• The Smart Way To Send More Email: Think Like A Farmer
    No matter what you've heard, "Mail less" is not the official motto of deliverability experts. "Mail as much as your subscribers want," is more like it. We work in email marketing: We know that more mail means more money. But we also know that more bad mail - mail subscribers don't want - means bad inbox placement, and that means less money. Our most recent survey of global inbox placement shows how hard it is for marketers to get this right. Reaching the inbox isn't getting any easier for most of the world, but we're seeing more senders that consistently …
  • Email And Lead Management
    I have long believed that customer relationship marketing needs to be separated from early lifestage marketing. This simply makes it easier to classify success. The functions and tactics of acquisition and customer activation are very different, and budget dynamics should vary accordingly.
  • Are You Making These Preference Center Mistakes?
    n an earlier Email Insider, I argued that preference centers themselves usually aren't the problem. Rather, it's how marketers create the center or how they market their preference centers to their subscribers. As I work with companies and attempt to manage my own preferences with hundreds of personal and work-related email relationships, I've uncovered dozens of examples of where marketers go wrong. Many of these mistakes are relatively easy to fix and can help create a better customer experience and improve your data collection. How many of the following mistakes apply to your own preference center?
  • Coping With The New Gmail Inbox
    Well, they're at it again: email marketing is going to get killed -- this time, by Google, according to a provocatively titled article recently published by The Motley Fool.
  • Increase the Value Of Your Abandoned Cart Emails
    Most of us email marketers rely on offers to increase engagement and sales. We like to think that we're driving these behaviors strategically, and sometimes even covertly, pulling levers behind the scenes that consumers respond to without being fully aware. But I read something in the August issue of Better Homes and Gardens that suggests an increase in consumer awareness of some of our more covert tactics. Additionally, consumers are taking overt steps to exploit these tactics to save even more money.
  • Have A Little Faith In Me: A Note About Digital Marketing Decoys
    If you read my last article about online privacy, you may get the sense that I am often inspired by music. Not to let you down, I recently read about two products created to provide false consumer profile information to digital marketers. It got me thinking about that old John Hiatt song, "Have A Little Faith In Me."
  • It Should Never Have Been Social Vs. Email
    Email marketers have endured years of misguided "email is dead" rants from folks who believed social was superior, but it appears that the script has been flipped. Increasingly, headlines like "Email Is Crushing Twitter, Facebook for Selling Stuff Online" are the norm. It's looking more and more as if social - after reaching the Peak of Inflated Expectations with Facebook's IPO - has plunged into the Trough of Disillusionment a la Gartner's Hype Cycle. While I'm not immune to the schadenfreude of the role reversal, and appreciate that folks are acknowledging email for the sales powerhouse that it is, I …
  • If You Were A Spy Novel
    Spending a few weeks on vacation and reading my fill of spy novels makes me reflect on my years in the online business. Spy novels and movies feature cool gadgets that work exactly when you need them, with the ability to adapt to any situation. Sounds like a perfect metaphor for online advertising/marketing. After poring through eight of Vince Flynn's books in two weeks, I found a few themes that I think are really important for marketing, email marketing and online advertising in general.
  • Are Best Practices Holding You Back?
    When I speak with clients, prospects or conference attendees about ways to take their email marketing programs to a higher level, I almost always hear about some combination of challenges that prevent them from acting, such as not having enough time, resources, budget or help from IT. Having been a marketing executive for many years, I can empathize with this reality. But, recently, I've discovered yet another challenge that holds many marketing departments back: the feeling that they must launch a "best practices" program out of the gate. That's an overwhelming prospect. No wonder so many marketers give up and …
  • The Email Marketer's Habit Loop
    In my last post, I shared my thoughts on a book I was reading, "The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business," by Charles Duhigg. The book examined the concept of a three-step habit loop that puts some consumer behavior on autopilot. As promised, today's post will examine how habit loops can also drive organizational behavior regarding email programs.
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