By Isabel Lapointe on January 5th, 2009
We know you’ve already planned to lose weight, quit smoking, and start exercising to improve your quality of life. And we don’t want to overwhelm you with MORE resolutions but simply having better email marketing practices can diminish your complaint rate and improve your deliverability, lowering your stress level and making your life in general better! Aren’t we thoughtful? 
- Emails are nothing without the appropriate permissions. Go for double opt-in.
- Should we really tell you once more to NOT buy lists?
- Keep your lists as up-to-date as possible. Delete all problem addresses and react quickly to unsubscribe requests.
- Avoid using lists you haven’t used for more than a year. If you’ve stopped using a list for several months, it’s a good idea to send a request to subscribers, reconfirming their subscription prior to any other sending.
- In the subscription process clearly explain what your users will receive and when. And allow your subscribers to unsubscribe easily.
- Email subjects must be as clear as possible. Don’t take the chance of getting mixed up with spam. And picking an attractive subject line will make your readers eager to open your email.
- In your emails have a clear sender name and address, and always use the same ones.
- Ask your subscribers to add your email address to their contact list so you won’t end up in their spam box.
- Respect your users and the rules you agreed to when they subscribed to your email. Go further than the rules set up by the CAN-SPAM Act, or at least respect them.
- Make good content! No one will complaint about receiving interesting content.
Whitelisting 101 on CakeMail and the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group - MAAWG Senders Communications Practices Guide (PDF download) will help you keep your resolutions.
Have a great, successful and healthy year in 2009!
By Isabel Lapointe on December 23rd, 2008
And our best wishes to all our clients in every language!
We wish everyone all the best for the coming New Year. And hope everyone has a great time with family and friends during this holiday season, and enjoy all the end of the year celebrations. Shut down your computer, your iPhone or your Blackberry for, hum, let’s say a couple of hours, or days if you can, to celebrate and have great time with the ones you cherish.
We’ll see you in January to support you with your great new projects, and we’ll have a successful 2009 together!
But be assured the Cakemail support team is available during the holidays, although with limited service on December 25 and January 1st.
We also invite you to follow us on Twitter.
Team: http://twitter.com/cakemail
Francois Lane, our CEO: http://twitter.com/cakemail_ceo
or
Steve Smith, our VP Sales, who has just started his first tweets: http://twitter.com/SteveSmith_Cake
Our very best wishes and have a wonderful time 
CakeMail Team
By Francois Lane on December 16th, 2008
Cakemail’s 2.0 Beta is here! And with it, comes yet another email marketing innovation : a new Open Plugin API.
CakeMail takes its email marketing platform to a new level of flexibility. Tailor CakeMail to your client’s individual needs. You’re in the driver’s seat. Create a plugin for your application and we’ll help you integrate it within CakeMail. The sky’s the limit!
What’s in it for you?
Developers: work with Cakemail to get your email marketing app in front of Cakemail’s 2500+ clients. Retain ownership of your product, full licensing control and reap 100% of the profits generated from any license fee.
Marketers: develop exclusive products for your clients that will make you and your agency an integral part of all their campaigns.
Clients: work with application developers to customize the CakeMail email marketing platform to fit your needs perfectly.
First to jump on board? Litmus. Thanks to the CakeMail 2.0’s Open Plugin API this great service, which shows you screenshots of your email newsletter as it looks across all major email clients, is now available to CakeMail clients. And that’s not all. Litmus runs your email through a wide range of spam filters, helping you fix any issues affecting its appearance and spam scoring. Now available on CakeMail. Try it . We know you’ll love it.
Intrigued? Want to know more about offering a plug-in to CakeMail’s clients through our Open Plugin API? We’ll be happy to support you in every development phase, so get in touch with us. We look forward to working with you!
By Isabel Lapointe on December 11th, 2008
If you weren’t able to make it to Email Insider Summit in Utah this week, here are some dedicated bloggers who took time to summarized the highlights for us. As usual, a search on #EIS on Twitter will help you feel (almost…) like you were there.
By Isabel Lapointe on December 3rd, 2008
Fulfilling your wildest dreams, your favourite email marketing software has just released new newsletter templates to use as you please for all your marketing needs.
Discover our natural designs, our girly templates or our modern themes. As with all our templates, they are free to use, distribute and modify under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license. All you have to do is browse the previews, download the one(s) you like and modify them to comply with your needs. We even provide the thumbnail to display in your CakeMail account.
Enjoy!
- Two of our new template designs
By Francois Lane on December 1st, 2008
CakeMail just released a new enhanced CakeMail “Forward to a Friend” function. Now users can grow their email lists faster and easier than ever!
The new Forward to a Friend allows recipients to deliver a personalized message to as many as 5 friends at a time, allowing each of them to subscribe to your email list, and of course, forward it on to their friends.
As before, the new Forward to a Friend feature is available in all 7 CakeMail interface languages. And as always, the CakeMail flexibility is included. The new API call, “Mailing.Forward” lets you customize the functionality to suit your taste.
The power of online referrals can have a significant impact on your email marketing business recurring revenue. Encouraging your clients to include “Forward to a Friend” in their mailings will help them grow their lists, expand their reach, increase their send rates, and help them become more successful email marketers.
For more information about this new and improved feature visit the related entry in our Support section.
By Isabel Lapointe on November 25th, 2008
From the recent chart ‘Marketers Flock to Some Digital Tactics, Abandon Others in Downturn’, released by MarketingSherpa, we see confirmation of marketers’ plans to change from expensive old media strategies to less expensive online ones.
Everybody plans on reducing expenses but some media will be much more affected than others. Radio and TV ads are receiving the most cuts, from 83% of the respondents. Print advertising, Events and Direct email will also experience significant reductions in their use. Other online strategies may also suffer from cuts. This is the case with Online display advertising and Email to rented lists, where there is a planned reduction for 43% of users that will not be compensated by the slight intention of increase in usage from others. The big winners in this situation seem to be the Web 2.0 and the Emailing to house list. With 48% of marketers interested in using these more, even through the recession, this may be their chance to be proven as strong marketing tools.
But comparing the advantages of those two tools, we totally agree on a comment made by Marketing Sherpa’s experts: “Not surprisingly, house email and Web 2.0 are getting high attention; both are relatively low-cost and the former, at least, has proven ROI. Web 2.0 is seen as having the same virtue, although it doesn’t have email’s well-documented ROI”.
By Isabel Lapointe on November 21st, 2008
This Christmas, Email marketing is your best ally in promoting your goods and services. Here are a few reasons why:
1) Marketing budget has been cut due to recession
And so have your advertising possibilities. Only a small investment is needed in an email marketing campaign to get the best ROI. Be creative and use your list wisely to send customers offers they can’t refuse.
2) Spending budget has been cut for your customers too
Now is the time for coupons, bargains and special offers.
3) Loyalty
You’re always looking for new markets, but the holiday season is the perfect time of year to thank your customers by offering them, and their friends, special offers. Segment your list and send targeted offers for products you know they will love. Encourage them to share these offers with their friends by forwarding the email.
4) Be Creative
Create targeted lists of products to help your customers complete their Christmas shopping. Have offers for gifts for babies, kids, mothers, fathers, lovers, parties and hosts or help them find what they want by price range. And don’t forget ideas for dressing up, decorating, cooking, drinking and music. Build a thematic newsletter around your area of expertise. Offer them great content, not just hard sales. Send them emails they will find interesting and also be interested in sharing.
Make it possible to register for selected categories of your newsletter with specialized offers. Or make an ‘Advent Calendar’, emailing a new offer every day until Christmas. Be sure people are able to subscribe for only certain newsletters and specify the date the newsletter will stop. If not, they your subscribers could feel overwhelmed.
If you can, set up a special Elf team for Christmas, focused on answering customer email and suggesting gift ideas for loved ones!
5) Think ‘Last minute shopping’
Make your customers’ lives easier by allowing them to have gifts delivered to their homes up until the last few days before Christmas.
Offer free shipping for minimum spending. For that they will be thanking you all year long!
Are your customers too late to assure delivery on time? Provide them with printable Christmas cards with expressions like, “Santa Claus is coming a little late this year” or cute gift certificates that will be spent in your boutique.
6) Be Distinct
Since Email marketing will be widely used this season, don’t wait until the last minute to send out your offers, of course, other than the ‘last minute’ offers mentioned above. Have the clearest subject lines possible to make your emails stand out from all the others.
Are you proud of your Christmas email(s)? Send them to us. We will show them on our site to inspire everybody!
By Isabel Lapointe on November 17th, 2008
CakeMail vient de publier le guide:
Optimiser sa livrabilité : l’enjeu essentiel du Marketing par courriel disponible gratuitement en téléchargement.
Ce guide vous permettra de découvrir les principales façons d’analyser les envois pour la détection des courriels pourriels, soit les taux de plaintes (et les Feedback Loops), les adresses invalides, l’analyse du contenu des messages, les listes noires (blacklists) et les pièges à pourriels (spamtraps). Mais encore mieux, il donne des solutions en vous aidant à prendre soin de vos listes, en vous assurant d’avoir les permissions nécessaires et surtout, en prenant soin de votre réputation!
Nous en avons profité pour faire une petite campagne de promotion dans la Newsletter Infopresse, une cyberlettre destinée aux professionnels du marketing, de la publicité et des communications que nous vous invitons à découvrir si vous n’êtes pas déjà abonné.
On se fait plaisir en vous présentant le bandeau de la campagne qui commence aujourd’hui:
Merci/Thanks to Matt Vernhout (emailkarma.net) for the inspiration for the line
By Isabel Lapointe on November 14th, 2008
Here are interesting blogposts from the last weeks. Enjoy and learn
> Learnings From The UK DMA’s Email Marketing Event (by T. Gielen)
Among the quotes:
“20% of legitimate mail which subscribers want will not be delivered to the inbox”
“1 complaint in 1000 will get you blocked”
“the only way to get rid of spam traps is to re-optin everyone”
You’ll find some more on Twitter.
> AOL new Web Support Area for Mailers
You will find all the information you need about FBLs and others.
> Who Are Your Complainers? (by. S. Pollard)
1. Look for Changes you’ve made
2. Segment to Find Complainers
3. Use What You Learned
> Increasing Subscribers is More than Offering Incentives - 5 Tips for Improving the Sign-Up Process (by R. Atkinson)
1. Always tell users where they are in the sign up process
2. Validate email addresses before displaying thank-you pages
3. Identify errors to users in a clear and easy to find fashion
4. Speak the user’s language
5. Determine what is mandatory and what is optional
> 10 Steps to Survive the Spam Button (by. D. Forootan)
Quick reminder. Among ‘usual advices’: “Add a couple of sentences to the top of your content. This lets recipients know why they’re receiving your message and where the unsubscribe link is.”
> Why rendering tests are important
If you need to be conviced. Also check next link.
> Email Standards Project
If you don’t know this organisation yet, it’s a very interesting resource to put in your bookmarks. They work on trying to make email standards.
> Commune Media made a promotionnal operation on OneDegree.ca and published two interesting articles to help us write a promotional email: Make a Stronger Offer (and Convince More Customers) and
More Words, More Sales?
> The Latest Microsoft Security Intelligence Report
Cupcake of the Week
How about a Maple & Bacon Cupcake for a Sunday Morning?
