By: iMedia Connection I’ve been fielding a lot of questions lately about delivery. Sometimes the askers of these questions really mean deliverability. I take a deep breath, keeping in mind that most of the uninitiated still think they are the same thing, harmonize my chakras, and calmly correct them and help them ask the right questions. Let’s start this brief diatribe, and I promise to... [Read more]
Email Marketing Co-Registration: The Nays Have It! Strong opinions abound on both sides of the co-registration debate. Co-registration, or the practice of subscribing to multiple newsletters simultaneously, walks a fine line when it comes to ethical list-building practices. Let’s take a look at both sides of the debate. Co-Registration is the Answer to All Your List Building Woes! Adherents to this... [Read more]
By: ClickMail As an email expert, we push using triggered emails for several reasons: high open rates, opportunities to cross- and up-sell, relevant and targeted messaging among them. Here are three more reasons to make triggered emails part of your email marketing program: content marketing, SEO and social sharing. Content marketing is the new wave, and it touches every marketing channel, from video... [Read more]
By: ClickMail Is email marketing now a Catch 22? To keep getting your email delivered to inboxes, you must engage the recipients. But to engage the recipients, you must get email delivered to inboxes. Huh? It looks odd to see it spelled out that way, doesn’t it? But it is true. In 2012, your recipients’ interactions with your emails are now an indicator of your worth in the eyes of some ISPs.... [Read more]
Knock, Knock… Who’s There? Spam. Spam Who? Some folks never forget a face but have trouble remembering names. Email servers never forget a name but are sight blind and rely on your domain’s good reputation. So, while you are scheduling your editorial calendar, testing subject lines and following best practices without an opt-in or double opt-in process in place, your hard bounces,... [Read more]
The Email Marketing Unsubscribe Experiment Back in December, we tasked one of our staff members with an unusual job: to practice some serious email triage and observe the results. I don’t mean the kind of early morning email triage most of us practice, where you delete all the unwanted emails from your BlackBerry before you even get out of bed, saving you from dealing with them later when at your... [Read more]
By: Smarter Planet I’ve recently fielded a number of questions about email design. Some of them I thought were lost in time, like the formula for turning lead into gold. I know, I know, we’re all infinitely savvy digital marketers with ludicrous amounts of technical know-how, but sometimes the simple things get past us, so it never hurts to have a refresher. Design and deliverability are more... [Read more]
Why You Shouldn’t Fear the Email Marketing Unsubscribe (If You Maintain the Health of Your List!) As an acquisition email ad exchange, we get asked a lot of questions. One of the ones we hear frequently is, “Is my unsubscribe rate an acceptable one?” There’s a short answer and a long answer to that question. Short Answer: Done right, acquisition email should have an unsubscribe rate... [Read more]
By: iMedia Connection In my last article, I talked about how to deal with unengaged customers and some of the factors that should be considered before sending to these users. After the article was published, I received a number of comments and emails supporting various sides of the argument. Given all the interest, I thought it would be helpful to respond publicly to some of the feedback. Most... [Read more]
By: Email Karma Late in 2011, Gmail started displaying the reasons why they had marked a message as important. They have now gone an additional step and started displaying reasons for placing a message in the junk folder. While this information is obviously targeted towards end user education, it will also be useful for email marketers to understand how their marketing communications are being perceived... [Read more]
Turn GrayMail into ‘Make my Day’ Mail Two months ago, Hotmail announced the addition of new email controls that will give users greater ability to regulate the influx of marketing messages they receive. The new features will address the problem of “graymail,” the messages a user did at one time subscribe to but which now no longer engage his attention. Newsletters, Groupon-style... [Read more]
By: Constant Contact There are many mysteries in the world: Why is the sky blue? Why does toast always fall butter-side down? Why do my perfectly good emails, sent to customers who have opted-in, sometimes get bounced instead of being delivered to the intended recipient? I never have gotten satisfactory answers to the first two, but let me share a little bit about what I’ve learned in regards to... [Read more]
By: Infusionsoft Email marketing can be best related to a complex game of Chess. Well, it’s not that hard to win, but it is a real challenge for marketers as they balance the needs of their audience, keep up with best practices and still deliver results for the bottom line. What prompted this blog entry was a comment from an Infusionsoft user onour Facebook Page who is concerned for his email... [Read more]
Email Newsletter Image blocking: Why It Sucks and How to Rise Above It A staggering 2 out of 3 email users have images turned off in their inbox by default (MarketingSherpa 2010). This makes image blocking a serious issue for email marketers. Particularly when you consider all the time, effort and money that goes into designing a beautiful, compelling email. Take this email design, for example. It’s... [Read more]
Email Marketing: Just What the Doctor Ordered Over the past ten years I have worked with a myriad of healthcare providers, as well as individual family doctors, helping them with their email marketing. Like most email marketing, we always suggest strongly to segment and offer content based on the individual recipients’ wants and needs. When these rules are followed, along with personalization,... [Read more]
By: spam resource You might know Neil Schwartzman. In his long and active career in email and anti-abuse, he once-upon-a-time handled compliance issues for Return Path certified senders, has consulted with other senders looking to comply with Canada’s recent anti-spam legislation, and has long been one of the driving forces behind anti-spam advocacy group CAUCE. Now a member of the sender... [Read more]
By: MarketingSherpa SUMMARY: One way to improve relevance with your email database is to offer dynamic content based on behavioral segmentation. Track what your audience is interested in, and provide the content they want to see. Read how Hewlett-Packard is targeting two percent of its email database to drive higher engagement and generate 300% higher open rates and 600% higher clickthrough. CHALLENGE Hewlett-Packard... [Read more]
10 Sure-Fire Ways to Optimize Your Email Marketing for Lead Generation by Sarah Goliger @sarahbethgo
Email marketing is a critical component of a strong lead generation strategy, and lies at the very core of lead nurturing. But with all the messages that are inevitably piling up in your leads’ inboxes, how can you make yours stand out from the crowd? Here are 10 ways you can increase the likelihood that your prospects and leads will open, read, and take action from your emails. 1. Better segment... [Read more]
By: Bronto The definition of sabotage is “an action aimed at weakening another entity” and comes from the French root word of ‘Saboter’ meaning to spoil through clumsiness. Sometimes marketers may be unaware that even though they’re not deliberately trying to hurt their program, their actions may directly harm their deliverability efforts. Inactive Addresses Often marketers... [Read more]
George Bilbrey of Return Path wrote a thought-provoking piece for MediaPost on how marketing objectives interact with deliverability objectives. The article takes on the question of whether deliverability tactics are at odds with marketing best practices. The response, to paraphrase, was that improved deliverability increases revenue, reduces the chances of damage to sender reputation, and improves... [Read more]
