Bell Canada recently changed its residential Internet service provider division name from Sympatico to Bell Internet. Customers will be able to keep their existing @sympatico.ca address, get a new @bell.net address, or do both. Our information doesn't indicate a timeline for these changes to take effect.

If you have Sympatico subscribers on your email marketing list, we recommend that you contact them as soon as possible and ask them to update or reaffirm their email address contact information. Not only will this ensure you don't lose touch with valued subscribers, it will protect email deliverability by preventing you from sending messages to outdated email addresses of recipients who have changed email addresses.

Posted by Robert Consoli at 9:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The title of Silverpop's most recent Webinar says it all: "Transactional Emails: Loved by Recipients, Neglected by Marketers."

In this Webinar (view below), Silverpop Product Marketing Manager Whit Lanier and I showed how transactional messages, which are highly relevant to recipients, can drive engagement when you add carefully chosen marketing content to a branded design consistent with your promotional emails and newsletters.

For many marketers, though, these are an overlooked opportunity, often because the responsibility for transactional emails belongs in another department.

In my latest Email Insider column, "Transactional Emails: Make Your First Impression Count," I review the reasons why moving transactional emails into the marketing department makes sense, not just because you can create more useful and attractive messages but also because you can more easily monitor recipient actions and deliverability, as you do with your other branded email.

The following question on using HTML in transactional emails was the most asked question during and after the Webinar:

Q: There's the perception that transactional messages are text messages, and recipients have been trained for that. If you move to a more visual approach with images and HTML, doesn't that make them more suspicious-looking? Will it increase deliverability challenges?

A: Not necessarily, if you do them correctly. If you design transactional messages with the right brand, with HTML text that renders with images blocked, and if you test the message template first with a tool such as Pivotal Veracity to check for spam-filter triggers in content or design, you should minimize any deliverability issues and avoid raising trust issues.

Four tips:

• The subject line must be crystal-clear: "Confirming your purchase from XYZ Online," for example, instead of "Order Confirmation."
• Use a friendly "from" address that names the company or department that generated the transaction: "XYZ Online" instead of a vague email address.
• Always place the details of the transaction front and center in the message to comply with CAN-SPAM requirements. Place promotional content below or to the side of the transactional content.
• Always check with your legal counsel if you have any concerns.

Posted by Loren McDonald at 9:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The unsubscribe is perhaps the most misunderstood and ignored element of an email program. But given that a best practices unsubscribe process minimizes damage to your brand, aids deliverability and can help retain subscribers, it's worth a closer look.

Good Practice: Make It Easy to Unsubscribe
Unsubscribing is a normal part of the email relationship, and using tricks to make it difficult to opt out will backfire with an increase in spam complaints. Alternately, a trustworthy unsubscribe process can help your deliverability by leading more people to use it instead of clicking the spam button, deleting your emails unopened or leaving you when they migrate to a new email address.

Start by labeling your unsubscribe link clearly and in the same size type as you use in your email's main message, and use a text link instead of an image-based link so readers can see it even with blocked images. Locate the link in the same place in every message, preferably in an email administrative footer. In certain situations, such as when sending to segments that are completely inactive or have high spam-complaint rates, consider including an unsubscribe link near the top of your message.

Find more thoughts about where to locate the unsubscribe link in my Email Insider column, "The Unsubscribe Link Location: Top, Bottom or Both?"

Better Practice: Make It Easy for Subscribers to Do What They Really Want

Yes, you should keep the express lane open for subscribers who really want off your list. But some just want to change an aspect of their subscription, like their email address, format, interests or frequency.

Suggest alternatives along with the unsubscribe, and let them know in your newsletter that they can either unsubscribe or change preferences easily. You'll end up retaining more subscribers, even if they move to another communication channel.

Best Practice: Make Your Email Program Irresistible

Think about the reasons people unsubscribe:

• Emails come too frequently
• Lack of relevance
• Email content isn't what they expected
• Their interests changed
• Never really wanted your emails to begin with

Look at every aspect of your email program for ways to improve it. Consider these:

• Be explicit at opt-in about what you send and when
• Add a welcome program
• Use subscriber data to segment your list and send targeted, personalized messages
• Move to a lifecycle program or triggered messages instead of bath-and-blast broadcasts
• Design attractive messages that render well with or without images, regardless of platform, and tell your story with well-written copy.

Unsubscribes are generally a sign that you've failed with some aspect of your email program. Embrace this and work to improve those areas that aren't meeting subscriber expectations. However, don't fear the unsubscribe, because by making this option easier, you'll minimize more-damaging spam complaints.

If you still have questions or doubts, post them below.

Posted by Loren McDonald at 5:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

RoadRunner announced on March 16, 2009, that its new feedback loop offering is now in place. ReturnPath, which powers the feedback loops for other major ISPs such as Comcast and Cox, announced that it will be running the new RoadRunner feedback loop service for RoadRunner. Silverpop is now set up with this service on all RoadRunner domains for all our clients' IP addresses.

For engagement marketers, feedback loops provide valuable information about email sends. What's a feedback loop? As the name suggests, it's feedback from an ISP, which forwards complaints originating from its users—usually in the form of them hitting the spam button. For marketers, there are two primary benefits: They can remove subscribers that don't want to receive similar messages, and they can analyze the complaint rate and tweak their campaigns accordingly.

The RoadRunner feedback loop service change was requested and implemented on March 16, 2009. It should not have any effect on Silverpop clients, nor did we see a disruption in service.

Posted by Robert Consoli at 5:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)