Email Marketing Rules

I’ve jumped on the SlideShare bandwagon. I’ve uploaded several presentations and infographics, as well as an exclusive except from Email Marketing Rules. I’m only sharing content that I produced or made significant contributions to, so if you’d like access to all the cross-channel goodness that ExactTarget produces, check out ExactTarget on SlideShare.

I’ve also somewhat reluctantly joined Google+. It seemed like it was finally time. If you’re on Google+, circle me—and let me know what you like best about it. Perhaps I have been unfairly biased against G+.

Of course, you can also find me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. I hope to connect with you there as well.

One of the great things about Kindle Books is that Amazon tells you the passages in your book that have been highlighted by readers the most. I was fascinated—and very pleased—by the passages that readers are finding most important and wanted to share them here.

The 5 most highlighted passages of Email Marketing Rules:

5. “Relevance means sending subscribers emails they routinely find valuable or engaging.” (Tweet This)

4. “The key is to avoid a campaign-by-campaign mentality when looking at data, because that can cause you to misunderstand how subscribers are reacting to your overall messaging and to unintentionally make campaign-specific decisions that reduce the overall effectiveness of your email program.” (Tweet This)

3. “The control that consumers have over these new channels is increasing the expectation of control that they have when using email.” (Tweet This)

2. “Marketers earn access to inboxes through permission and maintain it by sending valuable emails.” (Tweet This)

1. “Best practices are those practices that generally produce the best results or minimize risk.” (Tweet This)

The three top passages are all from the introduction, which you can read on Amazon using their LOOK INSIDE feature by clicking on the book cover.

The Email Swipe File on Pinterest is already home to some email design gems from Christmases past—like these from Norm Thompson, Tiffany & Co., Bed Bath & Beyond, and Style Campaign. But those are just the beginning. Everyday this month we’ll be pinning new inspiring examples of holiday emails to get you in a festive mood and thinking about campaigns that you might create for this holiday season.

To kick things off, we’ve pinned a Nov. 11, 2011 email from Zappos.

We hope you use these pins along with the Email Marketing Holiday Calendar to start plotting out your email campaigns. Good luck with your holiday planning and stay tuned for more holiday help from ExactTarget.

>> Explore the Email Swipe File

I’ll be the guest for @ExactTarget’s #ETCafe Twitter chat this Thursday 11am-12pm EDT, where we’ll be discussing preparing for a successful 2013 holiday season. Here’s a preview of the questions that we’ll cover:

1. Have you reviewed the performance of your holiday email marketing campaigns from last year? What did that process entail?
2. Did you also review your campaign production and other processes to remove bottlenecks you hit last holiday season?
3. What surprised you most about last holiday season in terms of what you saw others doing or responses to your efforts?
4. What pre-holiday efforts (i.e., list hygiene, etc.) are you making to maximize the results of your holiday campaigns?
5. Are you testing any strategies or tactics during the back to school season in preparation for the holiday season?
6. How do you think mobile will affect your campaigns this holiday season?
7. How else do you think this holiday season will be different from last holiday season?
8. Do you have any favorite resources for holiday marketing insights and advice?

Follow the #ETCafe hashtag in your favorite Twitter application and be sure and add the hashtag to your tweet to participate.