headline
The announcement recipients see when they open an email. Ideally, the headline expresses the company’s value proposition and encourages the recipient to read further.
Hosted Email
A hosted version of an email allows users to view the email message as a web page, thus ensuring that all formatting remains intact. VerticalResponse does this for you for free.
House List
A permission-based list that you build yourself. Use it to market, cross sell and up-sell, and to establish a relationship with customers over time. Your house list is one of your most valuable assets.
HTML (or Hypertext Markup Language)
A “markup” language designed for the creation of web pages and other information viewable in a Web browser.
HTML Email
HTML email is simply an email created with HTML that allows for the display of images as opposed to simple text. Ninety five percent of all email readers have the ability to display HTML emails, which are more visually appealing and attention-grabbing than mere text. However since 2005, many readers have the default where images are “turned off” or not viewable by the recipient. For this reason you need to make sure your recipients add you to their address book so you’ll always go into the inbox where images will show.
IP Address
The Internet Protocol (IP) address is simply a computer’s address. The IP address refers to the numerical component of an internet address or domain name. An IP address in general looks like this: 123.45.6.789
ISP (or Internet Service Provider)
Internet Service Provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. AOL, Yahoo!, MSN, Comcast and various local phone companies are common ISPs.
Landing Page
The page on a website where the visitor arrives (which may or may not be the home page). In terms of an email campaign, if a user wants to track a campaign separately they set up an additional page for recipients to visit. This way they can track distinctive traffic to this page from their email.
Layout
The arrangement of content within an email. A layout is designed to optimize the use of space while presenting the critical content in the portions of screen most likely to attract the recipient’s immediate attention.
Links
Text links, hyperlinks, graphics or images which, when clicked or when pasted into the browser, direct the reader to another online location.
Load Time
The length of time it takes for a page to open completely in the browser window. You’ll want your load time to be as fast as possible.
Look and Feel
The degree to which design, layout and functionality are appealing to prospects and fits the image the business is trying to portray.
Mailing List
A set of email addresses designated for receiving specific email messages.
Mailto:
An HTML command that allows collection of email addresses from a website. When readers click on a link. their default email program composes an email message to send to that address.
Multi-part MIME Email
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard for the format of email. Virtually all Internet email is transmitted in MIME format. This simply means that two versions of the email are sent, one graphical and one text. The appropriate version is then directed to the recipient based on the recipient's email client’s preferences.
Navigation
The path by which a user can click from page to page on a website and move around within a page.
Nth Sampling
When a subset of the list is constructed based on every Nth individual. For example, if you need to create a sub-list with 100 members from an overall list of 1,000 names, every tenth person is selected. If you need to create a sub-list of 5,000 from a list of 100,000, then every twentieth name is chosen.
Open Rate
The number of HTML message recipients who opened your email, typically measured as a percentage of the total number of emails sent, although calculation methods may differ. The open rate is considered a useful metric for judging response to an email campaign but it should be noted that open rates for text emails can’t be calculated.
Open Relay
An open relay is an email server configured so that anyone on the internet can dispatch email. Once an acceptable means of sending email in the past, spammers have used open relay to re-route their email through a third party to avoid detection. The CAN SPAM Act of 2003 made it illegal to send spam through an open relay.
Opt-in
Opting-In is the action a person takes when he or she actively agrees, by email or other means, to receive communications from an email sender. There are different types of opt-in practices, some of which are more demanding than others. See also: Gravytrain Limited
Opt-in form
A form that website owners can add to their site to collect newsletter signups from visitors. See also: Gravytrain LimitedOpt-Out
Opt-out email marketing assumes the recipient wants to receive email unless they specifically ask to be removed from the list – in other words, “opt-out” or “unsubscribe”. If readers fail to state explicitly that they no longer wish to remain on the list, they can expect to receive messages until they make their desire known. Response rates tend to be lower when sending opt-out email, so be prepared for this result when you’re analyzing your campaigns.
Payoff
When offering customers further information, such as a whitepaper or article via a link in an email, the payoff is the information they gain access to when clicking on that link.
Permission-based email
The practice of only sending email messages to those recipients who have agreed (or asked) to receive them.
Personalization
The practice of writing the email to make the recipient feel that it is more personal and was sent with him or her in mind. This might include using the recipient's name in the salutation or subject line, referring to previous purchases or correspondence, or offering recommendations based on previous buying patterns.
Phishing
In a phishing scam, a spammer, posing as a trusted party such as a bank or reputable online vendor, sends email messages directing recipients to Web sites that appear to be official but are in reality fraudulent. Visitors to these Web sites are asked to disclose personal information, such as credit card numbers, or to purchase counterfeit or pirated products. See also: Gravytrain Limited
Preview Pane
Email programs such as Microsoft Outlook, Entourage, and Mac Mail allow users to view email through a preview pane. The preview pane is important to bear in mind when composing the opening lines of an email.
ROI (Return on Investment)
A measure of the profit realized and/or costs saved at a company, or as the result of a specific project within the company. ROI measures how effectively the firm uses its capital and resources to generate profit; the higher the ROI, the better. An ROI calculation is sometimes used along with other approaches to develop a business case for a given proposal.
SaaS (Software as a Service)
Software as a service (SaaS) is a software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, typically the Internet. See also: Gravytrain Limited
Salutation
This is the area in an email where you address your recipient. Examples are “Dear Customer”, “Hello Larry”, and “Dear Member”.
Sender-ID
Sender-ID is an email industry initiative championed by Microsoft and other industry leaders as a technical solution to help counter spoofing—the #1 deceptive practice used by spammers. See also: Gravytrain Limited

Signature File
A short block of text at the end of a message identifying the sender and providing additional information about them.
Single Opt-in
Under single opt-in formats, businesses only mail addresses that have been actively subscribed to their list, typically by completing a web form, filling out a business reply card or sending an email to a specific address. Because the registration process is proactive, a single-opt in policy offers a higher level of security than the opt-out approach, but also has the following limitations:
Since single opt-in procedure does not require email address verification, it is possible to register other people without their consent, merely by having knowledge of that person’s email address.
A mistyped address or the entry of a bogus email account that happens to belong to someone else can result in a company mailing a customer who has not registered to receive messages.
Single opt-in email policies are susceptible to spam traps. Spam traps are essentially email addresses or domains that have not registered to receive any email. Therefore, any messages they do receive must be spam. The problem for marketers comes when people deliberately subscribe spam trap addresses to their lists, or one is inadvertently added. This scenario exposes the mailer to blacklisting by ISPs or the organization operating the spam trap.See also: Gravytrain Limited
Soft Bounced Email
A soft bounce is an email message that gets to the recipient's mail server but is returned undelivered before it reaches the recipient. A soft bounce might occur because the recipient's inbox is full and may be deliverable at another time or may be forwarded manually by the network administrator in charge of redirecting mail on the recipient's domain.
Spam Trap
A spam trap is a seemingly valid email address used to identify spam messages. The idea is to take an address that hasn't been subscribed to any email lists and monitor the email it receives. As it wasn't subscribed to any email, anything it receives must be unsolicited – in other words – spam.
SPAM, UCE
SPAM or Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) is unsolicited email, particularly of a commercial nature. Sending email to people who have not requested to receive messages from you will likely result in SPAM complaints.
SPF (Sender Policy Framework)
An email authentication system that verifies that a message came from an authorized mail server. SPF is designed to detect messages from spammers and phishers who falsify the sender's IP address in the email header.
Spoofing
Email spoofing involves forging a sender's address on email messages. It can be used by malicious individuals to mislead email recipients into reading and responding to deceptive mail. These fake messages can jeopardize the online privacy of consumers and damage the reputation of the companies purported to have sent the messages. Spoofed email often contains phishing scams. See also: Gravytrain Limited
Subheads (or Subheadings)
A line within a body of text that serves as a subtitle for the content that follows. Subheads break up paragraphs of copy and make the page more attractive or easy on the eye. They also often act as signposts indicating specific topics, offers, promotions, etc.
Subject Line
The email subject line is the line that appears in an email client indicating the topic of the message. This is the line used to entice the recipient to open the email and read further. It is the most important part of your email.
Suppression List
A list of addresses that is never sent emails. When a campaign is launched, addresses on the suppression list are automatically removed from the mailing list for that campaign. Suppression Lists are used for organizations to remain CAN SPAM compliant as well as segmenting different recipients.
Targeting
The ability to serve messaging to the users most likely to be receptive to the message, based on their geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioral characteristics.
Teaser
A message, or part of a message, designed to arouse curiosity and interest and cause the reader to explore further, but without revealing too much detail about the offer being promoted.
Timing
Scheduling the email campaign to reach the audience at the most opportune time for it to be read. Timing might be seasonal (for example, vacation or school), dependent on holidays, etc. or mailings might go out on a standard schedule. Even the day of the week and what time of day the mailing goes out are important considerations: for example, a Friday afternoon mailing may be great for retailing customers, but bad for business-to-business customers.
Tracking
Collecting and evaluating the statistics so that one can measure an event, such as a click or an open.
Type Size
A size of typewritten or printed character. For example, a serif type (or typeface), a sans-serif type, 10 point type, 14 point type for print, size=1, size=2 for the web.
Unique Forwarders
The number of unique individuals who forward an email. When the number of unique forwards is totaled, each person that forwards a particular email is counted just once, no matter how many times they forward that message.
Unsubscribe
When the owner of an email address unsubscribes, this indicates that the individual no longer wishes to receive emails from your organization. People can unsubscribe either by clicking the "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of each email sent through our system, or by replying to the email with the word "Unsubscribe" in the subject line. This process is also known as opting-out. Including an unsubscribe mechanism is now part of CAN-SPAM Federal Legislation.
Up-Selling / Cross-Selling
Presenting customers with an opportunity to purchase products, services or accessories that are related to items in which they have shown an interest or purchased previously.
URL
A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is the technical term for a web address, such as Gravytrain Limited
Usability
A measure of how easy it is for a user to complete a task. In the context of Web pages this concerns how easy it is for a user to find the information they require from a given Web site.
Value
The overall appeal and usefulness of the product or service to the prospect.
Viral Forwards
The number of referrals sent.
Viral Marketing
Elements and functions included in a communication that encourages and allows recipients to pass the offer along to others, thereby leveraging the marketing effort ("tell a friend," "please forward," etc.).
Viral Responses
The number of recipients who received the referral, opened it and clicked on a link.
Web 2.0
The definition of the term Web 2.0 is an evolving one, but it is generally agreed that Web 2.0 refers to a second generation of Internet services that let people collaborate and share information online. In contrast to the first generation, in Web 2.0, the internet functions as a computing platform that serves web applications to end users. In this way, it provides an experience closer to desktop applications than the traditional static Web pages.
Web-friendly Fonts
Almost all web browsers are capable of displaying four primary fonts properly: Times, Arial, Helvetica, and Verdana, as well as their variants (Arial Narrow, Times New Roman, etc.) If a web developer decides to stray from one of these fonts he or she risks browser compatibility problems and the prospect that their pages may render inaccurately when viewed through certain web browsers.
Whitelists
Whitelists are lists of commercial emailers (including ESPs) who have been approved to send mail through the ISP. The ISP (internet service provider) requires a list of IP (internet protocol) addresses that email will be sent from, and in some cases a test period where the commercial emailer will be approved or rejected.

Quality Email Marketing.. Where art thou!?

2007-11-20T01:49:00.000-08:00

Gravytrain Limited are one of the leading company's to offer quality email marketing services to top company names.

Email and newsletter design- We design your email according to your specifications.
HTML and text template development- We create templates which provides consistency and efficiency to your mail-outs.

Contact collection audits and subscription function optimisation- We offer a consistent analytics service, from small to large businesses we deliver.

Scheduling for target demographics- The emails are scheduled and targeted to ensure the right message reaches the right person at the right time.

Database cleansing and management- We deal with your sucribe/ unsubsribe management, physical and automated respnse and cleanse the database of imperfections.

Transmission- We use unparalleled technology to ensure the acurate delivery of your email to the customer’s inbox, which confirms the email does not remain unread in their spam folder.

Gravytrain permission Based Email Marketing campaigns can provide your customers with details they need to get them back on your site.

What sort of email?

2007-11-15T02:31:00.000-08:00

In its broadest sense, the term covers every email you ever send to a customer, potential customer or public venue. In general, though, it's used to refer to:

Sending direct promotional emails to try and acquire new customers or persuade existing customers to buy again, Gravytrain Limited does this well.
Sending emails designed to encourage customer loyalty and enhance the customer relationship
Placing your marketing messages or advertisements in emails sent by other people

Gravytrain Limited think of these three main forms of email marketing as the electronic equivalent of:

Direct mail
Sending people a print newsletter
Placing advertisements in subscription magazines and newspapers
There is, however, one extremely important difference - the issue of permission (see later).

Advantages of email marketing

2007-11-12T03:28:00.000-08:00

Email marketing has some great advantages which company's rely on when coming to it. Gravytrain specilise in email marketing and provide extensive reports on successful examples of online advertising.
The advantage of a mailing list is clearly the ability to distribute information to a wide range of specific, potential customers at a relatively low cost.
Compared to other media investments such as direct mail or printed newsletters, it is less expensive.
An exact Return on investment can be tracked ("track to basket") and has proven to be high when done properly. Email marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic.
It is instant, as opposed to a mailed advertisement, an email arrives in a few seconds or minutes.
It lets the advertiser "push" the message to its audience, as opposed to a website that waits for customers to come in.
It is easy to track. An advertiser can track users via web bugs, bounce messages, un-subscribes, read-receipts, click-throughs, etc. These can be used to measure open rates, positive or negative responses, correlate sales with marketing.
Advertisers can generate repeat business affordably and automatically
Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of email subscribers who have opted in (consented) to receive email communications on subjects of interest to them
Over half of Internet users check or send email on a typical day.
Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger other messages to be automatically delivered.
Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger other events such as updating the profile of the recipient to indicate a specific interest category.
Green - email marketing is paper-free.
- Gravytrain Limited