As the world of digital advertising and marketing has planted its stake firmly in the ground in support of “NATIVE” (Sponsored) Advertising, the consumers have made it clear that they support the move. The line between online content written by journalists and story-like ads that are paid for by specific corporations...

Much has changed in the world of email marketing in the last 15 years.  Volumes are up, revenues are up, CPMs are down-and those are just a few of the big changes in the industry.  But one of the biggest changes is in the nature of the vendor/client relationships themselves. Specifically,...

The recent DMA 2019 Marketer Tracker Report reported that only 14% of consumers think that over half of the emails an organisation sends are relevant to them as individuals.  But maybe more shockingly, only 55% of marketers think that more than half of all the emails they send are relevant. So...

We marketers like to say we are customer-centric. We give "customer centricity" and "customer experience" the nod in our public commentaries. The Google Trends search trend pictured below shows a marked increase in "customer-centric" searches, which indicates that many of us are on board with this concept.  Source: Google Trends. Search...

Is it time to rethink the role of email marketing? Beyond a few developments such as optimizing for mobile, the role of email marketers has changed surprisingly little in the last 20 years.  Oh sure the tools have gotten better and more sophisticated, but what email marketers and teams do really...

Unboxing Campaign-Genius Campaign-Genius is a dynamic email tool based out of Seattle and is one of the entries of a growing category of real-time imaging tools such as Movable Ink and LiveClicker. It’s parent company, Say It Visually, was founded in 2008 and was a pioneer in the field of “Explainer...

The Following Email Marketing Round Table Discussion is based on Jenna Tiffany's article: Verbalising Email – How Will Voice Tech Change Email Marketing?  Jenna Tiffany: So let's start with, do we think it will change email marketing? And if yes, how?  Maybe you use voice tech already to read your emails...

Across the pond, the GDPR has presented the world of digital marketing with a unique opportunity to take stock, reflect on our methods, and start afresh with a clean sheet. It’s given us a fantastic insight into the mindset of our audiences, and empowered us to build positive, lasting relationships with...

“Numbers have an important story to tell. They rely on you to give them a voice.” Stephen Few This is an article that wrote itself. It started out as a rant about the relentless negativity surrounding the email channel and how everyone under estimates its importance to the digital ecosystem. As...

Email pundits frequently pour scorn on brands that send email marketing from a noreply@ email address. Passions run high with noreply. One email pundit said on Twitter about use of noreply@; “when I personally find ‘we don't want to hear from you’, I mostly start to ignore the brand”. But what’s...

Jeanne Jennings: This week’s discussion is centered around last week’s case study on email performance, lists and staffing. If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet you can find it here: Interactive Case Study: Email Performance, Lists and Staffing. We raised a lot of questions about next steps in...

Now that email has been a legitimate marketing channel for two decades there’s an entire generation of professionals who have grown up with it and in it. In fact, they’ve never known marketing without email which has made for an interesting evolution – or is it merely urban legend?  The illusory...

At Marketing Democracy we’re all about email marketing.  We work with some of the biggest email marketers in the industry helping them navigate the complex and critical ESP vendor selection process.  But when we’re done for the day guiding our clients, we revert to being consumers and email subscribers like everyone...

I’ll start out this discussion track with a cartoon from Marketoonist Tom Fishburne and a general assumption that machine learning/AI is something you will look at, explore or invest in at some point in 2019.  According to most analysts' reports, this is one of the hottest topics and investment areas for...

If there’s one thing that brands are likely to embrace in 2019, it’s voice technology. Instinctive, intuitive, pervasive, and accessible, voice technology is set to interweave into our lives more than we ever thought possible.  Through voice assistants like Alexa and Siri we can engage with cyberspace without ever having to...

When I was in graduate school, we did a lot of case study learning – and I loved it! Now that I’m an adjunct professor (Hoya Saxa!) I use case studies with my students. And when Bill asked me to lead a discussion on Only Influencers, I thought it might be...

Tim Watson: Hello Everyone Here goes for the 4th in the series of weekly OI discussions. What is holding your email marketing back? I’m sure most of you know what you’d like to get done. I meet lots of smart people, both at the brands I work with and when speaking at events. I...

Digital transformation is at the forefront of conversation these days, and often it seems without a lot of clarity about what that means specifically for email marketing. It’s the Fourth Industrial Revolution, they say — an age that will fundamentally change the way we the way we live, work, and relate...

Kath Pay: Welcome to the second of the new format weekly Influencer discussions!  Absolutely chuffed to be leading this discussion and I really hope we all get to share our trials and tribulations when it comes to both accurately measuring and attributing success for email. My thoughts are that by sharing...

The internet is full of articles with "must do" advice to improve email marketing. As we reach the end of 2018 you can expect a slew of articles with trends for 2019. More "must do" advice. Here are a few ways to improve email marketing, but you won’t find the reason...