2007 January/March Newsletter

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From Dave’s Desk –»

Welcome to the latest issue of Business Link International Connections. Relevancy has been a major industry buzzword, which simply means the more relevant the content, the higher the chances of reading it. Analyst firm Gartner confirmed, “Programs that deliver well-timed, relevant marketing offers through multiple channels, out-perform traditional passive approaches by a factor of 10.” This year at Business Link International, we are reinforcing relevancy as a best practice because we know it will result in offering you, our readers, the highest quality and timely information that can be applied to your businesses. Continuing the relevancy theme, be sure to read Part II of our Email Deliverability Series, which focuses on email bounce management and deliverability testing to increase your chances of getting those emails to recipients’ Inboxes, the tip of the month, and our Best Of 2006 containing last year’s most popular articles. Enjoy and don’t forget to choose your preferences for upcoming issues. As always, feel free to contact us any time with feedback or questions.

Tip of the Month –»

Email by WebLaunch provides many personalization features including setting up merge fields within HTML documents. Take advantage of these features today; available to customers at no charge. Download the datasheet (PDF) for more information (right-click to save to desktop).
Featured Article–»

Email Deliverability Series – Part Two – Tips on Bounce Management and Deliverability Testing
Part One in the last issue focused on ways to optimize email content to increase chances of delivery to customer inboxes. Part Two in this issue focuses on list or bounce management for well maintained email lists and testing your email campaign’s deliverability before sending it out.

Have You Cleaned Your Email Lists Lately?
According to Jupiter Research, 33% of email addresses change annually. Continuously maintaining your email lists not only produces better campaign results but also increases your chances for delivery as some ISPs flag senders who routinely generate high rates of undeliverable mail as spammers. Your bottom line increases since costs to non-deliverable addresses add up over time. There is countless industry information that differs on how to handle bounced email addresses. So what’s a list owner to do? According to the Institute for Spam and Internet Public Policy’s (ISIPP) Bounce Handling Policy, list owners should remove email addresses from their lists after three (3) consecutive rejections; and that the time between the most recent delivery rejection and initial delivery rejection is more than 15 days.

Complimentary Delivery Analysis for First Time Users.
So far we’ve looked at optimizing email content and list management to increase deliverability. However, according to a recent report, there is still an 18% chance that your email campaign won’t get to the recipient. Now is the time to check the effectiveness of your email campaign with BLI’s delivery analysis service (complimentary first time use) to find out if your email message is optimized for delivery. Contact me for more information on this service.

In the next issue: Part III of our Email Deliverability Series focusing on List Segmentation and Targeting, Increasing Revenue Potential by Reaching the Right People at the Right Time.
Best of 2006 –»

The Most Popular Articles
You read it here first The following articles were the most read last year, but don’t stop here. Read through all our archived newsletters for tips, tools and ways to maximize your campaigns. Voice Broadcasting
Voice Broadcasting Tool Box
http://www.blifax.com/Newsletter/Newsletter_Oct.html#whatsnew

Email Marketing
Part 1 Deliverability Series
http://www.blifax.com/Newsletter/Newsletter_Oct.html#featured

Easily Create Data Collection Forms with eSurvey
http://www.blifax.com/Newsletter/Newsletter_May.html#subscriptions

What Email Campaign Reports Tell You
http://www.blifax.com/Newsletter/Newsletter_April.html#whatsnew

Fax Broadcasting
Six Tips for Smooth Fax Transmissions
http://www.blifax.com/Newsletter/Newsletter_July.html#tipmonth

All of the above
List Management Made Easy
http://www.blifax.com/Newsletter/Newsletter_AugSept.html#tipmonth
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2006 October Newsletter

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From Dave’s Desk –»

Hi everyone and welcome to Business Link International’s (BLI) October Connections newsletter. In line with Halloween, BLI is offering you a box of “treats” to help increase your communication with customers. The latest industry data indicates that telephone communication (followed by email) produces the highest response rates in terms of lead generation and is the top preferred communication method overall by marketers.1 We’ve put together a Voice Broadcasting Toolbox equipped with tools, tips and demos to help you get started with voice broadcasting campaigns. Sending a personalized voice message from your organization to your recipients’ telephones or voice mail creates an impact and significantly increases communication and response rates, which will ultimately result in more business for you. Is email content preventing your emails from being delivered to customer Inboxes? Industry statistics state that 19% of commercial emails don’t make it to recipients’ Inboxes because they get tagged as Spam by ISPs.2 There are a few factors that impact email deliverability, which is why we’ve written a multi-part article beginning with your email content. Part One of the article contains key steps you can take with your email content to increase your chances for delivery. Read our Tip of the Month with more voice broadcasting pointers. As always, we welcome feedback regarding our newsletter. It’s the best way we know to keep it informative, interesting and helpful for you.

1 Sources: Direct Marketing Association’s “2006 Response Rate Trends Report”, U.S. Direct Marketing Today, Economic Impact 2005
2 ReturnPath Whitepaper, “Delivery Rates Improve Slightly in First Half 2006”
Tip of the Month –»

Five Tips for a Successfully Recorded Voice Broadcasting Message

If you’re like a lot of our customers who record their own voice broadcasting messages (vs. hiring expensive voice talent), a well thought-out script is essential for a successfully recorded message. Save a lot of time and effort with these five tips.

1. Write it down – write down exactly what you want to say
2. Time it – Time your message and try to keep it between 30-45 seconds if possible; remember you’re charged based on message duration. Additionally, if you make it too long, your recipients may hang up or delete the message before it’s finished.
3. Read it out loud – Try reading it to someone else to be sure that it makes sense.
4. Speak loud and clear – Speak clearly and with enough volume to be understood. Pay particular attention to Call to Action items such as telephone numbers, email addresses or web site addresses and spell them if you feel they are not clear enough when you listen to the recorded message.
5. Get feedback from recipients – Tweak future messages based on this feedback if necessary.

What’s New –»

Dip Into the Voice Broadcasting Toolbox – Tools, Tips and Demos to Get You Started with Voice Campaigns Today

Why not take advantage of telephone communications with voice broadcasting. Voice broadcasting is less intrusive and more cost-effective than telemarketing, as well as one of the fastest ways to instantly reach mass audiences. Is voice broadcasting right for your organization? Of course it is! Many organizations in various industries, including yours, are already experiencing the benefits of voice broadcasting and achieving great results. Whether you’re already using email, telemarketing, direct mail or faxes to communicate with your customers, why not reinforce these programs with a more personal touch by recording voice messages that can either be sent for recipient pick-up or to voice mail or answering machines. A hot key transfer option enables call recipients to instantly connect with someone in your company at the touch of a button.

To get started, we’ve done all the work for you with a Voice Broadcasting Toolbox that is chock full of everything you need. Access the links to learn more about voice broadcasting and how you can take advantage of this powerful communication tool to significantly increase response rates among your audience.

BLI Voice Broadcasting Toolbox
All the Latest Tools of the Trade for Effective Voice Broadcasting

Voice by WebLaunch Demo – How to Set Up a Voice Campaign on our Web-based user-friendly interface watch (Flash demo)

Sample of a voice message – Quickly and easily record voice messages like this one listen (WAV file)

IVR Quick Start Guide – Takes you through the steps to record your voice messages using BLI’s voice broadcasting system download (PDF)

Voice by WebLaunch for Your Industry – Industry applications checklist with endless voice broadcasting possibilities for your industry download (PDF)

Voice by WebLaunch 101 read (Voice by WebLaunch Overview) download (PDF Literature)

Voice Laws – Links to latest voice legislation read

Call us today to set up an account or for more information
Phone: 800-929-1643 Email: support@blifax.com.

Featured Article–»

Email Deliverability Series – Part One – Email Content: Four Optimization Tips For Better Deliverability

Are your emails reaching your customers? BLI customers can track their emails using WebLaunch’s analytics to find out the answer. However, there’s always a possibility that the email content may still be preventing delivery. In Part One of this multi-part article, we focus on email content and key steps to help increase email delivery.
1. Create complete, consistent headers
Internet service providers (ISPs) scan for these headers and ultimately so do your recipients. It’s critical to use a clear and consistent From header and stick with it. Best practice is using your company name and valid email address for consistent branding and familiarity. Using a personal email address with company name, as we do with our marketing director, is alright as long as that name will be on your emails consistently and the person is the main newsletter contact. 2. Create an accurate, compelling subject line
Be sure your subject line is accurate and focuses on a benefit to your recipients. Don’t use exclamation points, all caps, and non-standard characters. If you must use punctuation, keep it to a comma or dash and avoid copy-pasting from Microsoft Word, which uses non-standard characters. Watch your words as there are filters that block certain words and phrases. Download a word list (PDF) of commonly used words and phrases that ISPs and mail clients commonly block.

3. Avoid trigger words in body of email
The same rules for the subject line also apply to the body of the email. Print out the word list (PDF) we’ve provided. Add your own words if they aren’t on the list.

4. Clean, properly-formatted HTML
Make sure your HTML is formatted correctly. Avoid extra or unnecessary tags, heavy use of images versus text, using non-standard web fonts, and using text the same color as the background. BLI’s Email by WebLaunch interface contains an HTML editor that catches and corrects misformatted HTML.

Follow the above steps when creating future emails and see if you notice better results. Contact us for additional support, information or to find out how our services can help improve your email campaigns. Call 800-929-1643 or email support@blifax.com.

Stay tuned for Part Two of our Email Deliverability Series – List Management and Delivery Testing in November’s Connections newsletter.

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August/September 2006 Newsletter

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From Dave’s Desk –»

Here we are, September already! With fall quickly approaching, I hope everyone enjoyed their summers, took some time off to relax, and are now refreshed and ready to learn about our latest exciting products. We have added more features to our WebLaunch family this month to make it even easier for you to communicate with your customers. Our new Hot Key Transfer feature in Voice by WebLaunch voice broadcasting solution now allows your customers to instantly connect with you at the touch of a button. WebLaunch Synch provides a way to instantly and automatically update your files. In our feature article, we provide fresh ways to maximize your communications efforts and generate the best results possible. As always, if you have any questions or feedback about this newsletter or Business Link International (BLI), contact us via email or toll free 800-929-1643. We are always looking for ideas to make this newsletter as helpful and informative as possible.

I feel it’s also very important to mention that September 11th recently passed us, and we at BLI would like to offer our condolences to everyone who was directly affected by a tragedy that we will never forget.

Tip of the Month –»

List Management Made Easy – Give Us Two Minutes. We’ll Give You Hours of Convenience.

Our new Search and Create List features in WebLaunch List Management enable you to easily and quickly search for email addresses, fax or phone numbers and more in your lists or create new lists on the fly. View a brief two-minute demo of these useful features, which are immediately available upon logging into WebLaunch and clicking on List Management from menu. If you have any questions or need more information, contact our support team at support@blifax.com or call toll free 800-929-1643.

What’s New –»

Send a Voice Broadcast with Real-Time Call To Action – Introducing Hot Key Transfer for Voice by WebLaunch

Voice by WebLaunch with the latest Hot Key Transfer feature enables senders to record and automatically send high volume voice broadcasts that enable recipients to immediately connect with a live person or assigned phone number at the touch of a button.

Senders can easily set up Hot Key Transfer one of three ways.

1. Set up defaults in the WebLaunch Profile preferences screen
2. Set up redirect numbers per touch tone. For example “Press 1 to pay by credit card. Press 2 to speak with Customer Service.”
3. Set up Hot Key Transfer headers and phone numbers in the list. For example, Column Header: HotOne = 1234567890, HotTwo = 9876543211.

Organizations are taking advantage of Hot Key Transfer to cost-effectively increase response rates and stay ahead of their competition. Contact us today to learn more and get started. Email: sales@blifax.com. Toll free: 800-929-1643.

Do You Have Constantly-Changing Lists, Documents and Files? We Can Make Your Life Easier! Introducing WebLaunch Synch

New WebLaunch Synch enables you to upload your latest lists, HTML files and documents to an FTP site. Once uploaded, your files will instantly be synchronized with previous files and automatically updated. A single master list can be parsed into multiple territories, sales reps or other criteria. The parsed lists can be accessed by a single WebLaunch log-in account or distributed across multiple log-ins. For example, a master list can be set up so that sales reps with their own log-ins will have access to their latest territory information. Contact us for more information on how we can set this feature up for you at support@blifax.com or toll free 800-929-1643.
Featured Article–»

Get Away from the Status Quo! Three Creative Ways To Reach Your Customers, and Wow Are They Fast and Easy!

We are all guilty of it. Once we’ve found a method to communicate with our customers that works, we’re tempted to keep doing it. Whether you are faxing, emailing, sending direct mail or other marketing methods, why not try voice broadcasting as a way to enhance and get the most out of those efforts?

Here are three ways to communicate with your customers through voice broadcasting, and you can start as early as this week! Whether you want to enhance your current campaigns or try something new, our Voice by WebLaunch web-based voice broadcasting solution provides you with the tools to do it 24/7.

Send a personalized voice message to your customers and provide them with an instant way to connect with you.

Are you an association that needs to send out messages to members, whether for membership renewals or important event deadlines? A publisher that wants to increase readership or get requalifications in on time? A financial services firm that has to get a time-sensitive message out fast before the market closes? No matter what industry you’re in, communication is essential in business. Voice by WebLaunch voice broadcasting is a cost-effective fast and easy way to send out an automated personal message with a call to action that enables your recipients to connect with you within seconds at the touch of a button.

Let your voice be heard among thousands of people

Aside from person-to-person (P2P) contact, voice broadcasting is the next effective personal and cost-effective way to communicate with the masses. Record and launch automated voice messages to thousands of recipients instantly whether they are GOTV (go out to vote) and other event reminders, time-sensitive notices and announcements or weather notifications. The sky’s the limit. You can apply it to your business.

Enhance or supplement a marketing campaign with a personal message before and/or after you launch the campaign

Add an additional layer of communication to your marketing campaign and see response rates significantly increase. Whether sending a fax, email or direct mail campaign, a personal message either before or after the campaign will increase awareness among recipients making follow-up efforts more successful.

Try using voice broadcasting one of the above ways and see your response rates significantly increase, ultimately providing you the best return on your marketing investment. Contact us today for more information by email at sales@blifax.com or toll free 800-929-1643.

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June/July 2006 Newsletter

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From Dave’s Desk –»

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far. This month’s Connections newsletter is action-packed with information about our latest solution – Voice by WebLaunch. We’re excited to be able to provide you with an additional way to reach your customers and prospects – through personalized voice messages. Consider the impact of recording and sending a personal voice message to thousands at once! We’ll tell you all about voice broadcasting and how you can use it to create real impact for your business. Already using fax and email? Why not add voice to strengthen and reinforce your campaigns. As always, if you have any questions contact us. Additionally, we would appreciate any feedback regarding this newsletter. Our priority is to make it informative and helpful for YOU.

Tip of the Month –»

Six Tips for the Smoothest Fax Transmissions

Use black and white documents only. Colors, including grayscale, increase transmission times.

Use as few images as possible, especially photos

Avoid using large font sizes

Use standard fonts such as Arial and Times Roman

Optimize white space

Use a black and white version of your logo if possible

Contact support for more information at 800-929-1643 or email support@blifax.com

What’s New –»

Voice Broadcasting 101

What is it?
Voice by WebLaunch contains a web-based, easy to use wizard that helps you create and execute voice campaigns at your convenience.Voice broadcasting enables you to record and send messages to your customer’s answering machine, voice mail, or for live pick-up. You simply record a message and send it to your list of customer phone numbers. You pay only for connected calls.

Why it works!
If your customers receive personal messages from you on their answering machines or voice mail, they are heard 100% of the time. Additionally, they are less intrusive than “live telemarketing” making people much more responsive to them. Sending customers a personal recorded message from the CEO, for example, will make your customers feel like VIPs since the company executive took the time to record a message for them. These are just a few examples of why voice broadcasting should be an option for your next campaign. Contact us today to learn more and get started!

Get More Personal with Your Customers – Three Ways to Use Voice by WebLaunch to Increase Response Rates

Show your customers that they are much more than an email address or account number by sending them personalized voice messages. BLI’s new Voice by WebLaunch voice broadcasting solution easily and quickly helps you set up voice broadcasts using the same WebLaunch interface you’re already accustomed to. Simply record your message via our IVR (interactive voice response) system or upload your message (.WAV file) and phone number list. The wizard will take you through the screens from start to finish. You will receive a detailed report to track the success of the campaign, including whether or not a person or answering machine picked up the calls.

Here are three of the many ways you can use Voice by WebLaunch to create powerful messages that will help boost response rates from your customers and prospects.

1. Emergency Notifications
Voice by WebLaunch can deliver high volume, detailed voice messages quickly and efficiently in emergency situations including scheduled power outages, school closures, neighborhood or national amber alerts, and weather warnings. WebLaunch’s web-based, easy to use wizard enables users to set up and execute voice campaigns from anywhere 24-7.

2. Marketing
Increase response rates with personalized marketing messages using Voice by WebLaunch. Your customers and prospects will appreciate being notified of new product offers, deadlines of subscription renewals, promotional interest rates, deadlines and other marketing offers. Make the most impact with a personal message from you with a simple call to action to your customers and prospects. Voice broadcasting is a great follow-up tool for your sales staff too.

3. Collections
Use Voice by WebLaunch as a soft collections solution reminding customers of payment deadlines with call to action options to pay their bills at that moment. Chances of customers paying their bills late drop dramatically as do needs for having to outsource the collections process overall, which can be costly.

The above are just three of the many ways you can utilize voice broadcasting to optimize your communications efforts and produce maximum results. Customers will appreciate relevant messages from you that increase convenience for them. Contact us today for more information and to see how we can address your specific applications using Voice by WebLaunch.
Voice Broadcasting Best Practices and Laws It’s important to emphasize that BLI is a voice broadcasting service provider only. You as our customer assume all responsibility for the content of your messages and phone lists. Prior to using Voice by WebLaunch make sure you follow all Federal and State calling time rules and or restrictions. We have provided helpful links below.

Business Link International is in no way attempting to interpret the TCPA of 1991 nor the laws of any State. This information provided is not intended to replace the responsibility of you, the customer, to check out the legal requirements pertaining to your call campaign prior to using Voice by WebLaunch services. You are ultimately responsible for making your own informed decisions regarding your call campaigns.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) http://www.fcc.gov, the Federal Trade Commission http://www.ftc.gov and the Federal Communications Commission http://www.fcc.gov do not call list registry rules http://www.donotcall.gov and various State laws place restrictions on certain types of phone calls. Typically a call may be exempt from the TCPA if the call:

Is made on behalf of a non-profit organization.

Is made to a consumer with whom the calling company has an existing business relationship.

Business to business contact.

Does not include an unsolicited advertisement, even if the call is made for commercial purpose.

Is survey work.

Recipient provides proper consent prior to playing the “recorded solicitation.”

Additional links:
- Q&A for Telemarketers and Sellers About the Do Not Call Provisions of The FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule

BLI also offers additional database-driven solutions that help track, manage, and measure campaigns from start to finish. For more information contact sales@blifax.com or 800-929-1643.
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2006 May Newsletter

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From Dave’s Desk –»

June is a great month! Summer is just around the corner. An avid boater and surfer, I couldn’t be happier; although I have to admit even the New England weather can’t keep me out of the ocean all year round. On the business front, we are really excited to have recently expanded our WebLaunch capabilities to include e-Survey by WebLaunch, which we launched in last month’s newsletter. Take advantage of this easy to use tool to collect all types of information from your customers. This month’s feature article focuses on examples of how you and your customers can benefit from this powerful tool. Finally, you need a place to put all this customer data, but where? BLI’s Programming Services, experts in database programming, can help you with applications to manage your customer information and more. Lastly, always let us know if this newsletter is helpful or if you have any questions about our company and solutions. We always welcome your feedback.
Tip of the Month –»

BLI’s Fax Opt-Out Feature
The latest fax laws require senders to offer recipients a free opt-out feature in their faxes if they no longer wish to receive future faxes from the sender. Did you know that we not only offer our easy to use toll-free number and PIN opt-out capabilities, but we manage your DNS (do not send) database for you? Contact us to find out more about this service.
Contact support for more information at 800-929-1643 or email support@blifax.com

What’s New –»

Three Ways To Make Life Easier For Your Customers (and You) and Keep Them Coming Back

Based on the latest survey data, the cost of acquiring new customers can be up to ten times greater than retaining existing customers. If we apply Pareto’s 80/20 rule, then 80% of your business is mainly generated from 20% of your top-tier customers. Keep these customers happy, and they will keep buying from you over and over again. Of course, we’re not discounting the importance of building your business with new customers, but companies often focus so much time (and money) on generating new business instead of focusing on generating more business from their existing customers.

The more you know about your customers, the better you can satisfy their needs, and in turn, the more likely they will keep purchasing your products and services. e-Survey by WebLaunch is an easy to use data collection tool that helps you obtain vital information from your customers. Additionally, e-Survey provides customers with a quick, convenient way to communicate with you. The easier you make it for your customers to communicate with you, the higher the chances of receiving more valuable feedback from them, and ultimately, more business.

Here are three uses of e-Survey to provide customers with ultimate convenience when communicating with you as well as help collect the information you need from them.

1. Registration Forms
Make it easier for your customers to register for your events by creating a registration form that can be emailed to them. Whether done via an email campaign or as a link on your website, you will be able to see real-time statistics once customers fill out and submit the registration information, including which customers responded, the answers they responded to and their email addresses. You will know who opened the email, when they opened it and whether or not they clicked on the registration form. This information will help you determine follow-up methods, keep your registration database clean and up to date, and measure overall effectiveness of your event marketing efforts. Click here to see an example of a conference registration form or contact us for more information.

2. Subscriptions – New/Renewals/Requalifications
Ah, magazine subscriptions, if only you could make it easier for your customers to fill them out and send them back to you quickly. Well you can. Once you create the subscription form, you can use it multiple times for multiple customers whether it’s to generate new subscriptions, renew existing ones, or make the requalification process as smooth as can be. Click here to see an example of a subscription form or contact us for more information.

3. Customer Satisfaction Surveys
Maintain or increase customer satisfaction with customer surveys. These brief, easy to create forms will help you obtain more information from your customers to maintain satisfaction with products and services. Be sure to offer incentives for higher response rates. Click here to see an example of a customer satisfaction survey or contact us for more information.

The above are just three uses of e-Survey by WebLaunch. The more information you collect, the more you will know about your customers and then will be able to satisfy their needs to keep them happy and buying.

Contact us today for a free demo or to get started with e-Survey. Call toll free 800-929-1643 or email sales@blifax.com.

BLI also offers additional database-driven solutions that help track, manage, and measure campaigns from start to finish. For more information contact sales@blifax.com or 800-929-1643.

Help! Where Do I Put My Customer Information? BLI’s Programming Services

You have all this great information that you’ve collected from your customers. What do you do with it? Where do you put it? How do you instantly access it anytime? You need a quick report on your top 20 customers by revenue for a meeting in five minutes! How can you make it happen? The answer is simple – BLI’s Programming Services. BLI’s database programming expertise provides you with flexible solutions to support your existing customer information, track sales leads and manage all of our voice, email and fax campaigns. Our solutions are flexible enough to work alone or fully integrated to other applications in departments across your entire organization. Our experts will work with you from planning through implementation and training. Here are just a few of the many applications we have available. All of which can be integrated into one solution for the most efficient use of your company information.

Contact Management – Automatically capture, track and manage your customers and prospects with ability to generate reports and queries on the fly.

Campaign Management – Track, manage and measure ROI of your marketing campaigns with detailed reporting, scheduling, and campaign statistics.

Sales Force Automation – Automatically capture and assigns leads to sales team, who then uses SFA to manage leads through the sales cycle.

Contact our support staff to learn more about our services and our CRM application, OpenBOX. Call 800-929-1643 or email support@blifax.com.
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2006 April Newsletter

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From Dave’s Desk –»

At BLI, we are always busy enhancing existing solutions and working on new ones. I’m excited to introduce two new exciting additions to our WebLaunch™ product family, offering customers even more communication options. The more “touch points” our customers have between themselves and their customers, the better the chances for success. WebLaunch offers fax, email, and now voice and surveying capabilities to help you communicate with your current customers while obtaining new ones. Speaking of customers, do you use your email reporting information to determine just how interested customers (or prospects) are in your products and exactly which products they are interested in? This month’s article contains tips on how to use your email reporting to get to know more about your recipients and drive more business. Lastly is our tip of the month. Did you know we provide a way for customers to upload their campaign images to our servers for faster delivery, among other benefits? Read on, and as always please don’t hesitate to provide feedback or comments regarding our newsletter, company or solutions.
Tip of the Month –»

WebLaunch’s File Management Feature – Uploading Images to Our Server for Faster Email Delivery and More
Have you considered uploading your campaign images to our server for quick, easy access? You’ll find there are many benefits including the following:

Storing images on our server frees up space on your server and relieves excess web traffic when they are accessed

Easily access and re-use images with our HTML editor

Free use of a web server if your company doesn’t have one

Images will be served/accessed faster Contact support for more information at 800-929-1643 or email support@blifax.com.

What’s New –»

Are You Checking Your Email Campaign Reports? 3 Key Reporting Elements and How to Use the Information to Drive More Business.

Do you analyze your email campaign reports after each campaign? Therein lies a goldmine of information that can help you personalize future campaigns based on recipients’ interests. Relevance is key with email campaigns. The more relevant emails are to recipients, the higher the chances for increased open rates and clickthroughs. Here are three key reporting elements and how you can leverage the results to significantly increase the success of your future campaigns to generate more business.

1. Clickthroughs
Clickthroughs are a key determinant of interest. When creating an email campaign, be sure to provide relevant web links to further information recipients may be interested in. Our statistics track these links and provide you with detailed clickthrough information including the email address of the recipient, the URL links they clicked on, how many times they clicked on those links and the exact date and time. So how is this information important? Well for starters, you can determine that if someone clicked on a link containing more information about home mortgage rates, for example, your rep can contact them to follow up or an additional email can automatically be sent to them with more details on home mortgage rates and an application. Clickthroughs are a way of gauging just how interested your recipients are, helping you to determine the appropriate follow-up method. Clickthroughs enable you to personalize emails specifically to the recipients’ interests and needs, and that’s the key to a successful campaign. Click here to see a demo of our Clickthrough report or contact sales@blifax.com for more information.

2. Bounced Emails
Aside from relevance, deliverability is one of the biggest concerns of email marketing today. Sometimes no matter how carefully you’ve planned, designed and scrubbed your email list for opt-in recipients, your emails can still wind up in spam filters. So what can you do? Our reporting includes Bounce details that can help you determine why your emails never got to the recipient. Bounce details include date and time email bounced, which email address(es) bounced, and the reason why they bounced called the Bounce Detail. This information is critical for knowing why your emails bounced. Some things can be corrected. For example, a “bad-mailbox” may mean that the email address has changed or is no longer valid. A comment of “spam-related” may mean that your email contained items that either the ISP’s or recipient’s spam filter determined as spam. A quick phone call to the recipient can determine the cause, which can then be corrected. The bounce detail also includes DNS email addresses, which are basically opt-out subscribers that were on the list and got blocked from being sent further emails. Knowing these details can help you determine which email addresses are valid and which ones should be scrubbed from your list. Take advantage of this information to reduce bouncebacks and ultimately costs of emails being sent. Click here to see a demo of our Bounced report or contact sales@blifax.com for more information.

3. Opens
You’ve sent your email campaign and are quite proud that it went out successfully. Now you want to know who has opened the email and actually read it. Although clickthroughs are a better way of seeing where your recipients clicked. Our detailed Open report provides the recipient’s email address, how many times the recipient opened the email, and the date and time of the last time they opened it. You’ll see recipients who have opened your email a number of times. Although you won’t know exactly why they opened it 10 times, for example, you at least know that they keep going back to your email, and therefore, it’s worth following up with them to find out more about their interest. Click here to see a demo of our Open report or contact sales@blifax.com for more information.

The above are just a few elements of our total reporting capabilities. Using this valuable information to personalize your campaigns, determine levels of interest, and clean your email lists to avoid unnecessary charges from invalid email addresses will help you make the most of your campaigns. You will then begin to realize the true power of email and how it can bring in more business for your company.

BLI also offers additional database-driven solutions that help track, manage, and measure campaigns from start to finish. For more information contact sales@blifax.com or 800-929-1643.

Introducing Two New Exciting Additions to our WebLaunch™ Family –»

Voice by WebLaunch provides the latest in high-volume web voice broadcasting with ultimate control and convenience 24-7. Easily administer voice campaigns from concept to delivery from our web site or your desktop with a just a few simple steps. As with all our solutions, live customer support is available to guide you step by step. Some of the many powerful features and benefits you’ll discover include: Creation and launching of voice campaigns through our user-friendly on-line interface or via a toll-free voice IVR system

The latest in high volume voice broadcasting technology

Helpful features including List Management for storage of phone number lists and Document Management for quick access to voice files (.WAV)

Detailed reporting to track success of campaigns and whether a human voice or answering machine picked up calls

Click here to learn more or contact us toll-free at 800-929-1643

e-Survey by WebLaunch
e-Survey by WebLaunch provides the ability to create online surveys to include in your email campaigns. Use e-Survey to collect data from customers in email campaigns. Surveys are created and launched with only a few simple steps.

User-friendly interface takes you through the steps of creating a survey

Create questions and answers in various formats including text, long descriptions, drop-down menus, radio buttons or checkboxes

Upload your own style sheet to WebLaunch’s File Management library

Detailed reporting to track success of surveys including response totals, responses by email addresses, and number of responses

Integrates with Email by WebLaunch

Click here to learn more
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March 2006 Newsletter

 HTTP://WWW.BLIFAX.COM

From Dave’s Desk –»

Being a communications services company, BLI is always on top of the latest fax and email legislation to make sure we are compliant, and most importantly, our customers remain compliant when sending fax and email communications to their customers. March’s newsletter contains a brief overview of the latest email and fax legislation. Our solutions always provide customers with opt-out (email) and DNS (fax) features according to the latest laws. We have a new release of WebLaunch with features and tools for even more campaign convenience and effectiveness. Email customers, are you ready for confirmed opt-in (a.k.a. double opt-in) subscribing? We define the process along with plusses and minuses. BLI offers confirmed opt-in capabilities for customers who want to improve their lists and make sure the right people are on them. Ultimately, confirmed opt-in saves customers time, money and their reputation as potential spammers. Read our article to see if your company is ready. Lastly, we always welcome your feedback to make this newsletter as informative and helpful as it can be, so feel free to contact us and let us know what you think. Forward this to your colleagues by using the convenient “forward” option at the end of the email.

Tip of the Month –»

Faxing to international numbers
When faxing to international numbers, please format the number as follows to ensure that the number is dialed correctly: 11555555555. Fax by WebLaunch will recognize the country code (i.e., 11) and automatically insert the zero before it. Additionally, format your column to “text” to avoid any transmission errors.
What’s New –»

Confirmed Opt-In: Is It Right for Your Company? Read On to Find Out.
Most of us subscribe to newsletters whether personal or professional. Have you noticed how some companies send a friendly acknowledgement email thanking you for subscribing while others send an email asking you to click a link or reply to confirm your subscription? This second method is known as confirmed opt-in (a.k.a. double opt-in) and requires a second step. Subscribers initially sign up providing their contact information (first time), and then are sent an additional email asking them to confirm their subscription (second time). Some companies even go so far as to ask what your preferences are for future emails such as text vs. HTML or daily, weekly or monthly delivery options. With confirmed opt-in, only subscribers who take the second step to confirm their subscriptions get added to the email list. ISPs and corporations are currently doing everything they can to weed out spam and are requiring the extra confirmed opt-in step to help them differentiate legitimate commercial email from spam. Below is an overview of confirmed opt-in.

Advantages vs. Disadvantages of Confirmed Opt-In

Advantages

Confirmed opt-in subscribers want to receive your emails and have taken the extra step to do so

Protects your company from spam accusations

Prevents email address collection without permission

Prevents subscriptions made by unauthorized third-parties

Disadvantages

Many email marketers still do not use confirmed opt-in, so subscribers may not be used to confirming their subscriptions leaving confirmation messages unanswered

Subscribers who do not confirm their subscriptions are removed from your list and cannot be emailed again

Confirmed opt-in is still not the industry standard today

Is it Right For Your Company?
After looking at the advantages and disadvantages, think about where your company is today with email marketing. If you have collected email addresses and permission from your subscribers in good faith and according to email marketing best practices, have high quality relationships with your subscriber base, high opens and clickthroughs and low abuse complaints and unsubscribe rates, then it may not be worth taking the unnecessary risk with your list.

However, if you have a tech savvy list that will be receptive to confirmed opt-in or have a high percentage of subscribers whose ISPs require confirmed opt-in for email delivery and are aware of the advantages and disadvantages of confirmed opt-in then it is for you. Some companies may even require confirmed opt-in for compliance purposes making it necessary for you to have this option in order to do business with them.

Testing Confirmed Opt-In
The best advice if you’ve decided to use confirmed opt-in is to test a portion of your list for success before plunging into it full force. Confirmed opt-in is ultimately your decision, but here are helpful tips if you’re thinking of pursuing it.

Choose email addresses on your list that require confirmed opt-in for email delivery. There’s no risk there because you wouldn’t be able to reach them without confirmed opt-in anyway.

Begin the process with new subscribers to start a clean, highly qualified list.

Begin testing with “low risk” email addresses that have low or no response, open and clickthrough rates; it’s a good way to qualify and clear them from your list.

Ask your customers what they think. Before fully embarking on confirmed opt-in communicate with your customers to find out how receptive they are to the idea and let them know confirmed opt-in is in their best interest since they will be receiving exactly what they asked for.

Contact us (sales@blifax.com) for more information on confirmed opt-in and the applications we’ve developed to help you generate a highly qualified list of subscribers.

Steps we take –»

Fax and Email Laws and the Steps We Take to Remain Compliant
The increasing distribution of “junk” faxes and emails prompted legislation to create the Junk Fax Prevention Act S.714 protecting recipients from receiving unsolicited communications from businesses they have not had an established business relationship (EBR) with. BLI takes these laws very seriously and provides solutions to help customers remain compliant when sending communications to customers. Below is the latest on fax and email legislation. Latest Fax Updates

April 5, 2006 – FCC Amends Rules To Implement Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2005
The most recent announcement of the above act included the following amendments to the rules. Links with more details are provided at the end of the bulleted items.

Fax advertisements can be sent to parties with whom the sender has an established business relationship (EBR) with.

Fax numbers must be obtained directly from the recipient or the recipient voluntarily agreed to make the number available for public distribution

Definition of EBR (Page 11-12 of Order)

Sender of faxes must provide clear, conspicuous notice and contact information on the first page of a fax for recipients to “opt-out” from receiving future faxes from sender

Senders must honor opt-out requests within 30 days

Small businesses and non-profit associations will not be exempt from these rules

“Unsolicited advertisement” is clarified (Page 44 of Order)
Helpful link(s):
Order: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-06-42A1.pdf
Press release: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-264811A1.doc
CGB Contact: Erica H. McMahon, 202-418-0346, http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/

February 28, 2006 – California’s Attempt to Overthrow S.714
California had a hard time with S.714 and passed its own fax ban last year, which directly conflicted with the federal Junk Fax Prevention Act S.714. Under the CA law, businesses were not exempt if they had an EBR with fax recipients and must seek written consent from recipients in order to send them faxes, a costly process for many businesses. On February 28, 2006, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce overturned this law because it was in direct conflict with the federal law. Click link below for more information on this ruling.

Helpful link(s):
http://www.uschamber.com/press/releases/2006/february/06-29.htm
BLI and Fax Compliance
It is now required by law that you have a 24-hour, toll-free opt-out number on your fax document. If you are not currently using this feature you must start in order to be in compliance with the law. BLI offers a low cost opt-out feature that will allow you to be in compliance.

BLI and Email Compliance
You must provide an easy to use opt-out feature in all email communications. BLI offers various applications in compliance with the latest email marketing best practices and laws including a confirmed opt-in application for the highest quality email lists and easy to use opt-out feature in Email by WebLaunch.

For more information on email and fax compliance features, please contact sales@blifax.com or call toll free 800-929-1643.
Weblaunch 6.2 –»

The new WebLaunch release available in April contains the following new features for even better fax and email campaign management. HTML editor in Document Library for creating and saving HTML documents

Automatically create plain text versions from HTML-formatted emails

Last Modified Date tracking to Document / List / File Management features

Sort by any column headers in Document / List / File Management features

Attach up to 15 files to an email campaign
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