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Insights & Wisdom from the 2015 Email Evolution Conference
by Karen Talavera
02 10, 2015 | Posted in Deliverability, Email Marketing, Marketing Vision | 0 comments
Earlier this month I had the pleasure of joining many of my fellow email industry colleagues in Miami at the Email Evolution Conference. Hosted annually by the Direct Marketing Association’s Email Experience Council (eec), the event kicks off the email conference year by bringing brands, advocates, vendors and thought leaders together under the south Florida sun to discuss, debate and share innovations and pressing issues central to email marketing.
Here without further ado are key insights, wisdom and lessons learned (including my own) from this year’s event:
Six Ways to Fastrack Your Email List Growth (Part 1)
by Karen Talavera
08 08, 2014 | Posted in Audience & List Growth, Email Lists, Email Marketing | 1 comments
If you take them aside in confidence and buy them a drink or two, most people working in email marketing will eventually admit there’s a hungry beast they have to deal with that is never full and always has an appetite for more. No matter how much or how often they feed it, it’s a bottomless pit. What is this monster? It’s none other than your email list! Actually, if you’re treating it right, it’s more like an elite athlete than a monster. Chances are, no matter how many subscribers you already have, you hunger for more. The simple truth: the care and feeding of your email list is a job that’s never done (and shouldn’t be).
Help! My Email Open Rates Are Falling and Can’t Get Up
by Karen Talavera
08 28, 2013 | Posted in Email Marketing, Messaging Strategy, Metrics | Measuring Results, Response Improvement | 2 comments
In my ongoing series of email marketing conundrums, I couldn’t possibly overlook this one: declining email marketing open rates.
Although much has been written on the subject, my goal is to provide you with not just a diagnostic checklist for investigating why open rates are falling nor to hand you a “best practices” list of what to do to reverse the decline, but to go beyond that by (most of all) giving you a “reality check” on the subject and presenting a new, more constructive way to see this situation, as well as a new mindset on email marketing performance measurement altogether. In short: while we do need to pay attention to declining open rates, there’s too much focus on them at the expense of more meaningful email marketing performance measures.
Should You Ask for Email Permission or Forgiveness?
by Karen Talavera
06 30, 2013 | Posted in Email Lists, Response Improvement | 6 comments
You’ve probably heard the familiar saying “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission”. All too often I hear from many marketers and business owners who find themselves in this unfortunate position when either just starting their email marketing programs or trying to build their lists. This month’s email marketing conundrum explores the problem of how to begin sending to a “never-been-emailed” list, especially if it contains email addresses that may have been obtained without clear permission or were gathered offline such as from business cards, membership lists you have access to, contest entry forms, prize drawings at events, LinkedIn, etc.
Keep More Email List Members with Unsubscribe Minimizers
by Karen Talavera
05 28, 2013 | Posted in Email Lists, Email Marketing | 3 comments
Over the next several posts I’ll be addressing a series of email marketing conundrums. A “conundrum” is defined as a puzzling question or problem, and in email there are a few persistent ones I have been asked about on a regular basis since the channel’s earliest days. In fact, these challenges seem to keep so many people up at night that I believe they’re always worthy of discussion and a fresh perspective. So let’s begin with a classic: How do I prevent or minimize unsubscribes from my email list? First, make no mistake about it: over the course of their life cycle with you a certain percentage of subscribers will choose to leave your email list despite your best attempts to keep them and believe it or not, this is good. It’s the nature of any permission-marketing channel for the ultimate choice and control over receiving messages to rest in the hands of subscribers. Plus, we know from the channel’s nearly 15 years in existence that commercial email works best when it is deeply rooted in permission. So, your first step is to
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