November 15, 2007

Table of Contents   

The iMarketers Beyond Search Marketing Summit
Plan to Attend iMarketers' Intensive Summit (a CoolerEmail-sponsored event)

The iMarketers Beyond Search Marketing Summit is THE event for Internet marketers, and it takes up a full day from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 16 at the University of San Diego inside the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice. Learn about everything new and profitable in Internet marketing from expert speakers who will address the ever-changing world of search-based and content-matched online advertising. Leave your combat boots at home and fly, drive or hitch a ride to this next iMarketers Search Marketing Bootcamp. Check out imarketers.org to see the full schedule and speaker bios.
The Mingei International Museum
Drop In for an Early Evening

The Mingei International Museum at Balboa Park in San Diego hosts Early Evening at Mingei – A Night for Young Professionals on Thursday, Nov. 15 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Another event sponsored by CoolerEmail, the cost is $10 at the door and includes live jazz, refreshments and a vintage fashion show. Find your way to 1439 El Prado to mix and mingle and see "the art of the people." Learn more at Mingei.org.
Email Marketing Trends
Decentralized Email Undermines Marketing Efforts

Email is already under scrutiny because of the effects of spam, viruses, phishing and inaccurate ISP filtering, but it could get worse if email marketing isn't centralized within the enterprise, according to a report published on MarketingCharts.com.

StrongMail/JupiterResearch surveyed executives and found that "as the use of email is increasing, few companies control message frequency, analyze subscriber behavior, and coordinate their messaging initiatives across channels and business units" – all to their detriment.

CoolerEmail to the rescue!
Companies can easily centralize their email marketing efforts by using CoolerEmail to send messages targeted to readers and to determine how subscribers behave. In fact, CoolerEmail has the highest deliverability rates in the industry because of its hard-line stance against spam, a long-standing reputation for sending only opt-in messages and its ISP relationships.


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In Email Marketing, It's All About Tracking
Email marketers can build and send as many emails as they wish, but unless they do the third step – tracking – they don't learn much about their subscribers, nor can they evaluate the effectiveness of their campaign.

One of the coolest things about CoolerEmail is its tracking capability. Users can view real-time charts and statistics, drill down into the data to see exactly who is reading their email messages, when and how often the email is opened, and who clicks on which links. Tracking can tell you who has forwarded an email, and who has unsubscribed. The bottom line is that tracking helps grow organizations.

So, how do you track? Let's start with the fundamentals.

First, take the time to check real-time stats through live reporting. After your email blast has been sent, log into your account and click on the "track" button for that particular mailing. Check your email campaign's performance by looking at the charts provided. See how many read your email, clicked on your email, sent it to friends and unsubscribed on the "Number of Subscribers" chart. See the number of times the email was read in the first "Frequency" chart. Then look at how many readers clicked through in the second "Frequency" chart. All of those charts have links for each category, so you can actually see the email addresses for all the subscribers in the "sent" list and those who read, clicked, sent to friends or unsubscribed, etc. Pay particular attention to the "Hot Prospects" category. These are the ones who click and read numerous times, do referrals and take surveys. That's why they're hot.

Below those charts is a landscaped chart called "Confirmed Read Times for this Edition." Likely you'll see an initial, big spike right after the email goes out, and then the line gently tapers down with occasional, smaller spikes as latecomers eventually make it to their inboxes.

Next, you'll see a box that reveals "Click-thrus by URL." Here you can see exactly which URLs in your email generated enough interest in your subscriber to elicit a click. This can be quite revealing, surprising even. Find out just what trips their trigger, and use that information to create and develop content in future editions.

The next section is of particular importance. Check the "Bounce delivery report for most sent-to domains" to see if there are, shall we say, problem domains.

Click on the "Bounce Code Legends" to see the pop up window, "Help for Bounces." Notice the codes listed that help explain the reasons certain emails have bounced:

A - User unknown or recipient mail configuration error
B - Bad domain (mail host does not exist)
C - Connection problem with mail host
D - Filtered, most likely by a content-based spam filter (check your edition content for spam-ish keywords)
E - Mailbox full, or other temporary warning that the message couldn't be delivered.
U or None - An unknown or no reason given for bounce

If CoolerEmail gets a response from a mail server that would normally be categorized as a bounce type "C" (i.e. the server is busy or unavailable), it will continue to attempt deliveries for up to three days. If, after that time, the email can't be delivered, it will then be recorded as a bounce "C."

An email address that is flagged as a Bounce "A" or "B" is not emailed to again if the "Number of Bounces until Contact is Hard Bounced" has been exceeded, unless it is reset to "No Contact" or deleted from the system and re-imported. Bounce codes "C," "D," "E" and "U" are usually temporary states and do not count toward the value set in the Update Account screen.

In all cases, a short transcript of the bounce reason CoolerEmail receives from the recipient's server is available in the Master CRM record for that contact.


Editor's note: This is the first in a series of articles in CoolerTips that will focus on tracking. Next month, CoolerTips will delve further into the subject of tracking by covering the additional tracking features available to our users – features that can help you move your email marketing campaigns to infinity and beyond.

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