During a focus-group panel of mothers, an executive from Overstock.com rose to ask a question and, while introducing himself, was met by mother Donna Eckstein saying: "Love your company." "The deals are getting even better," Overstock's Allen Dickson, director of email marketing and personalization, fired back (his question was about organizing in-boxes). The love didn't stop with Eckstein's plug. While mentioning that word-of-mouth continues to influence her, another mom said, "I'm going to check Overstock.com because Donna said it's good." Dickson said afterwards that Overstock sends out perhaps three to four emails a week. As for …

A number of great attendees are Tweeting about the conference. Find them all by visiting search.twitter.com and searching on #eis. Most of the posts from the Summit start with that key. Here's a few cool ones: LorenMcDonald: #eis Moms are all very different, but what they do have in common is the need for usability, transparency, trust of referrals & convenience bwhalley: Mom panel: Don't know/recognize the difference between complaining/deleting. #eis banane: #eis memory: when @djwaldow asked why/what they delete in inbox, woman asks if he's married, and says "do you know women? we're random." ? …

Every one of us as email marketers have to make the same daily decision that Stephen Geer, director of new media/email for the Barack Obama campaign, made every day with the campaign: knowing that high frequency has risks and reduces the long term opportunity, how much email can I send out without decreasing the ROI of my program. Geer was the opening keynote for the Email Insider Summit here in Utah and was very generous in sharing so much insight with us. No question the Obama campaign reinvented campaigning in the US. A game changer. Email was a critical …

Lest there be any doubt that the Obama campaign saw the power in email marketing early in the campaign, its chief of online fundraising, Stephen Geer, said efforts began months before the Iowa caucus. The goal was to build an email list in all 50 states, and tactics used to get people to join included gathering names at events (particularly easy when Obama was appearing), online advertising and offering incentives such as bumper stickers in exchange for providing an address. Emails steered people to MyBarackObama.com, where they could obtain information about how to host events of their own. …

The head of the Barack Obama campaign's email marketing efforts, Stephen Geer, says the single most lucrative day in fundraising in American politics was the day after Gov. Sarah Palin's vice presidential acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. “She made a huge tactical mistake by going on the attack against community organizers,” Geer said. Not only had Obama been an organizer early in his career, but his campaign had largely been built around the concept that volunteers should sign up and become community organizers themselves. So in a morning-after fundraising-appeal email, the Obama campaign sought to frame …

David Baker, vice president Email/eCRM Solutions at Razorfish, is kicking off the fifth Email Insider Summit with at least two guarantees: attendees will walk out with 50 different business cards, and discoveries about industry trends and thought leadership. "Our industry is healthy," he says despite the economy, noting email marketing is results-driven. Among issues to be discussed over the next three days: social media, marketer trends, measurement and web analytics.

Please see this post for the background and disclaimer. Notes courtesy of Roger Barnette from SearchIgnite... Brand Marketers â€" Brand and Performance marketing budgets are separate - depending on the industry/site â€" ecommerce vs. lead generation/informational. Social/Rich media â€" advertisers are still only dabbling in the video/social media. A lot of testing in this area. Google â€" seeing mix of social vs. traditional media. Depends on how savvy agency or client is. Adoption is slow because measurement isn’t there. Youtube â€" any revenue from Search yet? Many ways to monetize, but nothing released yet. Regulations …

Some early-arriving Summit attendees were buzzing about the A-listers around the Stein Eriksen Lodge. "Curb Your Enthusiasm's" Larry David was apparently walking the halls, as was Gwen Stefani and husband Gavin Rossdale. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who's made cameos on "Curb," was also around. And on Sunday, "Heidi" and "Spencer" of MTV's faux reality series "The Hills" were spotted having lunch at the lodge. Celebs were participating in an annual Deer Valley skiing event to raise money for charity (it will air on CBS Dec. 21). But perhaps the most intriguing celeb sighting came during Mediapost's Search Insider Summit …

In an email exchange before the Summit, Message Systems' David Lewis said the economic downturn could validate long-held claims by email marketers -- but that's no slam dunk. "For years we've been talking about email's higher ROI and the need for companies to shift budget dollars," wrote Lewis, CMO of the Maryland-based email software solutions provider. "This is precisely the environment where we may see that shift finally occur in a substantive way. "But that's not a foregone conclusion. Companies can be pretty indiscriminate in their slashing when confronted with survival issues. So like all in the marketing …

Please see this post for the background and disclaimer. Henry Hall of MediaContacts recaps the roundtable he led on HR & Staffing issues... The consensus was it is becoming increasing difficult to hire search professionals. Most at the table agreed that it is much easier to hire college grads and perspectives with no search experience. Many find that hiring search professionals with experience â€" sometime recruits come with baggage such as not adhering to new procedure, adjusting to new environment, etc. Gathering folks outside of search bring new thought perspectives. Non-Search background recruits generally seem to …