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Con la Newsletter 231 del 17 novembre 2009, il Garante per la protezione dei dati personali è intervenuto nuovamente per combattere l’invio di pubblicità indesiderata via fax: dall’inizio del 2009 sono oltre 500 le segnalazioni già pervenute al Garante da cittadini e imprese che denunciano questa tecnica di spam.

Il quadro normativo di riferimento per l’invio di informazioni commerciali senza l’intervento di un operatore è l’art. 130, comma 2 del Dlgs 196/2003, il quale prevede, per l’invio di messaggi mediante telefax il preventivo consenso informato e specifico dell’interessato (opt-in).

Da tenere sempre presente che la garanzia di cui all’art.130 del Codice non può essere elusa inviando un primo messaggio che, nel richiedere il consenso, abbia già un contenuto promozionale (v. Provv. 29 maggio 2003, relativo allo spamming, in www.garanteprivacy.it, doc. web n. 29840);

La Newsletter segue l’ultimo intervento del Garante reativo ad una società alla quale è stato vietato l’ulteriore trattamento di dati personali, utilizzati senza consenso dei destinatari per l’invio di pubblicità indesiderata. L’Autorità ha imposto, inoltre, la cancellazione di tutti i dati personali per i quali non risulti documentata la manifestazione del consenso all’invio di comunicazioni promozionali. La mancata osservanza del provvedimento di divieto espone a sanzioni penali e al pagamento di una somma che va da trentamila a centottantamila euro.

Come altre imprese in precedenza, anche in questo caso la società ha affermato di utilizzare, per gli invii, nominativi estratti da elenchi telefonici “categorici” pubblici (come Pagine Gialle o Pagine Utili). Questo consentirebbe, ad avviso delle imprese, di poter liberamente disporre di quei numeri per comunicazioni promozionali.

Il Garante, al contrario, ha ancora una volta ribadito che l’uso di sistemi automatizzati per inviare messaggi promozionali, come è il fax (ma il discorso vale anche per sms, mms, e-mail, etc.) impone la preventiva acquisizione del consenso informato e specifico da parte dei destinatari, anche quando si tratti di dati estratti da elenchi categorici o da albi.

This is a brand new template package – and ALL the work has been done for you – all you do is insert YOUR own copy, and add YOUR autoresponder info.

Grab 5, brand new professionally designed video landing page templates, in seven Web 2.0 colors that will have your visitors thinking out loud, “Wow!” They’ll be impressed – and they’ll want to watch your video and opt-in to your list!

These templates are professionally designed, sliced and already html optimized, and there’s no graphic editing required! All you need is an autoresponder account like Aweber or GetResponse, and a video for your opt-in page. YouTube videos are the easiest to insert, or you can use your own custom videos!

It’s as easy as 1-2-3!

Just open up the templates in your favorite webpage editor and …

1. Edit the text
2. Insert your video code
3. Tweak the autoresponder code

That’s it!

Now you have a stunning landing page, professionally designed to showcase your opt-in video and reel in new subscribers!

But that’s not all …  Continue reading…

A Post from Email Marketing Voodoo

This process is relatively simple and only takes a few minutes to execute. You’re going to need two things in order to do this: a Facebook fan page and an HTML opt-in / sign up form code.

If you don’t already have Static FBML on your Facebook fan page, you need to add it here. With this app added, you can create an “email list” tab to your page.

Once you add the app, click on “edit page” below your main graphic.

Next, select FBML from your list of apps (click on the pencil, then edit).

You can edit the tab title in the “box title” field. In the FBML section, paste your form code in. If you have any HTML knowledge, you can edit the form to accurately reflect the rest of the page’s look and feel. Click save changes.

If you or one of your colleagues are having issues with the rendering of the email sign up form, click “add another FBML box”. This should nip it in the butt.

And there you have it. Check it out for yourself!

Thanks for the inspiration, returnonsubscriber! (link)

Posted by Bryan Quilty

Master Class speaker, Kenny Van Beeck, on YouTube.

More info on the EmailGarage MasterClasses, here.  A one day course with all the insights of tomorrow’s email marketing techniques. Be quick, only 5 seats left.!!

Rechtslage

Eine kleine unerwartete rechtliche “Sensation” hinsichtlich dem ewigen Thema wie man ein Opt-In richtig erhebt, kommt aus Karlsruhe (11.11.2009):

So entschied das Gericht, das eine Einwilligung in Werbung nicht zwangsläufig durch ein Markieren der entsprechenden Klausel geschehen muss („Opt-in“), sondern auch durch ein Streichen dieser Klausel erfolgen kann („Opt-out“). Dies stellt der Bundesgerichtshof in einer Entscheidung zwischen dem Bundesverband der Verbraucherzentralen und dem Kundenbindungs- und Rabattsystem „HappyDigits“ klar (Urteil vom 11.11.2009, Az. VIII ZR 12/08, Karlsruhe).

Das Urteil bezieht sich jedoch ganz ausdrücklich nur auf die Einwilligung in Werbung in nicht-digitaler Form. Die Änderung des Bundesdatenschutzgesetzes (BDSG) vom September ändert hieran nichts.

Die „Happy Digits“-Betreiberin verwendete folgende Klausel (die laut Kläger damals in der Mitte des Formulars platziert und zusätzlich umrandet war):
“Einwilligung in Beratung, Information (Werbung) und Marketing Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass meine bei HappyDigits erhobenen persönlichen Daten (Name, Anschrift, Geburtsdatum) und meine Programmdaten [… von der] Betreiberin des HappyDigits Programms und ihren Partnerunternehmen zu Marktforschungs- und schriftlichen Beratungs- und Informationszwecken (Werbung) über Produkte und Dienstleistungen der jeweiligen Partnerunternehmen gespeichert, verarbeitet und genutzt werden. [...] Sind Sie nicht einverstanden, streichen Sie die Klausel [...]”

In der Begründung führt das Gericht aus, dass diese Klausel rechtmäßig ist. Die Verwendung von Daten für Werbung erfordert eine Einwilligung nach § 28 Abs. 3 Satz 1 BDSG n.F. soll die Einwilligung zusammen mit anderen Erklärungen schriftlich erteilt werden, ist sie nach § 28 Abs. 3a Satz 2 BDSG n.F. in „drucktechnisch deutlicher Gestaltung besonders hervorzuheben“.

Das Gesetz lässt aber offen, ob die Einwilligungsklausel als Opt-out- oder als Opt-in-Lösung formuliert werden muss. Deshalb ist beides zulässig, soweit die anderen gesetzlichen Vorgaben eingehalten werden. Anders als im “Payback”-Fall war eine darüber hinausgehende Einwilligung in die Verwendung der Daten für Werbung im Wege elektronischer Post (SMS, E-Mail) nicht Gegenstand der von der Beklagten verwendeten Klausel. Dies wäre nach § 7 Abs. 2 Nr. 3 UWG nur durch eine „Opt-in“-Klausel (also eine gesondert abzugebende Erklärung) möglich gewesen.

Mit besten Grüßen,
Jan-Philip Ziebold
http://www.dz-media.de

How Text Messaging Marketing Works
By JetM Mobile Marketing and Consulting

The Rising Popularity of SMS Campaigns

“We’re finding 92% of people who receive a text message opens and reads them instantly”,
reflects Jaron Farr, co‐owner and President of JetM. What other advertising medium can you
have a 95‐100‐percent delivery rate, a 92‐percent read rate, sent to a captivated (opted in) audience
on a personal device? It’s a marketers dream really, and in most cases it costs half of what you would
pay for other mediums. A brilliant method of marketing which is really, really underused in business.”
New York Times writer Mark Cohen, wrote in his 9/24/09 article, “A Small Business Guide to Text- Message
Marketing”, ‘Mobile text messaging, the same 160-character dispatches first popularized by nimblefingered
teenagers, may be the closest thing in the information-overloaded digital marketing world to a
guaranteed read. The use of text messaging, also called SMS (for short message service), has exploded in
this country. Some 3.5 billion text messages are sent and received every day, according to CTIA, the
wireless industry trade group. That is more than the number of cellphone calls and a three-fold jump from
2007, with some of the biggest increases occurring in people over the age of 30.’
Thanks to regulatory quirks, however, SMS is still a relatively uncluttered and spam-free marketing
channel. It’s also the one form of communication that many people are tethered to 24/7. Which helps
explain why, at a time when in-boxes fill with hundreds of never-opened e-mail messages from direct
marketers, 97 percent of all SMS marketing messages are opened (83 percent within one hour), according
to the latest cell-carrier research. “I like to think of it as the certified mail of digital communications,” said
Jeff Lee, president of Distributive Networks, a text-messaging application and consulting firm based in
Washington. “When you want to be sure people see something, send it by text.”

Social Media or Social Marketing is overwhelming. This is especially the case for the B-to-B world since, in many ways, this group has moved slowly in embracing the Internet for the purpose of marketing and communicating. Now, on top of all of the other caveats to Internet Marketing, many are seeing this dimension come into play and there is more to learn. Going forward, this will be a critical component to your business and it is not a matter of “Do I want to develop a Social Media plan”? It’s a matter of HOW SOON can you develop and implement a Social Media plan? This is what this writing is about.

A recent study released by Business.com of 3,000 Professionals across the United States indicates that Social Media is alive and vibrant within the professional environment. Some of the compelling statistics that stood out:

-69% indicate they use Webinars and Podcasts to obtain business information
- 83% Chose Facebook as the overriding favorite of the social networks
- 7 social sites - The average company that responded stated they participated in
- 65% of them staffing the initiatives in-house
- 71% of responding companies had less than 2 years experience using social networks

If this doesn’t validate that business professionals use social media then perhaps the fact that LinkedIn (a business social site) has over 50,000,000 registered users or that Facebook is adding 500,000 New Users each day should confirm this.

Data is out there to support the growth of Internet usage, for social purposes, among business professionals. As a result of this expansive growth, many sites have risen to the heights of popularity and each of these domains has unique functions that have propelled them to this status.

The more that a company looks at this as an expense of resources and weighs the pros and cons of such an endeavor, the more risk they face at missing the opportunity to get people connected to them. Meanwhile, their customers and prospects are thriving online and excitedly, they’re connecting with like minded individuals in many different ways. They’re connecting on Community sites like LinkedIn, Plaxo, CR4, Facebook, or any of the other popular domains. More myopically… they’re connected in Groups within these sites. They are most certainly connecting! Realistically, a company should look at this more as an investment of resources than an expense of resources.

In the following paragraphs I am going to explain the core components of what you can do to begin this plan and start servicing the people that matter most to your company. By no means is this a detailed plan. I will make suggestions using components that are FREE or of minimal cost. The most costly component will be time.

At the end of the day what you hope to create is a funnel. At the wide end, you message the masses in many ways in order to create interest in you and your Community. In the middle, you have your Virtual Community which is where your clients and prospects interact with peers and your company’s pros. The small end of the funnel is your website or your company directly. The result is keeping your people close to you and doing so in a way where they do not feel the pressure of sales but feel the essence of inclusion and bond.

The components that you should look to utilize in fulfilling the core of your initial plan are Management, Messaging, Community, and Participation.

Management – Designate a person or team that will dedicate time to organizing, implementing, and managing this side of your business. This is not a full time responsibility yet but it will be down the road. In time, you will want to create a position to act as the liaison to the aggregated Community. In the interim, it can be managed simply as part of the day to day tasks of your current team with an understanding that this piece of your current marketing effort will undoubtedly grow.

One of the initial responsibilities will be research identifying where the hot spots are on the net that attract your buyers. You can find this out by simply polling your current database and asking them directly where they go, what they do, and why they see value in these venues. You should also look to your current advertising partners and vendors. Ask them what they’re doing to satisfy their subscriber’s desire for Community. If they are active, they are working right now on this very same service. You will want to know what they are doing. Spend time using Search Engines to locate all of the domains that operate in the fields of expertise that your clients and prospects do. Search the groups and gatherings within these popular sites (And join them). Also, consider spending time speaking with some students at colleges that are pursuing careers in your target markets. Why? These important people will be buying your stuff in the coming years. They have their ear closer to the ground regarding the Internet and emerging technologies than you could possibly imagine. These folks will keep you ahead of the curve going forward.

You are gathering this information for two reasons. First, you’re going to be engaging with these resources to capture mind share, develop a following, and ultimately bring awareness of your Community. Secondly, in this process you will be developing an understanding of how this whole Community thing works. You will gain valuable knowledge that can then be leveraged in the construction of your own Community..

Community – All of the research that you have accumulated is for the purpose of escorting people into your Community of clients, prospects, and in-house pros. One of the benefits of having an established Community is that you can communicate, in near real-time, with your constituents. You can immediately get messaging out that could influence positive perceptions and have them work for you in utilizing the tools of Social Media to spread the word. Adversely, you can address and resolve many situations that could point a negative light on your company in venues that you are not active in.

A good place to start would be a facebook fan page on facebook.com. Developing this area is pretty simple and I’ve provided a link on the right (and within). From a personal perspective, your targets have a familiarity with this venue as it pertains to keeping up with their own personal networks. Facebook gives you the opportunity to be where they are. It means that you are in their neighborhood. Your clients and prospects can become “Fans” of your business page and they can see what other “Fans” have to say about their experiences with your company. Facebook, like a mini-site within a site, also gives you additional functions to provide for your “Fans” including Events, Additional Info, Press, Discussions, Video, and a “Wall” which becomes your primary landing page. People speak on your wall in the form of brief messages. The nuances of this informative resource can be discussed in a later writing but it is a powerful ancillary benefit of Social Media.

I referenced Facebook and strongly encourage you to have a presence here but you will find other reputable venues that offer similar functions. You should be there too. Do not limit your exposure and take advantage of every venue out there that is relevant to your demographic. However; you should make every effort to point them to a single source and I do think that Facebook is a good place. It is all about Aggregate and the more people that you can get to stick to your Community the better off you will be in terms of management, analysis, and messaging.

Good examples of Business Fan Pages: Sprint - GM – Girl Scouts – Papa Johns Pizza. (Require facebook registration to access)

Messaging  – This is the fan to the fire of your Community build and management. NO ONE will know that your Community exists unless you make them aware. You will want to harvest your House List and create an ongoing campaign that encourages them to seek out and join your Community. A series of email messages incorporating the link to your Community and informing them what you hope to accomplish with their involvement. Additionally, this message should be included in your periodic Newsletters and informative correspondences. Many of the resources outlined above offer the ability to embed your link to your representation in the form of a graphic in your emails and websites. USE THEM!!!

Going forward, this will become a permanent inclusion in all of your marketing and communications. Hundreds of millions of connected individuals have spoken in the form of action that this is here to stay. Once you create the Community you will always see the need to feed it. You should require the links as part of the email Signature of each employee, include logos and links on letter head, speak of it in your automated telecom systems, and include it in ALL Mar-Com materials. You need to drive people to your Community page. This is NOT about traffic. The more encouragement you give to your prospects and clients to enter and contribute to your Community, the more effective it will be for you. The best way to encourage is to consistently keep access to this portal at the fingertips of people you want to be close to your company.

Participation – This is where you get other members of the company on board and involved with your Community. Designate a representative from Customer Service, Sales, IT, etc. to keep an eye on the subject matter being discussed and to access the messaging features that you choose to utilize. Near real-time response goes a long way today in satisfying a question, comment, concern, or buying question. Put your best people in line to represent your company to your Community.

In addition to your own Community site, your company can gain a lot of credibility in other forms of participation within the sites that feed your Community. I have referenced LinkedIn a number of times and I do so as I believe that this is a great resource in meeting and connecting with like minded professionals across all spectrums of careers. In the sense of participation LinkedIn has a fantastic number of Groups that represent everything from Candy Makers (1,900 Members) to Orthopedic Surgeons (295 Members). In these groups are ways to seek job opportunities, review the latest news, and post & participate in discussions. It would only add value to your brand and the build of your Community if you had people from your company involved in these Groups as well. Again, you will want your company representative to communicate their messaging in non-salesy language and provide access to your Community page or corresponding web page (which also will have a link on it that can allow a person clicking-through to join your Community / Fan Page). Also you can look to your Vendors and their websites as a forum to leverage your community. Talk with them to understand how you can interact with their members as well. It could be through editorial content, sponsorships, advertising tools, or they could have Groups within their domains that allow your people to participate in discussions or answer relevant questions. The objective is introducing people to your Community.

Twitter - What is it and how can it help me help my business grow? Simply put, twitter is a real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices.(their words exactly). This is how it works: You set up an account under your company name and you begin “tweeting” (sending relevant 140 character messages from your account to your followers). You get followers in a number of ways. You broadcast your twitter name in all of your media and communications and get followers organically, you can share “tweets” with informative content and your followers will “re-tweet” out to their network increasing followers if your content is valuable to them, and you can share tweets sent to you from your network of followers with the rest of your followers. There are certainly many other ways to increase followers but they are complicated and best saved for a later time. These basic methods will build your following and over time, you will be quite surprised at the ongoing growth. The key to success using twitter is to continuously feed the following with relevant information w/o trying to sell to them. Whether it’s a new Data Sheet, New Product Announcement, Appointment of Personnel, Discount, Recall, Discontinuation, Award, Acquisition, New Technology, New Equipment, New Client, Webinar, On-line Video, Job Opening, Investor Messaging, and anything else that positively influences your company’s perception within your constituency. Twitter allows you to get messages out in real time in 140 character snippets. Twitter, is an extension of your company’s Mar-Com resources and doesn’t necessarily tie directly into the Community environment being discussed here. However, your presence and participation within this domain allows for a number of ways to direct people back to your Community and to your website. This is another piece of the Social Media puzzle.

Social Media on the Cheap is possible and not that difficult an endeavor.

1) Create a Fan Page on Facebook

2) Involve yourself with as many social networking resources as possible

3) Create Profiles of your company everywhere possible

4) Encourage employees to contribute to discussions / answer relevant questions

5) Blog about business issues your company can resolve

6) above all else – point them back to a Community (Facebook Fan Page) and allow them functions to interact with you and with each other.

The reality of Social Marketing or Social Media is that it really is not that overwhelming. It does require an investment of time in terms of management as well as learning the tools that are at your disposal. If you begin by developing a plan utilizing these simple resources you have the starting point in creating your own personal foot print in the world of Social Media. More importantly, you are on the way to creating a long term relationship with all of the people that matter most to your business’ success.

My Two Cents…

We invite you to take part in our upcoming Email Marketing Master Classes. You can sign up for the Dutch session on Monday 14 December or join the French session on Thursday 17 December.

During these sessions we’ll dig deep into the latest trends and give you the opportunity to sharpen your email marketing knowledge in just one day. Recent benchmarks, practical tips and relevant cases, those are the ingredients of a perfect mix to make your next email marketing campaigns work. Guaranteed no product demos – only valuable content by email marketing experts.

We kick off at 9:30 and close the day with a network drink at 16:30. Please note: in order to create the best possible interaction, we allow a maximum of 15 participants (preferably with some email marketing experience). As a bonus you receive the most recent IAB E-mailmarketing Cookbook (value €50).

The programme

• Email marketing in Belgium: benchmark figures 2008/2009 (B2B/B2C/branch)
• Relevance and personalisation of the email message: crucial for success
• Deliverability & Opt-in
• Renderability & Design
• Leverage conversion with better landing pages
• Data enrichment via CRM integration: pitfalls and possibilities
• The role of email marketing in customer lifecycle management
• Case 1 : Veritas / e-couponing
• Case 2: Nutricia / lifecycle management

Practical info

• Start: 9:30
• End: 16:30
• When: Monday 14 December (Dutch) and Thursday 17 December (French). Slides at both sessions in English
• Location: EmailGarage training centre, Overijse
• Price: € 425 / €350 (for EmailGarage customers) incl. lunch, networking drink and IAB E-mailmarketing Cookbook,
  excl. VAT

Don’t miss this great opportunity to sharpen your knowledge and do some inspired networking.

>> Sign up for the Dutch session on Monday 14 December

>> Sign up for the French session on Thursday 17 December

Posted by Sean Cohen

Confirmed opt-in as defined by SpamHaus, who is one of the most respected anti spam organizations in the world:

Known as “COI” in the legitimate bulk email industry, also known as “Confirmed Opt-in”, “Verified Opt-in” or sometimes “Double Opt-in”.

With Closed-Loop Opt-in the Recipient has verifiably confirmed permission for the address to be included on the specific mailing list, by confirming (responding to) the list subscription request verification. This is the standard practice for all responsible Internet mailing lists, it ensures users are properly subscribed, from a working address, and with the address owner’s consent.

In the event of “spam” accusation:

The Bulk Email Sender is fully and legally protected because the reply to the Subscription Confirmation Request received back from the recipient proves that the recipient did in fact opt-in and grant verifiable consent for the mailings.

Source:Spamhaus Website

Numerous myths have circulated regarding confirmed opt-in and its effects. There are many misconceptions out there, and we’d like to help clear those up.

Myth 1: My List Size Will Decrease Because Of Confirmed Opt-In.

Some addresses entered into your form will not confirm — that much is true. The percentage of addresses that don’t confirm depends on many factors, including the quality of your traffic and how effective your thank-you page, confirmation message and incentive for confirming are.

Percentages aside, there are compelling reasons that having fewer addresses on your list is a good thing.

Sometimes Less is Better

I know. You may be asking, “How can a decreased list size be a good thing?” Well, let’s consider:

5-20% of all web form submissions are undeliverable right off the bat.

This means that of your total list size you can cut that by 5-20% because these email addresses are simply dead. Remember these are not temporary undeliverable but permanent dead addresses.

Now, add on the bogus and malicious sign ups that undoubtedly will happen. For example, someone comes to your website and decides to put in bob@aol.com. Well, bob@aol.com was once a real email address and because you were not using confirmed opt-in you are now classified as an unintentional spammer.

A recent study by MarketingSherpa and KnowledgeStorm found that only 68% of users always enter a valid email address.So, nearly a third of respondents knowingly enter bogus email addresses.

- Source

ISPs do not differentiate between unintentional spammers or actual spammers. The potential for you to be blocked or even worse, blacklisted, remains the same.

Myth 2: My Mailing List Is Different! I Don’t Need Confirmed Opt-In.

Let’s be clear, confirmed opt-in is for all businesses, plain and simple. Anyone collecting subscribers and in turn sending email needs to confirm that those people intended to sign up to your mailing list and want to receive your email.

In this age of email regulations and massive volumes of spam email, deliverability can be an issue. Why increase your chances of not getting delivered by putting yourself at risk.

Myth 3: No One Else Uses Confirmed Opt-In. Why Should I?

This is simply not accurate. Our own campaigns here at AWeber use confirmed opt-in for all email marketing activities. When someone signs up for a Test Drive of AWeber, they must confirm.

After setting up an account, if they want to receive our customer training email course, they must confirm. The same goes for our affiliates and their email training. Even when someone subscribes to our blog, they must confirm.

Ok, but AWeber must practice what they preach, who else?

If you want to sign up for the mailing lists of these organizations you will need to first confirm:

CNN	Microsoft
Oprah, CNet	bellagio.com
IRS.gov	weather.com
ign.com	maxim.com
tgifridays.com	olivegarden.com
pbs.org	visitpa.com
Whitehouse.gov

The list goes on and on…

Myth 4: Subscribers In My Market Don’t Know How To Confirm.

The simple solution is to tell them. The first page after someone fills in an opt-in form, commonly called a “thank you page” should tell the visitor exactly what to do next. Often this is done most effectively with a picture showing visitors what the confirmation email will look like.

An excellent example is our test drive sign up video on the thank you page showing visitors what to do.

Honestly, if they can’t click a link then you probably should be marketing your business offline. If someone can find your website online I guarantee they can click a link.

Myth 5: My Sales Will Decrease Because Of Confirmed Opt-In.

Have you tested this assumption? The answer is always, “No, but I just assume” or “No, my colleague told me it would hurt sales”.

It’s best not to assume anything, but rather to seek out your own answers by testing and observing your own campaigns. We have found from our own testing that while the raw number of email addresses on our list declined when we switched to confirmed opt-in, sales did not.

This means that the people who did confirm were the ones that truly wanted the information that they had to offer and the ones that didn’t were not left to bloat the mailing list.

Grow Your Business Without Risk

Will your results be exactly the same as AWeber or even anyone else? This can only be determined by proper testing and measuring.

Use confirmed opt-in as an opportunity to make sure that your lists are 100% clean and that you know without a doubt that 100% of the people receiving your mail have specifically requested it themselves.

Spend your time and energy building your business with subscribers who want to hear from you rather than dealing with issues created by people who don’t want to hear from you.

Free Video from Our Confirmed Opt-in SeminarReady to optimize your Confirmed Opt-In process?

Join our Education Team for a recording of a recent live seminar for a demonstration of what you need to know to maximize the number of responsive subscribers on your list.

Watch the Confirmed Opt-in Seminar Video

We nodigen u graag uit om deel te nemen aan onze E-mailmarketing Master Class op maandag 14 december 2009.

Met deze E-mailmarketing Master Class krijgt u de laatste stand van zaken aangereikt en spijkert u in één dag uw kennis bij. U krijgt de meest recente benchmark cijfers, praktische tips en concrete cases. Een ideale mix waarmee u direct uw voordeel kan doen om uw e-mailcampagnes te optimaliseren. Alles gebracht door praktijkexperten. Er worden die dag geen productdemo’s gegeven.

Bekijk het programma van deze intensieve dagcursus en schrijf u vandaag nog in. We starten de dag om 9u30 en eindigen om 16u30 met een network drink. Er worden slechts 15 deelnemers toegelaten om voldoende interactie mogelijk te maken. Ervaring met e-mailmarketing is wenselijk. Als extra ontvangt u het recenste IAB E-mailmarketing Cookbook twv. €50.

De cursus van 14 december wordt in het Nederlands gegeven, met Engelstalige presentatieslides. Wat staat er op het programma?

• E-mail Marketing in België: Benchmarkcijfers
• Relevantie en personalisatie van de e-mail boodschap: essentieel voor succes
• Deliverability & Opt-in
• Renderability & Design
• Conversie verhogen met betere landing pages
• Dataverrijking via CRM koppeling: aandachtspunten en mogelijkheden
• Een rol voor e-mail marketing in customer lifecycle management
• Case1 : Veritas / e-couponing
• Case 2: Nutricia / lifecycle management

Praktische info

• start: 9u30
• eind: 16u30
• wanneer: maandag 14 december 2009
• locatie: EmailGarage training centre, Overijse
• Deelnameprijs: € 425 / €350 (EmailGarage klanten) incl. lunch, networking drink & IAB E-mailmarketing Cookbook, excl. BTW
• Inschrijven kan tot en met 11 december via onze site.

Mis deze kans om in één dag uw kennis bij te spijkeren en te netwerken niet.

English
Thank you for your interest in this E-mailmarketing Master Class. At this time it is only available in Dutch and French (Q4). Upon request we can organize it in English in your offices.

1,000 Subscribers In 7 Days! Is that even possible?

I’ve got BIG NEWS to share with you…

Ewen Chia has released his long-awaited email marketing program “Optin Profits”!

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There is only one reason I am using this…. IT WORKS!

Every year I see the big bins at the grocery stores outside their entrances. No, not the big bins of pumpkins that are out around Halloween. Those same big bins get used for recycling your phone books. Now, I’ve always wondered, ‘Who would bother to drag their big, heavy, cumbersome phone books from home all the way to the grocery store to recycle them?’ I am, evidently, not alone in this conclusion, as only 16 percent of white pages are even recycled each year. That doesn’t even address what happens to the larger, heavier Yellow Pages books….

For several years now, my clients have asked and been telling me about their success (or lack thereof) in their local Yellow Pages directory. Appearing in the book used to be a staple in basic advertising to ensure a successful business launch, particularly for small businesses desiring a strong local presence. But increasingly, I’ve heard business owners report that their Yellow Pages business had trickled down to nothing, and they stopped advertising in them. A few, however, report business stronger than ever from their listings and display ads. So it seems that success can vary widely depending upon the type of business and specific geographic location. It makes it very hard to advise clients on the best course of action when the results are seemingly hit and miss.

Now comes word that the State of California may consider an opt-in measure on White Pages distribution laws in January 2010. Many states have laws on their books either requiring distribution of White Pages and/or Yellow Pages to every doorstep in the jurisdiction, or they have opt-out or opt-in laws (relatively newly enacted) for the same. The reasons are myriad for ensuring doorstep delivery, but some include making sure everyone has phone numbers for government agencies and emergency services. Others see the paper-weight heft of the books as a local nuisance and an affront to the environment. Most know the internet has replaced folks’ primary source of local phone information with its ease of use and timely delivery of relevant data.

So what do you do? Do you invest in the dying dinosaur, as surely these publications will go by the wayside in time (as printed newspapers seem to be doing so today)? The folks at Yellow Pages like to boast huge returns: average sales ROI (return on investment) of 27:1 for national display advertisers and nearly 13:1 for local display advertisers. Personally, I’ve never heard any client (or other advertiser) boast of these results. But some businesses remain happy with their results. Others state their well has run dry with this advertising venue.

What is the bottom line? As more and more businesses opt-out of advertising in the Yellow Pages, it will continue to lose readership and credibility because it won’t be the all-inclusive source it once represented. At one time, if you weren’t in The Book, you didn’t exist as a business. The landscape has changed dramatically. It’s dying like newspapers are. And as local and state governments begin to change the legal requirements across the country to opt-in and/or opt-out for both White and Yellow Pages, their strength will continue to diminish.

Some business categories will likely continue to do well in the printed Yellow Pages, such as movers and pizza delivery. But both business types have long been planning (and using) the latest replacement model on the internet: They are easily found online and have nifty tools, such as moving planners and guides or menus and ordering ability for pizzas, available to the user at their fingertips. They can’t do that with one printed display ad – no matter how large – in the paper book. Eventually they, too, will opt to discontinue print ads in The Book.

Think twice before investing in your local book. Know the local opt-in, opt-out laws so you understand the book’s distribution rate. Research what your competition is doing to determine if you need to be there. And just because your competition may be in the book doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good investment for them either. Proceed with caution. You may find better use of your marketing investment dollar through other venues.

Rechtslage

Die Tage bei Dr-Bahr.com gelesen: Das LG München (Beschl. v. 13.10.2009 – Az.: 31 T 14369/09) hat festgestellt, dass eine reine Check-E-Mail kein Spamming, sondern vielmehr ein taugliches Instrument ist, um unerlaubte E-Mail-Werbung auszuschließen.

Bei dem Antragsteller handelte es sich um einen Münchener Rechtsanwalt. Er machte geltend, dass der Antragsgegner, der Geschäftsführer einer Direktmarketing Firma, unaufgefordert Werbeschreiben per E-Mail an seine Kanzleiadresse zugesandt habe. Tatsächlich wurde ihm eine Check-Mail mittels Double-Opt-In im Rahmen eines Gewinnspiels zugesandt.

Der Anwalt begehrte den Erlass einer einstweilige Verfügung.

Sowohl das AG München als auch die Beschwerde-Instanz, das LG München, lehnten einen Anspruch ab. Die Richter begründeten ihre Entscheidung damit, dass die Zusendung einer Check-E-Mail im Double-Opt-In-Verfahren keine unerlaubte E-Mail-Werbung darstelle. Denn die Besonderheit in diesem Verfahren liege darin, dass die Registrierung für das zugesandte Angebot erst dann wirksam werde, wenn sie von dem Adressaten bestätigt werde.

Es handle sich somit um einen Schutz vor weiteren, unerwünschten E-Mails und um eine Absicherung, dass die erste Aufforderung tatsächlich von dem Adressaten stamme und nicht auf einem missbräuchlichen Eintrag beruhe. Das LG München beruft sich dabei ausdrücklich auf die “E-Mail-Werbung”-Entscheidung des BGH (Urt. v. 11.03.2004 – Az.: I ZR 81/01), wo es ausdrücklich heisst:

“Der Werbende hat durch geeignete Massnahmen sicherzustellen, dass es nicht zu einer fehlerhaften Zusendung einer E-Mail zu Werbezwecken aufgrund des Schreibversehens eines Dritten kommt.”

Fazit: Eine solche geeignete Massnahme sei das Double-Opt-In-Verfahren.Es liegt somit bei solchen E-Mail keine unerlaubte Werbung vor.

Mit besten Grüßen aus Essen,
Jan-Philip Ziebold
http://www.dz-media.de

Improve Your Life! Get all of our useful tips, updates and life-improving strategies. Just send a blank email to wellnessbill@aweber.com to subscribe to our mailing list.

What Yamaha did is an example of a great way to support your SMS programs and encourage people to opt-in for mobile alerts. Having the right incentive can be very effective as seen with this example where Yamaha noticed a 400% increase in consumers signing up for SMS alerts.

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/messaging/4507.html

I guess I could get more excited about the ability to opt-out if I was confident that Nebraska would opt-in.   I would also be able to get more excited if we could buy insurance across state lines.    After all, wouldn’t that be true competition? In Nebraska, a family of four can expect to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $1153 for cobra per month.  Ouch! So, would I appreciate a little more competitive, regulated market? You bet!

Employers are faced with increasing premiums so they constantly shop plans.  Is it better being with an employer who pays most of your premium? Yes and no.  At the moment, it protects those who have “pre-exesting conditions.”  COBRA does this too since it is still the employer’s plan.  That is a positive, but health care reform will level that playing field.  When the employer is in complete control of your coverage, is that really choice?  When employers decide, as they have been for the past year, that they do not want to cover so much of the premium costs, do you really have choice?

Why is it a bad idea for all of us to have the same access to plans that our elected officials do?

I am a registered independent and I vote.  So, when it comes time to decide who stays and who goes, you can bet I will remember which officials in my state voted against health care reform.

Ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to subscriber inboxes is an increasingly difficult battle in the age of spam filtering. Open and click thru response rates can be dramatically affected by as much as 20-30% due to incorrect spam filter classification.

Permission

Confirming that the people who ask for your information have actually requested to be on your list is the number one step in the battle for deliverability. You should be using a process called confirmed opt-in or verified opt-in to send a unique link to the attempted subscriber when they request information. Before adding the person to your list they must click that unique link verifying that they are indeed the same person that owns the email address and requested to subscribe.

Subscriber Addresses

When requesting website visitors to opt-in ask for their “real” or “primary” email address instead of a free email address like Yahoo or Hotmail. Free emails tend to be throw away accounts and typically have a shorter lifetime than a primary ISP address.

List Maintenance

Always promptly remove undeliverable addresses that bounce when sending email to them. An address that bounces with a permanent error 2-3 times in a 30 day period should be removed from the list. ISP’s track what percentage of your newsletters bounce and will block them if you attempt to continually deliver messages to closed subscriber mailboxes.

Message Format

Usage of HTML messages to allow for text formatting, multiple columns, images, and brand recognition is growing in popularity and is widely supported by most email client software. Most spam is also HTML formatted and thus differentiating between requested email and spam HTML messages can be difficult. A 2004 study by AWeber .com shows that plain text messages are undeliverable 1.15% of the time and HTML only messages were undeliverable 2.3%. If
sending HTML it is important to always send a plain text alternative message, also called text/HTML multi-part mime format.

Content

Many ISP’s filter based on the content that appears within the message text.

Website URL:

Research potential newsletter advertisers before allowing them to place ads in your newsletter issues. If they have used their website URL to send spam, just having their URL appear in your newsletter could cause the entire message to be filtered.

Words/phrases:

Choose your language carefully when crafting messages. Avoid hot button topics often found in spam such as medication, mortgages, making money, and pornography. If you do need to use words that might be filtered, don’t attempt to obfuscate words with extra characters or odd spelling, you’ll just make your messages appear more spam like.

Images:

Avoid creating messages that are entirely images. Use images sparingly, if at all. Commonly used open rate tracking technology uses images to calculate opens. You may choose to disable open rate tracking to avoid being filtered based on image content.

Attachments:

With viruses running rampant and spreading thru the usage of malicious email attachments many users are wary of attached documents. It’s often better to link to files via a website URL to reduce recipient fear of attachments and reduce the overall message size.

CAN-SPAM Compliance

The January 2004 Federal CAN-SPAM law introduced a number of rules regarding the delivery of email. It’s important you have your legal counsel review your practices and ensure you are in compliance. The two most important rules include having a valid postal mail address listed in all commercial messages and a working unsubscribe link that is promptly honoured to remove the subscriber from future messages.

Reputation

Reputation services are often used by large ISP’s as a way to vet email senders regarding their email practices and policies. Businesses listed with these services are then given less stringent filtering or no filtering at all. Several reputation services are:

• http://www.isipp.com/iadb.php
• http://www.bondedsender.com
• http://www.habeas.com

Relationships & White listing

Contact with major ISP’s and email providers is essential in letting them know about your requested subscriber email. Many large providers such as AOL and Yahoo have specific white listing programs and postmaster website areas to ensure your email is delivered as long as you meet their policies and procedures in handling your opt-in list.

Email deliverability is about ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to the intended recipient. While no single tip will enable you to get 100% of your email delivered each one utilized as a group can go a long way to reaching that goal.

http://www.homesinflowermound.net

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Matt Yglesias is skeptical of the President’s efforts to court Olympia Snowe’s (R-Maine) vote on the health care bill.  This is probably due in part to rumors that were flying over the weekend that the White House was pushing back against Harry Reid’s stronger “opt out” public option in favor of the weaker “triggered” public option that Snowe might support (note:  the White House denies this is true).  Matt seems to agree with Howard Fineman that getting Snowe isn’t going to get the President any buy-in from Republican voters, but that it will substantially weaken the public option.  Specifically, Matt suggests:

You can think of the aftermath of the stimulus vote. Securing the votes of three moderate Republicans didn’t lead anyone to characterize the bill as a bipartisan endeavor. Instead, it simply served to delegitimize the “real Republican” credentials of the three Republicans who voted for it.

He’s right that getting three Republican votes for the stimulus bill in the Senate didn’t actually cause anyone to call the bill bipartisan.  Still, getting Arlen Specter to vote for the stimulus got the Democrats a 60th vote in the Senate.  Though Pat Toomey had been running a relatively competitive campaign against Specter for the Republican primary before the stimulus, it was Specter’s vote with the President that sealed his fate as a Republican.

In many cases, I think that party matters more in Senate races than personality.  If Barbara Boxer (D-CA) decided to run as a Republican, for instance, she’d probably face an uphill battle for reelection.  Some senators, however, really are institutions in their state.  Arlen Specter was an example of that.  It wasn’t that he couldn’t win a statewide election (he’ll probably kill Toomey in 2010 absent a monumental screw up), it was that he couldn’t win a Republican primary.  Olympia Snowe is similarly positioned (as is her fellow Republican Mainer Susan Collins).  A vote for a health care bill isn’t going to win Snowe many points with the zealots that turn out in primary elections, even if she is able to weaken the public option by insisting on a trigger.  What it will probably do, though, is further alienate her from the more conservative Republican base.  If Snowe sufficiently angered Maine Republicans that someone like a Pat Toomey could run to her right in a Republican primary and win, I don’t see why her situation would be any different from that of Arlen Specter:  she’d win a general election without any problem, but she’d have to leave the Republican party to do it.

This isn’t to say that getting Sen. Snowe is a good enough reason to back a trigger over an opt-out clause if Harry Reid can actually get the stronger public option.  It may be that the benefits of the more robust public option outweigh the benefit of pushing a moderate Republican like Olympia Snowe out of the Republican party.  Still we ought to recognize that, given the growing intolerance among Republican voters for lawmakers who vote with the President on anything, any time the White House can snag a Republican vote on an  big-ticket issue is a potential opportunity to get another Democratic vote in the Senate (and since he switched parties, Arlen Specter’s voting record has gone from that of a moderate Republican to that of a fairly liberal Democrat).

I agree with that bipartisanship for bipartisanship’s sake isn’t all that important compared to getting a better piece of health care legislation, but there is more strategic value in getting moderate Republican votes than appearing to reach across the aisle.  Looking forward at other big issues on the President’s agenda (a climate-change bill and the climate change treaty, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the Defense of Marriage Act, etc.) every additional vote matters.

Beveiligen tegen spam is eenvoudig.

Doordat informatie via het world wide web overal te zien is, betekent dit internet een fantastisch promotie-medium. Reclame, in casu direct mailing, via het web is aan strikte regels gebonden. Maar niet iedereen houdt zich er aan. Vaak sturen bedrijven, organisaties of malafide groepen ongevraagd en ongewild e-mails rond. En dan kom je al snel op het domein van de spam. Hier volgen enkele eenvoudige tips om je computer tegen spam te beveiligen.

Wat is spam?

Van Dale definieert spam als ongevraagde e-mails of sms’jes, vaak met reclame. Een andere definitie spreekt van ongevraagde post of reclame (ook orec genaamd) of e-mail die op grote schaal en ongevraagd wordt verstuurd.

Hiermee wordt de essentie van spam alvast duidelijk. Ze zijn ongevraagd en worden massaal (geautomatiseerd) verstuurd. Het hoeft dus niet noodzakelijk platte reclame te zijn. De informatie kan best interessant zijn voor bepaalde doelgroepen. Maar toch hangt er een gevoel van ergernis vast bij de meeste mensen van wie hun postbus regelmatig overstelpt worden door spamberichten.

Wat kun je doen om spam te vermijden?

Niet alle oplossingen kosten veel geld. Een paar eenvoudige, praktische ingrepen volstaan vaak om het grootste deel van de ongevraagde post te weren.

1. Laat je e-mailadres niet overal achter.

Wees voorzichtig met het gebruik en de verspreiding van je e-mail adres. Hoe minder je het doorgeeft, in het bijzonder op het Web, hoe kleiner de kans is dat jespam zult ontvangen.

Natuurlijk komt je e-mailadres op bepaalde plaatsen vrij voor. Denk maar aan de wettelijke vermeldingen op je website als je aan online verkoop doet. Of gewoon bij je bedrijfsgegevens. Zorg er voor dat de mensen wat moeite moeten doen om je e-mailadres te vinden op je site. Haal het weg van de homepagina en laat de mensen een paar keer klikken vooraleer het te voorschijn komt. Want wie je echt wil bereiken, doet graag een beetje moeite daar voor.

Laat mensen via je website reageren door een berichtenbox in te vullen. Zo doe je ze toekomen zonder dat de correspondent precies weet wat je precies mailadres is en kun je via deze weg ook niet op groepmail-lijsten terecht komen. Zijn het boodschappen die voor jou interessant zijn, dan antwoord je natuurlijk persoonlijk. Dan krijgt de geadresseerde natuurlijk wel je e-mailadres.

2. Beantwoord enkel betrouwbare e-mails.

Beantwoord geen e-mails waarvan de oorsprong of de verzender je twijfelachtig lijkt. Gebruik hier het simpele principe dat wat je niet gevraagd hebt niet van jou van belang is en wie je niet kent ook geen antwoord hoeft. Spammers weten immers dat wie reageert ook effectief het bericht heeft gekregen en gelezen. Vaak volstaat het om alle ongevraagde berichten een aantal keren simpelweg in de prullenmand te kieperen om de spam te laten opdrogen.

3. Gebruik een inventief e-mailadres.

De meeste webeigenaars gebruiken een algemeen e-mailadres dat begint met info@, administratie@, contact@, enz. Dat weet iedereen die een beetje met het internet werkt. Kent men het e-mailadres niet, dan is het eenvoudig om zo’n algemeen voorvoegsel voor de domeinnaam te zetten. In meer dan 80 procent komen de mails inderdaad terecht. Er bestaan ook webprogramma’s die automatisch e-mailadressen samenstellen op deze basis.

Het is dus een goed idee om wat creatief te zijn met je algemeen e-mailadres. Voor een winkel kan je net evengoed shop@ gebruiken, of ideetjes@. Bedrijven kunnen b.v. vraag@ of wat@ instellen. Dat is veel minder evident en beveiligt je inbox vrij doeltreffend omdat het niet voor de hand liggend is. Zorg er dus voor dat de mensen met wie je in contact wilt staan, je e-mailadres moeten krijgen en niet gemakkelijk kunnen raden.

4. Camoufleer je e-mailadres.

Als je je e-mail adres publiceert op een website, camoufleer het dan, bijvoorbeeld door de “@” te vervangen door “at”. Je adresnaam@bedrijf.be wordt dan naam(at)bedrijf.be. Je kunt ookspaties toevoegen net voor of na de @. Dat zorgt ook voor foutboodschappen bij e-mailautomators.

Nog een vaak gebruikte techniek is om een controlewoord te laten invullen vooraleer je e-mailadres te voorschijn komt. Dat gebeurt vaak vooraleer je een bericht met een berichtenbox kan versturen. Maar je kan dit net evengoed doen als vooraleer je je mailadres toont. Even effectief en automatische programma’s kunnen hier geen weg mee.

5. Gebruik degelijke beschermingsprogramma’s.

Laat niet eender wat op je computer binnenkomen. Bescherm hem door filters te gebruiken. Installeer een Firewall (software dat je computer beschermt tegen indringers via het internet) en een anti-virus programma. En gebruik de functies van uw e-mailprogramma of computersoftware. Vergeet ook niet je software (systeemsoftware inbegrepen) regelmatig te updaten zodat deze doeltreffend en up-to-date blijft.

Hou hier ook rekening mee bij het kiezen van een hostingfirma voor je website. De betere webhosters, b.v. SiteHosting te Merelbeke, beveiligen hun eigen internet- en mailservers immers goed met programma’s die malaware, spam of hackers tegenhouden. Dat is een eerste buffer die je gebruikt om de grootste hoop storende boodschappen te filteren voordat ze je inbox bereiken.

En vertrouw niet echt de “gratis” beveiligingsprogramma’s die je her en der vindt. Ofwel bieden ze slechts een beperkte bescherming of ze lopen wat achter in het beveiligen van de nieuwste virussen. Of heel erg, het kunnen zelfs placebo beveiligingsprogramma’s zijn van malafide bedrijven die zo op je computer kunnen binnen geraken.

Besluit.

Het beveiligen van je e-mailadres en het vrijwaren van je inbox tegen spamberichten hoeft niet steeds erg duur te zijn. Door een aantal eenvoudige, praktische richtlijnen toe te passen voorkom je massale spam en hou je de instroom van ongevraagde mails beperkt.

So, what are the best ways to build and maintain your list? Email marketing has many clear benefits. It is a low cost means of  generating an exceptional response rate. The problem is, if you don’t have email addresses or if your data isn’t up to scratch then you can’t conduct an email campaign in any meaningful way. There is no ‘one size fits all’ piece of advice we can give you  about building your email database, it will be an ongoing project. As such, it is important to first of all determine which stage your business is at and from there, decide which option suits you.  Before going into detail about building your database, it is essential to establish the different levels of permissions associated with email marketing. Although it is up to you to choose which range fits your business, it is worth taking a note of them at a very basic level: ‘B2B’ email campaigns can be sent to your recipients on an ‘opt  out’ basis. This means that you can contact those names you have  on your database without needing to gain their permission first. ‘B2C’ email campaigns must be sent to recipients with their express permission or ‘opt in’. Therefore if you want to market to personal email addresses (such as  …@hotmail.com) the recipients  must have opted in to receiving your emails. Take a look at the three typical stages below that businesses will be at, when setting out to build or improve their email data.
Scenario 1: Company A would like to do email marketing to the business sector but hold no data. Most businesses understand the importance of communication via 
email, but some don’t hold any data at all to do this and often don’t know where to start. Below are some effective options of building an email list from scratch.
One of the quickest ways to grow your database is to purchase a  list with email addresses included. There are numerous specialist sources of lists available, but be careful to choose a reputable one as you may purchase an overused email list that gives you a poor response rate. It may be a good idea to ask the vendor for a  smaller number to initially test, for example, a list of 1,000 contacts. For those in search of the unconventional or obscure contacts, an  email list may not be available. The best option here would be to purchase a list and conduct a telemarketing campaign to find out the details of the right contact. This method will be more costly in the short term but ill give you a tailor made email database for the long term. It is good to have a central source of data, similar to a CRM System perhaps. Many sales people keep their data in outlook, or on paper which is fine for autonomous campaigns – but causes a problem if you want to centralise your email marketing. It’s a free source of information, and is surprisingly often overlooked.
Scenario 2: Company B would like to start email marketing to the consumer market, but hold no data.  The approach here will differ from Scenario 1 and in some ways  consumer emails are harder to come by. If you have a website, then every time someone visits try and capture their name to send them an email newsletter. You can do this through a pop up box or simply through a field where they can enter their email address. Decrease your abandonment rate by making sure that it’s easy to sign up and don’t ask for too much information. For instance, if you start asking for preferences, areas of interest etc then you may find that your visitors don’t finish the sign up process. Gather email addresses through day to day contact. Another method of gaining email data is by simply asking for an  email address from everyone who visits your business and events (exhibitions, trade shows etc.) and instructing your telephone sales and customer service workers to ask for an email address where appropriate. Purchasing a list -you do have an option of purchasing a list of contacts with email addresses, but it is imperative to ensure they have an expressed interest in the services you offer.
Scenario 3: Company C wants to become more proactive in their email marketing. They hold the data, but with few email addresses.  Some businesses start out small with email marketing, perhaps using a basic home grown solution. Whilst it’s good to gain new data and access a whole new area of prospects, it is equally important not to  neglect the data you already hold, as often it’s the best place to start. If you have an in-house or outsourced telemarketing team, you can conduct a telemarketing campaign to gain email addresses of the members in your database. Not only will this put you in touch with your contacts again, they in turn would expect future mailings from you. Get in touch with an email marketing company. Whilst email deliverability is essential, it is just as important to monitor your campaign post delivery to find out what happens behind the scenes. On the surface, your data may seem fine but by using an email service provider, and sending a campaign to the contacts you already have in your database, you can establish how good your data really is. A specialist provider would help you understand the percentage of your data that is corrupt, draw out the bounces and if necessary, give you options to clean and improve it. You may find you were just lacking the reporting facilities to really understand your data and act upon.  Email marketing is fast becoming a cheaper and efficient form of marketing. The opportunities are endless, and more importantly  measurable. The defining factor for the success of your email campaign is not only in its design, strategy or content but heavily dependent on the quality of your email list. As such, it is definitely worth spending time and cost building a list, but then it is equally important to ensure it is maintained and used well.  Responsible email marketing often comes hand in hand with knowing your database and their preferences, and is also recipe for a longer lasting, healthy database.