Hearst Magazines and the Direct Marketing Association will launch the second annual "Hearst Challenge" on June 1. The media company will give a $25,000 prize to the entrant who can best build a model to predict whether a consumer will open or click through an email promotion.
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.
E-mail marketing is far from dead, but marketers will have to adjust to social media, a range of mobile devices, prioritized inboxes and new security concerns, said Anita Absey, SVP of global sales and services at Return Path, on February 10.
February 08, 2011
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.
E-mail services provider Goodmail Systems will cease operations on February 8, its chief executive told Direct Marketing News. The Mountain View, CA-based company employed 35 and was founded in 2003. Daniel Dreymann, cofounder and CEO of Goodmail, said the biggest reason for the shutdown was an aborted acquisition attempt by a firm he would only call a "Fortune 500 company."
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.
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.
Pitney Bowes plans to launch Volly, a consumer-facing communications application, in the second half of this year, the company said January 6. The platform will enable brands to send messages, including bills, promotional mail and catalogs, directly to consumers through the app.
December 28, 2010
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.
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.
My Outlook e-mail blocks all images, which means I end up with a lot of "Right click here to download images" and "Outlook is protecting your privacy by preventing this automatic download" messages. It also means I receive a lot of otherwise blank e-mails.
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.
When it comes to e-mail marketing, the quality and management of your list are essential.
Deliverability reigns in the world of email marketing. It has since the beginning, but the rules change often enough that it's always a relevant discussion.
"Thirty percent of your house list changes their e-mail addresses annually or becomes inactive." This familiar statistic refers to an infectious disease commonly known as "list churn."
September 06, 2010
I'm elbow-deep in editing for DMNews' annual Essential Guide to E-mail Marketing, and one of the big topics for consumers and marketers alike remains volume and relevancy.
April 19, 2010
Marketers deal with many moving media parts today. E-mail, with its low costs and sophisticated segmentation capabilities, is often at the heart of the media plan. DMNews brought marketers, service providers and industry experts to the table to discuss the challenges inherent in this constantly evolving channel.
Peter Horan resigned as CEO of Goodmail last week after nearly two years in the position. Daniel Dreymann, co-founder and president of Goodmail, said he will take over Horan's responsibilities. No replacement will be hired.
What's in our mailbox this month: fitness postcards from Retro Fitness, American Woman Fitness Centers, Union's United Taekwondo Academy, and Bally Total Fitness. (We're totally pumped.)
Social data can improve a brand's bottom line and customer relationships. Just ask brands Infiniti and Diamond Nexus.
Here are three must-have data sets that every marketer should include in his or her email strategy.
