Enlisting Its Consulting Services Arm, Company Recommends ‘Preventative Maintenance’ Schedule for Email Marketing Campaigns

MENLO PARK, Calif.--EmailLabs (www.emaillabs.com), the leader in high-performance email marketing solutions and a subsidiary of J.L. Halsey Corporation (OTCBB:JLHY), today announced a unique 10-point email check-up program built around “preventative maintenance” consulting to its clients.

The 10-Point Email Check-Up Plan (http://www.emaillabs.com/email_marketing_articles/email_plan_and_chec klist.html) (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists) is a checklist of technical and non-technical email campaign components that the company recommends marketers evaluate on a regular basis. The company developed the program as a way to guide clients to review deliverability and rendering capabilities in their email marketing campaigns, as well as to help adhere to best practices and respond to ongoing challenges.

The 10-Point Plan includes such essential tips as:

• Testing the opt-in process for functionality and whether it sets proper expectations for the recipients
• Ensuring that a person consistently monitors all incoming mailboxes for replies or feedback and responds as necessary, such as unsubscribe requests or customer service inquiries
• Optimizing design for newer email client features, including blocked images and preview panes
• Monitoring and ensuring list quality—a step often overlooked but key to reducing deliverability obstacles such as spam complaints and ISP blacklisting

“Rendering and deliverability continue to be the primary challenges email marketers face,” said Stefan Pollard, director of consulting, EmailLabs. “As spammers adjust their tactics to get their junk mail into the inbox, recipients crack down on the unwanted email by using the newest blockers available to them. The result is that legitimate marketers who don't react to changes are caught in the crossfire and subscribers aren’t necessarily receiving email to which they intentionally subscribed.”

Pollard cautioned that testing the mechanics is just one of the items that need to be checked when evaluating an email program. Among the other factors:

• Optimizing the email relationship by monitoring the clicks and opens of new and established email recipients alike
• Reviewing all sources of feedback to identify delivery problems
• Reviewing affiliates and co-registration sources and offerings to ensure quality leads are being generated
• Reviewing message templates to check for CAN-SPAM compliance, usability, potential spam content , working links and proper rendering
• Reviewing message frequency and sending schedules, and evaluating email lists by removing inactive addresses.

“As marketers, we can’t sit back and assume that the email messages are being delivered just because they have been in the past,” Pollard said. “Testing your campaign in February and having it be a success doesn’t mean that it will also be successful in September. Our industry changes so quickly that preventative maintenance is a crucial component of each campaign, and staying informed about the nuances of various ISPs and how they handle email is key. If you’re not up on the latest developments in the email sector, your company can suddenly find itself with a sub-par program.”

Using an email marketing provider’s consulting services periodically to overhaul an outdated program, identify new challenges or simply tweak an existing program to make improvements is also sound practice. EmailLabs’ own On-Demand Email Marketing Consulting Services (www.emaillabs.com/solutions/services.html) are designed expressly for marketers with limited email marketing resources and expertise. The services grew out of feedback from clients, salespeople, and marketers seeking to improve their email marketing programs with EmailLabs’ expertise.

About EmailLabs

EmailLabs is a leading provider of high-performance email marketing solutions to agencies, publishers and marketing departments of middle-market and Global 2000 companies. The EmailLabs email marketing platform is provided as an ASP (Web-based) service, and is easily integrated with a company's Web site, sales force automation and CRM technologies through EmailLabs' application programming interface (API). For the fourth consecutive year, EmailLabs has been recognized by ASPnews.com as one of the Top 50 ASPs worldwide and as a Top 25 Service Provider for the Software-as-a Service (SaaS) and Business Service Provider category. The company provides email marketing solutions to more than 550 companies, including Nokia, Agilent, PalmSource and Jupitermedia. Headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif., EmailLabs was founded in 1999 and is a subsidiary of J.L. Halsey Corporation (OTCBB:JLHY). For more information, visit www.EmailLabs.com.