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Are your email newsletters suffering from the “message in a bottle” approach?

August 1st, 2011 by Cornelia Luethi
Many small business owners send their email newsletters from their desktop computer system. Cornelia Luethi explains why this is an issue – and identifies a better way of sending ezines.
Are your email newsletters suffering from the message in a bottle effect?
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When you were a kid, did you ever think of sending a “message in a bottle”? You know, scrawling a note, sticking it inside a bottle, sealing the bottle, and then casting the bottle into the ocean, wondering where it’d end up and if it you’d ever hear back from the recipient.

Just the whole idea of this sounded romantic to me as a child – though I never actually did it!

This romance is fine for childhood playtime, but not so good in business

Yet in the business world, so many business owners take the “message in a bottle” approach to email newsletters. By that, I mean that they send their email newsletters from their desktop email programme (such as Outlook).

Why is it a problem to send email newsletters from your desktop email programme?

There are a number of problems with sending your email newsletter from your desktop email system:

  1. Deliverability: There is a very good chance that emails sent from your desktop email system will get blocked by spam filters, as they can pick up that emails sent “en masse” could be unsolicited (spam) emails. This could even mean that you get permanently “blacklisted” by certain email systems – this is something you want to avoid at all costs!
  2. Lack of reporting: you have no way of measuring if your email got delivered; how many people opened it; and how many people click the links in your email newsletter. So you’re really just sending your email, hoping it will arrive at its destination, not knowing for sure if it has or not.
  3. Formatting: emails sent from your desktop email system might look OK at your end, but they might not look so great at the recipient’s end. (And don’t be tempted to send the newsletter as a PDF attachment – it’s very unlikely it’ll get opened!)
  4. Legal compliance: it is very easy to ignore the legalities of sending email newsletters. Amongst other things, it is a legal requirement to offer an Unsubscribe option, and to include a postal address of the sender within the email.

So how should you send your email newsletters?

The best way to send your email newsletters is via special email newsletter software. The features differ from system to system, but most of them offer the following benefits:

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1 Comment

Comments

2 August 2011 - 11:21am — donna
donna's picture

Email Marketing & Delivery Solutions

Hi Cornelia,

Great article! Using an ESP (email service provider) to manage the presentation and delivery of your email marketing messages including newsletters makes perfect sense. The measurement is available so the business can review the success of their campaign, also the 'set and forget' of auto messages, email list management and ability to target market for greater ROI (i.e. personalise your email messages so they are more unique to the recipient) makes the small fee worthwhile.

Regards,

Donna
Mobilize Mail Limited

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About the author

Cornelia Luethi's picture
Cornelia Luethi
http://www.TheLeakyBathtub.com

Does marketing feel like you’re throwing money down the drain?

You know you need to do marketing to grow your business – but what should you be focusing on? What’s actually going to deliver real results?

When marketing costs you more than it delivers on results, it’s extremely frustrating. And what’s frustrating is that you don’t know where you went wrong. You’ve spent the money – so why aren’t your sales increasing?

It doesn’t help that marketing is so confusing. Every person you speak to probably has their own view on what you should be doing. The result: you’re totally confused!

Stop the confusion and check out the marketing articles and resources at www.TheLeakyBathtub.com. They're especially for small business owners, with tips you can implement (and get results from) right away.

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