SEMA News—August 2012

An Impatient Electorate Seeks Certainty

With the critical 2012 election only a few months away, lawmakers have produced few results. The blame falls on both sides of the aisle. For example, the U.S. Senate has not passed a budget since April 29, 2009. While scores of crucial tax-relief measures expire, including the estate tax and research and development tax credit, the House of Representatives has chosen to delay consideration until after the November election.

Lawmakers are avoiding tough decisions on tax and spending issues before voters go to the polls. Instead, they intend to hold a lame-duck session after the election but before the new Congress is seated in January. Many important decisions can’t wait until 2013, but the current atmosphere on Capitol Hill is too divisive to enact legislation. The lame-duck session may permit a compromise to temporarily extend some tax cuts and set in motion the process for overhauling the tax code.

Instead of dealing with those important issues now, Congress has purposely engaged in partisan standoffs over the 2008 health care law, the Keystone XL pipeline project and infrastructure funding, among many other issues. The debates have been shallow on substance and served as wedge issues to rile up voters rather than enact laws. Meanwhile, Congressional leaders from both sides have postponed action on legislative initiatives designed to stimulate the economy and put Americans back to work.

The evidence of gridlock is clear. Unemployment in the United States has remained above 8%. Economic growth remains sluggish. Given the uncertainties about taxes, regulatory burdens and future product sales, businesses throughout the nation are still hesitant to hire new workers. Throughout the first half of 2012, small-business owners have repeatedly called for clarity from Washington. Congress and the White House have not responded.

This economic uncertainty has resulted in frustration and anger from the American public. Voters first made a statement in 2008 that “change” was necessary to bring a new approach to Washington. In 2010, Americans issued a strong declaration that the change they had voted for only two years prior was not meeting their demands. Now, with control of both houses of Congress and the White House at stake, we find ourselves yet again at a historic crossroads.

While demanding change, the American electorate also needs to hold itself accountable for the people it puts into office. A large segment of the public automatically votes with its party affiliation, leaving independent voters to sway the results. These are swing voters that have no allegiance to a particular party. They also symbolize the nation’s impatience with gridlock. Given the growing divide between electoral demands and partisan rhetoric, the 2012 election may serve as the strongest rebuke of partisan politics in years.

Voters are looking for leadership, a vision for the future and a concise message on how to get there. Addressing tax reform, spending cuts, entitlement reforms, regulatory relief, investments in infrastructure and other issues that shape a strong economy requires leadership at all levels of government. Debating these topics and articulating legislative solutions during the campaign season allows lawmakers to claim a mandate once elected. Of course, voters also need to accept the fact that restoring the nation’s economy will require some tough medicine, and the leaders who prescribe the appropriate remedy should be supported.

In this divided environment, it is important that SEMA remain a leading voice for its membership. While legislative leaders continue to express empty rhetoric on Capitol Hill and in the media, SEMA continues to advocate strongly for the future of the industry. SEMA is working to hold elected officials accountable by calling for tax and entitlement reform, regulatory relief for small businesses and economic incentives to ensure that member businesses continue to drive the recovery of the American economy.

As Election Day draws closer, SEMA remains engaged in protecting our industry and providing the strongest opportunities for growth, expansion and success.

SEMA News—August 2012

An Impatient Electorate Seeks Certainty

With the critical 2012 election only a few months away, lawmakers have produced few results. The blame falls on both sides of the aisle. For example, the U.S. Senate has not passed a budget since April 29, 2009. While scores of crucial tax-relief measures expire, including the estate tax and research and development tax credit, the House of Representatives has chosen to delay consideration until after the November election.

Lawmakers are avoiding tough decisions on tax and spending issues before voters go to the polls. Instead, they intend to hold a lame-duck session after the election but before the new Congress is seated in January. Many important decisions can’t wait until 2013, but the current atmosphere on Capitol Hill is too divisive to enact legislation. The lame-duck session may permit a compromise to temporarily extend some tax cuts and set in motion the process for overhauling the tax code.

Instead of dealing with those important issues now, Congress has purposely engaged in partisan standoffs over the 2008 health care law, the Keystone XL pipeline project and infrastructure funding, among many other issues. The debates have been shallow on substance and served as wedge issues to rile up voters rather than enact laws. Meanwhile, Congressional leaders from both sides have postponed action on legislative initiatives designed to stimulate the economy and put Americans back to work.

The evidence of gridlock is clear. Unemployment in the United States has remained above 8%. Economic growth remains sluggish. Given the uncertainties about taxes, regulatory burdens and future product sales, businesses throughout the nation are still hesitant to hire new workers. Throughout the first half of 2012, small-business owners have repeatedly called for clarity from Washington. Congress and the White House have not responded.

This economic uncertainty has resulted in frustration and anger from the American public. Voters first made a statement in 2008 that “change” was necessary to bring a new approach to Washington. In 2010, Americans issued a strong declaration that the change they had voted for only two years prior was not meeting their demands. Now, with control of both houses of Congress and the White House at stake, we find ourselves yet again at a historic crossroads.

While demanding change, the American electorate also needs to hold itself accountable for the people it puts into office. A large segment of the public automatically votes with its party affiliation, leaving independent voters to sway the results. These are swing voters that have no allegiance to a particular party. They also symbolize the nation’s impatience with gridlock. Given the growing divide between electoral demands and partisan rhetoric, the 2012 election may serve as the strongest rebuke of partisan politics in years.

Voters are looking for leadership, a vision for the future and a concise message on how to get there. Addressing tax reform, spending cuts, entitlement reforms, regulatory relief, investments in infrastructure and other issues that shape a strong economy requires leadership at all levels of government. Debating these topics and articulating legislative solutions during the campaign season allows lawmakers to claim a mandate once elected. Of course, voters also need to accept the fact that restoring the nation’s economy will require some tough medicine, and the leaders who prescribe the appropriate remedy should be supported.

In this divided environment, it is important that SEMA remain a leading voice for its membership. While legislative leaders continue to express empty rhetoric on Capitol Hill and in the media, SEMA continues to advocate strongly for the future of the industry. SEMA is working to hold elected officials accountable by calling for tax and entitlement reform, regulatory relief for small businesses and economic incentives to ensure that member businesses continue to drive the recovery of the American economy.

As Election Day draws closer, SEMA remains engaged in protecting our industry and providing the strongest opportunities for growth, expansion and success.

E-mail Marketing

An Inexpensive Alternative

While there are any number of online services eager to manage your e-marketing for you, the downside to those services is cost. Unlike the one-time fees associated with PC-based software, online service billings generally recur monthly and never disappear. Not surprisingly, many small businesses are deciding to opt for PC-based e-mail marketing software instead, which starts at about $100. Such packages can be every bit as sophisticated as an online service while offering users much more control over how their data and analytics are managed.

Generally speaking, PC-based software is ideal for monthly mailings of 5,000 subscribers or fewer if you’re using the entry-level Internet connection offered by most Internet service providers (ISPs). It also offers you much more precise handling of your subscriber list. For example, automated online services often simply remove an e-mail address from your list if it bounces. But with PC software, you’ll be able to manage bounces manually and pick up e-mails sent by subscribers informing you of their new addresses or a new person to target with your mailings.

PC-based e-mail marketing also enables you to market to potential customers with whom you’ve never done business before. This practice is legal under U.S. laws, as long as you provide an easy way to unsubscribe from your mailing list and comply with the other fine print of the CAN-SPAM Act.

In contrast, online e-marketing providers offer no such flexibility. Instead, online e-marketing services by and large will only agree to work with a double-opt-in mailing list. Such lists require subscribers to take the initiative to sign-up for your mailings and then reconfirm via e-mail that they want to be on your list once they receive a mailing from you.

Using PC-based e-mail marketing software may also offer your business a greater level of security. When you’re working with an online e-marketing provider, you’re asked to upload your entire mailing list to that provider’s servers. Essentially, the security on that list is only as good as the service provider’s.

PC-based e-mail marketing software also enables you to retain data locally on your computer from analytics on your e-marketing. If you go with an online provider, those analytics remain in the cloud. That’s fine if you plan to do business with that provider for the rest of your life. Otherwise, when you’re ready to leave that provider, you may not be able to export all of your analytics data to your next provider or move that data in-house. 

Working with PC-based software will also prepare you to establish an in-house mail server for your business, if you decide to go that route at a later date. Such a proposition represents an investment of $5,000–$10,000 as well as the need for a staff person with the expertise to run and maintain a server. But you’ll at least have an idea of what handling all e-mailing in-house is like if you start with the simpler PC-based software.

Of course, there are some caveats inherent in opting for PC-based e-mail marketing software. Typically, running your own software will require more time to get up-to-speed on how your software works as well as its full capabilities. You’ll want to read the software manual thoroughly and watch a few training videos, if available. Plus, it’s also very likely that you’ll be on the phone with your software maker’s tech support the first month or so until you get the hang of things.

More importantly, many ISPs frown on the use of PC-based e-marketing software. The reason: With the scourge of spam still so ferocious, ISPs are quick to label a business using PC-based e-marketing software as a spammer—whether or not that business is a legitimate sender of e-marketing e-mail.

There’s also a very good chance that you could be unfairly labeled a spammer if you send a legal but unsolicited e-mail to someone using a free e-mail provider, such as Google, Yahoo! or AOL. Unfortunately, free e-mail providers usually sport a nice, big “Report Spam” button on the user interface, which many users are all too happy to click without justification. (An easy workaround for this problem is to simply do a global remove of free e-mail addresses from your mailing list.)

That said, businesses can generally steer clear of being unfairly labeled spammers if they limit their mailings to 1,000 e-mail addresses or fewer per day, send fewer than 100 e-mails per hour and send their e-mails over the weekend. Moreover, you’ll have the best luck if you’re only sending a mailing to, say, a total of 5,000 addresses once a month.

If you find yourself still getting dinged by your ISP (ISPs often shut down an e-mail sender for a day if they decide, unfairly or not, that it’s a spammer), you may want to consider an Internet connection with a “static IP.” Essentially, this is a connection to the Internet that has an identifiable address that you, as a business, own.

Often, ISPs are more lenient with businesses using static IPs, since spam monitoring services, such as Spamhaus, blacklist spammers by identifying the static IP they’re using to send e-mail. Put another way: If you’re sending large amounts of e-mail using a standard Internet connection, your ISP gets labeled as a spammer by Spamhaus. But if you’re sending large amounts of e-mail using a static IP, your business gets labeled as a spammer. Ergo, ISPs really have little to lose if you’re sending large amounts over a static IP that your business owns, so their policing of such IPs is often very lenient or even nonexistent.

No matter what approach you choose, your results may vary. So it’s best to download a trial version of PC-based software, conduct a few trial runs over your ISP and monitor your ISP’s response. Here’s a representative sampling of highly rated PC-based software you can check out:

Campaign Enterprise, from Arial Software, $985: A longtime favorite, Campaign Enterprise enables users to track every click subscribers make in the company’s newsletter. Plus, it offers scores of variables to personalize an e-mail newsletter with the subscriber’s name, company and other distinguishing data. You’ll also be able to insert varied paragraphs, images and other content elements into an e-mail newsletter, enabling your company to customize an e-mail newsletter by region, demographics, the type of relationship you have with the recipient and more.

Atomic E-mail Studio, from AtomPark Software, $299: Another extremely popular program, Atomic E-mail Studio also allows a company to personalize each e-mail newsletter it sends with info about each subscriber it has in its database. You’ll also be able to work with your e-mail newsletters using the Studio’s task-specific modules, including List Manager, Subscription Manager and Mail Verifier. Other modules enable you to auto-collect new subscribers for your newsletter from your website as well as hunt for e-mail addresses on your PC.

SendBlaster Pro, from Nuraxis, $129: Another highly rated solution, SendBlaster also offers personalization as well as list maintenance tools and analytics. It can run a spam-alert check on your e-mail newsletter to ensure that it complies with all spam laws and is not characterized as such by the scores of “spam cop” websites that are currently policing the web.

GroupMail Personal Edition, from Infacta, $139: Another reliable package, GroupMail Personal Edition offers personalization for each e-mail newsletter you send, with 38 HTML templates to choose from and mailing-list management, among other features. This is GroupMail’s entry-level product. More robust versions—GroupMail Business and Groupmail Marketing Pack—offer many more features.

Joe Dysart is an Internet speaker and business consultant based in Manhattan.
646-233-4089
joe@joedysart.com
www.joedysart.com

E-mail Marketing

An Inexpensive Alternative

While there are any number of online services eager to manage your e-marketing for you, the downside to those services is cost. Unlike the one-time fees associated with PC-based software, online service billings generally recur monthly and never disappear. Not surprisingly, many small businesses are deciding to opt for PC-based e-mail marketing software instead, which starts at about $100. Such packages can be every bit as sophisticated as an online service while offering users much more control over how their data and analytics are managed.

Generally speaking, PC-based software is ideal for monthly mailings of 5,000 subscribers or fewer if you’re using the entry-level Internet connection offered by most Internet service providers (ISPs). It also offers you much more precise handling of your subscriber list. For example, automated online services often simply remove an e-mail address from your list if it bounces. But with PC software, you’ll be able to manage bounces manually and pick up e-mails sent by subscribers informing you of their new addresses or a new person to target with your mailings.

PC-based e-mail marketing also enables you to market to potential customers with whom you’ve never done business before. This practice is legal under U.S. laws, as long as you provide an easy way to unsubscribe from your mailing list and comply with the other fine print of the CAN-SPAM Act.

In contrast, online e-marketing providers offer no such flexibility. Instead, online e-marketing services by and large will only agree to work with a double-opt-in mailing list. Such lists require subscribers to take the initiative to sign-up for your mailings and then reconfirm via e-mail that they want to be on your list once they receive a mailing from you.

Using PC-based e-mail marketing software may also offer your business a greater level of security. When you’re working with an online e-marketing provider, you’re asked to upload your entire mailing list to that provider’s servers. Essentially, the security on that list is only as good as the service provider’s.

PC-based e-mail marketing software also enables you to retain data locally on your computer from analytics on your e-marketing. If you go with an online provider, those analytics remain in the cloud. That’s fine if you plan to do business with that provider for the rest of your life. Otherwise, when you’re ready to leave that provider, you may not be able to export all of your analytics data to your next provider or move that data in-house. 

Working with PC-based software will also prepare you to establish an in-house mail server for your business, if you decide to go that route at a later date. Such a proposition represents an investment of $5,000–$10,000 as well as the need for a staff person with the expertise to run and maintain a server. But you’ll at least have an idea of what handling all e-mailing in-house is like if you start with the simpler PC-based software.

Of course, there are some caveats inherent in opting for PC-based e-mail marketing software. Typically, running your own software will require more time to get up-to-speed on how your software works as well as its full capabilities. You’ll want to read the software manual thoroughly and watch a few training videos, if available. Plus, it’s also very likely that you’ll be on the phone with your software maker’s tech support the first month or so until you get the hang of things.

More importantly, many ISPs frown on the use of PC-based e-marketing software. The reason: With the scourge of spam still so ferocious, ISPs are quick to label a business using PC-based e-marketing software as a spammer—whether or not that business is a legitimate sender of e-marketing e-mail.

There’s also a very good chance that you could be unfairly labeled a spammer if you send a legal but unsolicited e-mail to someone using a free e-mail provider, such as Google, Yahoo! or AOL. Unfortunately, free e-mail providers usually sport a nice, big “Report Spam” button on the user interface, which many users are all too happy to click without justification. (An easy workaround for this problem is to simply do a global remove of free e-mail addresses from your mailing list.)

That said, businesses can generally steer clear of being unfairly labeled spammers if they limit their mailings to 1,000 e-mail addresses or fewer per day, send fewer than 100 e-mails per hour and send their e-mails over the weekend. Moreover, you’ll have the best luck if you’re only sending a mailing to, say, a total of 5,000 addresses once a month.

If you find yourself still getting dinged by your ISP (ISPs often shut down an e-mail sender for a day if they decide, unfairly or not, that it’s a spammer), you may want to consider an Internet connection with a “static IP.” Essentially, this is a connection to the Internet that has an identifiable address that you, as a business, own.

Often, ISPs are more lenient with businesses using static IPs, since spam monitoring services, such as Spamhaus, blacklist spammers by identifying the static IP they’re using to send e-mail. Put another way: If you’re sending large amounts of e-mail using a standard Internet connection, your ISP gets labeled as a spammer by Spamhaus. But if you’re sending large amounts of e-mail using a static IP, your business gets labeled as a spammer. Ergo, ISPs really have little to lose if you’re sending large amounts over a static IP that your business owns, so their policing of such IPs is often very lenient or even nonexistent.

No matter what approach you choose, your results may vary. So it’s best to download a trial version of PC-based software, conduct a few trial runs over your ISP and monitor your ISP’s response. Here’s a representative sampling of highly rated PC-based software you can check out:

Campaign Enterprise, from Arial Software, $985: A longtime favorite, Campaign Enterprise enables users to track every click subscribers make in the company’s newsletter. Plus, it offers scores of variables to personalize an e-mail newsletter with the subscriber’s name, company and other distinguishing data. You’ll also be able to insert varied paragraphs, images and other content elements into an e-mail newsletter, enabling your company to customize an e-mail newsletter by region, demographics, the type of relationship you have with the recipient and more.

Atomic E-mail Studio, from AtomPark Software, $299: Another extremely popular program, Atomic E-mail Studio also allows a company to personalize each e-mail newsletter it sends with info about each subscriber it has in its database. You’ll also be able to work with your e-mail newsletters using the Studio’s task-specific modules, including List Manager, Subscription Manager and Mail Verifier. Other modules enable you to auto-collect new subscribers for your newsletter from your website as well as hunt for e-mail addresses on your PC.

SendBlaster Pro, from Nuraxis, $129: Another highly rated solution, SendBlaster also offers personalization as well as list maintenance tools and analytics. It can run a spam-alert check on your e-mail newsletter to ensure that it complies with all spam laws and is not characterized as such by the scores of “spam cop” websites that are currently policing the web.

GroupMail Personal Edition, from Infacta, $139: Another reliable package, GroupMail Personal Edition offers personalization for each e-mail newsletter you send, with 38 HTML templates to choose from and mailing-list management, among other features. This is GroupMail’s entry-level product. More robust versions—GroupMail Business and Groupmail Marketing Pack—offer many more features.

Joe Dysart is an Internet speaker and business consultant based in Manhattan.
646-233-4089
joe@joedysart.com
www.joedysart.com

E-mail Marketing

An Inexpensive Alternative

While there are any number of online services eager to manage your e-marketing for you, the downside to those services is cost. Unlike the one-time fees associated with PC-based software, online service billings generally recur monthly and never disappear. Not surprisingly, many small businesses are deciding to opt for PC-based e-mail marketing software instead, which starts at about $100. Such packages can be every bit as sophisticated as an online service while offering users much more control over how their data and analytics are managed.

Generally speaking, PC-based software is ideal for monthly mailings of 5,000 subscribers or fewer if you’re using the entry-level Internet connection offered by most Internet service providers (ISPs). It also offers you much more precise handling of your subscriber list. For example, automated online services often simply remove an e-mail address from your list if it bounces. But with PC software, you’ll be able to manage bounces manually and pick up e-mails sent by subscribers informing you of their new addresses or a new person to target with your mailings.

PC-based e-mail marketing also enables you to market to potential customers with whom you’ve never done business before. This practice is legal under U.S. laws, as long as you provide an easy way to unsubscribe from your mailing list and comply with the other fine print of the CAN-SPAM Act.

In contrast, online e-marketing providers offer no such flexibility. Instead, online e-marketing services by and large will only agree to work with a double-opt-in mailing list. Such lists require subscribers to take the initiative to sign-up for your mailings and then reconfirm via e-mail that they want to be on your list once they receive a mailing from you.

Using PC-based e-mail marketing software may also offer your business a greater level of security. When you’re working with an online e-marketing provider, you’re asked to upload your entire mailing list to that provider’s servers. Essentially, the security on that list is only as good as the service provider’s.

PC-based e-mail marketing software also enables you to retain data locally on your computer from analytics on your e-marketing. If you go with an online provider, those analytics remain in the cloud. That’s fine if you plan to do business with that provider for the rest of your life. Otherwise, when you’re ready to leave that provider, you may not be able to export all of your analytics data to your next provider or move that data in-house. 

Working with PC-based software will also prepare you to establish an in-house mail server for your business, if you decide to go that route at a later date. Such a proposition represents an investment of $5,000–$10,000 as well as the need for a staff person with the expertise to run and maintain a server. But you’ll at least have an idea of what handling all e-mailing in-house is like if you start with the simpler PC-based software.

Of course, there are some caveats inherent in opting for PC-based e-mail marketing software. Typically, running your own software will require more time to get up-to-speed on how your software works as well as its full capabilities. You’ll want to read the software manual thoroughly and watch a few training videos, if available. Plus, it’s also very likely that you’ll be on the phone with your software maker’s tech support the first month or so until you get the hang of things.

More importantly, many ISPs frown on the use of PC-based e-marketing software. The reason: With the scourge of spam still so ferocious, ISPs are quick to label a business using PC-based e-marketing software as a spammer—whether or not that business is a legitimate sender of e-marketing e-mail.

There’s also a very good chance that you could be unfairly labeled a spammer if you send a legal but unsolicited e-mail to someone using a free e-mail provider, such as Google, Yahoo! or AOL. Unfortunately, free e-mail providers usually sport a nice, big “Report Spam” button on the user interface, which many users are all too happy to click without justification. (An easy workaround for this problem is to simply do a global remove of free e-mail addresses from your mailing list.)

That said, businesses can generally steer clear of being unfairly labeled spammers if they limit their mailings to 1,000 e-mail addresses or fewer per day, send fewer than 100 e-mails per hour and send their e-mails over the weekend. Moreover, you’ll have the best luck if you’re only sending a mailing to, say, a total of 5,000 addresses once a month.

If you find yourself still getting dinged by your ISP (ISPs often shut down an e-mail sender for a day if they decide, unfairly or not, that it’s a spammer), you may want to consider an Internet connection with a “static IP.” Essentially, this is a connection to the Internet that has an identifiable address that you, as a business, own.

Often, ISPs are more lenient with businesses using static IPs, since spam monitoring services, such as Spamhaus, blacklist spammers by identifying the static IP they’re using to send e-mail. Put another way: If you’re sending large amounts of e-mail using a standard Internet connection, your ISP gets labeled as a spammer by Spamhaus. But if you’re sending large amounts of e-mail using a static IP, your business gets labeled as a spammer. Ergo, ISPs really have little to lose if you’re sending large amounts over a static IP that your business owns, so their policing of such IPs is often very lenient or even nonexistent.

No matter what approach you choose, your results may vary. So it’s best to download a trial version of PC-based software, conduct a few trial runs over your ISP and monitor your ISP’s response. Here’s a representative sampling of highly rated PC-based software you can check out:

Campaign Enterprise, from Arial Software, $985: A longtime favorite, Campaign Enterprise enables users to track every click subscribers make in the company’s newsletter. Plus, it offers scores of variables to personalize an e-mail newsletter with the subscriber’s name, company and other distinguishing data. You’ll also be able to insert varied paragraphs, images and other content elements into an e-mail newsletter, enabling your company to customize an e-mail newsletter by region, demographics, the type of relationship you have with the recipient and more.

Atomic E-mail Studio, from AtomPark Software, $299: Another extremely popular program, Atomic E-mail Studio also allows a company to personalize each e-mail newsletter it sends with info about each subscriber it has in its database. You’ll also be able to work with your e-mail newsletters using the Studio’s task-specific modules, including List Manager, Subscription Manager and Mail Verifier. Other modules enable you to auto-collect new subscribers for your newsletter from your website as well as hunt for e-mail addresses on your PC.

SendBlaster Pro, from Nuraxis, $129: Another highly rated solution, SendBlaster also offers personalization as well as list maintenance tools and analytics. It can run a spam-alert check on your e-mail newsletter to ensure that it complies with all spam laws and is not characterized as such by the scores of “spam cop” websites that are currently policing the web.

GroupMail Personal Edition, from Infacta, $139: Another reliable package, GroupMail Personal Edition offers personalization for each e-mail newsletter you send, with 38 HTML templates to choose from and mailing-list management, among other features. This is GroupMail’s entry-level product. More robust versions—GroupMail Business and Groupmail Marketing Pack—offer many more features.

Joe Dysart is an Internet speaker and business consultant based in Manhattan.
646-233-4089
joe@joedysart.com
www.joedysart.com

E-mail Marketing

An Inexpensive Alternative

While there are any number of online services eager to manage your e-marketing for you, the downside to those services is cost. Unlike the one-time fees associated with PC-based software, online service billings generally recur monthly and never disappear. Not surprisingly, many small businesses are deciding to opt for PC-based e-mail marketing software instead, which starts at about $100. Such packages can be every bit as sophisticated as an online service while offering users much more control over how their data and analytics are managed.

Generally speaking, PC-based software is ideal for monthly mailings of 5,000 subscribers or fewer if you’re using the entry-level Internet connection offered by most Internet service providers (ISPs). It also offers you much more precise handling of your subscriber list. For example, automated online services often simply remove an e-mail address from your list if it bounces. But with PC software, you’ll be able to manage bounces manually and pick up e-mails sent by subscribers informing you of their new addresses or a new person to target with your mailings.

PC-based e-mail marketing also enables you to market to potential customers with whom you’ve never done business before. This practice is legal under U.S. laws, as long as you provide an easy way to unsubscribe from your mailing list and comply with the other fine print of the CAN-SPAM Act.

In contrast, online e-marketing providers offer no such flexibility. Instead, online e-marketing services by and large will only agree to work with a double-opt-in mailing list. Such lists require subscribers to take the initiative to sign-up for your mailings and then reconfirm via e-mail that they want to be on your list once they receive a mailing from you.

Using PC-based e-mail marketing software may also offer your business a greater level of security. When you’re working with an online e-marketing provider, you’re asked to upload your entire mailing list to that provider’s servers. Essentially, the security on that list is only as good as the service provider’s.

PC-based e-mail marketing software also enables you to retain data locally on your computer from analytics on your e-marketing. If you go with an online provider, those analytics remain in the cloud. That’s fine if you plan to do business with that provider for the rest of your life. Otherwise, when you’re ready to leave that provider, you may not be able to export all of your analytics data to your next provider or move that data in-house. 

Working with PC-based software will also prepare you to establish an in-house mail server for your business, if you decide to go that route at a later date. Such a proposition represents an investment of $5,000–$10,000 as well as the need for a staff person with the expertise to run and maintain a server. But you’ll at least have an idea of what handling all e-mailing in-house is like if you start with the simpler PC-based software.

Of course, there are some caveats inherent in opting for PC-based e-mail marketing software. Typically, running your own software will require more time to get up-to-speed on how your software works as well as its full capabilities. You’ll want to read the software manual thoroughly and watch a few training videos, if available. Plus, it’s also very likely that you’ll be on the phone with your software maker’s tech support the first month or so until you get the hang of things.

More importantly, many ISPs frown on the use of PC-based e-marketing software. The reason: With the scourge of spam still so ferocious, ISPs are quick to label a business using PC-based e-marketing software as a spammer—whether or not that business is a legitimate sender of e-marketing e-mail.

There’s also a very good chance that you could be unfairly labeled a spammer if you send a legal but unsolicited e-mail to someone using a free e-mail provider, such as Google, Yahoo! or AOL. Unfortunately, free e-mail providers usually sport a nice, big “Report Spam” button on the user interface, which many users are all too happy to click without justification. (An easy workaround for this problem is to simply do a global remove of free e-mail addresses from your mailing list.)

That said, businesses can generally steer clear of being unfairly labeled spammers if they limit their mailings to 1,000 e-mail addresses or fewer per day, send fewer than 100 e-mails per hour and send their e-mails over the weekend. Moreover, you’ll have the best luck if you’re only sending a mailing to, say, a total of 5,000 addresses once a month.

If you find yourself still getting dinged by your ISP (ISPs often shut down an e-mail sender for a day if they decide, unfairly or not, that it’s a spammer), you may want to consider an Internet connection with a “static IP.” Essentially, this is a connection to the Internet that has an identifiable address that you, as a business, own.

Often, ISPs are more lenient with businesses using static IPs, since spam monitoring services, such as Spamhaus, blacklist spammers by identifying the static IP they’re using to send e-mail. Put another way: If you’re sending large amounts of e-mail using a standard Internet connection, your ISP gets labeled as a spammer by Spamhaus. But if you’re sending large amounts of e-mail using a static IP, your business gets labeled as a spammer. Ergo, ISPs really have little to lose if you’re sending large amounts over a static IP that your business owns, so their policing of such IPs is often very lenient or even nonexistent.

No matter what approach you choose, your results may vary. So it’s best to download a trial version of PC-based software, conduct a few trial runs over your ISP and monitor your ISP’s response. Here’s a representative sampling of highly rated PC-based software you can check out:

Campaign Enterprise, from Arial Software, $985: A longtime favorite, Campaign Enterprise enables users to track every click subscribers make in the company’s newsletter. Plus, it offers scores of variables to personalize an e-mail newsletter with the subscriber’s name, company and other distinguishing data. You’ll also be able to insert varied paragraphs, images and other content elements into an e-mail newsletter, enabling your company to customize an e-mail newsletter by region, demographics, the type of relationship you have with the recipient and more.

Atomic E-mail Studio, from AtomPark Software, $299: Another extremely popular program, Atomic E-mail Studio also allows a company to personalize each e-mail newsletter it sends with info about each subscriber it has in its database. You’ll also be able to work with your e-mail newsletters using the Studio’s task-specific modules, including List Manager, Subscription Manager and Mail Verifier. Other modules enable you to auto-collect new subscribers for your newsletter from your website as well as hunt for e-mail addresses on your PC.

SendBlaster Pro, from Nuraxis, $129: Another highly rated solution, SendBlaster also offers personalization as well as list maintenance tools and analytics. It can run a spam-alert check on your e-mail newsletter to ensure that it complies with all spam laws and is not characterized as such by the scores of “spam cop” websites that are currently policing the web.

GroupMail Personal Edition, from Infacta, $139: Another reliable package, GroupMail Personal Edition offers personalization for each e-mail newsletter you send, with 38 HTML templates to choose from and mailing-list management, among other features. This is GroupMail’s entry-level product. More robust versions—GroupMail Business and Groupmail Marketing Pack—offer many more features.

Joe Dysart is an Internet speaker and business consultant based in Manhattan.
646-233-4089
joe@joedysart.com
www.joedysart.com

E-mail Marketing

An Inexpensive Alternative

While there are any number of online services eager to manage your e-marketing for you, the downside to those services is cost. Unlike the one-time fees associated with PC-based software, online service billings generally recur monthly and never disappear. Not surprisingly, many small businesses are deciding to opt for PC-based e-mail marketing software instead, which starts at about $100. Such packages can be every bit as sophisticated as an online service while offering users much more control over how their data and analytics are managed.

Generally speaking, PC-based software is ideal for monthly mailings of 5,000 subscribers or fewer if you’re using the entry-level Internet connection offered by most Internet service providers (ISPs). It also offers you much more precise handling of your subscriber list. For example, automated online services often simply remove an e-mail address from your list if it bounces. But with PC software, you’ll be able to manage bounces manually and pick up e-mails sent by subscribers informing you of their new addresses or a new person to target with your mailings.

PC-based e-mail marketing also enables you to market to potential customers with whom you’ve never done business before. This practice is legal under U.S. laws, as long as you provide an easy way to unsubscribe from your mailing list and comply with the other fine print of the CAN-SPAM Act.

In contrast, online e-marketing providers offer no such flexibility. Instead, online e-marketing services by and large will only agree to work with a double-opt-in mailing list. Such lists require subscribers to take the initiative to sign-up for your mailings and then reconfirm via e-mail that they want to be on your list once they receive a mailing from you.

Using PC-based e-mail marketing software may also offer your business a greater level of security. When you’re working with an online e-marketing provider, you’re asked to upload your entire mailing list to that provider’s servers. Essentially, the security on that list is only as good as the service provider’s.

PC-based e-mail marketing software also enables you to retain data locally on your computer from analytics on your e-marketing. If you go with an online provider, those analytics remain in the cloud. That’s fine if you plan to do business with that provider for the rest of your life. Otherwise, when you’re ready to leave that provider, you may not be able to export all of your analytics data to your next provider or move that data in-house. 

Working with PC-based software will also prepare you to establish an in-house mail server for your business, if you decide to go that route at a later date. Such a proposition represents an investment of $5,000–$10,000 as well as the need for a staff person with the expertise to run and maintain a server. But you’ll at least have an idea of what handling all e-mailing in-house is like if you start with the simpler PC-based software.

Of course, there are some caveats inherent in opting for PC-based e-mail marketing software. Typically, running your own software will require more time to get up-to-speed on how your software works as well as its full capabilities. You’ll want to read the software manual thoroughly and watch a few training videos, if available. Plus, it’s also very likely that you’ll be on the phone with your software maker’s tech support the first month or so until you get the hang of things.

More importantly, many ISPs frown on the use of PC-based e-marketing software. The reason: With the scourge of spam still so ferocious, ISPs are quick to label a business using PC-based e-marketing software as a spammer—whether or not that business is a legitimate sender of e-marketing e-mail.

There’s also a very good chance that you could be unfairly labeled a spammer if you send a legal but unsolicited e-mail to someone using a free e-mail provider, such as Google, Yahoo! or AOL. Unfortunately, free e-mail providers usually sport a nice, big “Report Spam” button on the user interface, which many users are all too happy to click without justification. (An easy workaround for this problem is to simply do a global remove of free e-mail addresses from your mailing list.)

That said, businesses can generally steer clear of being unfairly labeled spammers if they limit their mailings to 1,000 e-mail addresses or fewer per day, send fewer than 100 e-mails per hour and send their e-mails over the weekend. Moreover, you’ll have the best luck if you’re only sending a mailing to, say, a total of 5,000 addresses once a month.

If you find yourself still getting dinged by your ISP (ISPs often shut down an e-mail sender for a day if they decide, unfairly or not, that it’s a spammer), you may want to consider an Internet connection with a “static IP.” Essentially, this is a connection to the Internet that has an identifiable address that you, as a business, own.

Often, ISPs are more lenient with businesses using static IPs, since spam monitoring services, such as Spamhaus, blacklist spammers by identifying the static IP they’re using to send e-mail. Put another way: If you’re sending large amounts of e-mail using a standard Internet connection, your ISP gets labeled as a spammer by Spamhaus. But if you’re sending large amounts of e-mail using a static IP, your business gets labeled as a spammer. Ergo, ISPs really have little to lose if you’re sending large amounts over a static IP that your business owns, so their policing of such IPs is often very lenient or even nonexistent.

No matter what approach you choose, your results may vary. So it’s best to download a trial version of PC-based software, conduct a few trial runs over your ISP and monitor your ISP’s response. Here’s a representative sampling of highly rated PC-based software you can check out:

Campaign Enterprise, from Arial Software, $985: A longtime favorite, Campaign Enterprise enables users to track every click subscribers make in the company’s newsletter. Plus, it offers scores of variables to personalize an e-mail newsletter with the subscriber’s name, company and other distinguishing data. You’ll also be able to insert varied paragraphs, images and other content elements into an e-mail newsletter, enabling your company to customize an e-mail newsletter by region, demographics, the type of relationship you have with the recipient and more.

Atomic E-mail Studio, from AtomPark Software, $299: Another extremely popular program, Atomic E-mail Studio also allows a company to personalize each e-mail newsletter it sends with info about each subscriber it has in its database. You’ll also be able to work with your e-mail newsletters using the Studio’s task-specific modules, including List Manager, Subscription Manager and Mail Verifier. Other modules enable you to auto-collect new subscribers for your newsletter from your website as well as hunt for e-mail addresses on your PC.

SendBlaster Pro, from Nuraxis, $129: Another highly rated solution, SendBlaster also offers personalization as well as list maintenance tools and analytics. It can run a spam-alert check on your e-mail newsletter to ensure that it complies with all spam laws and is not characterized as such by the scores of “spam cop” websites that are currently policing the web.

GroupMail Personal Edition, from Infacta, $139: Another reliable package, GroupMail Personal Edition offers personalization for each e-mail newsletter you send, with 38 HTML templates to choose from and mailing-list management, among other features. This is GroupMail’s entry-level product. More robust versions—GroupMail Business and Groupmail Marketing Pack—offer many more features.

Joe Dysart is an Internet speaker and business consultant based in Manhattan.
646-233-4089
joe@joedysart.com
www.joedysart.com

SEMA News—August 2012

LEGISLATIVE AND TECHNICAL AFFAIRS

Industry Advocate

The laws and regulations that govern how SEMA members do business have a growing impact on the way automotive specialty equipment is made, distributed and marketed. SEMA has been a strong industry advocate on legislative and regulatory policies since its founding in 1963. SEMA continues to pursue federal, state and local laws that are limited, reasonable and, ultimately, help our members’ businesses succeed and prosper.

“Our members work hard to develop their products and run their businesses,” said Steve McDonald, SEMA vice president of government affairs. “In turn, our office works hard to help them thrive in the marketplace. We are there to intervene on legislative and regulatory issues, since it is nearly impossible for a company—particularly a small business—to stay on top of every relevant state and federal matter.”

The SEMA staff in Washington, D.C., tracks and analyzes legislation and regulations, both state and federal, and then advocates positions to public officials on behalf of member companies. In addition to opposing bills that would potentially harm the automotive hobby or hinder SEMA-member companies, the staff proactively pursues opportunities to enact pro-industry initiatives.

State Legislation: SEMA staff works with state legislators to overhaul existing statutes and create brand-new programs that safeguard and expand the automotive specialty-equipment industry. Over the years, the state legislative program has brought a series of significant legislative and regulatory accomplishments for the industry and the vehicle-enthusiast community on issues ranging from equipment standards and registration and titling classifications to emissions-test exemptions and hobbyist rights.

State Caucus: 2012 marks the seventh anniversary of the founding of the State Automotive Enthusiast Leadership Caucus, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers with a passion for automobiles. In its daily efforts to promote and protect the auto hobby, SEMA partners with caucus members from across the country to raise the motor-vehicle hobby’s profile in the state legislatures and in the public’s eyes. The caucus now includes almost 600 state legislators from all 50 states.

Federal Legislation: SEMA is involved in a wide variety of issues on Capitol Hill that impact the industry, from low-volume vehicle manufacturing to E15 ethanol. Other legislative priorities include saving the Bonneville Salt Flats (Utah) and ensuring off-road access to Johnson Valley (California), providing affordable access to health care coverage and tackling energy and environmental issues in a fashion that takes jobs, safety, consumer choice and technology into consideration. SEMA also continues to pursue tax relief and structural tax reforms that will spur economic growth.

SEMA Action Network: The SEMA Action Network (SAN) is a partnership of vehicle clubs and enthusiasts who unite to protect their hobby. With the support of more than 61,000 individual contacts, including 22,000-plus car clubs and 250-plus publications, the SAN has an estimated reach of 36 million enthusiasts in the United States and Canada. These members have been extremely effective in amplifying SEMA’s political voice on issues affecting the automotive specialty-equipment industry.

Congressional Caucus: Founded in 1996, the Congressional Automotive Performance and Motorsports Caucus is a coalition of lawmakers who love cars and recognize the importance of the industry to America. These members of Congress help raise the profile of the automotive specialty-equipment industry in Washington and around the country.

Political Action Committee: The SEMA Political Action Committee (SEMA PAC) is a vital component of the SEMA legislative program. SEMA PAC helps support candidates for Congress on both sides of the aisle who support our industry. Through SEMA PAC, individual SEMA members can pool their resources to give the industry a larger cumulative voice on Capitol Hill.

Congressional Visits: Under this initiative, SEMA’s congressional relations staff facilitates meetings with a U.S. representative or senator at a SEMA-member facility. Other SEMA members in that district are invited to participate in roundtable discussions on topics of interest to the individual companies and the industry. There have been 14 such events in the last two years.

Get Involved: While the various components of the SEMA government affairs program have resulted in great success for the industry, it is essential that all SEMA-member companies and their employees be involved as well. You can stay current on the latest laws and regulations affecting the automotive aftermarket industry by visiting www.SEMA.org and clicking on the “government affairs” link.

Contacting your lawmaker about bills in your state legislature or in the U.S. Congress is vital to our success. Lawmakers really do listen to their constituents—so does the SEMA government affairs staff.

SEMA News—August 2012

LEGISLATIVE AND TECHNICAL AFFAIRS

Industry Advocate

The laws and regulations that govern how SEMA members do business have a growing impact on the way automotive specialty equipment is made, distributed and marketed. SEMA has been a strong industry advocate on legislative and regulatory policies since its founding in 1963. SEMA continues to pursue federal, state and local laws that are limited, reasonable and, ultimately, help our members’ businesses succeed and prosper.

“Our members work hard to develop their products and run their businesses,” said Steve McDonald, SEMA vice president of government affairs. “In turn, our office works hard to help them thrive in the marketplace. We are there to intervene on legislative and regulatory issues, since it is nearly impossible for a company—particularly a small business—to stay on top of every relevant state and federal matter.”

The SEMA staff in Washington, D.C., tracks and analyzes legislation and regulations, both state and federal, and then advocates positions to public officials on behalf of member companies. In addition to opposing bills that would potentially harm the automotive hobby or hinder SEMA-member companies, the staff proactively pursues opportunities to enact pro-industry initiatives.

State Legislation: SEMA staff works with state legislators to overhaul existing statutes and create brand-new programs that safeguard and expand the automotive specialty-equipment industry. Over the years, the state legislative program has brought a series of significant legislative and regulatory accomplishments for the industry and the vehicle-enthusiast community on issues ranging from equipment standards and registration and titling classifications to emissions-test exemptions and hobbyist rights.

State Caucus: 2012 marks the seventh anniversary of the founding of the State Automotive Enthusiast Leadership Caucus, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers with a passion for automobiles. In its daily efforts to promote and protect the auto hobby, SEMA partners with caucus members from across the country to raise the motor-vehicle hobby’s profile in the state legislatures and in the public’s eyes. The caucus now includes almost 600 state legislators from all 50 states.

Federal Legislation: SEMA is involved in a wide variety of issues on Capitol Hill that impact the industry, from low-volume vehicle manufacturing to E15 ethanol. Other legislative priorities include saving the Bonneville Salt Flats (Utah) and ensuring off-road access to Johnson Valley (California), providing affordable access to health care coverage and tackling energy and environmental issues in a fashion that takes jobs, safety, consumer choice and technology into consideration. SEMA also continues to pursue tax relief and structural tax reforms that will spur economic growth.

SEMA Action Network: The SEMA Action Network (SAN) is a partnership of vehicle clubs and enthusiasts who unite to protect their hobby. With the support of more than 61,000 individual contacts, including 22,000-plus car clubs and 250-plus publications, the SAN has an estimated reach of 36 million enthusiasts in the United States and Canada. These members have been extremely effective in amplifying SEMA’s political voice on issues affecting the automotive specialty-equipment industry.

Congressional Caucus: Founded in 1996, the Congressional Automotive Performance and Motorsports Caucus is a coalition of lawmakers who love cars and recognize the importance of the industry to America. These members of Congress help raise the profile of the automotive specialty-equipment industry in Washington and around the country.

Political Action Committee: The SEMA Political Action Committee (SEMA PAC) is a vital component of the SEMA legislative program. SEMA PAC helps support candidates for Congress on both sides of the aisle who support our industry. Through SEMA PAC, individual SEMA members can pool their resources to give the industry a larger cumulative voice on Capitol Hill.

Congressional Visits: Under this initiative, SEMA’s congressional relations staff facilitates meetings with a U.S. representative or senator at a SEMA-member facility. Other SEMA members in that district are invited to participate in roundtable discussions on topics of interest to the individual companies and the industry. There have been 14 such events in the last two years.

Get Involved: While the various components of the SEMA government affairs program have resulted in great success for the industry, it is essential that all SEMA-member companies and their employees be involved as well. You can stay current on the latest laws and regulations affecting the automotive aftermarket industry by visiting www.SEMA.org and clicking on the “government affairs” link.

Contacting your lawmaker about bills in your state legislature or in the U.S. Congress is vital to our success. Lawmakers really do listen to their constituents—so does the SEMA government affairs staff.

SEMA News—August 2012

LEGISLATIVE AND TECHNICAL AFFAIRS

Industry Advocate

The laws and regulations that govern how SEMA members do business have a growing impact on the way automotive specialty equipment is made, distributed and marketed. SEMA has been a strong industry advocate on legislative and regulatory policies since its founding in 1963. SEMA continues to pursue federal, state and local laws that are limited, reasonable and, ultimately, help our members’ businesses succeed and prosper.

“Our members work hard to develop their products and run their businesses,” said Steve McDonald, SEMA vice president of government affairs. “In turn, our office works hard to help them thrive in the marketplace. We are there to intervene on legislative and regulatory issues, since it is nearly impossible for a company—particularly a small business—to stay on top of every relevant state and federal matter.”

The SEMA staff in Washington, D.C., tracks and analyzes legislation and regulations, both state and federal, and then advocates positions to public officials on behalf of member companies. In addition to opposing bills that would potentially harm the automotive hobby or hinder SEMA-member companies, the staff proactively pursues opportunities to enact pro-industry initiatives.

State Legislation: SEMA staff works with state legislators to overhaul existing statutes and create brand-new programs that safeguard and expand the automotive specialty-equipment industry. Over the years, the state legislative program has brought a series of significant legislative and regulatory accomplishments for the industry and the vehicle-enthusiast community on issues ranging from equipment standards and registration and titling classifications to emissions-test exemptions and hobbyist rights.

State Caucus: 2012 marks the seventh anniversary of the founding of the State Automotive Enthusiast Leadership Caucus, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers with a passion for automobiles. In its daily efforts to promote and protect the auto hobby, SEMA partners with caucus members from across the country to raise the motor-vehicle hobby’s profile in the state legislatures and in the public’s eyes. The caucus now includes almost 600 state legislators from all 50 states.

Federal Legislation: SEMA is involved in a wide variety of issues on Capitol Hill that impact the industry, from low-volume vehicle manufacturing to E15 ethanol. Other legislative priorities include saving the Bonneville Salt Flats (Utah) and ensuring off-road access to Johnson Valley (California), providing affordable access to health care coverage and tackling energy and environmental issues in a fashion that takes jobs, safety, consumer choice and technology into consideration. SEMA also continues to pursue tax relief and structural tax reforms that will spur economic growth.

SEMA Action Network: The SEMA Action Network (SAN) is a partnership of vehicle clubs and enthusiasts who unite to protect their hobby. With the support of more than 61,000 individual contacts, including 22,000-plus car clubs and 250-plus publications, the SAN has an estimated reach of 36 million enthusiasts in the United States and Canada. These members have been extremely effective in amplifying SEMA’s political voice on issues affecting the automotive specialty-equipment industry.

Congressional Caucus: Founded in 1996, the Congressional Automotive Performance and Motorsports Caucus is a coalition of lawmakers who love cars and recognize the importance of the industry to America. These members of Congress help raise the profile of the automotive specialty-equipment industry in Washington and around the country.

Political Action Committee: The SEMA Political Action Committee (SEMA PAC) is a vital component of the SEMA legislative program. SEMA PAC helps support candidates for Congress on both sides of the aisle who support our industry. Through SEMA PAC, individual SEMA members can pool their resources to give the industry a larger cumulative voice on Capitol Hill.

Congressional Visits: Under this initiative, SEMA’s congressional relations staff facilitates meetings with a U.S. representative or senator at a SEMA-member facility. Other SEMA members in that district are invited to participate in roundtable discussions on topics of interest to the individual companies and the industry. There have been 14 such events in the last two years.

Get Involved: While the various components of the SEMA government affairs program have resulted in great success for the industry, it is essential that all SEMA-member companies and their employees be involved as well. You can stay current on the latest laws and regulations affecting the automotive aftermarket industry by visiting www.SEMA.org and clicking on the “government affairs” link.

Contacting your lawmaker about bills in your state legislature or in the U.S. Congress is vital to our success. Lawmakers really do listen to their constituents—so does the SEMA government affairs staff.