Tips for a successful email marketing campaign

Email marketing is becoming more and more popular as the price of direct mail continues to climb. With the proper planning a email marketing blast can motivate your customers to make a purchase or persuade new customers to use your product or services.

1. Get a plan Stan- Behind every great email marketing campaign is a plan. A plan gets you where you want to go, sets objectives for your campaign andmaps out ways to meet the objectives. Much like a map, with out a good plan you will have know way to know how to get were you want to go.

2. Target your market- Before you can blast out your emailer you need to define your target market. The more targeted the email the better your results. Once you determine who you are going to reach, you can then tailor your email marketing message to that customers needs. Always remember the more specific the email peices is to your target markets needs the better the results of your blast will be. Breaking your email mailing list into market segments and then tayloring the message for them is much more effective then blasting your entire list a general message.

3. Make it good looking - Your email marketing peice should be atractive and easy to read in all the different mail clients.

4. Give a call to action.

5. Follow Up

Need help creating your email marketing campaign?  Give us a call today- 608-758-4841

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Credit Card Processing- How Does It Work Online?

One of the questions we often receive from clients is how online shopping carts handle credit card processing.  The main E-Commerce platform that we use can be setup two ways when it comes to processing credit card payments.

1. Authorization only: This state means that the credit card of the customer has been verified, but payment has not been processed yet. The capture button must be clicked in order for payment to be collected.  Until you click the Capture button in the admin section, the payment will remain as Pending and no funds will be transferred to your merchant account.  This method is usually only used when manually processing orders or if you have problems with cancellations.
   
2. Authorize and Capture: If you are using a payment gateway, such as Authorize.net or PayPal Website Payments Pro, this setting will authorize the card number and automatically transfer the funds into your payment gateway/merchant account.  Once an order is placed and the funds are transferred into your account, you will need to void or force a refund in order to cancel the order and transfer money back to the customers card.  This will usually take a few days to process.

Foremost Media can help your company with all your eCommerece website development needs.  Learn more about our services here.

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Common SEO Questions and Answers

Here is a common questions we receive from new clients regarding SEO and launching their websites: 

QUESTION: In your experience, how long does it take before a new site starts showing up in Google and the other search engines? I realize it probably varies, but I’m just curious about what kind of average to expect.

ANSWER:  Regarding your question, there are a couple answers.  Search engines work by sending out small programs called "spiderbots" to "take pictures" of websites.  In order to take a picture of a site, they need to be able to find it.  This is called being "indexed".  In order for this to happen, it is important that your site be submitted to the search engines.  This is relatively easy to do.  The search engines may also "find" your site if another "indexed" site has a link from their site to your site.  Now, once a site is "indexed" it becomes POSSIBLE for you to rank for keywords in the search engines.  However, it does not guarantee that you will.  To get "indexed" can take anywhere from a week to a couple of months.  

Whether you rank for keywords in the search engines is a different story. It is entirely dependent on a number of SEO factors and is not possible to give you a time frame for these because of the complexity of the factors as well as the volatility of the web as a whole . It's very important to start working on your Search Engine Optimization while your site is being built. There are many on-site factors that should be addressed as the site is built to give your site a leg up on the competition. After site launch you should include some on-going SEO services to keep your site moving in the right direction.

QUESTION: My understanding is that Google puts new sites into a sandbox for a certain amount of time to ensure the site is stable before even listing it among search results. If that’s the case, how long do you usually see a site in the sandbox? 

ANSWER: The "sandbox" is a theoretical SEO concept. The sandbox concept suggests that domain name age determines Google's trust of the domain name. It suggests that a lack of trust during the (first 3 months usually) when a domain is new causes an automatic suspension (or holding pattern) of rankings. In my experience, the "sandbox" is partial myth. I say partial because indeed the age of the domain is an SEO factor. Also, Google keeps an eye on how fast SEO factors are "throttled" and if you go too fast, you will find yourself in a sandbox-like situation. Those things being said, there is no real sandbox, just those factors. However, it is possible to overcome domain age to quickly rank if the other factors are optimized. Though, since they can't be done too quickly, it still takes time anyway. So, either way you cut it, for the purposes of your question I would say 3 months. I hope that helps. It's nice to talk to someone who knows a little something about it! Let me know if I can ever do anything for you.

Foremost Media has a team of dedicated search engine marketing professionals that can help you come up with and implement a online marketing plan for your website. Whether your site is brand new or has been around for a while and just needs some help, contact us today to get started!

Learn more about our SEO services

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Cutting Spam With Greylisting

One of the spam filtration tactics the majority of hosting companies use including Foremost Media is greylisting.

What that means is that each time a given mailbox on our email servers receives an email from an unknown contact (ip), that mail is rejected with a "try again later"-message (This happens at the machine level and is transparent to the end user- in other words our mail server asks the sending mail server to resend the message). This means that all mail gets delayed for a matter of seconds until the senders email server automatically tries to deliver it again. Most legit mail servers are set up for this and try again in a few seconds- where most spamming software will not try again later.

Why use Greylisting?

Greylisting is a very effective method of spam blocking that comes at a minimal price in terms of performance. Most of the actual processing that needs to be done for Greylisting takes place on the sender's server. It has been shown to block upwards of 95% of incoming spam simply because so many spammers don't use a standard mail server which will do automatic retries.

Can I turn off Greylisting?

While logged into your web admin panel there is a check box to enable/disable greylisting. If checked, this will allow users to selectively turn off Greylisting (useful if you have an account that receives time sensitive mail)

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New DNS Services Scam Sent Via Mail

Many of our customers have received a letter via the US Post office from a company called DNS Services containing a "Fake Invoice".

This company has been sending realistic looking bills like the one below, which are really just a solicitation for  their DNS services (A service that Foremost Media hosting customers already enjoy for free. While this practice is  not technically illegal, it is pretty unethical and has caused a lot of confusion for businesses receiving the "fake bill".  If you read the fine print on this invoice you should see this statement:

THIS IS A SOLICITATION FOR THE ORDER OF GOOD AND SERVICES, OR BOTH, AND NOT A BILL, INVOICE, OR STATEMENT OF ACCOUNT DUE. YOU ARE UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO MAKE ANY PAYMENTS ON ACCOUNT OF THIS OFFER UNLESS YOU ACCEPT THIS OFFER.

We at Foremost Media strongly recommend that if you receive this bill you just throw it away.  We do not recommend using their services.  The Foremost Media Name appears on the bill because we currently host your DNS and we have no association with this company.

If you ever have any questions about invoices you receive regarding your website or online marketing don't hesitate to contact us.

Copy of the DNS Services Scam Letter (Sorry About The Quality)

This scam does not appear to be isolated to Foremost Media Customers.  Several other websites have similar warnings to their customers about this very letter:

http://www.jptechnical.com/blog/2012/11/01/warning-dns-services-scam-via-mail/

http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/275093-scam-via-mail-from-dns-services
http://glickscomputerrepair.com/dns-services-scam/

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Monthly Microsoft Windows Update Notification

Foremost Media Server Update Notice:

Monthly Microsoft Windows Update Notification Start Time: Tuesday, October 9, 2012 @ 3:00 AM in the Server's Time Zone
End Time: Friday, October 12, 2012 @ 4:00 AM in the Server's Time Zone 
Impact: Websites may be temporarily offline while servers reboot

What will be done? 
Whenever new Microsoft updates are released, the servers will automatically apply the patches within a patch window of 3:00AM-4:00AM in the server's time zone (based on the server zone you have chosen to be in). This generally happens once per month and starts on the second Tuesday of the month.

How will this maintenance affect me? 
During a Microsoft Update, patches will be installed and servers will automatically reboot. The entire patching process typically takes less than 30 minutes; however, in some cases where Microsoft releases a service pack or large number of patches, it may take longer. During a reboot, your website will temporarily be offline.

Does this require any action on my part? 
This is a general notice and does not require any action on your part. 

Who do I contact if I have questions about this maintenance? 
If you have any questions or concerns, you may simply visit our website and contact our team.  We will be able to assist you. If your website or control panel are unavailable in a manner inconsistent with this notice, please open a service ticket for immediate assistance.

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Testing Your New iPhone Application

This blog post is meant to help you with the first step for beta testing an iPhone application currently in development at Foremost Media. This is NOT the process that all your users will have to go through to install your app. Once you app is ready for prime time we will get your application digitally signed by Apple (Required for distributed on the App Store) and set up distribution through the
App Store.

In the mean time while we test and develop your application we will need to know your Device ID (UDID). Once we have your UDID the application will be signed specifically for your device so you can test it.

Below are some simple instructions on how to retrieve your UDID:

Search iTunes App Store for "UDID" by Harrison Apps, LLC.  This is a free download.

Install the application on your apple device and then launch it:

The application will retrieve your UDID information and you can click on "Send Device Info Email" in the application to send it to your project manager at Foremost Media.

Once we have your UDID the application will be signed specifically for your device and will send further instruction on how to install the app on your device. 

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