• Three Urban Legends Of Email Marketing
    Over the years, as I've spoken at conferences and on Webinars, met with clients and chatted with colleagues in the email industry, I've heard several myths and misunderstandings repeated so often that they've achieved status as urban legends in our industry. So, in this column, I will reveal my three favorite email marketing urban legends. Why "urban legends?" Like alligators in the New York sewer system, they start out as rumors that nobody can trace to the source, or had a toehold in reality once -- but get blown way out of proportion through repeated retelling, misinterpretation and misunderstanding.
  • Good Marketing Results In Good Deliverability
    It's always nice when doing the right thing ends up making you a winner, too. A new report shows that the top tier of email marketers enjoy delivered rates more than 30 points higher than other legitimate senders. At the same time, the study shows that even small stumbles can put you squarely in the spammer camp.
  • More On Holiday Email Strategy
    In last week's article, the Email Diva stressed the importance of defining goals, integrating with your entire organization's efforts, delving into last year's data and researching your competitors and best practices. Now it's time to look at everything through the lens of the customer and fine-tune your process.
  • Rewards
    There's a pretty controversial issue brewing in the online advertising space regarding rewards. Is it appropriate for a brand to fairly compensate consumers to be an advocate of its product or service? Better yet, is it appropriate to compensate them for the number of references they make for that particular company, digitally through blogs or other means?
  • There's No Turning Back
    When I read Jason Calacanis' announcement that he was retiring from blogging so he could continue his online conversation more intimately via email, four things ultimately went through my mind. First, OMG! How refreshing to see a strong endorsement of email among the blogging, Twittering technorati....
  • Subject Line Testing: What Metric Should You Use To Measure Success?
    Recently the EEC posted the results from a survey asking, "What is the primary metric by which you measure the success of your subject line A/B tests?" There is no "right" answer. It varies by business, by situation, and by intent of the test being conducted.
  • Show Me The Love, And I'll Show You The Money!
    A colleague recently sent me a copy of Tim Sanders' book "Love is the Killer App," which I promptly opened and devoured within hours. For those of you who haven't read it yet, (A) you should and (B) it's modern day Dale Carnegie: a prescription for advancement in business by -- quite simply -- being nice and smart.
  • The Right Moment To Send An Email
    Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday? When is the right time to send an email? That may be the right question, but is the answer what you are really looking for? This is probably the most widely asked question that email marketers will face. People used to be fascinated with time of day and day of the week; now that we are well over 15 years into email marketing, I see less credence in these industry surveys of 1,200 respondents that try to help you answer this broadly.
  • Why You Should Include HTML Text In Your Emails
    I was under the impression that most email marketers were well aware of the advantages of including HTML text - also known as system text - as opposed to graphical text in their messages. But I am still frequently surprised to see emails in my inbox from well-established players that rely almost exclusively on images to convey the main point of the message.
  • Are You Maximizing Your Search Efforts With Email?
    I was astounded to see the results of a recent Email Experience Council survey in which marketers ranked search marketing near the bottom of seven marketing channels for its synergy with email. No great surprise about the top-ranked channel: 38% of respondents rated direct mail and catalogs as being email's ideal marketing mate. But search pulled only sixth place at 4%, barely above TV/radio (2%) and below blogs/RSS (19%), SMS (text messages, 17%) and social networks and Internet ads (10% each).
« Previous Entries