How often can the newsletter be sent?
Can the delivery date be changed or suspended?
How many fields of data can I have on my lists?
Can readers update their contact information?
Do you have log-ins for various people using the system?
Do you have reporting?
What are Alerts?
What is the Reminder System?
Is there an extra cost for the Alert system?
What are Welcome letters?
Can I send emails with audio, video, or attachments?
How do you handle bounced emails?
Can readers automatically unsubscribe from the newsletter?
What are some other best practices our company should consider using?
Are you Can-Spam compliant?
Do you have a content strategy?
Who writes the articles?
Does everybody get the same email newsletter?
How do you manage your article inventory?
What are Timely Opportunity articles?
What is Sponsor Content?
How much room does a company have for Sponsor Content?
What is the order for delivering categories of articles in an email newsletter?
How many Standard categories of articles are in an email newsletter?
What are Niche articles?
Can my company add content to an existing article?
What is a Master Account?
What's so unique about a Master Account?
How is Sponsor Content managed?
How are banners managed in a Master Account?
How does the system know which Mastheads to send and which Sponsor content to deliver?
Why would a firm use Master Accounts?
Do Master Accounts cost more?
Are Master accounts difficult to manage?
How often can the newsletter be sent?
The newsletter can be sent weekly, bi-weekly, every third week or every fourth week. When you set your account up, you choose what day and time to deliver your newsletter.
Can the delivery date be changed or suspended?
Yes - one button will accomplish either task.
How many fields of data can I have on my lists?
You can have all the normal member database (name, address, phone ect) fields plus 20 user defined custom fields.
Can readers update their contact information?
Yes - each newsletter has an update button that can be used for this purpose.
Do you have log-ins for various people using the system?
Yes - there is an administrator log-in as well as individual Point of Contact (POC) Logins. The POC is able to see only their members and related activity.
Do you have reporting?
Yes - we have extensive reporting on click activity as well as reports on articles clicked and Sponsor content clicked.
What are Alerts?
Alerts can be set for any Sponsor Content or any reader of the system. As an example, if you set an Alert for an important prospect, as soon as they click on anything in the newsletter, you are notified. You can choose how to be notified and how often.
Is there an extra cost for the Alert system?
No, it's included in every newsletter package.
What are Welcome letters?
The system has four different types of Welcome letters - customers, prospects, referred subscribers and team members. You can use our default welcome letters or create your own. The first time a reader receives the newsletter, the appropriate Welcome letter is attached.
Can I send emails with audio, video or attachments?
We do not allow sending files because of potential virus issues, but you can create a link to the data on your server and include that link in your email message.
How do you handle bounced emails?
Emails can bounce for a number of reasons. If it is a hard bounce, which means the coding indicates the email address does not exist, the email is immediately put into the Bounced folder. If it's a soft bounce which occurs when a server is down, we try to deliver three times. If each fails, the email is then put into the Bounced folder. Once in the bounced folder, the intended recipient will no longer receive emails, however, you can review the emails and possibly fix the email address and resend to them.
Can readers automatically unsubscribe from the newsletter?
Yes. It is a simple one button click process. When they unsubscribe, you can see a special report of those members. The database is automatically updated and they will no longer receive emails from the BIG BROTHER MARKETING “Lead Tracker Newsletter” system.
What are some other best practices our firm should consider using?
Assuming you are using the system to grow your business, we have many recommendations, her are just a few:
- Get buy-in from the management or owners of the organization to use the system.
- Add as many email addresses as possible - especially prospects and referral sources.
- Require that everybody get involved. Have goals for email address gathering.
- Write Sponsor Content about your company, your people and your services.
- Be proactive in making contact with both prospects and customers. This will help expand services and save clients from leaving the firm. Be proactive in contacting prospects when you know they need your type of product or service based on what they are reading.
- Market your newsletter in everything and include sign-up forms on your Web site. Web site sign up boxes are available free from BIG BROTHER MARKETING.
Are you Can-Spam compliant?
Yes - we comply with all Federal laws.
Do you have a content strategy?
Yes. We started the company on the premise that building an email newsletter was difficult because it constantly required good articles of interest to the reader. So we created a huge inventory of articles broken down into various categories. The articles should not just be about your company's products or services because eventually, readers will unsubscribe for lack of interest. Our strategy is to provide a broad array of articles that appeal to business owners and affluent individuals. Our articles are about building a better bottom line, managing more effectively, legal tips, employee benefits, increasing sales, tax planning, wealth accumulation and more. Once the reader enjoys (receives benefit from) the email newsletter, your company’s articles about your products and services will be received more openly.
Who writes the articles?
BIG BROTHER MARKETING has experienced employees as writers and editors as well as independent contractors who create most of our content.
Does everybody get the same newsletter?
No - we build a custom email newsletter for each of our customers.
How do you manage your article inventory?
Articles are categorized as either Standard, Niches, Timely Opportunities, or Sponsor Content. We have thousands of standard articles in our inventory. All articles go through a rigorous edit and review procedure. If your company wanted to send a weekly email newsletter, we have enough standard content to last approximately 2.5 years and we are adding more each week.
What are Timely Opportunity articles?
The articles, which are written by our staff on a weekly basis, cover a variety of business and personal finance topics. The articles are very timely and are clicked more often than other articles. These articles help position a company as being on the cutting edge of new developments.
What is Sponsor Content?
Sponsor content are articles you write about your company, your products, people, and customers. It is the place to showcase your firm and add marketing messages using an education strategy. If you do not have the time or inclination to write your own sponsor content our writers can ghost write articles for you at a reasonable charge. You will not only be able to use ghost written articles in your email newsletter but in addition can place them on your website and send them to magazines and newspapers so they can published there as well.
How much room does a company have for Sponsor Content?
A company can use up to 3 sections for Sponsor Content. Each section has a Title, brief summary, and a button to click Full Article.
What is the order for delivering categories of articles in a newsletter?
Sponsor Content is first and at the top of the email newsletter. Next comes Timely Opportunities followed by Niche and then Standard articles.
How many Standard categories of articles are in an email newsletter?
Can my company add content to an existing article?
Yes, you can add what we call a Trailer to the end of specific articles. In addition you could add the same Trailer to all articles within a category.
What is a Master Account?
A Master Account is a BIG BROTHER MARKETING email newsletter account that can manage a group of accounts with similar interests. It is similar to a Parent/Child relationship. One account is set up which is called the Master and within that one account many sub-accounts can be created.
What is so unique about a Master Account?
Each sub-account within a Master Account can have their own Masthead and logo, links to their Web site, Welcome letters, disclaimers and unique sponsor content.
How is Sponsor Content managed?
Sponsor content represents a firm's articles about their products and services as well as their people and customers. There are six article slots for this type of content. The Administrator of the Master account can allocate how many of the six slots will be available for the Master company and how many slots will be available for each sub-account within the Master account. As an example, the administrator can allocate two positions for each sub-account and four for the Master account.
How are banners managed in a Master Account?
The individual sub-account is allocated up to two banner positions - the top banner and the tower banner. All other banner positions are allocated to the Master account holder.
How does the system know which Mastheads to send and which Sponsor content to deliver?
When members are added to the database, they are allocated to specific Points of Contact (sales reps, partners, etc), the people that control that particular database member. Each Point of Contact can have unique Mastheads, content and other attributes. The system tracks the database member and associates it with the Point of Contact and then delivers the unique attributes associated with the Point of Contact.
Why would a firm use Master Accounts?
Here are some examples:
- A real estate brokerage firm wants to create an email newsletter for each of its agents, but they want the branding and certain content to be controlled by the brokerage firm.
- A law firm wants to send different Sponsor Content for each department, but also wants to cross sell services by having content that goes to everybody within their database.
- A manufacturer sells through a rep organization and wants to offer them their own newsletter, but with content about the manufacturer’s products. They also want to allow the reps to promote other products they sell. In addition, they want to allow each rep to have their own Masthead/logo.
- A distributor wants to send different messages to customers versus prospects, but also wants to send messages to all members of their database.
- An accounting firm has ten offices and wants to deliver a newsletter branded to each office that also contains unique content about that office, as well as content about the firm in general.
Do Master Accounts cost more?
No, our objective is to help you deliver the best newsletter targeted to your specific needs.
Are Master accounts difficult to manage?
No. There is a little more initial, one-time set up work to do, but BIG BROTHER MARKETING takes care of that for you.
