INKSWITCH MARKETSPACE Custom Built Online Marketing That Works For You CONSENT-BASED EMAIL SYSTEM VERSION 1.0 NOVEMBER 12, 2014 support@inkswitch.com 2815 W. Pebble Rd. Unit 303, Las Vegas, NV 89123 800-465-5890
Table of Contents Introduction What Is Consent-Based Email Marketing? 2 Outgrowing the Old Email System 2 Moving to a New System 2 Comparing the Two Systems Problems with the Existing In-House System 3 Benefits of the New SendGrid System 3 The Argument For Making the Change 3 Social and Legal Considerations Unsolicited Email Marketing is SPAM 4 Staying On the Right Side 4 Sender Reputation & List Cleaning Preserving Your Reputation 5 A Few Notes 5 Step by Step Guide Moving Your Contacts to the New System 6 Re-Confirming a Single Contact 6 Re-Confirming an Entire List 8 Contact Status and Send Results Checking the Status of a Contact 9 Reviewing Send Results 9 Glossary Inkswitch MarketSpace i Understanding Consent-Based Email
Introduction What Is Consent-Based Email Marketing? Consent-Based email marketing is about two things more options for your contacts and more information for you. It s about letting your email recipients choose whether or not they wish to be contacted and about giving you more information about which of them is paying attention to your messages and which may be getting them by default or ignoring them entirely. It s also an opportunity for us to fix some long-standing deficiencies with our existing email infrastructure and offer you faster and better email services with higher deliverability rates and better metrics. By the end of this introduction, I m hopeful that you will understand the importance of preserving your reputation by respecting your contacts email inboxes and also be as excited about taking advantage of the new features of this system as we are to be able to finally offer it to you. Outgrowing the Old Email System MarketSpace s in-house email system was originally designed with a relatively small scope in mind to send messages from the system to users and between agents and marketing staff to make it easier for people to get their work done. It didn t take long, however, for agents to start using the system to send out marketing materials to their clients and each other and now the system handles a over a million marketing emails every month. This huge workload and some technical limitations of our system have created problems that you have probably already encountered things like slow mail delivery on busy days, messages that may not be delivered to certain domains and, above all, the fact that your emails go out in our name rather than your own. Moving to a New System In attempting to address these issues, it became apparent to us that not only were we not equipped to handle such a large volume of emails ourselves, but also that we needed to re-think our entire approach to email marketing both in order to be able to provide better service to you and also to keep up-to-date with changes in the general perception about how email communication should work for the recipient as well as the sender. The move to a new system involves two main elements. The first involves our paying for professional, high-volume mail service provided by a company called SendGrid, and the second is about how you can communicate this change and more effectively keep track of your interactions with your email contacts. So now that you have an idea of why this is all happening in the first place, we can consider how this effects you and your relationship with your clients. We ll do that and then finish up with a step-by-step guide to get you converted over to the new system so that you can start to take advantage of it right away. But first, a quick summary of the current issues and benefits of switching over. Inkswitch Design 2 Understanding Consent-Based Email
Comparing the Two Systems Problems with the Existing In-House System 1. Emails go out with marketing@inkswitch.com instead of your own name and email address on them. 2. The mail system gets unacceptably slow on busy days like Friday afternoons. 3. There are issues with deliverability to some of the more strict domains on the internet (e.g. AOL, Yahoo). 4. The system provides limited metrics (sent count and open count only). 5. Blind Emailing does not give your recipients a chance to opt-in, only offers them the ability to opt-out. Benefits of the New SendGrid System 1. Emails go out with your own name and email address on them. 2. High volume delivery system means virtually no waiting, no matter how busy the system is. 3. Increased deliverability to strict domains based on SendGrid s sender reputation. 4. Advanced metrics including views by location, device type, browser version, etc (forthcoming feature). 5. Consent management features let you know who s actively listening and who isn t. The Argument For Making the Change Some people have expressed concern that the changeover from the old system to the new system might be confusing to their contacts. The truth is that it should make things easier for them because it will be much easier to recognize that your emails are coming from you. This is also partially why we ve provided the initial re-confirmation email feature so you can send your contacts a brief notice (in your own words) that they re going to continue to get your emails and that you d like for them to opt-in so that you know they re out there and actively engaged in getting your messages. If this isn t enough to convince you, then the speed and deliverability improvements alone should be all the reason you need to want to make the switch. Once your contacts are on the new system, your emails will go out to them immediately, not minutes or hours later and that can make a tremendous difference. Finally, the advanced metrics should give you plenty of information to work with after your messages have been sent. You ll be able to track delivery of your emails, unique opens and clicks on any links you ve included in your messages. You ll also be able to tell where your recipients are and what kind of device they re using to read your emails, all incredibly valuable bits of data you can show to your sellers and use to refine and improve your marketing communications. Inkswitch Design 3 Understanding Consent-Based Email
Social and Legal Considerations Unsolicited Email Marketing is SPAM Spam emails are unsolicited email marketing messages, the online equivalent of the paper junk mail in your physical mailbox and just like junk mail, people hate spam. In fact, because of how dependent we ve become on digital communications, people find SPAM far more offensive than paper junk mail. This is the world in which we live where sending someone two or three unwanted emails in a short period of time can propel them to call you or your brokerage and threaten legal action. We are rapidly approaching an environment where being considered a spammer is viewed in the same light as being the crazy lady on the bus who is ranting at random strangers or the jerk at the bar who is hitting on everyone or worse. Not only is it socially unacceptable to send multiple email messages to someone without their consent but there are now legal frameworks that determine when you may and may not contact someone based on how you came into possession of their email address in the first place. Staying On the Right Side While it is beyond the scope of this document to detail the laws governing the use of email addresses (ask your marketing director or IT manager to clarify the laws that apply to you), there is a pretty safe way to know if you re doing things the right way or not. While you should not construe this as legal advice (and Inkswitch takes no responsibility for how you choose to do your email marketing) you can use this general rule of thumb: If someone gives you their contact information in the context of a marketing interaction, you can probably assume they want to get more marketing information from you in the future (this is called implied consent ). If you find their contact information some other way, however, it s probably not a good idea to use it to market to them. I, personally, like to imagine it from the perspective of a single person looking for a date. If I approach someone and ask for their phone number or get someone else to ask them for it on my behalf, it s a pretty safe bet that I can call them and ask them out without them being offended. But if I read it off their phone or driver s license without them knowing about it or find them online and call them out of the blue, they re probably not going to be too happy about it and they re almost certainly not going to accept my date request. I would apply the same rules when doing business. Once again, your choices are up to you and we highly recommend you speak with your marketing or IT managers about legal requirements and best practices when it comes to email marketing. You ll save yourself a lot of trouble not to mention have much more fruitful interactions with potential clients. Inkswitch Design 4 Understanding Consent-Based Email
Sender Reputation & List Cleaning Preserving Your Reputation One of the most important things you can do when it comes to email marketing is keep your lists clean. I don t have to tell you that your reputation is your business and when it comes to email marketing, sending to clean lists is how you maintain your good reputation. Before making the transition to the new email system, I strongly recommend you do the following: 1. Export all of your current contact lists (both email and postal) from the MarketSpace system. 2. Open those lists in Excel or whatever spreadsheet program you use and visually inspect them. 3. Remove any contacts with blank emails, correct any that are misspelled or malformed and update the ones you know to have changed. Of course you don t have to do this for postal mailing lists but hang onto them because you ll need them later. 4. If you want to get really good results, you may wish to pay to have your list checked for invalid email addresses and spam traps using a service like www.datavalidation.com. The small amount of money you pay will be worth it when you know that you re actually addressing real people and not sending to a bunch of junk addresses and spam traps that someone else sold or gave to you. 5. Batch Delete all the existing contacts in the system. This is a scary step but it s the best way to guarantee that you have clean data and any duplicates or bad addresses that may have been in your contact account are gone. 6. Re-Import your lists. This can take a while but your patience will be rewarded when you send out your reconfirmation email and get a 30 to 50% response rate rather than the 15 to 20% rate that is the industry standard for mail marketing lists. If all of this seems a bit overwhelming, you may wish to reach out to your marketing or technical support departments to get their help. The good news is that you should only have to do this once and then you can review any new data before importing it to make sure your lists stay clean as you go forward. A Few Notes If you are uploading a large list of agents in your area to your own account, check with your marketing department to see if they are already maintaining a list of local agents that you can share. That s less work for you to have to maintain that list independently. Contacts should be people you know and have done business with in the past plus people you ve interacted with directly who you may do business with in the future. If someone has given or sold you a list of contacts and you can not verify the source of those emails, check to make sure the names appear to match up with the email addresses. A lot of times, farmed email lists are bogus and will do more damage to your reputation than they re worth. Don t send emails to yourself and then forward them to other people the messages will be tagged with your contact information and anyone who tries to opt-in or opt-out from that email will actually be doing it to your address. Inkswitch Design 5 Understanding Consent-Based Email
Moving Your Contacts to the New System Step by Step Guide Scrubbing your lists is really the hardest part of the process. Once you ve re-imported them, there s really only two steps to get them into the new system. Re-Confirming a Single Contact The Main Menu Screen The Contacts Screen Step 1) Navigate to the Contacts screen and click the Opt-In button. From the main menu, click the Contacts button in the lower left corner to enter the Contacts screen. Now click the Opt-In button in the upper right corner. Selecting a List Selecting a Contact in a List Step 2) Click the list that contains your contact, then click the contact s name. If your contact isn t on the first page of the list, you can click the up and down arrows in the contact name list or click the Search button to search for the contact by first name, last name or a portion of their email address. Inkswitch Design 6 Understanding Consent-Based Email
Confirm the Selected Contact The Confirmation Email Screen Step 3) Click the Contact button next to where it says Confirm the Selected Contact. Now you ll see the Confirmation Email screen where you can edit the text of your confirmation message which will be sent to the contact. If you ve made edits you d like to keep for future use, click the Save Custom button and the same text can be re-used later. Sending the Confirmation Selected Contact Now Highlighted Yellow Step 4) Click the Do It button to send the confirmation email and add the contact to your Grey List. Your re-confirmation invitation will be sent to the selected contact and they will be added to your grey list which causes them to be highlighted in yellow in your contact list. That s it, now any email you send to them will go through the new system. Inkswitch Design 7 Understanding Consent-Based Email
Re-Confirming an Entire List Selecting a List Step 1) Click the List that you want to confirm. Confirm the Selected List From the main menu, click the Contacts button in the lower left corner to enter the Contacts screen. Now click the Opt-In button in the upper right corner. Step 2) Click the Entire List button next to where it says Confirm the Selected List. Now you ll see the Confirmation Email screen once again. If you ve left the system and come back, you can click the Load Custom button to reload your previously saved custom text. Selecting a List Selecting a Contact in a List Step 3) Click the Do It button to send the confirmation email and add all the contacts to your Grey List. Re-confirmation emails will only be sent to contacts that have never received one before individuals who are already on your white, grey or black lists will be skipped in this process. When the emails are sent, you will see the newly confirmed contacts are highlighted in yellow and the Recipient Confirmation Totals section will show you how many of which type of contacts (white, grey or black listed) your list contains. Inkswitch Design 8 Understanding Consent-Based Email
Checking the Status of a Contact Contact Status and Send Results You can see the current status of any individual contact by going to the either the Lists, Contacts or Opt-In screen and clicking on a list that contains that contact. Individuals in your white list (express consent) will be highlighted in green and those in your grey list (implied consent) will be highlighted in yellow. Any individuals who have confirmed that they do not want to receive your emails (opted out) will be highlighted in red and any contacts who have not yet been sent re-confirmation emails will have white backgrounds. Checking Contact Status Reviewing Send Results Reviewing Send Results After sending a bulk email, you can review the results to see how many of each type of email was sent. Here s the breakdown of what each column means: Total - The total number of recipients that were in the list selected for this email send. Sent - The number of emails in the send that were actually transmitted to the recipients. This number is effected by both black listed contacts and errors such as blank or malformed addresses. White - The number of contacts in this send who expressed their consent and added themselves to your white list. Grey - The number of contacts in this send who received your mail by implied consent. Black - The number of contacts in this send who have expressed their desire to no longer receive your emails and have added themselves to your black list. Blind - The number of contacts in this send who s message was sent through the in-house system because they have not yet been sent re-confirmation emails. Error - The number of contacts in this send whose email addresses were blank, malformed or otherwise invalid. Inkswitch Design 9 Understanding Consent-Based Email
SendGrid A commercial provider of high-speed email services used by companies like Pinterest, FourSquare and Uber to handle massive amounts of email. Express Consent When a given email recipient actively states that they wish to receive your emails by putting themselves on your white list or states their desire to no longer be contacted by putting themselves on your black list. Implied Consent The assumption by a sender that a given recipient wants to go on receiving their emails in the absence of any direct yes or no confirmation from the recipient. White List The list of a given sender s recipients who have actively expressed their desire to receive email marketing messages. White listed individuals are indicated in a mailing list by a green background color. Glossary whereas individuals who have decided they no longer wish to receive your emails and have put themselves on your black list. Blind Emailing This is how we refer to our existing, in-house email system which does not use the consent framework. Emails sent to individuals who are not on any of your white, grey or black lists go through the in-house system and are indicated on send reports as blind. The word comes from the military term blind fire and refers to someone shooting a weapon from behind cover (not revealing themselves) and without aiming in the hopes that they will hit something at random. Re-Confirmation Email The act of sending out a message to your existing contacts to let them know that they are on your list and will continue to receive your mails and that they have the option to express or withdraw their consent to receive your messages if they so choose. Black List The list of a given sender s recipients who have decided they no longer wish to receive email marketing messages. Black listed individuals are indicated in a mailing list by a red background color. Grey List The list of a given sender s recipients who have expressed neither for nor against receiving email marketing messages. These individuals will continue receiving messages based on implied consent. Grey listed individuals are indicated in a mailing list by a yellow background color. Opt-In / Opt-Out Basically another word for granting or withdrawing express consent. Individuals who opt-in to receive your messages will be placed on your white list List Scrubbing The act of reviewing an existing email contact list for bad, old or malformed addresses. Sending to clean lists increases the chance that your messages will go through and that your sender reputation will remain high. Bounced / Rejected Email An email sent to notify a sender that they attempted to send to a bad email address or an individual who has rejected their message for some reason. Spam Trap A previously valid but now defunct email address that is kept in service by the managers of a domain in order to identify senders who ignore bounce notices and continue to email to it. Sending to spam trap addresses indicates that your email lists are not cleaned and negatively effects your sender reputation. Inkswitch Design 10 Understanding Consent-Based Email
Inkswitch Design 11 Understanding Consent-Based Email