1. Ability to incorporate or contain as an essential part or characteristic
2. Capacity to leverage existing code and infrastructure to save costs and accelerate speed to market
3. Marketing automation technology from ExactTarget
Commercial Software developers and IT professionals need power, control and flexibility when it comes to managing the lifeblood of the business – INFORMATION! ExactTarget delivers on all fronts with its agile and embeddable marketing automation technology and services.
Contact your marketing automation partners at ExactTarget today to see how our technology can augment your technology stack and go to market strategy.
As one of the newest members of the ExactTarget Partner organization, I am tasked with managing and growing relationships with ExactTarget’s Embedded Partners.On its surface, that sounds pretty straightforward.However, for the past several months, I have been trying to better define around what an “Embedded” partner truly is.There are multiple ways to define the topic, depending on who you ask. And, in my experience, most of the answers I have heard are right in some way or another.
However, the official definition is that ExactTarget Embedded Partners are typically ISVs that go to market with messaging as a part of their platform. As an Embedded Partner, your software product's user interface contains features and functionality that enable your customers to manage the process of creating and executing email campaigns (as well as SMS and Voice).This is about the most comprehensive and accurate description I can come up with myself.But, with the growth in popularity of “Cloud Computing”, I believe it is and will be much more than that.
Cloud computing has garnered a lot of media attention in the past year or so as the next big technological breakthrough.But, in my opinion, the concept isn’t really all that new.Companies have always looked for ways to combine technology services in a more commoditized way to drive efficiency and cost savings.Amazon.com has been doing cloud computing within the company for a long time.Essentially, that is the exact same goal for cloud computing.I think the biggest difference with cloud computing is that the concept is getting turned outward to the Internet, hence the “cloud” tagline. As more companies sign on to utilize these services, the less they will be inclined to build internal infrastructure to support corporate applications. Think of the advantages:
*No capex/low capex to get started
*Highly scalable with on-demand allocation of resources
*Reliability of multi-location architectures
So how does messaging fit into the cloud? I see integrated messaging becoming its own service or platform in the cloud.Just like clients are looking to Salesforce.com to quickly and efficiently deploy CRM as a service, why not for marketing and other communications?It even makes more sense when you look at what the future of ISVs might be.More and more we are seeing a drive towards SaaS applications.Do you think it makes sense for a CRM or Print-on-Demand application provider to build their own messaging infrastructure?Probably not for several reasons, the most obvious being, it’s not their core competency.They will continue to be focused on what pays the bills.But, will they be eager to provide a marketing communication platform to their customers….absolutely.These companies will turn to partners that are similar to them…on-demand/SaaS/Cloud Computing…whatever the tagline of the week is.Why, because it provides the same advantages to them as to their clients, mainly low/no capex, highly scalable, and reliable service.This is where ExactTarget Embedded becomes the Messaging as a Service platform for the cloud.
Obviously the push towards SaaS and Cloud Computing is real.As the industry continues to evolve, so will ExactTarget Embedded and our partners.Our robust and flexible integration capabilities will allow ExactTarget to become the industry leader in Messaging as a Service.
With the move from Outlook 2003 to 2007, Microsoft made a lot of security improvements. Along with that, however, were a number of design changes. Outlook changed its engine for rendering HTML content from Internet Explorer to Microsoft Word. Before, it essentially meant that if your code looked good in Internet Explorer, it looked good in Outlook.
However, that is not the case anymore.
This is a huge impact in the way we design emails; because of the high volume of Outlook users, particularly in the Business-to-Business realm.
Here are a few key elements to consider while designing email messages in Outlook 2007 to ensure it looks sharp.
Keep your styles in-line Though Outlook 2007 does support embedded CSS, there are certain properties that present challenges, such as margin, line-height and float/clear. Keep your styles in-line while you are designing. In addition to being an email design best practice, using style attributes in-line will help ensure that your message renders properly.
No Animated .gif files Animated .gif files will not function in Outlook 2007. However, there is a solution for using .gif files with Outlook 2007. Since the file will not animate, you only need to make sure the first frame makes sense; as that is what will appear in Outlook 2007.
Contain Yourself, No Floating! Outlook 2007 does not support floating or CSS positioning in any capacity. Use standard HTML tables to contain and control the layout. This will ensure that your design elements won’t go flying all over the place!
Specify Accurate Table Widths When using HTML tables it is important to specify accurate table widths to ensure proper display in Outlook 2007. This is especially important in table structures that contain multiple columns. For example, when you have a table cell that spans two columns, the width for that cell should equal the sum of the widths of the other two cells.
Continue Using Alt Tags As it was in Outlook 2003, it is in 2007; images will automatically be blocked. While you’re designing your email message, keep in mind of what it will look like with images disabled. Remember that Outlook will display alt tags, but they will only appear after a default security message. For a list of acceptable tags in Outlook 2007, check out this guide on Microsoft’s website.
No Forms Outlook 2007 disables embedded forms. If you design an email with a survey or form in the content, include a direct link (hosted from a website) to the survey for your Outlook users. Indicate clearly in your design that the form is not broken, so subscribers don’t get frustrated by trying to fill out the form.
With 2010 quickly approaching, you may be wonder if there will be any major CSS/HTML changes in Outlook 2010. Right now, don’t expect major changes.
To conclude, sticking to standard HTML table design for emails should help you effectively render emails in Outlook 2007. Be sure to read our design tips in the coming weeks for rendering tips in other email clients, including our past issue: Email Rendering in Hotmail by Anna Meier. Portions of this blog, Design Tip of the Week: Email Rendering in Outlook 2007 and more information on email rendering can be found in our white paper “Email Marketing Design: The New Essentials.”
As outlined in our recent whitepaper, Is Email Marketing Endangered?, Smartphones are a major force behind consumers increasing consumption of email. As such, the importance of mobile email for email marketers will continue to increase. While the solutions remain less than ideal, Mark Brownlow has done a wonderful job of summarizing the challenges of mobile email and linking to useful resources on the topic.
But getting mobile email to work is only the first step. Assuming your email is successful in getting consumers to your site, they need to be able to actually do something. This appears to be a challenge. According to new research from Equation Research commissioned by Gomez Inc., end users are disappointed with their mobile web experience.
Among findings of the report:
60% of consumers have encountered a problem when accessing a website from their mobile phone during the past 12 months
The number one reason cited was slow load times (73%). There are a number of factors that may impact load times that are out of marketers’ control. However, the other top reasons are all things that marketers should be able to test and rectify:
* 51% experienced errors or crashes on the mobile site
* 48% said formatting of the mobile site made it difficult to use * 45% had issues with the site functioning as expected
Among common formatting errors, the study identified content that is too large or too small for the screen, links that do not work, and overlapping or illegible text and graphics.
Poor mobile experiences impact brand perception
Consumers have high expectations of mobile sites—they should load quickly, look good, and function properly. The consequences of not meeting these expectations are also high. While it makes sense that consumers would be less likely to visit the site again (61%) and that they would visit a competitors site (40%), the negative impact on the brand at large is more alarming:
* 23% would be less likely to purchase from that company * 19% would have a negative overall impression of the company * 18% would be less likely to go to the company’s website on their regular computer
If mobile experiences impact consumers’ willingness to interact with companies at large, we can’t think of mobile as simply another channel. It is part of the communication landscape at large. It is not about developing mobile campaigns, it is about facilitating users ability to get the information they need at their convenience.
Thus, not only do optimizing mobile email and optimizing the mobile web go hand in hand, but both of these go hand in hand with optimizing our traditional email and web experiences as well. It’s all connected.
Gmail and MSN Hotmail have recently started offering an unsubscribe link instead of a report spam button for some permission-based mailing lists, using the hidden X-List-Unsubscribe header that many email marketers and ESPs include in their emails. It makes sense, as many people use the This is Spam button instead of unsubscribing from opt-in email.
A customer asked us for some solid numbers on their unsubscribes, as they're trying to make some internal decisions on how to handle their unsubscribe process. I knew the number of subscribers who click on the spam button was significant, but the numbers were eye-opening. I looked at data for almost 80,000,000 emails sent (Yes, 80 MILLION emails), with complaint rates that never came near where an ISP would block and bounce rates that would make you drool.
17% of unsubscribes came from customers who hit reply and asked to be removed. 43% of unsubscribes came from customers who followed the unsubscribe link in the email. 40% of unsubscribes came from customers who clicked the This is Spam button.
That's right. 40% of legitimate unsubscribes came through the feedback loop as a complaint. ISPs take this figure into account, but it should give you something to think about next time you look to expand your email campaign.
Even though they recognized the brand.
Even though they signed up for the email.
Even though they recently purchased from the company.
Even though many of them will continue to purchase services from this company.
On a list with engaged and active subscribers, 40% of the subscribers who no longer wanted to receive promotional materials that they had signed up for used the spam button instead of the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email.
We've got quite a change of pace in the ol' developer track conference room. Chris Murray of ExactTarget is the emcee for the Financial Services Solution Showcase.
He starts by introducing the first segment: Beyond Deliverability: Consumer Choice & Control Authentication, Privacy, and Policy by Craig Spiezle https://otalliance.org
The Online Trust Alliance is concerned with security in online activity, especially financial services. Spoofed email, phishing, and online exploits are a major challenge for financial organizations that operate online.
Craig said that government regulations are likely to come about in the next few weeks as a result of the identity theft incidents that we've heard of recently. Craig said that the United States is actually behind other parts of the world in consumer production.
Craig discussed extended validation certificates. In order to get one of these certificates, the business must prove that it's registered with a local tax authority. While this can't verify that the business has good business practices, but it does require that the business be a real business. When a business has this certificate, it turns the address bar in your browser green when you visit their site. If the address bar isn't green, you know that it's a spoofed site.
He continued to talk about the business value of authentication. Not only does this help protect your business from being spoofed, but also improves your deliverability.
Of the top 100 financial institutions in North America, only 43% have protections in place for consumers.
Craig talked about the problem with unsubscribe: an unsubscribe link in the footer of the email is required by CAN-SPAM, but consumers are warned not to click links in emails they don't want for fear that they'll alert spammers that they're a real person. An unsubscribe header allow ISPs to render an unsubscribe link in their client so that people can unsubscribe without clicking the "report as spam" link and degrading your reputation. About this time, someone from ExactTarget piped up to mention that ExactTarget email already does this automatically.
Addressing Email Security Concerns Matt Burton - GMAC/Ally Bank
Matt talked about Ally bank and the fact that its customers were receiving more spoof emails that were pretending to be from Ally as they were receiving from the real bank.
Ally Bank, like many places, would love for there to be a "silver bullet" that would solve the problem, but in fact the best way to protect consumers is with a combination of proactive monitoring, excellent deliverability of your legit content, and customer education.
Governance, while unpopular, is critical. If your company has multiple business units, ALL of them have to have successful security.
Some financial institutions do not include links in their emails, instead telling consumers to go to the website. This is problematic because it requires more copy and results in fewer site hits. Also, this doesn't prevent phishing emails from including links in their emails.
Security tools, such as ISP Phish Blocking and Certified Mail, are available to help prevent risk and increase confidence in your message respectively.
Education of consumers can be tricky. Sending emails that tells customers how to tell whether your email is real might make it look like you're a spoofer trying to set them up to trust fraudulent email in the future. Better to just remain consistent in your sending so that consumers become accustomed to your style and learn to identify spoofs on their own.
To wrap up, Matt recommended proactive risk diminuation rather than waiting for a problem happens and only responding then.
Technology Solution e-statements at Nationwide Brian Jaffe - Nationwide Insurance
Nationwide was facing a "statement challenge"--sending statements to customers on email. The address this issue, they created an elegant solution.
Governance - As part of this process, they codified their program for sending emails.
Preference management - allow customers to specify their preferences. Brian recommends double opt in.
Billing format - recreate view of paper statement
Send mode - bulk or single send. You probably batch up your bills, but some might do individual sends.
Data preparation - attributes or data extensions? what is the unique subscriber key? You need to understand your extremes (what happens if you have an extremely large amount of data?) and your data-display issues.
Deliverability - decisions about IP and Domain. Learn from your deliverability team!
Feedback - decisions about bounce management, reply management. If people unsubscribe and then try to sign up, you could have technical problems sending emails. Make sure you understand how your unsubscribes are managed. And be ready to monitor replies, even if you tell people not to reply to a message.
Inserting marketing messages into transactional emails - CAN-SPAM does allow you include marketing messages into your transactional emails under certain circumstances.
Paperless statements can create issues. For example, what if customers call in saying that they never received their statement. Customer service needs to be able to access tracking to see whether the subscriber ever opened the email and have other strategies to deal with these complaints. Customer service needs to be able to resend statements.
Nationwide includes quite a bit of personal information in their emails so that subscribers know that the email must be legit, since a phishing scam wouldn't have access to so much personal information. Watch out for links to log-in pages, since phishing emails like to send very similar emails that direct to their own "login page."
Having a protocol to deal with bounces is wise. In their case, if a subscriber soft-bounces, they put the subscriber back into the paper stream for one cycle and try paperless again for the next cycle. If they run into a hard-bounce, they put the subscriber back into the paper stream indefinitely until the subscriber re-enrolls themselves in the paperless process.
Nationwide's solution is based on the ExactTarget SOAP API. Their OMS (outbound messaging service) is a middleware layer of abstraction that actually sits behind their firewall. Between the OMS and ExactTarget much communication occurs to get the statements out to subscribers.
The content of the eStatement itself uses AMPscript to build the bill by parsing concatenated attributes and dynamically displaying content in appropriate data tables.
Michael Murdza (ExactTarget) took us through the technical aspect of the eStatement data flow. A sophisticated decision tree weave through the Nationwide database and ExactTarget application, using XML, AMPscript, and API calls.
And then the presentation wrapped up, and everyone started getting ready for the evening entertainment. I've really enjoyed live blogging the technology track for everyone today, and I hope you've enjoyed reading as much as I've enjoyed writing it. See you between the lines :)
Ratul Shah is the presenter for the first part of the solution showcase. Unlike every other presenter that's talked in this room so far today, Ratul is maneuvering through the crowd with the hand-held mic. What a showman. :)
Industry Standard Terms
SMS = short message service, aka text messaging. It has a 160 character limit.
MO = mobile originated = a message sent FROM a phone
MT = mobile terminated = a message sent TO a phone
short code = a 5- or 6-digit number that you buy from a carrier to send messages to your customers. http://www.usshortcodes.com
vanity short code = a short code that spells something out, such as our, ETSMS
random short code = a short code that doesn't intentionally spell anything. These cost slightly less.
private short code = only your traffic goes through this code
shared short code = a code that you share with other SMS users. Keywords differentiate your traffic from the traffic of other people on the shared short codes.
MMA = Mobile Marketing Association http://mmaglobal.com/policies. A group that creates guidelines for United States mobile marketing.
Aggregator = a third party company that maintains connections between the carriers and the content providers. When we provisioning a short code for you, we work with an aggregator to get you approved for all carriers.
ExactTarget SMS Architecture You create JOIN, VOTE, HELP, UNSUBSCRIBE and other kinds of actions that subscribers use to send you MO messages to get in on your mobile messages.
Unfortunately, you can't create keywords or actions in the API at this point. You can initiate SMS sends through the API, however.
System Terms
Subscriber key = unique identifier for subscribers. Allows you to identify subscribers by phone number instead of email address.
Publication list = contains subscribers who opt-in using their mobile device
Data extension = contains subscribers whom you import through the GUI or the API
Implementing Text
Keyword response - text in and receive a response
Mobile capture - captures email address for list growth
Vote and check vote count - submit your vote. poll the response
Outbound (with opt-in) - a message from ExactTarget to the mobile device
Custom campaigns
Wow, Ratul goes through a lot of content fast, and a lot of these slides are very graphics heavy and difficult to translate to blog. Thankfully, everyone at the conference is supposed to be able to get the slides.
FanMail Solution Dave DeVore - CEO FanMail marketing Josiah Kaiser - Senior Operations and Solutions Consultant Tim Kauble - ExactTarget product specialist and world-class AMPscript guru
FanMail Marketing is using SMS to capture email addresses. Initially they were asking subscriber to text their email addresses in this format:
krohn email@example.com to 88769
but they found that customers found this confusing and made errors that prevented the system from capturing their information. So for the next phase, they made it into a 2-stage process to make it more like a conversation. In the new setup, subscribers text in in this format:
stubbs to 88769
then the system sends back an text saying something to the effect of, "Thanks for your interest. Reply to this message with your email address to join our mailing list." When the subscriber responds with the email address, it is added to the email list. The customer gets an email immediately welcoming them to the list, and then any future mailings to that list.
The SMS message that was sent back after the first message included AMPscript to trigger the welcome email.
The first use case resulted in more errors than the second, and people weren't willing to try to sign up more than once. A limitation of both use cases is that it only captures people's email addresses, omitting other important subscriber information that would be useful for relevant messaging .
In the third phase of FanMail's SMS evolution, they integrated their SMS with landing pages to allow the capture of more subscriber information. People text in:
butter to 88769
The system responds with a message saying to respond with an email address. When the subscriber replies with the email address, the system sends them an email with a link to a landing page built with the Smart Capture feature. People complete the Smart Capture form and now the system has information to send really personalized information. For example, this band (Hot Buttered Rum) uses the subscriber's ZIP code to let the subscriber know about upcoming concerts in their area.
What FanMail discovered was that going through this process aggregated higher quality subscribers who were more likely to be engaged with the marketing campaigns and therefore higher ROI on their marketing efforts.
The future phases of this SMS evolution may allow subscriber to provide attribute information via SMS, such as ZIP code to empower the functionality above.
Another thing that FanMail has discovered is that subscribers are willing to send you SMS messages if they're interested in what you have to offer, but they don't like for you to begin the SMS conversation.
Custom Use Case Tim Kauble took the stage for the final portion of this presentation. Poor Tim--his phone junked out on him this morning and his data connection didn't work, so we're seeing a modified version of his presentation. Typical of technology!
Tim talked about designing a system to allow him to manage his own tasks using text messages. He wanted to accomplish the following:
Accept tasks
Assign those tasks
Assign priority, including deadlines
Expose the tasks to landing pages so that he could see them all
Support multiple methods of input, such a forwarding emails to an endpoint that generates a task with the content of the email.
Tim demonstrated texting in to the system to find out how many tasks he had. He had 30, by the way, plus the system also sent him a message to stop messing around with text messages and get back to work. :)
Tim also brought up the landing page where we could see his lengthy task list--such is the life of the ExactTarget employee!
We've got a rather thin crowd for the Best Practices for Utilizing ExactTarget's SOAP APIs session. Apparently everyone is already implementing the API in the best possible way...or think they are :)
Manager of the Product Specialist department Dale McCrory returns to the stage for this presentation and starts the session by asking people what topics they would like to see covered today. The first question was on documentation.
YAY! I love when people care about the documentation!
Web Service API Documentation Dale brings up http://wiki.memberlandingpages.com to demonstrate all of the wonderful web service API documentation that's available there. He takes the group through a technical article on asynchronous processing, the CREATE method, an object, and a property. Bryan Wade, the embedded expert at ExactTarget and emcee of the session, asks how many people in the room have been to the wiki before, and about half of the room had already visited. I think the rest will visit before too long.
Content Management The second question is about content management and best practices for it. Dale pulls up the AMPscript page in the documentation wiki to find the HTTPGet() function. This function performs a get call against a URL and brings back the content. This tool can be used to interact with an outside system in include the content in the emails.
AMPscript also support XSLT now, so you can interact with ExactTarget with you XML content. The BuildRowSetFromXML() function extends this capability.
Slide Presentation With the two questions addressed, Bryan prods Dale to get back to the slideshow. The slides cover:
Security
Reliability
Robustness
Flexibility
Messaging content
Stats retrieval - tracking events
Security Standards-based SOAP security to support authentication
All calls transmit over an SSL connection. The API supports two forms of security:
Plain text username token. This is what everyone's using right now.
X509 certificate encryption for the username token will be available in the 135 release.
.NET, Java, and PHP work the best with our security. Perl is OK. Ruby, ColdFusion, and ASP have troubles dealing with it because they don't deal well with the standards-based security.
Reliability In this section, we're talking about synchronous versus asynchronous API processing again. Asynchronous processing adds all calls to a queue to be processed when the system is ready, which prevents API calls from being lost if the server is unavailable for any reason.
Other benefits include:
The fact that you get a sub-second response to the fact that the call has been received.
You have multiple options to receive results: HTTP post, Email, and the RETRIEVE API call.
The ConversationID concept that's used with asynch API processing allows you to resend the same call without worrying that it will actually be processed twice if the system had already queued the request.
Question from the floor: sounds like we need to improve our XML API documentation. That product hasn't been enhanced for quite a while, so the doc has gotten a little stale. There's an item for my to-do list.
Robustness Dale quotes Wikipedia: "Robustness is the quality of being able to withstand stresses, pressures, or changes in procedure or circumstance."
Triggered sends represent the quickest way to get an email sent from the ExactTarget system. Key points help decide whether to use user-initiated (list-based) sends or triggered sends:
How do you want to aggregate tracking? List based sends aggregate tracking by job. Triggered sends aggregate tracking over a time period when the triggered send was running.
How will email content be made available to the ExactTarget system?
How are unsubscribes managed? List based sends record unsubs at the list level, or at the All Subscribers level. If a person unsubscribes from a triggered send, they can be unsubscribed from all triggered sends.
How large are your lists? If you have 1.5 million subscribers, you should start with list based. If you are sending individual messages in response to customer activity, triggered sends are the way to go.
You can keep your subscriber information in lists or data extensions. To help you decide:
Are attribute sets going to be the same for all sends? If so, you can use lists because you set up attributes for all lists together. If you need different attribute sets for different subsets of clients, then you want data extensions.
Is import performance critical? If you have 1.5 million subscribers to import, you can import them into a data extension in 10 minutes versus 1-2 hours for a list (this is an approximation...the number of attributes has a big effect on performance as well).
How will unsubscribes be managed? Each list maintains its own unsubscribes. Data extensions maintain unsubscribes in publication lists.
Bonus point not in the slide: if you are a partner building an application, you probably want to build on lists if possible, because they cost less.
Flexibility This topic starts with a discussion of data extensions. Data extension are
The only way to use the API to do "rich" queries of data
The way you can add relational models of data en masse or row-by-row
Very fast
Tables in our database schema that are specific to your account
The DataExtension WS API object
Allows the use of upsert
Ties to the DataExtension by CustomerKey (called "external key" in the GUI)
Allows specification of Keys and Nulls
There's also a DataExtensionObject that you can retrieve to bring back a row in the data extension.
Messaging Content Email, images, and files, oh my!
Text-only email will be supported with 135, in addition to the HTML and HTML/Text multi-part formats.
The Portfolio object allows you to host files in ExactTarget. Images and files that you import into our system are hosted by Akamai, so when people hit these files, they are highly available and don't use your company's bandwidth.
Using AMPscript, you can attach files to your email, but you should use this feature with caution. There's a page for the documentation that's going to be published very soon that talks about best practices for attachments so that you can protect your deliverability while using this feature.
Stats Retrieval and Tracking Events We ran out of time for the stats retrieval, so we went straight to question and answer, which went by too fast for me to keep up, especially while I"m still on this documentation cloud. :)
10:58 am So excited! The ExactTarget API enables the extension of our software and some incredible functionality.Scott McCorkle is going to be speaking, along with Michael Ciancio-Bunch. They have some incredible insight. I am not technical, so I’ll do my best to convey the information presented here.
11:01 am Bryan Wade is introducing Michael Cianco-Bunch and Scott McCorkle.McCorkle is speaking about our dedication to integration, improving our user experience, and how the API is key with CARBON-check it out online!
11:03 am Michael is on. We are a young company, but our API has a history. XML API (2002) was created originally only for content management. A bulk Asynchronous API was introduced in 2004.Our SOAP API was launched in 2007—this is the foundation for our web services …
11:05 am … and actually, the Asynchronous Web Service API became available in 2008. It seems that not many people are using it right now. Its advantages include quicker calls, better status reporting, and correlating conversation IDs. Start using!
11:07 am First thing we did in 2009 was support compression…coming your way in a release! We’re also beta testing API streaming, which helps with large packets.
11: 09 am Bryan Wade is highlighting current functionality.
11: 10 am Michael is focusing in on streaming sends: we can send as we receive via the API, with triggered sends for example, instead of waiting until a certain number are received before sending.
11:11 am Did you know API calls are up 1.5x from last year? “This amount of use is a testament to the fact that the API is now better. More people are able to use it.”-Michael.
11:13 am What does the future of the API look like? The API is a platform to help customers and partners to integrate.Michael is saying that there are a number of tools that allow us to integrate, extend, and embed ExactTarget.These tools support functions not possible with just the API.Here are a few of the tools: Programs, landing pages, AMPscript … the list goes on.
11:15 am There was a huge “Hoorah!” from someone when Michael announced the introduction of a REST API. File based API and Authenticated Asynchronous API Results Callbacks are on the horizon as well.
11:17 am A user is asking about tracking a file that is sent with new API functionality … You could give the file a conversation or correlation ID so you don’t have to worry about re-using file names.
11:18 am Why is the Authenticated Asynchronous API Results Callback so great? You don’t have to fish for errors with queries! BIG question…what is the timeline for delivering these advancements? … Next year! Be on the lookout!
11:19 am We’re changing topics to landing pages and their use for creating Profile Centers, subscriber capture, and promotion pages. The beauty of landing pages is that they extend the user interface and can be integrated with ET.
11:23 am More on landing pages! You can embed them within your application. Sign-up forms are an example.
11:25 am ExactTarget’s API roadmap … One set of items is pre-built templates “encapsulating some application function (e.g. Send Wizard, Data Extensions, etc).” … There is so much more information to convey here …. Trying to get it all down!
11:26 am Java will be supported on landing pages.This is great news!
11:27 am “AMPscript is the future!” says Michael … just kidding … Java is going to eventually replace it. ExactTarget also wants to introduce JavaScript activities like data transformation and user defined functions. There is a lot on this roadmap! It is clear that ET is truly focusing on product development.
11:30 am Looking now at Data Integration … We want users to be able to import from external systems and export to them as well.Data cleansing is also on the horizon, in addition to a number of other functionalities to help users integrate data. We have our sight on breaking down barriers that keep us from being an open platform.
11:34 am Again, we have a lot of information here! I strongly recommend reaching out to some of our developers while you are here.
UI Extensibility: even more features are coming. As a user, you will have the ability to define a custom home page, add buttons, add tabs to our toolbars, and add custom fields to forms. McCorkle talked about building a user experience in our user interface. What a concept! It will allow a great degree of customization in each user’s account.
11:38 am The Program feature is going to be further developed as well. Whoa - EXCITING: templates will also be available for programs.For example, there will be a template for a birthday program in the user interface.This functionality will be extremely helpful for marketers and programmers with limited resources.
11:41 am Question time! Yes folks, the API is almost too good to be true … and yet it is!
11:43 am Now we’re talking about Enterprise 2.0. With the API you can do things in the application “on behalf” of users without exceeding their permissions.You will also be able to access objects in multiple business units via the API in 2.0.
11:49 am And in closing…share your ideas! Let ExactTarget know how, as a developer, we can improve 3sixty for your use. Quite a few people in the crowd here use 3sixty and some of those are members of the Developer Community.This community needs to be more active. We have deliver 100+ ideas on 3sixty so far…let your voice be heard!
Coming to you live from Connections ’09!Enjoy the rest of the conference!
As we wait to hear about the future of the ExactTarget API, 3 Par handed out a card inviting everyone to come by their booth in the vendor hall to register to win a Nintendo Wii. Too bad ExactTarget employees aren't eligible to win. :)
I can see the presenters setting up at the front of the room, and they aren't messing around with the expertise that they're bringing to the table. Our chief architect, Michael Ciancio-Bunch (known to his friends as MCB) and our CTO, Scott McCorkle are on the stage.
ExactTarget API: Past, Present, and Future Scott begins the discussion by talking about how the Carbon initiative will lead the application to consume our own web service API. This "eating our own dog food" will ensure that the API has the entire breadth of functionality of the application.
MCB launched into the history of the API:
2002 - XML API was introduced
2004 - Bulk asynch API was introduced
2007 - Object Oriented Web Service API
2008 - Asynchronous web service API
Michael asked how many people were using the asynch WS API, but no one was, which inspired him to go into the benefits of the asynchronous model. It takes advantage of our multiple data centers to make sure that API calls are processed, allows you to indicate the order of API calls, and prevents accidental re-processing of the same calls.
Then Michael began talking about the features delivered or planned for 2009.
DISCLAIMER: all forward looking statements are subject to change. As MCB said, "we might have another John and Kate mess" and the distraction would push out development timelines. Back to the list:
Support for compression (currently limited availability)
Streaming (in the works) - begins processing the "conversation" (collection of calls) before all of the content is received.
X.509 user authentication (in the works)
API exposed via AMPscript (already delivered)
Enterprise 2.0 user model - create roles, permissions, business units, etc. (scheduled for November release)
Retrieve improvements
Round out - things like template support and more capability to manipulate content areas
Currently, ExactTarget is processing 58 calls per second (150,000,000 API calls per month), including 28 triggered sends per second. The capacity and processing power of the ExactTarget infrastructure is truly difficult to conceive. It's like trying to understand how big the moon is or something.
Michael introduced the ExactTarget Platform Integration Framework - a set of tools (much improved over what we've provided in the past) to allow developers to use the web service API to create powerful apps. Here are the tools:
API
Landing Pages
AMPscript
Data integration tools (Import, extracts, and more to come)
Extensible UI
Programs
Enterprise
Packaging and provisioning
Community to support you
API On the roadmap is:
A proper REST API (to be delivered sometime in 2010)
A file-based API, where you FTP a file that contains instructions and the ExactTarget begins processing those instructions as soon as we receive it (probably to be delivered in the spring)
Authenticated asynch API results callback - the ability for us to call back to you if something goes wrong in a call. Currently, you have to query for status, or have a rudimentary notification. This will be much more sophisticated and slick. (to be delivered sometime in 2010)
Landing Pages You can use this feature to create customer-facing web pages, but you can also use it to create pages that you see within the ExactTarget application. For example, you could create your own custom wizards or customized data presentation pages. You can build them as landing pages and integrate them into our application for your ExactTarget users to see when they're logged in to the application.
Not only that, but you can embed landing pages within your own application. Landing pages can support AJAX, so you can gather information within your own app and feed it in to ExactTarget.
On the landing page roadmap:
Smart Page templates for common use cases, CSS, and the ability to tap into server and client side events for added customization
JavaScript as a server side language
Highly available landing pages
AMPscript Michael made a bold statement that JavaScript will kill off AMPscript in the future (though he did suggest that we'd always support it). After that, the discussion became more about the future plans for JavaScript, such as an activity, (those things you can put in programs) for JavaScript.
I understand, but I'll be sad to see AMPscript go by the wayside. It's a really powerful scripting language.
Data Integration Tools Roadmap items include:
Direct import from and extract to external systems, such as CRM, analytics, POS, etc.
File transformations
Sophisticated mapping functionality
Data cleansing services
Interfaces defined for custom integrations
Richer metadata around data extensions
UI Extensibility These are some of the roadmap items:
The ability to define a custom home page. I think that this is already available to Enterprise 2.0 edition products.
Buttons can be added to toolbars and tabs can be added to the navigation bar. I've seen this demoed myself, and it's pretty cool. Really allows you to customize the experience.
Custom fields can be added to forms
Experience Builder - this is a really cool one, too. We saw some wireframes for this earlier in the conference, and it's going to be really awesome.
Programs MCB says we're rewriting the program engine, and the new incarnation will support delays, notifications, and other stuff that's been requested. A programs dashboard and templates, along with better error reporting and error recovery, will make working with programs easier.
The "file drop" functionality that I mentioned earlier is a kind of ad hoc program, plus activities will be created to invoke web services and HTTP based APIs, so the lines between API and programs are getting blurrier, creating a lot more power and flexibility. Enterprise 2
Granular permission model
Run as functionality for the API - this lets you use the permission level of a user with your API calls, so that tools you build with the API will only show users what's appropriate for them.
Ability to define custom permissions
Access to objects in multiple business units via the API - For example, you could query the records in a data extension in one business unit and write them to a data extension in a different business unit.
Packaging and Provisioning We'll be allowing you to bundle up all your custom landing pages, data extensions, folder, UI customizations, program templates, and other elements to drop them into another account. This will allow you to do cool things like pre-configure new business unit accounts. Eventually, this idea will support an app-store-type tool where people could browse your package and purchase it and install it.
Community MCB acknowledged that developers have not been happy with how 3sixty has replaced the old Developer Community. He talked about our dedication to improve the experience. We have developers within ExactTarget to answer questions and post content. He asked that everyone submit their requests for what they'd like to see, because we do want to make it better.
Q&A Again, documentation is getting the shout out in the question and answer. I guess people actually like to know the technical details. w00t!
The developer track continues with Automation Event Triggered Sends Using SOAP API. Between sessions, the intrepid staff of the Westin brought in several more chairs, effectively ensuring that no one will be sitting on the floor this time. There wouldn't be room, even if they wanted to.
Ana Ng plays over the PA system while we wait for the session to start, and with a minute to go it switches to Particle Man as the room fills up. You can tell that we're gearing up for the They Might be Giants concert tonight, after the Second City performance. Indeed, I'm already wearing my wristband :)
Automation Event Triggered Sends Using SOAP API ExactTarget Product Specialist Manager and general super brain, Dale McCrory beings the presentation by asking how many people in the crowd have used triggered sends before. This feature is one of the most powerfully compelling and commonly implemented functionalities available in the SOAP API. Triggered emails are perfect for things like password reminders, order confirmations, and welcome emails. You can also use them together with Web Collect forms, Reply Mail Management, and other parts of the ExactTarget system that automatically send response emails to subscribers.
He continues by talking about send classifications: marketing and transactional, and the differences between then. Basically, marketing messages are subject to CAN-SPAM regulation, while transactional messages are not, since they're might actually be required to be sent to subscribers, such as receipts.
Dale puts some code up on the screen to show the anatomy of a triggered send call. He talks about how the template, content, and all the look-and-feel stuff about the email are created within the application and are controllable by marketers. The API then references the triggered send definition using the external key and doesn't have to bother with actually creating the content of the email using the API.
Next, Dale moved in to the difference between synchronous and asynchronous API. A synchronous API call goes to the server, which responds. If the server is unavailable, there's no response, and it's on the ExactTarget customer's shoulders to retry. Asynchronous calls, on the other hand, are queued up, so even if they can't be processed right away, they will get processed when the server is available. He recommends that people starting new triggered send initiatives use asynchronous API, unless development is so constrained that synchronous is all there's time for.
High priority API calls can be processed immediately, even if one of the servers is unavailable, by using our multiple data centers. There are limitations on emails that can be sent this way (they can't contain info from data extensions...stuff like that) and it incurs an additional cost per send.
Dale ran a little short of time, but he'll be presenting again later in the day.
Intuit's Notifications Service Engine: A practical approach to facilitating customer notifications Next Intuit's Gary Rittinger directed everyone to http://connect.intuit.com to check out the implementation that he'll be talking about.
His purpose is to provide Intuit's infrastructure and offerings the ability to send, monitor, and manage the notifications they send to customers in a consistent and reliable way. To do this, Gary uses triggered sends to send welcome emails, order confirmation, shipping conversation, and other transactional messages.
Intuit finds that it's difficult to get consistent programming from across its organization, so it uses "application adapters" to normalize the input. They're using ExactTarget accounts to let each product manager get in and see the status of email sends.
As a result of implementing ExactTarget, Intuit enjoys:
Better transparency into notifications deliverability.
Reduced cost and increased efficiency of customer notifications.
Improved enterprise SOA adoption through standard web service technologies.
Fewer of redundant apps that served the same purpose.
Improve governance and compliance.
Gary recounted the ease and smoothness of putting this process in place. He commented that they've recently been moved from the Indy data center to the Las Vegas data center--one of the first customer to be live sending out of that data center--and the move took only 90 seconds. He also said that rolling out the process took only a couple weeks.
During the Q&A, Bryan Wade (the emcee) is talking up the documentation wiki and the API content that's available on it. This is a topic near and dear to my heart <3
The Developer Track is packed this morning to see Advanced Dynamic Messaging and Smart Capture. The room looks like it seats about 100, and all the seats are full with several standing or sitting (like me--tough to type while standing!) around the perimeter of the room.
Centric Consulting The presentation begin with Centric Consulting talking about its extensive experience using the advanced ExactTarget tools. As I type this, Dave Lemons from Centric Consulting is introducing the basic terms: microsites, data extensions, AMPscript...stuff like that. Bryan Wade, ExactTarget embedded expert and emcee of the event, has been interjecting as well, probably trying to help bring the sophisticated technical content to the attendees, who are certainly of various levels of technical experience, especially with the ExactTarget tools.
Centric has built a landing page that displays the results of a query activity on a data extension. Centric is a third-party developer, and the functionality that they're displaying here is not just an example of what other people can also do, but could eventually become the kind of app that we've been talking about all conference long that could be made available to ExactTarget customers everywhere.
Best Buy Eric Brousseasu, Best Buy Jim Murphey, technology solutions manager
The second part of the session is a case study of some of the cool things that Best Buy has implemented.
Eric and Jim started the presentation basic with their dynamic content that they're using in their emails. The dynamic content is based on attributes in a data extension, so it sounds like they're basing dynamic content on more than just subscriber attributes. They're also including AMPscript in the emails for simple things like proper capitalization as well as for building rowsets to include the message. You can do things like include a purchase history using this functionality. I think that in this case they're sending emails to alert customers when a product comes back in stock.
As they moved in to the advanced dynamic content discussion, they talk about using Content Syndication ("screen scrape," as it's called in the vernacular) to grab content from their website to include in the email. It sounds like they're transforming the XML from the site using AMPscript before including it in the body of the message. By combining the subscriber's wish list content (from the website) with the emails, they're creating truly personalized, truly 1-to-1 communication. This is a really cool implementation.
They were running out of time for the last part of their talk, so we rushed through the delayed surveys (the "how was the shopping experience" email that came out a few days after the purchase, the ability of customers to cancel their own orders through the website, and the ability to see which SKUs were selling best--all using the ExactTarget application.
A very cool presentation with some very cool functionality. Also very cool: now the people are filing out and I get can a seat. Maybe my foot won't be asleep for the whole day after all!
Question: When do email marketing professionals usually take a break or step out?
Answer: When he or she just hit the “send” button for a mass email.
There is nothing more nerve wracking than hitting the button with no return. Unlike web publishing, there is no turning back with email. So what’s the solution? You can say, “don’t make any mistakes” – but it’s inevitable. What you can do, however, is strategically make a checklist of what to do before hitting the send button to make sure mistakes are avoided.
Here are some quick tips on what you should run through your mind; so you don’t have to leave the building after delivering an email:
Is it legit? After every round of revisions, always validate the message; the simplest way to see if you have everything to get it out the door: physical address, unsubscribe link, etc.
Do an email test. It's practically unheard of wherein you send out a mass email campaign without testing; so don’t do it. Set up a few test email accounts (Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo!, AOL, etc.) and spend some time to see how it looks in each email client.
Spell check. Repeat. Your email delivery is intended for 1-to-1 marketing, so write like you’re taking quality time to communicate with your subscribers. Run spell check, manually look for spelling errors and yes, read the message out loud. If this seems like too much work, make someone else do it!
As much as email marketing is mass-produced, the one-to-one messaging is its key to effectiveness. Therefore taking time to communicate a message and doing it correctly, with no spelling and grammatical errors, should be top priority. Not only will avoiding these common pitfalls save you face, it will also make your recipients feel like you have taken that extra step to make sure it's perfect.
Check the details. Take a look at every aspect of your message to make sure something is not missing. Do you have a subject line? Is it the correct one? Do all of the links in the email go to the proper pages?
Do a final once-over. Think of this as when you were taught crossing the street. Look left, look right, then look left again. Test your email to make sure that there are no mistakes, especially if revisions were made. Scan with the mindset that you are looking for mistakes. If you don’t find them, hit the send button.
Ultimately, you want to come up with a method that's most comfortable to you. Make an actual checklist and cross off the steps as you prepare the send. With a routine checklist in mind, you can hopefully sit back and relax (a little bit more) after delivery.
Connections is less than a week away, and the Design Solutions team is anxiously awaiting the fanfare, fun, and finale. Here's how to make the most of ten designerly highlights of Connections from the Design Solutions team.
10. Grab some Design Solutions Schwag at the Design Solutions booth in the Expo Hall. No boring pens or notepads here; we're outfitted with fun, unique, pilfer-worthy schwag and design resources.
9. Mingle in the Expo Hall: Dig up plenty of those business cards, pop a tic tac, and practice being a social butterfly in the Expo Hall. You have something in common with everyone here, so introduce yourself to a lonely stranger and start dropping some one-to-one marketing buzzwords. 8. Check out the evening Reception at The IMA: the galleries, sprawling gardens and grounds, set the stage for artful fun. Bring your camera for a photo op at the iconic LOVE sculpture.
7. See Kelly Mooney, keynote speaker; your brand will benefit from the insights of her book, "The Open Brand: When Push Comes to Pull in a Web-Made World."
6. Rock out with They Might be Giants at the historic Murat Centre. Don't forget to pack your dancing shoes for this one; do a little studying beforehand by listening to the 30-second previews on iTunes. You'll end up buying it.
5. Attend the Designed by Success panel; we can't wait to see all the examples that Email Data Source has pulled together. Get a seat in the front row to absorb as much design karma from Lisa Harmon as possible.
4. Video in email is a favorite topic of conversation lately; whether you love it, hate it, or just want to know the emerging best practices for video in email, come sit in on the Video in Email Panel, featuring a talented member of the Design Solutions team.
3. Get some expert advice from a Design Consultant at the Design Solutions Booth in the Expo Hall. The team is offering free Email Critiques. We can't wait to see what you're creating!
If you're an ExactTarget client using SMS to enable targeted 1 to 1 communications you should have received an email on October 1, 2009, informing you of a change to industry regulations.
Here's what the email stated:
Beginning October 1, 2009, industry regulations state that the phrase "Standard Message charges apply" is no longer acceptable as standard messaging in SMS communications. For all digital advertising formats and message flows, one of the following phrases must be used in its place:
Message and Data Rates May Apply Msg&Data Rates May Apply Msg&data rates may apply Msg&data rates may aply
View the ExactTarget SMS Regulation resource page for more information and helpful links to ensure that your Text Messaging campaign and communication programs are compliant.
If you have any questions about this change, please contact Deliverability Services at deliverability@exacttarget.com.
Integrations with partner products is one of the things that makes ExactTarget so dynamic and powerful. Centralizing your electronic marketing software to work with your CRM, CMS, analytics, or other packages lets you accomplish more with less time, energy, and money.
Here's just a few of the new integrations available:
SeeWhy SeeWhy, creator of the Abandonment Tracker Pro web analytics service, is now offering an integration with ExactTarget. This integration intends to optimize real-time email follow-up campaigns that can convert up to 50% of website abandoners to customers.
XMPie XMPie, who offers "One-to-One-in-One" is now incorporating ExactTarget email service into its PersonalEffect Cross-Media and e-Media products.
Printable Technologies Printable Technologies Inc., provider of web-to-print and marketing personalization solutions, has integrated ExactTarget email capabilities into their product MarcomCentral.
You can see many more available integrations on the Integrated Partners page on our website. Categories of integration include, but are not limited to:
In these rough economic times, it’s crucial for companies to deliver a high ROI on marketing, points out eMarketer's"Online Helps Marketer's do More with Less."eMarketer notes that senior management is paying closer attention to “each dollar spent” on marketing and heightening accountability standards. Moreover, 43% of surveyed senior management stated that they view marketing as an investment.
We all know that email can deliver a high ROI compared with traditional media marketing.However, some ESPs are just plain cheap.When selecting your ESP, you should expect more than a bundle of emails at the lowest CPM to blast.Partnering with an ESP is an investment, and conversations with your provider should be about the value and customer experience you expect, in addition to the technology. You want the most bang for every buck you spend, not simply the most emails. You want your ESP to provide you with the best email marketing resources, to be your partner in business. Why? Because there is a lot more to digital marketing than getting your message out the door.Your message needs to be relevant. Emails need to make it to the inbox, to engage subscribers, to be shared virally, to drive ROI.
As an ExactTarget customer, you have more at your fingertips than the emails you send from your account. ExactTarget considers itself your partner and ally.We care about your business and want your 1 to 1 marketing strategy to succeed.We will work with you to make you look like a hero to your clients.Knowledgeable and responsive Customer Support Services are available 24-7 for questions and concerns.ExactTarget Servicesprofessionals are available to guide you through complex integrations and consult with you on deliverability and best practices. On 3sixty, our online community, you will find resources and tutorials that provide you with a means to communicate your ideas to other marketers and to our developers so that they can create the tools you need to succeed.
Even more importantly, ExactTarget values your partnership so much so that we assign you a personal point of contact.How many ESPs provide a personal contact ...regardless of the size of your account…for free?!Your voice matters, and your relationship manager is your representative to the company. The RM team is just as excited about your marketing plans as you, and they are eager to help you reach your business goals.Call them to introduce yourself! Speak strategy with them as you are considering what ExactTarget technology you will use.Share your successes with them; they would love to show-off your marketing savvy in a press release or place you in the spotlight at our annual Connectionsconference.I encourage you to take full advantage of ExactTarget’s value. Cash-in on your investment and experiencethe power of an email marketing business partnership that delivers.
Two recent studies provide compelling evidence that marketers are turning to digital marketing – and specifically email marketing – to improve marketing effectiveness.
According to the “2009 ANA/MMA Marketing Accountability Survey” from the Association of National Advertisers and Marketing Management Analytics, “The No. 1 strategy for marketers who wanted to improve effectiveness without spending more, according to the June 2009 poll, was shifting from traditional to digital media. More than one-half of respondents also reported shifting spending away from brand-building initiatives, and 38% were putting more spending into lower-cost media.”
And as more marketers shift to digital media, the tactic that is seeing the largest increase in spending is email.
According to the “2009 Media Survey Results & Analysis” study conducted by Round2, “40% of US Marketers reported that they had increased spending on email marketing in 2009.
What This Means for Marketers
Increased dependency on email marketing means three things:
1. Email is no longer optional. It has firmly established itself as the #1 tactic for 1to1 marketing. And email has become the “go to” tactic for word-of-mouth marketing as brands empower email subscribers to “share” email messages and offers with their friends on Facebook, their followers on Twitter, and their connections on LinkedIn.
2. Email marketing will become more sophisticated as marketers move aggressively to integrate email with other tactics and technologies – like CRM, SMS, POS, Websites, and Social Networks -- that are used to keep customers connected to the brand. The cornerstones of effective email marketing will be Integration, Automation and Optimization.
3. ESP (Email Service Provider) selection will become a more strategic decision. Marketers must evaluate and select an ESP by their ability to provide “industrial strength” application functionality plus consulting services including 1to1 marketing strategy, email and landing page design, email deliverability, and application integration.
We’ve blogged about it before, but we’re so excited we just have to share it again. The Design Solutions team is currently knee-deep working on one of ExactTarget’s premier main-stage events at Connections 2009. Still don’t know what I’m talking about? It’s simple – you can’t afford to miss:
The specifics Three design teams compete. Only one can win! Design teams from ExactTarget, Mighty Interactive, and Smith-Harmon have redesigned and will soon deploy their take on emails for three different ExactTarget clients. First join each team as they present their hard work, vote for your favorite via text, and then watch in anticipation as MarketingExperiments reveals both the fan favorites and the results of each battle as measured by clicks and conversions.
This is an amazing opportunity to see not only how important it is to have good design in email, but also how strategy, content hierarchy, and the unique email landscape come together for performance-driven success. Be sure to join us!
Design Solutions In addition to the Extreme Makeover Competition, don't miss the ExactTarget Design Solutions team at our booth in the expo hall. Bring all your burning questions, sneak a quick critique and talk to the experts!
One of the most frequent questions that we in Deliverability Services get asked is how to keep Comcast blocking from recurring.
Comcast aggressively blocks mail they deem their users don't want--even more so than other receivers. Right or wrong, they have filtering in place that they believe is effective and offers their users maximum protection from spam and unwanted mail. Ultimately, their obligation is to meet the needs of their users and not necessarily to meet the needs of senders.
The two biggest reasons Comcast blocks mail is because a sender's mail earns too many complaints or because a sender is sending to too many invalid Comcast addresses.
Senders are understandably upset when their mail gets blocked at Comcast, but by and large blocks are avoidable and are the result of less-than-great sending practices.
To avoid blocking by Comcast, or any receiver, ensure that you're sending mail to subscribers who have explicitly opted-in, are expecting to receive your mail, and will find the mail relevant.
If your sends keep getting blocked, it's time to review your sending practices. Is your opt-in clear and explicit? Do subscribers understand what you'll be sending to them and how often you're going to send? Are you meeting those content and frequency expectations or are you sending more frequently than you said you would or different content than you said you would? If a subscriber opted-in for your mail six months ago, are they still going to find the mail relevant and look forward to receiving it or has your mail now become just another of dozens they receive daily?
If you answered "no" to any of the questions above, it's time to change your practices to meet your subscribers needs and expectations. That may include less frequent sending, changing your opt-in, making your content more relevant and more of a one-to-one communication, or simply asking your subscribers if they still want to hear from you, which is known as re-engagement.
ExactTarget is excellent at helping clients get wanted and expected mail delivered and helping to maximize delivery and return on investment. However, if you're not meeting your subscribers' needs and expectations or continuing to send to addresses that are no longer valid you're going to continue to experience delivery issues at Comcast and possibly other receivers.
As outlined in our recent whitepaper, 
Beyond Deliverability: Consumer Choice & Control
Addressing Email Security Concerns
Technology Solution
Between sessions, the intrepid staff of the Westin brought in several more chairs, effectively ensuring that no one will be sitting on the floor this time. There wouldn't be room, even if they wanted to.
He continues by talking about send classifications: marketing and transactional, and the differences between then. Basically, marketing messages are subject to CAN-SPAM regulation, while transactional messages are not, since they're might actually be required to be sent to subscribers, such as receipts.
Best Buy
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