Paul Ford says, “Email lives in a fluid environment: What may have been completely taboo yesterday may well have turned out to be a best practice today. And because of this constant evolution in email, marketers may be using old bad habits when they create a new email marketing campaign. Below are four common misconceptions about those campaigns. 1. The bigger your email list is, the better You’re far better off sending email to a smaller, but highly engaged, list of recipients, as opposed to a million subscribers who want nothing to do with your message. “Good-list hygiene”... [...]

Shelley Kessler says, “As the holiday season gets underway, it’s quite clear that mobile will play a major role in the consumer experience this year. For example, in our last Holiday Hot Sheet we found that 35 percent of all Website visits came from smartphones or digital tablets during the week ending October 17, 2015. And the number of mobile visits to retail sites is only expected to increase as we get closer to the holiday. Email engagement via mobile is on the rise Based on October 2015 mailings, we saw that 55 percent of email opens occurred on either mobile phones or tablets. This... [...]

Dan Newman says, “In marketing circles, the debate I hear most often is over the existence of email marketing’s pulse: Is it dead or alive? To me, the answer is obvious. Email is definitely NOT dead, nor will it be anytime soon. But before I elaborate, let me this drop one telling statistic: More than 200 million emails are sent out every minute of the day. It’s a number that proves email is still a heavily used communication platform for consumers, brands and enterprise marketers. alike. This isn’t the only piece of evidence that proves it’s too soon to contemplate the demise of... [...]

Lauren McKinney says, “We recently completed our 2015 email data quality trends research with 200+ research participants who came from a variety of company sizes and industries. The research study to took a comprehensive look at what poor email deliverability costs an organization, the challenges associated with email collection and email database maintenance, how companies track email marketing success, and different ways to improve subscriber interaction. Last week we had three of our email industry experts discuss the research and share their insights on our “Email data quality research:... [...]

Carly Stec says, “If you’re anything like most people, you can probably rattle off 100 different things you’d rather do than dig through your inbox. It starts to feel like a chore because what’s in there isn’t very interesting. In fact, only 21% of consumers reported that they’ve received a memorable promotional email in the past two months, according to a study by Litmus. To overcome this, many brands are using email personalization as a strategy for creating more engaging email experiences — ones that feel less like a robot, and more like a friend. The... [...]

Tom Tate says, “You can deliver a wealth of value to your new subscribers in your welcome email without reinventing the wheel. How? With Google Analytics! If you’re not using Google Analytics to track the traffic on your blog or website, stop reading this post now and get to trackin’. (Then come back to this post when you have some data, of course.) Google Analytics tracks so much information that will help you be more successful. I recommend reading this guide from Moz if you are just getting started. In this post, you’ll learn how to use Google Analytics to curate your best content,... [...]

Monica Montesa says, “If you’re just getting started with email marketing, you might be wondering what all the hoopla’s about when it comes to email deliverability. Whether you’re unsure how it impacts your email success, or if you’re just not convinced it’s that big of a deal, we wanted to help bring clarity to the sometimes puzzling topic. Here’s why email deliverability should definitely be on your radar: Reason #1: You want people to read your emails. I know, this one is kind of obvious. Of course you want people to read your emails! But there’s a whole lot that goes into... [...]

Kayla Cobb says, “I am a serial email subscriber. If I think there’s even a chance that a company’s subscription list will provide me with discounts, fashion tips, insightful news stories or even just a joke every now and then, I will most likely click that sign up button. This email addiction paired with my experience reporting for MarketingSherpa’s Email beat has transformed my promotional Gmail folder into a nest of virtual hoarding. But it has also given me insight into the latest trends in email marketing. One trend that seems to overwhelm my inbox is adding GIFs to emails. If... [...]

Beth Hayden says, “Autoresponders are the hardest-working, unsung heroes of content marketing. They’re a series of emails you write once and set up to send out at pre-set intervals to anyone who asks for them. They keep working day and night, continuously reaching out to your audience with valuable content and relevant offers. They work for you whether you’re writing, eating, sleeping, or playing with your pooch. They never get tired, and they never give up. That’s pretty heroic. When used correctly, autoresponders can add serious momentum to your business. But when you sit down to... [...]

Daniel Burstein says, “As we get towards the end of the year, it’s time for B2C marketers to make last-minute tweaks to drive holiday sales and B2B marketers to get those last few, really high-quality leads that will hopefully close in fiscal year 2015. But don’t overlook another important date that is coming up on the calendar as well — January 1, 2016. The day that 2016 budgets kick in for many marketers. To help you win the email marketing budget you need to be successful in 2016, here are a few key data points that you can drop into your proposal or presentation. Data Point #1:... [...]