Email Marketing Best Practices

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What You Need to Know About DomainKeys
DomainKeys (DK) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) are email authentication technologies designed to identify legitimate senders of email. Email authentication technologies like DK and DKIM were developed to prevent "spoofing," the nefarious practice whereby anyone sending an email could potentially use your domain in the "From:" address for their message. Read More

What You Need to Know About Canada's New Anti-Spam Bill
In an effort to strengthen protection against problems like email spam, spyware, and phishing scams, Canada recently introduced the Electronic Commerce Protection Act, also referred to as the ECPA or Bill C-27. If the bill becomes law, which we believe could occur sometime early 2010, it will cover any "commercial electronic message" which is sent from, routed through, or accessed within Canada. Read More

CAN-SPAM: New Rule Provisions
Although BlueHornet does not provide legal advice, we have reviewed the new CAN-SPAM rules, attended industry-specific debriefings about them, and can provide you access to the full text of the FTC changes. Read More

Stated Preference Data Collection
Step one of every email marketing strategy: ensure your data collection methods are sound. Because the effectiveness of your targeting and personalization efforts are only as good as the data used to power them. In this article, we will focus on the first step in deploying lifecycle campaigns that evolve as customers' or subscribers' preferences and behaviors change over time: a sound data collection method based on asking subscribers to tell you about themselves and their interests: this information is called stated preference data. Read More

The Impact of Online Behavior in Data Collection
The online behavior of your visitors that can be observed is a key component of any data collection plan. Along with utilizing stated preference data collection and acting on purchase behavior, it comprises the foundation of an effective, lifecycle-messaging centered email marketing strategy. Read More

The Impact of Purchase/Post-Purchase Behavior in Data Collection
Purchase behavior is simply the most valuable data set of all. Analyzing what, when, and how your visitors buy—along with the stated preference data collection and online behavior—will tell you why they buy, and drive your targeting efforts in intelligent directions. Read More

The Sweet Sounds of Segmentation
Conceptually speaking, the process of segmenting your subscriber lists is a lot like organizing songs on your ipod® or mp3 player. Sure, you could lump all the songs into only one category and simply call it "music," but that would be doing a disservice to the unique qualities of the various genres, albums, and playlists. It's like that with your subscribers, too. They share one important commonality, which is being in your email marketing database. But beyond that, they have their own special qualities. Read More

Dynamic Segments: Sophisticated, Automated Segmentation Strategy
Dynamic Segments are an included feature in every BlueHornet solution. When it comes to segmentation and sending messages, the BlueHornet database has built-in tools that enable some truly heavy lifting. Read More

BlueHornet Helps Demystify APIs
While many BlueHornet clients are already using APIs to manage their data, there are some who have never heard of or don't fully understand their capabilities and benefits. If you fall into the latter two categories, take a moment to see if the API could help lighten your load and allow you to automate management of your email database. Read More

Email Deliverability Quiz: Do You Respect Your Subscribers?
When it comes to long-term email deliverability success, your actions speak much louder than words. If you've got respect, you've got high email deliverability and good ROI. So take this test to see if your email practices are showing respect for subscribers and customers... Read More

Five Tips for Better Email Delivery Rates
TIP ONE: Increase relevance. ISPs keep score of your digital reputation as a sender, and relevance is the key to building and maintaining a good sending reputation. Relevant email will keep your spam complaints down, which is a high priority with the ISPs, each of whom have their own individual thresholds for what they consider to be an "acceptable" number of spam complaints. Once those thresholds are breached, the ISPs make a decision to block or filter your mail. Read More

Before You Send, Consider These Important Guidelines for Improved Deliverability
1. Set proper expectations. When subscribers opt in, tell them exactly what they'll be receiving, and even how often they will hear from you. Providing an example of the emails you send can be helpful in showing subscribers what they can expect. It's important to affirm their decision to subscribe by outlining the value of the content they'll receive. Read More

Avoiding the Delete Button -- Create Compelling Email Content
It's morning. 8:32 a.m. Your customer logs into her computer. Inbox: 28 new email messages. Which ones does she delete immediately? Which ones does she open first? Read More

Measuring Success: An Email Marketer's Guide to Common Metrics
Every year, email becomes a more important part of the marketing mix for companies large and small. That's great news for folks like you and me who think about the "killer app" more than the average person. But as the medium we know and love continues to gain traction, email marketers face more pressure to gauge, quantify, and optimize their efforts. The numbers are readily available, but what do they really indicate, what are industry averages, and how do your campaigns measure up? Read More