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

The 2009 Email Marketing Haiku Slam Wants You!

Email done quite well Is loved by ISPs And subscribers too Okay, so I'm not the Shakespeare of the haiku world yet. If you can do better, your creativity could win you a one-year membership in the Email Experience Council,...

Posted by Loren McDonald on September 14, 2009 6:40 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

Email Practices of Top Online Retailers - Upcoming Webinar

How are email marketing practices of the top online retailers changing, for the better or worse? Find out at a free Webinar on Thursday August 20 at 2 p.m. EDT/11 a.m. PDT, when I present results from Silverpop's latest study comparing the email practices of retailers from Internet Retailer's Top 500 list and 395 additional companies.

Posted by Loren McDonald on August 14, 2009 8:52 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

Are You Measuring How Email Helps Achieve Corporate Goals?

If you're an email marketer, you've probably learned one hard truth: Your executive management doesn't care about email as much as you do. These C-Suite executives are more concerned about the issues that affect the company bottom line, such as...

Posted by Loren McDonald on May 27, 2009 10:55 AM

Send Time Optimization Finds the Email Delivery Time "Magic Moment"

Marketers who can reach their email subscribers when they're actively in their inboxes will gain a competitive advantage. Quite simply, having your message at the top of the inbox makes it much more likely to be seen and acted on....

Posted by Loren McDonald on May 18, 2009 2:49 PM

Should You Use Rich Media in Email Messages?

Rich media, like Flash and video, is immensely popular in Web-based communications. If a picture is worth a thousand words, isn't animation worth, well, something significantly larger? Rich media--usually defined as a combination of graphics, audio, video and animation--can be...

Posted by Julia Patterson on May 1, 2009 4:45 PM

Have Social Networks Killed the Birthday Email?

We all know how the Web and email have changed the way we communicate with each other and with companies, but the light bulb really went on for me when I looked at the ways friends, co-workers and peers sent...

Posted by Loren McDonald on March 20, 2009 11:05 AM