The Whitelist

At ClickMail these days, it seems not a day goes by without mention of Twitter. Kind of odd for a company focused on email marketing!

As we’ve cautioned before in this email marketing blog, we as an email marketing vendor would prefer to see you focus on getting your email marketing program nearly perfect before investing time and money (i.e. payroll) in Twitter. Nonetheless, companies will Twitter rather than fall behind the social media curve.
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If you haven’t yet downloaded our email marketing whitepaper on choosing an email service provider (ESP), or even if you have, be sure to listen in on September 16th as we partner with the Email Experience Council to bring you “You Don’t Need ESP to Choose an Email Service Provider.”

Marco Marini, our CEO, and Michael Kelly, our Director of Strategic Alliances, will present the in-depth and groundbreaking information released earlier this year in our email marketing whitepaper “Choosing the Right Email Service Provider: The top 20 factors to consider when shopping for a top tier ESP.” Presented Wednesday, September 16 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern, the webinar is useful whether you’re shopping for a new email service provider or want to compare your current ESP to other email vendors.
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A year ago, Marco Marini transitioned from VP of Marketing and Operations to CEO of ClickMail Marketing, an email marketing vendor. We decided it’s time you learned a bit more about him…

Marco is an acknowledged expert in e-marketing with over 15 years of experience in the field. Before helping to found ClickMail, he held key marketing positions with CyberSource, eHealthInsurance, DoveBid and IBM Canada. Marco’s strengths and experience are varied, including demand generation via direct marketing, email marketing, and database marketing.
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“Free” isn’t a word that plays well in the body of your emails as it can trigger spam filters, but it plays very well when you as an email marketer want to stay up to speed on email best practices and trends! You should attend as many webinars and conferences as your email marketing budget allows, but also look for free educational opportunities as you can as well.
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Aside from being one of the highest rated ESPs in the industry (and we as an email marketing vendor are delighted to represent them), Silverpop is also one of the biggest producers of email marketing whitepapers providers (and we as an email marketing vendor are delighted to represent them), but they are also a leading source of whitepapers on email best practices that are easily read, understood and acted upon.
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For retailers using email marketing, Christmas really does begin in July. That’s when we begin planning, preparing for–and hoping for–great email marketing results.

It’s not a new concept. I once read that the idea of Christmas in July came from Victorian times, when women would start making gifts in July, giving them several months to get their projects done. (Makes you wonder what they’d think of our Christmas shopping these days, on the Internet on December 20th, shelling out an extra $25 for rush shipping charges to guarantee delivery by Christmas Eve!) But it translates wonderfully from needlepoint on a pillowcase to email marketing campaigns because they both take planning and time, and the more you have of both, the better your results.
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An often asked question for this email marketing vendor is, how do my email marketing results compare to the average? By this, our email marketing clients typically mean delivery rates, open rates and click throughs, the big triad of email marketing metrics.

It’s not an easy question to answer because it depends on your business, industry and more. But eMarketer’s Monday report on email marketing and click-through rates helps, so take a look and maybe even keep a copy so you can benchmark against these industry standards.
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Just like email marketing is made up of many parts, so is the job of the email marketing vendor a multi-faceted affair. That’s why we have a topnotch staff of experienced email marketing experts. Today we profile Dion, the Technical Product Service Manager at ClickMail.

Dion’s direct marketing training and expertise spans over 10 years. A former US Army Special Operations Veteran in Psychological Operations, Dion later went on to become an events marketing manager, project manager and lead generation specialist. His career path led him to managing email marketing projects for numerous B2B and B2C campaigns.
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Are you measuring the right email marketing metrics the right way? As much as we as an email marketing vendor love metrics and share that love with our email marketing clients, we also see the danger in how easy measuring can seem to be.

That’s because email marketing serves up plenty of numbers, whether you’re doing a good job or a poor one. And as with politics, these numbers can be skewed if you’re not sure what you’re measuring and why.
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The following is definitely not an email best practice: Collecting business cards at an event, then adding all those names to your in-house email list. (Even if you haven’t done it, you know you’ve been a victim of it!)

That’s not opt in. It’s not even legal. But it’s so very tempting!
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