• How Tablets Are Changing Gender Targeting Trends
    Digging deeper into retail patterns and the impact of the transient mobile consumer, I've begun to change my thinking about gender-based control of household spending. For many years, I believed that the woman was the gateway to brand loyalty, influencing not only Gen-X but Baby Boomers and their Millennial friends. Mobile trends only reinforced my beliefs. Woman have control at all points of purchase, at home, on the run, have access to more information than they ever have and payment options were endless. What I didn't expect was what's happening with men and the mass adoption of tablets.
  • Eight Email Tactics To Help Close The Smartphone Browse-To-Buy Gap
    Your mobile user stats likely indicate more readers are viewing your emails and visiting your website on their smartphones. But are you seeing a parallel increase in conversions? If not, you aren't alone. IBM's 2013 Holiday Benchmark Study found that smartphones drove 21.9% of online traffic but only 5.4% of online sales. Tablets, on the other hand, accounted for 13.2% of online traffic and 12.3% of online sales. Tablets also rule average online order values, too: $126.30 compared with $106.49 for orders on smartphones.
  • All Senders Get Blacklisted, But Smart Ones Manage Risk
    There are relatively few things that all marketers seem to agree on, but blacklisting is clearly one. Even industry veterans find them shadowy, secretive, and often frustrating. Last month we conducted a study -- initially to help marketers understand blacklisting -- but the findings also offered practical insight into managing risk while maintaining growth.
  • Three Myths Of Email Marketing
    There are many common myths about email marketing preventing companies from truly gaining the most from this marketing medium. Here for you, I have highlighted the three myths I hear most often.
  • Boost Performance With Paid, Owned, Earned Media Integration
    When you boil the digital marketing mix down to its simplest form, every marketing team is tasked with defining, aligning and refining opportunities across paid, owned and earned media. Viewing the marketing mix from this vantage point can help to break down silos and focus marketers on a more integrated, customer-centric approach. Let's take a closer look at this trifecta, and how email figures into it:
  • Time To Retire The Click-Through Rate?
    The pace of change when it comes to consumer technology adoption almost never ceases to amaze. Just four short years ago, only 9% of email marketing messages were opened on mobile devices -- and "mobile" at that time meant smartphones; the iPad was first released in April of 2010. Fast-forward to Q1 of 2014, and now 66% of email marketing messages are opened on mobile (47% smartphone, 19% tablet). We've all known this sea change has been coming -- and yet, so many marketers still seem to struggle (or maybe not even care) about optimizing their campaigns for mobile.
  • Best Practice: Confirm Every Opt-In Via COI Or COIL
    No, this is not a rant in favor of universal usage of double or confirmed opt-in (COI), although that practice certainly has its place. I've been a longtime supporter of single opt-in as "good enough" for most permissioning scenarios - especially when there's active consent - and nothing has changed that opinion. But because risks from opt-ins are rising, it seems reasonable to put in place a method of confirming opt-ins that provides a hedge against potentially problematic email addresses and permission grants. Why not take some inspiration from the confirmed opt-in process, but lower the bar?
  • Summer Trends To Watch
    Last week was a busy week, with graduation promotions wrapping up and Father's Day promotions in full swing. Add to that, thousands of retailers went to Chicago for the arguably largest retail conference of the year, the Internet Retailer Conference & Exposition (IRCE). So here are three summer trends email marketers should consider, along with two key themes from IRCE.
  • Four Tactics To Help Coach Your Team Members To Success
    If you ever read my Email Insider columns all the way to the end (and thanks to those who do), you know my closer: "Take it up a notch." My goal with these columns is always to try to encourage you to find better ways to do email marketing. But this time I'm challenging my readers who are team leaders with this question: What are you doing to encourage your email team members to perform at a higher level so that they can take it up a notch in order to achieve goals (better skills, greater contribution to company goals …
  • The Anatomy Of A Good Birthday Email
    My birthday has come and gone yet again, time for my yearly assessment of the birthday wishes I receive from the brands I engage with. A birthday message is one of the simplest and most personal email communications a brand can send to its subscribers. And I will be honest: Every year I am underwhelmed at the email fanfare around my birthday.
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