JangoMail In Progress

Lynn PG Dodds · at 7/11/2013 01:28:00 PM

What do you think YOU'RE doing?
Are you a developer looking to custom code your email templates using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) - while maximizing the integrity of your layout or desired design? "Good luck," says the old school (i.e. here comes the hurt).

Fortunately, JangoMail has some solutions. So, we prepared a simple list of "do it" and "don't even think about it" guidelines to ensure your designs look as good and function as well within your emails (and mail services like Gmail and Outlook) as they would on your typically more stylized web pages.

Do it

Use tables for layouts, because they're more consistently supported
Put your CSS code inline with your content (i.e. your content.... Already created a template? Use this tool to move all of your CSS inline.
Set and fix your template width by assigning width, cell padding and cell spacing for all tables and table cells
Add whitespace around an image by using hspace and vspace tag attributes, as not all email services support margin and padding inline styles
Always include a link so recipients can view your email within a web browser, and "_blank" in links to prompt the opening of a new browser window or tab when viewed within browser-based email services
Include a visible link to your website and an eye-catching 'forward to a friend" button

Don't even think about it

Count on external or embedded style sheets, as many email services cut everything above the body tag and disable external style sheets
Use positioning and floats
Incorporate JavaScript into your email - it can trigger spam filters
Assign attributes to the <body> tag, as most email services won't acknowledge them
Use background images (background color is okay)
Include CSS shorthand or CSS properties for positioning (nested tables work better)

That wasn't so bad. It might not be the most inclusive list, but we didn't want to lecture you so late in the week. If you ever have any questions about custom coding, hit us up. Our JangoMail team is here to help any time.

Until next time, have a great rest of the week!

JangoMail · at 7/05/2013 05:26:00 PM

July Fourth is over. Or ... is it?
Because many companies gave their employees 4 day weekends, you have to expect people are making the most of it. Fortunately in this visible media day and age, you may start to see pictures like these roll into your social news feeds and inbox.

So, what's this have to do with email marketing?

Simple. It may be time to light up your email lists with some harmless yet strategic fun. Depending upon your line of business or the purpose of your organization, try sharing another side of yourself. Showing customers or contacts that you have a sense of humor, or pride in your community is more apt to strike a cord with your audience than the stale "Happy 4th!!" .jpg you sent earlier in the week.

Show customers the "real" you. Feature team members and let the world see you in a more relaxed, approachable situation. Prompt customers or followers to say - "hey, I've seen him/her around town" or "he/she looks like a real person". It's all part of making a (first or establishing a new) connection. Photo proof of your humanity and humor is a nice segue into establishing or solidifying a relationship. Not to mention, your group or business' logo will be featured in every communication - enhancing the good vibes associated with your brand.

Get your email recipients to share

Bet you're not the only one with a picture of a baby with a beer on their head. Your customers or followers probably have some rowdy shots to share. Why not make it a contest? When we all go back to work after a long holiday, it can be the longest work week ever. Make light of it by calling out for the funniest, most patriotic or best fireworks pictures of the holiday. It will help your email recipients relive a little of the magic, courtesy of your underlying marketing tactic.

Hey - we want to see your pictures, too. So, don't forget to include our JangoMail team if you get together a post-July 4 blast. In the meantime, have a great rest of the week, folks. If we don't hear from you first, we'll talk to you soon!

Lynn PG Dodds · at 6/25/2013 01:42:00 PM

Against everything your mother told you, we'll say it. You should do what everyone else is doing - because it could get you further. We're talking about the video "cliff"; and we're encouraging you to swan dive-DO IT.

Here's what's up

A recent study found that total video views among internet users in the US were up 23% year-over-year in Q4 2012. This isn't just an isolated finding, and to validate it, you only need to take a quick look around your own office. People love to share videos of all kinds. Tearjerkers, funny, colorful, imaginative, gross, you name it. The memorable, sensory exposure of video is a great way to grab attention, positive or negative, and prompt viewers to share it.

What this has to do with email marketing

If you can't see it by now, we have some work to do. Maybe these stats will get the point across:
A 2013 survey of marketing executives conducted by The Relevancy Group found that respondents who had used videos in their email campaigns saw real returns on their investments. Fifty-five percent reported higher click-through rates, 44% saw an increase in the amount of time subscribers spent with an email, and 41% reported an increase in the sharing or forwarding of emails.

If you're not doing it, you're not alone
The same survey cited above found that only one-quarter of marketers had actually used video in email marketing campaigns. Forty-three percent said they didn't use videos simply because they lacked the content, making it the most prominent obstacle to the practice. Take a good look at the bar graph to the right. Most of these obstacles seem fairly easy to overcome if you consider the potential results.

Get your footage together and GO!
It's typically assumed that video clips within email marketing is a perfect match for retailers. But, use your imagination, and this medium applies to just about everything. From spanning, enticing product shots that infect viewers with the shopping bug ... to the smiling faces of your baseball league's division champs, urging non-players to sign up for next season ... to clips of tropical destinations in January offered by your Chicago-based travel agency. It ALL works - and easily grabs attention beyond the written word. The biggest obstacle to video inclusion is lack of footage, and honestly, who doesn't have some kind of video capture device these days. And what you don't have, you can easily grab from business partners who are typically more than willing to share footage.

Inputting video into your emails - is it safe?
There are some limitations with many email clients, with security settings that do not permit "live" content (including video and even JavaScript) to be active within the email body itself. Certainly, we want to be able to get the best of both worlds here, so it's now a common practice to highlight a frame shot from your video and tag it with a hyperlink to an off-email host site. So, connect to your YouTube, Vimeo, or other channel, and email away!

As always, if you have any questions about this blog or any JangoMail feature, give us a shout. Until next week, we hope you're having a great start to summer!

JangoMail · at 6/21/2013 03:41:00 PM

We like you. In fact, we consider our clients part of the JangoMail family. But we also know when it's time to set you free. Sigh.

Time for you to fly?

So, as much as we'd love to see you maintain your default "@jangomail.com" address, it might be time to branch out. Establishing your own "From Address" is a great way to highlight your company's or organization's unique brand. And let's face it - it grabs attention, establishes a sense of familiarity with your email recipients and creates a presentation that establishes you as whole and perhaps even bigger than you actually are. In short, it sets the stage for brand identity that can set you apart from the pack. We hate to see you go - but love to witness the maturation of any brand.

3 options to choose from

Default: your JangoMail username plus "@jangomail.com"
Branded Sub-Domain (recommended): create a brand from your "From" email address with a sub-domain of your company's domain name. If you company's domain name is joebaker.com, you might setup a sub-domain called eat.joebaker.com
Editable: have your email address field set to an editable field, so you type any valid email address you choose, including an existing personal or corporate email address

Not sure which option is for you? Check this out.

Don't stray too far from home
Create your own branded "From Address" but retain ties to the power of JangoMail. Your account can be configured to send from your newly branded sub-domain, but you'll still retain the unsubscribe and bounce handling features of JangoMail. So, you'll enjoy all the functionality of your JangoMail account status, but take all the credit. How cool is that? Just don't forget to call us every once in a while ... we worry.

If you have any questions about this blog or any other JangoMail features, give us a shout. We'd love to hear from you! Until next time, have a great weekend, everyone.

JangoMail · at 6/12/2013 02:26:00 PM

Let's consider the dilemma of delivery optimization through quasi real life situation that is, hopefully, somewhat amusing. Hey, it's mid-week, and we could all probably use a joke.

"Zoolander": Supermodel

So, a comedian in the 80s used to tell a story about his friend who married a supermodel. He thought "cool!". In terms of his perception of survival of the fittest, his kids were going to at least look gorgeous. But to his utter shock and disbelief, the fruits of his (or more precisely her) labor were what the comedian referred to as 'crocodile kids". Despite outward appearances, apparently the model wife had had some work done. And the resulting offspring looked more like "model wife 1.0" than "model wife 6.0".

How this relates to email marketing ...
Sure, karma can be cruel. But for those of us email marketers with better intentions, why do the results of our own deliverables sometimes look just as unattractive?

Everything may look good coming together, but in the end, the results can be an ugly nightmare. We're talking specifically about the X design chromosomes and the Y content chromosomes within your campaigns looking great in one email client, and like a hot mess in others. It happens - a lot. The good news is that JangoMail has a comprehensive delivery check feature that lets you preview how your emails will render across multiple email clients.

Preview before you send - it's easy!
JangoMail has integrated with a third-party partner to give you one of the most innovative email preview rendering tools available today. So, you'll see exactly how your emails will look in more than 25 different email clients (AOL Mail, Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, Windows Mail, Yahoo! Mail and more). Before you even think of hitting SEND, you'll have time to address any issues and remain top of the pro charts.

This special, sneak peek delivery preview is available as a standard feature with your monthly JangoMail subscription, so you can use it as many times as you like.

As always, if you have any questions about our Delivery Rendering Tool or any other JangoMail feature, just ask us. Until next time, have a great rest of the week!

JangoMail · at 6/05/2013 03:49:00 PM

Just when you thought you'd have to respond to all your new email list requests, here come the JangoMail autoresponders to the rescue. Yep - you can actually have your customers and sip that Mai Tai, too. If you're not using this handy feature yet, you could really be missing out on some well-deserved R&R this summer.

This is a great trick for whenever a new subscriber is added to your group after completing a website signup form.

Here's how it works:

1. Simply access the feature in the details section of your list. Follow the simple set-up instructions to craft a message that could include any or all of the following content:

Thank new subscribers for requesting admission to your company or organization's list
Remind them which list(s) they've subscribed to
Ask them to confirm their contact information (email address) to begin receiving your communications
Share with them some of your other email groups they may like to enroll in
Share a link to the last communication from this list to get them up-to-speed
Offer a link to unsubscribe or change their list preferences

2. Name your autoresponder (i.e. Sales Notifications; Biking Enthusiast Newsletter)

3. Set the time relative to the recipient's "join time" to send your autoresponder. Note that you can create multiple autoresponders at different times (i.e. one hour after; one week later) to request confirmation of their new subscription and then followup with another message if necessary (i.e. "Don't forget to confirm your subscription with us!")

4. Sit back in your Tommy Bahama and take a snooze. You're on your way to seamless, stress-free automation.

If you have any questions about JangoMail autoresponders, just ask us. In the meantime, we hope you're making some stellar plans for the upcoming summer. Remember, even the most dedicated email marketing gurus and enthusiasts need a break every once and a while. So, live it up when you can.

Until next time, have a great rest of the week!

JangoMail · at 5/29/2013 03:52:00 PM

We recently came across a pretty interesting piece in Target Marketing, called "Nuts & Bolts Comedian: Email Pulls in Crowds, Social is Ephemeral", featuring comedian Steve Hofstetter. Aside from the rah-rah nature of the title (how could we not be drawn to that??), the fact that it reflected the actual email marketing experiences of a professional comedian was totally intriguing.

Comedian Steve Hofstetter

Why share?
First, we thought it would be beneficial for our clients who may be in similar businesses. Steve's motivations make perfect sense. The kicker is, his nearly flawless execution and rationale behind the outreach is really impressive. Next, this guy was obviously successful, so we wanted to hear his first-hand account for ourselves, too. Turns out, Steve Hofstetter knows what the heck he's talking about.

You've got to read this article.
It's only a couple of quick pages, so dig in, and we'll meet you back here.

Tick tock ....

Interesting. Now consider this, our "final" thoughts on the topic.
So, we don't necessarily completely agree with all perspectives of the article. To say social media is "ephemeral" isn't true. In fact, email marketing that ties into the power of social media can increase your campaign's word-of-mouth and boost your potential subscriber list. But, it's true that you have to know how to use it effectively - and whether your audience is actually following your brand. On its own, social can be hard to track - and the ability to offer lengthier conversion content is out of format and can turn off socially-savvy engagees. HOWEVER, again, if it leads into the more trackable, marketing-rich structure of email outreach, the sky is truly the limit.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway to consider: Stay true to your audience. Be good to them in terms of the information they've opt-ed to receive and feel free to reward them for their ongoing patronage (in clicks or transactions). In the end, the more reciprocal your relationship, the more you each will benefit.

If you see anything on the web related to email marketing that you think we should share, give us a shout. And as always, if you have any questions about our JangoMail features or how we can help you, just ask.

Until then, have a great rest of the week!

Psst: Want to see Steve in action? YouTube has some clips you can check out.

JangoMail · at 5/21/2013 12:25:00 PM

This week, a case study in the spirit of the holiday weekend ...

Joe's Outdoor Store is a strong, local retailer in Nashua, New Hampshire. They've been around for almost 5 years and have a solid following of outdoor enthusiasts, weekend warriors and even tourists who happen upon their prime spot off the main interstate.

But, business can always be better!

So, last week Joe's Outdoor Store sent out a major email marketing campaign to announce a Memorial Day Sale. Not just any sale, but one of the biggest sales of the year for Joe's. The thing is, not everyone was invited. To kick off the summer camping season, they sent out a special sales announcement for sleeping bags. Not just any sleeping bags. These are high-performance models designed to withstand high altitudes and adjust interior temperatures based upon exterior conditions. Yeah, they're pretty serious. And only serious campers would really be interested - and willing to entertain the big price tag.

Joe's Outdoor Store took their business' master email list off JangoMail and suppressed the email addresses of anyone who didn't opt into their list as a "Serious Camper" (their words from their group list compiled from the customized email signup form they created). Then, they blasted the beautiful thing. Joe's JangoMail reports said the email campaign was fairly successful in terms of opens and clicks. Now, they just have to wait for the weekend to see the foot traffic it generated. Well done, Joe.

But, other not quite-so-serious folks like to camp in the summertime, too. And Joe's does have other varieties of sleeping bags and camping gear they may want to hear about. Extra foot traffic is always a good thing, so they decide to send another email campaign to attract those potential customers.

Hmm... so what's the easiest way to use the email Joe's already created for "Serious Campers", make a few tweaks, and then blast it to the remaining, general audience? With JangoMail, it's simple. In fact, we already answered this dilemna in the lengthy speech above.

All Joe's Outdoor Store needs to do is load the "Serious Campers" email and make edits for their "General Campers or General Audience". Replace pictures, make the content less exclusive and more along the lines of "if you've never camped, try it with our sale gear". Then, it's time to create their specific email list using our Filter features. They simply need to click and suppress the addresses of all recipients who received the first campaign. It's that easy!

Now, let's broaden this case study a bit. Imagine how easy it is to send customized email messages for unique customer or client groups, while letting other groups receive information that only interests them. The long and short of it is that your customers will be happier knowing that YOU know what THEY want, and your messaging won't take the short road to the spam folder.

If you have any questions about Filters, List Suppression or any other JangoMail feature, hit us up. We'd love to hear from you! Until then, have a terrific Memorial Day weekend, everyone.

Lynn PG Dodds · at 5/09/2013 09:49:00 AM

Last week, we talked about some general email rendering issues. This week, we want to dig a little bit deeper. Specifically, let's tackle potential rendering problems using MS Outlook. Why highlight Outlook? Well, let's just say that the Outlook "issue cup" can certainly runneth over - or so we're hearing.

When the original gets mucked up
When your email looks less like Robert Redford's classic Great Gatsby and more like Leonardo DiCaprio's techno-Gatsby version, you know something's not working as it should. (Sorry, couldn't resist).

Here are 8 ways to troubleshoot and avoid some common issues:

1. Start with any tables you may have in your email. Does every table - and column - have a width?
Spot check your code. Make sure the column widths plus any cell spacing you have both add up to the width you gave your table.

2. Make sure that all of your images have a set width and height, as well.

3. Whenever possible, avoid CSS.

4. Replace floats, div's, background images, padding and margins with basic HTML.

5. Consider replacing the spaces between words with   if the words appear to be 'pushing' together.

6. Switch out new paragraphs with double line breaks: .

7. If your whitespace isn't showing up well, try making a white image with a set width and height, and then putting it in your email.

8. Check all of your HTML and make sure you aren't missing any end tags and fix any HTML errors.

That's about it for now - and we hope this helps a bit. If you continue to have rendering issues with Outlook or experience problems not addressed here, feel free to give us a shout. We're here to help, and our team has seen just about everything.

Until next time, have a great rest of the week!

Lynn PG Dodds · at 5/01/2013 04:45:00 PM

Your email marketing campaign may look pretty spiffy on a PC, but check it out on a smartphone or tablet. It could very well look like the stuff of nightmares. Unless you adopt a truly "Mobile Mentality", you're not in shape to move ahead with the rest of the pack - let alone sprint ahead.

The EEC, or email marketing arm of the Direct Marketing Association, is a global professional organization that strives to enhance the image of email marketing and communications. Translation: It's a good idea to listen to what they have to say.

Here's your chance (and benefit)
EEC has some concise and helpful tips to help you keep your email marketing cohesive, attractive, and in terms of mobile connectivity, professional looking.

1. Concentrate on your content
With every email you create, mobile rendering should be a part of the process. This includes: subject lines, body content, graphics, testing, links, metrics (i.e. everything). Your "From" address, subject lines and headlines are perhaps the most important variables to consider. They're the first thing recipients see, so you'd better optimize the smaller space capacities to put your most effective, eye-catching and relevant foot forward first. Used to writing short subject lines? Cut it in half and get used to it. And while you're at it, eliminate more conceptual headlines that prompt viewers to ponder too long. You're dealing with an audience of shorter attention spans, and your competition in the mobile space is fierce.

Bottom line: Mobile simply doesn't offer the space to present a "says it all" graphic, so use your words wisely.

2. Respect fingers and hold the Flash
You'll have better results if you build landing pages optimized for mobile using HTML, CSS and smaller amounts of JAVA. Also remember how your recipients will be scanning through your emails. It's the power of the mighty finger - and unless they find your email communications easy to swipe, they could get fed up and flee before absorbing your message. Improve functionality after the fact, and they may still hesitate to click-through in the future for fear of the repeat experience. Buttons need to be a legible and usable size, as well.

3. Keep your forms brief
EEC recommends simply asking for an email address. While it's easier to submit information on an iPad or similar tablet, how far do you think recipients will go to fill in the tiny blanks on a smartphone?

One final bit of advice
This you already know: Test and then test again. And somewhere in the middle, revisit and tweak your content for the optimal experience. This little bit of sweat on the front end is well worth the desired result on the other side, not to mention the potential ROI you want to achieve in any email marketing campaign.

Get a jump start on testing by using JangoMail's Email Preview Rendering tool! As always, if you have any questions or comments on our blogs, give us a shout.

Until then, have a great week, everyone!

Matt M · at 4/26/2013 06:09:00 PM

Question: Are you the manager of the email marketing department at your company?

Do you employ other talented individuals to write marketing emails for you?
Do you want those authors to have access to create emails on JangoMail on their own terms?
Do you want to be in control of the emails that actually get sent to your end customers?

Seems impossible to have all of these features at once? We think not. That's why we developed a feature for JangoMail that makes this level of engagement and control available to those "heads of marketing" out there.

Grant Your Approval to Send Campaigns...

Typically when you share a JangoMail account with different members in your organization, you create what are called Other Logins under your Account Settings. Other Logins are separate usernames and passwords that can have different restrictions to access different parts of the JangoMail service.

We added a new restriction option you can place on one of these Other Logins that allows you to restrict the ability for the account to send a message. Already an account could be blocked from accessing messages all together, if you select to restrict them from the "Messages" page. But now you have the fine grain control to allow a user to access the "Messages" page and create messages while you remain in control of actually initiating the sending of campaigns.

An account with this sending restriction applied can still create emails, preview, and save them. When the author is content with an email design, instead of a "Send" button, they are presented with a button to "Submit for Approval".

Upon sending for approval, the account master (you) will receive an email with the summary of the email campaign. From here you are provided with a link to login to JangoMail and approve the campaign for sending. We added a convenient section to the top of the dashboard to display these campaigns awaiting approval.

In 2 clicks, you can review and then initiate sending of a mass email campaign to your audience. Need to make modifications? No problem. One click brings you to the editor where you can make changes before sending. If you need to disapprove or remove a campaign, simply delete it from the messages page.

That was easy.

And we like it that way. If you have any questions, comments, or other features you'd like us to build, please don't hesitate to ask.

Lynn PG Dodds · at 4/23/2013 04:48:00 PM

Imagine, if you will, you're 'Joe's Pie Shop'.

It's almost swimsuit season, so business could be better. Time to amp up your marketing outreach and remind customers why your pies are worth the thighs. What do you do? You turn to a targeted email campaign.

You want to reach out to customers to elicit a reaction - a click to product, information, or a customized traffic lane on your website.

After devising an extremely clever and meaningful subject line that grabs their attention, recipients open, determined to dig deeper into what this communication's all about. Then, they're greeted by ...

SERVE IT UP RIGHT! Check out fancy, forever servewear on perfectpietools.com.

Customer: "What? You have pie AND you're offering a value-add to enhance my pie eating experience? You're the best, Joe."

Well, at least that's the preferred reaction. But the flip side is that your customers' spammy senses could start tingling - damaging your reputation and the overall effectiveness of your email campaigns. Even if you're benefiting from a financial or product trade with this partner, that short-term benefit can get old, very fast, with potential, long-term customer relationships.

The good news is that if you present outside advertisements or endorsements in the right light, mutual success (for you, your partner and above-all your customer) is easy to achieve.

Here are some common sense tips:

1. Be relevant. You're a pie shop. So, skip the ads for gas stations. Unless, of course, you're empathizing with customers about tough economic times. Notifying them of a pie sale - and sharing an ad to the cheapest gas in town (to get to your place) is thoughful. Even better: Presenting an ad for $.50 off vanilla ice cream for Joe's Pie a la mode.

2. Be honest. Why the ad, Joe? If there's any confusion about why there are ads in your emails, address it with customers head-on. "We're including these ads to help keep our pie costs low" or "We provide ads for our community partners as a service to you". However you spin or explain it, your customers will appreciate your honesty. Here's an example from the web that still holds relevance for email: Pandora.com is a successful, live music streaming website - and they're not afraid to share with customers why they need to include ads.

3. Protect your reputation. Congrats - you're hitched to your advertiser in reputation. Now that your brand is tied to another's, beware. If that partner isn't as attentive to retaining ethical marketing as you are, what they do can hurt your business.

4. Exercise moderation. Don't overdo it. Consider there are times your customer simply wants some alone time. That means one-on-one communications between you and them. Email campaigns that includes outside ties or advertisements can be perceived as anything but personal, especially when it happens frequently. Customers may even feel 'sold out'.

5. Go full circle. Cross-branding like this is also an easy way to upsell back to your own products or services. If a tool makes it easy to serve up your pie, why not offer a discount on pie plates to complete the "set"? In this way, all products on the table present a relevant, cohesive offer that makes sense to a recipient. The information evolves from pure ad form to one of a trusted adviser who offers insight based on what you know your customers want or need. How well-thought out of you, Joe!

Have a question or comment about this blog? Looking for more insight to make your email marketing the best it can be? Contact us any time. We'd love to hear from you.

Until then, have a great rest of the week!

Lynn PG Dodds · at 4/18/2013 01:04:00 PM

Any email marketing partner who promises 100% of your emails will hit the recipient's inbox aren't just misinformed - they're lying. The truth is, there's simply no guarantee of a foolproof method to dodge every spam filter or customized filter established by every potential recipient.

That said, there are some ways to improve the chances your emails hit those hard-sought targets.

8 ways JangoMail
gets your emails to the inbox

1. Separate yourself from the pack.
Use a branded "From" address rather than your complimentary username@jangomail.com "From" address. Ex.s: john.smith@company.com or john.smith@newsletters.company.com. Using your own domain, or creating a subdomain of your own carries your branding consistently throughout the message. Also, a key benefit is that each address can have its own SPF and DKIM records. These are "reverse lookups" that tell the receiving server that we have permission to send on behalf of your domain(s). There's also a SMTP level benefit, in that a branded sub-domain allows the SMTP MAIL FROM command during the SMTP transaction between our sender and the recipient server to show your sub-domain rathern than jangomail.com. Details

2. Keep track of yourself.
By default, every JangoMail account is assigned a system tracking domain that's shared among multiple clients (ex. x.jango5.com). By setting up a branded tracking domain based upon your organization's domain name, you can isolate yourself from the activities of other clients. To set this up, just go to Settings > Tracking > Tracking Domain. Details

3. "Up" your trustworthiness.
Setup DKIM for the domain use in your "From Address".
Yahoo! Mail and Gmail look for DKIM signatures in the headers of incoming email messages, considering them confirmation that the email was sent by who was purported to send it. In other words, consider it a sign of trust. Details

4. Clear the path for complaints.
After creating a DKIM record, click the link in the confirmation email from Yahoo to postmaster@yourdomain. Here's some background: When you create a DKIM record, Yahoo sends this confirmation email that includes the link to activate a "Feedback Loop". That loop is where Yahoo processes any complaints, and communicates those back to JangoMail. If you don't click the link to activate, complaints won't be properly reported and delivery to Yahoo will be negatively impacted - specifically folks looking for your unsubscribe list.

5. Stay master of your domain.
Setup SPF records on your domain, and then set your email campaigns to use your own "From Address" as the SMTP-level MAIL-FROM address. Details

6. Send backup - plain and simple.
If you're sending HTML email, always include a corresponding plain text message. Spam filters can still get hung up on heavily-coded emails, even though they've proven more effective in communicating a customized message to and eliciting ROI from email recipients. To ensure greater delivery success, simply set your plain text messages to "auto-generate", which triggers plain text to be generated (base don your HTML message) at the time of email sending. Details

7. Get certified in success.
Enroll in the Return Path Safe List program if you have a complaint rate of 0-0.1%. Once enrolled, your emails are sent from safe-listed IP addresses. Yahoo, as a primary example, prioritizes emails sent from listed IPs. Details

8. Anchor yourself in phrases only.
If you use click-tracking, you'll want to submit anchor text in phrases - not URLs. Spam filters can consider URL anchors as fraudulent and indicative of a phishing scam.

Good click-tracked link:
<a href="http://www.browniekitchen.com/">Visit our web site.</a>

Bad click-tracked link:
<a href="http://www.browniekitchen.com/">http://www.browniekitchen.com</a>

Here's what success looks like
Successful email campaign open rates are in the range of 15-35%. Take into consideration that some of your opens may not register if recipients have to 'view images'. But, if your rate is even higher than this, it's definitely reason to celebrate.

And if you're seeing lots of response to your behavioral goals (i.e. "click on this to get this deal/offer/information") then you also get a seat in the VIP section at Club Jango.

Already a rock star?
If you've had some amazing results from email campaigns and want to share them, tell us. We love to hear and share new tips to enhance email communications. Who knows? What you tell us today could be the next, new JangoMail feature we unleash tomorrow.

As always, give us a shout with any questions or comments. Until then, we leave you with a blast from the past commercial. We hope you've never met ANYONE like this:

Lynn PG Dodds · at 4/11/2013 04:02:00 PM

Houston, you have a wingdings problem

Your email newsletter may have been conceived in love and raised under a watchful eye, but now it's talking in wingdings and ignoring every golden layout rule in Yahoo, Outlook and Gmail.

So, how do you teach it to play nice?

Exhale: HTML is still your baby
HTML email campaigns are not only more visually cohesive and polished than Plain Text, but historically also produce more clicks, consumer interest and traceable sales. It's obviously more appealing to show product pictures to your customers or include live links to relevant information. In addition, the DOS-reminiscent presentation of Plain Text is never a match for the brand-reflective power of HTML.

But if you're not following some simple Web Standards, your well-intentioned email campaigns can look like more of a maniacal bomb threat than a customized handshake.

5 tough love solutions for your HTML emails:

1. Avoid background images.
To efficiently separate content and design elements, images should be displayed inline. The CSS property, background-image is often not supported.

2. Keep FLOAT and CLEAR in proper balance.
FLOAT is the glue to your layout, while CLEAR ensures your FLOAT doesn't mask any images. If in doubt, avoid using FLOAT all together. Read more details here.

3. Be careful with your use of MARGIN and PADDING.
MARGIN alignment is the key to avoiding all-out text chaos in a bad render. PADDING is similarly critical, especially when used in conjunction with BACKGROUND-COLOR, LIST-STYLE-IMAGE and BORDER. Render test your emails first and find some fixes here.

4. Consider a different code to denote LINE SPACING.
To create a new line space, try using (shift+enter) instead of (enter). Some readers push together new paragraphs, making your text look like this:

5. Don't ignore the importance of WIDTH and HEIGHT.
WIDTH directly impacts FLOAT and TEXT-ALIGN, so it's crucial to the overall look and tightness of your email. HEIGHT also lends a firm hand to overall readibility.

Phew - your HTMLs just avoided military school. But if they ever get out of line again - or you just want to learn more ways to enhance your email marketing - contact our JangoMail Support. We'd love to hear from you.

Have an idea for a future JangoMail blog? Talk to us

Matt M · at 4/09/2013 05:02:00 PM

When we receive a response back on one of your email campaigns, we process and forward those on to you, based on a number of rules in your account Settings. We have just updated the spam detection for response emails we receive so we can prevent forwarding spam responses to you as much as we possibly can. How? We implemented a Spam Assassin filter to clean out the spam. Emails that are most obviously spam will now be rejected. Thus you'll be happy not to be receiving such email in your inbox anymore.

Note: You can manage your reply settings under Settings —> Reply Management —> Reply Handling

Matt M · at 4/05/2013 06:43:00 PM

We had a prospective customer recently come to us with an interesting request with regard to the privacy of their campaign recipients. They wanted the campaign actions of users to be anonymized in such a way that it in no way would it be possible for anyone to determine which specific email addresses on the list opened, clicked, unsubscribed, or experienced a bounce for a given email.

The prospective customer had a real concern for the privacy of their recipients but still desired the aggregate campaign reporting metrics that make things like measuring the effectiveness of a campaign possible. Total clicks? Great. Who clicked on which link? Gone.

We were happy to custom-develop this feature for the customer. And since we developed the software to do it for them, we can make it available to you — upon request.

The feature ensures that the specifics on email addresses for campaign actions are overwritten in the database and removed from the SMTP logs after receipt, ensuring they cannot be retrieved or compromised by anyone.

This feature is a good example of how we're willing to go lengths to fulfill the needs of a customer who knows what they want. While this may seem obscure, if you'd like this feature added to your account, or have another custom feature in mind, please don't hesitate to ask.

Lynn PG Dodds · at 4/04/2013 10:05:00 AM

The first step to maximizing the effectiveness of using popular forum software packages, like vBulletin, is to enhance them through configuration with JangoMail or JangoSMTP.

In case you're unfamiliar with vBulletin, it's a helpful forum software package that facilitates online community discussions on the topic your website is focused on. The system also sends a variety of emails: new registration confirmations, topic reply notifications, PM notifications, mass email newsletters and more.

So what's the JangoMail connection?
It's about more than expansive reporting features you won't find in vBulletin's baseline. JangoMail's pinpoint and reliable email deliverability ensures that your signup confirmation emails will go through the first time. It's a common issue with forum software - if a user doesn't receive their confirmation email, they can't use your forum. The result is that users need to contact your forum administrator to activate their accounts manually. This may seem like a minute hassle, but considering the size of most forums, the potential problem can cause some big issues down the lines in terms of boosting your user list size - and saving the sanity of your administrator.

Here's how to set it up:
1. Log into your vBulletin Admin CP
2. Go to Settings - Options - Email Options - Edit Settings
3. Scroll down to choose the following settings:

SMTP Email: Yes
SMTP Host: relay.jangosmtp.net
SMTP Port: either 25, 2525, 587 or 465 for SSL/TLS connections
SMTP Username: use your JangoMail username
SMTP Password: user your JangoMail password
SMTP Secure Connection (can be enabled if port 465 is used)

vBulletin can also be used to send mass email newsletters to your users, to keep them engaged. To do so, go to Users - Send Email to Users within your Admin CP.

As always, if you have any questions or need extra help configuring your vBulletin account with JangoMail, contact our Support team at any time.

Have a great rest of the week, everybody!

Matt M · at 4/02/2013 06:34:00 PM

At your request, we have now added a quick go-to menu, accessible at the top of every JangoMail page that shares some of your account's vital statistics at a glance.

(account info displayed on mouse-over)

When you are logged into your paid account, you will now see a link at the top of every page identifying how many days are left in your usage cycle. Mousing over the link produces a dialogue with some useful stats—among them:

# of Messages used
# of Messages remaining
Volume of Data used
Volume of Data remaining
Messages and Data Available in the next cycle

Currently these quick usage stats are restricted to standalone accounts, and not agency accounts with combined volume usage. Further support for these agency customers may be available in the future.

Lynn PG Dodds · at 3/27/2013 10:27:00 AM

"Anybody out there?"
Let's help you find out. In fact, there's a quick and easy way to check the attention span of your existing customers, while rustling up some loyalty from new ones. And in the spirit of Easter, let's break it down in a familiar scenario:

The Egg Hunt:
"Quick Hit" email campaigns dangle a carrot of information (an offer, timely content or a social "must share") to engage your email list. Then, based on whose interested enough to hunt for the prize, you can determine what behaviors are saying about your current marketing outreach - and fix it fast, if need be.

The Carrot:
Think gaming. How many of us have played a video game for hours to unlock a secret code, power or sword of truth (just us?)? Uncovering a mystery or 'working' toward a hidden reward is not only engaging but also fun. If you're a retail organization, take the cue from companies like "Kohl's". Their famous "Save 10, 20 or 30%" email campaigns masterfully lure their customers to stores and online to "uncover" their personal deal. It's like a scratch ticket - but the odds are definitely more favorable of both sides winning in the end (for customers: discounts; for the retailer: highly traceable click results within a targeted revenue trigger).

The Spoils:
Using this Easter egg hunt system, you'll immediately gauge recipient interest to your thoughtfully placed and relevant treasure. The next step is to use JangoMail's key reporting tools to see results in real time. So, you can follow-up as quickly as the responses come in. Then, based upon the report showing those interested enough to "click", those follow-ups can evolve into more customized email outreach based upon the specific needs or interests of any recipient. Your email lists will be tighter, stronger, and lead to more specialized sales or overall engagement. Not to mention, your customers or followers will be pleasantly surprised at the level of personal attention within your communications.

Let's put our minds together
We'd be happy to walk you through. If you have any questions, reach out to our JangoMail support.

Have a great week, everyone!

Lynn PG Dodds · at 3/20/2013 04:08:00 PM

Last year, Twitter users sent over two million Tweets about March college basketball tourneys.

While the 'madness' may not be the highlight of everyone's month, there are times you need to send updates and alerts to large, specialized groups before the buzzer.

Here are some hypotheticals:

You're a coach, and team parents would love to see a video of that miracle play from the big championship game
You're a restauranteur, and you need to get the word out that there will be half-priced mudslides during the Padres' home opener
You're the bracket-master, and lunch is on Glenn in Accounting since he just pulled ahead in points

Forget bulletin boards. JangoMail's email distribution list feature (listserv) is an easy way to get everyone on the same page about brackets, club news, special events and more.

Here's how it works:

Create a master email list, grouping recipients by interest (eg. college basketball fans, mudslide lovers, the Spanish club)
Send one email to your group's master email list (one email to one, all-inclusive email address)
Spark a live, ongoing email discussion. When someone replies, they can reply back to your entire list at once (eg. "This place's mudslides are epic. You should go!")

More good news:

JangoMail lets you track (opens, clicks, responses) to your email campaign in real-time to evaluate the effectiveness of your emails and re-customize, as needed. Bounce-backs and removal-requests are handled automatically. And you can add Facebook and Twitter social share links for even greater reach and viral opportunity.

Don't forget... We do surveys too!

Tie in a quick survey with your regular email campaigns. This is a great way to bring in seasonal events and unite them with your business campaigns. For this time of year, you could throw in things like:

Tell us how many hours of the workday you think your organization's employees or volunteers spend creating and tracking March brackets?
Do you think March bracket office-play increases overall morale?
What is your favorite basketball-watching appetizer?

A little levity, a little fun, and a reason to do a follow up email campaign to keep your brand in front of the customers with your results ... or perhaps have them return to your web site to get the final tally!

Questions?

Did we spring some ideas loose for you? We're here to help. Reach Support for assistance in getting these (or any) features set up!

Thursday, July 11, 2013

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Friday, June 21, 2013

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Wednesday, June 05, 2013

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Thursday, May 09, 2013

Wednesday, May 01, 2013

Friday, April 26, 2013

Question: Are you the manager of the email marketing department at your company?

Grant Your Approval to Send Campaigns...

That was easy.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Thursday, April 18, 2013

8 ways JangoMail gets your emails to the inbox

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Friday, April 05, 2013

Thursday, April 04, 2013

Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

8 ways JangoMail
gets your emails to the inbox