Email Marketing Blog

Recently, someone wrote our support staff asking if it was safe to import free or purchased leads into their autoresponder system.

It is our policy (and the policy of most - if not all - companies such as GetResponse) not to allow these types of leads to be imported. Your subscribers must have requested information from you specifically. This is entirely different from them clicking on a link, filling out a generic opt-in form, and having their name sold to tens or hundreds of people.

While there are a number of ways to build a list, GetResponse provides an easy alternative with their service at GetSubscribers. This service can add targeted subscribers to your list each and every day without the need for them to confirm.

If you are looking for a simple way to build your list, you may want to check it out!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

Datran Media recently released their second annual survey of over 2,000 online marketers, regarding their insight into the best online promotional methods.

Over 82% said they were planning to increase their use of email marketing in 2008. ROI from email marketing was anticipated to be much higher than other promotional avenues by 55% of respondents. When compared with other media buys, email came in on top, over display, search, print and other media channels.

Interestingly, email serves a double purpose, as seen by survey respondents, who leveraged email as a sales tool as well as utilizing it as a media channel.

Email was used to send newsletters by 80% of the respondents. In addition to using email as a sales tool, it was also used to reactivate dormant customers, enhance customer relationships and increase brand awareness.

An important note is that over 81% send TARGETED email campaigns, with less than 19% sending untargeted campaigns. The majority of targeting was based on actions or demographics / location.

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
Get Response

You can have the best autoresponder campaign or email newsletter in the world, but if nobody signs up to receive it, what’s the point?

One of the ways to build your list is through a landing page. But I’ve seen too many landing pages that try to be all things to all people. The result is a confusing message and poor conversion.

Before creating your landing page, you need to determine your goal. If your goal is to have visitors opt-in to your list, do NOT distract them from doing that.

If this is an opt-in page, this is not the place to sell them your product. Don’t include ads which easily allow them to click out and abandon your site. And including links to all your other web sites will simply distract them and keep them from doing what you want: opting in.

Have you given your landing pages a check-up lately?

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

Following the expansion of our customer support staff and the extension of support hours until 8 PM, we are pleased to announce another step forward in helping you take full advantage of our service.

Planning your campaign for the weekend?

In addition to the regular 9-8 EST Mon-Fri telephone, live-chat and email and our existing weekend email support, we are adding telephone and live-chat service on Saturdays, 9-5 EST!

Starting next Saturday, October 28th our helpful customer support representatives will be standing by to provide you with all the help you need to turn that Saturday email marketing campaign of yours into a great success!

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of GetResponse customer support representatives and developers for the amazing work that they are doing.

It takes a lot of effort to maintain infrastructure that delivers millions of email marketing messages every day, and I’m proud that we have such a wonderful team of talented and Internet-savvy folks who enjoy sharing their professional enthusiasm with customers like you.

To give you a flavor of what it’s like behind the operations, please step into our international offices and meet a few of our team members, who ensure that GetResponse runs smoothly every day.

We have plenty more exciting features, technology updates and improvements in store over the coming weeks, so stay tuned for more.

Regards,

Simon Grabowski
CEO
GetResponse

North American Office

When Jonathan, Customer Support Supervisor is not preparing his mouth-watering barbeque, he is providing GetResponse customers with top-notch service over the phone and live-chat.

Marija, always kind, courteous and friendly, is always ready to help GetResponse customers with their support questions. Marija is one of our live-chat and telephone support representatives.

Customer Support Supervisor, Bobbi-Jo, having just received an installment of “Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service” book is busy… doing just that.

European Office

Eveline is an energetic email support representative and trainer. Always full of great ideas, she has a keen grasp of how to get things done… fast!

Anna likes to keep her paper files, notebooks and at least 4 mugs close at hand. Her office is far from virtual bits and bytes, and her administrative support is invaluable.

Head of GetResponse Business Development, Chris and his team are taking care of our enterprise customers, helping private label partners and forging new business alliances.

GetResponse Project Manager Jacob and Jacek (one of our talented developers) are working together on an exciting new GetResponse technology upgrade.

Complex database structures, algorithm optimizations, email deliverability monitoring procedures… GetResponse developers’ bread and butter.

PS.: To meet more people behind GetResponse, please take a look at our team page.

A popular anti-spam organization, SpamHaus, was ordered by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to pay $11,715,000 in damages to e360insight and its CEO, David Linhardt. e360insight sued SpamHaus earlier this year over illegal blacklisting of their mailings.

Additionally, SpamHaus was barred from causing any email sent by e360insight or Linhardt to be “blocked, delayed, altered, or interrupted in anyway”. The court also ordered SpamHaus to publish a public apology for deeming the group a spammer.

SpamHaus, a British-based organization, did not accept the US jurisdiction and believes that the order is not enforceable. “As spamming is illegal in the United Kingdom, an Illinois court ordering a British organization to stop blocking incoming Illinois spam in Britain goes contrary to U.K. law which orders all spammers to cease sending spam in the first place” SpamHaus stated.

At GetResponse we use SpamHaus as one of the methods to filter inbound spam and prevent spammers from abusing legitimate email marketing and autoresponder campaigns. We regret that the US court system can be used as a weapon against a non-profit organization that strives to keep our mailboxes clean.

UPDATE

In a proposed court order dated 10/6/2007 Judge Charles Kocoras of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois calls on the organizations responsible for registering the Spamhaus.org Internet address to suspend the organization’s Internet service. Both ICANN and Tucows, the Spamhaus.org registrar, are named in the order.

A spam-savvy Illinois lawyer shares his perspective on the issue and believes that the outlook may be bleak for the anti-spam organization.

UPDATE #2

A federal judge presiding over a spam dispute rejected a marketing company’s request to suspend the domain name of an anti-spam group that ignored an $11.7 million judgment against it.

U.S. District Court Judge Charles P. Kocoras denied a proposed motion from e360 Insight, which sued the Spamhaus Project over its “black list” of spammers. Wheeling, Ill.-based e360 Insight contends it is improperly on the list because it is a direct marketer that does not send unsolicited e-mail.