Our Blog

How to choose an ESP

Excerpted from ConvUrgency.com's Smart Email Marketing Guide

So the next question that I get very regularly is: which ESP should I use? Unfortunately I can't just tell you which to choose, as there's simply no 'one size fits all' solution. I've worked with a number of vendors, and depending on the number of emails you're planning on sending, you'll have to chose one that's right for you, and that your business can afford.

How to add Google Analytics to your website

Now that you've gained access to your new Google Analytics account, you need to set up your website profile, get your JavaScript code to add to your website pages, and you're good to go!

In-house or out-sourced email?

Excerpted from ConvUrgency.com's Smart Email Marketing Guide

Choosing the software to use to send out your emails is a very important factor in the success of your email marketing. It can determine whether or not the emails are delivered, the degree of personalization available, the amount of reporting you'll have, and much more.

How to register for Google Analytics

So, I get a lot of people asking me how to use bits and pieces of Google Analytics. Since I use it a lot, and am fairly comfortable with the interface (old and the new beta), I'd like to share what I know in a step by step series. Of course, before you can use it, you need to take the basic step: registering.

Simply follow this link to register for Google Analytics.

All you need to do is enter the password for an existing Google account, or create one on the spot. You will then have an analytics account.

Why should you use Google Analytics? Why not just stick with the free Awstats or Webalizer that comes with your hosting service? Well, it's simply more powerful. With on-demand (tagging) analytics, you can get real-time data, view detailed navigational path analysis, and even derive conversion & ROI values.
Simply put: it's free, and it's powerful. I can't live without it!

Email list pruning

Excerpted from ConvUrgency.com's Smart Email Marketing Guide

The next step in maintaining list quality is pruning. Just like you lop of dead tree ranches to get the best fruitage, your list needs regular pruning.

When you send your email, you'll get a percentage (hopefully small) of bounceback. A soft bounceback means that the mailbox is temporarily inaccessible – it may be full. Have your system try again, but generally after three attempts within a couple of weeks they should be removed from the list. Hard bouncebacks indicate that the mail server has rejected the message. Most likely, the email address is no longer valid. Remove them immediately.

You may wonder why I recommend removing these addresses so quickly. After all, if the address is re-enabled in the near future, you'd have kept a subscriber! First of all, that's very unlikely to happen. Second, if it does happen, it's most likely been re-enable to become a 'honey pot'. This means that the mail server is using this once dead address to trap senders who clearly aren't pruning their lists, and must therefore be spam. So you're just asking to be blacklisted! Third, if you keep bad email addresses on your list, your percentage of undeliverable message per campaign will grow. A high undeliverable rate indicates spam to many ISPs, and your sender reputation will be very negatively affected. So, it's pretty clear why you should get undeliverable emails off your list as soon as possible!

Excerpted from ConvUrgency.com's Smart Email Marketing Guide

Email List Segmentation

Excerpted from ConvUrgency.com's Smart Email Marketing Guide

The next step in enhancing relevancy with your existing list is segmentation. This means dividing your list into portions based on certain criteria, and sending a customized message to each portion, or segment. Start simple, and grow in complexity. A simple example is that of sending out an event invitation. Some of your subscribers attended the event last year. You'll want to segment them out to receive perhaps the highlights of last year's event, and a link to register to attend again. For the new registrants, you'll want to send them more detailed event info, a discount to register early, etc.

Segmentation can be handled before you upload your list to your ESP (Email Service Provider). It could mean just splitting the list into two separate .csv files. However, larger and more complex ESPs can manage segmentation as part of an email campaign, based on field variables within the list. You can slice and dice your list however you want, and customize your email message for each segment. The degree to which you segment your list and personalize the message is dependent upon your resources. Just remember that a more customized message means higher relevance, and therefore better results.

Excerpted from ConvUrgency.com's Smart Email Marketing Guide

How to ensure email list quality and relevance

Excerpted from ConvUrgency.com's Smart Email Marketing Guide

The simplest and most effective key to maintaining quality and relevance is by allowing your subscribers themselves to set and maintain their own preferences. You can do this by creating a preference center, either on your website or within your Email Service Provider (ESP).

You will obviously want to allow subscribers to update their email address. This will maintain quality. You should also allow them to choose and modify the kinds of emails they receive, and to unsubscribe from whichever lists they want. This will ensure relevance. Also, if you allow them to choose between text or HTML emails and perhaps set the frequency at which they want to receive email, then you'll have much higher open rates, and far fewer spam complaints.

But how do you go about acquiring subscribers to your list? After all, a preference center is useless if there are no email addresses to set preferences for! Well, you really have two choices: organic growth vs paid. Organic is through the 'sign up for our newsletter' field on your website, or the 'receive regular updates' option on your registration for, or any other means by which subscribers make the active choice to receive your emails. Paid acquisition usually involves purchasing or renting a list of emails, but may also involve co-registration, or sponsoring an event – after which you receive a list of attendee emails.

Paid acquisition is generally less fruitful as far as metric are concerned. The reason is obvious – these people aren't expecting to receive your email, they may not be aware of who you are, and they may not even be the slightest bit interested in what you're promoting. In terms of what we've been discussing, the relevance is very low. Not only that, but you have to follow rather strict guidelines when sending unsolicited emails, in order to comply with current anti-spam regulations. So it's clearly in your best interest to prioritize your efforts around organic list growth, even though paid acquisition may seem the easiest route at first! So what are some effective ways to organically grow your list?

The single most effective way to build your list is to promote a registration field on your website – every single page of it. Make the requirements minimal, an email address and name, or even just an email address if possible. As you engage them in ongoing email 'conversation', you can prompt them to update their profiles to receive more relevant promotions.

Another place to gather subscribers is on registration forms. Event registrations, whitepaper downloads, etc, should all include a check box saying something to the effect of 'yes, I'd like to receive further information on xyz'. But contrary to popular practice, do not pre-check the box. This is called 'implied opt-in', and does not comply with anti-spam regulations.

Do you use a Pay-Per-Click campaign to bring search traffic to your website? Why not build a landing page? Offer the free evaluation of your product (or whatever else you offer), and allow them to subscribe there as well, even if they don't want to commit to the evaluation.

There are so many ways to build your quality subscriber list, so feel free to be creative! One real estate agent I know allowed visitors to provide their email address and general area, and they were sent regular updates on new houses for sale in the area. Was it effective? Well, my wife and I bought a house we found through those emails, so definitely!

Excerpted from ConvUrgency.com's Smart Email Marketing Guide

The two most important factors with email marketing lists

Excerpted from ConvUrgency.com's Smart Email Marketing Guide

Quality
The biggest factor with a list is quality. By that I mean that you have a very high percentage of real email addresses. It's been estimated that email address churn is between 20 and 40 percent annually. So if your list is a year old and has received no regular maintenance, then up to 40 percent of it will be undeliverable! Not only will it deliver poor campaign result, but it will also negatively affect your sender reputation, as I'll explain later.

Relevance
The second biggest factor with a list is relevance. If you have thousands of subscribers to your newsletter about dog grooming, and you want to promote your latest product – a new fish food that enhances color – you're most likely not going to get the most interest. While this may sound like a no-brainer, you'd be surprised of how many marketers have a 'database of contacts' and will send out their latest promotion to the entire database, most of which don't care about the offer or don't even know why they're receiving the email!

Excerpted from ConvUrgency.com's Smart Email Marketing Guide