There are dozens of people and companies standing up and offering suggestions on best practices in email marketing. Unfortunately, many of those companies don’t actually practice what they preach in managing their own email accounts. I got email today to an old work email address of mine from Strongmail. To be fair it was a technically correct email. Everything one would expect from a...
I mentioned yesterday one of the major political blogs launched their mailing list yesterday. I pointed out a number of things they did that may cause problems. Today, I discovered another problem. This particular blog has been around for a long time, probably close to 10 years. It allows anyone to join and create their own blogs and comment with registered users. As part of their new mailing...
I occasionally consult for activists using email. Their needs and requirements are a little different from email marketers. Sure, the requirements for email delivery are the same: relevant and engaging mail to people who requested it. But there are complicating issues that most marketers don’t necessarily have to deal with. Activist groups are attractive targets for forged signups. Think...
Last week Jon left a comment on my post Following the Script. He gives a familiar story about how he’s having problems contacting Yahoo. It’s funny, I found this thread by searching for alternate means to contact Yahoo FBL. This is because I desperately need to communicate with them and their ‘normal channel’ has been literaly as effective as a shout down a wishing well. […] I’ve...
I spent the morning in multiple venues correcting mis-understandings of confirmed opt-in. The misunderstandings weren’t so much that people didn’t understand how COI works, but more they didn’t understand all the implications. In one venue, the conversation centered around how small a portion of deliverability the initial subscription process affects. Sure, sending unwanted...
While surfing around last night, I discovered that the email experience council is running a poll. “The Great Email Debate Topic #2 – Single Opt-In or Double Opt-In?” The email blogs have been discussing the question for a few weeks now, since one ClickZ columnist decided to stir controversy by claiming that “it is impossible to grow a list using double opt-in.” The...
The EEC has an article today about a poorly done opt-in email that DJ Waldo received. How close is that to what you send?
What’s an opt-in reconfirmation email? Also called, as fellow blogger Al Iverson mentioned lately, a re-engagement email, or a permission pass email. Al links to DJ Waldow’s write up on Shop.org’s recent re-engagement strategy, and today I see that Janine Popick, CEO of VerticalResponse, talking about Coach’s turn at culling their list through this process. What’s interesting here is that...
Ken Magill (hereafter known as Mr. Stupid Poopypants) has a follow up article today on his article from last week about the Obama campaign’s mailing practices. While poking Dylan a bit, his message is that marketers really need to look harder at double opt-in. All these things can and do go wrong with double opt-in, but the risks of not using it have simply become too great. For one thing...
Friday Al posted about data verification, building on discussions last week about Mr. Poopyhead’s article on open signup forms. He has a very insightful analogy, that I like and I am going to steal (emphasis from the original). Running a web form, especially one that requires that an Internet user provide information before handing over something, whether it be a login to a website, a free...
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