When you choose a bulk e-mail program for your newsletters and other mail alerts, you want to be sure you have access to as much data as possible where your campaigns are concerned. Charting a campaign’s progress goes beyond checking your website’s results – you need to know if the mail you send not only arrives to its intended destination, but is opened and heeded. Here are just a few features of a solid e-mail statistics report:

Bounce Rate: Are all of your e-mails getting to your readers? If you want your sale or news to succeed, you have to know if people are seeing what you have to show them. Your e-mail software should be able to tell you how many recipients are “bouncing”, or coming back to you as undeliverable. You may find your mail experiences hard bounces where the address provided is no good, or soft bounces where a mailbox may be filled to capacity. Knowing this can help you pare your recipient list if needed or check for addresses that are incorrect.

Open Rate: Of the e-mails being delivered, how many are actually opened? A good program will inform you the open rate of each campaign you prepare. As your archive of newsletters grows, you can use the open rate as guideline to determine which campaigns are more successful – by virtue of the sales pitch or perhaps the attention-grabbing subject header – and build future mails from there.

Click-Through Rate: Getting a reader to open your mail is good. Seeing that reader click a link from that mail to your website is better. Your e-mail software should allow you to see not only your click-through rates, but information on which links are clicked. Having this information at your disposal will permit for more focused campaigns that offers your readers what they truly want.

Opt-Out Rate: It’s the nature of the business that as you gain subscribers to your e-mail, you stand to lose some as well. If your e-mail software can provide you the information on how many readers are unsubscribing from your lists, it may be useful in helping you evaluate your e-mail marketing strategies. If you experienced a spike in opt-outs following one particular campaign, it would be handy to have a program that collects the data of the readers so you can follow-up with a feedback survey or free offer.

Once you can keep up with your e-mail campaigns through statistical reporting, you can use the information to improve upon future marketing plans. Take the time to explore the statistics options available to you when you choose your next e-mail software program or provider.

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When shopping for a potential e-mail program, there are a number of features you should check for before making a purchase. Bulk mailing programs may vary according to price and functionality, but ultimately you will find many contain similar basic commands. All the same, it is important to make certain the program you use employs the following abilities:

Multi-address import: If you have a rather long list of e-mails, you know adding them one at a time to a database is tedious. A good e-mail marketing program will allow you to import directly from a file like Word or Excel and let you use fields for names or nicknames if you personalize your letters.

Filtering: As you progress with building your database, you may come upon a number of bad or duplicate mails. A good software should filter out unusable addresses so you can achieve maximum send percentages and minimal bouncing.

HTML and Text capabilities: Not everybody will want to receive graphics-laden HTML news alerts, so you want to be sure to offer a text only alternative. When you upload your newsletters to your program, you will want one that offers a multi-part option, sending HTML and text mails to those who request them.

Test Function: Before you send out that mail to thousands of your subscribers, you want to be certain it looks right first. Viewing your mail as a webpage may not always be a good indicator, so your e-mail program should allow you to send test messages prior to the big send.

Scheduling capabilities: You may not always be at the office when it comes time to send your regular mails. With a scheduling option, you can set emails to launch any time of the day, even if you’re not around. This is a handy tool to have if you plan multiple e-mails to send far in advance.

Tracking: Once the mails are sent, you want to know how effective they are. How many were opened, and how many recipients clicked through to your sites? Choose an e-mail marketing software that gives you this data.

With the proper software, timing, and content, you can create successful e-mail campaigns for your business. Choose the software wisely for smooth delivery of your message every time.

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With every website you own, naturally, you are going to need a corresponding e-mail account so customers can contact you. When you sign on with a website design company for development, it is important to check for a user-friendly, Web accessible e-mail package. Whether you need just one e-mail address or one hundred for your employees, the ability to create the online mailboxes you need to do business. Keeping up with customers via e-mail newsletters and alerts is one of the best ways to strengthen your customer base, but following up is the key to keeping your online presence strong.

Attractive HTML templates, for one, allow for effective e-mail newsletters and opt-in advertising to turn first-time visitors into regular customers. It is important to recognize the need to keep consumers informed about new trends and products and activities involving your business.

Why is Following Up with Website Visitors Important?

It’s a common fact of business: out of sight, out of mind. If your business is not in the forefront of consumer memory, chances are you won’t get much business at all. To build a customer base, and to maintain that customer base, your voice must be heard. Build your brand awareness and maintain visibility, and you will build credibility and trust.

Most website visitors don’t order on the first visit. Not unlike a trip to the mall, consumers like to comparison shop online. You may find you have good traffic but low sales after your site’s launch; more than likely people are checking out your prices before moving onto competing sites for comparison. Here presents a good opportunity to capture visitors on site with an alert to sign up for e-mail discounts and sales. Keeping in touch with new visitors can turn them into repeat visitors.

Visitors won’t know enough about your offer to order during the first visit. Despite all assurances of security and protection from fraud and identity theft, online shoppers may still exhibit some skittishness when dealing with a new retailer. Companies like Amazon.com do well in e-commerce, yes, because they are established brands that have built trusting relationships with customers over the years. Of course, Amazon.com started small, like any other business, but managed to rise to prominence as an e-commerce force, eventually gaining partners in established companies like Toys ‘R Us.

E-mail marketing helps establish the trust you need to secure business. Create a professional news alert or regular newsletter to highlight your expertise and knowledge. Opt-in advertising means the consumer wants to know what you have to say, so wow them with an eye-catching campaign.

The bottom line is: if you don’t ask your website visitors to opt-in to e-mail alerts when they visit, and if you don’t follow up with them or send a newsletter, you are losing a significant volume of sales. Experts have shown that it often takes seven or more marketing exposures before prospective customers purchase.

Kathryn Lively works for CINIVA Systems, a Virginia Beach website design company.

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These days, it seems you have to do more than just launch a website to attract potential readers, customers, and devotees. As technology progresses and allows the Internet to become more interactive, website owners strive to keep up with the times. Browse your favorite websites today, and you will definitely notice the changes since you first visited them a few years ago.

You may find now a favorite website offers an RSS feed, so you can subscribe to certain articles or news. Some sites might release a regular podcast of information. A music group, for example, can now provide entire songs for listening enjoyment rather than ten-second clips. Message boards, chat rooms, and social networking options allow for more interactivity with site visitors. Yet for a site that does not require so many bells and whistles there is still a way to keep in touch and remain effective in marketing. A well-designed, opt-in e-mail newsletter is just the ticket for the small business, book author, or consultant who seeks to expand reach.

If you enjoy writing, then creating a monthly or twice-monthly newsletter to send to regular visitors will provide you with a strong creative outlet for your skills. More than that, it enhances a personal voice that may not always be detected on your website. There are many advantages to offering visitors to opt-in to regular e-mail correspondence:

E-Mail Newsletters Are Fun! Like writing a lively letter to your grandmother, or addressing a multitude of admirers, the e-mail newsletter allows you to create an endearing persona for the purpose of marketing your books, music, or products. Fill your newsletter with personal anecdotes about your business or writing, brief histories of how you came up with your best ideas, or inspirational vignettes for your readers to live by.

If your website sells cookies, share a recipe. If you are a novelist, talk about a recent book signing or write about another author you admire. If you are a consultant, talk about what motivates you to help others. Taking the time to write one newsletter a month of quality content can work wonders for your site’s traffic.

E-Mail Newsletters Are Inexpensive! Unlike hard copy newsletters, which can become costly with production and postage expenses, the e-mail newsletter takes only the time to write, edit, and distribute. Whether you wish to create one in text or using an HTML template, you can find a suitable text editor like Notepad or HTML editor freeware to create your masterpiece. Distribution is a snap, too, when you utilize a third party site specializing in such communications. Yahoo Groups, for example, allows users to set newsletter options, so you can collect e-mails and send your newsletters out with one click of the mouse. If you are looking for something more professional to suit a business, a quick Internet search will lead you to helpful freeware or shareware designed to handle bulk mailings. The simple act of setting up a script on your website (and tutorials for this sort of thing are available online) to allow visitors to opt into an e-mail newsletter can be a boon for your Web enterprise.

E-Mail Newsletters sell! The personal touch and genial quality of a newsletter can enhance your products, books, and services. Let the content you create for site visitors draw them into the finer, unique attributes of what you have to offer. A consultant may wish to include stories of how his/her expertise led to great success for clients, while a book author can share fan mail from readers about how his/her book was an inspiration. What is so special about your book, your music, your products that people have to have them? Flesh out the finer points for copy that not only entertains, but sells, too.

In addition to your own items, offering a newsletter increases your opportunity to earn income in other ways. If you are familiar with Internet affiliate programs, you will know that many companies that affiliate offer creative and affiliate links designed especially for e-mail marketing.

Let’s say you write a monthly newsletter about your mystery novels. By joining affiliate programs of national bookstore chains, you can advertise your book for sale through these outlets and provide readers with the affiliated URLs. As readers buy your books after clicking through these links, you get the royalty AND the affiliate fee associated with the link. But it doesn’t have to stop there. Say your mystery novels are centered around a particular theme, perhaps your sleuth is a pastry chef. You can join affiliated programs associated with products your sleuth might use. Mix up the links with some compelling content and your simple newsletter is a potential moneymaker!

Yet, it doesn’t happen overnight. To win readers, you have to dedicate yourself to writing the content and enticing first-time subscribers to become regular customers. More importantly, have fun with the newsletter. Make readers feel at home with your style, and they will want to keep coming to see what more you have to say.

Kathryn A. Lively is a freelance writer specializing in search engine optimization and social media optimization. She also assists with Virginia Beach website design.

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