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We all hate Junk Mail whether in arrives via your
inbox or letterbox!
We hope the few tips and ideas shown here may
help you avoid the pitfalls of electronic mailings and gain a
few new customers rather than simply upset people. Below are a few
snippets of information and details of how we may be able to hope
promote your business or website via mailshots.
The Law
The laws regarding mailshots vary immensely from
Country to Country although the ethics are essentially the same and
a very simple interpretation of the situation is as follows.
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The law
now states that all electronic communication must now include the full registered name
and office address of your company, as well as country of registration, on all
email marketing |
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There must be a clearly displayed opt-out link on every email allowing
recipients to opt-out of receiving future email messages and any opt out request
must be honoured |
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It
is illegal to reveal recipients' details on any emails, by
adding email addresses in a 'CC' list for instance. This should
not be a problem if you are using a professional emailing
software, as all information will be referenced from a
database, not entered into the email itself as each message will
be sent separately |
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The law states that consent is needed from the recipient before
sending unsolicited e-mail marketing to individual subscribers
but this does not apply to making contact with companies or
contact details shown on websites where that address relates to
the content of that website in as much that the address is shown
as the method of contact |
The Pitfalls
The following may also help you to avoid your email simply being
filtered as Junk or simply deleted unopened.
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Make sure that you use a
senders name and not simply the email address of a phrase such
as Admin. People want to know who the message is from and if
the "from Box is incorrectly completed it will be filtered as
Spam! Do not omit the senders email address either!
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Your message title should
relate to the same domain name as the senders email address. Do
not send your email from am anonymous email address such as a
Yahoo or Googlemail as this will certainly get your mail
filtered! |
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In your opening lines do
not try to assure people that your message is not spam as to do
so is an admission of guilt |
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Ensure that you check the
spelling of your message. Spam Filters are looking for
misspellings and it does not look professional! Certain words
can be the kiss of death to a mailshot so try to avoid phrases
that have exclamation marks!!! italics and references that you
see in the spam emails you receive! Ask yourself what you would
do with the message you are about to send, |
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Try not to use
abbreviations in the body of your message a good example of this
is the use of Oxon instead of Oxfordshire! Believe it or not
this activates spam filters! |
Get
a free PDF Infosheet on Email Marketing
Download here (3.2MB)
Mailing Lists
Mailing lists can be bought from the web
but do so with caution as these are frequently very out of date and
many are unscrupulous as to where the addresses have come from. Good
sources of addresses are..
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An opt in mailing list on
your website. These work especially well when those who sign
up are offered some benefit. A good example can be seen at the
Eyston Arms Website that we built, try registering
with it and see what how the verification and personalised
messages work! We can setup something similar for your website
for less than £100 |
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From your own email
communications and customer databases. Always obtain a customers
email address even if a telephone enquiry. How many people do
you know who do not have an email address? |
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Research. Use the internet
to find companies that you may be able to sell to and add them
to your own mailing lists. Always try to store your addresses on
a spreadsheet and ideally in csv format as this is what most
email software programmes require |
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Speak to us! We can
provide hand edited lists using our own specialised software
that can give you listings designed especially for you!
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Sending your mailings
The following should be noted when
preparing and sending your mailshots.
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Remember to include an
unsubscribe option and honour all removal requests immediately
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Check for duplicate email
addresses. Also ensure that you are not sending the same message
to two people in the same company unless you know that their
departments are separated |
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Do not use Outlook or
Outlook Express to Mailshot. Your service provider will probably
bounce your message |
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Time your mailing! The
last thing you want is for your message to arrive on a Monday
morning amongst all the usual junk mail |
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Make the content
interesting and better to make it more of a newsletter rather
than simply why people should buy from you! |
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Do not be afraid to follow
up with further emailings. This is especially easy to do if in a
newsletter format. |
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Always give your
recipients the opportunity to opt out of future mailings either
with an unsubscribe link or a request that they respond with a
phrase such as "REMOVE" |
Mailing Companies
By far and away the best way to handle your
mailshots is to use a specialists mailing company for the following
reasons.
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Mailings come from a different server and
thus avoids your domain name being blacklisted |
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You can store details of previous mailings
online |
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You can schedule your mailings for a time in
the future |
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You can safely store and edit your mailing
list |
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A choice of ready made templates or design
your own |
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You can view detailed stats on what happens
to your mailshots such as if are they opened or bounced |
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Hints and advice on how to write a mailshot
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Most companies charge per mailing but costs are
very low compared to the cost of trying to administer the list
yourself. The one company we recommend is
Constant Contact who only charge some $15.00 for a
mailing list of 2500. They even offer free 60 day trial so you
can assess the effectiveness of their services.
The other company we would happily recommend is
Aweber who do not charge per email but by your
database size with up to 500 members costing only $19.00 per month
for unlimited mailings. With a 30 day money back guarantee they have
got to be worth a try. They also offer a sign up form on their
website as well as autoresponders, templates and much more.
Good Luck and don't forget to include us in
your mailshot!
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Beanwebs & Beandesigns |
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St Josephs
Newbury Road
East Hendred
Nr Wantage
Oxfordshire
OX12 8LG |
Telephone 01235 779474
Mobile 0791 7756798
enquiries@beanwebs.co.uk |
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