Email Marketing Blog

I came across an interesting interview at TimesOnline with Ray Tomlinson, accredited with sending the first email message through his software called “Send Message Program”, who admits he never envisioned the evils of spam.

Things have changed since that first email was sent back in 1971. It’s been reported that most of us spend 52 hours a year sorting and deleting junk email. (Sometimes it even seems like 52 hours a week!)

One good comment for those of us who market through email is, “there will always be a need for people to be able to communicate asynchronously, that is, send messages that won’t be read or replied to immediately, and that’s what email allows you to do.”

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

The Comcast Feedback Loop represents the 8th Internet Service Provider that GetResponse cooperates with…joining the ranks of Yahoo!, AOL, MSN/Hotmail, Outblaze, Road Runner, United Online and USA.net.

Feedback Loop is a program that enables participants to receive information about emails that were reported as spam. This allows GetResponse to maintain its high reputation with major ISPs and assure its customers top-notch email deliverability.

According to a report prepared by GetResponse analysts, Comcast is the fifth biggest ISP and Comcast email addresses represent almost 1.5% of overall GetResponse email addresses.

In contrast, Yahoo! represents 28%, MSN/Hotmail 21%, AOL 8.5%, and Gmail 4.3%. GetResponse processes the data from all of these companies, with the exception of Gmail which currently has no feedback loop.

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

I read an interesting article by Denny Hatch the other day, in which he talks about his experience with emailing Sen. Barack Obama’s office. If you’re not aware, Obama was able to fundraise $55 million in February…the majority through the Internet.

In addition to Denny’s article, be sure to click and read the complete text of all the emails received by him from Sen. Obama’s office.

Lastly, have a look at the landing page. Originally, it reflected an excellent example of a simple site and good use of video. Today, as I publish this, the video is gone and a picture with a simple opt-in form has replaced this. So, it may be different when you arrive there.  (Unfortunately, I was disappointed that no privacy policy was stated…guess once you read all those emails, you’ll know why!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

Crime does not pay, kiddies, and apparently neither does spamming. The proclaimed “spam king”, Robert Soloway, recently pleaded guilty to fraud in connection with email, felony mail fraud, and failing to file a tax return, as report in the Seattle Times recently.

In a plea deal with the federal prosecutors, they agree to drop 37 counts against him, including aggravated identity theft and money laundering - in exchange for his guilty plea for one count of spamming, mail fraud, and failing to file a tax return.

Mr. Soloway will have plenty of time to catch up with his email, as the charges he will be facing add up to 20 years in jail and up to $625,000 in fines.

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

In Part 1, we discussed how to use an initial opt-in form to segment your list. In Part 2, we covered a few more ideas, including the use of segmented landing pages.

Today, in the last of this series, I’ll talk about some final segmentation ideas, continuing with the theme of segmenting a list for an active adult community in Orlando, Florida.

Merging Direct Mail with Landing Pages

Yesterday I talked about creating segmented landing pages, using real pay-per-click advertising as examples of areas we may wish to segment.

But you can use many lead generation systems to drive traffic to these opt-in pages. And offline methods - such as advertising or direct mail - often work just as well. Some examples are:

• AARP
• Where to Retire
• ELDR
• 50 Plus Lifestyles

In addition to national publications, there are also many regional periodicals available. In fact, here is a list of almost 200 age 50+ publications.

In the above cases, we were searching specifically on 50+ magazines, but there are lists, just like this, available for almost every niche imagineable.

Editorial Calendars

There are additional avenues to explore as well. Again, using our active adult community as an example, I also want to research general readership magazines. These publications can provide me with an editorial calendar that outlines the emphasis of the magazine for future issues.

In this example, you’ll notice that Smart Money’s Editorial Calendar is going to have a feature on retirement in April. If your community was in one of the lowest cost-of-living areas of the country, you might want to consider advertising your free report here.

While most magazines don’t post an online editorial calendar, you can always get one by going to their web site or calling their offices and requesting a media kit. The majority will include an editorial calendar for advertisers.

(Hint: If you’re an accomplished writer - and are aware of the editorial calendar far enough in advance, you can always submit an article for consideration in that month’s publication. Cost - free! Exposure - Priceless!)

Direct Mail Lists

Lastly, we could set up an offline campaign to drive readers onto our landing page to opt-in for a free report. There are tens of thousands of list brokers who can help you with this. You can see from this sample page that you can get pretty specific about the people you want to reach.

If I am looking for leads to send to my adult community web page featuring golf, I could request:

• Geography
• Gender
• Age
• Income or Net Worth
• Home Owners
• Special Interests / Hobbies: Golf
• Magazine Subscribers: Golf Digest, etc.

While each “select” adds to your cost, they can help you build extremely targeted lists. This is one reason it’s important to learn as much as you can about the people who have already purchased from you. For instance, if I knew that 63% of my buyers had a net worth of more than $1.2 million and resided in Florida, Georgia and New York, selecting that criteria should definitely improve my conversion rate for this direct mail campaign.

If you are generating offline leads, your goal should be to have them register for something at your web site. This adds them to your email list for follow-up purposes.

I hope this series has been helpful in giving you some ideas on segmenting your own list. Now it’s your turn! Do you have some great examples of segmented landing pages that you are using in your business or have seen at sites owned by others? Do you have questions or comments about this series and how it relates to your business?

Don’t be shy! Post your questions and/or comments here!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse