Email + Social: Appetizing Integration

To get the creative juices flowing, let’s take a look at two examples of marketing campaigns from this spring and summer that leveraged an email and social media integrated model. Warning: Beware the power of suggestion. If you were planning on a salad for lunch, don’t read on.

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Word of the Week – Typography

I’ll admit that I am a fan of typography. I have three shelves on a bookshelf dedicated to the topic, I enjoy creating my own fonts, and yes, I even own a copy of a documentary about one of the greatest typefaces ever created, Helvetica. Naturally, I became rather giddy when I ran across three recent articles about typography for email.

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The Beauty of a Best-In-Class Email Program

More often than not, the solution for solving the client’s pain – barring any serious sender reputation issues – involves creating a strategy for relevancy. In other words: how to send the right message to the right subscriber at the right time. This includes demonstrating value through the email channel and sending messages that subscribers anticipate and appreciate. Sound like a big ask? It certainly can be, and that’s why it’s especially pleasing to see marketers getting it right. Sephora, the international cosmetics and beauty retailer, does just that with their email program.

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How Email Marketers Can Start Preparing for Google+ Now

As an email marketer (or any marketer), you can’t seem to go anywhere without hearing about Google+. From how fast it has grown (25 million+) to what it is (a new way to share) and what it isn’t (a Facebook killer). Google+ is everywhere.

And yet, it can be difficult to determine if Google+ is the next big thing or just the newest social media kid on the block.

So, what does Google+ mean for email marketers? Should you care? While I can’t predict the future, here’s why email marketers should care and what they can start doing to prepare for Google+ or the next big thing.

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Word of the Week: Email Tools

This week had three new email and inbox application announcements that appeal to users of both ends of the email spectrum, namely business and consumer, which help to save email users time writing emails, making email more interactive, and another connecting publisher to advertisers.

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KISS (The Email Marketing Version)

I was recently reminded of one of the first marketing lessons I learned over 12 years ago: KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). With technology so rapidly changing, it’s gotten easier and easier to overwhelm ourselves and our subscribers with communication: Newsletters! Triggered Alerts! Facebook Offers! Twitter Tips! So, I took this reminder as a point of inspiration to create an email marketing version of the long-time marketing rule.

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Helpful Resources for Email Marketers in the Age of Mobile

My husband recently got a new smartphone (yes, I’m completely jealous). Not surprisingly, email was the first application he got up and running on the new phone. Email is the last item he checks on the phone before bed and the first item he opens in the morning. While his behavior may have been unique a few years ago, Return Path’s recent study finds there has been an 81% growth in mobile email viewership.

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Word of the Week: Video

The push for video in email is simple. Email marketers have seen huge boosts in response rates, as well as an increase in conversions and revenue when video has been present. A recent Mediapost article reminds us of the huge gains in click through rates and engagement when video in email is present. They state an example of shoeline.com increasing sales conversions by 44% when using video in their emails. Past case studies from other companies have also had similar results.

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How to Take Your Email Conversion Rates to New Heights

On Tuesday I attended the DMA’s latest Email Customer Lifecycle Series event in London focused on helping email marketers drive conversions, one of the most important metrics and the primary goal for many marketers using the email channel. Sponsored by Silverpop, the theme for the event was clearly one of encouraging marketers to take their email programs to new heights by optimizing various conversion tactics and best practices. This was reinforced by Silverpop’s featured prize draw: an opportunity for attendees to win a helicopter ride for two over London!

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A New Practical Application for Email

How many times have you made a purchase and needed to return an item, but couldn’t find the receipt? Or, the receipt got accidentally washed in that new pair of pants and is totally unreadable? Or, your husband made the purchase and has no idea where the receipt could be – or if he actually ever got one?

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