The "Bulletproof" Button

We all know that image blocking by ISPs and email clients can wreak havoc with your HTML emails and affect click-throughs and conversions. This is particularly a critical issue with image-based call-to-action (CTA) buttons. But all hope is not lost....

Posted by Loren McDonald on September 25, 2009 7:07 AM

Silverpop Share-to-Social Study Establishes New Benchmarks

Sharing email messages on social networks can increase your reach by exposing your messages to large audiences beyond your subscribers in ways forwarding to friends can't match. That's one finding revealed in Silverpop's new study, "Emails Gone Viral: Measuring 'Share...

Posted by Loren McDonald on September 19, 2009 4:09 PM

Relevance: "The Right Message" at "The Right Time?"

Saying "relevance" is the key to success in email marketing is a bit like saying something is "American as motherhood and apple pie." Whether you've heard the phrase before or not, you can probably guess the general meaning, but what does it really mean? Similarly, "relevance" in reference to email marketing success is generally understand and agreed upon. But we don't really have a single, agreed-on definition for the term, let alone the elements that go into making an email relevant to recipients.

Posted by Loren McDonald on August 18, 2009 2:38 PM

Fight "Cheap Email" Trend by Emphasizing Value

When a company finds itself struggling for sales in a tight economy, the first response is often to start competing on prices. Although price slashing, discounts and other costly promotions can bring short-terms gains, they could end up tarnishing your...

Posted by Loren McDonald on June 30, 2009 2:04 PM

Why Email Needs to Become More 'Social'

To answer my own question from my recent blog post "Have Social Networks Killed the Birthday Email?" I say no, they haven't. In fact, the birthday email, the anniversary reminder and similar email messages could help keep email relevant and...

Posted by Loren McDonald on March 30, 2009 4:50 PM

Email Marketing Best Practices: Sometimes, 'It Depends' Is the Right Answer

The trouble is, the “right” answer is often “It depends,” not “Never do this or that.” In fact, the right answer for you and your email program and company could be all wrong for another company that runs its email marketing program differently.

Posted by Loren McDonald on March 13, 2009 1:58 PM