I had another topic queued up for my regular Only Influencers (OI) post, but I hope you will indulge me as I switch it out for some late-breaking news. I just received the ANA-Email Excellence Center's annual Thought Leader of the Year Award – an honor already bestowed on several long-time...

The latest round of tech layoffs hit home recently. In a call with a marketing team, I discovered half the team had been quietly laid off the week before. It seems every week brings news that a past colleague or fellow member of the email community is looking for new opportunities,...

We all know that sales are important - that's partly the reason why we’re here right? To improve sales and increase year-on-year revenue. But what about community? We’re in an era where knowing a company’s values, having a sense of belonging, and feeling connected are key drivers for many people. Shifting...

Congratulations! We survived the 2022 email equivalent of Sharknado!  But instead of sharks in tornadoes, we had the 2022 U.S. midterm elections and Black Friday-Holiday shopping filling up inboxes at the same time.  And that’s the good news. The bad news is that there’s an email Sharknado of epic proportions heading...

Are you curious about how ChatGPT and AI could change the game for your campaigns? Look no further. In this blog, we're going to dive into the world of ChatGPT and explore how this powerful language model can help improve your email marketing efforts. But before we get into the nitty-gritty,...

As a new year begins, I thought it timely to take a somewhat tongue-in-cheek look at some of the challenges that a full-on omni-channel strategy can pose to an already robust and successful email marketing/CRM program. These challenges flow from two opposing forces that exist in contemporary marketing. Each has an...

As a marketer with a deep love and passion for email marketing I can’t ignore all the other marketing tactics and tools available to help our clients grow their business and reduce the risk of something very bad happening. What could this very bad thing be?  I’m happy you asked. The...

Happy New Year! 

It's that time again -- our top blog posts of the last year, 2022. 

We appreciate the expertise that our blog authors share all year long -- every post provides value to our readers. That said, here are the top reads, based on number of views, of 2022. And many of these are still relevant today, at the start of 2023 -- so check them out!  

Congratulations to those with more than one post on the top ten list: 

• Chris Marriott, Email Connect, with 3 posts in the top 10
• Chad White, Oracle Marketing Consulting, with 2 posts in the top 10

Photo by Simon Fitall on Unsplash

With a near certain recession in the future, at least according to the Bloomberg Economic Model, a lot of uncertainty hovers in the air for businesses, individuals, and families. 2023 may feel like the start of yet another bleak year, sweeping layoffs in Big Tech  at the end of 2022 from...

It's the time of year when a lot of people are putting together their holiday wish lists. Whether it’s kids putting together a list of toys for Santa (Xbox, Elmo, a Red Rider BB gun), or grown-ups letting their partners and family members know what they might want (Amazon gift card,...

Gmail is getting old. What’s the next hot email app? That was the gist of a tweet I saw early this year. At the time, the question made me reflect on the different features and capabilities of all of the major inbox providers, and what those differences said about inbox providers’...

According to Litmus, in 2020, 44% of teams spent about 1–2 weeks producing one email, and 52% of them spent at least 2 weeks on the same task. That’s a lot! To stay ahead of the competitors, we must find ways to work faster, better, and cheaper than others. Being the...

DALL·E 2022-11-09 08.58.01 - An email message soaring over a mountain valley in the style of Maxfield Parrish. In the next year or three, expect to see the look of marketing content — including email — to change more than it has in at least a decade, because of AI-generated art....

Ask the OI Experts: How can agencies and consultants adjust their marketing strategies for their clients given the uncertainty surrounding the current economic situation in regard to a recession and inflation?   Kate Barrett Owner of eFocus Marketing Marketing is often one of the first budgets cut in hard times –...

For those who have had the pleasure (!?) of working with me over the years they’ll probably say I’m partial to a moan or a rant. I’d prefer to spin that as being a critical thinker but yes, there is a lot of truth in that! In all seriousness though no...

Hello, friends! It's November, and I am ready to dive into 2023. I want to get through these next six weeks and to be done with 2022. This is the time of year when people start predicting what to expect for the coming year, but I think it's equally important to...

Anyone who follows me will know how unusual a post like this is for me, as I am generally reluctant to make predictions about the future for good reasons: they can come back to bite you. Just think back. How many predictions about 2020, made in 2019, anticipated the changes COVID...

Ever thought "My click rate is decreasing, but I don’t know why." Here are some ways to further assess the situation and 7 key areas to focus on to create increased engagement (the clicks will follow.) When reviewing your email performance are you seeing a downward trend in your click rate?...

I am excited to announce that we are accepting speaker proposals for the 8th annual Email Innovations Summit, taking place June 19-21, 2023, at Red Rocks Casino Resort & Spa in Las Vegas, Nevada. This event is a joint production from Only Influencers and Rising Media. Read on to learn more about: my...

In the early days of mass advertising, customer trust was a tagline – "The most trusted name in widgets!"   But brands didn't do much to earn that trust or prove they had it. Thankfully, things have changed over the last 100 years or so. Data privacy and security are now everyone's...