Growing Your Online Presence More Important Than Ever

Growing Your Online Presence More Important Than Ever - WeGo.ca Website Developers

We are amidst uncertain and unprecedented times. There is one thing that is sure however: the need for your online presence. With the government expanding the constraint to limit face to face interactions, shoppers are rushing to the web for their everyday purchases. Buyers have not vanished; they are essentially in a different place. The organizations that win are the organizations that make sense of their online presence.

Ask yourself some questions.  Is your online presence ready so that your business can make it through this tough time?  Here are a few strategies of your online business you need to think about:

  • Website – is your website user friendly?  Is it easy to navigate?
  • Website Optimization – is your website SEO friendly?
  • Local Search Engine Optimization – can people near you find your products and services?
  • Social Media – do you have accounts on the major platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter? Are you posting weekly?
  • Blogging – are you constantly updating your content so consumers can find you?
  • Pay Per Click (PPC) – have you considered paying for visitor traffic?  Note: Google Ads produce, on average, $2.00 for every $1.00 spent.

It’s not necessary for you to employ all of these strategies.  However, WeGo.ca Website Developers’ specializes in all of these and is prepared to help you apply them to improve your online business.  We can also help you craft specific COVID-19 messaging and updates at it applies to your industry in Ontario, Canada.  Please contact us for a free consultation.

How to improve mail deliverability by avoiding role-based email addresses

improve mail deliverability by avoiding role-based email addresses.

What are role based email addresses and how does the system handle them?

Role-based email addresses (like admin@, help@, sales@, leads@) are email addresses that are not associated with a particular person, but rather with a company, department, position or group of recipients. They are not generally intended for personal use, as they typically include a distribution list of recipients.

What are challenges of role addresses?

Role-based addresses are typically company addresses defined by a job rather than a person and are often managed by several people. It is impossible to prove that everyone who will receive emails at these addresses has given their consent to receive them. Additionally, these types of addresses are associated with high bounce rates, high spam complaints, and spam traps.

Four Reasons NOT to Use “info@” as Your General Email Address

When creating a catch-all email address for your business, event or brand, experts recommend not using “info@,” or other similar innocuous email addresses. Besides lacking personality and being overly generalized, businesses make the common mistake of utilizing the info@yourdomain.com email address as the flagship point of contact for interaction through websites and marketing materials.

This is a mistake, as is using similar all-purpose email addresses such as:

  • contact@yourdomain.com
  • office@yourdomain.com
  • admin@yourdomain.com

In fact, below are a few challenges that you may run into if you are using an info@yourdomain.com email address. If you need alternate suggestions that will work better for you, your customers and your brand, WeGo can help. In the meantime, did you know that…

1. Info@ email addresses are not very friendly or personable.

You must think about your customer or the person you are communicating with. How do you think they feel sending an email to the very vague and mysterious “info?” Most people wonder if, or how often, the email address is monitored and if the person doing so will know how to help. Connecting with your customers and prospects is an important interaction that should feel personal. (Are you signing emails “Sincerely, Info?” Not likely.) Instead, you should ditch the info address for another more relevant personality that suits your brand. Also, there is nothing wrong with using a first name such as jennifer@yourdomain.com. If your company requires you to keep the ambiguous “info,” you might reply back from “[insert your company name] team.” It is still fairly anonymous but projects a warmer personality.

2. Some service websites don’t allow you to use info@ email addresses.

Facebook won’t allow you to register for personal pages or businesses pages with an email address that starts with info@. Role-based email addresses are becoming more frowned upon when creating accounts. Mailchimp, AWeber, Constant Contact and every other major email marketing service make it difficult to add role-based email addresses as subscribers.  These web service companies maintain a list of email addresses that will be blocked.

3. You’re more likely to be flagged as spam with an info@ email address.

That’s right, your important message or reply can be filtered into the abyss of junk mail. Generic email addresses such as info@, admin@, webmaster@ and similar ones can be perceived as spam, bots, or automated email addresses which can prevent your desired recipient from ever reading what you had to say. So if you want to have your message delivered, use something more relevant and engaging that is a better reflection on your brand or uses your personal name.

4. On the flip side, info@ email addresses are more easily targeted to receive spam.

Not only do you not want your emails to be flagged as spam, but by using the “info@” email address it could lead to you receiving lots of spam. Yes, you can become more eligible to receive spam email by utilizing info@yourdomain.com. That’s because the automated systems operated by big-time spammers attach “info” to valid domain names. Since many businesses use info@ email addresses, the spammers’ success rates are pretty good. If you are receiving large amounts of spam from a similar source, you can try black listing the IP address of the sender. You can see it in your email source code or include the IP address as something your website forms include upon submission.

Avoid Role-Based Email Addresses

If you want to increase your chance of successfully delivering your message, replace your role-based email address with a personal email address.  Each employee at your company should have their own personal email address @yourdomain.com.  If you have to keep role-based email accounts, use them as inbound shared mailboxes.  Deliver your message from a personal email account, it projects a warmer personality and won’t be blocked by spam filters.  Please contact me for more information or help on personalizing your email addresses.

Solicitations Galore

Do not respond to the unsolicited e-mail.

It’s a new year and the aggressive solicitations are coming in full strength.  You’ll probably notice an increased number of special offers from “people” who want to redo your website, offer you a loan, sell you insurance, provide photo editing services, etc.

The senders of these messages are not really “people” but SPAMMERS. These messages are getting through your spam filter because the SPAMMERS are employing similar mailing tactics of legitimate marketers.  The messages are personally addressed, contain the name of a sender, have a company address and may be digitally signed.  All of these elements of a properly written e-mail will fool the SPAM filter and allow the mail to arrive in your in-box.

 

“Spamming is when one person or company sends an unwanted email to another person. Spam emails are the computer version of unwanted “junk mail” that arrives in a mailbox, such as advertising pamphlets and brochures. Spam emails are usually sent to try to get the person to buy something or do something else that will cause gain for the sender.” Wikipedia

Many of the well written spam messages start with:

 

  • “My name is Jason and I’m a website designer. I’m reaching out to find out…”
  • “I just wanted to tell you about a company that may be able to help your business.…”
  • “Hope this message finds you in the best of health! We are a team of specialists…”
  • “We scan millions of public records to deliver you the most up-to-date data possible…”
  • “I have analyzed your current website which is outdated in terms of user experience, sales conversions, design and layout…”
  • “Find Your — Credit History Fast…”
  • “My name is  Sanjay Rajput, and working with a reputed leading S.E.O. Company in INDIA having the experience of getting our customer’s websites top in Google, Yahoo…”

You don’t know these “people”.  In fact they don’t know you either.  Their e-mail was crafted to appear personal.  SPAM senders are becoming cunning and are starting to follow the rules of legitimate marketers.  Except that SPAMMERS don’t have permission to send mail to you.

The bottom line is that if you didn’t ask for the e-mail, it is an unwanted solicitation and should not be trusted.  If you have any questions or would like to figure out how to get rid of this clever spam, please contact me.

 

Remember: Banks don’t send e-mail.  Legitimate companies don’t send e-mail unless you requested contact or joined a mail list.  Unwanted solicitations are usually Phishing schemes. These deceptive tactics are used to get your personal information and a credit card.  Do not respond to the unsolicited e-mail.  Add them to your SPAM folder and stay safe.

Sending e-mail to many recipients (mass e-mail)

e-mail message limits by ISP and Hosting Providers prevent spam

Are you having trouble sending mass e-mail to your membership or distribution list?

  • Not all outgoing SMTP mail servers were created equal, and how much e-mail you can send each hour or each day will be determined by the particular outgoing SMTP mail server that you use to relay your messages.

What is my outgoing mail server?(SMTP)

  • Your outgoing mail server is used to send e-mails from your computer.  Depending on where your e-mail account is hosted, you may or may not be able to use your e-mail provider’s outgoing mail server.
    • E-mail addresses based on free/public e-mail services such as Hotmail, Google, Yahoo, etc. will use their own outgoing mail servers.
    • If your e-mail is hosted on your own website, you may want to use your hosting provider’s mail server.  For example, websites hosted on example.com may use mail.example.com as both their incoming and outgoing mail servers.

What thresholds/limits are in place for my outgoing mail server?

  • Each ISP, web hosting, and free e-mail provider establishes its own e-mail sending policy which outlines specifically how much e-mail you can send through their outgoing SMTP mail server per connection, per hour or per day. These hourly and daily e-mail sending limits are established independently and vary from one e-mail provider to another.
  • If your needs exceed this, you should look at using a Mass E-mail Service Provider like mailchip.com or iContact.com or using an application which can send out your e-mail in a metered fashion (e.g., GroupMail).

Why do ISPs, web hosting and free e-mail providers have e-mail sending limits?

  • Sending limits exist simply to control the level of e-mail traffic being processed, to ensure that the mail server will be available to support all of its users whenever they need to send e-mail and to prevent spam from being sent through their system.
    • Increasingly, compromised account credentials have been used by spammers to send their e-mail via your e-mail systems.
  • To preserve our reputation with other service providers (e.g., Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, Rogers).
  • Mass mailing is what spammers do. You need to ensure that your e-mail does not look like spam. These limits actually help to ensure that your e-mail is delivered.

What will happen if I send more e-mail per hour or per day than my ISP allows?”

  • Servers receiving e-mail for delivery will apply their own policies. These policies vary from server to server and company to company.
  • In some cases, the server will refuse to accept further e-mail after a certain limit has been reached.
    • When this happens, you will receive some sort of timeout error stating that “…you have reached your daily sending quota…” and you will usually have to wait for a period of 1 to 24 hours before sending more e-mail through that mail server.
  • In other cases they will accept the e-mail but at a much slower rate.
  • In both cases, your e-mail can create a backlog of other messages destined for the same company or institution, which will negatively impact others at your company.
  • If you continuously try to send more e-mail than allowed, your reputation as a sender will be affected and ultimately, the host could block your account from sending due to abuse. So, work with your mail server, not against it.

Is there a way to get around the hourly or daily e-mail sending limits of my ISP?”

  • If the outgoing SMTP mail server of your ISP, web hosting or free e-mail provider has an e-mail sending policy with hourly or daily e-mail sending limits that do not support the size of your mailing list, there are several things you can do. For example;
    • You could purchase a subscription to a Mass E-mail Service Provider like mailchip.com or iContact.com or
    • Use group e-mail software that includes an internal SMTP engine like the one available via Direct Send mode in GroupMail.

If you have less than 2,000 recipients in your mail list, then MailChimp is probably the solution for you.  It is free and you can send unlimited number of messages.

ISP E-mail Sending Limits

Rogers E-mail Sending Limit

– 100 e-mails per hour
– 20mb per message

Bell Sympatico E-mail Sending Limit

– 250 messages per day
– 10mb per message

Web Hosting Provider E-mail Sending Limits

WHM E-mail Sending Limit

– 60 e-mails per hour
– 10mb per message

Free Public E-mail Provider Sending Limits

Yahoo E-mail Sending Limit

– 100 e-mails per hour
– 20mb per message

Gmail E-mail Sending Limit

– 100 e-mails per day
– 20mb per message

Hotmail E-mail Sending Limit

– 300 e-mails per day
– 10mb per message