Jack Simpson says, “If the vertiginous rise of video-sharing and streaming platforms such as YouTube, which receives more than 6bn video views from 1bn unique users every month, has taught us anything it’s that people have a voracious appetite for video. It should be no surprise then that more than four out of every five marketers plans to use video in their email campaigns in the future. Why should you be using video? The old adage goes that a picture paints a thousand words, but a video does that and more. It is more immersive, is easier to understand, and creates a more immediate... [...]

Scott Gerber says, “Managing a flooded inbox is overwhelming enough without receiving additional “welcome” emails. The majority are dull, provide no value and gets sent straight to the trash, which isn’t much of a welcome at all. People show initial interest by subscribing, so it’s crucial to not disappoint on the first contact. These entrepreneurs from YEC are experts on creating smart content and offer their best tips below. 1. Keep It Short, and Ask One Question An approach that works well is to make it short (2-4 paragraphs with no more than 2-3 lines each)... [...]

Jeff Boss says, “In a world where technology becomes faster every day and people, teams and companies grow more geographically dispersed, trying to nail down somebody in person to throw a sales pitch almost seems impossible. Fortunately, 91 percent of working professionals check their email daily, according to data by Hubspot. What this means is, if you’re a numbers guy or girl and you believe in the power of odds (after all, 91 percent is pretty hard to argue with), email is the best way to build a network of prospects. However, emails are also easy to ignore. While there isn’t... [...]

Jordan Elkind says, “Email marketing remains a vital channel in driving e-commerce orders, representing 16% of orders as of June 2015, up a percentage point from a year ago, according to Custora’s E-Commerce Pulse, a publicly-available online dashboard tracking e-commerce statistics and trends (disclosure: Custora is my employer). Customers increasingly expect retailers’ email messages to be personalized, relevant and engaging. Promotions and discounts are clearly a powerful way to connect with new and existing subscribers, driving revenue growth. However, e-commerce marketers need to... [...]

Blaise Lucey says, “When was the last time you were excited to take a look at your inbox? If you’re like most people—including the people you market to—the answer is probably never. Let’s be honest: Most emails are boring. Research backs that up: Social media tends to evoke “excitement” as the prevailing sentiment, but the first word that comes to mind for email is “productivity.” Emails are a chore. You might be interested in what’s in the email, sure, but it’s rare that you open an email and get excited by the content there. Brands have... [...]

Parry Malm says, “One of Econsultancy’s main retention and sales channels is email marketing. Duh! Same as nearly every other company on the planet. Email works because it’s the foundation of online marketing. But… is Econsultancy’s subject line language optimal? We analysed the emotional power of 82 of its recent email subject lines and here’s what we discovered. The first challenge is to understand why some subject lines are good, and why some are bad. Subject lines are important. This isn’t news. But how can you quantify the ‘goodness’ and ‘badness’... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Some 83% of brands sent general winter-holiday-themed emails last year, and 80% sent Black Friday emails, according to a recent report from Yesmail. The report was based on data from email marketing campaigns sent by 30 major B2C brands in the third and fourth quarters of 2014. The researchers used terms such as “school,” “Halloween,” “Thanksgiving,” “Black Friday,” “holiday,” and “Christmas” to identify emails focused on specific holidays/events, measure their performance, and compare them with base... [...]

Eric Dezendorf says, “In my last column, I spoke a bit about achieving the best results for your email program through testing. Now, let’s take a deeper dive into one of those tests. This month, I want to help answer the age-old question: When’s the perfect time to send an email? Remember, timing is everything. An email has its greatest potency in the first few hours after it is sent, and content becomes stale after about 24 hours. Though for any client results may vary, here are some helpful hints to get you started. One client of mine in the hotel industry sent 13 different messages... [...]

Jose Cebrian says, “The future of email will be live content. First-party data will be the key differentiator in driving results, so the latency of today’s production process will need to change. The advent of real-time content in email over the last few years is changing how marketers can drive relevancy and increase revenue. But to truly leverage its power will require fundamental changes — not only in how we plan what content to show email recipients, but also in the way we look at the data that drive those content decisions. Consider the following email scenarios from the recipient’s... [...]

Zorian Rotenberg says, “Smart sales reps are getting on board with social selling. Researching, engaging with, and reaching out to prospects on social media sites can help salespeople familiarize themselves with their buyers and separate themselves from the crowd. If used correctly, social insights can warm up a cold email or call to the rep’s benefit. The bad news is that there are plenty of dumb social selling tactics out there. Unfortunately, some reps haven’t gotten the memo on personalizing and customizing their prospecting messages. This is unacceptable through email and on the... [...]