Q: Why can't I just use the Outlook add-in without any server or on-going costs?
A: When you send tracked email, there needs to be a system in place to collect the tracking information anywhere, anytime your recipients interact with your message. When you shutdown Outlook, you still want to collect the tracking information, and you likely don't want to make your Outlook computer accessible to the world. Therefore, the PoliteMail server component provides the means to collect this data online, 24/7, worldwide, and then feeds it back to your Outlook the next time you connect.
Q: Why do you charge subscriptions per send instead of per contact like all the online services?
A: If you agree fees should be based upon costs, our pay-for-use system is a more fair method than their pay-for-storage offer. Data storage is incredibly cheap. You can buy 500GB for less than $100. A mailing list of several thousand and related data can be stored in just a few megabytes. So when you are paying $15 or $30 a month to store 500 or 2,500 contacts, you are paying top dollar for data storage. The real costs of providing the service are in the bandwidth (transmission of data), maintaining mail servers, applications servers and the collection and processing of tracking data—all of which is related to when you actually send an email message. Granted, most online services offer *unlimited* sends for their fee, but realistically, how often do you actually send? Even sending once or twice a month proves to be a lot of work (unless you've done it, don't underestimate the time and effort it takes to create an email newsletter or campaign content.
Q: Can I track an open if they just view the email in the Outlook preview pane?
A: Yes. If the recipient displays the content (displays pictures) of the email, we will track an open event. Display of content/pictures happens automatically when the sender's email address is on the recipient's address book or whitelist, and for most internal corporate communications, otherwise, the recipient has to click the bar at the top of the email message that says "display content/pictures".
Q: Why can't I track opens 100% of the time?
A: PoliteMail, like other email tracking systems, utilizes standard web-page image tracking to detect opens. When your email content is displayed by the recipient, an image is referenced from the PoliteMail server and tracked. If you don't have an image in your email (such as a signature logo), PoliteMail will place a tiny, transparent tracking image (called a beacon). Because most email programs (including Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail) block images by default, you can not track opens 100% of the time. Link clicks are tracked 100% of the time. The industry standard open rate is about 15%. Most PoliteMail users see open rates in the 25-45% range. Corporate users sending internal communications can achieve close to 100% open tracking when exchange is set to auto-display content for email sent from within your own domain. A open tells you the recipient definitely displayed your email message. It doesn't tell you if they read the email or not, as you can read an email without displaying the pictures (or not read an email even though you have displayed pictures). Conversely, not getting an open does not mean they did not receive your message (just that they didn't display the content).
Q: Can I track email sent to an iPhone, Blackberry, or other smart phones?
A: Yes. Most of today's popular handheld devices support HTML email display, which is all you need for tracking to work. In fact, open tracking is currently more reliable on handhelds, because the default on those devices is to display content and images, not to block them as most email applications (Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail) do.
Q: Will PoliteMail slow Outlook down?
A: When you are sending a large list through your Outbox (lots of individual messages) you will notice slower Outlook performance until the send it completed. If your lists are 10,000 or more, there are configuration settings you may use to free-up Outlook during the send process.
Q: Why are some recipients receiving my pictures as attachments?
A: If you paste a picture into an Outlook email, or use Outlook's Insert > Picture command, the image will be embedded into your email as an attachment. When you send to other Outlook user's, Outlook will display the picture inline with your text, but other online email programs, such as Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail and some Smartphones will show the images as attachments. PoliteMail provides a Add Graphic Image feature which places your images into the email as a web reference, which is not embedded as an attached file. This method also keeps your email message size smaller and faster. Use any web format graphic, including .jpg, .gif and .png files. Avoid .tiff, .bmp and .pic file formats.
Q: Can I send video in my email?
A: The best way to send video is to include a link within your email message, or create a video still image with a play button, and make that image a link (select the image in Outlook, and use Insert > Hyperlink to add the URL). Most email programs do not support embedded video player, and most video files are too large to send as attachments. PoliteMail does not provide video hosting services, and most of our customers use services such as YouTube to host their video.
Q: Why does my email look slightly different to some recipients?
A: With HTML formatted email you can combine fonts, text and pictures to make impressive documents, but HTML is not WYSIWYG. Most people know that the same web page may look slightly different in IE and Firefox, and email works the same way. What you see when creating a message in Outlook 2007 may appear slightly differently to someone reading it Outlook 2003, Outlook 2010, Hotmail or Yahoo or Gmail. Each email program renders (displays) the HTML using their own method. Sometimes, the differences are slight, such as an extra space between each paragraph. Sometimes the layout or format changes a bit. The PoliteMail templates provided with the software are compatible with all major email programs, however, within the Outlook editor you are able to do things which may only be compatible with the same version of Outlook. Avoid using unusual fonts, Clip Art, Shapes and SmartArt. These are interesting Word/Outlook features, but are not necessarily compatible with web based email programs. The best way to check is to send a preview to your own accounts, and see how they look. If they do not render correctly, try some other way. Remember that email is not print. You can still make things look nice, but they may not be line up perfectly from one email program to another. The most important thing is for recipients to be able to read your message.
Q: Is PoliteMail compatible with Office Outlook 2010?
A: Yes, the new PoliteMail v3 software is compatible with Outlook 2010, 2007 and 2003. The PoliteMail v2 software must be upgraded to v3 to gain Outlook 2010 compatibility.
Q: Can I use the PoliteMail Professional version with send credits to send internal communications?
A: It depends on your list. If you are sending to a list you imported, or a standard distribution list, yes. If the internal distribution lists you are sending to are Exchange Aliases or Dynamic Distribution Lists/Active Directory Lists, then you will need one of our corporate account versions in order to send and track to individual addresses. These lists typically appear as-if they are a single email address, and the distribution is handled by Exchange/Active Directory, not Outlook. Because our shared servers (server send credits) will not be able to integrate with your Exchange Server or Active Directory, PoliteMail Professional alone will not have access to the members on those lists. Any one of our corporate account server products may be directly integrated with Exchange and Active Directory enabling to send and track your internal corporate communications effectively.
Q: Can we migrate from a cloud server to an in-house server, or vice-versa?
A: Yes, we provide upgrade paths from each of our products.
Q: What's is a Corporate Account and why do I need one?
A: A PoliteMail Corporate Account provides your company with a dedicated PoliteMail server. This server could be Cloud Server hosted by us, or a Work Group or Enterprise Server installed in-house and maintained by your IT department. A Corporate Account Server may be securely integrated with your Exchange Server and Active Directory, provided your with two primary benefits: 1) You can offload the mail process from Outlook, which improves performance and frees up Outlook for large list sends (over 5-10,000), and 2) Improves internal communications tracking and measurement, by enabling you to send personalized, individually tracked email to Exchange Alias lists and Active Directory lists, providing more accurate metrics.
Q: What's the difference between your Work Group Server and the Enterprise Server?
A: Both can be installed in-house on your server. The Work Group Server software is a feature/performance limited version of the Enterprise Server software. Work Group Server only supports up to 20-32 users, depending upon list size and send frequency. Work Group Server also supports SQL Server Express (the free version of Microsoft SQL Server), which is adequate for small groups and list sends under 25,000. The Enterprise server includes the full multi-tenant architecture with additional user and group organizational controls, including regions and business lines.
Q: Can I send from different email addresses?
A: Yes. You may send from any of your Outlook email accounts/addresses. See our knowledge to learn how to set-up multiple from addresses in Outlook.
Q: Can I install PoliteMail on more than one computer?
A: PoliteMail is licensed per named user, similar to Outlook. So if you are using both a desktop and a laptop, you may install a copy of PoliteMail on both machines, for your own use. If you have other users that want to send PoliteMail from their own email address, they need their own license of PoliteMail.
Q: Won't this tool get my email IP blacklisted?
A: No. Actually, the biggest cause of complaints leading to blacklisting of an IP, besides blatant spam, is due to sending unsolicited email—even to just one person—without an opt-out footer. Chances are, your sales, marketing and communications staff are already sending unsolicited email out to distribution lists from Outlook without an opt-out option. PoliteMail will provide the CAN-SPAM compliant, automated opt-out utility for all your front-line Outlook users. A blacklisting occurs when a recipient (with some technical know-how) submits a compliant to a service such as SpamHaus or SpamCop. It is true that PoliteMail enables users to send to mailing lists, either existing distribution lists or imported lists, but sending to lists does not mean you will get blacklisted. PoliteMail sends individual messages, not bulk (like a Bcc), making them more likely to get delivered, particularly to other Outlook users which is most often the case for B2B email. If you are sending email primarily to free mail accounts such as Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail (consumer marketing), you may be aware that those services provide a "this is spam" button. when recipient's click that, it does not result in a general blacklisting of your IP. It does block the senders email from their input, and sends a notification back to the sender (via FBL).
Q: Can I set-up PoliteMail to send via a dedicated marketing mail server instead of my Exchange Server?
A: Yes. If you already have a mail server or MTA set-up, PoliteMail can deliver to that via an SMTP connection or pick-up directory. If you do not have one, you may select a PoliteMail server configuration that includes a outgoing mail server or MTA.
Q: If we use PoliteMail for our B2B communications, can I integrate the opt-outs with our consumer broadcast opt-outs?
A: Yes. You may import and export suppression lists from PoliteMail.
Q: Can PoliteMail Server run on a VM server?
A: Yes. PoliteMail will run on both dedicated and VM environments, on top of Windows Server with IIS and SQL Server.
Q: How do I avoid my message from going into the spam or junk folder?
A: First, here are a few simple things to check:
If none of the above applies, then your message is likely breaking some other specific spam rules, or your mail server or domain name server (DNS) is not configured correctly. See our knowledge base or contact support for more information on how to check for spam score issues.
PoliteMail is a client/server software system. This simply means the PoliteMail for Outlook add-in software you install on the desktop requires a connection to a PoliteMail Server. This server may be provided by us, within a shared hosting arrangement, and is included with our subscription or pay-as-you-go service options. Corporate accounts may select to have us provide a virtual dedicated PoliteMail Cloud Server exclusivity for their account, or may license and install the Work Group Server or Enterprise Server in-house, behind the corporate firewall.