Tips for the most effective email marketing

Email list rentals are an effective way to reach out to new prospects.  However there are many differences from traditional postal direct marketing.  

From our experience managing multiple email campaigns for our customers, we have assembled some points of interest for you: 

1. When you rent an email list, you are not sent the names and email addresses like you would for a postal campaign.  Instead the list provider does the deployment on your behalf.
2. When deciding between lists, you should ensure the list is at minimum opt-in or preferably double-opt in.  Opt-in confirms the prospect has confirmed that he or she is willing to receive offers via email. Double opt-in requires a second confirmation of the request.
3. Similar to postal campaigns, you can only add prospects who contact you to your in-house list.
4. When renting a list, it is standard practice to provide the email creative to the business doing the deployment.  
5. It is important to have a call to action that motivates prospects to sign-up with your business for further contact.  Otherwise, it will be a challenge to reconnect with those customers.
6. For CAN-SPAM compliance, you will have to provide your in-house opt-out list for the email campaign.  You will also want to provide your current customer contact list.  All suppression services will be provided by company doing the deployment.
7. Finally, matchbacks (comparison of respondents with the deployment list) are an important part for understanding ROI on an email campaign.  It is important to make sure you are capturing pertinent information from online registration, purchases and other avenues prospects have to reach you.  This includes name, email address and mailing address if available.

Best Passwords

We all understand the value of protecting our electronic information, but often we are careless with our passwords.  Always choose a strong, secure password that would be a hard nut for others to crack yet easy for you to remember.

For maximum security, here are some simple guidelines to follow:

1. Passwords should preferably be at least 8 characters long and not more than 14.
2. Passwords should contain a mix of numbers, letters and special characters (%&3ac_ht4@m7).
3. New passwords and old passwords should differ by at least 3 characters.
4. Each password should be different from the user's User-ID and any permutation of that User-ID.
5. Avoid picking names or nicknames of people, pets, or places, or personal information that can be easily found out, such as your birthday, address etc.
6. It's wise to stay away from common keyboard sequences, such as dfgh678 or abc345.
7. Never form a password by appending a digit to a word.
8. Passwords should not contain a word from any dictionary, be it Spanish, French, medical, etc.
9. Avoid writing your password down or storing it on your computer.
10. Never share your password with anyone else.