The BrightWave Blog

Complete Version of "Big-Time Predictions From Email Marketing Heavyweights" - my recent article from ClickZ

2010-02-04T11:04:00.003-05:00

I have the honor of now writing the Email Marketing Best Practices column for ClickZ. I had a well received article titled "Big-Time Predictions From E-mail Marketing Heavyweights"that was chock-full of good insights and advice from 7 experts that I know well.

I have included all of their predictions and advice below as the article did not have room for everything. Enjoy and thanks to the experts for their time and advice. The unedited version is below.

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Sick of hearing e-mail is dead? Misguided musings on how social will make e-mail irrelevant? Me too.

I asked some of the leading e-mail and digital minds to chime in and tell me where e-mail marketing is headed and what marketers should be paying extra attention to in 2010.

This group of seven is comprised of some serious thinkers, prognosticators, and proven digital leaders from the agency, e-mail service provider, and deliverability side. Heed their advice within multiple facets of e-mail marketing and try to test a few things out in Q1.

• Jay Baer, Founder - Convince & Convert
Relevance is now required, not optional. Individualized, behavior-triggered delivery necessitates a huge emphasis on testing & optimization.

• Jeff Hilimire, Chief Digital Officer - engauge
It's my opinion that email marketing is both the most effective form of marketing and at the same time the least maximized. Because email is inherently effective, marketers get away with poor processes and little innovation and still are able to produce better ROI than their other marketing efforts. In 2010, you'll start seeing marketers pushed to evolve their email practices by consumers growing use of social networks in lieu of email. I see social being a big threat to email but at the same time being the impetus that marketers needed to stop taking email for granted.

• Jeff Rohrs, VP, Marketing - ExactTarget
Thanks to social media, consumers are increasingly used to a more informal tone from companies—one that makes their interactions feel more human and less DBL (Dictated By Lawyers). So, as email and social continue to cross-pollinate, I expect more companies to inject real personality—if not real people—into their email communications. I’m not one to quote Barbara Streisand often, but all of us are, after all, “people who need people.” 2010 feels like the right time that we, as email marketers, will finally ditch the robot voices in favor of our real ones. As far as I’m concerned, it can’t happen soon enough!

Most of us, have seen email’s stature rise the past 18 months and we can go back to being seen as a cheap, efficient and relatively simple channel or we can take the bull by the horns and position email as the central hub to all digital communications, and a sophisticated and versatile one at that.

Don’t get caught in a rut and hit send while yawning. That is the most dangerous thing for any email marketing program. 2010 is a year to build business cases, take calculated risks and build a targeted messaging program for the next decade.

• Mark Brownlow, Publisher - Email Marketing Reports
A lot of energy was wasted in 2009 arguing about which channel was best. 2010 should see us take more holistic approaches to online marketing, accepting that email is one of a range of valid channels that customers might use to connect with us or receive information.

The challenge is to find where email works best in the mix and to refocus on what you communicate rather than how you send it. Picking the right channels is important, but not as important as making your communication valuable and meaningful to the recipient: the biggest email addict won't read your emails unless they deserve the attention.

Email will still be a primary channel for most people, but there will be even more pressure to stand out in the inbox as attention fragments between different channels and media. Again, this means upping the quality of your content or offer.

Vested interests in other channels and technologies will continue to snipe at email, so marketers need to remain objective and rely on facts rather than vendor PR. A challenge will be to improve the measurement of email's indirect impacts on branding, offline purchases etc. so budget allocation can be more rational.

Another big one of course is the growth of mobile email as smartphone penetration grows. Most people see this as a problem of design: how do you get your email and landing pages to look good on a little screen with idiosyncratic HTML display capabilities?

• Jordan Cohen, Sr. Director, Marketing and Public Relations - Pivotal Veracity
Mobile email marketing will be the top focus. I know we’ve all heard that “this is the year of mobile marketing” for the last 5 years, but I promise—this year really will be the year of mobile marketing, with email playing an central role in the mix.We are starting to see big brands lead the way in developing and implementing new mobile strategies, and in 2010, I anticipate that much of the industry’s attention will be focused on building out mobile email marketing optimization technologies and best practices.

Deliverability Darwinism. The top ISPs have run out of patience with sloppy mailers, and have become especially intolerant of those who attempt to deliver messages to “disengaged” recipients (those who chronically ignore or delete messages from a sender). Marketers will increasingly feel the pressure to root out inactive segments of their lists, and will also work harder send targeted, relevant email at a more reasonable frequency in order to ensure that people don’t become disengaged in the first place.

Social opportunity. Forums like Facebook and Twitter present a ripe opportunity to capture new email addresses at a pace and magnitude that was impossible before these sites existed. Much is discussed about how email can be used to provoke conversations about your brand in these channels, but not as much energy has been focused on leveraging these sites to build your database. That’s a mistake that will be rectified in 2010.

We won’t see “rich email” yet. While I’m a fervent advocate of rich media and video in email, employing these methods on a large scale is still at least a few years off. Most ISPs don’t support Flash within email, and even the most sophisticated new smartphones like the iPhone don’t either.

• DJ Waldow Director of Community - Blue Sky Factory
SWYN (Share With Your Network) Explodes: 2009 saw marketers begin to dabble in the "new" world of social media. Facebook pages were set up, Twitter accounts were launched, and even a few brave companies began to not only feature their social presence in emails, some even went as far as to include SWYN features. In 2010, marketers will get more strategic about SWYN - offering incentives to share (contests, exclusive offers, etc).

Mobile is Money: As smart phones become ubiquitous, marketers will be forced to start thinking of ways to design emails for smaller screens. Additional opportunities will continue to arise with SMS options as well. I see more and more email sign ups happening directly from your mobile device.

• Michael Kogon, CEO - Definition 6

Marketers will increase their spending on both email marketing and social media this year – and work to find more ways to integrate the two

Marketers will look for new ways to leverage video and other multimedia content through email and social media

Email will no longer live in a silo – rather, it will finally become an integrated component to interactive marketing programs.

More sophisticated use of analytics will help marketers better target email marketing – and develop more unique dynamic messaging that drives deeper engagement.

As an add on to the previous point – marketers will get better at the “test, retest and refine” steps in the interactive marketing process, continually looking for new ways to improve performance.

Will marketers realize all their goals across these areas all at once? No. Will this be a huge year in terms of driving more substantial ROI from email, social and a broader range of interactive marketing? Yes.

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Take a deep breath now. What do you think is big that's not included? Please add your comments and, more importantly, dive right in and make 2010 the best year yet for your e-mail marketing program.

Mad Men Take On Email Marketing

2009-10-01T11:44:00.002-05:00

The advertising world depicted in Mad Men has generated significant buzz, especially in the media and marketing world, partially triggered by media and digital professionals intrigued by the “good ole days” of Madison Avenue in the early 1960s. Of course, the booze filled office of Sterling Cooper didn’t factor in email and digital marketing into their pitches.

If they did, surely they would be incorporating some targeted online campaigns to deepen the relationships between their clients and their customers as well as attempt to wow their peers with cutting edge tactics.

Imagine the first email campaign for Maidenform, Bacardi or Connie Hilton’s burgeoning hotel empire. What would Don Draper think of CAN-SPAM rules? Would Peggy Olsen see response rates plummet from too much copy? Is Pete Campbell the prototype email marketing boss? Oh, the possibilities are endless to ponder over a stiff Manhattan.

In this blog post, I will try to bottle the Mad Men marketing elixir and use some quotes from the ever witty Roger Sterling (partner at Sterling Cooper and played by John Slattery ) to raise a few probing email marketing questions and trends.

“Come, eat our sweet meats. Drink our wine.”

The golden rule of email marketing should be “deliver value and benefits to your subscribers and prosper.” It’s a two way street and the program bursting of value and engaged subscribers are the ones returning (and often asking) for more.

Don Draper: "What do women want?"
Roger Sterling "WHO CARES??!!!"

This is the mindset of many batch and blasters whether they know it or not. One sized fits all email campaigns rarely deliver, for your internal team and the subscribers. To many marketers sit on the rich subscriber data they have and fail to leverage it to deliver more personalized and valuable emails.

"I guess what I'm saying is at some point, we've all parked in the wrong garage."

Mistakes happen in email so set up the measures to prevent it but if they do, apologize to your subscribers if needed but move on either way. The same goes for social media campaigns, don’t hide your dirty laundry that is there for everyone to see.

"I shall be both dog and pony."

This may also be referred to us “Industry Talking Head Syndrome.” One of the biggest complaints heard by email marketers is the lack of service they get from their technology provider. They complain they get exposure to the “experts” only in the sales cycle and then get a junior coordinator after the deal closes.

I think this blame fails on the marketer side too, if you want expertise and services, go to an agency that is selling you that or demand more from your technology provider. The software providers are selling you a tool and maybe service to support the tool but not your campaigns. So don’t buy into the dog and pony when you know neither will be present after the paperwork is cleared.

"Once they hit thirty, it's like someone turns off a light."

Don’t get complacent in your campaigns no matter the level of success you have. Apathy in email (whether you are 22 years old or 75 or have done your 5th or 500th campaign) is a dangerous thing. Every marketer can do more planning, testing and analyzing.

"One minute you’re drinking in a bar and they come and tell you your kid’s been born, the next thing you know they’re heading off to college."

For you digital chiefs out there don’t be too removed. Nearly every email marketer is secretly seeking executive approval not just of their work but their email marketing program’s value and existence.

Don Draper: “What kind of company are we going to be?”
Roger Sterling: “The kind where everyone has a summer house?”

Whatever your goals are, aim for the fences but measure accordingly. There is no reason email programs can’t be stars and ride their success to sunnier pastures. Don’t let your program be buried in the trenches when better real estate is available for those that dare to seek it.

"You know what my father used to say? 'Being with a client is like being in a marriage. Sometimes you get into it for the wrong reasons, and eventually they hit you in the face.'”

Tough love is necessary in the digital marketing world. Regardless of your program structure, ensure you have the right team and don’t be afraid to demand more from your partners, both internal and external. As long as your interests are aligned and goals are established, you can do your best to avoid getting the left hook from any unseen corner.

Hopefully, Mad Men can raise the level of your marketing prowess (if not blood alcohol level) and be sure to follow their lead and avoid their mistakes as well. Feel free to submit any Mad Men inspired quotes or plot themes for future inclusion.

So Many Platforms, Not Enough Time

2009-03-12T11:25:00.003-05:00

This blog will continue to get attention but it is worth pointing out that I am actively using other platforms for posts, updates and other BrightWave/email and digital targeted messaging related information.

Please feel free to:

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Become friends with me on Facebook

Follow me on Twitter

Get Mobile Updates from BrightWave

We also have pages on on Facebook and LinkedIn for The Truth About Email Marketing and EmailStatCenter.com listed below:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=16020781869&ref=ts

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/The-Truth-About-Email-Marketing-Simms-Jenkins-PearsonFT-Press-2008/17477394213?ref=ts

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/wwwEmailStatCentercom/43118058760?ref=ts

I welcome feedback and what else you would like to see this blog include.

The Email Marketing Manifesto

2009-02-04T15:16:00.003-05:00

My In Focus article on iMediaConnection titled "Email's new role in digital marketing" has drawn some really positive and passionate responses and interest from a diverse group of marketing professionals.

If you have not read it, please do as I have internally dubbed this "The Email Marketing Manifesto" for 2009. Whether you agree with it or not, check it out and please let me know comments and where you agree and disagree on my thoughts and where email is going and needs to be headed towards.

What's going on at BrightWave?

2009-01-30T10:48:00.003-05:00

No, this blog has not disappeared but has taken a bit of a hiatus. We just have been extremely busy ensuring all of our clients maximize their ROI during these wild times (and not just survive) as well as growing BrightWave in the most strategic fashion possible.

Business is strong here at BrightWave. We have expanded our offerings into what we call "Digital Targeted Messaging Services" which include leveraging SMS, Social Networking and Voice while still delivering highly targeted and measurable messages for our clients to their customers and prospects. That has been exciting as our business is undergoing a major transformation and will continue to look a bit different in 2009 and beyond. What that means is we can offer more services and message delivery platforms to our clients, guided by a simple premise: digital targeted messaging can be extremely powerful and impact business goals if done properly and with permission.

Of course, BrightWave still is and always will be, an email marketing driven shop. We have many new clients (stay tuned for announcements) that we are very proud of. Our industry leadership hopefully has not slipped a notch. Stay tuned for a big iMedia In Focus piece and some features from friends like Mark Brownlow at EmailMarketingReports.com.

The book continues to open new doors and draw rave reviews.

What else is going on in our world? Check out The BrightWave Report and find out.

Holiday Boss Gift Alert - Special Blog Offer on The Truth About Email Marketing

2008-12-05T09:30:00.000-05:00

Looking for that perfect gift for your boss or clients for the holidays?

BrightWave CEO Simms Jenkins' book, (The Truth About Email Marketing) makes the perfect gift for anyone looking to improve their email marketing efforts.

One reviewer commented, "is an amazingly simple yet detailed guide for newbie marketers or seasoned veterans who want to best leverage one of the most powerful communication vehicles of our time."

Looking for more budget for 2009? This book can assist - one reviewer stated, "Anyone interested in maximizing their marketing budgets should stop what they are doing and read this book."
Read more reviews.

Special BrightWave Blog Discount: As a valued reader of this blog, you are entiled to receive 25% off, plus free shipping. Just purchase the book through the FT Press store and enter the discount code Emailmark02 during the checkout process. Buy Now!

If you are interested in any signed copies of the book or a bulk order, please contact us.

Thanks and happy reading.

New Meaning of Double Opt in

2008-11-19T11:35:00.000-05:00

Papa John's has been aggressive in leveraging the internet and technology in general to separate itself from the other pizza giants and to add other sales channels. So I wasn't surprised to read about them using Facebook for a promotion.

The promotion is simple and smart. Become a fan of Papa John's on Facebook and you get a code for a free medium pizza. Of course, the trade off is they are going to communicate with you on Facebook so they get another direct channel to interact. Sounds like a win-win.

After I received the update on Facebook, I was told to visit a website and I would get an email with the code. Of course, I had to provide my email address to get the code. There was no mention of "by providing your email address, you are opting in for future communications from Papa John's" as there should be since surely they are using this to build their email list.

Assuming I am right, this is an interesting (if imperfect) way to get 2 opt ins (hence the title of this blog post) - one on Facebook and one via email marketing.

I like the approach in using the email/social media angles to build your databases and offering up unique and valuable offers/content to unique audiences.

For more on email marketing and social media in the restaurant industry, BrightWave Marketing client Ted's Montana Grill was featured today by DM News in a story titled "Ted's Montana Grill mixes e-mail with social media"

BrightWave Marketing Launches Targeted Messaging Services Practice

2008-10-15T19:50:00.000-05:00

I am excited to announce the official launch of our Targeted Messaging Services Practice at BrightWave Marketing. While we remain 100% committed to being the top email marketing agency in the industry, we think these new offerings compliment email marketing and allow our clients to communicate with their clients and prospects via other digital messaging platforms.

So what does that mean?

Well, I think one of our great clients articulates some of the benefits very nicely:

“We have partnered with BrightWave Marketing on our digital messaging efforts and the ROI has been substantial,” said Gena Weaver, Vice President of Marketing at Ted’s Montana Grill. “After developing a customer centric email marketing program that delivers results to the bottom line, we have also worked with BrightWave Marketing to leverage Facebook’s attractive audience. BrightWave Marketing has assisted us in developing a new digital dialogue with many potential customers that we would otherwise not be able to access. We are encouraged by this and other new messaging opportunities for our brand.”

Check out our Services Page where you can read more about our core messaging services:

Email Marketing
Search Marketing – Pay Per Click Campaigns
Social Network Program Marketing
Text/SMS Messaging
Voice Broadcast Messaging

Text Messaging Pricing Shift & What if it Happened to Email?

2008-10-13T11:11:00.000-05:00

I read this weekend that Verizon Wireless Plans to Charge Companies Sending Text Messages. While this may not seem like huge news it does change the dynamics of a not even close to mature marketing channel with huge potential. BrightWave Marketing, as part of our soon to be announced new offerings, does provide text messaging services for clients, so it is something we will be keeping a close eye on.

Companies that send out text messages will be charged a fee of 3 cents for each message by Verizon it delivers to the phones of its subscribers. This will immediately eliminate much of the marketing efforts done on this platform, due to the change in economics.

So what if Yahoo announced it was going to do the same for email marketing? Obviously, this would have a far reaching impact on the email marketing landscape.

However, one thing I would predict that would come out of such a change in the email marketing universe, if such a plan happened (and I am not suggested it will or should), would be marketers taking more care of their email programs. You would find more strategy, more analysis, better creative and other things you find in marketing programs that have higher/specific costs associated with them. That being said, just because email marketing has a perceived low delivery cost associated with it, doesn't mean it should not have the same kind of resources, planning and execution that an "expensive" marketing channel has.

Something to ponder.

Where do you stand in the great productivity divide?

2008-10-09T14:47:00.000-05:00

Seth Godin, is remarkable for many reasons, but I enjoy his blog for its startling simplicity and provoking questions. In this entry titled "The growing productivity divide" he asks 16 compelling questions for anyone participating in the digital world and economy.

The questions are below:

-Can you capture something you see on your screen and paste it into Word or PowerPoint?
-Do you have a blog?
-Can you open a link you get in an email message?
-Do you read more than five blogs a day?
-Do you have a signature in your outbound email?
-Do you have an RSS reader?
-Can you generate a PDF document from a Word file you're working on?
-Do you know how to build and share a simple spreadsheet using Google Docs?
-Do have a shortcut for sending mail to the six co-workers you usually write to?
-Are you able to find what you're looking for on Google most of the time?
-Do you know how to download a file from the internet?
-Do you back up your work?
-Do you keep track of contacts using a digital tool?
-Do you use anti-virus software?
-Do you fall for internet hoaxes and forward stuff to friends and then regret it?
-Have you ever bought something from a piece of spam?

It's more relevant than you think as layoffs loom for many. This is not about being technically elite but about basic skills that are/will be in demand and expected for most in the sense that "Experienced With Microsoft Office" is/was for many during the past decade.

Godin concludes "How can you imagine yourself as a highly-paid knowledge worker and not know how to do these things... If you don't, it's not hard to find someone to teach you."

For the record, I said yes to 13 of the first 14 questions and no to the last 2.

How about you?

Email Costs & Proper Perspective

2008-09-16T11:43:00.000-05:00

Kevin Hillstrom of MineThatData Blog has a thought provoking blog post titled "E-Mail Marketing: Fixed And Variable Costs, And Why They Matter."

While this doesn't dive into what makes up an ideal email marketing team and program, the real takeaway is something that most email marketers could not argue with: email campaigns are not given as much attention and resources due to the notion that sending email (the actual deployment) is cheap. Therefore, teams take shortcuts or don't measure success properly or are given inappropriate staffing and budgeting resources.

The Truth About Email Marketing - Part 3 (audio)

2008-09-04T14:39:00.000-05:00

Hopefully, you have had a chance to listen to the first 2 parts of The Truth About Email Marketing podcast series. Part 3 is now available.

Click here to listen

Episode Summary

Simms Jenkins and Mike Moran discuss examples of winning email strategies. Learn which companies are setting the benchmarks. Gain valuable insights and social media best practices from companies that have mastered winning email marketing techniques.

Book Signing with Martha Rogers & Bill Price

2008-08-26T10:42:00.000-05:00

This morning at the Return2Customer conference in Atlanta (kudos to Art Hall for putting together an impressive event) I was signing copies of The Truth About Email Marketing alongside the closest thing the marketing world has to a rock star - Martha Rogers of Peppers & Rogers fame. She was signing her new book as was Bill Price. Most people were lined up to get Martha's book (as was I) but I was honored to be at the same table (picture shows me signing a few books and obscuring Martha and Bill).

The Truth About Email Marketing - Part 2 of Podcast

2008-08-25T12:33:00.000-05:00

As promised, The Truth About Email Marketing - Part 2 (audio)

Simms Jenkins and Mike Moran discuss "The Truth About Email Marketing" in part two of this 3-part series. Learn about the opportunities and challenges of Email marketing and learn easy-to-use techniques that drive sales and build relationships.

I hope you find this informative.

Don't Forget the Customer/Event/Book Signing

2008-08-22T09:32:00.000-05:00

I will be speaking next week in Atlanta at the Return2Customer 2008 which has an impressive agenda, great lineup of speakers and very appropriate name.

If you are in Atlanta or up for a quick but educating trip, be sure to attend. I will be signing some books as well as giving some away. If you don't care about my book, you should be interested in Martha Rogers (of Peppers & Rogers fame) and Bill Price as they will be signing books as well during the Tuesday 10:00 AM Break.

Martha Rogers, Ph. D, of Peppers & Rogers will be on hand promoting their new book "Rules to Break & Laws to Follow: How Your Business Can Beat the Crisis of Short-Termism". Bill Price is the author of The Best Service is No Service.

Sounds like a great event.

Date: August 26-27, 2008
Location: Villa Christina - Atlanta, GA

Podcast Series - The Truth About Email Marketing - Part 1

2008-08-19T10:44:00.000-05:00

Through my speaking engagements, business meetings and networking, I have the benefit of meeting some really interesting and smart people. I recently had the good fortune of being introduced to Mike Moran, a fellow author, IBM Distinguished Engineer and expert in various Internet technologies. Mike's Blog (Biznology Blog by Mike Moran Where Business and Technology Come Together) is among the highest ranked blogs by Ad Age.

We recently sat down to discuss my book, the email marketing world and trends and predictions for a 3 part podcast series.

The first part is available here. I hope you enjoy it as I thought Mike asked some great questions and was a silky smooth host.

BrightWave Marketing CEO Simms Jenkins discusses key concepts from his book, "The Truth About Email Marketing," with IBM Distinguished Engineer Mike Moran in this 3-part series. Learn best practices and bite-size, easy-to-use techniques that get results.

Snooze Button for Your Inbox

2008-08-15T10:37:00.000-05:00

On TechCrunch, I read about an interesting new service called Hit Me Later for consumers.

Essentially, it will resend any emails at a later time back to your inbox. Of course, this could have implications if adopted by an email marketer's subscribers.

Those 24 Hours Left or Last Chance To Register emails may not find their way to the desired inboxes of some subscribers well after the deadline. If subscribers snooze their emails for a few days or weeks would that have a major impact on how and when you send email campaigns?

Nothing But the Truth: New Titles from “Truth About” Series on Social Networking, Email Marketing, Identity Theft From FT Press are Must-Reads

2008-08-13T10:38:00.001-05:00

The official news release on my book, (The Truth About Email Marketing ) hit the wire today.

If you read the book, I would love to hear any feedback (good or bad). Also, if any blog readers are interested in a special discount, please let me know.

By the way, the other two books released with mine sound fascinating and I plan on checking them out.

Thanks and happy reading!

What's Your Email Program Worth? How About $125 Million?

2008-08-06T10:34:00.000-05:00

I try to help our clients put a value on their email program and subscribers to help them build a business case and justify the importance of what they do, often to get more resources from their C level executives while also educating internal teams.

One prominent email newsletter, DailyCandy, a publisher of shopping- and culture-focused newsletters for young women, was sold to Comcast for what people briefed on the matter said was $125 million. The New York Times covers the deal here.

With 2.5 million subscribers, that places a value of $50 per email subscriber. Not bad for a company whose main product is an email newsletter. Granted they have expanded into websites but this demonstrates the real value of a loyal and targeted email program.

Sam Schwartz, executive vice president for Comcast Interactive Media, says it all right here:

“What we saw was a really engaged audience, a very loyal audience, as well as very local properties and great relationships with advertisers.”

This is good news for all email marketers.

11 Ways to Improve your Email Marketing in a Few Hours

2008-08-04T15:36:00.001-05:00

Email marketing improvements may seem daunting but they don't have to be. Carve a few hours out of your normal schedule to focus on some key areas worth reviewing. Here are a few ideas to get you going...

1. Plan a subject line test

2. Compare your current email metrics to data from the past year

3. Document your current email campaign process and see where some efficiencies and improvements can be made

4. Sign up for industry newsletters and read email executive blogs

5. Work with your design team on optimizing your email creative (especially in regards to image suppression)

6. Build a presentation for your CEO that outlines how important your email program is (you may not have the luxury of presenting it to her but I guarantee it will be helpful in other ways)

7. Simulate your email user experience, from the email registration to clicking on links to replying and unsubscribing from an actual email campaign

8. Ask your email team and/or partner for the best and worst 3 things about your email program

9. Plan an email focused subscriber survey asking subscribers what they want

10. Review in detail your competitors email promotions and newsletters and document what can be learned from them

11. Read The Truth About Email Marketing which reveals 49 proven email marketing best practices and bite-size, easy-to-use techniques that get results. For more information, please visit http://www.thetruthaboutemailmarketing.com/ or find the book anywhere where books are sold.

The Truth Arrives...

2008-08-01T11:27:00.000-05:00

I am very proud to announce my book, The Truth About Email Marketing, is due in stores sometime next week. The official publication date is today, August 1, but the book industry isn't like the movie industry. The books get to stores when it gets to stores. So don't expect huge Friday opening numbers (although Amazon does rank in it in the Top 20,000 books pre-launch - not bad) but do expect to see it anywhere books are sold.

The process was a long and challenging one and now comes the fun part. I await your comments if you do happen to buy it. Please let me know if you are interested in an autographed copy.

The initial reviews are strong as is the press from bloggers and the email marketing industry so I am encouraged that the book will appeal to a wide audience and be worth their time and money.

If you are holding off on buying it, sign up for the book's email newsletter (what else?) where you could win a signed copy of the book.

-Buy It Here

Atlantans addicted to email

2008-07-30T13:01:00.000-05:00

BrightWave Marketing is based in the heart of Hotlanta, GA. I read today that almost half of our fair city's residents are addicted to email. While that doesn't place Atlanta in the top 10 cites in terms of email usage (New York, Chicago and Houston are the Top 3), there appear to be some heavy usage patterns.

Atlantans check their email everywhere:
* 72 percent while at a restaurant;
* 65 percent while in the bathroom;
* 40 percent in the middle of the night;
* 9 percent while at church.

Other results:
* 7 percent have broken up over email.
* 23 percent plan vacations based on email access.
* Atlantans have an average of 2.7 email addresses each.

Timely Free Webinar - Leveraging the Value of Email Marketing During a Recession

2008-06-23T14:52:00.000-05:00

I will be speaking on an all too relevant topic - how to maximize email marketing during an economic downturn. The free webinar is this Thursday, June 26, 2008 1:00 pm EST. Hosted by the American Marketing Association and Aquent, please join me and hopefully come away with some specific and actionable areas you can improve your email efforts, regardless of company size and budget. Register here

The official jargon is below:

Even in this economic climate you should be telling your CMO and CFO that more dollars, not less, should be allocated to email marketing. Sound crazy? Given that marketers generally have to fight for their share of the budget, it probably does. But there is a compelling business case for increasing the share of your budget to email marketing programs: What other channel delivers the kind of measurable ROI that email marketing does?

In this complimentary Aquent/AMA webcast, Simms Jenkins, CEO of award-winning email marketing services firm BrightWave Marketing, will help you build your business case and win over C-level executives by outlining the key elements of optimizing any email marketing program. These elements include:

Defining (or redefining) the purpose, goals, and benchmarks of your program.
Positioning email as a service bureau within your organization.
Tracking metrics.
Testing concepts, creative, and offers.
Learning how to cut costs and deliver exceptional value to subscribers.

New revealing study ties image suppression to lost ROI - will this get attention?

2008-06-10T15:08:00.000-05:00

A new study provides startling evidence about the need for a strategic optimization of most email marketing programs, and at the very least, the creative treatment of email messages.

The eec's Retail Email Rendering Benchmark Study provides more evidence that image suppression is wreaking major havoc in the inbox and consequently, in the cash register.

Jeanniey Mullen, the founder and executive chairwoman of the Email Experience Council, offered this statement "Email marketing currently generates an estimated return on investment of $48.29 for every dollar spent on it, according to the Direct Marketing Association. We conservatively estimate that if all marketers optimized their emails for image blocking, email’s ROI would jump to $52.69. Not paying attention to rendering impacts revenue directly.”

This is an important connection and one that should be embedded into the minds of every email marketer. This is not an isolated creative or technical issue to be delegated to IT or the design team. It is one that must be taken on by the strategic leaders of each and every email marketing program.

Want more evidence? A recent study by SubscriberMail found that optimizing to ensure effective messaging even when images are off delivered an 87 percent increase in clicks.

Images blocked = email messaging/offers/content not shown = sales lost, loyalty eroded, leads missed, site traffic decreased.

Sadly, I think this message gets lost since email is still often perceived as a niche marketing channel. If someone's Facebook page or Second Life island only showed up to half of its visitors, do you think that would get these marketers attention?

Other key findings from the study include:
• 14% of retailers compose their navigation bars with HTML text rather than images.
• 3% of retailers used HTML call-to-action buttons rather than images.
• 88% of retailers include a “click to view” link in their preheader text.
• 63% of retailers include whitelisting instructions in their preheader text.
• The emails from only 21% of retailers displayed meaningful snippet text.

Email vs. Social Networking vs. whatever

2008-06-03T14:59:00.000-05:00

Email marketing's eulogy has been written more than once. The web 2.0 crowd has been the most agressive of late, proclaiming the end of email marketing.

While you may guess where I stand on this issue, I wanted to link to two blog posts that have different takes on this subject. I find this conversation interesting to say the least.

Web 2.0 vs. Email: Unnecessary Anxiety

New study results: people don’t want your marketing messages

Very Exciting News - Expect The Truth About Email Marketing on August 1

2008-05-13T16:21:00.000-05:00

BrightWave Blog readers - I have a sneak preview of a major announcement coming out tomorrow and you will read it here first.

Pearson , one of the largest and most prestigious publishing houses in the world, will be publishing my book, The Truth About Email Marketing, as part of their well known and highly regarded "Truth About" series. Needless to say, I am very excited on many fronts.

At this point, I am thrilled to have the writing behind me as it is quite a detailed and lengthy process. Don't get me wrong - I would not trade this opportunity for the world but don't expect much new content from me. In fact, I will be on hiatus from writing new iMediaConnection articles so I can take a breather on that front.

I will save my thanks to all the people that made it a possibility - you have to buy it to see who I thanked. Speaking of, it is available for pre-order on
Amazon or you can buy it at any major bookstore on August 1, 2008.

Check out the newly launched book website here and be sure to sign up for email updates where you could win an autographed version of the book as well as receive exclusive information and discounts related to the book.

FTC Revises Compliance Rules for CAN SPAM

2008-05-13T08:40:00.002-05:00

The Federal Trade Commission has approved several changes to Can Spam regulations related to compliance requirements for opting out of email lists and sender clarification.

The FTC bulletin can be found here

Highlights and my comments below it in (brightwave) blue...

New rules prohibit charging fees to opt out of e-mail lists, or requiring individuals to provide any more information other than their e-mail address and opt out preferences.
The impact here is to sites that require you to log in or register to change your preferences or unsubscribe. Many retailers follow this practice so headaches loom ahead. A great example of a well intentioned idea that in practice is more complicated and less practical for many permission email marketers than it seems.

The changes also specify that individuals seeking to opt out of lists must be able to accomplish this task by simply sending a reply e-mail message or by visiting a single Web page.
This is one that may seem painless but as we have covered before, many companies don't monitor their replies leaving ecommerce gaps and CAN-SPAM compliance holes. We routinely find that many companies don't allow replies or know where replies to campaigns go. This will have to change.

Another revision now allows e-mail senders to use postal addresses and P.O. boxes as return addresses
Nothing major here.

The definition of “sender” was modified to make it easier to determine which of multiple parties advertising in a single e-mail message is responsible for complying with the Act’s opt-out requirements.
What that means is not yet known, at least to me but if you only send emails to your house opt in lists than it should not affect you.

The current CAN-SPAM Act can be found here.

Social Networking That Works

2008-05-05T13:14:00.001-05:00

Read about how a grad student who was arrested during a protest in Egypt used social networking/text messaging firm Twitter to assure a quick release. Amazing story.

In a nutshell:

The micro-blogging service allows users to send text messages up to 140 characters long, and the message Buck sent had the desired outcome: his friends called the University, the American Embassy, as well as the Associated Press, the International Herald Tribune and other media.

The result: he was released the next day, although according to his affirmations, the Egyptian authorities told him just hours after his arrest, in the middle of the night, that he was a free man.

"unsubscribe me from your internet"

2008-04-28T10:42:00.000-05:00

Classic tale of a unique unsubscribe request. You have to see the note to take in this request in its full grandma glory.

California Dreaming About The End Of Spam

2008-04-23T10:38:00.000-05:00

A few reports say potential new California legislation would enable private citizens to sue email marketers for up to $1 million for using false or deceptive subject lines or misleading ad copy in the body of email messages. Current California laws allow consumers to sue spammers, but only for deception in the headers and not the body or subject lines.

Stay tuned on how this moves forward and impacts the broader email community. This is not the first time a state has tried to establish agressive spam state laws.

Of course, keep your head down, focus on the details, comply with best practices and CAN-SPAM, and most permission based email marketers should stay in the clear.

A Mainstream Article on Email Marketing without a Mention of Spam?

2008-04-22T15:58:00.000-05:00

say it ain't so....The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently did a feature on me that ran prominently in the Sunday Business Section. While it is always nice to get that kind of press for our company, I was very pleased that there was not a single mention of spam when describing the email marketing industry and during the course of our interview.

Overall, I thought it was a good piece and we have received quite a bit of interest related to it. Check it out.

March Madness - BrightWave Wins Atlanta Marketer of the Year for Best Email Campaign

2008-03-31T10:21:00.000-05:00

Not sure who you had in your AMA brackets but last Thursday night in front of approximately 300 corporate and agency marketers, I am proud to say we (BrightWave Marketing and our long time client, CoreNet Global) were honored by the American Marketing Association with the Atlanta Marketer of the Year (AMY) award for best email campaign, beating out Cox Enterprises (my former employer) and Intercontinental Hotels.

The picture above is an attempt to capture Eric Bowles, VP at CoreNet Global, as he was given the prestigious Red Pencil award on the Fabulous Fox Theatre stage.

The event was very slick and featured 30 second acceptance speeches (like the Oscars, music cut you off if you rambled), stage "models" handing out the awards and seated dinner. All in all a great event and made better by being recognized by our peers for our innovative remarketing campaign. You can download the case study here.

Again, congratulations to the many different people involved in that campaign, especially our head of Client Services, Brent Rosengren, who spearheaded the effort. A job well done by all!

Where Email Saved Lives

2008-03-04T15:42:00.000-05:00

I thought this near horrific story of yet another campus security issue was a way to show email in a different light. Some excerpts:

...students on campus were alerted over campus public address systems and by e-mail. He (potential shooter) was locked down with other students in the campus' student union.

The lockdown came just hours after school officials sent a campus-wide e-mail to students updating them about plans for an emergency messaging service. Many universities are deploying such systems in a response to last year's shootings at Virginia Tech, where a student gunman killed 32 people and himself last April.

Schools have had to become proactive very quickly in terms of how they will communicate to their students, parents and staff since this seems to be an all too common occurrence. Why I hate to see anything like this happen, it is good to see schools ,which are traditonally slow to embrace technology, utilize smart messaging strategy for crisis situations like this. Sobering usage of email for sure.

Does This Mean McCain Will Win?

2008-02-28T08:51:00.000-05:00

My colleague, Brent Rosengren, has an enlightening front page article for iMediaConnection on how the presidential candidates utilize (or in some cases, fail to) email marketing. He even provides a scorecard on how they all measure up in key categories.

Rosengren takes an in-depth look and reveals some interesting nuggets that may be applicable to your email program. Either way, political email is big business and the campaigns continue to place a strong emphasis on email and not just for fundraising but also for mission critical communications. I would imagine they are also cutting major overhead by using email as the key platform for getting their messages out.

I took a look back at an article I wrote 4 years ago on the Bush vs. Kerry email programs to see the progress of political email usage and it appears they have made nice strides but have a long way to go to make their email programs best of breed.

I did have this to say 4 years ago...I feel comfortable saying that Bush’s camp has a very slight advantage over Kerry in terms of email strategy and execution. Though I can’t predict the winner of this year’s election, I can say that we should expect to see increased usage of email marketing in both national and local politics as candidates continue to recognize the value of this timely, highly personalized, low-cost medium.

Will McCain's slight email win foreshadow a similar (and narrow) win as well?

top email marketing blogs

2008-02-25T15:50:00.000-05:00

Mark Brownlow at EmailMarketingReports.com must not sleep. He covers the corners, deep and wide of the email world so that the rest of us can simply read about it in one place. Following on the heels of his Top 21 email marketing information sources list (of which I am honored to be on) he comes up with a new list that covers the top 44 email marketing blogs.

This list does an amazing job of categorizing the best minds in the blogging world that cover email marketing. Again, I am humbled by his inclusion of the brightwave blog in the list. This blog was picked under the Strategy and Analysis section alongside Email marketing strategy from Silverpop CEO Bill Nussey.

If you want to add some homework to your to do list or just add relevant RSS feeds, this is the list for you. Well done and again thanks to EmailMarketingReports.com for consolidating the best content and thought capital in the email community.

B2B Panel & Case Study

2008-02-25T15:35:00.000-05:00

B2B email marketing usually gets snubbed by the broader email community, at least in my opinion, in favor of sexier retail and consumer campaigns. Maybe that is changing or I may be looking in the wrong places.

I recently participated in an engaging B2B panel titled Even CEOs Read Email - Addressing The C-Level B2B Target at the recent Email Experience Conference in San Diego with Barry Abel of Message Systems and moderated by Carol Krol, a Senior Reporter at BtoB Magazine .

The panel was filled with great questions that dug deep on reaching this elusive audience as well as general B2B email best practices. I won't go into detail on the event since so many others covered it more eloquently than I could. I really enjoyed the topic since it is one I don't get to speak on as much as my other speaking engagements.

While on the topic I wanted to share an article on an innovative remarketing campaign we ran for long time client, CoreNet Global. The title says it all CoreNet boosts event signups with remarketing campaign.

Super Tuesday Alert - Breaking News Inbox Abuse

2008-02-06T15:34:00.000-05:00

Anyone's inbox feel abused after Super Tuesday? I have signed up for many of the major cable and broadcast's breaking news email alerts. It is generally a helpful and timely feature that includes simple text formatted breaking news. In theory, at least.

Nothing radical here for how the big networks traditonally use email alerts. Just sending useful news notifications before it breaks in the mainstream (generally). I began to have my doubts on the value and goals of some of these when I got a breaking news email months ago that featured a college football upset. While I am a big college sports fan, I had to think to myself whether or not that qualified as breaking news. When I think of breaking news, I think of GIANT BOLD PRINT HEADLINES that make you stop for a second. Think Hurricane Katrina or former President Reagan passing away. Not LSU losing to Kentucky.

Well, last night destroyed breaking news email alerts for me. Between the 3 major networks that I subscribed to, all were guilty of major inbox abuse.

All, in my opinion, were driven by beating out their competition to email the news before the others do. While I respect the desire to break news, do I need 34 emails in a 4 hour span that announce state by state projected winners, with Democrats and Republicans each warranting their own breaking news alert.

No offense to West Virginia, but I don't need a breaking news alert on who won their Democratic primary, followed by 6 other state projected winners in the following 7 minutes. Would it take much restraint to bundle these winners at least into an hourly wrap-up? Obviously, these were driven by their own objectives, goals and priorities rather than by the best email experience for their subscribers.

The breaking news email alert for a major media empire should be a sacred cow. Last night, they sacrificed this for one night of outdoing their brothers-in-arms.

I did not go all the way and unsubscribe but they should consider themselves on double-secret email probation.

Recession Proof Marketing Channel?

2008-01-23T13:32:00.000-05:00

A recession may not just be around the corner but at our front door. If that is the case, smart marketers will play their strong cards and email is always in that hand.

My article in iMediaConnection.com "Email economics: what to do in a recession" was published more than 3 months ago but is actually more relevant today. Go back and use this to ensure you have your recession marketing plan and lead with email.

New HQ for BrightWave

2008-01-14T16:37:00.000-05:00

Moving is never fun but moving offices during a chaotic holiday period has it distinct pros and cons as well. Nevertheless, I am pleased to announce BrightWave Marketing has moved to its new headquarters in the thriving Midtown district of Atlanta, GA. For a map and satellite view, check us out.

Our office building is on the site of the childhood home of Margaret Mitchell, the beloved Atlanta Gone With the Wind author. The New York Times wrote "she ordered that the house be torn down after her death, possibly because she wasn't happy there. Her mother's dream house, it was a white, two-story Colonial Revival with Doric columns."

It's a great location and a perfect space for us to continue to grow and thrive in. A few pictures for your viewing pleasure. If you are ever in the area, please come and stop by.

Does Email's Strong Performance Hurt Overall Spending?

2008-01-08T09:59:00.000-05:00

Well, that is what JupiterResearch's "US E-mail Marketing Forecast, 2007 to 2012" report says. I tend to agree. Most executives and marketers think email should rarely get a big chunk of the budget pie despite carrying more than its weight. Is that fair? No, but that is business and I do believe it is changing for the better.

Email marketing spending will grow to $2.1 billion in 2012 from $1.2 billion in 2007. Retention email, which is what BrightWave Marketing specializes in, would more than double through 2012 and account for more than half of total email marketing spending.
Acquisition email marketing was pegged to grow more slowly, with sponsorships such as ad-supported newsletters accounting for most spending.

Comments from the analysts reflect the current state of email marketing...

“E-mail service providers have done a solid job of standardizing feedback loops with Internet service providers and are continuing to make needed improvements in e-mail delivery,” said David Daniels, vice president and research director at JupiterResearch.

"E-mail marketing is effective, but spending is tempered by the somewhat but not entirely valid impression among many companies that e-mail is inexpensive marketing and that they therefore need not throw too much money at those programs," said David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer.

With more attention to email's slighted share in the budget game and the public market debut of ExactTarget (following ConstantContact's 2007 IPO), email will gain more mainstream attention in the media and C suites in 2008. You can count on that.

ExactTarget Delivers S-1 - Headed for IPO

2007-12-17T16:17:00.000-05:00

On the heels of ConstantContact's Initial Public Offering, mid market leader ExactTarget filed plans to raise up to $86.3 million.

Let's break down the numbers that will serve as gossip and competitive fuel in the email marketing industry for the coming months. (This info is taken from their S-1 )

The top financial takeaways....
-For the nine months ended Sept. 30, ExactTarget’s earnings rose to $2.1 million from $1.8 million in the year-ago period.

-The company’s revenues also rose to $34.2 million, from $22 million.

Direct excerpts/highlights from the S-1 that I found the most interesting.

-ExactTarget is a leading provider of on-demand email marketing software solutions to organizations of all sizes. Our clients depend on our solutions for business-critical marketing and event-triggered communications to increase sales, improve their return on marketing investments and strengthen customer relationships. Through our email offering and our recent expansion into emerging one-to-one marketing technologies, we help our clients deliver the right message to the right person at the right time through the right medium

-As of September 30, 2007, our direct client base consisted of more than 2,800 organizations of all sizes, which included approximately 400 marketing service providers.

-Through these marketing service providers, more than 2,000 additional organizations utilize our technology. Many of our clients are well known companies or organizations such as Careerbuilder.com, Expedia.com, Florida Power and Light, Gannett Co., Inc./USA TODAY, the Indianapolis Colts, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Liberty Mutual Group, Papa John's and Wellpoint, Inc.

-We have achieved 27 consecutive quarters of organic revenue growth, and no single client represented more than 3% of our revenues in the nine months ended September 30, 2007.

-We achieved revenues of $19.7 million and $31.2 million for fiscal years 2005 and 2006, respectively. Our operating income increased from a loss of $1.4 million to income of $2.7 million during the same period.

-Our annual subscription pricing ranges from $1,500 to more than $1,000,000,...the majority of our revenue is derived from client contracts having a value ranging from $10,000 to $150,000.

- The demand for email marketing products and services is large and growing, driven by organizations' desires to leverage the efficiency and effectiveness of this marketing channel. According to Forrester Research, the size of the U.S. email market for technology and services related to integration, strategy, delivery, creative and analytics is expected to grow from $2.3 billion in 2007 to $3.5 billion in 2010, representing a compound annual growth rate of 15%. We believe these segments of the market will grow at a higher rate due to increased outsourcing to email providers as well as growth in event-triggered email communications. Additionally, we believe our total addressable market opportunity will be larger as organizations embrace emerging one-to-one marketing technologies such as short messaging service, or SMS, really simple syndication, or RSS, web landing pages and voice automated solutions.

-Our business is dependent on the market for email marketing solutions and there may be changes in the market that may harm our business...

A number of factors could affect our clients' assessment of the value or effectiveness of email marketing, including the following:
• continual growth in the number of emails sent or received on a daily or regular basis;
• the ability of filters to effectively screen for unwanted emails;
• the ability of smart phones or similar communications to adequately display email;
• continued security concerns regarding Internet usage in general from viruses, worms or similar problems affecting Internet and email utilization; and
• increased governmental regulation or restrictive policies adopted by ISPs that make it more difficult or costly to utilize email for marketing communications.
Any decrease in the use of email by businesses would reduce demand for our email marketing products or services and our business and results of operation would suffer

-During the nine months ended September 30, 2007, approximately 80% of all our existing client contracts that were eligible for renewal were renewed

-We have increased our number of employees from 124 at December 31, 2004 to 268 at September 30, 2007 and have increased our revenues from $11.6 million in 2004 to $31.2 million in the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006.

-Our client base has grown to more than 2,800 direct clients and more than 2,000 indirect clients as of September 30, 2007

-We have entered into a license agreement with Hula Holdings, LLC and Subscribermail, LLC (to whom we collectively refer to as Subscribermail) under which we have a non-exclusive license to use methods covered by a business process patent held by Subscribermail for multi-level electronic mail communications programs. Assuming we make all required license payments, the license will survive for the term of the patent, which expires in November 2021. If we were to lose the license for any reason, the quality and competitive value of our products may decline, which would have a material adverse effect on our revenue, financial condition and results of operations. Because the license is non-exclusive, our competitors may have access to this methodology.

-Our business requires trained employees with a skill set unique to the email marketing industry. Competition for these personnel is intense, and we have from time to time in the past experienced, and we expect to continue to experience in the future, difficulty in hiring and retaining highly skilled employees with appropriate qualifications. Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel have greater resources than we do. Often we are required to recruit qualified candidates from outside the Indianapolis, Indiana, area, where our headquarters is located, which can be time-consuming and costly.

Be sure to go back and read my breakdown on Constant Contact's numbers to compare and contrast. It is not often that the inner workings of a company in the email space are revealed. I imagine this had made for some pretty interesting reading for ESP executives and others in the industry that is prime for consolidation.

Now 3 questions...

1)Would you rate this stock a buy, sell or hold?

2)How about ConstantContact?

3)Who will be the first company to be absorbed by either of these 2 industry giants?

When an Email Newsletter Collided with Big Money Football

2007-12-04T13:23:00.000-05:00

In the South, it is always college football season, but with the bowl games looming and BCS chaos abound, it seems college football is on everybody's mind these days.

Which reminded me to post about an interesting scenario where $1,200 bought you an exclusive weekly email newsletter. I don't know of many newsletters commanding subscription premiums but it sounded like this was a winner. From an email standpoint, the ROI surely was strong but it doesn't appear that straightforward.

Texas A&M football coach Dennis Franchione utilized his email marketing best practices to send a weekly email newsletter about the A&M football team to a small group of boosters willing to pay $1,200 per year in subscriber fees over the last three seasons.

Unique content - check.
Relevant and timely messaging - check
Targeted Audience -check
Big picture goals defined with email acting as the communication platform of choice - check

Again, on the surface it looks like Franchione should speak at the eec's upcoming email evolution conference in San Diego. However, this is college football and nothing is that simple.

Once this email approach leaked out, Franchione shut down this permission based newsletter. The newsletter, titled “VIP Connection,” was supposed to be confidential because it contained detailed injury information and other tidbits that Franchione does not tell the media or public.

However, the San Antonio Express-News obtained a copy of the newsletter and confronted A&M officials. The newsletter does not appear to violate any NCAA rules. A public affairs specialist for the Office of Civil Rights in Washington D.C., said Franchione probably did not violate any laws related to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

According to the Dallas Morning News Franchione said, “There was no intent to deceive anyone.” He said “12 to 15″ people subscribed to the newsletter, and all money went directly to the Bryan, Texas, company that oversees Franchione’s personal Web site, CoachFran.com. Franchione, who makes $2 million annually according to his A&M contract, said he has offered to refund all money obtained for this season.

All newsletter subscribers signed a legal non-disclosure agreement. From a blog that broke down the situation, the “VIP Connection” was simply a typed email message with no graphics. It was usually no longer than two pages.

Who said subscription based emails could not work? Just tread lightly if your audience or content happens to be in the college sports world where anything can and probably will happen.

So how do marketers use their email metrics?

2007-11-13T12:26:00.000-05:00

Thanks to EmailStatCenter.com's First Annual State of Email Metrics survey , interactive marketing professionals now have a better answer to that question. What they do with their email metrics and the findings from studies like these may be a different story.

First, the links:
Press Release on the survey

Findings from the study

Over 300 marketing professionals (both client and agency/ESP side) took the survey and some of the interesting discoveries are below. I find the background on the survey respondents just as interesting as what they had to say. A few highlights:

-37% Manage their email marketing program and 20% manage all online marketing.

-76% of client side respondents said they had 1-3 staff for email marketing.

-In terms of client side company revenue, 25% had $10,000,000 or above.

Frequent Measurement is Integral to Success
-Over 95% of the individuals surveyed said that they did measure the results of their email campaigns. When asked how often they measured results, 57% of respondents indicated that they measure results 24-48 hours after deployment. However, only 18% indicated that they measured results on an annual basis.

Click Through and Deliverability Rank Tops with Professionals
-Professionals ranked click through rate and deliverability as the most important metrics to track. Metrics surrounding total subscribers and forwards were among the lowest ranked metrics in terms of importance.

Metrics Not Widely Used for Budgeting
-Only 50% of the email professionals surveyed reported that they use metrics for budgeting and forecasting purposes while 35% of professionals cited that they do not use metrics for budgeting. The remaining 15% were unsure.

Timing & List Growth Are Key Challenges - Opportunities Ahead in Email Strategy & Measurement
-Cited list development and time constraints as the biggest challenges they face and email strategy and measurement as areas for near term focus

Some of the other key takeaways are mentioned in the survey overview from Jeanniey Mullen Founder and Executive Chairwoman of the Email Experience Council, which is a partner of EmailStatCenter.com, Luc Vezina, Vice President of Marketing & Product Management at Campaigner, which sponsored the study and yours truly.

Just like your own email campaign metrics, this survey's findings are worth a deep dive. Spend a few minutes getting some perspective on what your peers do. You can read it here.

eMarketing Association Conference Wrap Up

2007-10-25T12:11:00.000-05:00

I spent the last 2 days at the eMarketing Association's eM7 conference in Atlanta, minutes from our Midtown office.

This was my second eMA conference and I found this one more engaging and energetic than the previous one in San Francisco where I also presented. The attendance was great, a wide range of companies were represented (big brands and not so big) and folks had come from all over the country (not to mention Europe) so I felt honored to be a part of the panel on the first day and as a speaker on day 2.

Some highlights and thoughts (note- I was not able to witness all sessions because of some client/work related items that had to be addressed):

- Bert DuMars of Atlanta based Newell Rubbermaid kicked things off and discussed their ebusiness approach for many of their brands (including Sharpies, Graco but not Post It Notes). I find it always interesting to hear how companies handle their online efforts when they don't directly sell their goods and services.

-Maureen Schumacher, who runs Google's Atlanta office, and Kathy Daly Jennings , also of Google, gave a very insightful talk on how some of their clients are using Google beyond Ad Words to drive targeted traffic. The gracious Google folks also hosted the reception later that evening.

- Bill Nussey, CEO of Silverpop, always has interesting things to say about relationship marketing and he covered some great points on making the online relationship more fruitful for marketers. He also provided 5 actionable items to test out that the attendees furiously took notes on.

-Bill and I represented email marketers on a panel that featured some great digital pros including Atlanta based agency heads, Jeff Hilimire and Joe Schab. As expected, the questions were heavy on social marketing networks and Web 2.0 items. As Bill Nussey mentions on his latest blog post, "Email is the Original Social Networking App." Not that the press picks up on that but I digress.

One poor attendee from a major brand asked how he could get his email numbers up as his boss is intent on raising Click Throughs for their email efforts. Not a bad ambition but one of the things I spoke about during my presentation, Utilizing Metrics to Enhance your Email Budget and Performance, was the ability to place them in the proper context. After all who cares about a great CT rate if your campaign goals were not furthered. I was pleased with my presentation and the crowd asked some great questions. If you care to see a copy of the presentation, please let me know.

The highlight for me on day 2 was the keynote on Coke's MyRewards program from Carol Kruse and Kristine Elliot. I was amazed to hear that they have 124 segments of their newsletter. There were lots of great insights on the challenges and successes they have had in using this program to build and capture data while delivering a meaningful loyalty program.

All in all, a great 2 day event!

Email Chemistry 101

2007-10-16T08:29:00.000-05:00

David Baker has a thoughtful piece on The Chemistry Of An Email Team. This is a rarely evaluated element of a successful email program. Of course, the people make or break anything in the business world. With staffing and budgeting issues a major issue in the email world, this deserves more attention.

It will vary based on your company's size and structure but this is a good case to build for more resources in 2008. For some data to take into battle, see my iMedia piece Email economics: what to do in a recession that ran yesterday.

An additional resource on a day in the life of an email marketing manager (usually the The Moderator or Idealist as described in Baker's article) is from a column I wrote previously that features insights from real life email marketing managers.

What are some other "roles" that could be added to this view of a typical email team?

Constant Contact IPO a Roaring Success

2007-10-04T08:51:00.000-05:00

In a positive step forward for the technology capital markets, small business email software provider, Constant Contact (CTCT), saw its IPO on Wed. Oct. 3 jump to a 79% gain on its first day of trading.

Constant Contact shares closed at $27.64. The company, based in Waltham, Mass., raised $93.3 million in the offering, selling 5.8 million shares at $16 apiece, surpassing the $12 to $14 expected range of the stock. Constant Contact has 27 million outstanding shares, giving it a market capitalization of more than $800 million.

This surely opens the door for some other ESPs to move closer to their own IPOs. Who is next will be interesting fodder for the email industry as well as a big step in moving email more into the mainstream business and finance world.

Some stories on the IPO:

Constant Contact’s I.P.O. May Bode Well For Tech Offerings

Constant Contact shares soar in debut

You can also read about some highlights from their filing in my earlier post.

Those Presidential Candidates Sure Like Email - But Are They Any Good At It?

2007-10-03T10:11:00.000-05:00

Email is certainly not seen as a political luxury item anymore and most politicians have made copious use of the reach of this tool in recent months.

Several articles break down how email is working for the Presidential candidates.

You, Bill Clinton and a bowl of chips

Campaigns get creative in dash for cash

Thanks to Ken Magill and Mark Brownlow for picking these items up.

For the curious and poly sci majors, take a look back at my iMediaConnection piece on the 2004 Presidential email face-off.

Email Marketing and the 2004 Election

An excerpt...

"I feel comfortable saying that Bush’s camp has a very slight advantage over Kerry in terms of email strategy and execution."

So maybe email is a strong indicator of the electoral process and results. Will it foreshadow the winner again in 08?

Stay tuned.

Top 21 email marketing information sources...Revisited

2007-10-03T09:59:00.000-05:00

Most email marketers know (or should) Mark Brownlow and his EmailMarketingReports.com (and blog) as the most straightforward, relevant and neutral source of email marketing news, opinions and thought leadership (both from Mark and the many sources he pulls from).

So I was honored to be among his Top 21 email marketing information sources when it first was released.

I am still honored to be part of it (he did take a few folks off and added some as well) and it is well worth checking out for some diverse thoughts on the never dull email marketing industry. I have signed up for most of the RSS feeds from this talented crew and recommend you checking them out as well.

More Evidence Of Email Going MIA for Customer Service

2007-09-26T12:07:00.000-05:00

Following on the heels of our study, (Return to Sender - Most Companies Receive Failing Grade in Responding to Their Email Campaigns), Talisma, when reviewing eretailers email response during customer service, discovered some abysmal results of their own.

Their study found "despite this communication channel being one of the most favored by Internet users, 34 percent of email queries went unanswered."

Our findings (which covered other online companies besides retailers) revealed companies performed even poorer when replying to email questions, concerns and other inquiries:

-only 15% of companies that sent opt-in email messages over the span of a week answered subscriber responses to their own emails
-63% failed to reply at all
-15% of the replies immediately bounced as the sender did not have a valid return email address.
-The remaining 7% of email messages had an automated message that said they did not accept email messages.

Wake up, folks. Just because it is cheaper than answering the phone doesn't mean you can ignore it.

File Under "Companies that make permission emailers crazy"

2007-09-25T14:00:00.000-05:00

Actually, the headline on TechCrunch where I read about this company sums it up perfectly How To Lose All Your Friends Immediately, In Real Time.

Trumpia - a social communicator, is doomed to get press although I imagine it will be mainly skeptical and negative. This sort of business model would fly in 1999 but I hope it doesn't catch on as it makes the work of all of us legitimate email marketers that much harder.

Anyone in the email space, will know what to expect upon seeing Blast as their main value proposition and product name.

Some of their marketing fodder:
-Blast is the perfect tool for people that need to communicate and coordinate things in real-time with a group of people, but cannot rely solely on email to do so. After all, email is old!

-Blast people on their mobile phones, instant messaging and emails at the same time so you can contact everyone in real time no matter where they are, no matter what they are doing…Once you are signed up for Trumpia you can start blasting your friends right away, even if they haven’t signed up.

Nice best practices.

As TechCrunch notes, "the only way to make the madness stop is to sign up for the service and tell it not to contact you any more."

Monkey Business

2007-09-24T09:38:00.000-05:00

MailChimp's Live Chat With a King

Pretty funny stuff and bold that MailChimp posted this dialogue. However, it seems true to their irreverent brand/positioning.

Return to Sender

2007-09-17T11:46:00.000-05:00

I won't go into details here but my latest iMedia article revealed one of, if not the number one, biggest issue that I believe email marketing professionals face. That is that most campaigns and the strategy driving them is a one way street. What I mean is that companies spend a great deal of time on the look, the wordsmithing, the offer and other parts of the email messaging but they fail to see the big picture. I could go a lot of different ways with this blog entry but the aspect that I want to address is the glaring absence of a full circle email campaign. The first half of the campaign is the creation and send of the email message.

The second half is the tracking and responses that the sender gets. The tracking goes beyond opens, clicks, ROI etc. Most tools track replies. Where those replies go seems to be another story.

Our informal study found on how companies reply to their email campaigns revealed only 15% of companies that sent opt-in email messages over the span of a week answered subscriber responses to their own emails; 63% failed to reply at all and 15% of the replies immediately bounced as the sender did not have a valid return email address. The remaining 7% of email messages had an automated message that said they did not accept email messages.

To hear me rant some more, check out this brief podcast or press release on this topic.

How to decrease your email list

2007-09-11T14:03:00.000-05:00

No, this isn't a post about what not to do. This is about a bold move by the folks at CBS Sportsline who want quality not quantity when it comes to their email program. Read about it in an article by Ken Magill for Direct that for some reason doesn't include his signature no hold barred approach but is still a good read.

Behind CBSSports.com’s Massive E-mail Cleanup

How to Write a perfect email

2007-09-07T09:22:00.000-05:00

Wired shares thoughts on proper email correspondence. This is geared towards personal email writing tips but one could use these tips for any type of email, whether it is a greeting to a former colleague, sales inquiry or newsletter to 5,000 opt in subscribers.

Among the tips:
Brevity
Context
Something to act on
A deadline

Sounds like a good email marketing campaign as well, right?

Off Topic Plug

2007-09-06T15:13:00.000-05:00

But it is for my wife, so it is OK. SepiaPress.com is her online stationery store and is pretty impressive, I must say. She built the site herself and had had a great deal of initial success and feedback.

Check it out if you are in the market for Monogrammed Correspondence, Gift Enclosures, Birth Announcements or other clever personalized Gift Ideas.

Of course, she has an opt in email sign up as well in the event you were wondering.

Email Marketers with Opinions - Step Inside

2007-09-05T15:24:00.000-05:00

The First Annual EmailStatCenter.com State of Email Metrics Survey has just gone live. You can't miss it on the home page.

If you are an email marketing professional, your thoughts count. As an added bonus, if you participate and opt in, you will receive the preview findings before they are released.

Check it out and share it with other email pros as this will hopefully provide some great insight to our industry on how we use metrics and what other issues we are battling in the fight for the perfect inbox.

Click here - it should only take 2 minutes of your time.

What good are blogs?

2007-08-31T09:49:00.000-05:00

The easy answer is you get to read some random and insightful thoughts from random and insightful people that you probably don't know. Part voyeuristic and part free brain picking, blogs have become more than a niche of the internet marketing world and a worldwide phenomenon.

But my top answer would be the ability to engage in spirited dialogue with people who you would probably not being having a conversation with otherwise.

Some recent posts on this site and others have reinforced my confidence that blogs are here to stay and serve many different purposes on the corporate, marketing and personal enrichment fronts.

EmailMarketingReports.com's blog is one of my favorites. A recent Let's talk bacn post has some thoughts on what to make of this pork infused mess. Buzzwords or real threat to email marketing? Stay tuned.

2 different blog threads from MineThatData provide some interesting viewpoints.

E-Mail Productivity Is Waning ... Or Is It?

Return On Investment (ROI)In Direct Marketing

And our own humble blog - The BrightWave Blog - has some email heavyweights provide their thoughts on the top email stories of the past decade

Labor on and enjoy the long weekend.

They're back! Crazy company names & lava lamps

2007-08-29T08:41:00.000-05:00

Shades of the late 90s, early 2000 dot com era (hopefully, sans bubble). The title of this article says it all - Dot-com names get dottier (via LA Times).

What is your email strategy for mobile phones?

2007-08-28T09:23:00.000-05:00

This stat indicates all email marketers better develop one: Mobile phones to reach 100% saturation by 2013

Phones will become more of data centers and email will of course be a piece of the content puzzle, so it is time now (if you have not already done so) for adapting your email campaigns for the phone. This goes beyond optimizing for delivery as content, link placements and overall messaging strategy will need to conform to the next generation of phones that will make this 100% saturation number a reality.

My easiest to implement suggestion - start with shorter subject lines that will be viewable on phones/pdas.

Any other suggestions for you go to market now mobile email campaigns?

Yum, Bacn

2007-08-27T14:23:00.000-05:00

Homer Simpson would be disapointed of this bacn and spam combo (not PETA friendly) that many may find in their inbox. From the Messaging Times (although this new angle to spam seems to be gaining momentum in the media), we find a new industry term entering our lexicon.
Bacn - The deluge of email that arrives in our inbox as a result of our participation in online communities and other web activities has been allocated a name; ‘Bacn‘. This type of ‘non-spam spam’ includes new friend requests, updates from social networks, newsletter subscriptions, support messages and other automated email that we want to get but nonetheless fill up our inboxes each day.

Corporate gifting to your hometown & deep time based targeting by retailers

2007-08-21T07:49:00.000-05:00

Via the insightful VC blog, Feld Thoughts,, I learned of an innovative way a company is giving back to their hometown (Boulder, CO), via their employees

For Blue Mountain Arts’ 35th anniversary, they’ve given a wonderful gift to Boulder. Rather than having a big party and spending a bunch of money, they’ve given each of their 100 employees a share of $200,000 to donate to their favorite charities.

Now, if we could just do something about the spoof emails from Blue Mountain Arts.

From the Chicago Tribune, comes an interesting look at how some retailers are sending timely emails to trigger purchases late at night. First, I thought it was refreshing to see mainstream media cover email in a context that wasn't about spam.

Second, I like the fresh approach to email that retailers are trying while utilizing their data and providing unique offers to their email lists.

Lastly, they quote our friend Chad White of the eec and http://retailemail.blogspot.com/. I point this out not as a blog brownnose move, but I sometimes shrug when the media cites a big name traditional agency creative director that likely has no idea about email best practices, much less their own client's email program.

You can read the article here Night's right for online shopping

The Big ISP Postmasters redefine Spam (and out the airline spammer)

2007-08-02T09:51:00.000-05:00

Via the Campaign Monitor Blog , we hear that spam is and will be what the ISP Postmasters (and their end users) say it is.

So forget about being CAN-SPAM compliant, try being compliant on relevancy and subscriber expectations. I have an iMediaConnection article coming out on this type of theme. Spam is not just Viagra and Rolex crap. Spam can be from your preferred airline (you know who you are) if they start to send you cross promotional emails too often, irrelevant special offers and generally too much email that I don't care about.

There you have it, that means the emails I get from this airline are spam, even though they are fully opt-in and seem to be fully CAN-SPAM compliant. (Any guesses on what airline I may be talking about?)

The blog post includes quotes from the big dogs protecting the giant inbox in the sky.

Yahoo! Mail - Miles Libbey: Anti-spam product manager
"Operationally, we define spam as whatever consumers don't want in their inbox."

AOL - Charles Stiles: AOL Postmaster
"I don't care if they've triple opted-in and gave you their credit card number," said Stiles, drawing chuckles, but making his point loud and clear: Relevance rules, and catering to end user preferences is his top priority.

Microsoft/Hotmail - Craig Spiezle: Online safety evangelist
"We need to think really a step beyond opt-in and focus on the consumer's expectations, relevancy, and frequency."

Gmail - Brad Taylor: Google Engineer
"Sometimes people are afraid to report a message because they aren't sure if it is "really" spam or not. Our opinion is that if you didn't ask for it and you don't want it, it's spam to you, and it should be reported. "

The New Yorker on the history of Spam

2007-08-01T10:23:00.000-05:00

Not the usual email industry source which makes this an interesting tale.

What kind of agency do you hand the keys to?

2007-07-31T07:15:00.000-05:00

This question seems to be on the minds of many people (myself included). With the huge momentum and growth of interactive marketing spend, traditional, digital and highly specialized (like BrightWave Marketing) agencies are not only fighting for dollars but control.

Who you hand the keys to depends on your type of car and where you want to go, right?

I had bookmarked 3 interesting blog posts with similar themes. The bottom line: Times are changing; most traditional agencies are sweating and still seem to be missing the boat in many regards.

Return on Subscriber Blog My 2 cents: Are traditional agencies running (or ruining) your email?

I wholeheartedly agree with this post (obviously as BrightWave's business model is somewhat dependant on this theory) and I believe we will see more companies hiring email firms to handle email the way they handle print or direct mail firms (or for that matter, accounting or legal) for those services. The problem is, most agencies can pitch their "digital expertise" and the client generally assumes they must be right. After all, they have a sleek lobby, cool lighting and lots of busy young people milling around the office that must be experts on the Google and whatnot.

My friend Jeff Hilimire at Spunlogic, a leading interactive shop, has a great take on Digital Shops vs. Traditional Shops. His refreshingly honest approach is that digital firms should not take the keys for the whole drive. They must collaborate but herein lies the rub. He says...

It’s not necessarily that ideas that are interactive/web-based are more important than traditional media (though I’d love to debate that one), but more so that we as interactive agencies understand the new way to interact with the consumer. Traditional shops, because of their mediums, have almost no way of appreciating how powerful consumer interaction and collaboration can be. Digital shops get that, and that’s why they are continuing to take over.

Next, we have surely a hotly debated article written in AdWeek by Jeff Gundersen. Digitally Deficient CMOs Need Not Apply is a great piece for all marketers not just CMOs. It is not a lecture but merely a reality check and offers 5 things anyone in the marketing/advertising/communications world must do. Today.

Exclusive Offer for eMarketing Association Atlanta Conference

2007-07-30T09:42:00.000-05:00

The BrightWave Blog readers can receive a special offer to the upcoming eMA conference in Atlanta (Oct.23-24). This is a great event on interactive marketing trends and best practices. It features some heavy hitters speaking, including execs from Coke, Google and InterContinental Hotels Group. I will be speaking on day 2. My topic will be Utilizing Metrics to Enhance your Email Budget and Performance.

I spoke at the San Francisco event this fall and highly recommend it, for networking alone although the content and speakers are excellent.

15% off full registration (over $200.00 in savings) - use special code bwvip

The registration url is: (you can use the above promotional codes at check out)

http://www.emarketingassociation.com/2007/atlanta/register.htm

Information on the event is at:

http://www.emarketingassociation.com/2007/atlanta/index.htm

If you need to book a hotel room, please use the eMA venue page, as you will get a special rate http://www.emarketingassociation.com/2007/atlanta/venue.htm

bwvip - 15% off full registration (over $200.00 in savings)

Feel free to email me with any questions.

Where you sit influences where you stand

2007-07-23T10:43:00.000-05:00

Via the BankersBall blog, I found some interesting business psychology 101 regarding conference room positioning from an article in BusinessWeek.

This is based on 40,000 people in Sharon Livingston's (a clinical psychologist and founder of the Livingston Group) career at dozens of large companies and has found that people fit into one of seven personality types based on where they sit, which she explains using the nomenclature borrowed from Snow White's seven dwarves. Those sitting opposite the person leading the meeting tend to be Grumpy or Doc, or a combination of the two, says Livingston. Grumpy is openly argumentative and may be hard to control. Doc is the person who faces off against the leader to show off his or her intelligence.

The person with the most power determines how everybody else positions themselves around the typical rectangular or oblong office table. As a rule, leaders like to sit at the end of the table facing the exit so no one can sneak up on them.

Be sure to review the table diagram located here to make sure you sit in the right seat.

Retail Subscription Highlights

2007-07-19T08:31:00.000-05:00

The ever resourceful and insightful Chad White of RetailEmail.Blogspot provides some very interesting excerpts from his forthcoming 2007 Retail Email Subscription Benchmark Study. They are all from that grab bag of email best practices, volume and frequency, otherwise known as retail email marketing.

These highlights were featured from MediaPost's EmailInsider newsletter

Only the Gap Inc. brands -- Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Piperlime --give you the chance to subscribe to sister brands when you sign up for email from of the individual brands.

Comments - this is shocking. Companies will sacrifice quality and brand integrity with letting random companies be a part of a co-reg or affiliate program yet fail to include sister companies in their email list building efforts. Chalk that up to some synergy sizzle. Or maybe not.

Omaha Steaks was the only retailer to say how many subscribers it has -- over 2 million.

Comments - Bragging is OK if you can back it up. I wonder if they were really using this as a consumer incentive or just to pat themselves on the back. Either way, that is a lot of porterhouse emails.

Hanna Andersson was the only retailer to offer its newsletter in a language (Japanese) other than English.
Coldwater Creek is the only retailer that gives subscribers the option of receiving a once-a-month email.

Comments - these are surpising and evident of the continuing focus of email programs based on marketing goals, not consumer needs. I agree with Chad that consumers will want (and deserve) more control.

Who wants to be the real leader among retailer's in the email world?

More on the ConstantContact IPO Filing

2007-07-09T14:26:00.000-05:00

A rare look into the financials of an email marketing company. All taken from SEC filing, which is available to the public via this link

Some highlights (others may use a different term) from their IPO filing below but be sure to read the entire document to ensure proper context of all excerpts:

Proposed Nasdaq Global Market symbol CTCT
In 2006, our revenue was $27.6 million and our net loss was $7.8 million
in the quarter ended March 31, 2007 our revenue was $9.7 million and our net loss was $2.7 million.
We have not been profitable since our inception, and we may not become profitable.
As of May 31, 2007, we employed a total of 275 employees.
As of June 30, 2007, we had over 120,000 customers.
For the first quarter of 2007, our average monthly revenue per email marketing customer exceeded $32.
Since the first quarter of 2002, we have achieved 21 consecutive quarters of growth in customers and revenue.
we believe that our email marketing solutions could potentially address the needs of more than 27.3 million small organizations in the United States.
Our email marketing customers pay a monthly subscription fee that generally ranges between $15 per month and $150 per month based on the size of the customers’ contact lists and, in some cases, volume of mailings.
In the first quarter of 2007, our top 50 email marketing customers accounted for approximately 1% of our gross email marketing revenue.
We acquire our customers through a variety of paid and unpaid sources.
In the year ended December 31, 2006, we spent $18.6 million on sales and marketing. Our cost of customer acquisition during this period was approximately $300 per email marketing customer, defined as our total sales and marketing expense divided by the gross number of email marketing customers added in the period.
Our paid sources include online marketing through search engines, advertising networks and other sites; offline marketing through radio advertising, local seminars and other marketing efforts; and relationships with over 1,700 active channel partners, which include national small business service providers such as Network Solutions, LLC, American Express Company and VistaPrint Limited as well as local small business service providers.
Our unpaid sources of customer acquisition include referrals from our growing customer base, general brand awareness and the inclusion of a link to our website in the footer of more than 500 million emails currently sent by our customers each month. We believe that during the first quarter of 2007 at least 45% of our new email marketing customers were generated through unpaid sources.
Our customer support employees answer approximately 1,300 calls per day with an average wait time of less than two minutes.
As of May 31, 2007, we had 93 employees working in customer service and support.
Risk Factors - a bit long but be sure to read this seciton if you are in the email business, especially sections on deliverability and staffing.

Regardless of these challenges, opportunities and past successes, best of luck to ConstantContact as they look to blaze a new trail in open waters. It should be a closely followed event in the email space, for sure.

2 Major Email Related Items - IPOs & Trade Group M & A

2007-07-09T07:38:00.000-05:00

DM News reports "Constant Contact paves way to publicly traded status." This is indicative of the robust environment and huge upside for email marketing companies. That is a major breakthrough for the industry and it will be interesting to see who follows ConstantContact into the public markets as well as any related M & A activity (what will ConstantContact do with their new horde of cash?) and how Wall Street will treat an email marketing company.

I would be shocked to see any email related company receive valuations similar to its online advertising or search brethren. I am not saying they don't deserve them but email does not have the halo that other online marketing platforms have. However, they may be thrown in the online advertising bucket for lack of a defined category currently serviced by the Street.

Also, in its newsletter sent early Monday, Direct appears to scoop some big news related to the Email Experience Council and DMA. I will reserve my judgment once we find out more. BrightWave Marketing and EmailStatCenter.com have strong relationships and partnerships with the eec, so we will have more to come.

100th Post & EmailStatCenter.com keeps rolling

2007-06-13T12:51:00.000-05:00

This is my 100th post on the BrightWave Blog and it has taken a long time to get to 100 but hey no one said I was going to be a prolific blogger.

EmailStatCenter.com has been a tremendous hit with experienced email marketers and novice folks alike looking to gain some knowledge about email stats and the overall industry we call home. With the help of the email experience council (eec) and GOT , our partner and sponsor, not to mention our team at BrightWave Marketing , I would have no problem saying the site is a hit and here to stay.

Others agree - widely read Larry Chase's Web Digest For Marketers says EmailStatCenter.com is one of "the 13 best ways to help you measure your marketing on the Internet...This site is full of email performance factoids from every study under the sun."

We couldn't agree more. Check out more press and buzz on EmailStatCenter.com

How to Grow Your Email List Overnight

2007-05-30T14:31:00.000-05:00

Personally, I was very excited to read this story this morning about a major concert at Atlanta's Piedmont Park (Atlanta's Central Park). Allman Brothers and Dave Matthews. Wow, right up my alley. In fact, the Allmans Brothers got their start playing free shows over 30 years in the same park.

So what does this have to do with this blog post title? I was even more excited when I saw the catch (there is always a catch).

Ticket sales begin Thursday for those who go to the Web page of the Piedmont Park Conservancy and sign up to receive the conservancy's electronic newsletter. Viewers will get the password to purchase tickets online. These tickets will get the holders closer to the stage because they will be allowed to enter an hour before the gates are opened.

What an innovative tie-in to their email program. Sure, they will get thousands of people not interested or caring about the Piedmont Park Conservancy but they will get many interested people to build a relationship with, via email.

Some people may even say this is borderline shady since you have to opt in for their email newsletter but assuming they manage their email program in the right fashion, than I think this is a home run for them.

On the downside I noticed it was hard to find the email sign up form and no contextual links to it in the page that details the concert. I spoke with their marketing manager and she said the sign up doesn't go live until tomorrow, Thursday May 31. I think that is a mistake but love to see non-profits (or anyone, for that matter) using email in innovative ways.

Email vs IM/Text/Blogging

2007-05-29T13:20:00.000-05:00

VC Fred Wilson has one of the best blogs around. This post
is his personal take on whether email is about to be overtaken as the web's killer app. I think for teenagers the tipping point may have already occured but the business world will not let email be overtaken by text or IM pings. An interest read as usual and if anything some insight on how to contact this well respected VC.

M & A Frenzy + FTC CAN SPAM Update (sort of)

2007-05-21T12:10:00.000-05:00

These are heady times in the interactive world. Almost daily there seems to be a huge deal going down. What will the landscape of online advertising (and its smaller subsets like email) look like in a year? Or even 3 months?

Silverpop CEO Bill Nussey, who has more high level experience than most in the online world, offers up some thoughts on his blog. He clearly sees that this is a good time for his company to take market share (and talent) as some of the acquired companies get their new house in order.

I expect the email space to see some more of an M & A and executive shakeup in the next 6 months, partly as a result of these bigger deals. There is too much action for most companies to sit on the sidelines, especially with these valuations and multiples.

Shifting to the decidedly less sexy but equally important topic of CAN-SPAM, Jordan Cohen of Epsilon (which just got acquired, not they you would know it from their blog)
provides an update on the FTC's upcoming updates on pending CAN-SPAM changes.

Until then, we will wait to see what the changes will be. Let's hope for the best.

Email Summit Notes

2007-05-16T11:57:00.000-05:00

I have not yet attended one of the MediaPost Email Insider Summits but I hear they are the best of all email related conferences. A heavy travel schedule prevented me from attending but I plan on doing so in the future.

Read Bill McCloskey's wrapup for the full overview but I wanted to note a major problem that all email marketing folks face and it uncovers why things are not easy or getting better on the deliverability front.

"Craig Spiezel from Microsoft, in particular, raised eyebrows of more than a few in the audience when he talked about a flower company's emails not being delivered before Mother's Day because the company used a new IP address that did not have a "reputation" associated with it: "Did we deliver those emails? We did not," he said. Spiezel went on to say that as a result, the company had a warehouse of wilting flowers."

Imagine if the USPS said we are not going to deliver your packages unless they are in USPS purchased boxes. Well, there you have a major issue that our industry needs to tackle and we can't without the big ISPs help. While it hurts email marketers it doesn't do any favors for the ISPs users either.

When Googling yourself is VERY important

2007-05-10T13:10:00.000-05:00

A freebie WSJ article, You're a Nobody Unless Your Name Googles Well, about people's trials and tribulations when searching for their name.

One option for naming your baby is to test the Google searches for originality to ensure they come up on the first page. Priorities! (Secretly, I am disapointed I didn't do this for our 2 little ones)

Why not do a pre-birth Ad Words campaign with cross promotional email and direct mail birth announcements to ensure maximum exposure and ROI?

Email Bankruptcy?

2007-05-10T12:32:00.000-05:00

Interesting NY Times article on people declaring "email bankruptcy." A good idea for some, I would imagine. You can call this email suppression of a different kind.

Microsoft to launch another email client, designers collectively hold their breath

2007-05-09T11:58:00.000-05:00

Interesting post from CampaignMonitor Blog -stay tuned.

What are your favorite email related blogs?

2007-05-09T11:54:00.000-05:00

Working on a iMediaConnection piece and would love to know any fresh suggestions.
Thanks.

Quote to ponder

2007-05-09T11:53:00.000-05:00

"The Googles of the world, they are the Custer of the modern world. We are the Sioux nation," says Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Richard Parsons. "They will lose this war if they go to war. Via MediaPost

Email = 10 year's old & $10B Strong

2007-05-08T12:01:00.000-05:00

David Baker has a very good piece today from MediaPost, Email Isn't Going Away, But It Will Change

Some of his thoughts on where email is going:

Most of the personalization and cool dynamic content sent through email will be reserved for the highly engaged, responsive, highly valued consumer.
Email acquisition will be done on a contingency basis (pay to perform).
Email priority delivery will be a paid-for service.
Email marketers will be forced to split their forces to address RSS.

I agree on most of these - how about you?

Key New Blog Alert - All Star Cast

2007-05-07T07:31:00.000-05:00

The email industry seems to be really pulling itself together and gaining momentum. The eec has a great new blog from some major voices http://blog.emailexperience.org/ - well worth your RSS feed.

More to come later as client work and travels have kept this blog from being active of late.

Uh, Oh … Congress May Revisit Can Spam

2007-04-04T15:47:00.000-05:00

Uh, Oh … Congress May Revisit Can Spam from Ken Magill at Direct.

EmailStatCenter.com Launched as the Web’s Definitive Source of Statistical Data for the Email Marketing Industry

2007-03-29T09:11:00.000-05:00

BrightWave Marketing is proud to announce a key industry partnership with The Email Experience Council (eec). Today is the offical launch of EmailStatCenter.com.

So far in the past 2 weeks of the soft launch, we have gotten amazing feedback and traffic from over 22 countries.

I will let the eec describe it via this web page ....

The Email Experience Council is proud to have partnered with BrightWave Marketing to establish and support EmailStatCenter.com, the first centralized online repository of statistics and research specific to the email marketing industry. The site is free, easy-to-use and features hundreds of stats from the EEC, the Direct Marketing Association, MarketingSherpa, Forrester Research, eMarketer, JupiterResearch, Internet Retailer and numerous other sources—and more are being added on a regular basis.

We’ve included a tiny sample of stats from EmailStatCenter in the Statistics box to the right, which appears throughout the Resource section of our site. EmailStatCenter’s whitepapers will be powered by the EEC. Check out our whitepaper room for a complete list of whitepapers.

The launch of EmailStatCenter means the end of aimlessly hunting for email marketing figures. For industry veterans, the site is an easy way to find data to benchmark their own programs and find information for presentations. For companies that are just starting an email marketing program, or are looking to take their program to the next level, it’s a treasure trove of data on everything from budgeting to conversions, and deliverability to segmentation. And for journalists, EmailStatCenter is a vital resource for finding data to support their articles.

This site is another step in the email marketing industry’s maturation. We encourage everyone to check out EmailStatCenter and to use it for their email marketing data needs. We also encourage everyone that has done some research that they’d like to share to visit the site and click on the “submit a stat” link in the upper right-hand corner of the page, or send us an email with the data you would like to upload.

Visit the site

Read the press release.

I hope this site makes your job easier and more productive. Let us know thoughts and feel free to submit stats!

Best Tactical Article on email in a while

2007-03-28T14:55:00.000-05:00

Lena Waters, in iMediaConnection.com, describes 7 Ways to Save a Marketing Email.

Great piece with screenshots and more. Print this out, forward it and read it to your email, creative and marketing teams.

Light Blogging & Heavy Lifting

2007-03-16T12:24:00.000-05:00

This blog has been very silent of late. No vacations here, however.

We are wrapping up a major client strategy project which has been extensive in the time and resource department.

Additonally, a major announcement from us should be released in the next week or so.

It is good news for all email marketers. Stay tuned....

Agency stands up to client & says "f-- off"

2007-02-28T14:34:00.000-05:00

This has received quite a bit of press and runnig an agency I have to agree with this stand in saying goodbeye to a client.

It takes some courage to say this to and about a client...
"There are a few times in your life when you have to tell someone to f-- off and mean it."

CareerBuilder Wrecks a Good Thing Over Poll in 'USA Today'

Anti-Spam crusade gone too far?

2007-02-06T16:32:00.000-05:00

A must read...no need for an intro - just read this very interesting conversation between email beat writer Ken Magilla and an anti-spam crusader who is actually making a movie of his efforts to stop who he deems as spammers.

Super search & email issues appear ahead

2007-02-06T13:49:00.000-05:00

To follow up on yesterdays blog regarding the failure of most companies to include a url in the Super Bowl ads, comes how most of these advertisers failed to utilize search to leverage their $3.4M spend on the ad.
Many Super Bowl Marketers Drop the Ball on Search

Why would they do that? Search is hot! Search Engine Ad Spending Forecast Up 39 Percent in '07

Got search? Well, then you must have an opinion on Yahoo's Panama. Stakes huge in Yahoo's overhaul of search engine
(for what it is worth, BrightWave Marketing thinks Panama is a huuuuuge improvement for Yahoo)

On the flip side, email may be looking at a big mountain to climb as industry bully, Microsoft changes the rules. Warning! Outlook 2007 Might Trash HTML Again

In case you forgot, emails can get you in trouble

2007-02-05T13:16:00.000-05:00

This farewell email by an Ernst & Young executive and ensuing aplogy shows that maybe face to face farewells are better.

The initial email

The story

Remember, email smartly or not at all.

Super Bowl Online Fumbles

2007-02-05T13:06:00.000-05:00

A nice recap of the Super Bowl commericals and the seemingly easy to implement url insertion opportunity during the ad. My take is the big creative shops could care less about online but it would be interesting to compare website traffic jumps to the ones that did include urls versus the brands that just don't get it. Still. In 2007. Oh well, I am sure that $3.5M is worth something. Just not to the online marketing team.

Opt Out of Everything

2007-01-23T09:13:00.000-05:00

Long time, no post. Forgive me but the holidays, a new child and much new work has pushed the BW Blog off to the side for the time being.

But anyway, The New York Times has an interesting post called "Don’t Call. Don’t Write. Let Me Be."(reg required) on how consumers can opt out of marketing solicitations.

Email marketers need to be aware of the tone of this article, which is pretty much how the mainstream media and most Americans view email and direct marketing: a pain. Of course, that 20% off coupon they get emailed from their favorite retailer is probably not counted among this pain/pest/annoyance category.

Finally, a good look at deliverability best practices "Why Data is the Key to Deliverability"

Phishing for big brands, VCs, Big Media & Words of Wisdom from an Ad legend

2006-12-13T11:48:00.000-05:00

Venture capitalists switch to startups - notable as some VCs thought running a company was easy.

Big Media YouTube Competitor? Sorry, Quincy Smith is Not a Moron -From Henry Blodget's Internet Outsider blog. Always an interesting read.

Phishers Switch Brand Bait to Coke and McDonald's - the biggest takeaway is buried in the bottom: Few marketers beyond eBay and PayPal have developed strategies to prevent phishing, but that may have to change. "Perhaps consumer brand companies will need to follow in their footsteps in educating customers," Mr. Roberts said, adding: "It probably is going to be just a necessary part of connecting with their customers digitally."

Time to wake up and proactively establish some policies and contingency plans. Incidentally, we have been advising some big brands on this for years.

After 36 Years at Grey, Time for Life No. 2
Some great words of wisdom Edward H. Meyer...

"I built my career and the agency on the belief clients come first, and the job of the guy at the head of the agency is to know their needs. Not what they like for dinner, but their advertising needs, better than anyone at the agency."

"I built auxiliary services here like direct marketing not because I’m a genius, but because I got an early alert; I heard my clients talking about them. If I waited for the guy or gal running the account to get that information to me, it’d be a year later."

Finally, an interesting take on the year that was: 2006, Brought to You by You

Bonus Weekly Roundup - More Spam laws, recruiting and subject line advice

2006-12-08T13:20:00.000-05:00

CAN SPAM - Part Deux? According to MediaPost, there are some potentially huge email related laws on the horizon, notably on the state level that would make email an "opt-in" rather than "opt-out" platform.

New York Times reports Spam Doubles, Finding New Ways to Deliver Itself -"Spam 2.0" means 9 out of 10 emails are junk. Not good.

Recruiting In The E-mail Marketing World - an important part of the email long term success equation, often forgotten.

Subject Line Magic Number
Bill Nussey, in his blog, cites a new report that the maximum number of characters in a subject line should be 49.

Second Mover Magic
A great blog post on Yahoo dispels first-mover myth. This quote from Rich Skrenta, CEO of Topix.net sums it up nicely: "The second mouse gets the cheese while the first mouse gets trampled on."

Weekly Interactive Roundup - Search Stats, Big Monday, Email Myths and Misery

2006-12-05T12:59:00.000-05:00

Search Marketing 2006: Facts & Figures - Highlights MarketingSherpa's annual "Benchmark Guide." Consider it Cliff Notes to the real thing.

Cyber Monday generates $608 million in online sales: comScore - Hype or not, the numbers are not too shabby.

Don't Believe Everything You Hear - Interesting piece for several reasons including mentioning AIMA, Atlanta's Interactive Marketing Association (of which I am a board member) and AIMA"s former President, Teresa Caro, now senior manager of strategy at Avenue A Razorfish.

Cringe! Worst emails ever

Weekly Interactive Roundup - Subject Lines, Appends, Web 3.0 & Email Marketer of the Week Award

2006-11-15T12:23:00.000-05:00

Welcome back to the BrightWave Blog - Let's dive in with some more hype regarding Web 2.0 - wait, the New York Times wants to get in on the next phase of annoyingly titled Internet bubble sounding phases - Web 3.0 -The Semantic Web

Customer Service is the New Marketing
Not what you expect from a VC blog, but Union Square Ventures has a nice post.

E-Mail Append: Digging Deep to Drive E-Mail Revenue - one thing to note on this insightful article from Jeanniey Mullen, a co-founder of the Email Experience Council, is that the title doesn't embrace the EEC's official spelling of email - not e-mail. Go figure.

Speaking of the EEC, you can vote on which subject line would drive the highest open and donation rates? For more information on Ryan Andrew Kaiser Memorial Foundation, please visit http://www.rakmf.org/

Vote for your favorite subject line for the RAKMF holiday email?

1) Non-Profit Solutions for U.S. Children & Their Families

2) Please Read & Support RAKMF – Children's Lives Depend on It

3) Be a real Santa. Help RAKMF this Holiday

Vote here - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=276342891637
(Disclosure - one of the over 300 entries was submitted by me and chosen as a finalist but I won't list which one is mine here in order to be fair and balanced)

Bad Email is Bad Business

Reporting, customer service key for e-mail clients: British DMA

Top 10 Tips on Sprucing Up Your Email Content - As Told by Don Corleone

Ten Spammers Create 80 Percent Of Spam

Non Profit email marketer alert - An overview can be found here
New Study Shows Nonprofits Raised 40% More Money Online in 2005; E-Mail List Growth High, But E-Mail Turnover Rates High Also

IAB: Internet Ad Revenue Hits $4.2 Bil. in 3Q

Email Marketer of the Week Award - Kimpton Hotels. Finally, an example of a forward thinking email program. Remember, what works for you doesnt mean it will work for your recipients. The boutique hotel group is using something unique and compelling for its email subscribers rather than recycleing the same content or offers that website users can find. In other words, there is actual value to being a subscriber. A rare find these days.

Interactive News to Use - Week of Nov. 6, 2007

2006-11-09T10:51:00.000-05:00

A busy week as usual in the online world. Some powerful email ROI number leads us off....

Email ROI Blows Away Other Channels

The DMA stated that the ROI for email marketing is $57.25 for every dollar spent.

-The ROI of all non-email online marketing is $22.52, less than half of email's total.

-Email marketing in the US alone will account for approximately 71,000 jobs this year, growing at 8-10% annually historically and projected into the future as well.

There is a wealth of info in this report and article about it, too much for a blog post, so be sure to check it out.

Viral email retail study

RetailEmail.Blogspot breaks down viral email and releases Send to a Friend Benchmark Study

Highlights include:

-Only 44% of retailers using send to a friend (STAF) in their emails.

-Only 51% of send-to-a-friend emails contain a privacy statement of some sort at the top of the forwarded email.

-Only one retailer, J. Jill, offered the recipients of forwards an incentive to sign up for the newsletter themselves.

Spam: It's Academic

By way of Email Marketing Reports, an interesting called"Consumers’ Attitudes toward Unsolicited Commercial E-mail and Postal Direct Mail Marketing Methods: Intrusiveness, Perceived Loss of Control, and Irritation" . It is by 2 university professors.

CAN SPAM Fines

As reported in DM News , Yesmail has been ordered to pay upwards of $50,000 for failing to honour unsubscribe requests via reply email.

This raises the stakes even more with both email vendors and on the client side. This also shows the FTC is going after anyone who violates CAN-SPAM. Not just the bulk and obvious spammers.

Bet on Interactive - Podcast

A podcast on MGM Mirage's approach to interactive marketing. This features Shawn Rorick, director, MGM Mirage, who used to work for me at Cox Interactive. Nice work Shawn!

The Top 10 Lies of Web 2.0

Beware the hype and fear the bubble of all that is Web 2.0.

Feedback, comments and content for consideration are welcome.

Interactive News to Use - Week of October 30, 2007

2006-10-30T14:58:00.000-05:00

A new BrightWave Blog feature will be a summary of relevant news, links and analysis all on one easy to find post. So be sure to set your RSS feeder to pull this or bookmark it.

Web Search Most Efficient for Customer Acquisition
-The cost per acquisition for search is on average $8.50
-Yellow Pages was the second-most efficient channel at $20 per customer acquisition, followed by online display ads at $50, email at $60, and direct mail at $70.

Takeaway: Search continues to be the most efficient and targeted online acquisition method. Email high's rising acquisition cost should not be a surprise (ever since CAN-SPAM this has been the case) and the best combo order should be SEARCH/AQUIRE + EMAIL/RETAIN/MONETIZE = ROI

10 Ways for E-Marketers to Use RSS
Some nice and actionable items to get the ball rolling for RSS.

Reuters gets a Second Life online
So odd I can't venture to explain. So view this for an explanation. Apparently, a huge community and money are in the mix though. Worth checking out.

The ever entertaining Mark Cuban's take on the Long Tail & its ghetto residence (third internet ghetto reference in the past 3 weeks that I have seen)

Google in the WSJ and Washington Post again? Shocking.
A New Advertising Engine : Google Expands Its Web Reach to Madison Avenue

Google Adjusts Hiring Process As Needs Grow

How W Googles Himself - Finally, in case you missed it, check out how our President uses "the Google" If this sounds like your boss, you have an uphill battle and my sympathy.

Get Relevant

2006-10-27T13:23:00.000-05:00

A great piece from Kevin Newcomb at Clickz on the need for email marketers to get a more relevant approach for their campaigns. Most of the data he cites is from Jupiter Research VP and research director David Daniels.

Some highlights:

About a quarter of marketers surveyed by Jupiter are sending broadcast e-mail campaigns with no differentiation or targeting.

The majority of marketers, 65 percent, are using limited personalization, such as using a customer's name, and limited segmentation, such as demographic targeting or using geotargeting to identify a local store.

Only 11 percent of marketers send targeted campaigns that use a customer's purchase history, click-stream activity, or other data to send a relevant, targeted offer.

Untargeted broadcast e-mails, with no personalization or segmentation, have an average open rate of 20 percent, average click-through rate of 9.5 percent, and average conversion rate of 1.1 percent.

Campaigns triggered from user actions, such as shopping cart abandonment, have a 27 percent average open rate, 9.3 percent average click-through rate, and 2.3 percent average conversion rate.

Lifecycle messaging campaigns, such as product replenishment messages, have an average open rate of 26 percent, average click-through rate of 14 percent, and average conversion rate of 2.8 percent.

Campaigns that integrate Web site clickstream data for targeting perform best of all, with a 33 percent average open rate, 14 percent average click-through rate, and 3.9 percent average conversion rate.

This next set of stats I have asked the author for clarification. I dont know if it is implied these are staff + ESP/agency/software fees = annual salary given here.

Broadcast e-mails require just $109,000 in annual salary
triggered campaigns require about $128,000 in salary resources.
Lifecycle messaging campaigns are considerably more expensive than less sophisticated methods, requiring $263,000 in annual salary resources.
Campaigns using clickstream data require $276,000 in salary.

Jupiter also states
54 percent of respondents saying they clicked on a link in an e-mail because the product or service interested them.

Forty percent do so when copy piqued their interest
35 percent are influenced by the subject line.
Only 12 percent of respondents say a single large image influenced their decision to click
9 percent are influenced by several smaller images.

Enjoy your weekend...