Be Relevant!

links for 2009-05-29

• Recession Proof Email Marketing
  DJ Waldow's presentation at OMS
  (tags: presentations)

links for 2009-05-23

• The Life of an E-Mail
  Recent statistics show that the average person spends three seconds looking at her inbox to decide what to open and only four seconds reading your e-mail. Yet the impact your brand can make in that time can increase an e-mail's lifespan significantly. Whether your e-mail is read or not, it makes a statement just showing up in the inbox. Here are some of the things your e-mail could be saying:
  (tags: insights)
• Creating a Good E-Mail Marketing Strategy
  Start somewhere; start anywhere. Even the smallest change you make today will start you down the path to the right strategy.
  (tags: strategy)
• What is the value of an email address? Take our calculator test
  here's a calculator that allows you to calculate the value of an email address on your list. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
  (tags: tools)
• How often do you evaluate your email list growth sources?
  Study finds that marketers who successfully grow their subscriber bases are constantly reallocating their budgets from list growth tactics that are not performing to those that are.
  (tags: study)
• Picking a (Low Volume) ESP
  Anna Billstrom shares some tips on picking a new ESP
  (tags: esp)
• It’s Not About You, It's About Them
  One of the most important things to remember when you communicate with customers is that it’s not all about you and what you find interesting. Your customers are always asking the same question: What’s in it for me?
  (tags: messaging strategy)
• 4 Ways to Promote Your E-mail Marketing Program In-House | eMarketing & Commerce (eM+C)
  Lauren Skena talks about how to successfully promote and prove the value of your e-mail program to your company’s decision makers
  (tags: strategy)
• MarketingSherpa's European Email Marketing Summit: top insights
  Mark Brownlow of Email Marketing Reports shares his takeaways from MarketingSherpa's European Email Summit.
  (tags: events)
• An Open Letter To E-Mail Marketers: Shopping Cart Abandoment E-Mail Campaigns
  (tags: remarketing)
• How to Get Your Mail Past the Inbox Bouncers
  another great article by Stephan Pollard
  (tags: deliverability)
• 7 Tips for Effective Calls to Action
  (tags: call-to-action)
• SEM To Acquire, Email To Retain, As E-Commerce Grows 05/14/2009
  Findings from the study include: E-mail is the most mentioned successful tactic overall ( cited by 89%), followed by pay-for-performance search placement (80%) and SEO/natural search (53%). 88% of retailers listed e-mail as a high priority for the year, largely to retain customers. 71% plan to send segmented e-mails to customers based on preferences and purchase data. 55% will use e-mails to highlight new product availability, while 53% will use e-mails to feature online-only promotions.
  (tags: study)

links for 2009-05-17

• The View from Stanford: Why Video Marketing and Email Marketing Make a Perfect Match
  (tags: video)
• Dissecting a Major Flaw in CAN-SPAM
  (tags: legislation canspam perrmission)
• StreamSend Email Marketing Blog: Some Elements of Good and Bad Subject Lines
  A subject line should achieve something fairly simple: It should set proper expectations as to the subject of the email itself. Beyond that, here are some elements of a bad and a good subject lines.
  (tags: subject_lines)

links for 2009-05-14

• How E-mail Became a Direct-Marketing Rock Star in Recession - Advertising Age
  E-mail has emerged as a recession darling, as retailers look to proven programs that are cost-effective and results-oriented.
  (tags: industry)

links for 2009-05-10

• Circuit City
  here's a bunch of emails from Circuit City that you might want to have a look at if you're looking for inspiration
  (tags: cases gallery)
• ExactTarget's $70 million funding announcement huge for email marketing industry, bad for critics
  For three separate companies to invest this much money in an ESP says volumes about how they feel email will progress and where the overall medium will go.
  (tags: industry)
• Switching transactional emails from plain-text to HTML email
  (tags: cases transactional_emails)
• Canada’s Anti-Spam Bill: 5 Key Differences from CAN SPAM
  (tags: canspam legislation canada)
• FTC Comfortable with Email Regulatory Progress. So Far
  (tags: deliverability canspam legislation)
• Four Tips for Offline E-Mail Address Collection
  Stefan Pollard explains how important it is to have an effective strategy for offline e-mail acquisition and shares some best practices for collecting the most useful data.
  (tags: list_growth)

links for 2009-05-09

• Email Design Tip of the Week: Synergize Your Brand with Email
  though your email should be designed for maximum performance and consistent display in email clients, it is critical that your brand emails look like they have the same “parents” – your website and other marketing collateral.
  (tags: design)
• Will share-to-social work for e-mail marketers?
  Let's learn from what e-mail marketers have tried in the past with forward-to-a-friend. Most marketers understand the potential opportunity of forward-to-a-friend but that potential has not really been actualized. By and large, forward-to-a-friend has been tough to measure and hasn't been as widely adopted as marketers would like. So we can't expect share-to-social to be much different unless we're truly effective at sending highly relevant content.
  (tags: social)
• An Insider’s Look at Exceptional E-mail
  This Month's E-mail: ProFlowers
  (tags: cases design messaging)
• Thinking of Using an ‘Old’ List? - Part 3: List Cleaning 101 and Hardbounces
  (tags: strategy list_management)
• Thinking of Using an ‘Old’ List? - Part 2: Prepare your Re-Opt in Email
  (tags: strategy list_management)
• Thinking of Using an ‘Old’ List? - Part 1: The Risks
  (tags: strategy list_management)

links for 2009-05-08

• Priceline.com Nails the Post-Purchase Email
  (tags: cases)

links for 2009-05-07

• Despite Recession, ExactTarget Raises A Whopping $70 Million For Marketing Software
  (tags: industry)

links for 2009-05-06

• 2009 Email Marketing List Growth Study
  Later this month, ExactTarget, the Email Marketer'sClub and the Center for Media Design at Ball State University will release the “2009 Email List Growth Study,” which will offer some survey results on best practices to build an email database.To be notified when the 2009 Email Marketing List Growth Study is available for download, please complete this form.
  (tags: study)

Need Your Help: Email Marketing Education Needs Survey

I am running a quick survey to find out what your education needs are with regards to email marketing and I would like to invite all of you to participate. It'll take you no more than 5 minutes of your time!

Click here to participate.

Thanks for participating!

links for 2009-05-04

• Spread the News: Effective Email Newsletters
  some creative and strategic considerations for using email newsletters effectively, including examples from successful brands across a number of verticals.
  (tags: newsletters)
• Redesigning Your Template: Basic Best Practice Tips to Consider
  Whether you’re creating one from scratch or crafting a brand new one, below are 10 straightforward, easy-to-implement suggestions for optimizing results from top to bottom
  (tags: design)
• Book review: "Successful e-mail marketing strategies: from hunting to farming"
  does "Successful email marketing strategies" offer anything different or better? Mark Brownlow says yes. Read his review here.
  (tags: books strategy)
• Reportlet: Going-Out-of-Business Email Strategies
  In this 9-page reportlet Chad White examines the last email days of six major retailers who went out of business, plus the email strategies used by retailers that were reborn under new ownership.
  (tags: study)
• Assumed Permission
  retailers know that if they add a pre-checked opt-out checkbox, some customers will uncheck the box. By not asking for permission, more subscribers will be added to the list. But marketers must first ask themselves these questions before adopting this type of permission strategy
  (tags: permission)
• Shoeline.com gain 46% more Facebook fans with single email
  (tags: cases)
• 10 Creative Email Footer Designs
  Some email footers rise above the mundane to a thing of beauty. Designers are adding varied elements such as social media, background images, blog posts and secondary navigation.
  (tags: design)