Email Marketing RulesEmail Newsletters: 9 New Best Practices
Posted on May 31, 2023
Nothing in email marketing is static, because ESP technology, inbox providers, and—most importantly—consumers are constantly changing. That change extends to the email newsletter, a mainstay of B2B marketing and a growing player in B2C marketing, too.
To get a read on the latest newsletter trends, I spoke with our Creative Services and B2B teams here at Oracle Marketing Consulting about what they were doing when they overhauled our clients’ newsletters. Consider this your guide to the new best practices for email newsletters. Here are their top 9 recommendations…
Marketing Book Podcast: ‘A Lot of Structural Changes to How Email Marketing Works’
Posted on May 26, 2023
Six years after being on the Marketing Book Podcast to discuss the 3rd edition of Email Marketing Rules, I rejoin host Douglas Burdett to talk about the new 4th edition. During our 1 hour and 17 minute conversation, we cover a wide range of topics, including:
- What’s new in the 4th edition of Email Marketing Rules
- What’s in each of the two volumes of the 4th edition
- What’s unique about the email channel
- What are the downsides of email marketing
- How most new marketing graduates have little to no email marketing knowledge
- How your gut will often led you wrong with email marketing
- Why buying lists is dangerous
- How sender reputations work
- How to communicate email marketing success
- Why the paid-owned-earned (POE) media model is outdated
- Why email marketing is best as a conversation
- The four trends that will drive the next 10 years of email marketing
- The one thing marketers should do today
- The marketing book I’m reading right now
To hear our full conversation, listen to the Marketing Book Podcast wherever you get your podcasts or…
AI-Generated Images: Generative AI Concerns & Opportunities for Marketers
Posted on May 23, 2023
Ready or not, we’re rapidly heading into a world where generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Dall-E, and others do more of marketers’ day-to-day work. That transition is not much in question. The only question is how well your organization makes that transition.
To make that transition as smoothly as possible, we recommend taking a cautious and realistic approach toward the here-and-now of these technologies, while keeping an optimistic long-term view. That starts with having a solid understanding of how these technologies work, including what they’re capable of and what they’re not.
Having that understanding will help you deploy generative AI in ways that will help your business grow, and either avoid or safeguard against situations where AI leads to costly errors or embarrassing customer experiences.
Because the issues and use cases around generative AI vary depending on whether you’re outputting text, code, or images, we’re addressing each of those separately. In this post, we’re focusing on generative AI for images. Let’s start by explaining…
13 Warning Signs of Email Deliverability Problems Ahead
Posted on May 15, 2023
Nothing can destroy your email marketing performance quite like email deliverability problems. Whether it’s the slow slip of inbox placement due to diminishing engagement or the sudden collapse due to a blocklisting, it’s always devastating and usually a shock.
But honestly, email deliverability problems are rarely a surprise if you know what to look out for, says Daniel Deneweth, Oracle Marketing Consulting’s Head of Email Deliverability Services. During his nearly two decades focused on email deliverability, he’s noticed a number of events that often precede problems…
91 Days Success Podcast: Email Marketing Unleashed
Posted on May 9, 2023
I join Jonathan Mast, the host of the 91 Days Success Podcast, to chat about how to use email marketing wisely, strategically, and productively. During the 50-minute podcast, we talk about:
- How I got my start in email marketing
- Why I wrote the 1st edition of Email Marketing Rules
- Why I’ve now released four editions of it and what’s new about the 4th edition
- Why email marketing is still important to businesses
- How email marketing’s high ROI leads many brands to settle for “good enough” results
- What metrics should marketers be using to measure success
- How email marketing can be used to build stronger, more productive customer relationships
- The evolution of email personalization: small-p personalization vs. big-P personalization
- The role of generative AI, both in the short-term and long-term
- The kinds of mistakes that brands regularly make with email marketing
- How to optimize subject lines
- How to get more out of automated campaigns
- How to avoid having your emails blocked or junked
- The perils of buying email addresses
- What I’d do if I had to start over and rebuild my email marketing consulting career
Listen the 91 Days Success Podcast wherever you get your podcasts, or
10 Years of Email Marketing Rules: What’s Changed & What’s Next
Posted on May 5, 2023
Anytime I see someone complain that email marketing is old and hasn’t changed in decades, it just confirms for me that they don’t know anything about email marketing. The truth is that the channel has changed dramatically.
These changes are top of mind for me personally as I just marked the 10-year anniversary of releasing the 1st edition of Email Marketing Rules by releasing an updated and greatly expanded two-volume 4th edition. As I note in the Preface of the 4th edition, the last 10 years have seen many changes, including:
- CASL, GDPR, and CCPA have all gone into effect
- Email can be read on smart watches or be read aloud by voice assistants
- Tabbed inboxes were introduced by Google, Microsoft, and others
- Marketers gained the ability to create interactive emails using CSS and AMP for email
- Rich preview content can be created using schema and Email Annotations
- Emails can be designed using modular email architecture
- Dark mode is an option in most inboxes
- New privacy features, such as Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection and the sunsetting of third-party cookies
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning have gained roles in selecting audiences, determining email content, picking send times, writing copy, and more
- Orchestration of email with other channels has become much easier and increasingly vital in order to deliver great customer experiences
- Cross-channel customer data can be centralized in customer data platforms (CDPs) and other systems
That’s a lot of change! And, frankly, much of that has transpired since the 3rd edition was published in 2017. More importantly, several of those changes are major contributors to three trends that be major drivers of the next 10 years of email marketing:
- Tighter privacy restrictions
- Better omnichannel orchestration
- More machine learning and AI
For a full discussion of each of those trends…
>> Watch this on-demand webinar on Oracle’s Modern Marketing Blog
Generative AI for Email Personalization: A Hallucination Wrapped in Confusion
Posted on May 4, 2023
Let me be blunt: We are so far away from generative AI writing personalized emails in any meaningful way. So very far. Yet, I keep hearing people suggest that generative AI will be writing highly personalized emails to individuals in the not-too-distant future.
I don’t think this is a realistic expectation at any significant scale, with any degree of automation, and with a reliable expectation of increased performance—much less a positive return on investment. Let me explain why.
The Last Word on April 2023
Posted on May 2, 2023
A roundup of email marketing articles, posts, and social buzz you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & reports
When Cold Email Ices Your Marketing Program (Only Influencers)
AI-Generated Content Is the New Floor (SparkToro)
You Are Not a Parrot (New York Magazine)
Guess Which Device Has Supplanted Computers As the Go-To For Email? (MediaPost)
The Revenge of the Pop-Up (The Verge)
Insightful & entertaining social posts
One thing is for sure at this point, AI doesn’t even know where to start with email code
— Alex Williams (@alexcwilliams) April 26, 2023
Noteworthy subject lines
Vuori, 4/21 – Today and every day 🌎
Newbury Comics, 4/21 – Record Store Day – TOMORROW 4/22 🎵
West Elm, 4/28 – It’s Arbor Day & we’re planning trees 🌲
Overstock Home | Spring into Savings, 4/5 – 10% off to Shop Spring Patio Prep for Your Outdoor Living Room
Big Lots, 4/26 – Refresh your patio for LESS with up to 30% off outdoor essentials!
West Elm, 4/29 – Summer entertaining, but make it colorful
REI, 4/10 – Lace Up 🥾 & Hit the Trails ⛰️
Camping World, 4/1 – Kick off Camping Season with up to 45% off
Fanatics.com, 4/9 – It’s Road Trippin’ Season…
AutoZone, 4/21 – Batteries for: mowers ✅ boats ✅ motorcycles ✅
Cuisinart, 4/5 – Pollen, dust, pet dander? No problem.
Target, 4/6 – 20% off twirl-ready girls’ dresses.
J.Crew, 4/26 – The 100% linen collection: fresh shirts, slip dresses & more…
Abercrombie & Fitch, 4/29 – That carefree summer feeling, in outfit form.
Wayfair | WAY DAY, 4/26 – 🟣🟡🟣 WAY DAY IS FINALLY HERE 🟣🟡🟣
Williams Sonoma, 4/11 – Gifts on your wish list | To: You, From: You
MoMA Design Store, 4/8 – 🍸 Your Cocktail Party Perfected
Crate & Barrel Design Desk, 4/27 – Inspo drop: Our Design Pros talk outdoors →
LEGO Family, 4/21 – 15-minute robot play ideas for free
Peloton, 4/8 – Cycling 🆚 Running: Which One’s Right For You?
The North Face, 4/1 – Record-breaking trail runs. 2023 Explore Fund Council. And more…
Goldbelly, 4/8 – The Originals: Cakes That Changed History 🍰
Inside CNN, 4/12 – Meet the new faces of CNN afternoons
ECCO USA, 4/1 – Celebrating 60 years of ECCO
Harley-Davidson, 4/8 – It’s a big one 🎂 120 years of H-D
Quiksilver, 4/12 – Introducing Made Better with Recycled Textile Waste
The North Face, 4/8 – Introducing Trail Lite: Our latest (and lightest) backpacking gear.
Zara, 4/3 – ZARA X WALLPAPER
West Elm, 4/30 – Only here! Sarah Sherman Samuel’s best-selling kids’ collab
lululemon, 4/3 – Not a member? Let’s change that.
New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
Validity’s Email After Hours Podcast: Why We’re Still Mad About Apple’s MPP
Email & Coffee Podcast: ‘The Strategy Comes First’
Digital Marketing Redesigns: Our Process for Success
How Much Harder Has Email Marketing Become?
6 Loyalty Program Trends to Watch
AI-Generated Text: Generative AI Concerns & Opportunities for Marketers
The 5 Biggest Changes from a Decade of Email Marketing Change
Validity’s Email After Hours Podcast: Why We’re Still Mad About Apple’s MPP
Posted on April 28, 2023
Since Apple introduced it in 2021, Mail Privacy Protection has had a profound impact on how email marketers operate and many are still struggling with how to adapt. I join Validity’s Guy Hanson and Danielle Gallant on the Email After Hours podcast to discuss everything MPP. We tackle the following questions:
- How did MPP upend the status quo and who has been impacted most?
- What other email marketing challenges and opportunities lie ahead?
- What are some of the positives of MPP?
- Was Apple trying to solve a problem that most consumers didn’t know existed?
- How have marketers responded to MPP?
- What are some useful ways of using auto-generated opens?
- How should senders be measuring engagement post-MPP?
- How have subscribers been affected by MPP?
- Has MPP actually spurred unethical sender behavior?
Or wherever you get your podcasts.
Email & Coffee Podcast: ‘The Strategy Comes First’
Posted on April 27, 2023
I join Joi Brooks, the host of the Email & Coffee Podcast, to chat about email marketing strategy. During our conversation, we talk about…
- Email marketing education
- The biggest design tip to drive results
- Building interest and nurturing B2B leads
- Desiloing marketing and omnichannel customer behavior
- The critical zero stage of email interactions
- How to create great customers
- Focusing your email content on the HOW, not the WHAT
- How too many marketers settle for “good enough” results
- The need for a broad understanding of email marketing, even among specialists
- The evolution and expansion of email marketing
- Generative AI
- The tension between personalization and privacy
- Data collection, behavioral signal strength, and avoiding creepiness
- Return on touch
- And much more!
Or get Email & Coffee wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome! Email Marketing Rules is your guide to understanding the best practices of this complex, often misunderstood channel as you craft the best executions for your brand. Every week, we’ll explore strategies and tactics, discuss tips and inspiration, and dig into industry news and trends.
Chad S. White
Head of Research at Oracle Marketing Consulting
Author of Email Marketing Rules
