The New Litmus Test for a Great Email Marketing Program

I used to say the hallmark of a great email marketing program was that they have a robust A/B testing program. It’s not just because I consider A/B testing a key optimization tool and a vital part of “listening” to subscribers, but because if a brand is taking the time to follow…

How 4 Social Media Predictions Impact Email Marketers

The social and email marketing channels are increasingly intertwined. So when I read this great collection of 30+ Social Media Predictions for 2015, it immediately had me thinking about how they affect email marketers. Here are four of the predictions that jumped out at me as being particularly relevant to email marketers:…

Quick Email Marketing Wins in 2015

Going into the New Year, instead of focusing on the new, why not focus on the easy. Below are my picks for email marketing initiatives that are low-effort and high-return: Optimize your snippet text Implement predictive intelligence for personalized recommendations Add defensive design elements to your email templates Test special characters in…

Email Marketing in 2015: What’s In and What’s Out

I recently spoke with Natasha Smith of DM News about which email marketing strategies, tactics, and tools will be more important next year and which will be less important. WHAT’S OUT Batch-and-blast “One size fits all” static emails Standard subject lines WHAT’S IN Predictive analytics Responsive design Subject lines with #hashtags Real-time…

Tweetables from Dreamforce 2014

It was a great week at Dreamforce 2014 and I found plenty of great content to tweet about. In case you missed them, here are all the tidbits, factoids, and stats that I shared this week from the conference. You can find all the tweets from Dreamforce at #DF14. Sears.ca overhauled cart…

Fall Edition of the Email Marketer’s Holiday Planning Checklist

Hopefully you spent your summer doing some big picture strategic planning for the holiday season. Now that we’re into October, it’s time to get more serious and more focused to the execution of holiday campaigns. In the second of my 3-part Holiday Planning Checklist for Internet Retailer Magazine, I advise retailers to:…

Tweetables from Connections 2014

It was a great week at Connections and I found plenty of great content to tweet about. In case you missed them, here are all the tidbits, factoids, and stats that I shared this week from the conference. You can find all the tweets from Connections at #CNX14. Watch the Digital Marketing…

Email Subscriber Lifecycle Strategies from the Swipe File

To maximize the value of an email relationship, you need to cater to your subscribers’ needs and wants throughout their entire subscriber lifecycle. My presentation at Connections today talked about the six stages of the subscriber lifestyle and shared research, advice, and examples pertaining to each stage. Here’s my slide deck, followed…

4 Keys to Improving the Subscriber Journey with Progressive Profiling

Subscribers change over time. Their interests change. Their needs change. Their goals change. And change can be very dramatic from one year to another and one season to another. So even if your email program has a wonderful onboarding program where you learn about each subscriber’s preferences, it’s just not enough. Analyzing…

Replay of ‘The 5 Trends behind the 2014 Best of the Email Swipe File’ #Webinar Available

In our “5 Trends behind the 2014 Best of the Email Swipe File” webinar last week, Andrea Smith and I discussed the 5 critical email design and strategy trends that guided our selection of the 20 emails in the 2014 Best of the Email Swipe File. We shared research and plenty of…