Here at GetResponse Email Marketing we have been busy yet again collecting that important data to help you improve your email marketing! The battle between HTML and plain text messages continues, but is it waning? And in whose favor? It’s true that HTML messages are much more eye-catching with professionally designed templates and gorgeous graphics and photos. And you can get more and better statistics... [Read more]
I’m very pleased to announce yet another great eMail marketing blogger has signed on with our team to provide our community great eMail marketing insight! Please welcome Remy to the team! Remy is a professionally trained multimedia producer turned email marketing specialist, having 4 years of experience in the Dutch email marketing business working at an ESP (Blinker). Areas of interest include... [Read more]
Who among us email marketers has ever heard himself or herself labeled as a spammer? Really, in our industry, who hasn’t? But is that really all marketing and promotion is? Unwanted, irrelevant, clutter-some content for the sake of inbox (or junk box) presence? Of course not. To be fair, irrelevance alone doesn’t make you spam. Valid marketers are accidentally irrelevant all the time. Spam is... [Read more]
This post is intended to be a resource for those who, admittedly, know that they could be deriving more value from the email channel. No matter if you decide to hire outside professionals, such as an email marketing agency, an email consultant or in-house talent; this guide will help you to assess and reevaluate your current email marketing efforts. Let’s Look at the Numbers Email has been the... [Read more]
Case Study: ValuePetSupplies increases revenue ten-fold with eMail marketing to customers At VerticalResponse we asked our customers what type of information they wanted from us. The answer? More case studies! You all want to know how other VerticalResponse customers are using email marketing and what they’re getting out of it. So we’ve started to talk to our customers to find out and... [Read more]
A 50 percent click-through rate may seem as unlikely as having the Publishers Clearing House prize van show up at your house with an oversized novelty cheque for ten million dollars but, believe it or not, PCH is within reach of that goal with a current rate of 40 percent. Stephanie Miller of Return Path, leads today’s Google news for eMail marketing with a great post at MarketingProfs.com about... [Read more]
Reaching the inbox of your customers and prospects and generating high response are inextricably linked. Subscribers quickly tire of irrelevant messages and will complain by clicking the “report spam” button, depressing response rates for all campaigns. The only way to improve inbox deliverability and response is to create compelling subscriber experiences. Subscribers want email that has valuable... [Read more]
Every great team needs a core player with great technical skills — the player who knows just how to make that pitch curve or hit same. That’s why I’m very excited to welcome Kenny Van Beeck, Business Development Manager/Senior Email Marketing Consultant for EmailGarage, to The eMail Guide blogger rotation! Kenny’s credentials are impeccable and bringing him into the bullpen... [Read more]
Imagine yourself as the customer of your business. How do you expect your experience to go? How would you feel if each method of contact with you (TV, email, direct mail, etc.) was different from the next? So much so that it created confusion—a cognitive dissonance, if you will—enough of a disconnect that you’re left scratching your head, wondering why you’re getting an email from... [Read more]
A steady starter who can pitch on one day’s rest joins the team! Scott Cohen is a writer, thinker, and marketer. Well-versed in and raised on local/regional TV and radio commercial writing, Scott has expanded his interests, talent, and expertise into the full spectrum of marketing communications, including email marketing. Currently, Scott works for Western Governors University as their Marketing... [Read more]
Part 6 – Make it difficult too unsubscribe. The best thing your can do for your email marketing program is ensure that not a lot of people unsubscribe from it. While subscribers should be thankful that they get email from your organization, there are the select few who at at one point want to be removed from your list. Simple solution to this common problem: make it difficult for the user... [Read more]
It’s hunting season, folks! Not “wabbits” this time of year, but rather companies in the email space. Over the last few weeks since 2010 began, there have been several notable mergers and acquisitions taking place. SubscriberMail acquired by Harland Clarke Corp. (Announcement) Pivotal Veracity acquired by Unica (Announcement) Japanese company A-Care Systems acquired by Experian... [Read more]
It’s hunting season, folks! Not “wabbits” this time of year, but rather companies in the email space. Over the last few weeks since 2010 began, there have been several notable mergers and acquisitions taking place. SubscriberMail acquired by Harland Clarke Corp. (Announcement) Pivotal Veracity acquired by Unica (Announcement) Japanese company A-Care Systems acquired by Experian... [Read more]
Note: This post is NOT written for list owners and publishers. It’s written for advertisers that rent emails lists or advertise in email newsletters. If you’re an advertiser who has, or is planning, to include 3rd-party email into your marketing mix it will help to use the channel more successfully and get a better ROI, with smaller budgets. In the end, it will help list owners, too. After all... [Read more]
We’re pleased to add yet another ace to our rotation of eMail marketing experts! Please welcome Scott Hardigree to The eMail Guide blog! Scott is a fastball pitcher who isn’t scared of throwing heat and brushing back batters with his opinions and insight. As CEO of Indiemark, a full-service email marketing agency, Scott brings more than 12 years of strategic, creative, and technical email marketing... [Read more]
Over the years I have heard quite a few musings from executives on the state of the email programs. Here are some of my favorites: Why do we need a preference center? Giving people a choice will limit the amount of people we can send too. Everything is just fine with our email program. Why should we invest in more people to just push email out? Opt down? Sounds more like a hassle and why should... [Read more]
There are quite a few visible elite email marketers out there today. Some I consider my friends and most I consider my colleagues. The email marketing elite are folks that I classify as being extremely active in the email marketing community on many levels. Most write articles, publish blogs, belong to private email discussion lists, and participate in communities including twitter, the EMC and... [Read more]
We’ve been getting a lot of interest from new contributors who want to blog for The eMail Guide over the past few months. This, of course, is a great indication that we are really making an impact on the eMail marketing community and engaging same and that’s great! We’re pleased to introduce our latest blogger: Andrew Kordek, Manager of Optimization, Groupon Andrew I. Kordek is the... [Read more]
I was on an email forum recently when a guy asked, “Does anybody know if you can use animated Gifs in emails and if so how do you do it? I know that you cannot send flash, or it’s not recommended”. If you’re just getting started with animated Gifs in email, here are the basics: 1. Can I use animated Gifs in email? Yes. Animated Gifs play in all email clients, except for... [Read more]
Great teams attract great players and we are proud to welcome yet another star to our line up! Welcome Anna Yeaman of Style Campaign to our regular blogger rotation! Anna Yeaman is the co-founder of Style Campaign, an email creative agency in LA. With over 4 years experience in email marketing, Anna is the design heart of the company and author of the Style Campaign Blog. Prior to founding Style Campaign,... [Read more]
Just how wide should and email be? I know that everyone builds them a little different when it comes to girth, but I have not seen many under 300 px wide. This one in point is 265 px wide. So skinny I thought for a moment that maybe I had a rendering issue. But alas I scrolled down and found the rest. Now I see lot of European email marketers roll it thin, but in my opinion they are running it way... [Read more]
OK, Dylan isn’t exactly brand new but, it did take a little time to drag him away from his desk in order to actually start blogging for us. As you can see from his bio, Dylan has an awful lot of plates spinning in the eMail marketing biz. We’re thrilled to add his insight and experience to our team! Watch for Dylan’s first post on Thursday. As an early member of the eROI management... [Read more]
I’ve been a big fan of CustomInk for several years. I designed and purchased a few t-shirts from them in 2005 and had such a wonderful experience that I remember it to this day. When they shipped the order, the receipt included a handwritten thank-you. I immediately signed up for their emails and was pleasantly surprised with their execution. Of course I had a few suggestions for improvement... [Read more]
The newest addition to our blog roll has more than just years of experience in eMail marketing going for him. He’s got personality style and lots of insight to offer and his Gravatar is one the better webcam pics I’ve seen – I’m always left with the impression that he’s about to conjure some kind of hocus-pocus when I see it. DJ Waldow is the Director of Community at Blue Sky Factory, an... [Read more]
Originally posted at the Email Experience Blog (EEC) here and at the Bronto blog here. The internet was designed to be a free exchange of information wherein anyone, upon a loose framework mainly having to do with networking and rendering capabilities, could join, share and digest what they wanted. Email was developed as a predecessor to the internet. Again, one in which, as long as you had the... [Read more]
