Jen Ribble says, “As 2015 draws to a close, it’s interesting to look back at the year and see what topics have been especially popular on the Return Path blog—and why. Sometimes a popular post touches on the zeitgeist of the moment. Wearable technology was on everyone’s mind back in April, and our top post of the year dealt with pre-orders of the brand new Apple Watch. Other posts resonate with readers because they provide timely updates and insight. This was the case when Google announced a new search algorithm in March and when they made changes to Gmail’s postmaster tools in... [...]

Alexandra says, “For email marketing, data is king. The more data you have about your subscribers, the more relevant and personalized each email becomes, ultimately resulting in higher engagement and ROI. However, companies walk a fine line when trying to collect valuable subscriber data while keeping the subscription process quick and easy enough to boost conversion. A lengthy, time-consuming subscription form may deter someone from signing up, so most forms may only collect email or a few other data points, such as name or ZIP code. While these data points are a good starting point for... [...]

Jen Ribble says, “Finding the right send frequency is a challenge most email marketers face at some point. We all know that overmailing is a mistake, so conventional wisdom points to limiting your send frequency as the “safe” approach. Fewer emails should result less frustration from subscribers, and therefore fewer complaints, right? As it turns out, there are plenty of problems associated with undermailing, as well. Missed revenue opportunities: Perhaps the most obvious pitfall of undermailing is this: potential customers can’t buy from you if they don’t know about your products.... [...]

Chance Barber says, “How many emails are in your inbox right now? Do you plan to read all of them? If you are like most of us, you probably don’t have that kind of time. Instead you will quickly scan through the list and open the handful that catch your eye. Catching the consumer’s eye is the goal of every marketer, and when it comes to email the subject line is the best way to do this. Considering how important the subject line is, how often do you test them? Surprisingly only about a quarter of those we surveyed frequently test their subject lines“. Want to Get More Out of... [...]

Dwight Sholes says, “Planning to start sending email to subscribers in countries outside the U.S.?  Here are twelve tips to make sure you are successful. Language:  Establish at the outset the language that you will be using to address your audience.  Will you be sending English-language emails to your international audience, or addressing subscribers in their local language?  This decision varies by country, region and audience.  For example, in some countries you must use the local language for all emails while in other markets local subscribers are accustomed to receiving email in... [...]

Casey Swanton says, “Desktop.  Mobile.  Smartwatch?   Roll your eyes if you must, but as a digital marketer you have likely noticed that it’s getting harder to ignore the buzz about wearables.  The market is finally catching up with Dick Tracy and Inspector Gadget’s Penny, creating another shift in the landscape for digital marketers.  This post explores some of the available information on smartwatches to put things in perspective, provide some hard-to-find specs and offer a few tips to optimize the wearable email experience for your subscribers. With the holidays giving the... [...]

William Kammersell says, “You put a lot into picking the best images for your email creative. You make sure they look great in mobile and desktop client layouts. You even include a tracking pixel to gain valuable insight into how subscribers engage with your email. Why are your subscribers getting security warnings from viewing your email?! The reason is although you picked a great image and tracking pixel, you delivered them via an insecure connection using HTTP instead of HTTPS”. Securing Your Image Return Path  [...]

Margaret Farmakis With the holiday season fast approaching, the countdown timer ticking toward Black Friday and Cyber Monday and visions of overflowing online shopping carts dancing in many email marketers’ heads, I decided to get into the festive spirit as only one possessing email intelligence can: by focusing on remarketing. There’s no more effective remarketing message for driving conversions than the triggered abandoned shopping cart email. According to Experian, abandoned cart messages increase purchases at a rate that is 19 times higher than promotional mailings, and they produce a 41%... [...]

Dana Huten says, “Italia Online was formed in November 2012 when Libero acquired Matrix S.p.A and all of its subsidiaries, including the mailbox provider, Virgilio. Although Virgilio and Libero use the same MTA and anti-spam technology, the two email platforms were not merged immediately. The technical merger will be complete in Q4 of 2014. The technical merger of the infrastructures will include a change of MTA and anti-spam filters. Libero and Virgilio have a combined count of over 14 million mailboxes. If you’re an Email Marketer here are some key-aspects of this mailbox provider to... [...]

Return Path team says, “Return Path today announced the results of their annual Inbox Placement Benchmark Report which found that one in every six email messages sent worldwide never reaches the subscriber’s inbox. Based on a sample of nearly 500 million messages from permissioned email marketers, the report found that 11% of all email messages went missing and another 6% were delivered to subscribers’ spam or junk folders. Consistent with last year’s findings, reaching the inbox remains a significant challenge for commercial senders. Return Path found that the relative constancy... [...]