The buzz this week has been all about inbox placement. First we had Gmail making changes and rolling out their Priority Inbox feature, now George Bilbrey, President of Return Path has posted about changes coming to Hotmail from Microsoft which will impact the email marketing industry.

If you’d like to see more about Gmail’s new Priority Inbox feature, check out PC Mag’s walk through here.

In his post about the changes to Hotmail, George not only analyzes the changes, but offers some solid advice on what email marketers should do to stay on the good side of Hotmail inboxes.

Here’s an excerpt from the post:

For over a year now, email deliverability experts have been talking about the ‘fact’ that ISPs use engagement metrics (typically not defined by these so-called experts) to determine inbox placement. But calling it a fact is a bit misleading given that none of the large mailbox providers has talked publicly about if they use engagement metrics to determine where emails get delivered.

But that will soon change as Microsoft is in the early stages of utilizing user behavior when determining individual-level inbox placement for Windows Live Hotmail. That means that an individual user’s behavior can influence the delivery of a message from a particular source for that user only. The individual-level analysis overrides the global spam filter’s decision. As a result, the way one user interacts with messages from a certain source might influence Hotmail to put those messages in that user’s inbox, whereas the way another user interacts with the same messages might influence Hotmail to put those messages in that user’s junk folder, regardless of what the global spam filter suggests.

Read the full post @ EmailInsider

You might also find Tom Sather’s post interesting about what engagement metrics mean to ISPs. While they may use the similar terms that marketers do, they don’t mean the same thing.

eMarketing & Communications Specialist

About the Job

Style Crest, a Northwest Ohio Building Products company, has an excellent career opportunity available for an eMarketing & Communications Specialist responsible for electronic marketing initiatives which include websites, email marketing, customer portal(s), the use of electronic product databases, the on-line image of Style Crest, and the external communications for new product launches, promotions and public relations.

View full job description

Email Marketing Coordinator

NBTY is a leading vertical integrated U.S. manufacturer and distributor of a broad line of high-quality, value-priced nutritional supplements in the United States and throughout the world. The Company markets more than 1,20 products under several brand names, including Nature’s Bounty®, Vitamin World®, Sundown®, CarbSolutions™, MET-Rx®, Puritan’s Pride®, Holland & Barrett®, Nutrition Headquarters®, American Health® and Home Health®.

NBTY is a leading vertical integrated U.S. manufacturer and distributor of a broad line of high-quality, value-priced nutritional supplements in the United States and throughout the world. The Company markets more than 1,200 products under several brand names, including Nature’s Bounty®, Vitamin World®, Sundown®, CarbSolutions™, MET-Rx®, Puritan’s Pride®, Holland & Barrett®, Nutrition Headquarters®, American Health® and Home Health®.

View full job description

We are pleased to have Annie Tsai of CXP Bootcamp guest blog for us today. I’m pretty sure we’ll all want her to continue with us as member of our blog team! – jd

Customer Experience, even with all of the corporate and media attention its gotten the past decade, is still sort of a mystery.

Many companies either bucket the discipline into some form of Customer Service or Marketing, thus limiting the group’s ability to reach across the organization. Other companies allow Customer Experience to live in siloes as part of functional teams and rely on the assumption that cross-functional alignment will happen as a result of projects requiring interaction. Others yet completely outsource this very critical piece of corporate strategy to agencies.

The reality is that a Customer Experience Management Program can thrive in a variety of implementations, so long as it meets a few core criteria:

1. Your program effectively represents, interprets, and reacts to its customers’ needs
2. Your program creates a network of Customer Evangelists throughout the organization that are a persistent driving force when it comes to maintaining a focus on customer centricity in product and process design
3. A part of your program focuses on the development of the company culture
4. Your program uses some combination of quantitative and qualitative data to measure general satisfaction and improvements over time
5. Your program has Executive buy-in to drive change in the best interest of your Customer

So given all of these variances, how does one know where to start?

Let’s Start With 15 Truths About Customer Experience.

I will be breaking each of these topics out into greater detail in a general series, which you can view in its entirety by selecting the “CXP Fundamentals” Tag on this blog (on the right column).

1. No one is delivering a perfect Customer Experience 100% of the time.
2. Customer Experience cannot be successful as a siloed effort.
3. Customer Experience is not Customer Service.
4. Customer Experience is about the successful marriage of perception, emotion, and logic.
5. The Law of Diminishing Returns applies to some, but not all, Customer Experience initiatives.
6. Return on Customer Experience initiatives are often difficult to measure, but not impossible.
7. A big piece of Customer Experience is bringing the Brand and Brand Promise to life.
8. Oftentimes, the most impactful experiences for Customers are not what you think they are.
9. Data is critical to a successful program.
10. It is possible to create a globally consistent, yet culturally refined Customer Experience.
11. There is no single recipe for a successful Customer Experience Management Program.
12. In the world of Customer Experience, your employees are your Customers as well.
13. Even in a 100% online business model, there are still key “offline” experiences you need to address.
14. B2C and B2B Customer Experience Management Programs are very different, but still fundamentally the same.
15. You are never done with improving your Customer Experience.

Lastly, the mark of a well implemented Customer Experience Management Program is that your Customers believe your company offers a connected and engaging experience they didn’t know they needed and wouldn’t have asked for, but now cannot live without. Let this be the guiding tenet that we all collectively work towards.

About Annie Tsai
She is currently Director of Customer Experience at a technology company and Principle at CXP Bootcamp. Every day, she wakes up and makes sure that employees and partners are working hand-in-hand to create experiences that make sense for the people who keep the lights on. She strongly believes that a case should be made for the use of Email Marketing Social Media and to build and grow relationships with both Customers and the prospect community.
Annie’s Blog

Captain Inbox once again has a great wrap up of this week’s eMail Radio show posted at “Get in the Inbox” and we have a bunch of other gems to share with you as well today! Including more buzz about Gmail changes, Hotmail inbox metrics and a fanstastic post from Stephanie Miller of Return Path on marketing and relationships.

Enjoy the buzz!

Get in the Inbox: EmailRadio: Gmail Priority Inbox & Social Email

This week’s eMail Radio was meant to be all about the effects of social media with and on email marketing, unfortunately we couldn’t kick right in because of today’s trending news about Gmail’s Priority Inbox.
The guys briefly discussed it with a short description of what it does; there are plenty of posts about it, mine should be on the Pure360 resource pages tomorrow although I’m not sue if it’ll be a blog or an insight. The chat room for the first 5 mins or so was busy with it too. How it affects email marketing, if at all:

Takeaway: It’s not just the podcast that’s great with eMail Radio! It’s also the great conversation going on in the chat room.

ClickZ: A Deliverable E-mail Address Does Not a Relationship Make

Does anyone else lament the commoditization of “friend” amid our socially connected, digital lives? I can like you on Facebook, follow you on Twitter, subscribe to your e-mail program and join your community.

But that doesn’t mean I want a relationship.

And that is a problem for marketing and sales people. There are lots of ways for people to connect with brands, but there are not many actual connections.

Takeaway: Yet, too many of us consider a deliverable address a “relationship.” That is just not so. Permission is not a relationship. Permission is just the starting point. Marketers must re-earn permission with every message we send. Only when subscribers are fully engaged – opening, clicking, sharing, converting – is there a relationship.

ConstantContact: 5 Ways That Gmail’s New Priority Inbox Will Affect You

Gmail’s filters will look at the email you read or reply to most often and prioritize that as your most important email, and display at the top of the inbox. Gone are the days of inboxes being sorted by date. Instead, Gmail users have a view showing them what Gmail’s filters think is most important to them. Users will have the ability to fine-tune things by telling the filters if messages are a higher or lower priority than where they were originally put.

What does this mean to you as a sender?

Takeaway: If you’ve been marketinging effectively all along, then you are probably all set. If, on the other hand, you have low open and click-through rates, then it may be time to reconsider your strategy to say relevant to your customers and keep them engaged. It’s never too late to start.

SendLabs: Email Marketing Industry: Gmail’s Priority Inbox Isn’t a Threat, But An Opportunity

It’s kinda cool when the email marketing industry has something to chatter about other than subject lines, boosting open rates or some other topic that’s been opined upon way too many times.The buzz this week in our corner of the interwebs has revolved around Gmail’s Priority Inbox, a new method of sorting email so that over time, the more “important” messages take precedent in your inbox.

Of course, the first question that comes up is, “Who determines the importance?” Well, the user does. There are essentially three classifications: Important, Starred (Gmail’s star system is now used for emails you want to get to later) and Everything Else.

Takeaway: Gmail’s new setup will take some time to get used to, but I think it’s a major benefit. For those of us designing and developing campaigns, it’s up to us to provide that instant “This is important!” feeling for the end users. Otherwise, the numbers will speak for themselves and the messages for ourselves and those that hire us to do work will be stuck below the line of importance.

EmailInsider: Hotmail Using New Metrics to Consider Inbox Placement

For over a year now, email deliverability experts have been talking about the ‘fact’ that ISPs use engagement metrics (typically not defined by these so-called experts) to determine inbox placement. But calling it a fact is a bit misleading given that none of the large mailbox providers has talked publicly about if they use engagement metrics to determine where emails get delivered.

But that will soon change as Microsoft is in the early stages of utilizing user behavior when determining individual-level inbox placement for Windows Live Hotmail. That means that an individual user’s behavior can influence the delivery of a message from a particular source for that user only. The individual-level analysis overrides the global spam filter’s decision. As a result, the way one user interacts with messages from a certain source might influence Hotmail to put those messages in that user’s inbox, whereas the way another user interacts with the same messages might influence Hotmail to put those messages in that user’s junk folder, regardless of what the global spam filter suggests.

Takeaway: First, be aware of the changes and review your campaigns don’t have any potential issues. Second, don’t send crap.

Econsultancy: Study: Be prepared for the smartphone takeover

According to a new study by Burson-Marsteller and Proof Integrated Communications, smartphone shipments will exceed PC shipments within two years. Marketers need to start paying attention.

B.L. Ochman, Burson-Marsteller and Proof Integrated Communications’ managing director of emerging media, calls this study “be mobile or be dust.” That’s because the mobile adoption numbers it cites are pretty staggering.

Takeaway: Mobile phone users are often at the most desirable point of the purchasing funnel when they’re looking for information with their devices. The quicker businesses take to mobile, the better off they will be.

Target Marketing: 3 Better Ways to Write E-mail Subject Lines

While the message and design of each e-mail are crucial to converting recipients, the subject line is the outer envelope, if you will. It must strike the right tone in order to get prospects to open.

In the recent how-to guide All About Email Creative, published by DirectMarketingIQ, a chapter is devoted to the best practices in writing subject lines. The author of that chapter, direct response copywriter Ivan Levison, says the success of an entire e-mail campaign rests on whether or not the subject line works.

Takeaway: I bet you have something unique to your business that would be absolutely killer for a drip campaign. Obviously the creation and setup will take a little bit of time and effort, but the beauty of drip campaigns is that they are completely automated. Set up, sign up and go!

If you’ve got something juicy to share via The Buzz, just tweet @TheeMailGuide or drop us a comment!

Catch more of the Daily Buzz here!

The buzz is brought to you by our Ninja sponsor:

Over the Past ten years I have worked with a myriad of health care providers as well as individual family doctors helping them with their email marketing. Like most email marketing we always suggest strongly to segment and offer content based on the individual recipients wants and needs. When these rules are followed along with personalization, the increase in opens and click-thrus as well as interaction with doctors about content in their newsletter were amazing.

We took a sampling of family doctors who opted for help segmenting their lists and providing dynamic content based on patient’s medical needs and history as well as current prescriptions. This sample was taken over a 12-month period with 12 doctors who segment/personalize their newsletters and 10 doctors who did not.

Doctors, who segmented, created and delivered targeted content and used personalized subject lines had an average open rate of 41% versus an average of 22% for those who didn’t. Almost a 100% increase. Some doctors had open-rates of 50%. Click-thru rates also increased by an average of over 50% with many of the doctors getting close to a 20% click-thru rate. Sharing of newsletter content by Forward-to-a-Friend and Social Media increased by an average of 25%. While those doctors without targeted content showed only a 3% increase of sharing.

Here’s what we did:

We reviewed a list of the top 14 reoccurring patient medical conditions which covered almost 78% of all patients. Here’s the list we came up with:

· Back or neck problems

· Allergies

· Arthritis or rheumatism

· Difficulty walking/Foot pain

· Frequent headaches

· Lung/Breathing problems

· Digestive/Stomach problems

· Gynecological problems

· Anxiety attacks

· Heart problems or chest pain

· Diabetes

· Depression/Mood problems

· Cold/Flu like symptoms

· Insomnia

We then built a content library of multiple articles on each malady for targeted placement in the newsletter. We continued to add new articles as the projects progressed. Many of the articles we used were available for free from either medical associations or through pharmaceutical companies.

We then went on the hunt for discount programs and free trials of top 30 most prescribed medicines so we could include those to recipients using those medications. We also included notices when named brand medicines were available as generics, saving the patient money.

We created a separate database to manage the patient’s information based on a blind key set of criteria so when the patient list was uploaded there was no discernable information unless you had the key to the blind criteria set. This helped keep complete HIPPA compliance as no patient information was shared beyond the key coded tags which were non-descript number/letter combinations.

We were now able to send targeted newsletters with dynamic content to almost 80% of the doctor’s patients. We also tested and found that unlike some personalized subject lines, when using the Dr.’s name and the patient’s first name in the subject line (Example: For Chris from Dr. Smith) the open-rate increased significantly in all cases.  This personalization also helped reactivate subscribers who previously were disengaged.

We also created a preference center so subscribers can choose additional content subjects that interest them.

It seems people have a very personal connection to their family doctors. Although that wasn’t a complete surprise it was an eye-opening experience.

Did all this take some increase in time and budget to complete? Of course, but the results paid for itself quickly with more interaction with patients, higher patient satisfaction and patients directly commenting on articles and savings they received when visiting with their doctor.

Every single doctor who opted for the enhanced service has continued with it and others have seen the benefit and started their own segmentation and custom content delivery with similar results.

Taking the time to create, manage and deliver customized content can make a significant difference with the engagement of your recipients and build on the valued and trusted relationship between doctor and patient.

Takeaway: Delivering targeted content will help any business with their email marketing campaigns. Just take the time to review your list and what you know about them and start segmenting and delivering the content they want and need.

Cheers, Chris

Other great posts from Chris Donald:

Chris Donald

Christopher Donald is currently a Partner and VP of Sales and Marketing at Inbox Group, LLC based in Dallas, where he oversees U.S. and International sales of the Inbox Group email marketing service (SaaS). Chris has worked on the front lines of internet sales and marketing since 1995 and directly in email marketing since 2000.
Website: http://www.inboxgroup.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/inboxgroup
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/inboxgroup

Email Marketing Manager / Strategist ideeli.com

Job Description

Responsibilities

* Partner with cross functional teams to develop engaging daily emails and other communication campaigns of the highest quality and successfully deliver membership engagement and increased revenue
* Contribute to membership contact strategy and retention policies; develop and maintain processes and programs that increase the lifetime value of our members
* Work with internal functional teams to develop email segmentation strategy and contact plans
* Provide comprehensive tracking, analysis, and reporting for all email marketing campaigns
* Manage and maintain master email calendar for the entire company
* Manage user experience in unsubscribe/change preference process as well as oversee SPAM rates
* Manage A/B testing of new execution strategies and communicate findings and recommendations
* Own testing and execution of HTML and plain text emails for marketing campaigns and other one off emails

View full job description

Email Specialist crain.​com

Job description: The Email Specialist is responsible for the execution of all audience development email efforts across the group, including new business and renewal efforts, for seven publications.​

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Manage email marketing campaigns start to finish, including list pulls, set-up, subject line testing (if not provided by manager/​coordinator), and execution
• Manage the email frequency calendar and maintain the timely execution of all email efforts
• Work with coordinator or manager to optimize the design, content and layout of all email communications (this is NOT a design position, though will make minor changes to existing art)
• Analyze, monitor and communicate performance of email initiatives
• Maintain email best practices including browser compatibility, appearance of subject lines, use of images, etc.
• Monitor and minimize unsubscribe/​bounce/​complaint rates and ensure spam regulation compliance (CAN-SPAM)

View full job description

Subject line: Isn’t science wonderful?

The big buzz today is about Gmail’s new Priority Inbox feature and what it means to email marketers. I suggest you check out today’s edition of eMail Radio, where DJ Waldow of Blue Sky Factory and Peter Roebuck of All Web Email and myself weighed in on the subject. If part of the algorithm Google is using to predict priority email is which ones you reply to, what does that mean for email marketing mail which rarely is replied to? One more good reason NOT to use a “noreply@” address?

Check out the podcast here!

Enjoy the buzz!

What does the Gmail Priority Inbox mean for email marketers?

With Google’s new Priority Inbox Gmail feature being released to users over the next week or so, the landscape for email marketers just changed.

The cute video Google has put together (see it here), nicely shows the different levels of emails users can receive – spam, marketing emails and emails from friends and family (at around the 50 second point in the video).

The way the algorithms work is based on:

1. How often you read the email

2. How often you reply to the email

3. Manual adjustments using the increase or decrease importance buttons

I am sure there are other factors not disclosed – potentially this might include whether your email address is in the contact list.

Takeaway: The email marketing playing field continues to evolve. Relevant content which your subscribers want and trust is key to your campaigns.

Priority inboxes, intelligent inboxes, quality bars and you

And Google’s new Priority Inbox is more of a steel stake than a 2-inch nail.

In essence, the feature (which all Gmail users will get over the next few days) allows users to split the inbox into three sections.

The default top section contains all the email Google feels is important to you. The second is the email that’s been starred for later reading, and the bottom section is for “everything else”.

Guess which section is likely to get most attention?

Indeed, according to Mashable…

“…the search giant found that users spent 16% less time reading insignificant e-mail.”

At Gmail, not every message now gets an equal chance of attention. That’s 100+ million Gmail users where the inbox is no longer a level playing field.

Back in March I wrote:

“It seems inevitable that ‘intelligent’ inboxes will highlight ‘priority’ messages, based on the user’s previous interactions with that sender’s messages or whether the recipient has some formal connection with that sender.”

“The inbox becomes an expert system, looking for signals that indicate an important email or one that can be safely ignored”

Takeaway: The intelligent, social inbox values connections, since connections are a measure of trust and value. Any formal recognition of a subscriber’s connection to the sender (as follower, fan, address book contact, whatever) is a quality signal to the email address provider.

How to turn casual connections into passionate customers

In a challenging economy, the instinct to reach for the marketing option with the lowest impact on your budget can be strong, especially for small businesses. And with the range of online services and social media sites growing larger by the day, it’s tempting to want to choose between powerful options like email marketing and social media marketing. But it should not be a choice of one over the other. In fact, it’s the two working together that will result in the strongest and most productive connections with your most passionate customers.

Takeaway: Use social media marketing tools and email marketing to organically build your audience and perpetually maintain an effective marketing mix.

After the Click: Give Your Landing Pages Some Love

Sometimes, our discussions about optimizing email campaigns can make it seem like our subscribers’ shopping process is all about the email. In reality, having an awesome, engaging email program only takes us so far — if our landing pages don’t do just as much work to woo subscribers, we’ll lose them. Subscribers often abandon landing pages within three seconds. Would they abandon yours? Below are some rules of thumb to help you create landing pages that make your emails proud.

Takeaway: Think of your email links as items on a restaurant menu — are you dishing up what your subscribers ordered? Are you wowing them with something even more delicious than they expected? Use the thinking points above as a checklist to ensure that your landing pages deliver clear, helpful and seamless experiences to your subscribers, so that you keep them happy and keep them clicking.

If you’ve got something juicy to share via The Buzz, just tweet @TheeMailGuide or drop us a comment!

Catch more of the Daily Buzz here!

The buzz is brought to you by our Ninja sponsor:

Email Marketing and Promotions Manager at LivePerson

Location: New York (Greater New York City Area)

Job Description

You are cordially invited to consider LivePerson, a dynamic and high-growth company, as your next place to work, contribute and grow. As a global community, we believe in the possibilities of personal ownership, a commitment to help others and the ability to individually author our environment. Fast-paced and entrepreneurial, our workplace is a community, where every interaction is an opportunity for lasting connection.

We are seeking an Email Marketing & Promotions Manager to work from our New York headquarters. You will develop and execute contact strategies to optimize email program that supports new customer acquisition. Your goal will be to develop and execute promotional plan that support retention, cross-sell and up-sell activities. You will be tasked with managing our mailing list, as well as have the freedom and opportunity to expand and implement the strategy to grow the list. Entrepreneurial drive to build an email and promotional program that will have a major impact on company bottom line. For the right person, joining our community is a unique and bold opportunity.

What would you own?
- Create detailed segmentation plans that support email marketing campaigns
- Manage email project workflow – schedules, content, messaging, coding, pre-campaign launch quality assurance
- Develop and execute testing strategies (frequency testing, subject line testing, etc.) to improve email metrics
- Measure email campaign results from messaging, offers, creative, open rates, click through rates through to conversion
- Forecast promotional budget, response rate and sales
- Act as marketing liaison for projects related to marketing and transactional emails
- Ensure that marketing programs are in compliance with privacy rules, industry regulations and internal communication policies

How can you help others?
- Partner with marketing managers for affiliates, paid search and display advertising to boost sales through targeted and triggered email campaigns
- Share email program insights with marketing team and contribute recommendations for on-going optimization of creative and landing pages
- Be our email marketing expert; champion email marketing best practices and share industry statistics and developments with the marketing organization

View full job description

Email Marketing Specialist at cleverbridge AG

Location: Greater Chicago Area

Job Description

Responsibilities: The Email Marketing Specialist (EMS) has three primary areas of responsibility:

• Supporting the acquisition of new clients
• Supporting the retention of existing clients
• Responsibility for email marketing program

In order to support the acquisition of new clients, the EMS will:

• Develop Sales collateral content
• Demonstrate the email marketing program and platform in a concise, thorough manner
• Train internal resources on specific email platform and general email topics

In support of existing clients, the EMS will:

• Develop FAQ guide content for existing clients
• Provide training for clients that choose Message Direct, our email marketing platform
• Plan, develop, execute and optimize campaigns on behalf of clients

And for the responsibility of the email marketing program, the EMS will:

• Develop and plan monthly email calendars
• Work with and communicate with our design team on the creation of email campaigns
• Manage and maintain email distribution, which includes heavy testing planning as well
• Assess successes and failures by email segment
• List management
• Remain current on email best practices and US CAN-SPAM and EU Anti-Spam compliance
• Develop, manage and test all automated email campaigns
• Additional email-related responsibilities as they arise and as we grow

View full job description

Email Marketing Analyst at Yola.com

Location: San Francisco Bay Area

Job Description

We’re looking for a ridiculously talented Email Marketing Manager to lead our email
and website marketing efforts. In this role, you’ll be responsible for both setting the
strategy and running the day-to-day execution of our email programs. If you’re right for this job, you’ll have strong email and website marketing experience and be looking for a place where you can use those skills to take an existing program to the next level. You’ll want to make a difference. You’re a workaholic, addicted to startups and you love what you do! If this sounds like you, we’d love to meet you.

View full job description

Editor’s note: For a complete glossary of email marketing terms, check this out!

As an email service provider we are constantly throwing around terms that sometimes our customers may or may not know. So I decided to pick 11 email marketing terms and give you the low down on what they mean. Don’t be offended if you know some of these, I’m trying to cover a lot of bases here. Here goes!

ROI (Return on Investment) – Your ROI is the measure of the profit you make and/or costs saved at your business. For your email marketing campaigns you calculate cost of sending email plus time.

ROI = [(Payback - Investment)/Investment)]*100

So if you made $780 on your email campaign, your time was worth $50 to create it and it costs $15 to send it it would look like this:

(($780 – $65)/$65)*100 = 1100% ROI (which is really good!)

If you want to take it a step further subtract your cost of your products or services as well.

Open Rate – Your open rate is simply the number recipients who opened your HTML emails. It is typically measured as a percentage of the total number of emails sent, although calculation methods may differ. The open rate is considered a useful metric for judging response to an email campaign but it should be noted that open rates for text emails can’t be calculated AND some email clients don’t display images as a default which would under report your total number of opens.

Above the Fold – The bottom of your browser window or the bottom of your email before you have to start scrolling is commonly referred to as the “fold”. These viewable areas should be where your most important information should be located since it’s the first thing your viewer will see.

Preview Pane – Email programs like Microsoft Outlook, Entourage, and Mac Mail allow users to view email through a preview pane before your recipient clicks to open. The preview pane is important to bear in mind when composing the opening lines of an email so you can get your recipient’s attention fast.

Copy – Your copy is simply the text of the email you write.

Hosted Email – A hosted version of an email allows users to view the email message as a web page, ensuring that all formatting remains intact. VerticalResponse does this for you for free you just need to include the “hosted version” link. Hosted versions of your email are also great for you to send your Twitter and Facebook followers to when you launch your campaign.

Spoofing – Email spoofing involves forging a sender’s address on email messages. It can be used by malicious individuals to mislead email recipients into reading and responding to deceptive mail. These fake messages can jeopardize the online privacy of consumers and damage the reputation of the companies purported to have sent the messages. Spoofed email often contains phishing scams. VerticalResponse doesn’t allow for this in our systems.

Phishing – In a phishing scam, a spammer, posing as a trusted party such as a bank or reputable online vendor, sends email messages directing recipients to Web sites that appear to be official but are in reality fraudulent. Visitors to these Web sites are asked to disclose personal information, such as credit card numbers, or to purchase counterfeit or pirated products.

Targeting – Targeting gives you the ability to deliver emails to those most likely to respond to your emails, based on a variety of things like their geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioral information.

Whitelists – Whitelists are usually created by an ISP (internet service provider) and are made up of commercial emailers (including ESPs) who have been approved to send email through their gates. The ISP requires a list of IP (internet protocol) addresses that email will be sent from, and in some cases a test period where the commercial emailer will be approved or rejected. VerticalResponse is on all available whitelists.

Web Friendly fonts – Almost all web browsers are capable of displaying four primary fonts properly: Times, Arial, Helvetica, and Verdana, as well as their variants (Arial Narrow, Times New Roman, etc.) If a web developer decides to stray from one of these fonts he or she risks browser compatibility problems and the prospect that their pages may render inaccurately when viewed through certain web browsers.

Got any other terms you were wondering about? Leave a comment and we’ll answer!

Takeaway: Learn the email marketing lingo! Use an online glossary to brush up!

Other great posts from Janine Popick!

Janine Popick

Janine Popick is the CEO and founder of VerticalResponse, a leading provider of self-service email marketing, online surveys, and direct mail services empowering small businesses to create, manage, and analyze their own direct marketing campaigns. Janine is a columnist for Inc.’s Women in Business blog. In her spare time, Janine is VerticalResponse’s Chief Executive Blogger for the VerticalResponse Marketing Blog for Small Businesses. Follow her on Twitter @janinepopick.

Website: http://blog.verticalresponse.com/verticalresponse_blog/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/janinepopick