Springboard is here!

On March 29, CommPartners president Richard Finstein and iCohere CEO Dr. Pascal Kaplan introduced Springboard—the new ASAE-endorsed e-List Community program—during an ASAE Webinar.

Click here, to view the recorded Webinar, which explains how e-discussion communities elevate peer networking and includes a Springboard demo.

Read more or contact us for a live demo.

Image Blocking

Are little red "X"s taking over your inbox? We have some tips to help reduce image blocking...

As we mentioned briefly in the Outlook 2007 article in our last issue of Connecting, more and more ISPs and email clients (Outlook, AOL, Gmail, etc.) either block html email images by default or recommend that users opt to do so.

For each html email that reaches your inbox, an ‘X’ appears for each blocked image; users may then choose to download pictures by right-clicking.

Hotmail, for example, has a Display Internet Content option in the settings menu. The explanatory text suggests that suppressing content with Web links and images will protect users from account misrepresentation and junk-emailers.

So what’s the upside? The good news is that when viewing message tracking in MagnetMail, actual open rates are most likely 10% higher than can indicated. 

Why? Because MagnetMail (like most email service applications) tracks open rates via the use of a hidden image embedded in every message. If this image is blocked, the message is not tracked as an opened message.

Here are three techniques from the makers of MagnetMail, for minimizing image blocking:

• Simplify message construction: Make minimum use of elements such as complex images, CSS floats and CSS positioning, Flash and other plug-ins.
  
  Contact your CommPartners account executive if you’re considering redesigning your MagnetMail or NewsManager templates for better e-delivery. Take advantage of our 20% discount for new designs initiated before April 30.
• Get white-listed: Place wording in every e-communication, asking recipients to white-list your sending information. In many cases, messages coming from white-listed senders will be defaulted to display images. View details about white-listing. 
• Use ‘alt’ tags:
  
  Alt tags allow you to add alternative text 'behind' images, so if images are blocked, the associated text will display.
  
  For graphics that you cannot access (such as embedded template graphics), be sure to add titles and descriptive text to the plain text versions of your html emails.

If you have any questions regarding e-deliverability techniques, email help@commpartners.com.

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