Using the E-Commerce Internet .... getting known ....bulk e-mail Continuing with our tips on getting known, we saved e-mail marketing for a newsletter by itself. As it turns out, the subject was even longer than we expected. So, this is the third installment of E-ComTips on bulk mail marketing. FORMATTING THE MESSAGE Let us make a disclaimer right from the outset. Formatting HTML messages so they are readable across all mail clients is a daunting if not impossible task. This tip relates to our own experiences and is not intended to be the definitive guide to creating bulk mail messages. While we have tested this E-ComTips newsletter in many of the more common mail clients, we in no way exhausted the list. This newsletter is sent in two parts each referred to by a boundary identifier in the header. Part one is a brief text message for text only mail clients. Part two is the full newsletter, HTML formatted, for all other mail clients. Which part gets viewed depends on the mail client. The safe way to send an e-mail message is in plain text only; however, this isn't a very attractive alternative for many promotional purposes. Therefore, it is very tempting to use HTML formatted messages with the rich viewing experience that can be created. Be warned though, unless you know exactly which mail client will be used for viewing your message, you must be careful when formatting an HTML message. Desk top mail clients like those from Microsoft and Netscape use their browser engine to read e-mail. These clients will generally present the mail message to the user exactly as it appears in a browser. Other mail clients like Pegasus and Eudora will read what is called rich text formats. The user presentation will vary widely with rich text clients because these clients vary widely in the range of HTML markup tags recognized. On-line mail readers can also vary in the presentation of the message even though you use your browser to view the message. For instance, AOL readers will not see images unless the user elects to import and display them. The list of anomalies with e-mail clients is long and we know of no way other way than experimentation to find out what HTML tags work. For instance, if you view the raw message in this newsletter, you will see that for the HTML portion, we do not use the paragraph tag. Instead we use two break tags. This is done because Pegasus Mail does not recognize the HTML paragraph markup tag. We are also pretty sure that many mail clients will not interpret form and style sheet markup tags so we never use them. When viewing the raw message, you'll also notice that we do not imbed most images. This can increase the bit size of the e-mail to unacceptable levels (imbedded or in-line images are sent as attachments to the message). Furthermore many clients will not present imbedded images for viewing so it's a waste of resources to send them. On the other hand, some mail clients will not import linked images. To solve this you'll see that whenever we hot link on an image, we also wrap some corresponding text with the link. We've received e-mail's where the entire entire message was in image format. The sender probably doesn't know that as many as 50% of recipients never got a viewable message. If all of this seems like a hodgepodge of rules, it is. The few items we've mentioned here may serve as a starting point but, the only way to come up with your own set of rules is to experiment. A general rule can help though: Never use any tag that isn't essential to the task at hand and DO NOT use a WYSIWYG editor to create your message. SENDING THE MESSAGE Now comes the second tricky part. Let's assume that you have a perfectly valid opt-in mail list of names and e-mail addresses. If you do, you probably paid dearly for it in time if not money; you want to make sure every mail gets delivered. There are at least six ways to get your message out: 1) Contract with a mail server service sometimes known as ezine servers. You'll upload your mail list to the list server and use a form or a template to enter the message. These providers offer a range of services such as: list subscribe, list purge, newsletter templates, list unsubscribe, scheduling, etc. They can be an inexpensive and convenient way to make small mailings and free you from the technical aspects of bulk mailing. Be sure to ask about the security and privacy of your list when using any service. Here are a couple of services: http://www.pubs.zinester.com/premium.html http://ezinemanager.com 2) Use the list server from your host ISP if one is available. This is simply a database designed to expedite e-mail merge and sending to a list. Your ISP should provide instructions on using. 3) If your host ISP supports scripting languages like ASP or ColdFusion, you can write scripts to select the required names and e-mail addresses and other pertinent information from your own database and merge this information into the message you want to send. You then use the mail object to call the associated mail server provided by the ISP. 4) Mentioning this next method is self serving but, you can subscribe to a back office utility like an IAMS or BakPak account from ImagineNation for purchase order and credit card processing. Some of these back office utilities have built-in support for sending custom bulk e-mail messages to your customer/client list. 5) You can use a desk top mail server application and send the message directly from your computer. This is our recommended method when you're not comfortable with giving your mail list to a third party and you don't control your own servers. 6) Finally, you can use your own e-mail client to send the message from the desktop. Many of the garden variety mail clients that come with web browsers support mail list sending functions. Some may even have a mail merge capability. So, you may think you're all set to go. Don't even try this if you are sending more than a few messages. See our own story below in the "Recent > Stories" column. WE RECOMMEND If none of the first three methods listed above are available to you, and often even if they are available, you may find that a desk top mail server is the best way to get your message out. The desk top mail server is especially useful when you don't control your own host mail server or don't want to trust your list to a third party and don't have access to a back office mail utility. A desk top mail server is an application that will send mail directly from your computer to the recipient. It doesn't use your ISPs SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) mail server as a relay so you shouldn't be bothered by limitations on the number of messages that can be sent at one time. Additionally, undeliverable messages will be returned to you so you can purge the mail list. The only things you'll use from your ISP are the DNS lookup server and the connection to the Internet. A search of the Internet will revel that there are many such desk top mail server programs available. They come in a wide range of prices with a variety of functions. Look for a server that will import various mail list formats such as text, database, and csv (comma separated values). Find one that lets you send both text and HTML formats in the same message and supports multiple simultaneous connections (threads). Find one that keeps a running record of sent mails so if something happens to your Internet connection, you can resume the mailing where it left off without duplicating. You won't need a built-in HTML composer because in all likelyhood you have that capability already through your browser or better yet, a simple text editor. We're going to go out on the limb here and recommend a specific desk top mailer. We've tried many and have found this one to be the best there is for moderate size mailings (to at least 10,000 e-mails). Coincidentally, it's the lowest cost program we've ever found and is well documented and supported. There's even a forum where you can ask questions and get support. The program is KingMailer. Ask for the 2002 version if you want to be able to import Access database records. If you've used other mailer programs, you may find this one a little confusing at first because everything works as and when required with very little user input. Set the configuration for your Domain Name Server, enter your identity and a FROM address, import a mail list, and denote the e-mail address column in the list. You're all set to go. Load a text and/or an HTML message and click send. KingMailer will start sending messages directly to the recipient and report back the results. Test before sending. We recommend that you create a mail list similiar to the one you'll be using with just your own e-mail address(es) for this. If you're sending an HTML formatted message, be sure to check the presentation in several of the more common desk top e-mail clients. Also establish a couple of the free e-mail accounts so you can view the message on-line using a browser. KingMailer can be found at: http://www.kingmailer.com?ImaginNews Next issue:  Getting ready ....holiday season Up-comming:  Undetermined ....send requests FURTHER READING: Other IT newsletters can be found at FreeTechMail.org Don't overlook our LINKS page for information sources.  Products of ImagineNation!    Providing on-line stores for small and mid-size Internet businesses since 1996,   Imaginenation is a full service company meeting all of your e-commerce needs:    Storefronts     Credit Card Processing     Back Office Utilities     Merchant Accounts DO YOU NEED HELP WITH OUR PRODUCTS OR HAVE A GENERAL QUESTION? Please E-Mail specific product questions using the mail form at  ImagineNation.com For general information questions, visit our moderated public Q&A   FORUM Recent     Changes    Improvements    Upgrades    Stories You may get a kick out of our own experience in sending bulk mail several years back. In fact you may even relate closely to this story. We created our message and carefully tested everything by sending a message to ourselves. Everything seemed right. We loaded our list and nervously hit the send button while visions of thousands of visitors danced through our heads. Ten e-mails latter the application stopped sending mail. We contacted our ISP and were told that we couldn't send more than ten messages at a time using their service. The next day our web site was shut down by the ISP for spamming. What happened? Well this is the worst case scenario but, not necessarily the exceptional case. ISPs are very nervous about their mail servers being black holed (put on a list of servers from which received mail will be refused). For this reason they often limit the number of messages that can be sent at one time through their mail server thinking large numbers of messages may be spam mail. Next, the ISP received a complaint from someone on our list that we were spamming so, not taking any chances, they shut us down. Unfortunately, there seem to be people that stay on lists just so they can complain about spamming. Equally unfortunate, there are still ISPs that will shut down your web site based on unsubstantiated complaints. Legitimately though, a recipient may not realize that they opted into the list being used and complained to the one known good address they had: the ISP whose server we used to relay the message. This originating or relaying address is in the header information of all e-mails. Real spammers can spoof this info or use off-shore relays so it's frequently the honest guy that gets caught in this trap. Since then we've learned a lot about sending bulk e-mail and still feel that we know very little. Have you seen the new PeddleGold storefront? You supply the content; we provide the container. Instantly turn your web site into a storefront with PeddleGold. Create your own table of products, upload that and the PeddleGold container, and you have an on-line store complete with select lists, buy buttons, shopping cart, shipping form, and payment form. Use your own buttons, logo, colors, and background to keep the look and feel of your web site all the way through to order confirmation. PeddleGold automatically sends your customer a confirmation copy of the order. PeddleGold integrates seamlessly with our back office utilities for order management and credit card payment, including "no merchant account required" 3rd party processing. PeddleGold is the standard for robust, easy to use, low cost storefronts. Take a demo ride.       Check our low prices. Get your first month free. Tips 'n Tricks    HTML tags shown here use the caret (^) instead of braces <> for proper rendering.     Brackets are represented by the curly bracket symbols ({}). With a BakPak 2001 back office utility, you can create a mail list and send bulk e-mail. The list can be created by manually making entries to a dedicated client table and/or by using the button provided on an order detail page to automatically insert that customer information into the client list. The specific client information can then be edited to enter a search term into the SERVICE field of the client record. From the Mail link on the BakPak console you can mail to all clients or elect to mail to a select list of clients. Selected list mailings are generated using the form field provided for designating the search term. The mail form lets you customize the message by entering a salutation. It will automatically append the clients first name to the salutation and will include your store signature in each mail. One click and your message goes to every valid e-mail in the list. ImagineNation © 1996 - 2002 Suffering from overload?  List Removal E-ComTips is brought to you by ImagineNation because you are listed as a user of one of our storefront products or have subscribed to receive the Newsletter itself. To remove your address from our list, go to List Remove and, if your correct address and service ID are not showing when you get there, enter the correct values manually. Please do not reply to this newsletter return e-mail address. Replies here are not processed. Use the Mail Form at ImagineNation to correspond. This e-mail address is: [4] and the ID is [1]

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