Monday, 16 September 2013
Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions & Answers
Labels:
advice
,
email marketing
,
FAQ
,
why email marketing?
We have teamed up with our sales and support staff to cover the most frequently asked questions and the all-important answers given. Hopefully the questions and answers displayed below will help you with any unanswered questions you may have, so without any further delay let's get started:
1) Q: Why should I use an Email Service Provider?
A: An email service provider such as ourselves makes life for you a lot easier in terms of email marketing; by using our service you can send bulk emails to thousands of people without any issues. We send the emails through our trusted IP addresses so our delivery team will ensure they are delivered on time and without any issues. Of course once the emails have been delivered we then use well known tracking methods so you can obtain details of those opening, clicking, forwarding and socially sharing your emails. We also provide lots of advanced features which include list clean up tool, auto-responders, segmentation, a/b testing, social sharing and many more.
2) Q: Can I use a bought mailing list?
A: We often get asked if people can use bought lists purely because there are lots of companies out there that offer this. Unfortunately many people buy a list without checking if they can use them. So when they come to an Email Service Provider like ourselves, they then find out they cannot use that list. There are many reasons you cannot use a bought list however the main ones are because those on the list have not specifically opted-in to receive emails from you and you don’t have any way to know exactly how the addresses have been collected. With that in mind the addresses could be harvested from websites, fake addresses and those that are no longer used all of which can cause serious repercussions.
3) Q: How can I obtain more subscribers?
A: As you cannot use a bought list, the next question we often hear is how can I obtain more subscribers? Although it is not as quick as buying a list there are many legitimate ways to increase your mailing list such as adding subscription forms on your website, using a forward to a friend link, always including a subscribe link, sharing your emails on Facebook & Twitter and more. For a full list of how to obtain more subscribers I suggest you download our free “Growing Your Mailing List” check list by clicking here.
4) Q: How can I increase my open & click-through rate?
A: This is simple, we offer many advanced features within your GraphicMail account that can help you gain more opens and clicks. The best features to use to achieve a better open and click-through rate are the A/B Testing and Segmentation features. The A/B testing feature allows you to conduct tests such as send different email designs or subject lines to a section of your mailing list and once a winner has been confirmed (the email or subject line that gained the most opens or clicks) it will then be sent to the rest of your mailing list. The second feature you should use is our Segmentation tool as that allows you to use the information you have stored about your subscribers to create more targeted groups. Once the segmented groups have been created, you can then adapt your emails specifically for that target audience. For more details I suggest you join our “Increase your open & click-through rate” webinar or download our White Paper by clicking here.
5) Q: What are the differences between your unlimited send and unlimited contact plans?
A: We have 2 types of monthly subscriptions, the first is our Unlimited Send plans which are based on contacts (email addresses). With that account type you will be limited to the amount of contacts you can import and delete as you can only delete hard bounced and unsubscribed email addresses. However you can send to those contacts up to once a day for no extra charge. The second account type we offer is our Unlimited Contact plan which is based on the amount of emails you send each month. On that plan you can import and delete as many email addresses as you would like however you will be allocated a specific amount of send credits (a send credit is an email sent).
6) Q: Is there a setup fee or a fixed contract?
A: There are no setup fee’s and there are no fixed contracts, when signing up for an account with GraphicMail we prefer to allow our customers to have full control of their account as they can upgrade, downgrade or even cancel as and when they would like as we know our client's email marketing requirements can often change. You will only pay for the monthly subscription you are signed up to which starts as low as £9.95+VAT, to see all of our price plans just click here.
7) Q: What do the different types of bounced emails mean?
A: There are 2 types of bounced emails, the first is a soft bounce which is used when an email is sent to an active email address however it cannot be delivered purely because the inbox is full. After a number of attempts our system will assign it as a Soft bounce, “Mailbox Full”. The second type of bounce is a Hard Bounce, there are a number of categories that are used to identify the type of Hard Bounce a particular email address has encountered.
The categories used are:
A: There are 4 ways for you to import your email addresses into your account, the first is to import them from an online account such as Gmail or Yahoo, you can also copy and paste (or type) the email addresses into the list, alternatively you can simply import them via an Excel spread sheet and the final option is to Sync your cloud applications with GraphicMail using OneSaas.
The most used option is importing your list via an excel spread sheet as that allows you to import your email addresses and all of the information you have about your subscribers in one go. When importing via an excel spread sheet it is best to keep all of your email addresses in 1 column, ensure you only have the information you actually need about your subscribers (you can use up to 25 columns) and finally save the excel spread sheet as a CSV (comma delimited) file type as that will import the list very quickly.
9) Q: How can I get my account verified so I can send?
A: We have a system in place which automatically checks all of the email addresses each account imports, the system will then verify the account if valid. If the account needs further checks then it will notify our verification team who will then manually review your account as soon as possible. If you would prefer to have your account checked sooner then you can contact our support team via email, live chat support or call us on 0191 5004114 and they will ask for your account to be reviewed quicker.
10) Q: Why does the number of email addresses decrease when I go to send?
A: The reason the number of email addresses within your mailing list decreases when you go to send to it is because our system will automatically remove any Hard Bounced and Unsubscribed email addresses from your list. They will simply be noted as “HB – (Hard Bounced)” and “U – (Unsubscribed)” so you can clearly identify how many hard bounced and unsubscribed email addresses you have within your list. There will always be an option to remove the hard bounced and unsubscribed email addresses from your list so it is best practice to remove them, however if you would prefer to keep them in the mailing list then that is not a problem as our system will automatically remove them for you.
We hope this information has helped you, however if you have any specific questions that weren't covered then please don't hesitate to contact us via email, live chat (available at the top of our home page), or call us on 0191 500 4114.
Read More
1) Q: Why should I use an Email Service Provider?
A: An email service provider such as ourselves makes life for you a lot easier in terms of email marketing; by using our service you can send bulk emails to thousands of people without any issues. We send the emails through our trusted IP addresses so our delivery team will ensure they are delivered on time and without any issues. Of course once the emails have been delivered we then use well known tracking methods so you can obtain details of those opening, clicking, forwarding and socially sharing your emails. We also provide lots of advanced features which include list clean up tool, auto-responders, segmentation, a/b testing, social sharing and many more.
2) Q: Can I use a bought mailing list?
A: We often get asked if people can use bought lists purely because there are lots of companies out there that offer this. Unfortunately many people buy a list without checking if they can use them. So when they come to an Email Service Provider like ourselves, they then find out they cannot use that list. There are many reasons you cannot use a bought list however the main ones are because those on the list have not specifically opted-in to receive emails from you and you don’t have any way to know exactly how the addresses have been collected. With that in mind the addresses could be harvested from websites, fake addresses and those that are no longer used all of which can cause serious repercussions.
3) Q: How can I obtain more subscribers?
A: As you cannot use a bought list, the next question we often hear is how can I obtain more subscribers? Although it is not as quick as buying a list there are many legitimate ways to increase your mailing list such as adding subscription forms on your website, using a forward to a friend link, always including a subscribe link, sharing your emails on Facebook & Twitter and more. For a full list of how to obtain more subscribers I suggest you download our free “Growing Your Mailing List” check list by clicking here.
4) Q: How can I increase my open & click-through rate?
A: This is simple, we offer many advanced features within your GraphicMail account that can help you gain more opens and clicks. The best features to use to achieve a better open and click-through rate are the A/B Testing and Segmentation features. The A/B testing feature allows you to conduct tests such as send different email designs or subject lines to a section of your mailing list and once a winner has been confirmed (the email or subject line that gained the most opens or clicks) it will then be sent to the rest of your mailing list. The second feature you should use is our Segmentation tool as that allows you to use the information you have stored about your subscribers to create more targeted groups. Once the segmented groups have been created, you can then adapt your emails specifically for that target audience. For more details I suggest you join our “Increase your open & click-through rate” webinar or download our White Paper by clicking here.
5) Q: What are the differences between your unlimited send and unlimited contact plans?
A: We have 2 types of monthly subscriptions, the first is our Unlimited Send plans which are based on contacts (email addresses). With that account type you will be limited to the amount of contacts you can import and delete as you can only delete hard bounced and unsubscribed email addresses. However you can send to those contacts up to once a day for no extra charge. The second account type we offer is our Unlimited Contact plan which is based on the amount of emails you send each month. On that plan you can import and delete as many email addresses as you would like however you will be allocated a specific amount of send credits (a send credit is an email sent).
6) Q: Is there a setup fee or a fixed contract?
A: There are no setup fee’s and there are no fixed contracts, when signing up for an account with GraphicMail we prefer to allow our customers to have full control of their account as they can upgrade, downgrade or even cancel as and when they would like as we know our client's email marketing requirements can often change. You will only pay for the monthly subscription you are signed up to which starts as low as £9.95+VAT, to see all of our price plans just click here.
7) Q: What do the different types of bounced emails mean?
A: There are 2 types of bounced emails, the first is a soft bounce which is used when an email is sent to an active email address however it cannot be delivered purely because the inbox is full. After a number of attempts our system will assign it as a Soft bounce, “Mailbox Full”. The second type of bounce is a Hard Bounce, there are a number of categories that are used to identify the type of Hard Bounce a particular email address has encountered.
The categories used are:
- User Unknown – This means the email address is either spelt incorrectly or it does not exist.
- Domain Unknown – This means the email address is either spelt incorrectly or the domain (@mydomain.co.uk) does not exist which means any other email addresses using that domain will also be bounced.
- Spam Trapped – This means the email addresses has not been used for a long time and therefore it has now been used to catch people trying to send to it. As those that use the email address know it has not been used for a long time and should not be sent to they can use it as a trap to see who is sending to it as they are likely spamming and have not obtained the email address in a correct manner.
- Other – This means the email address is active and spelt correctly however the email could not be delivered due to an unknown reason that is not covered within the other categories available. As it is not covered in any of the above categories it will be noted as “Other”.
A: There are 4 ways for you to import your email addresses into your account, the first is to import them from an online account such as Gmail or Yahoo, you can also copy and paste (or type) the email addresses into the list, alternatively you can simply import them via an Excel spread sheet and the final option is to Sync your cloud applications with GraphicMail using OneSaas.
The most used option is importing your list via an excel spread sheet as that allows you to import your email addresses and all of the information you have about your subscribers in one go. When importing via an excel spread sheet it is best to keep all of your email addresses in 1 column, ensure you only have the information you actually need about your subscribers (you can use up to 25 columns) and finally save the excel spread sheet as a CSV (comma delimited) file type as that will import the list very quickly.
9) Q: How can I get my account verified so I can send?
A: We have a system in place which automatically checks all of the email addresses each account imports, the system will then verify the account if valid. If the account needs further checks then it will notify our verification team who will then manually review your account as soon as possible. If you would prefer to have your account checked sooner then you can contact our support team via email, live chat support or call us on 0191 5004114 and they will ask for your account to be reviewed quicker.
10) Q: Why does the number of email addresses decrease when I go to send?
A: The reason the number of email addresses within your mailing list decreases when you go to send to it is because our system will automatically remove any Hard Bounced and Unsubscribed email addresses from your list. They will simply be noted as “HB – (Hard Bounced)” and “U – (Unsubscribed)” so you can clearly identify how many hard bounced and unsubscribed email addresses you have within your list. There will always be an option to remove the hard bounced and unsubscribed email addresses from your list so it is best practice to remove them, however if you would prefer to keep them in the mailing list then that is not a problem as our system will automatically remove them for you.
We hope this information has helped you, however if you have any specific questions that weren't covered then please don't hesitate to contact us via email, live chat (available at the top of our home page), or call us on 0191 500 4114.
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