Download a PDF version of the checklist so you have it handy, or if you’d like to pass it on to whoever is responsible for setting up your email content.

1. Have all Content Validation tests have been passed?

When on the email template’s page, switch to the Validate tab and view the Content Validation panel. This checks for easily overlooked issues such as broken links and missing images.

2. Has ‘SpamAssassin’ panel flagged any potential spam issues?

When on the email template’s page, switch to the Validate tab and view the SpamAssassin panel. This checks for issues that might trigger your email to be marked as spam, preventing it from landing in your user’s inbox.

3. Are all links going to correct destinations?

Send yourself test emails and check all the links are going to their correct destinations, including view online and social share tags if you’ve used them. If you do find you’ve sent a campaign with the wrong links, fear not, you can change where the links direct to using the Live Links Editor in the campaign’s report.

4. Do all images have alt tags?

Alt tags are displayed when images are blocked, so are a good way to get a message across to the many users whose images are blocked by default. If you are not au fait with HTML you can use the online editor: right click the image and select Image Properties, and edit the Alternative Text form field.

5. Have you included [UNSUBSCRIPTION_CONTENT] tag, and is it clear in the content?

You should always include a clear unsubscription link in your content – it is a legal requirement when sending marketing emails in the EU and US.

6. Have you previewed any personalised content, is your user data ready to be merged in?

If you’ve used any merge fields for personalisation preview how the content will look for different users. Also double check all the users you are sending to have the required user data fields to be merged in.

7. Does the email display correctly in different email clients?

Email clients are notorious for rendering HTML email in different ways, affecting the layout and visual aesthetic of your email. The Inbox Inspector (found on the Testing tab of your email template page) allows you to quickly preview the email in many popular email clients. If the Inbox Inspector highlights issues you can’t resolve try running the HTML through a validator such as http://validator.w3.org/.

8. Have you included a text-only version?

Sending a text-only version of your HTML emails makes the content available to text-only email clients, including some mobile devices, and makes spam filters much less likely to mark your email as spam. Make sure you proof read the text-only version before sending.

9. Have all ‘Sender Verification’ tests have been passed?

Sender Verification is important in getting your email to land in the users inbox. On the ‘Send’ tab of your email template’s page you’ll find a ‘Sender Verification’ section – make sure all four items have a green tick before them. If any are highlighted in orange or red report these to your email solution’s support desk before sending.

10. Have all your recipients opted-in to receiving email (if sending B2C email)?

Failing to do so will have a massively detrimental effect on your sender reputation; worse still, as this is a legal requirement in the EU you could land yourself in some rather hot (and expensive) water!

Typically, managing email in a multi brand or business environment can be tricky to administer.

Some common problems we have come across that digital/email marketing personnel have to contend with include:

• Allocating budget against sends
• Keeping databases separate and managing opt outs for compliance
• Aggregating results centrally and generating insights for future campaigns

We designed Neteffekt specifically for running multiple clients, be they internal or external customers.  We help digital marketers overcome these common problems and many others.

For instance, Virgin Media use our solution across

• www.virginmedia.co.uk
• www.virginmedia.com/player
• www.virginmedia.com/tvradio/on-demand
• www.virginmedia.com/broadband

Specifically to manage opt outs and data collection from multiple sources.

Neteffekt comes with advanced functionality for the enterprise including powerful reporting, testing, social media, events triggers and API integration.

We do not charge for setting additional users or clients within the solution and the service is backed-up by a knowledgable and responsive support team in addition to the professional account management that comes as standard with neteffekt.

Compare us with our competitors here http://www.neteffekt.com/pricing and why not take a take a tour http://www.neteffekt.com/tour/

It is important to note that ISPs aren’t looking solely at standard engagement metrics like opens, clicks, Spam complaints and unsubscribes. They are now looking at more passive indicators of engagement based on how users interact with a message on the whole. Take Hotmail for example. According to Return Path founder and president George Bilbrey, Microsoft has stated that it would be looking at numerous metrics, including:

• Messages read, then deleted
• Messages deleted without being read
• Messages replied to
• Frequency of receiving and reading a message from a source

Yahoo! Mail product Manager Carol Catajan has also confirmed that Yahoo! is tracking how many emails are being read, opened and clicked on with the data collected then being used to fine-tune it’s reputation system. In other words, if most of a sender’s emails aren’t being opened or clicked, their sender reputation will be adversely affected.

Similarly, Google is embracing engagement metrics with Gmail’s new “Priority Inbox”. This new feature flags email that it feels its users will want to see. It makes this determination based on the level of engagement it has seen from the user with certain types of emails. They look at the mail you have read and the mail you have replied to and elevate those messages in priority. When you log in to your Priority Inbox for the first time, you get a pop-up showing how a sampling of your messages has been prioritised and then are giving the opportunity to change the prioritisation.

Hotmail and Gmail also respond to prolonged inactivity by turning a user’s account off after 270 consecutive days without a login. Hotmail will give users an extra 90 days to reactivate the account, but after that, the account is deleted to make the storage space available to active users. Yahoo! is even more severe, closing accounts after only 160 days of inactivity – although this doesn’t apply to paid Yahoo! Mail Plus accounts.

With the lack of any activity (i.e. engagement) negatively affecting sender reputation, marketers need to make sure their programs are focused on increasing engagement, and that means leveraging customer data to better understand what interests them. Of course, this is in everyone’s best interest. These changes mean that companies can no longer afford to simply send the same email to every customer in hopes that a small percentage will open and respond. Instead, marketers need to ensure that they are gathering the data they need to maximize campaign performance and engagement – before it becomes the only metric that matters to the ISPs.

Useful links

Yahoo! Inbox Placement
Hotmail Engagement Metrics
Google Priority Inbox

Even in the scenarios where your email requirements are over and above what your current providers solution can deliver, you’re not happy with the service or support you are being given or you’re looking to make use of newer and more innovative features that will help to increase user engagement you may still be concerned about delivery issues, sender reputation, productivity loss, integration and the task of learning how to use a new solution.

It’s unlikely that a decision to switch to neteffekt will be taken lightly but here are five considerations that should help make the decision an easier one for you.

1. Transtioning
Our solutions can be up and running within 48 hours. Following this there are considerations to be made and discussions that will need to take place in order for us to understand your current projects and how they can be managed into a structured approach to delivery ramp-up.

Every business is different which we always take that into account and in our experience there’s no reason why new neteffekt solutions can’t be operating in a live environment in a matter of days.

2. Content & Data
We’re experienced in taking data and content from other solutions such as dotMailer, Cheetahmail and Silverop as well as other large ESPs. We work to ensure that the process of supporting your existing clients and projects is unaffected as you move them across to using the neteffekt solution. Whether you provide a managed service to you clients, they work as self-service or anything in between clients will assume access to their data and content will be available and we can assist to make that process as simple as is possible.

3. Integration
As a technology business integration is our comfort zone. Understanding and assisting with integration requirements and existing re-integration considerations is an area where we’re able to get involved and either work with your technical team or provide integration as a service.

There are many clients of neteffekt that have benefited from what we can do in terms of integration and when Premier Inn found that their previous ESP was unable to give them what they needed neteffekt were able to deliver – Read more…

4. Deliverability
Once we understand more about your emailing requirements and the service you provide to your clients we’re then able to advise on the best way to approach delivery from our solution. Existing domain names used in from email addresses can be transferred from your existing solution, there’s shared and dedicated IP address options that can be managed across your clients from within the solution and there’s a built-in reputation monitor to health check everything delivery related and can reporting on Return Path SenderScore.

We’re able to configure our mail servers inline with your delivery ramp-up plan and the level of detail in campaign reports provide real-time analysis and insight into delivery that can be used to tailor the solution in order to produce optimum delivery rates.

5. Usability, Training & Support
We consider the user interface of our solution to be the best around and we invite you to come and take a look. Usability is of great importance, not only to us but to our clients, as we want to deliver innovative and powerful features in a way that they’re easy to understand and to make use of.

We provide training to all new clients and we’re always available to provide further training in the event of staff changes within the businesses of our clients. The feedback we get from our clients is that the solution is very simple to use and is backed-up by a very responsive and knowledgable support team.

Taking the above into account and added to that the flexibility of neteffekt in being able to help the process of switching ESPs, not only in terms of support but also commercially, it should help you feel more comfortable about making the decision to change so you can start to see the benefits of using the neteffekt email marketing solution.

We have hundreds of clients worldwide of all different types ranging from design agencies, marketing agencies, list brokers, digital publishers, multi-brand and multi-departmental businesses, corporate companies and many more. Across the different types of businesses there’s a wide range reasons why they are attracted to and stick with neteffekt but one common factor is the white label aspect.

White label, sometimes called ‘private label’, means in summary that we provide hosted software as a service (SaaS) email marketing solutions that feature a way of hiding the fact the software is developed by neteffekt.

As an example, for a business that provides email marketing as a service to clients then it’s of great benefit to be able to manage them all within one solution, not only from a productivity point of view but also on the commercial side when taking into account aggregation and economies of scale.

The branding element of white label solutions gives the outward impression that it’s owned, developed  and supported by the business and gives clients that use it great confidence in the service. When re-inforced with solution and client level branding of email domain names, click domain names, logos, css and other styling and personalisation features a white-label email marketing solution starts to make complete sense.

neteffekt’s multi-client white label solution enables you to maximise revenue generated through email marketing and to increase your profit margin. Firstly, through a simple monthly service fee that covers the entire solution and that avoids less cost effective individual clients contracts and saves you money. Added to increased revenue generation is better economies of scale because of the way in which we view all the clients set-up within the solution as just one service and therefore one invoice. There’s also the ability to control the features available to clients which is supported by detailed reporting on usage activity meaning the potential is there to significantly improve email marketing service profit margins and ensure that everything used by clients is billed for.

Managing multiple clients within one solution presents different challenges for things like managing IP addresses, integration, reporting amongst other things and none of which are a problem  as the neteffekt solution handles them elegantly and with ease.