Author Archives: Michael

Recent Updates to the Software 12/5/2011

December 5, 2011, New feature: Landing pages and form builder for Email Marketing. Landing pages and webpages can now be created and stored on the sending server. A built in form builder to build data capture pages. The forms can be embedded into the landing pages or on your own website. The submission data can be viewed inside the system and options to notify via email on new submission.
December 4, 2011, CRM/Lead system autochecking of incoming leads for possible spam/garbage leads. Checks the ip/email address of the lead against a database for spam checking.
December 1, 2011, New feature under Reputation Central option to decode a spam report in case a report is received from a server provider and the email address is stripped out.
November 30, 2011, Added setting under MyAccount to control the default number of items per page. Can be set to either 10,25,50,100,500, or 1000.
November 22, 2011, Added sorting by clicking on column name for View Lists, Campaign Reports and Campaign Status
November 19, 2011, Minor tweaks: Added ability to remove errored lists, and edit errored campaigns which can allow switching of sending profiles. The number of whitelisted credits now displayed when creating whitelisted campaign and whitelisted package size display on the homepage
November 18, 2011, Customize Message Footer option added under System Settings in email marketing. Allows customizing of the layout of the CAN-SPAM footer information for html and text based messages. The system checks that the required elements are included.
November 15, 2011, Added option to view A/B campaign results for subject lines, from names, messages, and from addresses. This feature is located under campaign detail called View Campaign A/B Data and is found near the bottom of that page above the campaign graph.

Software Updates

November 14, 2011, New Campaign type: Create A/B Campaign adds the following extra features: Rotating of subject lines, from names, from addresses and messages. Includes two types of rotation either rotate in order or randomly. We are are also working on detailed reports to show which rotation combination’s are effective.
November 9, 2011, Redid the check domain and ip reputation system. New system is faster no longer have to wait for the page to load completely.
November 6, 2011, Click, View, Conversion logs can now be exported under view campaign detail. Added select image hosting domain button under view image for image hosting.
October 20, 2011, Hotmail/msn/live.com feedback loops now supported. Processes staff@hotmail.com replies.
October 18, 2011, API is now supported for the system. This can be found in the API tab in the software. Over the next couple of weeks we will be adding support for more api calls for the software.

Recent Updates

October 15, 2011, Reputation Central added to email marketing. Is a monitoring system that can watch your ip/domain reputation. The system checks over 250 different blacklists daily. To turn on monitoring for your domains and ip’s visit the domains/ip’s area in the sidebar of email marketing and check them off. Then click on the monitoring button and the system is ready to go.
October 12, 2011, Added another check when campaign is launched to make sure tracking is working correctly. Also friendly error message if an excel file is uploaded to the system and fails advises to convert to csv.
October 1, 2011, Plain text messages now supported along with html in email marketing. To include/edit a plain text message. Click on the edit message and near the top of the html editor is a link to edit the text message portion. Then to use the plain text portion on create campaign there is a checkbox to include it. We also have a default setting to keep it checked under system settings. Also added a messageid header included in every email that is sent out.
September 14, 2011, Reporting accounts. We now have the feature where you can run campaigns inside your main account then have them displayed in a new account with just the reporting of the campaign. Cost is based on each seat/account that is created. Contact your account manager for details.

Updates to our Software

We have been working tirelessly to improve our Email marketing software. Here is a list of features since the last update:

August 1, 2011, New setting under system settings for email marketing called Add Google Analytics Tracking to links which allows you to tie your email marketing campaigns into Google Analytics. Tracking includes the campaignid, email as the medium and the email contact id.
July 30, 2011, Added secure campaign report links. This feature can be used to show a client reporting without having to login. This link is found under view campaign above the campaign log graph. The reporting shows campaign stats. Along with open/clicks in the last 24 hour period and daily clicks/opens report with graphs.
July 29, 2011, All opens are now logged containing the email address and date of the open. This open data along with the click log will be used to generate better reporting features
July 28, 2011, Logging of every campaign link click has been added. Now under view campaign there is a Click Log link. Which shows all the emails that clicked and what link they clicked.
July 23, 2011, Multiple suppression lists now supported on create campaign. Hold the control key and select multiple suppression lists or click and hold
July 20, 2011, Video tutorials have been added under the Support tab for email marketing. We will be expanding them over the coming weeks
Added default campaign sending speed setting under System Settings and added multiple email address unsubscribe under unsubscribe list
Added ReSend campaign option under campaign reports under options button. Loads the settings of a previous campaign into the create campaign page for faster campaign creation

Guest Columns

We have received a recent request to write a guest column. While we are not accepting guest columns, we will gladly take requests for blog post topics into consideration. So if there is a certain topic you would like to see on the blog, leave a comment below and you  might just see it in the future!

You will get credit for coming up with topics.

Feedback Loop

Feedback loop – A Feedback Loop (FBL) is a service for feedback organized by an ISP. If there are complaints being received by the ISP, they will forward the feedback to the source. This usually happens if your high volume email marketing is getting mistaken for spam.

 

Email Marketing Tip

Before sending out your Email marketing Campaign, make sure use spam assassin to rank your Email on a score to determine how likely it is that it will be regarded as spam. The higher the number is, the more likely it is that your Email will be marked as spam. One thing we have become aware of is people putting unnecessary punctuation marks in their Emails. Try not to put any hyphens in your Email header, and never place them in the middle of  a word. This is a sure-fire way to get your Email marked as spam.

The Blog Has A New Look

We hope you are enjoying the new look of the Velocity Marketing Blog. The interface should be a little easier to navigate and a neat header has been added. Let us know what you think.

Additional Features

The other day, we added an “Additional Features” page to the website. We decided it would be a good idea to expand on the Features page so you could get more of an idea of the type of services we offer at Velocity. Also, the Site-Map is a constantly growing resource for the types of terms and phrases you may encounter when working with Email marketing.

Check out the Addition Features page here:

http://www.velocitymarketingsoftware.com/Additional-Features.php

Conversion

Another week is ending here at Velocity so it is time for another casual term that you can use to impress your Email marketing friends.

This week’s term is “Conversion”.

A conversion is when your Email advertisement is received and a recipient performs the desired action. This may include clicking a link, subscribing to your email, or filling out some type of form.

Come back next Friday for another term.