Direct|Connect - The Community Where Marketing Masterminds Meet - Compliance and Deliverability

Hotmail Feature: Active Views

The new Hotmail feature, called "Active Views", basically pulls other websites' content and functionality into their inbox. This will cut down on people leaving their inbox and save a lot of time for users. Here is a brief example of how it works.

An email with a USPS (United States Post Office) tracking number arrive in your inbox.
You click on the email to view it.
Hotmail identifies the USPS tracking number and automatically pulls the tracking information from the USPS site and displays it at the top of the email.

We don't have a list of the current partners this new feature will work with. The only one I know that is 100% is the USPS.

Here is a link to more information on Hotmail's Active views:
http://windowslive.com/Connect/Post/03ded841-6b66-4ddf-acde-f9675eaad634

By Anthony Pisani 1 month ago

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New Hotmail Features Are Now Live!

I'm looking for feedback regarding the newest Hotmail features. What are your thoughts?

New Feature Demo:
http://www.windowslive.com/NewHotmail

- Favorite New Feature?
- Least Favorite New Feature?
- Overall sentiment towards the updates - Great Improvement, OK improvement, indifferent, Worse off
- Improvements/Suggestions?

I think the changes were a great step forward for Hotmail and it's users. Some of the tools are tweaked/repackaged versions of older features, but in a more user-friendly and intuitive format.

By Anthony Pisani 1 month ago

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TRUSTed Leads: New Site Seal for Lead Generation

TRUSTe is releasing an expansion to it's Privacy Seal, called "TRUSTed Leads".

The seal, similar to the those used to indicate that a particular site utilizes SSL (Secure Sockets Layers), assures visitors that their data will be handled/stored responsibly by the site.

Companies utilizing the seal are reporting increases in overall conversions, which is extremely important for any acquisition program.

I don't have the certification requirements, but here is a link to the TRUSTe site's announcement.
http://www.truste.com/about_TRUSTe/press-room/news_truste_announces_trusted_leads.html

By Anthony Pisani 1 month ago

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The Negative Affects of Poor Email Practices

I wanted to get some feedback regarding the negative effects of poor email practices. In particular, I wanted to see if people have stopped purchasing from a company due to their email messages? Or if it kept them from purchasing from a place they never shopped at before?

Please share your experiences, but don't mention the specific company. My focus is on the results of the experience, not which sender was involved.

I'm looking forward to hearing about your personal experiences.

Thank you.

By Anthony Pisani 2 months ago

Comments (3)

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I don't think I've stopped purchasing because of bad email practices. But I have unsubscribed from a company who overmailed me. I wish there had been a way to stay subscribed but to receive less email.

Commented by Jason Peck 2 months ago

Thank you for the feedback.

Excellent Point!

I've definitely noticed an increase in the number of senders that are offering subscribers more choices/options when it comes their messages. I've seen this done one of two ways: preference centers, where subscribers can select which publications they wish to receive from a given sender; a less frequent mailing option, which is offered to subscriber as an alternative to unsubscribing

Commented by Anthony Pisani 2 months ago

There was a company that I unsubbed from, but before I hit "ok", asked how often I would like to be contacted. I chose once a month. Now I look forward to that correspondence, open every time and have even purchased something two more times. It was effective for me!

Commented by Jacqueline Causa 2 months ago

The New Hotmail! Coming soon to an inbox near you.

MSN is set to roll out the latest updates for Hotmail. The new features are geared towards simplifying the user experience when it comes to sifting, viewing, reading, deleting, and unsubscribing from emails.

Here are some of the updates and features:

- Clean Sweep: Users can mass mange messages from individual senders and on an ongoing basis, such as: moving, deleting, or blocking all their messages
- Inbox Quick Views: Tabs at the top of the inbox allow the user to select: "From Groups," "Unread," "Social Updates", and "From Contacts". This moves all the messages that fall into the category to the top, for easy scanning and reading.
- Sync: syncronize email, calendar, contacts, and tasks using Exchange ActiveSync (app available on mobile phones). Also, a plug-in for Outlook will allow users to pull messages and contacts from their Hotmail inbox.
- Time-Traveling Filters: Emails can be retroactively moved after delivery, from the inbox to the junk folder. This will occur if the sender's reputation changes while the campaign is still being sent.
- Prompted Unsubscribe: The system will detect trends for users, and prompt those who repeatedly delete them without opening the message if they would prefer to unsubscribe. In addition to having a excellent reputation, the List-Unsubscribe header must be present.
- Trusted Sender Icon: Senders with excellent reputations will receive a trusted icon, allowing users to easily identify their messages. No specifics on the required metrics/reputation. needed to receive the icon, but for Senders with
- Further Integration with Other Services and Sites: Viewing videos and pictures, accept social media invites, track packages, and much more.
- Large Attachments Accepted: Now Accepts up to 50MB

Let me know which updates/features you think will stand the test of time.

By Anthony Pisani 2 months ago

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MSN is set to roll out the latest updates for Hotmail. The new features are geared towards simplifying the user experience when it comes to sifting, viewing, reading, deleting, and unsubscribing from emails.

Here are some of the updates and features:

- Clean Sweep: Users can mass mange messages from individual senders and on an ongoing basis, such as: moving, deleting, or blocking all their messages
- Inbox Quick Views: Tabs at the top of the inbox allow the user to select: "From Groups," "Unread," "Social Updates", and "From Contacts". This moves all the messages that fall into the category to the top, for easy scanning and reading.
- Sync: syncronize email, calendar, contacts, and tasks using Exchange ActiveSync (app available on mobile phones). Also, a plug-in for Outlook will allow users to pull messages and contacts from their Hotmail inbox.
- Time-Traveling Filters: Emails can be retroactively moved after delivery, from the inbox to the junk folder. This will occur if the sender's reputation changes while the campaign is still being sent.
- Prompted Unsubscribe: The system will detect trends for users, and prompt those who repeatedly delete them without opening the message if they would prefer to unsubscribe. In addition to having a excellent reputation, the  List-Unsubscribe header must be present. 
- Trusted Sender Icon: Senders with excellent reputations will receive a trusted icon, allowing users to easily identify their messages. No specifics on the required metrics/reputation.  needed to receive the icon, but for Senders with
- Further Integration with Other Services and Sites: Viewing videos and pictures, accept social media invites, track packages, and much more.
- Large Attachments Accepted: Now Accepts up to 50MB

Let me know which updates/features you think will stand the test of time.

Comments (2)

Some of these sound really cool, especially the inbox quick views feature, prompted unsubscribe and trusted sender icons. I'm a gmail man myself though. Do you think gmail and/or other services will look to implement any of these features?

Commented by Jason Peck 2 months ago

Google and the other services haven't made any announcements. I think if the new features are successful in generating a buzz and gaining user traction, it will help to motivate the other services.

Commented by Anthony Pisani 2 months ago

Opt-in Forms: Ways to Reduce Complaints

The form is up; proper disclosure is in place; visitors are opting in, but subscribers are still complaining.

What now?

Simply following best practices and CAN-SPAM laws doesn't necessarily mean subscribers won't complain. At the end of the day, what really matters is what the subscriber feels and thinks. There are a number of things that can drive them to complain: frequency, content, no perceived value, bad day, don't remember opting-in...

So if the complaints are high, maybe it's time to make some tweaks. Here are a few ideas.

- Clear and Full Disclosure:
Subscribers may not fully understand what they are opting-in, which can lead to complaints. Adjust the positioning, size, or verbiage used in your disclosure.
- Branding:
This is an extremely important part. It helps reduce complaints that stem from subscribers who forgot they signed up or don't recognize the email messages. The name of your site, publication, logo, "from name", and "from email" are all a part of branding. Let the subscriber know the "from email' on your opt-in page or the opt-in confirmation page. Try to match the look and feel of your web site in your publications by using similar logos, fonts, and colors. Including a link to, or a photo of, a recent edition is a great way to accomplish this. The subscriber sees exactly how the messages look, allowing them to easily recognize your emails when they arrive.
-Confirm Email Box
We are all in a rush these days, so mistakes will happen, even to the most cautious individuals. So typos are going to occur. We can't change that, but we can help reduce it. The reason why it's important to do so is typos carry 2 negatives with them. First, they cost you legitimate subscribers who are interested in receiving your publication. Second, they add subscribers, who never requested to receive your emails, to your list. Confirming your opt-ins will prevent these from staying on your list, but that doesn't help recoup the subscribers who entered the wrong address.
- Captcha/Bot checks
Whether or not bots are signing up numerous email addresses at site all over the web is up for debate. A high unknown user rate (sending to invalid or bad addresses) or a high complaint rate could be indicative of this type of problem. If any of these are occurring, I definitely recommend trying to verify it and adding mechanisms to reduce, and maybe prevent it. To start, you may want to review all the sign up information coming through your form. This could be tough for those who receive a large number of sign ups a day. In those cases, simply spot check a number of them. Adding required fields, in addition to email, should make it easier to distinguish the good from the bad sign ups. Many bots will fill in these additional fields with gibberish, which is easier to detect in a first name field then email. Once you verify the issue, you can then decide on a course of action. It can be a captcha box (requires visitors to transcribe a code form an image, which bots have trouble doing. A simple, free way, is to add a question like "What is 1 + 1?".

Please let me know if you have any suggestions. Thank you.

By Anthony Pisani 2 months ago

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The form is up; proper disclosure is in place; visitors are opting in, but subscribers are still complaining.

What now?

Simply following best practices and CAN-SPAM laws doesn't necessarily mean subscribers won't complain.  At the end of the day, what really matters is what the subscriber feels and thinks.  There are a number of things that can drive them to complain: frequency, content, no perceived value, bad day, don't remember opting-in...
 
  So if the complaints are high, maybe it's time to make some tweaks.   Here are a few ideas.

- Clear and Full Disclosure:
Subscribers may not fully understand what they are opting-in, which can lead to complaints. Adjust the positioning, size, or verbiage used in your disclosure.
- Branding:
This is an extremely important part. It helps reduce complaints that stem from subscribers who forgot they signed up or don't recognize the email messages. The name of your site, publication, logo, "from name", and "from email" are all a part of branding. Let the subscriber know the "from email'  on your opt-in page or the opt-in confirmation page. Try to match the look and feel of your web site in your publications by using similar logos, fonts, and colors. Including a link to, or a photo of, a recent edition is a great way to accomplish this.  The subscriber sees exactly how the messages look, allowing them to easily recognize your emails when they arrive. 
-Confirm Email Box
We are all in a rush these days, so mistakes will happen, even to the most cautious individuals. So typos are going to occur. We can't change that, but we can help reduce it.  The reason why it's important to do so is typos carry 2 negatives with them. First, they cost you legitimate subscribers who are interested in receiving your publication. Second, they add subscribers, who never requested to receive your emails, to your list. Confirming your opt-ins will prevent  these from staying on your list, but that doesn't help recoup the subscribers who entered the wrong address. 
- Captcha/Bot checks
Whether or not bots are signing up numerous email addresses at site all over the web is up for debate.  A high unknown user rate (sending to invalid or bad addresses) or a high complaint rate could be indicative of this type of problem. If any of these are occurring, I definitely recommend trying to verify it and adding mechanisms to reduce, and maybe prevent it. To start, you may want to review all the sign up information coming through your form. This could be tough for those who receive a large number of sign ups a day. In those cases, simply spot check a number of them. Adding required fields, in addition to email, should make it easier to distinguish the good from the bad sign ups. Many bots will fill in these additional fields with gibberish, which is easier to detect in a first name field then email.  Once you verify the issue, you can then decide on a course of action. It can be a captcha box (requires visitors to transcribe a code form an image, which bots have trouble doing. A simple, free way, is to add a question like "What is 1 + 1?".

Please let me know if you have any suggestions. Thank you.

Comments (0)

Reduce Complaints with the List Unsubscribe Header

The List Unsubscribe Header allows senders to include a link (mailto,http://,https://) in the header of the email. While this in itself isn't significant, what Gmail, MSN, and other ISPs do with it is. These ISPs (hopefully others will follow) use the link supplied in the header to add a unsubscribe feature to their email interface. The "Unsubscribe" link isn't as prominently featured as their other buttons, but should help cut down the number of subscribers who mark emails they knowingly subscribed to as SPAM.

Example List Unsubscribe Header:
List-Unsubscribe: http://
www.domain.com?remove=fdf43yh43y4h>

Here is a page that has a lot more detail on the subject.
http://www.list-unsubscribe.com/

By Anthony Pisani 2 months ago

Comments (2)

This is very helpful. Thanks! When do you think we'll start to see more widespread adoption of this?

Commented by Jason Peck 2 months ago

Unfortunately, it's tough to put give any estimate or time line for it. These are individual companies and this isn't required, so the adoption may be slow. I'll see if I can get specifics and post any information I find.

Commented by Anthony Pisani 2 months ago

Caught in a SPAM Trap? Ways to Remove/Prevent Spam Traps from entering your list.

SPAM Traps can cause huge problems for an email program, in some cases bring it to a screeching halt. As always the best solution is prevention, but there are still ways to cleanse your list. Here are a few tips on how to do both, prevention and cleanse.

- Confirmed Opt-in: Don't send any email messages to an account, besides confirmation emails, until a subscriber confirms it. This insures the true account owner opted-in, and prevents bots from maliciously singing up addresses to your lists. SPAM traps will ignore* confirmation emails, since they are trying to encourage it's use. *It must be a true confirmation email, not a commercial message with a confirmation link. The subject line must also correspond to the confirmation request.

-Confirm Email box - Add a confirm email input box to your sign up forms. This will help cut down on typos, which result in invalid/bad addresses.

- Proper Soft/Hard Bounce management: Many ISPs convert older inactive accounts into SPAM traps. Long before this occurs, ISPs will notify senders of bad or inactive accounts through the SMTP response codes. The ISPs don't send the SMTP responses indefinitely, so it's important for senders to utilize this information and take the appropriate action ASAP.

-List Inactivity Management: Develop a strategy on how to handle inactive portions of your list. Mail to these portions less frequently, until completely phasing them out. A reconfirmation email can be sent to these subscribers before completely phasing them out. Every list is different, so the time frames and strategies will vary (e.g.: after 2 months of inactivity, mail to 50% less; after 4 months reduce by another 50%; after 6 months send a reconfirm email 3 times over the course of 3 months - remove from list if no response).

Please share your own suggestions and tips.

By Anthony Pisani 2 months ago

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SPAM Traps can cause huge problems for an email program, in some cases bring it to a screeching halt.  As always the best solution is prevention, but there are still ways to cleanse your list.  Here are a few tips on how to do both, prevention and cleanse.

- Confirmed Opt-in: Don't send any email messages to an account, besides confirmation emails, until a subscriber confirms it. This insures the true account owner opted-in, and prevents bots from maliciously singing up addresses to your lists. SPAM traps will ignore* confirmation emails, since they are trying to encourage it's use.  *It must be a true confirmation email, not a commercial message with a confirmation link.  The subject line must also correspond to the confirmation request.

-Confirm Email box - Add a confirm email input box to your sign up forms. This will help cut down on typos, which result in invalid/bad addresses.

- Proper Soft/Hard Bounce management: Many ISPs convert older inactive accounts into SPAM traps. Long before this occurs, ISPs will notify senders of bad or inactive accounts through the SMTP response codes. The ISPs don't  send the SMTP responses indefinitely, so it's important for senders to utilize this information and take the appropriate action ASAP.

-List Inactivity Management: Develop a strategy on how to handle inactive portions of your list. Mail to these portions less frequently, until completely phasing them out.  A reconfirmation email can be sent to these subscribers before completely phasing them out. Every list is different, so the time frames and strategies will vary (e.g.: after 2 months of inactivity, mail to 50% less; after 4 months reduce by another 50%; after 6 months send a reconfirm email 3 times over the course of 3 months - remove from list if no response).

Please share your own suggestions and tips.

Comments (1)

This is such valuable info, Tony. I am going to be sending some of my clients to your page. Keep an eye out!

Commented by Jacqueline Causa 2 months ago

How do you keep up with changes to email marketing laws?

Hey Tony,

Just curious - how do you stay on top of CAN-SPAM and other email marketing regulations? Do you have any good blogs or websites you'd recommend people check out?

By Jason Peck 2 months ago

Comments (2)

Hi Jason,

Great question. Here are a few blogs/websites.

Deliverability
http://blog.deliverability.com/

Federal Trade Commission:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menus/business/ecommerce.shtm

Email Marketing Reports:
http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/canspam/

MAAWG (Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group):
http://www.maawg.org/

Lashback:
http://blog.lashback.com/

Commented by Anthony Pisani 2 months ago

Thanks!

Commented by Jason Peck 2 months ago

Compliance Isn't Enough!

While it's extremely important to comply with all email marketing laws, this isn't enough to gain or maintain inbox delivery. One vital aspect that is often overlooked are the industries best practices.

One example is setting subscriber expectations with regards to your message content and frequency. Surprising your subscribers is never a good idea, as it often leads to elevated complaint levels. We all know the end result of that... poor delivery.

Please share your own experiences or questions regarding best practices.

By Anthony Pisani 4 months ago

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Is surprising your subscribers always a bad thing?

Commented by Jason Peck 4 months ago

"Surprise" depends on the context I think.

From compliance and delivery "surprise" means you don't want to send your subscribers unexpected, unwarranted, or deceiving type of content and/or at a frequency that will cause complaints.

From a marketing perspective "surprise" can be a "pleasant" one that drives sales.

Commented by d00k1e 4 months ago

Thank you for the clarification. Yes, pleasant surprises are OK.

Commented by Anthony Pisani 2 months ago

How much can you learn from your results to help you figure out the mailing frequency for your particular company's products/services?

Commented by Neil Rosen 2 months ago

Results are extremely valuable in determining mailing frequency. There should be an observable relationship between mailing frequency and other metrics (complaints, open rates, clicks, unsubscribes). First, we'll need to determine the baseline metrics for your previous mailings, at the current frequency. Once we have the baseline, we can try increasing or decreasing the frequency, comparing the results against the baseline numbers. Any drastic differences would indicate the pro/cons of the frequency change.

One size fits all doesn't always work, especially when it comes to subscribers' expectations/needs. A preference center can be used for these situations. This allows the subscriber to select which publications they want to receive or the frequency.

Commented by Anthony Pisani 2 months ago

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Compliance and Deliverability