Best practices on mass-emailing

Care to share?

[dataguy]

I have a web site that sends out 25,000 welcome emails per day to new users, and I send a newsletter to opt-in members once a month. For the past year I have sent HTML email with linked images, which are hosted on a web server. One of the images also tells me which emails are viewed, (also called a web beacon).

This system has worked ok for me for the past year. Typically 80% of the emails have show that they are being opened, though occasionally I get someone who complains that I don't send the email in plain-text.

In the past month the % of emails showing that they are being opened have plummeted. I understand that after WinXP SP2, Outlook Express blocks web beacons, and an ever growing number of people have spam blockers that mark email with linked images as spam. How many people use Outlook Express though?

I would love to hear if others are seeing the same issues, and how it's being handled. I just started sending out the welcome emails with embedded images, but without the web beacon I don't have any way of tracking how many emails are being opened.

Anyone care to share their experiences and current practices?

[txbakers]

I don't bother with mass emailing anymore, and gave up HTML emails as soon as I bought my Outlook 2003. All HTML emails come in stripped of all images anyway, and with spamcop, spamhaus, and others on the prowl, it's just not worth it anymore.

I don't want to risk locking up my domain for when I need to send emails to my customer list.

It's back to traditional marketing methods. All the pill salesmen have ruined it for legitimate businesses.

[isitreal]

This is what an HTML image email looks like after going through spam assassin, server side:

**JUNK** Your Subject here ** JUNK **
-------------------- Start SpamAssassin results ---------------------- This mail
is probably junk. The original message has been altered so you can recognise or
block similar unwanted mail in future. See [spamassassin.org...] for more
details. Content analysis details: (6.5 points, 4.0 required) 0.1 EXCUSE_10
BODY: "if you do not wish to receive any more" 0.2 EXCUSE_14 BODY: Tells you how
to stop further spam 1.7 HTML_IMAGE_ONLY_06 BODY: HTML: images with 400-600
bytes of words 0.1 HTML_60_70 BODY: Message is 60% to 70% HTML 0.0 HTML_MESSAGE
BODY: HTML included in message 0.1 MIME_HTML_ONLY BODY: Message only has
text/html MIME parts 0.7 MIME_HTML_NO_CHARSET RAW: Message text in HTML without
charset 1.9 MIME_HEADER_CTYPE_ONLY 'Content-Type' found without required MIME
headers 1.7 HTML_MIME_NO_HTML_TAG HTML-only message, but there is no HTML tag
-------------------- End of SpamAssassin results ---------------------

That's one I got today, went straight to my junkmail/delete box, I never saw it, just checked, it was from a company I work for, no text in email, only html+images.

Image based enewsletters are almost identical to spam stuff, and are correctly treated as such. Antispam software is getting both more popular and better. Thunderbird comes with a built in antispam feature. This is how it's going to be since they haven't been able to beat spam any other way.

[PatrickDeese]

Something that I have been trying is making a short text summary of the newsletter, with a link to the online version with I keep archived on my site (more content).

It's easier to track visitors, easier to monetize, and potential subscribers can see a year's worth of bimonthly newsletter archives and decide if they want to subscribe.

[moneymancn]

We also send a plain text email now announcing the arrival of the monthly newsletter which is to be found on our server.
We have found that the opens and the unsubscribe rates have improved.
MM

[dataguy]

Well, all of my emails are in HTML format, but they rely on text within the HTML and not text in an image, so when an email client reads it in plain text mode it is somewhat understandable. There is one image that has to be in the email. I guess the question for me is if it makes much difference if the images is mime-encoded and embedded or linked from the server.

It sure would be helpful to have some sort of numbers to look at that showed what percentage of internet users used which email client, and how many have spam filters.

[henry0]

How many people use Outlook Express though?

You will be in for a surprise if you are able to find stats on express users

Because we are tech people and being concerned with tech items I think that we often forget about our surrounding

And I mean surrounding passed the business ring
"The user experience"
Who are they?
In my case I have many clients that target the average browser
In rural areas most of them use Express
With the preview pan on!

Henry

[txbakers]

There is one image that has to be in the email.

Why? For what purpose? Don't the receivers know what company it is coming from?

[dataguy]

Actually, the image is of their web site, not mine. It's a welcome email that they receive after they have submitted their web site, and they receive a thumbnail image of the page that they have submitted to show how their listing appears.

I'm sure the open rate would be much lower if I didn't include it, so I need to make sure that I am delivering it with the highest rate of success.