Email Marketing RulesThe Last Word on October 2023
Posted on November 3, 2023
A roundup of email marketing articles, posts, and social buzz you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & reports
US Marketers Increase Email Marketing Budgets as They Seek Ways to Increase Engagement (Insider Intelligence)
Spamhaus Opens Doors to Public Submissions to Enhance the Email Experience (EmailExpert)
Newsletter Directories – Your Key to Increasing Newsletter Signups (AWeber)
The Perfect Combination: GenAI and Persuasion Strategies for Unbeatable A/B Tests (MarTech)
The 37 Most (and Least) Useful Content Marketing Metrics (Orbit Media Studios)
Four Useful Ideas for Interactive Email (The Email Factory)
Insightful & entertaining social posts
still thinking about this pic.twitter.com/qPxEKnfEYv
— Ted Goas (@TedGoas) October 30, 2023
Noteworthy subject lines
Lonely Planet, 10/28 – 50 destinations to visit in 2024
MoMA Design Store, 10/12 – New In! Holiday Ornaments & Advent Calendars
Michaels, 10/30 – The Great Big Tree Spree: ALL Christmas trees are 50% off + save on fab finishing touches!
Home Depot, 10/26 – ’Tis the Season for Decorating & Doing ✨ 🎄 ✨
Williams Sonoma, 10/25 – Celebrating 10 years of ‘Twas 🎄
Kohl’s, 10/25 – Get a head start on your holiday & score the best gifts 🎁
Nintendo, 10/26 – The Holiday Gift Guide is here to deliver smiles!
Eddie Bauer, 10/18 – Your 2023 Gift Guide Is Here! 🎁
Victoria’s Secret, 10/31 – VS Holiday (Preview) is Here
American Eagle, 10/10 – Just dropped! The Grinch Shop 🎄 + up to 30% off all your faves
Bed Bath & Beyond, 10/18 – Earn $50 in Beyond Bucks for Your Holiday Shopping! 💸
Lowe’s Home Improvement, 10/26 – Black Friday savings are starting early! Up to 40% OFF now. ⏰
Dell Technologies, 10/26 – Here’s year early Black Friday Event look.
Crate & Barrel, 10/31 – We’re moving past spooky season and diving right into the holidays →
Michaels, 10/5 – Go all-out for spooky season with these décor project ideas. 👻
Spirit Halloween, 10/11 – 💛 Save 10% + Spirit gives 10%
Petco, 10/2 – Tons of cute costumes for your pet.
LEGO® Family, 10/11 – Free family activities to get creative this Halloween!
Nuts.com, 10/24 – FREE Shipping Is Flying Away 🧙♀️🧹
Petco, 10/30 – Halloween is tomorrow! Is your pet ready? 🎃
Spirit Halloween, 10/30 – 📢 Stores are open late 📢
Uncommon Goods, 10/31 – So scary: every one of these items *was* sold out.
Neiman Marcus, 10/5 – Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month
Allrecipes The Scoop, 10/5 – 31 Days of Crocktober
Moosejaw, 10/30 – It got cold! Get free 2-day on jackets $99+.
Nordstrom, 10/5 – Don’t forget your jacket!
Harley-Davidson® Clothing & Gear, 10/19 – Discover FLƎX layering
ECCO, 10/5 – You’re in luck–GRUUV is back!
Columbia Sportswear, 10/18 – Black Mesa™ takes you from city to trail.
NFLShop.com, 10/11 – Top NFL Fantasy Players
Abercrombie & Fitch, 10/30 – The stop-and-stare sort of tops.
West Elm, 10/19 – New lighting is all about making a slow-burn statement.
Clinique Online, 10/5 – The TLC your skin needs at night.
Art.com, 10/25 – Today is Pablo Picasso’s birthday!
Huckberry, 10/29 – No dead doves in the pockets, please…
Abercrombie & Fitch, 10/1 – You’ve got our app, right?
Zara, 10/24 – Discover what’s new this week at #zarawoman
Gap, 10/11 – 20 million TikTok views & counting
Everlane, 10/31 – Introducing the Kick Boot Jean
Cards Against Humanity, 10/26 – We made a whole new game
Banana Republic, 10/12 – BR x Peter Do: a study in versatility
Huckberry, 10/5 – Introducing: Huckberry x Grateful Dead
Huckberry, 10/19 – The Wait is Over: Huckberry x Wythe
New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
Leap Day Campaigns: 29 Messaging Ideas
What Keeps Me Up at Night about Generative AI
New Gmail & Yahoo Deliverability Requirements: What Senders Need to Do
The Critical Differences between Machine Learning & Generative AI Today
Fourth Quarter 2023 Holiday Marketing Quarterly
Holiday Email Subject Line Insights to Boost Your Campaign Results
The Most Critical Email Deliverability Questions
Accepting that You Can’t Change People… or Subscribers or Inbox Providers
Is CAN-SPAM Now Meaningless?
Posted on November 1, 2023
The US’s anti-spam law, The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act, was passed way back in 2003. That was well before much stronger anti-spam laws were passed in other countries, most notably CASL in Canada and GDPR in the EU, which have set email marketing standards for multinational American brands. But more importantly, CAN-SPAM was passed before mailbox providers upped their spam filtering game so much that they effectively eradicated traditional, malicious spam.
With spam almost entirely blocked before reaching even consumers’ spam folders, much less their inboxes, consumers were left with a Report spam button that they didn’t quite know what to do with. With no malicious messages they didn’t request from unknown senders to report as spam, consumers started using the Report spam button to complain about other messages. For instance, they used it to nix unwanted emails from brands they knew—and even to banish emails they gave brands permission to send to them.
Of course, that’s just one way in which mailbox providers have led the way on fighting spam and, indeed, establishing the rules of engagement for email marketers. Last month, for instance, in an unprecedented collaboration, Google and Yahoo released joint email standards on authentication, spam complaint rates, and more that go into effect in February 2024.
That announcement made one of my colleagues ask, “I wonder what the FTC thinks about this?” Of course, as private businesses, mailbox providers are allowed to set higher standards. But as I thought more about everything major mailbox providers have done, I asked a different question: Is CAN-SPAM now meaningless?
Let’s answer that question by exploring the core tenets of CAN-SPAM and what the major inbox providers require of senders.
Leap Day Campaigns: 29 Messaging Ideas
Posted on October 30, 2023
It’s a marketing opportunity that comes around only once every four years. It’s Leap Day. With the next one coming up on Feb. 29 in 2024, the extra day is added to the shortest month of the year because the Earth takes approximately 365.25 days to orbit the sun, so every fourth year needs to have 366 days to fully account for that orbital time.
Much like having a Friday the 13th in October, the rarity of Leap Day has long inspired marketers to get creative and do something special for the occasion. To help inspire you, we examined Leap Day campaigns from the past four occurrences.
Across all of those campaigns, we’ve identified five major themes that brands have historically used. To illustrate each theme, we’re sharing messaging ideas that we’ve seen previously used, as well as some that we’ve haven’t seen but certainly fit the theme. Needless to say, we had to share 29 ideas in total.
What Keeps Me Up at Night about Generative AI
Posted on October 18, 2023
During the opening session of the B2B Forum this year, MarketingProfs Chief Content Officer Ann Handley wowed and pumped up the crowd with an empathetic Barbie-inspired B2Barbie presentation. The overall message: B2B marketers are often held to impossible standards and underappreciated despite their hard work and smarts. Ann’s point of view was crystal clear: “Hire Writers. Respect them. Pay them. Treasure them.”
But then generative AI took the stage, and attendees could be forgiven if they felt they weren’t Kenough… unless they used generative AI to create a digital clone of themselves to work alongside them. In a particularly chilling moment, Ann asked Trust Insights Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist Christopher Penn what kept him up at night about AI and he said the Israeli military using AI to select bombing targets.
Putting aside military and police applications (which I’ll assume we’ll all lose sleep over), Ann’s question resonated with me. So, I’d like to cathartically share some of the things that worry me most as a marketer about generative AI…
New Gmail & Yahoo Deliverability Requirements: What Senders Need to Do
Posted on October 13, 2023
One of the hallmarks of the email channel is a lack of standards and a lack of universal support for all but the most fundamental elements of email. For example, there are no standards around HTML and CSS code support; dark mode is implemented differently across email clients; spam filtering at different inboxes weights different factors differently; BIMI support is uneven and has different requirements at different inboxes; and on and on.
That’s why the recently announced collaboration between Gmail and Yahoo on spam-fighting protections is so unusual. The joint effort helps reinforce long-standing industry best practices for bulk senders and provides greater specificity on the benchmarks brands need to meet to stay in their good graces.
To avoid deliverability issues at Gmail and Yahoo mailboxes, brands need to meet the following four requirements by February 2024…
The Last Word on September 2023
Posted on October 12, 2023
A roundup of email marketing articles, posts, and social buzz you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & reports
Why Some Companies Are Not Increasing Spend on Generative AI (MarketingProfs)
How Do You Compare with Your Fellow Email Marketers on Using AI? (Only Influencers)
Gmail Now Rejecting Unauthenticated Mail (Spam Resource)
Demystifying DMARC RUA Reports (EmailKarna)
Insightful & entertaining social posts
Occasionally I check my spam folder and find gold like this pic.twitter.com/kM1HwotLcS
— Andrew King (@akingkiwi) September 14, 2023
Noteworthy subject lines
The Company Store, 9/14 – NEW Kids Bedding for the School Year 🏫🍎
Abercrombie & Fitch, 9/9 – Fully into football season.
Nuts.com, 9/7 – FREE For Your Snack-O-Lantern 🎃
Spirit Halloween, 9/8 – 💀 Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas!
American Eagle, 9/14 – HALLOWEEN INSPO + 30% off now extended 🎃
West Elm, 9/9 – Get ready to gather all fall
Crate & Kids, 9/14 – IT’S HERE! Check out our Holiday Shop →
shopDisney, 9/7 – Wow them with our most wished-for toys
LEGO® News, 9/26 – Need help finding the perfect gift?
Uncommon Goods, 9/21 – Holiday gifts under $50
Eddie Bauer, 9/7 – Get Out There, No Matter The Weather 🥾 🌧️
Harley-Davidson®, 9/23 – Cooler weather ❄️, hot looks 🔥
West Elm, 9/21 – Cooler temperatures make outdoor entertaining easier.
Lane Bryant, 9/4 – Mins left! 40% OFF all the fall newness
West Elm Sale, 9/4 – HOURS LEFT ⏰ Up to 60% off
Quiksilver, 9/4 – Final Hours: Extra 50% Off Sale On Sale
J.Crew, 9/4 – Ends at midnight: 40% off your purchase
Crate & Barrel SALE, 9/4 – Ends tomorrow: DOUBLE REWARDS
Norwegian Cruise Line, 9/22 – 0% APR Is Staying For A Little Longer
Duluth Trading, 9/6 – Hit ’Em With Your Best Squat
YETI, 9/14 – You Asked For More Pink And We Delivered
Goldbelly, 9/9 – Ship Food Love for Maui 🌴💖
Clinique Online, 9/22 – Weekend treat for you! Get our #1 makeup remover free with $50 purchase.
Allrecipes Dinner Tonight, 9/25 – Our #1 Saved Recipe of 2023 So Far
Fanatics, 9/28 – Dooney & Bourke x NFL Collection
New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
Get Inspiration from Our Holiday Subject Line Word Cloud
The Business Storytelling Show: The Email Marketing Rules to Follow
The Future of Content Marketing: 5 Predictions
7 of My All-Time Favorite Email Subject Lines & Why
The Best Use Cases for Unique Generative AI-Crafted Emails, Unfortunately
The Critical Differences between Machine Learning & Generative AI Today
Posted on October 11, 2023
The most popular classification models have generative AI being a subset of machine learning, and machine learning being a subset of AI. While this may technically and architecturally be the correct way to think about these tools, it has led to significant confusion.
First, because of our natural tendency to drop words to simplify and economize our language, this has led to many people referring to generative AI simply as AI. Muddling things further, because generative AI and machine learning are both lumped under AI as a big umbrella, all of these terms are being used somewhat interchangeably.
All of this makes it difficult for brands to evaluate these tools and understand how to use them to accomplish their goals. After all, most people aren’t building these tools. They’re using them.
So, let’s consider a more user-centric framework, one that focuses on what brands—and in particular, marketers—care about. Let’s also focus in on just machine learning and generative AI, which comprise most of the AI tools that marketers use. From a user standpoint, the biggest differences between machine learning and generative AI are twofold:
- Where the data comes from that fuels the tool’s output
- The primary benefit of the tool
Let’s first examine how machine learning looks when viewed through these two lenses…
Fourth Quarter 2023 Holiday Marketing Quarterly
Posted on October 10, 2023
The holiday season doesn’t have an off-season. Having a successful holiday season means executing a successful year-round strategy. Oracle’s Holiday Marketing Quarterly gives you a quarter-by-quarter plan for how to achieve more during this critical time of the year.
Our fourth quarter guide contains a 23-point checklist that helps you wrap up your final holiday prep and take action during the holiday season to maximize results and minimize problems. It covers:
- Engaging your seasonal buyers
- Adjusting your automated campaigns
- Leveraging your new capabilities
- Coordinating across your channels
- Doing incremental A/B testing
- Finalizing your plans
For the full checklist…
>> Get the Holiday Marketing Quarterly for free via a no-form download
SocketLabs: Email in 2025
Posted on October 9, 2023
Email marketing is a channel that is constantly in flux. Technology, the law, consumer expectations and behaviors, inbox and mailbox providers, and business goals all affect how the channel operates and where it’s headed.
To help marketers get a bead on where the channel is headed, I join 25 other email marketing experts to share my predictions in SocketLabs’ Email in 2025 series. We answer three key questions:
- How do you see email fitting into the marketing mix in 2025?
- What about email do you see as a nice-to-have for now, but feel will be considered table stakes by 2025?
- What do you hope or wish to see change within email by 2025?
For my answers to those questions…
Holiday Email Subject Line Insights to Boost Your Campaign Results
Posted on October 6, 2023
Email campaign mailing frequency rises dramatically during the holiday season, putting more pressure on subject lines to quickly connect with subscribers and kick off a positive and profitable interaction. Based on an analysis of subject lines and campaign performance from a selection of retail and other B2C brands using Oracle Responsys from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, we discovered a number of insights that can help brands craft better subject lines this holiday season. Here are our top findings…
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
