Posted by Bart on December 15, 2010
Text email is the standard email as you know it. The one you create when you write to your mother, your friends or your business contacts. It’s by definition an email containing only text.
HTML email is the use of a subset of HTML (often ill-defined) to provide formatting and semantic markup capabilities in email that are not available with plain text.
HTML email allows the sender to properly express quotations (as in inline replying), headings, bulleted lists, emphasized text, subscripts and superscripts, and other visual and typographic cues to improve the readability and aesthetics of the message, as well as semantic information encoded within the message, such as the original author and Message-ID of a quote. Long URLs can be linked to without being broken into multiple pieces, and text is wrapped to fit the width of the user agent’s viewport, instead of uniformly breaking each line at 78 characters.
It allows in-line inclusion of tables, as well as diagrams or images, which are otherwise difficult to convey.
Since its conception, a number of people have vocally opposed all HTML email, for a variety of reasons, the 2 major ones being that:
- HTML email may contain viruses: HTML emails contain commands that will be executed by the email client and that may contain viruses.
- Some email clients are not able to read HTML emails: the email received can not be read.
Therefore for email marketing it was always recommended to send both HTML and Text email depending on the preferences of the person who receives it (on the registration form of a Newsletter, people usually have the choice to receive HTML emails or Text emails).
However nowadays all email clients are able to read HTML emails, and Anti-Virus are powerful enough to isolate messages containing a virus.
It’s not as important as it used to be to send Text Emails. Moreover, the email clients have a default feature “deactivate images” that allows the user to read HTML emails as Text emails.
Text emails are slowly disappearing and HTML emails becoming the norm.
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Posted by Bart on December 13, 2010
Opt in e-mail is a term used when someone is given the option to receive “bulk” e-mail, that is, e-mail that is sent to many people at the same time. Typically, this is some sort of mailing list, newsletter, or advertising. Obtaining permission before sending e-mail is critical because without it, the e-mail is Unsolicited Bulk Email, better known as spam.
Nowadays in some countries (USA, Western Europe, etc.) it’s illegal to send e-mails to private e-mail addresses without getting a prior consent from the e-mail owner.
There are different common forms of opt-in e-mail:
Single opt-in or Unconfirmed opt-in
A new subscriber first gives his or her address to the list software (for instance, on a Web page), but no steps are taken to make sure that this address actually belongs to the person. This can cause e-mail from the mailing list to be considered spam because simple typos of the email address can cause the email to be sent to someone else. Malicious subscriptions are also possible, as are subscriptions that are due to spammers forging email addresses that are sent to the e-mail address used to subscribe to the mailing list.
Double opt-in or Confirmed opt-in (COI)
A new subscriber asks to be subscribed to the mailing list, but unlike unconfirmed opt-in, a confirmation e-mail is sent to verify it was really them. Many believe the person must not be added to the mailing list unless an explicit step is taken, such as clicking a special web link or sending back a reply e-mail. This ensures that no person can subscribe someone else out of malice or error. Mail system administrators and non-spam mailing list operators refer to this as confirmed subscription or closed-loop opt-in.
The term double opt-in was coined by marketers in the late 90s to differentiate it from what they call single opt-in, where a new subscriber to an e-mail list gets a confirmation e-mail telling them they will begin to receive e-mails if they take no action. This is compared to double opt-in where the new subscriber must respond to the confirmation e-mail to be added to the list.
Opt-out
Instead of giving people the option to be put in the list, they are automatically put in and have the option to be taken out. Opt-out is also an option that all e-mails and e-mails should offer. It means that people can decide to cancel their opt-in choice by opting out.
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Posted by Bart on November 27, 2010
A SPAM is an unsolicited email that is usually trying to sell you a product or a service you don’t need. (see Wikipedia for more details about the word SPAM and where it comes from).
Nowadays more than 95% of received emails are SPAM and the more we use Internet and emails and the more we are facing the SPAM problem. With viruses, it’s one of the biggest problems on the Internet, and it is responsible for the bad perception of E-mail Marketing. Numerous Internet users consider that E-mail Marketing = SPAM.
However, if you are a client or a member of a website, if you participate in sweepstakes, if you have registered to a newsletter or subscribe to a service, receiving an email from this particular website should not be considered as receiving SPAM.
Too many people forget that they have given their consent one way or another and complain about legitimate emails, wrongly considering them as SPAM. It’s a small number of the total SPAM, but it’s important to distinguish this from the actual SPAM.
Then, how to define accurately SPAM ?
If you are using a personal email address (not a company), it’s easy: every email that you receive without having given your prior consent is a SPAM.
If you are using a professional email address (company and professionals) it’s a bit more complicated. Advertisers and merchants are allowed to send you promotional emails. However they have to fulfill two requirements:
- the email should clearly state who is the sender (where does the email come from?),
and
- the email should include an unsubscribe link to allow you to unsubscribe from the sender’s emailing list.
If one or both of these elements is/are missing, the email is considered as a SPAM and you can complain (but is there really someone to complain to?).
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Posted by Bart on November 26, 2010
Wikipedia says:
E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fund-raising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every e-mail sent to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail marketing. However, the term is usually used to refer to:
* sending e-mails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or previous customers, to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business,
* sending e-mails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately,
* adding advertisements to e-mails sent by other companies to their customers, and
* sending e-mails over the Internet, as e-mail did and does exist outside the Internet
E-mail Marketing opposes to Display Advertising (i.e.: putting banners on a website), but both use the same techniques:
- E-mail Marketing uses images and links, anchors and redirection.
- E-mail Marketing can be sold/purchased on CPM, CPC, CPA, CPL, etc. models.
- E-mail Marketing can be tracked, capped and targeted.
However, compared with Display Advertising, E-mail Marketing offers several advantages:
- An exact return on investment can be tracked (“track to basket”) and has proven to be high when done properly. E-mail marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic.
- Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of e-mail subscribers who have opted in (i.e., consented) to receive e-mail communications on subjects of interest to them.
- Over half of Internet users check or send e-mail on a typical day.
- E-mail allows marketers to reach out to consumers with personalized, relevant, dynamic messages.
- Transactional e-mails allow businesses to respond automatically to important consumer events like purchases or shop-cart abandonment.
But E-mail Marketing doesn’t have only advantages. One of its biggest drawbacks is the deliverability of the message, as well as the SPAM issue, which is related: Messages may never reach their target, or be considered as SPAM by the email software.
In addition, an average Internet user receives a large amount of e-mails everyday and has always less time and less attention to spend on each of them.
Therefore, the effectiveness of E-mail Marketing is declining. But it’s still a strong tool for Online Advertising.
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