Recent big-ticket acquisitions by Google, Salesforce and Intel are defensive moves designed to buy growth and fend off competition. For instance, Salesforce’s purchases of MuleSoft and Tableau have a FOMO (fear of missing out) feel to them. 

Anytime Fitness, a UK gym chain, is being criticized for purported body shaming in an email to customers. The email celebrates the arrival of summer, then tells readers to "grab the excess you have on your waist. Can you pinch it? Or can you grab it? Well, I want to call it what it is…FAT.” 

There are two ways to deal with subscribers who haven’t engaged in a long time. One is to simply delete them. The other is to implement an email sunsetting strategy in which the brand tries to reactive the subscribers, and then deletes them.

CM Group is working on an acquisition designed to increase the breadth of its email management product. The company’s strategy is to assemble a set of distinctive brands to help firms with their marketing, CMGroup chief Wellford Dillard says in an interview. 

TalkTalk is down, leaving hundreds of UK customers without access to email on Friday. The problems exist across the entire UK. 

A new study from ObserveIT shows that 84% of U.S. employees have never heard of GDPR. Yet 59% handle sensitive information every day. As might be expected, privacy awareness is higher in the UK.      

Trying to control uncertainty in marketing is a fool’s errand. Email copywriters should embrace this truth and use diverse combinations of words, phrases, emojis, sentiments, semantics and syntactic structures, according to Phrasee CEO Parry Malm. 

Writer Jason Aten states that when he gave his email to Nest, he didn’t realize Google would use it to try to sell him a phone. Google acquired Nest in 2014, and last month announced it was folding the brand and moving Nest products into the Google Home Ecosystem. 

The Singapore government has fined Grab for $16,000 for leaking customer details in email marketing campaigns. The emails targeted users of Grab’s GrabCar share-a-ride service app, which also lets consumers order food deliveries and at-home beauticians. 

Businesses are still struggling to protect their customers’ data and comply with GDPR. Here are five data strategies to help brands navigate compliance.