Here is Today's 411 brought to you by Only Influencers

Karen Talavera: The Number One Way to Connect Email and Social Media Marketing

• Karen's latest blog post on Only Influencers
• Topic: Social Media
• Rating: Worthwhile

Steve Webster: Why Email Recapture Campaigns are Worth the Effort

• Recapture Campaigns are Driving Customer Conversations at more than twice rate of normal campaigns. What works in recapture campaigns? Deep discounts and freebies are what seems to work.
• Topic: Recapture Campaigns
• Rating: Worthwhile

Debunking the "best Practices" interview with AlchemyWorx's Claire Rollingon

• One expects the unexpected from AlchemyWorx and this article on debunking best practices is no exception.
• Topic: Best Practices
• Rating: Must Read

The Embarrassing Mistake Many Copywriters are Making Right Now

• According to the author, asking for more information, not less, can help provide better leads for B2B. 
• Topic: List Building
• Rating: Worthwhile

All links are chosen and reviewed by Bill McCloskey ([email protected]).

• 8 Tips for developing the successful Preference Centre – Part 2

  In this second part of tips for successful preference centre’s Matthew Simons explores what data should be collected and discusses the potential benefits and pitfalls of using modeling to help drive relevant communication.

  tags: blog preference_centers list_management

• Purchase Path of Online Buyers

  In this report by Forrester and GSI Commerce you will learn: Why online shoppers still follow "traditional" paths to purchases - How to effectively influence shoppers during the holiday season - Why e-mail and search continue to be the most effective tactics - When social tactics are most effective at influencing purchases - Recommendations to help you plan for the 2011 holiday season

  tags: study blog

• Lifecycle Marketing: How to Keep Subscribers Engaged at Every Relationship Stage

  Because most lifecycle messages are automated and based on some kind of data (often a date field), they are extremely timely, targeted and relevant, resulting in better engagement (think 40-80% open rates), more money (often NEW revenue streams) and improved ROI. Additionally, these message ideas will help you save time, simply running in the background, building relationships and boosting revenue, while you focus on other things.

  tags: lifecycle_emails triggered_emails blog

• When Should a Popover Form Appear?

  Would you ask a visitor to do something right away, or after they’ve had some time to get to know you?

  tags: list_growth lightbox blog

• Your Facebook Page As An Email Design

  LA Fitness recently employed a fairly brilliant design for their Facebook email campaign.

  tags: design facebook blog

• How to Increase your Email Subscribers

  tags: list_growth blog

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Welcome to the Thursday Edition of the 411 brought to you by Only Influencers.

Scott Cohen: An Email Snob Interview with Chester Bullock

• Scott interviews Influencer Chester Bullock who gives Only Influencers a nice plug. Thanks Chester.
• Topic: Meet the Influencers
• Rating: Anything that mentions OI gets a Must Read

Laurie Sullivan: Google Readies Gmail Undo Send Feature

• Ever hit send and wish you could take it back? Soon you will with Gmail's undo feature.
• Topic: New Technology
• Rating: No Rating

Jim Ducharme: QR Codes: Quite Righteuous

• Here is a tutorial on QR codes for mobile email brought to you by GetResponse. Great tips if you are looking to incorporate QR into your next email campaign.
• Topic: Mobile Email
• Rating: Must Read

Eloqua: Next 36 Hours a Waiting Game for EU Privacy Directive

• May 25th was the day that the EU's privacy directive went into effect. If you are marketing in Europe, you need to be up to speed on this.
• Topic: EU Regulations
• Rating: Must Read

Email Suddenly Gets More Relevant as a Wireless Payment Heats Up

• Major banks are teaming up so you can send cash to people via an email address. Supposedly, according to this article, it makes email relevant again. Wonder if Paypal has heard of this?
• Topic: Is Email Hot?
• Rating: No Rating

Morgan Stewart: Email at the 'Grown-Ups' Table

• Stewart says to replace the "high ROI" for email argument and instead talk about value of the channel. Focusing on lifetime value, sharing insights about customer motivations, and maintaining respect for other channels is the way Email gets to keep its place at the grown up table.
• Topic: Industry Education
• Rating: Worthwhile

Rick Buck: Spring Cleaning: The Top 10 Deliverability Misconceptions

• 10 good insights into some of the fallacies of email marketing.
• Topic: Deliverability
• Rating: Worthwhile

Ken Magill: FTC May be Backing Off Do Not Track

• Linda Woolley, VP of operations at the DMA, thinks the FTC is backing off of the Do Not Track initiatives.
• Topic: Privacy and Tracking
• Rating: Worthwhile

Ken Magill: Notes from Atlanta: A Piano's ROI?

• Ken reviews the presentations at Silverpop's client Summit. Highlights include Abandoned-Cart emails and Gary Vaynerchuck's always entertaining presentation.
• Topic: Industry Eductation
• Rating: Worthwhile

Reply All: Emails Third Rail?

• A topic close to the hearts of all Only Influencer members: when to hit reply all. The author suggests resisting the temptation to "burn" someone publicly. Good advice.
• Topic: Email Lists
• Rating: No Rating.

Liz Bross: Best Practices: Strategies for Growing an Email Program

• A topic that comes up often: how to grow your list especially when it shrinks 30-35% each year because of email address changes and opt-outs. A very comprehensive article which is well worth reading covering all the bases on how and when to grab those email addresses.
• Topic: List Building
• Rating: Must Read

Richard Levey: Unifed Databases, Email Hygiene Pay Out For Eldorado Resorts

• A case study showing how Eldorado Resorts was able to use FreshAddress to boost email coverage among its members.
• Topic: Case Study
• Rating: No Rating

Chad White: Say What?! Bad Advice from Email Experts

• Chad wonders if the experts know what they are talking about as he reviews 4 pieces of advice from the Email Experts that he takes issue with.
• Topic: Industry education
• Rating: Worthwhile

Kara Triunovic: What? No Birthday Hoopla? Four Reasons Email Marketers Should Help Me Celebrate

• Kara is not feeling the love from her favorite brands on her Birthday and wonders why brands are missing the boat.
• Topic: Birthday Emails
• Rating: Worthwhile

Matthew Hayes: Retention Lifecycle Programs: Options and Considerations

• Don't overlook post-purchase communication with your customers!
• Topic: Post Purchase campaigns
• Rating: Worthwhile

If you blog or write about email marketing and want Bill McCloskey to cover your stories, contact Bill at [email protected]

Starting today, Tamara's Be Relevant! blog will carry the Only Influencers 411. Twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays), Bill McCloskey, founder of Only Influencers, will parse all the articles relevant to Email Marketers, summarizing each article and attaching a "rating" to help busy marketers determine which articles they absolutely must read and which ones they can safely skip.

About the Rating System:

• Must Read with a Bullet: critical issues facing the Email Marketing industry that every marketer should read.
• Must Read: highly important articles that should be read.
• Worthwhile: While not critical, contains very good information that will help marketers do their job better.
• No Rating: articles that are for less experienced marketers or are product reviews.

There will be other ratings as well.

Here are today's articles: 

Chris Donald: Murder He Wrote: The Invisible Email Marketing Message

• Has your email program become invisible? Are your subscribers blind to your offer. Chris offers some tips to get your email program top of mind again. 
• Topic: Email Overhaul
• Rating: Worthwhile

17 Ways to Make Your Email Stand Out eBook

• Free eBook from Blue Sky Factory.
• Topic: Industry Education
• Rating: Yeah, it's lead gen, but at least it's free.

Chris Donald: Your Email Marketing List: Consider the Source

• Your email metrics will differ depending on the source of the email subscription. Website subscribers, White Paper download leads, Co-Reg subscriber all have different metrics that you need to keep in mind when segmenting your list.
• Topic: Segmentation
• Rating: Must Read

Mark Walsh: Yahoo Mail Poised For Full Rollout, Faster Time, Better Ad Targeting

• Yahoo Mail to roll out to 284 Million users. Will use keywords in message to better target emails 
• Topic: Mail Browers
• Rating: No Rating

David Daniels: The State of Deliverability - New Innovations to Remedy Old Problems

• David sits down to talk with Influencer Dave Lewis about Message Systems' new Adaptive Delivery technology.
• Topic: Deliverability
• Rating: Worthwhile

Jordie van Rijn: Email and an Interactive PDF

• Jordie educates the industry about a new technology: Interactive PDF's that can be used for billing purposes but have further uses according to Jordie.
• Topic: What's New?
• Rating: No Rating

Email Exclusive Campaign Blows Crocs's Sales Projections

• Croc integrates email campaign with Facebook page to launch new product.
• Topic: Case Study
• Rating: No Rating

Chris Donald: Question: Why do my Clients Unsubscribe from my Email Marketing?

• The most important part of email marketing is your relationship with the client.
• Topic: Engagement
• Rating: Short but Sweet.

J-P De Clerck: How can we change the traffic-building mindset?

• J-P calls for always improving all conversion techniques.
• Topic: Converstion
• Rating: Worthwhile

Are you an industry writer that wants to be covered by the 411? send articles to Bill McCloskey at [email protected]

About Only Influencers: OI is a private, invitation only network for email and other digital marketers. For more information go to www.onlyinfluencers.com

• Study Says Spam Can Be Cut by Blocking Card Transactions - NYTimes.com

  The computer scientists say that because the spam system relies on just a few banks and an even smaller number of credit card processors, the business is highly vulnerable to disruption by regulators and law enforcement agencies.

  tags: spam blog

• 8 Tips for developing the successful Preference Centre – Part 1

  tags: preference_centers list_growth blog

• 14 tips to boost your creativity (possibly)

  That’s where creativity comes in: ideas and images, copy and campaign concepts, subject lines and new designs that draw attention and drive response. But there’s a problem with being creative: how exactly do you do “be creative”? Mark Brownlow shares some tips

  tags: creativity blog

• Gmail to Allow Images, but Not Animation, in Ads

  Gmail will begin allowing advertisers to use images. For example, an e-mailed offer for a ski package showing a skier on the slopes could be accompanied by an ad on the right side of the screen, showing a competing offer, replete with another skier coming down another slope.

  tags: gmail blog

• Why Marketers Fail to Send Dynamically Segmented Emails

  tags: segmentation strategy blog

• Creating Effective - and Profitable - Birthday Emails | ClickZ

  Jeanne Jennings looks at a few birthday emails, both good and not-so-good, which stood out in her inbox.

  tags: birthday_emails triggered_emails blog

• Direct Mail vs. Email Newsletter

  when do you use an email vs a direct mail piece? 

  tags: blog

• Mobile Email Access Increases 80 Percent From October: Return Path

  Mobile access now accounts for 16 percent of how people read their email, according to Return Path.

  tags: mobile blog stats study

• Grande Guide To Email Deliverability And Privacy

  everything you need to know about deliverability and privacy

  tags: deliverability privacy blog

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• New stats show email marketing more popular than ever for businesses

  The recently published 2011 version of the Email Marketing Census conducted by United Kingdom online research firms Adesta and Econsultancy reveals some remarkable statistics about the power and reach of email marketing for businesses in the midst of the social media age. If you need more evidence that email marketing is still the go-to promotional tool, here are plenty of facts to support that argument:

  tags: study blog

• Email Remarketing – why aren’t more people using it?

  tags: strategy triggered_emails blog study

• Creating Effective - and Profitable - Birthday Emails

  Here is the first of a three-part, example-based series on birthday emails, featuring tips and tricks for making your birthday email messages more rewarding – both for your recipients and for your organization.

  tags: birthday_emails triggered_emails blog

• 10+1 ways of growing your emaillist via twitter « Email marketing consultancy | Emailmonday

  How can we use twitter to promote our email newsletter and get more opt-ins?

  tags: list_growth twitter social_media blog

• Do your Email Subject Lines have C.U.R.V.E.?

  A good Subject Line must possess at least 2 of the 5 C.U.R.V.E. elements to connect with today’s subscriber and get them to open the email. Also, 1 of the 2 elements almost always is the R. (relevance) or the V. (value).

  tags: subject_lines blog

• Deliverability.com: How Inactive Addresses Hurt Deliverability plus 3 Tips on What to Do

  Inactive subscribers are a liability to anyone who sends email.  They hurt deliverability, which in turn reduces your response rates, and before you know it, your email program isn’t making as money as it use to.

  tags: deliverability blog list_management

• Email Authentication 101: What Do You Need To Know?

  One of your primary goals is to ensure that your messages are getting to your target audience. One of the best ways to accomplish that is to comply with ISPs requirements by authenticating your email messages.

  tags: authentication spf senderid dkim DomainKeys blog deliverability

• Amazon SES For Transactional Messaging: Ramping Up Your Daily Allotment

  tags: transactional_emails ses blog

• Proofreading for email newsletters

  tags: copywriting blog

• How to use Google Analytics to find the best time to send emails

  Fortunately, there is a better way to determine the optimum mailing time, rather than using gut instinct - you can do it via Google Analytics.

  tags: strategy blog

• Email Coding Guidelines – Part 2: Picking Inline CSS Apart

  Because you're dealing with email, there are certain CSS attributes that just won't work and there's certain ways some CSS needs to be applied. Here are some of the most common CSS issues we see when evaluating or restructuring code.

  tags: coding css blog

• Conditional Statements for Outlook 2007

  this piece of code allows a piece of content to be hidden from display in Outlook 2007, but display everywhere else. This could be used, for example, to hide a form element (forms don’t work in Outlook, but do everywhere else) and display something else instead.

  tags: coding blog

• The inconvenient truth about div tags in HTML emails

  The sad truth is that it isn't time to pack those tables away - in a recent test, we found that using div tags to create multi-column layouts is still highly unreliable.

  tags: design coding blog

• Make Them Feel Welcome: Tips to Improve Your Welcome Email

  welcome emails can be used for so much more and they can go beyond a one-time message. Here are several tips that you can use to improve your welcome email and ideas on how to nurture customers with a ‘welcome email campaign.’

  tags: welcome_emails blog

• Free Downloadable Email Marketing Guides for Your Industry

  industries that are covered are: photographers, fitness centers and real estate agents

  tags: blog strategy

• Email Design & Coding Recommendations

  The folks over at Responsys published their 2011 Email Design & Coding Recommendations, which addresses the emerging design impact of smart phones and Facebook Messages on email marketing campaigns.

  tags: design coding blog

• Content Recycling: A to Z

  Here’s an A-Z recycling content guide that will give you ideas to recharge your creative content batteries.

  tags: content blog

• Gmail Deliverability and 3 Ways to Improve It

  Deliverability changed on April 6. On that day, Google changed their deliverability filter algorithms and, similar to how changes to their search ranking algorithms affect SEO, this change affected a number of our customers – some for the better and some for the worse.

  tags: blog deliverability gmail

• Designing Successful Calls-to-Action

  Using a good call-to-action is a critical part of any performance-driven design, and should be created mindfully so that the subscriber isn’t left guessing. 

  tags: design call-to-action cta blog

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• The Past, Present & Future of Email [INFOGRAPHIC]

  tags: infograph blog stats

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

I got an email today with a link to some funny email marketing best practices cartoons, developed by the folks over at Web Target, an Italian email and webmarketing magazine. Here they are, enjoy:

Only the best-dressed email arrives at its destination:

A good list is a permission-based list:

Your email should have interesting content:

If you weren't able to attend the Email Insiders Summit that took place this week at Captiva Island, Florida - you can view some of the sessions here. These are my personal favorites:

Keynote by John Pulizzi who talks about content marketing:

Arthur Middleton Hughes talks about lifetime value of an email subscriber and the off-email-multiplier:

• What Should You Test On Your Landing Pages For Maximum Conversions?

  Have you ever wondered why all your split testing is only bringing you small, incremental improvements in your conversion rate?  Most website owners blindly slog along, testing tiny but noticeable changes like headlines, button color and so forth. You’ll get some results in your conversion rate, but you’ll feel as if you’re hitting a glass ceiling – that there’s really nothing else to tweak to bring about much of a difference. Read more: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/test-landing-pages-for-maximum-conversions/#ixzz1Kjza9z72

  tags: blog testing landing_pages

• Top 10 Things That Hurt Your Email Delivery (Part One)

  tags: deliverability blog

• Top 10 things that hurt your email delivery (Part two!)

  tags: deliverability blog

• Optimization Testing: How To Get Your HiPPO on Board

  Linda Bustos asked some of the top conversion optimization gurus what, in their experience, are the biggest challenges for enterprise testing initiatives. 

  tags: testing blog

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.