Whenever you're starting out on a new IP address, it's important to slowly and methodologically build a good sending reputation. The IP address is new and unused; it does not yet have a reputation of its own. ISPs are suspicious of mail from new, previously idle IP addresses, as they say that the vast majority of such connections is to attempt to delivery bad stuff, like spam or phishing messages. (Hotmail once told me that more than 80% of time, a new IP address connecting to them is trying to send them something bad.) So they're pretty touchy about that.

It's not that hard to deal with,...

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

Foursquare

Type: Welcome Home triggered email
Send date: 3/2013
Subject line: Welcome back from your trip! How was it?

“Not only does this email use responsive design to target Foursquare’s highly mobile users, it is triggered by check-in patterns that involve airports and locations outside of my normal stomping grounds.”
—Kristina Huffman, Design Practice Lead

View this Foursquare email on Pinterest >>

View similar Pins:

Crutchfield email >>

Crate & Barrel email >>

This Foursquare email...

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...

A few weeks ago, my friend Eric Smith from online retailer One Click Ventures asked me who “owns” conversion. At the time, I thought he wanted to know who I believed was responsible for establishing conversion rate objectives and measuring against them, so I replied, “Marketing.” Upon further thought, I think he was ultimately getting at who – in any given company – is “accountable” for conversion. And to that I have a very different answer.

I began my career in 1994 buying media for a large fast-food retailer we’ll call “Softee’s.” Mine was a five-state territory with a multimillion dollar...

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...

More and more, consumers are taking part in a stage of the buying cycle known as the research stage. Between identifying possible options and making a purchase, they’re looking for product reviews, testimonials, videos, pictures — anything they can get their hands on (in fact, according to research done by Mathew Sweezey, Marketing Automation Evangelist at Pardot, consumers are nearly 2/3 of the way through the buying cycle before they even contact companies). Not only is this true for B2C, it’s also true for B2B, where a growing emphasis is being placed on the research phase of the sales...

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 >>

View similar Pins:

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 week, ExactTarget launched the 21st research report in our SUBSCRIBERS, FANS, & FOLLOWERS series: The Digital North. This cross-channel report covers the online habits and preferences of online Canadian consumers, through detailed analyses of the channels they check daily and the communication methods they respond to best.

If Canadian consumers are part of the target audience for your digital marketing campaigns, you'll want to download this free report to power those campaigns with critical statistics and numbers. But even if Canadians aren't a primary audience for your brand, the...

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 >>

View similar Pins:

Jonathan Adler email >>

Sephora email >>

This Jack Spade...

My last post focused on offering engaging content and the all-important idea of testing. Today's tips revolve around managing your identity as it relates to ISPs as well as your subscribers:

Tip #7 - Authentication Continues to Factor in Delivery Decisions
Email authentication has become increasingly important over the past five years, and this emphasis will continue. Many marketers think of authentication as an anti-spoofing or anti-spam measure, but savvy marketers recognize the true value of authentication is that it allows ISPs to assign a reputation to a mail stream by accurately and...

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...

Last week I sat down with Amy Bartner, engagement and utilty manager at The Indianapolis Star and indystar.com, to talk about social media and the day-to-day tactics that make it successful.

As we all know, the changing ways that people receive and consume news have necessitated a shift in how news media reach their audiences. The traditional method of assembling a team of reporters and photographers to publish a newspaper once, perhaps twice, daily became unsustainable, as the Internet and social media began to offer real-time updates from an infinite number of (sometimes dubious, but always...

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 >>

View similar pins:

Tiffany & Co. email >>

Canadian Tourism Commission...

At ExactTarget, client feedback plays a vital role in how we make decisions every day. So far in 2013, via our Client Success Surveys, we've listened to what clients have said about everything from our brand to our products to our teams. We make it a priority to share this valuable information across our organization, so we can take action and address suggestions.

• Are easy to do business with
• Care about our customers and partners
• Are...