Very Good Read: Drake Morton

Transactional Emails 2.0: Think Beyond The Purchase

by Loren McDonald, Thursday, July 15, 2010

We marketers tend to think about the transactional email in its most literal sense, relating to a specific transaction as defined by the CAN-SPAM Act and by conventional wisdom.

But transactional emails can become a potent force in your email program when you broaden your vision and look for ways they can enrich your customer relationships, from pre- to post-transaction and beyond.

These triggered messages, based on abandonment, recent purchase and CRM data, enable additional touch points that provide further value to customers and additional revenue and customer data for your company.

Four Categories of Purchase-Related Email Message
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Excellent Read: Drake Morton

Are Your Emails Anticipated & Appreciated?

by Ryan Deutsch, Thursday, July 8, 2010

As with many of you, I have been in the marketing technology space for a little while. During that time, I have heard (and certainly spoken) my share of buzzwords. In fact, I could probably throw together 500 words on email marketing buzzwords — stay tuned for that blog post in the coming weeks! Anyway, two words I do not hear often enough in relation to email are “anticipated” and “appreciated.” There are two interesting trends occurring in the email marketing space that make these particularly relevant: the flash sale and localized marketing.

Link to vMail / video email

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Need to Read: Drake Morton

Four Ways to Increase Qualified Leads

by Chris Chariton , Thursday, July 1, 2010

Are there ever enough leads coming into your company? Probably not, since most companies have an insatiable appetite for revenue growth. Yet the most important aspect of lead generation is not the quantity of leads coming in, but the quality of those leads.

In the GlobalSpec 2010 Marketing Trends Survey of the industrial sector, marketers ranked the importance of factors when determining where to allocate their marketing dollars. Quality of leads was the most important factor, while quantity of leads came in sixth.

Increase your qualified leads by using vMail

(video eMail)

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You need to be aware: Drake Morton

What is your SEO Objective. . . 

The efficiency of SEO against various marketing objectives including increasing revenue, lead generation, brand or product awareness and more.

See how B2B and B2C organizations differently perceive the efficiency of these SEO objectives.

 

Good Read: Drake Morton

Three Rules For Email List Growth

by Morgan Stewart, Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The first email program I worked on in 1999 attracted over 4 million subscribers in the first year. Getting people to sign up for email promotions and newsletters used to be easy. Start with a Web site, add some decent content, a “Sign up for our free newsletter” banner, and a form — and  voila! Subscribers!

Things have changed. It’s gotten more difficult. Still, many brands are driving considerable growth in the channel and consumers report using email more and more despite recurring speculation about email’s looming demise by misinformed pundits. It’s simply that the bar is always rising. Consumers understand how to play the email game. They know that brands can deliver really good content tailored to their personal interests, and they seek out those programs.
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To Interesting to Pass-Up: Drake Morton

Marketing: Leading the Way

by Gord Hotchkiss , Thursday, June 10, 2010

At last week’s national Business Marketing Association (BMA) conference in Chicago, three marketing executives from three well-known B2B brands each made an interesting comment:

“In the 3M scheme of things, marketing wasn’t even a second-tier priority. It was fourth or fifth tier at best. But in the future, marketing needs to lead 3M.” — Jeff Lavers,  Vice President of Marketing, Sales and Communications, 3M

“Emerson didn’t even have a CMO before me. They didn’t believe they needed one.”– Kathy Button Bell, CMO, Emerson

“We’re announcing a marriage at GE. We’re not sure how they’ll get along, but IT and marketing are about to become married. We’re combining the two functions.” — Beth Comstock, CMO, GE

Wow! Three iconic B2B brands, each rethinking the role of marketing within their organizations. Is this a wave?

Now you need to click on more: (more…)

You Need to Know: Drake Morton

Video Dominates Rich Media Tactics for

Online and Direct Marketing Professionals

March 27, 2010

According to the Unica State of Marketing 2010 study, video is the most adopted rich media marketing tactic today. Videos, created by marketing, rank first followed by streaming media, YouTube, podcasts, and ads within online videos represent the rich media tactics expected to be used most in the coming year. Year?over?year growth in the next 12 months for all these tactics is expected to be in the 20% range.

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 Good Read: Drake Morton

E-Mail Marketers Plan Advanced Campaigns

MARCH 18, 2010

Few are using sophisticated tactics

E-mail is a well-tested marketing tool, but rising volume and cluttered inboxes mean marketers must find ways to stay relevant to consumers.

The “Email Marketing Industry Census 2010” from Econsultancy and Adestra found that while most marketers worldwide were using basic segmentation techniques and cleansing their e-mail lists regularly, other advanced e-mail practices were followed by only a minority of respondents.

 

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Good Read: Drake Morton

The ‘Cadillac’ of Online Video Advertising

by Alex Rowland , Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Most online video advertising today sucks. It essentially comes in two main flavors: annoying (pre-rolls) and distracting (auto-play banners and overlays). And if you look at where money is being spent in online video advertising today, it is weighted heavily toward the annoying end of the spectrum.

The good news is that brands are evolving their approach to online video and experimenting more aggressively with longer-form videos that can stand on their own. In response, a new standard is taking shape that prescribes best practices to both the creation and distribution of these videos. You could call this standard the “Cadillac” of online video advertising.

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Need to Understand: Drake Morton

Digital to Account for 24% of

Marketing Spend 2010: Econsultancy

A new report by Econsultancy and ExactTarget, Marketing Budgets 2010: Effectiveness, Measurement and Allocation, finds that digital marketing will account for 24% of overall marketing spend this year. (more…)