Utilizing Email Activity Data to Improve your Email Marketing Performance

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The email marketing landscape is changing rapidly, and what worked years ago may not work today. ISPs now consider a variety of factors to decide if our emails reach their customers. As such, we must continuously strategize new initiatives to remain successful in this ever-evolving ecosystem. All ISPs strive to protect...

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Case Study: Using AI to Save Time on Email Creation

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Are you spending your working hours efficiently? Can you unlock the full power of email marketing and achieve the highest ROI possible with your current approach? If you read my previous article for OI, you already know that I’m a huge fan of the resource-efficient approach in marketing: I believe that...

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3 Tips for Using AI to Create Marketing Content

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I’m not usually one to make assumptions. There’s an old saying about what happens when you assume things (you make an a$$ out of you and me). But, I’m going to ignore that advice and assume that just about anyone reading this has now heard about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how...

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What I Got Right and Wrong about the Future of Email Marketing

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With an updated and greatly expanded 4th edition of my book, Email Marketing Rules, out this month, I wanted to look back at the predictions I made about the future of email marketing in the 3rd edition nearly six years ago. I predicted 11 changes would occur in the next 10...

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Rethinking Outbound Emails: Why They Shouldn't Be Ignored in Your B2B Marketing Strategy

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A year back I started a new job as an Outbound marketing specialist in a demand generation team at Hurix . I call it the year of being uncomfortable… Transitioning from a product marketing to an outbound role was challenging but also interesting. A year into the role, I have seen...

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First Party Marketing Personalization is a Broken Model

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For at least a decade, posts and pundits have pushed the notion that personalization is a key — maybe “the” key — to email marketing. Personalization in digital channels seems like a logical, natural goal. People say they like being treated “more personally”.  So, marketing content that is more personal should deliver...

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25 Women We Appreciate on International Women's Day 2023

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It’s almost International Women’s Day, a day to recognize women who are achieving – and who are also helping other people, women and men, achieve. So here is our list of women whose accomplishments we applaud and appreciate – because they are all incredibly accomplished women who are paying it forward...

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Text Message Marketing SMS or MMS – Which One Gets the Sale? [Case Study]

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The business of advertising and marketing is constantly changing. As marketers and business operators, we are tasked with finding the most effective marketing channels and techniques. The current medium taking off for small and large businesses is text message marketing. With open rates of around 80%, it’s no wonder why this...

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CRM vs. Email Marketing: How CRM techniques can help us think differently about email

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In the B2C world what is the difference between CRM and email marketing? Nowadays the terms seem interchangeable. You only have to see many job ads that refer to CRM Manager who it seems sole responsibility is managing the email channel. Yet I would say there is a significant difference in...

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11 Ideas for an Email Platform that Prioritizes Deliverability

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The recent advancements in AI tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney have left many of us overwhelmed. It's no secret that even email providers such as Gmail have utilized AI for some time with their email filtering algorithms. This has led to discussions and articles about the future use of AI in...

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2023 State of the ESP RFP Survey Results and Conclusions

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This is the third year that Only Influencers and Email Connect have conducted a brief survey with brands regarding their plans to switch vendors in the upcoming year. The survey was originally intended to measure the impact that COVID-19 had on brands’ plans to conduct ESP RFPs in 2020—2022. What we...

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Multi-Channel Marketing - Understanding Email’s Contribution to the mix

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Many companies struggle with attribution in general, but when it comes email the failure to measuring the true impact of email on their revenue is spectacular! As a result, the email team at most brands face a constant struggle for recognition and more importantly a fair share of available resource. The...

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Why I'm celebrating a thrilling/humbling moment here

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I had another topic queued up for my regular Only Influencers (OI) post, but I hope you will indulge me as I switch it out for some late-breaking news. I just received the ANA-Email Excellence Center's annual Thought Leader of the Year Award – an honor already bestowed on several long-time...

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Economic bad news refocuses attention on strategy over tactics

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The latest round of tech layoffs hit home recently. In a call with a marketing team, I discovered half the team had been quietly laid off the week before. It seems every week brings news that a past colleague or fellow member of the email community is looking for new opportunities,...

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How to utilize compassionate marketing in your email campaigns

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We all know that sales are important - that's partly the reason why we’re here right? To improve sales and increase year-on-year revenue. But what about community? We’re in an era where knowing a company’s values, having a sense of belonging, and feeling connected are key drivers for many people. Shifting...

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The 2024 Political Battle for The Inbox Has Begun - These 10 Strategies Will Help You Win!

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Congratulations! We survived the 2022 email equivalent of Sharknado!  But instead of sharks in tornadoes, we had the 2022 U.S. midterm elections and Black Friday-Holiday shopping filling up inboxes at the same time.  And that’s the good news. The bad news is that there’s an email Sharknado of epic proportions heading...

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ChatGPT, Email and Me

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Are you curious about how ChatGPT and AI could change the game for your campaigns? Look no further. In this blog, we're going to dive into the world of ChatGPT and explore how this powerful language model can help improve your email marketing efforts. But before we get into the nitty-gritty,...

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How to Kill Your Email Program in 5 Easy Steps

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As a new year begins, I thought it timely to take a somewhat tongue-in-cheek look at some of the challenges that a full-on omni-channel strategy can pose to an already robust and successful email marketing/CRM program. These challenges flow from two opposing forces that exist in contemporary marketing. Each has an...

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How to Prevent or Reduce Website Traffic Declines in 2023: 8.8 Million Opportunities -- Google, SEO, and Email

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As a marketer with a deep love and passion for email marketing I can’t ignore all the other marketing tactics and tools available to help our clients grow their business and reduce the risk of something very bad happening. What could this very bad thing be?  I’m happy you asked. The...

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2022 Top Posts: Only Influencers Blog

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Happy New Year! 

It's that time again -- our top blog posts of the last year, 2022. 

We appreciate the expertise that our blog authors share all year long -- every post provides value to our readers. That said, here are the top reads, based on number of views, of 2022. And many of these are still relevant today, at the start of 2023 -- so check them out!  

#10

2021 Top Posts: Only Influencers Blog
Jeanne Jennings, Email Optimization Shop
January 14, 2022

#9

What Are Your 3 Words for 2022? 
Ryan Phelan, RPE Origin
January 13, 2022

#8

Should You Build Your Own ESP?
Chris Marriott, Email Connect
May 4, 2022

#7

Are Opens Really Dead? 
George Schlossnagle, SparkPost
March 4, 2022

#6

3 Things I Wish I Learned About Email Marketing in College
Jenna DePofi, Webbula
February 14, 2022

#5

Should Emails Expire? Yes and No
Chad S. White, Oracle Marketing Cloud Consulting
January 11, 2022

#4

Understand Your Customer's Mindset With Engagement Journey Mapping
Mark Morin, strategies.ca
April 4, 2022

#3

2022 State of the ESP RFP Survey Results and Conclusions
Chris Marriott, Email Connect
February 11, 2022

#2

ESPs and CDPs Have Collided. Get Ready for ESCDPs!
Chris Marriott, Email Connect
August 3, 2022

#1

What's Wrong with Email Marketing?
Chad S. White, Oracle Marketing Consulting
June 6, 2022

Congratulations to those with more than one post on the top ten list: 

  • Chris Marriott, Email Connect, with 3 posts in the top 10
  • Chad White, Oracle Marketing Consulting, with 2 posts in the top 10

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