Watch ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Best’ Webinar

If you missed my webinar, “The Good, the Bad, and the Best: Practices for a Post-Wild West Email Marketing World” earlier this week, the slides (with notes) and a recording of the hour-long webinar are now available. View the slides on SlideShare >> Watch the webinar recording (registration required) >> Adopting email…

Get Inspired by ‘The Best of the Email Swipe File’

A swipe file is a record of your top-performing campaigns that you return to for learnings and ideas. It was this concept that inspired us to create the Email Swipe File on Pinterest, where we share the emails and landing pages that excite and impress us. We’ve already shared nearly 150 examples…

Things I Would and Would Not Apologize For

Considering the complexities and high volume of our industry, mistakes are practically unavoidable. But just because you’ve made a mistake doesn’t mean an apology email is necessary. Most brands won’t send a single apology email over the course of a year, and in recent years less than one-tenth of one percent of…

Once Again, I Double-Dog Dare You!

In 2008 and 2010 I double-dog dared marketers to experiment with some little-used, out-of-the-box, perhaps even weird tactics. Some of those tactics are not so uncommon anymore while others are just as rare as they ever were. Since it’s been more than three years and email marketing is all about experimentation, I…

Email Marketing Rules Is Now on Pinterest

You can now find every image posted on EmailMarketingRules.com on Pinterest. Just visit the Email Marketing Rules pinboard or click on any image in any of my posts and you’ll be taken directly to the pin on Pinterest. Also be sure to check out ExactTarget’s other pinboards including: Email Swipe File Facebook…

Promoting Sister Brands without Violating Permission

If you operate more than one brand, it can be tempting to abuse an email opt-in at one of your brands by extending it to your other brands. Because of the dangers of increased spam complaints, the vast majority of brands wisely resist this temptation and many smartly use their email programs…

Join My Webinar on Email Marketing Best Practices on May 28

The Good, the Bad and the Best: Practices for a Post-Wild West Email Marketing World Adopting email marketing best practices isn’t about ticking boxes. It’s about execution. Join me on Tuesday, May 28, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. (EDT), as I discuss a variety of best practices and share real-world examples of brands…

‘Email Marketing Rules’ Now Available in Paperback with Foreword by Jay Baer

My book on email marketing best practices, Email Marketing Rules, is now available in paperback with a Foreword by Jay Baer, the President of Convince & Convert, author of Youtility, and co-author of The NOW Revolution. Jay is that rare individual that understands how social media, email marketing and content marketing all…

Nothing in Email Marketing Is ‘Set It and Forget It’

If ever there was a channel where “set it and forget it” thinking doesn’t work, email marketing is that channel. Things are always changing and marketers have to keep up. My favorite indicator that marketers are falling behind is old copyright dates. While some brands now automatically update these dates, you may…

Attracting 1-Year-Old and 113-Year-Old Subscribers

Brands spend a lot of time scrutinizing their checkout process, whether they’re retailers or nonprofits accepting donations. They know that unnecessary friction in the process means frustration for their visitors, lower conversions and fewer repeat purchases. That same scrutiny should be applied to email signup processes since an email subscription is worth…