This is not what most Outlook users are accustomed to as POP/Exchange accounts move deleted items to a trash folder before being permanently deleted. After exhaustive searching I didnt see any real solutions for accomplishing this same method in an Outlook IMAP account, so I came up with a somewhat hackish way to accomplish this using Outlook rules.

What I did was create a rule within Outlook that says “whenever you receive an email, create a copy of that email in my ‘deleted items’ imap folder”. So really I will have a copy of every single email message in that folder which takes up more space on the server, but since I eventually delete all emails I am ok with this.

Here is how I did it:

Tools > Rules and Alerts… > New Rule > Check Messages when the arrive > Step 1 – check the box that says ‘through the specified account’ > Step 2 – Click ‘specified’ and select the IMAP account > Click Next > Step 1 – check the box that says ‘move it to the specified folder’ > Step 2 – Click ‘specified’ and select the ‘deleted items’ folder > click finish

Outlook 07 - IMAP messages marked for deletion

Kinda annoying to have to do this each time you want to get rid of those messages. There is an easy way to get rid of them automatically though whenever you change folders. To do this, go to:

Tools > Account Settings > Higlight your IMAP account and click Change > More Settings

This will get you to the general tab, you will see at the bottom of this pop up there is a check box that says Purge items when switching…, check this box. Then whenever you switch folders the items marked for deletion will go away. Simple as that.

Outlook 07 - Select Auto Purge

“We received two calls this afternoon and one e-mail request for a proposal. One of the callers said the e-mail couldn’t have come at a better time. I am looking forward to working the list over time because that is how you leverage the power of e-mail advertising. I can’t think of a more economical way to keep our name in front of thousands of prospects.”
Brooks Gentleman, CEO of Re-View.

I love it! With regular campaigns and refinement of their email lists I’m sure Re-View will continue to experience success with their campaigns.

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7/13/09 – Update
We spoke with Brooks this morning, and they have since received three more leads on new projects from their very first campaign! We couldn’t be more excited to hear about success stories like these!
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At some point when we had gone to a movie and grabbed a bite there, our bill had a small card inside offering to send us special coupons from time to time via email. We really love the place, so of course we signed up.

We have since received the coupons, as promised, and been back two times since (not when we were headed to the movies). Each time they sent us some pretty good deals (one was a $25 dinner for two), but we ended up spending at least twice that each time since we were getting our food so cheap.

Ask permission, make a (valuable) promise, and follow through….such a simple and easy thing for the restaurant owner to do, which got us back in the door much sooner and more frequently than we ever would have if we had not joined their email marketing list.

I’m planning on putting together some free restaurant email templates and sending out some special offers for restaurant owners who want to start email marketing using EnterpriseMailer. I will post a link to the templates in a follow up post once they are done.

This is why it is important for us to make sure we are reaching out to this community and engaging with them as often as possible. About a year ago we started a small project website which was a directory of computer consultants in California called californiaitconsultant.com. It is completely free to be listed in the basic directory, for those consultants whom we have established a working relationship with and know do a great job we write up a nice “featured” listing.

I hadn’t heard too much about the site since its launch, but the last couple weeks I have been getting emails from consultants interested in being listed in our directory. This has allowed us to open a dialog with the consultants which they may have never engaged in if we had not done them a favor first.

This is a great example of how doing a small favor for others, without any expectation of repayment, can really help you open doors which may have been closed or unseen before. Does your business have a complimentary market which you could reach out to for a similar result? It doesn’t take too much work and you never know what might come of it down the line.

“Disco Bubble Balls”, my old nickname from middle school

To change your webmail skin, click settings in the top left hand side of webmail.

If you think the name is creepy…check out this disco maniac.

Remember, one of the major keys to email marketing is making sure your message is relevant (they knew I was a fan of Mos Def) and timely (they let me purchase the album before it was released in stores).

Did you know the HTML email campaigns you are creating quite possibly look much different once your recipients open them?

Why?

This is due largely to the lack of standards used by the MANY different email clients around (umm…what’s an email client?). You might be surprised to find who some of the worst offenders are (Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail).

What to do?

1. Test and retest.

   If you are not testing your HTML emails before sending them out, you are asking for trouble. Ensure your HTML emails are being rendered consistently (or as close as you can get them) across each email client by creating dummy accounts with the major free email service providers (i.e. Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail) as well as make sure to check them in the primary desktop email clients (Outlook 2003/2007, Entourage, Thunderbird).

2. Know your limits.

   Because of spotty support for web standards it pays big to know what the various email clients support in terms of CSS. You will learn much of this through testing, but there are plenty of resources online from those who have already gone through this process. A great place to start is the Email Standards Project. Campaign Monitor has also put together a pretty sweet CSS email support guide.

If you are not comfortable with coding HTML and CSS for your emails, use one of our free email marketing templates. They have been tested across many major email clients to ensure each renders as consistently as possible.

Finally, you can also have one of our design professionals build you a custom email template. We test each template to make sure it renders appropriately with each of the major service providers and desktop email clients.

To speak with one of our specialists about a custom HTML email template, please call 858-573-2323 x 1 or send an email to info [at] quexion.com.

* Please note, due to the wide variety of email clients and their varying support levels, we are not able to provide trouble shooting as part of our basic free support. If you are interested in getting troubleshooting support, please feel free to post your questions on our email design discussion forums.

I got this email about a month ago. They had my email address from a purchase I made last year for father’s day. They hadn’t emailed me since the purchase, and I could not recall if they had asked me for permission to send me offers.

The Email:

I received this email originally in Hotmail, you can click the thumbnail to view a larger version.

Critique

The primary problem with this email all falls back to one primary issue…I have no relationship with Cigar.com any longer. After no contact with me for almost a year, they sent me an email asking me to come back! for 10% off, umm no thanks!

It’s kinda like taking a girl out on a date, waiting to call her for 12 months, then calling her up and saying “wanna go on a second date?”. There isn’t many women in this world that will let you get away with that one!

I have no connection with Cigar.com any longer, I may have a new man now (Cigar website) or I may get around and not remember you (your website) any longer. Point being, they waited far too long before they called.

The first step is to regain my trust. Seth Godin makes the point much more eloquently than I, but how you ask (for my business), definitely matters. Put the time and effort in to getting me back in the sack so to speak (get your mind out of the gutter).

Send me an email to ask if I would like to receive an email each month with preferred discounts, special offers, etc… As an incentive, offer me a coupon to join the letter by X date.

Follow through on what was promised (an email each month), and re-establish our relationship, one which we have both agreed to enter.

Also, include a refer a friend link. I purchased from this site for my dad, who likes cigars much more than I do, he is the type of customer you really want to stay in touch with.

Do you agree, disagree, have additional feedback? I look forward to hearing any comments you have!

If you are interested in learning more about our email marketing solution, EnterprsieMailer, please visit our site or contact us at 858-573-2323 x 1.

We welcome users to submit messages they would like reviewed, or to submit their own review for consideration.

Each post will be composed of three main parts:

1) Background - A description of the relationship I (or you) have with the company. This might include things like whether or not the company had permission to contact you, whether or not you have conducted business with the company, how often you receive communications from the company, etc…

2) Picture of the original message - So everyone can see how it looked when it was received. Our reviews will include pictures from Outlook 2007/2003, Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo. If you submit review, please let us know which client the email was viewed in.

3) Critique - Suggestions for improving their message, strategy, design, and so on.

We welcome your comments on our reviews, we hope you find each one interesting and helpful in your efforts to better your own email marketing campaigns.