The Inbox Of The Not-So-Distant Future
For better or worse, the email inbox is well on its way to becoming the nexus of all digital communications. Inboxes are also set to be able to do much more, reducing the need for subscribers to click through to take action. Future inboxes may also give consumers even more control over their email streams beyond eliminating unwanted email with a click of the "report spam" button.
Lessons in Landing Pages
You spend hours working on the design and copy of your email marketing campaigns, but how much time do you devote to your landing pages? If you’re like many marketers, the answer is simple: not enough. “It’s definitely one of the lesser-thought-about things,” said Jim Wehmann, senior VP-global marketing with Digital River, a provider of e-commerce and marketing solutions.
Canadian Digital Strategy Failing?
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Source:
| OneDegree |
It has been quipped ... we are 10 years behind the States. And next year we will be 11 years behind
U.S. policy makers are set to unveil an ambitious new broadband plan on Tuesday but Canada is seeing a "failure of imagination," says the head of the country's most influential technology school.
"Most people who study the digital field would say that Canada has lost some of the wind in its sails, and that's unfortunate," David Johnston, president of the University of Waterloo, said in an interview with CBC News.
The Underlying Drivers of Social Media Success
One of the biggest challenges in social media is keeping up with the next big trend. MySpace and then Facebook, fan pages, Twitter, iPhone, Android, and of course the applications that extend across all of these. It's almost impossible for an advertiser to keep up with each and every platform and understand the best way to execute ad programs across the ever-changing landscape.
An Inventor's Shocking Forecasts for Marketing Technology
Renowned futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil shares his bold predictions on virtual environments for marketing, the effects of an accelerated technological pace, and how information will transform communications.
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Auto-Responders With Personality
I went ice-climbing a few weeks ago. I did what most other business professionals do and set up an out-of-office auto-responder informing people where I was, how long I'd be out, and what they could expect as far as a reply. Standard procedure, right?
In January, I blogged about how an auto-responder email I received from Conde Nast missed the mark in three critical areas. The good news is, my example today is quite the opposite.
GroupCard's Auto-Responder Has Spunk!
Using Email To Remarket To Customers
Email is a superior channel to drive sales, but it can also help you capture the next sale, the sale after that -- and even the sale that didn't happen.
Remarketing to customers is one of the benefits that email delivers once you begin to use the channel for more than sending yet another untargeted discount or free-shipping offer.
The emails you send in a remarketing program are highly personalized messages, which generate significantly higher response and conversion rates than broadcast emails.
Inbox Insider: Video Inches Its Way Into Email
Video in email is a hot topic on the e-mail vendor side, but I haven't seen a ton of messages from brands with videos in them. The trend is starting slowly.
Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation used video in its emails to boost traffic on its Web site by 30%. The retailer spent 2008 revamping its email program. The company's “Heavy Duty News” emails feature new product information, exclusive offers and how-to videos.
Eye-tracking Proves Real-Time Search Not Useful
OneUpWeb recently released the results of an eye-tracking study on Google’s new real-time results integrated into SERPs—and it looks like the search giant might have just wasted $15M (the estimated cost of Google’s deal with Twitter).
Mobile Email: It Ain't What It Used To Be!
Over the past two years we've been asked by almost every client, "Do we need a mobile version of our emails?" As an interim solution, most major brands host a text version of their email -- and occasionally you'll see some light html formatting or a thumbnail of the email creative, like this.




