Email Marketing Rules8 Lessons Learned from Giving 100+ Webinars
Posted on December 14, 2021
With the pandemic shutting down live conferences for the better part of the past two years, B2B marketers have leaned hard on virtual events. And as the number of webinars has risen, so too have people’s expectations. That’s a challenge because there are so many ways big and small to mess them up.
Based on the 100-plus webinars I’ve done, plus the hundreds more I’ve attended, here are my tips for improving the webinar experience…
The Last Word on November 2021
Posted on December 3, 2021
A roundup of email marketing articles, posts, and tweets you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & reports
Holiday Apple Pie: MPP Is Having An Impact At A Bad Time (MediaPost)
Micro-Conversions: What They Are and Why They Matter (MarketingProfs)
Email Shopping Reimagined (Postmaster @ Yahoo & AOL)
When Cookies Turn To Toast: First-Party Data Will Be The New Jam (MediaPost)
What You Need to Know about the Consumer Data Protection Act (Trendline)
Brand Romance: Most Marketers Think They Have a Distinct Tone of Voice (MediaPost)
Mail Privacy Protection Seemingly Undermined by Apple Watch (MacRumors)
Four Techniques for ‘Story-Splitting’ Your Marketing [Infographic] (MarketingProfs)
Insightful & entertaining tweets
It’s helpful when cold emailers send you subject lines like “”Holy Amazeballs!”” so you can identify and flag as spam more quickly. 💌
— Lauren Meyer (@LaurenEmailGeek) November 9, 2021
Every time a bell rings, an email gets its wings. 🔔📨 #emailgeeks #BlackFridayDeals pic.twitter.com/qIiCfN8747
— April Mullen (@aprildmullen) November 22, 2021
Noteworthy subject lines
Uncommon Goods, 11/24 – 🎅 Order early: Santa’s supply chain’s iffy (three reindeer just quit 🦌)
REI, 11/7 – Our Top Gift Picks Are in Stock… For Now
Bed Bath & Beyond, 11/5 – 12 joyful ways to shop faster & easier this holiday
Walgreens, 11/20 – Curious about boosters? We did the legwork so you don’t have to
JCPenney, 11/1 – Early access: Black Friday Ad
The Home Depot, 11/1 – BLACK ⭐ FRIDAY ⭐ PRICES
Nordstrom, 11/4 – Black Friday Deal are on now!
Macy’s Black Friday, 11/11 – Shop early, save early. Black Friday Early Access is on now!
Zales, 11/12 – It’s Go Time. Black Friday Starts…NOW!
Crate & Barrel, 11/14 – Early Black Friday is ON. 🎁
Office Depot, 11/26 – 🔔 STORES ARE NOW OPEN FOR BLACK FRIDAY 🔔
Express Black Friday, 11/26 – 40-50% OFF EVERYTHING + 100s of Style Steals
Gap Black Friday, 11/26 – That *Black Friday* feeling! 40%–50% OFF + EXTRAS 🎁
Applebee’s Grill & Bar, 11/26 – Flash Sale: Buy a gift card, get 2 $10 bonus cards
IKEA, 11/18 – Black Friday is going green
JCPenney, 11/29 – It’s time! Cyber Days starts now
Office Depot Cyber Monday, 11/29 – 🖨️ 💻 🪑 📝 ☕ 🎁
DICK’S Sporting Goods, 11/1 – Our holiday gift guide is here! Plus, other great deal ➡️
Tractor Supply Company, 11/4 – Shop Our Holiday Gift Guide Today
Zales, 11/18 – 🎁 Perfectly Personalized Gifts
Petco, 11/4 – Get your dog in the holiday spirit 🎄 🐾
Michaels, 11/1 – You’ve uncovered *these* perfect and on-trend trees! 🎄
Bed Bath & Beyond, 11/18 – Introducing H for Happy, our festive new holiday collection
The Home Depot, 11/11 – Today & Every Day: Our Commitment to Veterans
Target, 11/11 — Hip, hip, hooray—it’s Disney+ Day 🥳
Crate & Barrel, 11/12 – Everything you need for an easy, beautiful Hanukkah 🕎
IKEA, 11/22 – Chad, welcome back to Host Masters!
Burlington, 11/5 – Stress-free saving for all your hosting needs
Olive Garden, 11/18 – The Answer to Your #HostingGoals
Big Lots, 11/22 – Get Turkey Day ready quick! Order In-Store Pickup!
Williams Sonoma, 11/7 – Sharp deals on knives for all your Thanksgiving prep
Williams Sonoma, 11/9 – Introducing the Williams Sonoma Recipes App
Bed Bath & Beyond, 11/9 – ICYMI: 5 reasons you’ll love our 5-star app ⭐
Gap Friends & Family, 11/9 – FLANNEL SZN
The Nuts.com Family, 11/5 – PB&J? How About AB&J?
Bass Pro Shops, 11/12 – Join us next weekend for the grandest tournament in fishing history!
Starbucks, 11/29 – Starbucks for Life is almost here!
IKEA, 11/5 – A new start for old IKEA furniture
Burlington, 11/22 – Donate a coat and get 10% off your purchase
Express, 11/4 – Introducing: Power of Mentorship 📺
VS PINK, 11/4 – Lana Candor for UNWRAPPED
Zales, 11/9 – Discover Serena’s Favorite Gifts
Uncommon Goods, 11/12 – 📣 This one’s not about shopping: a message from Dave, our founder
New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
The Evolving Use of the Email Snooze
ZeroBounce: How to Make Your Holiday Emails Stand Out
5 Best Practices to Make Your Customer Experiences Truly Mobile-Friendly
Webbula: 2022 Email Marketing Predictions from the Email Experts
13 Inclusive Design Changes to Increase Your Digital Marketing Engagement
Posted on December 1, 2021
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA), and other laws forced companies to make their stores, marketing campaigns, and other aspects of their business more accessible to people with disabilities. However, many brands began to realize that huge portions of their customer base benefit from such accommodations.
The understanding that people with permanent, temporary, and situational challenges all benefit from design changes has fueled a transition from accessibility, where post-production accommodations are made based on the exception, to an embrace of inclusive design, a pre-planned intention to be more user-friendly toward everyone.
To engage a broader audience, consider incorporating these inclusive design best practices into your marketing campaign planning…
The Evolving Use of the Email Snooze
Posted on November 29, 2021
The email snooze began humbly as a way to reduce unsubscribes during brands’ highest volume times of the year. Positioned before “unsubscribe” on the unsubscribe page, the snooze option would let a subscriber pause their subscription for, say, 30 days or until the end of the selling season, such as the holiday season for retailers. Then, when the peak season was over and the risk of unsubscribes decreased, the option was removed.
However, the email snooze has evolved recently from a purely seasonal role-player to a year-round contributor to reduce opt-outs and increase engagement. In this post, Oracle Marketing Consulting’s Jeannine Pine talks about both of the ways that marketers are evolving their use of the snooze.
How to Define Active Email Audiences as Opens Depreciate + Priorities for a Mail Privacy Protection World On-Demand Webinar
Posted on November 22, 2021
Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) will likely only be the first mailbox provider to flood marketers’ systems with fake opens, obscuring real ones. Welcome to the Age of Email Open Depreciation. Although far from perfect, opens were email marketers’ most frequent signal of engagement, generally clocking in at about eight times the number of clicks. As such, marketers relied on the metric to drive a range of activities. For example, you can use email opens to define active subscribers for targeting and inactive subscribers for suppression.
While email clicks can fill the void left by opens when it comes to send time optimization and subject line optimization, email audience selection requires a much broader approach. Going forward, the best way for you to define a subscriber as active or inactive will entail looking at both their activities as a subscriber and their activities as a customer across other channels.
To do that successfully will require brands to look at the right customer activities and use appropriate lookback windows for both existing subscribers and new ones. We provide an overview of these issues, including some helpful visuals, in this on-demand webinar and also discuss each of those issues in more detail in this post.
>> Read the entire post and watch the on-demand webinar on Oracle’s Modern Marketing Blog
ZeroBounce: How to Make Your Holiday Emails Stand Out
Posted on November 16, 2021
The holiday season can be overwhelming for email marketers. Most B2C marketers create and send considerably more campaigns and they’re full of worries. In addition to fearing that their increased email volumes will trigger spam filters, they worry about whether their emails will stand out in crowded holiday inboxes.
To gather the best advice on creating standout holiday campaigns, ZeroBounce spoke with me and 11 other email experts. My advice is centered on simplicity.
“When someone is subscribed to your promotional emails during the holidays, then you’ve already won half the battle for their attention. You’re already on their mind and under consideration,” I say.
“Contrary to what you might think, the next step in getting their attention isn’t something outlandish. During the holiday season, when people are extra busy and getting more emails than at any other time of the year, simple messages win.”
To read all of my advice, plus the great recommendations from the other contributors…
5 Best Practices to Make Your Customer Experiences Truly Mobile-Friendly
Posted on November 12, 2021
Nearly every site is now responsive, and most emails are, too. But just because a brand is using responsive design doesn’t mean that they’re providing a mobile-friendly experience.
Responsive design functionality doesn’t take the place of mobile-friendly design principles. Brands need to use them both. Here are some easy-to-implement mobile-friendly best practices that companies should be following for their websites, emails, and other mobile content:
- Ensure that fonts are a legible size
- Make buttons and links finger-friendly
- Be selective about what elements are linked
- Use a single-column design
- Keep inclusive design principles in mind
For more on how to execute on each of those best practices…
Webbula: 2022 Email Marketing Predictions from the Email Experts
Posted on November 9, 2021
While marketers are deep into holiday planning and execution, as soon as the holiday madness ends, marketers will shift to making new year preparations. To get a sense of where email marketing is headed in 2022, Webbula reached out to me and 10 other email marketing experts:
- Shmuel Hershberg, Shyn Media
- Komal Helyer, Pure360
- Jeanne Jennings, Email Optimization Shop, Only Influencers
- Chris Marriott, Email Connect
- Lauren Meyer, SocketLabs
- Kath Pay, Holistic Email Marketing, Author
- Ryan Phelan, RPE Origin
- Tejas Pitkar, Netcore Cloud
- Dela Quist, Alchemy Worx
- Jenna Tiffany, Let’s Talk Strategy, Author
My predictions focus on Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection and the depreciation of third-party cookies. To see our predictions for the year ahead…
The Last Word on October 2021
Posted on November 4, 2021
A roundup of email marketing articles, posts, and tweets you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & reports
The Trust Delusion: Consumers Have Less Faith in Brands Than Brands Think They Do (Email Insider)
8 Tips to Turn Subscribers into Loyalists (Only Influencers)
Post-Purchase Emails: 12 Ways to Drive Customer Loyalty in Ecommerce (Sendinblue)
Movable Ink Research: Analysis of iOS 15 Content Caching (Movable Ink)
The Best Fonts for Email: A Guide for Developers and Designers (Email on Acid)
Happy 50th Birthday, Email! (MAAWG)
Insightful & entertaining tweets
Chart of the Day:@Apple’s advertising business has more than tripled its market share in the six months after it introduced privacy changes to iPhones that obstructed rivals, including @Facebook and @Google, from targeting ads at consumers.
*A Thread* pic.twitter.com/vhFFXOzHGa
— Patrick McGee (@PatrickMcGee_) October 17, 2021
@SYSCAbout — I code 📧 4 a living + I must say that your double opt-in message’s CTA button = #chefskiss
👌👌👌#emailgeeks pic.twitter.com/02X4M0grQ0— Courtney in Auckland 🇺🇸➡️🇳🇿 (@courtnEMAIL) October 5, 2021
Hooooly cow, event organizers! Please note that one email reminder per session during a 3-day virtual conference is too much. 28 emails in total since Monday. My inbox hurts. 🤕
— Lauren Meyer (@LaurenEmailGeek) October 8, 2021
18+ years since founding BrightWave & 2+ years since the Ansira acquisition,I am stepping away to take time off. Thank u to the great teammates, clients, partners & awesome #atlanta & #emailgeeks communities for the amazing journey. It’s been an honor & a lot of fun! Onward⬆️
— Simms Jenkins (@SimmsJenkins) October 4, 2021
Noteworthy subject lines
Uncommon Goods, 10/5 – 🏃 Get these back-in-stock gifts before they sell out again.
Nordstrom, 10/22 – Our top tips for holiday shopping success
Sears, 10/14 – It’s not too early 🌲 to shop for the holidays
Macy’s, 10/22 – Gifts galore! Prep for the holidays (they’re closer than you think) with the perfect presents
CVS Photo, 10/24 – Up to 60% Off Photo Cards – Get A Head Start For The Season!
Crate & Barrel, 10/20 – FIRST LOOK | Holiday gift guide 🎁
Banana Republic, 10/27 – Sneak Peek: Our Holiday Collection
Eddie Bauer, 10/18 – Your 2021 Holiday Gift Guide Is Here!
Best Buy Black Friday, 10/19 – Black Friday Deals start early this year.
Zales, 10/28 – Woohoo 🥳 Early Black Friday Specials Are Here
Belk, 10/24 – Black. Friday. NOW! 🙌 19.99 3-piece bedding sets
Williams Sonoma, 10/18 – We could use some holiday cookies right now…
Kohl’s, 10/15 – Welcome the holidays into your home.
Neiman Marcus, 10/20 – Hosting for the holidays?
Kohl’s, 10/9 – $10 off + Home Sale savings to get your space fall ready.
IKEA, 10/18 – Chad, set the table for a memorable meal
Crate & Barrel, 10/1 – Get cozy in the kitchen with new fall recipes and our fave products.
Michaels, 10/17 – You scored fifty percent off Halloween to decorate your space—or make it haunted! ✨
Petco, 10/14 – What will your dog be for Halloween?
ModCloth, 10/17 – 😱 Yikes! Halloween is almost gone! 😱
CVS Pharmacy, 10/7 – COVID-19 Booster Now Available for Select Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine Recipients.
Big Lots, 10/25 – We’re hiring! Check out the perks!
Burlington, 10/5 – COATS ❗ COATS ❗ COATS ❗
Bass Pro Shops, 10/25 – Cold weather ahead? Columbia has you covered.
Nordstrom Rack, 10/9 – Up to 40% off UGG® for women, men & kids
Gap, 10/15 – Comfy, cuddly, cozy x infinity
IKEA, 10/8 – Chad, do you like gaming? Then you will love this.
Office Depot, 10/20 – Windows 11 is here! Time to upgrade
Express, 10/19 – What @sruthijayadevan wears to feel confident
VS PINK, 10/20 – @gianninagibelli & others in our signature styles
Gap, 10/25 – We’re celebrating Giving Tuesday – with Katy Perry
Crate & Barrel, 10/5 – NEW LEANNE FORD | the collab you love is back (!)
Patagonia, 10/20 – Shirts with purpose
Panera Bread, 10/20 – A climate positive future. 💚
New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
Litmus: 2021 State of Email Report
Alchemy Worx: 2021 Consumer Survey on Shopping Sentiment & Email Behavior
Creating Internal Digital Marketing Benchmarks that Work
Webbula: Email Marketing in 5-10 Years
How to Simplify Your Martech Stack: 3 Approaches
Why B2B Brands Face Unique—and Sometimes Self-Inflicted—Email Deliverability Challenges
Best Days to Send Email Marketing Campaigns This Holiday Season
The Fold in the Inbox: Hard Line, Soft Line, or Imaginary Line?
10 Common Email Marketing Mistakes that Are Easy to Fix
Posted on November 3, 2021
Email marketing is complicated. Deliverability is governed by numerous factors and subfactors. The potential for email rendering problems is mind-bogglingly large. And email technology and tactical issues continue to evolve. However, not everything in email is complex.
Some aspects are quite simple—and yet some companies still regularly struggle with them. In most cases, they’re probably just unaware of the problem or just how easy the fix is. In other cases, there has been turnover on their email team and expertise in the channel’s nuances has been lost. Whatever the reason, here are 10 common email marketing mistakes that are relatively simple to fix…
Welcome! Email Marketing Rules is your guide to understanding the best practices of this complex, often misunderstood channel as you craft the best executions for your brand. Every week, we’ll explore strategies and tactics, discuss tips and inspiration, and dig into industry news and trends.
Chad S. White
Head of Research
Oracle Digital Experience Agency
Author of Email Marketing Rules and nearly 4,000 articles about digital and email marketing
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