Email Marketing RulesBest Uses & Best Practices for Animated Gifs
Posted on January 19, 2021
Until there’s better support for animated PNGs, CSS animation, and video in email, animated gifs are the safest and easiest way to add motion to your campaigns. And once you’ve created an animated gif for an email, you can reuse it in social media and other digital marketing campaigns. We use them regularly with both our B2C and B2B clients to great success.
Animated gifs are effective for:
- Video previews
- Highlighting product options, such as different colors, patterns, sizes, or configurations
- Displaying an assortment of products
- Product demonstrations or service instructions, whether it’s showing how a dress flows or how a backhoe can remove a boulder
- Reveals, including before-and-afters and price/discount reveals
- Mobile app and software demonstrations or navigation instructions
- Conveying urgency (think: countdown clocks)
- Drawing attention to calls-to-action
- Atmospheric feel (think: fireworks, rain, falling snow)
- Humor
However, there are some concerns you should be aware of when using animated gifs. For a full discussion of those…
>> Read the entire post on Oracle’s Modern Marketing Blog
Coherent Path Podcast: Coherent Thoughts with Chad S. White
Posted on January 15, 2021
I join Coherent Path CEO James Glover on the Coherent Thoughts podcast to talk about:
- The biggest misconceptions around email
- The value of having universal holdout groups
- Focusing on maximizing the value of a subscriber, not the value of a campaign
- How lobbying by merchants can distract email marketing from serving subscribers
- How AI and machine learning can help marketers focus on their customers
- How email marketers can be more efficient and save time
- Avoiding graphical text
- What marketers need to do differently compared to 12 months ago
- Which brands are sending me emails that I look forward to receiving
- Whether personalization is ruining America and making us more polarized
For a discussion of each of these issues…
>> Listen to the Coherent Thoughts podcast on the Coherent Path blog
The Best Use Cases for Live Content in Emails
Posted on January 12, 2021
The second you send an email, the content in it starts to age. While some content is evergreen and maintains its relevance until whenever your subscribers open your email, other content has a limited lifespan, after which it’s considerably less useful—or completely useless. However, live content can make sure that your content is fresh no matter when your email is opened.
That’s because live content is populated at the time that an individual subscriber opens your email, not at the time that you send it. This not only ensures that your email content is timely, it also allows marketers to include content in their emails that would be difficult to include otherwise.
While image caching by Gmail and Yahoo Mail can sometimes short circuit live content, it’s still powerful. In fact, because of live content’s unique benefits, Oracle Marketing Consultants consider it to be a low adoption–high impact email marketing trend, which means that using live content offers not only significant benefits but also a competitive advantage.
Live content is most effective when used to display content that changes rapidly. Here is our list of the use cases where we think it delivers the biggest impact:
- Live countdown timers
- Account dashboards
- Real-time inventory
- Live poll results
- Device targeting
- Calendar invites
- Live sports scores, medal counts, etc.
- Local weather
- Local maps
- Social media feeds
In this blog post, Oracle Consulting’s Nick Cantu talks about each of those in turn.
>> Read the entire post on on Oracle’s Modern Marketing Blog
Webinar on Jan. 21: Modular Email Architecture
Posted on January 6, 2021
Classic email templates are becoming obsolete. They are difficult to maintain, don’t offer enough flexibility, make personalization cumbersome, and take too much time to turn into a final email campaign that’s ready to send. Because of all of those weaknesses, more companies are migrating to modular email architectures and reaping significant improvements.
In this webinar, we’ll explain:
- How modular email architecture differs from traditional email templates
- The benefits of having a modular email architecture
- The popularity and adoption rate of this way of creating emails
- What’s involved in building a modular email architecture
- How Oracle CX Marketing Consulting and our clients use modular email architecture
You’ll leave this webinar with a clear understanding of how modular email architecture can speed up your email production, improve your testing, increase your use of personalization, and more.
Modular Email Architecture: The Next-Generation Email Template
Date: Jan. 21, 2021
Time: 1pm ET/10 am PT
Duration: 1 hour
Your presenters:
Jason Witt, Senior Director of Creative Services, Oracle CX Marketing Consulting
Nick Cantu, Senior Art Director for Creative Services, Oracle CX Marketing Consulting
Chad S. White, Head of Research, Oracle CX Marketing Consulting (moderator)
>> Register for this free webinar
Email Deliverability Quarterly: Gmail’s Spam Rate Recalculation, CPRA Passes, and More
Posted on January 5, 2021
Email deliverability is constantly changing, as inbox providers adjust their filtering algorithms, blacklists tweak their listing criteria, and consumers evolve their definition of spam. That’s why even the best email marketing programs suffer deliverability problems sometimes.
To help you avoid trouble, the Email Deliverability Services team at Oracle CX Marketing Consulting shares the latest news and tips for what to watch out for in our latest Email Deliverability Quarterly.
In this post, Brian Sullivan, Clea Moore, and Shine Lyui explain how the following news and events will impact marketers’ email deliverability:
- Gmail recalculates their Spam Rate
- California expands CCPA with passage of CPRA
- Yahoo Mail supports AMP for Email
For the full discussion of each of these issues…
>> Read the full post on Oracle’s Modern Marketing Blog
The Last Word on December 2020
Posted on January 4, 2021
A roundup of email marketing articles, posts, and tweets you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & reports
The Future of Email Marketing & Marketing Automation | 2021 edition (EmailMonday)
Why Successful Marketers Always Invest in Email Marketing (Email on Acid)
What’s the optimal width for your email design? (Taxi for Email)
SparkPost Marketing Leader and Email Practitioner Surveys Reveal 72% of People Feel Overworked (MarTech Series)
The BOPIS Way: Consumers Are Shopping Online And Picking Up In-Store This Season (MediaPost)
Insightful & entertaining tweets
Too many email programs are not ready for all https in 2021. Get those SSL certs stat folks.
— 𝔸𝕃𝔼𝕏 (@alexcwilliams) December 17, 2020
Companies be tryna blend their unsubscribe button in with their regular font but imma find that bitch every time pic.twitter.com/EM97ZusXW0
— Cooch Hall (@guinep_paltrow) December 17, 2020
Had to be done #emailgeeks pic.twitter.com/nXjqTU6OIq
— Paris Fisher (@ParissFisher) December 19, 2020
Noteworthy subject lines
Walgreens, 12/10 – Questions about the COVID-19 vaccine? We’ve got answers.
T.J.MAXX, 12/31 – NEW IN: these gym outfits are GOALS
Dollar General, 12/31 – 🥂🎉 Countdown to 2021 at home.
NORDSTROM, 12/19 – Instant Outfit: NYE at home // Earn $50 to spend! Details inside.
Macy’s, 12/26 – After Christmas Sale = the perf time to use that Gift Card
NORDSTROM RACK, 12/26 – The Gift Yourself Event starts now!
Express, 12/26 – Time for self-gifting 🎁 40-60% off EVERYTHING
Zales, 12/26 – Didn’t Get Everything You Wanted For Christmas?
Everlane, 12/26 – The Goodbye 2020 Event Is Now Open
The Home Depot, 12/25 – Merry Christmas to All Our Doers 🎄
Zales, 12/25 – 🎄 Happiest Of Holidays From Zales! Open for Our Gift to You!
Burlington, 12/25 – Wishing you the merriest of Christmases
Saks Fifth Avenue, 12/25 – From all of us at Saks, happy holidays
Bed Bath & Beyond, 12/24 – 20% Off ENTIRE purchase w/Curbside! Shop our 🎁 gift guide + EXTENDED holiday hours! Plus, take these coupons!
Wegmans, 12/24 – Need Holiday Help? We’re Here Until 6pm!
Tractor Supply Company, 12/23 – Order Through Our App and Get Last Minute Gifts Before Christmas
Panera Bread, 12/23 – eGift cards make holiday gifting quick & easy.
Victoria’s Secret, 12/19 – Holiday Hint: eGift Cards guarantee the perfect present.
Patagonia, 12/23 – Let them choose
Applebee’s, 12/10 – 🎁 Buy a $50 Gift Card, Get a $10 Bonus!
Neiman Marcus, 12/20 – Need it by 12/25? Free shipping by Christmas + 60% off
Eddie Bauer, 12/20 – Last Day For Free Guaranteed Delivery By 12/24
Uncommon Goods, 12/15 – It’s not too late (yet) to ship holiday gifts
Bass Pro Shops, 12/11 – Great clothing ideas to finish up your Christmas shopping
Williams Sonoma, 12/17 – Re-create restaurant steaks at home + order now for Christmas delivery
Uncommon Goods, 12/9 – Cool, cute, and clever stocking stuffers for the win 🎄
Foot Locker, 12/15 – 🎁🎄 Gift slippers, shoe cleaner, bags + tons of other A1 stocking stuffers
Sears, 12/10 – GIFTS: Foodie 🥩 Techie 💻 Fitness Guru 🏋️ DIYer 🔧
Saks Fifth Avenue, 12/17 – What comedian Hasan Minhaj is gifting his family this year
Saks Fifth Avenue, 12/3 – Saks Chief Merchant Tracy Margolies shares her holiday picks
Moosejaw.com, 12/2 – 🚨 FINAL HOURS – for 50% Back in Moosejaw Rewards
Express Cyber Sale, 12/1 – BONUS DAY: Cyber Tuesday is here! Big Deals from $15
Crate and Barrel, 12/13 – How to create a cozy outdoor oasis this winter
Staples, 12/8 – Remote worker or learner? This deal’s for you.
Gap, 12/17 – Wear this puffer, save plastic bottles!
GapCash, 12/5 – You’ve got $40 in free GapCash waiting—use it on EVERYTHING!
Moosejaw.com, 12/31 – FREE $10 for doing almost nothing.
VS PINK, 12/31 — $1,000,000 to strengthen the mental health of young adults
New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
Direct Mail: The Most Overlooked Digital Marketing Channel
Managing Both Long-Term Inactive Subscribers and Never-Actives
Email Rendering Continues to Grow in Complexity, Wildly So at the Fringes
Cyber Monday Email Marketing Activity & Sales Continue Weakening Trend
Our Top Learnings from Launching the Oracle CX Marketing Consulting Newsletter
Early Holiday Promotions Cannibalize Email Marketing and Sales on Thanksgiving and Black Friday
A Safe and Happy Holidays!
Posted on December 25, 2020
Wishing you and yours a happy and safe holiday season!
Direct Mail: The Most Overlooked Digital Marketing Channel
Posted on December 22, 2020
Hear us out. Direct mail has changed. A lot of marketers think of it as static offset printed letters and postcards that are mass market. While that’s still the case for some direct mail, the channel as a whole has learned a lot of new tricks over the years. Today, with digital printing, smart presses, and integration with other channels, it can mirror much of the functionality we love in email marketing, including:
- Personalization of direct mail content, both images and copy
- Individually attributable results, so a campaign’s return on investment can be calculated
- Segmentation, so direct mail pieces go to people who are mostly likely to respond
- Automation to send the right direct mail pieces to the right people at the right time
- Omnichannel orchestration to take direct mail out of its silo and integrate it with broader cross-channel efforts
In this post, Oracle Consulting’s Jonathan McClure talks about each of those in turn…
>> Read the full post on Oracle’s Modern Marketing Blog
Managing Both Long-Term Inactive Subscribers and Never-Actives
Posted on December 15, 2020
Subscriber engagement is one of the most important factors that determine your email deliverability. That not only means that senders need to use tactics and strategies that increase engagement, such as good email design and targeting, but they need to closely manage their inactive subscribers. These are the subscribers who aren’t opening or clicking, which hurts how engaged your subscribers appear in the eyes of inbox providers.
When developing a plan for managing them, it’s critical to ensure that you have a plan for both kinds of inactive subscribers:
- Long-term inactives are subscribers who used to be active but haven’t opened or clicked an email in a long time
- Never-actives are subscribers who are new to your list and haven’t opened or clicked a single email since they signed up
Both pose a risk to your engagement rates, as well as both being a spam trap risk. In this blog post, Daniel Deneweth, Oracle CX Marketing Consulting’s Head of Email Deliverability Services, looks at each one and talk about how to manage them.
>> Read the full post on Oracle’s Modern Marketing Blog
Email Rendering Continues to Grow in Complexity, Wildly So at the Fringes
Posted on December 8, 2020
The idea of a pixel-perfect email rendering across every email client died a long time ago. The challenge for most of the past decade has been to achieve platform-perfect rendering, where an email renders up to the fullest capabilities of a particular inbox provider.
But even that is an increasingly tall order for four main reasons:
- The traditional landscape of email clients is still quite expansive
- The viewing options selected by email recipients
- The decision of senders to use email content and code that has limited support or inconsistent implementations
- The growth of browserless email clients with limited rendering functionality and conversion ability
Let’s talk about each of them in turn, starting with…
>> Read the entire post on Oracle’s Modern Marketing Blog
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
Features
