On January 20-22, 2010 hundreds of top email marketers will gather in Miami for MarketingSherpa's 5th Annual Email Summit & Expo. It's the world's largest email conference and will feature Best Email Marketing examples of how email is being used for Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer 1 to 1 Marketing.
If you'd like to be a featured speaker at this conference, now is your chance. MarketingSherpa is looking for B-to-B and B-to-C email marketers to share Case Studies and best practices from their own recent real-life tests and tactics.
But don’t delay. Speaking proposals are due by Friday, July 24th. Click here to submit your speaking proposal.
What Kind of Presentations are Selected by MarketingSherpa?
MarketingSherpa is looking for actual email marketers (i.e., not email marketing software vendors or agencies) to present Email Marketing Campaign case studies that show what they did, how they did it, and what results they achieved. So if you’re an agency or service provider, encourage your client to speak at this important event.
If you’re an agency or service provider, consider moderating a panel of multiple email marketers that are focused on “proven” advanced tactics -- see MarketingSherpa’s list of suggested panels below (or make up your own).
If you want to see an example of the kind of email marketing case study that gets rave reviews at MarketingSherpa Email Summit, check out the following ExactTarget Recorded Webinars that feature Johnston & Murphy and Dreamfields Pasta. Both of these case studies were presented at last year’s Email Summit.
And one more thing to remember -- All speakers get their own free ticket to the Summit!
Gary Slack, Vice Chairman of the BMA, reports the national BMA conference, June 10-12 in Chicago, is SOLD OUT and that a wait list is now open. http://www.marketing.org/waitlist. 
On Thursday morning, June 11th, I have the pleasure of leading a terrific session titled, Best Practices in Digital Direct Marketing, which will feature two ExactTarget clients who are among the industry’s sharpest email marketing professionals, Sallie Anthony of Genworth Financial and Dave Wieneke of Thomson CompuMark.
Sallie and Dave will take you inside their company’s email communications strategies and provide practical advice on how to design and execute email programs that deliver bottom-line business impact.According to new research from Ball State University, the Email Marketer`s Club and ExactTarget, a record number of email marketers plan to bridge the gap between online social networks and their email marketing campaigns in 2009. The study is based on surveys with 351 email marketers.
Among the key findings in the study are:
Although the demand for the integration between social sites and email is surging, the success with the integration remains largely uncharted, according to the study featured in ExactTarget`s newest whitepaper entitled, "Expanding the Reach of Email Through Social Networks".
Get with the Program! Learn How to Integrate Email and Social Media
If you want to learn how to use email and social media for business development, one of the best time investments you will make is to attend a special webinar on Wednesday, April 29th featuring Mike Corak of Mighty Interactive.
Recently, I sat down with Mike to discuss why this topic is so important and why marketers should plan to attend this webinar. The following is an excerpt of our discussion.
Book: Why is the integration of search engine optimization, social media, and email vital for business development?
Corak: Marketing tactics do not work independently – all touch the consumer at different times in the customer lifecycle and are therefore connected. For this reason, long-term communication success is often dependent on the efficiency of the sum. Furthermore, consumers don’t differentiate an organization’s voice by touch point, meaning that consistencies in messaging and call to action are critical.
Book: What will attendees learn from this webinar?
Corak: Attendees will learn how outside factors affect the performance of email programs, and how email can help improve the performance of other communication efforts. They will also be armed with ideas to improve their own customer communication results.
Book: What clients will be referenced as examples?
Corak: Among the clients we will be discussing in this webinar are Fujitsu, Nike, Kolbe, City of Palm Desert, National Academy of Sports Medicine.
Hats off to Simms Jenkins of Brightwave Marketing for his outstanding interview with the legendary Stan Rapp that appears in today’s iMedia Connection. 
Stan Rapp on the Importance of Email 
If you want to know how to use social media, SEO and email marketing to accelerate the performance of your marketing campaigns, plan to join Mike Corak, Director of Interactive Services, for Mighty Interactive and me for a special webinar on April 29th.
According to a report titled Beyond Advertising: Choosing a Strategic Path to the Digital Consumer released by IBM Global Business Services, direct marketing and traditional brand advertising are converging online. The report was based on an online survey of 2,800 consumers and one-on-one interviews with 70 marketing and media professionals. The report says, “With digital consumers increasingly in control of their media experience and advertisers shifting their spend to more interactive, measurable formats, companies must move beyond traditional advertising to combine granularity of targeting and measurement with cross-platform integration.”I’ve just returned from MarketingSherpa’s Email Summit in Miami where – to no one’s surprise – much of the conversation centered on how email marketers are being challenged to do more with less. The good news is that we are seeing plenty of examples of companies that are achieving success by using email as the foundational component of their marketing strategy.
One of the best examples I’ve seen lately is from Midwest retailer Gordmans. On April 1st, I'll be hosting a special one-hour webinar where you can see how Gordmans, an everyday low price retailer with 65 stores, has embraced the flexibility of email to react to market opportunities.
At a time when retailers are faced with the challenge of driving sales while cutting costs, Gordmans serves as a great example of a retail marketer that has learned how to use email to achieve metrics that are well beyond industry averages. What impresses me about Gordmans is that they have achieved these results entirely offline -- through in-store purchases at brick and mortar locations.
Here’s a sampling of what you’ll learn from this webinar:
In addition, you’ll leave with tactical take-aways you can start implementing the next day.
Join me, Cara Olson, Manager of E-Marketing at Digital Evolution Group; Bruce Reid, Marketing Director at Gordmans and the Gordmans marketing team on April 1st as we present the webinar Retail & Email: Doing More with Less to help you make the most of your email campaigns to drive sales and cut costs.
If you want to see a great example of how a Midwest retail chain uses email marketing to drive store traffic and keep customers loyal to their brand, plan to join me on April 1st for a very special webinar featuring Cara Olson from Digital Evolution Group and their client, Bruce Reid from Gordmans.
What You’ll Learn
In this webinar, you’ll discover how Gordmans leverages personalized email communications to drive foot traffic and increase sales at their 65 locations.
In addition, you will learn:
Date and Time: Wednesday, April 1st at 2:00PM EST
Register at: Retail & Email: Doing More with Less
About Digital Evolution Group
Digital Evolution Group is a full-service e-consultancy dedicated to helping its clients achieve success with creative, integrated and intelligent Internet-centric solutions. Digital Evolution Group fuses design talent and engineering skill with the rare ability to translate business objectives into ingenious online strategies that deliver break-through results. The firm was recently named ExactTarget’s Reseller/Partner of the Month for March 2009.
Several ExactTarget clients and partners will be speaking at MarketingSherpa’s Email Summit ’09 which kicks off on Monday in Miami.
Leading the pack will be Heather Marsh of Johnston & Murphy who, along with Nick Godfrey of ExactTarget Reseller/Partner Customer Portfolios, delivered an outstanding presentation at the recent ExactTarget webinar titled, Building a Retail Email Powerhouse.
Other ExactTarget clients and partners who will be speaking are:
Following are the session titles and times for each speaker:
Monday, March 16th
10–10:45am
Featured Case Studies: Targeting and Messaging Strategies that Effect Behavior
Rok Hrastnik, Internet Director, Studio Moderna
Heather Marsh, Director of Customer Information, Johnston & Murphy
Tuesday, March 17th
11:30am-12:00pm
Launching and Managing International Email Marketing Initiatives
Sergio Balegno, Senior Analyst, MarketingSherpa
12:00-12:30pm
Email and Word of Mouth Marketing.
Dan Heimbrock, President and CEO, Hyperdrive Interactive
2:00-2:45pm
Strategies for the Long-Term Care and Feeding of an Email Database
Andrew Ecklund, CEO, Ciceron
Moderator: Stefan Tornquist, Research Director, MarketingSherpa
2:45-3:45pm
Long Live Email: Enabling the Continued Success of Social Marketing
Michael Kilgore, VP, Marketing, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center
You can view the full agenda for next week’s Email Summit ’09 here.
In their excellent article in the March 3rd issue of Email Insider, Alex Madison and Lisa Harmon of Smith-Harmon underscore why we selected Malcolm Gladwell to keynote the Connections ’09 , the annual conference for ExactTarget clients and partners.
"Outliers: The Story of Success," is Gladwell ‘s newest best-seller, and in it he presents the 10,000-Hour Rule: the belief that excellence is achieved through impressive hours of dedicated practice.
As more companies shift budget from non-measurable and under-performing media to email, email marketers are working overtime to keep customers connected to brands.
Or more aptly described by Madison and Harmon, “Email is such a fast-moving channel with lightening-speed turnarounds, email marketers are "practicing" executing email programs and campaigns so often and so quickly that we swiftly grow as marketing professionals. Regardless of the email area in which we specialize, we're all building towards our 10,000 hours super-quickly.”
Email Marketers are the New Outliers
In his keynote presentation entitled “The Writing on the Wall for Winning in 2009: It’s the E-Conomy, Stupid!” at last month’s Email Evolution Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, Stan Rapp, Chairman of Engauge trumpeted why email marketing has become the backbone of direct marketing: "Email is the tightest link ever forged between buyer and seller. Email is the heartbeat of the Internet. Emailers, you don't know how good you are!"
While it’s great to see email marketers being recognized for their contribution to moving the sales and retention needles, we still have a lot of work to do in educating the C-suite about the power and possibilities of email. Two resources I highly recommend are the 2009 Marketing Almanac and Letters to the C-Suite.
About Smith-Harmon
Smith-Harmon is an ExactTarget Reseller/Partner, and focuses exclusively on providing premier email marketing strategy and creative services. Alex Madison is a copywriter at Smith-Harmon and Lisa Harmon is a principal and founding partner of Smith-Harmon.
The MarketingSherpa Email Summit ’09 is less than month away. This annual conference always attracts the best and brightest practitioners of email marketing and this year’s event is no exception!
I LOVE this conference because the Case Studies and Panels are presented by the marketers and agencies themselves.
There are plenty of reasons to come to Email Summit ’09, in Miami, March 15–17. But here is my personal Top 10 Reasons you need to be there!
10. Save $100. This early bird discount ends March 6th. Every dollar counts in this economy.
9. 24 New Case Studies. Industries include: health & beauty, insurance, sports, employment, fashion, luxury, marine, photography, finance, high tech, and telecommunications. Check out the full agenda.
8. The Email Messaging Optimization Workshop on Sunday. This optional course will make your emails work better – and improve their ROI.
7. More than 11 hours of open time to talk with ExactTarget and other exhibitors about the latest capabilities for using email to automate and optimize email campaigns.
6. Special “By Appointment Only” One-on-One Clinics with email marketing specialists in the Expo Center.
5. Network with 800 of your marketing peers (like Dan Heimbrock of Hyperdrive Interactive and Andrew Eklund of Ciceron) from around the world.
4. The InterContinental Hotel is great! MarketingSherpa has a limited number of hotel rooms blocked at a special rate of $299/night. Call (305) 577-1000 and use Discount code: MSH
3. Talk with some of the smartest email marketers around like Heather Marsh of Johnston & Murphy, and Brooks Bell of Brooks Bell Interactive,
2. Three words. South Beach Baby!
1. And the #1 reason to be in Miami for the MarketingSherpa Email Summit?
The 2009 Email Awards Program. We’ll be presenting awards in over 10 categories which include the best B–to–B and Consumer campaigns that took place in 2008.
And when you reserve you place at this year’s Email Summit, you’ll also receive a hardbound edition of the 2008 Email Award Winners, courtesy of ExactTarget.
Like many retailers, Johnston & Murphy has a goal to increase the number of first time purchasers that buy again, and get them to do it sooner than later.
Working with Customer Portfolios, Johnston & Murphy has developed a complete set of automated, triggered email programs that deliver the right message or offer based on the customer’s segment and lifecycle stage.
Using this lifecycle marketing approach, J&M has achieved significant results from its email marketing strategy:
Predictive Modeling is another technique that J&M uses very effectively to maximize response. Using numerous behavioral attributes, J&M assigns scores to all multi-purchase customers. These scores enable J&M to execute email programs that are optimized for product relevance and timing. The results speak for themselves
Johnston & Murphy is a multi-channel marketing success story. Whether customers buy from one its 150 stores, through its catalog, or at its online store, email is the tool that J&M relies on to develop and retain its customers.
Register Now for ExactTarget’s Special Retail Email Webinar
If you’re looking for practical insight on how to use customer data, analytics and targeted email marketing to produce retail results, register now to attend tomorrow’s very special webinar on retail email featuring Heather Marsh of Johnston & Murphy and Nick Godfrey of Customer Portfolios.
Building A Retail Email Powerhouse
Webinar Time: 2:00PM Eastern / 1:00PM Central
Register Now at ExactTarget.com
Stan Rapp delivered the opening keynote at the recent 2009 Email Evolution Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Rapp’s presentation, appropriately titled “It’s the E-conomy Stupid!” provided a passionate endorsement for email and underscored why email has become the anchor of direct marketing.
I first met Stan Rapp in 1985 when I was working in Philadelphia for Farm Journal and heading up the company’s Marketing Services division where we built and hosted marketing database systems for many of the country’s top agri-chemical, animal health pharmaceuticals, farm machinery, and seed companies.
Stan had come to Philadelphia to interview me and several of my colleagues as part of the research he was doing in preparation for his book, Maxi-Marketing. He was keenly interested in learning how Farm Journal used subscriber-supplied data about the crops and livestock they produced on their farms and ranches to produce thousands of versions of its magazine. Farm Journal used technology called “selectronic binding” to tailor editorial and advertising content to the profile and information needs of each subscriber. (Today, ExactTarget clients do this every day with email using our “Dynamic Content” technology.)
When Maxi-Marketing, co-authored with Tom Collins, was published in 1986, David Ogilvy said: "Everyone in advertising must read this book." His endorsement started the co-authors on the way to bestseller status. Over 250,000 copies of Maxi-Marketingwere sold worldwide in a dozen languages. And the book became the bible for modern era multi-channel marketing.
Stan has become a passionate advocate for email marketing and his keynote served as an enthusiastic reminder of how critical email has become for keeping customers connected to brands, and why email has emerged as the single most effective channel for direct marketing.
As an industry, we could not ask for a better “senior statesman” than Stan Rapp.
My father – in addition to being a great mentor to me – is also a great craftsman. He has many tools and uses them correctly depending on what he is building.
Once, I asked my father, “Why do you need so many tools?” His answer was 
quick and direct. He replied, “If every job was as simple as pounding a nail, the only tool I would ever need is a hammer.”
Email strategy is much the same.
Different audiences or segments require different strategies. A one-size-fits-all approach will simply not work. In other words, “One cherry does not a pie make.”
When planning email strategy, ask yourself this question. Where can email be effective in increasing prospect/customer engagement?
Here are some typical segments and suggestions on how email can be used.
In this week’s ExactTarget webinar with MarketingSherpa, Sergio Balegno noted that segment-specific email strategies outperform non-segmented strategies by a factor of 2 to 1. If you’re looking for more ideas on how to use email effectively, check out these resources:
A November 2008 MENG social media study showing 67% of executive marketers consider themselves beginners when it comes to using social media for marketing purposes.
In their excellent book, “Email Marketing: An Hour a Day,” Jeanniey Mullen of Zinio and David Daniels of Forrester Research note that “email remains the backbone of digital marketing communications.”
The authors go on to explain why the relationship between email and social networks is both natural and very powerful. Once a company has a social networking site (such as LinkedIn or Facebook), they can begin inviting members of the site to opt-in to receive exclusive offers and information through email. This approach works extremely well because it is permission-based and puts the subscriber in control of the process.
The use of email with social networks is just one example of how marketers are using email in partnership with other media to serve the customer better and aid their purchase decision-making process.
Add this book to your library!
By now, most of you have heard or read about how Papa John’s has revolutionized the way many of us order pizza by using text messaging. On May 7th 2008, the Associated Press reported that Papa John’s surpassed $1 billion in online pizza sales, and text messaging -- or SMS -- is the backbone of its highly successful online ordering system.
As reported in ExactTarget’s 2008 Channel Preference Survey white paper, 48% of the US population uses text messaging and as this number increases, I see growing evidence that more marketers will be experimenting with SMS in 2009 as they seek to move an off-line conversation online.
At MediaPost's Email Insider Summit in December, my colleague, Chip House used the following direct response scenario to explain why SMS is receiving more attention from marketers and how they are beginning to use SMS to make it easier for consumers to respond to an off-line offer.
Here’s the scenario. After viewing an offer they have seen in a magazine, on a billboard or on television, the consumer is invited to use the SMS function on their mobile phone to text a five-digit short code to an email address set up specifically for the product promotion. Once received, email is used to engage the consumer, and deliver relevant information that aids the decision-making process and drives purchase.
As consumers become more familiar with SMS, the mobile channel becomes a place where marketers can engage a consumer more proactively to drive 
response. This is a practical example of a digital marketing strategy that works. And it can work equally well in B-to-B as it does in B-to-C.
Want to know more about the possibilities of SMS for your organization? Get ExactTarget’s Field Guide to SMS. You’ll learn to clearly identify the purpose and benefits of using SMS for a variety of applications including alerts, updates, and marketing messages.
I am a firm believer in using “The Triangle Offense” strategy to acquire new email subscribers.
This strategy uses three key components
Why SEO?
SEO – and specifically organic search – is one of the most cost effective tactics marketers can use to attract potential email subscribers to your website. The reason is simple. In increasing numbers, more of us use the Internet to research products.
Research from Forrester Research reveals that “92% of business buyers go online to research products and suppliers.” And Forrester also reports that “51% of consumers are researching on the Internet, and then completing their purchases offline.”
So if you’re looking to grow your email subscriber base, make sure your website is designed to make it easy for search engines – and buyers – to find you!
Treat Subscribers Right.
Once attracted to your website, you must give the individual a reason to subscribe to your email communications. You can do this by following three rules.
If you follow this approach, you will send a clear message to the subscriber that you are committed to serving their needs and honoring their preferences. And that, my friends, is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
Want to Know More About SEO?
One of the best sources I’ve found for practical information on SEO is the iMedia Connection website. Check it out.
Aaron Kahlow is at it again!
As Founder and Executive Director of the Online Marketing Summit (OMS), Aaron has designed another outstanding program that should be considered a “must attend” event if you’re serious about improving your skills in online marketing and want to network with some of the sharpest people in the business. The conference takes place in San Diego from February 4-7, 2009.
If you’ve never attended The Online Marketing Summit, you’re in for a surprise because OMS is truly unique from any other conference. OMS has one simple mission: to educate marketers on the emerging best practices of online marketing. There are NO Vendors, NO Salesmen, NO Exhibitors/Booths, and NO sales pitches are allowed.
OMS brings together the best minds and brands in Corporate Marketing (Fortune 1000 to local retailers) from around the country. Leading educators in Online Marketing will facilitate a world-class education of best practices in Interactive Marketing.
Registration for the 2009 Online Marketing Summit allows you access to three days of educational workshops as well as access to the 2009 Resource Center where you can download the slide decks and media from all the presentations you missed.
How You Can Become an Email Marketing Rock Star
Want to know what the winners are doing to make their email marketing programs the envy of the industry? Register now to attend the special Email Marketing Fundamentals pre-conference workshop being led by me and Stephanie Miller of Return Path on Wednesday, February 4th.
The course we are teaching is part of the all new Online Marketing Certification Program being offered at the Online Marketing Summit this year. In this 60 minute workshop, you will learn:
This case-study based course will leave you inspired and excited about what you can achieve!
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