Here at Emailcenter we take the issue of data security very seriously. Our clients are hosting their valuable customer databases with us and they expect our security to be of the highest standard.

In a recent blog post “Data security check-list” we highlighted a number of safeguards we have implemented. Another major tool in the fight against hackers is our new Maxemail Security Key. The Maxemail Security key is a USB key with a button on it, which users are prompted to press when logging in. This sends a unique, secure code and completes the login. A new code is generated each time the button is pressed for extra security.

Download our data security whitepaper here: 3 Threats to the Security of Your Email Marketing Database

The above will no doubt be a familiar scenario for many who have commented on an acquaintances status or someone you know, without knowing most of their friends. The mass of irrelevant ‘comment’ emails that follow are pretty frustrating, causing many users to turn notifications off. Although turning off notifications would stop the flood of unwanted emails, it would also stop you being notified of comments you would be interested in.

Facebook have attempted to address this frequency and relevance issue and have announced the following:

Whilst the debate into the optimum frequency of send is normally applied to marketing emails, brands need to consider this issue even if they are ‘just sending notifications’ and ‘not trying to sell anything’.

Facebook is trying to sell its users something – a place to spend time whilst online. As such Facebook need to treat all emails as marketing emails and ensure they contain more relevant notifications at an appropriate frequency.

All users are different however and wish to be notified of activity to varying degrees.  It is good to see that Facebook is directing users to their preference centre, where users can decide the exact type and frequency of emails they receive – something all senders can learn from.

Facebook’s new found respect for its users is likely down to the emergence of its first main competitor in recent years: Google+.

For more information on the optimum frequency of sending emails, read Choosing the right email frequency by Sean Duffy.

Listen to a podcast of the Interview for some useful insights into email marketing topics ranging from customer relationship strategies and design tips all the way through to email analytics, the recent data breaches effecting the industry and the what the future may hold for email marketing.

You can view this and other digital marketing podcasts at www.targetinternet.com

If you would like to discuss any of the topics covered in this podcast please get in touch.

To celebrate the start of the new football season, we have created a league of the marketing emails sent by football clubs from the Barclays Premier League.

Read on to see if your team are going to make it into Europe, settle for mid table mediocrity or get relegated.

Click on the thumbnail images to view the emails in full.

1) Everton

Everton find themselves on top of the league with their well designed, content rich newsletter. The striking hero shot and lead story will keep fans coming back for more. Calls-to-action are impactful without being too crass and content blocks are well organised, making it easy for readers to consume the various different messages.

2) Sunderland

Close runners up – Sunderland, produce a tidy newsletter with many of the plus points of the Everton email and a few more besides. Text to image ratio is good, including free text article headers, meaning that fans will be able to read email content before downloading images (always nice to see that). It also contains a “match pack” providing fans with useful information on the upcoming fixtures, including a travel guide and how the “Black Cats” faired on previous meetings between the two teams.

3) Arsenal

The Arsenal newsletter is very simple and uncluttered. The one column structure makes for easy reading and the absence of any garish adverts makes you feel the Arsenal marketing team care more about building good relationships with it’s fans as opposed to simply monetising the email. There is however a well placed call-to-action for the clubs online video player.

4) Tottenham

The Tottenham newsletters are very long, but contains a good mix of news, game highlights, products from the club shop and eye-catching social links. Although there is a lot of information contained in this email, it is still quite easy to read through, using a simple grid layout to good effect.

5) Chelsea

Although I am not a huge fan of the Chelsea emails, there are a lot worse examples in the league, so they make 5th spot by default. Their placement of imagery makes it difficult to know where to start reading first. Their content is too reliant on “match reports” and lacks any articles fans would actually be interested in reading.

6) Fulham

The Fulham newsletter looks like a badly formatted Word document, more than a promotional email from a club playing in the richest football league in the World. With a bit more attention to detail it has the makings of an email the Fulham fans would really enjoy receiving. Their hero shots on the other hand are of a good standard.

7) Aston Villa

Aston Villa send shorter emails than any other team in the league. These emails should prove successful in achieving click-thrus on desired links, as they often only contain two calls-to-action and not much else. These emails are 100% image, but if fans download the images they are presented with a pleasant looking email.

8) Man Utd

The Man Utd emails contain too much information and I doubt fans would read even half of it. It does contain some nice features however, such as a Q&A session with a different Man Utd player each issue. The Man Utd marketing team should do a bit more testing, as half the images fail to show in Gmail and this has been the case for a number of months now.

9) Liverpool

Liverpool used to send out a newsletter with the standard links to highlights, match reports and so on, but the only time fans seem to receive emails now, is when the club want to get some money out of them. This is short sighted, more needs to be done to nurture relationships with subscribers.

10-18) Stoke et al…

Nine of the twenty teams in the league (Stoke, Blackburn, Bolton, West Brom, Wigan, Wolves, Swansea, QPR and Norwich) send out the same generic emails, generated from the back end of their almost identical websites. It obviously does not matter if Stoke’s emails are almost identical to Swansea’s, but the lack of effort is evident and this will likely be reflected in the responsiveness of their respective subscriber databases.

19) Man City

No email sign up form can be found (by me anyway) on the Man City website, so it does not look like they are utilising email any more. This is a real shame because if their emails were anything like their website, they would be great.

20) Newcastle

Although Man City do not send emails, they are saved from bottom spot because sending no emails is better than sending the sort of emails that Newcastle send. Newcastle fans must feel rather used and unvalued, when they receive emails from their club, only to find it contains no information at all about Newcastle United, but is simply trying to sell them cheap electricity. Shocking!

The season has only just started, so there is plenty of time for teams at the foot of the table to turn things around.

Password strength meter

One of the methods hackers use to gain access to secure systems is to make a ‘brute force attack’ on a users login. This means they will try and guess a password by using thousands of common words used in passwords.

Maxemail contains a list of millions of such ‘common’ passwords, which it does not allow users to have as their password. Users are also shown how secure their password is by Maxemail’s password strength meter.

Encrypted connection

Whenever you input any data into Maxemail it is done so over a 256bit high grade encrypted connection. This means that when you are doing anything from inputting your passwords or uploading data, this information cannot be accesses by any third parties.

IP restriction

IP restriction ensures that only those on your specified IP can gain access to Maxemail. To set up IP restriction simply:

1. Find out your IP address at www.whatismyip.com.
2. Log into Maxemail as an Administrator.
3. Select ‘Edit User’.
4. Tick ‘IP Restriction’ and enter your IP address.
5. For those wishing to access Maxemail in multiple locations, they should enter the IP addresses from these locations, separated by a comma.

Maxemail will also ban IP addresses that try to login too many times in quick succession.

In addition, there are certain steps that your organisation can take to increase the security of your data:

1. Ensure Maxemail users regularly review and change their login password.
2. De-activate login details for employees that have left the organisation.

If you would like to discuss your data security with a member of our client services team, please call 01327 355871.