Last week our own Susan Marshall published an article on B2B Online entitled "Easy Ways to Combine Email with Social." In case you missed the original, I wanted to share this great content with our own blog audience.

Susan's article states that, while email continues to be the workhorse of digital marketing, savvy marketers are taking steps to integrate email with social media to improve their overall campaign performance. She shared three easy strategies that marketers can implement to grow their email subscriber lists, improve campaign relevancy, and build new audiences:

• Grow your email...

This is one in a series of columns exploring the examples and trends highlighted in The Best of the Email Swipe File.

J. Crew

Type: Promotional email
Send date: 7/1/2012
Subject line: MALE VERSION: Shoes are required. Socks are not.
FEMALE VERSION: My favorite summer whites

“Why It Is Awesome: More marketers are taking a “content first” approach to selling. This J.Crew email does an excellent job of leading with advice on etiquette and style to build trust and to give their subscribers the confidence to move forward with purchases.”
—Mike Diekhoff, Design Consultant

View this J.Crew email on...

I recently returned from Phoenix, Ariz. where I attended my first Direct Selling Association’s (DSA) Annual Meeting. Over 1,000 people gathered for three days of 110 degree weather for keynotes, breakout sessions, and networking. 

The overall theme for this year’s meeting was celebrating the direct selling industry. Executives from all over the world gathered together to celebrate both the achievements and opportunities of the direct selling industry. And there was a lot to celebrate this year! US direct sales increased 5.9 percent in 2012 to $31.63 billion. In addition, the number of direct...

Repurposing content can be an enormous time and sanity-saver for marketers struggling to scale content production. It takes a lot of pressure off non-marketers within your organization who aren’t natural writers, and ensures content relevancy when previously successful content is repurposed.

There are, however, a few common pitfalls that can get you into trouble.  Follow these guidelines to save time and avoid headaches when repurposing content:

1. Am I really repurposing?
It’s important not to confuse repurposing with reusing or redistributing content. 

A common trap marketers fall into...

Using video is nothing new. YouTube reports that they have 72 hours of content uploaded every minute, demonstrating just how crowded and noisy the video content area is. 

When you start creating videos, you’ve got to understand that once your video is out there, you don’t have full control over it any more. Sometimes a spoof of a video can take off and can really positively aid brand awareness. Then there are the other occasions where it can do enormous damage – is all publicity really good publicity? (Let’s leave that for another day!)

If your content is good, then it’s more than likely someone...

A recent article by Allie Freeland, "Four Lessons Marketers Can Learn From Yoga," elegantly outlines how yoga concepts like simplicity, small gestures of kindness and a clean mental state apply to marketing. As a yoga enthusiast, I found the piece very insightful and thought of even more lessons we marketers can learn from the ancient art.

1. Find your center
A central tenet of yoga, "finding your center" typically means an awareness and acceptance of yourself - your mental state, your body, your being. In marketing, this translates to a sense of realism about the nature of your organization....

This is one in a series of columns exploring the examples and trends highlighted in The Best of the Email Swipe File.

Moosejaw

Type: Promotional email
Send date: 1/7/2013
Subject line: It worked for Obama...

“A catchy, intriguing, topical subject line introduces a mobile-friendly, plain-text email that’s well-suited to convey the concise message. Both this email and the text-heavy emails of the campaign season are reminders that plain text can still be very effective, particularly in the age of mobile.”
—Laura Earley, Associate Designer

View this Moosejaw email on Pinterest >>

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Icelan...

1. Foursquare's Awesome Virtual Map / Time Machine 

Kind of creepy, just not really creepy.

The animation flies you around all those haunts you've visited in times past, served up in a lovely 3D effect that you can autoplay to your heart's content. You can zoom in or out of its map showing all the places you've been, checking out each of your check-ins. The interface helpfully provides places Foursquare has recommended for you as well. (via Mashable) 

2. Apple is Back, Jack

- WDDC (Apple's Wordwide Developers Conference) was this week and it looks like the technology power brand has some kick...

This is one in a series of columns exploring the examples and trends highlighted in The Best of the Email Swipe File.

Jack Spade

Type: Promotional email
Send date: 3/21/2013
Subject line: Watch Out! $98 Graphic Watches Are In

“Clean simplicity is the new sweet spot for email design and this email delivers by keeping the headline and call-to-action above the fold and using a mix of illustration and product shots to intrigue and get subscribers scrolling.”
—Anna Meier, Design Consultant

View this Jack Spade email on Pinterest >>

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Jonathan Adler email >>

Sephora email >>

This Jack Spade...

This is one in a series of columns exploring the examples and trends highlighted in The Best of the Email Swipe File.

Jetsetter

Type: Preference eenter

“Jetsetter’s preference center collects subscriber preferences for ‘Destinations’, ‘Activities’, and ‘Scenes’, all of which are vital to creating highly targeted travel offers. Their preference center also addresses three of the most common reasons that subscribers opt out—too many emails, irrelevant emails, and change of address.”
—Submitter: Andrea Smith, Design Lead, Content Marketing & Research

View this Jetsetter preference center on...

There’s nothing quite like a classic combo. Dinner and a movie. Burgers and fries. Opt-ins and SMS? Yes, please.

Many consumers have long associated the act of opting-in as something to be done by email, for email. But today’s cross-channel world doesn’t just include email. Companies and organizations could find big success in acquiring new customers by adding a mobile component with SMS (short message service). There are two great approaches to this strategy:

1. Email opt-in via SMS
This one is a quick addition to reinforce the presence of your email campaigns, as well as how easy you’ve made it...

This is one in a series of columns exploring the examples and trends highlighted in The Best of the Email Swipe File.

CB2

Type: Promotional email
Send date: 12/1/12
Subject line: get her this

“Gift guides are a major selling tool during the holiday season. CB2 takes this concept and turns it into a fun, interactive decision tree that all starts with rating the gift-recipient on a scale of 1 to 10. It’s hard to resist following every path to its recommended gift.”
—Ryan Alvis, Design Consultant

View this CB2 email on Pinterest >>

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Tiffany & Co. email >>

Canadian Tourism Commission...

It’s a common misconception that SEO, social media, email, and other content distribution channels should reside in silos. There are numerous synergies to be had by launching campaigns that affect multiple channels of distribution. Strategic earned media is just one way to influence these channels simultaneously. When executed properly the social sphere lights up with buzz, landing page conversions increase and search engines take notice.

What a Strategic Earned Media Campaign Looks Like
Earning media has been a public relations (PR) goal for many decades – targeting newspapers, magazines and...

This is one in a series of columns exploring the examples and trends highlighted in The Best of the Email Swipe File.

IVCi

Type: Promotional email
Send date: Q2 2013
Subject line: IVCi conversation

“While most emails work best as HTML emails, we’ve found that drip emails are the most successful when they’re in a rich text format, which makes them appear as though they’re a one-to-one communication between a sales rep and a prospect. This email from IVCi is short, conversational, and includes a personalized signature to enhance the impression that the email is coming directly from a sales rep.”
—Mathe...

There’s no question about it: email is the foundation of successful B2B marketing strategies.

In 2012, BtoB Magazine reported that 59% of B2B marketers rank email as the #1 tactic for generating revenue and predicted that in 2013 spending on email by B2B marketers would increase 65%. A big reason more B2B marketing budget is flowing to permission-based email is that 57% of marketers say email newsletters are their most effective tool for lead nurturing. (Source: MarketingSherpa 2013 Email Marketing Benchmark Report)

B2B Email Marketing at its Best
One brand that, in my opinion, is a best-in-class...

1. Smart Phone Penetration Hits over 50%. In 2012, eMarketer estimates, "six countries—South Korea, Norway, Sweden, Australia, the UK, and the US—saw smartphone user penetration rates among users rise above 50% for the first time. In regional terms, only North America will boast average smartphone penetration rates above 50% in 2013 among mobile users, as Canada crosses the 50% mark this year. Western Europe as a whole will cross that boundary in 2014."

2. mCommerce and the Mobile Transaction. For the B2C brands, mobile payments have already revolutionized the way consumers pay for products....

This is one in a series of columns exploring the examples and trends highlighted in The Best of the Email Swipe File.
 

Bendon Lingerie

Type: Promotional email
Send date: 5/8/13
Subject line: Something extra for you: buy any 2 items, get the 3rd free.

“Rather than seeing image blocking as an obstacle, this Australian lingerie retailer saw it as an opportunity to use a mosaic of color blocked table grids to send a simple heart-shaped message. While many marketers use mosaics to emulate the images-on creative, Bendon Lingerie chose not to be limited by that.”
—Kirk Barlow, Senior Deliverability &...

Spoiler alert: there's no silver bullet for subject lines.

Even email marketing experts like our friends at Litmus have openly admitted that there’s no secret to crafting subject lines that will guarantee you opens and clicks. (I know, I was disappointed too). In fact, they’ll be among the first to tell you that writing subject lines is hard.

The good news? There are a few tips and tricks that these experts have identified that will increase your open rates, and others that they suggest avoiding. Let’s go through a few of these dos and don’ts to get an idea of current email subject line best...

Social media has been around for more than a decade, and most businesses have come to realize that social can (and should) be an important part of their marketing program. At the same time, marketers continue to struggle with with how to fully leverage—or even understand—the ever-changing world of social media marketing.

Finding and installing a social media management product isn't enough. You need a thorough understanding of how to launch, grow, and innovate your social media programs.

Look no further! ExactTarget Social Media Services can provide you with proactive support, a pragmatic...