Aweber Blog

• Test For an A+ Message: It’s Worth It

  Most of us glance into the mirror before stepping out the door each morning. What if there is food in our hair or our clothes are on backwards? The mirror-test saves us from potentially horrifying embarrassment. Our emails deserve that same opportunity. Since they can't check the mirror themselves (due to their unfortunate lack of eyeballs), we must do it for them through testing. Trust me, this is a step you do not want to skip. You and your email marketing campaign will both be relieved if your test turns up a mistake that would have resulted in mismatched e-shoes. Why To Test You've probably had this experience: you open an email, you get interested, you click on a link, and: You're done. You can't go any further, so you delete the email and move on to other important things, like checking the mirror for smudged mascara. And you do not want that to happen with your emails. So. Two or three minutes of clicking about in exchange for peace of mind? Good, I'm glad you agree! Let's look at how to keep your reputation as a flawless and stunning emailer. Where To Test Different email clients render HTML in different ways, so you'll need to check for design flaws. You want to test in at least the top few webmail providers, since you are most likely to have subscribers using them. (You may need to set up accounts if you don't already have them, but it's free to do so.) Yahoo Windows Live Hotmail Gmail AOL If you can, you'll also want to test in Outlook (there are several versions of Outlook - if you have Outlook 2007, test in that one first) and possibly Mac Mail and Mozilla Thunderbird. What To Test In HTML messages, double check the design. Do your images display in all accounts? Do special effects show up as jargon? Do the fonts look right? Now you can see if your style is universally acceptable. Scan for typos. You may see mistakes you missed before while working in your account. Check your from line and subject line. Each email provider limits to a different number of characters, so make sure enough information is visible in the inbox. Click your links - every one. Our Link Checker will make sure the page is found and exists, but it's up to you to make sure that each link actually goes to the right page where you want your readers to journey. How To Test After creating a message and before you queue it up, you'll see the option to test it. Click on that "Test" link and fill out the form. If you're using personalization in your message, this will test those fields as well. Go through the process for every email service you're testing in. If you see a problem, do your best to tweak until it's fixed. When you are assured your message is presentable, you can send it out to deliver your words far and wide. Tell Your Story Have you ever stopped a flawed email just in the nick of time by testing it? Have you ever skipped testing only to regret it later? Share your stories below! Tweet This - 7 hours ago

• How We’ve Addressed The Recent Data Compromise

  AWeber was recently the victim of an intentional attack to mine email addresses. We'd like to take this opportunity to share what happened, what was (and was not) affected and what we're doing as a result of this attack. What Happened? We use a variety of pieces of software to run different parts of our service and provide support to customers. Some of these are tools we have developed ourselves; others are third-party ones that we license from other companies. By exploiting and combining vulnerabilities in two separate third-party software systems, the perpetrators managed to gain access to a part of our system where subscriber email addresses are stored. We have received reports of some of those email addresses receiving spam messages. While the volume of these reports is low, we are treating this incident with the utmost seriousness and addressing it fully. Who Did This? We have reason to believe that the party responsible for this was either directly or indirectly a part of an overseas organized group. What Data Was Compromised? As noted above, the information that was exported was strictly subscribers' email addresses. What Data Was NOT Compromised? All other customer information was and still remains secure and unaffected: AWeber customers' personal information was not compromised. No credit card data was compromised. No customers' names, "from" or contact email addresses, postal addresses, website URLs or any other profile information were compromised. No affiliates' names, contact email addresses, tax ID numbers, website URLs or postal addresses were compromised. Additionally, while the perpetrators did acquire some email addresses, the AWeber system was NOT used to send out any spam email on behalf of these perpetrators. Any spam sent to these subscribers was sent via the perpetrators' own systems. This is important to note because this means it will not affect deliverability rates. What Are We Doing About This? We have identified and fixed the vulnerabilities that were used in the attack. Additionally, we are evaluating other options for these and other third-party softwares that we use to determine if there any other solutions that offer further protections. As you know, AWeber is staunchly opposed to spam. We take great pains to make sure that our customers engage solely in permission-based email marketing and utilize best practices. We participate in and learn from communities such as the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group to help fight the global messaging abuse problem. Special Thanks We appreciate the trust and support our customers have expressed throughout the process of investigating this event and reinforcing the security of our systems. We have taken extra steps beyond fixing the problem to ensure that such a breach cannot occur again. Questions? Please Contact Us. Those wishing to reach us with specific questions regarding this attack are encouraged to call our Customer Solutions Team, who will immediately address your concerns. US Phone: 877-AWEBER-1 International Phone: +1 215-825-2196 Email: http://www.aweber.com/contact-us.htm - 29 hours ago

• Do You Create More Effective Email Campaigns With These Reports?

  For knowledge itself is power... ~Sir Francis Bacon Your AWeber reports provide a many-faceted view of your success. But have you taken the time to explore them and learn how they can help you improve your email marketing campaigns? If not, that's OK; we'll help. Let's look at a few reports and how each one empowers you to communicate with subscribers more effectively. Show Me the Money Want to see just which emails drive the most sales? Use the Revenue Over Time report. Here, you can see the number of sales (and dollars!) your messages have brought in. Use this information to keep track of your ROI, to see what content brought in the big bucks and to set goals for the future. Follow Unique and Non-Unique Clicks to Find the Crowd When checking out your email open rates and click rates, you may have noticed a yellow line: Many subsequent clicks - a well-liked link! This line shows you unique opens and clicks - ones that happened for the first time (as opposed to the second or third times). Look for the biggest gaps between the unique line and the top of the bars. A big gap means your subscribers clicked a link again and again - or that they forwarded it on to other people, who then clicked it! This is your secret window to what content is most compelling to your readers and can teach you what will keep them engaged in the future. And the Award for Best Sign Up Form Goes To... With the Ad Tracking - Subscribed report, you can see exactly where your subscribers signed up. Have most of your readers come from that shiny lightbox web form on your blog? Does the form on your home page get overlooked because it's at elbow level instead of eye level? Find out what works - set up Ad Tracking for your web forms. Cater to Your Customers' Regional Differences Use reports that break your list down by city, state and country to determine where your readership hails from. Are 20,000 people clicking on your subject line while tapping their toes to Mexican mariachi music? Then you may want to offer a Spanish version, or clear out regional dialect. You can even segment your list (click the desired region and name the segment on the page you are brought to) and tweak your broadcasts for each segment. Speak to your audience in their language, and your relationship is bound to improve. Read Smarter, Not Harder With a Custom Dashboard Want easy access to your favorite reports? The dashboard is perfect for you! Load it up with your favorite graphs and charts - go to the reports you like best, click "detail" on the top right corner of the report, and press the plus sign. View your new dashboard by clicking directly on the "Reports" tab. Now you have a series of email reports customized just for you. While you're analyzing and optimizing away, be sure to keep in mind that list reports show data for only one list at a time. Want to see data for a different list? You can add reports for different lists to your dashboard and view them all at once What Works For You? Do you have a favorite report to check? Have you used reports to connect with your readers better or even find more subscribers? We'd love to read your success stories, and so would the rest of your fellow readers - please share them below! Tweet This - 5 days ago