Email Marketing - Page 1 - Direct Marketing News

Delivered: Targeted consumer emails

What's in our mailbox this month: Targeted consumer emails from Panera's, Rewards "R" Us, Shari's Berries and Go Daddy. Who had a bright idea and what belongs in the trashbin?

Despite rewards, some brands fail to send targeted emails

At Orbitz, targeting based on demographic and psychographic data is so refined that the company sends out campaigns to as little as 10 people.

Maximizing email

Avoiding common email marketing mistakes will ultimately drive better campaign ROI.

Dish Network misses mark on static 'offer'

Talk about your "static" emails. On Jan. 2, Dish Network contacted a Direct Marketing News staffer who willingly agreed to accept emails from the satellite TV services provider. Poor staffer.

Q&A: Kristin Hambelton, VP of marketing at Neolane

Kristin Hambelton, VP of marketing at Neolane, a marketing technology company, discusses email spending growth rates and the dangers of over-mailing.

Q&A: Jeff Nicholson, VP of global marketing at Pitney Bowes Software

Jeff Nicholson, VP of global marketing at Pitney Bowes Software, discusses email best practices and an oncoming "opt-down" movement.

Q&A: Daniel Schotland, VP of client services, Experian CheetahMail

Daniel Schotland, VP of client services at Experian CheetahMail, discusses best practices for holiday email marketing.

Volkswagen drives email open rates

Volkswagen improves email with help from Proximity London.

Q&A: Angela Lester, managing partner, Tribal DDB

Angela Lester, managing partner at Tribal DDB, discusses the power of email creative and why targeting may not be the best first approach.

Q&A: Janine Popick, founder and CEO, VerticalResponse

Janine Popick, founder and CEO of VerticalResponse, discusses how small businesses are integrating email with social media.

Metrics must show impact of marketing on revenue

The way businesses and consumers buy things today has been forever transformed by the abundance of information available on websites and social networks. This is fueling a significant change in the way marketing teams work with sales to drive revenue.

Roadify augments mobile app with email newsletter

Roadify updates New York City commuters about mass transit delays via its mobile app, but consumers must sift through a scroll of service changes to find those most pertinent to them.

Q&A: Brian Giese, CEO of True Influence

Brian Giese, CEO of True Influence, discusses what kinds of content works well for b-to-b emails, addresses the challenges of list churn for b-to-b marketers and talks about email deliverability at the enterprise level. Giese has held executive level positions at Harte-Hanks, I.T. Selling Worldwide and Avectra.

Q&A: Daniel Schotland, VP, client services at Experian CheetahMail

Daniel Schotland, VP, client services at Experian CheetahMail, discusses how retailers are preparing their email marketing programs for the holiday season, shares insights into email volumes and talks about list building during the holidays for future campaigns. Prior to working at Experian, Schotland held leadership positions at CRM firm i-loft, email marketing firm Post Communications and Deloitte Consulting.

Q&A: Gary Levitt, founder and CEO, Mad Mimi

Gary Levitt, founder and CEO of email marketing services company Mad Mimi, which boasts 95,000 users and sends 1 billion emails per month, talks about empowering even the smallest mom and pop businesses in a flash sale age.

AllPosters.com masters deliverability with its Gmail users and bypasses spam folder

Art.com's AllPosters.com uses the imagery of vintage movie posters and famous artworks like Vincent van Gogh's "Starry Night" to spice up email marketing messages. Of course, if the email is not delivered, those beautiful images are meaningless. So when the e-commerce company had trouble getting through to Gmail accounts, it aimed to get to the bottom of the problem.

Merge email and direct mail to reclaim lost 'wow' factor

Like the big mail drops of yesteryear, people are being inundated with email, which gets ignored and deleted. The "wow" factor, once a signature of direct mail pieces, is sorely absent in email

MLS team prompts on-site email sign-ups with iPads

Major league soccer team the Los Angeles Galaxy understood when best to court consumers to opt in to their email marketing program: at games when those consumers are decked out in Galaxy gear. But as  agile as the team's stars may be, its on-site acquisition strategy wasn't at all.

Q&A: Dave Scott, founder and CEO, Marketfish

Dave Scott, founder and CEO of list marketing and lead generation firm Marketfish, talks about how traditional list marketing tangles up small agencies and what his company is doing about it - and about meeting the challenge of reaching the 65-year-old, left-handed golfer in Boca Raton, Fla.

Q&A: Neil Capel, cofounder and CEO, Sailthru

Neil Capel, cofounder and CEO of Sailthru - whose technology automatically tailors email, Web and advertising content across unique users and works with publishers including AOL/Huffington Post and The Daily Beast/Newsweek - discusses the challenges facing producers of email newsletters and what his company did to streamline distribution and boost consumer results for client Business Insider.

Q&A: Nick Heys, founder and CEO of EmailVision

Nick Heys, founder and CEO of EmailVision, discusses how email marketing is being used around the globe, shares insights into EmailVision's acquisition of marketing firm smartFOCUS, and talks about email as a customer retention channel.

Q&A: Geoff Linton, VP and cofounder, Inbox Marketer

Geoff Linton is VP and co-founder of digital marketing firm Inbox Marketer, which helps brands use email, mobile, social media and the Web to build engaged online communities of customers and prospects. Its clients include AT&T, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark and Publix. A direct marketing expert with more than 20 years of applied experience in both client and agency roles, Linton's experience spans many sectors, including financial services, telecommunications, consumer packaged goods, technology and manufacturing.

Q&A: Christopher Marriott, VP, agency services, StrongMail Systems

A digital marketing veteran of 17 years who has worked for shops including Acxiom, Digital Impact and Euro RSCG, Christopher Marriott joined email and social media marketing firm StrongMail Systems in mid-August. He has responsibility for the company's New York-based agency services division, working with brands including Travelocity, InterContinental Hotels Group and Discover Financial Services.

Email, social media: marriage or divorce?

Industry executives discuss whether email marketing and social media are a match made in heaven and if the two channels complement one another to build lists and new audiences.

Innovate, don't inundate to appeal to b-to-b prospects

Like throwing spaghetti against the wall to see if it sticks, today's email marketing strategy is a hit-or-miss methodology of one size fits all. In one fell swoop of the "send" button, it seems the most common practice is to inundate your audience with as much information as possible, as frequently as possible.

Texas theater bolsters email engagement with Facebook

El Paso Playhouse has two methods to communicate with consumers: its twice-weekly email newsletters and Facebook. But the theater wanted a way to link the two to grow both consumer bases.

Q&A: Scott Olrich, chief marketing and sales officer, Responsys

Scott Olrich, chief marketing and sales officer at Responsys, discusses his company's expansion into Germany and how email marketing will evolve over the next year.

Q&A: Johannes Neuer, New York Public Library

Johannes Neuer, eCommunications Manager at The New York Public Library, discusses how the library uses triggered emails, how it uses in-library signage to build email lists, and the growing importance of integration of email with mobile and social media.

Moosejaw Mountaineering  offers email snooze button

Outdoor goods retailer Moosejaw Mountaineering faced the predicament of keeping consumers informed about promotions and events via email while not bombarding them to the point that they would unsubscribe.

How to get the most out of email measurement metrics

Email is more effective at driving business results when it's paired with social media — so why do so many marketers stop their measurement at traditional metrics like deliverability and open and click-through rates?

Q&A: Marc Haseltine, National Geographic Marketing Services

Marc Haseltine, Manager of Email Marketing at National Geographic Marketing Services, discusses email integration with social media, mobile and direct mail, and how the digital channel will be around for years to come.

Q&A: Nick Heys, founder and CEO, Emailvision

Nick Heys, founder and CEO of UK-based email marketing software company Emailvision (which operates in 17 countries and has more than 3,000 clients worldwide) and a technology entrepreneur with more than 20 years' experience in direct marketing, talks about the company's recent expansion and the continued convergence of email and channels such as social media and mobile both in the US and abroad.

Forwarding system boosts fundraising program results

Electronic Scrip Inc. (ESI) introduced its eScrip program in 1999 to serve as a fundraising conduit for schools and nonprofits to receive a portion of money from consumer purchases at participating merchants. To broaden the merchant base, ESI debuted a group buying program, Bluebird by eScrip, in May.

Q&A: Tim Kopp, CMO of ExactTarget

Tim Kopp, CMO of ExactTarget, discusses how Twitter is being integrated with email, shares examples of multichannel marketing campaigns work and talks about how digital communications are evolving. Kopp has held executive level positions at WebTrends, Coca-Cola and Procter and Gamble.

Q&A with Dan Springer, chairman and CEO, Responsys

Dan Springer, chairman and CEO of email services provider Responsys, helped take the company public in April, raising about $70 million in net proceeds.

Vintage Tub recoups its lost revenue with email program

Vintage Tub & Bath customers are not impulse buyers. The online retailer's flagship products are its clawfoot tubs. The site's shopping cart abandonment rate hovered around 80%, a gaping revenue opportunity the company couldn't ignore.

Assess the impact of your social and email programs

Social media has turned email, an established channel for most marketers, into an exciting new frontier for marketing testing, learning and optimization. By tapping social insights and integrating social and email programs, both programs are strengthened and the customer dialogue is enhanced.

Timed emails improve response for b-to-b marketer

Wasp Barcode Technologies, a Plano, Texas-based small business that manufactures barcode software and solutions for other small businesses, recently went from blasting its entire list with the same emails to segmenting that base and then layering on top a series of triggered email messages.

Q&A: Greg Cangialosi, president and CEO, Blue Sky Factory

Greg Cangialosi, the president and CEO of Blue Sky Factory, discusses social data, security issues and split testing.

Three-step email program reaps high response rates

Founded in 1999, Magazines.com, a magazine subscription service, sells more than 2,000 publications. The company has used email to communicate with customers for nearly a decade, but most of those email communications were "general broadcast," says Nikki Getman, email marketing director at Magazines.com.

Q&A: Paul Kemshell, cofounder, WRM Media

Paul Kemshell, cofounder of WRM Media, a global email vendor and list broker based in the UK, discusses current trends in email marketing in Britain and how it compares to the US.

Minor league team, major league email

While the first crack of the bat on March 31 signaled the opening of the 2011 Major League Baseball season, the marketing for baseball teams started weeks prior.

System integration enables DCI to adjust e-mail scale

Founded more than three decades ago, Indianapolis-based Drum Corps International (DCI) has expanded to become a global nonprofit organization. Each  summer, DCI hosts 100 music events in North America as part of its annual Drum Corps International Tour.

Rethink morning e-mail

One of the first questions an e-mail marketer must ask is, "What time should I send at?" Every marketer wants to ensure their message is the one that gets opened, the one that a customer or prospect lingers over, reading and clicking through perhaps to purchase or receive further information.

Q&A: Ryan Tuttle, VP of strategic services, BrightWave Marketing

Ryan Tuttle joined BrightWave Marketing, an e-mail focused digital agency, in January. He's the former COO of Engauge Digital where he rose in the ranks from account manager at Spunlogic, which was later acquired by Engauge.

Marketers get best results with service messages

E-mail marketers that provide service or editorial messages stand a better chance of customers opening and clicking their e-mails than those sending marketing messages, according to a new survey from Epsilon and the Direct Marketing Association's Email Experience Council.

Pet Camp uses Facebook, e-mail to push new service

As a small business, every one of Pet Camp's 10,000  active customers is vital to its continued growth. The pet boarding facility opened in 1997 and about four years ago, it opened a second location dedicated to cats.

Rooting out fraudulent e-mail by way of authentication

Despite marketers' best intentions to weed out e-mail spam, they are sometimes the victim of phishing or spoofing campaigns whereby a spammer uses their information to send out fake e-mails to consumers, sullying their name and customer goodwill.

Youth's aversion to e-mail may rebound with age

Web-based e-mail usage has declined among younger consumers, with a 59% drop among 12-17 year-olds, according to comScore's 2010 U.S. Digital Year in Review, released last week. But this finding is not a death knell for the future of e-mail marketing.

Q&A: Mike Hilts, Infogroup Interactive

E-mail can be a powerful strategy for marketers, but challenges in the industry remain, from data management to inbox fatigue to continued deliverability challenges. As president of Infogroup Interactive, Mike Hilts is responsible for leveraging the strengths of both Infogroup's Yesmail and Walter Karl Interactive brands to create interactive marketing solutions and strategies for clients.

Miami Dolphins integrates data and eliminates waste

The football organization's database included a handful of different marketing lists from various sources including ticket sales, merchandise sales, season ticket programs and youth programs.

Amazon Web Services launches marketing, promotional e-mail service

Amazon Web Services, the b-to-b in-the-cloud technology platform of Amazon.com, launched a marketing and transactional e-mail service on January 25 for businesses and developers. Amazon tracks outgoing e-mail messages to ensure they meet ISP standards, queues them for sending, or returns them to a business for corrections.

Q&A: Michelle Eichner, VP of product management, Unica

E-mail marketers are facing many new hurdles in 2011, as well as some old ones. Direct Marketing News chatted with Michelle Eichner, VP of product management at Unica, an IBM company, about the challenges of selective inboxes and the importance of clean lists.

Dot Foods increases e-mail segmentation, sees improved response

Dot Foods, a food redistributor, previously used very little segmentation in its marketing e-mails. It received complaints from customers who said they received too many messages from the company, which was seeing limited success with its e-mail marketing program.

Q&A: Spencer Kollas, director of delivery services at StrongMail

E-mail service providers are changing the way they deliver messages to consumers, introducing social and prioritized inboxes. Spencer Kollas, director of delivery services at StrongMail, talks with Direct Marketing News about how marketers must abide by what his company is calling the "new rules of e-mail deliverability" in 2011.

Q&A: Aaron Smith, VP of campaign services, Responsys

Microsoft and e-mail service provider Responsys are partnering to enhance the consumer experience in the Windows Live Hotmail service. The companies are promising to create more engaging and rich experiences in Hotmail through the deal. In an interview with Direct Marketing News, Aaron Smith, VP of campaign services at Responsys, discussed what the partnership means for marketers.

Q&A: Geoff Smith, VP of field marketing at Epsilon

The rules of e-mail copywriting are evolving for the age of mobile e-mail. Geoff Smith, VP of field marketing at Epsilon, explains how e-mail marketers are changing their copywriting strategies to reach busy consumers on the go.

Mansell Group acquires e-mail shop WhatCounts

Mansell Group, an Atlanta-based technology marketing services company, has acquired Seattle-based e-mail marketing firm WhatCounts. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Q&A: Sara Ezrin, senior director of strategic services, Experian CheetahMail

Two words - "friends and family" - can have a significant impact on the success of an e-mail marketing campaign, according to a survey from Experian CheetahMail. The e-mail marketing service provider recently found that friends and family e-mails had 43% higher open rates and 29% higher click rates than bulk promotions. 'Direct Marketing News' talked with Sara Ezrin, senior director of strategic services at the firm, about the trend.

Q&A: Carlos Carvajal, VP of marketing, Baynote

Carlos Carvajal, VP of marketing at Baynote, a personalization and digital marketing software company, spoke to Direct Marketing News' Shahnaz Mahmud about the role of e-mail in marketing strategy. The company launched its Adaptive Web Suite last month.

Back to 'knowing the customer' basics

Marketing today is a sales-driven, lead generation discipline. While everyone pays lip service to "knowing the customer," there are fewer opportunities to delve into individual preferences and behaviors.

LiveNation's reduced e-mail volume scores higher sales

Events company LiveNation wanted to get more out of the hundreds of millions of e-mails it was sending out to customers.

Q&A: Senndo CEO Manish Vij

Senndo, a free e-mail marketing service touted by its founders as the first of its kind, launched October 11 after two months of beta testing. Manish Vij, founder and CEO of Senndo, a division of Anconia, spoke to Direct Marketing News' Shahnaz Mahmud about offering a free ESP service to grow the market.

Q&A: Chris Sentz, Internet marketing specialist at Stanley Steemer

Stanley Steemer revamped its e-mail marketing program last year and has used e-mails with geographically unique discounts and home care tips to rake in more than $1 million since the beginning of 2010. Direct Marketing News talks with Chris Sentz, Internet marketing specialist at Stanley Steemer, about his goals for the next year and beyond.

Personalized e-mails prove most effective

Companies bolster e-marketing results by generating individually tailored messages with the help of data gleaned from customers' shopping and browsing histories

Three tips for breaking through inbox clutter

It's that time of year again. Online retailers are ramping up their e-mail deployment schedules for the holiday season, which means over-crowded consumer inboxes. Here are some tips that marketers can use to stand out from the crowd, according to Ross Kramer, CEO of Listrak, an e-mail marketing service provider.

Q&A: Blaine Mathieu, CMO, Lyris

Lyris, a digital and e-mail marketing company, recently launched a partner program to give marketers an advantage on delivering complex campaigns. Blaine Mathieu, CMO at Lyris, talks to Direct Marketing News about the program and the evolving e-mail marketing space.

Inbox Insider: E-mail marketers using multiple calls to action, analytic tools

Three or more calls to action in an e-mail may seem like too many. However, 61% of marketers said that is what they include in their e-campaigns, according to a survey from JangoMail, an e-mail delivery service provider.

Video provides a richer experience in e-mail

Turner Sports relies on e-mail marketing to help drive traffic to PGATour.com during the annual PGA Championship, which in turn drives ad revenues. The site's user experience is centered on live streaming coverage of the games, so for last year's Championship games, the media company decided to merge the two by adding video to e-mail.

In search of the adventurous

After the recession rocked the travel industry, marketers expect a better 2010

DMNews talks with Deb Swider, e-marketing director, ASPCA

Deb Swider, e-marketing director, member communications at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) explains how the organization turned around its e-mail open rates

Marketers provide simple healthcare solutions

Marketers respond to knowledge-hungry customers by providing health guidance

Cross-channel technology marketing

Social and e-mail combine with offline media to help sell technology products

Marketers aim for authenticity

Many marketers are incorporating multichannel marketing campaigns that target specific audiences to help attract consumers based on their cultural framework into their overall marketing plan.

Segmentation focus strong in b-to-b

Business-to-business marketers are ahead of the curve when it comes to segmentation. After all, b-to-b marketing revolves around targeting specific groups of customers looking for particular solutions to problems.

Nailed It: DMNews talks with Ed Weiss, GM, Movies Unlimited

Ed Weiss, general manager of Movies Unlimited, discusses how the multichannel film retailer and cataloger used e-mail marketing to re-target past customers and boost sales

ElfYourself campaign mixes social and e-mail

Office supply giant OfficeMax builds on its ubiquitous ElfYourself viral holiday campaign by weaving social media and e-mail into the fabric of its direct marketing initiatives.

Best advice for building nonprofit e-mail lists

Multiple tactics help marketers tackle e-mail list building in the nonprofit sector. Four nonprofit experts share their top recommendations for growing e-mail databases effectively, while minding permission.

E-mail basics meet new tricks

E-mail marketers blend established best practices with new options, such as social media and embedded video, to engage consumers.

eBay wins e-mail bid

Auction site eBay's steady focus on deliverability in its e-mail strategy is achieved through attention to authentication, reputation and relevancy.

E-mail basics meet new tricks

E-mail marketers blend established best practices with new options, such as social media and embedded video, to engage consumers.

Top Tips: Planning a successful e-mail campaign for the holidays

Holiday sales are more important than ever this year, as retailers gear up for the final quarter of this recession year. As marketers begin to plan their strategy for the holiday season, five seasoned e-mail marketing veterans share their tips on the best way to reach consumers through the inbox during the busy shopping season.

DMNews chats with Experian CheetahMail creative director Steve Sharp

Steve Sharp, creative director at Experian CheetahMail, discusses the e-mail newsletter redesign for Fit Pregnancy, an online destination for mothers-to-be

Multichannel momentum

The economic environment is still stormy, but retailers are starting to test the waters with new demand-generating strategies.

Newspapers engage with e-mail

As layoffs, closures and cutbacks dog newspapers, e-mail newsletters help monetize their online efforts and spur readership growth.

Problem Solver: "How can I integrate social media with my e-mail marketing program?"

The rise of social media is creating an exciting inbound marketing channel that serves as an excellent complement to outbound email marketing efforts. Marketers who allocate the time and resources to integrate programs can realize synergies - driving incremental revenue while creating positive customer experiences. Here are five tips to help you integrate social media with your e-mail programs and ensure you're getting the most out of them.

Technique: How to make your e-mail go viral

Four experts serve up their best tips for getting readers to share your e-mails

Strike up the brand with e-mail

Experts say it is e-mail's time to shine - not just as a lead generator, but as a way to help brands extend their message to a variety of audiences.

DMNews talks with Chris Masagatani, director, NY for e-mail agency eROI

Chris Masagatani, director, NY for e-mail agency eROI, discusses how his firm worked with CBSsports.com to revamp the latter'sfantasy sports newsletter.

E-mail gets personal

Sears abandons 'batch and blast' e-mail strategy to improve both revenue and customer loyalty

The Economic Challenge: E-mail success in a tough economy

While times are tight for marketers and consumers alike, now is as good a time as ever to use e-mail marketing. E-mail is cheap, measurable and affords marketers the ability to test, target and measure in ways that more traditional channels such as direct mail and print cannot. Companies looking to weather these tough times should take advantage of the channel and refine their e-mail programs.

Do forward-to-a-friend referrals work?

The viral forward-to-a-friend tactic might be a quick way to build up a list, but others argue the process falls short. Are these referral marketing campaigns effective? Our experts weigh in

Make the most of e-mail marketing

Marketers must make every e-mail count in a down economy, say experts. But what does it take for messages to reach their target? Four industry pros zero in on the best tactics.

Do's and Don'ts: Managing your e-mail reputation

In e-mail marketing, reputation is everything. Users are able to make a decision about your e-mail without even opening it — if they don't like what they see in the "Subject" or "From" lines, the delete key is never far away. Marketers also must contend with the negative connotation of "spam" — consumers apply the term to any unwanted e-mails, even if they are legitimate marketing messages to which recipients have opted in. To top it off, ISPs — always looking to streamline their networks and respond to customers' frustrations — create their own barriers. Our experts examine the ways in which e-mail marketers can manage their reputation.

CMO of The Eastwood Company Peter Kosciewicz talks with DMNews

DMNews speaks with Peter Kosciewicz, CMO of The Eastwood Company, about the company booted its e-mail program. Q: What had made The Eastwood Company's customer e-mail program unique, and what changes did you decide to make?

Segment e-mail lists to hit your target

One of the strongest advantages of e-mail is its ability to segment. DMNews discovers how the NFL uses e-mail to reach millions of devoted fans.

Do's and Don'ts: Building e-mail lists

Growing an e-mail list is no easy task - marketers must not only be patient, but also adhere to increasingly-stringent opt-in and opt-out laws. Despite privacy concerns, building an e-mail list organically allows marketers to track customer behavior as well as target customers based on buying habits. DMNews asked two experts for their two cents on how to care for your growing house file and encourage those all-important opt-ins.

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