Connect with us

Politics

Review: How GMass Makes Email Marketing a Cinch for Small Businesses

Published

on

GMass


Small business owners stand to benefit from the fast and easy-to-use features provided by the bulk email service GMass.

Email marketing has been around for a long time. However, there is always some new software program that purports to have revolutionized the market.

Though these statements are often untrue, tech has seriously progressed in recent years. We took a look at GMass—a bulk email service—to review just how far these services have come over the years and why email marketing is such a powerful tool for small business owners.

GMass: The Bottom Line

For this mass email service, speed is a major priority.

When it comes to sending bulk emails, services in the past have been hitting all of the wrong points. What GMass gets right is speed.

Since sending messages is all about the metrics, the more quickly you can design a message, execute a mail merge, and throttle your messages, the better.

Speed is the keyword when it comes to mass emails.
Speed is the keyword when it comes to mass emails.

That’s why GMass lives up to the hype. You’ll be getting better results, higher open rates, and ultimately a greater brand awareness for your small business thanks to the unmatched speed. Not only that, but GMass also allows for sophisticated email flows that will keep your audience engaged.

To better understand the advantages and disadvantages of using GMass as your mass email service, we’re taking an in-depth look at exactly how it works, what it takes to set up an email campaign using the tool, and some of the key features. Read on to learn more!

What is GMass?

Find out how GMass was created and became the powerful mass email marketing service it is today.

GMass was created in 2015 by Ajay Goel. Dissatisfied with all of the other mass email services currently on the market, Goel decided to create a new mass email plugin that eliminates the weak spots in other services. He often found that sending mass emails was overly complicated and took far too long.

"<yoastmark

His solution would be a lightweight email plugin that can send messages faster than any other service. With user-friendliness as another key point that Goel wanted to highlight, GMass prioritized simplicity. Since 2015, GMass has exploded in popularity and has become one of the most widely used mass email marketing services on the market.

That’s why we’re taking a closer look at the plugin to see if it really does live up to the hype. Keep reading to find out the pros and cons of using GMass to send bulk emails.

GMass: Features, Pros, and Cons

Discover how GMass works and whether or not it is the right mass email service for your business.

GMass presents a competitive set of features.
GMass presents a competitive set of features.

To get started, though, we have to establish what exactly GMass does and what it does not do.

  • First of all, GMass is an extension that plugs directly into Gmail. Since not every business uses Gmail to send bulk emails, some won’t be able to benefit from the features of the plugin.
  • Secondly, GMass is a service that sends emails—not a prospecting service. Before you can start using GMass to send your messages, you need to establish an organized address list. So, as long as you are ready to send messages via Gmail and have a list of addresses ready to go, you can use GMass to start sending mass emails.

Now that we know how GMass is used, let’s dive into some of the specific elements of the plugin and how it compares to other similar services on the market.

Interface

As we just mentioned, Goel designed GMass with simplicity in mind. The GMass interface is incredibly simple and easy to use—even for people who are brand new to email marketing. That means that there is no barrier to entry to using the plugin, making it the perfect option for small businesses that do not have a dedicated email marketing team.

When you install GMass, you will discover that there is a red GMass button that appears next to the blue “Send” button when you open a new message. When you click on the arrow next to the GMass button you are greeted with a few key features such as personalization and tracking. These options are easily accessible and intuitive to operate, though the interface does look a bit out-of-date.

However, this is not an issue that affects the ability to send mass emails, so it’s not too big of a concern on our end. Our main takeaway is that the plugin is easy to access within your Gmail account and that the interface is simple and intuitive, as advertised.

Message Personalization

One of the biggest concerns when it comes to mass emailing is personalization. The easier it is to personalize large amounts of bulk emails, the better. So, how does GMass hold up to the competition? Once again, where GMass excels is with simplicity and speed.

To send personalized emails using GMass, you have to start with your address list in a Google Sheet. Once your addresses are organized and all of the information is input into the custom categories, you can start using the plugin to designate personalized elements of your messages.

As you navigate through the interface, you’ll notice that there is a button that resembles a spreadsheet. This button allows you to automatically input the information from your address list into your personalized messages. All you have to do is select the “Connect Spreadsheet” option and the email addresses and other information automatically populate.

Correctly Navigating the “Send” Button

One slightly tricky element to using GMass as your mass email marketing service is the send button.

As mentioned, there is a red GMass button. It appears as a part of the plugin right next to the blue send button. When you are using GMass to send bulk emails, your normal send button is rendered useless. Should you accidentally send a message using the blue button, your messages may not be personalized correctly. Additionally, your recipients will be able to see all of the other addresses receiving the message.

Luckily, if you are sending more than 20 emails at a time, the regular send button disappears. This prevents you from sending hundreds of glitchy messages.

Though it is easy to remember not to use the regular send button, it is also easy to mistakenly send out your messages using the wrong button. Since you can’t un-send messages, this is an important point to keep in mind while using GMass—especially if you are sending fewer than 20 messages.

Preventing Message Errors

If you are sending mass emails, you are likely sending more than just a handful of messages. For most email marketers, sending out hundreds of messages at once is fairly commonplace.

When using GMass to send out your messages, you need to adjust some settings to make sure that you don’t accidentally send out incomplete or incorrect messages to your audience. After all, one mistake when sending mass emails can cause people to unsubscribe or report your message as spam. To avoid a disastrous campaign, we recommend taking these steps in the GMass plugin:

  1. Click on the arrow next to the red GMass button.
  2. Select the elements of personalization you want to include in your message. The different elements auto-populate based on your address list. This is a great feature as you don’t have to remember exactly what you called your different categories.
  3. Test your message. This is possibly the most important step in the whole process of sending mass emails. If you don’t test your message, you could end up sending out hundreds of error-filled messages to your audience.
  4. Review your test email. You might find that you missed a few things. It’s always easier to see issues in a message rather than in the compose window.

Draft Feature Cuts Down on Mistakes

Another way that you can prevent errors in your messages is by saving your campaign as a draft. To save your campaign as a draft in GMass simply select the “Save as Draft” option in the section of the interface labeled “Action.”

After you’ve selected to save your campaign as a draft, GMass creates the messages so you can review them individually. Sometimes errors in campaigns only occur in certain messages, so if you have run into problems with personalization, we definitely recommend reviewing your campaign as a draft.

Compared to other mass email services, checking through the drafts is a bit cumbersome. Since it is so easy to make mistakes when sending out mass emails, it would be convenient if the plugin was able to display a message as it appears to a recipient before you can hit send. However, unlike a lot of other services, GMass is integrated into Gmail, meaning that it can only use features existing in Gmail. This is limiting in some aspects. However, on the whole, the plugin does a good job of working around the limitations imposed by Gmail.

Tracking and Reporting

One of the best parts about using GMass as your mass email service is the built-in tracking features. Tracking and reporting are essential features of any mass email service—it also just happens to be the key to running successful future campaigns.

To access tracking features in GMass, all you have to do is click on the arrow next to the GMass button to pull up the email settings. Next to the “Track” options in the window, you’ll see options to track both opens and clicks. As your audience interacts with your message, the tracking feature in GMass automatically updates. You can even stipulate that the data collected from tracking updates automatically in your address list.

This is a very useful feature to assess active vs. inactive addresses on your list. For example, if there is an address that has not opened one of your messages for the last few campaigns, you’ll be able to tell just by pulling up your address list. As you make changes to the address list, you can slowly eliminate addresses that are inactive to make room for active recipients.

Campaign Reports

Accessing your campaign reports when using GMass as your mass emails service is also super simple. Where your sent and draft folders are located on the left-hand side of your Gmail account, you’ll find a new folder titled “GMass Reports” in your account.

GMass automatically categorizes these reports by the campaign. They display all of the most important metrics you need to see as an email marketer. You can also easily download the report as a CSV file and upload the information into a Google Sheet or Excel spreadsheet to display to stakeholders or your email marketing team.

As far as easy tracking and reporting are concerned, it doesn’t get much easier, faster, or more intuitive than with GMass.

Message Deliverability

If you are sending out messages to your audience, you need to make sure they are being delivered. This is especially important for novice marketers or people starting small businesses.

Using GMass as a mass email service, it is easy to avoid exceeding your daily send limit so you can preserve your email sender reputation. GMass also makes the bold claim that their mass email service can get you the highest possible delivery rate of any of the mass email tools currently available. Therefore, we wanted to pay extra attention to how exactly GMass lives up to this lofty claim!

GMass can get users a high deliverability rate and help marketers avoid the spam folder by using a dedicated tracking domain.

A tracking domain keeps a record of your history of sending emails. As you send emails, the number of opens and clicks you get are all cataloged in the tracking domain. If you accidentally exceed the daily send limit or are sending messages that look like spam, your tracking domain will garner a bad reputation according to Gmail.

To overcome this and get your campaign to as close to 100% deliverability as possible, GMass can assign you a new tracking domain. All you have to do is send a request to GMass for a custom tracking domain, and boom! Your deliverability rate just increased!

Scheduling and Throttling

Another key feature of GMass that increases deliverability is the scheduling and email throttling. As we’ve discussed, there is a daily send limit imposed by Gmail that you have to follow otherwise you risk your address reputation. Thankfully, GMass has features that allow you to work around the send limit including message scheduling and throttling.

To schedule a message in GMass, all you have to do is click on the arrow next to the GMass button and look for the “Schedule” option. Then, you can schedule your campaign to be sent automatically at a strategic time to appeal to your audience.

If you want to send more than a few hundred emails at a time, you have to schedule them 24 hours apart from each other to avoid damaging your sender reputation. But, when you use GMass, the mass email service will automatically throttle your messages. When you use GMass you no longer have to worry about sending too many messages at once. GMass will automatically schedule them 24 hours apart without your input.

We found that these features combined do result in a very high deliverability rate. So, if deliverability is a major concern for your next campaign, GMass is an excellent option as a mass email service.

Email Flows

In addition to a high deliverability rate, GMass also offers automated services for email flows. An email flow is a series of emails sent out to a recipient with an intended action in mind. These messages work to take your audience from the top of the funnel to the bottom.

That is to say, email flows are a series of messages designed and ordered to produce a conversion.

We tried out the automatic follow-up option in GMass to see how it can produce effortless email flows. Guess what? It worked like a charm.

The automatic follow-up feature is definitely something that sets GMass apart from the competition. Using automatic follow-ups you can save time and send out more messages than ever before. Remember we said that GMass is all about speed—this is where the speed of the plugin is most clearly demonstrated.

Using GMass, you can easily write follow-up messages and schedule them in response to certain actions taken by your recipient. For example, if a recipient doesn’t open your message, GMass can automatically schedule a follow-up until you receive a response. (Be careful with this feature, though, as sending too many follow-ups can land you in the spam folder.)

The Verdict

Does GMass make email marketing faster and easier than other mass email services?

Now that we’ve explored the main features of GMass, what did we learn?

Is GMass the right tool for your company?
Is GMass the right tool for your company?

As far as mass email services go, GMass is one of the best. There isn’t much focus on the design of the interface and there are some limitations under the Gmail integrations. However, we can easily overlook these drawbacks in favor of the impressive and fast sending capabilities.

If you are looking for a plugin for sending mass emails, GMass is certainly one of the better options. GMass currently offers a limited free option and premium packages starting at $19.95/month.

Image Credit: Brett Jordan; Pexels.com

Politics

Fintech Kennek raises $12.5M seed round to digitize lending

Published

on

Google eyed for $2 billion Anthropic deal after major Amazon play


London-based fintech startup Kennek has raised $12.5 million in seed funding to expand its lending operating system.

According to an Oct. 10 tech.eu report, the round was led by HV Capital and included participation from Dutch Founders Fund, AlbionVC, FFVC, Plug & Play Ventures, and Syndicate One. Kennek offers software-as-a-service tools to help non-bank lenders streamline their operations using open banking, open finance, and payments.

The platform aims to automate time-consuming manual tasks and consolidate fragmented data to simplify lending. Xavier De Pauw, founder of Kennek said:

“Until kennek, lenders had to devote countless hours to menial operational tasks and deal with jumbled and hard-coded data – which makes every other part of lending a headache. As former lenders ourselves, we lived and breathed these frustrations, and built kennek to make them a thing of the past.”

The company said the latest funding round was oversubscribed and closed quickly despite the challenging fundraising environment. The new capital will be used to expand Kennek’s engineering team and strengthen its market position in the UK while exploring expansion into other European markets. Barbod Namini, Partner at lead investor HV Capital, commented on the investment:

“Kennek has developed an ambitious and genuinely unique proposition which we think can be the foundation of the entire alternative lending space. […] It is a complicated market and a solution that brings together all information and stakeholders onto a single platform is highly compelling for both lenders & the ecosystem as a whole.”

The fintech lending space has grown rapidly in recent years, but many lenders still rely on legacy systems and manual processes that limit efficiency and scalability. Kennek aims to leverage open banking and data integration to provide lenders with a more streamlined, automated lending experience.

The seed funding will allow the London-based startup to continue developing its platform and expanding its team to meet demand from non-bank lenders looking to digitize operations. Kennek’s focus on the UK and Europe also comes amid rising adoption of open banking and open finance in the regions.

Featured Image Credit: Photo from Kennek.io; Thank you!

Radek Zielinski

Radek Zielinski is an experienced technology and financial journalist with a passion for cybersecurity and futurology.

Continue Reading

Politics

Fortune 500’s race for generative AI breakthroughs

Published

on

Deanna Ritchie


As excitement around generative AI grows, Fortune 500 companies, including Goldman Sachs, are carefully examining the possible applications of this technology. A recent survey of U.S. executives indicated that 60% believe generative AI will substantially impact their businesses in the long term. However, they anticipate a one to two-year timeframe before implementing their initial solutions. This optimism stems from the potential of generative AI to revolutionize various aspects of businesses, from enhancing customer experiences to optimizing internal processes. In the short term, companies will likely focus on pilot projects and experimentation, gradually integrating generative AI into their operations as they witness its positive influence on efficiency and profitability.

Goldman Sachs’ Cautious Approach to Implementing Generative AI

In a recent interview, Goldman Sachs CIO Marco Argenti revealed that the firm has not yet implemented any generative AI use cases. Instead, the company focuses on experimentation and setting high standards before adopting the technology. Argenti recognized the desire for outcomes in areas like developer and operational efficiency but emphasized ensuring precision before putting experimental AI use cases into production.

According to Argenti, striking the right balance between driving innovation and maintaining accuracy is crucial for successfully integrating generative AI within the firm. Goldman Sachs intends to continue exploring this emerging technology’s potential benefits and applications while diligently assessing risks to ensure it meets the company’s stringent quality standards.

One possible application for Goldman Sachs is in software development, where the company has observed a 20-40% productivity increase during its trials. The goal is for 1,000 developers to utilize generative AI tools by year’s end. However, Argenti emphasized that a well-defined expectation of return on investment is necessary before fully integrating generative AI into production.

To achieve this, the company plans to implement a systematic and strategic approach to adopting generative AI, ensuring that it complements and enhances the skills of its developers. Additionally, Goldman Sachs intends to evaluate the long-term impact of generative AI on their software development processes and the overall quality of the applications being developed.

Goldman Sachs’ approach to AI implementation goes beyond merely executing models. The firm has created a platform encompassing technical, legal, and compliance assessments to filter out improper content and keep track of all interactions. This comprehensive system ensures seamless integration of artificial intelligence in operations while adhering to regulatory standards and maintaining client confidentiality. Moreover, the platform continuously improves and adapts its algorithms, allowing Goldman Sachs to stay at the forefront of technology and offer its clients the most efficient and secure services.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by Google DeepMind; Pexels; Thank you!

Deanna Ritchie

Managing Editor at ReadWrite

Deanna is the Managing Editor at ReadWrite. Previously she worked as the Editor in Chief for Startup Grind and has over 20+ years of experience in content management and content development.

Continue Reading

Politics

UK seizes web3 opportunity simplifying crypto regulations

Published

on

Deanna Ritchie


As Web3 companies increasingly consider leaving the United States due to regulatory ambiguity, the United Kingdom must simplify its cryptocurrency regulations to attract these businesses. The conservative think tank Policy Exchange recently released a report detailing ten suggestions for improving Web3 regulation in the country. Among the recommendations are reducing liability for token holders in decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and encouraging the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to adopt alternative Know Your Customer (KYC) methodologies, such as digital identities and blockchain analytics tools. These suggestions aim to position the UK as a hub for Web3 innovation and attract blockchain-based businesses looking for a more conducive regulatory environment.

Streamlining Cryptocurrency Regulations for Innovation

To make it easier for emerging Web3 companies to navigate existing legal frameworks and contribute to the UK’s digital economy growth, the government must streamline cryptocurrency regulations and adopt forward-looking approaches. By making the regulatory landscape clear and straightforward, the UK can create an environment that fosters innovation, growth, and competitiveness in the global fintech industry.

The Policy Exchange report also recommends not weakening self-hosted wallets or treating proof-of-stake (PoS) services as financial services. This approach aims to protect the fundamental principles of decentralization and user autonomy while strongly emphasizing security and regulatory compliance. By doing so, the UK can nurture an environment that encourages innovation and the continued growth of blockchain technology.

Despite recent strict measures by UK authorities, such as His Majesty’s Treasury and the FCA, toward the digital assets sector, the proposed changes in the Policy Exchange report strive to make the UK a more attractive location for Web3 enterprises. By adopting these suggestions, the UK can demonstrate its commitment to fostering innovation in the rapidly evolving blockchain and cryptocurrency industries while ensuring a robust and transparent regulatory environment.

The ongoing uncertainty surrounding cryptocurrency regulations in various countries has prompted Web3 companies to explore alternative jurisdictions with more precise legal frameworks. As the United States grapples with regulatory ambiguity, the United Kingdom can position itself as a hub for Web3 innovation by simplifying and streamlining its cryptocurrency regulations.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by Jonathan Borba; Pexels; Thank you!

Deanna Ritchie

Managing Editor at ReadWrite

Deanna is the Managing Editor at ReadWrite. Previously she worked as the Editor in Chief for Startup Grind and has over 20+ years of experience in content management and content development.

Continue Reading

Copyright © 2021 Seminole Press.