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Since the release of GroupMail version 5.3.0.108, tracking the open and click-through rates of your GroupMail campaigns is as easy as 1-2-3, literally.

Only several days after the king of Black Friday, Wal*Mart, announced that they would be manning their cash registers at 10pm on Thanksgiving Day to kick off their Black Friday deals; Toys ‘R Us decided to one up them by promoting their 9pm opening on the same turkey day.

Traditionally, many retailers open their doors at midnight on Thanksgiving night to signify the start of the holiday shopping season.

Perhaps one day, the term Christmas in July will be a literal reference.

Over $648 Million dollars were spent on Black Friday in 2010, up 9 percent from 2009.

The National Retail Federation predicts that 152 million Americans will work off their Thanksgiving Day dinner by shopping on Black Friday 2011. That’s 14 million more than last year.

Even more promising for American retailers is that 33% of consumers surveyed in 2011 say that they will “definitely” shop on Black Friday, up from 27% last year.

“32 percent of consumers will specifically keep track of email coupons that they receive from their favorite retailers.”

“Though many retailers are already touting select Black Friday ads, there’s no doubt we’ll all be blown away by what retailers still have in their bag of tricks for shoppers,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay. “We fully expect to see excited shoppers as early as midnight at stores around the country, as many holiday shoppers would rather stay up all night to take advantage of retailers’ Black Friday deals rather than set their alarm to wake up the next morning.”  continue reading

What will Americans be shopping for on Black Friday 2011?

From the National Retail Federation Black Friday 2011 Press Release:

NRF will release the results of its Black Friday weekend survey by 1:30 p.m. EST on Sunday, November 28 and will hold a special media briefing at 2 p.m. EST. Information will include what time people started shopping on Black Friday, where they shopped, how much they spent, and what they purchased. NRF will also be releasing findings from a new survey on the number of people expected to shop on Cyber Monday.

NRF’s offices will be closed on Black Friday and throughout the weekend, so please use the communications team’s direct lines to set up print and broadcast interviews with NRF spokespeople. (This is the only way to contact the PR team over the holiday weekend):

- Kathy Grannis: (202) 626-8189 or cell (202) 821-7513 or grannisk@nrf.com
- Ellen Davis: (202) 626-8127 or cell (703) 474-3446 davise@nrf.com
- Kara Goehring (202) 661-3055 or cell (318) 918-8830 or goehringk@nrf.com

Have you sent your own Black Friday email promotions yet?

Get them out this week with our award-winning newsletter and email marketing software.

Why ?

As part of a recent war on graymail, Hotmail has established some new hurdles for getting email delivered to the inbox, even if that email is sent as fulfillment to an opt-in newsletter or email marketing subscription. One of the new criteria for Hotmail inbox delivery is that all newsletter and email marketing messages must include a list-unsubscribe email header in their messages, even if there is already an unsubscribe link somewhere else in the message.

…Newsletter and email marketing messages WITHOUT a list-unsubscribe email header will be permanently sent to the Hotmail spam folder…”

For more information about these changes, and for instructions on how to add a list-unsubscribe email header to your next newsletter or email marketing message, read How do I add a list-unsubscribe email header in GroupMail?

Interested? Add your own, custom list-unsubscribe email header using our newsletter and email marketing software, GroupMail.

I just found this GroupMail video tutorial on YouTube in Turkish for setting up an account, creating groups and sending an email.

Our company works hard to make group messaging easier for individuals in over 160 countries around the world. But our customers make our job so much easier by working together and sharing knowledge with each other, especially in those languages that we haven’t yet mastered! We really appreciate that!

Te?ekkür ederim Aybilisim!

You can’t fake good customer service. Not for long, anyway.

You might be able to trick people into thinking that you offer good customer service and it is certainly possible to create hopeful expectations for good customer service with a well designed strategy and some good copy here and there.

But in the end, the truth about your customer service is revealed during the ongoing conversations you have with your customers, the efforts that you make to help them and the distance you will go to treat them right.

Here’s how to do it.

1. Open GroupMail and click on the Groups button

2. Double-click the group you want to move or copy recipients from

3. Select the recipients you would like to move (CTRL + click for multiple select)

4. Click Copy or Move at the bottom of the View and Manage Recipients screen. If you select Copy, then the recipients selected will remain in the source group and a copy of them will be added to another group. If you select Move, then those recipients will actually be removed from the source group and moved to another group.

5. Select the group you would like to move the recipients to and click OK.

That’s all there is to it folks.

We’ll get these loaded into the next GroupMail version release. If you need a fresh Christmas/Holiday template for GroupMail before then, let us know and we’ll see what we can do to get them expedited to you.

Thanks Ryan! …and, can I have a sip of your, er, coffee?

If you want more information about this design and how they created it, you can get in touch with Rich at:

www.gonzotv.com/Superfax, or

www.gonzotv.com/AwesomeOneSheets

If you have an HTML email template design that you would like to share with other GroupMail users, feel free to send it on to us.

For GroupMail users, you can easily export your email lists as a .csv file to your computer and then import that file to Facebook. Facebook will then contact those addresses with an invitation to become your Facebook fans.

For more information and instructions, read Invite Email Contacts to Like your Facebook Page with “Tell your Fans” by Inside Facebook.

They have a variety of SMTP relay plans to choose from depending on your list size and sending frequency.