Be Relevant! Email Marketing Blog

Live Blogging from the Email Evolution Conference

links for 2008-02-12

• denise cox’s blog » Some nuggets I picked up at email boot camp (eec event)
  Denise jotted down a few gems of email wisdom
  (tags: events)
• Testing: What Do You Really Learn?
  Testing starts with developing a hypothesis and a log. Why? You can't optimize without a hypothesis of what you hope to achieve and a planned action behind it. So, what are the things you can test, and why are they important?
  (tags: testing)
• iMedia Connection: More usable email campaigns, by design
  Nearly all direct marketing email campaigns can benefit from bringing in oft-overlooked user experience principles. See how it can be done.
  (tags: design)

Update from the Email Evolution Conference

The Email Evolution Conference here in San Diego officially started with a fabulous dinner cruise: I spent the whole evening talking and catching up with some of the greatest minds in the email industry. If you weren't there, you definitely missed out! I'll try to find someone that took some pictures and share them with you later.

Tomorrow morning at 8.20am PST the conference sessions will start with a keynote by Jeanniey Mullen (Ogilvy/Zinio), David Daniels (JupiterResearch), Craig Spiezle (Microsoft) and Chip House (ExactTarget). I'm looking forward to some great content during the two days of the event. If there is an internet connection in the room, I will try and "live blog" from the event, so watch out for that!

links for 2008-02-09

• Email Authentication Resources
  MailChimp offers a breakdown of what ISPs and receivers are using which types of authentication.
  (tags: deliverability authentication senderid domainkeys spf)
• Creating e-mail surveys that work :: BtoB Magazine
  Melissa Read believes managers send surveys too often, causing respondents to burn out on the novelty of providing feedback. Eventually, she said, they’ll stop responding.
  (tags: survey)
• Don't Be an Accidental Spammer - Strategies for Successful Email Marketing
  One person's valued information may be another person's spam. You know your list is truly opt-in, but people are so sensitive these days that you risk being branded as a spammer even if you believe you've done nothing wrong.
  (tags: spam)

links for 2008-02-08

• AOTA: E-Mail/Domain Authentication Adoption Exceeds 50 Percent Online Marketing Strategies and Tactics : eMarketing and Commerce
  After a 5-month review of over 100 million e-mails from Fortune 500 brands, the AOTA reported last week that more than 50 percent of legitimate e-mail sent worldwide on a daily basis from more than 15 million domain holders is authenticated.
  (tags: deliverability authentication senderid domainkeys)

links for 2008-02-07

• Networking Opportunity
  Read how Crossbeam Systems uses good old-fashioned in-person events coupled with a multitouch e-mail strategy to spur interest from prospects and established customers.
  (tags: cases)
• Trouble with Comcast? You’re Not Alone
  senders should limit their connections to Comcast's servers to 10 per IP address.
  (tags: deliverability Comcast)

ENurturing For An Efficient Sales Pipeline

Gretchen Scheiman wrote a very interesting article about eNurturing and how email is the perfect channel to keep leads warm until they are ready to buy.

... creating a lead generation program the sales team will support is a challenge. This is where email can be a real hero. An eNurturing program, where leads are warmed up with a series of email communications, can help prequalify and target the best leads for sales -- creating an efficient sales pipeline. A good eNurturing program can even help identify topics for sales to open a conversation with.

Successful eNurturing programs have three key components: sales buy-in, clearly defined goals, and specific success metrics.

1. Sales buy-in. Including your sales team in the planning can help you identify the right targets and topics to address. If sales feels included, they're much more likely to make your program a priority.

2. Clearly defined goals. Ask the sales team to help define what a good lead would look like. This can help you define questions you need to ask, along with needs you should attempt to uncover through your eNurturing messages.

3. Specific success metrics. How many leads need to turn into sales for this program to be considered a success? What is the target gross sales goal? Communicating those metrics upfront can give the sales team a goal to shoot for, and help them sing your program's praise when they meet that goal.

Continue reading here and find out how to create an eNurturing program.

Source: MediaPost's Email Insider

links for 2008-02-06

• Database and analytics skills are investment focus for marketers this year
  Two-thirds of marketers (67%) says resources for database and analytics to support online marketing efforts call for the most marketing investment this year, according to Alterian,
  (tags: study)
• Wake Up! It’s Time to Combat Subscriber Fatigue - webinar
  February 20 @ 2pm ET/11am PT - Stephanie Miller provides key insights on how to make your email programs more engaging.
  (tags: events)
• Demystifying Marketing 2.0
  Marketing 1.0 is all about technology platforms that provide business intelligence, hyper segmentation and behavioral targeting. Marketing 2.0 defines the aggregation, analytics and automation of customer interaction data to drive campaign optimization.
  (tags: strategy)
• The Anatomy of a Lousy Email
  We often receive beautiful layouts with clever marketing that could win design awards in print and other online mediums. And we are frequently the bearers of bad news to the designers when we have to tell them that their layouts are lousy for email.
  (tags: design)
• MarketingSherpa's Dirty Dozen Special Report
  Learn how to avoid common mistake of disregarding BlackBerry and other mobile readers, find out how good deliverability can increase email-generated revenue and learn how the right subject lines can improve clickthroughs.
  (tags: cases)
• 100+ Tools & Tutorials to Optimize Your Email Marketing Campaigns
  great list of tools and resources
  (tags: tools)
• 30 email deliverability tips
  30 practical steps to maximize your email deliverability
  (tags: deliverability)
• Affirmative Consent is the New Trend for 2008
  Permission and privacy are the big issues in the email universe particularly where the FTC is concerned. The FTC's proposed Behavioral Marketing Self Regulatory Principles could have a direct impact on ad targeting for all marketers including mailers.
  (tags: legislation)

Jeanniey Mullen to Leave OgilvyOne

On Monday, Jeanniey Mullen announced to us that she will be leaving OgilvyOne very soon and that she will be joining Zinio Systems and VIV Magazine to be their EVP and CMO. It sounds like a great and exciting opportunity for her and I wish her all the best! We're sad to see you go, Jeanniey :(

Update: Jeanniey is not leaving the eec! Read her comment to this post.

How Bronto Builds Relationships with its Customers

Bronto's DJ Waldow forwarded me a copy of their latest customer newsletter in which they featured this blog as one of their resources. Thanks guys!

Apart from them mentioning this blog ;-) I find this newsletter particularly good because it's simple, short and contains valuable information. Another thing I like about it is the fact that it appears to have been sent from the Account Manager and the content also appears to have been handpicked by him for that particular customer - which makes it an even more personal experience.

I believe DJ once told me they send this newsletter out every two weeks and I'm pretty sure they are a huge success. DJ, if you're reading this, feel free to give us some more background on this newsletter in the comments!

links for 2008-02-05

• Do you create a sense of continuity within your email campaigns?
  "It's OK to say, "We emailed you a few days ago to tell you about...etc." Taking that approach is much better than somehow pretending that you have never written to them before."
  (tags: messaging)

links for 2008-02-04

• A Complete List of the Many Forms of Web Marketing for 2008
  Forrester's Jeremiah Owyang lists the many tools and tactics available for corporate web strategy in 2008. Email is of course included since it's the glue that ties everything together. I love this industry :)
  (tags: strategy)
• iMedia Connection: Make your email strategy Facebook-friendly
  With the younger generation using online social networking and texting more than web-based emails for communicating, marketers need to adjust their strategies.
  (tags: strategy social_networking mobile)

The Email Marketer's Club in a Job Description

This is kinda cool:

In December Cakemail posted a job opening on their blog because they were/are looking for a Deliverability Manager. They included the following item in the job description:

Contribute to industry discussions online, such as ReputationWiki.org and the Email Marketer's Club.

This shows, once again, that the Email Marketer's Club is being acknowledged for what it is: a great resource for marketers and industry folks to share knowledge and insights. If you're not a member yet: join this fast-growing club now!

links for 2008-02-02

• What the BlackBerry Update Means for You
  The upcoming BlackBerry 4.5 software will give Blackberry 8100, 880, 8130, 8820, 8700 HTML e-mail support! If you aren't yet, now to start worrying about how you're html emails look on a mobile device.
  (tags: mobile)

AOTA Reports Email Authentication Has Reached 'Tipping Point'

The Authentication and Online Trust Alliance (AOTA) announced that adoption of email and domain authentication has reached its tipping point, exceeding 50 percent in several key metrics. AOTA research highlights the top Fortune 500 and Internet retailers who have realized the business value of protecting consumers and their brands from forged email and phishing ploys through adoption of Sender ID (SIDF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), the leading standards of authentication.

Spam, phishing, and other forms of fraudulent email are ever-increasing threats to the safety of consumers and brands. Up to 80 percent of email from leading brands, banks, and ISPs is spoofed. After a five-month review of over 100 million emails from Fortune 500 brands, AOTA reports that over 50 percent of legitimate email sent worldwide on a daily basis from over 15 million domain holders is authenticated.

AOTA said those compliant brands are seeing significant benefits, including brand protection and enhanced deliverability. Brands that have not authenticated, it added, are at a competitive disadvantage and are unnecessarily exposed to spam and phishing attacks from cybercriminals.

AOTA has issued a call for compliance of all consumer-facing e-commerce and online financial services sites to adopt one or more forms of outbound email authentication for their top-level corporate domain within the next six months. While many companies have adopted authentication for their marketing sub domains, they need to focus on consumer and brand protection.

Also, all ISPs should implement inbound authentication verification, in addition to existing messaging hygiene solutions, to maximize consumer and brand protection within the next six months. This commitment by the entire Internet ecosystem is required to preserve trust and confidence in e-commerce.

AOTA reports that adoption has exceeded 50 percent in the following key industries:

• 51 percent of the Fortune 500’s consumer-facing brands
• 52 percent of the Fortune 500’s consumer-facing financial service brands
• 54 percent of the Internet Retailer top 300 brands

The Fortune 500 leaders represent top brands spanning many industries, including financial organizations BB&T, Charles Schwab Corp, MetLife, Nationwide Mutual Insurance, Progressive Corp and Wells Fargo; consumer brands Amazon, BlockBuster, Home Depot, Nordstrom, OfficeMax, Target and Walt Disney; and technology leaders Dell, eBay, IBM and Microsoft.

The report is available at http://aotalliance.org/resources/authentication.