Email Marketing RulesWhat Is and Isn’t a Transactional Email?
Posted on May 28, 2021
This question is more challenging than you think. And how a company answers it has a major impact on the size of the audience it’s able to reach with that message, as well as legal ramifications.
That’s because transactional emails can be sent to all customers for whom you have email addresses. This includes those who haven’t opted in to receive your promotional messages, as well as those who have unsubscribed from receiving your promotional emails. Under the United States’ anti-spam law, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act, these emails also don’t need to include an unsubscribe link.
But be sure to properly identify your emails as transactional because CAN-SPAM, the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) can impose hefty fines if a company falsely sends promotional emails as transactional.
For all the details on the legal definitions, properly classifying transactional emails, and which promotional messages are most commonly misclassified as transactional…
Dyspatch: 9 Ways to Get More Email Survey Responses
Posted on May 26, 2021
Email marketing is a great way to drive survey responses. I join other experts in talking with Liz Willits about ways to get more email survey responses.
My advice centers on how to use interactivity to lower barriers and boost responses. I say:
“AMP for Email and CSS-based interactivity make surveys easier for subscribers to complete. That’s because subscribers can immediately see the survey without clicking through to the web and make their selections and input their answers inside the email itself. All of that saves them time and clicks, which increases survey completions significantly.
We’ve been using interactive email polls with some of our clients for years to great effect. We’ve found that they’re even better when you also use live content to show a real-time tally of results in the email.”
To get all of the advice…
Email Marketing Audit: Spotlighting 4 Commonly Neglected Areas
Posted on May 21, 2021
It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day operations of your email marketing program—rushing to get the next campaign out. It’s hard work! But if you’re on auto-pilot, you might neglect several strategic and structural areas of your program. While your marketing technology stack is advancing with new features, your marketing programs might not be.
Sound familiar? If so, Oracle Marketing Consulting’s Sophie Haywood says that it’s time to conduct an audit of your email marketing stack. Here’s a checklist that can help you identify areas that may need attention.
- Managing your martech stack
- Fully leveraging automation
- Refreshing creative and improving workflows
- Improving marketing performance
For all the details on each of those areas…
Doug & Friends Podcast: How to Become a Niche Expert with Chad White
Posted on May 14, 2021
I was pleased to join Doug Dennison, CEO at MailNinja and owner of Chimp Essentials, on his new podcast to talk about how to become a niche expert. On the show, I share my own personal journey, during which I’ve written three books and more than 3,000 posts and articles about email marketing and was named the Email Experience Council’s 2018 Email Marketer Thought Leader of the Year. But with hindsight being 20-20, I try to dissect the moves that led me to my current position in the industry and how others can plot their own unique course.
For example, starting the Retail Email Blog back in 2006 turned out to be a commitment for me to not only analyze and review hundreds of thousands of emails, but to share what I learned. I think it’s that commitment to learning and teaching others that is the rocket fuel for becoming an expert.
For our full conversion…
Email Evolution Conference Keynote: The State of Email Marketing
Posted on May 12, 2021
We’re experiencing a myriad of crises all at once—ranging from the pandemic health crisis to social unrest and insurrection to financial crises. These have led to profound changes in consumers’ buying habits and housing choices, and an acceleration of ecommerce, digital entertainment, and work from home trends. With COVID-19 still spreading quickly in some parts of the world, it’s clear that the pandemic and its effects will likely persist for years to come to some degree.
In our Email Evolution Conference keynote about the State of Email Marketing, Wildbit’s Justine Jordan and I argued that the ripple effects of the pandemic will drive email marketers to continue to focus on three areas:
- The need for nimbleness in their email production process
- Empathy and customer-centricity in their email messaging
- Maximizing customer retention through content and targeting
Let’s talk about each of those areas in turn…
>> Read the entire post on the Email Experience Council Blog
The Last Word on April 2021
Posted on May 11, 2021
A roundup of email marketing articles, posts, and tweets you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & reports
Consumer Email Tracker: Deep-Dive Insights from the Email Council (DMA UK)
Cookie Anxiety: Why Brands Are Sweating And What They Can Do About It (MediaPost)
21 Email Marketing Thought Leaders: Our Top Picks (Email on Acid)
Insightful & entertaining tweets
When 1m people read your newsletter, you learn what works and what doesn’t.
I’ve been involved in several @thehustle newsletter redesigns.
Here’s my framework for newsletter design 👇
— Kolby Hatch (@HatchKolby) April 29, 2021
A1: Year 2187
Probably sending email marketing communications to the customers who settled on another planet!#MarketingChats— Manish Thaduri (@sfdcFanBoy) April 7, 2021
Quite possibly the best email I’ve ever received 🎉 pic.twitter.com/msay5pYeow
— Lauren Meyer (@LaurenEmailGeek) April 20, 2021
No brief, no talk! Always insist on having a completed brief that is agreed upon. You’ll save yourself a lot of trouble in future and can manage expectations. #emailgeeks #digitalmarketing pic.twitter.com/DcqiwyZk7V
— Najmah ‘Two Sheds’ Salam (@najmetender) April 22, 2021
Marketing is an investment, not an expense.
If you want short term results, invest in sales.
If you want long term results, invest in marketing.
Stop cutting your long term strategy because money is tight in the short term.#marketingtwitter
— Jason Vana (@jasonvana) April 21, 2021
Noteworthy subject lines
Starbucks, 4/1 – Starbucks® Earth Month Game is here 🍃
IKEA, 4/21 – BIG things are happening with the IKEA tiny home!
Hobby Lobby, 4/4 – Hobby Lobby Easter 2021 Message
Victoria’s Secret, 4/27 – What Mom Really Wants: Cozy Everything
Saks Fifth Avenue, 4/13 – Make it personal: Mother’s Day gifts from Shutterfly & more
Saks Fifth Avenue, 4/27 – Saks Chief Merchant Tracy Margolies’ shares her top Mother’s Day gifts
Zales, 4/28 – 🦸♀ It’s National Superhero Day! Celebrate Your Superhero, MOM
Williams Sonoma, 4/8 – How we make coffee shop drinks at home
Banana Republic, 4/13 – Discover Luxe Athleisure
West Elm, 4/8 – Invitation for living room relaxation
Kohl’s, 4/16 – Create your at-home oasis inside or out.
Target, 4/20 – Patio season has arrived☀️
Target, 4/29 – It’s fire pit time 🔥
Express, 4/29 – Who’s ready for comfy girl summer?
Big Lots, 4/8 – Garden party-ready? You better beLEAF.
Eddie Bauer, 4/13 – Get In The Car, We’re Going CAMPING! 🚘⛺
Nordstrom, 4/13 – Trending sandals: built-up soles, slides, jellies and more
Lane Bryant, 4/8 – Color Crush: Mellow Yellow 🍋🌻💛🌼
Uncommon Goods, 4/2 – ⚾ Happy Opening Day! Diamonds are EVERYONE’s best friend.
ModCloth, 4/20 – Marriage is what brings us together today.
IKEA, 4/1 – Psst…we’ve improved Click & Collect.
Macy’s, 4/7 – New! Shop at your local Macy’s & pay later with Klarna 🤩
Fandango, 4/20 – Your Favorite Theaters Are Open
IKEA, 4/8 – Chad, get a FREE DAY of child care at KinderCare!
Everlane, 4/1 – A Chino For Jeans People—And Vice Versa
Crate & Barrel, 4/13 – Which upholstery is right for your sofa?
Williams Sonoma, 4/24 – Strawberry is all we want + 3 desserts to try…
Gap, 4/6 – ? M ? Y ? S ? T ? E ? R ? Y ?
New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
Subscriber Needs Your Preference Center Should Address
Subscriber Needs Your Preference Center Should Address
Posted on April 15, 2021
Despite having lots of tools to optimize contact frequencies based on changing subscriber behaviors, the reliance of most companies on last-click attribution strategies and a focus on short-term campaign-centric goals has created a strong bias toward ever-increasing frequencies across all channels. Inevitably, this will leave many of your customers feeling overmessaged and overwhelmed.
The clearest measure of this frustration can be seen in your active and passive list churn. Your active list churn includes those who opt out by unsubscribing or reporting your messages as spam, while your passive list churn includes those who opt out by ignoring your messages, eventually becoming long-term inactive subscribers.
Having a preference center can be a powerful tool in reducing both of those kinds of churn, giving customers an opportunity to openly and clearly express their current communication desires—not only for contact frequency, but for a range of preferences. In most cases, your preference center replaces your unsubscribe page, making it the last touchpoint you’ll have with many of your subscribers.
For a deep dive on the preference center options to consider…
Holiday Marketing Quarterly: Second Quarter 2021 Checklist
Posted on April 8, 2021
Oracle’s Holiday Marketing Quarterly gives B2C brands a quarter-by-quarter checklist for how to achieve more during the critical holiday season with their email marketing and other digital marketing channels. Along with guidance on planning, strategy, and prioritization, you’ll get advice and tips from some of Oracle Marketing Consulting’s more than 500 digital marketing experts.
Our second quarter checklist is focused on finishing your review of the 2020 holiday season and then making a range of improvements to everything from subscriber acquisition to performance reporting to campaign production. In this Holiday Marketing Quarterly, we’ll cover:
- Holiday Messaging Competitive Intelligence
- Subscriber Acquisition Source Optimization
- Unsubscribe Process Optimization
- Improved Analytics & Reporting
- Experimentation & Testing
- Accelerate Campaign Build Processes
For details on each of those areas…
>> Download the 18-page Second Quarter 2021 Holiday Marketing Quarterly
The Last Word on March 2021
Posted on April 2, 2021
A roundup of email marketing articles, posts, and tweets you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & reports
Is Your C-Suite Equipped to Lead a Digital Transformation? (Harvard Business Review)
What Do Website Visitors Want? It’s Not What B2B Brands Are Giving Them (Orbit Media Studios)
Introducing the Dark Storefront: A New Way Of Shopping Online (Independent Retailer)
Insightful & entertaining tweets
This is also why your email opt-in CTA should never be “subscribe.” https://t.co/sKcqFw4w4z
— Brian Clark (@brianclark) March 10, 2021
I’m just an email designer
sitting on the other side of your inbox
asking you to love her emails#emailgeeks— Megan Boshuyzen (@megbosh) March 23, 2021
Meta.#emailgeeks pic.twitter.com/2muZnDeFpL
— Jen Capstraw (@jencapstraw) March 24, 2021
Good accessibility is like good UX; if it’s functioning, you don’t notice it. – @AliceLiCode #emailgeeks #emailsuperherohangout
— Anne Tomlin (@pompeii79) March 26, 2021
Noteworthy subject lines
Williams Sonoma, 3/1 – Three easy Easter baking projects
Crate & Barrel, 3/4 – Take a peep at our Easter meal prep guide
Nordstrom, 3/20 – Instant Outfit: Easter Sunday
Michaels, 3/1 – Get inspired by these talented women making beautiful things.
VS PINK, 3/8 – Happy International Women’s Day! 💪 👩
IKEA, 3/8 – Watch Zara Larsson live in concert on International Women’s Day!
Williams Sonoma, 3/8 – Women-made products to celebrate International Women’s Day
Express, 3/8 – Who runs these brands? GIRLS❤️
Gap, 3/8 – We’re honoring International Women’s Day with real stories
Nintendo, 3/10 – Save now with the MAR10 Day sale!
Express, 3/10 – Losing an hour of 💤? Here’s 30% off UpWest Sleep & Lounge
Nordstrom, 3/12 – New to Nordstrom: EveVen by Venus Williams
Everlane, 3/4 – New: The ThermoStat™ Tee
Quiksilver, 3/31 – We recycled plastic bottles to create these shorts
VS PINK Swim, 3/4 – NEW Swim that is kinder to the planet 🌎🌊
Target, 3/4 – Patio sets perfect for every outdoor space☀️
The Home Depot, 3/20 –☀️It’s The First Day of Spring☀️
West Elm, 3/21 – It’s spring! Bring on the PLANTERS 💐
Eddie Bauer, 3/19 – Every Body Belongs Outside 🌳 🌲 🌳
Kohl’s, 3/25 – Must-haves for those sunny days ahead. 😎
ModCloth, 3/9 – Shop these picnic-me-ups 🧺
DICK’S Sporting Goods, 3/13 – Up to 30% Off Select Outdoor Gear to Get Outside!
Victoria’s Secret, 3/2 – All the Out of Office Vibes
Good Sam TravelAssist, 3/1 – Travel looks a little different these days… Be prepared for the unexpected.
Camping World RV, 3/31 – Shake Off That Zoom Gloom In A New RV!
Office Depot, 3/1 – You deserve a clean slate and fresh start
MoMA Design Store, 3/2 – A New Way to Fall Asleep
Panera Bread, 3/2 – Still sleepy, Chad? Leave breakfast to us.
West Elm, 3/4 – The rug equivalent of a cozy sweater
Express, 3/19 – 40% OFF DRESSES + TOPS | Wear this from 🧘 to 👩💻 to 🍷
SUBWAY Restaurants, 3/11 – Buy 1 Footlong, get 1 50% off on Grubhub
Petco, 3/13 – Need it today? We can deliver on that!
Lowe’s Home Improvement, 3/2 – Say hello to our newest small business partners.
Saks Fifth Avenue, 3/1 – Fashion Month Insider Spotlight: Bettina Looney shares her styling secrets
IKEA, 3/4 – ATTENTION: Huge, augmented reality related news inside.
IKEA, 3/12 – Introducing: The first ever IKEA Audio Catalog.
New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
Things People Say That Show They Don’t Understand Email Marketing
On-Demand Webinar: The Biggest Shifts in Email Marketing Trends for 2021
Automated Campaign Ideas to Explore: An Oracle Consulting Checklist
Uplers: 29 Experts on Email Trends to Watch for in 2021
Things People Say That Show They Don’t Understand Email Marketing
Posted on March 29, 2021
Email marketing is a complex channel that routinely isn’t appreciated by outsiders—and particularly by executives. That became all the more clear when I recently fired off this tweet:
Things people say that make me think they don’t really understand #emailmarketing:
“Sending an email is easy.”
“Email marketing is cheap.”
“There are no rules.”
“Email hasn’t changed in 20 years.”
#EmailGeeks, what are your verbal red flags?
That tweet uncorked a torrent of pent up frustrations. And some themes became clear rather quickly. Here are the big ones, along with just some of the tweets from the #EmailGeeks community on Twitter…
>> Read the entire post on Oracle’s Modern Marketing Blog
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
Oracle Digital Experience Agency
Author of Email Marketing Rules and nearly 4,000 articles about digital and email marketing
