Why Third Party Email Service Providers?

You want to send multiple emails out to your permission based contacts. Seems simple enough, pick a list, ram the addresses into the “To:” field and hit send - piece of cake. Well yes, if you are willing to risk being put on a blacklist, have your emails not be delivered because there were too many names, you didn’t want to know who opened and what they clicked on and you didn’t want engaging rich media content - then sure, go ahead and send through your own system.

3 overlooked reasons why you use a third party email marketing service provider:

ISP Relations - 3rd party ESP’s like Swiftpage have full-time staff dedicated to making good with the ISP’s that control the email you are sending.  It is our job to make sure they know that sending through us is OK.  If you get blacklisted without using a 3rd party, it can take as much as a few days before your IP address will be allowed to deliver mail to that ISP.  Imagine if Deborah in Accounting can’t get out the accounts receivable emails…not good.  We make sure that doesn’t happen.

Send Limit Restrictions - If you want to send a message to more than 100 people at once, don’t think about using your email application.  Outlook pukes on sending around there as well as the most poplular generic email applications (hotmail, yahoo, gmail, etc…).  3rd parties can send thousands of emails at once as we have high speed sending servers dedicated to getting your message to your recipients on time.

Tracking - Ever wished you knew when a recipient opened the email you just sent them or what link they clicked on?  Can;t do this on your own - 3rd parties provide robust analysis tools that tell you who opened, clicked, bounced, suppressed, opted out, forwarded and more.  If you want the data to make more informed business decisions, you need a 3rd party.

If you are already a Swiftpage user - congrats you’ve made the first step towards email marketing success.  New to Swiftpage?  Sign up for a Free trial of the number one integrated email marketing solution in the marketplace.

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Excel- Lover of Databases

For those of who you don’t have Outlook, ACT!, or SalesLogix as your primary contact database and still want to use Swiftpage, there is hope. Very good hope, that a large number of our customers choose to use. We do offer an excellent  hosted solution, but the Swiftpage for Excel integration is our most versatile for any size list and any type of database.

The majority of CRM’s and contact solution software have an option for exporting information into an Excel format. For those not using our other integrations and you have 1,000 people you want to send an email to, just export a copy of their details to Excel and then send campaigns to an entire worksheet or only a selection of cells.  Sending directly from where your data resides will save you the time and stress of managing more lists than you need to.

 

 

Time Saving Tools- Heat Seeking Call Lists

Part II of III

The following series on time saving tools with your email and contact databases will help you explore the most efficient and productive systems that essentially cut mindless work at the knees.

Cold calls hurt the soul and take several layers of tough skin to power through, without seriously snapping at someone over the phone and jeopardizing the reputation of your company.

We have combined the click-through feedback of your email campaigns, with a call list generating tool, that allows you to create call lists of only those who have shown true interest in what you had to say via email. So, odds are if they took the time to read and click about on your email, they have a pulse that is worth looking into.

These call lists can be manipulated however you like. You can create a call list with data from every one of your campaigns, or single campaigns, and then from there choose a combination of Hot, Warm, or Mild leads to contact. During the call list generation process you can also choose to delegate portions of the work to any one of the Swiftpage users under your account.

If you follow up your email marketing campaigns with a call back or have a sales floor of talent, why not only spend your valued time going after the tried and true of the email curious.

Click Here for more info on Call Lists

Time Saving Tools- Google’ing

Part I of III

The following series on time saving tools with your email and contact databases will help you explore the most efficient and productive systems that essentially cut mindless work at the knees.

Not a day goes by where you aren’t “Google’ing” your favorite restaurant, clothes, cars, and most importantly business necessities.

For example, I know that if I am going to spend a valuable chunk of my time on the phone with someone trying to strategize, reason, and persuade, then I need to do my homework. It is in my best interest to get the latest and most pertinent background info on this contact to show a genuine effort and curiosity of how a mutually benefiting relationship can come to be.

The funny thing is that most people go to something like Google, and then to Google Maps for example, and then type in what they are looking for. Very few people actual streamline this process and get exactly what they want with just one click in their database.

The solution that we have developed is an automatic one-click search that queries your contact database or whatever it is that you are looking into and not only in Google, but all over the web with any search that really matters in a business setting.

You can click one button in the Who Is window of Snapshot for ACT! and immediately get a whole caveat of end-result browser windows. With this one click you can find such things as Google map directions to an office, images of a contact, blogs of a contact, podcasts of a contact, YouTube videos of a contact, and a laundry list of other resourceful online tools. The search settings can also be combined to do a search of a contact and their company or just the company alone.

What would take you far too much time during the course of a day has been streamlined by Who Is, so give a contact one click directly from the ACT! database and save yourself some time.

Click Here for a view of what the Who Is menu looks like in ACT!

 

List Philosophy

Which school of thought suits you best?:

The Mass- You have a healthy-sized database, you send large email blasts, do okay business as a result, but also tend to upset a steady percentage of your recipients.

The Tailor- You have a healthy-sized database, you send segmented email blasts, and you strategically squeeze unique results from each segment and in turn have a lower percentage of negative feedback.

Both scenarios show positive results from using email campaigns, but in terms of etiquette and the highest percentage of success, segmentation takes the cake every time.

The internet, email, blogging, etc. is going through an authenticity transformation and if you try to force feed your messages without thoughtful segmentation you will pay for it dearly. Your reputation will take a hit that will take more work in the whole scheme of things than the up front tailoring of list segmentation.

Do the work up front and save yourself a headache tomorrow. Your reputation and your business will thrive because of it.

Innovation Acceleration

Truth- Email marketing allows everyone to be an inventor, tester, lab rat, and learned expert through analyzing reports.

Challenge- Going against the grain. Not actually talking about it, but actually putting a toe in the water to feel things out. Email is the safest testing ground for exploring new ideas and concepts, so why not tinker and bring some exciting innovation to your industry?

This will obviously need to be done appropriately with opt-in contacts, etc., but why not do some exploring where you can track and see if your whiteboard concepts actually gain some ground with your clients?

Change Routines for Better Results

In any health magazine I’ve ever read, the mantra seems to be “Don’t get stuck in a rut” for a few reasons but 2 most notable.  One, you’ll get bored, you’ll work out less as a result and won’t reach the goals you set forth, changing routines keeps you engaged, interested and eager to push yourself.  Two, switching your routine shocks your body and wakes up muscles that were dormant helping you push through the barrier to build that physique we’re all striving for.

In the same regard, think of the way your emails look, what their content is and what the call to action may be.  There is something to be said for consistency in branding, but a change in routine, a shock to the system could be just what your contacts need to take action.  Give it a shot - offer something you wouldn’t normally offer, use imagery that may seem a little different, Give something away, etc…

Keep your contacts engaged, give them something out of the ordinary and see what happens.  If it doesn’t work, you’ll know through your analytics solution - continue to test for the best results.

Get the most out of Swiftpage in 2008 - Part 1: Call List

Over the next several days I’ll be highlighting some of the under utilized, lesser known features you get with the Swiftpage solution.  Get the most out of your Swiftpage account - stay tuned and amp up your 2008 email marketing.

Call List and Call List Assignments -

You’ve likely heard of the Swiftpage Call List:  A ranked list of your most interested contacts based on their interaction with your email marketing campaigns, single sends or templates.  Swiftpage figures (among other things) if Jane opens her email 5 times and clicks on 3 links she is likely more interested than Joe who opens his email 1 time and clicks nothing.  If I’m a sales person, I’m calling Jane before Joe.  Pro and Team level subscribers receive full versions of the Call List and Entry and Basic members receive a lite version.

What you likely didn’t know about the Call List is that you can filter any way you like and assign portions of it to your sales staff.  Assign the hot leads to your inside sales group or top team member and assign the warm and mild leads to your call center for follow up.  Or, take the entire list and randomly assign to every team member - As each team member logs into their own account they will see an assigned portion of the Call List waiting for them to work through.

The Call List makes Swiftpage more than just an email marketing solution, it takes your results and turns them into action items for your sales team.  Start using the Swiftpage Call List and get more out of your Swiftpage account.

Email Content Imagery

You’ve taken the time to expertly draft copy for each one of your email segments.  Your template is layed out to exact specifications - not too much text, strong call to action, proper image placement.  You’ve sent test email to all of your dummy accounts at gmail, hotmail, yahoo, etc…everything renders properly and your message gets across in the viewing pane even if images are turned off.  You’re set - your copy is in, and your clip art has been placed - right?  wrong.

You’ve taken the time to make everything perfect - why hurt it with imagery that is less than satisfactory.  Put yourself in your recipient’s shoes.  Are your urged to purchase with an image of a cookie cutter cow jumping over the moon?  I doubt it.  You owe it to yourself as a marketer to spend a few extra bucks and purchase some stock imagery to really help drive home your message.

Try -  photos.com, corbis.com, istockphoto.com, fotolia.com, gettyimages.com - Some are less expensive than others, but either way the investment will make a much stronger impact on your recipients than a cute smiley.

Note:  Swiftpage is not affiliated with any of the suggested stock photography image banks - we just want your emails to have as much impact as possible - and know that beautiful imagery has a stronger effect on people.