Mailer Alert: A new Yahoo Mail feature—the "contacts button"—should make whitelisting even more important for email marketers. "You get a lot of emails, some good (from friends, family, even favorite interests that you've added to your Address Book), and a lot of not-so-important emails (special offers, newsletters, emails you rarely ... more

In cooperation with Ball State University and the Email Marketers Club, ExactTarget studied 18 methods used by marketers to build an email list. Among the results published in its 2009 Email List Growth Study are these conclusions: The best method for email list growth is onsite registration; ... more

In a post at the DIRECT website, Ken Magill discusses the results of a survey conducted by MailerMailer. Among its more interesting findings: Subject lines containing up to 35 characters significantly outperform those with more than 35. "According to the email marketing software-on-demand provider," says Magill, "messages with subject lines ... more

"Very few executives give a hoot about opens and clicks," says Stephanie Miller in a post at the Daily Fix blog. "In fact, very few marketers even look at their email system reports (I can't make this stuff up!)." The problem, she argues, is that these types of data cannot ... more

We all know that content is king in search engine optimization, but in a recent Search Engine Land post, Daniel Waisberg reminds us that "usability is queen." According to Waisberg, the synergy between content and usability design can be a powerful generator of website conversion rates. To help search marketers optimize ... more

It's a simple fact: We love watching online videos. In a post at the Digital Marketing blog, Eydie Cubarrubia cites Nielsen Online research that found 119 billion unique viewers watched 7 trillion total streams during the month of April. "Total streams were up 24 percent from a year ago," she says, ... more

You understand how email delivery works, but perhaps you have trouble explaining the process to your boss, a client or a colleague. If so, you're in luck. An entertaining post by Matt Vernhout at Email Karma compares the delivery process to an evening at a hot new nightclub—terms most everyone ... more

A cool thing is happening through sites like blogging service Xanga, review site Yelp, and Twitter. Some of their faithful users have started attending meet-ups, where folks who interact online and live in the same geographic area can actually meet—in person! What a concept. Now, here's the really good news: These ... more

We've seen the power of Twitter's community used for good: spreading vital information during natural disasters, distributing Amber Alerts, and raising money for charities. Now imagine using not only Twitter's power but also the celebrity of the Nine Inch Nails. more

"The economic downturn spells bad news to most marketers," says Jack Trout in a post at the Branding blog, "but a slump also presents an opportunity to build brands." He takes a back-to-basics approach to his brand-building, and recommends a few down-home strategies that might help turn your lemons into ... more

"There are many similarities between social media marketing and email," says Ross Kramer in an article at MarketingProfs, "but they are two distinct marketing channels and they should be used separately to enhance or magnify, not just promote, each other." Kramer outlines a process for complementary strategies that play to the ... more

As summer approaches, and your subscribers begin to go on holidays, you might wonder whether you should scale back your email campaigns. But in a post at the Email Experience Council blog, Ryan Allis says, "Not only should you feel comfortable sending out your messages over the summer, it's also ... more

Yet another promising piece to add to your digital-strategy arsenal: how about interstitial :15-:30 video spots? This summer, ShortTail Media is launching a beta for its Digital 30 (D30) program—full-page interstitial ad placements in which 15- to 30-second spots can be incorporated. Interstitials are ads you see when you are ... more

So you say you're still a bit iffy about investing in Facebook's panoply of paid brand offerings (virtual gifts, banner ads, homepage takeovers)? Not to worry: we've done some legwork for you, and turned up some freebies at the site that could actually serve your marketing plan to a "T." ... more

With the widespread use of technical lingo—words like segment, list, database—sometimes it's easy for email marketers to forget about the actual human being on the other side of the Send button. "[W]e're not just delivering to inboxes," Karen Talavera reminds us in a MarketingProfs article, "we're communicating [with] individuals." Here ... more

You've probably made a practice of asking customers to review your products, but are you using their praise to its full advantage? "Recently," says Kelly Lorenz at the Bronto blog, "I have seen an uptick in retailers utilizing customer reviews to sell products in their emails." Why? Because user-generated reviews ... more

When you receive an invitation to take a survey, are you more likely to click on a link labeled Take a brief survey, or one that says Take a 5-minute survey? Suzanne Norman suspected it was the latter, and decided the hypothesis called for a test. "[A]fter all," she says ... more

Last month, talk of Volvo invaded the blogosphere when the company embedded live Tweets into a YouTube banner ad for its XC60 model. The feed kept viewers abreast of live coverage of the NY Auto Show, then gave them the option to follow Volvo on Twitter. It's a simple enough ... more

It's one of the oldest clichés in the book, and one of the most persistent: parents who assume everyone else will share an equally enraptured fascination with the accomplishments of their toddlers. As if no other child in the history of mankind has ever taken his or her first step! ... more

We hear lots of advice about maintaining a clean list, and much of it centers on how to handle subscribers who seem uninterested in your messages. At a certain point, you might decide it's time to take them off your list. Before you do, though, consider these four "hidden" segments ... more

If you're a mother, or perhaps you have one, check out this fun promotion by MomsRising.org to celebrate someone you consider "Mother of the Year." more

A recent television spot for a major insurance company—set to the wistful tinkling of a piano—opens with evocative images from the Great Depression. "1931 was not exactly a great year to start a business," says spokesperson Dennis Haysbert. "But that's when Allstate opened its doors." "And in the twelve recessions ... more

You closely monitor the results of your paid-search efforts. Shouldn't you do the same for your natural-search program? In a recent MarketingProfs article, Netconcepts' John Thielmann says measuring your natural search performance is not only a good idea, it's imperative if you're reporting progress to higher-ups. So, where to begin? By establishing ... more

"Now more than ever, the email channel in particular is being asked to contribute higher revenue," says Stephanie Miller in a post at the Daily Fix blog. "Yet, we all must make that happen with existing (or lower) resources." Reaching that goal requires innovation, and Miller reports on a number ... more

Email remains one of the least-expensive and highest-converting online marketing techniques out there, but few would argue it isn't past-due for a trendy facelift. Thankfully for the intrepid marketer, there are lots of programmers working on this problem, like little elves, day and night. And a whole passel of them apparently ... more