Email Marketing RulesOutstanding Email Marketing Examples of Defensive Design
Posted on August 8, 2017
Defensive design consists of design techniques that allow an email to communicate its message effectively when images are blocked.
The most common defensive design tactics include:
- HTML text, as opposed to graphical text that embedded in images
- ALT text, which is text that appears in the place of your images when they are blocked
- Styled ALT text, where you change the default size, color, style, and other attributes of your ALT text
- Background colors that you apply to table cells
- Mosaic pixel art, where you use background colors on elaborate table cell structures to create 8-bit art style images
This slide deck shares real-world examples of how to use these tactics to improve the email experience for those whose email clients block the images in their emails and those who choose to disable the images in the emails they receive.
The Last Word on July 2017
Posted on August 1, 2017
A roundup of email marketing articles, posts, and tweets you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & reports
Why no one has ‘re-invented’ email yet (Mashable)
Thou Shalt Not Rent Email Lists: An Interview with Adestra’s Ryan Phelan (MediaPost)
Amazon sent nearly 700 million promotion emails on Prime Day (Digital Commerce 360)
US shoppers are OK sharing data so retailers can improve personalization, but they have limits (Digital Commerce 360)
Why CMOs Never Last (Harvard Business Review)
Nearly Half of Consumers Feel They Receive Too Many Marketing Emails (Inc.)
Insightful & entertaining tweets
Oh man, this is not how you want to welcome new subscribers. #emailgeeks @lanebryant (screenshot from web version; both have the img prob) pic.twitter.com/5h7M6X2yyC
— Amanda Soehnlen (@asoehnlen) July 6, 2017
if Trump gets taken down by email, ya’ll need to stop with the “email is dead” bs
— Elliot Ross (@iamelliot) July 11, 2017
To whom it may concern: I will NEVER be interested in purchasing an email list, even if you say it’s “permission based” and “targeted”
— email snarketing (@EmailSnarketing) July 11, 2017
In an effort to avoid endless nurture streams, just going to start replying to cold sales emails with “sorry, i died”
— Brian Whalley (@bwhalley) July 17, 2017
Me when someone not in #emailmarketing tells me millennials don’t open email. #emailgeeks pic.twitter.com/txRAlsER3T
— Jen Capstraw (@jencapstraw) July 19, 2017
The best time to call me is email.
— Lauren Gallo (@MissGallo) July 24, 2017
When web developers tackle email for the first time… #emailgeeks pic.twitter.com/mfYPFi28rE
— Ted Goas (@TedGoas) July 26, 2017
Noteworthy subject lines
Sony Electronics, 7/11 — Big Sony Savings this Amazon Prime Day | The Clock is Ticking
MAC Cosmetics, 7/11 — PRIME Your Makeup With These Essentials. Plus Free 2-Day Shipping!
Clinique, 7/11 — Prime picks: 4 FREE with purchase.
Jos. A. Bank, 7/11 — Super Tuesday: $199 Summer Suits & 2/$79 Traveler Dress Shirts
GapKids, 7/1 — Now open: The Uniform Shop
Neiman Marcus, 7/30 — Back-to-school prep starts now
RH, 7/2 — The Salvaged Wood Collection. Watch the Film Featuring Timothy Oulton.
Banana Republic, 7/ 26 — Introducing the new Rapid Movement Chino
Lands’ End, 7/20 — Our sunscreen won’t wash off + 40% off
Barney New York, 7/6 — 8 Essentials For Summer Skin
Nike, 7/29 — 5 Sandals for Summer
ToysRUs & BabiesRUs, 7/13 — Don’t Forget: July 15 is Geoffrey’s Day!
Hasbro, 7/26 — Join the FANmily at Hascon
Cold Stone Creamery, 7/1 — Hungry for Shark Week?
Wayfair, 7/15 — Looking at a lackluster space? This email is for you
The Container Store, 7/16 — Which Side Will You Choose?
ASPCA, 7/21 — Is Breaking the Window Breaking the Law?
Drs. Foster and Smith, 7/17 — Free Shipping No Minimum – Today Only! Use Code JULYFREE
JCPenney, 7/30 — Night owls, unite! Extra 30% off until 2 a.m.
Victoria’s Secret, 7/9 — How Josephine does the gym thing
Feeding America, 7/13 — A “lunch-shaming roll call”
NFLshop, 7/21 — Legendary Career = Legendary Gear
Woot, 7/26 — Our legal team said it was ok to send this…
Tiny Prints, 7/11 — Come Explore Our New Home!
Threadless, 7/11 — Your ideas need an online store.
Carnival Cruise Line, 7/22 — Your Vacation Snapshot: #EnsenadaMexico
Banana Republic, 7/17 — We love how YOU style this shirt
Ann Taylor, 7/17 — !!!!!!! YES !!!!!!!
New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
Sending Remarkable Email: A SendGrid Interview with Chad White
How to Nurture Email Marketing Innovation
Infographic: 2017 Shopping Cart Abandonment Email Trends
Report: 2017 State of Email Deliverability
I’m a Who in Phrasee’s ‘Who to Follow’ Series
Many Marketers Feel Under-Supported and Disrespected
The 5 Most Problematic Subscriber Acquisition Sources
The Marketing Book Podcast: “Email Marketing Rules” by Chad S. White
Webinar Recording + Q&A: Building Successful Email Workflows
Sending Remarkable Email: A SendGrid Interview with Chad White
Posted on July 26, 2017
The great folks at SendGrid have been longtime supporters of my books, so I was extra thrilled to sit down and chat with SendGrid CMO Scott Heimes about the 3rd Edition of “Email Marketing Rules.” During our chat, we discussed:
- Our mutual background in journalism
- What inspired me to write the 1st Edition of “Email Marketing Rules”
- What has changed from the 1st to the 3rd Edition
- How marketers can fulfill the Hierarchy of Subscriber Needs
- How brands can create remarkable email experiences
For all of the details,…
>> Read the interview on the SendGrid blog
How to Nurture Email Marketing Innovation
Posted on July 25, 2017
It’s not enough just to find and retain talented email marketers. To create successful email marketing programs, brands also need to create an environment that fosters email marketing innovation, so you can avoid falling behind.
Brands can do that through a variety of methods. Litmus spoke to email veterans at Adobe, Barkley, RAPP, Shaw + Scott, and Yes Lifecycle Marketing about this issue. They had some great advice for structural and operational changes that support email marketing innovation, including:
- Making data-driven decisions
- Having a culture of testing
- Rewarding performance increases
- Fostering accountability and ownership
- Encouraging inter-departmental collaboration
For all the details on each of these tactics,…
>> Read the full post on the Litmus blog
Infographic: 2017 Shopping Cart Abandonment Email Trends
Posted on July 24, 2017
The majority of online shoppers abandon their shopping baskets. Some return on their own and convert, and some will never convert no matter what. However, some of those cart abandoners benefit from a nudge from a well-timed and smartly messaged shopping cart abandonment email.
Whether you currently have a cart abandonment email or not, you probably wonder exactly what you should put in it and how quickly after abandonment should you send it.
Multi-year joint research between Litmus and Salesforce Marketing Cloud answers all of your questions about the trends around:
- The post-trigger delay in sending these emails
- The use of a series of cart abandonment emails
- Highlighting the item(s) abandoned in the email and its subject line
- The recommendation of alternative products
- The inclusion of seasonal messaging
We summarize our findings in an infographic that we hope will help inform you on how you build out your shopping cart abandonment email so it effectively serves your customers and generates stellar returns.
>> View the infographic on the Litmus Blog
Report: 2017 State of Email Deliverability
Posted on July 21, 2017
Email marketers can be successful in spite of deliverability problems, but why take the hard path? Make your life easier by avoiding the behaviors that lead to trouble in the first place.
After surveying more than 3,500 marketers, we’ve identified the practices that clearly lower email marketers’ risks of being blocked or blacklisted, as well as those that absolutely raise those risks—sometimes dramatically.
In our first annual State of Email Deliverability report, we look at the deliverability ramifications of marketers’:
- Subscriber acquisition sources
- Permission practices
- Authentication
- List-unsubscribe and encryption usage
- Deliverability and list hygiene tools
- Inactivity management
- Deliverability monitoring and analytics
The 29-page ebook explores each of these findings and much more, with 25 charts providing data-based evidence of current practices and trends that impact email deliverability.
Use the results to benchmark your own acquisition, list hygiene, and deliverability practices, and to identify opportunities to improve your program. Share this report’s findings with your company’s leadership to help advocate for more resources or changes in practices.
>> Download the free report
I’m a Who in Phrasee’s ‘Who to Follow’ Series
Posted on July 20, 2017
I’m excited to be the latest to be interviewed for Phrasee’s fun ‘Who to Follow’ Series. We talk about the new edition of my book, Email Marketing Rules, and where email marketers go wrong with metrics and subject lines. We also talk about what the future holds for email marketers and how AI will impact their jobs.
In addition to all that serious stuff, I reveal a little trivia about myself, including:
- My dream job as a child
- My favorite food
- My guilty pleasure
- The story behind my kids’ super-awesome middle names
Go for the valuable insights, stay for the Chad trivia.
>> Read the interview on the Phrasee blog
Many Marketers Feel Under-Supported and Disrespected
Posted on July 12, 2017
While most brands have been steadily increasing their investments in their email marketing programs, many email marketers don’t feel adequately supported. That’s unfortunate for both marketers and brands, because resourcing levels are highly predictive of email program success.
But the concerns go beyond email marketers just feeling under-supported. In some cases, they feel disrespected by the management at their companies. Too many have been forced to do things in their email program that they strongly disagree with, and a shocking number personally know someone who has been fired over an email marketing mistake.
In exploring this issue, we polled marketers about how well resourced their email programs are, how well staffed they are, whether they’d been forced by management to do things they strongly disagreed with, and how well leadership at their company understands email marketing. Plus, we spoke with marketing experts from Adesta, Email Optimization Shop, Merkle, and Shaw + Scott to try to better understand the causes of these problems and how they can be fixed.
>> Read the full post on the Litmus blog
The 5 Most Problematic Subscriber Acquisition Sources
Posted on July 11, 2017
Brands can attract new subscriber through a variety of sources that range from closely aligned with their operations to completely unassociated. Some of these subscriber acquisition sources are inherently much riskier and therefore less valuable than others.
In our 2017 State of Email Survey, we asked marketers about their use of 20 different subscriber acquisition sources, as well as whether their email program had been blocked or blacklisted in the past 12 months. We identified the most problematic subscriber acquisition sources by looking at which ones were used by email programs that were blocked or blacklisted and those that weren’t.
The subscriber acquisition sources that were at least 20% more likely to be used by email programs that were blocked or blacklisted include:
- Email list rental
- Purchased email list
- Promotion of signup via direct mail, catalog, etc.
- Co-registration
- Lead generation form for ebooks, reports, etc.
Surprised by some of those? Us, too. So we examined what might be going wrong with some of those subscriber acquisition sources and whether they can be fixed.
>> Read the full post on the Litmus blog
The Last Word on June 2017
Posted on July 10, 2017
A roundup of email marketing articles, posts, and tweets you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & reports
Why Mark Zuckerberg Was Wrong About Email (Inc.)
Growth in Digital Users in US (The Next 10,000 Hours)
How the top 100 US e-retailers are using welcome emails (and what marketers can learn) (ClickZ)
Government Responds to CMA with Suspension of CASL Private Right of Action (Canadian Marketing Association)
The Art of Emotional Honesty in Email Marketing (IBM)
B2C Marketing: How Airstream used lifestyle content to nurture top-of-the-funnel customers (MarketinSherpa)
Fear Of Advertising: Consumers Dislike Online Ads, But They Value Email (MediaPost)
12 Things All Marketers Can Learn from a Leader’s 40-Year Marketing Career (Salesforce)
In the AI Age, “Being Smart” Will Mean Something Completely Different (Harvard Business Review)
A brief history of email service provider mergers and acquisitions (Medium)
Insightful & entertaining tweets
My mom made me an email quilt wall hanging and it’s the cutest! <3 Go to her Etsy shop and buy her other quilts! https://t.co/ZqcQB8DGgc pic.twitter.com/RuB2QdONSd
— email snarketing (@EmailSnarketing) June 2, 2017
“I’m looking forward to going back to Gmail”; @marissamayer on life post-Yahoo #fflondon
— sarah drinkwater (@sarahdrinkwater) June 14, 2017
The Rules of Marketing
by Seth Godin 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 pic.twitter.com/TMwJ9IBqe4— Jeremy 👁🐝Ⓜ️ (@jeremywaite) June 22, 2017
Wow. The beginnings of the @chiefmartec supergraphic, done via socks! https://t.co/8o85eK7cgg
— Dennis Shiao ✍️ (@dshiao) June 30, 2017
Noteworthy subject lines
Jetsetter, 6/30 — 10 Reasons Why We Love the U.S.A
Ninety Nine Restaurants, 6/28 — Honoring Active Duty Military & Veterans This Independence Day
Morton’s, 6/28 — Celebrate this 4th of July with our 3-course menu for $40
Moosejaw, 6/30 — Can you cook a hot dog on a sparkler? | Up to 30% off our favorite brands
Wayfair, 6/2 — Weber grills and more, just in time for BBQ season
Costco, 6/14 — Be Ready for Summer! Playsets, Water Sports, Floats & More!
Clinique, 6/3 — This SPF doubles as makeup primer. FREE minis with purchase.
Horchow, 6/4 — 3 steps to the perfect staycation
ToysRUs & BabiesRUs, 6/4 — CANNONBALLLL into the Awe—summer Sale!
American Red Cross, 6/14 — Water safety quiz: Are you ready for summer?
Etsy, 6/8 — Channel your inner mermaid
Ann Taylor, 6/22 — Pool, Palm Tree & THIS Sale
ModCloth, 6/7 — To do: watch the clouds go by.
J.Crew, 6/22 — Summer Style Hacks: expert packing tips & free expedited shipping
Jetsetter, 6/28 — Top 10 Destinations of the Week
Neiman Marcus, 6/17 — Hot list: 7 summer essentials
Lululemon, 6/27 — Air-Conditioning Included
Boston Market, 6/8 — 6/8 is National BFF Day!
Epicurious, 6/14 — The 100 Greatest Cooks in America
Scotts, 6/1 — Meet Blossom – The Smart Watering Controller
Blue Nile, 6/15 — Introducing 360° Ring Videos
ModCloth, 6/1 — This way to your dream closet…
ModCloth, 6/3 — ‘Quirk’ Hard, Play Harder
Victoria’s Secret, 6/28 — Party in the back
Pier 1 Imports, 6/3 — June 3 only = 3X points + 3X sweepstakes entries.
ThinkGeek, 6/9 — Get our monthly box full of [redacted], [redacted] and [redacted]!
Lego, 6/8 — Batsignal alert! Unexpected entities approaching.
Olive Garden, 6/8 — Because best friends breadstick together.
ThinkGeek, 6/7 — Two guys walk into a bar, the third one ducks. (hey-o!)
Ann Taylor, 6/27 — 5,000 Dresses Donated.
ASPCA, 6/4 — Wild Horses on Trump’s Chopping Block
Threadless, 6/15 — Support the ACLU with Andy J. Pizza
Gilt, 6/19 — One Love: Get Our Exclusive LGBTQ Pride T-Shirt Benefiting The Trevor Project
Victoria’s Secret, 6/22 — You voted & the results are in…
Carnival Cruise Line, 6/14 — You Spoke, We Listened. Check Out Your #CARNIVALFOOD Snapshot
Sony Electronics, 6/22 — Don’t Forget to Share Your Sony Story: You Could Win a Camera
New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
The Fate of Yahoo Mail: Will Verizon Shut It Down?
Would You Describe Email Marketing as ‘Failure-Friendly’?
Webinar Recording + Q&A: 2017 State of Email Report
LiveIntent’s Everything Email Podcast: The 6 Stages of the Subscriber Lifecycle and More
More Email Marketing Workflows Incorporating Task Runners & Static Site Generators
What People Are Saying about the 3rd Edition of ‘Email Marketing Rules’
The 3rd Edition of ‘Email Marketing Rules’ Is Now Available!
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
