I’ve recently been working on two interesting projects which have put me either side of the brand and vendor perspective. Having worked agency, vendor and client side it’s a very useful juxtaposition from which to develop my own consultancy delivery experience. Project 1. I’ve been working with a marketing platform solution...
Over the last few years, the email industry has been increasingly focused on accessibility. That’s a good thing, especially considering that such a large percentage of the world’s population suffers from some sort of disability, whether it’s permanent or temporary. For example, the World Health Organization counts around 1.3 billion people...
2017 was probably AI’s breakout year in email marketing. It's from then on that I started to witness the results that AI can bring to the channel primarily when used in combination with Machine Learning and Automation. Change has been rapid and ongoing since then, and it doesn’t look like slowing...
How well does your email marketing program align with your customer’s lifecycle? Put another way, are you practicing lifecycle marketing? This is one of the first things I investigate when I’m working with a new client, because often the answer provides the basis for recommendations to boost performance (which is the...
The Nielsen Norman defines User Experience (UX) as “encompassing all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the company, its services, and its products”. They sum it up with this kernel of wisdom: “the first requirement for an exemplary user experience is to meet the exact needs of the customer, without fuss...
(The following is a recent discussion on the Only Influencers discussion list led by Kate Barrett. Join Only Influencers to be part of the discussion) Kate Barrett Hi everyone! I have the absolute pleasure of leading the discussion this week and I’m so excited to see what we all come up...
Living in the world of open rates, click rates and funnel driven conversion stats? I get it, we have to report on performance, but when do you get to do the really cool things in marketing? What happened to discovery and exploration? Why are we still looking at bar charts and...
As the world of digital advertising and marketing has planted its stake firmly in the ground in support of “NATIVE” (Sponsored) Advertising, the consumers have made it clear that they support the move. The line between online content written by journalists and story-like ads that are paid for by specific corporations...
Much has changed in the world of email marketing in the last 15 years. Volumes are up, revenues are up, CPMs are down-and those are just a few of the big changes in the industry. But one of the biggest changes is in the nature of the vendor/client relationships themselves. Specifically,...
The recent DMA 2019 Marketer Tracker Report reported that only 14% of consumers think that over half of the emails an organisation sends are relevant to them as individuals. But maybe more shockingly, only 55% of marketers think that more than half of all the emails they send are relevant. So...
We marketers like to say we are customer-centric. We give "customer centricity" and "customer experience" the nod in our public commentaries. The Google Trends search trend pictured below shows a marked increase in "customer-centric" searches, which indicates that many of us are on board with this concept. Source: Google Trends. Search...
Is it time to rethink the role of email marketing? Beyond a few developments such as optimizing for mobile, the role of email marketers has changed surprisingly little in the last 20 years. Oh sure the tools have gotten better and more sophisticated, but what email marketers and teams do really...
Unboxing Campaign-Genius Campaign-Genius is a dynamic email tool based out of Seattle and is one of the entries of a growing category of real-time imaging tools such as Movable Ink and LiveClicker. It’s parent company, Say It Visually, was founded in 2008 and was a pioneer in the field of “Explainer...
The Following Email Marketing Round Table Discussion is based on Jenna Tiffany's article: Verbalising Email – How Will Voice Tech Change Email Marketing? Jenna Tiffany: So let's start with, do we think it will change email marketing? And if yes, how? Maybe you use voice tech already to read your emails...
Across the pond, the GDPR has presented the world of digital marketing with a unique opportunity to take stock, reflect on our methods, and start afresh with a clean sheet. It’s given us a fantastic insight into the mindset of our audiences, and empowered us to build positive, lasting relationships with...
“Numbers have an important story to tell. They rely on you to give them a voice.” Stephen Few This is an article that wrote itself. It started out as a rant about the relentless negativity surrounding the email channel and how everyone under estimates its importance to the digital ecosystem. As...
Email pundits frequently pour scorn on brands that send email marketing from a noreply@ email address. Passions run high with noreply. One email pundit said on Twitter about use of noreply@; “when I personally find ‘we don't want to hear from you’, I mostly start to ignore the brand”. But what’s...
Jeanne Jennings: This week’s discussion is centered around last week’s case study on email performance, lists and staffing. If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet you can find it here: Interactive Case Study: Email Performance, Lists and Staffing. We raised a lot of questions about next steps in...
Now that email has been a legitimate marketing channel for two decades there’s an entire generation of professionals who have grown up with it and in it. In fact, they’ve never known marketing without email which has made for an interesting evolution – or is it merely urban legend? The illusory...
At Marketing Democracy we’re all about email marketing. We work with some of the biggest email marketers in the industry helping them navigate the complex and critical ESP vendor selection process. But when we’re done for the day guiding our clients, we revert to being consumers and email subscribers like everyone...