Today, we’re looking at three email campaign services — Campaign Monitor, MailChimp and Constant Contact.

Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor is a flexible tool, suitable for both novices and experienced developers. You can choose from a sizeable library of prebuilt and ready-to-use templates, or you can easily create custom templates of your own. You can preview your campaign in a variety email programs and on various mobile devices before you send it. Campaign Monitor also has a robust API, which lets developers and other programs use its data. For example, you can integrate your Campaign Monitor subscriber lists with your existing customer information databases.

Pricing

Campaign Monitor charges a small flat fee of $5 for each email campaign you send, but the service also bases pricing on your number of subscribers. Each recipient costs just pennies to send. This can be an advantage or disadvantage, depending on the size of your list. Emailing small lists with only a couple hundred people can be very affordable, while emailing tens of thousands of people can get expensive quickly.

MailChimp

MailChimp is another service that offers a robust API. The MailChimp API touts its ability to sync with e-commerce tools. Another cool feature allows you to fully automate newsletters based on your blog or another RSS news feed. A double opt-in process using MailChimp is in most cases required for new subscribers. Customers must sign up on your website then click a confirmation link sent to them via email. This process is terrific for ensuring that your subscribers are interested in your content and are less likely to mark your newsletter as spam. But it also decreases the number of successful conversions by making the signup process longer.

Pricing

Unlike the other services we’re looking at, MailChimp has a free plan for smaller lists. For more frequent or larger campaigns, there are various monthly and “pay-as-you-go” plans. Nonprofit organizations receive a 15% discount.

Constant Contact

Constant Contact also offers a large library of email templates, but they’re not as flexible and fewer elements can be edited. The Constant Contact API is not as useful as those of the other services we’ve discussed. For a small additional cost, Constant Contact offers “image management and hosting,” which includes access to several thousand stock images that you can use in your newsletters and email campaigns.

Pricing

Constant Contact’s pricing is monthly, based on how many subscribers you have. You can send as many campaigns as you want for a flat rate. Discounted rates of 10-15% off are available if you prepay for 6 or 12 months. The discount increases to as much as 30% if you’re a nonprofit organization.

So which email campaign service should you choose?

It depends on your unique needs. Constant Contact and MailChimp have nearly identical pricing, but Constant Contact offers better discounts for nonprofits while MailChimp is free for small subscriber lists. Campaign Monitor has the strongest API and the most flexible templates. MailChimp lets you automate newsletters if you have a news feed on your website. Constant Contact offers stock images.

All of these services offer useful metrics and can make reaching your audience easier. Check out these three email campaign services next time you want to spread the word and you don’t want that word to get silenced by a spam filter.

@font-face

@font-face is a CSS3 property which allows users to download a font from their site to render a Web page if they do not have it installed. This property is available on the latest versions of Mozilla Firefox and Safari and has been available on Internet Explorer since Version 5.5.  Although the @font-face property is a step in the right direction, limited browser support and font licensing issues keep this font-embedding method from becoming mainstream.

sIFR

Otherwise known as the Scalable Inman Flash Replacement, sIFR uses Javascript and Flash to replace select text on a Web page. Since Flash has the ability to embed custom fonts, this technique is cross-browser compatible and does not require the user to have the specific font. However, this method will not work if the user does not have the Flash plugin or Javascript enabled, and there is always the possibility that some ad blockers may disable the replaced text.

Cufón

Unlike sIFR, Cufón only requires Javascript to render custom fonts. In order to use this script, your font file must be converted using an automated tool, which is a relatively painless proces. The script and the file can then be linked in your page and those headings can be “fancified”. Cufón works great for presentation, but in many browsers the rendered text is not selectable (i.e. a user cannot copy/paste the text easily).

Facelift

Facelift Image Replacement (FLIR) is cosmetic surgery for your Web site. This technique uses Javascript and PHP, a server-side scripting language, to dynamically generate text in the form of images with a dapper-looking font of your choosing. Facelift does not require any conversion of the font file, unlike Cufón, but the server on which your site is hosted must be running PHP.  In addition, because the text is replaced by images, text selection is also not possible.

Typeface.js

Typeface.js is yet another Javascript replacement method. However, it differs from the rest in that instead of replacing text with images or flash, the script uses the browser’s vector drawing capability to render the text. This method has a distinct benefit since it leaves your text intact, providing a more accessible option for your users. Typeface.js does require you to convert your font using a conversion tool, and copyright issues prevent you from using certain rights-managed fonts.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

If you want to use custom fonts on the Web, deciding which method to use can be daunting. Consider your audience. Make sure that whatever method you use is widely supported by your target audience and degrades gracefully if the user doesn’t have Javascript or Flash enabled. Use custom fonts sparingly. Until @font-face becomes widely accepted, the techniques listed above add weight to your Web pages. The more text you replace, the slower your page load will become. If accessibility of your page content is important, perhaps it would be wise to go the (Web) safe route.

If you have an e-commerce Web site or take credit cards online, you need to know about PCI compliance.  “PCI compliance” is the shortened version of the mouthful “Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard” (PCI DSS). PCI DSS is a set of network security and business practice guidelines adopted by the major credit card companies to ensure that all companies that process, send, or store credit card information online have a secure environment for doing so. Although the credit card companies created the standard, it is up to the banks to require PCI compliance. That is why you may not yet be required to be compliant, but eventually you could be.

What happens if I don’t comply?

The credit card companies have the discretion to fine the acquiring banks for PCI compliance violations. This cost could eventually be passed down to you in fines, higher rates, or even expulsion.

Ouch, so how do I make my online store PCI compliant?

The point of PCI compliance is to protect cardholder data, so one requirement is to submit to quarterly network security scans that check for vulnerabilities in your Web site and hosting. There are PCI security scanning services out there such as McAfee SECURE, Trustwave, and Trust Guard. When your site passes these scans, most of these services give you a security seal to place on your site. And as a benefit you will probably see your conversion rate increase, as users are more likely to purchase from a site that they trust.

Since you will be receiving quarterly scans, it is important that you have a secure hosting environment. With the advent of PCI compliance, hosting companies such as A2 are now offering special hosting plans that ensure your site will pass these scans. These hosting packages are more costly but save you the headache of having to worry about passing these scans. It is also important to choose a good vendor for your e-commerce since these security scans also check for vulnerability in your shopping cart software, payment forms, etc.

So what should I do now?

Contact your bank or merchant provider and find out if they require, or plan to require PCI compliance. Depending on the amount of transactions you have, the PCI compliance specifications may have other requirements that go beyond the scope of this article, so make sure to find out what other measures you must take to be compliant. It is better to be proactive, as the alternative could be costly fees and fines, or worse, the loss of your ability to accept credit cards.

What do you consider to be the biggest challenge working in the Web industry?

Design Technologist Janis Gonser:

“Keeping up with the always evolving and changing technologies, methods and techniques as well as choosing the right ones for any given task. On the other hand this is what makes it so exciting to work in the Web industry.”

President Nick Weynand:

“The biggest challenge working in the Web industry is its vastness. The Internet is young and there are still so many competing technologies and service providers that it’s hard to make sense of it all. Because of this, the clients we work with have some tough decisions to make about how to market online when any number of avenues may be the right answer.

“I believe in the next couple of decades there will be major consolidation of technologies, continued development of standards and philosophical agreement on best practices for marketing. Until then, we’ll all continue scrambling to keep up.”

Producer Caroling Lee:

“I think the biggest challenge is defining value to our clients. There is no one right answer to a single problem, so our client relationships are based on trust. We wear a lot of hats when consulting with clients – helping them solve problems with anything from marketing to information architecture to design to business strategy and more.”

Junior Web Developer Kyle Greenan:

“The biggest challenge facing the web industry as a whole is keeping people informed about the ever-changing technologies being used and developed. We have progressed a great deal since the days of Netscape, Compuserve and AOL. Users are more comfortable than ever using the Internet. Every day it seems a handful of new formats and software are available to the public.

“While information travels worldwide quickly over the Internet, not everyone is able to recieve the message. Being connected has multiple meanings now and there is a big disconnect between the Internet and its users. Once companies start adopting standards, only then will we all be on the same page. Until then, we must educate ourselves and look to the future.”

In an effort to steal your data, phishing artists are now setting up SSL certificates for their bogus sites to make the user feel like they can be trusted. To counter this, the Certificate Authority (CA) has created the Extended Validation SSL, or EV. Before a company is allowed an EV SSL certificate, it must first pass an audit that ensures its validity. Once approved, when users are on a site protected by EV, modern browsers will show a green bar with the company’s name so that users know that the SSL certificate issued matches the site they are on. Users can feel safe pressing that checkout button. It’s like the Abe Lincoln of SSLs!

Many companies that use EV SSL certificates report an increase in conversions and registration rates, and a drop in abandoned carts [1]. Peace of mind does come at a price: an EV SSL certificate can cost as much as three times that of a standard SSL certificate. However, if your abandonment rate is high, you may want to consider hiring EV, the trusty checkout attendant.

[1] http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0419324.htm