Email Certification
You've probably heard of email certification services. You basically register with a certification vendor like Habeas, SuretyMail, Goodmail, or SenderScore Certified. Then you pay a "bond" of some sort, from which they'd deduct a small fee if/when you ever receive spam complaints about your campaigns. Many ISPs and spam filters give "certified" email preferential treatment, such as not blocking images or links by default, going a little easier on you with their spam filtering, and not throttling emails from your IP as much. The idea is that if you're a reputable marketer, you shouldn't be afraid of putting money on the line. We predict these services will become more and more important in the next couple of years, so it might be wise to start researching them. So we put together this "Basics of Email Certification" guide. Hope you find it useful.
One-Click Email Campaign Testing
 One day we were testing an email campaign before sending it to our customers. We sent it to several different ISPs that we have accounts with. We tested it in a slew of email programs on our test machine. We sent it to our co-workers, and walked around from desk to desk to make sure everything rendered correctly, and didn't get accidentally trapped by the spam filters. After about 3 hours of testing, it hit us: testing sucks. So we created the MailChimp Inbox Inspector. You click one button, and in the time it takes to grab a cup of coffee, we'll screenshot your email in all the major email programs, test it against all the major spam filters, test it in several big email firewalls and appliances, plus we'll point out spammy words, typos, and coding errors in your content that you need to change. This optional MailChimp add-on will officially launch early April, depending on how our QA goes. We've posted screenshots here.
AJAX-Enabled Signup Forms
Web designer (and MailChimp user) Aarron Walter sent us this nice case study on how he used AJAX to speed up his email signup forms, and it tripled his clients' list signup rates. He's also written a how-to article over at Sitepoint.com, if you're interested. Speaking of easier, faster signup forms, if you've got an e-commerce shopping cart, you can place one of those "Yes, I'd like to receive your email newsletter" check boxes in your shopping cart interface, and pass the signup information over to your MailChimp list via our API. (all seamlessly and behind the scenes).
MailChimp Add-On for Drupal Users
 Brian Maleszyk recently programmed an add-on that links Drupal-created websites into MailChimp, using our API. If you use the Drupal CMS for your website (or your clients'), you might want to take a peek at Bryan's website for more information. You can see it in action at Vinilicious.com (great looking website, btw).
In Case You Missed It...
Here are some of the most recent articles posted at the MailChimp Blog:
|
Does having your company's brand name in your subject line help increase open rates?
Here are some recent stats published on this topic:
Returnpath's 3rd Annual Holiday Study (PDF download):
But how many email marketers actually use the subject line to gain trust?
Email Experience Council Blog:
A little while ago, we posted a survey for MailChimp users, asking them how much they test their campaigns before sending them.
Results of our recent MailChimp Survey:
Normally, this is where we'd give away some kind of kooky, monkey-related prize (like 20 pounds of banana candy). But for this issue, I want to try something different. I'm going to send our lucky winner something from one of our MailChimp customers' stores. So congratulations to Cherie, from RedLimeWeb. We're sending you a t-shirt from MailChimp customer Mad Rollin' Dolls. Just let us know which roller derby team you want: The Dairyland Dolls, Quad Squad, Vaudeville Vixens, Reservoir Dolls, or Unholy Rollers. Hurt in a skirt indeed!
.gif)
Find out more about the Mad Rollin' Dolls and the charities they support here.
Cool (yet deadly) group of gals.
|
Connecting to Facebook
