Newsletter Design Tips

As an email marketer, the primary promotional messaging you do for your business is a no-brainer. Sale coming up? Send the email. Event to RSVP for? Send the email! It’s a marching order of sorts, one that keeps you busy week in and week out, planning for what email is next and which subject line to use and which buttons will drive the most clicks and...

In the mix of it all, are you missing the clear opportunities to build out your programming to make the most of your audience and their engagement? Use the check list below to earn a gold star on your message strategy, or identify the programs...

Each Thursday at 11 a.m. EDT, marketers from around the world join the ExactTarget Nexus partner ecosystem on Twitter for a conversation about trends and campaign ideas across the interactive marketing industry.  We call the virtual coffee chat the Nexus Café.

Our guest for a recent #NexusCafe chat was  Joanna Milliken, Director Product Management for ExactTarget Email.  Joanna was one of ExactTarget's first employees and has contributed to building the organization and has served many roles throughout her tenure. She is passionate about email marketing and working with clients.  In the chat...

Each Thursday at 11 a.m. EDT, marketers from around the world join the ExactTarget Nexus partner ecosystem on Twitter for a conversation about trends and campaign ideas across the interactive marketing industry.  We call the virtual coffee chat the Nexus Café.

It’s been said that “knowledge is power”—and at ExactTarget, we couldn’t agree more. That’s why we’ve always taken product and industry training seriously in the ExactTarget Academy. After all, when you have the right tools and knowledge on how to use them, you can immediately begin implementing the right programs to take your campaigns to new heights. 

And when the opportunity to enhance your program comes along (right to your own city, in fact), WHY WAIT?

That’s why I’m so excited for the Solutions Workshops at our upcoming CONNECT Global Tour. On May 16, we’ll be headed to Sydney, Australia to...

In the same week that Microsoft annoucned plans to buyer over $1 billion in AOL patents Facebook decides to purchase the photo sharing site Instagram for $1 billion. As CNN Money reported "it is Facebook's biggest acquisition ever, in both price and reach. With around 30 million active users, Instagram has the largest audience."

What's it mean? Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, explained that the purchase was to help the social networking giant build the BEST experience for sharing photos with friends. Period.

For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with...

The ExactTarget Nexus team invites you to participate in our #NexusCafe Twitter chat this Thursday  and every Thursday from 11am-12pm ET, where we discuss emerging topics and trends from across the interactive marketing world. The virtual coffee chat is hosted directly on Twitter, hosted by @ETNexus. Follow the #NexusCafe hashtag and be sure and add the hashtag to your tweet to participate. The person with the best tweets wins a Starbucks gift card!

Our guest for the #NexusCafe chat this week is Nate Riggs, director Social Business at The Karcher Group, a digital marketing agency that bought...

What is the difference between a Tab and a Fan Page? How is the Social Graph different from Open Graph? Marketers ask us these questions all the time and with help from folks at Facebook, we put together a Glossary to help you master the newest Facebook marketing concepts. We hope you find it useful!

Glossary

Actions and Action Response “AR”
There are a variety of actions within Facebook Ads or Pages including when a user clicks “Like”, “RSVP” or selects a custom action. Another way to think of actions is to think of the traditional “Call-to-Action” like click, call or download. AR stands for...

What is Bazaarvoice Social Summit?

The Social Summit is a two day conference, April 11^th-13th, filled with social strategists and executives from top brands.  These leaders will share trends and strategies for using social data in a customer-centric world.  Join ExactTarget in listening to:

• Top thought leader Keynotes
• Interactive session tracks
• Emerging Bazaarvoice initiatives and strategies

Summit Party 

Thursday, 6:30 PM

Join us, Texas-style, in hanging out with Bazaarvoice and the attendees at their grandest Summit party yet.  A showcase of local bands will set the tone for the evening while we...

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Who's ready for Facebook timeline going live today? Facebook is officially rolling out the Facebook Timeline to all pages who have yet to upgrade to the new design. A little fuzzy on what I'm talking about? That's fair. A couple of months have passed since the initial launch of the FB Timeline and other changes.

Let's take a look back. From our very own Katie Van Domelen:

The new Timeline profile structure that rolled out to users several months ago will now be available for brand Pages (as of today). Facebook has provided brands with a great resource on this new layout, but...

Each Thursday at 11am EDT, marketers from around the world join the ExactTarget Nexus partner ecosystem on Twitter for a conversation about trends and campaign ideas across the interactive marketing industry.  We call the virtual coffee chat the Nexus Café.

Our guest for a recent #NexusCafe chat was Jeremy Mayes, account executive at PPC Associates. Jeremy has over 15 years of direct marketing experience with a passion for search engine marketing. We discussed fundamentals and insights for maximizing your pay-per-click campaigns. Here's a summary of our discussion:

@ETNexus Q1: What are some...

Each Thursday at 11am EDT, marketers from around the world join the ExactTarget Nexus partner ecosystem on Twitter for a conversation about trends and campaign ideas across the interactive marketing industry.  We call the virtual coffee chat the Nexus Café.

Our guest for a recent #NexusCafe chat was Brian Shelton, eCommerce & Special Projects Manager at Gilchrist & Soames. Brian just completed a major website project at his company so content automation was top of mind. Brian is involved in the 3sixty Live Indianapolis user community and is a regular contributor to the weekly #NexusCafe chat.

He...

The ExactTarget Nexus team invites you to participate in our #NexusCafe Twitter chat this Thursday  and every Thursday from 11am-12pm ET, where we discuss emerging topics and trends from across the interactive marketing world. The virtual coffee chat is hosted directly on Twitter, hosted by @ETNexus. Follow the #NexusCafe hashtag and be sure and add the hashtag to your tweet to participate. The person with the best tweets wins a Starbucks gift card!

Our guest for our #NexusCafe chat this week are the folks from FanMail Marketing. FanMail has been a long-time partner of ExactTarget and...

Last Wednesday in a packed house at the FMC, we learned new and exciting changes introduced to the way that brands can interact with Facebook users.  Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and VP of Product Chris Cox were among some of the other top Facebook executives sharing all of the new tools becoming available -- from sponsored stories in mobile newsfeeds to display advertising upon logging out of the social network.

What struck me as most interesting was the anticipated makeover of Facebook Fan Pages -- where they now sport a style similar to the recently revamped personal profile Timeline Pages....

Last week Facebook had its first ever conference just for marketers, fMC. During the course of the day several exciting announcements were made that will affect the way that brands do business and engage with customers on Facebook.  We know it can be hard to keep up with the ever-evolving world of social media so we put together this crash course on the upcoming changes.

Lesson 1: Timeline For Pages

The new Timeline profile structure that rolled out to users several months ago will now be available for brand Pages. Over the new few weeks you can opt-in to update your page but by 3.30 all Pages...

I'm under the belief that pure story-telling, personalized data, and integrated marketing systems are the pinnacle of success for any marketing professional. Or at least it should be. It is the humanization of marketing systems that defines the next generation of marketing. However, there is one thing that reigns true over all - at the end of the sales cycle we are still dealing with an individual, a human, not a business.

I was reminded of this while reading the current issue of Direct Marketing Magazine. Tim Peterson has an excellent article defining and detailing the transformation of Dell's...

Each Thursday at 11am EDT, marketers from around the world join the ExactTarget Nexus partner ecosystem on Twitter for a conversation about trends and campaign ideas across the interactive marketing industry.  We call the virtual coffee chat the Nexus Café.

During a recent #NexusCafe chat, we discussed the importance of data in powering interactive marketing. Marketers are under pressure from tight timelines, working across teams to execute campaigns. And marketers need accurate, accessible data to segment relevant, engaging messages to subscribers. During our chat, we explored the importance...

I am going to out myself. I am a movie buff and like millions of people across the world I tuned into the Academy Awards last night for all the glamor and celebrity goodness.
 
The annual awards has become one of advertisers’ favorite vehicles to reach women and trend-setting upscale consumers who love contributing to the $32 billion dollar a year world of movies.  Studios, networks and advertisers attempted to tap into the power of social media to connect with affluent social savvy consumers last night, and we took notes.
 
While the Academy may have selected the winners receiving the coveted...

Here it is: your big chance. Next month the company will be co-sponsoring the industry’s largest trade show. Due to scheduling conflicts, your boss is unable to attend and you will be attending in his place. Your responsibility is to oversee all company events and booths in order to walk away with a hard list of qualified leads.

As you consider your next steps, you inevitably look to your right and see the crippling pile of business cards gathered from the last trade show your company attended. Of the 500+ cards collected, approximately 20 (being generous) belonged to individuals who even...