Best Practices
2012: The Year You Have To Grow Up
For several years now, folks like me have saying that ISPs and other receivers are starting to take note of engagement metrics. Well, now we cannot say that they are “starting” to take note. They are really taking note now. For the last several months, I have been noticing an uptick in the numbers of [...]
The difference between triage and planning
I read an interesting post by Andrew Kordek at Trendline Interactive this morning. It’s premise is “Organizations need to do a better job at defining an inactive.” And the fact is, he’s right. I also think that this ties into recent discussions regarding whether “best practices” are actually the best things for folks to do [...]
Why an opt-out opt-in doesn’t really work
I recently heard from some friends about Penton Media sending an email asking people to subscribe to get third-party email. They didn’t like being required to opt-out to avoid getting email that wasn’t requested in the first place, even if there had been a warning given that the email was coming. Apparently, Spamhaus agreed with [...]
Partial Bulking & Other Warning Shots
This morning, I got a question about some, but not all, of a mailing going into the bulk folder at a large ISP. “What does it mean when they do that? What should we do?” Most folks seem to think that sending mail to the bulk folder is an “all or nothing” proposition. They know [...]
Are appended lists really purchased lists?
Image via Wikipedia Earlier today I asked a couple of questions on Twitter: “How does one go about transferring permission?” “Why do marketers buy ‘opt-in’ lists?” The first question did not get many answers. The consensus of those who took the time to respond was that permission might be transferred in an assets purchase. Beyond [...]
Bigger Is Not Always Better
Image via Wikipedia Delivery professionals have been telling clients for years that a bigger list is not always a better list. We have been telling people that mailing people for sake of mailing people is not a winning strategy. And, we have been advocating mailing to engaged subscribers while letting the dead wood fall away. [...]
The Brush is Wide for a Reason
Image via Wikipedia I heard some muttering a couple of weeks ago over a Mediapost article suggesting that the email marketing arena is full of incompetent, potentially criminal idiots. The hand-wringing and whining has centered around the choice of tone for that article. If Mediapost was looking for some publicity out of this, they certainly [...]
Inertia is not email marketing
Image by Phil Sexton via Flickr The people over at AlchemyWorx put out an article today with this post’s title: “Getting real about inactive subscribers.” About all that I can say about it is that it is a “feel good” article. The entire point of the post seems to be to help email marketers feel [...]
Ten Business Days Doesn’t Help
Image via Wikipedia I unsubscribed from a mailing list recently. When I did, I was confronted with the following message: We’re sorry to see you go. You should be aware that it could take up to ten business days to completely remove your address from our lists. That’s a pretty standard disclaimer that complies with [...]
It’s easier to be angry than impressed
Looking back over my posts here, I notice that a lot of them are negative in nature. I’ve gotten some private kudos for calling out people giving bad advice (and hey, leave a comment or two instead of sending me a message on Twitter!). It’s not really my favorite thing to do, but needs to [...]
