Monthly Archive for October, 2009

Page 2 of 3

FREE Halloween HTML Email Templates

Published on October 16, 2009 in Sendblaster, Templates and Tools. 4 Comments Tags: free html templates, halloween, Sendblaster.

Pumpkins, ghosts, zombies, skulls…yep, it’s Halloween again! And this year we want to celebrate it with you.
Our designers have just created some great looking FREE templates to celebrate the scariest and funniest holiday of the year. You can grab our Halloween HTML Email Templates and use them for your Halloween emails. Feel free to modify them, add pictures, icons, change fonts, etc.

A BIG thanks to: Cruciald – Garnettrules – Lethorgius

How to use Halloween HTML email templates:
Download Halloween email template pack (zip)
Extract .eml files and copy them in C:/Programs/Sendblaster/Template
Open SendBlaster (or download it HERE)
Select “Compose message”
Click on “Choose template”
Choose your favorite Halloween template

..and finally enjoy your Halloween email (BOO!)

Gmail Feature Aims to Save Email Embarrassment

Published on October 14, 2009 in News. 0 Comments Tags: email features, gmail, google, google labs.

500x_wrong_bob_big Sometimes it happens to send an email to the wrong person. Now Google tries to help users of Gmail with a brand new feature dubbed Got the wrong Bob?. It’s an alert that notices when there are similar names in your address book and asks you to confirm that the recipient named in the email is in fact the correct one.

The “Got the wrong Bob?” feature looks at the groups of people you email most often and then identifies when you’ve accidentally included the wrong person — before it’s too late.

According to Gmail’s Ari Leichtberg, Software Engineer, and Yossi Matias, Head of Israel Engineering Center, ”if you normally email Bob Smith together with Tim and Angela, but this time you added Bob Jones instead, we’ll warn you that it might be a mistake.”

It works only if you are sending an email to multiple people.

For Gmail users: to enable “Got the wrong Bob?” just head to the Labs settings page, then save your changes.
And enjoy!

Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Published on October 12, 2009 in Tips & tricks. 1 Comment Tags: email marketing, mistakes.

Email Marketing Mistakes Email Marketing can be an easy method to build relationships with your customers, increase traffic and sales. But do you handle it correctly? Let’s take a look at some bad habits that “beginners” and “pros” make when they get into email marketing.
Here are some common errors to avoid.

Sending without permission
It is very important to follow all spam rules and regulations. If you want to run an email marketing campaign, you must have permission from every single one of your recipients. And you must offer a way for recipients to unsubscribe of your mailings.

Poor From/Subject lines
Your readers will decide weather to open or ignore your emails in few seconds. It’s important that your Form fields include your company name or website address (not your name). As regards subject lines make them short (6-8 words long) and relevant. Avoid generic lines such as “50% off now”.

Unclear call to action
If you want to get a result from your campaigns you need a clear call to action. Do your readers should visit your website? Buy something? Share or publish their comments?

Continue reading ‘Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid’

13 HTML Email Tips

Published on October 9, 2009 in Tips & tricks. 0 Comments Tags: html emails, tips.

Every time you create a new HTML email you should check that it works properly across email clients and platforms. In this post we’ve listed a couple of “golden rules” regarding html emails. Do you already follow them?

Keep your HTML emails no larger than 650 pixels wide.

E-mails file size around 50 kilobytes. Not larger than 100 kilobytes.

Do not try to use CSS. They do not render properly in emails: we recommend using INLINE styles.

Use ALT Tags for images, most email clients do not show images when the email loads in the preview pane.

Include a web link to read your email online.

Don’t send Image only emails. Spam filters could flag them as spam.

Use simple and bold headlines: a clear “Call to Action” can grab your readers’ attention.

Continue reading ’13 HTML Email Tips’

No-reply@ = No conversations

Published on October 7, 2009 in General and Tips & tricks. 0 Comments Tags: email addresses, social media.

What contradiction! Many companies keep using a no-reply email address for their email marketing campaigns and then ask you to “Get Social” on Facebook and Twitter.

The no-reply@ addresses represent an old (and rude) practice that should be abandoned. Email marketing is, first of all, an effective way to build a relationship with your customers. So, if you have a no-reply address, it means that you really don’t want to talk to your subscribers (and potential clients). It’s a matter of credibility!

The best solution is to use your valid email address. If you do not want to receive the replies to your personal account, then use rules to filter out those messages or set up a new inbox and check it regularly.

We are living the age of Social Media. You should create response and help move the customer from awareness to interest and get them ready to hand over to sales.

Do You Care About Bounces? Spammers Don’t

Published on October 5, 2009 in Sendblaster and Tips & tricks. 3 Comments Tags: deliverability, hard bounces, isp, Sendblaster, soft bounces.

How many email addresses in your lists are invalid or not reachable?
Nowadays a clean list is a must. If your list contains a significant number of invalid e-mail addresses, the ISPs may think you are trying to spam and stop delivering your e-mails. Let’s see how to increase deliverability managing bounce-backs with SendBlaster.
First, let’s define them. There are two main types of bounce-backs:
Hard bounces: the e-mail message could not be delivered because the recipient’s address is invalid (domain name or host doesn’t exist, the recipient it unknown). These errors indicate a permanent problem.
Soft bounces: the email message reaches the recipient mail server but not the recipient (recipient’s mailbox is full, server is temporarily down, message is too long). These errors are generally temporary. Most email service providers will attempt to deliver the email message for a few days. If it is still undelivered, it becomes a hard bounce.

Continue reading ‘Do You Care About Bounces? Spammers Don’t’

Final Beta is out!

Published on October 5, 2009 in Sendblaster. 0 Comments Tags: sendblaster 2.

SendBlaster 2

SendBlaster users, the wait is almost over! We’re now a few days away from the big launch of SendBlaster 2!
As previously claimed we’ve just released a new beta, and we expect it to be the final beta before the official release.
If you want to discover all the new features and share your feedbacks with our dev team join our collaborative board: version beta 2.0.28 is available for download.
In the meantime our staff is working hard for writing help, docs and new tutorials. Don’t miss our next updates!