The best email offer in the world won't accomplish much if it never reaches your intended recipient. Beware:  there are strong forces at work these days trying their best to block your messages! In a recent MarketingProfs article, Debra Ellis discusses three distinct deliverability hurdles faced by today's email marketers. Meet the spaminators: ... more

A good landing page should tell a story. But filling the page with fluff isn't going to sell your product or service. There is a method to the madness behind the creation of a great splash or jump page. And it's a pretty systematic, organized, and detailed method, at that. more

"We all like the comfort of the crowd," says Mark Brownlow in a post at the Email Marketing Reports blog. "The knowledge that others went here before us tells us we're on the right path." Because of this tendency to trust the wisdom of crowds, he argues, you can encourage opt-ins ... more

We all know the cliché: you have 1.5 milliseconds to grab a prospect's attention at your home page and convince him to stay. So why, then, are so many B2B Web sites still not that "sticky"? According to a recent post at eMagine's B2B Web Strategy blog, it's because too ... more

While most of the email you send contains stand-alone content, it's worth considering an ongoing campaign that engages your customers with multiple messages. "A series of emails is a great opportunity to build top-of-mind awareness and recall for your brand," says Keri Palasz in a post at the Listrak email ... more

When you plan an event, you pull out all the stops. So, too, should it be with your event promotions. Apogee Search's Brian Combs suggests in a recent MarketingProfs article to add paid-search marketing to your event promo mix. "With almost half of all Internet users now using search engines ... more

There’s almost nothing worse than sending out an email offer, only to realize a foolish typo or error evaded your eagle eye. It happens to the best of us. And Kelly Lorenz, writing at the Bronto blog, recommends a plan of action that includes steps like: Stopping the send. If ... more

"Trigger-based email is when you email a message to a customer in response to certain [behavior] or preferences," Valerie Khoo reminds us in a post at the Sydney Morning Herald's Enterprise blog. "The email is literally triggered by something the customer says or does, or is based on other information ... more

In last week's installment, we offered step-by-step tips to get you tweeting on Twitter. This week, we offer a few more advanced steps to take, based on Jim Sterne's advice in a MarketingProfs article. Incorporate these into your tweeting habits, and you'll be well on the way to becoming a Twitter ... more

If you're a hard-charging CEO with lots of vision and business acumen, you've undoubtedly wondered if you should blog. Before you take the plunge, though, Todd Defren has some advice: Learn what it means to be a successful blogger. "Too many would-be CEO bloggers treat their new toy as little ... more

"OK, so 'digital-or-print' is the new 'paper-or-plastic,'" says Doug Stern in an article at MarketingProfs. "[So, when is it] more appropriate to stick a stamp on [a marketing message] … than hit the Send button?" Before you make your decision, he recommends asking questions like these: What does this customer ... more

When the spiders come crawling through your Web pages, will they find what they need to index the pages properly? They will if you're using meta commands, or tags, correctly. Meta commands are used on individual Web pages to "modify how search engine spiders behave," says Medium Blue's Scott Buresh ... more

"I am not going to go on a rant [about] adding a 'share this,' 'follow me,' 'digg this,' or another technology to your email programs in order to drive cross-channel adoption of your email strategy," says Dylan Boyd in a post at the Email Wars blog. Instead, he wants to ... more

Smith-Harmon just released its Retail Welcome Email Benchmark Study, which examines best practices at 112 of the Internet's largest retailers. And in a recent post at the Email Karma blog, Matt Vernhout highlights some of the study's key takeaways: Text-only Welcome messages are becoming a thing of ... more

Given the recent Facebook redesign, you're probably hearing a lot of yammer about Twitter. If by now you're not familiar with how Twitter can benefit your brand, walk with us as we cut through the noise and break it all down. In a recent article at the MarketingProfs site, Jim ... more

Even a small company can benefit from email messages tailored to a recipient's specific wants and needs. "Using segmentation," says Michael Clark in an article at MarketingProfs, "customers only get notified of new products, specials, and offers based on past buying patterns, knowledge of the customer and what they've clicked ... more

Many companies already recognize the value of translations for reaching that vast worldwide audience. They've been having product information, press releases, and marketing and advertising copy converted into the languages of their current and potential customers for years. But smart companies realize that to strike a chord with more buyers, they'll ... more

In a recent post at her Flooring the Consumer blog, C.B. Whittemore discusses the frustrations of transferring newsletter subscriptions from one email address to another. "It's really easy to unsubscribe," she says. "But, it's really, really difficult to change your email address. Don't believe me? Go try it out." Among ... more

"I am still unsubscribing from lots of emails in an email account that I no longer wish to use," writes Tamara Gielen in a post at BeRelevant!  "While doing so, I've come across a couple of practices that make me want to scream." In truth, she has encountered more than a ... more

If you're new to digital marketing, you're not alone—and it's never too late to start making an online impact. This especially holds true with email—which, for many marketers, has proved to be the Golden Channel. Case in point: Seiko. "Two years ago," writes Dianna Dilworth in an article at DM ... more

On Friday 2/27, Skittles surrendered itself to the Zeitgeist. Visits to Skittles.com led users directly to Wikipedia (later changed to a Twitter search for "skittles," then to the official Facebook fan page), and attempts to explore the site navigation—little more than a pop-up—guided users elsewhere still: flickr, YouTube, Summize. The ... more

Under normal circumstances, Dylan Boyd believes email copy should be clear and concise. He explains his straightforward rationale in a post at the Email Wars blog: "[I]f I get 500-700 emails a day in my inbox, then I need to know WHO, WHAT, WHY and What's in it for me. ... more

In search, you have a very short window of opportunity for engaging your prospect. The key to ensure you get seen through that tiny window: give searchers exactly what they're looking for. One way of doing this, says Medium Blue's CEO Scott Buresh in a MarketingProfs article, is to use ... more

It's refreshing when a company seems to get it right, and DJ Waldow uses a post at the Bronto blog to explain why email messages from US Airways impress him on a regular basis. Why, it's like they're singing "Come Fly With Me!" Here's what sets them apart, according to ... more

Dylan Boyd, who blogs at The Email Wars, tells the story of an email with the subject line: "Limited time only: save up to 25%! Plus get free shipping." Within, he discovered more action verbs than you could shake a stick at. At the top of the email there's a ... more