• Optimising HTML Email when Images are Disabled
  Almost all webmail and desktop email clients now default to not showing images, with the user having to either click ‘allow images from this sender’, mark the sender as a trusted address (eg. add to address book), or update settings within their email client. Some recipients are even unaware that they’re missing out on seeing images at all. Regardless of the reason, it’s really worth spending some time thinking how you can improve the experience for those recipients with images disabled.
  (tags: design coding)
• Get Back to Basics With the 40/40/20 Rule
  Despite all the integration and technological innovation and newness of social media, email marketing best practices still adhere to the 40/40/20 rule. This rule says that for any email marketing campaign: 40% of the success depends on the messaging - 40% of the success depends on the audience - 20% of the success depends on the creative
  (tags: strategy)
• Images in Email: Guidelines and Checklist
  (tags: design)
• What to tweak and test in your call to action
  (tags: call-to-action)
• The “From” Name: Perhaps Your Most Important Email Marketing Decision
  It seems like a minor item, especially because it occupies less space and prominence than the subject line. The “From” name is critical, however, given that most recipients look at the “From” name first and will discard or mark as spam messages from senders they don’t recognize.
  (tags: from_address)
• Is Double Opt-in Overrated?
  "if users navigate through your site during comparison shopping and sign-up to receive your messages, why would you initiate a double opt-in and risk missing out on the chance to communicate to all of them? If you are only mailing to a double opt-in list, you may be missing out on marketing to a huge segment that would like to receive your communication but was not excited enough to opt-in for it twice. That’s the biggest drawback to double opt-in – lost opportunities."
  (tags: list_growth)
• Reputation monitoring sites
  There are a number of sites online that provide public information about reputation of an IP address or domain name. Here's an overview.
  (tags: deliverability)
• Content based filtering
  If you’re sending mail that people want to receive, you’re sure you’re sending the mail technically correctly and you have a decent reputation as a sender then it’s time to look at the content.
  (tags: deliverability)
• Guide to resolving ISP issues
  Much of the troubleshooting can be done without ever contacting the ISPs or the blocklists. Laura Atkins explains how...
  (tags: deliverability)
• Email Subscription Pop-Ups: Do They Work?
  (tags: list_growth)
• How to Plan a Successful Holiday Email Campaign
  View the slides and listen to this archived webinar about holiday tips, how-tos, examples, strategies, best practices
  (tags: holidays)
• To Improve Email's Effectiveness, Lower Its ROI
• E-mail Marketing and Web Analytics: A Perfect Pair
  Providing relevant content is a challenge faced by 76 percent of e-mail marketers, according to a MarketingSherpa survey last year. Utilizing Web analytics, either in granular or aggregate form, can help you achieve this goal.
  (tags: analytics)
• Email Tips: Using the Preview Link as a Call to Action
  Don’t waste that link at the top of your email anymore. Use it drive conversions – even for people that get your full HTML version.

To make email marketing look sexy to the C-suite, Loren McDonald provides these 8 tips:

1. Never talk opens and clicks with other departments or the management suite. They don't or shouldn't care.

2. Talk loudly about revenues and cost savings.

3. Talk up the percentage of total company revenue that comes from email (assuming it's good). If you don't know, figure it out.

4. Don't talk about deliverability and rendering problems.

5. Remind executives that an email address is the core of most social and mobile relationships.

6. Show how a tiny percentage of email volume generates a massive amount of your email revenue via automated emails. (Hint to the C-Suite: Adding automation is like printing money.)

7. Cite strategic metrics that will wow executives, such as revenue per email, email revenue per worker hour, call center deferral rate, etc.

8. Document and communicate email revenue opportunities. As I write this, a client just emailed me to point out several missed opportunities she noticed when purchasing from another retailer, which could add up to millions of lost dollars.

via www.mediapost.com

Last week I presented a webinar hosted by Litmus about email deliverability best practices. You can view the slides below and view the archived webinar here.

Over on MarketingProfs, Karen Talavera suggests this four-step course of action for dealing with inactives.

1. Conduct a reactivation email campaign

Identify inactives on your list according to agreed-upon criteria (Never purchased? No clicks in 12 weeks? Zero opens in six months?), and segment them for a reactivation email campaign containing a special incentive if they opt in to your list again, confirm permission, or provide expanded information.

2. Connect via social media

New (and dare I say it, way cool) low-cost applications such as Flowtown make it possible for you to identify which social-media networks your email-list members belong to on a person-by-person basis.

Reach out to them to friend, link to, or follow on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Flickr, Twitter, and more.

If you can get an active connection going in a social-media environment, chances are the next time your email message arrives, that list member will pay more attention to it.

3. Attempt offline connections

If establishing contact online doesn't work, try connecting via direct mail or telephone to reconfirm and refresh email-list sign-up.

Outreach through offline channels adds variety to your marketing mix and stands out; those who might be ignoring their inboxes or those who simply might have changed email addresses and need to provide you with the newest, most-relevant one, might well appreciate the contact.

4. Reduce volume of email messages sent or suppress entirely

Less-active email-list members warrant less-frequent communication. Suppress inactives from all but your most-general email campaigns (such as your newsletter or quarterly updates), or suppress them entirely.

You don't need to wipe them off your list, simply don't email them as much , unless and until they show an increase in responsiveness.

Suppressing inactives that you have failed to re-engage via reactivation campaigns will boost your email-campaign performance metrics considerably. Remember, large list size is meaningless if a sizable percentage of list members aren't engaged.

via www.marketingprofs.com

US marketers are no slouches when it comes to integrating new technologies and tactics with their email marketing efforts, according to data from summer 2010.

Source: eMarketer

• Stupid Marketer Watch: Firm Abandoning Email
  "And the latest installment of “email-is-dead” stupidity comes from Holiday Brokers, a firm that is abandoning email marketing in favor of social media, according to Travel Weekly."

  "They’re switching from a proven channel that delivers the highest ROI in marketing to one that people still haven’t figured out how to measure."

  "Consider this: According to a Hotmail representative at the Email Insider Summit in April, a recent survey of Hotmail users revealed that for the first time, managing commercial relationships is the No. 1 reason people have their accounts."

  
  
  (tags: cases social_media strategy)
  
  

• Spam unsubscribe links no longer considered harmful
  We've always been told never to follow unsubscribe links in spam. However, the CAN-SPAM act has created a curious paradox. If the message is readable, then it's highly likely the unsubscribe link is safe and functional.
  (tags: unsubscribe spam)

• Tamara Gielen & Litmus Email Deliverability Webinar
  In this webinar, I will discuss email deliverability and provide information on improving deliverability for your email campaigns.
  (tags: deliverability)
• The Elephant in Marketing's Room (funny cartoon)
  In this funny cartoon, Steve points out the elephant that’s hiding in plain sight for many marketers:  Why interrupt when you can converse? 
  (tags: fun)

• I Love Marie Forleo - because she gets email marketing copy.
  an interesting approach to list building and a call-to-action you can't miss...
  (tags: copywriting list_building)
• New Study Reveals 3 Things You Can Learn from Effective Content Marketers
  Junta42 & MarketingProfs surveyed over 1,100 B2B marketers in North America and claim it's the largest study about content marketing in the B2B space to date. In this post you'll find the link to the study "B2B Content Marketing: 2010 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends" and some highlights.
  (tags: b2b content-marketing)

Just think about this for a second: 70% of b-to-b marketers of all sizes do not feel their social media marketing is effective.  60% aren't getting what they want out of blogs. 55% for videos.

Now take a look at this graphic below on marketers' biggest content marketing challenge.

via blog.junta42.com

The increase in retargeted advertising will be relatively small, but use of email remarketing will increase from about a third of online marketers to nearly three-quarters.

via www.emarketer.com

• What You Need to Know About the #NewTwitter
  (tags: twitter)
• Take the MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Benchmark Survey
  (tags: survey)
• Holiday planning webinar now available on-demand
  The webinar covers highlights from Chad White's 2010 Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season as well as additional insights, including five holiday email marketing predictions. Highly recommended!
  (tags: holidays)
• Previewing your HTML email: review of the Litmus tool
  I simply love this tool :-)
  (tags: tools)
• Holiday email marketing 2010: top resources
  Mark's annual holiday email marketing resources post.
  (tags: holidays)
• Chart: The Testing of Email Elements
  "tweaking" elements based on testing can produce dramatic improvements in campaign results and has proven to be well worth the time and effort required.
  (tags: stats)
• Increasing Reach through Social Sharing
  about eight in 10 marketers agree that social sharing "extends the reach of email content to new markets" and "increases brand reputation and awareness."
  (tags: social_media list_growth)
• After the Click: Give Your Landing Pages Some Love
  (tags: landing_pages design)
• Email, Facebook, And Twitter: Retention Or Acquisition?
  (tags: facebook twitter retention acquisition)
• How do I create a printer-friendly email newsletter?
  there's no silver bullet when it comes to making your email printer-friendly. However, if you or your client is determined to make your email look great in both the inbox and from the printer, here are some pointers to consider.
  (tags: design coding)
• 6 Common Email Marketing Mistakes
  (tags: list_growth subject_lines canspam frequency call-to-action testing)
• Top email marketing info sources: 2010 edition
  Mark Brownlow lists the best email marketing information sources on the net.
  (tags: blogs forums publications)