• The Future of Email: 2011
    Every year, I write my favorite column, "The Future of Email," about all the things I predict for the upcoming year. This year, it's a bit tougher to isolate this to purely email without referencing the interdependencies email has to so many other aspects of marketing.
  • 2011: Year Of The Trigger?
    Marketers often talk about using sophisticated triggered emails to drive revenue to a higher level, but if the predictions in Silverpop's newest benchmark survey come true, eight in 10 marketers will actually be deploying cart and browse abandonment emails this year.
  • Raise Your Hand If You Want To Be Talked At
    I saw "Toy Story 3" (again) last weekend, and was struck by a scene in the film where one toy-character complimented another toy on his acting abilities. An odd choice of compliment, since neither had choice of expression or movement -- while their owner, a little girl, spun disjointed fantasies. The same is true for marketing emails. We may aspire to "conversation," lead "nurturing" or any number of euphemisms that imply an engaging back-and-forth communication between brand and customer, but the reality is, we can't handle a discussion. And so our "conversations" are little more than a one-sided romp where …
  • Three Strategies for Ratcheting Up Email Subscriber Engagement
    At least once a month, I look through the piles of new data around email marketing to be certain I am in sync with my industry peers. In the last few months, one trend continues to rise to the top of the listL the need for email marketing programs to increase subscriber engagement. This "need" for increased engagement stems from a trend we have been seeing for years: "ad-avoidance."
  • The Trends To Watch In 2011
    Last month my column focused on what I thought were the big trends of 2010. Today I want to discuss the trends to watch for in 2011.
  • My Parents Are on Facebook -- And So Are Your Older Email Subscribers!
    More and more studies corroborate the impression that a significant numbers of older Internet users -- both Baby Boomers and members of the GI Generation -- are becoming active on social networking sites. A December Pew Research Study found that while social networking usage has risen from 35% in 2008 to 61% in 2010 among all online American adults, the increase among older adults is particularly striking.
  • Forget The Resolutions -- Just Do It!
    You've probably seen lots of suggestions for email-related New Year resolutions, like launching cart-recovery or targeted messaging programs. Either is a worthy goal, but let's get realistic. What was on your 2010 list of resolutions, and were you able to deliver on any of them? Instead of just listing vague or overly broad resolutions, find ways to visualize and bring about change through concrete steps that address all the ways resolutions get derailed.
  • Three Tools To Boost Email Engagement That Don't Exist Yet
    As digital media go, email isn't typically exalted for its cutting-edge progressiveness. You know what they say about the winds of change, though -- they blow. As the landscape shifts, it's becoming clear that engagement will become critically important to email marketing -- not just to boost ROI, but because of its growing importance to deliverability and sender reputation. Here are a few innovations I've been thinking about, that in past years haven't been worth the investment. But with engagement at a premium, we may start to see more energy and resources devoted to tools previously considered pie-in-the-sky, but now …
  • I'm Making Some Changes To Those Resolutions -- I Can Do That, Right?
    It's January -- our time to turn over a new leaf, conceive and commit to a better version of ourselves, and to accomplish big things. Typically, we make these resolutions as midnight strikes, but who says we can only resolve to be better at the beginning of the year? This year, I resolve to not resolve on Jan. 1 -- but on the first of EVERY month this year! I have my personal list tacked to the wall in my office, and if you come to visit, you are welcome to peruse it, because I am keeping it under wraps. …
  • Eight Ways To Integrate Email With Facebook And Twitter
    Last week, prediction number two of Tim Ferriss' 4 Social Media Marketing Predictions for 2011 was "The Full Resurrection of Email." Groupon's $6 billion valuation has shined its light on the value of permission marketing. Now permission marketing is capturing the imagination of angel investors and investment bankers all over again.
« Previous Entries