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 Most people, as is perfectly normal, are not concerned about the technical details of the e-mail marketing software they use. But they should be. The devil is in the details, and technical ones are very important.
I've recalled this today, analyzing some commercial e-mails I've received recently.
For example, let's take a look to the URL an e-mail marketing provider generates for tracking reading stats for his customers (this is a real one, just changed the domains for privacy):
<IMG src="http://www.anemailprovider.com:8080/pcmwtg/trackingServlet=idtracking=2&idsend=906077">
Take a look at the evident purpose of each parameter of this tracking URL... What if I change the idsend value a little bit to, let's say, 06078?: I've just added a new read count to another user.
If I were not a really nice person (as I am in fact), I could easily mess-up all the reading stats of this provider, making them totally useless to their customers. :-(
Another thing interesting enough is that this image is not pointing to a real image. It doesn't even have an extension or even a real file name, which is easily spotted by some anti-spam filters. Not a good technical decision.
Now take a look at the typical tracking image we use in MAILCast:
<image src="http://mcs.krasis.es/C/R/MTc5NDA1NCAg.gif">
Well, the name of the image is not very beautiful either, but is clearly an image file name, and what's more important: all the information about tracking is nicely codified and encrypted in the name of the image, so is very difficult to tamper, and the stats are much more reliable.
Other issue involves the tracking of links. A tracked link in the previous sample e-mail was like this one:
http://www.anemailprovider.com:8080/pcmwtg/trackingServlet?idtracking=1&url=http://www.customerserver.com/landingpage.htm&idsend=906077
Uh??, The same as before but even worse. I could assign random clicks to anyone and the destination is directly embedded in the link, so I could easily avoid the tracking too.
A typical tracking link in MAILCast looks like this:
http://mcs.krasis.es/C/L/?V05_122498_MTc0NRB2NCAg
Which is, again, ugly (not uglier that the previous one, by the way), but is shorter and don't compromise the reliability of the tracking process.
The worst thing about the technical approach used in many e-mail marketing programs like the one I'm analyzing today is the unsubscribe link:
http://www.anemailprovider.com:8080/pcmwtg/GestionServlet?type=1&idunsubstemplate=10140&idCustomer=2447&idcontact=1572907
When I try writing in the browser that URL I get a message saying that I was successfully unsubscribed. But the customer ID and de contact ID are plain auto-numeric values in a database, so if I start trying different values I start to unsubscribe all the contacts of the customers of this provider too! Oh my!!!
Even If I get a message telling me that a unsubscribe confirmation e-mail is going to be sent to me, a malicious attacker could flood the inbox of all those contacts with unsubscribe confirmation e-mails which is in fact a cruel attack.
In fact if I try other values that are not numbers, in this case I could even make a SQL Injection Attack to the database, and don't want to know what a malicious attacker could do with this.
This is a very critical sample, but in fact a real one extracted from an email I've received this week. Just yesterday I received at least two newsletters that had this kind of issues, that are more common than you may think.
So the moral is: you don't have to be technical savvy for using an e-mail marketing or newsletter software, but is very important that you get advice from a skilled programmer or technician so that you don't have problems in the future. In fact you should get advice with any software you purchase, and this gets more important if you're dealing with your image and your customers' privacy.
This post ends the "Call to Action" series I started a few days ago (you can find the links below).
Today I'm going to talk about good practices for location and aspect in CTAs, the two last main parameters that have influence in CTA performance.
 The obvious place to locate your CTA is at the end of your e-mail. That's not bad, but not all of your readers will read your whole message, so maybe a lot of them don't even get to see the CTA. It's advisable to put it in higher positions of the message body too.
Why settle for a single CTA? You can use several links and graphics at different locations in your e-mail body, all pointing to your landing page. Use several options, for example: a link in the header, a left aligned graphic and a final sentence each of them pointing to your landing page. You don't know which will be more effective, so don't limit yourself, but don't abuse neither. It is sometimes interesting to have a first CTA-link in the first two lines of your content.
A word of caution when using images: take into account that images are probably initially blocked in your recipient's e-mail client; so don't rely on having them visible, as I've already pointed in this blog before. Anyway always use an ALT attribute. At least they will read the purpose of the image if they can't see it.
Regarding text-based CTAs, is advisable to highlight in some subtle way the CTA so that it will stand out from the rest of the paragraph. But not too much. For example, you can make the text bold or underlined, but you should not use loud colors (light red or similar) neither bigger font sizes. The main reason is that this is something very common in non-solicited mail messages and your message will have more choices of being considered spam. Another tip to highlight your text CTA is to add a linefeed and align it to the right, so that it will be clearly visible.
Summing up: try to use several locations for your CTA. Don't rely on images as the only way to go to your landing page, and use subtle ways to highlight your text-based CTAs.
Previous posts in this series:
 In my previous post I talked about the first of the four variables that impact the most in our CTAs: the words.
Now it's the time for another important parameter you must take into account: the action or, what most of the times it's the same, the landing page.
As we have already discussed, the words of your CTA must transmit clearly what your recipients are going to find on the other side, after they click on it. So the first rule for landing pages is quite obvious: they must contain the type of content you promised in the claim of your CTA. So if you wrote "Customize your new computer" don't send users to a page that has only information and that will force them to search for the customization page. Many will not even try to do it, and if they do, they will be a little bit upset.
Unless there is no other choice or it is very pertinent, never link to a general page, such as your homepage or the root information of your product. Try to be more specific and link to a features page, a price list, etc... You can use several links in your e-mail to send prospective customers to different pages (that is, several CTA). This way they go straight to what interests them, and as plus, you get extra information too. For example, if a lot people go straight to your price information page you will know that price is a big concern for your target. Otherwise, if your features' page is the most demanded, probably they are more interested in what your product can offer.
The content of your page is very important too. Apart from giving enough information in the right place, try to anticipate the fears of your prospective customers, and give information about it. For example, if you're selling something that must be phisically delivered, include a link or a sentence that state clearly your shipping costs. If they must fill in a form with their credit card, notice that all data will be sent securely through SSL and that you will not lend or sell their personal data. Just try to walk in their shoes and don't let them wondering about anything, or they will not buy.
Summing up: your landing page must be specific and reflect exactly the expectations your CTA created before clicking it. The contents must be clear and will try to foresee the concerns your visitors might have.
In the next post I'll talk about the other two parameters of a good CTA: location an aspect.
 We have already seen what a Call To Action is. Now let's see how a good CTA is designed.
When you are writing a CTA for your marketing message you must take in account at least four main variables:
1. The words you are going to use.
2. The action you want them to take.
3. Its location.
4. Its appearance (color, size, design if it's an image)
Let's see today something about the first one.
A lot of people limit their CTAs to links with phrases like "Click here" or "Buy it now!" and the like. In fact, although this kind of sentences could seem good CTAs because they are very straight forward and imperative, they're not.
A simple "Click here" at the end of your message can mean a lot of different things. Some readers may think it's a link that leads to a buying page, and many of them will not click it if they are not very interested at first. But, what if this link leads only to a page with more information? Maybe many doubtful readers will click it if they had known.
So be specific about what the CTA will really do, and let your readers know what to expect. Express clearly what they are going to find. If you want them to know more about your product just write something like "Learn more about the new BrandNewProduct". Don't use just a mere "Click here".
Maybe you want them to buy your product right now (of course), but chances are that the link you use doesn't lead directly to a purchase, but more to an information page or to a selection page. Trust your customer. If you're selling a new shirt model, instead of using a "Buy now!" CTA, you can use a "Choose your favorite color". At the landing page she will be intelligent enough to make the purchase if she's interested.
In order to raise its effectiveness, try to choose wisely the rest of the contents that support your CTA. Give recipients information enough about your product, but not so much that they have no reason to click the link.
It's important not to repeat the same CTAs over and over throughout the document. Use your imagination and run away from the common ones.
Summing up: a good CTA text must state clearly, with only a few words, why the recipient must click it and what to expect when she does it.
In next posts I'm going to talk about the rest of the variables that affect a good CTA.
 Also used by some marketers as Point Of Action or POA, this term refers to the words or graphics (or both) used in an e-mail to encourage the recipient to do take a specific action.
Typical examples are “Click here to know more”, “Write to us”, “Go to our website to get your free whitepaper” or anything that try to lead the reader to you.
Every marketing message you write must always have at least one Call To Action. Keep this in mind while writing your texts.
Apart from sending people to pages you’re interested in them to view, as long as this CTAs are always links, you get a lot of interesting information through the click stats of your mail marketing platform (By he way, do you know MAILCast? ;-) )
Soon I’m going to write several good tips surrounding Call To Action messages. Stay tuned!
I’m pretty sure that this is going to be a fairly controversial post. However I think it is worth to write it. At least the essence of a blog is to be as transparent as possible. So here we go…
One of the things several prospective customers ask our sales team is: “What if one month we don’t need to send e-mail with your product? Will we still be charged the monthly fee?” People asking this, almost always refer to August or the holiday month of their choosing, where they are not going to send any e-mail at all.
We at Krasis offer two ways to purchase our hosted service: monthly fee or Pay-as-you-go.
In the first case (monthly fee) you know approximately how many e-mails your company is going to send each month, so you choose one e-mail interval (eg.: 5.000 mails/month) and pay a fixed fee that lets you send each month as many e-mails as the maximum indicated. Additionaly if you purchase a whole year (12 months) in advance you get one month for free (so you don’t have to worry about not sending anything on holidays). You can change the interval contracted at any time or even punctually for just one or two months for extra needs, and only get charged for the difference. Not used e-mail credit is not accumulated for the next month, so you must choose the right interval to fit your needs.
In the Pay-as-you-go model (available only for 10.000 e-mails/month or higher), you only pay for exactly the e-mail quantity you have sent the previous month. If you send, for example, 38.137 e-mails, you get charged exactly for this volume. However, as your company is not assuring us any predictable income, the cost per e-mail is slightly higher, but you have total freedom for sending any volume of e-mails you need each month. If one month you don’t send any e-mail you get charged nothing.
So, these options will fit almost any needs you may have regarding e-mail volume planning.
But one question remains implicit in this entire pricing model. One that many customers want to know: Why your price refers always to month?
Well the answer is quite obvious for the main part, although there are a few subtleties that I think it’s important to highlight.
 Obviously our main cost items are always supported in a monthly basis: salaries, data center fees, bandwidth, supplies, electricity and many more. This is a common to the majority of services companies. And all of this must be reflected in some way in our incomes, so it’s quite obvious why the price structure of every provider of hosted software in the market is defined in this way.
The not-so-obvious issues regarding this monthly price model are the secondary services around e-mailing that some customers don’t take into account when they think “this month I’m not going to send e-mail”.
E-mailing is not only about sending e-mail in bulk. There are a lot of other things related that are very important too. For example all the statistics related to the mailings. Although one month you don’t send any single email, if you have sent a lot of them previously, that month the infrastructure still needs to be on-line and working in order to keep receiving all the reading and click stats, serving RSS and RSS stats, serving images and contents, and other related services. Aditionally, of course, although you don’t send e-mail, you can be preparing new campaigns or have questions about e-mail marketing that our support services will be answering too in that period.
So in these cases we still are working for our customers, even if they are paying nothing to us.
This doesn’t happen in other kind of services, although the thing is essentially the same.
A good example will be your fixed phone line monthly fee. Although one month you don’t make any single call you still get charged by the phone company. In fact it's correct as long as they are providing you with a service (the line and the possibility of receiving and making calls) although you don't use it. So almost everyone feels it’s fair to get charged for this. In hosted services like email, this should be true too, don't you think? :-)
Another day I’ll comment on the way the sending of a high volume of e-mails in a short period impact the cost model of a hosted solution in a quite technical way. I think everyone using this kind of services should know well.
Internet Explorer General Manager , Dean Hachamovitch, has announced that Internet Explorer 8 passes Acid2 Test in Standard Mode . This is a great new for web designers and developers, because means full support to html and CSS 2.0 standards. So, congratulations!!!
In the same post, Dean promises telling us more at MIX08 and releasing a beta along the first half of 2008.
Acid2 Test is a test designed by Web Standards Project to check standards support in browsers. When a browser passes it, shows an smiley and the legend ‘Hello world!'.
If IE8 works as well as said at the post, would we great recovering it as render engine in Outlook instead of current Word's engine and take a step more to html standard in e-mail.
At this time of year everybody receives a lot of Christmas holidays greeting cards. Most of them consist only in one or more images with some snowy view or something like that, sending us the best wishes of providers, customers and friends.
This is great. But, not surprisingly, many of them end up in the spam folder right as they are received. Why?
Well there are plenty of reasons depending on the way the e-mail was sent, and in fact all this issues are related to the same flaws that most commercial e-mail has.
In this post I’m going to talk only about a couple of issues that have influence in the deliverability of your e-mail, but they are important ones, and not only for greeting cards, but for every single e-mail that you send.
First of all there are images. I know that is easier to create a very visual e-mail using images, but you get a real chance for your message to be considered spam. That’s because your message will in fact have no content at all, and this is serious. In addition a lot of spammers send e-mail that consists essentially in images. And even worse: most of the e-mail clients in the market today won’t display images at first chance, letting the recipient to decide if she wants them displayed, so they will not see anything at all.
For example, just a few minutes ago I received a greeting card (as a customer) by one of the world’s largest banks. This message went directly to the spam folder. When I opened it the only thing I could see was this (click to enlarge):
Nice, uh?
Well, this is obviously not a good practice.
But as I inquired a little bit more I got another clue for knowing why this message was considered spam. When I took a look to its headers I found that I was delivered from the IP 213.229.186.XX which corresponded to the domain ly10.XXXXX.com (I will keep the guilty anonymous). But the “return-path” header for the e-mail was responses.megabank.com which has a MX IP address assigned that was not related in any way with the sender IP. And it also has a sender header with an address in the domain emailings.megabank.com with another unrelated IP.
Well, the fact is that this bank needs to choose a technically wiser provider, because as long as the contents are plain wrong and the basis of the DNS infrastructure are very bad set-up, they are losing a lot of e-mails in the spam folders of their millions and millions of customers.
Summing up: you have to put stress in the content you send to your recipients, and that’s your part. But you have to choose a solvent provider so that you don’t end up losing a huge percentage of your e-mails and, worst, without even noticing it.
Happy new year for everyone! :-)
 Phishing, as you may know, is a kind of fraudulent e-mail that tries to steal your authentication data supplanting the identity of your bank or other provider you trust. The attacker sends you an e-mail telling you that, for security reasons or whatever, you must click in a link and enter your credentials.
I'm suspicious every time I get an e-mail with words like "Important security notice" or similar in the subject. A trustworthy provider (your bank or on-line retailer) is never going to ask you for your security credentials, so be suspicious of those emails that tell you to do so.
A couple of days ago I received one of this phishing attempts, and then decided that I'd like to analyze it briefly in order to show you the basics of its behavior. You will learn how to identify it easily.
I received an e-mail supposedly from Amazon.com, an on-line retailer that I use a lot. Here you can see the full text of the e-mail (click to enlarge):
As you can see it's a classical phishing message. It tells you about a supposed security problem, and asks you to fix it by the means of login to your account and notify. The smart thing about this message is that it says that someone attempted to login to my Amazon account several times from a foreign IP. I buy a lot in Amazon.co.uk (although not in Amazon.com) and my IP is foreign to them because I don't live in the UK, so it makes sense.
However one always needs to be smarter and take a second and more profound look.
If you move the cursor above the link in the e-mail, you'll notice in the status area of your browser (see the red rectangle in the picture) that the real URL it is pointing to is very different from the original. A clear clue for phishing. This is difficult to spot in a non-webmail client such as Outlook. If you click un this link you will find a clone of the original Amazon.com site, so you probably won't notice the difference. Danger!
The other important thing to notice is that, although the sender reads "Amazon.com", if you see the real address (moving the cursor above its name) it's, in fact, zfuzvq@lycos.co.uk, as you can see in this picture:
If I'd had clicked in the link and entered my credentials I'll end up giving them to someone (probably) in the far east who will get access to all my information in Amazon, and probably would have charged some books into my account. Imagine what she could do if the phishing were related to my bank account! :-(
Conclusion: be extremely careful with e-mail about security issues. Before clicking on a link always check the real URL it is pointing at. And check the real sender of the e-mail too to be sure that it's from the same domain as your provider.
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