From My Inbox: A Tale of Two Re-engagement Emails
It’s always interesting to see the re-engagement emails that land in my inbox. Here are two that I received late last year — we’ll discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each, and along the way you’ll get some ideas to test with your own messages to bring dormant subscribers back to life.
Truth and Dare: Email Subject Lines
If you’re working in the email marketing realm you certainly know what a subject line is. But can you separate fact from fiction in commonly held beliefs about subject lines? And do you know how to optimize them? Read on to get the truth about four common subject line misconceptions and be dared to boost […]
Improve Your Results by Improving Your Creative Brief
Creative is an important part of any email campaign. Creative refers to the copy and design of your email — in other words, what it says and how it looks. While the copywriter and designer are responsible for these, the ultimate responsibility lies with the marketing manager or other person in charge of the campaign. […]
Preheader Text: 6 Models and a Case Study with a 96% Lift in Revenue-per-Email
Years ago I was obsessed with preheaders, aka snippets or autopreview, and wrote about them in my ClickZ column. Back then I did a lot of testing of preheader copy and generated some great results for clients. Fast-forward to today. I still consider preheader text when I’m helping clients optimize their email efforts, but am […]
From My Inbox: Gentle Critique of an Email Marketing Program Resurrected
From time to time I’ll pull a message from my inbox and do a walk-through of its pros and cons. These gentle critiques are intended to educate; I hope that the companies mentioned as well as readers will keep that top of mind. I received this email on January 3 from a long-time industry acquaintance we’ll […]
Best of the Best: 2016 Holiday Email Marketing Guides
Hard to believe that Thanksgiving is this week! It sure seems like it snuck up on us with all of the warm weather we have been having. If you are like most, you are probably still trying to finalize your email plans for holiday. Not to worry, we have scoured the internet to find the […]
Scoring My Inbox: Microsoft Rewards Newsletter
From time to time I’ll pull a message from my inbox and do a walk-through of its pros and cons. These gentle critiques are intended to educate; I hope that the companies mentioned as well as readers will keep that top of mind. I always try to be gentle with these critiques but this time… […]
#TBT: Winning Email Marketing Strategies: Improving Opens, Clicks, Conversions and Return-on-Investment
Last year about this time I presented at ClickZ Chicago. I love this presentation because it really gets back to basics but it uses case studies and data to support the standards and best practices that will help you make your email marketing program more effective and more profitable. Enjoy! The Direct Marketing Association projects […]
#TBT: 11 Simple Changes That Would Improve This Email: Gentle Critique
Note: Happy Throwback Thursday! Most of what I do with clients is strategy, but I do often roll-up my sleeves and dive into creative direction and that’s what this post focuses on. It’s from last year (published by ClickZ in October 2014) and it was a very popular article back then, I think because there’s […]
#TBT: How 20 Words Generated a 220% Lift in Leads
Note: Happy Throwback Thursday! This is the second in my trifecta on snippets — and it’s my #1 client case study showcasing the power of this often overlooked tactic. Although this was first published by ClickZ in January 2008, the tips here are still relevant today. Enjoy! An old direct marketing trick can help e-mail […]