Courtney Eckerle says, “Most email marketers know they’re supposed to throw the social sharing buttons into their email templates. … or do you? “When we first started doing that, that made sense and that was the best practice when social media first came around. But we never looked back at it and did a reality check to see if that still made sense,” said Bart Thornburg, Senior Manager of Email Marketing, WeddingWire. In his MarketingSherpa Summit 2016 Media Center interview, Bart talked about how WeddingWire checked that portion of the template to see if it was really a best practice... [...]

Paul Cheney says, “Email marketing has evolved significantly during the first half of this decade — from the impact of mobile and engagement-based email filtering to the emergence of wearables and omni-channel integration. All that change made us wonder: ‘How will email marketing evolve between now and the end of the decade?’ That was what Chad White, Research Director, Litmus, sent me in an email when I asked him to comment on a SlideShare he created from Litmus’ Email Marketing in 2020 ebook. In the report, our own Daniel Burstein, Director of Editorial Content, along with 19 other... [...]

Austin McCraw says, “I recently overheard an interesting conversation at a Westin hotel check-in counter. It went something like this: “… and we’re energy efficient!” said the Westin receptionist. “That’s great …” the customer’s hesitating response was only met with her static smile. “So … What does that have to do with my room?” he added. “Well, you will have to use you room card to turn the lights on,” she replied with the slight hint of an eye roll. “Oh … ? How does that work? Do I have to have it on me or wave in front of the …” “You put it in the... [...]

Courtney Eckerle says, “I have two personal email accounts. The first I nigh abandoned when about five years ago in college it became so inundated with spam that I panicked and started over. The experience was essentially the electronic mail version of Fastball’s 90′s hit “The Way.” I just took off and left it all behind me. It seems silly that email could cause so much anxiety that I would call it quits and get the heck outta Dodge — meaning that I even switched email platforms. Now that I’m a full-grown adult of 26, I know that when I have an overwhelming amount of unwanted... [...]

Regina Love says, “I love to bake and never turn down a chance to have a sweet treat. Everyone always tells me that they don’t have the time, energy or patience to bake. As a highly process-oriented person, my entire life is built around planning and executing projects of all sizes. I know how effective organization can optimize time and effort, so I’d like to share my “recipe” on how you can create successful projects from your company “kitchen.” What you will need: A strong starting goal and well-structured framework to begin building your process. To assemble: Step 1: Mix... [...]

Daniel Burstein says, “There are two ways for a business to be successful in the short term. Option 1 is to do anything you can to generate revenue. Sometimes it’s something small like sending that one extra promotional email — it will get unsubscribes, sure, but at least it will push your numbers up this quarter. Or it might be something huge like holding a monopoly position in the marketplace. It could even be slowly making the product just a little bit worse to boost margins. Option 2 is to relentlessly serve customers better than your competitors. Those are the case studies and stories... [...]

Courtney Eckerle says, ““Although we think of ourselves as people who can make decisions, and in control of our own lives, 40 to 45 percent of what we do every day is a habit. It’s something that happens almost subconsciously,” Charles Duhigg, best-selling author, The Power of Habit, said in the Media Center at MarketingSherpa Summit 2016. Right now, he added, we are going through a golden age of understanding the neurology of habit formation. “Which is great, if you’re … a marketer who wants to influence what people are doing with their time or their money,” he said. A central... [...]

Brian Carroll says, “LinkedIn groups are one of the many helpful aspects of the professional community available on the platform. It can help you to build connections, get questions answered, share your expertise and demonstrate thought leadership. With this in mind, I started the B2B Lead Roundtable Group to be a community for people to learn and discuss the many facets of B2B lead generation. However, over time, I noticed that our group discussions started to look more like Twitter feed. Discussions became overrun with blogs, articles and other content sharing and hyperlinks but there... [...]

Austin McCraw says, “Skepticism is the disposition of our age. I’m not saying it’s a altogether new, but it is definitely the disposition of anyone under the age of 30 — AKA Millennials (see this study, and this one). Most of us are too young to know the history of the original snake oil ads, and yet we have been significantly impacted by them. Some of the original snake oil ads (see below) created so much demand for their product that entire businesses were built upon them. It has been reported that city blocks had to be converted into factories just to handle the demand generated... [...]

Selena Blue says, “No matter which division of marketing your team works in, you’d probably love to grow your team. You know your team is doing well, achieving great success, but how do you get that success noticed by leaders in your organization? During Day 1 of MarketingSherpa Summit 2016, Brian MacDonald, Senior Manager of Digital Marketing, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, shared his journey to overcome this challenge. Brian is a huge movie fan, and drew inspiration from Pixar director and screenwriter, Andrew Stanton, in his quest to get his team noticed and gain more budget. Storytelling... [...]