CCPA: What Marketers Need to Know about the California Consumer Privacy Act

Driven by the continued rise in consumer data breaches and growing privacy concerns, the State of California has passed the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The law will significantly strengthen privacy in the U.S. when it goes into effect on January 1, 2020.

The law is part of a global trend toward stronger privacy protections and greater data transparency, of which the Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are a part. However, the CCPA makes little mention of email and doesn’t mention permission at all.

A separate bill still under consideration in California, AB-2546, would address strengthening anti-spam laws and moving California—and in effect the rest of America—away from the opt-out marketing permission standard established by CAN-SPAM and putting it more in sync with international anti-spam laws.

The CCPA focuses exclusively on data collection and privacy, and is roughly in line with the provisions of GDPR on those issues. The law explicitly mentions that it’s in response to the misappropriation of Facebook data of at least 87 million people by Cambridge Analytica.

>> Read the full post on the Litmus blog

Faster Is Rarely Better When It Comes to Email Creation Process

Creating an email campaign is complicated, taking about two weeks on average from start to finish, according to Litmus’ 2018 State of Email Workflows report. Brands with 500 or more employees take even longer, dedicating 54% more time on average than smaller companies on each of their emails.

Hours—sometimes many hours—are spent on each of the eight stages that are part of the typical email creation process:

  1. Email conception & planning
  2. Copywriting
  3. Graphics & design
  4. Coding & development
  5. Data logic and setting up in email service provider
  6. Testing & troubleshooting
  7. Reviews & approvals
  8. Post-send analytics & analysis

Marketers who describe their email programs as successful spend more time on every facet of email production compared to those at less successful programs. The only exception is reviews and approvals, which both groups spend the same amount of time on.

Let’s explore that one exception—email reviews and approvals—because it strikes us that this stage is different from others. How so? Well, it seems exceptionally inefficient.

>> Read the entire post on the Litmus blog

Email Workflows that Work webinar

Your workflow is an expression of the investment you make in every email—and is itself a predictor of email program success. Most brands spend weeks planning and executing each email they produce. But what’s the secret to building a workflow that enables your team to get higher-quality emails out the door, faster?

In this webinar, Litmus Community & Product Evangelist Jason Rodriguez and I dive into the key findings of Litmus’ third annual State of Email Workflows report and break down the top 5 opportunities to improve your email workflow.

Along the way, we share details into how Litmus has acted on each of these opportunities, making changes to its own email workflow.

>> Watch the recording, download the slides, and read the Q&A on the Litmus blog

Email Workflows that Work webinar

Creating a high-performing email takes time and the right resources. Most brands spend weeks planning and executing each email they produce. But what’s the secret to building a workflow that enables your team to get higher-quality emails out the door, faster?

Using insights from the largest email industry survey of its kind, Litmus’ third annual State of Email Workflows report takes a detailed look at how email teams tackle every stage of the email creation process—from planning and building to quality assurance and sending.

In this webinar, Jason Rodriguez and I dive into the report’s key findings and break down the top 5 opportunities to improve your email workflow that you can put into practice immediately. You’ll learn…

  • How email teams leverage project management software and email briefs to keep email campaigns on track
  • Why collecting feedback and approvals is the largest drain on time in the email process—and how you can streamline this step in the workflow
  • Why more brands are embracing modular design, and how this design approach can reduce your production time
  • And more!

Email Workflows that Work: 5 Trends to Help You Create Better Emails Faster
June 21, 2018
1pm ET / 10am PT / 5pm GMT

Your presenters:
Chad S. White, Research Director, Litmus
Jason Rodriguez, Community and Product Evangelist, Litmus

Can’t make it on June 21? Don’t worry. Register and you’ll receive the recording of the webinar.

>> Register for the free webinar

4 Faulty Justifications for Under-Resourcing Email Marketing Teams

Insufficient staffing and resourcing are major, persistent problems in the email marketing industry. Email marketers told Litmus that insufficient staffing was No. 2 on their list of the biggest email marketing challenges of 2018. They also told us that adding new staff and expanding their use of agencies and freelancers was at the bottom of their list of email marketing priorities for 2018.

The failure to address what is clearly a common problem may be because of several misconceptions and blocking issues. Here are some common ones:

Everyone is under-resourced, so this isn’t actually a problem. It’s just whining.

Lean programs are successful programs. It forces teams to get creative.

We’ve had trouble attracting full-time employees to work on our email team. We’ll just have to make do with the staff we have.

We don’t have time to do the research required to determine the best way to resource our email marketing team.

We tackle each of those, sharing research on why those shouldn’t be holding your program back.

>> Read the full post on the Litmus blog

The Last Word on May 2018

The Last WordA roundup of email marketing articles, posts, and tweets you might have missed last month…

Must-read articles, posts & reports

After GDPR, here come the Unintended Consequences (MarTech Today)

Browse abandonment email test results (ZettaSphere)

Privacy Commissioner issues new guidance to help address consent challenges in the digital age (Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada)

The New Rules of Email Subscriber Acquisition (Only Influencers)

Should big tech companies like Facebook be broken up? (Recode)

Insightful & entertaining tweets

Noteworthy subject lines

GoDaddy, 5/3 — It’s World Password Day. Fire up a fresh one.
Ann Taylor, 5/1 – Mother’s Day Is May 13th
Vera Bradley, 5/2 – See what the stork brought: Mother’s Day gifts for the new mom!
Saks Fifth Avenue, 5/1 – The gift of fab: perfect presents for her
UncommonGoods, 5/7 – 25 Ways to Thank Mom
Hayneedle, 5/13 – Mothers, we appreciate you.
ModCloth, 5/4 – The feline awakens
Lego Shop, 5/4 – May the 4th starts… NOW!
Applebee’s, 5/5 – Two Neighborhood Drinks for Cinco!
HP, 5/13 – It’s celebration season!
Godiva Chocolatier, 5/18 – Diplomas don’t happen without them
Chili’s, 5/27 – Celebrate National Burger Day with the Burger Experts.
Home Depot, 5/28 – Honoring the Fallen. Serving Their Families.
American Red Cross, 5/31 – Help us honor America’s heroes
FansEdge, 5/31 — $TBT Fathers Day Retro Gear. Gift Him Memories.
Barneys New York, 5/2 – Here Comes the Sun (And New Arrivals)
Anthropologie, 5/17 – Oh how we’ve missed you, shorts.
Banana Republic, 5/20 – Tailored athleisure? Game changer.
Victoria’s Secret, 5/31 – Because Summer layers are totally a thing.
Target, 5/5 – Patio: Open & score a promo code for EXTRA savings on SALE stuff.
Target, 5/12 – Want a Pinterest-worthy patio for less? Up to 25% off + 10% off
Pier 1 Imports, 5/31 – Drinks by the pool or dinner on the patio?
Miracle-Gro, 5/31 – Flea, Tick & Mosquito-Related Illnesses Rising, CDC Reports
Kate Spade, 5/12 – ready for the beach?
Saks Fifth Avenue, 5/14 – Summer weddings decoded
Hayneedle, 5/16 – Room to grow: Try vertical gardening!
Epicurious, 5/5 – The best canned tuna is…
Hayneedle, 5/18 – Giveaway + This Old House’s Charleston Home Renovation.
Jetsetter, 5/20 – 11 Places to See Before It’s Too Late
ModCloth, 5/14 – Your recently restocked faves come in every shade.
Michaels Weddings, 5/20 – Introducing michaelsweddings.com: Your New DIY Wedding Headquarters

New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com

Email List Validation: 11 Expert Predictions About AI

A Snapshot of an Email Team

Email List Validation: 9 Expert Marketers Share Their Thoughts on the GDPR

Coming 1-Year Anniversary of Email Marketing Rules’ 3rd Edition

The Last Word on April 2018

11 Expert Predictions About AI That Marketers Absolutely Can’t Miss

Artificial intelligence will undeniably have a significant effect on marketing in the years ahead. To better understand those effects, Email List Validation reached out to 11 experts, including me.

Many of my views have been shaped by the 20 email marketing experts who contributed to Litmus’ Email Marketing in 2020 report, which addressed all the ways in which email marketing technology and processes will change in the years ahead.

Cumulatively, we came up with eight predictions for how AI will impact marketing:

  1. AI Will Make Data Analysis Much Easier
  2. AI Will Eliminate Menial Marketing Tasks
  3. AI Won’t Replace Interacting With Customers
  4. AI Will Thoroughly Disrupt Marketing
  5. AI Will Replace Entry-Level Marketing Tasks
  6. AI Will Transform Email Copywriting and Personalization
  7. AI Will Overhaul E-commerce Recommendation Engines, But It Won’t Eliminate Email Surveys
  8. AI Will Change the Economics of 1:1 Marketing

>> Read all about the predictions on Email List Validation’s blog

A Snapshot of an Email Team

A Snapshot of an Email Team

Email marketing is a team sport. And like a sports team, it’s not just the people who are on the field that count. An email team generally consists of three groups:

  • Internal team members, which consist of the full- and part-time employees on a brand’s email marketing team.
  • External email team members, which consist of freelancers and consultants, plus agencies and the services arms of email service providers.
  • Business stakeholders, which consist of all of the people involved in strategic goal-setting and the review and approval of emails across all the departments of your organization.

On average, brands have nearly eight full- or part-time employees working on email marketing. More than 26% use at least one freelancer, and nearly 34% of brands use an agency. Plus, marketers generally work with 2.4 other departments to get their emails reviewed and approved.

Even if you’re a solo email practitioner, there’s a chance you work with freelancers or an agency. And even if that’s not the case, unless you’re a solopreneur, you have stakeholders that establish key performance indicators and review and approve the emails you create.

Based on Litmus’ 2018 State of Email Survey of nearly 3,000 marketing professionals worldwide, this presentation looks at each of those three email team components, as well as how email team sizes may change during 2018. See how your own email marketing team compares by…

>> View the presentation on the Litmus Blog

9 Expert Marketers Share Their Private Thoughts on the GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation goes into effect on May 25. To explore the issues around GDPR, Email List Validation reached out to nine experts, including me. Together, we address:

  • The ambiguities in the law
  • The opportunity it presents, which is an issue I discussed with Emarsys recently
  • The need to be more selective in what data we ask for and store
  • How European senders won’t be massively impacted by GDPR, unlike American brands
  • How GDPR is a boon for consumers, who have not been served well by self-regulation by corporations
  • The effect on database sizes and on personalization
  • And more…

>> Read the full post on Email List Validation’s blog

Email Marketing RulesThe 3rd Edition of “Email Marketing Rules” will be celebrating its 1-year anniversary in a few weeks. I’d like to thank everyone who has purchased it, and most especially those who have reviewed it on Amazon.

Reviews are critical for all authors, but especially for independent authors like myself. If you’ve read “Email Marketing Rules” and haven’t reviewed it yet, I would be incredibly appreciative if you could take a few minutes to do so. Whether you loved it or merely liked it, a short review would really help.

>> Review or buy “Email Marketing Rules” on Amazon

To help pay it forward, I’ve reviewed several books on Amazon recently, including…

Thanks again for your support!