Richard Keith Latman - The Blog

Wow.. what a response

Thank you to everyone who has written to me over the past few weeks! As you can imagine we've been very busy growing iMagicLab (www.imagiclab.com) and I have been getting ready for the release of my first novel (shameless plug). I posted a few new pieces today and I answered about 30 of your messages, I will try to answer the rest soon.

Sorry the site was on password protect for a few days, we had to move it to a different subscription because of the huge volume. We are back, and thrilled to be :) Check out www.latman.com for some new pictures and a completely redesigned imagiclab.com is coming soon.

Happy Holidays to all, and to all a good night.

Keith

How to Get Your Emails Delivered Part II

In a previous poost I gave an overview of all types of email bounces. Today, in the sequel, I want to cover a few of the hottest subjects in email marketing today: email blocking, email filters and false positives. I'll define the issues and terms and tell you what you can do to make sure your permission-based email gets through.

Where's my email?

"In 2002, the average consumer received an estimated 2,300 pieces of spam email. By 2007, the number is projected to grow to 3,600 pieces." Source: Jupiter Media

Is it any wonder that ISPs and corporations are now doing everything they can to stem the tide of spam flowing into their users' email inboxes?

But despite all of the efforts to decrease spam, a foolproof solution has not yet been created. And, as a result of current email blocking and filtering techniques (see definitions below), a lot of legitimate permission-based email is being blocked as well. In the industry, we call this a "false-positive."

What do "false positives" mean to you?

If you were one of the early admission applicants to Harvard University eagerly awaiting email notification of your acceptance or rejection last December, you could have been among 100 of those applicants who never received word. All because Harvard emails were inadvertently flagged as junk mail and blocked by AOL.

And, to quote Trevor Hughes, Executive Director of The Network Advertising Initiative: "If you're expecting a gift certificate from an online bookstore or a city meeting notice, you may never see it due to the blacklists and filters that are currently in place. Or a message to your accountant may bounce, if someone has put the server that handles your company's email on its blacklist. A message from a long lost high school buddy may be filtered if he uses too many exclamation marks."

Sounds grim, huh? It really isn't. There's light at the end of the tunnel.

Spam is universally recognized as an industry wide crisis on the Internet and experts representing all areas of knowledge are working together like never before to come up with a solution.

What can you do to make sure your permission-based email gets through?

If your email is being blocked at a particular company or ISP, ask your subscribers to help by contacting their postmaster and requesting to have your email "un-blocked."

If your email is being filtered, check your from line, subject line and email copy and avoid using key words that might look like spam to a content-based spam filter

• ALL CAPITAL LETTERS
• Excessive punctuation
• Excessive use of "click here," $$, and other symbols
• The words free, guarantee, spam, credit card, sex, etc.
• Redundant unsubscribe instructions

Finally, if some of your email is being blocked, know that you're not alone. And, if you are using an established email service provider, like iMagicLab, know that you are in good hands. Why?

Here's what a reputable email service provider does for you:

• Delivers your emails using the proper protocols.
• Maintains strong permission policies and an active anti-blocking team working on your behalf.
• Develops relationships with ISPs and is whitelisted (see definition below) to ensure their customers' permission-based email gets through.
• Provides reports and bounce management and helps you stay on top of current best practices-like including a failsafe one-click unsubscribe link in every email.
• Is at the forefront of the industry, protecting the appropriate use of email as a business and marketing communications tool through its involvement in organizations like the ones listed above.

And, if a problem does arise, a good email service provider gets more attention than you could ever get on your own. Help is here and there's more on the way. In the meantime, here is a glossary of terms to add to your repertoire:

Glossary of terms

Email Blocking - Email blocking occurs when the receiving email server (e.g. Yahoo!, AOL, Hotmail etc.) prevents an inbound email from reaching the inbox of the intended recipient. Most of the time the sender of the email receives a "bounce" message notifying the sender that their email has been blocked.

Filters - Filtering is a technique used to block email based on the content in the "from:" line, "subject:" line, or body copy of an email. Filtering software searches for key words and other indicators that identify the email as potential spam. This type of blocking occurs on a per email basis.

False Positive - A false positive occurs when a legitimate permission-based email is incorrectly filtered or blocked as spam.

Blacklist - It is common for an ISP to a use a blacklist to determine which emails should be blocked. Blacklists contain lists of domains or IP addresses of known and suspected spammers. Unfortunately, these blacklists also contain many legitimate email service providers. Just a few spam complaints can land an email service provider or IP address on a blacklist despite the fact that the ratio of complaints to volume of email sent is extremely low.

Whitelist - A whitelist is the opposite of a blacklist. Instead of listing IP addresses to block, a whitelist includes IP addresses that have been approved to deliver email despite blocking measures. It is common practice for ISPs to maintain both a blacklist and a whitelist. When email service providers, like Constant Contact, say they are "whitelisted" it means that their IP addresses are on a specific ISP's whitelist and are confident that emails sent using their service will be delivered.

How to Get Your Emails Delivered Part I

Undeliverable emails, email "bouncebacks" or "bounces" for short, are becoming more and more of a challenge for email marketers these days.

According to a recent Association for Interactive Marketing (AIM) survey, 77% of respondents had bounce rates up to 10%, and 23% had rates greater than 10%.

Why should you be concerned? Because customer acquisition is expensive, and email bouncebacks could mean the loss of customers and prospects that you paid dearly to acquire.

First, lets define some terms:

• A "Bounce" is where the proverbial rubber meets the email. This happens when a recipient's mail server rejects your email message.
• A "Soft Bounce" is often a temporary problem, thus the descriptive word "soft." It happens when the mail server confirms the recipient's email address, but even so, cannot deliver the message. The recipient's mailbox may be full or inactive, the recipient's mail server may be temporarily down or the connection may have been broken.
• A "Hard Bounce" is a message that's permanently undeliverable because the address is non-existent or invalid, or because the recipient's mail server is blocking your mail server.

Why so many bounces and what can you do about them?

Email address churn in your house list
People change ISPs, jobs and email addresses at random. Often you'll be the last to know. Some email address churn is normal, but the erosion of your house list can make a seriously negative impact on your bottom line.

What can you do?
Check with sales, support or someone on the front line in your company, and follow up by phone or by snail mail to recapture valuable customers and prospects.

In addition to your unsubscribe or edit interests link in your email, consider adding a note saying, "If you plan to change email addresses, or if you prefer to receive this newsletter at another address, please email us."

Remember, it is 7 times less expensive to market to an existing customer than it is to acquire a new one. The effort will be well worth your time.

The use of free email accounts
Many people who use free email accounts do so as a secondary mailbox. As a result, they do not check their mailbox often. Free email accounts, and some paid accounts, can hold only a limited amount of email, so many times newsletters and advertising email will bounce back as undeliverable.

What can you do?
You can try the same techniques as above and, assuming you have the recipient's permission, you could use snail mail to obtain their new email address. Try sending a postcard asking them to revisit your site to update their profile. The postcard should include a URL leading to the profile update area of your site.

Spam filters and blocking
ISPs and corporations are paying close attention to incoming email in the effort to block spam, or unsolicited email. Anti-spam filters scan email from and subject lines as well as email body copy for certain language. They can also detect mailing patterns, frequency and volume. Your legitimate, permission-based email could be bounced back to you by a spam filter, or your mail server might be flagged as a potential spam source. In either case, your messages won't make it through.

What can you do?
Use an email marketing service with a strong permission policy and an active anti-blocking team. Don't go it alone. Solid email marketing companies develop relationships with ISPs to be sure their customers' permission-based email gets through. A good email marketing service gets more attention than you could ever get on your own.

Ask your readers to help. If your email is being blocked at a particular company or ISP, ask devoted customers/readers to contact their postmaster and request to have your email "un-blocked."

And then...?

Analyze your bouncebacks
You should be using an email marketing service that categorizes bouncebacks and provides detailed reports that allow you to view and manage bounced email addresses. Take the time to analyze your bouncebacks and remove hard bounces from your list. It should also be easy to correct obvious typos in your list (e.g. ".con" instead of ".com").

Monitor your "reply to:" address
Many recipients are fearful of using the unsubscribe function as it has been used by spammers to verify an address, rather than as a legitimate unsubscribe function. So, be alert to unsubscribe requests coming to your "reply to:" address and permanently remove those email addresses right away.

Finally, pay attention to email address change requests coming to your "reply to:" address and honor those in a timely manner as well

Writing Logical Email Messages

As we’ve seen before, getting your inbound email under control will give you a huge productivity boost, but what about all the emails you send? If you want to be a good email citizen and ensure the kind of results you’re looking for, you’ll need to craft messages that are concise and easy to deal with.

First: Understand why you’re writing

Before you type anything into a new message, have explicit answers for two questions:

1. Why am I writing this?
2. What exactly do I want the result of this message to be?

If you can’t succinctly state these answers, you might want to hold off on sending your message until you can. People get dozens, hundreds, even thousands of emails each day, so it’s only natural for them to gravitate toward the messages that are well thought-out and that clearly respect their time and attention. Careless emails do not invite careful responses.

Think through your email from the recipient’s point of view, and make sure you’ve done everything you can to try and help yourself before contacting someone else. If it’s a valuable message, treat it that way, and put in the time to making your words count.

Get what you need

Although the possible topics and content of messages are theoretically endless, I’d propose that there are really just three basic types of business email.

1. Providing information - “Larry Tate will be in the office Monday at 10.”
2. Requesting information - “Where did you put the ‘Larry Tate’ file?”
3. Requesting action - “Will you call Larry Tate’s admin to confirm our meeting on Monday?”

It should be clear to your recipient which type of email yours is; don’t bury the lede. Get the details and context packed into that first sentence or two whenever you can. Don’t be afraid to write an actual “topic sentence” that clarifies a) what this is about, and b) what response or action you require of the recipient.

Since the Larry Tate meeting on Monday has been moved from the Whale Room, could you please make sure the Fishbowl has been reserved and that the caterer has been notified of the location change? Please IM me today by 5pm Pacific Time to verify.

This isn’t the place to practice your stand-up act. Keep it pithy, and assume that no one will ever read more than the first sentence of anything you write. Making that first sentence strong and clear is easily the best way to interest your recipient in the second sentence and beyond.

Write a great Subject line

You can make it even easier for your recipient to immediately understand why you’ve sent them an email and to quickly determine what kind of response or action it requires. Compose a great “Subject:” line that hits the high points or summarizes the thrust of the message. Avoid “Hi,” “One more thing…,” or “FYI,” in favor of typing a short summary of the most important points in the message:

• Lunch resched to Friday @ 1pm
• Reminder: Monday is "St. Bono’s Day"—no classes
• REQ: Resend Larry Tate zip file?
• HELP: Can you defrag my C drive?
• Thanks for the new liver—works great!

In fact, if you’re relating just a single fact or asking one question in your email, consider using just the subject line to relate your message. As I’ve said before, in some organizations, such emails are identified by adding (EOM)—for end of message—at the end of the Subject line. This lets recipients see that the whole message is right there in the subject without clicking to the view the (non-existent) body. This is highly appreciated by people who receive a large volume of mail, since it lets them do a quick triage on your message without needing to conduct a full examination.

Sadly, good email subjects have become something of a lost art, especially among more recent additions to the Interweb. It’s a pity, because you’re far more likely to get a favorable response from a busy person when they can quickly grok your message.

Brevity is the soul of…getting a response

It’s completely depressing to check your email at 4:55 in the afternoon to discover a gothic novel of a message waiting for you, spilling down your screen the distance of 2 or 3 scrolling pages. It’s certainly not the kind of thing that excites the desire to engage and respond. I mean just look at all that!

So, although—in typical Merlin fashion—I have only anecdotal evidence and hunches to prove this point, I’d wager that there’s one visual trick most likely to improve your message’s success: fit it onto one screen with no scrolling. There’s a reason those web ads placed “above the fold” cost a lot more than the ones stuck down at the bottom; it’s the only part of the page that you’re virtually assured that anyone will see.

Whenever you can, try to distill your beautiful epistle down to just one or two points about a given topic, and then whittle that down to the point where there’s plenty of white space left underneath your closing. Got more to say? Put it in separate emails with—again—excellent Subject lines, and a descriptive, concise opener.

What’s the action here?

If your message includes any kind of request—whether for a meeting, a progress update, a pony ride, or what have you—put that request near the top of the message and clearly state when you will need it. Do not, under any circumstances, assume that your overwhelmed recipient will take the time to sift through your purple prose for clues about what they’re supposed to be doing for you.

Depending on the style of your team and the volume of mail they create, you might even consider adding functional text headers to the top of the body outlining the exact nature of the message.

This email is:    [ ] actionable   [x] fyi        [ ] social
Response needed:  [ ] yes          [x] up to you  [ ] no 
Time-sensitive:   [ ] immediate    [ ] soon       [x] none

Sure, it’s geeky, but how many minutes have you wasted panning through a sloppy “project update” email only to completely miss the changed deadline or work request buried in the penultimate paragraph?

Remove the guesswork from your messages by thinking of them like friendly, civil work orders; you must not be afraid to ask for what you want, especially if you have any desire to actually have the recipient give it to you.

More good ideas

• Make it easy to quote - Power email users will quote and respond to specific sections or sentences of your message. You can facilitate this by keeping your paragraphs short, making them easy to slice and dice.
• Don’t chuck the ball - Emails to a thread are like comments at a meeting; think of both like your time possessing the basketball. Don’t just chuck at the net every chance you get. Hang back and watch for how you can be most useful. Minimize noise.
• A reminder never hurts - If you’re following-up or responding to an email that’s more than a few days old, provide context right at the opening. For example, "You wrote in February asking to be notified when the new asthma inhalers are in stock; here’s a link to the items we’ve now made available on our site…."
• Never mix, never worry - Unless your team really prefers to work that way, do not mix topics, projects, or domains of life in a given email. Inform everyone of Baby Tyler’s adorable antics in a different message than the one with the downsizing rumors and budget warnings.
• No thanks - I’m not married to this one, but I know a lot of people who swear by it. In more informal settings and in high-volume mail environments, it’s not necessary to respond with a “Thanks” email whenever someone does what you asked. Save your gratitude for the next time you pass in the hall; a one-word “Thanks” email can be crufty and unnecessary. On the other hand, don’t hesitate to thank someone for their time if they’ve truly done you a proper.
• RTFM - If you’re asking for help, make sure you’ve exhausted all the documentation and non-human resources you have at your disposal. When you do ask for help, be sure to quickly cover the solutions you’ve already tried and what the results were.
• Skip the overture - If you’re writing to a busy person with an actual question or request, resist the desire to swoon for 2,000 characters. Either write a fan letter or a useful email, but mixing them can seem tacky and disingenuous. Just go ahead and ask Gary Gygax for his autograph already.

All Publicity is Altered Publicity

"All publicity is good publicity" It may have been true at some point, but it certainly is not true today. Nor will it be true forever more.

Instead, the motto has changed to "All Publicity is Altered Publicity"

The reality is that in todays ultra competitive chase to get your attention , if something you say or do is seen by more than 100 people, someone is going to attempt to re-purpose it to their own benefit or amusement.

In essence, the internet has put us all under a form of digital arrest.

"Everything we say or do, can and will be used for or against you on a website somewhere at some time, from now and ever-more"

There will be someone there with a camera phone to memorialize the mustard that dripped on your shirt from your hotdog and some website will use it to explain how the stress of "fill in the blank" is getting to you.

Someone will keep a picture from your 5th birthday party when your sister dressed you up as a Spice Girl. Your local newspaper will write an article saying how cute it was. Then some website or tv show, produced by someone who doesn't like you, will use it to try to convince their readers that you are gender confused and here is proof that it started at an early age

Silly examples for sure, but real.

The one thing the internet lacks that will forever change us all is Context. There is no way to retain context when you cut and paste. No matter the original intent of the words or pictures, anything on the net probably will find its way into situations for which they were never intended

Publicity, in fact all information used to have a shelf life. Newspapers were relegated to the hassles of microfiche. TV became a box or tape on a shelf somewhere. You could find it, but the cost in dollars and time were significant. Which of course reduced its use.

Thats no longer the case. Between the internet archives and search engines Everything is Everywhere. Forever.

The Net is a beautiful, wonderful utility but it certainly not an innocent medium.

Don't friend people over 29

It happens all the time. Some new technology or application comes out , it catches on like wildfire and then someone in the media writes an article about the technology being "for the young". Then about 18 months later the technology becomes more mainstream and an article is written about "baby boomers" using the technology , platform or application.

The shock of it all. 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 year olds using a social network ? Sending Text messages ? Bowling on a Wii ? Who knew ?

It seems like thoee who write these articles think all of the baby boomers and their parents were asleep over the last 25 years. Did they not notice the PC revolution? Could anyone miss the IBM Charlie Chaplin ads 25 years ago ? Did they never quite manage to figure out what that modem in their home pc was designed to do ? Even if it came with free software to test and try The Source, CompuServe, Prodigy, AOL and others ?

Technology. Digital Communications. They are not new. They are not news. They are old news. But thats not what is interesting about these articles.

What is interesting to me is not that articles are written showing surprise that the geriatric generation and their kids are going online , despite the protests of their grandkids. What is interesting to me is how few in the media, regardless of platform, be it TV, Newspaper, magazine , blogger or twitterer, have more than a rudimentary knowledge of the history of the technologies we are using.

There seems to be some delusion that all technology and applications are new. Invented from a cloudburst with no historical context. That as new, the technology is the province of the young, with anyone over 29 too old to understand and too confused to actually use it.

If it were up to those in the media, the new phase for high school and college kids today would be
"Don't friend people over 29"

In this day and age, 25 years post the first IBM PC, pretty much everyone is able to adapt to, accept and become accomplished with consumer technologies.

Your granddad is going to want to be your friend, text or IM you and get a GPS enabled phone.. Get used to it.

Abusive Marriage? Join the club

As many of you know, I was in an abusive relationship for 9 years and it caused me untold damage. As my friends will testify, I am not a weak man and from the outside it's a bit hard for people to recognize what's really going on (even my own father bought my ex's story). As I am doing research for my upcoming novel I thought I'd take a minute and offer a brief background on the signs and causes of female spousal abuse as quoted from a Harvard University study in 2006:

"Abuse and violence are behaviors chosen by a woman to cause physical, sexual, or emotional damage and worry or fear. Women who behave this way are often promiscuous, selfish, and narcissistic. Such a woman uses her moods, rage, and impulses to control the people around her and she is not satisfied until they have noticed her. These women choose deceit, fury, and assault to get their own way and then revels in the addicting exhilarating emotional unrest they create. Others, more insidiously, present a personable public image to conceal their true character and behavior.

These women lie, connive, and extort. To insult and humiliate their partner, some argue and use offensive language in the presence of others including their children. Many steal or destroy their partner's possessions. These women are driven by jealousy and view others as rivals. They treat their partners as possessions and strive to isolate them from friends and family.

Many abusive women falsely accuse their partners of infidelity while they have affairs. These women often abuse children or animals. Nearly all exhibit erratic mood changes, feign illnesses or injuries, and most are practiced actresses. They are not sick; they play the triple roles of a terrorist, a tyrant, and a victim.

At some point, she will falsely accuse her husband or partner of a crime. False allegations of child abuse continue to be a common feature in divorce proceedings and the courts ignore the problem. Now, the domestic violence accusation has become the woman's weapon of choice. Apart from the monetary and property gains, domestic violence is so easy to fabricate and these women crave the pleasure that comes from destroying their husband or partner.

Persons who have experienced an abusive relationship often experience fear or shame or bewilderment. They have tried everything and nothing works. These people have found themselves not knowing what will happen next, riding on an emotional roller coaster that they cannot escape. Most are sad, depressed, humiliated, and just plain exhausted. Many have lost everything they had in the world and are worried about their future. However, these women have no limits. Their outrageous behavior escalates to unbelievable levels and so, no one believes the victim.

Once your wife or companion has chosen abuse or violence, end the relationship promptly and irrevocably. U.S. and British studies support this view. Domestic battery, theft, and destruction of property are private and civil wrongs. The victim can sue for damages. Get a restraining order now and change the locks, sue in civil court now and, when the assailant is your spouse, file for divorce now.

When faced with the breakup of a relationship, especially a marriage, some women become vindictive, and abusive women become very dangerous. When others (friends, relatives, police, attorneys, and judges) believe her, they join in, and the frustrated husband or partner finds himself a victim of undeserved hatred, defamation, and abuse.

The other dangers are that some women kill their partner, or the partner's new companion, or the children, or the relatives, or stage unsuccessful suicides. Sometimes, women fake or inflict injuries on themselves, or use an accomplice, a relative or new lover, to frame her husband or partner. The most common behaviors are pressing false criminal charges, stealing or destroying property, snatching children, and engaging in bad faith litigation.

In divorce, husbands must treat their abusive wives with steeled resolve and the courts must understand this. These women cannot see and reason beyond themselves, so negotiation is impossible. Mediation is pointless. Unfortunately, the legal process regarding divorce requires negotiation and mediation providing yet another way for these women to abuse their husbands. Husbands must not accept telephone calls, conversation, visitations, reconciliation, or appeasements from these abusive wives for this only bolsters their belief that they remain in control of their husbands. The court must realize that these women have no limits and derive pleasure from destroying their husbands. Only unswerving firmness of purpose shows these women that their power has ended."

Wow, so much of this rings so true that I would have thought they were discussing my life. Hard to acknowledge that you've been abused I know, but the healing cannot begin until you come to grips with reality. I'd love to hear your stories so please post them here.

Keith

Another Microworkz Happy Customer

Hey Keith,

I have just retired the one and only Microworkz computer I bought in 1999. I purchased it for an attorney here at [firm deleted], and he used it right up until about a month ago when he decided to upgrade. The Microworkz computer still worked, zip drive and all. In all that time, I never heard from him once about any problems with the computer. And that is pretty rare in my experience.

Thought you might be interested to hear that.

Craig

Craig Burt | [firm deleted] LLP
SYSTEMS SERVICE DESK SUPERVISOR
DESK: 206-xxx-xxxx
FAX: 206-xxx-xxxx