Marketers tend to prefer what's safe, deploying what I call "generally accepted best practices" (GABPs), because everyone else does it. Granted, that approach is less risky. You can point your boss to hundreds of examples from other brands when she asks why you want to add a pop-over opt-in form when someone visits your website's home page. The oldest joke in email marketing is that the answer to every question is "It depends, and test it." But this adage is as true today as it was when I joined the industry in 2001. What works for one company, or even …

Awaiting late delivery of her daughter's Halloween costume, Kara realizes again that email is a great channel to manage customer expectations.

Did you carve a pumpkin? Buy a costume? Load up on candy? Decorate the house? You aren't alone, according to Statista. Last year consumers in the U.S. spent over $6.84 billion in Halloween expenditures, with $2.79 billion in costume sales alone. To draw on the Halloween theme, what better way to prepare for the week than provide a few themes that you can play with?

In recent years, email has experienced quite an evolution - a seismic shift, made possible by innovation and astute strategies. Even with this shift, I still hear certain ideas that are quite archaic. Here are four "ghosts" that still haunt email marketing today.

Transactional emails are a digital marketer's best friend because they trigger from your customer's actual behavior, have off-the-charts engagement metrics, and can build your brands long after the transaction is history. Here are 10 tips to turn these engaging emails into opportunities to achieve your goals: upsell, next purchase, post-purchase satisfaction, etc.

I love this quote from the movie "Draft Day," when Kevin Costner says, "We are in a different world than we were 30 seconds ago." Fact is, we are - things are moving so fast that our options and opinions may shift quickly. In such challenging times, here are some interesting innovations and goodies you should seek out.

As we inch closer to active holiday promotions, I am continuing the theme of what email marketers can accomplish now to prepare for the season. This October it's all about setting a foundation with your first holiday-specific email campaign.

Think quick: What factor is most critical in achieving email opens? A perfectly penned subject line? Nope. A recognizable "from" name? 'Fraid not. There's only one way your email marketing can be opened - and that's if it's actually received by subscribers. So give yourself a big pat on the back if you came up with deliverability.

Happy Oct. 1! It's not just any Thursday. Today signals the kickoff to Q4 and the holiday shopping season. You still have time to tinker with email messages that can drive incremental revenue, build subscriber engagement and deliver other benefits that make the difference between good and great email marketing.