HTML Email Campaign

Preheader text is displayed next to the subject line most commonly on mobile devices, Gmail, and Outlook (with certain notification settings). Some mobile devices (like Android) will block images by default, making preheader text even more important since this might be one of the first things that the subscriber sees before enabling images and opening your email.

What is email preheader text?

• Located above the logo or header in an email
• Seen at the top of your email design
• Some email clients will grab the first piece of code and display approximately the first 85 characters of the first HTML text...

When it comes to email marketing in the B2B space, one of the hottest new trends is drip-nurturing campaigns created with marketing automation. With the adoption of marketing automation reaching as high as 76% in the most progressive industries, it is easy to see why nurturing is the new “black”. So let's look at one of the biggest mistakes people make when creating lead nurturing emails.

First, let's talk about what a nurturing program actually is. Whatever term you use--drip-nurturing, lead nurturing, email nurturing, etc.--a nurturing campaign is an email program that executes automatically...

A client recently asked, "Are there any deliverability issues with using images hosted on third party CDN whose domain does not match the domain of the sender?"

If you're not aware, CDN means Content Delivery Network. A CDN is means of making your web pages and/or web applications load faster, by caching content on multiple servers, then requests for that content can be fulfilled by the nearest or most responsive available server. I might be oversimplifying it a bit, but in my personal experience with various CDNs, that's how they tend to work. Akamai might have been the first one-- they...

Customers now expect content to be more personalized and relevant than ever, and marketing technology has risen to meet the challenge. But how many brands are currently leveraging the available technology, especially in the mobile space?

A new report from Econsultancy shows that few marketers are delivering on consumers' expectations of a personalized experience, especially on mobile. And this new infographic from ExactTarget takes you inside the current state of personalization in digital marketing and provides insights into how marketers can deliver more tailored mobile campaigns. This...

• Nearly 81% of B2C marketers send welcome emails to their new subscribers
• Nearly 87% of retail companies send welcome emails to new subscribers
• By comparison, only 70% of non-retail companies sent welcome emails

Welcome Email Series

• A quarter of B2C marketers send a...

Email addresses are not permanent. In fact, a historically active email address may suddenly croak—without warning or a farewell note—much to an email marketer's dismay.

Such email addresses that vanish into the ether do come with a somewhat bland obituary, though, in the form of a non-delivery report (NDR). The NDR generally indicates a useful yet enduring error, such as: "no such user";  "mailbox not found"; "the mailbox has been deactivated"; "the recipient has moved on so please stop mailing". (OK, I may have made up the last one.) These are what are known as hard bounces.

Hard bounces...

Join Kristina Huffman, Design Practice Lead, as she discusses and answers seven common questions about responsive email design:

What is responsive email?
Responsive design is a set of techniques in web design and development used to adapt a website to be readable on any screen and/or platform on which it's displayed. These techniques are being repurposed for emails. A responsive layout uses a piece of CSS3 code called a media query to detect the pixel size of the screen on which that email is opened. Based on the screen size detected, multiple stylesheets may be triggered to alter the layout and...

“Email is dead – Sign up for our email to hear more…”

Google the phrase "email is dead" and you’ll find countless news articles, blogs and opinion pieces claiming the death of our beloved email is nigh--and that by 2018, email's trendier younger cousin social media will ensure that email becomes as popular a communication device as the carrier pigeon.

ExactTarget caught up with Dominic Edmunds--founder and president of SaleCycle, the basket abandonment email specialists--to get his thoughts on the death of email.

ExactTarget: So, Dominic, let’s get straight to the point. When will you be closing...

Communication is changing and changing rapidly. Consumers are awash in technology (desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets) that facilitates unprecedented mobility and social connectivity. And mobility is leading the charge. 

We believe that 2013 will be the year of mobile return on investment. Marketers have already invested the resources into experimenting with content marketing throught mobile and now is the time to act.

We had the pleasure of partnering with Compendium and the Marketing Tech Blog to produce this infographic on content marketing in the mobile age. Below you will find the...

The online masses were first introduced to the wonders of webmail in the mid-90s, and one of the pioneers in that space was a service dubbed HoTMaiL, which launched to the general public in 1996. Their moniker’s odd use of letter case called out the technology that powered the service: HTML. From that point on, the market and landscape for webmail has immensely proliferated and evolved. (Microsoft eventually acquired HoTMaiL in 1997.)

Out with the old, in with the new. In July 2012, Microsoft launched a preview of Outlook.com, their new email service that’s the planned successor to Hotmail....

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...

The challenge facing marketers is twofold. First, they must acknowledge the differences between their own online habits and those of the consumers they seek to reach. To put it another way, marketers must avoid being a focus group of one. At the same time, however, marketers need to continue taking risks and exploring new digital frontiers. Only through such exploration can brands fully understand whether the “next big thing” will be meaningful and embraced by their target consumers.

In Marketers From Mars, we hope to help our fellow marketers understand how our exploration of new...

What is a web-safe font? Why should I use web safe fonts in my email?

If you’re new to email design, you probably are wondering why there are limitations on what fonts you should use in an email. One option, of course, is to use all of your brand fonts, save them as images, and place them in your email. Easy, right?

Unfortunately, this probably isn’t the most effective way to engage with your subscribers. Images are often blocked by default in a majority of email clients, so it’s important to place as much html text as possible in your email to successfully convey your message.

 In order to...

Over the next several weeks, we will be 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. Today, ExactTarget’s own Bryan Wade shares his thoughts.

The Year of the First Impression

When it comes to email, 2013 will be all about making that first impression of the email count, reaching your readers wherever they are, and making sure your message gets read. The changing landscape for where and how emails are being viewed opens the door for new innovations in email....

Over the next several weeks, we will be 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. 

We wanted to include an infographic in the mix as well. Feel free to embed this infographic in your blog or website. Let us know if you have any questions. 

Want this infographic for your blog? Here is the code you can use:

<a...

Happy Birthday to SMS! On this day 20 years ago, Neil Papworth sent the phrase “Merry Christmas” from his computer to the Orbitel 901 handset of Vodafone’s Richard Jarvis, and so began the great SMS race.

According to the Wall Street Journal, “In the developing world, where smartphone penetration is low, SMS remains a key technology, enabling mobile money transfers, the sending of alerts on weather and planting advice for farmers, and distribution of health information for consumers. Globally, SMS traffic is continuing to grow and stood at 7.4 trillion messages in 2011, up 44% from the year...

Recent comScore data has seen a shakeup in the rankings of the big three email providers in terms of worldwide usage: Gmail has now ascended to the top spot; Hotmail tumbled to number two; and Yahoo! Mail settled in at third place.  It is no surprise then that there has been a rumored revamp coming to Yahoo! Mail as they try to revitalize their service to retain existing users and attract new ones. While the latest version of Yahoo! Mail just rolled out to the general public in the middle of last year, new leadership at the company has renewed the focus on one of their most popular services....

Does Twitter want consumers glued to its network or are they giving marketers an opportunity to drive more traffic to your site? Appears to be both.

Last week, Twitter announced that all your shopping, news and entertainment would be embedded in a single tweet, thanks to its network of partners.

Through a new feature called Twitter Cards, consumers will be able to view products, listen to music and read books through an expanded, content-rich view.

According to Twitter’s developer site:

“Twitter cards make it possible for you to attach media experiences to Tweets that link to your content.
Simply...