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shieldedsouls · 5 years ago

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rules

This is going to be a long post, and I apologise for that. However I do not apologise for putting my boundaries as clear as possible, and will not apologise for doing so. All of the rules below exist for a reason, and I have them for my own comfort.

It is okay if you don’t agree with them but it’s not okay to ignore them. If you think you cannot follow the posted rules, then do not follow this blog. Thank you !!

General

These are the basics, a re-hash of rules that almost everyone has but that I like to cover anyway just in case!

Read ALL important pages: rules, disclaimer, muse list & info for the muse(s) you want to interact with

Use proper punctuation and spellings to the best of your abilities

Mark clearly whether an ask is IC or OOC

No godmodding

No maiming, killing, etc. of my muses without my permission

No choosing of thoughts or big actions of my muses without my permission

Hate, anon or otherwise, will be reported and deleted. Users will be blocked.

There may be an occasional mention that I do this if there’s some kind of repeat, but I will not place the content itself on the dash.

Asks and IMs are always welcome!!

More in the < Asks & Memes & Messaging > section

tracked tag is SHIELDEDSOULS and is the best chance of getting me to see a post. @’ing me will also work, but please be sure to use my url tag on top that! please also put somewhere which of my muse(s) the post is for.

Specifics

These are some of the rules that have been established over time for my own sake, and to make everyone’s time on here a lot easier!

Your age must be listed somewhere I can easily find it! I’m not comfortable writing some content with muns or muses who are under 18

If I cannot find that information I am unlikely to follow, and I will not write that content with you, as it’s safer to err on the side of caution.

If you are not comfortable with discussion and usage of DID ( dissociative identity disorder ) please do not follow as it ties heavily into my portrayal of Bucky Barnes and James ( the Winter Soldier ).

It takes time for me to check through all my followers, so please don’t ask if I haven’t followed back right away or unfollow, unless I post very specifically about dumblr fucking things up.

There’s any number of reasons I may do either, but the more we happily interact and talk the more likely I am to follow or re-follow.

With rare exception, I will not interact with any blogs that contain digits in them.

Please, please, use regularly accepted punctuation within threads.

Please.

Do not spam-reblog from me, which is reblogging 3+ posts in rapid succession. It messes up my notifications and I lose other things.

Mark clearly between IC/OOC, and which muse or npc a message is for.

ALL PERSONALS WILL BE BLOCKED

unless I can tell with a glance that there are RP sideblogs attached to them

I love my ships and will not stop writing them for someone else’s sake. I tag all visual content, but if there’s a short tag or something to be added, give me a quick little heads-up and I’ll happily tack it on. Everyone wins!

If I cannot easily navigate a blog for information, I will not follow back

easy navigation includes:

rules page

disclaimer/ooc page of some kind

tagging system

cut posts

Formatting

this little section is for what to expect from me and my writing preferences, but it is a flexible section!

I do both regular capitalization and zero capitalization for threads, depending on partner and length of the thread

memes and asks will be done in whichever I’m feeling

I do small text ONCE for aesthetic, but will leave text regular size if asked

Headlines will be done in subtext size, again mostly for aesthetic

Parentheses and brackets will be bolded and italicized, on the whole

I will @ the url of the person who sent the ask or is part of the thread

thread partner urls will also have their muse’s name listed after a slash for further clarity

I occasionally use icons, but mostly for asks, dash commentary, or silly things

all icons are 100x100

I enjoy using bold, italics, and strikethrough, but that’s about the extent of my text formatting and I try not to overdo them too much

Asks & Memes & Messaging

Asks are open to everyone!

IMs are ooc and mutuals only.

If a meme is shippy or nsfw, it is mutuals only and will require previous interaction.

All others are freebies!!

due to asks being fucked for formatting: i will tag the url of the sender on a new post, have a header to show which muse is answering, and tag the user within the post. i will also link it and privately answer the original ask where possible, to help ensure responses are seen.

for the time being I’m putting a graphic in the direct reply to an ask, adding a blockquote for tagging the sender, additional commentary, and the source meme if there is one

Any reply to an ask must be in a new post. Reblogged asks will be ignored.

Any messages saying ‘wanna rp?’ or asking for an IM will be deleted. I’m far more receptive to being approached with ideas to work with

Any messages that do no specify a muse will be deleted.

While not explicitly reblog karma, I am not a meme source and will talk to you if you always take memes from me but never send anything in or talk to me. Sometimes a meme doesn’t work and that’s fine, but there’s no excuse to never interact with me.

I often have a mix of platonic, general, and nsfw/shippy memes at my disposal, but feel free to improv something from the gist or edit sentences to suit our muses better!! Creative fun is why we’re here <3

OCS & Sideblogs & MuMus & Second-Gens

Information must be easy to navigate and read, same as for canons/single muse blogs!

Sideblogs, please list somewhere OBVIOUS what the main blog is called so I know what to look out for.

Mumus, I love you and your dedication, but I am most selective with you. Yes, even as a mumu myself.

The more fandoms covered and more muses included, the less likely I am to hop on board mostly because I prefer a clean dash.

If we’re close friends ooc I’ll likely be far more lenient

OCs with an mcu-canon faceclaim will not be accepted unless the muse has been around longer than the canon being cast or if they look markedly different than the canon ( Karen Gillan with all her hair vs as Nebula, for example ).

more in the < canons & fcs > section

Unless plotted otherwise, they will not know my muses, but they can know of my muses

Second-Gens ( kids of the original set(s) of main canons ) make me uncomfortable for a number of reasons, and so will be interacted with on a case-by-case basis.

I am unlikely to follow unless we know each other very well ooc

Canons & FCs

Again, OCs with mcu-canon faceclaims will not be interacted with unless they meet at least one of the two criteria listed above.

However, if I pick a FC for someone related to this blog that isn’t canon, it’ll likely be shrugged off as uncanny lookalike, or we can otherwise plot around it.

Animated FCs are welcome, but I’ll admit that specifically anime blogs are unlikely to be interacted with. Sorry

If a canon has an alternate faceclaim: cool! Just have it listed somewhere obvious, please

FCs I will not interact with: Mark Sheppard, Selena Gomez, Mads Mikkelsen, Miley Cyrus, Justin Beiber, Sara Bareilles, Andrew Scott, Zooey Deschanel, Natalie Dormer. The list may be periodically updated; yes, it is okay to ask me about specific names and why these ones are listed.

Shipping

There will be a good deal of F/F, F/M, and M/M on this blog both in visual and text.

May ( read: probably will ) include three+somes.

Implication and mention to graphically clear are likely, and will be tagged.

By default, ALL my muses are single, with the noted exceptions of Frigga ( until Odin chooses to pass ) Dugan and Peggy if it’s circa 1952-after, and Sam who is widowed and single post-2012, unless plotted otherwise.

Please don’t assume there will be a ship between your muse and mine without plotting first, positively or negatively !!

Specific to Peggys: don’t be alarmed by my above warning, Dugan/Peg is my muses only and not something I expect to be followed. I will also not expect a ship with Steve.

specific to Steves: I will not expect a ship with Peggy, Bucky, or Sharon

However, Bucky loves Steve, bordering on obsessively. Whether it’s platonic, romantic, or completely one-sided pining is up to plotting and muse chemistry.

if we are writing stucky, Bucky is the one who will be in it first.

James is incredibly anxious about dealing with Steve for many reasons, and more anxious about the possibility of infringing on Bucky’s territory.

It is one of few ships that will require Bucky’s active participation if you want James involved, because James will refuse Steve otherwise.

if we are writing steggy, it will not be eg-canon compliant

Specific to Peppers: Tony cares ( depending on point in time, deeply ) for her, but I will not expect a ship and it must be plotted out.

They could be exes, almosts, currently dating, platonically attached, whatever we would like! But it must be plotted.

specifically for Janes: I do not automatically lead with fosterson! My default is somewhere between slow burn infatuation or mutual, friendly separation. Thor adores her in any type of relationship though, and supports her endeavors and enthusiasms

For Bucky and James, dating one of them does not mean you have to be dating the other.

It would be marginally easier depending on time and verse tho

Specifically for Natashas: I include the generality of James being at the Red Room, but we must plot about including the affair or not. It is not my default canon.

if we are defaulting to winterwidow, James is the one most familiar with her, not Bucky. James was the fronting personality when they originally met, and Bucky’s recollection of events will be hazy if present at all.

If you want to ship Nat with Bucky, it must be plotted and must account for the prior/continuing relationship with James

For Sharon, she has no romantic interest in men ( yes including Steve ).

if she ends up with a comics-inclined verse this may change but will still require heavy plotting.

I will not be ship-exclusive with any blogs

I will have mains but it’s on unofficial terms

For all my writing partners: I will happily plot ships, and details! But I won’t have an assumed prior romantic/sexual history between our muses.

Again, I know this bit is particularly long !! But it’s very necessary for my comfort and yours as a baseline of whether we might get along or not. Thank you again for pulling through all the reading; if you’re staying, awesome !! If you’re not, I’m sorry to see you go but I hope you find the writing happiness you want <3

#( rules )#long post for ts

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beyondthetemples · 5 years ago

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{{ “Be Honest” mun meme

{{ Questions list taken from here:

https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/blog/hellhaeths/182092480007

What would prevent you from following someone? Not trigger-tagging, or not using cuts for ns//fw scenes. (I have really intense emet*phobia, so if you don't tag for that, or won't tag for it upon request, I absolutely cannot follow. Savior catches most posts for me, even if they're not tagged, but there are just So Many Euphemisms and Various Ways to Describe It that it only works 75% of the time.)

Are aesthetics important to you? If they are, why? As far as blog theme, not really-- I just like fiddling around to find something that evokes their General Vibe, and seeing what themes other muns like! I won't judge by them though. When it comes to thread aesthetics, I actually prefer to leave them utterly unformatted and plain-text as possible. I have ADHD and Fancy Unicode and Symbols and All That makes it really hard for me to focus on what's going on in the thread, not to mention I don't have the attention span to match another mun's Styling like that. (Also, fun fact: I always have my Tumblr Dash at 75% zoom, and Dove’s theme already has text at a Very Readable Size, so nothing ever needs to be Smallified for me.)

What current rp trend do you hate? I don't think there are any I "hate", though I get confused on all the Different Verses that everyone has. (In all my years of writing fanfic, I've only ever written Exactly One (1) AU, and I never read them outside of rp. AUs just aren't my thing.)

How do you explain rp to someone in the real world? "Taking turns writing what the characters are doing." Everyone afk has been pretty supportive. (They all know I'm a writer, so like... it's Nothing New.)

Do you prefer interacting with male muses or female more? Why? I genuinely don't care either way! Guy, gal, nonbinary pal: as long as they're fun to write with, I don't mind a bit. (And Dove has no preference, either.)

Do you prefer writing male muses or female more? Why? Statistically, I have 3 female muses (4 if we count Evangeline as her own person and not just A Part of Dove Manifested)... and only 1 male. (And technically, both Srentha and Leyla are genderqueer, so it's really only Dove and Kary that are cis women.) But that's not intentional? Evangeline is feminine because Dove is feminine, and Kary was originally my girlfriend's-- if she was a male I still would've hardcore adopted him. It just kind of worked out that way. I just enjoy writing people, not gender roles.

Name any three things about the rpc that bother you. 1.) The aforementioned Verse Thing. (It doesn't really bother me, I'm just easily confused by Similar-Except-Vaguely-Different Things due to the ADHD.) 2.) Some people still don't know that godmodding isn't okay. 3.) The distaste for OCs??? I guess that doesn't exactly "bother" me either, because people are allowed to have preferences... but, I mean, I spent several years active in, and then Actually Running, a group of 1300 members on dA completely DEDICATED to OCs, and it was a blast, so I just don't understand why people don't like rping with them as much as canon characters. I personally find OCs more satisfying to explore, more surprising in every thread because you just don't know what to expect, and you have a LOT more freedom for plotting and reactions! Like! You can Shed the Constraints of Canon and Revel in your Newfound OC-Based Freedom!! Truly Become your Character's GOD!!!

What is your opinion on exclusivity? Do you practice it? Why / why not? Nah, I love the variety different muns can bring to the same muse! Other people can stay exclusive if they like. Being an OC mun, it doesn't exactly affect me. 8F

Have you ever had a bad experience with commissions? As either someone who makes them or as someone who buys them? (I don't really know how this pertains to RP?) But there was one time when someone gave me a really vague commission request, out of the blue, for a fandom I know absolutely nothing about, and just kept saying things like "Whatever you think they'd do!" when I asked for plot, characterization, or preference details... I never finished it because I Didn't Even Know how to START.

What do you know now about rp that you wish you knew when you first started? The reply doesn't have to be perfect. Or dramatic, even. Not every reply is going to shatter someone's heart or absolutely make their day. And that's perfectly okay!

Have you been involved in drama? Do you regret it? Nnnnot on Tumblr. (There was a LOT of drama amongst admins of the dA group, which strongly attributed to the decline of me RPing on dA, but I definitely do not regret standing up for myself. I do wish I'd been able to foresee it, though, and brought someone else on staff who was actually going to, you know, do the job they applied for?)

Have you ever thought about leaving rp? What caused it? What changed your mind? Never! Well not on Tumblr anyways. There was a period where my favorite partners were all going inactive, and I couldn't find anyone who wanted to interact with Dove, so of course I was despairing, wondering if I'd ever get to explore what I wanted to explore with her. But then I decided, you know what, so what if I can't find any canon Titans to advance her Tumblr timeline? I'll just fill in the blanks with fanfic canon, and work from there! Making that decision was so freeing.

Do you think rp has had a positive or negative affect on your life or you as a person? Oh, positive, absolutely. I may be too busy to really attend to it much nowadays, but my writing style has improved DRAMATICALLY, I've made so many friends, and I've learned things about Dove that I never would've discovered in the stories alone. (Or at least, it might've been discovered on a ten-year delay. 8F)

How has rp changed you personally? I was able to find fast friends, make connections with people over common interests, and my very first experience with leadership happened because I hung around a TTOC dA chatroom (because, specifically, I’d gotten ADDICTED to rp), came to love the people and characters, and decided, when the current admins had to step down, I would like to step up.

If you could change one thing about rp on tumblr, what would it be? Why? I'd like tags to stop breaking, that'd be nice. (But that’s an issue with Tumblr itself, not the rps.)

Have you ever sent a message to yourself on anon? Why? Pff, no. Mostly because if I really want something to happen, I'll either post an open, OR I'll do what I'm doing here, and just answer the questions myself. 8F I have a lot of fun doing this with headcanon question lists.

Have you ever sent hate to yourself on anon? Why? No, but that's because I'm all about learning (+spreading) positive self-talk, de-escalation, and avoiding drama. Drama doesn't serve anyone.

Do you delete anon hate or post and address it? Why? I address it and then block the sender, because I want everyone to know I don't stand for that. And I have this stubborn streak about standing up for myself, so, you know... Gotta Address It First. (And I've defended Dove from Mary Sue accusations since I started posting about her in 2006, so it doesn't bother me, but I love pointing out all the reasons that, Jack Rider voice: You Are Wrong!)

Have you ever felt pressured to write something you weren’t comfortable with? Nope, but that's because if I can't or don't want to, I'm open and transparent about it. (Not on Tumblr, anyways. There was one particular person in the dA chats that kept trying to make RPs All About His Muse, but we shut that down too.)

Have you ever followed someone because you felt like you had to, not because you wanted to? Hell no! I've never Automatically Followed Back, and it's right there in my rules, I need a little communication before I start interacting.

What would make you block someone? Anon hate, reblogging/replying to rps that don't involve them, starting their own rps on my posts, Bad Takes in the Tags, shipping something I genuinely can't stand... I use the block button pretty liberally. I just don't need that stuff in my life, in my tags, or on my dash.

Have you ever stolen something from someone else? Well I have adopted a couple of headcanons re: Canon Characters from the teentitansheadcanons blog. (Like hc that, one time, Beast Boy was a bug and someone almost squished him, so now they put all the bugs outside, just in case. I love that for some reason, so I adopted it.) And every now and again I'll see something in fanfic I like: Azarath Has Two Suns, I saw that in a fanfic and it just felt so RIGHT, so I adopted that too. But, I mean, rping as an OC, there's really not a lot I can steal. 8F

Have you ever had something stolen from you? If so, how did you handle it? Not on Tumblr, but somebody once stole a picture of Srentha from dA and used it in a random webs-page blog about their dreams? ??? I have no idea why they used him, or how they even fOUND him, but I kinda just shrugged and let it go.

Are you open to duplicates? Why / why not? (Isn't this basically the same question as "are you exclusive"? Because I have the same answer. I am, because I like seeing other muns' interpretations of the same character.)

How do you feel about vague posting? Use your own judgement for your own blog, but it's not something I do myself. If I have to vaguepost to vent something, I'll usually go on a more private blog, or at least stick it under a Read More.

Do you follow people even if they don’t follow you back? Yes! I like reading rps almost as much as I like writing them.

Do you read people’s rules before following or interacting? Always.

What is your opinion on “reblog karma” and do you practice it? I try to! Sometimes I can't figure out what to send in for the blog I get in from, but most of the time, I'll send something any time I reblog something. I really appreciate it when people send something in before reblogging from me, personally. c: (I get it if you can’t or don’t want to. But it sure is nice!)

How have you responded to popular slang used on tumblr? Do you use it in every day life? Do you use it at all? Not really, but I rarely use slang at all. Unless I'm actually talking about rp, muses, muns, etc, then I'll use those words.

Is there something you don’t know the meaning of but you haven’t asked anyone because you think it’s supposed to be general knowledge? Was there ever something you had to ask someone to explain? I'm that Ravenclaw who always asks questions as soon as I encounter I don't know, and I don't use words without knowing what they mean. Kinda defeats the purpose of words that way.

Have you ever experienced discrimination? Well, Dove has, since people have that "I don't like OCs" mindset. Or "she's related to a canon character, so she's automatically a Mary Sue". It's not as big of a Discrimination as sexism or racism, don't get me wrong! But it HAS limited our scope of interaction, and I personally think it’s a little unfair to make judgments like that.

How do you feel about personal blogs following your rp blog? Go for it.

Have you ever cried while writing a reply? Mmmmaybe once? More often my heartrate just raises a little in an exciting moment, or I write out a ten-paragraph response in a one-hour fit of delighted manic wordsmithing, but I've definitely been touched. (I'm just... not very good at crying when I'm focused on writing. 8F)

Do you read other people’s threads or do you only read your own? There's definitely a bias towards my own! (Before my EHD died, I had about a hundred and fifty rps saved as word documents.) But I also enjoy reading others' threads.

What’s one thing that other people seem to hate that doesn’t bother you? Hmm...Spelling and grammatical errors. When I was copying chat rps to word docs, I started editing the replies for readability, and that habit kinda transferred to Tumblr, so when I'm not in a hurry, or I have an Unusually Long Attention Span, when I copy the replies, sometimes I'll just edit them, but I'm not mad about it. Just got into that habit.

How do you feel about tagging triggers? Do you tag them? How do you determine what is triggering content and what isn’t? It is absolutely ESSENTIAL for me to have triggers tagged for ME, so of course I extend the same courtesy to others. I don't presume to know what triggers people; I've made it very clear that if anyone needs something tagged, they just have to ask, and I'll tag it. No questions asked. (Though if they want to vent about it, I'm open to that too.)

What advice would you give to someone new to rp? Just GO for it! I know it can be scary and intimidating and overwhelming to see a great writer and think, "Gosh I want to interact with them So Much".. .and you know what, sometimes you will get rejected. Sometimes you just won't mesh with muns. Sometimes your characters don't have a very exciting dynamic. But you'll never find those Goldmine RP Partners if you don't at least ASK.

#ooc rebloggables

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onlinemarketingcourses · 6 years ago

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How I got 80% open rate in my email outreach campaign Search Engine Watch

The suggestion that you could have 80% of your outreach read by recipients sounds like a pipedream — an astronomical figure designed to keep people plugging away on their outbox.

With such a small canvas of visible information in a recipient’s inbox to work with, it can feel like enticing four out of every five targets to open your email is impossible.

But if you incorporate the right approaches, then it can very much become a reality. Just to give you the heads up, here’re some results we’ve managed to get in our recent outreach campaign:

In the following article, I’ve explored the ingredients needed to get 80% of your outreach messages viewed. So perhaps you’d like to pour yourself a coffee and brace yourself for an awful lot more audience interaction in the near future — the caffeine might come in handy.

Identify your targets

There are five key factors behind achieving a high open rate in your email outreach, and the first and most important is through identifying the right recipients.

A common mistake among many outreachers is their shotgun approach to distributing emails. While scattering mail across the internet into as many inboxes that can be sourced may seem like a good, time-saving and quantitative technique, it actually wastes more time that could be better invested in finding quality recipients.

Before a successful outreach campaign, you’ll need to dedicate some time to the preparation stage. Identify who your ideal responder would be, whether it’s a client, customer, consumer or collaborator, and work on devising a list of the perfect targets that fit the description.

Through the use of opt-ins and calls-to-action, you can have an interested recipient base come to you with minimal fuss and is a sure-fire approach to sending marketing emails to those most likely to view your content. By inviting your website’s visitors to subscribe to your mailing list via an effective call-to-action placed on your homepage, you get to save time on research and effortlessly come into possession of hundreds of emails – a great outreach method for websites that are in a position to offer a product or service to thousands of people.

For outreach emails with more link-building intentions sourcing becomes more difficult. If you’ve decided to target industry professionals and influencers, then tools like Email Hunter and Voila Norbert could be the answer — these services scour the internet for the relevant email addresses behind just about any active website and can help you hit the bulls-eye when it comes to finding the right people to get in contact with.

Mastering the subject line

According to a poll conducted via Litmus, 34% of recipients believe that an email subject line is the most important factor in helping them to decide to open their mail. This means that over 1/3 of your targets for outreach will be waiting for a perfect heading before clicking on your message.

These stats illustrate how important it is to get your subject line right, and there are many schools of thought behind what’s most effective and what isn’t.

Of course, each subject line will vary depending on the type of outreach you conduct, but the best practice is to appeal to people’s curiosity, to make them believe they’ll be gaining something if they read your email – which of course they will if your campaign has been constructed well enough.

A winning subject line needs to be short, personal wherever possible, and relevant to the topics covered by your email. Sometimes being upfront can be effective, especially when it comes to outreaching savvy marketers and bloggers.

There are a few other factors that can make all the difference in making your email stand out too. Incorporating emojis into your heading may risk your content appearing puerile, but with the vast catalogue of emojis that are more serious than a winking yellow circle with a tongue sticking out, you can really add some standout imagery and colour to your title. For example, travel companies have been using holiday-themed emojis like aeroplanes and city skylines to great effect in capturing the imagination of recipients — if you can find something relevant that appeals to the aesthetics of your email, then it could be a key addition to make.

With so many individuals checking their inboxes via their smartphones, keeping your subject lines short and punchy has never been more important — make sure you get your message across in less than 50 characters.

By adding an element of urgency to your headline, recipients will feel more compelled to check its contents. You can exercise this by adding a sense of limited-time opportunity to your subject, or by inviting them to respond before a deadline — the chances are that they’ll be curious as to what’s caused the urgency and read on.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions in your subject line too — this can be seen as a way of cutting to the chase and getting your message across immediately.

Making use of your preview snippets

Many inboxes have menus that not only feature an unread email’s subject line but a snippet of text from the beginning of a message. It’s important not to neglect the opening lines of your email because this could be a key factor in whether or not it gets read or moved to the ‘junk’ folder.

Litmus has stated that 24% of recipients check the text previews of emails, so it’s worth dedicating time to.

The most important part of nailing your email opening is personalization. Make sure it begins with ‘Dear, [Name]’ or ‘Hi [Name],’ where possible – any less than this will give off the strong impression that you’re simply using templates to scatter across the web (which may well be the case, but we don’t want them to know that).

An effective use of the preview snippet is to treat it like a secondary subject line, or to summarize the email in the first line – doing so could be the deciding factor while your target’s hovering over your message in their inbox. If you’re using an email marketing software, make sure to use these two rules in every template.

Keeping your sender reputation in check

You could have compiled the best list of targeted recipients, the best subject line and opening text, all for it to be undone by a sender score that’s so low that your email drops straight into the junk folder never to be seen again.

Email providers are designed to give their users the best experience. And part of that is through whittling down any perceived junk automatically by filtering out any messages from users with a low sender score.

A sender score is calculated by prior interactions, and how many users generally open your emails. A great website to check if your current email address passes most servers’ junk filters is to consult Senderscore.org, which will let you know how your email is faring, and whether or not your messages will make it to the inboxes of your recipients.

Effective follow-ups

Don’t be afraid to follow up on your emails. It can be easy to perceive the use of follow-ups as a nuisance or spammy, but in reality, a second email tends to work wonders in getting your content noticed.

There are many reasons why recipients don’t read emails the first time around; it could’ve been received at a busy time in their day, or deleted by accident, or simply missed. Here, a follow-up offers your target a second chance to see your content and acknowledge your outreach.

Be sure to specify that your email is a follow-up – this shows that you’ve been in touch prior and clearly value the recipient’s attention. Also be sure to note when you sent your initial email for ease of reference.

While it’s worth sending more than one follow-up email to maximize your recipient’s chances to respond, we advise against mailing more than two chasers in order to limit the risk of being considered spam, or worse, being blacklisted.

Dmytro Spilka is Head Wiz at Solvid Digital. He can be found on Twitter at @spilkadi.

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mailbrainiers-blog · 7 years ago

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What is Email Marketing?

New Post has been published on https://mailbrainiers.com/what-is-email-marketing/

What is Email Marketing?

In simplest terms – Email Marketing is advertising your products/services via email.

In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It usually involves using email to send advertisements, request business, or solicit sales or donations, and is meant to build loyalty, trust, or brand awareness.

Email marketing occurs when a company sends a commercial message to a group of people by use of electronic email. Most commonly through advertisements, requests for business, or sales or donation solicitation, any email communication is considered email marketing if it helps to build customer loyalty, trust in a product or company or brand recognition. Email marketing is an efficient way to stay connected with your clients while also promoting your business.

In a typical email marketing scenario, an organization builds an email list to reach or inform established and prospective customers. An email list may be complemented by a marketing database that allows for customization, data mining, precise targeting or other purposes.

However, ubiquitous and unsolicited email, also known as spam, has made it difficult for ethical email marketers. Most email and Internet service providers (ISP) have significant filters to block spam, so getting legitimate messages across is easier said than done. Given this, email marketing has evolved into a specialized niche in digital marketing.

Why Email Marketing?

Measureability and Flexibility – With the analytics available today it’s easy to track responses to your emails exactly, in order to work out what parts of your campaign are working and what parts aren’t. With this knowledge, you can then react instantly to modify your campaign strategy if need be.

Success – Emails can be targeting specifically to the ideal consumer. With this concept in mind, along with email cost-effectiveness, it’s no wonder that email marketing’s ROI often blows other direct marketing strategies out of the water – The trick is that you have to get it right!

Cost – Email marketing is the cheapest among all the digital marketing tools available today. Whether you do it yourself, or through an email marketing agency, marketing to hundreds of consumers via email is going to cost you tiddlywinks compared to other channels of advertising.

Types of Email Marketing

Promotional

Transactional

Opt-in

Promotional Email Marketing

It involves sending an email marketing campaign solely to communicate a promotional message (for example, a special offer or a product catalog). Companies usually collect a list of customer or prospect email addresses to send direct promotional messages to, or they rent a list of email addresses from service companies.

Transactional Email Marketing

Transactional emails are usually triggered based on a customer’s action with a company. To be qualified as transactional or relationship messages, these communications’ primary purpose must be “to facilitate, complete, or confirm a commercial transaction that the recipient has previously agreed to enter into with the sender” along with a few other narrow definitions of transactional messaging.[2] Triggered transactional messages include dropped basket messages, password reset emails, purchase or order confirmation emails, order status emails, reorder emails, and email receipts.

The primary purpose of a transactional email is to convey information regarding the action that triggered it. But, due to their high open rates (51.3% compared to 36.6% for email newsletters), transactional emails are an opportunity to introduce or extend the email relationship with customers or subscribers; to anticipate and answer questions; or to cross-sell or up-sell products or services.

Optin-in Email Marketing

Opt-in email advertising, or permission marketing, is a method of advertising via email whereby the recipient of the advertisement has consented to receive it. This method is one of several developed by marketers to eliminate the disadvantages of email marketing.

Opt-in email marketing may evolve into a technology that uses a handshake protocol between the sender and receiver. This system is intended to eventually result in a high degree of satisfaction between consumers and marketers. If opt-in email advertising is used, the material that is emailed to consumers will be “anticipated”. It is assumed that the recipient wants to receive it, which makes it unlike unsolicited advertisements sent to the consumer. Ideally, opt-in email advertisements will be more personal and relevant to the consumer than untargeted advertisements.

A common example of permission marketing is a newsletter sent to an advertising firm’s customers. Such newsletters inform customers of upcoming events or promotions, or new products. In this type of advertising, a company that wants to send a newsletter to their customers may ask them at the point of purchase if they would like to receive the newsletter.

With a foundation of opted-in contact information stored in their database, marketers can send out promotional materials automatically using autoresponders—known as drip marketing. They can also segment their promotions to specific market segments.

Why Email Marketing Is Still Relevant?

In an age of increasing usage of social media for advertising, email marketing still rules the roost, according to a study:

94% of Internet users use email, while only 61% use social media

75% of adult online users say that email marketing is their preferred marketing method

the “opt-in” feature of email allows marketing by consent

email marketing allows targeting by demographics (age, income, etc.)

email messages have a much wider range of formatting possibilities than social media messages

email offers more reporting and analytics capability, such as click-through rates, open rates, bounce rates, and conversions

The huge advantage of email over social media is that prospects and customers are more likely to see an email than social media. Just posting something doesn’t mean that everyone you want to see your message will see it. Your post might not even show up in your targets’ social media streams. However, an email will sit in the inbox until it’s read (or deleted).

Ideally, email marketing should go hand-in-hand with social media. Adding social media “Like” or “Share” buttons to your marketing emails gives an additional way for customers to connect with your brand. Snippets of positive reviews from social media fans can be included in emails, and conversely, social media postings can be used to encourage fans to subscribe to your email newsletters.

Email marketing can substantially increase your income if you do it correctly. (See the tips below.) It’s a great way to get people to visit and/or revisit your website or blog, and more traffic usually equates to more income.

Email Marketing Tips

1) Build your own list. This has already been mentioned but buying email lists is a waste of time. All you’re going to do by sending unsolicited email is turn off most of the people you’re hoping to turn into customers and run the risk of being labeled a spammer.

2) Adhere to the rules of the CAM-SPAM Act. These rules include having a non-deceptive subject line, a method of unsubscribing, and your name and address at the end of the emails.

3) Don’t just send out ads to buy all the time. Use your emails to build rapport with customers by sharing your expertise and/or that of others, giving them tips and insights they can value. Share information that lets them know more about you and/or your company if it’s interesting.

4) Treat your list well. Remember that the people you’re using email to communicate with have trusted you with their email and name; they deserve your respect. Just as you deserve as a chance to convert them from customers to fans and even evangelists for your brand, people who want to talk about and share your message and get involved in any way they can.

5) Stick to a schedule if you’re doing a newsletter. Sending email on a regular day or days can help your subscribers know what to expect from you and when.

Email marketing tools

Email marketing tools are tools that marketers use to create, send, test, optimize and report on their email campaigns. An email marketing tool could be a specific tool related to email marketing like an email subject line generator, or an inbox placement testing tool, or a suite of tools that enables a marketer to do all their email marketing end-to-end.

MailBrainiers is an example of an email marketing tool.

MailBrainiers is a web hosted bulk email marketing & newsletter software service that lets you send unlimited trackable emails campaigns and promote your startup business to the world.

Email is a very versatile medium. Formats range from simple text to HTML & rich media. Content can be one-size-fits-all or highly customized. Frequency can consist of fixed, frequent intervals or sporadic intervals, with transmissions occurring only when something newsworthy comes along. Sophistication (and cost) can be very low or very high.

Along with the power of email comes the abuse of email, commonly known as spam. Is spam email considered marketing? Technically, the answer is probably yes, but it is certainly not responsible email marketing. While some users fail to distinguish between permission marketing and email spam, spam is actually a major threat to legitimate email marketers, as a glut of messages could make the entire email medium less effective.

Email marketing is a vital component in many industries, especially for creating those important customer-business relationships. Learn to use it well and it will definitely bump up your company’s success.

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aheliotech · 7 years ago

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What is a computer worm and how does it spread?

New Post has been published on https://www.aheliotech.com/blog/what-is-a-computer-worm-and-how-does-it-spread/

What is a computer worm and how does it spread?

During his first year at Cornell in 1988, Robert Tappan Morris Jr. released what is widely considered to be the world’s first worm (an achievement that earned him three years of probation, 400 hours of community service and a $10,500 fine).

When asked why he did it, Morris simply replied:

“To demonstrate the inadequacies of current security measures on computer networks by exploiting the security defects that I had discovered.”

Little did Morris know how enduring his words would turn out to be.

Fast forward 30 years and worms are still exploiting vulnerable systems, endlessly replicating themselves and wiggling their way into poorly protected computers. Indeed, the worm component of WannaCry ransomware made it possible to wreak havoc on computers around the world, infecting more than 200,000 systems in over 150 countries and holding the infected machines ransom for $300 a pop. Mere weeks later, Petya/NotPetya ransomware used a worm to spread within local networks.

So, worms are very much alive and well in 2017 – but what can you do about it?

Well, when it comes to computer worms (and just about every other ailment, for that matter), prevention is always the best cure. Stay vigilant and minimize your risk of infection by learning more about how worms function, the most common ways they spread and how you can stop them dead in their tracks.

What exactly is a computer worm?

A computer worm is a form of malware, just like its more notorious cousin, the virus. Where a worm differs from a virus is that it typically doesn’t infect or manipulate files on its own. Instead, it simply clones itself over and over again and spreads via a network (say, the Internet, a local area network at home, or a company’s intranet) to other systems where it continues to replicate itself.

In turn, these clones reproduce and spread and, in a very short time period, can quickly infect an enormous number of machines. For instance, it’s estimated that the infamous ILOVEYOU worm infected about 10 percent of the world’s internet-connected computers within just 10 days.

How have worms changed?

Traditional computer worms were created simply to spread. Left unchecked, they would multiply exponentially and disrupt network bandwidth, but they did not actually alter a system’s functionality. This all changed in 2004 with the arrival of Witty, a worm that attacks the firewall and computer security products of a specific company and is thought to be the first worm to carry a payload (a piece of code designed to do real, tangible damage).

Since then, a number of payload-carrying worms have been unleashed on the world, with damage ranging from Nyxem’s ability to delete Microsoft Office files to the keylogging capabilities of Daprosy.

As worms continue to become more advanced, there’s a growing need for users and businesses alike to up the ante and prevent the spread of worms. While Emsisoft Anti-Malware offers an excellent level of protection against all known worms, you can further reduce your risk of infection with some insight into how the nasty critters spread.

How do computer worms spread?

One of the most common ways for worms to spread is via email spam. In years gone by, worms could hide in the main text of an email, but as modern email clients caught on and began blocking direct embedding circa 2010, the risk for this type of attack is fairly low.

While embedded worms may be things of the past, email attachments remain popular hiding spots for worms. What may appear to be a benign work document or personal photo can, in fact, be hiding malicious code, waiting to be released when you click a link or open said attachment. Once a machine has been infected, the worm may replicate itself by emailing itself to everyone in your address book or automatically replying to emails in your inbox.

Reduce risk: Be very wary when opening emails (even those sent to you by someone in your address book). If you think a link or attachment looks suspicious, check with the sender before clicking anything.

Operating system vulnerabilities

Every operating system has its vulnerabilities (yes, even macOS) and some worms are specifically coded to take advantage of these weak points. Perhaps the most infamous example is Conficker, a worm first identified in 2008 which exploited a vulnerability in a network service present in many versions of Windows, including Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta and Windows 7 Beta. At its peak, Conficker infected as many as 15 million computers.

Reduce risk: Operating systems are continually receiving security updates designed to protect your computer from worms and other malware. Always keep your operating system up to date, have auto-update enabled and regularly spring clean your machine.

Instant messaging

Worms can take on similarly deceptive forms in instant messaging software and take advantage of users who are probably not on high alert when using such services.

In the past, instant messaging software such as mIRC, MSN Messenger, Yahoo IM and ICQ proved to be exceptionally fertile breeding grounds for worms. In today’s digital landscape, modern chat systems are just as vulnerable, with Facebook Messenger a common infection point for worms such as Dorkbot, which spreads via an executable file disguised as a JPG image.

Reduce risk: Keep your guard up when using chat services and social media platforms in general (Facebook is home to more than worms!). Always verify URLs before clicking and be wary of downloading any attachments – even those that have apparently been sent by a trusted contact.

Smartphones

Globally, there were about 2.8 billion active smartphones being used at the end of 2016, according to data collated by market intelligence firm Newzoo. With these figures in mind, it should come as little surprise that worm creators are increasingly turning their attention to mobile devices.

Research from Syracuse University suggests that every major mobile operating system (including Android, iOS, Blackberry and Windows Phone) are potentially vulnerable to worms as they all support HTML5-based mobile apps. One of the key security flaws of HTML5 is that malicious code can easily be inserted into it, meaning that when a user launches an app they could also be unwittingly executing a damaging program.

Reduce risk: You can mitigate this risk to an extent by only downloading and using apps released by reputable organizations. Take the time to read the permission requirements of your apps and consider uninstalling those that are unnecessarily intrusive. Finally, you can further reduce the risk of worm infection on your Android device by downloading and installing Emsisoft Mobile Security.

Prevention is key in the fight against worms

Infectious, self-replicating and increasingly destructive, preventing the spread of worms is an ongoing battle. Thankfully, adopting some of the security practices discussed here and coupling them with our unrivaled Emsisoft Anti-Malware software will go a long way toward helping you minimize the risk of a worm infecting your system.

Have a great, malware-free day!

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lucyariablog · 8 years ago

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Email Drip Campaigns: How to Make Them Smart and Blunder-Free

Email drip campaigns can be powerful and effective ways to build a loyal audience and share your great content with prospects and customers. But they can also fail miserably. Common — but easily avoidable — mistakes are enough to make babies cry and ruin your sender reputation.

During CMI’s ContentTECH virtual event, Gini Dietrich, CEO at Arment Dietrich Inc. and author of Spin Sucks, and Mike Madden Sr., demand generation program manager at Marketo, offered tips and techniques to make your campaigns smart and blunder-free.

Just so we are all on the same page, a drip campaign is a progression of pre-written marketing emails sent automatically on a set schedule or based on actions a reader takes. There are more than a dozen types of drip campaigns — educational, new subscriber, competitive, abandoned shopping carts, etc.

Sometimes drip campaigns are referred to as nurture campaigns or life cycle emails. Regardless of what you call them, they are “an integral part of an effective communication strategy,” Gini says.

Email drip campaigns are an integral part of an effective communication strategy. @ginidietrich #emailmarketing Click To Tweet

To help marketers make the most of drip campaigns, Gini and Mike emphasize:

Why onboarding is so important

How a bounce-management strategy can help maintain a good sender reputation

What words (and colors) trigger spam filters

Why you should be careful about personalization

Onboarding and playing catch-up

Email newsletters are one of the best ways to communicate with your clients and build a subscriber base. But there’s a potential flaw to consider. “New subscribers only see your new emails. They don’t see anything that came before it,” Gini says.

New subscribers only see your new emails – that’s a flaw, says @ginidietrich via @editorstahl. #emailmarketing Click To Tweet

This is where a new-subscriber drip campaign comes into play. This onboarding technique could include information on key happenings in the community, helpful resources, upcoming events, and more.

“You have people who have been subscribers for a while and then you have somebody sort of coming into the middle of it — how do you catch them up? A new-subscriber campaign is a really great way to do it,” says Gini, who detailed her tried-and-true way of doing this with her Spin Sucks community during her presentation. “A great email drip campaign not only levels the playing field for all of your subscribers, but compels them to action.”

Protect your reputation

Before deploying your drip email campaigns, a bounce-management strategy can help increase your open rates and improve your overall email marketing ROI. Your sender reputation improves when you have positive engagements and healthy numbers of opens and click-throughs. What hurts your reputation, however, are recipients who mark your email as spam or blacklist you — a marketer’s nightmare.

A bounce-management strategy can increase open rates & improve #emailmarketing ROI, says @editorstahl. Click To Tweet

Marketo used a two-part strategy to help clean up its email list — and to keep it clean. As Mike explains:

Any email address that soft bounced a minimum of 10 times over 90 days was marked as invalid and removed from Marketo’s list. It was a one-time clean-up campaign.

Any email address that soft bounces a minimum of six times over 30 days is marked invalid and scrubbed automatically.

Marketo helped a high-volume email customer with a similar bounce-management strategy at the end of September 2015. Since then, deliverability rates have increased from 93% to 99%, open rates have climbed from 13.5% to 17.3%, and the customer’s sender reputation had improved significantly.

“Your sender reputation is the No. 1 reason why I think you should implement bounce-management campaigns,” Mike says. “Due to many recent filtering tactics of ISPs, one thing remains very clear: Consistently sending emails to a dirty subscriber list with questionable email addresses will have adverse effects on both inbox placement and your sender reputation.”

Your sender reputation is the No. 1 reason to implement a bounce-management strategy, says @mike_p_madden. Click To Tweet

Avoid these mistakes and improve open rates

“No matter how well you’ve thought out your campaign, there are a few … bullets that can cause a swift death to your email drip campaign,” Mike says.

Mistake 1: Using words or phrases that trigger spam filters — free, income, guarantee, increase, sales, opportunity, obligation, fast cash, don’t delete this. As Mike warns, “Using words that trigger spam filters, it’s like making babies cry. You don’t want to see a baby cry.”

Don’t use words or phrases (free, income, don’t delete this) that trigger spam filters. @mike_p_madden #email Click To Tweet

Mistake 2: Using ALL CAPS (Besides making it seem like you’re shouting, it’s a spam trigger.)

Mistake 3: Putting coded words in different colors (Red or white text is a spam trigger.)

Mistake 4: Using incorrect names or spellings, or making incorrect assumptions about age, gender, or marital status

“My husband’s name is Kelly and he gets emails to Mrs. Kelly Dietrich all the time. It drives him freaking insane,” Gini says. “One of my friends is a gamer. She blogs about it and positively seethes when she gets an email pitch that assumes she must be a guy to be writing about video games.”

Unless you are certain the information you’ve collected is accurate, be careful about using it to personalize an email. “Good personalization can help you convert. Bad personalization will actually kill your efforts,” Gini warns.

Unless you’re certain the info collected is accurate, be careful using it to personalize emails. @ginidietrich Click To Tweet

Gini and Mike offer up a lot more great advice and links to helpful templates in their ContentTECH webinar. To listen in, visit our virtual event here.

While online learning is great, in-person learning can be even better. Gini Dietrich and many others will be presenting, networking, and sharing at Content Marketing World. Register today for the September event. Use BLOG100 to save $100 off early-bird rates.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

Editor’s note: Thanks to all our ContentTECH sponsors: Act-On, Highspot, ion interactive, Marketo, ON24, SnapApp, Uberflip, Vidyard and Workfront. You can access all sessions for free until May 22, 2017.

The post Email Drip Campaigns: How to Make Them Smart and Blunder-Free appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

from http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2017/03/email-drip-campaign/

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hotspreadpage · 8 years ago