• Is Online Chatter Predicting The Success (Or Failure) Of Your Email Campaigns?
    I recently read a statistic in the Harvard Business Review that researchers who invested in brands based on online reviews did 7.9% better than the S&P 500 index. After studying four years' worth of product reviews of 15 brands -- almost 350,000 reviews -- they found there were two major predictors of performance: one was the sheer volume of reviews and the other was negative chatter. This got me wondering: Do marketers see email performance spikes or dives based on reviews and chatter over time?
  • Three New Email Metrics You Will be Using in 2013
    Marketers have relied on open and click-through rates as the major measures of the success of a program or campaign for the last decade plus. These metrics are good, but don't always tell the entire story. At my company we began monitoring email marketing engagement as we gathered more and more panel data (aggregated behavioral data on how actual mailbox users interact with messages) over the past year. The metrics we developed while analyzing that data provide deeper insight into program performance, even relative to other marketers' campaigns. The following are three measures we've found to be especially valuable:
  • Easy Ways to Optimize For The 'Pocket Inbox' This Holiday Season
    With the holiday season approaching, more shoppers than usual will hit brick-and-mortar locations with shopping lists in hand -- and their inboxes in their pockets. Retail marketers have huge opportunities -- this year more than ever before -- to drive in-store purchases through emails reaching consumers as they shop. Here are some strategies for driving in-store purchases that could be implemented alongside existing holiday plans:
  • Is Your Mobile-First Strategy Putting Your Customers Last?
    Two weeks ago I contributed an article here examining the pros and cons of three emerging approaches to mobile email optimization: prefab content, responsive design, and live content. But I omitted a fourth, important approach that's worthy of its own discussion: mobile-first email.Two weeks ago I contributed an article here examining the pros and cons of three emerging approaches to mobile email optimization: prefab content, responsive design, and live content. But I omitted a fourth, important approach that's worthy of its own discussion: mobile-first email.
  • Show Email's Impact By The Numbers
    No, this isn't another "email isn't dead" column. I'm tired of those, and you wouldn't be reading this column if you thought that email's day was done. However, as an email marketer who labors in the trenches, many of you field questions or get pressured every day to channel your energy and marketing dollars out of email and into the latest hot social network or whatever other channel is generating the most buzz and noise that day. You know email rocks, but you may have to prove it to everybody -- from clients, if you are an agency, to your …
  • Are You An Email Weekend Warrior?
    After the annual August lull when most of the country seems to carve out at least one week to take a vacation, the soccer fields, hockey rinks, and other competitive venues are once again filled with grown adults reliving their adolescent athletic dreams. OK, our adolescent athletic dreams - I count myself among them. In fact, I expect a lot of email marketers suit up for competition on weekends. If you spend your weeks jostling for position and results in the inbox, it is only natural your competitive streak extends to extra-curricular events on Saturday and Sunday. The hardest part …
  • Preference Center Or Subscription Center
    We tend to use the terms preference center and subscription center synonymously, yet in most cases they offer very different values to the consumer and the business. The belief is that the consumer understands enough about the brand they are engaging with that they will self-select options of communications, including cadence, type of communication and even communication channel. The belief is that the consumer will update this information somewhat regularly so it doesn't get outdated. I've always been a bit of a skeptic when it comes to the value of preference centers, but some of the social media polls and …
  • If An Email Is Opened On Android Without Images Turned On, Does it Exist?
    No surprises here: In its latest Mobile Email Opens Report, data management firm Knotice revealed that the share of mobile email opens continues growing by leaps and bounds, up 32% in the first half of 2012 compared to the second half of 2011. 36% of all email opens are now occurring on mobile devices (25% smartphones, 11% tablets), with the remaining 64% of email opens occurring on desktops. But something strange is brewing when you dig deeper into the numbers. According to Knotice's report, nearly four times as many emails are being opened on iPhones than on Android smartphones. Meanwhile, …
  • On Email's 30th Anniversary, Channel Continues To Evolve
    On Aug. 30, 1982, 16-year-old V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai was issued a copyright for a computer program he named "EMAIL." As "email" celebrates its 30th birthday, it continues to evolve in response to the increasing demands and expectations of consumers for personalized service. Marketing has become a 24/7 job, and email is an increasingly important part of that job. In fact, consider the following statistics that show how smart marketers are using email to fuel growth:
  • The Four-Year Search For Stellar Emails
    After releasing our 4th annual Email Design Look Book a few weeks ago, I was asked how the fourth edition was different from the first. It was a great question -- not only because there were quite a few differences, but also because those differences are in part a commentary on how our industry has become much more tech-driven, and how what constitutes email "design" has changed over the past four years. Having had more time to dwell on the question, here's how I'd answer it now:
« Previous Entries