Listrak: One To One Newsletter
"One to One" discusses email marketing intelligence and best practices for permission-based marketers. Each edition explores aspects of response-based modeling, segmentation, real-time reporting, testing, and message composition.
In this issue we look at the latest on sender authentication, discover Listrak’s newest features, find out how to get a $50 credit on your next invoice, and learn what makes a confirmed double opt-in subscription model work for The Total View.
Sender Authentication - What You Need to Know
If you have been following the headlines related to email marketing this summer you are well aware that authenticated sender technologies are the latest buzz. If you’ve been spending more time in the sun than by your PC (I can’t blame you!) my article will help to bring you up to speed with what you need to know.
Both the Federal Government and ISP community have been busy setting standards and making recommendations for how we will curb the global spam problem. On June 15 th the FTC recommended to Congress that a national “do-not-email list” would not be an effective tool for reducing spam and might make the problem even worse. Instead, they recommended that the anti-spam community focus on authentication technologies.
While several technologies exist, the most favored appears to be Sender Policy Framework (SPF). SPF helps to eliminate spam by verifying the origin of a piece of email through the Internet’s built-in DNS system. SPF helps fight email address forgery, makes it easier to identify spam, worms, and viruses and assists ISPs in distinguishing legitimate mail from spam - ultimately helping to get your messages through.
The most important information for Listrak customers to be aware of is that AOL will be implementing SPF this summer. They have announced that in order to maintain whitelist status with them you must publish your SPF records. Many other ISPs either have or will be announcing similar policies in the coming months.
The good news is that publishing your SPF records is both painless and fairly simple. To help you through this process we have published a whitepaper that explains everything you need to know.
Listrak’s SPF whitepaper is available here.
From all of us here at Listrak, have a great 4th of July Holiday!
Regards,
Ross Kramer
President, Listrak
Tech Know
We have rolled out several new features within the past few weeks. Below you will find descriptions of our latest new features.
Global Suppression System
The Listrak Suppression List system will allow Listrak administrators to create Suppression Lists and then link those Suppression Lists to normal Listrak lists. This feature will assist you in complying with the CAN SPAM Act.
With the new features of the Global Suppression system you will be able to:
- Create one or more suppression lists
- Bind different suppression lists to normal Listrak lists
- Import email addresses into suppression lists using the Import Wizard
- Export suppression lists using the Export Wizard
- View report of all email addresses on a suppression list
- Manually add/delete entries to and from a suppression list
XML API Enhancements
Listrak has added several enhancements to the existing XML API. Listrak customers that need to interface their own applications with Listrak now have even more options. The following new features are available within the XML API:
- Get and set profile attributes via XML
- Manage profiling database (create/delete/modify) profiling attributes
- All reports available via XML
Enhanced Segmentation Engine
We enhanced our segmentation engine to allow Listrak customers to use Boolean expressions in their segmentation criteria. Using profiling fields within Listrak you can create segments of users that can be compared with other segments of users using AND, OR, NOT logic.
No Track Feature
For Listrak customers that want to disable tracking for certain links within their campaign we have created a new No Track tag.
We Love Referrals
3 ways to help a business associate become a Listrak customer and get a $50 credit on your next invoice!
- Have your business associate call Listrak on 717-627-4528 ext 308, we’ll do the rest! Be sure to have them mention your business’ name.
- Have your business associate visit www.listrak.com to set up a 30 day demo account and take Listrak for a test drive. Be sure to have them mention your business’ name in the comments area.
- Call us at 717-627-4528 ext 308 and provide a contact name and phone number of the business you think could benefit from using Listrak for its email communication.
Client Spotlight
The Total View is an email newsletter written and published weekly by Ira S. Wolfe, founder of Success Performance Solutions. Total view subscribers have described it as "the best newsletter", "innovative", "practical", "real-life", and "humorous".
Topics include business ethics, leadership effectiveness, personality testing, employee motivation, behavioral interviewing, managerial effectiveness and more.
While the content contained in this newsletter is stellar, our spotlight today focuses on the best practices for a double opt-in confirmation email. We feel the confirmation email as the “least used tool in an email marketer’s toolbox.” Whether you are running a double opt-in or single opt-in list, the confirmation email can always serve as an effective tool for getting attention, helping deliverability and overall aiding to the success of your email marketing efforts.
The Total View email newsletter uses a confirmed double opt-in subscription model. Their opt-in confirmation email uses a best practices model as they are using our URL Branding feature that displays their full URL in the confirmation link, versus the cryptic lt01.net URL.
The opt-in confirmation email contains two additional best practices elements:
- Call to action to add The Total View email address to the recipients’ accepted senders list or personal whitelist.
- Publisher Ira S. Wolfe has authored two books and offers an upsell to purchase the books at the bottom of each opt-in confirmation message. Thanks to Listrak’s ability to track click-throughs from opt-in confirmation messages, Ira can track the success of these links.
For more information or to subscribe to this publication, please visit http://www.super-solutions.com
