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

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Jonathan Adler email >>

Sephora email >>

This Jack Spade...

1993? At this point you're probably wondering where the heck I'm going with this blog post.

In 1993, Don Peppers and Martha Rogers wrote “The One To One Future,” a revolutionary book about the idea of one-to-one marketing and its impact on the future of marketing. At the time of its publication, this book became the basis for many important marketing theories. Frankly, this book has been left on the shelf for way to long, as its relevance for modern marketing automation is immense.

If you haven’t gotten a chance to read this book, here are a few notable quotes:

“A mass marketer tries to...

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

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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 week, a handful of clients reached out to me and other members of the ExactTarget deliverability team, asking for our "official guidance" on Gmail's "new inbox." Truth is, I don't know that we can't provide anything official as of yet, as we're still digesting this change ourselves. I'm certain you'll hear more from us on this topic in the coming weeks and months.

In the meantime, here's what we can tell you.

Gmail doesn't seem to be enabling the new inbox by default. You have to click on the gear icon, and click "configure inbox" to enable this new functionality.

Mickey Chandler points out...

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...

Earlier this week, salesforce.com Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff and I announced that we have entered into a definitive agreement under which salesforce.com will acquire ExactTarget. The response to the announcement has been tremendous, and it’s been great seeing so many share our excitement for how ExactTarget and salesforce.com will increase the value proposition for customers of both companies and deliver the marketing platform of choice for CMOs.

Since the announcement, I have received a tremendous amount of positive feedback from our clients and partners, and I wanted to follow up and...

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...

In recent years, the explosion of social media has left savvy Internet-goers with choices far beyond Facebook. If you're just about tweeted out, one strong option to consider for promoting your small business is Instagram. With roughly 100 million users, it's a viable method for getting the word out about your organization. Unlike other social media giants, Instagram doesn't focus on a full website; it's mainly available via smartphone app - and if your target audience is smartphone savvy, then you should be too. Follow these tips to help get your Instagramming efforts kickstarted today:

1....

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...