Category Archives: Email Practices

Email Box Full – Email Bouncing Back

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Categories: Email Practices How To Do It

Email boxes do fill up.  Servers do not want infinite amounts of mail on their hard drives, so they will lock or stop receiving mail once they hit their quota.

Problems and Solutions.

Virus – Bad Coding – Server issues

It is possible to have virus, bad code, or server issues preventing your email box from receiving mail.  This does not happen often.  You would probably not be able to pull your email down, thus you should notice a failure warning.  Solution: contact your email provider to trouble shoot.

Not Deleting Email from the Server

This is by far the most common problem when we get email bouncing back.  Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express has a setting that allows you to “leave a copy” on the server, after you have pulled it down to your computer.  The parallel to this is, going to your P.O. Box, making a Xerox of your mail, putting the mail back in the P.O. Box and taking the copies home.  Eventually your email box is full.

The solution is simple, don’t turn on the “leave a copy on the server”.

Checking your “Live” email, online.

For the most part, our clients use one of two email services. In both cases, you can go online and check the live email to see if the box is full.

For Everyone.net customers, you should have a link to your online mail, something like

http://companyname.mail.everyone.net. (ask us if you do not know.)

If you are using our RedFusion Media Hosting, you may have our WildWest email service, you can log in here.

https://email.secureserver.net/login.php?clearcookies=1

Email Signature or Signature Block

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Categories: Email Practices

by, Jon Burgess, M.B.A.

For years, professionals have used a standard “signature” on the bottom of their corporate emails, which has proved to be a useful tool in both building brand and improving overall communication.  Typically, emails contain the “who, what, when, and where” sorts of items, and a link to the company’s website. This is usually been standard practice, but has recently become an issue on a few fronts, especially when images and extra lines of copy like quotes or disclaimers are added.

Email Signature Etiquette 
Some signatures are too long. For some outrageous examples of overdoing email signatures, Google or refer to this link: “Too Much Flair” for some great examples. Most agree that a signature that is too long, too wide or has multiple colors and images, is not usually in your best interest.

Here are a few tips for a short and professional signature:

Outbound Blacklisting of Email

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Categories: Email Practices

Over just the past few weeks, we have had a distinct escalation of outbound emails being blocked.  This has happened to a number of clients, using various Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and with large email providers.

The causes seem to vary, but boil down to two main issues.

  1. SPAM is being received by networks, thus the receiving network blocks not only the domains that sent the email, but the IP address, and in somecases ranges of IP addresses, and even whole networks.
  2. Filters are become more proactive, scanning for SPAM on the outbound emails, not just the inbound emails.

We recently had an issue where the our email provider for most of our clients, Everyone.net, was blocked by some of the largest email receivers in the world. All caused by a few bad apples.  The blacklist was noticed by a number of clients and took more than 12 hours to fix.

“The blacklist by Hotmail, MSN and Earthlink has been lifted and all issues resolved. Everyone.net cleared and locked all accounts causing the blacklisting this morning by approximately 9:30 am PT. While Everyone.net worked with Microsoft to clear the block, Microsoft temporarily rate limited Everyone.net. All emails sent that did not receive a non-deliverable error message will be delivered.”

What can you do?

Well, don’t SPAM….. most of you do not, and we have found over the last few issues, that a real SPAMMERS have probably caused the problems.  There is nothing we can really do about that, so with most of the problems we have seen, we are at the mercy of the larger networks to fix the problem.

Make sure you have SPAM, VIRUS, FISHING, SPYWEAR, protection on all of your computers.  If you get a virus, they want to multiply, and many time that means they will SPAM out of your email box.

Make sure to have an internal email policy for your staff, so that your company doesn’t accidently get blacklisted. Suggestions for Your Company’s Email Policy

Send out “clean” emails. We have had a few situations where outbound emails were being blocked by filters because their “signature block” had too much custom coding.  Suggestions on formating your Email Signature block.

How to Set Up an Email Account in Mozilla Thunderbird

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Categories: Email Practices How To Do It

To set up an email account on Mozilla Thunderbird, begin by clicking on the Tools menu, and selecting Account Settings.

In the following pop up window, click on the Add Account button (near the bottom left).

Next, in the New Account Setup pop up window, select the Email Account option, and then click Next.

In the following Identity window, enter your Name and Email Address and click Next.

In the Server Information window, choose an account type, POP or IMAP.

You will then need to enter the name of your incoming server in the Incoming Server box and smtpout.secureserver.net in the Outgoing Server box (the Outgoing Server box may be set by default).

In the User Names window, enter your Email Address for incoming and outgoing username and click Next.

In the Account Name window, enter whatever you want your mail box to be named and click Next.

Finally, on the Congratulations window, it’s a good idea to preview your account information and confirm that everything is correct, then click Done.

How to use Microsoft Outlook’s “Out of Office Assistant” Tool

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Categories: Email Practices How To Do It

When using Microsoft Outlook for your everyday email, the Out of Office Assistant tool can be very useful if you will be unavailable for a few days. This tool helps insure that anyone emailing you won’t be left in the dark as to your whereabouts. Instead, they will receive an email letting them know that you are currently out of the office, and when you will return.

To set your Out of Office Assistant in Microsoft Outlook, first click on the “Tools” tab and select “Out of Office Assistant”.  Here you are able to enter the AutoReply message that those receiving your Out of Office notice will see in the body of the email.

Next, click on the “Add Rule” button near the bottom left of the Out of Office Assistant window.  This is an optional step, yet it is helpful if you wish to create rules for how your incoming emails will be directed when your Out of Office Assistant is activated.  For example you could create a rule that directs all emails from a particular party to your inbox; or direct all emails from another party to your junk mail box.

Once you have set your AutoReply message and any Rules, check the “I am currently Out of the Office” button at the top of the Out of Office Assistantwindow. Your Out of Office Assistant is now activated. Anyone who emails you will receive your AutoReply message. Remember that it is always a good idea to include the date that you will return to the office, with in the AutoReplymessage.

When you’ve returned to the office or you are ready to turn the Out of Office Assistant off, click on the “Tools” tab, select “Out of Office Assistant” and check the “I am currently In the Office” button at the top of the Out of Office Assistantwindow. Your Out of Office Assistant will now be deactivated.

Email Dead? Not a chance!

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Categories: Business Email Practices Marketing Trends

With all the new innovations still coming Email looks like the old granddaddy. But it still has plenty of spunk. In fact it dominates.

Email works, and marketers keep finding new uses. A new study supports previous ones; two-thirds of adult responders say they prefer email to other communications. They expect this to continue for another five years.  Well, most of us don’t know what we will be doing until we see what is new in the next five years, but that does not diminish email today.

If anything if points out that businesses should be using email much more than they do.

Here is how it stacks up.

Preferences for Communication

Notible is the expected drop in postal mail and even the slight increase in the website. People like appropriate email that links into good websites with up-to-date information.

Email Setup & Trouble Shooting Help

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Categories: Email Practices
Email ContactFor years our biggest customer service problems have been generated by customers email issues. For the last few years, those problems have almost gone away with our use of Everyone.net email for our clients. We still get a number of questions about new accounts and setting up unusual email programs.

Here is a list of great resources for your email questions.

Everyone.net Email Setup (Outlook 2003) – Email Setup (Mac users)
Everyone.net Mail Status – If you are having issues connecting, check the server status.
Blackberry Setup for Everyone.net Users - NEW
Screen Shots of Outlook 2003 Setup
Screen Shot of Mac Mail
Email Setup – PDF – How to Configure Outlook Express (pre v.6)
Trouble Shooting – PDF – Troubleshooting Outlook Express (pre v.6)
Email Blocked? Are you leaving a email copy on the server?
Suggested Policy – Your Company’s Email Policy
Suggested HTML Coding – Java Script Email Scramble

As always you can check our Technical Support or contact us with more questions.

Getting Customer Permission To Sell

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Categories: Email Practices

Email Contact“Permission based” email is when a customer has asked for updates, product information and other direct contact from your company. This is a valuable tool which still has lots of power. First it is like direct mail except, of course, online. Second, these are interested parties and existing customers.

According to a new report by EMarker, Promotional emails perform well against other online forms of contact. They rank right under your website for importance as most influence to buy online.

Online marketing increasingly is more than the website. It is the most important, but in many ways it needs the other media to maximize its prospecting effect.

Read Online Marketing Effectiveness for more information about customer permission to sell.