Good Read on Getting It Right: Drake Morton

A Picture Speaks A Thousand Words

WE YOUTUBE OUR VIDEOS, FLICKR our photos and put both up on Facebook. The proliferation of image-based content meant that it was only a matter of time before images hit our search results pages. Currently, 15% of all searches on Google come from its image tab, and the rise of universal (also known as blended) search sees all the major engines integrating video and image results into their mainstream search results. Search engine results pages are becoming increasingly visual — and rightly so. After all, search results should all be about the relevance of the information; the format they come in should be inconsequential.
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Very Good Read: Drake Morton

Show Me The Love, And I’ll Show You The Money!

by Lisa Harmon , Tuesday, July 22, 2008

A colleague recently sent me a copy of Tim Sanders’ book ” Love is the Killer App,” which I promptly opened and devoured within hours. For those of you who haven’t read it yet, (A) you should and (B) it’s modern day Dale Carnegie: a prescription for advancement in business by — quite simply — being nice and smart. (more…)

Building a Case: Great Read, Drake Morton

The Right Moment To Send An Email

by David Baker , Monday, July 21, 2008

TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY? WHEN is the right time to send an email? That may be the right question, but is the answer what you are really looking for? This is probably the most widely asked question that email marketers will face.    People used to be fascinated with time of day and day of the week; now that we are well over 15 years into email marketing, I see less credence in these industry surveys of 1,200 respondents that try to help you answer this broadly.
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Need to Read: Drake Morton

Are You Maximizing Your Search Efforts With Email?

by Loren McDonald , Wednesday, July 16, 2008

I WAS ASTOUNDED TO SEE the results of a recent Email Experience Council survey  in which marketers ranked search marketing near the bottom of seven marketing channels for its synergy with email.

No great surprise about the top-ranked channel: 38% of respondents rated direct mail and catalogs as being email’s ideal marketing mate.
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Very Good Read: Drake Morton

Loyalty Marketing

by David Baker , Monday, July 14, 2008

WHAT IS LOYALTY MARKETING TODAY? Over 75% of the consumers we know and love participate in one or more programs (Source: Jupiter). Our parents’ loyalty programs were simple programs with simple rewards: you buy something, and there was a degree of personalization in the product buying experience. Today virtually everyone has a credit card they are building points on, an airline, hotel, rental car, book club, coffee shop, but most of the larger loyalty programs were driven from service-based businesses with perishable products or services. Today, it is confusing to define a loyalty program.
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You better get this one right: Drake Morton

Send, Analyze, Target, Resend: The Art And Science of Successful Integrated Email Campaigns

by Blaine Mathieu , Wednesday, July 9, 2008

EMAIL MARKETING CAMPAIGNS CONTINUE TO prove their value, even as new media channels emerge to pull marketing dollars in different directions. But today’s email marketing strategies and tactics are different than they were even five years ago, and there’s a lot more to a successful campaign than just looking at open and click-through rates.    In today’s digital world, it has become imperative for marketers to employ a well-rounded online marketing toolset, that includes everything from Web analytics to behavioral analysis of respondents to gain valuable insight into just how effective their email campaign is — or isn’t.
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Must Know: Drake Morton

Trust-Based Targeting

by Steve Smith , Wednesday, July 2, 2008

One frontier of cutting-edge behavioral targeting is the push toward analyzing anonymous cookie data to predict probable consumer responses with ever greater control for the marketer. In the conversation below, Ariel McNichol and Julia Johnston, co-founders of mEgo, outline a radically different approach, allowing consumers to choose the kinds of messaging and targeting behaviors that fit their own needs and interests.

Behavioral Insider: In approaching the challenge of monetizing social media, what have you learned from the targeting attempts and strategies of some of the large social networks?
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You need to understand: Drake Morton

The Quest For The Perfect

Loyalty Program Email Experience

by Deirdre Cook , Monday, June 30, 2008

On a recent work project, I was tasked with defining the “perfect” loyalty program email experience. After reviewing over 150 awards/loyalty program emails, I can safely say that no one company does it perfectly.

Since the very nature of a loyalty program is to honor your best customers, any communication should be a robust dialogue — a personalized conversation based on what is relevant to the individual within the community. (more…)

Very Good Read: Drake Morton

7 Tactics for Driving Traffic To Stores With Email

by Chad White , Thursday, June 26, 2008

RECENTLY AN EMAIL EXPERIENCE COUNCIL member asked me whether retailers should drive sales online or offline with their email marketing. The marketer wanted to drive more store traffic, but wasn’t sure about all the ways to go about doing that. The added concern was that revenue was more trackable and measureable online –and the marketer definitely wanted to get credit for the sales they drove. (more…)

June 23, 2008

Drake Morton & Associates Launches Emerald,

A Direct Marketing Relationship e-Mail Building Tool

Westlake Village, CA – DM&A today announced the launch of Emerald e-Mail Solutions, a revolutionary new concept in business relationship building. Emerald is the first company of its kind that makes it possible for businesses to rapidly develop and deliver branded online marketing relationship building tools for their customers.
Emerald has at its core a sophisticated software that was created by Drake Morton, an advertising/marketing entrepreneur whose core business is understanding and communicating with consumers. “In order to compete in today’s marketplace, it’s absolutely essential that businesses know their customers,” noted Morton. “But until now, research has been an expensive and complicated undertaking. That’s why I created Emerald. A company of any size can go online and easily set up a branded customized e-Mail, tactically targeted questionnaire or post-card that is instantly delivered to their customer base. It no longer takes an IT staff or the services of an outside research firm. It’s perfect to get consumer feedback, solve problems and build relationships. And because it can be designed by the business itself, it’s incredibly affordable and flexible.” (more…)