November 3, 2008

Table of Contents   

EFFECTIVE OCT. 6
New Confirmed Opt-in Procedure

As we would all agree, spam and spam complaints are the bane of all honest email marketers. To address this growing problem and maintain the highest deliverability rates possible for our clients, CoolerEmail's technology team has updated the entire process of confirmed opt-in subscription requests. This update will insure that contact information is saved before the confirmation is completed and, in the event of a spam complaint, our clients will be covered by proof that the subscriber did in fact opt-in. Effective Monday, October 6, subscribers will be added to the Master CRM (customer relationship management) list upon the initial subscription request; however, the CoolerEmail system won't send email to those contacts until they have confirmed their subscriptions. This will allow our clients to capture the contact immediately and determine who is using their subscription forms. Ultimately, CoolerEmail's transition to confirmed opt-ins will help ensure deliverability for our clients.

"Confirmed opt-in" is also known as "closed loop opt-in," "verified opt-in," and "double opt-in." Here is a brief Wikipedia article on opt-in email.
EFFECTIVE NOV. 3
Improved Import Process

To better serve our clients, Monday, November 3, CoolerEmail will launch a new email list import process that will supersede all existing list import methods. These changes have been designed to strengthen the system and further protect our clients' email broadcasts. The new import process requires that all imported contacts have a confirmed opt-in record in the imported data file as its own column. Contacts that are imported without a confirmed opt-in record will be assumed to be unconfirmed and will require confirmation. However, should a client be unable to include opt-in records with an import due to technical constraints (i.e., they reside in another system without direct access, or are written or verbal), a detailed description of where and how the contacts were acquired will suffice. In such cases, a Cooler team member may review the detailed contact acquisition information for approval.

While CoolerEmail has always kept opt-in record information in the Notes field, we will now provide a preview of imported data and allow mapping of columns to specific CRM (customer relationship management) fields, including the new Opt-In Record field. Users will also be able to validate email addresses to ensure that all the domains in their contact list are mailable.

At CoolerEmail, we're always working to get your emails where they belong: inboxes.
SPAM HELP
SpamAssassin on the Job

You may recall that CoolerEmail implemented its new spam check feature on August 15, making use of a widely used, advanced spam filtering application,
SpamAssassin. Spam check is available as a report on your preview page. The new spam check feature runs a user's content and provides a detailed analysis, assigning a numeric score for an edition's content. CoolerEmail's spam report helps users change their content accordingly in order to bring the score below 5. Beginning October 2, SpamAssassin will stop a broadcast if a message's score is 5 or more. Remember, if spam trap warnings occur, always alter content to remove those "spammy" keywords before sending the edition. To learn more, see the August Cooler Tips update that was emailed on August 18.

Cooler by Design

Send a Cooler cartoon suggestion, to Bill Mitchell!
THE COOLER CLIENT PROFILE: JASON ERKES
The Chicago Sport and Social Club



At the head of a business that "sells fun" is Jason Erkes, president of the Chicago Sport and Social Club, naturally located in the windy city itself. The Chicago Sport and Social Club is the largest organizer of adult sports leagues, social events and tournaments in the country. With more than 75,000 participants a year, the club offers more than 20 sports and boasts an email database with 200,000-plus young professional subscribers. The club also executes a tremendous amount of experiential marketing programs for its corporate clients, ranging from Coors Light and Crunch Fitness to New Balance and Aetna Insurance.

Cooler Tips: Describe how you utilize CoolerEmail to communicate with your members.

Jason: CoolerEmail is used as our main marketing communication tool with all of our participants and members. We send out a weekly newsletter, dedicated emails for our events and sponsor-related emails on a regular basis. Cooler's functionality allows us to create dynamic-looking newsletters without having extensive knowledge of programming or html.

Cooler Tips: What significant things have you learned from analyzing the real-time statistics CoolerEmail provides for each edition you send?

Jason: The real-time statistics have taught us many trends about our subscribers, helping us to determine when to send out our emails, what keywords to use in subject lines and what viral effect certain topics have. I wish I had more time to analyze all the stats, as they are one of the most valuable research tools we have as a company.

Cooler Tips: What methods do you use to build your contact list?

Jason: Our contact list has grown significantly over the years. We add all of our league players, social event attendees and social networking subscribers to our master database, and it grows at a pace of about 25,000 new addresses a year. We also have a refer-a-friend program and use targeted website advertising through other social networking sites to generate traffic to a subscriber page. We are aggressive about gathering the names and email addresses of anyone who does any activity with us, visits our website or expresses interest. Email marketing is the primary way we market our business.



Cooler Tips: How has CoolerEmail helped to improve your business or organization?

Jason: CoolerEmail has been a significant tool in our business for more than seven years. The ease of the entire system -- from generating subscriber code to designing the emails -- makes it valuable and easy to use. We have designed a template that looks very much like our website and changes seasonally with the colors, so it enhances our brand identity with all of our users. The statistics tell us what we are doing right and, of course, what we are doing wrong. We use the survey feature on a regular basis to gather valuable customer demographics, and it has proven effective. When I look back at where we started with the Cooler system and what we use it for today, it is apparent that we have grown our businesses together. Cooler gives us the ability to quickly and aesthetically reach our customers, which allows us to market last-minute offerings like no other business can do. During the 2006 Chicago Cubs playoff games, for example, we were able to quickly market available seats at surrounding venues, moving tickets rapidly. As the playoff season progressed game-by-game, we let our members know about the availability of seats on rooftops surrounding Wrigley Field. In that way, we sold hundreds of seats for the Cubs playoff games.



To learn more, read the September Chicago Sport and Social Club newsletter.
SPEAKING of SPAM...
Your postal address

Speaking of spam, to be in compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act, marketers must include a postal address in their commercial email messages. Besides that, some subscribers still opt-out by sending snail mail, believe it or not. So, just a reminder to our clients, please update your postal address in the Settings page for all of your Mailing Lists set up in Cooler Email. To learn more about CAN-SPAM and the new definitions that went into effect in July 2008, see this page on Wikipedia.org.


We are always striving to make CoolerEmail even better. Customer requests for feature enhancements are responsible for many additions. If you have feedback or suggestions, please send them to suggest@cooleremail.com.

CoolerEmail
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