Dela’s Challenge
29 February 2012
In comments on an article in the Magill Report, I had this to say about things I keep hearing from Dela Quist: I’m sure that Dela has a smashing marketing program, but I keep hearing him say the things you’ve got in this article and that they’ll work “if you’re not doing anything stupid.” And he might even
The difference between triage and planning
27 September 2011
I read an interesting post by Andrew Kordek at Trendline Interactive this morning. Its premise is that “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
Why an opt-out opt-in doesn’t really work
17 August 2011
I recently heard from some friends about Penton Media sending an email asking people to subscribe to third-party email. They didn’t like being required to opt-out to avoid getting an email that wasn’t requested in the first place, even if there had been a warning given that the email was coming. Spamhaus agreed with those
Partial bulking & other warning shots
23 March 2011
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 think sending mail to the bulk folder is an “all or nothing” proposition. They know there is a problem
Number 11 is a nice place to be
15 March 2011
Sometimes we can get too close to something. So close, in fact, that we take comments the wrong way so that they become insults that they were never intended to be. A couple of years ago, a member of the postmaster staff at a large, North American ISP said to a group of ESP people:
An average email user responds
17 November 2010
As I mentioned in my last post, I asked my dad to have a look at Gretchen Scheiman’s MediaPost Email Insider post. Gretchen Scheiman, Does Permission Need To Be Explicit?, MediaPost Email Insider (2010), https://web.archive.org/web/20210227121402/http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/139590/ (last visited May 31, 2024). My dad is a baby boomer and, I think, is a relatively normal email user.
Bigger Is Not Always Better
9 November 2010
Delivery professionals have told clients for years that a bigger list is not always better. We have been telling people that mailing people for the sake of mailing people is not a winning strategy. We have advocated mailing to engaged subscribers while letting the deadwood disappear. For years, we have suffered (not so) silently as
Inertia Is Not Email Marketing
1 July 2010
The people at AlchemyWorx published an article titled “Getting real about inactive subscribers.” AlchemyWorx, Getting Real About Inactive Subscribers, AlchemyWorx (2010), https://web.archive.org/web/20100707102154/http://www.alchemyworx.com/e/getting-real-about-inactive-subscribers%20%20 (last visited May 29, 2024). I can only say that it is a “feel good” article. The entire point of the post seems to be to help email marketers feel good about inertia.
Asking for the Impossible: Send Rates
13 May 2010
Today’s post is the third in a series on contractual terms that clients want to try to get but usually will be unable to due to reality’s harsh impact. Thus far, we have considered Delivery Service Level Agreements (Mickey Chandler, Asking For The Impossible: SLAs, Spamtacular (2010), http://www.spamtacular.com/2010/05/11/asking-for-the-impossible-slas/ (last visited May 13, 2010).) and inbox