This post<\/a>\u00a0is by\u00a0<\/em>Clint Watson<\/em><\/strong><\/a>,<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0former art gallery owner and founder of\u00a0BoldBrush<\/a><\/em>, known for\u00a0FASO Artist Websites<\/a><\/em>, the leading provider of professional artist websites, the $38,000+\u00a0BoldBrush Art Contest & Exhibit<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and the free daily art marketing newsletter, FineArtViews. As a self-proclaimed “art fanatic”, Clint delights that BoldBrush’s San Antonio, Texas office is full of original art, as is his home office. You can connect with Clint on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>or\u00a0his personal blog at\u00a0clintavo.com<\/a><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Many artists make a\u00a0huge<\/em>\u00a0mistake with their email marketing:<\/strong>\u00a0 they use their gmail.com, yahoo.com, hotmail.com, outlook.com or similar address when sending their marketing emails.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n If you’re doing this, you need to stop,\u00a0immediately<\/em>.\u00a0 \u00a0It will cut your open rate and sales in half.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Yes, that’s right, you could potentially double your sales just by using a better email address.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Here’s a newsletter I received recently from an artist sending from a gmail.com address.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Yikes!<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Who would open and read the message above?\u00a0<\/p>\n Who would click on anything it contained?\u00a0 Almost nobody.\u00a0<\/p>\n Plus, when Gmail flags messages like this, images are all disabled.\u00a0 So the recipient wouldn’t even\u00a0see<\/em>\u00a0your artwork.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The reason this message has the big scary warning is simple:\u00a0 To prevent spam, Gmail attempts to verify that the message you receive came from an email server that was authorized to send the message.\u00a0 And gmail KNOWS, since they own the domain “gmail.com”, that you don’t have permission to send marketing emails like this from their servers.\u00a0 Hence they are warning the recipient.\u00a0 This may be slightly annoying when you’re the\u00a0sender,\u00a0<\/em>but it’s important.\u00a0 It prevents spam and, importantly, it prevents people from sending nasty email impersonating\u00a0you.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n There is a simple solution to this: Send your marketing emails from a custom email address on your own domain.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Instead of sending from\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/span>,<\/a>\u00a0this artist should have sent the message from\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n If you are NOT a\u00a0FASO<\/a>\u00a0customer, you will have to pay a bit extra to do this (most platforms charge something like $5\/month for a custom email box) and you (or somebody technical you know) will have to setup some fairly complicated records on your domain’s DNS known as DKIM, SPF, and DMARC.\u00a0 The good news is, it’s not THAT difficult and you only have to set it up once.\u00a0 That’s a small price to pay to double your sales!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n If you ARE a\u00a0FASO<\/a>\u00a0customer, I have even better news – nearly all our plans include a custom email address and, even better, when you set up your email address through us, we\u00a0automatically<\/em>\u00a0add all the proper DKIM, SPF and DMARC records for you.\u00a0 Here’s a link to an article that explains\u00a0how to setup a branded email box on FASO<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/strong>And\u00a0here’s an article that shows you how to make sure you send newsletters from your branded email account<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n That’s right.\u00a0\u00a0If you use FASO’s art marketing platform, then we can eliminate that big scary message in about ten minutes.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n So,\u00a0please<\/em>, before you send your next email newsletter, take the time to make sure it will send from a custom email address on a domain that you control.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Until next time, please remember that\u00a0Fortune Favors the Bold Brush<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Clint Watson<\/p>\n BoldBrush\/FASO Founder & Art Fanatic<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n PS – We’re continuing our series on email marketing.\u00a0 Please reply in the comment below and let us know what other questions you have!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/images.artfulcloud.com\/13722_3697012l.jpg?cv=202211101419\")
<\/p>\n