I know for sure that you’ve already heard about iContact. It’s a very useful reporting tool and every Internet businessman can gain huge benefits from this. But I’d like to start with cons. The first downside is that this reporting software program has got a special editor adding extra HTML code when copying data from Word documents. Of course it’s a problem people have to face. But there’s an easy solution to that. So you need to copy or paste from the text editor. Another downside is that you won’t have an option of adding attachments to your emails. Though iContact offers an ability of scheduling a future date to send your emails but there’s no a time option in this case to my great regret. It’s clear that sending out newsletters at a certain time significantly increases your click through and open ratio.
Now it’s high time to mention pros. It goes without saying that you can’t do without tracking the results of your campaigns. You really need this to determine what’s working in your business and what’s not. iContact has got an exclusive set of reporting tools that will help you to accomplish this task. You’ll be able to track the number of guys opening your newsletters and clicking on links. You’ll also know the exact number of your undeliverable emails. For example you’ve got up to one thousand contacts in your database. So you decide to send emails to about five hundred of them on Thursday morning and the other five hundred on Thursday evening. So by properly utilizing all the reporting and tracking features of iContact you can determine the ideal time for sending your emails.
Of course you should also consider how your list is managed because it’s one of the most essential factors in email marketing. Some of the key features offered by iContact are list segmentation, automatic duplicate removal, sign up form generation, automatic unsubscribe, double opt-in is optional and so on.
I’d like to add that there are two list management features jumping out at you. I mean optional double opt-in and certainly this ability of designing custom forms. When somebody signs up for your newsletter on your site you need to decide whether this particular guy needs to verify his subscription or not. It’s clear that subscription verification shouldn’t be underestimated because it yields high open rates. Implementing the custom forms feature enables you to request actual unique information to your specific campaigns. It’s a great tool isn’t it? So as you can see the number of cons can’t overshadow the greater number of pros. That’s why you should start using this tool without delay. I’m sure that you can hardly find a more advanced reporting tool than iContact.
Today we are living in the world of modern technologies. These days the more your activity is automated, the better, in particular in respect of Report Distribution. Reporting is a very helpful thing. So if you would like to automate your reporting activities, you might consider trying Business Intelligence solution. Automated reporting will help eliminating repetitive tasks and saving time and money. Visit this SQL Reporting Services site to find out more detailed information.
And keep in mind that we live in the world of high online technologies. It wouldn’t be smart not to make use of the online network to search for anything on the best terms available on the market. Search engines, social networks, blogs and forums – all this will help you make a decision on many issues.
