Email Marketing RulesThe Best of the 2017 State of Email Survey Research Series
Posted on April 12, 2018
More than 3,500 marketers responded to Litmus’ 2017 State of Email Survey, which asked about all aspects of the email marketing program and powered a year-long series of reports, webinars, and blog posts.
As we gear up to release the findings of our 2018 State of Email Survey, it seems like a fitting time to review the major findings from last year’s three major reports:
This presentation highlights the most interesting and actionable insights from those reports, including…
- The best ways to improve your email production process
- The subscriber acquisition sources that most endanger your deliverability
- The best ways to make your email creative more effective
>> View the presentation on the Litmus Blog
The Last Word on March 2018
Posted on April 11, 2018
A roundup of email marketing articles, posts, and tweets you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & reports
Is the C-Suite Out of Touch with Email Marketing Performance? (MarTech Advisor)
Siri and Email: How Digital Assistants Can Play a Role in Email Marketing (Email on Acid)
Inactive Email Subscribers Worth 32% of Active (Target Marketing)
You Had Them at Hello: How to Retain Your Best Customers (Iterable)
Coherent Path Email Marketing Evaluation Identifies How Retailers Interact with New Shoppers After Their First Purchase (BusinessWire)
Insightful & entertaining tweets
6-7 years ago some of the social punditocracy screamed at us that email was dead (it wasn’t).
And now that social is dying (in a sense) some of the social punditocracy is suggesting to use email (next-to-last paragraph). https://t.co/QGG5ELQ5Cs
— Kevin Hillstrom (@minethatdata) March 8, 2018
“Please allow five days for your unsubscribe request to process” = please allow 5 seconds for me to mark your next email as SPAM.
— Tom Webster (@webby2001) March 12, 2018
Hmm. Given current events, probably woulda picked a different subject line if I were you, Ben from @SplashThat. #emailgeeks pic.twitter.com/cgUdUdl9Uc
— Matt Byrd (@mparkerbyrd) March 21, 2018
Capitalist evangelist @profgalloway speaking at @DLDConference #DLD18 a few weeks back. 22 mins well worth a watch >> https://t.co/cquUrSJFlc
— Jeremy 👁🐝Ⓜ (@jeremywaite) March 2, 2018
Noteworthy subject lines
FansEdge, 3/6 – Your Team Gear For St. Paddy’s Inside…
ThinkGeek, 3/10 – Happy Mario Day! Wahoo!
Petco, 3/3 – Year of me? I dig it.
FansEdge, 3/11 – Save BIG on College Gear! Shipped Free For The Tourney.
Lowe’s, 3/11 – Prep Your Yard for Spring
UncommonGoods, 3/26 – Toolbox Grills & Outdoor Wine Glasses
ToysRUs, 3/6 – Make Your Backyard THE Place to Play.
Anthropologie, 3/11 – This dress is like a vacation to Spain.
Banana Republic, 3/16 – How to get noticed: this cayenne coat
MAC Cosmetics, 3/11 – Fake a Full Night’s Rest with These M•A•C Must-Haves!
Brooks Brothers, 3/11 – Sleep better (with 1 less hour) in our PJs
LinkedIn, 3/15 – Would you upload your brain to the cloud?
ASPCA, 3/16 – Which Pet Toxins Made Our Top 10 List?
Moosejaw, 3/19 – FREE 2-Day on orders over $49. No Membership. No Kidding.
Gilt City, 3/24 – Your Weekend Jam: $10 iTunes Code with Any Purchase (3 Hours Only)
Gap, 3/20 – (Code GOBIG) You checked your inbox just in time
GrubMarket, 3/20 – Now Accepting Bitcoin at GrubMarket!
ThinkGeek, 3/16 – Guess what we call them? Sneakers!
Saks Fifth Avenue, 3/30 – Prints charming: check yes for spring
Wayfair, 3/7 – Our best wine fridges. Sip, sip, hooray!
Crate and Barrel, 3/16 – T-G-I-Clearance.
Adidas, 3/24 – NMD_R1, a continuation of NMD
ModCloth, 3/6 – So ‘minnie’ of you raved…
Fossil, 3/6 – Likes Not Included
Hayneedle, 3/16 – Easy updates under $199 *Heart eyes*
Gucci, 3/6 – Early Access: Debuting the Gucci Elton John Capsule Collection
Saks Fifth Avenue, 3/20 – Reese Witherspoon dishes on Draper James debut
RH, 3/6 – Watch the Film Featuring the Condos Brothers + Discover New Outdoor Collections
Barneys New York, 3/6 – Experience Virtual Reality at Barneys New York
New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
Emarsys: How to Prepare for the GDPR
I’m the EEC’s 2018 Email Marketer Thought Leader of the Year!
5 Embarrassing Subject Line Mistakes to Avoid
Holistic Email Marketing: The State of Retail Email Subscribe Forms in 2018
Executive Summary: How to Overcome the Biggest Email Marketing Challenges of 2018
Webinar Recording + Q&A: Email Tactics Customers Hate
3 Thank Yous from the EEC’s Thought Leader of the Year
Posted on April 9, 2018
I was privileged to be presented with the Email Experience Council’s 2018 Email Marketer Thought Leader of the Year Award at the Email Evolution Conference in New Orleans last week. For those of you who weren’t in attendance, I wanted to share my acceptance speech with you here—because you all deserve my thanks as well.
Honestly, I’ve been really overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude toward the industry and everyone I’ve worked with. In preparing the acceptance speech I delivered, I actually wrote two others: one that was too long for the time allotted, and another that I’m not sure I could deliver live without choking up. I wanted to share those as well.
But first, here’s the speech I delivered at the Email Evolution Conference…
>> Read the full post on the Litmus blog
Webinar: ‘The State of Email in 2018’ on Apr. 13
Posted on April 4, 2018
The email landscape is constantly changing, making it harder than ever to create high-performing email programs. New email clients and devices, unsubscribe functionality, and privacy laws will have an impact on your 2018 marketing program.
See how your plans stack up against some of the biggest challenges facing marketing teams and hear about the strategies and resources you need to tackle them head-on, including:
- How new devices and rendering changes can impact email design, putting brand reputation at risk
- Why inbox providers like Inbox by Gmail and Yahoo! Mail are making it easier for consumers to unsubscribe
- How changes in anti-spam and privacy regulations, like GDPR, are changing subscriber relationships
Invite your whole team—from the coders and copywriters to the VP of marketing—and learn how each of you can do your part to create innovative, on-brand campaigns that engage and delight your audience.
The State of Email in 2018: 5 Insights from the Litmus Team
Apr. 13, 2018
12pm ET / 9am PT / 5pm GMT
Your presenters:
Jason Rodriguez, Community & Product Evangelist, Litmus
Justine Jordan, VP of Marketing, Litmus
Chad S. White, Research Director, Litmus
Jaina Mistry, Email Marketing Specialist, Litmus
Kevin Mandeville, Product Manager for Builder, Litmus
Can’t make it on Apr. 13? Don’t worry. Register and you’ll receive the recording of the webinar.
Emarsys: How to Prepare for the GDPR
Posted on March 30, 2018
On May 25, 2018, the Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will go into effect. The new regulation is designed to “harmonize data privacy laws across Europe, to protect and empower all EU citizens’ data privacy, and to reshape the way organizations across the region approach data privacy.”
In this mini eBook, Emarsys pulls together GDPR advice from eight e-commerce, digital marketing, and data privacy experts, including myself. The different perspectives provide a great sense on what you should be doing in response to the biggest data protection overhaul of the century.
The themes covered include:
- Accountability for data management and privacy
- Finding what works for your email marketing program
- Regulation against ‘bad actors’ for more relevant brand experiences
- GDPR is an unknown
- More engaged, confident, advocacyinclined subscribers
- GDPR dramatically impacts personalized and predictive marketing
- Use the GDPR as an opportunity
>> Download the ebook from Emarsys
I’m the EEC’s 2018 Email Marketer Thought Leader of the Year!
Posted on March 22, 2018
The Direct Marketing Association’s Email Experience Council announced today that I’m their 2018 Email Marketer Thought Leader of the Year!
I’m so incredibly honored to be recognized by the DMA and my peers. I feel truly fortunate to have found such a vibrant and dynamic industry to be a part of. A journalist by training, I’m always hungry for change, whether it’s new technology, tactics, or people.
The email industry has given me all of those—particularly the chance to work with and learn from amazing people. A special thanks to my current and former coworkers at Litmus, Salesforce, ExactTarget, Responsys, Smith-Harmon, and the EEC. I would not be where I am without them.
I’m also grateful for everyone who has read Email Marketing Rules, attended one of my workshops or webinars, and read my blog posts and articles. Thank you for all of your support!
>> Read more about the award
5 Embarrassing Subject Line Mistakes to Avoid
Posted on March 15, 2018
Subject lines are incredibly powerful. That’s because they are one of the first things that subscribers look at when they receive an email and are trying to decide whether to open it. The subject line is second only to your sender name in importance, as you’d expect with a permission-based channel like email.
Marketers are clearly aware of the power of subject lines, but their efforts are often inconsistent and their results mixed. This line of text is a hotbed of mistakes that can distract and confuse subscribers and be embarrassing for the brand.
Let’s discuss five such subject line mistakes, sharing numerous real-world examples along the way. We’ll also provide advice on how to avoid making these mistakes.
>> Read the full post on the Litmus blog
Holistic Email Marketing: The State of Retail Email Subscribe Forms in 2018
Posted on March 14, 2018
With GDPR going into effect in May, many brands are having to make changes to their email sign-up processes to become compliant. But since you’re touching all of your subscriber acquisition sources anyway, why not optimize them so that they perform better?
The State of Retail Email Subscribe Forms in 2018 from Holistic Email Marketing and Pure360 will help you benchmark your email signup process and identify opportunities to improve. The report examines the subscription practices of 80 retailers, and includes advice and commentary from me and Komal Helyer of Pure360, Jordie van Rijn of Emailmonday, Jo Crawford of Mr. Porter, Kate Barrett of eFocus Marketing, Ian Rhodes of Ecommerce Growth Co., and Ben Davis of Econsultancy.
The report includes interesting findings on email signup form fields, signup calls-to-action, and much more. It includes some particularly novel advice around email consent when unchecked boxes are a requirement.
I encourage you to check it out. You’ll be sure to find a few tactics that will help you with compliance and boosting your list growth.
>> Download the free report from Holistic Email Marketing
The Last Word on February 2018
Posted on March 9, 2018
A roundup of email marketing articles, posts, and tweets you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & reports
The Seven Hidden Measures Of Email Deliverability (MediaPost)
Are You Distracted by the Wrong Email Metrics? (Iterable)
The six challenges every email marketer must face (Econsultancy)
Insightful & entertaining tweets
Need more marketing budget? Here’s how to get it – https://t.co/X7Ydo4iQC4 pic.twitter.com/eSZo0tS0aS
— Mathew Sweezey (@msweezey) February 20, 2018
3. Having tried to get Gmail actions included for one of my previous companies, I know you’re going to need serious volume to get it allowed.
4. And BTW, Google turned down my actions application with potentially 5 unspecified reasons – they didn’t tell us which.— Becs Rivett-Kemm (@becskr) February 20, 2018
5. And as an “ESP for stores”, we’re not going to be able to get blanket permission to get it allowed for all our stores if we are the sending entity.
6. Basically it’s just another pointless gimmick— Becs Rivett-Kemm (@becskr) February 20, 2018
Friendly reminder to always look at your subject lines on mobile 🙃🙃🙃 #happyvalentinesday #subjectlines pic.twitter.com/PDNmE9TOLl
— Email Snarketing (@EmailSnarketing) February 14, 2018
Dear companies,iIt’s 2018. Start hiring designers who don’t live in your city. It’s okay, we can work remotely, I promise. We’ll figure it out together! It’s impossible to have ALL DESIGNERS live in LA/SF/NY…you don’t pay us enough.
— ✨Lindsay G✨ (@linzlovesyou) February 1, 2018
Noteworthy subject lines
Nike, 2/9 – Show your Team USA colors
Nike, 2/13 – Chloe Kim: On top of the world
Fans Edge, 2/21 – Root For Olympic Gold In The Right Gear
Chili’s, 2/8 – $35 Valentine’s Deal for Two
ModCloth, 2/9 – You don’t have to wait for Valentine’s Day…
Victoria’s Secret, 2/13 – READY FOR TOMORROW?
Godiva Chocolatier, 2/13 – Need Last-Minute Valentine’s Gifts? Our Stores are Open Late!
Clinique, 2/5 – Share the love. FREE kits for two with purchase.
J.Crew, 2/10 – Your winter getaway inspiration, this way…
Hayneedle, 2/9 – Still hibernating? Time for a new bed!
Hayneedle, 2/24 – Indoor/outdoor dining faves – are you in or out?
Olive Garden, 2/21 – Get 10% off all online orders through Sunday!
White House Black Market, 2/6 – We Think This Pant Is Pretty Perfect…
Banana Republic, 2/8 – Zero Gravity Denim: comfortable, contouring, lifting.
Brooks Brothers, 2/10 – Stretch Advantage Chinos 3 ways
Horchow, 2/10 – Gold Tones: On-trend looks you want now
AutoAnything, 2/25 – The Results Are In….Meet Our 6 Best Sellers
Saks Fifth Avenue, 2/24 – Obsessed with beauty? Discover our Beauty Rewards program
Pier 1 Imports, 2/15 – You’re invited to Sip & Shop!
Michaels, 2/28 – Set an Alarm: 3PM – Close Bonus Coupon + Get in on the Slime Trend
Crutchfield, 2/8 – Our guides to headphones, wireless surround sound & more
Saks Fifth Avenue, 2/15 – What our Fashion Director is packing for London Fashion Week
Uncommon Goods, 2/5 – Because Six Stars Isn’t a Thing
ASPCA, 2/13 – Send Your Kitty-gram Today!
New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
Executive Summary: How to Overcome the Biggest Email Marketing Challenges of 2018
Posted on March 6, 2018
Do you know which email marketing challenges are holding your email marketing program back from achieving its full potential in 2018?
Litmus polled more than 600 marketers about eight major email marketing challenges—ranging from cross-channel coordination and strategy to data quality and metrics. But it’s not enough to simply recognize the challenges facing your email marketing program. You need a plan to address those challenges.
With this 11-page executive summary, you will…
- Understand the biggest challenges facing email teams
- See how challenges like poor coordination and inadequate tools impact email marketing success
- Get actionable advice on how to overcome each challenge
- Find detailed resources to share with your email team
>> Download the Executive Summary
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
