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If you're new to PureResponse, it may be handy to remember the following tips and practices which will ensure that your first campaign runs as smoothly as possible.

1. Create a seed list for PureResponse
It's good practice to create and use a 'seed list' to send your emails to before you send your campaign out to your full mailing list. The seed list should be made up of a closed group of colleagues who can then give you feedback on your campaign and alert you of any issues before a mass send. We encourage customers to create and upload a separate list (CSV file) which contains the details of your seed list and will enable you to test each campaign you send on your PureResponse account. It's also useful to include email addresses from major ISPs such as Hotmail, Googlemail, Yahoo and AOL so you can check how your email appears to people receiving it through these accounts.

2. Save your work at regular intervals
It's always best practice to save your work frequently, especially if you are working within a busy office environment. If you are using the online Visual Editor within PureResponse to create your emails, it is wise to regularly use the 'save' button at the bottom of the Visual Editor to avoid losing any changes if you 'time-out' of the Visual Editor. Also, Control+Z (or Apple+Z on Mac) will allow you to undo your last change in the Visual Editor.

3. Test your email using the 'send test' function
PureResponse enables you to test each campaign you send by using the 'send test' button that appears on the right hand side of the Visual Editor. The 'send test' button will automatically generate a test send to your account allowing you to check the email that you're sending. This unique function allows you to not only check the appearance of your email but also allows you to check that links and any personalisation are correct.

If the appearance of the email you receive through the test send function is different then always check your HTML code. If you have made changes to the email in the Visual Editor since uploading it from a 3rd party pubishing software, such as Adobe Dreamweaver or Contribute, we recommend that you make the changes in your 3rd party software instead of the PureResponse Visual Editor and upload the email again to make sure that all HTML code is correct.

4. Test your subject lines
The subject line is the first thing that the recipients see when your email arrives into thir inbox. It often dictates whether the recipient chooses to read your email or not. Pure know that it is important to test your subject lines, before you send a campaign to check their effectiveness so we've introduced a unique 'subject line testing' function to allow you to test the effectiveness of your subject lines before sending your email out to the entire mailing list. This advanced functionality allows you to choose multiple subject lines and measure the open rates of each subject line against each other. This subject lines testing feature can be used on test sends or mass mailings to allow you to build up your knowledge of what works best for your email opening rates.

5. Use Pure's 'spam check' function
Pure provide a variety of ways to make sure you get into the inbox, every time. This includes PureResponse's 'spam check' button that allows you to check whether your email will be marked as spam before it leaves PureResponse. In order to achieve the best delivery rates it is highly recommended that you use the 'spam check' button at the bottom of the Visual Editor. This will use the global 'Spam Assassin' database to check your entire email against the latest spam practices. The 'spam check' will then notify you of any aspect of your email which could cause a recipient’s email host to confuse your email with spam or junk. You can then correct these aspects and retest until the 'spam check' indicates that your email it at low risk of being identified as spam.

6. Ask to be added to the address book
The advanced functionality of PureResponse such as 'spam check' and 'subject line testing' means that messages sent through Pure are rarely filtered in the junk folders. Pure's team of whitelistings experts ensure that not only do Pure maintain good relations with all the major ISPs but also recommend best practice tips to customers based on the latest feedback from the ISPs.

Our whitelistings experts also advise customers to ask the recipients of emails to enter the email address into their address books to eliminate any risk of legitimate emails being mistakenly detected as junk by over zealous spam filters. This message could also be placed on the web page where recipients sign up to your newsletter or in the ‘thank you’ landing page once the user has double-opted in.

7. Remember to create a plain text version
One very useful tip is to include a plain text version of your email because without it, your email may be flagged as junk.

8. Create links to the HTML version of your email
It is also a popular practice to add the link to an html version (which we host online for you) in the plain text version. This way recipients viewing the plain text version can view the full html version online: An example of what you would put in the plain text window is below. If you cannot see this email, click here -
http://response.pure360.com/interface/external_view_email.php?{~mailId~}
NOTE: If you have an account with email masking, replace response.pure360.com with the masked domain e.g. levis.europenews.com. Some customers will even use this hyperlink in their html version too (obviously the link destination will be the URL for a hyperlink underneath a normal text sentence).