Google Gmail Priority Inbox Brings New Meaning to Email Deliverability
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In an effort to reduce information overload in inboxes, search engine giant Google Inc. is launching a new, beta mail-organizing feature to help Gmail users better categorize messages they want to see most.
30 Do's and Don'ts for Email Rock Stars
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had the honor of moderating a forum at the SES conference in San Francisco last week for the Email Experience Council. The topic was tips from email rock stars and how to become one. After thinking about it for a bit, I started to get anxious. What do you say to a group of SF people, whose jobs rely on success in email, that will help them be better, without boring them, confusing them, or telling them something they just plain don't agree with.
A Deliverable Email Address Does Not a Relationship Make
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Does anyone else lament the commoditization of "friend" amid our socially connected, digital lives? I can like you on Facebook, follow you on Twitter, subscribe to your email program and join your community.
But that doesn't mean I want a relationship.
And that is a problem for marketing and sales people. There are lots of ways for people to connect with brands, but there are not many actual connections. Consider these stats from a national e-commerce retailer with a social forum on its website:
Back to (Email) School Tips and Tricks
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As I dropped off my oldest child at his first day of kindergarten, I realized before we know it, he will be working on homework, learning some new and amazing things, and asking me questions I have no idea what the answer is. Make sure that new school energy rubs off, as it's common for any marketer to coast as summer fades and fall surfaces.
China Email Distribution: Five Ways to Avoid Roadblocks
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The cars are the same, the highways look the same and most of the road signs are universal - yet driving habits vary from country to country - sometimes radically.
The same is true with ISPs, national regulations and user habits. Drive your email marketing in China in the same practised, skilful and canny way you do at home, you might end up with a suspended licence or a major repair bill before you know it.
Here are a few basic tips to help you negotiate the congested email highways of China:
Email Needs Improvement, Not Google Voice or Wave
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Those watching the Google Wave crash have posited that the communications platform failed because it was hard to use. Mashable founder and CEO Pete Cashmore said, "With its many dials and switches, mastering Wave was the web equivalent of programming your VCR." A valid point. Tech Crunch's MG Siegler argued the ambitious product was under-supported by Google. Another reasonable assertion.
It's Not About the Send
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Truthfully, it's not about the send.
Don't get me wrong. I'm a big believer in having a send schedule for your email marketing efforts and making deadlines. But too often I see email marketers that are so focused on getting the email out "on time" that they don't stop to really think about what they're sending.
They forget the big picture, the only thing that really matters: Will the email be effective? Will it engage people enough to get them to open it and take the action we want them to take?
New Rules for Sexy Subject Lines
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The most valuable real estate
After reading this, my hope is that you will walk away and pull a Justin Timberlake on your email marketing programs by bringing sexy back -- and it all starts with the subject line.
Why the subject line? Well, it is your first line of impact no matter what device or inbox type it hits.
10 Email Commandments
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To optimize email marketing, you need to stand out from the loud, growing and frequent crowd and take concerted action to get attention for your brand and your message.
1. Start with the end. What do you want the recipients of your email to feel, think or do? If this is a one-off effort it will need to work differently than if its part of a newsletter, club or continuity program. Clarity on the front end will make measurement and analysis much easier on the back end.
How to Improve the Email Experience
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In today's publish or perish marketing environment, attraction-based marketing is more than just content generation -- it must also be specific, customer-focused, and engaging. Prospects are educating themselves online, and if they don't find your website informative, or at least interesting, then they will move on to next option -- your competitor's site.
What are Some Best Practices for Creating Email Landing Pages?
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Email campaigns lead recipients to landing pages for a variety of reasons: to provide the customer or prospect with additional information, a video or registration for events; to get them to sign up for white papers or enter contests; or to request that they fill out a credit card form or take a survey, among other reasons.
The Last 'Best Time to Send?' Article
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Just when I thought the email-marketing industry had put the "What is the best time to send email?" question behind us, I noticed a couple more blog posts on the topic this past week.
Like similar questions such as "What is the average open rate," either these questions are fundamentally unanswerable, or pursuing the answer does not lead you to a meaningful conclusion or action.
Social Network Emails Fall Foul of Spam Filters
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Emails from social networks are marked as spam 100% more often then those from other sectors, and in the case of Friends Reunited, one in four of its emails failed to reach the inbox.
According to Return Path, the deliverability issue is partly a result of spam complaints from recipients, which suggests that social networks need to take a closer look at the issue.
Email Marketing (Is) For Dummies
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How did the stupidest people in our industry all find their way into the same job?
Email marketing has become a game of cheap, underhanded tactics at best, and criminal at worst: a dangerous concoction of blatantly lying to customers, creating purposefully confusing checkout processes with permission for email marketing auto-checked, and then gracefully ignoring the customer preference and marketing to them anyway. This is then stirred to a raging boil by slimy marketers that harm the very customers they are supposed to build relationships with.
Gmail Gets New Look, Features
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There’s never a dull moment for Google’s Gmail team, which just debuted a new interface, along with a major upgrade to the Gmail Contacts application. “The updated Gmail interface now features three separate links for Mail, Contacts and Tasks at the top of the left sidebar, while the ‘compose mail’ and ‘add contact’ buttons have moved underneath these links,” reports ReadWriteWeb.
