Having recently re-entered the job market (and thanks to Bill for the complimentary announcement here), I found myself looking back on the most recent phase of my career and realizing how much it has broadened my perspective on what mar-tech and ad-tech mean. You might know me as the pretty face...

Mike has over twelve years of experience in designing, deploying, and supporting some of the largest email sending environments in the world for many of the largest ESPs and brands out there. Specialties include platform audits, platform selection, installation, upgrades, and training in Message Systems and PowerMTA. Contact: mike@emailninjas.io, 443-472-7226

Marketing automation is wonderful. It’s taken so much of the hard work away from marketing departments that it’s tempting to sit back, relax, and let the software run the show.

But let’s not forget that marketing automation isn’t there to replace human marketers. It’s there to enable them. The software can only work with what you give it, and it can only do what you tell it to. So it’s easy to make mistakes!

Here are three of the most common issues to watch out for when using marketing automation:

On rare occasions Only Influencers publishes an article so important to the future of email marketing and its stakeholders that we label it "Must Read". Todays rebuttal, written by Kath Pay and Tim Watson, of a recent CNBC article is one of those rare occasions.

MessageGears is an Atlanta-based ESP that works with large B2C Enterprise brands such as Expedia, Chick-fil-a, and Ebates. They have what they term a Hybrid system (that we will get into in a bit) which provides their main differentiation and selling point. They see the three main requirements for any ESP working with these types of clients to be:

I spend a lot of time speaking at conferences and events, which gives me the opportunity to talk with email marketers across the country. While the cities may change, I often hear a similar refrain: I’m understaffed and undervalued. People in my organization give very little attention to the email program .Every year I am continually tasked with growing lists and the program while budgets remain flat and patience amongst stakeholders wears thin.

Blocks Edit is CMS for branded email campaigns for your team to build custom designed emails without coding them. Implementation is simple and flexible, just add tags to your HTML to enable inline, drag and drop editing. Invite anyone in your company to make changes. Save time and increase output.

It’s so prevalent in the industry that it’s become a running joke. When someone asks what the best, highest, fastest, most impactful tactic or strategy is? We say, “Let’s test it!” Not sure how to show your team that your brilliant idea is the right way to go? Better test it.

RFPs have real consequences for your company, and possibly for your job. Here’s a list of 4 of the most common mistakes we’ve encountered when being be hired to salvage an email RFP.

<Pick up microphone>

In my February blog post for Only Influencers, I asked you, "How strong is the state of our union?" My own answer was ambivalent.

For close to 20 years, the tracking of email marketing engagement metrics has not changed very much. Apart from the standard open and click metrics with variants, marketers rely on engagement metrics that only scratch the surface of what it takes to propel growth within a program. In fact many industry benchmark reports, still use metrics that have been been around for a long time.

(Industry Veteran David Baker delivered one of the three keynote addresses at this years Email Innovations Summit. David had been away from the conference stage for a few years as a result of losing his ability to speak. Using text-to-speech technology, we were honored to invite David back to the stage. Needless to say, he hit it out of the park.I asked him to discuss his experiences in presenting. Thanks, David!)

For as long as marketers have been using email, email subscriber acquisition has been an important element of successful programs. The larger an email list, the greater the revenue opportunity. The more addresses a marketer acquires, the better chance he or she has of bringing on some great new customers.

“My grill station just went down, my bartender is drunker than his patrons, and my hostess just quit mid-shift. Can I call you back tomorrow?”

Anne Tomlin is the founder of Emails Y’all, an email development company. Specialities include responsive hybrid/fluid layouts, modular development, code reviews, template creation, code optimization, Outlook troubleshooting, and email testing. Emails Y'all is a trusted source for email development done fast and correctly the first time, every time.

LashBack provides digital marketers with unique and actionable insights for them to protect and grow their business. LashBack allows clients to “email with the lights on” by combining data, technology and industry expertise to provide a new level of visibility into the performance of current and potential marketing partners.

Many companies now ask for a customer’s phone number as well as the email address at point of sale, shipping, or entry. They use online forms or capture it in person through a pin pad or mobile credit card reader.

This week, we are looking under the hood of Fresh Relevance, who provides real-time personalization and automation across email and web to optimize revenue for e-commerce companies. Based in the UK with US offices in Boston, they enable marketers to track all behavior in real-time and use this data to personalize the shoppers journey on all channels and devices. They boast about 550 websites using their technology.

If your business collects personal data from people residing in the European Union, regardless of where in the world your business is based, then it’s most likely in progress with an implementation plan to comply with the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) that comes into effect on May 25, 2018. If your business falls into the first bucket but hasn’t started yet, then it’s as late as being a 50-mile drive away from its best friend’s wedding that starts in 4 minutes.

Email marketing books are only as good as the authors who write them and for those who implement their recommendations.