• Market Ups And Downs
    Combine the Olympics, an election year, offset by the recession in the EU and what do you get? A revised perspective of global advertising spend, according to Bruce Biegel, senior managing director of Winterberry Group. Speaking at DMA a few weeks ago, he unveiled his market outlook for advertising spend, indicating continued growth in virtually all markets, with the exception of Western Europe.
  • The Email Marketer's Letter To Santa
    As you may recall from previous posts, my family and I are currently in the process of building a house and are living in a rental during the interim. We anticipate moving around mid- to late December, and the kids are concerned that "Aurora" (our Elf on the Shelf) and Santa may not find us at this transitional location. So in order to minimize their angst, I had them write letters to Santa in advance so he has ample notice before the wish list rush begins. This pacified them. Thankfully. Continuing on this theme, I have had some great "email …
  • New Technology Offers Glimpses Into Inbox Of Future
    The inbox of the future is a consumer's dream -- and also a marketer's. In some ways it won't be so different: Email marketers will still need to focus on creating a positive user experience, getting permission, demonstrating relevance, and delivering value. But there are also specific, technical innovations -- some already in use -- that promise to revolutionize the inbox and make consumers fall in love with email all over again. Every one of these represents opportunities -- and some threats. As with all innovations, there will be winners and losers. Knowledge is power: Start thinking now about how …
  • Be The Go-To Expert On Your Email Marketing Team
    In the ever-evolving world of email marketing "best practices," mastering some niche know-how can significantly boost the value of your contribution to your email marketing team. Whether you're the jack-of-all-trades in a barebones operation or a member of a large in-house or agency team, becoming familiar with the following will position you as an expert -- and, more important, enable to you make meaningful contributions to your program.
  • Show Email's Impact By The Magic
    A few weeks ago Loren McDonald contributed an article here titled "Show Email's Impact by the Numbers." The article went on to list of a series of stats that prove the power of the channel -- from its outstanding ROI, to its higher click-through rates compared to other modes of online advertising, to the consistent growth in the number of email accounts opened by people across the globe. As powerful as the numbers and business impacts Loren listed truly are, I couldn't help but feeling that all those "whys" and "hows" still left me (and, more importan, brand marketing executives) …
  • What the Heck Is Gonna Be Relevant?
    While "it depends" is the stock response to the question "when is the best time to send email?," "deliver more relevant content" is the stock response to just about every question regarding a good email strategy -- and I believe it is just as vague. That's not to say there is not good advice out there on the topic of relevance, but it seems to me that most of the examples that get cited are about retailers. If someone buys X, they will likely buy Y. True, cross-sell emails that trigger off past purchases are one way to deliver relevant …
  • Five Questions To Shape Your Automated Email Content
    Once you decide to expand your broadcast email program to include a growing number of low-volume, high-ROI automated messages, you'll confront a new set of challenges, including, "Where am I going to get all of the content I need to populate these emails?" Beyond resource and content creation issues, a critical question also becomes, "What content approach should we take in each automated email?"
  • Facebook Timeline And Email's Brand Narrative
    Facebook's Timeline is remarkable for brands because it allows consumers to follow a brand's narrative almost at a glance. Every piece of content a brand contributes to its Timeline constitutes a chapter, and seeing them all aggregated chronologically and graphically allows them to be read quickly as a whole story. A similar aggregation of brand content is taking place in email right now. It's more subtle and is occurring on a number of platforms and with a range of methods that make it increasingly likely consumers will have the whole picture of a brand's email program through aggregated content.
  • Email Growth And Practices
    The holiday season -- or "peak season," as we love to call it -- is upon us again. We are projecting increases across the board for email marketing: increases in the volume of email and campaigns sent, in number of segments within each campaign, and of course a dramatic increase in mobile viewership. Breaking this down helps us draw a few conclusions.
  • Making Your Emails Move: How To Use Video
    Email marketers know that it isn't easy getting the attention of customers in an already crowded inbox. You want to stand out without sacrificing your brand, but at the same time you need to deliver what your customers want, when they want it. Video has been shown to boost CTR, but it's not for everyone. Ask yourself these questions:
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