Friday, 28 February 2014

Module 1: DKIM & SPF Records

Posted by Unknown at 9:36 am Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
These types of abbreviations and acronyms are all well and good to tech-types and cyber geeks, but what do they really mean and will they be of any benefit to you, the user?

The answer simply is....YES!

Although these sound like jargon and ‘far too techie for me’ they are quite simple to implement and can give a great increase to your deliverability and open rates – potentially increasing your ROI1 (oops there we go again! But at least we’ve created a legend at the bottom to assist with these necessary Jargons)

The Sender ID, most commonly known as an SPF2 record, is a record that you can add to your DNS3 which will tell the receiving ISP4 that “xyz.com” can send emails on behalf of your domain. The SPF is supported by large ISP’s including Windows Live Mail and AOL5 among others and has been designed to prevent spam emails by detecting email spoofing, a common vulnerability, by verifying sender IP addresses6.

DKIM7 / Domain Keys send a public key along with every email we send out. That public key is matched with a private key stored on your domain which is then verified and confirms we can send emails on your behalf. Our DKIM record is also supported by large ISP’s such as Yahoo Mail, Gmail and many more email clients. Without these keys some emails may be wrongly identified as spam as this is a common trick used by spammers to have their emails read, by pretending to be someone they aren’t. Such as a group of people in Nigeria pretending to be Paypal to obtain your username and password.

That’s the end of the Jargon, now here’s the explanations ...

1ROI: Stands for Return On Investment
2SPF: Sender Policy Framework is an email validation system designed to prevent email spam by detecting email spoofing, a common vulnerability, by verifying sender IP addresses.
3DNS: Stands for the Domain Name System. The DNS records tell the internet where to send your internet traffic.
4ISP: Internet service provider is a company that offers internet access and related services to its clients.
5AOL: Stands for America Online, an internet service provider
6IP address: Internet Protocol is a unique string of numbers separated by full stops that identifies each computer using the Internet Protocol to communicate over a network.
7DKIM: Domain Keys Identified Mail defines a domain-level authentication framework for email using public-key cryptography and key server technology to permit verification of the source and contents of messages by either Mail Transfer Agents (MTAs) or Mail User Agents (MUAs)
SPAM: Irrelevant or unsolicited messages sent over the Internet, typically to large numbers of users, for the purposes of advertising, phishing, spreading malware, etc.

We can help you generate these keys which you will need to add to your DNS record. You also have the chance to generate them yourself and add them into your GraphicMail paying account. Using both of these features will help you  to ensure successful delivery of your email, so you won’t need to worry about your emails landing in your recipient’s junk mail or not being received at all.
If you find these advanced features could be of a benefit to your email delivery, you can use the steps provided below to set them up.

Setting up your SPF record:
In the “Advanced Mail” section of your account, go to “Setup & Option” >> “Advanced Setting”
Expand the “SPF records / Sender ID” option >> Insert your email domain into the space provided and press “Generate SPF records”

Setting up your DKIM record:
In the “Advanced Mail” section of your account, go to “Setup & Option” >> “Advanced Setting”
If you are using our system to generate this for you, expand the option “DKIM/ Domain Keys” >> Insert your email domain and press “Generate DKIM record”

If you would like any further information on the DKIM & SPF record you can also view our Help Guide provided in all GraphicMail Accounts.



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Thursday, 27 February 2014

Creating a survey within your emails

Posted by Unknown at 3:06 pm Labels: , , , , , ,
Surveys, polls and questionnaires can be a very beneficial way to collect your customer’s feedback in an efficient and quick way in order to provide them with the information they require.

Creating a questionnaire is much more than asking a few questions. Attaching a survey or poll within your email is a low-cost practice that can provide you with lots of information about your readers and their interest.

The first thing you need to look at is creating a reduced number of questions that can provide you with as much information as possible about your targets for you to segment your lists and get the most of your email marketing campaigns.

Your next decision will be whether you want to develop an opened or closed survey. An open survey includes questions that provide your subscribers with the chance of writing their own responses, while a closed questionnaire will provide a range of short answers for your recipients to choose from. Obviously the first type will help you to collect more detailed information, however, in most of the cases the readers do not have enough time to respond these type of questions or do not know what to state and therefore they might regret answering the poll. This is the reason why the idea of the closed questions is a better choice for collecting the information needed as it less time consuming and provides predefined answers.

Once you have decided the type of questions you want your survey to display, it’s time to think of the perfect words and answers. If we choose the closed - question option, in order to achieve specific information that can be of a benefit for you. You need to design an easy and attractive form in order to grab your recipient’s attention and collect as much information as possible.
Once you know how to do it, it’s time to get started and place a survey within your newsletters.

The best way to present a survey that works in every email client is to add a link in your newsletter and redirect the recipients to an external software. By doing it this way you will ensure that all your data is collected, submitted and stored in the correct format for you to have access to the information.

Finally, now that you have collected all the information you will be able to understand what your subscribers want to read and provide them with it, gaining engagement and a solid brand image.
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Wednesday, 26 February 2014

What your subscribers want to read

Posted by Unknown at 12:33 pm Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,
The best way to get the most out of your Email, Mobile and Social Marketing is to know exactly what your subscribers want to read. By doing this you will be able to provide your customers with the content they are interested in or need.

In order to achieve this you must have as much information as possible about them. You can collect this information using different strategies. Here are some ideas:

•    Send out a survey. Providing your subscribers with a survey allows you to collect more specific information about them. You can then Segment your subscribers into separate lists so you can give them the information they want to read.
•    Analyse your subscriber’s behaviour. You can create this analysis by accessing our Report & Statistics feature within your GraphicMail account as it will provide you with a fully detailed report of your Open & Click through rate, social and more.
•    Request feedback from your recipients by adding buttons into your email. For instance you could ask if the email was useful or if they would like to receive further information about a different product.
•    Use our A/B Testing tool provided in your account. This tool can help you to test different versions of your email at once and see which has the best response within your subscribers. You can test this on different types of content you have in your email or the different Subject Line you use.

When following these ideas you will then be able to grow engagement and loyalty with all of your customers which in retrun will help the growth, sales and development of your brands reputation.
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Tuesday, 25 February 2014

Inbox Preview: Making the perfect newsletter

Posted by Unknown at 12:03 pm Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,
GraphicMail has a range of great features for you to get the most from your email marketing campaigns such as A/B Testing, Segmentation, Autoresponders among others. One of the most beneficial features we provide within the GraphicMail account is the Inbox Preview tool.

Our Inbox Preview tool allows you to see how your newsletter will look in over 14 different email clients. As a result of showing you this before sending, you can make all relevant changes to your email to ensure it looks as perfect as it can be within all inbox’s.

This feature is available to all current users and all new clients looking to progress in Email Marketing with a GraphicMail paying account.

The main advantages of using the Inbox Preview tool are:
• View your email in over 14 different email clients before sending.
• Make all necessary changes to your email.
• Using the inbox preview tool allows your email to be the best it can be

Using the inbox preview tool is really simple. You will only need to click Inbox preview located in the “Advanced Mail” section under “Send”. Once you have accessed the inbox preview tool you can then select the option “New Preview”, provide a name for your preview and wait for your email to populate within the different email clients as the picture below shows.




Ensuring your newsletters displays perfectly in all email clients can help you to improve your click through rate. By doing this, your brand will gain reputation and you will be able to grow your customer’s loyalty.
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Monday, 24 February 2014

How to determine your target audience

Posted by Unknown at 11:19 am Labels: , , , , , ,
When planning your marketing campaigns you should always keep in mind who you would like to deliver your information to. In order to get the most from your marketing efforts you should focus on your target audience.

But, what is a target audience? The expression refers to a specific group of people with certain characteristics who your product will be aimed at.
Choosing your target audience might not be easy, but it will be worth it as it will help you to direct your communications in the right way. Here are some tips:

1.      Think who your product can be of a benefit to and concentrate on them.
2.      Research and collect as much information as possible about your potential clients. A good idea is to create a customer profile with all the details collected. This can help you to discover what interests they have, their needs, where you can find them, the websites they visit and the social media networks they use.
3.      Add keywords and tags they might use to find information. You can also check your competitor's performance as they will likely have a similar target audience and this can give you ideas to improve your own performance.
4.      Speak to your audience using their tone and language. Try to use the words they would use. For example, if your sell computer products use technical terms they would use and understand.
5.      Listen to your audience. Clients will always provide feedback even if they don’t say anything. To ask them questions, make polls, surveys and participate in forums can be a great way to gain feedback.

Finally, ask yourself the following questions:
Who is my audience?
What do they need?
Where do they browse?
What questions might they have?
What do you need to say in order to catch their attention?

By focusing your communication to a specific group it will give you the option to concentrate the majority of your efforts to those who are more likely to become a client and therefore who will find the information you are providing useful.

In addition, with the features available within your GraphicMail account, you will be able to use the segmentation tool to drive your email marketing campaigns to specific groups according to their preferences and characteristics.

If you follow these steps you will be able to catch their attention and therefore your sales opportunity will increase.
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