Bronto Blog

The Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) recently released a new best practices document (see the pdf or a summary here). Here at Bronto we spend a good bit of time doing just what this document summarizes so that both our customers and the general email reading public are well served. This post is the first in a three part series talking about what Bronto does help make the email marketing world a better place.

Behind the Scenes Best Practices

There’s a lot going on behind the scenes at Bronto in terms of industry best practices - here’s just a taste of that…

We maintain Internet Service Provider (ISP) whitelist relationships to help ensure that your emails get to your recipients’ inbox. ISPs keep whitelists as a way to identify senders they can trust to deliver non-spam email.

We also have Feedback Loops (FBLs) in place with major ISPs. ISPs use these feedback loops to relay spam complaints to us from recipients. We automatically take action on this info to keep recipients happy. We also monitor these reports to watch for customers who may be experiencing spikes in complaints.

The Bronto email application takes part in industry adopted authentication schemes, such as Domain Keys, a Yahoo led technology (more info), and SenderID, a framework developed by Microsoft (more info), to allow for improved delivery rates. As the industry evolves we are constantly evaluating and improving our system to take advantage of any new programs.

Even with all this effort to keep things moving smoothly, the email ecosystem
is continually evolving and adaptation is a must. We keep a close eye on
industry and technology modulations; we have the experience and know-how to
preemptively resolve potential issues before it becomes a headache for you.

This is all just part of the service we provide every day so you don’t have to worry about these things. Stay tuned for Part II, where I’ll be talking about how our application helps you better adhere to more industry best practices.

Adam Covati
Product Manager at Bronto

To better serve you, the Bronto Client Services team is expanding the hours of service and education offerings (effective June 4th).

Our tremendous growth has brought clients on five continents (we’re looking at you next, Antarctica) and across many time zones. To better meet the needs of Bronto customers, Client Services will be available to handle support requests from 8 AM to 8 PM (EST), Mon-Fri.

Got a new employee joining your marketing team? Getting them up to speed in Bronto is easier than ever - the Bronto Basic and Intermediate webcasts will be available in the application: on-demand, anytime. The regular webcasts will continue (with live Q&A), but now any marketer needing an introduction or Bronto refresher can do so on their schedule. In addition, our new and improved Quickstart Guide provides a handy framework to get your first email campaign moving in the right direction.

If you have further suggestions about how we can better serve you, drop Carolyn an email.

Check out the Press Release.

AOL recently rolled out a new web based mail client for AOL.com and AIM.com and, as part of this change, they are now disabling images by default. This brings AOL’s online email clients into the dominant group of clients that block images by default. By now you just have to expect that a vast majority of your contacts will first see your message without images; it’s just a fact of life.

What am I to do?

With AOL, as with most mail clients, if your From Address (as set in Sender Options when sending your message) is in your recipient’s address book images will be displayed. So encouraging customers to add your From Address to their address book is still a good practice.

Contacts can also choose to turn images back on by default, but the majority of users will choose not to do this. For those customers who won’t add your From to their address book, and who haven’t turned images on, you need to take the next step: Alternate Text.

What is Alternate Text?

Alternate Text, often called an Alt Tag or Alt Text, is an attribute of an image that is shown when that image isn’t loaded. You can easily add Alternate Text to any image in your message within the image popup in the message editor. And you should always do this to every image as a rule. If you are editing HTML by hand, you just need to add an Alt attribute to your images.

That’s it, there’s not too much to do on your part. Many of you were probably already encouraging customers to add you to their address book and using Alternate Text for all your images. For those of you who weren’t, now you know, and you should start implementing these changes right away!

Adam Covati
Product Manager at Bronto

Every organization has one. He (or she) is the go-to guy. The clutch player. At Bronto, you’re talking about Eric Boggs. Eric has been a Bronto pillar for the last four years, holding anchor positions on the sales, account management, and product management teams.

This month we say goodbye to Eric as he leaves to pursue an MBA at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Eric began his Bronto career as a combination sales and marketing associate. He was hired by Joe and Chaz directly, though back then there was only Joe and Chaz. A detailed account of his hiring can be found on Eric’s blog.

Asked about the day Eric was hired, his wife, Kelly Boggs, had this to say: “I remember when he said he was going to start working for a small start-up named after a dinosaur - I thought we were going to starve.”

As Bronto’s solitary salesman, Eric quickly established himself as the top (read: only) producer, hitting the phones with gusto. This verve would pay off over the next 2.5 years as Eric helmed the Bronto Sales team. While the rewards were sweet, failing to achieve the sales goal was often met with Draconian punishments.

The period saw the expansion of the client base as well as the addition of many current Brontos, including a young sales associate by the name of DJ Waldow. The sales training would proceed quickly, DJ aping Eric’s skillful sales methods and Eric dishing out a few leftover leads to the cheeky upstart. In November 2005, having driven Bronto forward through his sales efforts, Eric turned his attention to the Account Management team. The increased client roster called for greater support; Boggs took over as Director of Account Management, setting his sights on making all Bronto clients better marketers.

Life in account management was a change of pace, interacting with the company’s burgeoning client base and managing current Bronto Liz Daly.

“Eric had brought many of these customers to Bronto,” said Daly. “Managing their ongoing relationship with Bronto proved to be a natural extension.”

As before, he juggled multiple roles as the Director of Account Management. Working with Bronto’s clients and understanding their use of the application gave Eric visibility into what was working, and what wasn’t. This often led to collaboration with the engineering team on prioritizing bug fixes and designing product upgrades.

A year later, Bronto found itself in need of a formal product manager and Boggs jumped at the chance to broaden his email marketing resume. He had already mastered the technical drawing - see Exhibit A – making the transition very smooth. Eric was responsible for many of the both major and minor improvements to the modern Bronto.

Bronto’s newest Product Manager, Adam Covati, was effusive in his praise for Eric’s tutelage.

“I’ve been working very closely with Eric over the last few weeks. Much of his enthusiasm for Bronto and its customers has rubbed off on me; that won’t soon wash away. Unfortunately, so has much of his “Blackbeard’s Delight” cologne; hopefully that will wash out soon.”

All kidding aside, Bronto wouldn’t be what it is today without Eric Boggs. Eric helped shape the organization from multiple angles: growing the client base, supporting current clients and guiding the product direction.

CEO Joe Colopy says it best: “Eric was Bronto’s first full time employee and he has been essential to our success. We wouldn’t be where we are today without him.”

We wish him the best of luck and have no doubt of his future success in business school and beyond.

As reported earlier this week in the New York Times, online clothing sales passed the online sales of computer hardware/software in 2006. Think about this - buying an external hard drive online isn’t hard. You research the specs, read the reviews, then find the best price (and hopefully free shipping). You know what you’re going to get.

Imagine how difficult it can be to buy a pair of jeans in the store when you have the product in your hands, or better yet, on you, feeling how it fits. Now imagine purchasing this same item having read a description, viewed a picture, and perhaps read a review. This is a leap of faith. And there were 18.3 billion dollars spent on exactly that leap of faith in 2006, which is $1.1 billion more than was spent computer hardware and software.

E-commerce isn’t new, or revolutionary. The fact that people buy clothes online isn’t going to surprise anyone. But more than computer related goods? I’m impressed.