Net Atlantic's Quarterly Winter 2009

We Work for You  
Service information and updates

Email Minute
Quick tips, facts, and figures

Net News Bytes
Company happenings

Andy's Corner  
A message from the CEO

Cross-country and Across the Globe  
Vice President Wes Owen's Extraordinary Sabbatical

 

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We Work for You  
Service information and updates

Technical Support Hours
Technical support is now available until 7:00 p.m. Call 978-219-1900 or email support@netatlantic.com. Visit our Web site for live chat support or to view video tutorials: www.netatlantic.com/support.

Email Marketing Certification
Marketing staffer Marianne Cellucci completed the email marketing certification program offered by Marketing Experiments and is now available for consultations. Call 978-219-1963 for pricing and details.

New Email Templates
We’ve been busy designing colorful, versatile templates suitable for various industries. Now you have access to more than 100 new designs through Lyris ListManager. To view these professional pre-built templates: log into your mailing list, click on the content tab, click “view templates,” choose the built in templates drop down, then click "next" or “show more.”

Introducing Platinum Level Email Service
We now offer the higher-end Platinum Level email service, perfect for marketers that use email as a core integrated marketing tactic. Features include all the benefits of
Enterprise Level with these extras:

• Enhanced Account Management
• Eight Hours of Design and Consultation Services
• Dedicated, Prioritized Technical Support
• Private IP Address and Virtual Mail Server
• Whitelist Monitoring and DNS/SPF Research

Call an Account Executive to discover what Platinum Level service can do for you: 978-219-1900.

More Pre-built Segments
New pre-built segments are the latest email marketing upgrade available in Professional, Enterprise and Platinum Level service.

Track responses and behaviors for people that:
• Joined the mailing list in the last 30 days
• Have not opened any emails in the past 30 days
• Opened an email and clicked on a link in the past 30 days
• Have not opened a specific email, and more

By using these pre-built segments, you can query a subset of your subscriber base, and send targeted messages to select addresses. See all new segments by logging into your control panel and clicking the segments tab.

User's Guide
The Net Atlantic User's Guide has been updated.

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Email Minute
Quick tips, facts, and figures

Quick tips, facts and figures

• For 2008, the Direct Marketing Association reported
  that email returned $45.06 for every dollar spent.
  Talk about ROI!
  
  
• Images do not automatically download in all email
  browsers. Put a description in the image’s alt text field to let recipients know the content of photos and graphics. People are more likely to download images manually if they have an indication of what they will see.
  
  
• Queen Elizabeth sent her first email from a British army base in 1976. Brilliant!
  
  
• Would you open an email if the sender wasn’t recognizable?
  Use your company name or other clear identifier
  in your “from” field. We suggest this format:
  From: Your Company <you@yourcompany.com>
  
  
• Welcome emails have the highest open rates of any campaign type often surpassing 50 percent! Improve your welcome emails with three easy steps.
  
  
• Can't get enough email marketing tips? Check out these top blogs:

  Anna Billstrom: Adventures in Email Marketing

  Tamara Gielen: Be Relevant

  Email Experience Council Blog

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Net News Bytes
Company happenings

Gregg Hanson, formerly a technician and manager at Gordon College, was hired by Net Atlantic as Technical Support Manager. A classical music lover, Gregg moonlights as an opera singer and occasionally performs the national anthem at Boston Celtics basketball games.

Michele Campbell was hired as Net Atlantic’s new marketing manager. She previously worked as marketing director for Courtroom Connect / Audio Case Files, and as marketing design manager for Road Scholar educational tours. Michele is a cellist and an amateur athlete. She enjoys volunteering for the Merrimack Valley Philharmonic Orchestra and Salem’s Wicked Running Club.

Derek Lewis recently joined the technical support staff. Formerly a telecommunications support expert at Comcast, Derek is enthusiastic about putting his skills to work in the email marketing industry

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Andy's Corner  
A message from the CEO

Thanks to you, Net Atlantic is now entering its 14th year. It's a pleasure to serve you, and we look forward to offering additional tools to help you achieve your online goals. For 2009 we redoubled our product improvement efforts with you in mind.


We launched a fully-branded reseller solution and our premium Platinum Level service that includes consulting. We added 80 new HTML email templates and 15 pre-built segments to help you manage your list. We expanded our technical support hours, and now offer certified email marketing consultation. Lastly, we hired additional staff in technical support, marketing and sales, and also expanded our office space in downtown Salem, Mass.

Currently underway and coming soon, we’ll offer built-in image hosting for email newsletters. A new customer service representative will be hired, and all technical support staff will be certified by the Help Desk Institute. Finally, we’ll upgrade all Net Atlantic mailing list servers to version 10.1 or higher.

In this issue be sure to read about Vice President Wes Owens’ sabbatical, and the biographies for some of our newest employees.

On behalf of the entire team, thank you for placing your trust in Net Atlantic. We are driven to provide you with the best services available today and we welcome your feedback on how we are doing. Feel free to call 877-263-8285, or email us at:
comments@netatlantic.com.

Here’s to a positive and productive new year!

Andrew Lutts

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Cross-country and Across the Globe  
Vice President Wes Owen's Extraordinary Sabbatical

What would you do if you had three months off?
When asking Net Atlantic Vice President Wes Owen what he did, the easier question might be ‘what didn’t you do?’ Traveling across the United States twice, visiting Europe and volunteering in Africa, his three months were filled with landmarks, landscapes, city life and amazing people.

Without concrete plans or hotel reservations, Owen hopped into his Toyota Camry and headed west. The cross-country trip, dubbed “Beverly, Mass. to Beverly Hills,” led him to many of America’s treasures: Niagara Falls, Badlands National Park, Mount Rushmore, and Yellowstone and Redwood National Parks.

“It was me, the car and the iPhone GPS,” said Owen. “The spontaneity was part of the fun.” Although he did admit that the GPS took him down some questionable, uninhabited roads that he might have otherwise avoided.

Seeing the United States was only part of the journey. After arriving in the Golden State, Owen flew back to Boston and packed his bags for Amsterdam. There he explored local culture and visited the Van Gogh Museum and Anne Frank’s house.

“Amsterdam is fun,” said Owen. “Everyone rides bicycles everywhere. I was almost run over by one,” he laughed.

For most, this might be a long enough trip. But Amsterdam was merely a pit stop on the way to Ipalamwa, a remote village in Tanzania, Africa. There he joined volunteers to help with a project so that water retrieval will be easier, cleaner and more efficient for
residents. Villagers currently walk four miles a day down a steep dusty hill (and back) to gather river water for cooking, drinking and bathing.

Using the simple methods of the Tanzanians, Owen helped carry rocks for hours from the woods to the project site. Locals balanced large rocks on their heads. This is their method of carrying everything as it keeps one’s body balanced and injury free. Owen chose a more familiar method — his shoulders.

“I was amazed at the sheer strength and stamina of the locals,” Owen said. “A 70-year-old man was able to carry rocks twice as heavy as mine, without losing his breath.
I’m 29 and I was out of breath!”

Ipalamwa’s living facilities, schools and basic lifestyles represent a stark contrast to the United States. Dorms house students who sleep on worn foam beds. There is no electricity. Some homes have no roofs. Children make soccer balls by tying plastic bags together. “Tanzanians are resourceful people, using and reusing anything to complete a project, play a game or participate in sports,” said Owen.

Once his three week volunteer assignment was complete, Owen flew back to California to pick up his car. And cross-country trip number two began. He eventually arrived back home in Beverly, Mass., where he could finally rest and reflect for a day before returning to Net Atlantic.