Around this time of year, it can be tempting to start sending to your full list early and often. While this might help generate holiday dollars early on in the...
Around this time of year, it can be tempting to start sending to your full list early and often. While this might help generate holiday dollars early on in the season, it can also lead to a slippery slope of email bulking and/or blocking during this critical time of year. So below are some deliverability best practices you can easily follow to maximize your list potential and sending power. Engagement Over the past few months, we've all seen a shift by the ISPs to measure...
Around this time of year, it can be tempting to start sending to your full list early and often. While this might help generate holiday dollars early on in the season, it can also lead to a slippery...
I never thought I’d be an industry pundit. But marketing automation is an exciting space, and as many other large organizations, from Oracle to IBM, try to buy...
I never thought I’d be an industry pundit. But marketing automation is an exciting space, and as many other large organizations, from Oracle to IBM, try to buy their way into the party, I’ve found myself commenting again and again on where the market is headed. (One of these commentaries is even immortalized in David Meerman Scott’s latest edition of Real-Time Marketing & PR.) That trend continued when the email provider ExactTarget said it would purchase Pardot. For the...
I never thought I’d be an industry pundit. But marketing automation is an exciting space, and as many other large organizations, from Oracle to IBM, try to buy their way into the party, I’ve...
Getting through the mountain of messages we receive each day isn’t getting any easier. The number of emails sent last year rose 10%. Copywriters and designers...
Getting through the mountain of messages we receive each day isn’t getting any easier. The number of emails sent last year rose 10%. Copywriters and designers have long known that a small block of text or an icon can attract a busy reader’s eye better than a big chunk of prose. To make email marketing engaging you need a compelling subject line and a solid call to action. With reports that email open rates on smartphones have risen by 34% so far in 2012, we also all know that...
Getting through the mountain of messages we receive each day isn’t getting any easier. The number of emails sent last year rose 10%. Copywriters and designers have long known that a small block...
It's too hard. That's the number one excuse I have heard about why companies are not implementing responsive design (what is responsive design?) into their...
It's too hard. That's the number one excuse I have heard about why companies are not implementing responsive design (what is responsive design?) into their email programs. If our goal as marketers is to continue to create the best experiences with our customers and develop lasting relationships, then we must implement responsive design into our email programs. Customers are using mobile devices regularly to check & send email. In fact, according to the Google Mobile Planet...
It's too hard. That's the number one excuse I have heard about why companies are not implementing responsive design (what is responsive design?) into their email programs. If our goal as marketers...
These days, marketers often discuss the challenges and opportunities involved in optimizing a single message for multiple social channels. There are several top...
These days, marketers often discuss the challenges and opportunities involved in optimizing a single message for multiple social channels. There are several top brands out there that show a nuanced understanding of how their customers interact with each channel, and taking a close look at how these brands make an impact in each environment can be an enlightening way to inform our messaging. With this goal in mind, I tracked the way that Anthropologie - which has a robust...
These days, marketers often discuss the challenges and opportunities involved in optimizing a single message for multiple social channels. There are several top brands out there that show a nuanced...
Back in the good old days of email deliverability (circa 2004), whitelisting was the way to go. As a sender, you could easily get yourself whitelisted at an...
Back in the good old days of email deliverability (circa 2004), whitelisting was the way to go. As a sender, you could easily get yourself whitelisted at an ISP and as a result, your email would be directed to the inbox with few issues. Essentially, major ISPs gave senders carte blanche, while today whitelisting is something very different. Today ISPs are much smarter about the email permitted to the inbox, forcing senders to prove they belong there first. This is a good...
Back in the good old days of email deliverability (circa 2004), whitelisting was the way to go. As a sender, you could easily get yourself whitelisted at an ISP and as a result, your email would be...
Let's say you make an email that has some sort of background image behind the text. It's beautiful (more beautiful than my example) and everything you dreamed...
Let's say you make an email that has some sort of background image behind the text. It's beautiful (more beautiful than my example) and everything you dreamed it could be. As browser testing begins, everything is going smoothly... and then you come to Outlook. The background image renders in almost all email clients, as in the image to the left. However, in Outlook the background image/gradient does not get rendered, and only the background color comes through. Outlook 2003...
Let's say you make an email that has some sort of background image behind the text. It's beautiful (more beautiful than my example) and everything you dreamed it could be. As browser testing...
I was recently coding an email that had a dark blue background color and white text. In the footer text we had the standard "Please add this address to your...
I was recently coding an email that had a dark blue background color and white text. In the footer text we had the standard "Please add this address to your address book" text, and I saw that Gmail, AOL, Yahoo!, and Outlook all linked and recolored the email address to a blue that was almost the same as the background color. To prevent this behavior, you can put an anchor tag with no href around the email address and set the color in the style attribute. Before the fix: To...
I was recently coding an email that had a dark blue background color and white text. In the footer text we had the standard "Please add this address to your address book" text, and I saw that Gmail,...
Are you considering moving to a new Email Service Provider (ESP)? While getting excited about all the great new functionality and reporting you'll get with...
Are you considering moving to a new Email Service Provider (ESP)? While getting excited about all the great new functionality and reporting you'll get with your new email platform, don't forget to also consider that moving to a new ESP can affect your carefully nurtured sender reputation in ways you might not anticipate. So how do you make the transition as successful for your deliverability as it will be for your email marketing efforts? As a sender of mass email...
Are you considering moving to a new Email Service Provider (ESP)? While getting excited about all the great new functionality and reporting you'll get with your new email platform, don't forget to...
