Apple announced Email Privacy Protection at their 2021 WWDC. Because the announced changes directly affect ‘tracking pixels’ — used nearly-universally in email marketing — the announcement kicked off considerable discussion in various email communities. Articles range from cheers to yawns to outright consternation, depending on the impact. Working through the impacts...

Once upon a time we could test, learn, and implement without fear or bias. Knowing that our emails would look different for each reader, but happy to work with the majority view. This is no longer the case as this example highlights. Help wanted on what you’ve found, changed and decided...

Apple’s ‘Pixelgeddon’ announcement at their 2021 WWDC event (plus the rumored possibility that other companies in a similar position in the digital world could follow) is one of those before-and-after moments. How people and companies are handling it now — that’s one thing. How they will actually adapt their practices and...

List building has been challenging over the past 18 months, which has now made managing subscribers a challenge. Before talking about the issues that are pressing now, let’s look at how we got here… When coronavirus lockdowns started in March last year, consumer behaviors started to rapidly evolve. Many stores were...

Marketing Operations is the nerve center for an organization’s outbound marketing and CRM campaigns. Often staffed lean, marketing ops is a business-critical function that ensures all the grand marketing plans get executed. It’s where the rubber meets the road. Marketing Ops creates the target audiences, executes the tests, builds the content,...

We know that the key to measuring success with any type of marketing is to track relevant metrics and adjust practices accordingly. But are you taking advantage of all of the data in your email marketing account? Most email marketers are used to analyzing key metrics about opens and clicks within...

Here we are in 2021, getting ready to celebrate the 43rd birthday of email marketing. Who would have guessed back in 1978 that email would become the first digital marketing channel, helping to pave the way for every other digital channel in the next four decades? Maybe even more impressive is...

Part 1—What are the latest trends in pricing models? No one sees more pricing proposals from vendors than we do at Email Connect. As part of the management of our clients’ RFPs, we ask for and compare pricing proposals from the competing vendors. I’m willing to bet that we see more...

A clean list is just one part of creating a successful email marketing program, but it is one of the most important parts. The advantages of doing periodic hygiene and verification on your email database can help you reduce the malicious and low-quality addresses on your list, provide a more accurate...

Do you remember when countdown timers in email first became “a thing”? I think it was around 2010 and I was presenting to a very large entertainment company client and they asked what I thought about countdown timers.They had recently tested them in their email program and were excited to add...

Since the first email was sent in 1971, as a community, we have continuously reflected on how we think about communicating with each other. Video-in-email further enhances the day-to-day email engagement and with recent technology advances, our current industry standard definition for video-in-email will soon be re-written. We will explore the...

I’ve been listening to brand side email marketers a lot over the last 20 years. They’re frustrated. They are resource and time poor. And on top of that, for many, email is one of the last channels to be given much attention. Leadership aren’t much interested, sales just wants marketing to...

As an email marketer for over 18 years across vendor, client and agency side I’m always struck by how much of our time is spent on tactical initiatives and having the feeling of being a factory producing the same campaigns week after week. It seems to me that most email marketers...

I think it's about time we have a serious conversation. Yes, you reading this. We need to address something before we go any further. I'm going to say something that might be a little controversial. I'm going to give you my secret to achieving digital marketing greatness. Ready? Stop paying so...

Twitter is a funny place. I was cruising around it about a month ago when I came across a series of tweets by someone in our industry whom I'm declining to name. The tweeter was one of several responding to another tweet about why he limits responses to "Can I pick...

Marketing Cloud 2.0 has arrived. The second generation of the eponymous marketing cloud ushers in tighter integrations between customer data collection, cross-device identity resolution, audience and segment creation, marketing workflow and digital asset management, and orchestration of campaigns, data, creatives, messages and promotions across many channels. This might not sound like...

Editor's Note: Nick will be leading a discussion on this article at a special, open-to-all OI Live Zoom Call on Thursday, March 25, 2021 from 12:00 noon to 1:00 PM ET. Register here.   Great marketing, that blend of art and science, is as much about knowing your customers emotional needs and...

Whenever I ask people for examples of emails they love, most are quick to show messages from brands with gorgeous images, great design, amazing personalisation or cutting-edge technology. Hardly anyone says, "I love the copywriting in [Brand X's] emails!" Unless, of course, I'm talking to a copywriter. This is a shame...

Image source: “Notebook work with statistics on sofa business” from Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/mcSDtbWXUZU/download?force=true In a previous post, I introduced the three types of analytics and shared that the first step of starting an analytics project is to ask yourself: What is the objective, intention, or question that you want answered? This post...

For the past few years, OPTIZMO has been publishing infographics based on email opt-outs processed on our platform (100s of millions every year). While there are many insightful reports, white papers, and infographics released every year by various companies in the email marketing industry, the vast majority focus on email activity...