HP on how not to use email

HP's much publicized "issues" revealed their less than best of breed use of email marketing tracking technologies. Read about how they used high-tech tools common to spammers, phishers, retailers, suspicious employers and investigators.

Fridays: No Email Zone?

An intersting mandate from an Atlanta company, PBD Worldwide Fulfillment Services. They declare no Email allowed on Fridays. Who knows whether this will make people more effective or less?

I bet the HR and management team will get some flack on this though. Email is supposed to make workloads more manageable and proper organization ensures this is the case.

I may have to check in with this company to see if it helps or this policy is removed down the road.

You may not care but officially email is spelled like this..starting now

The Email Experience Council made its first "major" announcement.

There Is No Hyphen In Email

Some hyperbole (note some of the comments in the bottom of the story from annoyed readers) but it is nice to have some standards in the email (not Email, E-mail, eMail or e-mail) industry.

"Toward the end of the session, when the audience was going crazy asking questions and bonding with the speakers, Paul Beck and Jeanniey Mullen did something that no one expected. They announced that the organization had just set its very first email-related standard, releasing the “official spelling of the word email” -”email,” no hyphen.

Paul provided an overview of the research and survey efforts taken to come to a formal position and then provided a great historical recap of the spelling of other words like “online,” which evolved over the years from the combination of two separate words in much the same way: electronic mail, to e-mail, to email."

Adapt accordingly.

More Open Rate Chatter

Loren McDonald,CMO for ESP Holdig Company J.L. Halsey, is on the same page with me as he discusses the flaws of overvaluing your open rates, and other cocktail party metric talk.

Of course, if I brought up open rates at a cocktail party, someone would say who are you and why are you talking to me?

Manly Email Advice

Men's Health takes a look at what NOT to do with your emails. A pretty amusing and insightful read.

Did MySpace Start with Spam?

Interesting read on the origins of Web 2.0 media favorite MySpace.com - From
Valleywag.com

P.S. Be sure to read the comments below the (lengthy) story as many commenters question the accuracy and author's knowledge of this subject.

Great RSS Article

The big dog at Clickz has an outstanding article on RSS. Be sure to check it out.

One of the very interesting (and very smart) items disclosed is that AOL will make a push in RSS but won't call it that. Brilliant - RSS is way too techie and early adopteresque.

Plus, some great examples of companies that are using RSS in innovative and effective fashions.

Have a great weekend.

Highest ROI = 1% of Your Marketing Budget?

A great article on iMediaConnection points out email will surge well ahead of projections in the next two years, perhaps tripling or more in terms of transactions volume.

This is astounding and confusing and alarming...
"Consumers spend approximately 34 percent of their media time online, but only six percent of advertising and direct marketing spending is currently online. Of that six percent, only about 20 percent of the online budget is spent on email, meaning that only about one percent of marketing budgets are currently dedicated to email."

I truly think this is partly based on email's less than sexy reputation and interactive firm's steering of client budgets to more glamorous line items (and things they excel in) like flash, web design, banner ads and media buys. Oh, wait they generally make more money on those programs and have the in-house expertise.

A change is gonna come, soon enough.

Death of the Newstand?

There is a very interesting piece from the NY Times today on publishers using email to deliver magazines to college students.

Look to other media companies seek out email more for delivering content and moving away from expensive delivery platforms like retail stores. No, this doesnt mean you wont be able to buy a magazine at the airport but expect publishers to offer you a discounted price to get it via Email.

Big Plans for Email in 2007

The momentum for Email Marketing in 2007 is rolling along quite nicely. We are proud to have joined a group that should be significant in the interactive industry:, the Email Experience Council. BrightWave Marketing is a Platinum Member and look forward to contributing.

Anyone involved with email should sign up for their newsletters, if not join outright. Stay tuned for some great things from this group.

Well, here are some key items to focus on for your 2007 planning in the latest
newsletter.

Highlights include...

1) List acquisition, growth and opt in efforts
2) Welcome and early engagement messaging
3) Deliverability and rendering

ShoutStream and Industry Experts from BrightWave Marketing and Silverpop Lead Online Email Marketing Conference

Emailmerical Alert!

ShoutStream and Industry Experts from BrightWave Marketing and Silverpop Lead Online Email Marketing Conference - read the press release here


Email Marketing Webcast: Strategies, Newsletters & List Growth
Date: Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Time: 1:00 PM Eastern
Join this panel of experts, including BrightWave Marketing's Simms Jenkins, for an event focused on email marketing. Speakers will discuss:


Strategies for developing email marketing programs

Avoiding the SPAM net, getting to your list

Creating effective email newsletters

Growing email marketing lists


Register here

This is free and well worth your time if you are managing email marketing programs, especially if you are in the midst of 2007 planning.

9 things they don't tell you about email marketing

Mark Brownlow at Email Marketing Reports takes a light hearted approach to many things that anyone that has been behind the wheel of an email marketing program can enjoy.

Check this out

My favorite "Send button stress". It took me a few hundred campaigns to get over this interactive ailment.

Permission - the great unknown in many Email circles

My latest iMediaConnection article is interesting, if only, because most big name marketers (client and agency side) are not familiar with permission levels or opt in marketing. Retailers use their catalog legacy strategy and decide they can email these folks if they have their personal info. This is dangerous.

An additional post on a theory that is very similar to mine can be found here on Email Marketing Reports. Mark Brownlow takes on assumed permission.

Starbucks Needs a Jolt on Email Policy

The whole Starbucks debacle is well documented but it shows how powerful, viral and dangerous email marketing can be for a brand. While I doubt corporate signed off on this promotion, I bet the whole mess could have been avoided if Starbucks had a companywide policy on how, when and why email marketing can be used. Then, of course, not listing basic Ts & Cs in any promotion is foolish.

Good internal policies can prevent the chaos from occurring and basic compliance and regulation footers can seal any flooding that may get out as well.

The thing about the best viral email marketing is it is rarely planned to be viral. It just happens. Be prepared when it does.

By the way, I love that Caribou seized the moment to grab new customers and awareness during a national "scandal" for Starbucks.