Email Advertising

Golf is a game of tradition: green jackets, big trophies, and proper etiquette are an essential part of the game. While the rules and traditions have remained the same, the technology on the course has changed rapidly. And now, the technology off the course is catching up.

Traditionally, the PGA Tour has outsourced its digital technology and marketing. In 2013, that is changing and the toughest test may be just around the Amen Corner.  

In the old days (you know, like eight years ago), sports leagues were able to sell their broadcast rights for an extraordinary amount of money, and that was...

As we continue to see shifts in the way consumers access online content, Facebook is optimizing viewers' mobile experience with its latest UI update. Facebook made an announcement on Thursday regarding one pivotal feature, the News Feed. Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook would be making a “substantial redesign” of the News Feed, starting with a new look and feel.

The News Feed provides users with the most relevant content based on algorithms. This change will not alter any of those algorithms. Instead, the redesign will focus on more visuals and bigger links to articles—making it easier to see...

Multiple touch points and disparate systems can often prove challenging for organisations trying to make sense of their data, leaving them with no way to leverage the information they have to gain insight into their customers.

At TFM&A (Technology for Marketing & Advertising) in London recently, I was struck by the number of similar conversations I had with various marketers. Consistently, they expressed frustrations around having to depend heavily on IT to obtain data in order to send out customer communications and how this generally leads to delays and unnecessary additional costs.

Whenever a...

Recently comScore released their 2013 US Digital Future in Focus report, and the results are clear. If you aren’t embracing social and mobile, you’re missing out on some big opportunities.

Like most marketers, you are probably in the trenches, implementing campaigns to drive leads, opportunities, conversions, and purchases. While it’s easy to fall back on tried-and-true methods, don’t overlook trends that could forever alter the way you do business with your customers. The time is now!

Here are some suggestions to help you get started:

1. Experiment with Facebook advertising: Social networks,...

Consumers continue to demand real time communications from brands, and it is important that those brands learn more about and engage with their audience. By learning about their consumers, companies are better equipped to custom tailor products and services for the price their audience wants. These real time communications have forced many companies to look more closely at their digital marketing efforts.

As traditional mass media continues to fragment and diminish, marketers are being forced to look at digital media. Technology and connectivity have made news and publications...

The film industry has used a variety of different tactics to interact with audiences and promote their products throughout the past 120 years. From the age-old tactics of print advertising to the new-fangled social networking approach, it's no secret that film distributors want to engage potential viewers and entice them to pay for admission.

Take a look at the timeline below for an in-depth view of how this industry communicates with the public, both past and present.

Clearly the trend of movie marketing has evolved from mass distribution to a more segmented 1-to-1 approach. Consider this type...

Well, Twitter is! Twitter is entering the ecommerce space in a bid to become the next social media shopping cart, allowing users to purchase products by tweeting a special hashtag. Joining forces with American Express, users will now be able to purchase products from Amazon, Urban Zen, Sony, and Xbox 360.

How Does it Work?

1. Sync your eligible American Express Card with Twitter
2. Tweet special #hashtags and look for a response from @AmexSync with the confirmation #hashtag
3. Tweet the confirmation #hashtag within 15 minutes of the response from @AmexSync to confirm your purchase
4. Use your synced card for a...

In the fast-moving world of cross-channel marketing, it’s almost impossible to keep up with the news as it happens. Luckily, the Content Marketing team here at ExactTarget is here to help! We’re always on the lookout for fresh, interesting content, to help you stay up-to-date with the latest news and trends.

Here are a few of the top stories, posts, and other content that caught our eye this week:

World Internet Stats: Websites, Email, Social Media, and More (Marketing Profs)

Case Study: Where's the Best Place to Put Your CTA? (Unbounce)

10 Tools for Creating Infographics and Visualizations (SEOmoz)

9...

The Super Bowl has come and gone. The lights have been turned on, turned off, turned back on, and turned off for the last time on the most popular American sporting event. In the social media marketing industry, Super Sunday turns into a weeklong analysis of well, just about everything: infographics, conversations, opinions, statistics, speculations, and conclusions.

One common theme to come out of the 47th edition of the “Big Game:” real time wins. (Oh, and senior citizens really enjoy Taco Bell but that’s beyond the scope of this article.) Oreo and Tide have garnered a lot of attention for...

Kyle Lacy recently posted a compilation of 140 Mobile Marketing Tips collected from marketing professionals via email, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media outlets. These are great 140-characters-or-less nuggets of knowledge you can apply to your mobile strategy. I’ll dissect a few favorites here:

#6 – Always include a call to action in push or SMS
It’s mind-blowing how brands invest so much in advertising yet leave out a simple call to action. As an example, only two Super Bowl ads included a mobile CTA! In an analysis on these pricey misses, Jeff Rohrs discusses how “branding only” ads...

As a follow-up to my Punt, Pass, & Kick: Email, Mobile, & Social Misses at Super Bowl XLVII post yesterday, our incredibly talented design team has whipped up an infographic to capture just how few of the Super Bowl advertisers sought to drive viewers to engage on the web or via mobile and social channels. When viewed in this format, the missed opportunity is pretty striking.

One other quick thought...can we really even say that an advertisement is "social" if it just throws up a Facebook icon, Twitter icon, or hashtag without any further explanation? Should we be providing viewers with context ...

The Super Bowl was slightly different than last year for the city of Indianapolis. IN 2012, we were the host city and millions around the world watched what has become America's largest sport event. With that said, New Orleans was an excellent host city and we were excited to track the social media experience of the Super Bowl once again. 

This year we asked our partner, Visible Technologies, to help us track the social media conversation relating to the Social Super Bowl. Visible is the leader in social media monitoring, analytics, and services for enterprises globally. They are an...

Did you see that blackout last night?!?  No, not the one that stopped Super Bowl XLVII dead in its tracks for over 30 minutes.  I'm talking about the near total blackout of meaningful email, mobile, and social calls-to-action in the commercials that brands were rumored to pay nearly $4 million per 30 seconds.

In my previous post, Super Bowl, Super Audience Building, I shared that I was looking forward to more brands hopefully following Papa John's lead by using their $4 million ad spend to build and engage email, mobile, and/or social audiences. To say I was sorely disappointed would be an...

Twitter has already created a way for consumers to communicate their thoughts to followers within seconds. Now they have progressed to allow users to share visual information and sound to their followers at the same speed. Last Thursday, Twitter launched a short video creation and sharing app called Vine.

The Vine iPhone app allows users to share 6-second video clips, and many brands have already begun to take notice. Six seconds at a time, users can get a glimpse of what’s happening in the world, including what their favorite brands are up to. So how can your business benefit from Twitter’s...

If there was ever a sporting event that didn't need another pixel devoted to its promotion, it is the Super Bowl. From its humble beginnings in front of 62,000 fans at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (100,000 capacity, mind you), the "Big Game" has ballooned into a worldwide phenomenon that commands $4 million per 30-second advertisement. Marketers, of course, watch from start to finish--not so much for the game, although it has been super of late--but for those advertisements.  And we in the digital marketing space have paid particular attention to see if and when brands would finally realize...

I had the pleasure of interviewing Matt Thomson, VP of business development and platform at Klout. During the interview, we talked about the future of marketing, influencer relationships, and social currency. There are many times when brands focus so much on lead generation and advertising that they forget the influencers within their community. 

The key to a successful social, mobile, and email strategy? Social engagement. Personalization. Influence. We are seeing a mobilizing base of influencers that is useful. How do brands get a better share of voice within the influencer community that...

Over the past couple of months, it seems the majority of buzz and conversation in our industry has been related to mobile. From our Inspired Marketing Predictions for 2013 to redefining strategy, everything is related to the idea of mobile becoming increasingly important to the strategy of every marketer... especially retail. I debated calling this blog post "The Power of Now," because frankly... we are dealing with the idea of now. 

Give me my product now.

Let me browse products now. 

I want pricing on your product (and all your competitors) now. 

Not long ago, social changed the way people...

At Connections this year we recognized over 30 companies as finalists for our Power of One Awards. The marketing team from Blinds.com, a leading retailer in the window blinds and shade business, was recognized as a finalist for their "Entice and Engage" campaign that generated 175% growth to their email list. Featured below is a summary of how Blinds.com went about achieving these phenomenal business results.

THE BLINDS.COM STORY

The Blinds.com team wanted to grow their email list with engaged prospects that could be reached across a number of platforms—not just email. The team knew that...

Every year, one event consistently redefines the limits of hype, production value, and viewership when sports and entertainment are combined. That event, of course, is the Super Bowl. Companies spend millions of dollars to sponsor, advertise, and promote throughout the 4-hour broadcast, achieving a reach of over 100 million individuals. But not until 2013 has a brand attempted to create an interactive experience for these viewers.

The Super Bowl halftime performer was announced in early January to be Beyoncé, with the return of Destiny's Child. One would think that with this announcement, Pepsi...

In this #InspiredMarketing blog series, we are sharing predictions on the future of marketing from 25 industry thought leaders. These predictions have been compiled in our new whitepaper, Inspired Marketing Predictions for 2013. In today’s post, Linda Woolley from the DMA shares her thoughts.

Regulatory Threats Rise Up

The economic turmoil of the past four years has deeply affected the marketing industry. Yet, of all the changes I’ve observed, perhaps the most significant has been the evolution of marketing data as a highly effective driver for bottom-line growth.

According to “The Power of...