E-MAIL BLASTING: Get Whitelisted or You’re Blast is Wasted!

It looks like you can’t count on people opting-in to your list as enough permission these days. The latest anti-spam tactics can prevent your mail from getting through because you are not known to the recipient.

Here’s our latest tip on how to ensure your e-mail gets through:

Ask subscribers to put your address in their address books. Some e-mail client programs such as AOL 8.0 and Hotmail recently changed their interface to let users sort mail into preferred folders. As people subscribe, ask them to place you in their address book (AOL), safe list (Hotmail) or white list (some spam filters). That way your e-mail goes directly into their inbox.

Asking may be a little trouble, but it may make the difference in recipients seeing your e-mail. You might want to alert new subscribers on your confirmation page (one you display after they sign up) asking them to add your publication/company’s email address to their address book. Repeat these instructions in any confirmation email you send as well.

But there’s more to whitelisting that is going to control what mail AOL users receive. The enhanced whitelist, which AOL plans to introduce in a few weeks, would turn off a feature in the new AOL 9.0 that does not display HTML graphics and links in e-mails from senders not in a user's address book. E-mail marketers complain the feature makes their HTML messages unreadable and hinders their ability to track open rates.

MSN 8.5 blocks e-mails from unknown senders, and its new version of Outlook blocks HTML images in the preview panel.

How Not to Spam

Want to understand what is right kind of relationship you should have not be considered a spammer? What are the best practices? Read this anti-spam pledge put together by the Email Service Provider Coalition (ESPC)

Web marketers are learning a lot these days. If you think the fact that singles have more expendable income makes them bigger shoppers, well Nielsen/Net Ratings says it isn’t so. It seems what singles have more of is time – many spending that time looking for mates on line, while when time-strapped marrieds get online and shop more.

As reported in Imedia’s November 3 Newsletter Nielsen//NetRatings found that married Web surfers make more online purchases than single surfers, but singles spend more time online consuming more page views.

According to the recent Nielsen//NetRatings @Plan Fall 2003 report, 10% more married surfers made an online purchase than was expected as compared to the average. More than 52% of married surfers made an online purchase during the period as compared to 47% of singles making an online purchase.

However, Nielsen//NetRatings found that single surfers spend far more time online than married surfers and consume more page views, based on data compiled from the top ten sites for singles and married surfers. Single surfers spent more than 46 minutes online per month, 70% higher than their married counterparts and visited 113 pages per month, 216% more than married surfers. Among single sites, two of the stickiest sites from home and work were PlanetOut Partners and gay.com with surfers spending more than three hours and nearly five hours at the site, respectively, from home and work.

To read the full press release on these findings go to

At a recent session at AD:TECH, Michael Streefland, vice president of marketing and creative services at iVillage shared one abiding bit of knowledge: Women are busy and use the Internet for solutions -- parenting information, meal planning, product and price comparisons -- for all kinds of products. "They are coming online to find out what they need right now," he added.

When it comes to cosmetics and hair care, Revlon found that women want a place for "creativity and self-expression -- a place to have fun." said Kimberly Lyons, manager of integrated marketing at Revlon.

Also, since 70% of women on the Web are visiting a site for product information, the beauty products company wanted to provide all the help they could to drive customers to the retail store.

For a hair-coloring site, www.highdimensionhair.com, Revlon created a destination where women could experiment and learn so they would feel prepared to buy, Lyons said.

Since some women were experienced with hair color, and others would be first-time experimenters, it was crucial to make it so no one would be disappointed, she said.

One button on the home page was "Your Color Adviser" -- for the novice. A personal questionnaire and a shade chart lead the newcomer into the world of hair coloring to help her choose her shade. Personal stories highlight the margins and there's even a way to send your color choice to a friend for her opinion.

Another button, "Expert Tips" enhances the knowledge of the experienced hair color user. New ideas about hair color, doing away with streaks, color maintenance tips and professional hair color commandments are choices here. At the end, the visitor receives a store recommendation.

The result? "Web site and page views doubled," said Lyons.

(DirectNewsline, 11/04/03)

Latest Resource:
Directory Of Search Engines

This is a page of links to country-specific search engines that makes it easier to find local information in foreign countries. It might turn out to be fertile turf for targeted advertising. If you’re going global, it’s worth checking out.

(mentioned in FITA newsletter, 11/ 19/03)